Putting one foot in front of the other!

I got a notification yesterday from the UK passport office to say that Jordan's new passport was on its way back to him (I used my email as I know he never checks his). So that was pretty good service actually - less than two weeks from my sending it off to the new one wending its way back, and this despite the fact that when I was filling in the form online the "computer sez no", as it didn't like his photo and despite the fact that I wasn't able to include a complete copy of every page of his US passport with the application as instructed since I didn't have it. I just sent the main page. Either way, it's gone through so that's one less thing to worry about with Brexit because his old passport was due to expire on 27 July. But, as I suspected, the website that was supposed to be up and running for us Brits to apply for our residency as from 1 July is indeed not up and running because it's not ready, and has now been rolled back to 1 October. Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age but who couldn't have seen that coming! Still, from what I can gather, it shouldn't be a difficult process as any Brit registered as living here before 31 December has the automatic right to remain. Which is just was well actually because I got a phone call from André this afternoon and he's decided that he is indeed going to move back into France rather than stay in Switzerland!

Actually, his first words were "mom, can I ask you a favour" ... to which I replied "do you mind if I store my stuff in your basement until ...." and he just laughed and said "well since you mention it ..."! Anyway, he has next week off and is going to go back to their apartment in Geneva to get all his stuff out. I told him that except for Tuesday I can help, but I think he won't have that much anyway (famous last words right?). He's going to leave all the furniture and so on for Lily and just take his personal stuff so I don't think the move will be too onerous. He and I are going to the Mairie in my village on Saturday morning where he will declare his residence with me and then we have an appointment with the bank at 10.45 to set him up there. He already has a French bank account and tax ID because he worked briefly in France when he was still living at home so there's quite a bit of stuff that can just be reactivated. In the meantime I told him to go to the Swiss bank and get his ebanking codes so that we can set set up various transfers automatically and then he will start sending the majority of his salary into France to both start accumulating some savings and showing the bank that he's a good "bet" (for when he tries to get a mortgage later). I think he's quite stoked actually. We can stop off at the border next week and fill out the forms for importing his car, requesting a French grey card can be done online and getting car insurance can be done through the bank on Saturday. When I mentioned about having to exchange his Swiss driving licence for a French one he said it wasn't a problem because when he moved into Switzerland the Swiss just gave him a Swiss licence and didn't take his French one off him, so that's one less thing to sort out!

It'll be a pain in the butt for a while I suppose but once we started talking "numbers" I think he was pretty excited. It's fairly easy to do loan calculations online and for around the same amount as he was contributing to his Swiss rent he can easily afford to buy a place in France, so I think that will help keep morale up. My thoughts were that he should (eventually) start looking for a place near la Roche (near me) in order to be able to catch the train to Geneva, but he said he kinda likes Marcellaz, where Jordan and Jen used to live, so that's where he wants to start looking. It will mean the horrible commute but then as my neighbour said on Sunday, she has been doing it for 15 years and can still tolerate it, whereas I'd had over 30 years of it when I came to the end of my rope. Either way, it's stuff that can be looked into as and when, as he's nowhere near ready to buy anything yet anyway!

I've got a doctor's appointment in Geneva tomorrow, which will be only the second time I've driven in since lockdown was lifted. After that I'm going to have lunch with my friend and try to get back before the traffic starts picking up again. André told me all the lanes round town are being revamped to make everything more "bike friendly" so I'll have to watch out for that I guess, but hopefully it won't be too difficult!

In other news, the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, resigned last week which I'm thinking may be a prelude to him standing against Macron in the next presidential elections. He is pretty popular and unlike Macron has come out of this pandemic situation pretty well. Considering that France and the UK have roughly similar populations and that both countries' death tolls were at around the 29,000 mark at the same time, it's quite telling that the UK's death toll is now over 44,000 and France's is still in the 29,000 range so again I'm inclined to think they got it as right as any country could! And I see that the other covidiot in Brazil has actually contracted coronavirus, despite declaring "it's just a little flu"! Again, who couldn't have seen that coming! I hate to think what Brazil's figures will eventually end up at given their high population density and an idiot like that in charge. Then watching CNN today and seeing the US figures starting to skyrocket is just so sad because I don't think they've even started to break the back of this damn virus and all the dire predictions look to be starting to come true. I certainly hope not but ...! I think we're probably all ready for 2020 to be over and done with don't you!

This and that!

It's been a quiet weekend and I have to say I've really appreciated it, after having the roofing guys here all week. They've finished laying the insulation but one guy is coming back tomorrow to finish up the sealant on the part of my roof that they missed. It was an easy mistake to make as they thought it was part of my neighbour's roof, so tomorrow, hopefully, will be their last day here. While I was chatting to them I mentioned that in amongst the old insulation that they were stripping off I saw what looked like little clusters of yellow grapes. Yellow because they were covered in insulation, but small clusters the size of grapes or olives. They told me it was bats and they come across them quite often! Eeek! I had a wasps' nest removed from my roof many years ago and I personally set a burgeoning hornets' nest on fire more than once, but I never thought of bats, although why not? There are plenty round here in the evenings.

My friend drove over on Friday and it was so good to see him. It's the first time I've seen him since around February/March. We went to eat at the one-and-only restaurant (one-and-only anything to be honest) in the village and had a really nice time together. I love that restaurant because the view over the mountains from their terrace is just fabulous and it brings back lovely memories of going skiing with our neighbours when the kids were little and then stopping in at La Fertire for a fondue afterwards! They were happy days!

Later that evening there was a knock at my door and my neighbour handed me a piece of paper saying that they had decided to hold our homeowners' association AGM in the middle of the island on Friday night. Philippe is the President of our association (because no-one else wanted to do it) but I'm not sure he was ever up to it from a technology stand point because he'd printed off his convening email and was walking round handing out paper copies of it! I know they're looking for a new treasurer as the lady who has had that responsibility is selling up so I might volunteer, just to show willing. I doubt there's actually anything to do as we're not an active association and I'm not exactly over-worked as it is!

And can you believe it was a year on 4 July since Jordan and Jen had their wedding do! Crikey, hasn't time flown!

Jordan and Jen

I wasn't able to get over and see André this past week as I've been busy with workmen, but I sent him a message and asked how things were going. He told me that he and Lily had been to see an advisor who can guide them through a do-it-yourself divorce since there is no common property and no children. So, as sad as I am for them, it looks like the divorce is going ahead. I went into town yesterday as I wanted to pick up a couple of things and while I was there I thought "why don't I start putting together a start-up package for him for when he moves into his own place"? You know, things like cleaning materials, washing powder and stuff like that. I pick up extras for the food bank every week anyway so starting up another store for André won't change much for me. I'm not talking about furniture because obviously André will want to chose that for himself. I had my own place in Geneva when I met my husband and when we married and moved back to the States I remember spending an absolute fortune just on stuff to get us set up in our own home. My furniture was shipped from Switzerland but just setting ourselves up with the basics was extremely costly!

Eat your heart out Dave because the Tour de France is actually coming to this area starting next week and should be in our local town on 16 July, if I remember right. I'm sure it'll be heaving so I'll try to wander down on foot and get some pictures for you!

This is at the Plâteau de Glières, just up the road from here.
"74" is this region of France - Haute Savoie

I'm invited over to my neighbour's later this evening for an apéro so I'd better start thinking about getting cleaned up. But talking of "cleaning up", I've just spent quite some time going through my blog "favourites" and deleting as many as possible - people whose blogs I meant to read and never got round to it. People who've stopped blogging or maybe just people whose blogs I've moved on from. One thing I did notice though is that the bloody advertising on some of those blogs drives me insane. If you have to click on three different adverts just to be able to read someone's post well I guess that's no longer a blog for me!

And finally, whichever way the US elections go in November I'm sure my American friends out there will be delighted to learn that Kanye West has "decided to throw his hat in the ring" for 2024! Can you image Kanye as POTUS and Kimmie as FLOTUS - and they said it could never get worse than Trump!

Day two!

The roofing guys told me on Monday that they would be back today to start laying the insulation and since they showed up on Monday at 9 a.m. I was expecting pretty much the same today - traffic permitting. So I was up, ready and "doing" bang on nine! They didn't show up then so I started reading and pottering and reading and pottering, with them eventually showing up at 10.30 a.m.! I didn't mind the delay as such, but every time I heard a car go past I was up and down stairs like a bloody yoyo to see if it was them. You see, I have a living room/dining room on the ground floor, but the previous owners turned one of the double bedrooms upstairs into a TV room. We knocked an internal balcony out and made the TV room even bigger, so it's quite comfortable with two sofas, the TV and room for my computer. So unless I'm in the kitchen doing something I actually spend most of my time on the first floor of my home - hence I was constantly going up and down like a bride's nighty this morning checking the front door! I think it was then that I realized one of the reasons I was so comfortable during lockdown was because I knew no-one would be knocking at my door and I wouldn't have that constant up-down. Well maybe that's only one of the reasons - maybe I'm just naturally antisocial too. So then I thought, why not see that as a positive, you know, going up and down all those stairs all the time is keeping you fit and clocking up the km! And it's true! What with storing perishables in my basement at the moment because of the heat and having a top bedroom on a third floor I really am up and down four sets of stairs on a regular basis! Crikey, I hadn't thought of it like that! Maybe it's actually a good thing having all these stairs! 

When I was growing up we had a four-bedroomed house on two floors and in 1992 my dad inherited a little money from his brother and they were able to sell up and move to a bungalow in Dorset - which had always been their dream. But, with them moving away from the stairs in the first house I realized that in addition to getting older, every time I saw them they were probably significantly less fit than maybe they would have been otherwise - and I put that down to the stairs! My mom wouldn't have had it any other way in any case, but I guess looking at things from this angle is one way to "turn that frown upside down" isn't it!

I had to go out grocery shopping this morning so I left the two young men to get on with their work since they didn't need access to the house. When I got back though they were on top of my sloping roof and it was scorching! I felt so sorry for them as it was 32°C (90°F) and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! I had told them where my hose was and left the garage door open and they had been spraying each other down with cold water, but even so it was hot. So then I was running in and out with iced water and coke for them but even so, I just don't know how they do it! They had made good progress on the one side of the roof and I just assumed they'd go off to get something to eat but they said that they wanted to get that side totally finished before packing up and heading off. They eventually finished up at 4 p.m. and left for the day. The one young lad told me that the previous day they had put in a 14-hour day to get a job finished. You've got to be young, is all I can say!

On a slightly morbid note, I read somewhere yesterday about a file you can buy called Life in Motion! Basically, it's a rather jolly name for a file I would probably rename "here's a list of everything I own, all my passwords and who gets what when I snuff it"! Slightly less poetic but more fitting I think! Basically it's a file with eight tabs in it that you put together to "ease" things somewhat for your loved ones when you pass. To me that goes along with the whole "decluttering now so that they don't have to do it afterwards" kinda thing. I've been pretty good at filing my stuff and I've always told my boys that when I pop my clogs the first place they should looks is in a file called "important stuff", as that contains the most important papers they will need immediately. Anyway, this Life in Motion file, which I believe is available from Amazon, cost $50! Fifty dollars for a file/binder with eight tabs in it? No thanks. I have everything I need so I thought why not sit down every Friday when I'm doing my banking and just type up one thing for the file - which is what I did today!

The tabs that they supply are! (1) documents/emergency plan; (2) medical and insurance info; (3) property info - house/car/keys etc.; (4) banking info; (5) final wishes/funeral arrangements; (6) end-of-life decisions; (7) estate settlement/will; and (8) where to find important documents. Frankly I will add a (9) miscellaneous/info about my blog? - as I don't believe everything will fit neatly under 1-8! So since I got paid today and was transferring money/paying bills, I decided to type up a number (4) and put the details of my UBS bank account down on paper. I have four bank accounts, which might make me sound like Rockerfeller but is pretty easily explained. I have my former salary account (UBS) in Switzerland where my pension is now paid. We have a Swiss franc-denominated pension fund and I have my pension paid in Swissies because - well because I'm not stupid! I also have a savings account at the United Nations Credit Union. I kept this simply because it's more difficult for me to access money there so I throw a little in it every month in order to save for whatever. Then I have an account in the UK (HSBC) which I've had since I was 18 and if I close it they won't let me open another one, so I send SF 100 there every month and that gives me my pocket money whenever I go to England. And finally I have an account in France because that's where I live and most of my bills come out of that in euros. So you can imagine my boys would probably find all this pretty intimidating if and when!

So today it took me maybe 10 minutes to type up the UBS stuff. "This is the account number, this is where the bank is located, this is my password for e-banking" and so on, and it was really easy. As I say, I have everything all in one place but it struck me as making so much more sense to have a divider for each one and include all the passwords too. Morbid stuff maybe but I am more concerned with making my kids' lives easy as and when rather than worrying that if I write about my death it's gonna happen. It is - but not just yet hopefully!

I got my "one hour" of work in again today and I realize that by the time I look at my timer for the first time 45 minutes have usually gone by so it really is easy. While I was "doing" in the garden my neighbour wandered over for something or other. He's going in to hospital tomorrow for a fourth (or fifth?) operation to put stents into the veins in his legs as they are clogging up. Wouldn't you think with him finding walking more and more strenuous and this being yet another hospital stay he would give up smoking like the doctors have asked him to do? But nope, his wife gave up (after 50 years of smoking?) when she got the fright or her life and ended up in hospital with pneumonia last year and even now has a hard time breathing. Anyway, his wife is also making her own world smaller and smaller as she ages (she's 67) because she "can't drive in the dark (OK), is too afraid to drive down to Annecy (30 minutes away), won't drive on the motorway (OK) and can't drive him to the hospital because "she's never driven on that road before". I love her to bits but remember telling her ages ago that if she wasn't careful she would slowly wall herself in with all these perceived "inabilities" she has - and she was maybe 45 at the time! Well his daughter is going to drive him in tomorrow but has to be back at work on Friday for the first time since lockdown lifted so she can't pick him up. So I offered. It's no biggie to me but it brought home to me how much his wife's world is shrinking - and how stupid smoking really is!

And finally, I got one over on my friend today. He sent me a chatty message asking when we could get together (this weekend probably, for the first time since March). So anyway he tells me that all this walking he's being doing (a lot) seems to have paid off and he's pretty sure he's lost weight, but he couldn't say how much because he doesn't have any scales. Next thing I know he sends me a picture of himself in his underpants and yes, it would seem that he has lost quite a bit of weight. So then we go flirting back and forth and I'm saying "I think I'll need to see a bit more in order to be sure" - but that's just our usual kind of banter. So at this point I decided to tell him about the time last year, just before Christmas, when out of the blue he sent me a rather more raunchy picture. I've no idea why and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I mean, it's not like I haven't seen it all before right - we dated for about five years! Anyway, what I had forgotten was that when someone sends you a picture it automatically gets saved onto your pictures (on iPhone at least). So last year, just after he had sent the picture, I was at my patchwork lesson when I was telling one of the ladies about a Christmassy-themed project I would like to attempt. I had seen it at a patchwork exhibition and liked it so I took a picture of it. So she said "oh can I see", so I handed my phone over to her! And that was when I realized his other pictures was probably saved onto my phone. Now I'm the kind that looks at someone's pictures and often swipes left to look at the next one, so I was hoping to god she wouldn't do the same and almost threw myself at her to get my phone back. Which I managed but seriously? When I told him this I was roaring laughing and he was horrified - as I reminded him this morning when he sent me his "I'm losing weight" photo! Moral of the story? Be careful who you send your raunchy pictures to!

A day at the dodgems!

I got a phone call on Friday from my roofing guys asking if they could come and start work on my roof insulation on Monday (yesterday). This work was planned for October but since I'm home anyway I said yes. So they showed up at the crack of dawn yesterday morning and started clonking about on my roof like cast members of Riverdance. They are very polite and efficient but the noise was driving me slightly nuts so I tried to spend as much time in my garden as possible to get away from it!

Riverdance

They laid out the plastic protection sheeting first, which was a bit funny actually since the world is trying to do away with single-use plastics and McDonalds are getting hammered for their straws and yet these guys (of necessity) basically gift-wrap the whole house! To be fair, my neighbour took the unspoiled sheeting off them last time but still! They hadn't long got to work removing tiles when would you believe it - the heavens opened. The forecast was a bit iffy anyway, but as soon as it started to pour the boss gave orders to get all the tiles put back and told me that sadly they were done for the day as they couldn't do any more in the rain!

I wasn't too bothered actually as they told me they would be back later in the week so around 2 o'clock I thought I it might be nice to take a siesta as I was feeling a bit tired. But wouldn't you know it, the sun came back out and just as I was thinking about crawling into bed there was a knock at my door, a mad rush to put my bra back on and they "hoped I didn't mind but could they start up again this afternoon"? Now I don't know if I was imagining it but I'm pretty sure I smelled dope on the boss guy but what could I say, so off they went and the three gofers managed to remove all my very poor insulation in about an hour and that was it. Tiles back on and they would see me again on Wednesday (and Thursday and maybe Friday) to get the insulation laid! I feel like I've had so much work done in the house this past year that I'll be glad to see the back of workmen for a while, but it's all for the greater good really isn't it, and I have to say that all the work done for me this year has been done well (somewhat to my surprise I realize)!

My sister called me earlier today for a chat and when I asked about my brother she said they had just cancelled Sky (cable TV) as it was costing him £60 a month and he was hardly watching it. I remember cancelling Sky about 10 years ago for the same reason, and of course they then bend over backwards to offer you a deal but nah, I'm just not into TV that much and my Freesat does me just fine! My friend was annoyed when he realized he couldn't watch the cricket anymore but then there's always the Mr. Pickwick pub in Geneva if he's desperate. Actually, believe it or not, my brother used to listen to cricket on the radio if he couldn't get it on the TV!!!!! I know!!!!! It's boring enough watching it but can you imagine listening to it. That being said, the late commentator, Brian Johnston, was an absolute gem in the commentary box, as well as being an inveterate giggler. His absolute classic had to be his commentary when West Indian legend, Michael Holding, was facing England batsman, Peter Willey and "Johnners" came out with "the batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willey" followed by barely stifled giggling when he realized what he'd said! Anyway my sister was telling me she had now gotten a Firestick 4 and a subscription to Vlod (sounds like a Russian weightlifter doesn't it), and with all that my brother can now get 100s of channels for about one-tenth of the price - (I guess it just depends how many channels he wants to sleep his way through really)!

Although it was hot I got quite a bit done today. I did a load of washing, including my summer duvet which I will now put away for a few months as I'll be sleeping with just a sheet while the heat ramps up. One of the joys of having my balcony is that I can put drying racks out there and hang the big stuff, like my duvet, directly over the balcony to dry and it's usually all done and dusted in a day. Okay it might look a bit like a gypsy encampment for the duration but technically nobody should be able to see it since my house backs onto the farm and the only people that might see it would be my neighbours walking through my garden to get to each other's houses. I have also learned to peg the stuff in place as it can get quite windy and I have found my knickers in the back garden on more than one occasion. So pegs it is - or at the very least buy some really kinky underwear and get the neighbours talking!

I'm also doing quite well in my "do something round the house for one hour a day" plan, which is similar to what Fly Lady advocates on her website, although she drove me batty with her emails. It's actually quite satisfying to set my phone timer to one hour and see how much gets done - quite a lot as it turns out. While I was working on my veggie plot my gardener showed up on his riding lawnmower and started work. Then the neighbour's partner started doing the same on her land, and my other neighbour pitched in with his lawnmower. Apparently they've forecast rain for tomorrow so I guess everyone was trying to get it done beforehand. At one point they were all mowing at the point where our gardens meet and it felt slightly like a stand-off at the OK Corral, although to be honest, it looked more like a day at the dodgems to me!

Rock on my son!

I had lunch with my son today and it felt so good. He moved in with his brother and his wife on Saturday. I'm not sure how long he will stay there but I think it's good for him to be able to talk with people who understand but he can always move in with me any time he wants anyway. But it really was lovely. We walked down to a local restaurant where apparently he has been going every lunchtime and buying his lunch "to go" for €10 a pop. I think he's already seeing the difference between France and Switzerland as at a minimum he would be spending SF 17 per day just for lunch. Anyway, it was nice. I have always been very open about my finances, how much I make, what my bills are and so on, so we were going through him buying something in France and how much it would cost him. While he says he loves living in Geneva the prices are ridiculous and he knows he would be better off in France. The only thing I told him is he has to get a handle on his finances. It's more than doable - hell he makes so much more than I do and I'm still saving money. I find it hard to believe also that he has never gotten round to internet banking - damn, they say we're old foggies! So I told him I can help him set all that up but that I think it would do him good to live on his own for a while, pay his own bills and then take it from there. He told me he doesn't think he will ever get married again, doesn't know if he wants kids - and that makes me sad. The good part is that he has his brother and his wife bolstering him up and Max and his other mates really revving the engine! I told him that his mates are really in France so if he bought in France he can still do the drive if he wants to stay in the city after work.

He sent Lily an email saying that he wanted to go directly for a divorce, that he was not prepared to remain her husband while she was messing around so let's go for it. And bingo, he got an email back saying that he had shaken her up, she wasn't prepared for that and so on. She's a good kid and I think they are well suited but in the end, if she wants to start messing around, good on him for saying "nope, I ain't going for that"¨

Anyway, I went through all my finances and what he could expect to pay in bills and it is more than doable. While we were chatting away the lady owner of the restaurant just looked at him and said "I thought you were French". And he laughed and said "nope, I'm anglo-american" and she just looked at him with a stunned look and said she couldn't believe how perfect his French was. Well yeah, he's grown up here! So there you have it. I told him to move in with me if and when, save money and we'd get it all started for him to have his own place. I left feeling that he was quite motivated. As we were walking out of Jordan's place Jordan showed up as he had finished work for the day, so it was lovely to have both my kids there at once. Just wish it could have been under better circumstances!

What can you say about Uncle Johnny?

That he was kind, thoughtful, funny and would give you the shirt off his back? Nah, I can't say any of that because in actual fact I never met Uncle Johnny. You see, "Uncle Johnny" was Johnny (Goldfinger) Palmer, once described as Britain's richest criminal and thought to be worth £300 million. He was acquitted of handling stolen gold bullion from the Brinks-Mat raid in 1983 but it was on this day five years ago that he was shot and killed in the garden of his home in what looked like a very professional killing. And yep, he really was an uncle on my dad's side, although I never met him!

Johnny (Goldfinger) Palmer

My dad, Uncle A and John Palmer were sons of three sisters (there were loads of other kids too of course). As I say, I was just a little kid and never met him, although I believe my older brother did meet him a few times. In any case, he and my Uncle A are dead ringers for each other. I never knew an awful lot about the Brinks-Mat robbery but I was told that Uncle Johnny subsequently moved into the time-share business in Spain, where people were often strong-armed into buying time-shares that I'm not sure even existed. Mom told me that "all of a sudden" Uncle A started taking short trips to Spain and seemed to have an awful lot of money to throw around when he came back. Now this was in the 1970s and no-one went to Spain for a long weekend - well no-one, that is, except for Uncle A. Dad reckoned he was carrying cash over to John Palmer, although he never had any proof of that. It just didn't make sense to him, since Uncle A had a fish stall in Birmingham's Bull Ring market and even if they made good money there was no way he was all of a sudden making the kind of money he was throwing around. Dad reckoned the stress of whatever shinanigans he got up to eventually killed him because one day, at the age of just 54, Uncle A left his stall to go get a newspaper, had a massive heart attack and died on the spot! Whenever I would give my older brother some lip he would say "watch out, or I'll tell Uncle Johnny!" and that was enough to make me shut up. Yeah, as if! My dad barely knew him, he just knew they were distant relatives on their mothers' side, so my brother was truly a rotten sod scaring a little girl half out of her wits with threats of "Uncle Johnny". So there you have it, my one and only claim to dubious fame!

I do remember being a really little girl - hadn't started school yet, so maybe three years old - and my mom left me with Aunt S, Uncle A's wife, so that she could go grocery shopping in peace. Anyway I remember asking Aunt S if I could just pop over the road to see if my mom was back and she said yes. Well mom wasn't back so I decided to walk to the shops (about two miles away I would guess) to see where she was. All I remember is balling my eyes out in the middle of the shopping precinct and my mom coming over wondering how in the hell I had got there! It didn't mean anything to me of course but I reckon there must have been a few frosty exchanges with my Aunt S when we got back!

In other news, I didn't make it out to Excenevex today because, as I thought, I was just too slow off the mark this morning, but at least it gives me an idea of somewhere to go sometime before the schools are out to enjoy the lake for a while. I did get my grocery shopping done (but boy am I spending a lot at the moment). I also went to the Chinese store as I needed some black bean/garlic sauce - and man do I love going to that store. I just love the smell of it. It's like having a souk right on my doorstep with the wonderful smells of all those spices. Now these people are very good businessmen and sell not only Asian goods but also African and Middle Eastern spices - well basically if you ask for it they'll find it and sell it to you. I also like that if you are buying heavy stuff they will always have a young man carry it out to your car for you. It's like that with the Turkish stall holders I often go to also. When we were five living at home I used to buy a lot of fresh produce and they would always have one of the young boys carry my stuff to my car for me. And for me, that kind of service goes a long way, I can tell you!

I also managed to make a dentist and gynae appointment for the month of July. When I was booking the gynae appointment the receptionist said I was to "come alone and wear a mask" - which kinda got my warped sense of humour going because surely that's not the bit he'll be sticking his nose in - but I managed to keep myself from saying that as not everyone gets my sense of humour!

Anyway it's hot here and I'm wilting. I know I'm going to be miserable for the next couple of months - in fact it's only going to get worse as summer is only just starting! I just love that point in September when you can actually feel the heat break and know that things will get cooler from here on in. I pity the poor folks that have to work outside in this weather but I guess they manage or they're used to it. I know one thing though, I'll never be a hot weather person!

The farmer turning hay in the part of his field at the back of my house!

Success!

I had so many plans for today - I was going to go on another walk (once my muscles "defrosted"), then come home and spend some time clearing more stuff out the basement (why do I sense I'm going to get my son's stuff dumped on me soon?) and then do some batch cooking to get ahead for the next couple of days. In the end what did I do? Bugger all! By the time I'd got my backside into gear it was already starting to warm up and I just couldn't face doing much more than sitting in the back garden reading. There's no law against it but I do get annoyed at myself sometimes! As I say, the temperatures are starting to pick up now and we've already hit 32°C (90°F) this week so I'm not looking forward to the start of the hot season which will soon be on us. I did get Jordan to carry my mobile AC unit up to my bedroom the other week so I'll probably be starting to use that soon, although I like to hold off as long as I can. And then of course I could always do a few "lengths" of my paddling pool (ha!) trying desperately to look like a naiad but in truth looking like Moby Dick proving Archimedes' water displacement theory. Not to worry though, that's one of the advantages of living alone isn't it!

I have the AGM of our local community association tomorrow night where I will be attending in my capacity as President of the Sewing Club (I know, the responsibilities!!!!). I've already sent in our accounts and a list of members but if I'm correct tomorrow will be when they hand out the different subsidies to each club so I need to be there for that. They're very generous actually because the commune of Amancy give us the room for free (and I don't even live in that commune) and also give us a small amount of money to spend for the benefit of the club. Last year I bought two second-hand sewing machines but we've still got plenty left in the bank. We each pay our teacher, Patricia, an annual amount of €100 for her services so I'm thinking I might use the money from the commune to subsidize that amount this year in view of having to shut up shop during lockdown. Either way, we're on to a very good thing. I got an email the other day from the association that organizes the Italian lessons too in which they sent out a form saying that they would reimburse anyone who requested it on a pro rata basis, but also giving people the option to forego reimbursement in order to help the association. Since the MJC is a community-led association I decided to just give up the money, although in reality our teacher had already been off sick a month before covid shut the lessons down entirely. Still, if it means that they were able to keep staff on their payroll it's a small price to pay and I don't actually need the money!

I probably won't get to go out walking tomorrow since I plan to go grocery shopping instead to get that out of the way. I looked on the web and saw that on Wednesdays they have an open-air market in a lovely little town called Excenevex, which is right on Lake Geneva, so I might try to shoot out there tomorrow and have a wander. It will probably take me about 40 minutes to get there, but it is a lovely spot with a nice little beach right on the lake so will make nice ride out - if I can get myself moving! 

Excenevex beach

As I was pottering in my garden my neighbour wandered over and I was asking her how she enjoyed Father's Day and seeing her grandchildren that live in Switzerland. She said they'd had a lovely day together and was over the moon to see her grandsons, although she still worried about the older grandson as he has Downs Syndrome and is more fragile health-wise. She also said that they are saying in the French news to expect a new covid spike in September and that people should prepare accordingly. I figured it would happen anyway as the country, of necessity, has to open back up, but here's hoping it's not as bad as this first round!

Anyway while we were chatting I starting digging around in my potato patch. Remember, the potatoes that I planted on top of the sheet of cardboard? No digging, no lugging soil around, just plonk down the cardboard, throw on some sprouted potatoes from the garage and dump grass clippings on top. Well guess what, it looks like it has worked! Talk about the lazy woman's guide to potato growing. I only poked around at the one plant as I didn't want to disturb it too much but I picked six decent sized potatoes and just covered the diddy ones back up. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, how often I should mound up the clippings or anything, but they are definitely growing! Yay me! They've worked out better than the cucumber plants (they were savaged by slugs). The curly kale has done well. The tomato plants are coming along fine and also the courgette (zucchini) so I'm quite pleased considering the amount of studied neglect I have subjected my garden to for the most part!

I've got tomato plants by my living room window,
but the rest of the stuff I just plonked at the top of the garden!

In reference to my son's situation somebody commented yesterday that I did well not to wrap my kids up in cotton wool. I was thinking about that and realized that I probably would have done if I could have, but either way I guess I was more relaxed than some. I've always been pretty easy-going and thankfully my kids seem to have taken after me and are not highly-strung like their dad. While I was talking to André up in the mountains yesterday I commented something about Lily not having had the easiest of childhoods - but then neither did he, what with the screaming, shouting and physical violence (directed at me, not them). And he said something that really touched my heart. He said that he actually had a great childhood and sure we had our issues but then what family doesn't - and I wanted to cry as I've long felt so guilty for "failing them" when they were little. I guess it's just as well my phone battery conked out when it did!

But it got me to thinking about "coddling" your kids and brought to mind a woman I worked with when I was just 16. From age 16 onwards I had a Saturday/holiday job working at WH Smith (the big bookshop/record store/stationers). Initially I worked on the shop floor/cash registers and hated it. I remember when the kids were buying their back-to-school supplies we had to ring up all the different pencils according to their individual codes and it was really tedious. I also remember the actor, Robert Morely, coming in one time and walking straight to the front of the queue, so I asked him to go to the back of the queue as people had been waiting. He looked at me and said "do you know who I am?" and I said that no I didn't but these people had been waiting and I felt it was right that they got served first! (Mouthy little sod wasn't I). Well my heart was thumping but I thought I'll be buggered if I'll let that sod jump the queue. As he was paying, another customer leaned over and congratulated me for speaking up - and I went bright red in the face as a result. I never liked Robert Morely anyway. As far as I was concerned he was another Hugh Grant - an actor with just one act, although at least Hugh Grant was better looking!

Robert Morely

Anyway, someone in the queue must have spotted my name badge on my lapel and a bit later in the afternoon the switchboard paged me to answer the phone. My heart was pounding because my dad had had several heart attacks already and I just assumed it was bad news. But no, I picked up the phone and some twisted bastard called me by name and told me exactly what he would like to do to me!!! He also told me that he would be waiting for me outside the shop when we closed!!! I just burst into tears, walked off the shop floor and explained to the manager what had happened. I was only 16 and terrified that this jerk would indeed wait for me when we closed so the manager walked me to a back door and off the premises that evening! Perverted bastard!

All that was by the way, of course, because I always seem to go off on a tangent don't I. Eventually after a few years at WH Smith I graduated to working in the cash office, tallying up the cash registers (which were rarely accurate) and working with the ladies who suspected some light-fingered work going on, in particular in the record shop. Anyway, two sisters worked in the cash office - Kath and Mary. Both were very nice and Kath had a son my age - Howard - and I couldn't believe some of the stories she told me about "Howie"! Howie had various Saturday jobs but mommy always told him "don't you let them put upon you Howie, you just walk out if they do", so Howie was always walking out of jobs where, apparently, they didn't appreciate mommy's little treasure! Mary, the older sister, used to look at me and roll her eyes. Daddy used to drive in to whichever job Howie had walked out of that week and pick him up to drive him home. Now this is in city centre Birmingham, the UK's second city after London, with excellent public transport, but nope, daddy always had to drive in and pick precious up! Even I was stunned. When I handed in my notice because I had got my job in Geneva Mary pulled me aside and said she couldn't believe I was starting work in Switzerland and Howie had just walked off his umpteenth job because yet again they didn't appreciate him! So yesterday's comment made me think - I wonder whatever became of Howie? Not much I expect!