That went well!

It's day nine of the new year and it already feels like Christmas was ages ago! I was at home on New Year's Eve and stayed up just long enough to watch the fireworks out my window and then another hour later the fireworks displays in the UK. It was lovely here, so clear and crisp that the small celebrations further up the mountains were easily visible, so it was funny when I spoke to my neighbour's daughter the next day and she was telling us how they had been shrouded in fog and couldn't see anything! I don't know what altitude she's at (I'm at 800 m) but she's only about 15 minutes away so, as always, it's weird to see how you can be in bright sunshine one minute and just a few minutes down the road surrounded by thick fog!

So I spent NYE either reading in the peace of my own home or watching a few videos on Youtube. It's odd really because for some reason the algorithm decided I must have wanted to see loads of short clips of Michael Jackson as a very young boy/man. I was a huge MJ fan when I was younger and to see him (and his brothers) bursting with raw talent so young was amazing. That being said, I couldn't begin to imagine how stressful it must have been, for Michael in particular, to have the weight of all that talent and other people's expectations on such young shoulders!

I got off to a great start with my walking resolution by doing a few local walks immediately following the festivities. I'd walked for about an hour the other day when I bumped into the farmer's daughter walking her dog, so turned round and did the same circuit in reverse while we got to catch up as we hadn't seen each other for ages. Every year they instal a still where my friend, Stan's, old bar used to be and I really enjoy seeing it. I always understood that they mainly made eau de vie from walnuts that people brought over, but apparently they can make hooch out of pretty much anything so who knows!

The roving still!

It's a pretty and easy walk through
some local woods, although muddy
of course!

Leading back towards the village you have a 
local allotment. I'd love to have an allotment
there, but since I can't keep up with my own
small garden it'd be a pretty dumb thing
for me to get involved in!

I let the end of the festivities pass by getting paperwork up to date and sorting out what needs to be done in the new year (a lot, as it turns out). I updated my French tax deductions to take into account the small UK pension that I started receiving in September. I know quite a few Brits living here who haven't declared their UK pension, but I feel that it's just not worth the risk of getting caught (and potentially a large fine) for such a smallish increase in my taxes!

I got my heating fuel top-up ordered (ouch) and sent out a request for a quote to get the electrics in my house sorted after the recent fire! I got quite a few responses and have so far had two people out to my house to take a look. That's when I got the shock of my life when the first guy (confirmed by the second) told me that since the electrical work in the top bedroom was not up to code, had my house burned down the insurance wouldn't have covered any of it!!! Now to be fair I realize that this entire bedroom was most likely never declared when the previous owners created it in the attic and having seen some of his handwork in the rest of the house I've little reason to think the electrical work would be any different, but I had honestly not given any thought to possibly having no coverage if the house had burned down!

This is the cleaned up version of
where the fire started! It could have been so
much worse!

Anyway, that was enough for me to decide that the whole house is going to get a complete electrical make-over and while the first guy hasn't sent me his quote in yet, the second guy could be interesting. He is from Bangladesh and has brothers who are plumbers/tilers/painters and decorators so who knows, with my second bathroom never having been finished and my original plumber seemingly having disappeared from the face of the earth, maybe the brother of electrician number two (coming over tomorrow) can finally complete my bathrooms. And I suspect the painter and decorator brother will make an appearance at some point as I want to get that bedroom plus the hall and landing completely redecorated! The electrician's quote for the entire house, plus installing lights and electrical sockets outside is €9,400!!! but since I'm pretty good at saving "for a rainy day" (some rainy day though) I have the money and will just bite the bullet and get it done, although I suspect a potential trip to India in March this year is now off the cards!

Yoga started up again on Monday (thank goodness) and then Jen asked me if I could take care of Charlie on Wednesday (he doesn't have school on Wednesdays) rather than her mom, who is still feeling unwell. Of course it's no problem to look after him, although if I ever have to run and hide under the table again from the big bad wolf I might end up doing myself an injury. Then of course as we have to chase him with our respective dinosaurs and dragons I'm definitely getting the feeling I'm too old for this lark! I did ask him how the wolf got up to their floor and he told me that the monkey pressed the buttons for him in the elevator! Well of course he did - why didn't I think of that!

Monday night sewing club started up again and since the ladies bought in a galette des rois (a traditional tart eaten at Epiphany) and champagne, Claude asked me if I would open the champagne. Probably not a good idea as I couldn't keep my hand on the cork, which shot off across the room and whizzed between two of the ladies' heads. It could have been really bad had it hit one of them, but can you imagine a trip to the ER with a champagne cork stuck in your ear!

Pilates started up again this morning so I made the rather brave decision to walk into town rather than try to find a parking space on market day. It takes about 40 minutes and while I don't mind the cold, by the time I got there the wind and rain was blowing a hoolie! As has become my habit I caught the local bone-shaker bus back up to the village but when I went to hand my €1.70 to the driver he told me that they no longer accepted cash so I had to pay by card. Problem was, when I tried to swipe my bank card their machine rejected it, and since I was pretty sure I still had at least €1.70 in my bank account (although who knows right now?) he told me to forget it since if they couldn't be bothered to make sure their card readers worked, well then that was their problem wasn't it. And yet again, when he dropped me off in the village he offered to take me all the way home. It was a different driver this time so I'm wondering if this isn't maybe part of company policy! Who knows, but since I was pretty soaked through anyway I thanked him kindly and just walked the rest of the way. Then it was into the shower and off back into town for my bi-annual contrôle technique, which is the roadworthiness test linked to the age of your car. And wouldn't you know it but as I was on my way there I realized that my front right headlight had blown, so had to stop into Ford yet again, for them to change it for me. Thank goodness they are very accommodating and, so it would appear, I did indeed still have at least €1.70 in my bank account to pay for it, although the way things are going I'm wondering for how much longer! At least the car passed though, because even though I have the money set aside for a new car, the thought of either having to shell out more money on this one or buy a new one right now gives me the willies!

Oh while I think of it, apologies to anyone whose comments I haven't published lately, as I've just realized that I've had a problem with some comments going to spam!

And finally, I just saw a video on a Youtube news channel about a man in Corsica whose mother had recently died and her house had been taken over by squatters. As most people know it's almost impossible to get squatters out, particularly in the winter, so this man phoned his elderly friend who told him not to worry and that he would come over right away. Well this friend was a beekeeper and had his buddy kit up in a beekeeper's outfit before going in through the back door of mom's house and dumping one of his beehives in the middle of the living room! This was followed by a bunch of panic-striken squatters running screaming from the house shouting how they were going to sue! The old guy laughed and just said he considered his bees to be "domestic animals" and good luck with suing him! And that's why I love living in France. Most people don't have guns over here, but I'm pretty sure there is an absolute army of beekeepers who are probably just as lethal!