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!