This and that!

Life has been a bit of a roller-coaster this past week with horrible news and wonderful news mixed in with all the everyday stuff. About a week ago I was sitting in my living room when I heard emergency services racing by and eventually saw a helicopter heading in the same direction. Turns out there had been a horrific accident in the village of Amancy where sewing club is held. It involved a head on collision between a Mercedes and a small Peugeot which ultimately ended with the 82 year old Peugeot driver being killed and the 29 year old Mercedes driver being injured but not seriously so, apparently. I know it's easy to think that the 82 year old probably should no longer have been driving but about 25 years ago my colleague's son was hit in that exact same spot by a woman driving at speed on the school run, so who knows who was at fault. In a shocking turn of events it turned out that the lady who was killed was the founder of our sewing club about 25 years ago and I knew her from my early days at club until she retired from it around eight years ago. She was still very spritely so it must be awful for her family to lose her in such a horrific way. Then I was on FB about a week ago when I saw a post from the Amancy police asking for information regarding the whereabouts of L, a 73 year old local lady. Since I knew some of the ladies from sewing club would probably know her I forwarded it to the group and indeed several of them knew her very well. She's been missing for about a week now and despite extensive searches she has still not been found. Her groceries were still in her car and her phone was on the table but her handbag was missing - a really strange set of circumstances. I mean, how far could she have gotten on foot and yet even a helicopter and tracker dogs have found no trace of her. She volunteered at a domestic violence centre and one theory that I've seen floated is that someone might have taken against her for her work and decided to "act" on it. It's just a theory at this point but today, over a week since she went missing, they appear to be no closer to finding her. What a distressing time this must be for this family also!

On a much happier note, our small neighbourhood of just 20 houses has welcomed two new grandchildren in the last six weeks, thereby regenerating the community, what with two new sets of neighbours who have young children. It's nice to see the kids playing outside on the island but also reminds me how fast time has flown since it was my kids out there playing in the snow and building igloos!

While out on one of my walks I finally finished listening to the Martha Stewart book and oh boy, what a ride that was. The narrator said that if you thought you couldn't find anyone crazier than Ethel Kennedy you would be seriously misguided and man oh man was she right. I know Martha doesn't give off a friendly vibe anyway but to hear just how unhinged she allegedly is/was was something else. It was a very good "read" and I highly recommend it! I also got to watch season four of Clarkson's Farm and again, I loved it. While Jeremy doesn't depend on the farm for his income as he is independently wealthy, he does go some way to giving an insight into just how treacherous farming can be, particularly for those whose livelihoods really do depend on it!

I looked after Charlie again on Wednesday afternoon and since there was a horrible storm that day, looking after a bundle of energy like him was "challenging" to say the least. Jordan had been working on a large construction site and when he saw that they were throwing away hinged wooden "rectangles" he asked his boss if he could take one as he knew instantly that I could easily make it into a raised bed. The boss told him to take the whole lot (though thankfully he only took one) and I now have it sitting at the top of my garden full of onions, garlic, shallots and a few cabbages. I think I'll have to put some netting over it though as I'm pretty sure the local wildlife will be enjoying a few "salads" if I don't!

Sunday was our annual village fête and I initially thought I wouldn't go as I was feeling the heat quite badly, but in the end I strolled up there and ended up spending about five hours chatting with so many local people as it seems everyone and his uncle stops by at least for a few hours. I recognized an older gent from when I take stuff down to the Red Cross food bank and we always used to have a laugh together as he could never figure out how to get my collapsible grocery crate to fold back up! So I stopped by to say hallo to him and ended up getting caught up with him and his partner for about 15 minutes, telling me all that is wrong with the world (and French politics in particular - can't say I disagree with him on that) and by the time I wandered back to my own table I knew exactly how much his pension was and what they did to make ends meet. One of the young men at my table laughed and said "so I see you've met Régis then" as apparently he has a reputation for being a chatterbox!

Monday was a holiday here in France (Pentecost) but not in Switzerland so Jen asked if I would like to go with them to the Swiss Vapor Park, just across the border in Switzerland at the Montreux end of Lake Geneva so of course I said yes. It was quite a small park but there were loads of rides available on miniature steam trains that took you through different parts of a miniature Switzerland. They'd built a castle, a church, various beer halls and shops, all big enough that you could go into but still miniature. Charlie had an absolute blast as we all had to "howl like wolves" when we went through the tunnels. I had only expected to stay for a couple of hours but we stayed until they closed at 6 pm so I ended up getting a rather fetching sunburn from sitting on the trains in the bright sunshine. My own fault, of course, and there were even free stands available for people to put sunscreen on but as I hadn't "felt the burn" just yet, I didn't bother. Lesson learned though!

Instead of taking the motorway we went the
back way through a very pretty valley - but
of course it had its disadvantages!

The castle is only about 30 feet tall!

Inside the mini church!

The next day, since I obviously wasn't tired/burned enough, I'd booked a place on another old fogies trip to visit the city of Grenoble, which is about two hours away. I travelled with Véronique from my yoga class but it's amazing when you start talking to people on the bus and find out how many people you might already know anyway. The advantage of village life, I guess. When we arrived we had a short walk up to what they call "the eggs" (cable cars) to take us to the top of a smallish mountain where there was a museum visit planned, to be followed by lunch in the panoramic restaurant.

A google image - I couldn't get a very
good shot from inside the cablecar!

Our first visit was to the museum of the Chasseurs Alpins (the alpine hunters) which were set up in 1888 apparently as a fighting force of young men who knew the mountains inside out and who, presumably, were good skiers. I think if you were from this region, when you went into the military you were automatically put in the chasseurs alpins on the assumption that you could ski. Well apparently not so in all cases because I do remember skiing one day and seeing a large group of young men on 50 foot long skis weaving slowly down the mountain in the snowplough position (a basic technique to learn how to stop) and felt so sorry for the poor sods who had probably never been on skis in their lives up to this point!

A chasseur alpin!

The museum!

A very good lunch in the panoramic restaurant!

I had to zoom in to get this shot. This is the Prefecture
of Grenoble where I had to go for my naturalisation interview!

After lunch it was back down on the cable car and into the older part of town where we visited another museum dedicated to clergy and noblemen who had had links with Grenoble over the centuries. I couldn't take any pictures inside the museum but some of the artefacts were just fascinating (well, to me at least). Oh there were quite a lot of paintings (which doesn't interest me so much) but also weapons and armour dating back hundreds of years, ladies' jewellery, fine items from the homes of rich men and, what I loved the most, a few beautifully written books dating back to the 1300s! Far from being boring, it was well worth the visit. After that Véronique and I went off to explore parts of the old town for the remainder of the afternoon and ended up having a drink on the river bank. We got back around 7 pm so all in all it wasn't too bad, although I was glad not to have to get up at 5 am this morning, I must say!

And finally, when I lived in Pittsburgh I became friends with J, who was from Pittsburgh, She married, divorced and remarried and she and her new husband moved to Florida - where we ended up buying a house about 20 minutes down the road from her. What a small world. We eventually sold that house but we've remained in touch to this day and she's even threatening to come out for a visit once she and her husband get over their various health issues (thank goodness I finally got my bathrooms finished)! Anyway, she found this picture of us both in her swimming pool so sent it on to me. It must be about 25 years old at this point and my how I've changed - but I don't think she has that much! Oh to be young and frivolous again!

J on the left and me on the right!

Coming back up for air - finally!

It finally feels like I'm getting my life back somewhat. The plumber has finished and he did an excellent job, but of course however much they clean up after themselves the whole place really needs a good scrub because everywhere is so dusty. So the other day I decided to put all that on the back burner and head off to the gym I've just signed up to - and believe it or not I had the place all to myself! I guess people complained about their limited opening hours so now it opens up between 6 am and I believe 11 pm, with access being granted via a QR code. To be honest it felt a bit spooky walking up the stairs to the weight room alone but eventually a couple of men came in and were nice and smiley. I obviously didn't work out that hard though because I really never felt much afterwards, but I think I have found a machine I really like for the ol' bingo wings!

Saturday 25th May was Mother's Day in France so I offered to cook the main course and take it all over to Jordan and Jen's place (it's much easier on the kids) and we had a really nice time. Jen bought the bread and cheese for after the main course and Jen's mom the dessert so all in all it wasn't too much work for anyone!

Wanting to keep up the momentum, after yoga on Monday I took myself off to a lake called the lac de Montriond which you pass on the way up to the goat village of les Lindarets. I've often thought I should stop off there for a walk and while it's very pretty indeed, it's quite small and only took about an hour to get round. What I hadn't reckoned on though was there is a waterfall just up the mountain called the Cascade d'Ardent and if I had been better prepared I would have gone up there to take a shufty, but as it was already getting quite late by that time, I guess that'll have to wait for the next time!

Lac de Montriond

My plumber mentioned to me that the apparent "leak" I have in my garage is most likely caused by the 1,000 miles of hosepipe I have near the garage door, so since I actually use a much shorter hosepipe on a mobile "trolley" I decided the best way to get rid of it was to use my mini chainsaw and cut that bugger into never-ending lengths of about 12 feet! That way I could get it into my car and off to the tip, so that's another job sorted!

There has been dreadful news coming out of the Valais (another canton/state in Switzerland) where the village of Blatten (to the east of Geneva) recently realized that they were in for a landslide. Fortunately they evacuated all of the residents and got their animals down from the mountains, but sadly not only was there a landslide but it also brought down a glacier, completely destroying the village and causing the river to back up and flood further down the valley. It's heartbreaking to watch but it seems that the Swiss (as ever) are doing a wonderful job in a horrible situation!

A photo take from google but I can't remember where
to attribute it!

President Macron and his wife have been on a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia and were caught out by the press when the pilot opened the door of his plane and caught Brigitte shoving him with both hands in the face! I know some people are having a great time making fun of them both for this but I don't think it's funny. While most domestic violence is endured by women, men are also on the receiving end, so to my mind it's not a laughing matter. In my experience it starts with the pushing and shoving - and then graduates to much much worse. I don't know what goes on in their marriage of course but it strikes me that even though they were caught off guard by the plane door being opened right at that moment, if she was willing to do that in front of the flight crew isn't that just as bad?

Anyway, I'm going to try to get this place cleaned up little by little because thinking about tackling it in one go is just overwhelming at the moment. My new toilet/bathroom is lovely - needs a bit of colour to spice it up, but that's easily done and I'm thrilled to finally have it completed!

The old bathroom was embarassingly bad!

This was where the shower used to be!

And finally, when I flew home to Wales in January 2019 to be with my brother while he was dying, his partner and I actually got him signed up for an insurance plan which basically took over all the arrangements for his funeral, thus sparing his children having to deal with that on top of his sudden death. While I was there I got a phone call from my bank in France offering me the same kind of plan - you know, just call one number and we take it from here. Anyway, last week I got an email from my bank asking what I thought of the plan! Huh???? How do you answer that - I'm not dead yet - or am I missing something?

Time off for good behaviour?

I had arranged with my plumber for him not to come on Wednesday as I would be looking after Charlie. He is quite happy to accommodate my requests because, as he says, he has loads of smaller jobs that he can be getting on with in the meantime. On Monday and Tuesday he brought his dad along with him (a retired plumber and tiler) and between the two of them they've really ploughed ahead on getting the tiling done in order to get this bathroom finished. Unfortunately he told me he wouldn't be able to make it for the rest of the week as there had been a family death in Brittany so he had to fly up there for the funeral. I didn't mind at all because it's nice to get a few days' respite from constantly having someone in your home anyway, so we're looking at him starting back up next week and then hopefully getting it done before the end of the week - fingers crossed!

Last Friday was my day trip to the petit train de la Mûre and to be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. I'd expected a very steep train ride but I don't know if that was at another part of the mines because our train ride was almost flat! We did travel over three Roman viaducts and the scenery was very pretty and somewhat different from round here, so that was a positive. First stop was lunch at a local restaurant on the way up to the coal mine which was very efficiently done (for a coachload of almost 60 people) and the view was spectacular. There were a few much older people using walking sticks and for one lady in particular I think it was a big mistake for her to come on the trip. As we were leaving the restaurant she gestured to me that she wanted "a chair" so I ran over and got one for her, but then she yelled that she wanted a wheelchair - and of course there wasn't one! The walk back to the train was probably only about 100 metres and pretty much flat, but to be honest, even with help, I don't know how she managed it. I'm not sure if she was "all there" as some of the others were saying that she wasn't making a lot of sense when she was talking but I never spoke to her directly after that. At one point she was sitting at the other end of the carriage from me when I took out my water bottle and had a drink. That was when she started gesticulating wildly and looking at me but I had no idea what she was saying as I couldn't hear her anyway - she was too far away. Found out later she wanted a drink but how was I to know! When we got to the mine someone ran to the shop and bought her a bottle of water but honestly, as I say, I think it was a big mistake on her part to even attempt such a trip as she was obviously in way over her head!

The view from the restaurant!

The visit to the now-defunct coal mine was interesting enough - but that was about it. The mines ran for 60 km under the local area and I couldn't even begin to imagine spending my whole life underground like so many of those men did. That being said, we watched a short film where they interviewed miners who had spent their entire lives working there and all but one of them said they were very happy and would "probably do it all again if they had their time over"! I suppose, in the end, it was a source of employment for the local area and helped to create a very, very close-knit community - well that is, until the last mine was shut down in the 1990s!

As we were making our way back home through the local villages, many of them had their signposts turned upside down - a sign of support for local farmers fighting to retain their livelihoods in the face of such trade deals as the one recently signed with Mercosur! I don't hold out much hope to be honest because until we accept to pay fair prices for local goods I suspect many of them will go out of business - but in the current economic times can anyone really afford or be willing to do that?

Véronique from my yoga class told me about this group and when we got chatting on the bus trip back, she asked me if I was interested in a day trip to Grenoble in June as they were looking to make up numbers for the bus. I thought why not, so now that's a third group that I've signed up with and am actually looking forward to maybe discovering more of the local-ish areas through them!

Then on Saturday we had our old fogies lunch, which is arranged between my village and the next one over. The Maire of our village is a miserable sod, but the Maire of the other one is the total opposite and (apparently) very good at his job - plus he's a good sport. The food, yet again, was wonderful (they obviously used the same caterer as last year) and I got to meet up with my Nigerian friend, Stan, and his wife for the first time in ages. Stan has been very ill for quite some time and told me he went through a depression, hence you'd never see him out and about. I think/hope the reception he got from everyone at the lunch might be enough to help get him back to his old self. He used to deliver the local newspaper so knows pretty much everyone, and people weren't shy welcoming him back and coming over to give him a hug! His kids were friends with my kids and his wife started showing me pictures of their four grandkids. Of course being mixed race the children all had this beautiful coffee coloured skin - all, that is, except the one little girl who has blue eyes and blond hair! Seeing her sitting next to her little sister made such a lovely picture as both little girls are just stunning!

The appéritif!

The Maire of the next village
being "stitched up" by a local magician!

Somebody at the lunch mentioned that Gérard C had died suddenly the other week. I knew him, even if only superficially, but after his death it came out that he'd spent years working quietly on behalf of Human Rights Watch and had done a lot for people in precarious situations! So for some reason that sent me down a rabbit hole, thinking about how all the wonderful deeds George Michael had done came out after his death. He had his demons and his foibles but behind the scenes he was very generous indeed. One couple had had several attempts at IVF but couldn't afford any more treatments until George stepped in and funded it anonymously. It was only when they actually got pregnant that they found out who their benefactor was and this only came out publicly after his death!

While the plumber has been here I've been trying to keep out of his way by sorting stuff and taking it to the tip. I've been lugging boxes of old tiles up from the basement and taking boxes of my new, spare tiles back down there to store, since there will probably be enough left over for someone to do a complete bathroom if they want them. I also pulled out a load of cleaning products from under the stairs and have so far found four vacuum cleaner extension pipes that I must have kept from previous vacuums. You know, the extension pipes you attach to the vacuum if you can't quite reach somewhere - well I reckon I could probably vacuum one of my neighbour's houses with all those bloody extensions, so off to the tip they will be going too!

As I said above, I can't wait for all this to be over because I'm tired of being "on" all the time. Just how tired I really am was brought home to me the other night as I was getting ready for sewing club. I jumped out of the shower and went to brush my teeth - and then realized I'd squirted foundation onto my toothbrush!!! I suppose on a positive note, I hadn't smeared toothpaste all over my face though, right? Anyhoo, I'd better get off here now because - get this - I'm actually going to hit the gym I just signed up to. It'll be the first time since covid so if you don't hear from me for a while, I'll probably be trying to get my seized up legs back down the stairs and out of the gym! Not a pretty sight, I imagine, but we'll see how it goes!

Nailed it!

I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with all the work being done around the house - or at least I hope it's a light and not a train coming the other way! After about a week of fairly consistent rain it's finally brightened up so maybe that's helping to cheer me up too. Anyway, I'll take it. I love May (and September) as to my mind they are the nicest months round here - sunny and warm, but not too warm and it's when I feel at my best!

On the "bad news" side, my favourite neighbour has put her house up for sale. I honestly didn't think she'd do it but I know she has always said she wants to move back to the west coast where she is from. Given that both her kids and all her grandkids are here I was still somewhat surprised that she's going ahead with it though. On the down side, while houses round here usually sell pretty quickly, she still has the problem of the flooding in the basement, which my previous tiler said meant he wouldn't touch it with a barge pole for that reason. Then, if/when she sells, her parents' house on the west coast needs a lot of remodelling work since it has been uninhabited for about two years now. I asked why she didn't just sell it "as is" and buy herself a small place in the same area, but she told me that if I saw the location I would realize why she wants to hang on to it - perfect for public transport, shops etc. and it's proximity to the ocean! I guess I'll find out for myself if/when she actually moves as I'm invited, but I know for sure I wouldn't want all that hassle at this stage in my life (she's 73)! But, if that's what she wants, then good luck to her, even though I'll miss her!

In more bad news I was chatting to my other neighbour in the garden yesterday and she told me that her husband had found their cat dead in the middle of the road - obviously hit by a car - and they were devastated! I'm not a cat person but this formerly feral cat was so beautiful and adorable, so yeah, maybe I am a cat person after all, even if I don't want one. Added to that, their little dog is on her way out also, and while she has always been a scared little thing, I think after goodness knows how many years she was finally getting to trust me! I know pets bring great joy and I really wanted a dog when I retired, but I'm past that now - too many constraints for my way of life and I don't need the heartache either!

Tomorrow I have to leave home at 6 am to join up with the group for our outing on le petit train de la Mûre and I'm quite looking forward to it as I hear it's lovely. My plumber was telling me that the train ride is steep and wouldn't be for him, but I guess we'll see what happens when we get there! Today when I came back from the recycling centre I clicked on my car's key fob to lock the doors and nothing happened. So I tried the spare key and got the same result, even though I could start the car with both keys and knew the batteries were good as I had changed both of them recently. Damn, I didn't feel like leaving my car unlocked in a public parking place all day tomorrow when I'm on my trip, and then what would happen if it wouldn't start again when I get back? We'll be parked on the market square but as market day is Saturday in St. Pierre it normally shouldn't be a problem - that is unless it gets stranded there overnight - then they'll tow it! So starting to panic a bit I had a lightbulb moment and armed with a can of WD40 and a couple of screwdrivers I attacked the locking mechanism - and whaddayaknow, it worked. I can now unlock and lock my car door, but I'm taking the aforementioned WD40 and screwdrivers with me "just in case"! Then on the Saturday we have our "old fogies" lunch at the village hall in St. Laurent. Initially I thought I wouldn't go but decided not to be a stick-in-the mud and am going to tag along with Mr. and Mrs. Gossip for a few hours to show willing!

My plumber came on Monday and Tuesday but couldn't make it on Wednesday as he had an emergency. Not a problem for me as it was nice to take a break so I drove off down to a place called Cluses as there were a couple of things I wanted to buy for my garden and new bathroom, and then on the way back I missed my exit on the motorway so decided to take myself off for lunch at Bonneville. I don't very often go out for lunch but I have to say occasionally it is a nice treat to sit in the sunshine having a glass of wine with someone else doing the cooking and washing up!

On Tuesday I asked my plumber to take a look at a dripping pipe in my basement which, in my opinion, was becoming more than the occasional drip. As I knew he would be reinstalling my bathroom radiator and would have the right equipment to fix the pipe I asked to add that to his "list of jobs". It took all of five minutes and now I don't have to lug buckets of water up from the basement every couple of days! When we went down there to take a look I told him that it seemed to have eased up all of a sudden, and he laughed and said that was because he'd turned the water off to reinstall my toilet. I guess we all have our skills then and plumbing is obviously not one of mine! Mind you, I remember how we all laughed at mom after my sister's wedding in 1979 because she told sis to "buy a TV here in England (they were moving to Denmark) so you can still get English television"! So I guess my mom's having a good laugh at me now from somewhere up in heaven!

When the plumber showed up this morning he told me I was lucky to see him today as yesterday night their little boy had gone into a form of anaphalactic shock after eating a peanut!!! Their oldest (four) is allergic to nuts but they had him on a controlled desensitization treatment whereby he was given one peanut a day - basically in order for him to be able to live a more normal childhood. I get that, because what little boy wants to have his mom make him special lunches every day and probably never be able to go to birthday parties "just in case"? It turns out that it was their two year old that had had the reaction, though, after getting hold of one peanut - and they hadn't even known he was also allergic. When they called the emergency services they told him that as they already had cortisone at home (for the oldest) to administer that and stay on the phone with them. Luckily he very quickly recovered but bloody hell - what a fright! I remember when André was about 18 months old and I was on my own with him when his eyes rolled back in his head and he seemed to be having trouble breathing. I don't know why I did it but I turned the shower on full throttle and stood in the steam with him for about 15 minutes and by the end of that time he was already better - but again, how scary it can be!

Anyway I told my plumber today that I was going to go out shopping but that if he had an emergency to just run and leave the door open (turns out the little boy was well enough to go back to daycare though, so disaster avoided). I only intended to go the farmer's market for fruit and veggies as I didn't really need anything else but, of course, I decided to stop in at the grocery store as I wanted to buy a nice bottle of wine for Jordan's birthday. While I was in there I went through the toy section and of course there, in full view, were the Paw Patrol figures so I thought "to hell with it" and bought two stuffed Paw Patrol characters as PP is all the rage over here at the moment. I ended up spending a bloody fortune on things I didn't really need right now, but in the end who cares! When I handed them to the plumber he looked stunned and asked how I knew that was what his kids raved about. I just laughed and told him I have a four year old grandson and that I hoped his boys enjoyed them! So yeah, I think we can say I nailed it on that one!

This and that!

As always (or so it seems to me) it's been a while between posts yet again but as there's nothing particularly scintilating going on and the plumber has now started work I'm just so tired. I realized how difficult it was having the electrician in my house for almost six weeks and now there'll be another two or so with the plumber. He's very nice and seems to be doing a good job, but man will I be glad when it's all done. Of course there are a million other things round here that could do with being updated/replaced but (a) I don't think my bank account can take it for the time being and (b) I know my nerves certainly can't!

He found a large nest of "mason
ants" when he ripped out the cladding!!!!

The old shower - can't wait for the new units
to be put in and retiled!

I can't believe we're almost half way through May already - I mean, where has the year gone??? May 1st and May 8th are generally public holidays in France and I remember when I was still working (in Switzerland, so no holiday) my then boss used to bring all the ladies in our unit lily of the valley, which is traditional here. He was a "bit of a lothario" to say the least but he was nice to me, and when he died the death announcement was posted from "A - his partner and M his wife"! Still, I suppose they had their reasons, the main one, I would imagine being that M would remain his beneficiary after his death and A had her own pension!

The other day there was a knock at my door and two young men asking for donations to "Action Against Hunger". I told them I already donated to the local food bank so sorry, but then a couple of days later on a local FB page I saw that they had also been knocking on doors in the local town so someone had called up Action Against Hunger and they were told that they were not collecting in our area! Damn they'll try anything to find out if homes are occupied won't they!

The other week we had our latest board game evening over at Jordan and Jen's and it was so lovely to see Valérie (my previous neighbour) and her daughter there for once. They have a lovely relationship and Mary-Anne is such a hoot - a real tearaway. She and André were great friends growing up and are still very close so when he was asking her about all her tattoos, she told him she'd had six sessions of four hours over an 18 month period at a cost of €3,000! Now that's not how I'd want to be spending my money but they do look very nice and each to his (her?) own, as they say!

After being thwarted the other day, I trudged back down to the local gym to enrol and bugger me if they weren't closed again. Well actually they were open but the office staff were on a lunch break so no QR code, no entry! I finally made it on the third attempt and rightly or wrongly (probably wrongly) I've signed up for a year's contract. And now of course the plumber is here so I won't be going for the next couple of weeks at least! So to make up for it, I started following a few yoga lessons on the "Yoga with Adrienne" Youtube channel and I discovered I had muscles in places I never even knew I had places!!!

I finally got an official contract from EDF for my solar panels asking me to compete the online set up for my contract. When I got on the site my email and my telephone number were still wrong so it would seem that the left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing! I got that corrected and hopefully I can now start generating electricity to sell back to them but man what a palaver it's all been. Then, as luck would have it, I got an email from my telephone carrier asking for my opinion on their new fibre service - so I told them. Ha, that was fun for once!

At the end of April they held the London marathon and while I obviously didn't watch all of it, I got a real kick out of seeing the great sportsmanship and good nature of the competitors. To be honest I couldn't tell you who won (but well done to them in any case of course) but the ones that got me were the people helping those who couldn't take any more over the finishing line, or the little boy running in calipers, or the person running in a rhino suit in aid of the Save the Rhino Fund! Brilliant!

And then of course there were the VE Day celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe - those celebrations always get me too, particularly as so many of the veterans probably won't be around much longer to be celebrated!

And finally, I see that Clarkson's Farm's next series should be out soon and I can't wait! I don't know, maybe May wasn't so bad after all!

Thwarted!

My sister called me on Easter Sunday as she had heard about the terrible snow storms we'd been getting here and wanted to make sure I was all right, what with avalanche warnings being at level five! I told her I was more than all right as it was fine here but apparently in the mountains they had as much as 50 cm of snow (about 20 inches, I'm guessing) in one go and roads were blocked everywhere!

The road to Chamonix/Mont Blanc -
it was very much worse actually in
the mountains, but I just snapped
this off the local news!

Since it genuinely was nice here on Good Friday I considered driving down to the lake at Passy for a walk but then realized that Passy being on the way to Chamonix, traffic would probably be heaving - and heaving it was! Traditionally the Swiss get Good Friday off but the French don't, so then everyone in Switzerland decides to either go to Annecy for the day "because the French will be at work" - and Annecy gets clogged up with Swiss licence plates or everyone decides to take a long weekend in Italy - and they all get stuck getting up to the Mont Blanc tunnel, so I was soooo glad I decided against heading to Passy that day!

My sister's daughter and her family took off for a week in Marrakech and have been posting the most beautiful photos! My very first trip totally on my own after my husband left was to Marrakech but to be honest the hotel I'd been recommended was too far out of the city and apart from the walled old town and the sukh, I didn't get to see much as it meant taking a taxi every time. I would like to go back and "do it properly" though as my niece's photos were beautiful! In another piece of good news, my niece's 16 year old daughter has just been accepted for a job in a travel agent's, to start in July on a fairly decent salary for a 16 year old and I'm delighted. After two years, if they're happy with her (I'm sure they will be) she will be making more than decent money and travelling all over the world! Good for her, do it while you can, I say!

I asked my sister a bit more about the old man (seemingly with dementia) who they had recently taken in and she said it turned out he was actually 80, although he didn't look it, and was obviously quite well educated and very well spoken and what a shame it was to see such a classy man not even knowing his own name! Apparently his wife had sewn air tags into his coat but as that particular day had been warm, he'd wandered off in just a t-shirt and jeans, so now she has to think of another way to keep track of him since he won't wear one of those emergency necklaces!

I had quite a productive day the other day and finally got round to cleaning out my car and vacuuming it, so it now looks quite good, even if I do say so myself. I'm not one to dump rubbish in the car anyway, but taking frequent trips to the recycling centre or the garden centre it does tend to get a bit dirty at times. After that I came in and knocked Jordan's US taxes out in about an hour, so that's another thing off my to-do list. Since I'm getting more used to the US forms I showed Jordan what I'd done in case he wanted to do them, but he's happy to let me do them (of course). He never owes the US anything because there is a reciprocal tax agreement between the US and France but as he has to file, it's probably just easier if I do them and get them out of the way!

The other day I spotted "raised beds" in my local supermarket so bought five of them and have spent a few hours happily potting up more veggies in my regular garden and the new raised beds. I'm really pleased with them as they can stand on my terrace (easier to water than lugging the watering can up the garden) and if I haven't overshot the mark by planting too early, I'm looking forward to seeing what, if anything, comes of it!

When Chuckles, the leg-swinging telephone fibre guy, was here, he advised me to get a "CPR plug" which would give me a better wifi network throughout the house, so thinking "oh that's easy to remember - a cardio pulmonary resuscitation plug" I ran into town to buy one and they burst out laughing when I asked for a CPR plug. Apparently it's a CPL plug (but Chuckles not being French, he had a funny accent and I misunderstood him). Of course he left me high and dry on what to do with it, but eventually I got on good old Youtube and discovered where I needed to plug it in in order to activate it (no thanks to Chuckles, who never came back, if you remember). In any case, it's crap as I don't think my wifi has improved at all since they installed the fibre and the "CPR plug" seems to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot too! So lessons being learned I figured if I ever decide to get rid of my phone carrier I might lose access to quite a lot of information, so I've been slowly copying all my contacts' information into a Word document "just in case"!

Everyone came to my place for Easter lunch, which was nice. I made Delia Smith's "spicy salmon with black bean salsa" (which went down a treat) with seven-layer salad and baked potatoes, while Jen brought the appéritif and her mom the dessert. We were all stuffed at the end of it but Charlie made us laugh when he told us Maîtresse Marianne (his teacher) was very strict that when they're eating they "have to keep their mouths closed with a zipper because nobody wants to see what you're eating"! Quite right too Maîtresse, quite right too!

After Netflix virtually doubled their prices a few months back I cancelled my subscription, until about a month ago as I wanted to watch a couple of programmes. Then just the other day I got another email from them to say that they were putting their prices up by another €2 per month as from May, so I'm thinking I will probably just cancel them again. With the exception of The Sopranos and The Serpent I can't think of anything I've really enjoyed as I find all their productions to be very "formulaic". Nothing seems to hold my interest - or then maybe I'm just too difficult to please!

So more and more I tend to be going down the Youtube rabbit hole and just the other day I discovered a relatively new channel called Rewilding Jude. Jude is a young man in his thirties who lost both his parents to cancer in a relatively short space of time and in order not to "go under" he decided to sell up in the south of England and bought a fairly remote place in Scotland which he is single-handedly trying to turn into a small-holding! You can tell immediately that he is a very sweet young man, and to prove it wasn't just me that felt that way, he seems to get all these elderly American grandmas in the comments wanting to adopt him, he really is that sweet!

Another channel I've followed is Early Retirement Wanderlust about a couple of teachers who have taken early retirement (too early to get their UK pensions) and who downsized in order to spend as much time as possible travelling either at home or abroad. I think the husband lost his brother at a very young age so that is what pushed him, in particular, to want to do this. I think what I really admire (or probably envy) about this couple is how in tune to each other they are. They both have the same dreams and seem to be totally on board with how to achieve them. I really enjoy their videos and can only say "good for you", and how lucky you are!

And finally, I decided that given that I'm not able to make it to pilates half the time, I was going to re-enrol in the gym I used to go to (occasionally) pre-covid to use the weights, so I trotted off down there today with all the relevant paperwork and bugger me, when I got there, the office is only open Monday through Thursday and today being Friday it wasn't possible to get in without a member's QR code! Do you think "someone" was trying to send me a message not to be so silly or will I end up going back on Monday to do the necessary? I'm pretty certain I'll end up going back on Monday as I'm so sick of these (relatively mild) bingo wings of mine (but bingo wings nonetheless) and really want to do something about them. Watch this space! We'll see what Monday brings!

On being an old fogy!

The weathermen have been predicting France would be hit by Storm Olivier this week so I'd been making lists of all the things I would get done during the bad weather. Well guess what, if it hit at all it's totally bypassed this region! Right now we've got a very gentle rain which is actually quite soothing and I believe it's snowing in the mountains, but other than that - nothing/nada! Oh well, I guess they get things wrong sometimes too then!

With the aim of getting one pain-in-the-butt thing crossed off every day I called up my telephone carrier and explained the situation about how my landline hadn't worked since Chuckles came by and installed the fibre. I told the young man how Chuckles couldn't get the telephone cable on the first floor free of the plaster so he just cut it and left me without the possibility of hooking up my landline. He had me turn on my camera so that he could see what was what and his conclusion was that the only place I could now actually hook up my landline was - wait for it - in my unfinished basement!!!! Can you imagine trying to run downstairs and climb over the wood pile in order to answer the phone!!!! No, me neither, so I asked them to just cancel my landline but it turns out that's not possible as it's mandatory in order to have my wifi box with them!!! Again, say what? In the end I just thought "sod it", hooked up the landline in the basement and actually now take great pleasure seeing all the missed telemarketing calls on it when I go downstairs to get something out of the freezer! Since I usually had my landline unplugged anyway because the telemarketers got on my nerves, I suppose in the end it wasn't such a big deal, but at least that's one thing crossed off the pain-in-the-butt list!

And that's when the tax people sent an email for me to get my paperwork together in order for them to prepare my French tax declaration!! Damn, my pain-in-the-butt list just got longer again! In reality I coud probably do it myself but since my pension is paid into my Swiss bank, I live in France and obviously have a French bank account and I've been receiving a small pension in my UK account since last September, I thought it better to just let them deal with it. I know quite a few people who haven't declared their UK pensions but to my mind the fine I would get for not declaring such a small pension just isn't worth it, so declare it I have!

After getting my paperwork sent off I decided to take a drive down to the lake at Passy in order to clear my head and was delighted to see that the little lakeside restaurant/bar is now open again for the season, so I'll probably be stopping off there for lunch on occasion, next time I get my knickers in a twist and need a break. While I was on my walk I finished listening to the last chapter of Traitor King and it turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. I'm currently back to listsening to The Mountbattens and Just Desserts (the Martha Stewart story) and while I'm enjoying them all, one thing that struck me in all three books is what a bunch of ball-breakers the women in these stories were - Wallis Simpson, Edwina Mountbatten and Martha Stewart. It's incredible! Wallis and Edward seemed to have had some kind of sado-masochism thing going on, Edwina Mountbatten appeared to have forgotten that she had a husband and two children and would basically screw anything that wasn't nailed down and Martha - while she is/was obviously an incredibly talented and driven woman, it seems she wouldn't hesitate to lie and step on anyone who got in her way on the way to the top - including her poor husband! While I wouldn't want to live in a world of jack-boot stomping men either, it did strike me what a sad world these women lived in where they thought it was okay to treat those they were supposed to love in such an appalling way!

I also signed back up to Netflix in order to watch the series Adolescence which everyone seemed to be raving about, and while the young actor who played 13 year old Jamie was indeed brilliant, what a depressing series that was!

At sewing the other day one of the ladies asked me if I would like a brand new pair of jeans that she'd been given and that might fit me. They had never been worn and fit me a treat except that the person who bought them must have been 6' 5" while I'm only 5' 4", so there's either a good 10 inches to be taken off the bottom or, as one of the ladies suggested, I could wear "ABBA boots", although I'd probably end up looking more like a drag queen!

ABBA!

Another of the ladies was telling us that her daughter has finally just landed her dream job as a designer at Hermès fashion house beating very, very stiff competition. I'm so pleased for her as she is very talented, but then the whole family seem to have a very creative bent - would that I should be so lucky! Then Bernadette was telling us that she pulled into a petrol station the other day just in time to see the man in front of her drive off leaving his wallet on the roof of his car. She picked it up and tried to chase him, flashing her lights and honking her horn, to the point that he eventually pulled over and came storming over to her cussing and swearing - until she held up his wallet and asked how far he thought he'd get without it. He was mortified, of course, and invited her to pull off at the next exit and bought her a drink to thank her!

Over the weekend I'd finally had enough of my sticky-out hair so took my sewing scissors to it and hacked as much off as I could. When I went to yoga Monday morning it looked dreadful of course so I had to try to think where I would find a hairdresser's open (there aren't many open on Mondays) and dashed off there for them to try to do a bit of damage control! You can still see my handiwork in parts but I think she did a really good job of saving my bacon. As I went to pay I noticed a giant bin where they were "recycling hair clippings" and when I asked what it was for she told me that it was being used in an ocean experiment "to trap certain types of pollution" (not sure what it was about really), so I'm glad I was able to do my bit!!!

At yoga we worked on something called the dragon pose and while it didn't do much for me she asked what movie it brought to mind. Everyone else said The Matrix but I blurted out The Karate Kid so I think my age was showing just a little!

Can you believe the first
Karate Kid movie is 40 years old?

Talking of old fogies, the new oldies club I signed up for recently (I reckon I'm the youngest by about 15 years) sent out a flyer for a day outing on the Train de la Mure which is about four hours from here. I'd heard of this scenic train already so thought what the hell, and I signed up for it!

Train de la Mure!

Then today I got in invitation to the over-65s lunch to be held in May between the two villages of St. Laurent and St. Sixt again, so I'm signed up for that too! Who knew us oldies could have so much fun!

And finally Jen asked me if I could look after Charlie on Tuesday afternoon as his teacher was going to be absent. I wasn't busy so no problem and he and I had a great time. When Jordan and Jen arrived home they told me that my ex had asked for their summer plans so they gave him the dates when they would be away - and wouldn't you know he's booked to arrive three days before they get back!!! Jen was steaming mad as she didn't want to have to change their vacation reservations so I told her to ignore it. He's retired so let him just get on with it. He'll be staying with André in any case so I said not to alter their plans around him! Some people can be quite selfish, expecting others to adapt to them for no better reason than that they think their own plans should take precedence. I loved my oldest brother but he could also be like that and it took me years to learn that "no" is actually a complete sentence, or to maybe just say "good luck with that" and leave him to get on with it! Obviously if there had been a serious reason for making changes, then you go for it, but since Jen's having problems with her grandparents pulling the same kind of stunt, I told her the sooner she learned to say "we'll see you when we get back", the better. So I guess there really are advantages to getting older - you get to do all these fun trips - and you don't take cr@p from anyone anymore!

The IKEA Syndrome!

Things chez moi are hopefully starting to plod along slowly! I finally got the paperwork sent off to EDF (the people who will take over my solar panels) and I'm just praying that the one date I filled in is correct. There are so many different dates on the flippin' paperwork from the people who installed them that I'm not sure - fingers crossed the bloody stuff doesn't come back! Then I had a plumber come out (he was recommended by my electrician) and while the quote was a bit of a shock I decided to go with it anyway. I kept Charlie on Wednesday afternoon (they have no school on Wednesdays until they hit junior school) and I mentioned the quote to Jordan but he said if it was for the plumbing work and the tiling, he thought it was about the going rate, so I guess it's gruel and bread for me for a few months going forward! And of course the number that Chuckles the leg swinging telephone fibre guy gave me to call him back, well that doesn't work (why was I surprised)??? I was initially pissed off not having my security cameras hooked up after he left but I managed to get them plugged in to the new box he installed (i.e. hung off my basement fridge) so at least they're back up and running. The only thing that isn't running now is the landline but hell, if I'm paying for it I'm going to call them back as I want it to work (even if I keep it unplugged most of the time)!

I've missed quite a few of my pilates lessons, what with all that's been going on here on Thursdays so when one of the ladies at sewing club told me that she'd signed up for three months to a gym near the recycling centre I went and checked it out. Their prices are very reasonable (and also include pilates classes) but in the end I thought "who am I kidding, I know I won't go June, July and August when it gets hot" so if I do go back I think I'll stick with the gym I occasionally went to before and just pay on a daily basis - given how little willpower I seem to have for going to the gym regularly!

When we went to the Aquarium the other week we drove past where I used to live in Switzerland so I decided to take a drive out for a wander round a lovely garden centre there and have a walk along the lake. It really is a lovely small town but our apartment was hellish expensive even then (back in 1989) and to be honest, you know that John Denver song about Toledo, Ohio and how they "roll back the sidewalks precisely at ten and people who live there are not seen again", well it was just like that, dead as a doornail for the most part. That's when we realized that for what we were paying in rent we could easily afford to buy a house in France so move we did, although I do have fond memories of Rolle, all the same!

The château in Rolle, Canton of Vaud!

I did manage to lug my pressure washer up from the basement and hose down the back terrace. It could probably do with being relaid but given all the expenses I've had lately, it'll have to wait, and for quite some time, I think!

My sister posted an appeal on Facebook two days ago, as a man approximately in his mid-70s had wandered off the seafront path and they found him sitting on their terrace in a bewildered state. He thought his name was Dave and that he was looking for someone called Dawn but that was as much as he could tell them (poor devil). She called it in to the local police station where someone had called in a missing persons report a few hours earlier, but when the police called to pick him up, he was sitting having tea and cake and watching the football with my brother-in-law!!! I wonder if he'll be back!

And finally, on Tuesday I drove my neighbour to the hospital for some more tests and since she didn't know how long she would be I popped into a nearby GIFI shop (a bit like a poor man's IKEA) as I wanted a small stand to put the fibre box on instead of where Chuckles had left it. Trouble is, I not only got the stand but also got a good deal on eight new garden chairs - and that of course is when you realize that your car just might not be big enough to get all these treasures in the trunk!!! Somehow I did it and I didn't have to strap my neighbour to the roof to make it home! I still reckon it was nothing short of a miracle though!

Still wading through treacle - but it's getting a little easier!

Sometimes I'm just so really, really grateful that I'm very organized because I hate to think what people do in situations similar to mine if they aren't. Just about everything that could go wrong in this house does seem to have gone wrong since Christmas and while it's exhausting, at least I'm managing to keep my chaos organized! The other weekend I just thought "sod it" and basically spent the entire weekend on the sofa reading. I don't know why I feel guilty about doing this - I mean, it's not as though I owe anyone an explanation is it - but it did me a world of good to just shut the door on "all that" for a couple of days!

Starting with the best news, Elynn came out of hospital after two nights as they couldn't find anything wrong with her intestines nor any allergy to baby formula. So it seems it was just something that was going around, which was likely confirmed by a friend at sewing club who told me that her young grandchildren had had the same thing too! Phew, that's a relief!

My electrician still has to come back one more time to fix my outdoor motion detector light, but that's only minor and if he lets me know when he's coming I can just leave the side gate open for him. He did thank me for the excellent review I left on the local trades' site because "now he will probably be able to reset people's x-boxes all over Haute Savoie"! Ha, I like his style! He also gave me the name of a young plumber he had worked with so he is coming over tomorrow to give me a quote to hopefully finally get that last bathroom done (fingers crossed on that one)! As for decorating the bedroom where the fire started, I'm thinking I will probably just try painting it myself at some point and if I do a real cock-up job, well then I'll think about getting someone in later to remedy my mistakes!

Before the electrician came over last time I wanted to get a new "thingy" (as I call it - would you call that a socket?) as I needed him to fit it in a downstairs light. So I ran down to the local DIY store and I always seem to end up speaking to an extremely nerdy-looking but helpful young man. As I didn't know what it was called in French I showed him this photo and he told me it was called a douille. I could also hear that he was making fun of my accent (although not unkindly) when he went on to explain to me that he would need more than just the photo, he would need the dimensions. So I said "oh that's easy, I'll need an E27 (thank you my electrician) and the look of shock on his face as he was just about to make fun of my accent again made all my "studying" worthwhile! One-nil to me I'd say at this point!

Is the white thing a "socket"?

And of course the keys I got cut for sewing club the other day don't work but sometimes I think life's just too short to stuff a mushroom, so sod it, we'll make do!

I've mentioned before that I follow a few walking/hiking groups on Facebook and any time I see what looks like a reasonable hike around here I post it to my own FB feed so I know I'll be able to find it again. I'm sure some of my family members are dead impressed by what would appear to be all the hikes I've conquered but I'll have to let them in on my secret at some point, I suppose. That being said, on the UK-based Walk 1,000 Miles group I saw a couple who I would say were in their mid-70s explaining how they'd started consistently walking an hour a day when covid hit in order not to go stir crazy and over time they'd added in greater distances and more challenging walks, so much so that this year they'd going to attempt the Camino de Santiago, a walk of about 30 days covering almost 500 miles! Crikey, puts my piddly little walks to shame, doesn't it! Mind you, someone on one of the local groups posted an open invitation to an apéritif in the mountains for anyone who could make it. Now that's something I could see me training for!

While I'm doing one of my usual routes I'm still listening to Traitor King and, as I've said before, it does get better. Heck they've got murder (mob and drugs related), money laundering, tax evasion, blatant infidelity and I'm still only on chapter 21. By this point many people are getting extremely fed up of Edward and Wallis and in particular their sponging off other people. One man commented that he had no idea what gave Wallis her hold over men (although "hold" she most certainly had) because in his opinion she was an unattractive, skeletal, flat-chested harridan who would make a "good medieval prototype for a playing card" (I'm paraphrasing, but when I pictured the queen of diamonds playing card I just burst out laughing)!

Wallis Simpson!

I've also started listening to Cheere Denise reading a book about Martha Stewart called Just Desserts, which could also prove to be very interesting. Martha is/was obviously very beautiful, very talented and very driven but I think it might not come as a great surprise to everyone to hear that she could be a pretty nasty piece of work and a prolific liar (according to the book) so I'll let you know what I think when I get round to it!

I heard just the other day that Argentina's President Xavier Milei has authorized the release of "the Hitler files" which, apparently, document the escape to Argentina of many top Nazis (including Hitler) after the war. While I knew many had indeed escaped I never really knew what to think about the rumour that it wasn't Hitler's body they found in the bunker in Berlin (apparently what was supposed to be Hitler's skull with the bullet wounds in it it was a female skull) and Hitler did seemingly live out the remainder of his life in Argentina after the war. Crikey, I wonder if that will pan out! And to add to the suspense, just yesterday Audible announced the release of Operation Paperclip, a book that I've been wanting to read for ages (one of many, obviously)! According to Wiki:

* * * * *

Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959; several were confirmed to be former members of the Nazi Party, including the SS or the SA.

* * * * *

In the UK, former Reform party MP, Rupert Lowe, launched a crowd-funding initiative to fund an independent investigation into the UK grooming gangs responsible for the grooming and rape of hundreds, if not thousands of young girls over the past several decades, because seemingly no-one in power wants to "go there" (I wonder why)! He was aiming for £500,000 and after about 36 hours he's already reached over £432,000. I donated of course, but well done Rupert, one of the few MPs who is willing to stand up in Parliament and ask the questions no-one seems to want to answer!

In France some bright spark has had the idea of setting up a kind of "savings plan" for citizens to invest in whereby the state can use that money to remilitarize! There is a minimum of five years in which your money will be blocked, they can't or won't indicate what the starting interest rate will be - oh and there's no guarantee you'll even get your initial investment back! As one of France's top economists said, "even Madoff wouldn't have tried that one on"!

As I'm sure you're also aware, Marine Le Pen seems to be going the same way as Romania's Calin Georgescu, Germany's AfD party, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands etc. About the best initial explanation of the situation I can find in English can be seen here by Neil McCoy Ward (the first 10 minutes). There's obviously much more detailed information on it in French but Neil does a decent job of explaining the basics. We'll see what happens, but to say things are volatile here at the moment would be an understatement!

And finally, Friday was Charlie's fourth birthday so since the weather wasn't supposed to be great we all went off the Aquarium in Lausanne, followed by raclette at Jordan and Jen's place. At one point there was a huge fish right in front of Elynn and Jordan was trying to draw her attention to it, but she was absolutely captivated by the man standing next to her. When he looked down at her she gave him the most beautiful smile and he burst out laughing when Jordan went "oh look Elynn, it's a human"! Then Charlie was sitting with a little girl looking at the komodo dragons when the little girl squealed and shouted "look mommy, he's got a Paw Patrol hat on"! Kids eh, there's no pleasing them sometimes is there!

The Aquarium, Lausanne

Paw Patrol trumps all!