The tortoise and the hare!

Well I have to say I am dead impressed with the way the breakdown company handled my situation the other day when my car wouldn't start! I was a bit worried, truth be told, because for over 30 years I have kept up my coverage with a Swiss company called TCS and just a few months ago I finally cancelled it because the guy at my French bank told me that I was covered for everything just the same under my French insurance. So only ever having used TCS two times in 30+ years, what happens - I break down pretty much as soon as I cancel them! I tried charging my battery for over 24 hours but nothing gave so on Monday morning I called the number on the French site. I was immediately instructed to press a different key for "is anyone injured", "are you on a motorway", "is it urgent" and I just hate that stuff. But, within about 90 seconds I received a text message with a link to follow in order to set up an appointment to have someone come out. And yet again, in under two minutes I had someone on the phone. I told him it wasn't urgent as I was parked in my driveway so at 1.30 p.m. that afternoon they sent out "the jolly green giant" (except he wasn't green, but was definitely very jolly) and in less than five minutes he had turbo charged my battery with his rocket booster and all was fixed! When I told him my battery was almost seven years old he just laughed and said to think myself lucky as it didn't really owe me anything did it! I was just so glad, though, that I hadn't set off to Jordan and Jen's that night and broken down on some lonely back road in the middle of nowhere. I pointed out to Mr. Giant where the mice had been gnawing away but luckily they hadn't chewed through any wiring - just the rubber tubing!

Looks like they've been making their
nest in the foam under the hood!

Lunch was apparently also included!

Anyway, I had already called Ford that morning and they ordered in a battery for me, so just a few hours later (and several hundred euros lighter), I was set to go! As we were invited over to Jordan and Jen's for dinner on the Saturday night, Jen's mom very kindly picked me up and dropped me back home, and while yes, it was kind of her, I absolutely hate riding with her. She is one of those people who rides the coat tails of the car in front with a "can't you go any faster than that"? and "hey grandad if you can't hack it get off the road"! And I hate it! Even her partner was telling her to chill as we were in no rush but there was nothing doing - that's just the way she drives. She can handle her car, thankfully, because as she was riding "grandpa's" bumper he suddenly put on his left turn signal and she had to slam the brakes on hard to avoid him! I tell ya, I'm so glad to have my own car back, although I suppose in all honesty she would probably go just as nuts having to ride with me, wouldn't she!

I spent a couple of hours the other day catching up on paperwork. I'm usually pretty hot on that stuff as I hate being disorganised, but I guess it got the better of me for a while. I think I mentioned before that the Swiss are very much into QR codes and online banking (naturally, I suppose). Heck they haven't used cheques since 2003 so you'd better be somewhat computer literate if you have a Swiss bank account - as I do where my pension is paid! Just recently my doctor's bills have been arriving with a QR code and you either use that or you type in all the relevant info yet again in order to pay your bill. I don't pay my bills via my phone, simply because I find the screen too small, and I figured the QR code wouldn't work on my computer but whaddayaknow - I held the bill up to the camera on my clunky old computer and it scanned the payment details into my bank account for payment! Talk about impressive! It was certainly a lot easier than typing in 20-digit reference numbers every time! So I guess you can, occasionally, teach old dogs new tricks then! I also spent some time deleting blogs from my favourites list, which has streamlined my reading list quite a bit. Not that I didn't like those blogs, it's just that some had stopped posting, some I had moved on from, and others, well no way in heck was I ever going to be able to go back to the beginning and read their entire blog - even though I obviously liked the blog enough to save it in the first place! That being said I'm still saving a few new ones, but I really don't want my favourites list to get quite as long again!

Heading off on another tangent, since I like the photo album I have made of Charlie, I thought it would be nice to go through the old black and white photos I have of my family and make an album for my sister and me! Years ago when I was home in England I asked my mom if I could take the shoebox full of old photos and she said no problem. I mean, who was ever going to look at them stuffed in a shoebox right? Well my other sister (who lives in Denmark) heard me ask for them and then threw a strop about how "she had always wanted those pictures too" and she was going to take them. I called BS, knowing full well that she only wanted them because I had asked for them. I guess even at that age I was smart enough - or just knew this sister well enough - to keep my mouth shut and see if she "wanted them so badly" that she would remember to take them back to Denmark with her. She didn't of course so I took them and made up several family albums - which pleased my mom and dad no end when they came out here one Christmas. It's been kinda nice selecting and editing (as far as possible) photos of when my parents were young, and now that I've gotten them as sorted as they will ever be, I reckon another hour or so and I can create the old family album as a keepsake. It's odd too that just an hour ago, the daughter of my "English" sister contacted me asking if I had any old photos of her mom and dad as it's their 50th wedding anniversary next month and she wants to make them an album. I had just the one wedding photo and none of my BIL as a child, of course, but she's going to have a rummage in their loft when they fly off to Dublin next week for their anniversary trip! Wise minds think alike, I guess!

Jen's job at the daycare came to an end (she was doing a maternity leave replacement) and she has now gotten a part-time office job with the small company that has been servicing my heating system for the past 32 years. I like this company very much as I find them very professional, and apparently when they found out she was married to Jordan they asked him to come in and speak to them as they would like to employ him. They've "known" him since he was born, in the sense that they've been coming to the house that long and he would always have his nose into what they were doing with the boiler. It would be good money - better than he's making now in fact - but he said he really doesn't want to go back to servicing boilers and would rather be doing real plumbing work. He's also making more money than before so they can apparently still make it financially - even with Jen going part-time - and now Jen gets to spend more time with Charlie and they're both happy!

I took my books back to the library-with-the-beautiful view last week and I have to say I really love that place - not just the library but the whole old town. It's very small but the tower and walls are medieval and have such a great atmosphere. In fact, when you drive out of there you drive through an archway in the town walls that are just about wide enough to get your car through! It's a lovely part of town!

My house is in the distance,
at the foot of those mountains!

And finally, I had another plumbing company come by last Tuesday to give me a quote for my bathrooms, and at the same time Benoit, the mason, stopped in to check whether it would be possible for me to have a wood-burning fire insert installed into my fireplace. It seems that it should be an easy job for him to take out a few of the tiles in order to give extra height for them to install the insert so things are looking good (finally) on that score. When we were down in my basement checking where the fresh air inlet was for the fireplace, he noticed Jordan's old drum set in the corner and asked if "Max" would be willing to sell it to him for his son. Somehow my kids had been invited over to Benoit's place for a BBQ a few years ago and he had got it into his head that "Max" was my son. I told him I would check with Jordan, who said to just give it to him. So Benoit is delighted, I'm going to get the masonry work done for free and I should be able to heat my home this winter once all is said and done, power cut or no power cut! It's been like pulling teeth trying to coordinate masons/plumbers/tilers/fireplace installers, but seems it might just be true - maybe the tortoise does get there in the end!