Boy have I gotten lazy this past week! I put a lot of it down to the heat but something's gotta give as I don't feel I can/should sit on my sofa for much longer when there's so much that needs doing! I have wasted a lot of time these past few months going down Youtube rabbit holes but hopefully that's going to ease up because in all honesty there's only so many times you can watch the same stuff over and over again, isn't there. Mind you, talking of Youtube, the channel I mentioned not so long ago as a new-to-me channel that I was enjoying (Rewilding Jude) has recently been nominated in one of the "best newcomers" categories in the UK, so I hopped on over to the site and added my vote. He started his channel about nine months ago and has amassed almost 100,000 subscribers already and a few sponsors, so I'm glad to see things are positive for him after a rough few years and wish him and his channel well!
While I haven't done much walking lately due to the heat, I have started listening to Cheere Denise reading Margaret Trudeau's autobiography, Changing My Mind! I'm not very far into it but already you can see what a "wild child" she was, even from a very young age. I'm just at the point where she and Pierre are about to get married and while I understand many people had no time for either of them, her book, so far, is refreshingly blunt!
It was so hot the other day that I decided to turn my stand-alone AC unit on for a couple of hours in order to cool my bedroom down, but when I went into the bedroom I realized that something (most likely "mason wasps") had made a nest inside the unit as far as I could tell, and turning it on blasted shredded wasp appendages all over the floor, so I've had to take it to pieces and clean the crap out of it!!! How come nothing comes easy when it's almost 100°???
Then just the other day I was checking out my niece's prom photos on FB when I happened to glance over at my contacts in FB Messenger and spotted "Je m'appelle Katie" in amongst them. Huh? I have no idea who that might be so I clicked on the name and it took me to a suspicious looking page so I quickly went in and blocked "them"! Usually when this happens, if I click on the name I find out that "Katie" has 120 "friends" all based in Nigeria but seemingly not this time. Within about 10 minutes, however, there was another "unknown contact" showing up so I blocked that one too and logged off. So far they haven't come back but I guess that is how they take over your FB page and start sending desperate messages to family and friends about how you're trapped in Africa and just need a few $$$$ to get home safely! My niece and her friends looked lovely in their prom dresses but it's something new to me as we didn't have that kind of thing when I was at school. I remember walking out of school on my last day and going "thank God for that", while my brother dumped his satchel full of books in the River Cole and never looked back. Different times I guess!
Whenever I leave home I always take a water bottle with me, especially in this heat, and the other day when I got home I happened to notice a little hedgehog hiding under the honeysuckle bush by my garage door, so I emptied my water bottle into a plastic dish and left it out for him. Later that evening I heard a noise outside so I turned on my security cameras and there he has was having a good ol' swim in half an inch of water. Cute huh! I've no idea what other creatures are helping themselves but the water is pretty much gone by the next morning, although the birds who have nested in the roof beams seem to have cottoned on and I now get to sweep bird poop up every morning when I open up!
I also got fed up of my sloth mindset the other day and decided to make all the routine doctor's appointments that are shortly coming due. I had an eye exam on Wednesday (no change) and was very impressed with how efficient their whole set up was. Right next door is an optician's so I stopped in there with my new prescription and within 10 minutes had walked out having ordered two new pairs of glasses. Then when I got home I submitted the bills to my medical insurance provider and within about an hour I'd been reimbursed. Again, I can't knock them for efficiency!
On Saturday I went to the end-of-year kermesse (fair?) at Charlie's school where we'd signed up for their couscous dish to support the school's fundraiser. While I know couscous is the actual grain, in France if you order "couscous" you get a particular kind of north African dish which is really delicious. The one we got wasn't so great but then it was all for a good cause!
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| Couscous! |
There was what I believe was a Moroccan wedding at the Mairie next door and when the bride and groom came out the women did the "youyou", which is "an expression of joy" - and very nice they looked too!
It was scorching hot so we decided to sit on the grass in the shade to eat. Luckily I'd thought to pack a few water pistols and while André and Charlie probably had the most fun, by the time I'd passed them out to the non-grownups, there were quite a few soaking wet kids and parents!
The next day we all decided to meet up at the swimming pool in Bonneville and while the car park was packed there was plenty of room outside under the trees for everyone. They had one of those attractions where a huge bucket slowly fills up with water and when it reaches tipping point, over it goes and everyone gets soaked. Charlie yelled at me to run, but when it went over he and Jordan were standing in exactly the wrong spot and they were the ones that got drenched! It was such a hot day, though, that I think everyone was glad to get drenched just to get some relief!
And finally, when I was in town yesterday I spotted a new-to-me place that apparently takes in ironing and organizes home cleaners. I never minded ironing even when we were a full house and if you walked into my place you wouldn't scream in horror at the state of it, but I must admit I'm very tempted to possibly lay out a couple of hundred euros to have a team come in and clean my place for five hours! At €38/hour that sounds like a deal to me - you know, something you might do a couple of times a year! Then again, maybe the heat is just making me lazy but the idea is brewing in my pea brain so we'll see if it takes off!
A couple things:
ReplyDeletere your FB "friend, Katie," make sure to go to your Privacy Settings and checkmark the one that says "Only Me" when it asks who can see your Friends list. I'm convinced these scammers, when your Friends list is public, can easily copy your profile photo and include it to contact your "Friends," pretending they're you. Then everyone thinks your account's been hacked, when really the crooks have just set up an imposter account, and your actual account is still safe.
My .02, if it's worth anything to you.
I'm sorry you're having it so hot over there! We've had a few days of 30C, and of wildfire smoke making it impossible to open windows to cool the house at night. On those hot days we have a portable air conditioner that has to run day and night to keep the house comfortable. I'm ready and willing to pay for central air conditioning because I believe the heat and smoke are only going to get worse each summer. Now just to get my taller half to make up his mind which heat pump to buy (which will also supply cooling in summer) and get it done. First he has to "shop" for 100 years ... so frustrating, so aggravating.
I'm not a wealthy person but whenever I can, I hire someone to clean the bathroom and wash the floors. It's so worth it. Sometimes people raise an eyebrow, as if I'm so spoiled I won't do "my own" housework. I figure I'd rather spend an hour doing work I'm good at, to earn the money to pay someone to do the work I'm not only not good at but, because I don't like doing it, am always late getting around to doing. So I always encourage women (whom the drudgery of domestic labour seems to fall to, most of the time, or who are the ones who take it on) to go ahead, hire someone. It's worth every penny.
Hi Blondi, to be honest I've never had a cleaning lady even when I was working and would have been uncomfortable hiring someone "under the table", but when I went past this place it struck me that having a team come in for say five hours would get an awful lot done. I keep the place ticking over but stuff really needs to be pulled out and the dust moved around a bit so I might go ahead and do it. And of course, if you are capable of earning, say, $50/hour, it makes sense to not waste that hour doing work that someone else could (probably happily) do for $20! As for FB when I opened it up again tonight there was another infiltrator in my contacts so I'll go in and check my settings - thanks for the tip. I don't allow people to post on my FB page anyway but I may have missed this. And finally I went out and bought myself two pedestal fans and so far they're doing the job. I doubt I'll be getting AC installed any time soon though as I've been hammered with all the expenses I've had this year, but who knows what the future will hold!
DeletePaying for someone else's labor sounds like a great deal to me.
ReplyDeleteIt has been hot here too but I am swimming laps daily and it makes the heat much more bearable. Well that and central a/c!
You probably won the grandmother of the year award by passing out the water pistols. I have never seen a kid who didn't like them
Spending the afternoon at the swimming pool the other day really brought home to me how much I need to get out when it's hot rather than stay at home. There are plenty of lakes around here and there's usually a breeze coming off them too. As for the cleaner, I'd never really considered it (although I surely could have used one when I was working), but spending about €200 for a thorough "spring clean" a couple of times a year might just be worth it. As for the water pistols, I felt bad that I only had four because the older kids were wanting to play too, but you can't please everyone can you! Charlie and his friends had a blast, though, so that was the most important thing!
DeleteI closed my Facebook account in April and haven't missed it at all...and I was on Facebook for decades. Your photos are lovely. I read a book by Margaret Trudeau as well, she was indeed a wild child! I am glad that I am not the only one feeling so tired! Here in Montreal we have been getting extreme heat and humidity and I know that this is at least in part the reason why I have been feeling so tired. Take care of yourself and stay hydrated.
ReplyDeleteFB isn't really a hook for me as I have just family and a couple of groups I follow and ignore the rest. Youtube is my biggest time-waster so I need to wean myself off that. The Trudeau book seems like it might be interesting although I'm only just into the book at the moment. I think sometimes you think "oh that'll be a great book" and then it turns out to be a disappointment and then other times a book really knocks it out of the water - ie The Other Mrs. Kennedy. Who knew Ethel was so wild! And yes the heat is wearing isn't it - and then I get mad at myself for being so lazy, but I really do understand why people in hot countries disappear for a few hours around mid-day!
DeleteEating outside and a fair sound really nice, but if the heat is too much, yikes. I'm glad you found shade. You do not sound lazy at all, but deserving of a few slow days.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how much I enjoyed my time at the pool as it was so cooling, so it strikes me that I need to spend more time at a lake or maybe walking higher up in the mountains at the moment. Our time at the fair was great though as we were able to sit in the shade and the kids could run amok with the water pistols. As for being lazy, I do believe I'm getting a bit lazy to be honest but you're right, we don't owe anyone any explanations do we!
DeleteThe heatwaves are really doing us all in. My mom hates AC and we caved again last night, turning it on as the house was 31 celsius! I am glad you got up and did some errands / admin stuff for yourself. I think the cleaning lady is a great investment - maybe once in the summer and once in the winter?
ReplyDeleteI don't like AC either - I prefer to open windows, but sometimes you have no choice do you. 31° inside the house is horrific!
DeleteYou're getting the temps we had in Central PA last week. And I don't get notifications on FB, I get text messages to my phone, sometimes 2 a day, and they say things like, "did you hear, my mom fell down the stairs?" or "lunch next week?" all questions designed to get a response. I block them all.
ReplyDeleteI never put my phone number into my FB profile so I just get notifications on messenger. I realize with the phone that if you respond they know it's a valid number/target. Heck, I get enough of them saying "it's the delivery guy, your parcel wouldn't fit in the mailbox". I got another "friend" show up on FB again last night and immediately blocked but I realize some of their scams are quite convincing!
DeleteIt's so weird to read about people suffering from the heat in places where it's usually never so hot in the summer. Yes! Stay cool as best you can. You're learning why nothing gets done in the summer here.
ReplyDeleteI think hiring a housekeeper a few times a year sounds extremely smart.
We can hit 35/36°C here and have been known to hit 40° (104°F) but that is very, very rare and it usually only lasts a few days. Further south of course it gets a lot hotter. Mind you, I now understand why the Spanish never go out to dinner before 10 pm, and the image of the "lazy Mexican" having a siesta under his sombrero makes more sense now too!
DeleteYou had so much going on around your house for so long you're probably just mentally exhausted and in need of a break. Plus, the heat can't be helping.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will be remembered as the coolest gram bringing all of the water guns. They are always a big hit.
Stay cool.
The weather has broken here for the next couple of days and I can already feel the life seeping back into me. But I hate the tired/lazy feeling the heat induces! As for the water guns, in my day we just had empty washing up liquid bottles (more water and more pressure), but of course they were never as cool as the real deal!
DeleteÍ confess housework is always the first thing that I neglect as the thermometer climbs and I begin to fantasise about paying someone to help out. Then I recall how, when I had weekly help whilst working, the stress of tidying up (you pay them to clean, not tidy - right?) was sometimes more overwhelming than the dust!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean. I'd spend half my time doing the work for them and then insisting they sit down and put their feet up!
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