Headless chickens - and things that go bump in the night!

Ever had the feeling you've been running around like a headless chicken for the past while - well that's been me over the past week or so! As far as I can remember my heating and water heating system started playing up about 10 days ago, in that I'd get up in the morning and would have neither heat nor hot water. So it meant running downstairs and kicking the thing into overdrive every morning. Well this went on for about eight days until this Monday (which was the day I was to have my naturalisation interview in Grenoble) when I got up, jumped into the shower and nearly laid a square egg when the water was not only not hot - it was glacial!!! And of course, I needed to get showered and wash my hair before heading down to Grenoble. That is not fun, I can tell you, all the moreso since it is still pretty cold here - but what else could I do at that time in the morning? Anyhoo, the situation is still ongoing in that if I can get the heater to kick in it might work for about 45 minutes, at which point I might get a slightly less glacial shower than expected. Fortunately Jen works for my heater maintenance company and I have a technician coming tomorrow morning, but then I suppose I'll probably have to wait a bit longer if he needs to order a spare part! Oh well, cold showers are supposed to be invigorating, aren't they!

As I say, that very important shower was connected to having to drive to Grenoble for my interview after having whizzed into town to hand over the keys to the sewing clubroom for them to open up in my absence. The trip went well fortunately, all through pretty mountainous country and I found the Préfecture easily, although I was dreading driving round a large unknown city. I must be getting chicken in my old age!

The Préfecture is that lovely building at the top!

The lady that interviewed me was very professional but friendly enough to put me at ease. When I had previously tried to apply for citizenship as a private person I seemingly had to have a million documents (translations of everyone and his uncle's birth, death and marriage certificates, proof of having passed the language exam, that I had sufficient income, health insurance, owned my own home, and an extensive knowledge about France - as taken from the citizens' information brochure). This time, however, as I was applying by dint of being the grandmother of a French child, while I did indeed still have all those documents it occurred to me as I walked in that I hadn't looked at that citizens' brochure in about two years and hadn't got a clue about French philosophers, poets, film stars etc. but then had no choice but to just walk in and "wing it"!

Moreover in this case it stated that if I didn't speak French I could bring someone with me to interpret!!! Talk about a different set of rules! In the end, she wasn't interested in any of that, just proof that I am integrated into French society and what my relationship is like with Charlie - to whit I was able to provide proof that I am the president of the sewing club (even if I can't sew), that I set up board game evenings with my neighbours, have enrolled in plenty of courses locally and am the treasurer of our little homeowners' association (one cheque a year - tough job)! Then I showed her videos of me and Charlie cracking up while playing hide and seek so she was happy with that. One thing I thought might go against me was that I had never studied or worked in France but I'm pretty sure that won't matter in the end. She told me it could take as long as a year to find out the result, but if I'm accepted I will be invited to a swearing in ceremony in Annecy. Fingers crossed then! I even managed to find may way out of Grenoble, but I just might have driven up a tram street - not sure on that one though!

Tuesday André called me in a panic asking if I could pick him up at the Ford garage as he had just realized that his contrôle technique (a routine road-worthiness test) was three months out of date so that meant meeting him at Ford and then driving him back home, the subtext being that I would have to do the whole operation in reverse the next day for him to pick his car back up. Luckily it passed but it kinda buggered up my timings a bit as later I was to go over to Jordan and Jen's as a family member from the States was over for a few days and we were going to take him to Yvoire and then out to dinner. Bloody kid of mine, how can he be so organized at work and so lackadasical at home? Still, I made it and even though the weather forecast was grim, we managed to get through virtually the whole visit without a drop of rain - and then the heavens opened when we got back to the car!

Yvoire!
(A google picture)

John is married to my ex-husband's cousin and she couldn't make it this time, but he is now talking of asking for a transfer either to Switzerland or France so is desperately working on his French. He is a nice guy and was a real pleasure to have as a visitor!

So the rest of the week has been spent trying to catch my tail, what with the heating engineer coming tomorrow morning and then having to take care of Charlie in the afternoon. Then this morning I realized I had the reflexology appointment that I had booked when I won those vouchers just before Christmas. I had always wanted to give it a try but just never got around to it. And OMG did I ever love it. I was feeling pretty tired after a busy week but I kinda bounced out of there like Tigger and feel pretty sure I will be adding reflexology to my "list of essentials", along with my yoga class - and a good glass of white wine!