People watching!

I know New Year's has come and gone, but I still can't believe we're already two weeks into January - and how many broken resolutions already? I don't actually make resolutions but always have some vague thoughts about "getting outside more" and decluttering, and while I did indeed get three walks in in the first week, not a lot has happened since then. Mind you, while it was very sunny it was bitterly cold (even by my standards) so I hopped onto Amazon and bought myself hand and foot warmers so that I'll have no excuse in the future. I stayed in on New Year's Eve, fell asleep and then woke up at 11.50 just in time to watch the fireworks from my balcony and see the blue lights on top of Cou (the mountain to the left in my header picture). It was a lovely crisp, clear night, the fireworks lasted about 30 minutes and then, just like that, it was all over!

I've mentioned before that I tend to live in what was once a bedroom on the first floor which we turned into a kinda lounge/TV room (even though I haven't turned my TV on for four years now). Anyhoo, I was sitting reading when I happened to glance up and a paraglider whizzed straight past my window! They do jump off Cou at the back of the house but I've never seen them in front of the house before and was wondering where he was going to land. I suspect he'd either lost control a bit (I doubt it) or maybe some lucky lady further into the village was going to be receiving a large box of chocolates from some James Bond type very shortly!

I sent my friend a message last Tuesday to say that I was going down to the GAL offices (our favourite travel agent) to book a couple of trips before they filled up. So we dashed off there together and wouldn't you know it, the trip to Sardinia in April had filled up the day after the presentation, as had the three dates for the Swiss railway tours. Damn, I guess next time we'll know to move faster. We did get ourselves booked on the December trip to the Châteaux de la Loire, plus about four other one or two-day trips, and I booked myself on a five day trip to Lake Garda as I understand it's beautiful. What with already having a trip to Spain booked for September and still being on a waiting list for Sardinia, it's not looking like India is on the books - well not for this year at least. Shame!

Talking of Lake Garda, I understand ol' gorgeous George (Clooney) has a house there (maybe we'll get an invite for a cup of tea). And I see that he and Amal have recently been granted French citizenship! That's weird because the French have recently made the French exam more difficult, the "citizenship" exam more complex, have stated that the majority of your income should be earned in France, but that the five-year minimum residency still holds. I wonder how George fitted all that in, what with his super busy acting career and all! Oh yeah, of course, he's loaded! Apparently the reason they got citizenship was because they made France look "more enticing"! If only I'd thought of that!

The other night I was watching a Youtube video by someone reacting to a person I find extremely crass and vulgar and could never watch personally, but can occasionally stomach an abridged version of her vlogs by someone else of what is her car crash life. Anyhoo, I swear she was driving along listening to music and raging about how she hated this kind of music and "couldn't bear to hear people singing in Acapulco"! It made me laugh so much that I got to thinking about all the other "old lady bloopers" so I might throw one in here and there in my next few posts as I think of them!

And finally I think I'm just about getting caught up with all the work I've had to do for the old fogies club. What I thought was going to be just a Tuesday afternoon thing turns out to be a whole lot more work than that. They had their AGM in November, which meant the Committee showing up on the Thursday afternoon to set out 140-ish place settings for the meal to go with it. Then Christmas lunch (same thing, show up on Thursday and get it all ready for the next day). Then we had the Three Kings on January 9th, so much of the same (buying the food/drinks/galettes for 140-ish peope) then clearing it all away and taking down the Christmas decorations - so all in all it's been a busy time of year, although it should calm down a little from now on!

The galette des rois!

Anyway on Tuesday it was to be a normal weekly card game afternoon, except being the beginning of the new year we had everyone lining up pay their yearly subscriptions. So think almost 180 people coming at you from all directions to hand over their cheques and pick up their membership cards! It was chaos as I obviously don't know most of the names. So that's when Martine starts hissing at me that no, Mr. and Mrs. Ravoire should not be given a joint card because even though they're married they hate each other and there's no way they would accept a joint card. Then "Claudine" announced that she had separated from "Serge" (who is apparently an alcoholic) and that we were to find out her new address and forward her card there (they would both appear to be nearly 80). Then there's the older guy who grew up my village and always comes over to give me a hug and "do you know the Blandin family (no), well how about the Ducrets up at the farm (no). Oh they now live in the house that used to be painted blue!!! Again, no! Anyway I like him enough but Martine told me never to play cards with him (I don't play anyway) because he cheats and whatever happens during the card game, his score is always 160! So as the games were winding down we edged over to where his team was counting their scores and guess how much he scored. Go on, I bet you can't guess! Yep, he scored 160! As I said in my heading, I've always enjoyed people watching, so this club might just be right up my alley - but 160 my arse!