We are now almost fully used to being back home in Carlisle…but did find it hard to adjust at first. As always, we hit the ground (eventually as you will find out as you read on!) running and have been very busy this month…far more than either of us really wanted to be. It is always difficult for us to leave our French flat & life there behind and this month has proved just how much we really like being there and having the opportunity to just relax and do very little! Hey ho…
Of course, we still had a week or so in France at the beginning of October and we made the most of them! We managed to have a nice day in Antibes, exploring the old town again which we both really enjoyed. We also made the most of the now cooler sunshine by having a few quick swims in the sea in the late afternoons and Geoff got in another game of pickleball with his new friends at Les Issambres. Unfortunately, we did not manage to pin down our “disappearing” electrician before we left and so our old oven is still in place…#lesigh! That will be a job for our next visit in April now.
Our journey home was “eventful” shall we say! In contrast to our usual smooth stress-free way of travelling back and forth to Edinburgh we had chosen to fly home many moons ago on what turned out to be a very bad day due to Storm Amy. Our flight got cancelled of course at 3am by which time we were already in our hotel in Nice, having left the flat the previous day as is our habit now. Easyjet were very good mind you, when we went over to the airport and sorted out a return flight for us…in two days time via Geneva! They booked a room for the first night in the very swanky Sheraton Hotel (which we have wanted to stay for a while but did not like the prices!) and we were quite happy about that! The hotel has a rooftop swimming pool but alas we had no swimming costumes as we were doing our usual travelling extremely light thing with only very small backpacks! The second night was back to our budget hotel as we had to pay for that and subsequently claim the money back! So, we found ourselves with two extra days to kill in Nice! Now I know, there are worse places to spend two days in, but we were all geared up to come home, had done most of the things we wanted to do, had very few clothes with us and were a bit fed up! We decided to take a train along to Menton on the Saturday which was nice and we enjoyed that. The next day (Sunday) was a bit more difficult as we really didn’t fancy trailing aimlessly around Nice again …and it was getting a bit expensive sitting in cafes and restaurants. We decided to go to the Jardin Botanique which proved to be a unique experience! We took a tram along to a place where we knew we could get a little bus up to the heights above Nice and had a very “interesting” and at times scary ride along little roads at breakneck speed up to the Jardin! That too turned out to be different. When we Brits think of a visit to a botanical garden we imagine lovely lush gardens planted with flowers, manicured lawns, glasshouses, cafes and restaurants. Not here! There were paths (well sometimes) which made their way up though pretty dense tree species from around the world, no maps, no people, a few well-hidden benches and definitely no café! It was hard work, but Geoff loved it. He has always loved trees and there was certainly an abundance of those! I eventually gave up on the mountain goat tracks and waited for him at the entrance and then we caught the bus back down to the sea where we had a picnic and watched the world go by for the rest of the afternoon. The next day we were at the airport for 6.30am and our flight to Geneva went well. However, on arrival, we saw that our ongoing flight to Edinburgh was delayed so we had quite a long time to sit around in the rather pleasant Geneva airport before we flew eventually to Edinburgh! After catching a train, we eventually got home about 6.30pm…it had been a long day and once again we realised that our usual direct flights to and from Nice are so much more agreeable!
We were quickly back into the thick of things here. The very next morning we found ourselves at a Grandparents Day event at our little one’s school, having breakfast and being able to see her in her classroom and taking part in various musical activities throughout the morning. We were also shown the very impressive Forest School area they have established …complete with chickens which the children have seen hatch from eggs and now are being looked after by some of the older children. I loved that…I still miss my chooks! All in all it was a lovely morning and we both enjoyed it very much. In the afternoon I was back in Op shop and was greeted by some rather sad faces as two of our lovely volunteers had died…one very suddenly and way too young. It was not exactly the afternoon I had hoped for…and was a total contrast to the joyous morning. It has been a pretty sombre time for all of us in the shop and café since then with funerals and much sadness at the loss of those two stalwarts of the place.
We have had some nice times though since getting back. We met up with our friends Linda and Mike and enjoyed hearing all about their trip to Australia to see their daughter and her family. After our disastrous travel back from France I just can not contemplate flying such a long distance as that ever again. I don’t think I could cope. We also met up with Les (one of Geoff’s old schoolfriends and fellow PNE supporter), Carol and their daughter Kate in the Lakes where they were on holiday. Again, it was great to have a good catch up over a very relaxed lunch in Bassenthwaite village. I had an unexpected lovely morning in Kendal too with Hazel who had to go to a sort of meeting there one day. Kendal is not a place I have really ever visited much…we usually just pass through it …so it was nice to spend some time there and to have some mother and daughter time minus children too for a change.
Our activities at church have been pretty quiet too this month for a change. We have done one Café Church which saw a record number of people there…we needed extra chairs! We have also been to a coffee morning but once again escaped getting any jobs to do. We went to a quiz in one of our local churches with some friends, John and Sheila and thoroughly enjoyed that evening. Our team came a commendable second which was pleasing! Not so pleasing was the rotten cold we both caught from John who had had his flu and covid jabs recently and was not entirely well that evening! That cold is still lingering I have to add. Although our church no longer “does” the shoebox appeal in any big way, I am up to my eyes in shoeboxes as usual at this time of the year. Our church members are very generous with money donations and quite a few people have bought stuff to go in the boxes, so I have been buying little gifts and toiletries to go in the boxes and as always my living room is now full of bags and boxes waiting to be taken to a neighbouring church next week where we will make up more boxes one afternoon and then they will be collected from there by the charity and sent to children in struggling countries. I have done this for many years now and still enjoy being involved. Also, the charity shop where I work has benefitted greatly by my purchases over the past couple of weeks so it’s a win/win situation. I will however be glad to get my living room back though!
We have been keeping our spoken French going too, this month. As well as our usual U3A group, Geoff has been aware that there are quite a few people on the waiting list to join and so has been trying to help to set up a sort of “intermediate“ group …. whilst also trying not to get in the position of having to run it! We helped at the first meeting of this proposed group last week and everyone seemed to enjoy it, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will work.
Last week also saw us heading up to Edinburgh by train for a day out. Because of all our travel difficulties coming back from France, we had missed out on an exhibition we had tickets for, at the National Gallery of Scotland and so we were rectifying this. The exhibition was a celebration of 5O years of work by Andy Goldsworthy and Geoff was really disappointed at not making it earlier. He has loved Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures for years, has visited a few in situ in the countryside, and has several books which he loves looking at. The exhibition was very good and Geoff absolutely loved it. I like his work too but am more impressed by his works in their natural settings using sticks, leaves snow and ice and I was pleased that these were exhibited too in photographic form. All in all, we had a lovely day and I enjoyed our short stroll around the New Town which held many memories for me from the year I spent in Edinburgh doing my midwifery training.
One not so good day last week was the day I lost my glasses! I think they must have fallen out of my coat pocket when we went shopping last Friday but despite back tracking all the route, asking in shops we visited and scouring the paths they seem to have disappeared into this air. This is a bit déjà vu from when I lost my specs in Silloth a couple of years ago….why does nobody ever hand them in? They are prescription varifocals and won’t really be of much use to anyone else surely? Anyway, I have reordered a new pair…but am struggling a bit this week wearing an old pair!
One of the other contrasts since we got back home has been watching UK TV again. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time will remember that we have never had UK TV in France and really quite enjoy watching French TV…although during this last trip we were a bit disappointed that a lot of our favourite programmes had disappeared. I still love Plus Belle la Vie of course and am now back to trying to keep up with the storylines via spoilers on Facebook 
One thing we did not miss in France was all these adverts for funeral plans, cremations and tear-jerking adverts to help save animals by donating money each week. The adverts here are so depressing! Of course, we are now in Strictly season on the BBC and although I used to watch Danse avec les Stars when we lived in France, I have always thought Strictly was so much better. This year though I’m not so convinced! All the screeching, PC OTT-ness and frankly bonkers public voting is beginning to make me tired. I will continue with it but hope that they will go back to actually judging the dancing and improvements made by the contestants instead of who has the most supporters in the public vote soon…but I have my doubts! My other pet hate with TV just now are these programmes such at Traitors and a new quiz show called The Inner circle which are based on deceit, betrayal and just outright lying. I know I’m in a minority (especially when it comes to Traitors) but I do wonder at why we have become a society where teaching our children that these traits are commendable is very sad. I am not even tempted to watch Traitors btw but it seems to have taken over the BBC schedules in a big way
We finished the month off by meeting up with our family this week at Lowther Castle for a walk, time on the fantastic play fort, and some lunch. It is not that often that I get both of my children, all four grandchildren and the dog all together, so I had a great day. It was good to catch up with Matthew’s stories of his recent trip to India, Ethan’s reports of competing in his first “cubing” event (Rubiks cubes have always baffled me completely!), Hadley’s dancing progress and to watch how all the kids really enjoy being together. It was good too to see that Matthew had not lost his touch with the baby…who incidentally, slept through the whole day! We all had a super time 
Tonight, we will round off October with a visit to Hazel’s as usual to help with any Halloween visitors they might have and to eat whatever spooky food she might have conjured up this year. She has her hands full atm but I suspect that will not stop her doing something! And then into November we go… where has this year gone?? We seem to have quite a lot of activities written on the calendar for November already so it looks like we might be quite busy…again!
But for the moment
A bientot mes amis …
And all the little creatures that share it with me, readily stick to it. 
And before that I used to drive my lorry right through the middle when Inverness bound, much less stress than the awful ring road. 
