Score (x 2)!!

We're still having pretty decent weather here for the time of year. Oh we've had a couple of days of heavy rain (which is only to be expected), but other than that it's been glorious - sunny and not too cold - and I'm happy to say I'm still getting loads done. I'm keeping up with the Italian lessons which are still pretty easy as it's early days yet. Then the other day a recipe popped up on my feed from a site called Ptitchef and I'm finding quite a few recipes I'd like to try out. They send an email every day with a starter, main course and dessert and if I see anything that interests me I drop it into my online recipe folder. The only complaint I have about the site though is the advertising. Well obviously they have adverts but the one that seems to pop up most often is a diagram of an enlarged prostate and showing the recommended treatment!!! That one doesn't actually inspire me to dash off to the kitchen somehow!

I was chatting with my friend the other day saying how I'd like to get my old BBQ down to the tip but it was proving difficult since it wouldn't fit in my car. Then she said she wanted to get rid of her BBQ because she just never used it and was I interested? It's a good quality, gas bottle BBQ that has been covered and stored in her garage and while I was initially tempted I know I wouldn't use it so asked her if she would like me to mention it to my neighbours - who use theirs a lot. Well they weren't interested but as their daughter jumped at it I set up with my neighbour for us to go over to her place and pick it up. He told me that he'd tried taking my BBQ apart some more but I already knew that was impossible as it was so rusted, so in the end he said to just help him load it up into his car and we took it down to the tip. So score 1 - one less BBQ to deal with!

Then last Saturday the tiler showed up with his young son as he was on school break. He's a nice guy and very hard working as he works a full-time job and does tiling in the evenings and weekends. He originally came to France as a refugee after the war in Kosovo and I am dead impressed how well he speaks French and how hard working he is! More power to him! I mentioned that I'd be gone for about 30 minutes as I had to pop out to pick up an Amazon package from a delivery centre. It was the first time I'd used this gas station and I had to scan a QR code on my phone and out of one of the lockers popped my new mini chainsaw! After I got home I had it on the table while I was charging the battery and when he asked about it I told him that I was not comfortable using my big chainsaw to cut the wood downstairs but was hoping to be able to at least cut up the smaller logs. So at this point he says that next time he comes over he'll stay an extra hour and cut up the bigger logs for me!!! I wasn't expecting that at all, but since he volunteered and if he wants to make some money I'm absolutely thrilled - so score 2 for me!

Since then I've cut up a fair supply of smaller logs and this afternoon I cut back (massacred) the buddleia in my front garden as my gardener forgot to do it the other day. It took me all of 15 minutes and I am dead impressed, so much so that my neighbour asked me about it and has ordered one for herself. I tell ya, at the moment anything that's not on wheels I'm attacking with that saw! Which reminds me oddly enough of a story from years ago when my parents bought a new washing machine. My brother-in-law's parents were maybe 15 years older than my parents and as they were very rural she was still doing their laundry in the old washtub and wringer, so when my parents offered them their old "automatic" washer they jumped at it. BIL's dad said he thought he'd gotten lucky because every day when he came home from work his wife told him to "take his clothes off" but poor him, she only wanted to do another load of washing, she was so thrilled with her new machine! And I'm a bit like that with my chainsaw. I seriously love it, although I managed to lose my safety goggles the first day (probably threw them out with the hibiscus branches). But you know what, forget all the hoopla about the "find my iphone" app, I reckon if someone could invent a "find my glasses" app they'd make a fortune. Not from me though as I have reading glasses dotted all over the place so as long as I can still find my house I reckon I'm good!

I'm still seeing an awful lot of job vacancies advertised (does no-one want to work anymore???) so who knows, maybe I could get myself a little part-time job as a lumberjack. Now there's a thought!

Start 'em young I say!