Well…I did get my wish after June’s busyness and we did have a much more relaxed July. That is not to say that we have done nothing but it has been a lot calmer lately chez nous.
We started the month being very quiet as Hazel, Phil, the little one and of course Xena the dog were in France having a great time exploring the area around Caen. This is an area which we have visited, but not for a long time and really not that well. They had a great time though, visiting the coast a bit, Rouen and the Bayeux Tapestry of course. The little one was not impressed with that as expected…but she did enjoy visiting the boulangeries and patisseries, where she soon twigged that, if she wished the ladies there “Bonjour”, she often got a treat! Geoff really missed his morning dog walks whilst they were away and although I think they are mad for taking the dog each time, both Hazel and Xena loved their walks on strange ground! It is so much of a faff nowadays going to France with a dog, and really expensive now with vet checks etc, but Hazel just misses Xena so much that they deem it worth it, so off she went to her native land yet again!
I gave a short speech at the start of the month, to the Speakers club where I am a member, entitled “Vive la Difference” about some of the differences between French and British culture and general living. It went down very well…especially trying to explain the culture of “les bises”, French lunchtimes, and driving on the “wrong” side of the road! I plan to turn this topic into a full talk in the future, as there were many more things I could have talked about, and hopefully I will add this to my speaker repertoire for WIs, Rotary clubs and other groups.
The next week saw me having my annual visit to the Nurse for my diabetic review. I was dreading it a bit as I am finding it more difficult now to get my blood sugar level down to where I like it. However, all was good and I was reassured that I was still doing well and nothing was causing any concerns. Phew! I really do not want to have to tighten up yet again on this diet I follow so I was quite happy This appointment was followed by a visit to the eye clinic, which was a waste of time as there were no doctors in that day to do the review needed before I have my injections. I was a bit annoyed as it just demonstrated how broken the NHS is now. Surely, they could have either arranged some cover, so that all the poor patients who turned up for their appointments got some treatment, or perhaps they could have cancelled the visits. To add insult to injury my next appointment has now arrived…for October! I hope I can still see by then!
We were pleased to be able to vote in the UK election for the first time in many years. It felt very strange to put our ballot paper into the box without hearing the “a vote” which accompanies each vote in France. We always voted in all the elections we could do, in France, namely the local ones and European ones & found that tradition very nice! We were really pleased that our son’s great friend Lewis Atkinson was elected as the MP for Sunderland Central. Lewis has worked tirelessly for this, since leaving university and he will make an excellent MP. The rest of the election was as we expected and we now have a new Labour MP for Carlisle. Geoff no doubt be soon writing to her about river pollution and environmental things, as he did often to her predecessor!
Our normal activities have carried on over the month despite the awful weather – which incidentally has now improved thank goodness. My shifts in the Op shop have been pretty manic recently, after the manager put out a social media appeal for donations. Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous! Our store room was completely empty – the first time that has ever happened, and we literally had no stock to put out as things sold in the shop. The appeal was a huge success to put it mildly, and now we are drowning in stuff! At one point we could hardly get through the shop for bags of donations, and the poor volunteers who sort it all & price it, have very little working space to try and get through it all. It has quietened down a bit now, but there is such a lot of stuff still to sort. I have been getting home from my shifts totally exhausted, as not only are those bags really heavy to move, but the appeal has also brought a whole lot of new customers to the shop who didn’t know we existed! Geoff has been busy too with his pickleball sessions, and his volunteer stints at Carlisle Youth Zone, which I finally got to visit when they had an open day recently. It is a very remarkable place offering all sorts of activities to children in Carlisle…not just sport but art and craft, quiet areas and cookery too. We are both still doing quite a lot for our church including coffee mornings and café church sessions. I am looking forward more than ever to our trip to France in September so that we can relax a bit!
It has been a great month for sport too. I am not a great sporty person normally but I love watching most of it! I was a bit dulled out by the football but did watch it until the end! Wimbledon is “my” fortnight and I loved every minute. I missed being able to watch Wimbers when we lived in France and now, I can wallow to my heart’s content! Mind you I could have done with it not clashing with the Tour de France this year, which did cause some minor friction chez nous at times, as Geoff could watch that all day long! And now, of course, we have the Olympics which is fantastic. Again, we are enjoying this TV coverage so much more than we did whilst we were in France, where French TV concentrated so much on the events the French were good at, such as fencing and judo…neither of which we understood or liked! We watched the opening ceremony and actually quite enjoyed it although I think it was a bit long & disjointed at times. It certainly was very different and very French! The torrential rain did not help though, did it? Those poor athletes on those boats…I kept hoping they did not catch their deaths of cold! As I type this, I have the coverage of the triathlon on in the background…and I am not sure I would relish swimming in the Seine I must say!
We have been out and about as always, as we still try to go out for lunch each Wednesday, but we have stayed mainly close to home because of the weather not being great. We got round to sampling the wares of a Carlisle eaterie, Sage and Vine, which is managed by our lovely ex-neighbour Cosmina. It was very good and we must go again. We visited a couple of our favourite places near the coast at Brugh on sands (The Garrison) and Allonby (Jacks Surf Bar) and managed to eat outside (if well wrapped up!) at both of them. We also met up with Linda and Mike for lunch, at The Sun Inn in Bassenthwaite, one Wednesday too. We drove out to visit a couple we know from church at their lovely house and garden one day for tea. It was nice to see them at home …but don’t mention the drive out there, as we got totally lost and went round in circles for a while as Fairy Mary (our GPS) got very confused, mainly due to several road closures – there are a lot of those in and around Carlilse atm, due to a new by pass being built and lots of road works. We did make it eventually, but not without a few cross words in the car! Last weekend saw us driving down to Manchester, to visit Matthew and to finally allow Geoff to use his Father’s Day gift of a paddleboard experience at Sale Water Park on the Sunday. Hazel, Phil and the little one joined Matthew, Susie, Ethan and Hadley at the lake where we all spent a lovely sunny afternoon. Geoff, Hazel, Matthew and Hadley did the experience and the rest of us spent most of the time trying to entertain the little one and Xena the dog in and around the water! The little one decided (after jumping in & frightening her daddy to death!) that the water was too cold, but I enjoyed a nice swim and Xena didn’t care! It was a great afternoon all round. Geoff enjoyed the paddleboard, but has decided that he is a bit old for it, as he really could not manage the transition from kneeling to standing on the board with his ancient limbs! He also realised that if he fell in in deep water, he could not get back on the board wearing a lifejacket! So, the ideas of buying a board have gone, I think!
One other thing we have managed to do this month, was to go to an outdoor theatre performance. We waited until the very last minute to book the tickets as the weather recently has not really enticed us to sit outside for anything in the evenings! However, as it looked like it was going to be fine and not too cold we took a picnic (ours was very meagre compared to some we saw there!) and headed off to Castletown House to watch the Handlebards theatre group (all four ladies of them!) perform A Midsummer Night’s dream in the garden there. It was very good indeed and we thoroughly enjoyed it all….and bonus… I didn’t get bitten by critters either this time!
So, here we are at the end of July, folks. This year is really speeding by, but it does bring us nearer to our trip back to France in September! I’m glad to say that the weather has improved a lot over the last few days and we have at last been able to p ut our garden furniture to some use! We have actually been able to eat out there on a couple of occasions too! This next weekend we are taking our grandchildren to sunny (we hope) Silloth for the weekend to allow their parents to go to a family wedding in Scotland. I shall tell you all about that next time!
A bientot mes amis…