Nothing much going on!

It's hot and I'm miserable (so what's new). So far it's only hitting around the low 30°C but it's on it's way up and I can feel the slump coming on. In summer it usually tops at around 36°C (around 96°F) but I have, on very rare occasions, seen it hit 40°C! The big difference over here is that most people in France don't have AC. Oh some put a window AC in their bedrooms but throughout the house - nope! I usually make do with a very small AC fan on the table near where I sit and tonight I've put the bigger stand-alone AC unit on in the bedroom. Other than that, I usually get by with 2-3 cold showers a day, but I have to admit it can quickly sink me into a bad, depressed mood so today I knew I had to do something about it!

Just to make my day, this morning the guy I call "Pushy Roof Guy" hammered at the door looking to pressure me into getting work done. I think he's a traveller as he always seems to come around this time of year but unlike many "door-to-door salesmen" (con artists) he actually does a good job and quite a few people in our neighbourhood use his services as it seems there is nothing he can't do. Problem is, I always seem to end up owing him at least €1,000 for work he does, so I told him not this year as I'd been hammered by all the work I'd had to get done after the fire (didn't mention that some of it was for the bathrooms) but he really, really is very persistent (read "pain in the arse"). This time, however, I stood my ground even though he was offering me a "special deal" and we could "work out a payment plan"! I'd just ordered heating fuel and then the service engineers came to service my heating system and I'm heamorraghing money at the moment, so nope, no thanks this year Mr. Pushy! 

Talking of being a money sieve at the moment, I also just had a renewal notice from Bill Gates who is now going to increase my Microsoft plan from €69 last year to €99 as from July! While I still have time to cancel it (like I did with Norton), does anyone know if cancelling it takes Microsoft off my computer completely, or would I just be stuck with the non-latest update?

Back to talking about trades, my electrician sent me a message last week to ask what I thought of the plumber he had recommended. I told him I was very pleased indeed and sent him pictures so he asked if he could stop by for coffee if he's ever in the area!!! Sure, "come up and see my plumbing" certainly has a different ring to it than "come over and see my etchings"!

In more ongoing bad news, the local lady that went missing almost four weeks ago now has still not been found, despite repeated searches and pleas for assistance. One of the ladies at sewing club mentioned that in amongst her volunteer work she often invited "social cases" into her home so I believe that is one of the theories that police are following up on. How sad if her generosity of spirit ends up getting her killed!

In slightly better news, the organization where André works is laying off as many as 1,000 people worldwide so he has been on a bit of a nail-biting ride. I told him initially they would offer separation packages to those close to retirement, to be followed by anyone not at retirement age but who wanted to leave anyway. After that it's been the temps that have been cut, which is always very sad because even though they may be on temporary contracts, many of them have been there for years. I told André not to worry too much because if you compared him to someone like me, say, who were basically doing the same job but I was much older and had way more experience so obviously was a higher grade, well who do you think was costing the organzation the most - me or him? With me they not only had the higher salary payments, medical insurance subsidies for me and the two boys (my ex had his own insurance), pension scheme contributions, home leave back to the UK (in my case) every two years for the whole family and education grant allowance for both my kids, so who did he think they would want to get rid of first - me or him? I think it reassured him and in any case if he were to be let go he would leave with quite a large sum of money by the time they'd paid him out his pension fund contributions etc. Still, he'd then be one of many chasing after scarce few jobs wouldn't he. My neighbour worked at a big bio-chemical company in Geneva that closed down a few years ago and 1,300 people were then chasing after those even scarcer jobs! Scary times indeed, but as he's just been put in charge of two more units I'm crossing my fingers that things are going to be okay for him!

In more strange news, I recently received a communication from the GoFundMe started by MP Rupert Lowe to fund a private investigation into the UK grooming gangs, to say that my contribution was being refunded to me. I guess this is in connection with the fact that the UK Government has now pretty much been forced into starting an investigation, despite having dodged that hot potato for many, many years! I'd be more than happy for them to keep my contribution but I guess it is at least honest that they are going to be handing the money back now that it is no longer needed!

The other day, the door shutter from my bedroom onto my balcony blew open (I always keep it shut) and to my horror I saw a 10" wasps' (or hornets'?) nest hanging from the beam!!!! It isn't the first time this has happened to me so I did what I did last time - ran round shutting all the doors and windows and armed with a set of matches, a fire extinguisher and wasp spray, set fire to that bugger. It went up like a Chinese lantern and was out within a few seconds, but I gave it a good blast of fire extinguisher just in case and fingers crossed I'll be good until next year!

After that I decided that despite the heat, I really should take myself off to the gym I was paying for so I toddled off down there and made it about an hour on the bike reading my book, and then a few piddly machines before heat stroke nearly took me out. It was quite embarassing though because there was an older lady there (I'm guessing about my own age) who was in great shape and doing some impressive weight exercises and here I was a puddle of dripping sweat staggering back down the stairs. That will either motivate you or make you give up completely. I'm just not sure which at the moment!

The other Saturday we were invited to attend Charlie's end of year concert where they were putting on a concert called "planets" and Charlie's group, being the youngest, did a whole routine about the "Planet of the Blue Bunnies". They all did really, really well and I am in awe of the teachers who have the patience to teach these routines to all those kids - it must be like herding cats! It was all very civilised though as as soon as we walked in were were all handed a glass of either fruit juice or sangria - guess which one I chose! There was a bike race coming through our village that day and as they would be blocking our entry and exit roads, in order not to get blocked in on such an important day, I set off early for a walk round the Lac du Môle where I had lunch and then listened to the end of the book The Mountbattens! I did wonder if they were going to "go there" in the book, in that for many, many years it had been an open secret that Mountbatten "swung both ways" (fine, his choice) but that he liked them "extremely young", and by "extremely" I mean extremely! There were even pretty convincing "testimonies" that he had young boys between the ages of eight and twelve delivered to his house (allegedly) and did the same with young girls. It was apparently common knowledge amongst the upper echelons and many of them partook at the same time (still going on today, from what I gather)! I knew of him when I was growing up but for some reason I never liked him - so maybe, just maybe, my instincts were spot on for once!

Lac du Môle. This was taken by drone
so I don't know who to attribute it to!

I've taken myself off a couple of times for a walk at Passy but today I didn't walk, I just sat in the shade with a glass of wine to enjoy the scenery and the kids playing in the water - it really is one of my favourite places around here!

Lac de Passy

And finally, I received a notification of another day trip with one of my old fogies groups to the Col de la Forclaz in July. It's above Lake Annecy and not very far at all, so I signed up for that as well. Obviously these bus companies know the best places to visit and to eat - and I don't have to worry about parking, so I'll let you know how it goes later in July!

A google image of Col de la Forclaz!

This and that!

Life has been a bit of a roller-coaster this past week with horrible news and wonderful news mixed in with all the everyday stuff. About a week ago I was sitting in my living room when I heard emergency services racing by and eventually saw a helicopter heading in the same direction. Turns out there had been a horrific accident in the village of Amancy where sewing club is held. It involved a head on collision between a Mercedes and a small Peugeot which ultimately ended with the 82 year old Peugeot driver being killed and the 29 year old Mercedes driver being injured but not seriously so, apparently. I know it's easy to think that the 82 year old probably should no longer have been driving but about 25 years ago my colleague's son was hit in that exact same spot by a woman driving at speed on the school run, so who knows who was at fault. In a shocking turn of events it turned out that the lady who was killed was the founder of our sewing club about 25 years ago and I knew her from my early days at club until she retired from it around eight years ago. She was still very spritely so it must be awful for her family to lose her in such a horrific way. Then I was on FB about a week ago when I saw a post from the Amancy police asking for information regarding the whereabouts of L, a 73 year old local lady. Since I knew some of the ladies from sewing club would probably know her I forwarded it to the group and indeed several of them knew her very well. She's been missing for about a week now and despite extensive searches she has still not been found. Her groceries were still in her car and her phone was on the table but her handbag was missing - a really strange set of circumstances. I mean, how far could she have gotten on foot and yet even a helicopter and tracker dogs have found no trace of her. She volunteered at a domestic violence centre and one theory that I've seen floated is that someone might have taken against her for her work and decided to "act" on it. It's just a theory at this point but today, over a week since she went missing, they appear to be no closer to finding her. What a distressing time this must be for this family also!

On a much happier note, our small neighbourhood of just 20 houses has welcomed two new grandchildren in the last six weeks, thereby regenerating the community, what with two new sets of neighbours who have young children. It's nice to see the kids playing outside on the island but also reminds me how fast time has flown since it was my kids out there playing in the snow and building igloos!

While out on one of my walks I finally finished listening to the Martha Stewart book and oh boy, what a ride that was. The narrator said that if you thought you couldn't find anyone crazier than Ethel Kennedy you would be seriously misguided and man oh man was she right. I know Martha doesn't give off a friendly vibe anyway but to hear just how unhinged she allegedly is/was was something else. It was a very good "read" and I highly recommend it! I also got to watch season four of Clarkson's Farm and again, I loved it. While Jeremy doesn't depend on the farm for his income as he is independently wealthy, he does go some way to giving an insight into just how treacherous farming can be, particularly for those whose livelihoods really do depend on it!

I looked after Charlie again on Wednesday afternoon and since there was a horrible storm that day, looking after a bundle of energy like him was "challenging" to say the least. Jordan had been working on a large construction site and when he saw that they were throwing away hinged wooden "rectangles" he asked his boss if he could take one as he knew instantly that I could easily make it into a raised bed. The boss told him to take the whole lot (though thankfully he only took one) and I now have it sitting at the top of my garden full of onions, garlic, shallots and a few cabbages. I think I'll have to put some netting over it though as I'm pretty sure the local wildlife will be enjoying a few "salads" if I don't!

Sunday was our annual village fête and I initially thought I wouldn't go as I was feeling the heat quite badly, but in the end I strolled up there and ended up spending about five hours chatting with so many local people as it seems everyone and his uncle stops by at least for a few hours. I recognized an older gent from when I take stuff down to the Red Cross food bank and we always used to have a laugh together as he could never figure out how to get my collapsible grocery crate to fold back up! So I stopped by to say hallo to him and ended up getting caught up with him and his partner for about 15 minutes, telling me all that is wrong with the world (and French politics in particular - can't say I disagree with him on that) and by the time I wandered back to my own table I knew exactly how much his pension was and what they did to make ends meet. One of the young men at my table laughed and said "so I see you've met Régis then" as apparently he has a reputation for being a chatterbox!

Monday was a holiday here in France (Pentecost) but not in Switzerland so Jen asked if I would like to go with them to the Swiss Vapor Park, just across the border in Switzerland at the Montreux end of Lake Geneva so of course I said yes. It was quite a small park but there were loads of rides available on miniature steam trains that took you through different parts of a miniature Switzerland. They'd built a castle, a church, various beer halls and shops, all big enough that you could go into but still miniature. Charlie had an absolute blast as we all had to "howl like wolves" when we went through the tunnels. I had only expected to stay for a couple of hours but we stayed until they closed at 6 pm so I ended up getting a rather fetching sunburn from sitting on the trains in the bright sunshine. My own fault, of course, and there were even free stands available for people to put sunscreen on but as I hadn't "felt the burn" just yet, I didn't bother. Lesson learned though!

Instead of taking the motorway we went the
back way through a very pretty valley - but
of course it had its disadvantages!

The castle is only about 30 feet tall!

Inside the mini church!

The next day, since I obviously wasn't tired/burned enough, I'd booked a place on another old fogies trip to visit the city of Grenoble, which is about two hours away. I travelled with Véronique from my yoga class but it's amazing when you start talking to people on the bus and find out how many people you might already know anyway. The advantage of village life, I guess. When we arrived we had a short walk up to what they call "the eggs" (cable cars) to take us to the top of a smallish mountain where there was a museum visit planned, to be followed by lunch in the panoramic restaurant.

A google image - I couldn't get a very
good shot from inside the cablecar!

Our first visit was to the museum of the Chasseurs Alpins (the alpine hunters) which were set up in 1888 apparently as a fighting force of young men who knew the mountains inside out and who, presumably, were good skiers. I think if you were from this region, when you went into the military you were automatically put in the chasseurs alpins on the assumption that you could ski. Well apparently not so in all cases because I do remember skiing one day and seeing a large group of young men on 50 foot long skis weaving slowly down the mountain in the snowplough position (a basic technique to learn how to stop) and felt so sorry for the poor sods who had probably never been on skis in their lives up to this point!

A chasseur alpin!

The museum!

A very good lunch in the panoramic restaurant!

I had to zoom in to get this shot. This is the Prefecture
of Grenoble where I had to go for my naturalisation interview!

After lunch it was back down on the cable car and into the older part of town where we visited another museum dedicated to clergy and noblemen who had had links with Grenoble over the centuries. I couldn't take any pictures inside the museum but some of the artefacts were just fascinating (well, to me at least). Oh there were quite a lot of paintings (which doesn't interest me so much) but also weapons and armour dating back hundreds of years, ladies' jewellery, fine items from the homes of rich men and, what I loved the most, a few beautifully written books dating back to the 1300s! Far from being boring, it was well worth the visit. After that Véronique and I went off to explore parts of the old town for the remainder of the afternoon and ended up having a drink on the river bank. We got back around 7 pm so all in all it wasn't too bad, although I was glad not to have to get up at 5 am this morning, I must say!

And finally, when I lived in Pittsburgh I became friends with J, who was from Pittsburgh, She married, divorced and remarried and she and her new husband moved to Florida - where we ended up buying a house about 20 minutes down the road from her. What a small world. We eventually sold that house but we've remained in touch to this day and she's even threatening to come out for a visit once she and her husband get over their various health issues (thank goodness I finally got my bathrooms finished)! Anyway, she found this picture of us both in her swimming pool so sent it on to me. It must be about 25 years old at this point and my how I've changed - but I don't think she has that much! Oh to be young and frivolous again!

J on the left and me on the right!

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?

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!

Nailed it!

I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with all the work being done around the house - or at least I hope it's a light and not a train coming the other way! After about a week of fairly consistent rain it's finally brightened up so maybe that's helping to cheer me up too. Anyway, I'll take it. I love May (and September) as to my mind they are the nicest months round here - sunny and warm, but not too warm and it's when I feel at my best!

On the "bad news" side, my favourite neighbour has put her house up for sale. I honestly didn't think she'd do it but I know she has always said she wants to move back to the west coast where she is from. Given that both her kids and all her grandkids are here I was still somewhat surprised that she's going ahead with it though. On the down side, while houses round here usually sell pretty quickly, she still has the problem of the flooding in the basement, which my previous tiler said meant he wouldn't touch it with a barge pole for that reason. Then, if/when she sells, her parents' house on the west coast needs a lot of remodelling work since it has been uninhabited for about two years now. I asked why she didn't just sell it "as is" and buy herself a small place in the same area, but she told me that if I saw the location I would realize why she wants to hang on to it - perfect for public transport, shops etc. and it's proximity to the ocean! I guess I'll find out for myself if/when she actually moves as I'm invited, but I know for sure I wouldn't want all that hassle at this stage in my life (she's 73)! But, if that's what she wants, then good luck to her, even though I'll miss her!

In more bad news I was chatting to my other neighbour in the garden yesterday and she told me that her husband had found their cat dead in the middle of the road - obviously hit by a car - and they were devastated! I'm not a cat person but this formerly feral cat was so beautiful and adorable, so yeah, maybe I am a cat person after all, even if I don't want one. Added to that, their little dog is on her way out also, and while she has always been a scared little thing, I think after goodness knows how many years she was finally getting to trust me! I know pets bring great joy and I really wanted a dog when I retired, but I'm past that now - too many constraints for my way of life and I don't need the heartache either!

Tomorrow I have to leave home at 6 am to join up with the group for our outing on le petit train de la Mûre and I'm quite looking forward to it as I hear it's lovely. My plumber was telling me that the train ride is steep and wouldn't be for him, but I guess we'll see what happens when we get there! Today when I came back from the recycling centre I clicked on my car's key fob to lock the doors and nothing happened. So I tried the spare key and got the same result, even though I could start the car with both keys and knew the batteries were good as I had changed both of them recently. Damn, I didn't feel like leaving my car unlocked in a public parking place all day tomorrow when I'm on my trip, and then what would happen if it wouldn't start again when I get back? We'll be parked on the market square but as market day is Saturday in St. Pierre it normally shouldn't be a problem - that is unless it gets stranded there overnight - then they'll tow it! So starting to panic a bit I had a lightbulb moment and armed with a can of WD40 and a couple of screwdrivers I attacked the locking mechanism - and whaddayaknow, it worked. I can now unlock and lock my car door, but I'm taking the aforementioned WD40 and screwdrivers with me "just in case"! Then on the Saturday we have our "old fogies" lunch at the village hall in St. Laurent. Initially I thought I wouldn't go but decided not to be a stick-in-the mud and am going to tag along with Mr. and Mrs. Gossip for a few hours to show willing!

My plumber came on Monday and Tuesday but couldn't make it on Wednesday as he had an emergency. Not a problem for me as it was nice to take a break so I drove off down to a place called Cluses as there were a couple of things I wanted to buy for my garden and new bathroom, and then on the way back I missed my exit on the motorway so decided to take myself off for lunch at Bonneville. I don't very often go out for lunch but I have to say occasionally it is a nice treat to sit in the sunshine having a glass of wine with someone else doing the cooking and washing up!

On Tuesday I asked my plumber to take a look at a dripping pipe in my basement which, in my opinion, was becoming more than the occasional drip. As I knew he would be reinstalling my bathroom radiator and would have the right equipment to fix the pipe I asked to add that to his "list of jobs". It took all of five minutes and now I don't have to lug buckets of water up from the basement every couple of days! When we went down there to take a look I told him that it seemed to have eased up all of a sudden, and he laughed and said that was because he'd turned the water off to reinstall my toilet. I guess we all have our skills then and plumbing is obviously not one of mine! Mind you, I remember how we all laughed at mom after my sister's wedding in 1979 because she told sis to "buy a TV here in England (they were moving to Denmark) so you can still get English television"! So I guess my mom's having a good laugh at me now from somewhere up in heaven!

When the plumber showed up this morning he told me I was lucky to see him today as yesterday night their little boy had gone into a form of anaphalactic shock after eating a peanut!!! Their oldest (four) is allergic to nuts but they had him on a controlled desensitization treatment whereby he was given one peanut a day - basically in order for him to be able to live a more normal childhood. I get that, because what little boy wants to have his mom make him special lunches every day and probably never be able to go to birthday parties "just in case"? It turns out that it was their two year old that had had the reaction, though, after getting hold of one peanut - and they hadn't even known he was also allergic. When they called the emergency services they told him that as they already had cortisone at home (for the oldest) to administer that and stay on the phone with them. Luckily he very quickly recovered but bloody hell - what a fright! I remember when André was about 18 months old and I was on my own with him when his eyes rolled back in his head and he seemed to be having trouble breathing. I don't know why I did it but I turned the shower on full throttle and stood in the steam with him for about 15 minutes and by the end of that time he was already better - but again, how scary it can be!

Anyway I told my plumber today that I was going to go out shopping but that if he had an emergency to just run and leave the door open (turns out the little boy was well enough to go back to daycare though, so disaster avoided). I only intended to go the farmer's market for fruit and veggies as I didn't really need anything else but, of course, I decided to stop in at the grocery store as I wanted to buy a nice bottle of wine for Jordan's birthday. While I was in there I went through the toy section and of course there, in full view, were the Paw Patrol figures so I thought "to hell with it" and bought two stuffed Paw Patrol characters as PP is all the rage over here at the moment. I ended up spending a bloody fortune on things I didn't really need right now, but in the end who cares! When I handed them to the plumber he looked stunned and asked how I knew that was what his kids raved about. I just laughed and told him I have a four year old grandson and that I hoped his boys enjoyed them! So yeah, I think we can say I nailed it on that one!

This and that!

As always (or so it seems to me) it's been a while between posts yet again but as there's nothing particularly scintilating going on and the plumber has now started work I'm just so tired. I realized how difficult it was having the electrician in my house for almost six weeks and now there'll be another two or so with the plumber. He's very nice and seems to be doing a good job, but man will I be glad when it's all done. Of course there are a million other things round here that could do with being updated/replaced but (a) I don't think my bank account can take it for the time being and (b) I know my nerves certainly can't!

He found a large nest of "mason
ants" when he ripped out the cladding!!!!

The old shower - can't wait for the new units
to be put in and retiled!

I can't believe we're almost half way through May already - I mean, where has the year gone??? May 1st and May 8th are generally public holidays in France and I remember when I was still working (in Switzerland, so no holiday) my then boss used to bring all the ladies in our unit lily of the valley, which is traditional here. He was a "bit of a lothario" to say the least but he was nice to me, and when he died the death announcement was posted from "A - his partner and M his wife"! Still, I suppose they had their reasons, the main one, I would imagine being that M would remain his beneficiary after his death and A had her own pension!

The other day there was a knock at my door and two young men asking for donations to "Action Against Hunger". I told them I already donated to the local food bank so sorry, but then a couple of days later on a local FB page I saw that they had also been knocking on doors in the local town so someone had called up Action Against Hunger and they were told that they were not collecting in our area! Damn they'll try anything to find out if homes are occupied won't they!

The other week we had our latest board game evening over at Jordan and Jen's and it was so lovely to see Valérie (my previous neighbour) and her daughter there for once. They have a lovely relationship and Mary-Anne is such a hoot - a real tearaway. She and André were great friends growing up and are still very close so when he was asking her about all her tattoos, she told him she'd had six sessions of four hours over an 18 month period at a cost of €3,000! Now that's not how I'd want to be spending my money but they do look very nice and each to his (her?) own, as they say!

After being thwarted the other day, I trudged back down to the local gym to enrol and bugger me if they weren't closed again. Well actually they were open but the office staff were on a lunch break so no QR code, no entry! I finally made it on the third attempt and rightly or wrongly (probably wrongly) I've signed up for a year's contract. And now of course the plumber is here so I won't be going for the next couple of weeks at least! So to make up for it, I started following a few yoga lessons on the "Yoga with Adrienne" Youtube channel and I discovered I had muscles in places I never even knew I had places!!!

I finally got an official contract from EDF for my solar panels asking me to compete the online set up for my contract. When I got on the site my email and my telephone number were still wrong so it would seem that the left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing! I got that corrected and hopefully I can now start generating electricity to sell back to them but man what a palaver it's all been. Then, as luck would have it, I got an email from my telephone carrier asking for my opinion on their new fibre service - so I told them. Ha, that was fun for once!

At the end of April they held the London marathon and while I obviously didn't watch all of it, I got a real kick out of seeing the great sportsmanship and good nature of the competitors. To be honest I couldn't tell you who won (but well done to them in any case of course) but the ones that got me were the people helping those who couldn't take any more over the finishing line, or the little boy running in calipers, or the person running in a rhino suit in aid of the Save the Rhino Fund! Brilliant!

And then of course there were the VE Day celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe - those celebrations always get me too, particularly as so many of the veterans probably won't be around much longer to be celebrated!

And finally, I see that Clarkson's Farm's next series should be out soon and I can't wait! I don't know, maybe May wasn't so bad after all!

Thwarted!

My sister called me on Easter Sunday as she had heard about the terrible snow storms we'd been getting here and wanted to make sure I was all right, what with avalanche warnings being at level five! I told her I was more than all right as it was fine here but apparently in the mountains they had as much as 50 cm of snow (about 20 inches, I'm guessing) in one go and roads were blocked everywhere!

The road to Chamonix/Mont Blanc -
it was very much worse actually in
the mountains, but I just snapped
this off the local news!

Since it genuinely was nice here on Good Friday I considered driving down to the lake at Passy for a walk but then realized that Passy being on the way to Chamonix, traffic would probably be heaving - and heaving it was! Traditionally the Swiss get Good Friday off but the French don't, so then everyone in Switzerland decides to either go to Annecy for the day "because the French will be at work" - and Annecy gets clogged up with Swiss licence plates or everyone decides to take a long weekend in Italy - and they all get stuck getting up to the Mont Blanc tunnel, so I was soooo glad I decided against heading to Passy that day!

My sister's daughter and her family took off for a week in Marrakech and have been posting the most beautiful photos! My very first trip totally on my own after my husband left was to Marrakech but to be honest the hotel I'd been recommended was too far out of the city and apart from the walled old town and the sukh, I didn't get to see much as it meant taking a taxi every time. I would like to go back and "do it properly" though as my niece's photos were beautiful! In another piece of good news, my niece's 16 year old daughter has just been accepted for a job in a travel agent's, to start in July on a fairly decent salary for a 16 year old and I'm delighted. After two years, if they're happy with her (I'm sure they will be) she will be making more than decent money and travelling all over the world! Good for her, do it while you can, I say!

I asked my sister a bit more about the old man (seemingly with dementia) who they had recently taken in and she said it turned out he was actually 80, although he didn't look it, and was obviously quite well educated and very well spoken and what a shame it was to see such a classy man not even knowing his own name! Apparently his wife had sewn air tags into his coat but as that particular day had been warm, he'd wandered off in just a t-shirt and jeans, so now she has to think of another way to keep track of him since he won't wear one of those emergency necklaces!

I had quite a productive day the other day and finally got round to cleaning out my car and vacuuming it, so it now looks quite good, even if I do say so myself. I'm not one to dump rubbish in the car anyway, but taking frequent trips to the recycling centre or the garden centre it does tend to get a bit dirty at times. After that I came in and knocked Jordan's US taxes out in about an hour, so that's another thing off my to-do list. Since I'm getting more used to the US forms I showed Jordan what I'd done in case he wanted to do them, but he's happy to let me do them (of course). He never owes the US anything because there is a reciprocal tax agreement between the US and France but as he has to file, it's probably just easier if I do them and get them out of the way!

The other day I spotted "raised beds" in my local supermarket so bought five of them and have spent a few hours happily potting up more veggies in my regular garden and the new raised beds. I'm really pleased with them as they can stand on my terrace (easier to water than lugging the watering can up the garden) and if I haven't overshot the mark by planting too early, I'm looking forward to seeing what, if anything, comes of it!

When Chuckles, the leg-swinging telephone fibre guy, was here, he advised me to get a "CPR plug" which would give me a better wifi network throughout the house, so thinking "oh that's easy to remember - a cardio pulmonary resuscitation plug" I ran into town to buy one and they burst out laughing when I asked for a CPR plug. Apparently it's a CPL plug (but Chuckles not being French, he had a funny accent and I misunderstood him). Of course he left me high and dry on what to do with it, but eventually I got on good old Youtube and discovered where I needed to plug it in in order to activate it (no thanks to Chuckles, who never came back, if you remember). In any case, it's crap as I don't think my wifi has improved at all since they installed the fibre and the "CPR plug" seems to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot too! So lessons being learned I figured if I ever decide to get rid of my phone carrier I might lose access to quite a lot of information, so I've been slowly copying all my contacts' information into a Word document "just in case"!

Everyone came to my place for Easter lunch, which was nice. I made Delia Smith's "spicy salmon with black bean salsa" (which went down a treat) with seven-layer salad and baked potatoes, while Jen brought the appéritif and her mom the dessert. We were all stuffed at the end of it but Charlie made us laugh when he told us Maîtresse Marianne (his teacher) was very strict that when they're eating they "have to keep their mouths closed with a zipper because nobody wants to see what you're eating"! Quite right too Maîtresse, quite right too!

After Netflix virtually doubled their prices a few months back I cancelled my subscription, until about a month ago as I wanted to watch a couple of programmes. Then just the other day I got another email from them to say that they were putting their prices up by another €2 per month as from May, so I'm thinking I will probably just cancel them again. With the exception of The Sopranos and The Serpent I can't think of anything I've really enjoyed as I find all their productions to be very "formulaic". Nothing seems to hold my interest - or then maybe I'm just too difficult to please!

So more and more I tend to be going down the Youtube rabbit hole and just the other day I discovered a relatively new channel called Rewilding Jude. Jude is a young man in his thirties who lost both his parents to cancer in a relatively short space of time and in order not to "go under" he decided to sell up in the south of England and bought a fairly remote place in Scotland which he is single-handedly trying to turn into a small-holding! You can tell immediately that he is a very sweet young man, and to prove it wasn't just me that felt that way, he seems to get all these elderly American grandmas in the comments wanting to adopt him, he really is that sweet!

Another channel I've followed is Early Retirement Wanderlust about a couple of teachers who have taken early retirement (too early to get their UK pensions) and who downsized in order to spend as much time as possible travelling either at home or abroad. I think the husband lost his brother at a very young age so that is what pushed him, in particular, to want to do this. I think what I really admire (or probably envy) about this couple is how in tune to each other they are. They both have the same dreams and seem to be totally on board with how to achieve them. I really enjoy their videos and can only say "good for you", and how lucky you are!

And finally, I decided that given that I'm not able to make it to pilates half the time, I was going to re-enrol in the gym I used to go to (occasionally) pre-covid to use the weights, so I trotted off down there today with all the relevant paperwork and bugger me, when I got there, the office is only open Monday through Thursday and today being Friday it wasn't possible to get in without a member's QR code! Do you think "someone" was trying to send me a message not to be so silly or will I end up going back on Monday to do the necessary? I'm pretty certain I'll end up going back on Monday as I'm so sick of these (relatively mild) bingo wings of mine (but bingo wings nonetheless) and really want to do something about them. Watch this space! We'll see what Monday brings!