This and that!

Well it looks like autumn might already be upon us as the mornings can be a bit nippy but after a couple of hours it's lovely. We don't get a particularly long summer and for that I'm grateful as I prefer the spring and autumn temperatures!

I was talking to my sister the other day and she was saying that her granddaughter will be leaving school next summer at the age of 16 and hopefully starting an apprenticeship in the travel industry. She's a clever and hardworking girl and at first I was a bit surprised that she wouldn't be staying on to do her A levels but nope, she wants to get out working as soon as she can (and travelling methinks). She's already working at a hairdresser's and a pub when she's not at school, so why not. It'll give her a bit of money and I actually think it's a good thing if more and more people go into "the trades", rather than setting themselves up for tons of higher education debt and no guarantee of a job afterwards. I used to see that when I worked in HR. Hundreds of supremely well-qualified applicants chasing after just one or two jobs! So then my sister said that she would have loved to go into midwifery but when she went to see the joke of a careers advisor she was told "that wouldn't be possible" and to go work in a shop or as a secretary! With that attitude what chance did the working class ever have of getting ahead, even just a little??? How times have changed then, because one of my friends at school was able to get in, but then I'm eight years younger than my sister. I do remember being told myself to go the shop or the secretary route but since I was so pissed off at that I also left school at 16 and went straight to college to study languages. To be completely honest I did end up getting a job as a secretary - but in Switzerland - so I'm pretty sure I earned a far better wage than that sexist (or elitist?) careers officer (or at least I hope I did)!

In other news I was talking to my neighbour and she told me that Stan's wife, Martine, (Stan is my Nigerian friend) looked to be losing her job as the small regional newspaper she has worked for for many years as a journalist is going out of print. Buuuuutttt she said that in that case she intends to run for Maire of our village when the occasion arises. I certainly hope I am French by that time because I believe she would do a great job. Hell, she apparently already knows about "dubious" dealings with land being sold off to developers at less than the value agreed by the authorities!!! Moreover, our current Maire is a miserable sod who can't keep office staff and my lovely neighbour, P, who agreed to be on the village council, resigned after just two months since, apparently, he was only there to agree with the Maire - dixit the Maire! This was more than apparent when we went to the old fogies lunch in conjunction with the next village over and their Maire was very pleasant, friendly and has a good reputation - a complete contrast to ours so I hope Martine gets in!

Talking of politics, but this time national not local politics, apparently a request for impeachment of our President has been (or will shortly be) lodged by the political party known as La France Insoumise! Now this is a left wing party (far left???) and I initially liked a few of their candidates and their leader is quite a convincing speaker. But he's been in politics for years and is a sly old dog (that's about as pleasant as I can be in that regard) and they are the ones that kept Macron's centrist party in power but now, he has them up in arms. You see it must be about six weeks ago that Macron dissolved Parliament due to the appalling results in the legislatives but the left helped keep him in power with the seeming understanding that they would be getting a few key posts - like Prime Minister. Buuut yesterday Macron issued a statement to the effect that he would be doing what he and he only wanted and might even bring in a few outside players (like the head of Renault) to take these posts, basically setting himself up as a dictator!!! I don't think there is much hope that this will go through but as my favourite politician said, at least it will now force the political groups to show their true colours! Fingers crossed but I suspect more outrage is in the offing!

And finally, little Elynn arrived safe and sound on 21st August. I only got to meet her today as I started coughing when they came out of hospital and didn't want to take the risk of anyone getting sick. The early days are hard enough without that aren't they!

Big brother!

Elynn!

... and I am one happy, happy grandma!

On becoming a hermit!

Yet again it's been a while since I last posted, but honestly if all you do is flake out on the sofa, what's to write about? Summer has finally hit us "proper", with temperatures in the mid-90s. This usually lasts for the months of July and August and since most people don't have A/C it can be tough. A few people I know have put individual A/C units into specific rooms but I just get by with a small mobile unit and cold showers. I'm getting used to it now though and since I know it won't last forever I'm fine with getting by like that. I've come to accept that "summer" means generally doing bugger all (a bit like during lockdowns), but I have managed to spend my mornings sorting tons of old photos and going through (and getting rid of) loads of administrative paperwork. It's a slow process (I'm definitely a tortoise, rather than a hare) but I'm making progress, all the same. So I've been shredding papers that had identifying details on them and then emptying my shredder into large bin bags which I'll get round to taking to the tip shortly. Only problem with that was, last night a massive storm kicked up, slammed the office window wide open, picked up the plastic bag and deposited shredded paper all over the upper floor of my house. It looked like I'd hosted 100 weddings in 24 hours so today was spent hoovering all that up - followed by yet another cold shower!

Talking of weddings, I was invited to Jen's best friend's wedding on Saturday (not sure why, to be honest) and boy was it hot. They have lived together for quite a few years and have a five year old daughter together but decided to finally take the next step and get married. And oh were they a handsome couple. Jen was on tenterhooks because she was to be the bride's witness/maid of honour - and was 38 weeks pregnant last week!!! But she made it and we're now all just waiting for the arrival of the next little bundle of joy! Two of their mutual friends are identical twins, both are gay and are two of the loveliest young men I know! I've known Julien for ages as he lives locally and comes to our board game evenings, but his brother, Nico, is a (very talented) hairdresser who works in Paris, so I don't know him very well. Anyway, Nico and I chatted for ages and he kept looking at my hair, which was a frizzy mess, and said next time he comes down he's going to cut my hair for me to get rid of that frizz! I'd only had it cut last week but even I have to admit I can't do anything with it! He had styled seven people that day - including the bride - (and cut Charlie's hair - talk about a busman's holiday) but he said he loved it and like it or not, would be attacking mine and André's hair next time round (apparently André is going to become a bleached blond)! These two, as I said, are two of the nicest young men I know and were absolutely wonderful with Charlie, so hats off to mom and dad for doing such a good job!

I had to go into Geneva the other week for an appointment so met up with my Uruguayan friend for lunch beforehand. He goes back and forth to Uruguay frequently and invited me to come with him next time!!! I must admit I'd never given it much thought but to visit a country with "a native" has got to be the way to go, right? Add to that, that despite the fact I swore I'd had enough of long distance travel, I'm now giving serious thought to maybe doing India's Golden Triangle next spring. André was all over me to go for it at the wedding, so who knows - Airmiles Annie, here I come!

Due to all the enforced inactivity caused by the heat I've continued to plough through some of the many books I've been given over the years and am still (mainly) happily surprised. I've just finished a book by French author Michel Bussi called Time is a Killer and was delighted to see that it was set in northern Corsica - where we started out on our recent trip. Now I'm moving onto Gomorrah, by Roberto Saviano. I've had the book for quite some time and understand it caused a huge stir when it came out, with Saviano having to go into hiding immediately after it was published. It's apparently about Neapolitan organized crime so I sure hope he covered his tracks well!

For whatever reason, the powers that be have decided to reroute some of the roads in town and I'm still trying to get used to it. The roads here are quite narrow as part of the town is mediaeval but as far as I know there have been no accidents (so far). At least it has got to be easier than when Sweden switched, in 1967, from driving on the left to driving on the right. I remember it fairly well and can't begin to imagine what would happen if they tried that in the UK (not gonna happen, methinks)!

Sweden, the first day of the switchover!

I haven't watched the Olympics at all, which is weird because when I was a kid I couldn't get enough of it. I guess I'm getting too old to sit still for long anymore. I have watched a few reports on the Australian breakdancer though who received zero points for her performances. Having seen some of her non-Olympic performances I'm not surprised and honestly thought it was a joke, to begin with. One commentator described her performance as "like a kangaroo having an epileptic fit", and while that's funny, at the end of the day who missed out on a place on the team because of it? But then, I'm an old lady so what would I know!

Raygun!

In a fit of madness I signed myself back up for pilates lessons (in addition to my usual yoga class) come September. I don't know why really as I never enjoyed it much pre-covid but I do know that it did me a world of good and if I can't "feel the burn" for just one hour a week I'd say I'm pretty pathetic! But if you want to feel really bad about yourself, try watching Mountain Queen (on Netflix). I watched it the other night and loved it - but it makes my whingeing about a piddly pilates class somewhat embarrassing don't you think?

Mountain Queen!
(see the trailer here)!

And finally, I was sitting here minding my own business reading the other day when my (male) neighbour came round and rang the bloody doorbell eight times! No kiddin'! Is it a man thing or what because my other neighbour (the one who died in March) also used to just keep his finger on the doorbell (in addition to parking in front of my garage)! Now when their wives come round they call out or tap on the window but the men??? Oh how about we superglue our fingers to that there doorbell and make her jump out of her skin! On a side note, I think having such a violent startle reflex might mean that I'm not a sociopath (I know, thank goodness)! I have read a couple of times that one of the potential signs of a sociopathic personality is that they don't have much - if any - startle reflex (well that and the fact that they have little fear - see rage driving as an example)! So that's good to know! And then I spotted "the guy" (who I think is one of the travelling community given that he only seems to come around in summer) who goes door to door saying "did you know there's a problem with your roof/chimney/do you need your home pressure sprayed? Don't get me wrong, he does good work but I'm getting the impression that I'm going to find out I need around €1,000 of work done every time he stops by. Well this year I'm just not up for it so I got stuck in to the fuse box, disconnected the fuse for the front doorbell - and it's been absolute bliss ever since (and I can now slither happily back into my shell like the proverbial hermit crab)!

Me - in a couple of months!