Well that wasn't so bad!

While not everything has opened back up here (sewing club starts up again next week), most things are up and running so I'm getting into a better routine - which now I think of it, I actually quite enjoy! We had our latest board game evening at my neighbours on Saturday and it was fun, even if we were only eight this time, what with people being away on holiday and whatnot. We played a new-to-me card game that Jen brought along and I enjoyed it, even though, yet again, I came last. Still, someone's got to make everyone else feel good haven't they!

The weather is absolutely beautiful at the moment, much cooler than it was, hovering around 28°C (in the 80sF) and so much more pleasant. Long may it last as I have so much more energy in these kinds of temperatures. I finally decided it's time to empty my little swimming pool but I didn't want to just "unplug" it as I'm not totally sure where all that water will end up (it's untested territory as yet). Instead I've been carrying buckets of water out back and front and finally my garden is getting the kind of watering it probably should have been getting all summer long, and I have to say it seems to be appreciating it!

Ages ago I took up the rose bushes by my back window and planted simple winter plants for the most part, but as it's a real sun trap and up against a white wall, my tomato plants seem to do really well there. This is probably the only time I eat tomatoes, to be honest, because unless I am getting them from Italy I don't think the plastic things you find in the stores are worth wasting money on!

I've been having some pretty strange dreams lately involving my mom, who died in 2015. The dreams themselves are ok but I end up wondering what they're about as I tend to think most dreams have some kind of meaning. It would have been her 99th birthday in October but I don't think that's it. Still, I'm sure it'll come to me at some point. Or maybe she's just stopping by to say hallo, who knows. I used to have the most dreadful nightmares when I was married - and for a long time after the divorce - but I could easily figure out what they were about. But mom, I'm not sure. As the saying goes, "I'll have to sleep on it"!

I also think, like most people, I've been getting an overdose of politics on the TV lately. Actually I've had a bellyful of both Cheeto and the blond idiot in Downing Street. The accents are different but the antics seem to be pretty much the same sadly and I don't think you can trust either of them. So I've tried to stay away from the TV as much as possible because - well just because. That being said, I've been reading a few of the books that have come out about Trump, and they are fascinating. I read Mary Trump's book and found it really interesting. I've also just finished Melania and Me, and while there was way too much use of acronyms and back and forth of emails, I can see why she wrote the book. Boy was she set up (and subsequently exonerated it seems) to take the fall for the missing millions from the inauguration coffers. I don't blame her for writing her book actually because I know I would want to set the record straight, but more than once she said she was told not to have anything to do with the Trump family - and she admits she wished she had listened because they nearly destroyed her. I think I will also download the Michael Cohen book because each of these people tells their story from a different angle, and while Cohen was obviously as thick as thieves with Trump, I think his book will probably do the most damage. We'll see when I read it I guess!

After my Monday morning yoga yesterday I managed to fit in another hour's walk also. It seemed a shame not to as the weather was just perfect. Then I figured that as I was going to be pretty booked up for the rest of the week it would be a good time to run out to a local chimney installation place. I have a wood-burning open chimney in the middle of my living/dining room, and as of fairly recently they are apparently no longer legal in France. Having a fireplace that just emits wood smoke directly into the atmosphere is no longer allowed, so while I can keep the fireplace as is, it would be against the law to actually use it now (not that I have for the last 10 years anyway). So I now have an appointment set up to get a cost estimate to have what they call a closed cassette inserted into the fireplace that will burn granules instead of wood. I wanted to keep the fireplace as I think it's more attractive than having something that looks like space ship in the middle of the room, and apparently doing it this way would allow me to heat the large downstairs area very cheaply if I choose to. I don't really heat it too much anyway because I tend to live on the first floor, but I'll see what they say and how it might work out when they come next week I guess! On the way home I stopped in at a store I don't use very often and when I looked at the bill I noticed they had this printed at the bottom and thought what a great idea it was!

If you are a victim of domestic violence, call 3919

Then last night, just as I was getting ready for bed, I got a FB message apparently from an gent in New York with whom I play Words with Friends. We chat sometimes but instantly I thought this message was a bit weird. Out of the blue he's asking me if I've heard of the rgg programme? "He has used it, it's linked to the "Rotary Fund" and he was able to claim money from them without paying it back". First thought, well he's an older U.S. veteran so maybe it's linked to the situation in the U.S. and he had included me in the message by accident. But then I thought, nah, something about this sounds pretty fishy, so I sent him a message including a screenshot via another account and asked if he was indeed the author of the message and he said "never in a million years". So I told him in that case I think he'd been hacked and he might want to warn his friends and change his password. At that he told me that his credit card had once been hacked to the tune of $3,500, only $3,000 of which he was able to claim back. His bank told him that the scammers had tried putting through small amounts at first to see if they went through, so when he was reimbursed he received hundreds of individual cheques in one go! Wow, talk about having to watch your back!

My screen shot!

His reimbursements!

And finally, tonight I had my one hour session with a coach at the gym where I recently signed up for him to set me up with a work-out programme. To be honest, it was much better than I expected. I guess I'd been put off by seeing this one trainer in particular at our work's gym. To my mind she was alienating some people by being so dogmatic in what she insisted they do. I mean, it's not because she found it easy that others would also and I know more than a few people who dumped her. Anyway, Ben was just lovely. He sat with me and asked me what I wanted to achieve (lose the bingo wings for one) and what I wasn't interested in. I told him my only no-no would be running on a treadmill (a) because I hate running and always have, and (b) because I think I should take care of my knees which sometimes give me a bit of gyp, but other than that I was open to trying anything. So he walked me through maybe six machines and four floor exercises that would form my programme for the next few months - or until Christmas at least - when he would expect me to be able to move it up a notch. He explained what the objective was for each machine (and how to use it correctly) and told me that the one machine I particularly like (to build the inner thigh) wasn't of much use to me as I didn't need it if I used the other machines. I had to bite my tongue not to make some crack about the last time I'd used my inner thigh muscles but you'll be glad to know I managed to show some restraint! So all in all it was a much better experience than I was expecting. On my way home tonight I tried to take a picture of the setting sun as it was going behind a cloud. Not sure if it came out that well as I had to grab it really quickly, but I thought it looked a bit like a space ship at one point!

When I got in I turned on the computer to catch up with my blog reading, and saw that our "die boomer die" troll is wanking online again from mommy's basement. I had to laugh though because had this guy watched me tonight trying to hold a plank at the gym for one minute he'd have seen that he almost got his wish!