The new normal?

Well not really I suppose as things are anything but normal right now, but at least it's more "normal" than it has been this past couple of months. And while I said all along that lock down hadn't bothered me too much, I realize just how lucky we were to have had seven weeks of fabulous weather out of the eight we were obliged to stay home. It would probably have been quite another matter if it had rained non-stop wouldn't it. But anyway, now that I'm freer than I was, I had my first Monday morning yoga lesson in two months this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it, as it really felt like it was time to get back to the exercise I had happily (and surprisingly) totally ignored for the past two months! Because the weather was so lovely our class was held outside in the garden - just three students and Tiphaine, the teacher. It was quite a different experience to an indoor class though, all the more so since her neighbour keeps hens and we had a very noisy cockerel join us for part of the lesson. And again - and I know I say this every time - while I often have the impression that the exercises we did were "nothing much", I always come out of her class absolutely ache-free and just buzzing!

And talking about yoga, my neighbour was telling me that she bumped into Annie (the treasurer of the Tuesday afternoon yoga association) at the market and she was telling her that they are not going to renew the contract of Sylvie, the Tuesday teacher, this autumn after her last freak-out that I wrote about previously and we will now be getting Tiphaine instead. I reckon we will all be very pleased about that! Annie told my neighbour she was annoyed at herself for not speaking up when Sylvie wasted most of our lesson ranting about anything and everything, and I just assumed she meant she wished she had calmed her down and then asked her to get back to the class, but no - she said she wished she had finally spoken up and said enough is enough, this just isn't working out. I did comment to my neighbour that losing this contract might be the straw that breaks the camel's back but her response was just "pfft". So I guess I'm either a big softie or the French are a helluva lot tougher than I will ever be. Either way, while I feel sorry for this teacher, I'm glad that I'll now be getting in two lessons a week with Tiphaine come September!

After my lesson I thought why not take myself off walking like I used to do "BL" (before lock down), and I'm so pleased I did as it was glorious. I headed back off out to Thyez for a walk and while it is always a beautiful spot, the fact that people are still not allowed to picnic or use the play areas for the time being, and also with people now being back at work anyway, the parking lot was virtually empty and I almost had the place to myself. So on top of 90 minutes of yoga I got in a 12 km walk too and am feeling pretty chipper I must say!

Thyez

People are still not allowed to use the little beach as yet!

When I got home I dragged my inflatable swimming pool up from the basement because this year I'm determined to have somewhere cold I can throw myself into when the temperatures start hitting 30°C (86°F) and upwards (and even in the 40s°C (104°F) on occasion). So I pottered about spreading it out, assembling the ladder and figuring out how to work the water filter and I realized that thing is going to take up half my back terrace. But so what, it's the only part of my land that's actually flat so if that's where it has to be, then so be it. Maybe at least this way I will be able to laze in my "pool" while grabbing myself a cool drink out the fridge at the same time! So with that in mind I took my little temporary greenhouses back down into the basement and I reckon moving the BBQ and the table and chairs just a little I should still be ok. My neighbour came over with his electric air pump to get it started but it's a bit of a dud so I think I'll go out tomorrow and buy a new one - well that and maybe an inflatable armchair (with drink stand) and some Elton John-style sunglasses to go with it! You've gotta look the part after all. It's either that or I'm off up to a place called the Plâteau de Cenise tomorrow so we'll see which one wins.

I have a bit more planting out to do but other than that I just pottered in the garden when I got back from my walk, putting another couple of bags of grass clippings onto my compost heap and would you believe it, when I turned that stuff over the underside bit was actually steaming, so I guess something's working/composting. My neighbour is dead impressed with my "ingenuity" so he said and is now setting up another compost heap in his garden and we're going to see who can grow the biggest pumpkins in it!

Then on Saturday we had our latest "pandemic" board game evening. It had been set up before the world went to hell in a hand basket, so this time we decided to do it "virtually", with me going round to my neighbours and my son and his wife getting together with their two friends and we all "zoomed" in to play. I took over chicken in white wine and a German hot potato salad (which went over very well) and while the games were a bit hit and miss because of the hook ups, there was plenty of food and drink and we actually had a good time, playing until about 1 a.m. Next time is at my place where all being well we will get together on my back terrace (although some might have to play sitting in the pool now, come to think of it). Oh well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it!

Virtual board game evening

I've been limiting my news watching lately because while I want to know what's going on with the pandemic I don't want it playing in my head 24/7 on a constant loop. I think we need to be informed but we don't need to be scared out of our minds. I'm all the more determined to limit my TV watching though since I saw on the news the other night that "militants" had attacked a maternity hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing many mothers and newborns!!!! Have we always been this sick or is this just a new level of depravity? What in the hell is the world coming to, 'cos if you know I sure don't!

Anyway, I did put TV on the other night while I was trying to advance the wasgij I should never have bloody well started! There was nothing much on so I ended up watching Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes, and while I like RD Jr. and thought he and JL sparred off each other pretty well, I did get sick of all the fight scenes and noisy brawls. Somehow, my impression of Sherlock Holmes is that he would never have been caught in anything as vulgar as a fight, he was just too much of a gentleman!

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes

Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes - now that's more like it!

So basically there's bugger all to watch on TV. I ended up subscribing to Amazon Prime videos a while back because I wanted to watch The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel and since I've watched all three series I wasn't sure what else (if anything) I wanted to watch. A year or so ago a friend lent me the entire Downton Abbey series which I enjoyed, and then another friend lent me Desperate Housewives. I made it to series three of DH but then kinda got bored with it. I think what did it for me was "Susan" (Teri Hatcher) playing the perpetually dumb female making googoo eyes over "Mike" (James Denton) - you know, the actor who, while absolutely gorgeous, would seem to have just one facial expression and most likely just one act - a bit like Hugh Grant. I don't know, it was cute to begin with but I gave up in the end. Soooooo don't laugh but I decided I would start watching The Sopranos, going right back to the first series which was actually filmed in 1999 can you believe???? I know, I know, I'm anything but up-to-date. But either way I'm enjoying what I've seen so far. When I start watching this stuff I always end up looking up the actors, so I was shocked to see that the late James Gandolfini was only 37 when he made the first series. Gosh, with his balding head and dad bod I had him pegged to be in his 50s. I like him anyway, and it was really tragic to hear that he actually died at the age of 51 from a heart attack, but I must be totally off whack with my "sizing people up" skills, because I was way out on that one.

James Gandolfini

So I guess I'm only 21 years late watching the first series that everyone was raving about at the time, but better late than never I guess. Next they'll be telling me Princess Diana has died - ha, as if!