So the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos is finally over, having accommodated up to 150 private jets per day in order for a group of unelected billionaires to tell the rest of us how we need to cut our carbon footprint. Yes I'm talking to you, little old lady at the back there - how dare you expect to be able to heat your home and eat. The nerve of some people, eh Klaus!
In other news, I'm not really sure what's going on with next door's divorce, although it is apparently common knowledge now as the husband has seemingly told everyone. As for him moving into his daughter's empty apartment, well that seems to be the world's slowest move out I've ever seen. I saw him putting one chair into his car this week so now I'm assuming he has one knife, one fork, a cup and a chair to be going on with. He's obviously still living here so I'm thinking life is just as miserable for both sides, but to be honest, I don't actually see this divorce ever happening, no more than I see the house going up for sale in spring. I could be wrong of course, but I just don't see it happening somehow!
My poor friend from sewing group is not having the best start to 2024. Her husband managed to injure her foot by driving off before she'd gotten out of the car completely, he got covid, she got covid and then 10 days ago she fell while putting some dishes away and broke her arm!!!!! She's already been operated on and is slowly on the mend, but I bet she wishes 2024 would just hurry up and bugger off already, the poor thing!
The weather has picked up again so much that you would think it was spring - which of course it isn't, but I'll take it while it lasts. To that end, my friend and I managed to get our act together and took several bags of stuff to the charity shop on Friday, and followed it up with a celebratory lunch in what turned out to be a very good Indian restaurant in town. To be honest I don't eat out very often, so that ended up being a real treat! I follow several walking groups on FB of people who go hiking in "74" (which is this area of France) and with the gorgeous weather the photos they are posting are just stunning. I know for the most part I couldn't do many of the hikes (if any) but this one tickled me - can you imagine if I'd just tagged along thinking I was going on a "little hike"! They're obviously not all anywhere near as hard as this but .....!
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| His tagline was "and the guide said it was an easy one!" |
I was planning on checking my car over yesterday (oil and windscreen fluid) but when I opened up the hood I found two slices of brown bread sitting on the engine! No joke - and since it's not the first time this has happened, I looked and the bloody fouines are back in the engine nibbling away at any rubber tubing - to go with the brown bread, it would seem! Fouine translates as "weasel" but I always thought weasels were much bigger than these little buggers. Either way, they're back to doing as much damage as they can while keeping warm on the inside of my engine. I gave it a good spraying with the anti-weasel stuff I bought ages ago, but now I think I'll just keep a can in my car and spray it every couple of days until/if I can find a more permanent solution!
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| Our friendly neighbourhood fouine! |
My first reaction to finding the brown bread was that I must be losing my mind, or my brain is turning to mush, until I realized that I'd seen it before. That was kinda reassuring about my mental state but when I popped into my local supermarket for a couple of things later that day I found people wandering around like something out of a zombie movie. Not quite bumping into each other but nobody knowing what the heck they were doing and shooting off in all directions. You see, they suddenly decided to tear the whole place apart, change the entire layout and nobody could find anything they wanted so in the end I just gave up and left. Maybe there's some intelligent reason why they do this - make people wander round more so they end up having to look more closely at what's on the shelves - but I'm not sure how many sales they made that day because people were just giving up and leaving!
So I ended up stopping off at another supermarket, the one where I drop my books off at the book exchange, but much to my shame I ended up picking up a rather lovely Jamie Oliver cookbook so it was a case of drop off five and pick up one. After that I stopped off at the cash machine, withdrew the cash I wanted and when it asked if I wanted a receipt I pressed "yes", only to find out when I got home that I'd not only forgotten the receipt but had left the Jamie Oliver book on the little shelf there at the bank. Then when I got home I couldn't find my house keys. I mean, how hard can it be to find your keys in your handbag, but I searched and searched, panicked a bit and then searched some more. In the end I had to give up and was just wandering down to my neighbour's to ask for my spare key, when I reached into my jeans pocket for a hankie and there were my keys. I don't think I've ever been absent-minded so many times in any one day so I really was beginning to worry if my brain had started turning into cottage cheese!
When I finally got in the house I decided to assemble a simple towelling rack that I'd bought for my almost-finished bathroom. It was really easy to assemble, just four small screws at the top and four larger screw at the bottom. But when I opened the packet of larger screws I searched and searched - but nope, there were only three of them. They were of a very specific size and I didn't have anything equivalent in my somewhat extensive screw collection. So off I trotted back into town to the hardware store to buy one bloody screw!!!! Still it was a relief to find my brain hadn't actually turned to mush - I just have a screw missing!
Oh, could I relate toy mush brain lately. I think some days I return to the house 2-3 times to remember a poo bag for the dogs. I just give myself a pass, but is frustrating. My local store changed some things too- weird to pass over and over to find what I'm looking for.
ReplyDeleteI think we've all walked upstairs and then couldn't remember what we'd come for haven't we. But forgetting the poo bags would be awkward! As for the store, they hadn't just moved things around. Where they had shelves that ran north to south they now had 50% of them running east to west so it really was a nightmare. A bit like trying to get out of Hampton Court Maze!
DeleteLOL So nice to know you only have one screw missing, unlike the many with so many screws missing. If you ever find yourself missing a screw again, come on over, I've got lots. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the screw situation is akin to getting old! You have plenty of screws, just none that fit!
DeleteStores do that so people WILL have to wander around, hoping that as they do, they'll pick up other random items that suddenly catch their fancy.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pain for the employees too- trust me.
Some days the senior moments come thick and fast, don't they? We're all there. At least that's what I tell myself.
I would agree about the store normally but this was as if they had just swept the whole place empty and totally redid it including redesigning the shelving. And I agree, it's unpleasant and bloody hard work for the employees, so I suspect there's another reason for it. Who knows. Maybe a total revamp. And of course I have my senior moments, but crikey, this was just too many one following the other! Hopefully that's it for a couple of weeks then!
DeleteOne store near me rearranges every time I have finally learned where all the things I buy are located. I was very happy the last time it happened, because a young man was just as confused as I was and we wound up scouring the aisles in tandem helping each other find what we needed. At the same time we offered complaints about how hair brained it was of the store to do such a massive re-do. (Which if you are a marketing guru was probably genius because it forced everyone down each aisle to find what they needed, and most likely increased the impulse buy sales because you saw different products while on the hunt for what you wanted) Jackasses!
ReplyDeleteI understand changing things around but I suspect this is a MAJOR overhaul, even to the point of moving shelving across the store rather than up and down the store. I'm curious to see what it'll be like when it's done but it was a bloody nightmare at the time and, as I said, people looked like they'd just come out of their hidey holes after the apocalypse!
DeleteMaybe it was the anti-fouine spray. I have had days like that where I am just not with it.
ReplyDeleteI was trying peppermint spray but that obviously did no good. You're probably right, maybe they like anti-fouine spray on brown bread!
DeleteThe elites are such hypocrites when it comes to 'global warming'. It's ridiculous. I can't believe the neighbor hasn't moved out yet. That has to be miserable for them both. The last time our local Kroger did a revamp they made the aisles so narrow that you can barely have two carts going down them at the same time. I'm glad you were able to replace your missing screw. lol
ReplyDeleteThe elites are taking the piss! In Ireland now they are wanting farmers to cull 800,000 cows because of cow farts but private jets - nah they're ok! They don't pollute at all!
DeleteI had and aunt and uncle who were always on the verge of a divorce (she did move out twice that I know of), and it never happened. I think it all boiled down to the fact that getting a divorce was just too much work, something that did bother any of their kids. I'd go up that ladder if it was sturdy enough.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that divorce will happen either because of (a) finances and (b) he is going downhill fast both physically and mentally, according to her today. I guess they should have separated years ago when she could have gone back to work. And as for that ladder, I'm kinda guessing it's pretty sturdy. I still wouldn't go up it though!
DeleteKeys - bane of my life. I’m sure they have a feet of their own especially when they pop up in unexpected places. Sounds like the most frustrating of days for you, but they always make good blog material.
ReplyDeleteIt beats me how you can lose your keys IN YOUR HANDBAG! I mean, how much space is there in a handbag? I try to put them in the same pocket all the time but obviously I sometimes come unstuck!
DeleteLOL. So, did you get your book back?
ReplyDeleteI didn't go back for the book, but sorting more stuff out today I found I already had it anyway. So yeah, more brain fog!
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