I think she was taking the mickey!

After hearing I had signed up for a new yoga class my friend sent me a video of this little 98 year old Indian lady yogi with words to the effect "that'll be you soon"! I think she was making fun of me don't you! But that's where the similarities end apparently. Firstly, I'm not Indian, secondly I have all my own teeth but seriously!!! This lady is just amazing. I could only ever aspire to be 1/10th as good as her in my dreams! But it says a lot for yoga doesn't it! 

I had my second lesson on Tuesday and again I loved it. Actually, said friend came with me. Not sure what she made of it or whether she will sign up but for me at least it was great! This week our teacher concentrated on shoulders and arms and it was even less "dynamic" than last week, but yet again I came out of there feeling wonderful. At the end of the class I get a kind of "stinging" feeling in the base of my spine which I reckon is down to the fact that I have a small "hollow" in my spine due to poor posture I guess. You know, when you lie on the floor your spine doesn't touch the ground all the way from neck to hips - I guess most of us have that little hollow right. Buuuut, at the end of the class when I lay down my spine was completely flat on the floor. And on waking up the next morning I realized that my back was again touching the mattress all the way down and it felt great. I realize this is something that you have to keep working on but I have to admit I think I'm completely hooked!

Anyway, yesterday we had quite a heavy snow fall and I did hesitate to drive in to Geneva to my work's gym but … damn and drat .... the snow plough came through at 5 a.m. and then again at mid-day and I had no excuse, so off I went. I think I will have to learn to go to the gym first before stopping to chat with colleagues though as I didn't get as much time in as I would have liked! I made a cake to take in and got chatting to my former boss so that cut into my gym time (but at least the cake is all gone). I wanted to get out of there before 4 pm as I didn't want to get caught in rush hour traffic - but no such luck! If you take the Geneva ring road to France there are three tunnels before the border, and just as I was passing the airport I saw a sign to say that there had been an accident in the first tunnel and everything was at a standstill! Seems nothing ever changes right! It took me 90 minutes to get home and yet again I was so so glad I don't have to do that commute any more. And then, this morning on my FB feed I saw that there was another accident at the toll booth and traffic was yet again completely blocked heading in to Geneva. Thank GOD I no longer have to do that! On the other hand, I finally got paid my first pension payment! It felt like it would never happen! We routinely got paid early in December (17th December I think) and since my pension isn't paid until the last day of the month (as opposed to 25th of the month for my salary), it felt like my December salary had to last until the 91st of January! Still, even though my pension is only about one-third of my salary this one didn't seem so bad as I also received the lump sum I am going to be using to pay off my mortgage in April. So the bank account is (temporarily) looking very healthy indeed. Not that it will last but I just might take a picture of that balance to frame and put on my wall!

In other news, on Tuesday night I had my first patchwork lesson of the year. This time we are making a Kaffee Fassett mystery quilt, which is made up basically of two repeating blocks. At least I hope to get it down pat by force of sheer repetition. It isn't difficult as such but I find it hard to be so accurate (down to the millimetre) in order to get the repeating patterns lined up. Fingers crossed I can get the hang of it as it sure isn't cheap. And since I am no longer at work, getting home at 11 p.m. after my class didn't phase me in the least!

I mentioned in my last post that I have rented a car in North Wales to get around while I am back for my brother's funeral. Well I got an email from them confirming the reservation and asking me to call them. I tried a couple of times but it sounded like someone was trying to make a call wearing ear plugs and snorkeling gear while chewing on marbles so I had to give up in the end. I sent them a mail asking what they needed to know but in fact it was just asking me if I needed to be picked up (from the train station, for instance) in order to get to my rental car! I'm quite impressed I have to say. Good service and all that.

Talking of "good service" though, I was reading an article about poverty in the UK this morning and people on the low or no income scale who are struggling with usurious loans. I thought these horrendous loan "deals" had been done away with when Wonga went bust, but one instance they quoted was car loans at 535%!!! Now you may ask why someone with a low income would be thinking of buying a car but public transport isn't a given in all areas and is definitely not always cheaper. Either way, these people are, for the most part, definitely being taken to the cleaners and falling ever deeper into the debt spiral because of these crooks posing as benevolent lenders. I know it's not true of everyone and some people are just stupid with money, but I can't help feeling that these kinds of lending rates are just criminal! It does, however, beggar belief that some of these young women are continuing to have babies with (seemingly) no father in the picture. Surely it is madness to keep having children if you can't count on the child's father to be there!! Where are these fathers and where is their accountability (read "financial responsibility")? And again I know that this is a stereotype and some got into this awful position through no fault of their own - but surely it's time to stop these kinds of loans once and for all. To save people who can't seem to save themselves! This is where social services need to step in, in my opinion, but of course their budgets are being cut way back to the bone also. Rant over!

Anyway, moving on, I have been watching the weather to see if there will be a problem with my flight on Sunday. It seems like (from this end at least) all should be well. Fingers crossed. Then I had a call from Steve who told me he was supposed to be "snowed in" - and all they got was about one-eighth of an inch of snow. I burst out laughing. According to Steve, for the most part the newspapers send some poor sod off to the far north of Scotland to photograph a car in a ditch and then that becomes the "norm" as far as the UK is concerned. Now I know the north does get dreadful weather (as indeed does Wales) but if you live there you know it's coming and, presumably, know how to deal with it! As for Steve, he has a series of hospital appointments prior to going in for his bone marrow transplant but he actually does look rather well. Poor bugger had to have a skin lesion removed from his head - which they spotted some time ago but didn't want to touch until he was over his first bout of chemo. Now he has a rather large scar on the top of his head and scarring down his arm where they took skin for the skin graft. Still, it's better than last time I spoke to him as he had what looked like a rather large piece of ravioli stuck on his head while the scarring healed. Now all he needs is a baseball cap in order not to scare the local kiddies. Poor devil, I know he will be glad when it's all over, but then, as he said, he would rather that than my brother's situation!

And finally, I know I should get my ex husband's FB feed off my page, but this morning he certainly took the biscuit. He posts the most racist pro-Trump crap I have ever seen, totally "anti immigrant" and "anti foreigner". He seems to forget his ex wife is a "foreigner", as are his two daughters-in-law, and that he himself was an "immigrant" for over 30 years! Man, please stop me banging my head against a wall. At least I have now blocked his FB drivel from appearing on my own. Buuuut, this morning he wrote something along the lines of "kids who have to walk 1,000 yards to get to school in this weather should get the day off????? But kids who only have to walk two blocks should get their a$$$ into school"! And this from a man who wrecked his car (drunk) and called me at 1 a.m. from the border where he had abandoned his car. Next day I drove him to Ford where his car was dropped off (although where the girlfriend was I have no idea). When I went to drive off he hopped back in my car yelling "hey I need you to take me home" (home being the girlfriend's house). I couldn't believe it! So I put my km counter back to zero and clocked up the distance that was "too far for him to walk". It was 800 metres!!! God give me strength!