Proceed with caution!

Well how about that global warming then! So far I think we've had the crappiest summer I can remember in a long time. While we've had a few hot days, temperatures in general have been much cooler - which I really appreciate, of course - but couple that with grey skies and peeing down rain and it's not much fun. Oh and a serious hail storm last week! Jordan and Jen are in Brittany on vacation and while they've had a few good days, the sea has been too cold to swim and the wind is blowing a hoolie. I don't think they'll mind too much though as they must both be glad of the break! Just before they left Jordan had an interview for the new position (two-man team) being set up in this area. He has reason to be more than hopeful as Christophe (his previous supervisor) has told the new guy that he wants Jordan on his team. I asked Jordan if he ever found out what the €1.5 million debt was for his previous company and he said he thought it was just pure mismanagement/theft to be honest. Apparently at one point the owner somehow (allegedly) managed to transfer €300,000 out of the business acount with no apparent paper trail, so I guess his house of cards is now coming tumbling down, so much so that when administrators were called in they found him at the Pont de la Caille! There's only one reason anyone goes to the Pont de la Caille, but thankfully they caught him before he did anything stupid - for now, I suppose!

Pont de la Caille!

Also before they left I got a call from Parchet, my heating system service group where Jen is now working. She spotted that they hadn't done a service for me in over two years so booked me in before she left. I told her it wasn't a problem as I had cancelled the last one since my new system had just been installed. Anyway, "the guy" come out last week - so there went another €300 I hadn't budgeted for. Still, you can't let these things just drag on, can you! Then the roofing guy I mentioned in my last post showed up to do some of the repairs he had talked about. When he took one look at my chimney he told me how dangerous it was. I knew this was true because I'd been told about it before, but when he showed me pictures the entire "hat" was cracked and if it had flown off it could have done serious damage. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at that because it's the original chimney from when the house was built in 1979, but I think I just kept putting it off until .... well who knows until when! He then showed me pictures of the top tiles that must have been lifted up slightly in the dreadful storm we had about a month ago, so I took a good look, and sure enough at the front of the house the tiles had become dislodged too. Well of course it all had to be fixed, and I give him and his young assistant absolutely 10/10 for hard work as they were up and down those ladders in the scorching heat, and the main guy was certainly no spring chick - all the more so since they were dodging wasps' nests to boot. When he got round to fixing the front tiles he pulled out one of the wooden slats that the tiles sit on and told me that they were pretty much all rotten. Now since I'd had the roof re-insulated only about 18 months ago, wouldn't you think they would have told me about it????? Well the end result is that he put in a new chimney, a few new tiles, and new slats where he could on the understanding that he would stop by this time next year and see what he could do then (i.e. when I can afford it). So again, another €2,500 I hadn't budgeted for, but I suppose needs must! Add to that I'm waiting for my dentist and gynae bills to come in and my poor bank account must feel like it's on life support! Still, it could have been worse (it always can can't it) because the other morning when I went to unlock my front door I realized that while I had actually locked it, I hadn't closed it properly and the front door had blown wide open during the night! So while I suppose I could have been murdered in my sleep, they'd have been  disappointed at this point if they'd thought I was worth robbing. Ya see, every cloud has a silver lining for an eternal optimist!

I also saw last week that political figure, Nigel Farage, announced that his bank accounts with Coutts Bank (the rich people's bank) had been summarily closed in May due to his "having insufficient funds" (you need at least £1 million)! The next day these details were announced (???) on the BBC so he furiously put in for a kind of "freedom of information" from the bank which, when it was eventually supplied, turns out it was never a question of funds but more that they didn't like his political leanings. Well I'm not too keen on a lot of his political stances either. However I very much admire a person that doesn't take it lying down and since Farage had the clout and the audience, he did indeed come out swinging, so much so that he is now in the process of renegotiating with Coutts (I'd tell 'em to get stuffed, but then that's just me), the head of Coutts has resigned from her £5 million per year job, and the BBC have had to issue an apology. And I should think so too - I mean, who the hell did that woman think she was, discussing Farage's banking details at a dinner party! But Farage isn't stopping there. He's now set up a website to help other people who have been debanked with no reason given and is receiving tremendous support from the public (you can read about it here). Way to go Nigel. I guess they messed with the wrong man this time!

And finally, I woke up feeling like crap about 10 days ago and reckoned I'd gotten a dose of sinusitis. Me being me I thought I'd just let it run its course and keep using the saline solution in the hopes it would eventually disappear - except it didn't! After almost two weeks of feeling like crud I happened to spot a Youtube video by one of my favourite doctors, and he mentioned that oregano oil was very good for getting rid of sinus pain. In the comments someone pointed out that it tasted awful but he had gotten used to taking two drops in hot water every morning and it worked wonders! So I ran out and bought some oregano oil and as it said to add five drops to a drink that's what I did, adding it to honey/lemon tea to hopefully take the taste away. Well I don't know about taking the taste away - that thing almost blew the top of my head off. Seriously! But, about two hours later I was already feeling much better and by the next day I was almost back to normal. So much so that after almost two weeks of doing bugger all I managed to sort two bags of clothes for the charity bins, take a crate of food down to the food bank and a carload of stuff out to the big charity shop about 30 minutes away. So as far as I'm concerned that stuff works. All I can say if you decide to give it a go is please proceed with caution! It's explosive!