This and that!

Well after feeling all gung ho and getting so much junk out of the house last week, I kinda ran out of steam somewhere mid-week and took a few days off. Mind you, the bloody awful weather - constant rain - is enough to make anyone pull their hair out, I reckon. I've never really minded rain and positively love the cold, but this non-stop drizzle is bloody awful. As I've mentioned before, both my neighbours have problems with water coming into their basements so I hear their pumps working constantly. And then of course we have the downed trees and landslides, as the water obviously has nowhere to go!

I did get a walk in last week at the lake in Passy (one of my favourite places) which was just as well I went when I did because the next day we got about eight inches of snow! I've learned my lesson well however in that I never let it sit anymore as it's just so hard trying to shift ice the next day. I needn't have worried though because the temperatures went right back up the next day and it all melted - just adding to the dank and misery!

I had a nice time last Saturday as rather than holding our board game evening at someone's home, Jen asked if we would like to join in a game evening at the ludothèque (toy library) in their little town and we were all up for it. This was how I had originally tried out board game evenings in my local town, but to be honest the groups were already so well established that I felt like a spare part and only went back one other time with my neighbour, Valérie, where we got the same result. This time though it was much better and the organizers took time to show us new games and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Everyone made finger food (and took wine, of course) and after about 90 minutes the organizers basically just raided everyone's bags and put all the food and drinks on the table for everyone to help themselves. We even adopted a new young man who sat and played with us, so I'd say the evening was a big success!

Oh and remember I wrote in my last post about a possible scam email telling me I'd won gift vouchers, well it turns out it was legit. I was invited to show up at the Mairie in town and about 60 of us were presented with vouchers averaging around €150 each as a thank you from businesses for shopping locally. Now I honestly can't remember filling in any form for this but it was a nice surprise all the same. There are two vouchers for €50 each for a local optician's so I've told the kids they can have them if they can make use of them - if not, I guess I'll just get new glasses sooner than I planned, although it actually must be about four years since I got my last pair, so maybe it was a sign!

I see "everyone's favourite troll" (Rajani Rehana) is back doing the rounds, telling everyone that they have a "great blog"! I wonder if it's a bot trying to push more traffic to their site or if it really is just some bored little man sitting in his underpants in mommy's basement! Guess we'll never know!

In other news, British in Europe have done a sterling job in getting back our right to vote. A law had been introduced sometime ago whereby anyone who had been out of the country for 15 years lost the right to vote in UK General Elections, and this despite giving 3.5 million non-Brits in the UK the right to vote. Many European countries do have representatives in various countries looking out for the interests of their citizens abroad and affording them representation in their respective parliaments, but not the Brits! So as of 16 January I have applied for my right to vote again, since Brexit meant that I, like many others, was totally disenfranchised everywhere!

And talking of the right to vote, I watched Youtuber Andrew Gould interviewing writer Norman Baker, mainly it has to be said about Prince Andrew and what went on on Epstein's Island. I've heard many stories over the years about Andrew and his boarish behaviour - including one time when the security staff didn't open the gates to his property quickly enough so he rammed the gates with his car, causing £80,000 of damage???? So nah, I never liked him in any case, but then Mr. Baker got on to the subject of the rest of the monarchy and "why, for instance, did King Charles not pay a penny in inheritance tax on the money left to him by his mother" and on and on it went. Anyway, he's just brought out a book called "So What Do You Do" (standard royal chat to adoring members of the public) and as I was so impressed with the interview I've found the book on Audible and will be starting on that shortly. I honestly don't know what I think about the monarchy because when I was growing up they were just always there. And I think people genuinely did have tremendous respect for the Queen. However, if we were to have a vote on keeping the monarchy or getting rid of them, I honestly don't know how I'd vote - not that there's much chance of that ever happening right? As for the book, I'll reserve judgement until I've read it!