Putting one foot in front of the other!

I got a notification yesterday from the UK passport office to say that Jordan's new passport was on its way back to him (I used my email as I know he never checks his). So that was pretty good service actually - less than two weeks from my sending it off to the new one wending its way back, and this despite the fact that when I was filling in the form online the "computer sez no", as it didn't like his photo and despite the fact that I wasn't able to include a complete copy of every page of his US passport with the application as instructed since I didn't have it. I just sent the main page. Either way, it's gone through so that's one less thing to worry about with Brexit because his old passport was due to expire on 27 July. But, as I suspected, the website that was supposed to be up and running for us Brits to apply for our residency as from 1 July is indeed not up and running because it's not ready, and has now been rolled back to 1 October. Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age but who couldn't have seen that coming! Still, from what I can gather, it shouldn't be a difficult process as any Brit registered as living here before 31 December has the automatic right to remain. Which is just was well actually because I got a phone call from André this afternoon and he's decided that he is indeed going to move back into France rather than stay in Switzerland!

Actually, his first words were "mom, can I ask you a favour" ... to which I replied "do you mind if I store my stuff in your basement until ...." and he just laughed and said "well since you mention it ..."! Anyway, he has next week off and is going to go back to their apartment in Geneva to get all his stuff out. I told him that except for Tuesday I can help, but I think he won't have that much anyway (famous last words right?). He's going to leave all the furniture and so on for Lily and just take his personal stuff so I don't think the move will be too onerous. He and I are going to the Mairie in my village on Saturday morning where he will declare his residence with me and then we have an appointment with the bank at 10.45 to set him up there. He already has a French bank account and tax ID because he worked briefly in France when he was still living at home so there's quite a bit of stuff that can just be reactivated. In the meantime I told him to go to the Swiss bank and get his ebanking codes so that we can set set up various transfers automatically and then he will start sending the majority of his salary into France to both start accumulating some savings and showing the bank that he's a good "bet" (for when he tries to get a mortgage later). I think he's quite stoked actually. We can stop off at the border next week and fill out the forms for importing his car, requesting a French grey card can be done online and getting car insurance can be done through the bank on Saturday. When I mentioned about having to exchange his Swiss driving licence for a French one he said it wasn't a problem because when he moved into Switzerland the Swiss just gave him a Swiss licence and didn't take his French one off him, so that's one less thing to sort out!

It'll be a pain in the butt for a while I suppose but once we started talking "numbers" I think he was pretty excited. It's fairly easy to do loan calculations online and for around the same amount as he was contributing to his Swiss rent he can easily afford to buy a place in France, so I think that will help keep morale up. My thoughts were that he should (eventually) start looking for a place near la Roche (near me) in order to be able to catch the train to Geneva, but he said he kinda likes Marcellaz, where Jordan and Jen used to live, so that's where he wants to start looking. It will mean the horrible commute but then as my neighbour said on Sunday, she has been doing it for 15 years and can still tolerate it, whereas I'd had over 30 years of it when I came to the end of my rope. Either way, it's stuff that can be looked into as and when, as he's nowhere near ready to buy anything yet anyway!

I've got a doctor's appointment in Geneva tomorrow, which will be only the second time I've driven in since lockdown was lifted. After that I'm going to have lunch with my friend and try to get back before the traffic starts picking up again. André told me all the lanes round town are being revamped to make everything more "bike friendly" so I'll have to watch out for that I guess, but hopefully it won't be too difficult!

In other news, the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, resigned last week which I'm thinking may be a prelude to him standing against Macron in the next presidential elections. He is pretty popular and unlike Macron has come out of this pandemic situation pretty well. Considering that France and the UK have roughly similar populations and that both countries' death tolls were at around the 29,000 mark at the same time, it's quite telling that the UK's death toll is now over 44,000 and France's is still in the 29,000 range so again I'm inclined to think they got it as right as any country could! And I see that the other covidiot in Brazil has actually contracted coronavirus, despite declaring "it's just a little flu"! Again, who couldn't have seen that coming! I hate to think what Brazil's figures will eventually end up at given their high population density and an idiot like that in charge. Then watching CNN today and seeing the US figures starting to skyrocket is just so sad because I don't think they've even started to break the back of this damn virus and all the dire predictions look to be starting to come true. I certainly hope not but ...! I think we're probably all ready for 2020 to be over and done with don't you!