Movin' on!

After our visit to the open air museum it was time to move on to the main attraction (for me anyway), which was the city of Amsterdam - and it certainly didn't disappoint! While there is obviously some traffic in Amsterdam, most of its inhabitants use bikes rather than cars, for the simple reason that there is nowhere to park! Bikes are everywhere and you'd better be pretty careful crossing the road because bike lanes are crowded and those bikes move! Our first stop was a guided tour of the diamond quarter, but quite frankly my friend and I weren't interested in that so took ourselves off to visit the flea market nearby (selling pretty much the same tat as they do in Geneva, to be honest). We wandered around for a bit and then sat and waited for the others to get back - which was a good move, as it turns out, because everyone said the people at the diamond place weren't interested in "the likes of us", but rather in the people getting out of the Bentleys! Or as one woman said, "if I actually had €9,000 to spend on a bracelet, I doubt I'd be travelling on a bus tour"!

Amsterdam!

Apparently the houses are so narrow because
people were initially taxed on the width of their
homes (just as in England centuries ago people were 
taxed on the number of windows in their homes - so
they took them out)!!!

And of course you can't visit Amsterdam without visiting the red light district, although our small group of women was adamant that we did not want to visit "the prostitute windows". This is an area where virtually naked females stand behind glass so that potential clients can "take their pick"! Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands and prostitutes are expected to pay tax, although I'm pretty sure they don't pay that much tax as I doubt many johns pay by credit card! Even assuming it's the personal choice of the woman, I find it degrading that they should be on display like meat at a butcher's shop so we decided not to visit that part of the district. That being said, I'm pretty sure some of these young woman are trafficked and not actually prostituting themselves freely, and I well remember seeing the very effective campaign video put out a few years ago by anti-trafficking campaigners (you can see it here if you are interested)!

A dance show put on by the young "window" women!

... with this sign as the finale!

We wandered through a few back alleys and happened to pass in front of three "windows" off the beaten track, where older, fatter Asian women were standing "plying their wares" dressed in next to nothing and looking bored out of their minds, so I guess we did get a sad glimpse of what the main prostitute area is like! There were a few sex shops in these alleys and the goods in the store fronts were eye-popping, with the miniscule "sexy" outfits being the least of it! And the smell of the place - I'm surprised we didn't get high just walking around, as weed is neither legal nor illegal, but can be freely smoked in places called "coffee shops"!

After leaving the red light district (it's pretty small), we took a walk through the flower market with its amazing array of flowers/bulbs. The bulbs were humongous so I can just imagine how big the flowers would grow to be, but I decided against buying anything to lug round with me and save my money for Keukenhof the next day!

 

I'm baaaccckkkk!

Well for such a short trip I have to say it was pretty exhausting so I'm glad to be back home and able to sit for a while. That being said, it was a good trip generally speaking, but as it was the first time the company had run this trip I'd have to say there was room for improvement too!

We travelled yet again with a local bus company that we've used several times before and have always found to be very good. We set off at 6 a.m. for a pretty miserable trip in the pouring rain, arriving at a place called Amnéville - near the Belgian border but still in France - at around 6 p.m., so it was a long day. In reality it wouldn't take nearly that long in a car but obviously our driver had to take regular breaks and we also stopped for a typical French (read "long") lunch at mid-day. So we arrived in Amnéville just in time to get settled into our hotel and then head out for dinner. And as ever with this company, they managed to pick out really good restaurants because the food (all inclusive) was  excellent. We didn't have much time to visit the complex where we were staying but it was located in a very well thought out hot springs and amusement park which seemed to cater for all interests!

Amnéville resort

Next morning we were up and out of there to head west towards The Netherlands where we picked up our boat at a place called Lelystad, cruising through the night to end up at the port of Enkhuizen. The boat was, of necessity, pretty small (you can't cruise down canals in the QEII, after all), but our cabin was nice, the crew were helpful and the food was consistently out of this world! What I hadn't actually realized was that from this point on we would spend every night on the boat and eat all meals on it too and by golly was the food good! The portions weren't big but the menus were so well thought out and cooked it was a real pleasure. Anything you wanted from the bar was also included (yay me) so I barely spent anything at all in the end (just a few souvenirs for the kids) and felt the whole trip was really good value for money!

Our boat "L'Europe"!

Port of Enkhuizen

At Enkhuizen we were met by our local guide who took us on to the fishing village of Volendam which was very pretty - if a little cold and wet! It may (or may not) still be an active fishing village but I suspect most of their income comes from tourism!

Volendam!

Then it was dash back to the bus for a visit to the Gouda cheese factory and a local clog-making shop (and no, I didn't see much point in buying a pair of clogs), before heading out to the open air museum of Zaanse Schans, where it was again pretty cold - not that that bothered us. It goes with the territory after all! The downside, however, was that we were a bit rushed so I'm thinking that the bus/cruise company might want to rethink some of their itineraries!

Windmills at Zaanse Schans!

When we got back to our boat I was talking to the guide about the Dutch farmers' party recent victory and she was pretty surprised that an outsider knew about it as their mainstream media had been trying to play it down, of course. As we were talking a couple from our group started heading towards another identical boat to ours when she called them back and explained that it was the wrong boat - "that was the migrant boat". If you stopped for a second and looked you could see that it obviously wasn't our boat as it was full of young men just hanging around smoking. Someone made the mistake of calling it a refugee boat and our guide said nope, that was the boat that had been commandeered to house illegal immigrants, not refugees - "I mean, do you actually see any women and children on that boat?" You could tell that she was pissed off about the situation and when she mentioned that they were also being given an allowance of €1,000 a month by the Dutch government half our party almost fell off their chairs in shock, outraged that illegal immigrants would be housed, fed and given cash! The same thing is obviously going on in many European countries (although I don't know about the cash part), but I was surprised to read just yesterday that Mark Drakeford, the First Minister for Wales, was trying to push through a similar scheme (where illegals would be given £1,600 per month) but it was squashed by Westminster this week! Then just this afternoon I saw this report about how the army barracks where migrants were being housed in Kent has been wrecked so I'm not surprised people have had enough (you can see the report here)! The trouble is, it takes sympathy and ressources away from genuine refugees who need it most! Greater minds than mine don't seem to be able to solve this issue so I'm sure I don't know what the solution is either!

Anyway, I'll write more about the rest of my trip soon, but before I go I just wanted to mention the sad passing yesterday of the inimitable Barry Humphries. Thanks for all the laughs, Edna, and RIP Barry!

Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage!

More this and that!

For those of you that celebrate Easter/Passover, I hope you had a lovely time, either with family/friends or just doing your own thing. Jen's mom very kindly invited us to her place for lunch on Sunday and we lucked out because the weather was lovely and we were able to have the windows and doors open! Charlie's foray into Easter egg hunting wasn't exactly a roaring succes as he was more interested in his new bike, but still, it was nice to get together with everyone and be able to sit outside!

My gardener came earlier this week for the first cut of the season and everything just looks so nice now. As he'd brought his tractor I asked him if he would cut the island in front of our houses at some point, so he set to and did that too - which means I'm now off the hook for the rest of the season! The menfolk round here generally take it in turns to cut the island but there's no way I'm doing it. Heck I don't even cut my own grass any more so paying the gardener to do it for me leaves me with a clear conscience - and the island looks good too, so win/win!

I stayed away from the French news for a few days and boy does it all seem to go mad when I do that! There was an apartment building that collapsed in Marseille a couple of days ago, with a second one also being evacuated. I haven't heard the final death toll from that tragedy yet but I imagine it's still climbing, sadly. Then two days ago there was an avalanche just up the road here that killed six people (two guides and four clients) who were skiing in an area that was marked as only a 2/5 risk for avalanches. So they seemingly were following the guidelines and yet still got caught out! And then just the other day a fire broke out on a ride at Futuroscope (a theme park in western France) where people were trapped on the ride as they couldn't get their seatbelts off. They think it was caused by a lithium battery catching fire, yet again calling into question potential safety issues with electric vehicles. I saw this article (here) back in January, where a Norwegian ferry company has banned electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles because of the safety risk, so I'm guessing we won't all be switching to EVs as early as the powers that be would like us to, all the more so given their limited range and difficulties in finding recharging points. My neighbours were just telling me the other day that they drove down to Lyon (about 90 minutes away) a couple of months ago, ran out of battery and had to get the train back, so nah, I think I'll hang on to my old jalopy as long as I can!

April Fools came and went, with Jen sending us a picture of a pregnant belly, but I knew it wasn't her (not yet, at least) because just a couple of weeks ago she was as flat as an ironing board (unlike me)! But that reminded me of an April Fools prank that I saw on TV when I was a kid. I actually fell for it, but in my defence I was a very little kid! At the end of the news bulletin they played a short clip showing that year's "tremendous spaghetti crop" in Ticino (Switzerland), but since they were having problems bringing the harvest in they were looking to recruit temporary workers to help. Sounded like a great idea to me (and again, I was a very little kid - it was filmed in 1957) and I believe quite a few people actually contacted them about temporary contracts! Ha ha, it must have been a good one if I remember it all these years later (spaghetti harvest in Ticino)! I've been a bit restless recently - you know, thinking of chucking it all in, buying a one-bedroomed apartment and a decent backpack - but at least I wouldn't fall for this gag now second time round!

I'm still doing pretty well decluttering and am trying to drop stuff off at the tip every time I go into town and, if possible, do a charity shop run once a week. Last week I actually got rid of a couple of leather carry-on bags that belonged to my brother. They were lovely and had a sentimental value for me, but I know myself well enough to realize that eventually there will come a time where I'm ready to pass these things on and now was the time. I also dropped off a brand new ice-cream maker and a bread machine (used just once), both with the instruction manuals, so I'm hoping someone will get more pleasure out of them than I did! 

Talking of travel gear, I lugged a suitcase up from the basement today as I'm off to Holland on Saturday. I used to have a list of everything (non-clothes) I needed to take with me (you know, phone charger, adaptor plugs, etc.) but I'm buggered if I know what I did with that list as it's been four years since I went anywhere. So I've drawn up another list on my computer and am adding to it as I think of stuff, and as long as I don't add it to my "freezer contents list" by mistake I'm good to go. The other day we received notice to say that the itinerary had to be changed slightly. I think we might get a little less free time in Amsterdam and more time on the cruise, but I'm not sure. Still, as long as I get to wander round Amsterdam I'm good with that! I also have a course on Ayurvedic medicine tomorrow night, which I'm quite excited about as it's something that really interests me, so I'm curious to see how that turns out!

Again in the spirit of letting things go, I gave Jen four cake moulds that I'd had for ages. Well obviously I'd had them for ages because they were for a dalmation dog cake, Winnie the Poo, a dinosaur and a lion - and my kids are in their 30s! As it was Charlie's second birthday the other week, Jen had us over for birthday cake and made a lovely brownie cake using the dinosaur mould. It came out perfectly as she obviously greased the mould much better than I did because I remember making a Winnie the Poo cake for one of my kids and it stuck to the pan so badly poor Winnie looked like he'd got a bad case of psoriasis! They'd blown up a bunch of balloons too so Charlie, me and another little one ended up having a few balloon fights. Charlie was strangely obsessed with fighting only using the green balloon, so me being a nasty granny would rush over and grab the green balloon first - at which point he'd throw a hissy fit. Tee hee! But jeez Louise, he's now two years old - you'd think he'd be a bit more mature about it!

Anyway, I don't know if I'll get round to posting again before I leave, and I'm pretty sure I won't be posting using my phone (fat fingers), so I hope you all keep well and I'll try to post lots of nice tulip photos if we don't get rained out!

This and that!

It's been another pretty decent week here in that I got quite a bit done and the weather was ok-ish. Well ok-ish until two days ago and now we seem to be back in the dark ages. Piddling down rain, howling winds and thunder storms rolling down the valley non-stop. Actually I quite like listening to the storms but the dark and wet I could do without. Every time the sun would break through the clouds for a few minutes I'd think "great, I'll go work in the garden" and then it would start pelting down again. So I ended up working in my basement the past few days and slowly but surely I can see a little progress! There is a very large unit on one end of the basement (it's split into three parts) that was left there by the previous owners and where my ex used to collect screws, nuts, bolts and god knows what else. Well I went through that sucker and put like with like - plumbing stuff, nuts and bolts, tools, paint, wallpapering stuff and now it's all sorted and looking infinitely better. I also lugged two more 25 kg buckets of rock solid paint up to the garage so that I can make another trip to the tip sometime this week. They're finally delivering my bathroom stuff on Thursday so I want to clear as much of the garage as possible so I can store all the bathroom fittings and 41 cubic metres of tiles. Exciting stuff - but again I'm not looking forward to the mess!

On Wednesday I took a trip out to a big garden centre as André had given me a gift voucher for Christmas and they were having a 15% off sale. It's still an expensive place to shop but man every time I go there I want to throw everything I own away and start over, their stuff is so beautiful! A bit like when I visit IKEA and want to redo my home completely - I mean, their showrooms are so lovely aren't they (well to my mind, anyway)! Walking through the outdoors areas I saw the most beautiful olive trees for sale. They were well established and ran about €1,000 each so even assuming I could get one in my car (I couldn't) there's no way I would buy one. I've always felt that olive trees wouldn't grow well round here but I suppose if they sell them they must do, right? To me it's more of a Provençal thing but maybe not. All I know is that they are beautiful and if I ever move further south you can bet I'll have olive trees galore and to hell with the cost!

I specifically went out there on Wednesday because that's one of the days when the big charity shop is open for drop offs and it's not too far from the garden centre. So thinking I had a vague idea how to get there I set off in that general direction, exiting the highway at a place called Lucinges - and started climbing and climbing and climbing with the road getting narrower and narrower and narrower - until I ended up half way up an alp on a goat track which dead-ended in someone's driveway!!! I had to do a 300-point turn relying on the handbrake to stop me demolishing this guy's fence and getting hotter and hotter under the collar until I finally "did a Muttley" and made it out of there! Still, at least that was ultimately another pile of stuff out the door!

When I got home I got a message from my nephew with a very old picture of my mom and dad, asking if I knew where it was taken (I didn't). He said his brother had joined Ancestry.com and someone had posted a picture of mom and dad and they couldn't figure out who it was. Now there are only four of us siblings left and it was none of us, so I'd be curious to know who posted that picture. They also posted a picture of a gravestone belonging to two of my dad's brothers - Charlie, who died aged 25 (in the 1930s I think) and Billy, who died aged 22 after drinking bleach over a bust up with some girl!!! Dad also had a sister, Cal (the only girl after seven boys) who died aged two after falling down the cellar steps! I know a little of the background but my brother Phil, who died in 2019, would have been able to tell us so much more if he were still alive. That being said, this same nephew also joined whatever that site is that can supposedly tell you your ethnic origins (I don't know how - do they take a blood sample?) and he basically came back a Viking but with no Welsh blood in him, and this despite the fact that three of his four grandparents were Welsh! I'm not so sure about that one, to be honest!

In other news, yesterday I took a trip out to a fabric store a little bit off the beaten track for me, since the ladies at sewing club were saying that the assistants at this particular store were far more friendly and helpful than our usual haunts - and indeed they were! One lady spent a good 30 minutes with me picking out fabric for two projects I have in mind and was so helpful that I posted on their FB page to give credit where credit is due! At the check-out I spotted that they were shortly going to be offering appointments to get your sewing machine serviced so I booked mine in for 11 April, and when I asked how much it would cost they told me it was free!! So score there then too, but I suppose having a bunch of women hanging around in your shop waiting to pick up their sewing machines is probably a savvy sales technique too!

When I got home I saw I'd received an email from my electricity supplier about "my revised tariff" and thought "oh dear, here we go", but when I opened the message it turned out to be just a €3 monthly increase in my standing charge, so I can live with that. A couple of my neighbours have asked if my solar panels have made any difference to my electricity costs but to be honest I haven't even gotten round to looking yet. Note to self, I must pick up the instruction manual soon and take a look! I also got an email to say that a game I ordered to play with Charlie should be delivered soon as "Ji Nan Yi Ming Wang Luo Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si" had already sent it! Huh? I thought it was coming from France (but that doesn't sound very likely, does it)!

And has anyone else been having problems with comments on blogger? For the past week or so I've been finding comments in my spam folder, most of which (although not all) were my own comments dating back ages ago and which I know I had published! I'm also having problems backing up my blog too so I'm thinking it might be time to get my own domain name and move my blog over to that as I don't want to potentially lose it after eight years (eight years??? crikey)!

And finally, like quite a few UK bloggers, I was very sorry to hear of the sudden death of comedian Paul O'Grady. Paul found fame some years ago with his alter ego Lily Savage. I can't say I found Lily very funny, to be honest, and I'm not really into drag queens - well except for Dame Edna, and oh British pantomime dames - oh and yes I once went to a drag club in Geneva years ago and had a great time - so maybe I like drag queens more than I thought!

The inimitable Dame Edna!

Panto's ugly sisters!

Paul retired Lily a good few years ago and then went on to host game shows and appear on other media where he gained popularity with his acerbic wit. The other side of Paul was that he was great animal lover (particularly dogs) and worked tirelessly with Battersea Dogs' Home and with his show For the Love of Dogs! But I think where I learned to really appreciate what a kind and gentle man he was was when he shadowed The Salvation Army for a few days, out and about helping the homeless and those down on their luck. He was just lovely to everyone and helped raise quite a lot of money but, tellingly, at the end of the show, when he asked if he would be accepted as one of their "soldiers" (I think that's what the Sally Army call them) he was told that they couldn't accept him because he was gay! Says it all really doesn't it! 

Paul and "Lily"!

RIP Paul O'Grady! You were a good man!

This and that!

I had another good week last week - the weather was good, I got a lot done and a whole pile of junk taken down to the tip. I have loads of tubs of paint and other miscellaneous gooey stuff down in the basement which I reckon has been there since we had the whole house painted around 20 years ago. Bit by bit I've lugged it upstairs and taken it to the tip to be disposed of however they dispose of that kind of thing. I've also made a start on dismantling a barbecue that I've had sitting on the back terrace for years and which, even though it has been covered up, has rusted pretty badly. Thinking about the barbecue brings to mind the story of when my ex had moved out and was living with his skank down in town. Every couple of weeks they'd have a playground spat, throw handbags at each other and he'd move back in because "it's still my house" - only to move out again about three days later! Well he was back at the house when I was trying to get the barbecue cleaned up and spending about an hour a day after work (I obviously have a thing about spending an hour a day working, don't I) scrubbing that thing to within an inch of its life, all while he sat on his backside and watched me! After about a week it looked pretty good - which was when he turned to me and asked if he could have it for his place! I'd been getting progressively more annoyed at having him sit there watching me work so I flipped on him and yelled that now he wanted it, after he'd watched me scrub it for a week????? Needless to say he didn't get it and I told him to tell his girlfriend to buy her own! Anyhoo, I no longer use it but it has been too heavy for me to move so I've spent the past week bashing away with hammer and screwdriver and gotten it dismantled enough to take to the tip - and very satisfying it is too!

I also got word this week that the fittings for my bathrooms have finally shown up so now that I've paid the balance I'm expecting everything to be delivered soon and I can get the plumbers and tiler in. I'm not looking forward to the mess at all, but I'm guessing it'll be worth it in the end! But that reminded me that I needed to get the radiators painted before they showed up, so I set to and slopped around a bunch of paint the other night thinking I'd done a half way decent job - untilllllll I got up the next morning and in the bright light of day saw what it looked like. Oh my word, I reckon Stevie Wonder would have done a better job, I missed so many spots. Still, after a couple of coats on each radiator I'm thinking (hoping) that I've knocked that job off the to do list!

Things are still very volatile here in France and not just in Paris. I've got to hand it to Macron, he really does seem to have pissed the entire country off this time. There's another general strike called for tomorrow and he has supposedly been meeting with his cabinet this week so I'll be curious to see what, if anything transpires. On the subject of pensions though, a French news channel had the bright idea of asking semi-celebrities to reveal the amounts of their pensions, although why anyone thought this would be a good idea is beyond me. What I'm seeing is some fairly average (to my eyes) pensions, but of course in the comments people are getting riled up about the injustice of the current reform. I don't know how this helps anyone, or maybe it's just another tactic to wind people up and foster animosity! I'll be damned if I can figure it out!

On a more positive note I finally finished the Kaffe Fassett mystery quilt I started about four years ago!!!! It was a mystery quilt in that once a month we would receive a set of fabrics and instructions and after six months (if I remember correctly) information on how to assemble the final quilt. Well I made such a cock-up cutting the fabric that I ended up going rogue and the quilt became so big and cumbersome that I just gave up. Well that is until I started back at sewing in September. So after much blood, sweat and curse words I got the damn thing finished. I reckon it took slightly longer to finish than it did to build the pyramids, but now, at least, I can finally forget about the bloody thing and move on to something more appealing!

This is what it was supposed to look like,
although the colours may vary!

And this is what I ended up with!

We had our latest board game evening on Saturday night at Jordan and Jen's place and it was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday they asked if I would look after Charlie for them to spend the day at a spa on Lake Geneva as a wedding anniversary treat. I loved spending the day with him, of course, but man was I beat by the time they got home! And I can hardly believe it but the Munchkin will be two tomorrow! I honestly don't know where the time went as it feels like he has always been a part of the family - and a very much loved part at that!

Talking of babies, Max (who was Jordan's previous boss and has been the kids' long term friend and band mate) announced on Saturday that he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby. It kinda surprised me, to be honest, because I didn't see him as the baby type, but more to the point, his girlfriend is the young woman I've mentioned previously who has been wheelchair bound for about 10 years since being in a car accident involving a wild boar! Her legs no longer function and she has what I can only describe as "crippled" hands, but there you go, she is pregnant and I'm delighted for them. I'm sure it isn't going to be the easiest of pregnancies and taking care of a baby has got to have its challenges given her circumstances, but she is such a go-getter and positive young woman that I'm sure they will make wonderful parents! 

Max also mentioned to André at band practice this weekend that he wished he could take Jordan back as an employee, to which Jordan replied that he didn't leave because of the money (although he was paid a pittance) but because of the toxic work atmosphere created by Max's brother and, to a lesser extent, by Max himself. And talking of work, Jordan had an interview with the director where he is working at the moment and they are drawing up a contract this week to take him on as a new employee, rather than employing him through the temp agency. His supervisor told Jordan that he actually went to see the company owner and asked him to take Jordan on as a site foreman because not only was he capable of it but he was a great help as they are working mainly with Polish and Romanian plumbers who generally speak better English than French! Jordan doesn't know what the job offer will look like but either way it has given him a boost to know he is appreciated!

At the moment I've got the itchy fingers of someone wanting to pot up seeds when spring is knocking on the door, so my living room is yet again starting to look like a bit of a jungle. Last autumn I planted out leeks, onions and garlic to see if they would survive the winter and so far the leeks look to be doing well. I'd read somewhere about putting the inner tube of a toilet roll around the leeks when they start to grow because it encourages more of a white part to the leek rather than just leaves. So as of right now quite a few of my young leek plants are suitably attired in the latest spring toilet roll fashion and to be honest, while they may look a bit daft, they can't be any worse than some of the stuff at London Fashion Week!

And finally, I've discovered a new-to-me Youtube gardener who I'm quite taken with. He lives in London and has the tiny back yard of so many London homes, but by gosh does he get a lot of produce out of it. He's covered in tattoos, which is not something I'm very keen on, but once I took the time to listen to him it turns out he's very funny and informative - and actually quite cute if you watch him "live", thus yet again hammering home the ponit that it's never a good idea to judge a book (or a gardener) by its cover!

Spicy Moustache Gardener!

49.3!

I've had a very productive few days - which thrills me no end! If only I could get it through my brain that it's completely normal not to be uber-productive every day I might not feel so guilty on the lazy days. But hey ho, whaddaya gonna do! I had a vague notion of trying to get to bed by midnight every night but that's been a total fail so far (2 a.m. last night!!)! I guess I may as well knock that one on the head because I don't see it happening, and in any case I'm usually up by 8 a.m. so there seems not much point trying to fight how Mother Nature intended things to run in this house!

I managed to get a couple of walks in this week, probably because as I was just talking myself out of going for a walk an email popped into my inbox from Country Walking Magazine - which I subscribed to a couple of years ago yet never read! Oh it's a lovely magazine but it's UK based so while the articles are indeed interesting it's not very relevant to me! I got a walk in down at the lake at Passy and then the next day I did the easy local circuit - the one we used to do during lockdown when we could only leave home for a maximum of an hour a day. Well that is everyone except politicians had to stick to the one hour limit. Rules never have and never will apply to them you see! Anyway I went past the local allotments and stopped for a nose at two men working there but speaking a language I couldn't make out. On the way back I passed a garden where a young lad was playing a competitive game of football all by himself and rattling away non-stop. It tickled me no end! I wonder who won!

When I got back I noticed that the celery base that I had stuck in a bowl of water a week ago had started to root, so I planted it and am now pathetically delighted to have a new head of celery growing in my living room! I guess that could be a handy side gig - selling celery at the local market (as long as no-one needed more than one head of celery every three months)! I also got round to dismanteling a little greenhouse that I bought, intending to use it on the balcony (high winds permitting) because every time I tried to move it it fell apart! So then I had the bright idea of glueing the parts together, except I had it on it's side to squirt the glue into the holes when I realized I might well have ended up glueing it to the balcony on its side!!!! Luckily I got it upright and now have it at the end of my balcony, up against my bedroom wall and hopefully secure enough to withstand high winds through the good graces of a couple of bungy straps! I also spent a couple of hours in my (very small) veggie plot today cleaning it up - it feels so good to be working outside again!

In other news, I've mentioned before a very large website that I began following (still do occasionally) when my husband left. It talks about dealing with infidelity and in many cases with narcissistic personalities. I'm not on there so much any more as I feel it was there when I needed it and it's time to move on, but I was asked last week if I'd become one of the moderators on their FB group! I told her I'd give it some thought but in the end I had to be honest with her and say that I often snoozed the group for a while as I don't want to get dragged into thinking about "that time" any more. She was very nice about it, but I'm glad I made the decision that I did! I don't need the extra responsibility (or aggravation)!

I had a lovely surprise message from a close colleague of mine last week where she told me that she'd resigned (she must be early 40s - if that) as she has been offered a very good job at the Asian Central Bank in the Philippines! I knew she'd been frustrated for quite some time. Frankly she was probably too intelligent for our HR department so during her time with me she learned our HR rules and regs pretty much inside out and studied HR law in her spare time - although there can't have been much spare time as a married mom of two young kids. So hats off to her - I'm delighted for her! On a slightly less spectacular but equally happy-making note, Jen told me that her boss had mentioned to her the other week that they might (just might) be able to take her on permanently in September. She always knew the job was just temporary but she likes them very much, says they are very human and it's so darn convenient time and distance-wise. Fingers crossed there then! And then just today Jordan called her to say that the company he is working for through the temporary agency would like to take him on too! He's going in Monday to talk to them and is in a pretty good negotiating position because (a) the temping agency obviously costs them a lot of money and (b) you can't get plumbers here for love nor money - hence he's working with 20 Romanian plumbers! Again, fingers crossed! Jordan and Jen were married four years yesterday so as of today he can apply for French citizenship and it is more or less automatic - he just has to submit his paperwork! I'm going over there tomorrow to go shopping with Jen and since I now have two beautifully sorted freezers (plus a complete list of contents) I decided on the spur of the moment to make a batch of hummus and flat breads to take over, plus a chicken and mushroom pie. I tell ya, I'm so pleased with my nice clean freezers I feel like putting a sofa down in the basement (it's unfinished) and next time someone comes over just casually opening and shutting the doors to see if they notice! I know, little things please little minds, right!

Annnndddd the ongoing uproar over Macron's proposed pension reform bill has, I think, reached its pinnacle! I watched a programme on it last night and it is much more complicated than just raising the pension age - which is something he would prefer to do rather than, say, increase taxes on big earners/companies! Anyway, the bill went through the National Assembly and on to the Senate - which voted for it but with some amendments, one of which was the abolition of most of the 42 special pension regimes, although oddly enough not the special regime which allows Senators themselves to maintain the current more favourable conditions! Macron's party do not have an absolute majority and would therefore most likely lose the vote when this reform goes back to the National Assembly, so they have yet again (for the eleventh time????) invoked Article 49.3 - which allows the government to pass a reform/bill/amendment without a vote! Eleven times since Elisabeth Borne was nominated Prime Minister in May last year, that is! So the country is in uproar and a vote of no confidence has been put forward today - which will be voted on on Monday - and if passed the pension reform bill will be dropped and I believe the Government has to resign! I don't know what will happen (what deals will be made behind closed doors), but this is to my mind one of the most contentious situations I have seen in France in over 30 years of living here - and there've been a few!

And finally, WAY TO GO THE DUTCH FARMERS! The Rutte Government has been pushing "net zero" policies for some time now, one of which was to drastically reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers in Dutch farming (Netherlands is the world's second biggest exporter of food apparently). So 3,000 Dutch farmers were going to be offered XXX amount for their land, and if they refused their farms would be expropriated! So a land grab on the pretext of "saving the world from death by cow farts"! Well the Dutch farmers have been protesting for months now and in yesterday's provincial elections, the BBB Party (the farmers' party) won a landslide victory and are now the Netherlands' biggest party! Of course, as I said above, deals are often made by minority parties behind closed doors, but this news is fantastic. Well done the Dutch farmers, and well done the Dutch people who supported them!

The Dutch farmers' protest!

Edited to add: after I published this I just saw Neil McCoy-Ward's video and he talks about the situations in France and the Netherlands for the first ten minutes, if you're interested (here)!

Better late than never!

I had an ok week this week - not exactly over-productive but not bad either. I did manage a walk from Thyez to Cluses with my friend, stopping in Cluses for lunch - so that probably negated any calorie burn-off but it was nice just to be out in the sunshine. One thing that surprised me yet again, though, is that at the restaurant we had to pull up the menu via the QR code on the table!!!!! That's the second time in two weeks that that has happened. I don't know if this is the norm now or maybe it's just that I don't get out so much. I guess in a way it's a saving for the restaurant, but at least they did have physical menus too. Still, I'm finding all this new-fangled stuff very strange! I also made it to yoga and the gym (which is still very namby-pamby) so hopefully I will start getting into more of a rhythm soon!

I still haven't finished painting my bathrooms - I can't be arsed to be honest - but there's not much left to do so I'm aiming to get the walls and the radiators finished this week. Still no word on when the bathroom fittings will arrive, although hopefully it won't be too much longer (not that I'm looking forward to the mess though)! 

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd gone out and bought quite a bit of stuff from the freezer place, only to have to face up to what a hideous state my two upright freezers in the basement were in. So over a period of about five hours with scraper and hairdryer I've managed to get both freezers defrosted and - I'm ashamed to say - threw out five 30 litre trash bags of very old stuff! It's shameful actually because (a) I should never have let them get into that state and (b) throwing away food is just bad, but at least they're done now! Still, I'm finally getting to use up all those old, tatty clothes that I always kept for "someday when I'm going to be doing some serious painting/sorting"!

Last Thursday I drove into Geneva to have dinner with a former colleague, and while it's always lovely to see him, gosh I really don't miss that commute, even if going on former experience, traffic was just "normal"!

Jordan and Jen took a few days off and drove with Jen's mom up to see grandma and grandpap in Lorraine (northern France). They were thrilled to see Charlie, of course, but Jen said he's started with the terrible twos (he'll be two on 28 March) and his favourite answer seems to be "non" at the moment! When they got back we had our latest board game evening at Jen's mom's and while we weren't very many, we played a couple of games that I really enjoyed (not too French oriented) and I actually won one (yay me)!

André is off to Thailand for work on Sunday and, as I mentioned before, he's flying business class with Emirates (jammy bugger). Or, as he puts it, "free champagne and a full length bed"! He seems to be looking at about a six hour flight to Abu Dhabi, a few hours layover, then around another six hour flight to Bangkok, so I'm betting he'll sleep most of the way. Both my kids (and Charlie) could sleep for Britain so I'm sure it'll be no hardship. He's going to take a few extra days after the conference to explore Bangkok and sit by the swimming pool, so maybe if he gets to start travelling for work a little he might feel more settled and less inclined to "chuck it all in and live on a sail boat" which - never having sailed before in his life (although he's planning to learn this summer) - doesn't sound like the best thought out plan to me, but who am I to say! Just thinking about Thailand though is giving me itchy feet to travel somewhere more long haul next spring! Time to give that some thought, I think!

And finally, last night five of us got to use the Christmas present I bought for everyone - a ticket to the theatre in Geneva to see The Lion King! It was a bit hit and miss at the beginning because Jordan and Jen were coming straight from work and I think Jordan got a shock at just how bad rush hour traffic in Geneva is. My friend and I drove to the border and caught the bus and André, being André, went to work, stopped in at the pub after work and then had to run down to the theatre to get here before the performance started but only after I'd called him telling him he'd better not be late! Before the performance started I thought I'd better go to the loo so put my ticket in my coat pocket, came out of the ladies' - and couldn't find my bloody ticket! As I dashed back into the ladies' room a young girl asked me if I was looking for my ticket because she'd picked it up in the corrider! Phew - and here's me telling André not to make us late! Then when I saw the stage I realized that it wasn't - as I had thought - the Broadway stage performance, but rather the Elton John/Hans Zimmer musical performance. I was disappointed, and a little worried that the others would be too, but what could I do? And then the artists walked on stage and started singing in German and I thought "oh sh*t, this is going to be a disaster"! But it turns out they only sang a few tidbits in German and then the rest was either in English or whatever African language the rest of the songs were in - and they were brilliant! There was a huge animated screen behind the orchestra, the music was loud and full of energy, Jen was bopping around, the boys were mesmerized by the orchestra (the drummer in particular - Jordan's a drummer) and my friend and I were singing along like a pair of right old Derby and Joans! The conductor was Stephen Ellery and he was bouncing all over the stage, obviously enjoying himself tremendously, and after picking up a sax played along to Can You Feel The Love Tonight!

Stephen Ellery

We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and, having watched a little of the Broadway show, I think I actually preferred this version. It always amazes me how many talented people there are out there! As we left I reminded Jordan of the time when as a young kid he'd looked at me and said how lucky I was to have such beautiful hair. Huh??? And then he said "yeah, you look just like Simba in The Lion King! Hey, I'll take compliments where I can get them! And then André and Jen got into arguing about when the film was originally released (1994 if you're wondering) and André got it right because he remembers when I picked him up from school one day and held out a video (or DVD - who knows) of the film and he ran over and hugged me, he was so happy. I don't remember that at all, but it's good to know isn't it!

Anyhow, with the years my hair seems to be getting darker oddly enough so I no longer look like Simba, but those aforementioned itchy feet of mine have got me thinking about maybe Thailand, or Mexico - or how about Botswana in the spring? A wimba wap, a wimba wap, in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight ....!

Elton John/Hans Zimmer's The Lion King!