No change!

I actually did do my Monday weigh-in on Monday but have been running around like crazy so haven't had time to post for a couple of days. No change in weight sadly - although I'm actually a little surprised it hasn't gone up because we had a four-day weekend last weekend (the last public holiday until Christmas) and I really didn't make much of an effort with the diet, to be honest. I had plans to do this or that and so on but in the end did pretty much bugger all. I had made an appointment to get my car in for a service on the Thursday since that way I wouldn't have to take a day off, so that pretty much put paid to any running around on Thursday. After that I just pottered really, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing but sometimes I do get annoyed with myself for not taking advantage of these days off to go somewhere or do something out of the ordinary. Oh well, I guess my body was trying to tell me something because frankly I could sleep for England at the moment.

A funny thing happened on the Wednesday evening though. As I was sitting down reading there was an incoming phone call from the Pittsburgh area - a number I didn't recognize - but I picked it up anyway just in case there were problems in the ex-in-law family. As I picked up my ex started speaking to me in French and prattling away. I tried several times to explain to him that it wasn't necessary to speak to me in French and that I wasn't Jen but ..... So that wrong number meant I got to speak to my ex for about 20 minutes.  And guess what, he's (I guess "they") coming back over in November for the Marine Corps Ball to meet up with an old friend!!! Yikes. Not that there is any reason I have to see him anyway, but ..... he must be haemorraghing (sp?) money at the moment. Anyway, we chatted a bit and he mentioned something about our youngest. I told him I helped him out financially since he earns less than the minimum wage, being an apprentice. Well he usually makes around the minimum wage as he does a lot of overtime, but he's not exactly rolling in money. I had told my son I would take care of his car as long as he was an apprentice so recently had to put new tyres on as they had worn, and then on Monday had to spend € 900 to replace what I think is called the cam shaft in English. I know it's expensive but apparently if that screws up you can kiss your car goodbye - and round where we live you really can't get by without a car. On top of that I'm also paying for his schooling and other stuff so ex asked me why he (the ex) wasn't sending money - so I said, I don't know, why aren't you helping your kid out? Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I know what he makes as a pension and he makes as much as I do in salary so why he can't throw a couple hundred dollars his kid's way is beyond me, all the more so because I am on my own with the same kinds of bills but he and gf both have incomes. We'll see I suppose, but I won't hold my breath!

I stayed up as late as I dared on Sunday night watching Hurricane Irma. Gosh, what a frightening thing Mother Nature can be. I have a dear friend in Havana and haven't heard from her but I have no reason to believe she is other than OK. She is Irish and married to a Cuban and they usually go to Ireland for the summer as Cuba is just too hot. Trouble is, they have an elderly dog and the past couple of years she has not wanted to leave the dog, so unless the dog has since died I suspect she will have been in Havana. Those poor people on the islands though, some of whom lost everything. Then I have friends in Fort Myers (which is the reason I stayed up so late Sunday as the hurricane was working its way up from Naples). Mark was posting regular updates on FB and had retained his sense of humour because while they were expecting flooding, being at "the nose-bleed-inducing height of 21 feet above sea level" ...... they figured they would be ok! That's funny because they used to live over here in the alps and I, personally, live at over 2,400 feet! Still, I haven't heard word from him/them since so while I'm assuming they are ok I don't know how much damage they might have suffered (if any). Luckily my friend in central Florida reported back about 36 hours later to say they were fine, although there was quite a bit of damage and debris around. But, she had nothing but praise for the front-line workers who restored electricity in about 30 hours and were already removing debris. So while I am on that subject, Nathalie, shout out to you - I hope you and yours are ok!

On another depressing note, yesterday was the first day of one of my meetings. The "big" meetings for me are July and December but these meetings are also important. I guess the team spends about 18 months preparing the meeting and then a delegation flies in from capital and the meeting takes place. Anyway, I left home at 6.30 a.m. in order to be well in time for any last minute things that might pop up before the meeting. Got stuck about 1 km from the border and then crawled into Switzerland, which was made all the more weird by the fact that traffic on Wednesdays is usually lighter. But not at bit of it yesterday. Eventually I managed to make it to the car park but then found out that the road up ahead was completely blocked by a horrendous accident and even the buses were being re-routed back into France!!! Crikey, so here's me thinking you work for 18 months to get the meeting ready and then show up late!!! But in the end, what can you do about it? It turns out there had been a fatal crash up ahead and I'm not quite sure how a single crash (at 6 a.m. no less) can close such a wide road but ..... Sadly, a young motorcyclist died in a head on collision with a car at exactly the same spot as the young female cyclist died in January. Absolutely tragic. In fact, there were two fatal motorcycle collisions in Geneva at around the same time here in Geneva which tends to put life and "things" in perspective, I can tell you. No-one is going to put on your gravestone "was always on time for meetings" are they? So in the end I just thought, to hell with it, every possible thing that could be done in advance I had already done so my colleagues would just have to pick up my files and trot on down to the conference centre. Quite by chance, I actually made it there only 10 minutes late (but three-and-a-half hours after I had left home), but again, the world wouldn't have stopped rotating if I hadn't would it. My colleague was telling me this morning that the young man killed was a colleague of her husband's, although he didn't know him very well as he was a relatively new recruit. Only 30 years old and there was talk that the driver of the car was drunk!!! At 6 a.m.!!! I guess we won't know the truth of that for some time!

But not wanting to end on such a gloomy note, Sam was recounting her "prat fall" in her latest blog post - you know, that time when you went "arse over tit" (as my dad would say) in front of everyone. We've all done it I suppose so I was trying to think which one of my prat falls I would consider my most public, though not necessarily the most spectacular. And I came up with a time I was down in Annecy looking for a kind of small deckchair thingy for my garden. As I was wandering round I spotted exactly the thing so decided to try it out. When I sat down I went straight through the fabric of the chair and ended up getting wedged in the wooden frame! I had to call out to someone to help me up (it must have looked pretty funny to him though). But, I actually didn't break the chair - I reckon someone had either broken it and wrapped the fabric back over the wooden support or, more likely, had deliberately cut it through as the cut was very clean. Either way, I wasn't at my most elegant with my backside stuck in this deckchair I can tell you. Which brings to mind another incident which actually made the TV in the UK a few years ago. There was a rather large lady on a beach in the south of England (Brighton I think but can't be sure). Anyway, it was a pebbly beach and with her weight her chair started sinking further and further into the sand, all the while she was stuck in the chair. Unfortunately the tide started coming in so they had to call the emergency services to get her and/or the chair out of there. Now on the face of it, it was your typical fat lady funny with plenty of spectators, but while it indeed had the makings of comedy gold, I can't help feeling how dreadfully humiliated that poor lady must have felt. Urggghhh, life/people can be cruel sometimes can't it!