This and that!

It's been another pretty decent week here in that I got quite a bit done and the weather was ok-ish. Well ok-ish until two days ago and now we seem to be back in the dark ages. Piddling down rain, howling winds and thunder storms rolling down the valley non-stop. Actually I quite like listening to the storms but the dark and wet I could do without. Every time the sun would break through the clouds for a few minutes I'd think "great, I'll go work in the garden" and then it would start pelting down again. So I ended up working in my basement the past few days and slowly but surely I can see a little progress! There is a very large unit on one end of the basement (it's split into three parts) that was left there by the previous owners and where my ex used to collect screws, nuts, bolts and god knows what else. Well I went through that sucker and put like with like - plumbing stuff, nuts and bolts, tools, paint, wallpapering stuff and now it's all sorted and looking infinitely better. I also lugged two more 25 kg buckets of rock solid paint up to the garage so that I can make another trip to the tip sometime this week. They're finally delivering my bathroom stuff on Thursday so I want to clear as much of the garage as possible so I can store all the bathroom fittings and 41 cubic metres of tiles. Exciting stuff - but again I'm not looking forward to the mess!

On Wednesday I took a trip out to a big garden centre as André had given me a gift voucher for Christmas and they were having a 15% off sale. It's still an expensive place to shop but man every time I go there I want to throw everything I own away and start over, their stuff is so beautiful! A bit like when I visit IKEA and want to redo my home completely - I mean, their showrooms are so lovely aren't they (well to my mind, anyway)! Walking through the outdoors areas I saw the most beautiful olive trees for sale. They were well established and ran about €1,000 each so even assuming I could get one in my car (I couldn't) there's no way I would buy one. I've always felt that olive trees wouldn't grow well round here but I suppose if they sell them they must do, right? To me it's more of a Provençal thing but maybe not. All I know is that they are beautiful and if I ever move further south you can bet I'll have olive trees galore and to hell with the cost!

I specifically went out there on Wednesday because that's one of the days when the big charity shop is open for drop offs and it's not too far from the garden centre. So thinking I had a vague idea how to get there I set off in that general direction, exiting the highway at a place called Lucinges - and started climbing and climbing and climbing with the road getting narrower and narrower and narrower - until I ended up half way up an alp on a goat track which dead-ended in someone's driveway!!! I had to do a 300-point turn relying on the handbrake to stop me demolishing this guy's fence and getting hotter and hotter under the collar until I finally "did a Muttley" and made it out of there! Still, at least that was ultimately another pile of stuff out the door!

When I got home I got a message from my nephew with a very old picture of my mom and dad, asking if I knew where it was taken (I didn't). He said his brother had joined Ancestry.com and someone had posted a picture of mom and dad and they couldn't figure out who it was. Now there are only four of us siblings left and it was none of us, so I'd be curious to know who posted that picture. They also posted a picture of a gravestone belonging to two of my dad's brothers - Charlie, who died aged 25 (in the 1930s I think) and Billy, who died aged 22 after drinking bleach over a bust up with some girl!!! Dad also had a sister, Cal (the only girl after seven boys) who died aged two after falling down the cellar steps! I know a little of the background but my brother Phil, who died in 2019, would have been able to tell us so much more if he were still alive. That being said, this same nephew also joined whatever that site is that can supposedly tell you your ethnic origins (I don't know how - do they take a blood sample?) and he basically came back a Viking but with no Welsh blood in him, and this despite the fact that three of his four grandparents were Welsh! I'm not so sure about that one, to be honest!

In other news, yesterday I took a trip out to a fabric store a little bit off the beaten track for me, since the ladies at sewing club were saying that the assistants at this particular store were far more friendly and helpful than our usual haunts - and indeed they were! One lady spent a good 30 minutes with me picking out fabric for two projects I have in mind and was so helpful that I posted on their FB page to give credit where credit is due! At the check-out I spotted that they were shortly going to be offering appointments to get your sewing machine serviced so I booked mine in for 11 April, and when I asked how much it would cost they told me it was free!! So score there then too, but I suppose having a bunch of women hanging around in your shop waiting to pick up their sewing machines is probably a savvy sales technique too!

When I got home I saw I'd received an email from my electricity supplier about "my revised tariff" and thought "oh dear, here we go", but when I opened the message it turned out to be just a €3 monthly increase in my standing charge, so I can live with that. A couple of my neighbours have asked if my solar panels have made any difference to my electricity costs but to be honest I haven't even gotten round to looking yet. Note to self, I must pick up the instruction manual soon and take a look! I also got an email to say that a game I ordered to play with Charlie should be delivered soon as "Ji Nan Yi Ming Wang Luo Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si" had already sent it! Huh? I thought it was coming from France (but that doesn't sound very likely, does it)!

And has anyone else been having problems with comments on blogger? For the past week or so I've been finding comments in my spam folder, most of which (although not all) were my own comments dating back ages ago and which I know I had published! I'm also having problems backing up my blog too so I'm thinking it might be time to get my own domain name and move my blog over to that as I don't want to potentially lose it after eight years (eight years??? crikey)!

And finally, like quite a few UK bloggers, I was very sorry to hear of the sudden death of comedian Paul O'Grady. Paul found fame some years ago with his alter ego Lily Savage. I can't say I found Lily very funny, to be honest, and I'm not really into drag queens - well except for Dame Edna, and oh British pantomime dames - oh and yes I once went to a drag club in Geneva years ago and had a great time - so maybe I like drag queens more than I thought!

The inimitable Dame Edna!

Panto's ugly sisters!

Paul retired Lily a good few years ago and then went on to host game shows and appear on other media where he gained popularity with his acerbic wit. The other side of Paul was that he was great animal lover (particularly dogs) and worked tirelessly with Battersea Dogs' Home and with his show For the Love of Dogs! But I think where I learned to really appreciate what a kind and gentle man he was was when he shadowed The Salvation Army for a few days, out and about helping the homeless and those down on their luck. He was just lovely to everyone and helped raise quite a lot of money but, tellingly, at the end of the show, when he asked if he would be accepted as one of their "soldiers" (I think that's what the Sally Army call them) he was told that they couldn't accept him because he was gay! Says it all really doesn't it! 

Paul and "Lily"!

RIP Paul O'Grady! You were a good man!