The delivery guy showed up (as always, on time) last week - or was it the week before - to deliver the 1,700 litres of heating fuel I'd ordered and yikes, the bloody price of it. As I mentioned before it had increased by 80% but what can you do when you're almost out. He told me I'd done the right thing by not trying to wait it out as I was down to around my last 100 litres, but then I knew this and didn't want any muck from the bottom of my tank to go through the pipes. As always I offered him a coffee and was surprised when he actually accepted this time. While we were doing the paperwork he told me he only had two more deliveries to do that day as people were indeed "hanging on", so I told him I was so relieved to be able to get it and he laughed. Told me that they had no problem getting supplies as in the south of France it comes from Algeria, in the west it comes from the US and in the north it comes from the North Sea!!!! You mean the North Sea where the UK has an abundant oil and gas supply but where the government will no longer allow drilling to take place because, well, "climate change"? Given that the UK also has an abundant supply of coal underground I think the government is insane (to put it mildly) but then again, they might just be working to the beat of another drum. Yep, let's stop using our natural resources, kill of all those farting cows and then we'll all be saved - or starved and frozen to death. Rant over (not quite sure where that came from but it felt good)!
 |
As the week started out lovely I also took myself back out to the lake at Passy to get some easy walking in. It had been ages since I'd been there so while it really is a gentle stroll, and I'm very much aware I need to get more serious about walking, it was truly a pleasure to be out and about in one of my favourite spots!
 |
| Lac de Passy |
I quite unintentionally got a rather more difficult walk in the next day though as I'd taken my car to Ford to get my winter tyres off but the return bus had been rerouted due to the annual fun fair being set up. So I decided to walk into town and catch it from there, only to miss it by about 30 seconds. When I looked up the next bus it was two hours later so I had no choice but to start legging it uphill all the way home. I always tend to make a mountain (literally) out of a molehill and while it did take me just over an hour, in the end it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, thank goodness!
On the Wednesday I bumped into André's girlfriend and her oldest son at the supermarket and she was telling me they'd just booked up to go away together to Antibes (South of France) for 10 days in August. Sooo, things seem to be on the up and up for both of them - which I'm really pleased about, as I haven't seen him this happy in a long time!
When I was pressure-washing my back terrace in March, something shot into my eye and has been bothering me ever since. It wasn't painful but just felt like I could see a fly out the corner of my eye all the time so I had an appointment today to get it looked at. She said there isn't actually anything in my eye so maybe it's a scratch and I'm to come back when I return from vacation and she'll try to get it sorted out. The place was very efficient and the whole experience only cost me €52 (90% of which being covered by my insurance and which would have been around six times that amount in Switzerland) but the building is quite old and has that "old people's home" smell of boiled cabbage to it for some reason. Still, I'll take that over a €300 bill anytime!
I went to club on Tuesday even though I wasn't feeling so great (apparently there's "something" going around) as I wanted to get as much done as possible before my trip next week. After we'd cleared away all the washing up and put the place back to rights our small group were sat there having a drink when someone got onto the subject of April's Fool pranks. Cathy started telling us how one time they'd come home from work and found all their washing hanging from the cherry trees in their yard. Then Monique told how her son and his friends had managed to get hold of two bidets (don't ask me how) and hoisted them on top of the pillars at the edge of the entrance way to her drive. They'd also manufactured a huge sign saying "The Two Bidets Restaurant" and even put an ad in the paper. She was roaring laughing when she said they'd gotten calls for weeks after that with people wanting to make reservations! While she may be getting a bit forgetful and a bit "sensitive" now, she most certainly was (and probably still is) a good sport for someone who is almost 80!
And finally, yep I'm off for a short vacation (four nights) to Lake Garda in Italy on Monday. The initial paperwork from the travel agents said "departure at 00.00h from the depot", which I thought was madness for what is maybe a six hour drive, maximum. So I called them up and asked if this was correct and they very hastily sent out a correction to everyone saying "departure at 5.50 am". Apparently, with the younger members of the family taking over now, things are a bit slapdash as this isn't the first time this has happened, with a busload of people previously having showed up at midnight and no-one there to meet them, so I'm so glad I queried it. Will let you know how it goes when I get back!
 |
| Lake Garda (a google image, since I haven't been there yet)! |
No comments:
Post a Comment