Summer's back!

Well after weeks of pretty crappy weather, summer seems to be back with a vengeance. It's forecast 35°C tomorrow (95°F) and while many places get it hotter, that's plenty hot enough for me. Too hot actually, but thankfully those temperatures tend to last only about four weeks before dropping back down. Still, at least where we are we (hopefully) don't get the awful wild fires that we're seeing (mainly in Canada and Maui right now) - my heart breaks for the people caught up in that nightmare! I don't like to have the windows open at night (bugs and other creep-crawlies) but it has been hellish hot without AC, so I might put my little mobile unit on until this heat breaks!

Last Tuesday was a holiday here (Assumption), although why the French have 15 August as a holiday and not Good Friday beats me - but then I'm not Catholic so what would I know! With that in mind, the people in the white house you can see across the field in my header picture decided to have a party last Monday night and were at it all night long! Not loud music or anything like that, but just loads of people screaming and yelling (though thankfully not fighting). I read until 3 a.m. and then must have fallen asleep until more yelling woke me at 5 a.m. and then I was done. I'm a bit surprised at it actually because the French have pretty strict rules about just how much noise you can make (or how long it can go on for) but I guess this one slipped through the net. Then on Tuesday (which was the holiday) my neighbour must have decided it was a good day to drill everything within a 10 mile radius so that was me done for the day! Still, it doesn't happen that often so I guess you have to go with the flow, even if it did feel a bit like this at times!

While I was making dinner the other night, I realized that the gas flame wasn't burning very hot, which must mean that my gas bottle was running out. We don't have mains gas here so have to buy those large gas bottles that you used to see on a BBQ. Man I know I'm getting old because lugging the empty bottle down to the supermarket was bad enough but getting the full bottle off the top rack nearly killed me!!! I always have a spare on hand but could I get the damn thing to work!!!! I've changed these bottles many, many times but this time I took the sealant rings off both joints - and then realized what a stupid thing that was to do, so put them both back on and decided to sleep on it. Well next day, as often happens, I decided that "the gauge" (looked a bit like this):

... probably needed to be in the horizontal position and bingo, it works so crisis averted! While I was running around I popped into LIDL for a few things. They'd got six crates of tomatoes for sale on an end aisle and I was pretty perturbed to see a couple bagging up the whole lot (all six crates) and clearing them all out! I guess they were going to be making a lot of tomato sauce at some point but I do think they might have left a few in case other people wanted some! Not me, because I don't buy my produce there but surely there has to be some kind of etiquette for that kind of thing - or maybe not!

Jordan and Jen arrived back from Brittany having had a wonderful time. They said the initial dismal weather didn't really bother them that much as they had so many places they wanted to visit anyway. They decided to stop off on the way back to spend a few days with Jen's grandparents, and wouldn't you know but Charlie - who had been great the whole time - decided it was his time to be cranky as hell! Maybe the heat was getting to him at this point but ....! While they were away Jordan received a job offer from the new firm starting up in this area and is going to accept it - starting work with his friend, Christophe, on 11 September, so they are both delighted!

I mentioned to my friend that La Clusaz were having a craft fair on Tuesday and did she want to go (of course she did), so we mosied up there in time to have lunch and then a wander round the fair - except we couldn't find it! I mentioned to a lady sitting next to us at the restaurant (who looked a "craft fair" kinda lady) and she said they hadn't found it either, so I'm guessing the advertising was messed up. Still, with La Clusaz being my favourite ski resort it's never a hardship to drive up there and it got us out the house (without spending too much money either)!

La Clusaz!

In other news, I was saddened to hear of the death of chat show host Michael Parkinson last week. Oh he was a fair age and hadn't been well for some time, but I remember as a kid really enjoying his shows as he allowed his guests to shine, rather than holding forth with some monologue of his own. Still, what an amazing life he had, and he had to have met some of the most interesting people over his 50-year career span!

And talking of going back 50-ish years, I wrote in a recent post about the young woman who has set up a mobile manicure unit with the help of a small grant from the local commune. Well in order to show solidarity I stopped in for a mani-pedi (only the second I've ever had in my life!!!) on Monday and it was wonderful! Her little caravan transports you back to the 1950s-60s and I came out of there humming the theme tune from Austin Powers (but with slightly better teeth)! I hope she can make this work for her, and if so I will definitely keep going!

I'll have to buy this outfit for my next visit!