This and that!

It's been a fairly quiet few days again, although with the weather being glorious it has allowed me to get outside on a few walks and/or work in the garden and then try to find something half way decent to watch on either Amazon or Netflix in the evenings. I had noticed on a few occasions that when I maybe spotted a film on Netflix I might like to watch at some point, the next time I logged on I'd find out that said film had now become "for payment only". Okay once or twice I might have made a mistake, but by the third time, I realized that if I earmarked a relatively well known film to watch later, it would very often change status from free to "for rent" when I went back. Sneaky buggers! And then this morning I got an email from Netflix to say that my bog standard contract with them for €5.99 per month had been cancelled and would be going up to €13.99 per month as from end October!!!! I don't think so! I've been starting series and not finishing them because they just don't hold my interest, so I've put a note in my diary to cancel it before the new contract kicks in! Maybe if they didn't pay out ridiculous sums of money for some of the less than stellar productions they wouldn't need to more than double their contract price without warning! Mind you, I probably need to start cutting back because apparently I've yet again been hacked and "caught looking at porn sites which could seriously damage my reputation but if I just pay $1,300 into the following bitcoin account they will delete all their evidence"! Jeez, and I thought I was being so discreet!

Then the other day I went to pick up André from the Ford garage and when he saw that I had my ear buds in listening to a book on Audible he told me that his friend just got done the other day for the same "crime"! Huh? How can that be a crime? I get that they don't want you having your phone in your hands, but surely listening to a book is no more dangerous than listening to the radio? Well apparently that's not so because it would seem that the ear buds can "diminish my awareness of what's going on around me while driving". Again, huh? I still don't see how it is any different from listening to the radio but it is, apparently, and his friend got fined €90!!!! So what with that and my porn habit, I guess I'd better be more careful!

Earlier this week my Nigerian friend's wife, M, stopped by for a chat as she's going to be around more now that she's been made redundant. It wasn't how she had planned to retire but she realizes she is lucky because she actually can retire, whereas many of the younger journalists are struggling to find new jobs. When I asked after her husband she told me that he had had to come back from Nigeria (his happy place) as he had been taken ill with blood clots on the lungs and diagnosed with stage three prostate cancer. When I asked if it was possible to get good medical care in Nigeria she said it was - but only if you had money as there is no medical insurance!! I guess I've always taken good medical coverage for granted but when you realize that many people don't have that it's pretty humbling!

On Saturday we had our latest board game evening at Jordan and Jen's place so everyone got to meet Elynn, then the following day we had our latest "clean up the neighbourhood" get together, which allowed us to meet two new sets of neighbours who have recently moved in. Honestly if everyone pitches in for just an hour we can have the place looking pretty nice and after that - well, it's party time. Everyone cooks and brings a bottle and as the weather was nice we were able to stay out until it got dark and cold. One of the young kids is called Loris and while I don't know him very well, he is a very polite, well brought up young lad. He was excitedly telling me that in a year's time he is hoping to be going to New York for four years to study dance. When I asked him what kind of dance (with me thinking classical dance/ballet) he said hip hop! I was stunned because having been responsible for the education grant at work I have seen people whose kids studied in New York and it ain't cheap, but to spend four years studying hip hop??? I'm not sure how that's even possible but then maybe I'm just an old lady. I hope he gets to achieve his pipe dream, even if I somehow doubt it!

I stopped in at the local exhibition centre this afternoon to visit the annual creative arts fair and while everything was indeed lovely, all I bought was a pair of electric scissors for sewing club. I also spotted a poster announcing what I would call a freebie exchange mart where people can bring whatever they want to get rid of and take anything that takes their fancy, the only proviso being that everything is free. I think it's a great idea and am hoping it will really motivate me to get working on decluttering to take stuff over there!

And finally, I got a phone call from our local Mairie on Friday to say that they had received my paperwork back from Grenoble and guess what? After goodness knows how many years/attempts, it would seem that I'm now French! So Vive la France (finally)!

Gonna send off for my new passport when I 
get back from Guédelon next week!