This and that!

It's been a much slower few days lately, and what with the weather being glorious I don't have a lot to complain about (although I'm sure I'll find something). I made a deliberate point of not tuning in to the US elections until the day the results were in. Not much I can do about it either way so no point getting worked up about one candidate or the other, especially when we have our own cr@p going on both in the UK and France - and believe me, we do!

We had our latest board game evening at my place on Saturday and since it was so close to Halloween we all dressed up and I left my decorations out especially (I usually take them down the day after). Halloween itself was fairly quiet with the littles starting to knock around 5 pm (when it's already pretty dark) and the last group knocking at around 8.30 - which was fine by me. Having disconnected my doorbell a couple of months ago I no longer get startled every time someone shows up and I have to admit it's one of the best decisions I've made. In retrospect I should have done it years ago but I guess, like many people, I always felt like you should answer the door, just like you should answer the phone, but while I still keep an eye out for someone at the door, I unplugged the house phone about a year ago and have no regrets about that either (fewer marketing calls)!

For some reason the other day my internet went down for a few hours so I ended up picking up another book in the series Down to Earth and thoroughly enjoyed it. I believe it was made into a television series some time ago which didn't do very well, but I actually like her books and the no-nonsense way she wrote. The series is about a couple who gave up their florist shop in London for a series of entrepreneurial ventures, mainly in Devon, with this one being about how they set up a kids's holiday retreat in the '70s. I think this was set in 1976 because it was during the scorching summer where water restrictions were imposed. I actually remember a tap being set up in the street when I was young as it hadn't rained for ages! Yeah, that actually happened in England! Seems like here in France if it hasn't rained for three days they start talking about water restrictions! Anyhoo, it made me laugh at the lack of "health and safety" concerns  because while the kids were well supervised it was in the days of "just stick your kid on the train to London and trust them to get off at the right station". The kids were also washing in the river because of the water shortages but I remember doing that on our school's very basic camping trip to Cornwall when I was 10 or 11 and nobody died, even if most of us went back home with our still untouched clean clothes in our bags! So if you like simple and old fashioned, I would recommend her books!

Queuing for water, 1976!

Talking of books, I finally finished the other book I mentioned in my last post - you know, the one written by the poet about her marriage break-up and while she did indeed write beautifully, I couldn't wait for her to get out of first gear so I won't be picking up any more of her books. Seems she had written another book about her divorce but, err, no thanks!

I had a funny incident the other Thursday when I walked down to my pilates class and decided to catch the old bone-shaker bus back home. I bought a ticket on my phone app but when I went to scan it on the QR code on the side of bus there wasn't one. The driver told me that it was a new fleet of bone-shakers and they hadn't gotten round to installing the QR codes so my trip would be free (it only cost €1.50 so it wasn't exactly going to ruin the company but I appreciated the relaxed attitude)! We got chatting about his holiday on the way back up to the village and when we got to my stop at the one and only restaurant he asked me where I lived, so I told him - and he drove me all the way home! When I hopped out right outside my front door my neighbour just looked at me in amazement saying "first the mean old farmer brings you home in his big ol' jeep (this was years ago) and now the bus driver changes his route to drop you off too"! What can I say, I like to chat!

Talking of my neighbour, last Thursday I drove her to the hospital for an appointment with her anaesthesiologist (again, sp?) and sat outside the reception to read my book while she went in. You know, now I can understand why hospitals have those painted lines on the floor ("follow the yellow line for obstetrics, the red line for radiology" etc.) because everyone that came by asked me what they should do. I mean, it said on the door "wait until 10 minutes before your appointment and then enter without knocking". Thankfully it was fairly quiet but having to answer people all day long would definitely make me murderous! Mind you, one guy that asked me had the most horrendous set of stitches running all the way down his nose and one eye twice the size of the other (so I was polite to him, imagining his injuries stemmed from a nasty street fight - but who knows)! After that I dragged her to the fabric store as I needed something for sewing club, and since it was still early we stopped off in town at the weekly market where we bumped into two other sets of neighbours and then went for a coffee. I reckon that was the longest she'd been outside the house in years! I was a bit surprised, though, when she asked if I'd mind going to her favourite butcher's shop and when I went to start walking she nearly fainted, saying there was no way she could walk that far uphill. In all honesty it would probably only have been a 15 minute walk but uphill, and I hadn't realized that she could no longer do that! Kinda shocked me, to be honest, but I drove her up there anyway and all in all we had a pretty nice morning (except for Scar)!

Other than that, there's not much been going on. One of the FB hiking groups made me laugh because someone posted that he'd hiked up to the Lac de Tardevant and had forgotten his trousers up there (his waterproofs, I doubt he came down in his underpants) and if anyone was going that way could they look out for them on the off chance. Well blow me but one guy said he was going up there that very morning and actually found them! Lucky man, because those kinds of trousers are not cheap!

The farmer put the cows in the field behind my house yesterday and it was so lovely to hear the cowbells close up again. Oh I can usually hear them in the field further up, but this time they were right there and so lovely!

If I figure out how to upload
the video I will!

Since I've been so lazy lately I decided to take myself off to the lake at Passy (a lazy walk but beautiful) as it is still gorgeous out. The place was pretty busy with loads of families having the same idea, but it did me the world of good to get outside in the fresh air, although methinks it's time for something a bit more difficult before the weather turns!

The Mont Blanc in all it's glory!

And finally, today is Remembrance Sunday in the UK (always the closest Sunday to 11 November), so I have been proudly wearing my poppy all week and watched the service at the Royal Albert Hall where, as always, they did everyone proud!

My niece took these pictures
in the village where my
mom used to live!

Lest we forget!

Dad!

Grandad!