Returning to normal - hopefully!

I flew back from the funeral via Manchester on Sunday night after a week full of 360° weather changes and very mixed emotions. Sadness, of course, for the loss of my brother, but full of laughter - as usually happens on these occasions when we allow ourselves to remember the silly things too. The funeral was nicely done and the celebrant spoke well, I thought. Turns out he knew my mom's family from when he was a child and he managed to bring quite a personal touch to it. After the funeral I actually commented to Phil's oldest son, Darren, that it was a shame we now only seemed to meet up at funerals since, for a large family, we (mostly) get along very well so did anyone have any thoughts on meeting up occasionally somewhere "neutral" - to which Darren replied "but who would we have to shoot"? He has my brother's sense of humour and just cracks me up!

We set off from Dorset on the Thursday morning before the funeral as on a "good" day it would be a 6-7 hour journey and on a "usual" day it could take any number of hours! For that reason, my brother-in-law decided to take the back roads as the last time he had driven up to North Wales on the motorway the traffic jams were horrendous. And honestly, it was a real pleasure to take that route and visit (or re-visit) places I hadn't seen in decades. On the way up we went through a lovely town called Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire - it was so, so pretty it would be hard to do it justice. It was also near here that we stopped to eat in an unassuming little place that ended up doing the most amazing food! Homemade venison or chicken pies, fabulous cakes, sticky toffee puddings, you name it!! It really was superb, although after last week I don't think I'll even set foot on a set of scales for at least a month!

Bradford-on-Avon

Near Ledbury we passed a lovely looking pub that I had never seen before. Ledbury is only a few miles from where BIL grew up so he and my sister spent quite some time reminiscing about the different places they had been when dating/first married.

The Trumpet Pub near Ledbury

My youngest son and his fiancée were able to get a couple of days off in order to come to the funeral so afterwards, having shown them around Conwy and Llandudno, I thought they might enjoy "UK prices" and took them to that young person's shopping paradise - Primark! Well that was a hit! Basically Jordan followed Jen around like a sherpa carrying a shopping basket, with her going "oh my goodness look at these prices! How much is that in real money?" and so on. After her shopping spree it was Jordan's turn and we went upstairs to the men's department where he got to satisfy his urge to shout "oh my goodness …"! Anyway, they were both really happy with their purchases and, since they made sure not to bring too much stuff with them, we were able to get all their goodies back without having to pay any excess baggage! Which did trigger an interesting question (provoked by me, I have to admit) about whether they would be able to have such a "spend up" if a no deal Brexit meant import duties were re-imposed on goods coming into France from the UK! Which also gave way to a more interesting discussion with my family when we saw a similar sign to the one below on a door in Conwy!

On our final day in Wales we decided to visit Portmeirion since none of us had ever been there before and I/we were very pleasantly surprised. It was so pretty and the china in the gift shop was to die for! Expensive and fabulous so unfortunately I couldn't indulge but I was drooling, I have to admit!

Portmerion

Portmerion

I had forewarned my sister that on the way back I wanted to take the kids for a drive up through Betws-y-Coed so wouldn't be following them back to Llandudno via the normal route (through Llanrwst - where my grandfather used to have a cobbler's shop). Well! By the time we got there it was dark and starting to snow and as we were leaving Betws I was having a hard time seeing where I was going as there were no lights, no cats' eyes and walkers heading up the road in the dark, presumably to the Snowdonia hostel further up, It was really hard work, bearing in mind I was on the "wrong side of the road" too! At one point I had had to chose between going straight on (unsignposted) or taking a left turn but going that way would take me over Llanberis Pass, in the dark, in the snow, on the wrong side of the road and still not sure I was going the right way! Turns out I was right, but by golly that was hard work, although listening to Jen trying to pronounce Welsh names from the GPS on her telephone was hilarious!

Llanberis Pass

When I got back to France I ended up coming down with the lurgy, which could have been due to stress in addition to the cold and howling wind that we had to put up with in Wales, but I have to say we were actually pretty lucky for the most part in that when the weather was doing its worst we were mainly in the car and actually managed to avoid the worst it could throw at us. Not completely, of course, or else I wouldn't have got sick but ….. Either way I'm starting to feel better already after a few lazy days and am already thinking it's time to get back to the old exercise malarky to compensate for the surfeit of calories I managed to cram into my poor body last week!

And finally, when I got home I realized that the bloody handle on my (relatively) new suitcase had come right off, either in Manchester or in Geneva upon arrival, so somewhere or other there is a suitcase handle with my name and phone number attached to it squeaking forlornly around a baggage carousel, somewhat like Rhod Gilbert describes below!

Couldn't resist this!

My sister and I have been going through a pile of old photos from our childhood, just killing time I suppose. It's nice because she can put names to faces that I can't. Talk about a rag tag bunch! But what stood out and had us roaring laughing were the bloody "home haircuts"! I swear our mom just used to put a bowl on our heads and attack our hair with garden scissors! I think Vidal Sassoon can rest easy don't you! From top to bottom: Anna, Brenda, Marion and Rachel!

Anna

Brenda

Marion

Rachel

I made it - but only just!

We had more snow on Sunday but the roads were pretty clear when my friend dropped me at the airport (I am perennially early) and I had almost made it to the check in when a line of Swiss police started herding everyone out saying "evacuate, evacuate"! And we were all directed out of the airport (to stand for the next 90 minutes in the snow as it turned out). I eventually discovered that there was an unattended suitcase found outside a bookstore and they ended up calling in the bomb squad and sniffer dogs! The Easyjet check ins seemed to be where it was "all occurring" and most of those flights were UK bound (mainly skiers) so in the end I ended up standing outside in the snow with a group of very good natured Brits, I have to admit! Maybe we're just more used to getting stuck in delays and we're definitely experts at queuing, but nobody got worked up or ratty and one man cracked me up after about an hour when he proclaimed in a very loud voice "well that's the last time I pay for speedy boarding"! We all burst out laughing!

They had a robot x-ray the case and then sent in the dog and the bomb squad and it turned out to be a false alarm luckily! I hope they came down hard on the bag's owner (presuming they found them) as it must have cost the airport/airlines a small fortune! I had resigned myself to missing my flight (and possibly also the funeral) but I have to admit the staff pulled out all the stops (Easyjet ground staff in particular) and I made it to the UK with just a one hour delay!

We're off to Wales on Thursday for the funeral on Friday and then it's back to Geneva on Sunday for me. I don't have my laptop with me so I'm bashing this out one-fingered on my phone! I hope to get back to catching up with my blog reading (and indeed catching up with my own life) next week, so until then .....!

Let it snow!

Crikey, I know I've been saying winter hasn't even started here for a while but then today happened! Starting yesterday evening with rain it must have turned to snow during the night because this morning it was coming down thick and fast! And it didn't stop all day! I heard the snowplough come through around 5 a.m. but the snow never stopped. I can't say it was cold at all (I guess it has to warm up in order to snow) but that snow was just relentless. Which would have been fine if I didn't have to go anywhere (normally I don't) but I recently received a reminder that my car was coming due for its contrôle technique (MOT in the UK) and I had it booked in for this afternoon! Typical! It has barely snowed at all this season and now I have to drive into town behind the plough! Still, on a positive note, yet again I am eternally grateful that I wasn't pushing snow off my car at 6 a.m. this morning trying to get to work on what I'm now beginning to believe is the world's greatest parking lot - the Geneva ring road! I swear two days a week the traffic on that road doesn't move at all, thus becoming one massive parking lot!

Anyway, I made it into town ok and dropped off my car for it's inspection, which, conveniently enough, was located right next door to Intersport - a local sporting goods chain - where they were having their sales! Yay me! Thirty minutes to spare and the sales are on next door!  I managed to find a nice lightweight, but windproof, top in the sale - which kinda surprised even me to be honest, as I usually can't find anything in my size - French women are just so diddy for the most part and I can rarely find a sports top to fit!! I guess I might have lost a little weight then! In addition I also picked up a long rain poncho for my trip to Sri Lanka in March. We were told to bring warm-ish clothes as certain parts can get cold and can also be wet (though I doubt as cold and wet as here) and I wanted something really lightweight as I only want to pack a small case! For the other stuff I want I will look around when I get to England as there are good sporting goods stores near my sister and they will be a lot cheaper!

Anyway, my car was basically OK but I have to have a couple of minor things sorted. He mentioned something about the "power steering having a little too much give" and a small light that needed changing, but frankly I know very little about cars and even less when they explain it to me in French! I have two months to get it sorted in order for my car to be fully compliant, so I dropped straight in at my garage and booked an appointment for when I get back from England. I have known Thierry at Ford for ages and he is a really good guy. He also speaks fairly decent English and likes to practice with me! He has me booked in for the work when I get back and then offered to drop it back off at the MOT place when it was done so that I didn't have to bother - so all good then!

Well "all good" until I got home of course, which was when I found out the electricity was out! I have no idea when it went off and they have always been very good about getting it up and running quickly, but having no electricity does make you realize how dependent you are on it doesn't it. I mean, I heat my home with fuel but obviously the system can't run without electricity! Still, I was able to make myself a cup of tea on my gas hob so all was not lost! I keep a couple of torches dotted around my house but the the one in my bedroom didn't work when I picked it up because of course the batteries had been in it too long! Not a worry though as I had others but it could, indeed, have been a cold evening had they not got the electricity up and running fairly sharply! The longest we have been without electricity since I have been here was over New Year 1999/2000 when I think it was out for about 24 hours and by golly it was cold. I'm lucky in that I have a log fire that I can use to heat the house but it obviously wouldn't be a long term solution. And another little tidbit, our little town of La Roche was the first in France to get electricity! You never know what you don't know do you!

Anyway, it has started to rain now so I'm hoping it will wash away a lot of the snow by the time I fly on Sunday. I can already hear the snow falling off the roof right now so fingers crossed!

I think she was taking the mickey!

After hearing I had signed up for a new yoga class my friend sent me a video of this little 98 year old Indian lady yogi with words to the effect "that'll be you soon"! I think she was making fun of me don't you! But that's where the similarities end apparently. Firstly, I'm not Indian, secondly I have all my own teeth but seriously!!! This lady is just amazing. I could only ever aspire to be 1/10th as good as her in my dreams! But it says a lot for yoga doesn't it! 

I had my second lesson on Tuesday and again I loved it. Actually, said friend came with me. Not sure what she made of it or whether she will sign up but for me at least it was great! This week our teacher concentrated on shoulders and arms and it was even less "dynamic" than last week, but yet again I came out of there feeling wonderful. At the end of the class I get a kind of "stinging" feeling in the base of my spine which I reckon is down to the fact that I have a small "hollow" in my spine due to poor posture I guess. You know, when you lie on the floor your spine doesn't touch the ground all the way from neck to hips - I guess most of us have that little hollow right. Buuuut, at the end of the class when I lay down my spine was completely flat on the floor. And on waking up the next morning I realized that my back was again touching the mattress all the way down and it felt great. I realize this is something that you have to keep working on but I have to admit I think I'm completely hooked!

Anyway, yesterday we had quite a heavy snow fall and I did hesitate to drive in to Geneva to my work's gym but … damn and drat .... the snow plough came through at 5 a.m. and then again at mid-day and I had no excuse, so off I went. I think I will have to learn to go to the gym first before stopping to chat with colleagues though as I didn't get as much time in as I would have liked! I made a cake to take in and got chatting to my former boss so that cut into my gym time (but at least the cake is all gone). I wanted to get out of there before 4 pm as I didn't want to get caught in rush hour traffic - but no such luck! If you take the Geneva ring road to France there are three tunnels before the border, and just as I was passing the airport I saw a sign to say that there had been an accident in the first tunnel and everything was at a standstill! Seems nothing ever changes right! It took me 90 minutes to get home and yet again I was so so glad I don't have to do that commute any more. And then, this morning on my FB feed I saw that there was another accident at the toll booth and traffic was yet again completely blocked heading in to Geneva. Thank GOD I no longer have to do that! On the other hand, I finally got paid my first pension payment! It felt like it would never happen! We routinely got paid early in December (17th December I think) and since my pension isn't paid until the last day of the month (as opposed to 25th of the month for my salary), it felt like my December salary had to last until the 91st of January! Still, even though my pension is only about one-third of my salary this one didn't seem so bad as I also received the lump sum I am going to be using to pay off my mortgage in April. So the bank account is (temporarily) looking very healthy indeed. Not that it will last but I just might take a picture of that balance to frame and put on my wall!

In other news, on Tuesday night I had my first patchwork lesson of the year. This time we are making a Kaffee Fassett mystery quilt, which is made up basically of two repeating blocks. At least I hope to get it down pat by force of sheer repetition. It isn't difficult as such but I find it hard to be so accurate (down to the millimetre) in order to get the repeating patterns lined up. Fingers crossed I can get the hang of it as it sure isn't cheap. And since I am no longer at work, getting home at 11 p.m. after my class didn't phase me in the least!

I mentioned in my last post that I have rented a car in North Wales to get around while I am back for my brother's funeral. Well I got an email from them confirming the reservation and asking me to call them. I tried a couple of times but it sounded like someone was trying to make a call wearing ear plugs and snorkeling gear while chewing on marbles so I had to give up in the end. I sent them a mail asking what they needed to know but in fact it was just asking me if I needed to be picked up (from the train station, for instance) in order to get to my rental car! I'm quite impressed I have to say. Good service and all that.

Talking of "good service" though, I was reading an article about poverty in the UK this morning and people on the low or no income scale who are struggling with usurious loans. I thought these horrendous loan "deals" had been done away with when Wonga went bust, but one instance they quoted was car loans at 535%!!! Now you may ask why someone with a low income would be thinking of buying a car but public transport isn't a given in all areas and is definitely not always cheaper. Either way, these people are, for the most part, definitely being taken to the cleaners and falling ever deeper into the debt spiral because of these crooks posing as benevolent lenders. I know it's not true of everyone and some people are just stupid with money, but I can't help feeling that these kinds of lending rates are just criminal! It does, however, beggar belief that some of these young women are continuing to have babies with (seemingly) no father in the picture. Surely it is madness to keep having children if you can't count on the child's father to be there!! Where are these fathers and where is their accountability (read "financial responsibility")? And again I know that this is a stereotype and some got into this awful position through no fault of their own - but surely it's time to stop these kinds of loans once and for all. To save people who can't seem to save themselves! This is where social services need to step in, in my opinion, but of course their budgets are being cut way back to the bone also. Rant over!

Anyway, moving on, I have been watching the weather to see if there will be a problem with my flight on Sunday. It seems like (from this end at least) all should be well. Fingers crossed. Then I had a call from Steve who told me he was supposed to be "snowed in" - and all they got was about one-eighth of an inch of snow. I burst out laughing. According to Steve, for the most part the newspapers send some poor sod off to the far north of Scotland to photograph a car in a ditch and then that becomes the "norm" as far as the UK is concerned. Now I know the north does get dreadful weather (as indeed does Wales) but if you live there you know it's coming and, presumably, know how to deal with it! As for Steve, he has a series of hospital appointments prior to going in for his bone marrow transplant but he actually does look rather well. Poor bugger had to have a skin lesion removed from his head - which they spotted some time ago but didn't want to touch until he was over his first bout of chemo. Now he has a rather large scar on the top of his head and scarring down his arm where they took skin for the skin graft. Still, it's better than last time I spoke to him as he had what looked like a rather large piece of ravioli stuck on his head while the scarring healed. Now all he needs is a baseball cap in order not to scare the local kiddies. Poor devil, I know he will be glad when it's all over, but then, as he said, he would rather that than my brother's situation!

And finally, I know I should get my ex husband's FB feed off my page, but this morning he certainly took the biscuit. He posts the most racist pro-Trump crap I have ever seen, totally "anti immigrant" and "anti foreigner". He seems to forget his ex wife is a "foreigner", as are his two daughters-in-law, and that he himself was an "immigrant" for over 30 years! Man, please stop me banging my head against a wall. At least I have now blocked his FB drivel from appearing on my own. Buuuut, this morning he wrote something along the lines of "kids who have to walk 1,000 yards to get to school in this weather should get the day off????? But kids who only have to walk two blocks should get their a$$$ into school"! And this from a man who wrecked his car (drunk) and called me at 1 a.m. from the border where he had abandoned his car. Next day I drove him to Ford where his car was dropped off (although where the girlfriend was I have no idea). When I went to drive off he hopped back in my car yelling "hey I need you to take me home" (home being the girlfriend's house). I couldn't believe it! So I put my km counter back to zero and clocked up the distance that was "too far for him to walk". It was 800 metres!!! God give me strength!

It's all go!

Honestly, I feel like I've booked so many "planes, trains and automobiles" this January that I should open a travel agent's! Or maybe not, as it happens! Many years ago I thought that I would enjoy that as a job but now? Nah, not so much! I think I get so paranoid I will miss something that I couldn't imagine taking on the responsibility for someone else's travels! Oddly enough, my daughter-in-law loves organizing and booking all their tailor-made trips - she says that is the best part! Not me, I guess old dogs/new tricks and what not!

I have already booked my flight back to the UK for this Sunday. I will be flying to Bournemouth to stay with my sister and her husband and then we will drive up to Wales for the funeral on Friday. My oldest son and his wife can't make the funeral but since they were good enough to fly out and see my brother while he was still alive nobody has any problem with them not being able to make it! Nobody would have any problem in any case because that's just the way it is sometimes isn't it. My youngest son, on the other hand, has said that he really wants to go as both he and his fiancée have been able to get the Thursday and Friday off. But trying to figure out the best way to get us all to meet up was tricky. Flying in to Liverpool was a non-starter for them so we looked at Manchester and managed to get half-decent priced flights. When I asked my son how he felt about my renting a car at the airport and him driving (on the left) to get to Wales he said he didn't feel too bad about that part but he was worried about changing gears with his left hand so could he maybe get an automatic! And then, bless him, he wanted to know what paperwork he would have to show at the border! Which border? He meant the England/Wales border! Ah, that's sweet! It never occurred to me that he wouldn't know that there is no physical border between the two countries, no customs, no border crossing and so on. But then, he's never been to Wales and has only ever been to family in England so why should he think it would be any different from here where we cross the Swiss/French border constantly!

Anyway, in the end we decided that they would get the train to Wales and I would rent a car in Wales that we would use to run around and I would fly back out with them from Manchester, dropping the rental car off at the airport. Phew, that's one thing sorted! Also, since only my brother's oldest son and gf will be staying at his house, the kids and I can stay there too (my credit card is saying "thank you, thank you, thank you", as I have paid for the kids' flights too and my credit card is groaning at the moment!). Either way, we could have stayed in Llandudno in a hotel and driven the 10 minutes to Conwy or stayed in Conwy at my brother's where it is just a 10 minute walk into town, so it's a good solution for all of us. Then my friend will pick the three of us up from the airport in Geneva so that cuts out worrying about expensive taxis!

As I am slowly getting the hang of this retirement business, I realize I have to make an effort to actually get things done now, whereas before I constantly had my diary in front of me at work and it felt easier to just knock out things on my "to do" list. Today's project was to get my train tickets sorted for my trip to Sri Lanka. I will be flying Zurich/Colombo so decided to take the train to Zurich rather than fly but every time I tried to book it it has always been "too early". In the meantime, the timings of both my outgoing and incoming flights have changed (slightly) but at least I was able to get the return train tickets booked and printed today. When I arrive back it will be around 8 p.m. in Zurich and as I don't want to run the risk of missing the last flight to Geneva and I don't want to be making a three-hour train journey and arriving in Geneva around midnight I decided I will spend the night at Zurich airport, so more expense (and more groans from my credit card). Oh well, it was all planned for!

Also, a friend and I decided that this year we would definitely make the trip to Cinque Terre in Italy. My friend phoned up today and the places are booking up fast! In fact, the single rooms have all gone so we dashed down there and booked a double room with twin beds - just hope she can cope with my snoring as I could honestly snore for Britain! Anyway, that's done, (the trip is in April) and while we were at it we paid for our next day trip (in May) to the market in Turin! So all done. These are bus trips (I reckon six hours to Cinque Terre) so not as expensive as you might imagine but needing to be booked sooner rather than later.

Cinque Terre

Actually they have quite a few nice looking trips that we will consider later in the year. I know, I know, we're becoming little old ladies with our bus trips, but while I don't mind driving, I guess, like most people, I'm not too keen on driving round major European cities looking for parking spaces/hotels!

And finally, I have been very good about exercising recently and managed seven for seven last week. Then on Sunday we got very heavy rain/snow so I took a break, but am hoping to get back on the bandwagon again soon. We'll see how that works won't we! It seems like I already have so many things planned (weekly as well as one-off) I think I might need to hire a PA - oh that's right, I was one! So onwards and upwards then!

You win some, you lose some!

Or I guess this post could be titled "the pluses and minuses of retirement" - kinda! Well so far I'm finding that I'm going to bed late - around 12 or 12.30 and consequently not getting up until 8 or 8.30. I had hoped to start getting up earlier than that but at the moment this seems to be my natural rhythm! Oh well, I guess I was never meant to be a lark was I! On the plus side, I am keeping up with some form of exercise most days. Yesterday I went with my friend to an exercise group which takes place in Geneva on Thursday afternoons. I had thought it was a hiking group but in fact it is more of a "keep fit" all year round group. There were about 30 of us and I would guess only five of us were under 70, but by gosh these people were fit! We started off warming up on the track, either running or walking - you can imagine which group I joined - and then they had us doing warm-up exercises for about 15 minutes before setting off on a walk up into the woods behind the sports centre. About 15 of them set off running and the rest of us chose to walk it. The walk wasn't difficult but what was tricky was knowing what to wear! You see, it had snowed heavily the night before and it was bloody freezing that day so I put on a rather heavy winter jacket. But as soon as we set off walking I obviously warmed up and my jacket became uncomfortably hot and heavy. Then when we got back we did some stretching exercises and the chill began to set in. Which makes me think, when I head back to the UK next Sunday I will stop in at the sporting goods shop to check out what they have by way of lightweight winter wear. You can get it all here of course but everything is so much cheaper in Britain! With my trip to Sri Lanka in mind I have also bought a lightweight "sleeping bag" to sleep in at the hotels and a microlight towel. I have never really bothered much about hotels as long as my bed is clean but my friend was telling me she always takes an old single duvet cover to sleep in and then leaves it behind when she goes to places where the accommodation is not exactly 4-5 star! I didn't want to pack something that might be heavy so I ordered the kind of lightweight sleeping bag that you would use in a Youth Hostel and it really weighs just a matter of ounces! (Note to self, I was a member of the Youth Hostel Association until I was about 50 so who knows, when I decide I want to travel round Britain again I might take up youth hostelling again. Why not, the hostels are rather nice nowadays and pretty much always in lovely locations)!

Anyway, back to the exercise group. While I was walking through the woods I started chatting to a rather nice Swiss lady and as we chatted an absolute "bullet" of a little lady went running past us at full tilt! My new friend pointed out that "bullet lady" was over 80 years old. She had a full head of thick hair, a great figure and would have put a greyhound to shame! I want to be her when I grow up! Actually, most of these people were very fit - I suppose they had been doing this all their lives and it certainly showed! So while the weather was pretty rotten, my friend explained that this group meets every week come rain or shine, so I will sign up (and pay up) next week and keep plugging away.

Yesterday's snowfall

Then today, after coming back from shopping, I took myself off for another local walk. My friend had told me about a route round our little village but I'm pretty sure I took the wrong path and ended up half way up the mountain behind my house. I didn't mind the walking as the weather was beautiful but around 4.30 p.m. the sun starts to go behind the mountain and it becomes colder and darker, so I decided to double back before it got too dark and cold. In the meantime, I managed to get some nice pictures from further up the mountain behind me.

Stopping to chat to these lovelies was just an excuse to catch my breath really!

I love this pretty chalet just up behind my house!

Another thing I wanted to do when I quit work was start experimenting in the kitchen again since I have always liked cooking. I had seen a recipe for "sopa seca" (dry soup) so thought I would have a shot at that. I didn't have the fine pasta that it called for but I had some Swiss spaetzli that I wanted to use up so threw that in. Maybe I should have stuck with the recipe but I would give my version maybe six out of ten! Either way I ate it! Then when I went shopping last week I bought some unsweetened almond milk - berrrkkkk! So I was looking for a recipe that would use that up plus a second bag of spinach I had in the freezer, when lo and behold up popped a recipe for "creamy spinach soup" which called for almond milk! Bingo! Or not, as the case may be. Yuck, you could taste the almond milk throughout so I sprinkled liberal amounts of soy sauce into it and ate it for dinner tonight. I will definitely finish it but I will definitely not be making that recipe again! In fact, I will be avoiding the supermarket aisle with the almond milk in it all together!

And finally, we now have a date for my brother's funeral. Friday, 8th February. These things take a long time to set up in the UK so I knew I had time to come back home beforehand. I had wanted to fly to Dorset next Monday but when I checked out EasyJet they wanted 200 Swiss francs one way, without the luggage (that's about $210) and I wasn't paying that! So I got a flight out on the Sunday into Bournemouth, where I will be staying with my sister and we will all drive up to Wales on the Thursday before the funeral. My return flight will depend on whether or not my youngest son can fly out (and that depends on whether or not he can get time off). If he can make it I will probably fly out from Liverpool with him after the funeral. If not, I may well drive back down to Dorset with my sister and her husband and fly out from Bournemouth. We can work that out later I guess!