Samuel Ikpefan: The skier from a country without snow

Apparently Sam is the entire Nigerian team. I did wonder about funding but he made it happen!

Making plans for the future!

While I came out of my lazy funk for a few days this week and got a lot done (I finally finished painting and did quite a bit of cleaning), I kinda spaced out again today, wasting way too much time on the computer. But I just saw this online and while I originally thought it was a roller coaster, it's actually a mountain railway in a place called Grimselwelt in Switzerland. Man I have got to give this a shot (it's not even that far away)! And while I have a valid "covid pass" for Switzerland, I've just heard that the Swiss are lifting restrictions on 17 February! There are even rumblings that Macron will have to do the same shortly - because ya know - elections coming up in April! Happy days soon (I hope)!

Fingers crossed!

I'm still plodding on reading the Robert Kennedy Jr. book at the moment - I'd guess I'm about 75% of the way through it. It isn't an easy read and while some chapters kinda blow my mind, others feel like I'm wading through molasses. But, the reason I bring it up here is because - well I don't know if you remember but when I first mentioned that I didn't intend to get the covid vax it was because I had ended up in hospital after having a violent reaction to a Hep B vax in my 20s. It was so long ago that I actually don't remember if I was in any pain but I do remember that my entire face and body were covered in what looked like blood-filled blisters. They released me from hospital after 24 hours because my boyfriend at the time was a doctor and knew what to keep an eye out for, but to say it wasn't a romantic getaway would be an understatement! When I got back home I spoke to my own doctor about what had happened and he said "oh, it was probably a reaction to the adjuvant" (not that I had any idea what an adjuvant was)! Anyway, the upshot of that experience was that I haven't taken a vaccine since. I mention the Kennedy book again here because in the chapter I'm currently reading he mentions that thimerosal (sp?) - which was basically ethylmercury and highly toxic - was used as an adjuvant in the Hep B vaccine (and others) at the time. I read somewhere that it's use was eventually banned in paediatric vaccines in western countries from 1986 (but couldn't find the reference again), and drastically reduced in adult vaccines in the west from 1993. I had my shot in 1983 (as a precursor to my six-month trip around Australia), so I'm now wondering if my reaction was due to mercury intoxication. Huh, makes you wonder right! Either way, it wasn't fun!

In other news, I keep getting pop-ups in my email and on my FB page offering special deals for the kind of solos holidays I used to go on pre-pandemic. After spending the evening in Les Gets the other week I realized how much I had missed getting away, and in particular getting away to the mountains in the winter, so I think I might take a look at what is on offer by way of a skiing holiday locally and possibly treat myself to a few days away. Of course the situation here is so up and down with this bloody pass that nothing might come of it, but it's nice to dream a little and maybe look forward to what I should be able to do when this whole pass situation gets dropped - as it will have to eventually. In fact André sent me a message this morning to say that he had had a zoom meeting with work this morning and his Director (who, given his job, should be in the know), was saying that the Swiss are considering dropping the whole vaccine passport issue maybe as early as mid-February. From his mouth to God's ears (and to Macron's - who just thinks he's God)!

But talking of Youtube or FB making suggestions based on what you've recently looked at (Big Brother really is watching you, ya see), tonight Youtube suggested a post by a French Canadian who went off on the most amazing rant about Justin Trudeau. The rant aside, by god it was something else trying to follow his accent - I just loved it! I guess I'm more used to French African accents than French Canadian accents, but to listen to a full throttle Quebecois rant tickled me to bits - more for the accent than the content!

Then the other night I decided to attack one of my wasgij puzzles (jigsaw puzzle - backwards), so I put on the final series of After Life, for a binge watch. I'm not a particular fan of Ricky Gervais but I kinda enjoyed the first two series. The third (and final) series? I'm not so sure. While I don't mind bad language I just found the crude characters way too vulgar in the last series. That being said, I enjoyed it but think it was right to end it after that! Just my opinion though!

And finally, there was an article in the local newspaper this week about Stan's son, Samuel, who will be representing Nigeria in cross-country skiing at the upcoming winter Olympics. I think he was a possible selection candidate for France a few years ago but sadly fell and broke his shoulder, thus putting paid to any chance of competing for France. So Samuel applied for and was granted Nigerian citizenship (in addition to his French citizenship) and will now quite possibly constitute the entire Nigerian team and flag bearer at the opening ceremony. He is a lovely kid (as are all Stan's children), and oh how I would love to see him make the podium. My fingers and toes are crossed so hard I may well freeze in this position and never walk again. Please, please, please - go Sam!

Could do better!

I don't know what's come over me lately but I've been as lazy as hell and I don't like it one bit! I just can't be arsed to do much of anything right now. Oh I cook because I need to eat, and I keep things tidy (enough) but when I consider how much time I have I'm amazed at how little I'm getting done at the moment. I mean, I bought the paint to repaint the bathroom unit (love the colour), but I've only been plodding along at the rate of about an hour a day. I never was one to knuckle down and "just get the damn thing done" anyway as I prefer to potter, but to take this long to empty and paint a single unit? Seriously???? My bad habit is to get up and start listening to the news/podcasts while eating breakfast - and then I go down that bloody rabbit hole and before I know it three hours have flown by. So I have to admit I felt like one of the Enigma code breakers at Bletchley Park the other day when I realized I could actually take the computer into the bathroom and listen to podcasts while I am painting!!! I know, it's genius isn't it! I don't know why I've been so lazy lately but I'm hoping I can shake myself out of it soon because there really is so much I could be getting on with. Or maybe it's just that I don't have enough to do. That's possible too. I always preferred it at work when I had tons to do because I believe you get lazy if you don't have enough to do, probably because in my case I'm not particularly driven! That being said, I went and picked up the new, not so exciting sinks for my bathroom and Jordan will come over and instal them when he gets a chance. Actually I wouldn't mind asking him if he wants me to start removing the tiling from around the bath before he takes that out. There's no hurry but the more I can do myself, the less he will have to do when the time comes!

For Christmas this year, Jen's mom's boyfriend very kindly bought us all tickets to visit Alta Lumina up at a place called Les Gets (pronounce "lay jay"). Well actually he had bought them for last year but what with covid lockdowns and curfews we couldn't go. So yesterday we made up for lost time and the six of us (plus Charlie) headed up to Les Gets for 5 p.m. Now Les Gets is at 2,000 metres above sea level (that's over 6,500 feet) and although the weather has been glorious it was obviously going to be pretty cold up there. It sure was - turns out it was -5°C (23°F) - so I knew I'd have to be careful about what to wear as the visit involved a 45 minute light show outside in the forest. Luckily I hit it just right as I had on really good quality boots and socks, a pair of my ex's old long johns and sweat pants, and then about five layers on top with a heavy duty winter jacket. And it was perfect! Not too hot, not too cold - so much so that I didn't even wear my hat and gloves. We all looked a bit like the Michelin Man, of course, and I'm pretty sure none of us could have blown our noses if we wanted to (because you can't bend your arm at the elbow), but it really was just perfect. I tell you though, with the starting point being at the bottom of a very mild slope, I puffed up that thing just enough to realize that I have to get back out and start walking again - I'm so out of shape! Oh there was heavy snow, I had on layers of clothing and it was uphill and ... - nah, I've got nothing - I'm just out of shape!

Jordan had Charlie strapped to his front, obviously all dressed up for the cold with a big blanket over the top and he loved it, although not enough to prevent him from falling asleep by the time we got to the end!

They had braziers at the entrance while we waited
- and very welcome they were too!

The music man setting off in his
hot air balloon!

When we came out the sky was just spectacular (the photo doesn't do it justice). It was cold and clear and crisp and just so stunning - I wished I knew so much more about the stars. Jordan had an app on his phone so we were able to identify so much but it really is something I wish I knew more about!

Afterwards we were all invited back to Jordan and Jen's (so they could put the baby to bed), Jen's mom had very kindly prepared tartiflette (my favourite meal),  and we ended up playing board games until just after midnight. I got home at 1 a.m. and went to bed at 3 a.m. Ha, there's life in the ol' girl yet!

And finally, Scarlet I popped over to your blog after you left a comment on here and am I ever pea green with envy at your talent! I wanted to leave a message but I see you have disabled comments. Either way, you are one very talented lady!

Well that's a relief!

A few days ago I received an email from my American friend (who lives here in France), sending me a copy of yet another article on just how safe these covid jabs are. Now I know she did this from the goodness of her heart but the difference between where we stand on this issue is actually a chasm. She was lining up to get her third jab and I'm bound and determined never to get the first. Anyway, poor M, she caught me on a bad day!

My kids are getting more and more pressure from so-called friends to get jabbed, despite the fact that they both recovered from covid at the end of November. Jordan's boss is not only his friend but they play in the same band together (they've known each other since they were about 15), but even he keeps making snide remarks about getting jabbed (he has also made other more crude remarks about Charlie's paternity - by way of a joke - but if I get my hands on him making that kind of "joke", I will rip his balls off)! Anyway he must have made one "joke" too many at band practice the other week because André hauled back and ripped into him. He told him EXACTLY what he thought of him and what a louse he thought he was when we all had covid. OK, nobody cares about the adults - we're all adults and we made our choices - but André let Max know EXACTLY what he thought of him as a so-called friend who couldn't even be arsed to call Jordan to find out how his seven-month old baby was after catching covid (perfectly fine, as it turned out, but Max didn't know that)! And with that, André walked out of practice. So yeah, you might say there have been a few tensions building up!

Then André was telling me last night that his friend spent 15 hours at the hospital last weekend with his gf - who is obese, a former drug addict (so not in the best of health) and who also has lupus. They spent 15 hours at the hospital after a lupus flare up and when André called to find out how she was his "friend" managed to call André a c*nt for not being vaccinated! Oh he knows it was tiredness and pressure, but André hasn't seen them for about six weeks and they live in Geneva, so André wasn't sure how it was his fault that the gf ended up in hospital. And as he said, anyone without a pass sanitaire has been unable to go anywhere these last six months so how the hell are we the ones spreading this virus?

Anyway, all that to say that when my friend sent me that article I blew a gasket and drafted a "both barrels" response. Thankfully I toned it right back down but to say it was direct would be an understatement. And I felt terrible after I sent it, but I also had no intention of recalling it - a "let the chips fall where they may" kinda thing! Oh I knew I would calm down eventually and in any case I had every intention of contacting her on Sunday before she goes into hospital on Monday for a hip operation. Anyway, she just contacted me to say that my email had gone into the trash folder but "message received"! And I felt like a real heel! So I wrote back to her and said that she should have left it in the trash folder, because that was where it deserved to be. I told her I didn't apologize for the content as I always say what I mean, but my diplomacy (or lack thereof) would probably have scored me a 1/10! 

I told her that I apologized for letting her have it with both barrels (even though watered down), I wished her good luck for Monday and promised not to ever write again when I'm fired up. And just like that we're friends again (although she was probably always too gracious to fall out over something like that). Just me being an asshole, I guess. I will always apologize when I'm in the wrong - rarely for content because I don't write or say things I don't mean - but I could definitely have done better on that one!

Wow, it's started!

I'd heard quite some time ago that legal challenges were being prepared in connection with the handling of the covid situation - the vaccine mandates, mandatory mask-wearing, pcr tests, vaccine passports, etc. Reiner Fuellmich is one of the many prominent lawyers who has been working round the clock on these cases. In an interview he gave while in Poland last year he stated that legal proceedings had already been filed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the German-speaking European countries), but indicated that there were obviously many, many more challenges being filed. More recently groups from four European countries filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Three of those were apparently rejected on technicalities, but the British case was accepted on 6 December and therefore given a file number. (On a side note, Dr. Mike Yeadon, former VP and Chief Scientific Officer of Pfizer is one of the signatories to the complaint - I believe it's 44 pages long)!

As I understand it (and this is just my understanding), by virtue of the fact that they have a dossier number from The Hague, the British complainants were able to take their evidence to the British police where they now have a UK dossier number, and are therefore "requiring" that all vaccination centres in the UK be shut down immediately and treated as crime scenes. There are videos already on the internet of citizens taking this information either to police stations or vaccination centres in order to have these centres closed down and the vaccines seized as evidence. I think this started around 15 January so I guess it will have to come out in the press sooner rather than later - they can't keep it hidden forever!  There are already quite a few videos online if you are interested, but they all have a prepared script, giving the UK and International Criminal Court dossier numbers and the complaints contained therein. I guess we'll have to see how this pans out!

 https://www.bitchute.com/video/3tuVcmlNJiS4/

Last man standing!

Crikey, what a week it's been! As was expected, my favourite neighbour's mom died about 10 days ago. She was 93 years old and it was, as I say, expected, but the sad thing is she died a day or two before my neighbour got there. While I guess these things happen, I'm sure relations next door won't be improved one iota by the fact that they had to wait to leave until after a doctor's appointment for him, since, as I've mentioned before, he walked out of the hospital before his operation last time because he was "pissed off at having to wait"!

I then heard that the farmer had also died (pancreatic cancer). I only found out after the funeral but I would have gone if I had known. He was definitely "a character". His son died about four months ago and never had any intention of taking over the farm anyway, so I'm assuming the girls will sell up. I thought I saw him about 10 days ago, but it was obviously someone else taking care of the animals. I don't know what will happen but I already miss the sound of the goat bells in the upper field and, of course, the beautiful donkeys in the field at the back of my house!

After that I heard that a former colleague of mine had died at the age of 78. She had been ill for a few years, so again it was expected, but I do remember her fondly as I took over her job in HR when she retired and had nothing but respect for her professionalism. A funny story she told me - although not funny at the time - she was English and married to an Italian from Naples. One time when they went to Naples to see family, they were staying in a hotel and as it was hot they had the window cracked just a little. When they woke up the next morning they found they had been robbed during the night! Apparently the thieves had pumped sleeping gas into the room through the crack in the window and must have had a small child go in and take their valuables! The police reckoned they were followed to the hotel since they had Swiss plates. You would have thought, being a native, that he would have known better about sleeping with the window open, but she said it was a hard lesson well learned!

Then my friend sent me a FB message regarding her return trip from Spain today (I was to pick her up at the airport) and told me that her cousin in England had just been found dead at home at the age of 60. They were thinking it might have been a diabetic coma but the family have asked for an autopsy so that they can be sure. I didn't know him, but 60 still seems young to me to be dying so suddenly! Anyway, my friend had a PCR test booked for the day before her flight and wouldn't you know it but it came back positive - despite the fact that she had no symptoms whatsoever! So flight cancelled, pick-up cancelled and she's stuck in Spain for at least the next 10 days, not only because of having to isolate but also because it will depend on when she can get a flight out. Mind you, being "stuck" in Spain doesn't strike me as such an awful thing to have to endure, although having to isolate would be a pain. On the positive side, she and her sister own their home over there so she won't be running up horrendous bills, except for extending the cat's stay in the cattery!

Moving swiftly on, Jordan showed up at the depot for work last Monday to find no-one there to open up. Max has been off for a while as he broke his arm skiing and as Jordan waited for his brother to show up, he found out that A, the brother, was also off sick after throwing up violently all night (it only lasted a day though). So that left Jordan stuck with no way to get into the depot or load up the van. The two apprentices were also off with covid - one quite seriously (although better now), and the other just a mild case, like Jordan's, so Jordan was well and truly on his own. When Max's dad showed up to open up they had already agreed that Jordan needed to have a key to the depot and they are apparently getting him his own van - so some good news came out of it. On the down side, instead of asking him to head to the site near me where he has been working for a couple of months, Max asked him to go to the Chamonix site as it was more urgent. Jordan told me he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing up there so he just picked up the jack hammer and started "jackhammering"!

Also last week Max's gf 's dad had to be helicoptered off the mountain when he'd been out skiing (turns out he had injured his back - hence the helicopter, but it was not as serious as initially thought), and then the gf broke her own arm while out skiing - this being the young disabled woman in a wheelchair. I know, she goes skiing???? More power to her but I'm sure she could have done without breaking her arm! So Max and his gf only have one pair of hands between them at the moment. Somehow I don't think I'll be going skiing much in the future, and for good reason!

I stopped in to see the Munchkin this week and he was on fine form, but when I left there it was already starting to get dark and the fog was horrendous! As I got up nearer to home I was so grateful that I knew the roads because I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. No street lights, winding mountain roads and even a couple of idiots out running - wouldn't you think they'd wear reflective jackets if they wanted to stay safe????

On the positive side, I finally got an email from the French authorities for me to upload the rest of my documents regarding my citizenship request - just 30 months after I started! So I had a look at it this afternoon as I already have all the documents, but bugger me if my bloody scanner has stopped working. After a couple of hours doing other stuff I decided to just give up for today and then luckily googled "the best scanning app to download onto an iPhone". And that was when I found out that iPhone has a handy little app buried in the "notes" section that allows you to scan documents into your notes and save them. Old dog, new tricks I guess!

And finally, after the horrible fog we've had, this weekend has been just beautiful, so Jordan and Jen decided to take Charlie on his first sledding outing with their neighbours, who have a little boy about six months older than Charlie. The weather was glorious, the skiing crowds haven't started to arrive yet and Charlie and his buddy had a whale of a time!

Charlie's hidden under a huge snow jacket
and of course his orange binky!