Gifted?

It's been a pretty hectic few days again this week, what with having various "trades" come to the house to give quotes for work. I decided, that depending on the quotes, I would have all the electrics done, the second bathroom installed (I've given up on the other guy) and the upstairs hall and top bedroom redecorated - the top bedroom being where the electrical fire was in December. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the bit where the carpet was burned but my brain just doesn't have the bandwidth for that at the moment! I think I mentioned in my previous post that the Bangladeshi guy had come back with a quote for the electricals of €9,400 - which shocked me - but then I haven't had electrical work done in years. His two brothers then came back with a total quote of €3,200 for both installing the second bathroom and the painting and decorating work I want doing. However, the French electrician who showed up first got hold of me to say that he was having trouble getting his quote through, but when it finally arrived it came in at €4,600 - which is a helluva big difference from the €9,400 quote! So I accepted the French electrician's quote and the Bangldeshi brothers' quote for everything except the electrical work and let their electrician brother know why - that he was just too expensive! And that was when he suggested that "maybe we can come to some arrangement"! Well that only pissed me off even more because that was when I knew he was obviously taking the piss - either taking advantage of a woman alone or just the fact that I obviously didn't know anything about the cost of trades! I did have Jordan take a look at the quote for the plumbing work and he said it looked fair to him, so that's where I stand right now, with the electrician coming on Tuesday to install all the new plugs, light switches and an electric radiator, and then coming back whenever the new electric panel/box(?) shows up. After that it'll be lining up the plumber, the decorator and the tiler, on top of baby-sitting duties etc., so it will very definitely be a busy few days/weeks. Still, if I don't drop from the exhaustion of shifting stuff out their way, it will be a means of getting the entire house cleaned from top to bottom after they leave!

Mind you, the Bangladeshi brothers asked if I would be interested in giving them English lessons (??) but I told them that I'm not a teacher by nature and don't have the time in any case. But what a cheek - or was it? Am I just being too sensitive? And talking of being too sensitive, before Christmas B, from sewing club, was asking if anyone knew where to get a military-style uniform for a five year old as her little grandson was army-mad. I told her to look on Amazon as you can get pretty much anything there but she told me she wouldn't go on Amazon because she would be afraid to put her credit card into their system. But when she did indeed find something she liked she asked me if I would order it for her! It strikes me as somewhat odd that she doesn't mind me putting my credit card into the system though. In any case, I ordered it for her before Christmas and she paid me back immediately, so no problem there. But then this week she asked me if I would order her a trolley on wheels for her to tote around her sewing machine, plus all the attendant gear that goes with it. Well this cost around €100 and the client would have to be present to sign for it, so I had to ask her for her home address and told her that I didn't want it delivered to my address because it was a huge parcel and I wouldn't be home on that day in any case (baby-sitting duties)! I don't know though, am I just being too sensitive about this because while I know she will pay me back, I also don't want to get into the habit of being her P.O. box when she has three adult children of her own who could do it for her! I don't know, maybe I am just having a bad few days!

I'd had a sore throat for about a week and was feeling pretty tired, but even though I'd been gargling with warm salt water, it didn't seem to be going away, so I stopped in at the chemist's and she asked me if I was allergic or averse to essential oils. I told her not that I was aware of, and blow me but within about two days that sore throat was gone. I just love what I would call natural medicine or "old wives' remedies", so I'm always willing to give them a shot, and even happier when they seem to work! Talking of which, if One Family happens to read this, you were asking about vitamins etc. and when I left a comment on your blog I forgot to mention the wonderful Dr. Eric Berg on Youtube. His videos aren't very long at all but he seems to have made nutrition and natural remedies his speciality, so you might enjoy checking him out! I also seem to wake up every morning with a stuffed up nose, even though I don't have the heating on in the bedroom, so today I decided to hell with everything that I could/should be doing and took myself off down to the lake at Passy for a walk. The weather was wonderful and listening to a good book on my walk and then sitting there afterwards with homemade cake and a flask of tea has got to be my idea of (cheap) heaven - and of course, no more stuffy nose!

In other news, on one of the private FB groups I follow a few of the members have been saying that they swear some of the communcations received from their other halves (usually in the case of an adversarial divorce) seem to have been written by AI. So now these same people are raving about Chatgpt's Brenda and Frank feature, which allows you to feed someone's incoming correspondence into it and it analyses the "real" meaning behind the often pleasant words. You can, of course, also run your own correspondence through it and "Brenda and Frank" give their thoughts on it, help you to tone it down or make it more succint, whatever you choose! So while I have my doubts about some of the nefarious uses for AI, I can see, conversely, that it could on occasion be very useful indeed!

And finally, on Friday I looked after Charlie for about eight hours and while he is absolutely adorable, god he wears me out. He's an intelligent little thing (you can see Jen, in particular, spends ages with him) and when one time he asked me how to do something and I said I didn't know, he said "not to worry Nanny, there's always a solution"! Yikes! Around 5 o'clock we walked down to the daycare to pick Elynn up and since his feet are too small for the special slippers you have to wear inside and I had my giant clodhopper snow boots on, I took both of our boots off and we went in in our socks. The new lady didn't recognize me so I had Elynn in my arms while trying to wriggle my ID out of my bag, then was quite flustered trying to dress Elynn in her outdoor clothes, put mine and Charlie's boots back on without dropping Elynn and making sure the stroller didn't blow away in the wind. There's got to be a more rational way of doing all this (I was a sweaty mess by the time we made it home) and Jordan said there was, he just waited till Jen got home to keep Charlie before he went to pick Elynn up! While we were at daycare two of the older ladies recognized Charlie and asked how he was, and how he was getting on at school, so he told them that he liked it very much but that he would soon be finished with it and be going to work with his dad to help him in his plumbing job! They (like me) roared laughing, but in the end I think they were pretty mean. I mean, what if the kid really is gifted huh?

That went well!

It's day nine of the new year and it already feels like Christmas was ages ago! I was at home on New Year's Eve and stayed up just long enough to watch the fireworks out my window and then another hour later the fireworks displays in the UK. It was lovely here, so clear and crisp that the small celebrations further up the mountains were easily visible, so it was funny when I spoke to my neighbour's daughter the next day and she was telling us how they had been shrouded in fog and couldn't see anything! I don't know what altitude she's at (I'm at 800 m) but she's only about 15 minutes away so, as always, it's weird to see how you can be in bright sunshine one minute and just a few minutes down the road surrounded by thick fog!

So I spent NYE either reading in the peace of my own home or watching a few videos on Youtube. It's odd really because for some reason the algorithm decided I must have wanted to see loads of short clips of Michael Jackson as a very young boy/man. I was a huge MJ fan when I was younger and to see him (and his brothers) bursting with raw talent so young was amazing. That being said, I couldn't begin to imagine how stressful it must have been, for Michael in particular, to have the weight of all that talent and other people's expectations on such young shoulders!

I got off to a great start with my walking resolution by doing a few local walks immediately following the festivities. I'd walked for about an hour the other day when I bumped into the farmer's daughter walking her dog, so turned round and did the same circuit in reverse while we got to catch up as we hadn't seen each other for ages. Every year they instal a still where my friend, Stan's, old bar used to be and I really enjoy seeing it. I always understood that they mainly made eau de vie from walnuts that people brought over, but apparently they can make hooch out of pretty much anything so who knows!

The roving still!

It's a pretty and easy walk through
some local woods, although muddy
of course!

Leading back towards the village you have a 
local allotment. I'd love to have an allotment
there, but since I can't keep up with my own
small garden it'd be a pretty dumb thing
for me to get involved in!

I let the end of the festivities pass by getting paperwork up to date and sorting out what needs to be done in the new year (a lot, as it turns out). I updated my French tax deductions to take into account the small UK pension that I started receiving in September. I know quite a few Brits living here who haven't declared their UK pension, but I feel that it's just not worth the risk of getting caught (and potentially a large fine) for such a smallish increase in my taxes!

I got my heating fuel top-up ordered (ouch) and sent out a request for a quote to get the electrics in my house sorted after the recent fire! I got quite a few responses and have so far had two people out to my house to take a look. That's when I got the shock of my life when the first guy (confirmed by the second) told me that since the electrical work in the top bedroom was not up to code, had my house burned down the insurance wouldn't have covered any of it!!! Now to be fair I realize that this entire bedroom was most likely never declared when the previous owners created it in the attic and having seen some of his handwork in the rest of the house I've little reason to think the electrical work would be any different, but I had honestly not given any thought to possibly having no coverage if the house had burned down!

This is the cleaned up version of
where the fire started! It could have been so
much worse!

Anyway, that was enough for me to decide that the whole house is going to get a complete electrical make-over and while the first guy hasn't sent me his quote in yet, the second guy could be interesting. He is from Bangladesh and has brothers who are plumbers/tilers/painters and decorators so who knows, with my second bathroom never having been finished and my original plumber seemingly having disappeared from the face of the earth, maybe the brother of electrician number two (coming over tomorrow) can finally complete my bathrooms. And I suspect the painter and decorator brother will make an appearance at some point as I want to get that bedroom plus the hall and landing completely redecorated! The electrician's quote for the entire house, plus installing lights and electrical sockets outside is €9,400!!! but since I'm pretty good at saving "for a rainy day" (some rainy day though) I have the money and will just bite the bullet and get it done, although I suspect a potential trip to India in March this year is now off the cards!

Yoga started up again on Monday (thank goodness) and then Jen asked me if I could take care of Charlie on Wednesday (he doesn't have school on Wednesdays) rather than her mom, who is still feeling unwell. Of course it's no problem to look after him, although if I ever have to run and hide under the table again from the big bad wolf I might end up doing myself an injury. Then of course as we have to chase him with our respective dinosaurs and dragons I'm definitely getting the feeling I'm too old for this lark! I did ask him how the wolf got up to their floor and he told me that the monkey pressed the buttons for him in the elevator! Well of course he did - why didn't I think of that!

Monday night sewing club started up again and since the ladies bought in a galette des rois (a traditional pie eaten at Epiphany) and champagne, Claude asked me if I would open the champagne. Probably not a good idea as I couldn't keep my hand on the cork, which shot off across the room and whizzed between two of the ladies' heads. It could have been really bad had it hit one of them, but can you imagine a trip to the ER with a champagne cork stuck in your ear!

Pilates started up again this morning so I made the rather brave decision to walk into town rather than try to find a parking space on market day. It takes about 40 minutes and while I don't mind the cold, by the time I got there the wind and rain was blowing a hoolie! As has become my habit I caught the local bone-shaker bus back up to the village but when I went to hand my €1.70 to the driver he told me that they no longer accepted cash so I had to pay by card. Problem was, when I tried to swipe my bank card their machine rejected it, and since I was pretty sure I still had at least €1.70 in my bank account (although who knows right now?) he told me to forget it since if they couldn't be bothered to make sure their card readers worked, well then that was their problem wasn't it. And yet again, when he dropped me off in the village he offered to take me all the way home. It was a different driver this time so I'm wondering if this isn't maybe part of company policy! Who knows, but since I was pretty soaked through anyway I thanked him kindly and just walked the rest of the way. Then it was into the shower and off back into town for my bi-annual contrôle technique, which is the roadworthiness test linked to the age of your car. And wouldn't you know it but as I was on my way there I realized that my front right headlight had blown, so had to stop into Ford yet again, for them to change it for me. Thank goodness they are very accommodating and, so it would appear, I did indeed still have at least €1.70 in my bank account to pay for it, although the way things are going I'm wondering for how much longer! At least the car passed though, because even though I have the money set aside for a new car, the thought of either having to shell out more money on this one or buy a new one right now gives me the willies!

Oh while I think of it, apologies to anyone whose comments I haven't published lately, as I've just realized that I've had a problem with some comments going to spam!

And finally, I just saw a video on a Youtube news channel about a man in Corsica whose mother had recently died and her house had been taken over by squatters. As most people know it's almost impossible to get squatters out, particularly in the winter, so this man phoned his elderly friend who told him not to worry and that he would come over right away. Well this friend was a beekeeper and had his buddy kit up in a beekeeper's outfit before going in through the back door of mom's house and dumping one of his beehives in the middle of the living room! This was followed by a bunch of panic-striken squatters running screaming from the house shouting how they were going to sue! The old guy laughed and just said he considered his bees to be "pets" and good luck with suing him! And that's why I love living in France. Most people don't have guns over here, but I'm pretty sure there is an absolute army of beekeepers who are probably just as lethal!

Little Miss Marple!

Well Christmas Day has come and gone in a whirlwind of mostly pleasant activity, but I'm invariably glad when it's over and get almost as much enjoyment out of the Twixtmas week - i.e. the week between Christmas and New Year when nothing much is doing. I say "nothing much", but as it snowed a while ago and has now been sunny for quite a few days, skiing conditions are absolutely perfect. I can tell that by the traffic notifications on Facebook which pretty much show traffic jams on every road leading up to the ski resorts. I'm so glad my sister and BIL came early December so we missed all that and if they can get past the miserable traffic conditions (mainly at the weekends) I'm sure all the skiers are having a wonderful time (and the resort business owners too)! By choice I'm not going anywhere on New Year's Eve as I just don't enjoy it so the festivities really are over and done with for me!

On Christmas Eve we were up at Jordan and Jen's place for snacks rather than a heavy meal but I was nervous as hell driving back at midnight in below zero temperatures and very treacherous conditions! Christmas Day was at my place and it was bedlam, mostly because we had Charlie's toys and Elynn's baby gear all over the place. And to think I was considering maybe downsizing! Ha, fat chance right now! Lunch went really well - except for the mango and white chocolate cheesecake my sister told me about. Oh the taste was wonderful (Tate & Lyle's recipe if you're interested) but when I took it out of its tin it collapsed into a cheesecake puddle! I think I got the wrong version of French "double cream", or just forgot to whip it. Either way, it was a complete disaster!

Jordan and Jen's Christmas gift to both grandmas was a photoshoot with the grandkids towards the end of January. Yikes, what are my chances of losing 30 lbs and getting plastic surgery before then???? Still, I'm sure the photos will be lovely regardless. My Christmas present to myself was two fire blankets (thanks to Lori for mentioning them) and I might get a second fire extinguisher since there is a difference (apparently) between an electrical fire and a regular "let's burn the curtains down" fire, so I'm told!

On the Saturday (28th) Jen's mom's gift to us all was to be a "surprise" up in the ski resort of Megève (I'm thinking sleigh ride) but the night before Jen ended up at the ER with Charlie, who had been totally listless all day and running a very high temperature for about six days, despite being on antibiotics. Turns out he's got infections in both ears but they also took him for a chest x-ray, thinking they'd keep him in overnight at least if it showed any infection in the lungs - but thankfully they were clear. So the next day, instead of going to Megève, everyone stayed home, Charlie slept for 14 hours straight, and is apparently much, much better now. It couldn't be helped of course and hopefully we can reschedule later in the month, as the lady was apparently very understanding! At least Santa made it through for the big day - and that was the most important thing for Charlie anyway!

Jen had to go straight back to work on Boxing Day but Jordan's got this week off too, so he can keep a close eye on Charlie, while Elynn goes back to daycare. She seems to enjoy it very much (plenty to keep her occupied) and is settling down very well. Oh, I'm sure there will be the never-ending kiddies' infections for her too (it wouldn't be normal otherwise, would it) but at least she seems to be really happy there and when I went to pick her up one time the assistant had her in her arms and was playing with her and making her laugh so it's no wonder most of the children seem quite contented!

Do you remember in a previous post that I mentioned a 250 (lb/kg?) unexploded WWII bomb that had been found on a construction site in Annecy just before Christmas? Well that's where Jordan will be starting work shortly so let's hope for everyone's sake that that thing has already been dealt with appropriately!

In other news, I'm apparently turning into a real life Miss Marple, because the other day I noticed that my neighbours two doors away had left their front shutters open and yet I knew they were away! As another neighbour had also recently been burgled I sent them a message to ask if they realized this. They replied that they must have forgotten and could I get their keys from my favourite neighbour and go round and shut them! Then last night I was sitting reading when I heard a kind of siren sound. It wasn't the sound of emergency services here (more like the sirens in the US) and as it was really close, I went outside and realized it was coming from my other neighbour's house. So I knocked on the door and it turns out they had also just installed alarms and cameras and he had forgotten to turn the outside alarm off after testing it. It's weird that I heard it in my house and yet neither of them heard it from inside their house (kinda defeats the object, doesn't it) but isn't it sad that people now feel they have to do this when we used to leave our doors open all the time. I guess those days are well and truly over now!

And finally, the other day I saw a short video on Youtube by a distraught lady who had recently had her bank accounts wiped out in a "your computer is blocked, call this number" scam. She mentioned that if you had seen the movie The Beekeeper that was exactly what had happened to her, so I looked up the film as I thought it might be the kind of movie that interested me. I managed to get it on streaming - and what a load of shite it was! I left it running while I was playing scrabble (must have been really bored) and the guy basically figures out who the scammers are, blows them up in the first 10 minutes and then spends the next two hours single-handedly taking out the entire US military and Secret Service! A kinda "Schwarzeneger takes on the world" piece of drivel (although it wasn't Arnie, of course)! So since my walking total for this year has been pretty dismal I think my New Year's resolutions have to be (1) aim to walk at least 1,000 miles in 2025, and (2) stop wasting so much time on Youtube and crap movies! Number two should be easy - we'll have to see about the other one!

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope to see you all again in 2025!

A great visit!

Well my family have been and gone! It was a great visit - they really are very easy visitors - and we got lucky with the weather, which was maybe just a little overcast on one occasion but otherwise bright and sunny! I must have been more tired than I thought though because since they left I've slept around 10 hours most nights - which is pretty much unheard of for me! Oh well, I guess the body knows!

We had a bit of drama the first day though, as I'd been up to the top bedroom and decided to put the small heater on for a while as the room was quite chilly. I'd wiped the heater down and then we sat having a cup of tea when all of a sudden the electricity shorted and there was a vague smell of smoke. So I ran upstairs and (I reckon) something inside the heater (dust?) must have created a spark and the curtain in front of the bedroom door was literally on fire. I yelled but couldn't get the curtain down so I stamped on the fire in my socks (great idea) and was just managing to put it out when my BIL ran up and beat out the final flames with his shoe. I didn't think quick enough to yell that there was a fire extinguisher in the living room, but then I think by the time I'd gotten him to understand where I meant, the whole place would have gone up in flames! I did use the extinguisher as a final precaution and took a brand new smoke detector up to that room just in case, but all was well after that. Add to that my bloody socks started to melt into my foot, but I ran downstairs and got my feet in a bowl of cold water pretty quickly so all in all I only ended up with one blister! Exciting times eh - and now I need to get the electrician in in the new year and think about how I want/need to redecorate that room! There's never a dull moment is there - but then it could have been so much worse!

On our first full day I took them to the hot springs in Chamonix where we spent around four hours outside lounging in the water and staring at the Mont Blanc. It was wonderful, but to be honest, four hours is about the limit for me - I don't understand how people can spend eight to ten hours there! When we got back to the car park I fished out cake and a flask of tea and started to pour it - when I realized I'd added the hot water but forgotten to put the tea bags in the flask!! What with trying to put my "top" on through the leg holes last week and now this, I do have doubts about my sanity sometimes! Later that evening my kids came over for dinner and sis and BIL got to meet the grands. I knew my sister would be dotty over the kids (she always has been) and we got some really nice pictures of them with both kids as a souvenir!

The next day I thought they'd like the farmers' market in Bonneville - which they did, even though it wasn't nearly as big as usual as they were setting up the Christmas stalls. After that we headed up to Plaine Joux for lunch and while we couldn't get down to the Lac Vert as the road has now been turned into a ski slope, we did get to watch a few intrepid paragliders jump off into the valley!

My sister and brother-in-law
at Plaine Joux!

They posted this picture on FB, saying how
they were initially very scared to jump
but afterwards it was ok. I don't think
anyone fell for it though!

After that it was down to the lake at Passy for a leisurely stroll before heading up to Jordan and Jen's for dinner (I'd made lasagne and garlic bread and for once used a proper recipe - it turned out very well)!

The next day Charlie's school was singing in the Catholic church (he goes to a Catholic school) and the kids were very good, although it looked a bit like herding cats when they were trying to get them all ready. After that it was back to the school where they were handing out mulled wine or hot chocolate before we sat down to diots (a local sausage) slow cooked with tons of potatoes and followed by sweet crepes for dessert. It was really well done and I can only commend the teachers for their dedication (although I reckon their hearing must take a battering on a regular basis)!

On their last day we decided to try our luck by going to Annecy to see the Christmas market but, as I suspected, the place was just heaving and parking places were like gold dust. Mind you, I think the next time I might try heading in the opposite direction as there seemed to be parking places nearer the casino, even if it meant walking! Since my BIL, in particular, loves La Clusaz I decided to take a back road up there from Annecy, passing by the Château de Menthon St. Bernard on the way. This was the place we tried to go to last year to visit their Christmas market but again were stymied by everyone else (and his uncle) having the same idea!

Château de Menthon St. Bernard!

Because it had already snowed (it doesn't always) La Clusaz was opened up for the skiers, but the main parking will be free of charge until next week, so again we lucked out getting to see the mountains covered in snow in the glorious weather! La Clusaz has always been one of my favourite ski resorts because the parents of my pre-marriage boyfriend had an apartment up there, and anytime it was free at the weekend we used to head up there all winter long. It was bliss!

La Clusaz!

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to get them back to the airport in rush hour traffic, and while there were no accidents or unforeseen events, they were both horrified at the daily commute I had when I was still working! As I was driving though, I thought I felt something "weird" with the car. For any of you that drive a stick shift, it felt like dropping down from fourth gear to third too soon, and the engine starting to drag. They didn't feel it, but I noticed it about four times and was just praying that I could get them to the airport without breaking down. I did, but I decided to head straight to Ford on my way back and one hour and €180 later they discovered that the "particle filter" was blocked, so they dismantled it and cleaned it out. It could have been worse as I understand if they had to replace the part it would have been pretty expensive, not to mention I probably couldn't have gotten it fixed the same day!

In other news, when we were heading in to our last sewing club of the year, as I was about to unlock the main door four kids, about 16 years of age, were making their way out. When Chantal asked them what they were doing in the building as it was private they said they were "looking for a toilet". Then when we got up to the club room we found three more kids all set up around the tables having a fine old time. Chantal hit the roof and asked them what the hell they thought they were doing. They said they'd been to the library (which is in the same building) but she countered that she volunteers at the library and it was closed so they'd better think of another one pretty quick before she called the police on them for trespass! They shot out of there like grease lightning but I did send a message to the Mairie to let them know that someone must have left both the main door and the club room door unlocked (maybe the cleaner?) and to ask them to remind everyone to check before leaving!

My "other neighbours" (Mrs. Gossip and her husband) came back from Mexico a few days ago and had both contracted what appeared to be a bad case of covid, so I ended up doing a bit of shopping for them while they were holed up. Thankfully they seem to have improved and I've seen them walking their dog so I guess the worst symptoms are over by now!

My walking tally looks to be pretty pathetic this year as I'll only hit around 700 miles by year end, so I think my resolution has to be "aim for 1,000 - 1,500 miles" in 2025. I've seen a few beautiful places on the FB hiking groups I follow so I might give some thought to maybe going further afield for a few weekends when the weather permits to check out other regions! Well, that's the aim anyway!

And finally, the trial of Dominque Pelicot has come to an end, with that monster and around 47 other men having been sentenced. For those that haven't heard of the case, Dominique Pelicot had been drugging his wife of 50 years for the past decade and inviting other men to come to their home and rape her????? As she was drugged she knew nothing about it, except that she frequently visited the doctor for unexplained pain and infections, although apparently, thankfully, no more serious STDS!!!! He was only caught when an alert supermarket security guard spotted him upskirting a woman (taking pictures up her skirt) and when the police were called they confiscated both his phone and his computer - and that is when they discovered the videos of so many, many men raping an obviously unconscious woman! He had also, apparently taken indecent photos of both his oblivious daughter and daughter-in-law! His wife, Gisèle, waived her right to anonymity and asked for both the press and public to be allowed into the court room to witness the trial. Pelicot wept when he got 20 years (should have been life, in my opinion), so seemingly he wasn't so brave when he found out the consequences of his actions. About 47 other men quite rightly got varying sentences too. Women's groups (which also included many men) were at the courthouse every day for three months to support her brave stand! I just hope she can find peace and happiness in whatever time she has left on this earth, and that her ex-husband gets to live the rest of his life as he deserves! Merci Gisèle (the Pelicot trial)!

Gisèle Pelicot, thanking her supporters!

This and that!

It's been relatively busy again this week, as I'm trying to get the house tidied (i.e. get rid of more junk) and sorted in time for my family's arrival next week. I'm so looking forward to seeing them and while it will be cold it should be nice weather during their stay. I'd already figured out a meal plan for most days and made a shopping list for when I went grocery shopping on Thursday. That plan was scuppered though as André came over to pick up some mail I had for him and casually mentioned that he was going to spend a long weekend in Amsterdam with a mate and "you can take me to the airport tomorrow right"? Well of course I can, but there's nothing like a bit of advanced warning either is there! So then I figured I'd go shopping on the Friday - well that was until Jen phoned me at 7.30 in the morning to ask if I could pick Charlie up from school and give him lunch as both she and the babe had doctors' appointments on the Friday. Turns out Jen had collapsed at work on Thursday and they called an ambulance as they were so worried about her. When she got to the ER a friend of hers happened to be the admitting nurse and told her there were 18 ambulances ahead of her (????) and she was looking at about five hours before she could be seen by a doctor, and that was assuming no more urgent cases showed up in the meantime! Since she was feeling slightly better by this point she jumped on the phone and was able to get an emergency appointment with her doctor for both her and Elynn (who has been coughing for a few days - thank you daycare). After doing some kind of scan (my apologies to the nurses out there, can't remember what kind it was) and blood tests, it turns out she has developed gallstones - the cause of her excruciating pain. My first thought was of Mary Moon and her kidney stones and her description of just how painful they are - Jen said she was in less pain when she gave birth!!! I'm not sure what the treatment will be but I already realize just how right I was not to sign up to volunteer at Les Restos du Coeur just yet as I just knew that things would be tricky for a little while, although I suppose nobody could have predicted Jen getting taken to hospital on her first week back at work!

The other day I got a FB friend request from Rob J. My first reaction was to just hit delete as he was doubtless a Nigerian prince who wanted to put $10 million into my bank account. But then I took another look and saw that my sister was another of his friends and realized that it was my cousin from North Wales. I haven't seen him in over 38 years (I was pregnant last time I saw him) and while it was nice to chat back and forth with him, it can be a bit difficult when you really no longer have much in common. They were a very nice family but I was much closer to my cousins on my dad's side because we lived nearer to each other. Either way, it was nice to catch up a little but when he sent me a request to follow his cat on FB (????) I realized we won't be in touch that much!

Anyhow, I finally got my shopping done after Jordan finished work on Friday and could take care of Charlie. Turns out the supermarket had a special offer that day whereby they credited 10% of your grocery bill back to your loyalty card, and as it was a a big shop, I did very well that day after all! When I got home there was a note in my mailbox to say that someone from the Mairie had stopped by to give me my Christmas gift from the Maire. They give these gifts to everyone in the village over age 65 so this is my second year to receive a small hamper from them and again, it was beautifully presented!

Note the bottle of white wine in the
top right hand corner!!! Insert
happy face emoji here!

Earlier this week I got an email from Norton (the anti-virus I use) to say that my annual subscription would be up in February and the new price would be €104 "to reflect the going rates"!!! Hang on, last year it was €64 and I was already pretty unhappy with them because every couple of weeks they discover something else dodgy on my computer but for the modest sum of €XXX I can upgrade to their premium service and fix the lastest snaffu! I looked on a couple of evaluation sites and many people said they were sick of Norton forever coming back for "just another €XXXX" so it wasn't just me. So I decided to cancel and put in the comments that their habit of forever coming back for more money was more than irritating and their new price reflecting an almost 100% increase over the previous year was hard to justify, in my opinion! And whaddaya know, the next day I got another email from them offering me a "special deal" of €49 for the year if I would come back to them. So I did! I will keep an eye on it though as there are many anti-virus systems out there, but I'm really rather pleased that I put my foot down for once!

In other news, when I opened my shutters this morning I saw it was snowing - and that my neighbour had left her car window open! So I went round and knocked on her door to tell her and ended up having a coffee with her. Turns out she'd stopped to chat to another neighbour yesterday and had forgotten to put her window up last night. Then she went on to tell me about another daft thing she'd done but I had her beat this time. On Wednesday I ran into town as I wanted to buy a new pair of jeans. I ended up buying a pair of jeans and a diaphanous sparkly top, thinking I would wear it for Christmas Day. As they no longer have changing rooms in the store I tried them on when I got home but the jeans were way too big (another first) and the top turned out to be waaayyyy too small. What the heck, am I turning into something that looks like a hard boiled egg on toothpicks now! So the next day I took them back and explained to the assistant that while it said on the receipt that I had bought two pairs of trousers, it was in fact one pair of jeans and a top. She looked at the receipt and said "oh that's probably a combi short" (which is where the top is attached to a pair of shorts - like dungarees with the legs cut short) and sure enough, when we looked at my "top" it was a combi short and I must have been trying to put my head through the leg hole. No wonder it was tight! My neighbour burst out laughing and every time I looked at her after that she got another fit of the giggles! Since she was still in some pain from her recent operation, I drove her about 2 km up the road to a local farm shop where she usually buys her cheese. Since I know that my family love cheese I thought I'd buy some too, but it turns out they sell their own eggs, grass fed beef, organic yogurts and so on, and while it's a bit more expensive than you'd find in the supermarkets, I think I'll try to do as much of my shopping as I can there and at the local farmers' markets from now on!

Moving on, a pub owner in Britain recently started a petition to push for a new general election, and within a couple of days it had over two million signatures. As far as I know it's over three million right now and apparently once a petition hits 10,000 signatures it is supposed to trigger a debate in Parliament. I know of course there won't be a new general election but I signed it anyway as I feel very strongly that this dreadful government campaigned on a manifesto that was immediately thrown out the window once they were elected. Anyway, one man commented that he lived in France and had signed the petition (you have to be a British citizen but it doesn't matter where you live) and then received a response saying that if he wished to keep his right to vote in the next election he had to send them proof of his identity???? Say what???? No he didn't have to do that at all - it was simply a way of trying to intimidate him. I have three email addresses and use one for official stuff (like voting and naturalisation issues, etc.), one for general chitchat, and a throwaway address for things like supermarket receipts and so on. Thankfully I used the throwaway email address to sign the petition, and while I didn't get a notification about my voting rights, I did get a snotty, badly drafted email response basically saying how wonderful the Labour Party are and how they're going to do amazing things, bring about world peace and put a man on Mars very soon! All crap, but there will be a debate in Parliament - they could hardly refuse it could they. Nothing will come of it but I hope old Two Tier is feeling the heat right now - it certainly looks like it!

And someone else who is definitely feeling the heat right now is the French President after the vote of no confidence last week. His government is effectively dismissed and he has to name a new Prime Minister who will, in turn, name a new government. He went on television the other night and what he won't do is resign because "how will we manage without his wonderfulness"? In true Macron form, nothing was his fault and he would not accept responsibility for others' failings! Whatever happened to "the buck stops with me"? Anyhoo we'll see I suppose but these are interesting times, to be sure!

Anyhoo, what with my family coming out on Tuesday I don't think I'll have much time for blog reading/commenting. I hope to be back online before Christmas though, but in the meantime, enjoy the run up to Christmas and I look forward to catching up soon!

Busy!

Last week was a really busy one, mainly as a result of running my neighbour around. I don't mind at all but at one point I commented to her that we must look like a geriatric version of Thelma and Louise when they see us on the motorway cameras. On Tuesday I took her to drop her car off for its bi-annual inspection, and then on Wednesday it was up at the crack of dawn to take her to hospital for her latest carpal tunnel operation. She's already had both hands operated on once but seemingly another operation was required on her right hand. In retrospect it was lucky that her appointment was on Wednesday because on Thursday there was (yet again) an accident near the motorway toll and the tailback was 5km long - we never would have made it in time! When I went to pick her up later she made me laugh as she recounted that they were all given gowns, hair coverings and plastic bootees while they sat in the waiting room, but one poor chap hadn't known what to do with the bootees and walked in with it on his head!!!! Mind you, it's not totally obvious what to do with these things is it! Then the next day I took her to pick up her car and have been in every day helping her light her fire, open cans etc. Her daughter would have done this for her but she was away in Chambéry on a training course so it was just Thelma and Louise for the duration. And again, I didn't mind at all but she was tying herself in knots saying she was "such a burden on everyone"! She actually caught herself at one point and said that she realized that was how her husband taught her to think about herself - he basically knocked all her self-confidence out the window, and she finally recognized that. She then told me that she had actually found notebooks where he had made lists of all the things he wanted to do before he died (he knew he was dying) and it listed things like "make sure she doesn't get to stay in the house after my death"; "ensure she doesn't get a widow's pension" (both of these things he actually went to a notary to do but as their marriage was such a long one, he wasn't able to get away with it). So while there was no love lost between them at the end, she had softened her heart towards him - but after finding those notebooks, she was done with him and his memory! So spiteful to the end!

She also mentioned to me that our neighbour (the farmer's daughter) had been burgled the other week. I guess her home is an easier target because it's out on its own and I'm thinking somebody knew that they were up at her bf's place in the mountains. I commented that I actually had the kids' baseball bat behind my bedroom door and she said she was getting her son's bat from him to do the same. Neither of us have been sleeping particularly well lately and when I mentioned that I'd only gotten to sleep at 3 a.m. she told me she'd actually gotten up at 4 a.m. as she couldn't sleep anymore, so I asked her to imagine that we each heard a noise "next door" and went crashing round, only to whack each other over the head with our respective baseball bats!!

In other news, there was a report of a major incident in Annecy last week and when I heard it was a bomb scare I thought "oh oh, here we go". Turns out a construction company had unearthed a 250kg unexploded WWII bomb near the train station and everyone had to be evacuated!! Thankfully they managed to disable it and everyone was allowed to return home, but can you imagine the shock those builders must have felt when they dug that baby up!

My Christmas shopping is more or less done, which is great as I hate crowds. I finally finshed scanning all the old photos that were just laying about the place and decided to make each of my boys their own albums with all the photos from their younger years. The photos aren't great as they are photos of photos but I'm so pleased with the albums and it allowed me to throw all the loose photos away. I also made an album of the two grandchildren for Jordan and Jen and think I've figured out the perfect system to keep this up every year. I mean, does anyone actually look at photos on their phone/computer? This way at least, I know the kids will pull the albums out occasionally and look at them!

This is the cover of André's.
I cropped the photo because it has his
full name and date of birth, but I'm 
delighted with the album!

The cover of Jordan's album!

Charlie and Elynn's cover!

On Saturday afternoon Jen invited me to join them and her mom for a visit to a dinosaur exhibition in La Roche. It wasn't exactly Disney, but then again nor was it Disney prices. It was very good all the same and Charlie loved it, but oh my poor ears - all those excited kids and roaring dinosaurs!

After that we all went out for Chinese food, which was really good. That place is a little gold mine but good luck to them as they work really hard. Then in the evening I went into town to hear my friend's gospel group singing. It was bitterly cold (it dropped to freezing) and they sang for 90 minutes so I'm sooooo glad I bought that new jacket recently! Mind you, the bloody mulled wine ran out after about 15 minutes so methinks some things could have been better thought out. Still, they were really good and I was very impressed with how a group of French people - most of whom don't speak English - were able to belt out some really good gospel!

As the next day was sunny (if cold) I decided to take another walk at the Lake in Passy, just to get some fresh air. As I was walking up to towards the beach area I noticed a group of women actually swimming! I started chatting to an older lady along the lines of "sooner them than me", but in fact wild swimming is apparently very exhilerating, although I'm not sure I'll ever be brave enough to find out. I've read the book Wintering twice now and one chapter is given over to how she tried wild (ocean) swimming. I think the book is really about how she tries to cope with her husband's illness and her own depression but I enjoyed it very much - and will probably get round to reading it again sometime this winter!

Insanity? And yes that is snow
on the mountains!

And finally, I stopped in at the Food Bank tonight to drop off some items. I buy for them every week and when I have a crateful I drop it off to them. I also had a cash donation for them, as a charity I had previously donated to every month has now closed so I just switched my donation to the Food Bank. One of the ladies there knows me quite well by now so I asked her if they wanted coats (brand new, never worn), blankets and sleeping bags and she told me that they no longer accepted that stuff (not enough space) but her sister volunteered at the Restos du Coeur (Restaurants of the Heart) and if we set up a time to meet she would drop them off for her sister. That got me to thinking what a lovely family they must be, with her volunteering at the Food Bank and her sister volunteering at the Restos du Coeur! So then my mind starts whirring and should I/could I/when would I, but I know I have to hold off for the moment as now that Jen has started back to work (she started on Monday) the other grandma and I will be called upon to take care of one of the grandkids at least one afternoon a week, although we're not sure when. So for now, I won't be volunteering but I am giving it some serious thought!

As a side note, the Restos du Coeur are a fantastic organization which was started by French comedian Coluche in 1985. As well as serving hot meals, they have volunteers ferrying food out to people who are housebound, picking up donations from supermarkets and so on. Looking at their website they also give assistance in learning French for foreigners, trying to help people find housing, develop viable skills and so on. It's a fantastic organization! There has long been a theory in some parts that Coluche was murdered (motorbike accident) because of his fierce criticism of the then French President, Valérie Giscard d'Estaing. In 1980 he announced that he was going to run for president and while people initially laughed it off, opinion polls showed that he was indeed very popular - hence the assertion in some parts that he was bumped off! I don't know enough about it to have an opinion one way or another, but I do know that whether or not he was a good comedian, he was indeed a wonderful man who founded an extraordinary organization that is going from strength to strength - but isn't it such a shame that we need it!

Coluche!

Let it snow!

I see I appear to be keeping to my usual schedule of one post every couple of weeks, but then if nothing much is happening there obviously isn't much to write about is there! I mentioned previously that I really like a Youtuber called Cheere Denise and I had been in the habit of listening to her book evaluations pretty much as they came out, but somehow I got a bit behind on that so I've got some catching up to do. I'm still listening to her reading of The Other Mrs. Kennedy, which talks about Ethel Skakel who married the late Robert Kennedy, and hoh boy, this book leaves the other Kennedy book standing! Ethel's grandfather was a self-made man (so kudos to him) and seemingly her father couldn't put a foot wrong either when it came to making money, so consquently the Skakel family grew up rolling in money - and entitlement. Ethel was a real tomboy and an accomplished athlete (particularly in riding) but she does not exactly come out of this book smelling of roses. Her mother Anne spent money left, right and centre, but then thought nothing of nickel and diming businesses to give her enormous discounts, and sometimes also thought nothing of not even paying their bills. (This would seem to be a somewhat common trait amongst the ultra-rich - but maybe that's how they got to be so rich in the first place)! She describes how one of the Skakel sons was given a brand new convertible and on the first day deliberately drove it straight into the swimming pool!!!! Another time Ethel herself was running late for an equestrian event in New York and so decided to mount the pavement and drive straight through Central Park. Again huh????? The Kennedys actually had less money than the Skakels (even though they were still stinking rich) and when Ethel married Bobbie they apparently argued frequently over money, as Ethel wasn't used to being reined in. Mind you, she also said that Bobby frequently went out without any money (a severe case of short arms and low pockets apparently) so Cheere Denise remarked just what is it with these people, thinking everyone wanted to pay for them? She made me laugh though because she said her reaction would have been to drive him straight to the nearest bank! I can't wait to catch up on the latest chapters! A severe case of entitlement meets even more entitlement, so you get entitlement on steroids!

Last week I took a drive down to Annecy to have a look around for Christmas presents. I didn't see anything that caught my eye so I stopped in at the Yves Rocher (beauty products) shop, since I like their products and they are really reasonably priced. As I was sitting in my car having a drink I decided to scan all the products through the Yukka app on my phone out of curiousity, as it reads the bar code and tells you if they are decent products, if there are any dubious additives etc. and everything came out at least 80/100 so I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased, given how reasonably priced they were. I sometimes do this on food items too and occasionally get a nasty surprise, like the pâté I bought the other week which contained a red dye considered "potentially harmful for human consumption" (it showed up bright red), so I threw it straight in the bin. While I know you can't get away from the crap for the most part, I have found it very interesting to see just what is in food items by way of various chemicals and oddly enough the most expensive hasn't always proven to be the least harmful!

On Thursday I decided to walk into town for my pilates class, just to see how long it took, and while it was bitterly cold it only took me about 35 minutes so I'm thinking that will be an option when it isn't raining or snowing. As I was waiting for the bone-shaker bus to take me home afterwards, a man asked me if "this was the right bus stop". So I told him that depended on where he wanted to go. Since it was the psychiatric hospital I told him it was and that he would be there in about 10 minutes once the bus came. I realized he was a patient when he couldn't get the hang of how to pay for his ticket so I helped him with that and then he asked me if he could give me a kiss!!!! While I don't mind helping someone out, I draw the line at that and told him that that wasn't appropriate when you don't know someone. I tell ya, if you want to "travel and meet people", you could do a lot worse than catch the number 10 bus into town!

French farmers are blocking roads again (I absolutely support them) in protest at the EU's signing of an agreement with MERCOSUR, which will basically mean foreign goods coming into the EU at significantly reduced prices and not being subject to the same strict controls. Of course this will absolutely cut climate emissions because it's so much better to ship beef from Argentina to France rather than buying it from your local farmer. Their main target is Rungis, just outside of Paris, which is basically the warehouse for agricultural products going into Paris. They've also blockaded the ports of Bordeaux and Toulouse, the irony being that the entire French Senate wants to vote against this agreement but have no say in it as it's been "decided" by the unelected bureaucrats at the EU Commission in Brussels! You know, Ursula von der Leyen who will not/cannot produce the text messages between her and Albert Bourla (the veterinarian) who is head of Pfizer, allegedly agreeing to multi-billion €€€ deals between the EU and Pfizer during the pandemic (and of which millions of unused vaccines are now being destroyed). Oddly enough, it was the New York Times that petitioned to get access to those text messages but unfortunately nobody seems able to find them!

Farmers are also protesting in the UK but that is about Starmer's government's decision to impose inheritance taxes on farms. Basically it's a land grab so again I absolutely support them. As they say, no farmers, no food - unless you want to eat Bill Gates' crickets! Jeremy Clarkson was out in support of the farmers (he has his own farm - Clarkson's Farm on Amazon is fabulous) and gave the most amazing off-the-cuff speech, particularly since he is just getting over a heart attack. You can see his speech here if you're interested. Anyhoo, I was looking on FB to see where the latest blockades are going to be and spotted a post by my niece, who had been to see her favourite Welsh comedian and commented "just having a cwtch with my favourite man". I always thought cwtch (pronounced cuch) was an English word, and it was only years later that I realized it was Welsh for "cuddle". The things you learn when you get older eh! Anyway, the tradition continues because my little French grandson also now calls it a cwtch!

And finally, the other day (the first day the temperature dropped below freezing) I woke up to snow, snow everywhere (wasn't expecting that, I can tell you) and then a massive storm blew in and around 2 pm knocked the power out. Bloody hell did it get cold quickly. I was sooooo glad I bought those simple rechargeable strip lights a couple of years ago because I have six of them dotted round the house so I was at least able to get around without breaking my neck. I also bought a generator a couple of years ago but of course the time to learn how to use it would have been before I needed it, not after the power went out. We were without power for about 18 hours I guess so I decided basically to just go to bed and read for the duration! My sister and her husband are coming out in a couple of weeks to meet Charlie and Elynn and my BIL told me he will show me how to get it set up while he's here. I had read that if you don't open your freezers they'll be okay for about 24 hours so I'm presuming/hoping they're ok, but to be honest I haven't looked yet (couldn't face it). I'm having the pleasure of deciding where we'll go and what I'll cook because I do miss having someone to cook for and my BIL is an absolute treasure to feed. Then I got to thinking about what to eat on Christmas Day (everyone comes here) and wouldn't you know it, but a post popped up on my FB feed from a caterer that I was very pleased with in the past. Does it sound hugely decadent to just order Christmas dinner in so I get to sit and enjoy it with everyone? Answers on a postcard please!