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?