Busy doing nothing!

Actually that's not true at all. I've been so busy this past week it's been great. I think I'm starting to see a pattern here. I get sudden bursts of energy when I get so much done and then a complete slump a few days later. Maybe it's the fact that I now actually allow myself to spend a day doing not much at all that's helping. I've kinda always been someone who felt I couldn't "take a day off" and envied those that could. Hell, my ex had no such problem! But now, well I guess I'm doing it to myself aren't I as I don't owe anyone anything! That being said, I made a cup of tea the other day and walked into the living room to hand one to André - who promptly told me he was busy "landing a 747" (on his phone of course) and he "bet most pilots weren't handed a cup of tea as they were landing"! Ha, and here's me thinking he was working! I have no idea why the thought popped into my head at that point - maybe it was the cup of tea business - but I remember a few years ago reading about a woman whose little boy had just been to see Santa at the store and as they were leaving he said "guess what mommy, I know what Santa's name is, it's Sid. Sid Claus!" When she asked how he knew that he said that some woman had popped her head round the back of the curtain behind Santa and said "Sid, there's a cup of tea here for you when you're ready"! Ha, ha, that still tickles me even now, all these years later!

I was watching a new episode of Our Yorkshire Farm the other night and was absolutely taken with it, as always. For those that don't know it, Amanda Owen is a shepherdess who lives on a remote farm in the Yorkshire dales with her husband, Clive, and their nine children. Now Amanda is a smart cookie and being not only a shepherdess, but an over-six-foot-tall photogenic blond she/they have made their way onto British television giving an insight into the tough life of farmers in the dales! And why not! Farming is a hard and risky business at the best of times and if they can make an income through other means good for them. That being said, they're a hard working and very down-to-earth family and the kids are adorable. Anyway, in this episode eight of the nine kids were roped in to act as "bait" (probably not the most appropriate word) for the North Yorkshire Mountain Rescue team. The kids had a 30 minute head start and were free to go anywhere they wanted on their 2,000 acre farm. The idea was for them to hide and avoid detection for at least two hours, thereby giving the rescue teams an opportunity to put their and their dogs' skills to the test. In the end only the oldest boy, Ruben, managed to evade capture but it was a great programme to watch as the kids - knowing the farm like the back of their hands - really put the rescue teams through their paces!

Amanda and Clive Owen and their family!

And talking of "knowing something like the back of your hand", when I was in junior school (so from ages 6-10) there were no black children in the school at all - which was surprising actually because this was inner-city Birmingham. Still, that was the case until Dale joined our class in our last year. One day our English teacher commented about the expression "to know something like the back of your hand" and what a silly expression that was. "I mean, who in this class could see a picture of the back of their hand and recognize it as their own"? At which point Dale put his hand up and said "I think I might, Sir" and we all cracked up! While it can't have been easy being the first and only (at the time) black kid in the school, Dale fit right in from day one, as you can imagine with a sense of humour like that!

The other day I went grocery shopping and stopped in at my favourite store, Fresh, and boy was it busy! People were lined up with their carts waiting to pay all the way to the back of the shop, but the two women on check-out were absolutely nailing it, running two cash registers each at the same time, having one customer unload their goods while they were ringing up the second person. They absolutely rocked. I did wonder why the place was so busy but then realized that Ascension is a public holiday in Switzerland and all those extra shoppers were coming over from Geneva. This was borne out when I went on to the next supermarket and the scene was the same there too. Still, I was in no hurry and if the stores can make good money because of it then I'm all for it!

On Facebook I follow a few sites relating to local news and the other day I saw a post to say that the outdoor swimming pool, les Marquisats, in Annecy would be closed for renovations until September 2023??? Now I'm sure there's a good reason for this but it seems strange to me that the pool has been closed over a year so far because of covid and now is the time they start renovations? Still, ours is not to reason why, I guess!

Les Marquisats pool!

Another thing I've been following on FB is that as we Brits are now no longer in the EU, if family or friends want to come over and stay with us we will have to apply for an attestation d'accueil for them at least 30 days before they travel. Basically what that means is that as now third-country-nationals (TCN - i.e. non-EU citizens), if a Brit wants to come to France and stay in a hotel, no problem - the hotel will do the paperwork. But, if a Brit wants to come over and stay with family or friends, the family (me in this case) has to provide a whole range of paperwork, basically guaranteeing to cover their expenses while they are over here, that I have a place to put them up and that I am here legally - and all this has to be approved by the Mairie at least 30 days in advance! There's been much too-ing and fro-ing about this with some saying that while the clause about TCNs does exist it isn't always applied. So by that logic when my ex comes over in September to see Charlie, André will have to do the necessary to get him an attestation. Oh, and it costs €30 a pop too! I guess this is the way other nationalities (or certain other nationalities) have always been treated but I'll be curious to see how it works in practice. I know when my in-laws came over years ago we never did this - or even when my ex's cousins came over, so who knows what's gonna happen. And of course if France starts applying this to the Brits, then logically the UK will start reciprocating. What a bloody cock up - just another one of the joys of Brexit!

I spent about five hours working in the garden the other day, digging up some more of my veggie patch and trying to get the plants I'd bought planted before they die (a speciality of mine). I also spent a very frustrating hour or so trying to put together my little plastic greenhouse with the God-awful instructions. You'd think "attach parts 1 and 2 to joints A and B" would be easy wouldn't you, but I took that thing apart three times before I figured it out on my own as the instructions were that bad! I also had the joys of trying to get the cover over the bloody thing while holding it together at the same time (André was in the office) and every so often a gust of wind would pick the damn thing up leaving me in danger of flying off inside it like some kind of French Mary bloody Poppins. Still, it's up now and so far so good! I've also passed the 500 mile mark in my walking and while it could definitely be better, signing up for the "Walk 1,000 Miles" challenge again really has pushed me to do more than I otherwise would!

And finally, Charlie is coming along in leaps and bounds now he's more settled. André spent the night at Jordan and Jen's last night as they wanted to play some guitar and Jen sent me a video of Charlie lying on his play mat in between his dad and his uncle playing guitar and him cooing away and (seemingly) thoroughly enjoying himself. Aaahhhh!!

Charlie at seven weeks! Be still my
beating heart!