Well that didn't work!

I think I mentioned a couple of days ago that I wanted to start going to bed earlier (than 1-2 a.m.) in order to get up earlier, so last night I duly forced myself to go to bed at 11 p.m. with the idea of reading for a little while and switching the lights off. At 1 a.m. I got back up again as I couldn't bloody sleep! I figured it wouldn't be easy for a few days but I could feel that there was no way sleep was coming any time soon. My doctor had given me tablets before my Sri Lanka trip to help me relax/sleep on the plane so I decided to take one of those, although I doubt I take even 3-4 a year! Anyway, I had a fairly decent night's sleep and was raring to go when I woke up - at 10.50 a.m.!!!! Bloody hell! So much for getting an early start! But I have also decided that I want to try to do some form of exercise every day if I can (but not during the mid-day sun) so I duly set to and did a few yoga exercises our wonderful young teacher had taught us. And you know what? Even just doing 20 or so minutes was so worth it as I felt so good afterwards!

Anyway, "getting up with the larks" (not) meant that I missed our local town's Thursday market! Damn and dratt, but I guess I'll go to another one in Bonneville tomorrow. By the time I did trot into town I was in time to stop in at the notary's to pick up the attestation they had prepared for me. It took a month and cost me €50 but they had done a search of the local property registers and were able to give me an attestation to the effect that I actually own my own home. So that's one thing crossed of my list towards my French naturalisation request. I think my birth certificate and mom and dad's marriage certificate etc. should also be here by next week (in French), so that's another check mark. My next project is to fill out a form called "cerfa" but crikey it's detailed. I have to give all the details of my brothers and sisters and all my previous addresses! The "addresses" bit took some thinking about as I have moved about a bit but I think I've got them all down. The Pittsburgh address was actually the most difficult to pin down as I no longer have our US tax returns (my ex took those) but with a bit of help from google maps I managed to find our little street!

After that I planned to go grocery shopping. Now just down from the supermarket is a sportswear shop (they're big around here obviously) and there used to be a kind of paper/diary/music/book shop which I thought was very nice but it went out of business. I had heard that a burger joint was going to replace it (yuck - I mean there's a McDonald's 30 minutes away, we don't need another one). Buuuut, it turns out it was replaced with a health food/vegan/vegetarian/bio (organic) shop so that's good news. I didn't need much in the way of groceries anyway so thought I would have a look round. Very nice it is too, but obviously it's pretty pricey. Organic food (they call it "bio" here) is more expensive than the non-organic stuff but I realised while I don't spend a fortune I am still buying/cooking too much for one person so I am still wasting food. I guess the "bright" idea then is to buy and cook less so while I don't think I'll do all my shopping there (our other store sells bio stuff also) I might give it a shot. I do wonder, though, if it will work out as there is another similar store about 500 metres away and yet another, much smaller, store right in the centre of town. I hope it works though. And I really hope going back to organic is something that will be feasible in the future. After all, it used to be the only way older generations ate didn't it - I mean, it was normal! I don't think it will be possible for everyone as producing food for the masses just isn't possible that way, but you can only do what's possible for you can't you!

How to cause a revolution!

I almost fell off my seat when the Donald gave a speech the other day with Theresa May about how he was going to negotiate the "biggest trade deal ever between our two countries - but that also includes the NHS being on the table …". I'm paraphrasing here as my eyes were glued on Theresa May - whose own eyeballs almost popped out of her head! The British people had always been assured that the NHS (the National Health Service) was never going to be "up for grabs" so I think any party that tried to put that on the table would be kicked out of power before they had ever gotten their bums off their seats!

Thankfully the Donald did a complete reversal (surprise, surprise) in very short order as people were instantly up in arms! Bloody hell, with all due respect, the last thing we need in the UK is a US-style health system! That's not to say that some facets of it couldn't be incorporated into it and I believe many medications are indeed bought from the US, but to (eventually) switch to an insurance-style health system would, I feel, be catastrophic for the country and for any party who tried to introduce it! I know we already have a dual system which includes private medical insurance (for some) but free treatment at the point of delivery should be inscribed into our (unwritten) constitution! I have no idea what Steve's recent treatment (chemo and bone marrow transplant) cost, including almost five weeks in hospital. Then my brother was in hospital for one month before he died. My dad had two bypasses 20 years apart. And the list goes on. No bills! In fact, I think I was the only one in my family lucky enough to never have to go into hospital when I lived in the UK. While the NHS desperately needs a revamp, and support for our wonderful doctors and nurses, importing foreign management will never be the way to do it!

Still, the look on Theresa May's face (and others') was almost worth it!

Time to get a grip!

Having done pretty much bugger all all day I realize I have to get a grip on this retirement thingy. I have always been a late bird but going to bed at 1 a.m. (or even 2 a.m.) most nights probably isn't the best way to go about it. It means I tend to get up around 8.30 a.m., so not horrendous but I think I really need to get into a better routine. All the more so since the good weather is on its way and I can't take the mid-day heat! I know, I know, here I am already whinging about the heat when they have had 500 tornadoes in one month in the US mid-west! But I really can't take the heat - hence I need to start getting up earlier. Otherwise, lately, I just seem to be wasting my days. Not that I minded looking at the scenery and with the peonies just starting to bud it was a pleasure but I don't want too many days like that, to be honest!

For once I don't even want to be on that plane!

What wasn't a waste though was my Tuesday afternoon yoga lesson. I love it. But, the young teacher is into yoga all the way and occasionally brings in a harmonium for anyone who wants 10 minutes of "mantra chanting" in Sanskrit at the end of the lesson. Maybe it'll grow on me but so far I can't say it's my thing. To make matters worse, you know how when you go to your kids' Christmas concert and the kid who is completely tone deaf is the one with the loudest voice. Well we've got one of them in our group. All I could hear was her off-key screeching and it made me just want to giggle. I didn't want to be rude so just closed my eyes and tried to keep myself in check - it wasn't easy though! But, like I say, this young teacher is excellent - and it turns out she isn't as young as she looks! I had her pegged at early 30s but when she realized I was English she told me she had been engaged to a Brummie (someone from Birmingham, England) about 20 years ago, so easily making her in her 40s. Well I'm a Brummie and with apologies to any other Brummies out there - seriously we have the worst accents you can imagine. If you have ever watched Peeky Blinders you'll get it! She said there was no way she could understand his mother and had to try to just wing it. I laughed when I described the look of absolute horror on my Algerian boyfriend's face when he met my family. His English wasn't very good anyway, and while my family really took to him - he just couldn't understand them!

And talking of Karim, as I was marking off the day on my wall calendar on 28 May I realized it was his birthday. We had got back in touch again when I found out he did an emergency operation one Easter Sunday on a friend's son and her husband recognized him from way back when. Anyway, I sent him a "happy birthday" message and he called me back about 10 minutes later and we are going to get together for lunch sometime soon - and he said he will show me around his surgery. Did well for himself, I guess, but then I always knew he would!

Then on Wednesday I met up with my friend for a drink after I had used the gym. He was in a bit of a "pissy" mood because he had started smoking again and felt rough. So he told me he was going to have just "one more" then give the packet to me to dispose of. Well I just threw them in my bag (although why I don't know because I have never smoked). Traffic on the way home was bloody awful for both of us. I got stuck near the airport at a complete standstill for about 40 minutes and it took me 90 minutes to get all the way home. Again! I tell ya, I don't miss that at all. In fact, one day last week someone posted a travel advisory to "watch out" at a particular spot just after the border because sheep had broken loose from their paddock and were on the motorway. It just keeps getting better doesn't it!

So when I was at a standstill (engine off) I texted C to say that I "felt like a ciggie" - just to annoy him really - so found the cigarette lighter, lit one up and sent him a photo of me "enjoying that ciggie". Yuck! Then of course because I had never smoked I didn't have the right "wrist flick" action to get the ash off that thing. Started panicking looking for the ashtray (which I have never used either) but finally figure out how to open it before I burned my car seats! I guess that'll teach me to play smart ass huh!

And finally, I see the Donald is bestowing his presence on the UK again (and his four adult kids - what's with that?) Not to worry, Queenie can handle him. But while I have never liked him, I have to admit Melania can pull it off in the fashion stakes! I know, lots of money and stylists help but she is definitely a credit to the (mainly US) designers whose gowns she wears! I could have all those advantages and still end up looking like something the dog threw up! Oh well, I guess we all have different vocations in life don't we!

Happy birthday sweetheart!

From this:

To this in 27 years. Happy birthday sweetheart!

Slowly but surely!

Well I still  have a million things flitting through my head to write about - hence the name of this blog really I suppose. But somehow, I added a few more! Today, being Ascension, it is a public holiday here in France, so not much going on. I didn't know if our local market was on as usual because of the  holiday but decided to forget about it and settle down to get a few things done at home. I mean, in France there is always another market tomorrow. And yes, indeed, I will head off to the market in Bonneville tomorrow before doing my grocery shopping. I have occasionally been to this market (not routinely being off on a Friday), but it will be good in any case to check out another one.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. There is an expression in French that goes "je saute du coq à l'âne" which basically means I "jump from the rooster to the donkey" - or my mind goes in a million different directions at once! I guess that's me at the moment.

Anyhoo, back to the real world. Mother's Day in France is always the last Sunday in May. Jordan was born on Sunday, 31 May in 1992, so on French Mother's Day. In Switzerland (where my oldest lives), Mother's Day is two weeks prior, so mid-May. Anyway, I knew Jordan and Jen were going to lunch at her mother's for Mother's Day and it didn't bother me, so I invited them to stop over on the evening. I can't say this stuff bothers me that much so having them go to her mom's for lunch was fine by me. (I remember one Christmas after my divorce that there was absolutely no way I was going to spend Christmas with their dad and his skank so told the kids to go to his place. They were torn of course but I just thought "get on with it", I ain't having him here so go there)! And I was fine with it!

Anyway, after lunch Jordan sent me a message to ask if Jen's mom could come over with them! WELL OF COURSE SHE CAN! I learned afterwards that mom wasn't doing too well so "come on over"! Well they came over and we started off playing some extremely daft board games while dinner was cooking, but you know what? It was fun!

I tend to cook for an army anyway so I don't see where the problem is and we ended up having a very nice evening together! 

Monday night was our last "Monday night sewing club", of which I am now the "Présidente". We didn't plan on sewing but had decided that we would all eat together. Everyone bought a dish and it was a very, very nice evening. The club meetings are not a course as such as everyone takes their projects and does what they want but we have a lady who comes along and who really knows how to sew and she helps out wherever. This is the first year for Patricia to help us out, and to say that she is really "rough around the edges" would be an understatement! She has had a tough life and it shows but she is actually very, very nice and we all appreciate her. Anecdotally, her father was a "native (US) Indian" (not sure how I'm supposed to phrase that), who came over to France just after WWII and never went back. But she said he was an evil, alcoholic bastard who ruled with a rod of iron (when he was sober enough to do so) and her mom lived a life of hell - until he abandoned her and their five children! So to say she is "tough" probably is an understatement! Add to that, a few years ago her 20-something year old son was dashing down the stairs to go out, fell, smashed the back of his skull in and is now permanently brain-damaged. She has had to fight to get him the help he needs knowing that he will never get better, so I'm sure you can see why we all take her "abrasive" tongue with so much leeway! In fact, on Monday evening she was ranting about something when I looked at her and said (in French), "you know Patricia, to hear you speak is pure poetry! When my appointment comes through for my naturalisation (to become French) and where I will have to have prove that I speak French fluently - maybe we can get together so that I can practice with you - I'm sure they will be impressed!" At which point she just doubled up laughing! Which was the whole point really! She is rough around the edges, but is good at what she does and we like her! 

I had spoken to Geneviève previously and she said she would buy a wine set for Patricia as a thank you from all of us, so I said I would get some flowers, to show our appreciation. Well I went down to St. Pierre to my local shop that morning only to find out that they weren't open on Mondays! Damn! So I dashed off back to our local town where I thought/hoped our bigger flower shop would be open - which it was! I picked out a lovely arrangement and took it in to pay for it when the lady asked if "it was to be placed on the coffin immediately?" I said "I hope not, she's not dead"! At which point the lady was at pains to point out that "no of course, they weren't typically funereal flowers". When I think about it, that shop is mainly for funeral flowers but …. how was I to know. I thought "shall I tell Patricia or shan't I" - and in the end I thought "sod it" and I did. We all had a great laugh!

One big issue that came up as we were chatting over dinner was that our group is a very friendly, happy group. Mid-year Pascale showed up and asked if she could join! No prior contact, she just showed up! Well that was no problem of course, yep come along and join in! Except, Pascale was a miserable, demanding sodding cow from day one! What to do! She was obviously (physically) not well - that was apparent from the get go. Terribly, terribly thin, with a pinched mouth! But she was also very, very demanding right from the start! It didn't matter whether Patricia was helping someone else or not Pascale interrupted and "demanded" attention immediately! Now, looking at her you could see that there was something very, very wrong immediately. She was stick thin with a pinched mouth and a very, very sour personality. I had been absent one week (probably when I was in Sri Lanka or Cinque Terre) but the following week they asked me how old I was!!!! I said "you know I celebrated my 60th in Sicily in September so what gives?" So they asked me how old I thought Pascale was - to which I answered "not far off 80".  Turns out, she was also 60. So compare fatty old me to skinny old her at the same age, and I can tell you she didn't come out of that comparison well! I was stunned!

Now apparently she suffers from anorexia. Seemingly many years ago a boyfriend had told her she was too fat and …. there you go. But she is a thoroughly, thoroughly unpleasant person. Cynthia, one of our group, is Swiss and moved into France probably 20-30 years ago. At the time she had Swiss plates and said she remembered going to get her Swiss plates changed to French and Pascale happened to be working there (pre-anorexia). She told her that she would "denounce" her to the authorities if she didn't get it done in time!!! As Cynthia said, "I was well within the time limits and here I was doing the necessary to get my Swiss plates changed to French plates when this miserable cow 'threatened' me"! And she was right! She has always been a miserable sod apparently! It turns out that Pascale is married and has a daughter but is unpleasant to everyone. AND it turns out that when I missed one night when I was away she had been so, so rude to Patricia and Cynthia because Patricia was helping Cynthia and not her! I realize that this woman has problems, but it seems to me that she was more than unpleasant before that. My ex-husband had "problems", but beyond a certain point, "hey asshole, deal with them"!

So obviously a lot going on here. Cynthia knows her mom and says she is very sweet. God alone knows what Pascale's husband and daughter go through. BUT she is a thoroughly unpleasant person at the club and Patricia said "nope, she goes"! Now there were two of us who were willing to give her another chance but as Patricia rightly said if you end up with a "cow" like that coming to the club other nicer people will stay away so she has to accept the consequences of her behaviour. And they are right. She has, seemingly always been a thoroughly unpleasant person, so they have decided it is "niet" to her re-enrolling. But it's sad really isn't it!

And finally (for today), Jen asked me (confidentially) to translate something for her from French to English. So today I was intending to translate the order of service for their wedding ceremony but was having terrible problems with my computer. I had downloaded Office 365 as a staff member of my former employer and honestly there was no problem with my continuing to use it (until when?)! But every time I tried opening a word document I kept having to sign in with my former, employer account - and I had forgotten the password! In the meantime I had bought Office 365 for myself and downloaded it but couldn't get "word" to switch from the employer account to my personal account. Anyhoo, I logged on to Microsoft support with my problem, whereupon a lovely lady called Trista spent two-and-a-half hours trying to fix my problem by remote logging - and in the end she did it! But two-and-a-half-hours! Anyway, what can I say. I had nothing confidential on my computer so told her to go ahead and kept checking when she needed me to try logging in again (and again, and again). But hats off to Microsoft support - I was really impressed! In the meantime, I hope it will allow me to go ahead and translate Jen's order of service and, completely confidentially (schhhhtttt - don't tell Jordan) - she is practicing to recite her vows to him in English (once I have translated them of course)!

More this and that!

It seems like ages since I posted but I suppose it hasn't been really. I guess I've just been so busy (nothing that important of course) that time has flown by! And I've come to realize that I actually like being busy (for the most part) even in retirement. When I was at work I much preferred being busy rather than not having much to do. You get lazy don't you? Or at least I did! So where was I? Oh yes, Turin.

Last Saturday my friend and I took our, now annual, trip to Turin market, only this time, for the first time, we weren't lucky with the weather at all! It absolutely peed down all day, to the point that I think everyone on our bus was thoroughly soaked! For once I thought ahead and actually took a towel and change of socks in my bag, but boy did we get wet! Still, we both enjoyed it as always, and ate, yet again, in a little bistro off the main market square. And as always it was excellent. To be honest, I'm not sure you can eat badly in Italy at all!!! I didn't go nuts at the market this time though, just bought myself a very cheap pair of lazing around slacks (wish I'd bought three or four pairs - they turned out to be great), a nice, new handbag and a couple of shirts for my son. After that, it was fruit and veggies, and again they are just out of this world - and so cheap compared to here!

Now I know these are different varieties of avocado (bought in France on the left and in Italy on the right) but the quality of the much cheaper Italian avocado just bore no comparison!

We had a wander around the indoor fish and meat market, where everything looked so wonderful. I think next time I will get myself better organized and take a large cooler to stock up!

To get out of the rain, just before we were to head back to the bus my friend and I stopped off for a drink. Her hot chocolate was so thick you could have stood your spoon up in it!

On the way back we again stopped off at the Italian hypermarket where people stocked up on the cheaper Italian produce and alcohol and then back home for around 8 p.m. It was a shame about the weather but what can I say … we still love going! We found out at the end of our trip that there had been a second bus going from our depot and bumped into a lovely lady that I used to know when I went to my Monday evening patchwork club. We also bumped into a colleague who is still working - the one who forwarded my tax information regarding my lump sum to the French tax authorities without my permission! She is one of those big "blousy" women, with trowelled on make-up, beehive hair and a loud mouth and though I tried to dodge her I got caught out. She was asking how retirement was and I told her how much I was enjoying it, to which she replied "well of course you were a higher grade than me - that's why you can afford to retire and I can't, even though I'm older"!!! She didn't see the irony of then going on to tell us that she went down to Turin clothes shopping every weekend while they were running these bus trips! I bit my tongue as there honestly is no point trying to reason with some people is there!

The next day was the semi-annual Foire du Tissus (Fabric Fair), where the big fabric sellers come down from Holland and Belgium to sell their beautiful fabrics. We were late getting there but whole busloads of people had come from Switzerland and taken back suitcases of fabric - I guess it's that much cheaper than in Switzerland. I wouldn't know, actually, as I wouldn't even know where to shop for fabric in Switzerland any more. Here again we bumped into three ladies from my former patchwork group and I promised to stop in and see them the following week. I was actually very reasonable and only bought two pieces of fabric for €10. You could go mad there, of course, but I reckon I have enough fabric to keep me happy for quite a while and a few projects on the go that need finishing up first. (In any case, don't tell anyone, but the Fair will be back in town in November!!).

Anyway, I decided that I would, indeed, stop back in to visit my patchwork ladies as they were a nice group. So I had a shot at baking Anzac cookies (for the first time) to take to visit. They didn't work out exactly as planned as I made them too runny and they were "gooping" all over the place. Not to worry, I cut them out with a cookie-cutter after baking and they turned out great in the end! Anyway, I popped in to see the ladies just as they were having a coffee and cake break during their all-afternoon sewing session. I told them that I wouldn't be coming back to the group as I didn't want to take on too many weekly commitments, but they said to just to pop along a couple of times a month when I felt like it - so I probably will as I have so much to learn from them. Their work is beautiful!  But .. don't laugh … when I got home I felt like I was going to sneeze so tried to reach into my trouser pocket for my hankie, only I couldn't get it … I had had my brand new Italian trousers on backwards all day and hadn't noticed! Seriously! You wouldn't want me to make alterations to your clothes now would you!

And I know I was saying in a previous post about how we Brits love to talk about the weather but look at these babies which have been hanging overhead for about the last week! Yeah, spring! Ya gotta love it!

Oh God!

We played a few board games yesterday and ate outside, but I just read this about being British too!  Damn, I really am such a cliché!

"Being so determined to sit in the lovely warm sunshine that you completely disregard how cold you are!"