Better late than never!

I had an ok week this week - not exactly over-productive but not bad either. I did manage a walk from Thyez to Cluses with my friend, stopping in Cluses for lunch - so that probably negated any calorie burn-off but it was nice just to be out in the sunshine. One thing that surprised me yet again, though, is that at the restaurant we had to pull up the menu via the QR code on the table!!!!! That's the second time in two weeks that that has happened. I don't know if this is the norm now or maybe it's just that I don't get out so much. I guess in a way it's a saving for the restaurant, but at least they did have physical menus too. Still, I'm finding all this new-fangled stuff very strange! I also made it to yoga and the gym (which is still very namby-pamby) so hopefully I will start getting into more of a rhythm soon!

I still haven't finished painting my bathrooms - I can't be arsed to be honest - but there's not much left to do so I'm aiming to get the walls and the radiators finished this week. Still no word on when the bathroom fittings will arrive, although hopefully it won't be too much longer (not that I'm looking forward to the mess though)! 

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd gone out and bought quite a bit of stuff from the freezer place, only to have to face up to what a hideous state my two upright freezers in the basement were in. So over a period of about five hours with scraper and hairdryer I've managed to get both freezers defrosted and - I'm ashamed to say - threw out five 30 litre trash bags of very old stuff! It's shameful actually because (a) I should never have let them get into that state and (b) throwing away food is just bad, but at least they're done now! Still, I'm finally getting to use up all those old, tatty clothes that I always kept for "someday when I'm going to be doing some serious painting/sorting"!

Last Thursday I drove into Geneva to have dinner with a former colleague, and while it's always lovely to see him, gosh I really don't miss that commute, even if going on former experience, traffic was just "normal"!

Jordan and Jen took a few days off and drove with Jen's mom up to see grandma and grandpap in Lorraine (northern France). They were thrilled to see Charlie, of course, but Jen said he's started with the terrible twos (he'll be two on 28 March) and his favourite answer seems to be "non" at the moment! When they got back we had our latest board game evening at Jen's mom's and while we weren't very many, we played a couple of games that I really enjoyed (not too French oriented) and I actually won one (yay me)!

André is off to Thailand for work on Sunday and, as I mentioned before, he's flying business class with Emirates (jammy bugger). Or, as he puts it, "free champagne and a full length bed"! He seems to be looking at about a six hour flight to Abu Dhabi, a few hours layover, then around another six hour flight to Bangkok, so I'm betting he'll sleep most of the way. Both my kids (and Charlie) could sleep for Britain so I'm sure it'll be no hardship. He's going to take a few extra days after the conference to explore Bangkok and sit by the swimming pool, so maybe if he gets to start travelling for work a little he might feel more settled and less inclined to "chuck it all in and live on a sail boat" which - never having sailed before in his life (although he's planning to learn this summer) - doesn't sound like the best thought out plan to me, but who am I to say! Just thinking about Thailand though is giving me itchy feet to travel somewhere more long haul next spring! Time to give that some thought, I think!

And finally, last night five of us got to use the Christmas present I bought for everyone - a ticket to the theatre in Geneva to see The Lion King! It was a bit hit and miss at the beginning because Jordan and Jen were coming straight from work and I think Jordan got a shock at just how bad rush hour traffic in Geneva is. My friend and I drove to the border and caught the bus and André, being André, went to work, stopped in at the pub after work and then had to run down to the theatre to get here before the performance started but only after I'd called him telling him he'd better not be late! Before the performance started I thought I'd better go to the loo so put my ticket in my coat pocket, came out of the ladies' - and couldn't find my bloody ticket! As I dashed back into the ladies' room a young girl asked me if I was looking for my ticket because she'd picked it up in the corrider! Phew - and here's me telling André not to make us late! Then when I saw the stage I realized that it wasn't - as I had thought - the Broadway stage performance, but rather the Elton John/Hans Zimmer musical performance. I was disappointed, and a little worried that the others would be too, but what could I do? And then the artists walked on stage and started singing in German and I thought "oh sh*t, this is going to be a disaster"! But it turns out they only sang a few tidbits in German and then the rest was either in English or whatever African language the rest of the songs were in - and they were brilliant! There was a huge animated screen behind the orchestra, the music was loud and full of energy, Jen was bopping around, the boys were mesmerized by the orchestra (the drummer in particular - Jordan's a drummer) and my friend and I were singing along like a pair of right old Derby and Joans! The conductor was Stephen Ellery and he was bouncing all over the stage, obviously enjoying himself tremendously, and after picking up a sax played along to Can You Feel The Love Tonight!

Stephen Ellery

We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and, having watched a little of the Broadway show, I think I actually preferred this version. It always amazes me how many talented people there are out there! As we left I reminded Jordan of the time when as a young kid he'd looked at me and said how lucky I was to have such beautiful hair. Huh??? And then he said "yeah, you look just like Simba in The Lion King! Hey, I'll take compliments where I can get them! And then André and Jen got into arguing about when the film was originally released (1994 if you're wondering) and André got it right because he remembers when I picked him up from school one day and held out a video (or DVD - who knows) of the film and he ran over and hugged me, he was so happy. I don't remember that at all, but it's good to know isn't it!

Anyhow, with the years my hair seems to be getting darker oddly enough so I no longer look like Simba, but those aforementioned itchy feet of mine have got me thinking about maybe Thailand, or Mexico - or how about Botswana in the spring? A wimba wap, a wimba wap, in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight ....!

Elton John/Hans Zimmer's The Lion King!