Hurry up and wait!

Don't you sometimes feel like you're wading through treacle? I'm pretty sure we all feel like that sometimes, but as the great philosopher, Artistole, probably never said "meh, que sera "! I guess that's one of the advantages of being retired - for the most part you never have to hurry anymore!

The plumber was supposed to start work on Monday but meh not gonna happen. Bearing in mind this has been going on since January, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It took four months for all the fittings and tiles to arrive and then a few months to get a plumber lined up (they're all busy, of course). I had a tiler recommended to me by my neighbours but because everything took so long he's now not available until September. I had another tiler recommended to me by the plumber and he came out about 10 days ago. So yesterday the plumber calls to ask if everything is lined up for him and the tiler to play tag team starting Monday but nope. Not only has the second guy not sent me his quote but he is also unavailable until September. I have to hand it to the plumber though, he's proactive and very much on top of everything. So I suggested he come and start work on Monday anyway but since he didn't want to leave me with a worksite for three months, we've pushed it back to mid-September, after I get back from Mallorca (assuming my original tiler can now take over)! I guess there was no point being in a rush anyway, but I do thank god I'm incredibly laid back (for the most part)!

We had a massive storm here last week and while it only lasted about an hour, my goodness did it do a lot of damage! Thankfully the only thing it damaged at my place was the BBQ which it managed to hurl down the driveway, but a few houses had roof damage and the school in the next village was pretty badly affected too. It's amazing how quickly these storms can build up and I admit I was worried about Jordan coming down the mountain after work, but he made it home ok, even if it was a bit hairy in parts. Talking of Jordan the company he has been working for (via the temp agency) for the last year proposed a helluva job offer to him a couple of weeks ago - he was stunned how good it was. However, he had quite a few questions that needed answering first - like why were they at the tribunal owing €1.6 million to their suppliers, and why hadn't they paid the temp agency for the last three months? They must have come up with some really good excuses because next day the offer still stood - and that is when his supervisor, Christophe, managed to get hold of him just before he signed and told him not to do it as they were going bust! Christophe told him he'd just handed in his notice and that the company's former director (who had resigned in May) had set up his own company based out of Grenoble, but was also looking to have a two-man team working the Vallée de l'Arve area (this area) and was Christophe interested? So Christophe said yes, as long as Jordan comes with him!!! They get along really well so fingers crossed it all works out for him this time. In the meantime, the temp agency has pulled him off the job in Flaine (building a hotel) and he's now working a bit lower down the mountain for another company. He said he was a bit disappointed as he would have liked to have seen the hotel through to the end, but I wonder if it will ever get finished now!

My sister called me the other week and when I picked up she said "finally, where have you been"? Well nowhere as it turned out, but I had apparently missed a couple of calls on my mobile so she started to become concerned when she wasn't getting through on the landline either. I just laughed and told her I'd unplugged the house phone about six months ago as I was fed up of the telemarketers, but I never thought to actually tell her! Anyway, she called to tell me that my niece and her husband had received the gift certificate I'd sent them for dinner in a local restaurant when Ian feels better. In fact the manager of the restaurant had hand delivered it "as he was in town anyway". Ian was the one that collapsed in the street a couple of months ago and they found out he'd had several heart attacks. Anyway, he was in hospital for a total of about five weeks (they did a valve replacement) and while the operation went well, recovery is very, very slow. For as big and gruff a man as he is (he looks like Desperate Dan), it hit him extremely hard mentally, so there are huge lifestyle changes being made in the C household as a result - and good for them!

Desperate Dan - god that takes me back!

When I opened my shutters this morning I noticed my neighbour sitting on my wall scraping away at a few weeds growing into it. Fine by me. I try to keep up with it but I can't be everywhere all the time and in any case I know he likes to keep himself busy. But when I came down a bit later I realized he was actually painting it (it desperately needed it) and again, fine by me. It's a very small wall and he said he had a pot of paint that he didn't want to waste and he would "paint as far as he could". So I told him I had odd pots of paint downstairs and went down to look around and guess what - I came back with another half pot of exactly the same colour, so he is going to do the whole thing. While I know I moan about him a lot and for sure would not want to be married to him, he's not all bad, as you can see. Now I have to give some thought to redoing that front patch of garden as while the roses are beautiful they are just too overwhelming for such a small space!

I had to go for a scan at the hospital yesterday, after having been seen by my gynae every three months for the last year. Apparently a cyst suddenly developed last June and he wanted to keep an eye on it - hence the three monthly visits. I can't say it ever worried me because I'm just not a worrier, and when I went about two weeks ago, he decided he could "sign me off" to every six months as blood markers for tumors had come back negative and he thought the cyst might be shrinking too. But still he wanted me to go for a scan just to be sure - you know, at the hospital with 100 beds and 1 and ⅓ parking spaces! So this time I reckoned I should try parking at the border and figuring out the bus/walk/tram way to get there. In actual fact it was pretty easy so I arrived very early and had time to sit and have a coffee in the lovely coffee shop. It's the hospital where Jordan was born and is very luxurious, although very pricey too, of course! Anyway, the nurse called me at 3 o'clock and asked if I had a full bladder (that's a bit personal isn't it???) but when I said no she told me I had to sit and drink at least three glasses of water for the scan to be accurate. So being a good girl I drank four, and when she came back to see me I got up to follow her and she said "oh no, now you have to sit here for at least 45 minutes to wait for the water to make it's way through"! Oh crap, I'm always bursting for the loo under normal circumstances, so I reckoned I was going to do the Mr. Bean squirm by the end of 45 minutes! Anyway, the doctor did a couple of tests and told me she thought everything looked absolutely fine and was nothing to worry about, so I kinda thanked her and went running out the door to the loo! After that I decided to walk back to the border and was surprised to find it only took 45 minutes so I think that's how I'll be making that trip in future! On the way back home I got stuck behind a bike race (but not the Tour de France as it hasn't reached here yet) and a vintage car rally, so I was really glad I didn't still have the four glasses of water in me at that point! Agony Ivy, as we used to say! And as I said to Dave, the cars were lovely and the bums were pretty nice too!

And finally, I've been pussy-footing around lately thinking about where I might go in spring - as was my wont pre-covid, so I starting looking at Solos and Just You and Explore, and "ooh look Explore have a special on Belize, and ooh look there's a trip to the Golden Triangle", and then I gave myself a good talking to and said "where have you always, always, said you wanted to visit", so just in case this turns out to be my last long-haul, I went ahead and booked Thailand with Explore.co.uk for end February 2024. Since I wanted to make my own flight arrangements rather than having to fly back to London and then fly out again, I started looking up Thai, Qatar, Etihad and Emirates and today, after much piddling around, I booked myself on Emirates, via Dubai. The prices were pretty reasonable actually so I thought I would try to pick out a decent seat in economy, buuutttt this little voice in my head said "go on, just do it", so even though I might have to sell a kidney (mind you, who'd want one of mine?), I booked myself in business class and will happily spend the next year paying for it! So yay me, I'm finally going to Thailand!