Never Quite Enough Time

  Since the pandemic I like to get a flu jab.     This may be a psychological post pandemic thing in that having constantly been told, as an over 50, I am ‘vulnerable’, I may have started to believe it.     It may be purely selfish in that peak flu season and ski season tend to overlap.     I am not huge on the ‘Apres’ side but airport security, pre flight breakfast at Wetherspoons, flight, passport control, transfer bus, hotel and other restaurants are all ‘super spreader’ events.     I would rather not be ill or, at least, not too ill the week after I get back from holiday.     Obviously, I tell myself it is because we see my parents and the MiL often and it would not do to pass flu along so some precautions are necessary.     I can’t swear to that actually being the reason but it suits me better than to think the pandemic has driven me to hypochondria and/or I have caught the ‘me, me, me’ bug.   In 2020, my GP surg...

  I have been reminded several times this week already that it is October next week.     I could have happily lived with that being firmly at the back of my mind.     That said heading towards the end of September means this blog is around 9 months in and another three months, give or take, has gone by since I last audited my progress against the rather vague plan of trying to keep myself on track towards retirement whilst doing everything I have to on a day to day basis and trying to have some fun on route. So in the last three months we have: - sold the (last) motor bike (we still have the 50cc Vespa). - got the Vespa MoT’d after over a decade off the road (insurance, tax and possibly a bit of a paint job still to go). - bought a motor home (sort of - the deposit is down, not actually got it yet, part is still awaited, latest ETA is end of October). - got a pump down the Well so we can use a hose pipe legally.     S is mumbling is whethe...

The downside of being away from home for 18 days came by way of an awful lot of washing and tomatoes, apples, pears, trombonchino and sweetcorn vying for attention.       A lot of the tomatoes, primarily the bigger interesting eating varieties, had actually rotted on the vines.     The Roma had, however, come into their own after initial difficulties with blossom end rot though the, more everyday, Moneymaker in the greenhouse are now finished as are the courgettes. Beyond the tomatoes the rest can (will have to) wait, until next weekend.    I was out of time before I started.    There are carrots, chillis and potatoes that are certainly ready but they will be just fine waiting though we did have carrots and potatoes for supper as well as the sweetcorn that needed eating sooner rather than later where it couldn’t fit in the freezer.    One squash (Crown Prince) has joined the others for a final curing in the greenhouse.    ...

We arrived home to discover 4 new bins in the driveway.     One recycling - card and paper, one - one food waste, one other recycling and one (non recyclable) rubbish. We are rather late to this party as until now (well actually until November when it is due to start) we have simply had a few green and black bags thrown on our doorstop periodically. It remains to be seen how this goes as I hear rumours that a neighbouring town, that is also introducing a food waste system, has been subject to a delay as their lorries are on a container in the Hormuz Strait.    That may, of course, be complete rubbish but as rumours go it is pretty wide spread and is being treated with a chuckle and a roll of the eyes by most I come across. We already have two brown garden waste bins on a subscription scheme and we, personally, have a wheelie bin that we have been keeping all our full rubbish and recycling bags until due for collection.    It helps keep the rubbish in the ba...

  We know this part of France reasonably well.     I spent a month in Mougins just outside Cannes in the year after my A Levels when the family I was au pairing for in Switzerland, visited family.     It was January, it snowed and the house had metre plus long icicles hangings from the roof.     Not a classic first view of the Côte d’Azur! That house is now a hotel - oh how the other half live and I was a very, very small part of it - a part that had to evict a small lizard from a bathroom.    I do not do animal husbandry and I remain scarred by the experience to this day! S has been coming to various points along this coast for considerably longer than we have known each other.    The bits he has not stayed in, he has cycled and/or motorcycled.    He even got a speeding ticket on my motorcycle visiting the Col de la Madone.    I’m pretty sure one is supposed to do that on a road (non motorised) bike.  ...