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!