Cheapchick!

Just a quick post to say that Tammy (Cheapchick)'s husband has posted a beautiful tribute to his lovely wife and the post is open for comments if anyone would like to stop by!

Sorry Dave, I guess I should have added the link.

Living Rich On The Cheap

It's been a while!

I've been offline completely for a few days again as I felt I needed to take a break for a little while - I find it does me a lot of good. In fact I've actually just realized that I unplugged the TV about three months ago when the guy came to look at replacing my windows and I haven't plugged it back in since, so I guess I might not need that either!

I did watch a brief Youtube video recently though where a Canadian immigrant (from Tanzania, I think) filmed around his local area pointing out how no-one was outside and saying that in his country everyone was always outside chatting and so on. Of course a huge part of that is if you live in a cold country you're hardly gonna be sitting on your doorstep chatting are you, but I got the point he was trying to make. When I was very young, before the council demolished our homes and moved us into new homes, I vaguely remember the women sitting outside chatting while the kids played "in the square". That happened also to a certain extent in our new home too, but much of that seems to have gone now, and I think it's a darn shame because you lose that sense of community! Oh I get it that nowadays most families have both parents working outside the home so who has the time to sit outside and chat, right? But it was brought home to me today when I bumped into a neighbour at the mailbox (she lives a little way away from me) and we had quite a bit of catching up to do. She asked if I thought we'd be having our neighbourhood clean-up/shindig this year and I told her I'd already spoken to the Chairman of our Homeowners' Association and yep, we'd be doing it. Of course winter and covid put the knackers on so much so I think we're all looking forward to meeting up again and having a chat and a drink on the little island in front of our homes. She also told me that the people at number five had moved out and I was quite shocked as I hadn't known. Now to be fair they had always been a very discreet couple but over the years the wife had gotten sicker and sicker (diabetes, I think, but at the time I had thought it was dementia) and so many years ago refused to leave her home at all, which meant that the husband had to do everything, including taking care of her. I barely knew him but had heard a little of what he was going through and my respect for him was enormous. So to hear the wife has now been moved into a care home in a village not far from here and he has found a small apartment nearby makes me so happy for him, as it can't have been easy these past few years, even if their two children visited regularly!

In other news, I decided to take a run out today as I wanted to drop off my recycling and get a baguette from our little local bakery, but I got quite a shock when I pulled into the next village to find that the bakery has gone out of business!!! They've been there the 30+ years that I've lived here and the place was absolutely picture-perfect. In fact I remember when Steve visited a few years ago he commented that it looked absolutely how he had pictured it in his mind! It saddens me to think of the two local corner stores that have also gone out of business recently due to the arrival of a much larger chain store a couple of years ago, but it is a conundrum because I guess we all like the efficiency and pricing of places like Amazon (and Walmart, I'm led to believe) and yet we know that they are putting small mom and pop stores out of business and, from what I hear, don't treat their staff particularly well either! How can the little people ever hope to compete?

Charlie looks to be as fit as a fiddle again now, after his bout with conjunctivis/an ear infection/roseola and chickenpox! But when the roseola didn't seem to be going away a couple of weeks ago they ended up at the emergency room on the Sunday night and it turns out the poor little thing is actually allergic to the antibiotics the doctor had given him for the ear infection!!! Still, I suppose you have to find out one way or another and it's good to know, right!

My sister headed off to their house in Spain 10 days ago and after she'd arrived safely I found out they'd actually had an accident on the way to the port in England. Apparently a motorbike had come belting up the line of traffic crawling it's way to the port, spotted an oncoming vehicle and screeched back into his lane taking half the backside of my sister's car with it. My sister and the man in the car behind started directing traffic, while my BIL tended to the motorcyclist. The ambulance arrived pretty quickly and as he was apparently not badly injured they were able to continue their journey in their smashed up car and made it in time to catch the ferry. Thankfully the car behind them had a dashcam so it will all be taken care of by the motorcyclist's insurance, but since then I've been thinking it might be a good idea to get front and back dashcams too, because if you're ever unfortunate enough to have a need for them they must be a godsend!

I had yoga Monday morning and while we were waiting for a few more people to arrive our teacher was saying that after two months with her Ukranian guests, she really was looking forward to having them leave while they could still part on good terms! One couple had found jobs and gotten an apartment and the other three were moving into a large house that had been provided by the local commune. Frankly I think our teacher is a saint but she said it was even enough to try her patience as they got up late, started cooking lunch around 4 p.m., were noisy and went to bed very late. She also said that nobody took any notice of the fact that a household that size could only run if everyone pitched in and helped with the housework, so, as I say, she will be very glad when they move out! One man fell off his bike last week and was going to have his shoulder operated on the following day so she was already thanking her lucky stars that she had gotten his medical coverage sorted out immediately upon arrival! I have another friend who had taken in three Ukranians and when I asked him how it was going he just said "tricky", so I left it at that. Two of the ladies at our sewing club said the same thing, so while I think it was very altruistic to have done what they did, it hasn't been the roaring success that so many imagined, going by what people are saying!

The other Sunday Jen and I took Charlie up to a vide-grenier in a local town, although I think calling it a town is a bit of a misnomer because it's more like just one street! Still, it was warm and sunny and we had a nice few hours out. At one point Jen stopped to buy churros but when she spotted that they were €6 for 10 she walked away. Apparently they used to be around €2/€2.5 so I guess the price of the frying oil has really gone through the roof! They had a few fair-type things for the kids and an oompa loompa band which fascinated Charlie, so it turned out to be a nice way to get out of the house for a few hours!

And finally, I got this hairbrained idea into my head that I was going to build my own makeshift greenhouse! I know, mad right! So I went out to the garden centre and bought myself two pointed stakes about 4' long and two more about 7' long (I looked like I was going pole vaulting when I carried them to the car). So here's me thinking I can just "tap" them into my rock solid garden with a lump hammer! Well of course that didn't work, so I got the sack of cement out that I just happened to have handy and gently dabbed a little cement around the base of each stake. After leaving it to set for a few hours I went back out to check on them and the bloody things had fallen over (I guess one of the neighbours sneezed) because I'd cemented them to the grass!!! So there was nothing to do for it but to start digging four holes, load them back up with cement and pray. It's not ideal but it's definitely an improvement. Then I placed cardboard down inside the confines and have started fixing ("fixing" being another loose term for what it actually looks like) chicken wire around the outside. I've yet to finish it but the whole thing looks so saggy even I have to laugh. In my mind's eye I knew exactly what I wanted but apparently my mind's eye might need new glasses! If I ever get it finished I'll take a photo of it - I'm pretty sure it'll give you a good laugh!

And the good news is ...!

I'm coming to realize lately how much I appreciate having days/weeks with nothing planned. I still seem to get plenty done but it's been at my own pace and as and when I feel like it. There's no yoga for the next two weeks due to the Easter holidays, so I decided I wanted to get in at least one walk (done, 10 km Thyez to Cluses) and one session at the gym this week (also done). I wasn't feeling too enthusiastic about the gym but by the time I got off the bike after 45 minutes I thought I may as well "give it some wellie" (as we say back home) and ended up really enjoying myself, on top of having the whole upper floor of the gym to myself!

I continue to play the old head game of setting my timer for an hour and just getting on and doing something - anything - and by gum it seems to be working. Maybe I've found my groove because I've gotten so much done this week in one-hour chunks and, more importantly, I've actually enjoyed it! The other day I got my French tax papers ready to send off, and then went online to set up my account with the local water authority on their new site. Just like the French naturalisation site, however, the water board site wasn't working so I decided to leave it a few days and bingo, I got that done this morning. I wasn't so lucky with the naturalisation site though because their newfangled site is still not working - or maybe it's just that they don't want any more of us becoming French! Who knows! Still, not to worry, it'll all come right on the night I suppose. So since I couldn't get that ticked off my invisible to-do list, I set to and scrubbed the large balcony at the back of my house for the first time in ages and it looks pretty good. I actually don't know what the point was in installing these balconys when they built the houses because I don't know anyone that uses them. I suppose a more pertinent question would be why don't I use mine because it has the best view, looking out over the farm and the mountains! I suppose it could be because I like to sit under the balcony in the shade rather than on the balcony getting burned to a crisp. Still, it's a great place to dry my washing, and I'm even thinking I might put one of my small greenhouses out there to grow some of my warm weather veggies. I'd have to think about how to secure it though because right now there's a storm blowing and the wind can and does howl round that corner!

While I was out there scrubbing I noticed a little hedgehog moseying around on my back terrace. I thought it was unusual because they're usually nocturnal, but nope there he was, all curled up having a snooze. It eventually struck me that he might be sick so I put some water out for him and decided I'd shovel him up with my snow shovel if and when he kicked the bucket. But he didn't 'cos when I went out there to do the deed he was sniffing around by my back door! I deliberately went out and stood quite close to him but as that didn't seem to phase him at all, I went back into the house and came out and scattered some crushed up cereal to see what he would do. And guess what, turns out hedgehogs like Special K!

I also finally got through varnishing the bathroom unit after I realized the paint chipped easily if I didn't varnish it. I haven't done a very good job but I'm happy with it and it's 100% better than it was! Just got to get the rest done now!

Before - God I can't believe I put up
with that for so long!

After - I'm rather pleased with this!

I've also got quite a bit done in the garden/seedling department, even if my living room still resembles a jungle as I can't plant out yet. The other day when I was checking on my tomato seedlings I noticed that several pots had something else sprouting in addition to the tomato plants. Then it hit me that I had just been dumping in whatever half-decomposed compost I happened to have handy when I was repotting and some of the potato peelings had started to sprout! Heck at this rate I might be able to grow an entire salad in one pot!

I got chatting to my neighbour earlier this week and she asked me if I had heard about the Ferme des Chenevifs (the cheese-makers just up the road). Turns out that a couple of their cows had tested positive (for what, I don't know) and the entire herd had been slaughtered and they have now closed up shop!! Damn, that is so sad! I barely eat cheese so I wouldn't have known about it, but they were a small, family-owned business and poof just like that everything they had worked for is gone! I just hope they were well compensated for their loss!

Two weeks ago saw the first round of the French elections. In order to stand you have to have the support of at least 500 French mayors. There were three candidates who I thought were excellent but who weren't able to stand because of lack of mayoral support (there's a whole fishy backstory to this), but one who did get to run was a former Macron crony named Valérie Pecresse - the richest of all the people running! She was an abysmal candidate who came over as totally phony and so, of course, hardly got any votes. The thing is, she had put €5 million of her own personal money into the €7 million campaign funds, but under an unknown-to-me ruling for French elections, any candidate who polls less than 5% of the votes can not request reimbursement of monies spent from their party's campaign funds. Pecresse polled just 4.8% (she was convinced she was going to win) so is out €5 million of her own money and then had the nerve to go on television asking people to send money to help her recoup her losses!!!!!! It was quite funny (to me at least) because a whole bunch of people mailed in cheques for €1 and an opposition candidate offered to lend her his Peugeot 308! But seriously, the nerve of her, asking "the plebs" to help make up her losses when they will never have one-tenth of what she has if they work their entire lives! Needless to say my cheque is not in the mail!

I've been reading in the news that Netflix has apparently lost thousands of subscribers in the last couple of months as people, for whatever reason, are turning against them. (Could it be that nobody could give a sh*t about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's angst and the documentary Netflix is paying them millions to film)? I have to say, though, that I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of Netflix even if I won't be watching the Ginger Whinger's documentary! The past couple of nights I've stayed up late to watch the documentary on arch paedophile Jimmy Savile and it truly was stomach-turning. I remember as a young girl thinking I didn't like that creep and then one day my mom said the same thing. Oh there were rumours about him floating about for years, apparently, but since he raised millions for charity - in particular for Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries unit - the guy must have felt untouchable. Indeed he certainly seemed to be just that! When some of the victims were finally able to get their stories out (with the aid of an intrepid investigative reporter), they numbered in their hundreds - 400, in fact, according to the documentary - and while the pervert seemed to prefer young girls, he wasn't averse to assaulting young boys either, the youngest being a five year old! While "justice" (if you can call it that) was served in the end, it's just a shame that the bastard had already died when that justice was dished up!

Pervert-in-chief, Jimmy Savile!

Poor Charlie has been sick again! (again???)? It started off with conjunctivitis and an ear infection. When he got over that Jen reckoned chickenpox was on its way because they have an outbreak at the crèche. Well it turns out the rash all over his body was actually roseola, but, not to miss out, he then started a couple of days ago with chickenpox blisters. Poor little soul! That being said, he's actually fine, not miserable at all, and I guess we can only thank the powers that be that all these childhood illnesses have hit him while Jen's been at home and able to take care of him. I went over yesterday to see him and Jen was all bubbly because guess what? She's got a job! She'd been on parental leave until 31 March and was then suspended (along with the other 70,000 medical staff) for refusing the jab. She said the lady in HR was really nice about it and said she would have done the same if she could find another job but .... In fact, she told Jen that their small local hospital is now short 80 nurses because of the vaccine mandate and they are struggling! Anyway, Jen has applied for five jobs outside of nursing and last week went for an interview at a crèche just down the road. She said she loved the place and the atmosphere was great and she found out two days ago that they wanted to offer her the job - oh, and can you start on Wednesday? They were also happy to accommodate her need to start later (she needs to get Charlie to his own crèche first) because she could do the 7 p.m. closing instead - something the others didn't want to do. The pay is pretty abysmal compared to what she was earning as a nurse but she reckons they can manage financially. Also (and I think this is extremely positive), the woman told her that she understood that she will have been applying for other, higher-paying jobs (she has - she's waiting to hear back from the other four) and so offered her a trial three-month contract to see how she liked it and how it worked out for them! That, to my mind, is a definite plus in that it shows that this lady is human. And so, my blogging friends, for the first time in over a year I saw Jen really smile and all that pent up tension fade away! Who knows what will happen because if Marine Le Pen gets in on Sunday she has already stated that she will reinstate all the medical staff that have been suspended because of the vax mandate. Sadly I don't think she will get in because Napoleon's backers' pockets are just too deep, but who knows. So what that means is that I will be taking care of Charlie on Fridays and Jen is going to ask her mom to have him on Mondays (my yoga day), although she did say she didn't think her mom could manage a whole day so who knows if I will get roped in for Monday afternoons too. We'll see how it works out but I'm delighted for Jen and know she will not only enjoy her new job but she will be good at it (it's in a day care centre and she loves kids)!

AAAAAANNNNNDDDD (you thought I'd finished didn't you), the other day André spoke to his neighbour who works in Geneva in a hardware store selling plumbing supplies to professionals and asked him if he knew of any openings through his contacts. The guy told him the plumbers he dealt with couldn't find qualified plumbers to work for them for love nor money and to have Jordan get a résumé to him as soon as possible. So if this works out for Jordan he will be raking it in compared to what he is earning now. Minimum wage in Geneva (unskilled) is already almost three times what he's making now so as a qualified plumber who knows what that figure might be! So there you have it, a hopefully positive update on the roller-coaster ride that has been our norm for the last year. Fingers and toes duly crossed!

It's been a while!

I see it's over two weeks since I posted but even though I've been somewhat busy, things haven't been that exciting so I guess there was not much to report really! I fell into a bit of a slump for a few days the other week and got very little done, but I've come to realize if I allow myself that slump it only takes a short while for the energy to get going again. I've always known I'm a tortoise rather than a hare, so I guess it's best to go with your natural flow, isn't it!

So what's new, apart from the fact that my ex has been and gone. As I said previously I didn't think he looked very well when he arrived, but that could initially have been put down to jet leg. As time went on however (he was here three weeks), I thought that he looked less and less well, and on his last day here I thought he looked terrible! That being said, things between us were fine, there were a few run-ins with my sons, but at least he has now met Charlie and seen his boys for the first time in three years. There's a whole other back story too, which I may or may not write about in time, but when I was talking to my sister this weekend and I went on a breathless rant for what seemed like about 30 minutes (but probably wasn't), I realized I  haven't done that since we split up! I guess it goes to show where my stress came from, right?

Jen's grandparents had come down for Charlie's birthday so one day we all took a trip into Geneva to visit the Natural History Museum (something Jen's grandparents enjoy very much, apparently). We spent a couple of hours in there, but to be honest when you see some of those sea creatures wouldn't it make you wonder why on earth you ever set foot in the ocean again! There was one exhibit which I can only describe as looking like a huge, fat squid and boy if I ever came across that in the ocean I think I would faint (although I expect the squid might feel the same way looking at me in a swimsuit)!

On my ex's last day we met up over at Jordan and Jen's place for lunch and then sat in the little park belonging to their apartment building waiting for Jordan to finish work. The babe explored his new surroundings, André played guitar and my ex pretty much slept for about three hours lying in the grass. Jen and I each had a bottle of Tourtel lemonade and at one point I looked over at Charlie only to see him playing with an empty bottle. What on earth the neighbours thought seeing us giving "beer" to him goodness only knows!

Other than that I've been pottering around and it's been quite satisfying to be slowly moving things forward in chunks of about a couple of hours work a day. André had given me a €100 gift card for a large garden centre near here so I headed out there one afternoon, fretting slightly because what if I didn't spend the whole €100? Would they give me a credit for the difference? Ha! What a joke! Since when could I not spend €100 in that place? I felt a bit daft at one point, though, because I've been looking for a watering can with a "daisy-thingy" spout for ages but could never find one. I mean, ages and yet while I was in the garden centre I picked up a whole bunch, looked inside one of them and there was the detachable head! Well of course, they put them inside the watering can so as not to lose them! I swear if I had half a brain I'd be dangerous!

Picture of a watering can - just in case!

Continuing on the gardening theme, I saw a youtube video claiming to show you "how to easily cultivate coriander (cilantro) seeds". Basically he soaked the seeds in water, crushed them slightly, wrapped them in cloth and put them away in a warm, dark place for three days. All well and good so far, of course, but do you think I can remember where I hid them? Nope, almost a week later I still haven't found them so I'm kinda waiting for yet another triffid to start making it's way along the shelves and out the door of some cupboard or other soon!

I'm not sure what's going on with the farm since the farmer died, but I was delighted to see the other day that there are now goats, sheep and about a dozen cows out in the fields behind me. But given that they have the whole mountainside to themselves, I can't help but wonder why the cows all huddle together in one spot!

I was also delighted to see that our village is going to hold its first village fête in four years this year. They were doing some rebuilding work at the community hall for the first two years and then of course covid intervened, but I can only imagine how everyone will be looking forward to it this year. It is very rural, something akin to la France profonde, very sociable and it remains one of the most popular village fêtes around!

My friend and I went out to our first vide-grenier last week-end, both of us dreading buying more junk that we didn't need (we didn't), but it was so lovely to be out and about again after so long. It was gloriously sunny but by golly the wind was fierce on that plâteau so we stayed just long enough to have a wander and then hightailed it back to the warmth of the car!

When I got back I was sitting watching my latest Netflix goodie (Anatomy of a Scandal) when the bloody phone went at 11.15 p.m.! I'm getting more and more of these telemarketers and I know it's randomized computer dialing, but do they really think they're going to get any money out of me at that time of night? I don't answer, of course, and they never leave a message, but still, time to unplug the landline at night, methinks!

And finally, I talked briefly over Easter with a friend who is going through a very unpleasant divorce. So unpleasant, in fact, that she found out he had placed what seems to be voice-activated recorders in her home - which is her home that she bought before marriage! Man oh man, there are so many ways you can be spied upon it's unreal. But that brings to mind a story on a site that I follow where one lady discovered that her soon-to-be-ex had placed a GPS tracking device in her car, after he'd run off with his mistress but before their divorce was finalized. So she got her own back on him (and probably drove him mad in the process) by getting her neighbour to place it in his car until the divorce was final. He was a travelling salesman!

Oh dear!

Someone on FB traffic alerts posted a meme to the effect "ha ha to those that took their snow tyres off last week" - and boy was it appropriate! It started snowing yesterday evening, snowing all night and day to leave about an eight inch dump on my car by yesterday morning. The roads didn't look too bad but since I didn't have to go out I thought I may as well stay home. Then this morning I set off to meet up with Jen to go to a bourse for children's stuff as she was looking for a child gate and me - well I just wanted to play with Charlie and drive him nuts (it worked)! I pushed all the snow off my car with a large broom and the roads were pretty much ok - or at least until I got almost to their place and my rear end (the car, not me) spun out on a sheet of black ice as I was going round a traffic island. It shook me up a bit but all was hunky dory in the end when I got the car straightened up, so no harm done. When I got to Jordan and Jen's place I mentioned that I would stop up at André's place afterwards as I had received another letter from the bank for him, and that was when Jordan mentioned that dad hadn't made it to Portugal on Friday as planned and that things were maybe a little "tense" up there! Oh dear, so a leopard doesn't change it's spots then. I might write more about it tomorrow but again, did I ever mention how glad I am to be divorced?

Out my window when the snow started yesterday evening!

About 30 minutes up the road from here, in the ski resort
of La Clusaz!

Who's been a busy bee then?

Maybe it's because there's a hint of spring in the air but I finally got a burst of energy again this week and got so much done that had been bugging me for ages! Do you know what I mean by the "eternal invisible to-do list"? The things you need/want to get around to doing but just never seem to get there? Well I decided to start putting the list down on paper and trying to knock a couple of them out every day. I mean, seriously, most of them only take a few minutes anyway, right? So I've been quite a busy bee this week and it feels pretty good. (At this point I was going to post an audio of Arthur Askey singing Busy Bee but thought the better of it - although I'm definitely showing my age with that one)!

My mobile phone bill has been bugging me for quite some time because when I signed up for a new contract (and got my iPhone 11 for €9) about nine months ago, the contract I agreed to was for around €40/month, which was pretty much what I was paying before. But, every month that damn bill would come in and I would be out over €80!!!, and while I'm not obsessive about it I make sure any extra-EU calls (to the UK or the US) are always made via wifi so I couldn't understand why I was still clocking up an €80+ monthly phone bill! Eventually I pulled up my contract online and saw that I was being billed the €40 for my current contract and then another €40 for a different mobile line. So I promptly called them up, sat through God-knows how many "press 1 for ...., press 2 for ...., para español marque el número ...." and finally got through to a real person! I explained my problem to her and asked what that other mobile number was and she said it was the additional number that was linked to my previous 4G wifi contract (as opposed to my new ADSL line wifi)! Say what? I mailed that box back to them about nine months ago (which she acknowledged), but apparently since I hadn't actually asked for them to cancel the contract, I was still paying the extra €40/month, even though I didn't have the equipment! Lordy, lordy, while she was very helpful and cancelled the contract there and then, I do feel it's just another hoop you have to jump through so that they can keep billing you. Not that €40 is that much money, but it sure was bugging the hell out of me!

I also got a bit of varnishing done in my large bathroom as I was finding that my paint job on the made-to-measure unit chipped rather easily. So now I'm having to empty everything yet again and go over the paint job with varnish I luckily just happened to have in my basement. I'm not doing such a great job but I've come to realize that I really am a "good enough" kinda person, so I guess perfectionism really isn't going to be the death of me!

Then I got a load of veggie seeds planted and "housed" behind the sofa in my very sunny living room and man those things are going wild - they look like triffids at this point! I'm praying I haven't jumped the gun and planted them too early since we really shouldn't plant out here before mid-May because of the risk of frost, so if you don't hear from me ever again it will probably be because I have been murdered by a triffid making it's way upstairs and strangling me in my sleep!

In it's day (1962), that was a pretty good film!

Then it was time to get the pressure sprayer out, and while I enjoy the actual washing bit, I just hate setting the darn thing up and moving everything out the way, although I have to admit my back terrace looks so much better now - or at least until we get the next sand dump from the Sahara! I also finally got myself booked onto a vegan cookery course at the vegan restaurant up the road. While I doubt I would ever go vegan (vegetarian possibly), the food at this place is just wonderful so I'm thinking it can't hurt to learn how to make some of their dishes, even if they only turn out half as good as in the restaurant!

On the exercise front I went to the gym twice last week and added in two machines that I have always liked and cut out one machine which I think is too hard on my knees. And again, the place is virtually empty every time I go so I will definitely sign back up when my contract expires shortly. At yoga lately she has been teaching us the "Five Tibetans" postures. While I frankly don't understand much about the theory, they are movements designed to stimulate energy (just as the sap in plants/trees begins to rise again in the spring), and while they haven't been my favourite exercises, I can definitely feel a difference compared to the previous postures we have been working on! But isn't it great when you've go so much to learn that everything is a novel experience!

The "Five Tibetans" postures
(I don't look anything like this)!

I also finally got off my backside and took myself down to the lake at Passy for a walk earlier this week - which was just as well because it's piddling down here now and I think they've even forecast snow in the next couple of days!

The Mont Blanc!

Then on Tuesday night I dropped my car off at Ford for them to take off my winter tyres (ha, ha, there's snow forecast this weekend) and put new summer tyres on. I was bloody lazy though because I could have walked back home in about an hour, but as it was all uphill I chickened out and caught the bone-rattling minibus service back home, on the pretext of figuring out exactly which villages it stops at! When I got there Thiery (the Ford guy) was telling me how busy they are (I thought he looked tired) but they couldn't order any new cars for stock at the moment because most of their steering wheels come from Ukraine! I guess you don't realize how interdependent we all are until something like this happens! On a positive note, I at least managed the one hour walk back down there on Wednesday to pick my car up!

My ex arrived from the States on Sunday in time for Charlie's first birthday. He was due in to Geneva at 7.30 a.m. (I bet that pleased André, who definitely likes his sleep), but the flight was delayed and he only arrived at 10 a.m. Still, he got to meet Charlie later that day and he's just as dotty about him as I imagined he would be. Monday was Charlie's birthday (I know, where oh where has the year gone?), so we were all invited over to Jordan and Jen's for a fondue. I stopped in at Maison Janin to buy a couple of desserts and man is that place a gold mine. It was heaving with so many people buying bread, sandwiches, coffee and desserts, I can't even begin to imagine how much money they must rake in in a day!

Maison Janin!

Things were fine with my ex (who I haven't seen in three years), but to be honest I didn't think he looked too well - although that might just have been jetlag! Charlie is not yet walking - although I sense we're getting closer every day - but man oh man has he got a mouth on him. He's an incredibly happy little boy but the decibels in that room with his "singing" were quite something! Still, I'd rather him like that than quiet and subdued!

And finally, I went grocery shopping today and since I go to a lot of farmers' markets I generally shop with cash because I would say at least 50% of the stalls don't take card payments. I don't mind at all as I think it's important to keep cash circulating and not go totally digital, but I must have excelled myself today by walking out of there with just two cents left out of the cash in my wallet. Don't spend it all at once right?

This and that!

Progress on all the stuff I want to tackle round here is very slow but at least it is making some forward momentum. Jordan had to come back to my place to replace the piping underneath the sinks in the large bathroom as he wasn't happy with it. As he was doing whatever it is he does, he asked what kind of screwdrivers I had because he needed to poke a hole in the one piece of piping, so I suggested he might prefer to use my soldering iron instead! "You have a soldering iron"? Ha, yes I do, I bought it the other week because I'm starting in on my annual "let's grow fruit and vegetables in weird containers" kick, so I bought it to poke drainage holes in the large plastic jugs/buckets etc. that I'm hoping to use once we can plant outside. Actually I've already got one bucket out in the garden with peas in (I read they're fine to plant out already) and so far they're going great guns. Jordan was actually late getting here because traffic was all backed up on his way through Marignier - which was how he came to tell me that they are laying huge underground piping which will link Marignier to Cluses (about 10 km) in preparation for hooking it up to a kind of power station that will be used to burn trash and supply heat using the generated steam. That's a round about way of saying that they've started an ambitious project to turn our trash into energy, and I think that's great!

I've always been interested in "alternative technology" and different ways of doing things (hence growing lettuces up my cherry tree in plastic bottles a few years ago (the neighbours brought their friends round to have a look)! Many moons ago, when I was pregnant with André, we went to see family in North Wales and my cousin took us to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth - I found it fascinating. I've just looked up their website and they've obviously made great strides over the last 35 years since my visit so I would love to go again!

Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth!

Then the other night I was watching Youtube videos on gardening when up popped a video about a lady's fabulous garden in the Ecovillage in Findhorn, Scotland! So of course I had to head over there and take a look and found another great place that I would like to visit sometime. At Findhorn they used to use enormous vats to distil whiskey - I mean seriously huge vats - and some of those vats were turned into living quarters after they had outlived their usefulness in the whiskey business. Imagine that, living in a whiskey vat. I wonder if they have detectors to indicate if you might be running the risk of suffocation by whiskey fumes?

Ecovillage, Findhorn!

Like the UK, we also got hammered last week by the wind and rain carrying sand from Africa and leaving our cars filthy and my velux windows looking like someone had been stabbed to death on them. I got the car cleaned up pretty easily but the windows are quite another matter and look dreadful still!

I also managed to get to the gym twice this past week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. As always, it seems to me if I go in the middle of the day I can pretty much have the upper floor (the weight room) to myself so what's not to like? No hassle and no-one to witness my pathetic efforts!

I also went to IKEA, Geneva, twice this week and for someone trying to declutter I guess that doesn't make much sense. Actually I went with Jen and her mom and got to have a good look round at bathroom installations. I think I've made up my mind on the wash basin and unit I want for the smaller bathroom. Jordan told me I can buy what I want at IKEA but not the nuts and bolts because he always says that the hardware in these places is crap and he will provide that stuff or get it from where the professionals get it. I'm happy to oblige as he'll be installing it after all!

Since last Monday France has (finally) lifted 99% of its covid restrictions. We no longer have to wear masks everywhere indoors (with the exception of hospitals, etc.) and no pass is required to go to cinemas, restaurants, museums or to sit on a café terrace and have a coffee! Hallelujah, what it feels like to be free! Because of that on Saturday Jen and I were able to go to a bourse in her small town. I've finally figured out that a bourse is like a vide-grenier/car boot/garage sale but concentrating on one particular range of items. In this case it was children's stuff - clothes, toys, books etc., all second-hand, and we came out of there with a fair few items of clothing and books for Charlie for when he's around two years old. Jen had put a few items in the sale and ended up selling for €108 so she was well pleased. But how times have changed! All sellers were given their own identification code, and as each item was sold the seller's QR code was scanned and they could keep track of sales as the day went on. A QR code for a vide-grenier? Bloody hell, they've got QR codes for everything now, haven't they!

I was delighted to see that British/Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was finally released from Iran after being held for six years on "spying charges". There has since been somewhat of a backlash after she gave a press conference in which she was less than gracious about those that secured her release. Whatever the truth of it all, I have to say she has an absolute diamond of a husband because he has worked tirelessly these last six years to keep her name in the spotlight - even going on hunger strike at one point - so I wish them nothing but good things going forward!

Nazanin and Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter!

And finally, we had our first board game evening in goodness knows how long last Saturday up at André's place and it was really fun. It gave everyone a chance to see his new place and to meet Charlie, if they hadn't already done so - and we had a really good time!

We split into two groups to play two different games as we were just too big a group to play all together. The game we played involved getting your team to say a particular word - first by using as many words as you like to describe it, second time round the table by using just one word, and third time round by miming the word. At one point André was trying to get his team mate, Fabrice, to say the word chevreuil!

Chevreuil - a doe!

Trouble is, André must have got hold of the wrong end of the stick and ended up doing a wonderful impersonation of an ecureuil - I'm guessing beer may have been involved!

Ecureuil - a squirrel!

Poor Fabrice, I'm not sure how he was ever going to guess "doe" with André doing his award-worthy impression of a squirrel! Somehow that tickled me to bits and I got a severe fit of the giggles afterwards, which was of course infectious and we all ended up roaring! My ex arrives here Sunday morning to meet Charlie for the first time and will be staying with André for three weeks, as he will be on leave. While he's looking forward to seeing his dad they stand a chance of clashing too (his dad can be bloody hard work), but André said if that happens he'll just drive him down to Jordan and Jen's and abandon him, so he's got it all worked out, just in case! Fingers crossed that it all goes well - I'm sure it will!