Ouch (again)!

I got a notification from Easyjet yesterday that I could now download my boarding pass for my trip to Mallorca in early September. After much faffing around I got it done and printed off the list of things I don't want to forget for my trip. It's been over four years since I was in Sri Lanka and that being my last big trip I'm obviously a bit rusty at this travel malarky! One of the things I want to take with me is my kindle as it's good to have something to read during the down times. About 18 months ago Amazon contacted me to let me know that my old kindle (bought in 2010 I think) was no longer supported by their system so I reluctantly bought a new cheapo kindle to replace it. I don't like it as much as my old one, but when I started downloading books onto it, I noticed that they were also downloading onto my defunct old kindle (?) so I'm still going to use that. What a rip off though right? When I travelled previously I also used to take my clunky old iPad as I like a bigger screen than my phone, so when I saw it sitting forlornly in a drawer I decided to charge it and bingo, it still works, so I'll be taking that too!

The weather here this past month has been bloody awful. Not cold exactly, but grey, wet and depressing for the most part. Last week La Roche hosted its annual Blue Grass festival and while it wasn't exactly rained out, I'm sure there would have been a much bigger attendance if we'd had better weather. It's such a shame as bands come from all over the world and the organizers put so much work into it, but what can you do? Nothing right?

Jordan and Jen are still in Brittany and they're having pretty much the same weather as we are. It hasn't mattered to Charlie much as there's still plenty to amuse him, but I feel so sorry for parents in particular who are hoping to amuse their kids with days at the beach and who then end up having to fork out hard earned cash on indoor attractions due to the bad weather! When I was on maternity leave with Jordan I drove home to England for a few weeks and the weather was so bad one day that we decided to take the kids to an indoor water attraction called Splashdown. I commented to my sister that it must have been so hard on one young family who were there with their four young kids - spending money they probably wouldn't have had to if they could have spent the day on the beach. I well remember back in 1966 (the last time England won the World Cup!!!!), my parents had taken us to the south coast of England and the weather was appalling! We were staying in a bed & breakfast and the owner very kindly invited everyone into his personal sitting room to watch the match - all the while it absolutely bucketed down outside! Another wet day mom and dad took us to the cinema (we saw Born Free) and while we kids probably loved every minute of it, I'm pretty sure it burned quite a hole in their planned spending money for our holiday! In fact I called my sister on Saturday as it was her birthday and it was absolutely bucketing it down. So summer in England then! At least this week weather here is back to normal temperatures but it's been a long time coming, I can tell you! (Katie telling it like it is).

On Monday I decided to have another shot at finding a store called Leclerc in the local town of  Annemasse. I hate Annemasse - it's like a rabbit warren, all one way streets, quite a few lunatic drivers and roadworks everywhere. I've tried to find this store a couple of times already and given up in frustration. Anyway, it was par for the course again on Monday and just as I'd decided to give up and go home, I realized I was right next to the entrance to the parking lot! So I finally got to check it out and I have to say the prices seem to be as reasonable as I'd heard and it was a very pleasant store to shop in (once you'd got the lay of the land I suppose), but I'm not sure my nerves could stand another round of trying to find my way around Annemasse so decided I'll just stick with the stores I already know!

Then yesterday my friend and I decided that we really wanted to get back into walking again (neither of us have done much of anything lately) and since the weather picked up we decided to head off for a "stroll" around the lac de Montriond! It's a beautiful lake but I hardly ever stop there since we always seem to just pass it on our way up to Les Lindarets (the village where the goats are allowed to run free!

Lac de Montriond
(Haute Savoie photos)

Les Lindarets
(France Comfort photos)

Anyway, we were almost there when we realized we (i.e. I) had taken a wrong turn and we ended up at another lake called le lac Bleu, so decided that was just as good as anywhere for a shortish walk. Everything was going pretty well and it only took us about an hour to walk from one lake to the next, but on the way back to the car we decided to try another route - and ended up going waayyyy out of our way, sloshing through mud and fallen trees, and coming out at a dead end and having to go back the way we came. I got bogged down in mud trying to get through one spot, and my friend went flying in another, but thankfully landed on her side rather than her dodgy knee, so after much cussing and swearing, putting in 20,000 steps and almost 10 miles, we finally made it back to the original lake looking like something the cat'd dragged in! So yeah, we wanted to start walking again, but I don't think either of us had bargained on that! My knee has been giving me some gyp for quite some time now and yesterday did it no favours, so today I tried out a few exercises that Dr. Youtube suggested and while at one point I thought I'd just moved the pain from one spot to another, since this afternoon the pain has completely gone! Isn't Youtube amazing! We've got another walk planned for next week so I'll see if my knee holds out till then - here's hoping!

le lac Bleu!

Part of the "obstacle course"!