It really has been back to earth with a bump this month. The bright blue skies & sunshine of California are a distant memory now as I sit typing this and looking out on a garden full of snow! Our return home after our wonderful holiday was a rude one, with us both suffering from jet lag for several days. Our sleep patterns and body clocks took quite a while to get back to “normal” …and then the clocks went back & upset us all over again. We also went down with really bad colds which made us both feel wretched, tired and very lacking in energy. We have also spent quite a few days trying to track down kitchen and garden items which our lovely house sitters placed in strange (well strange for us anyway) places! Because they used the gite this time certain “house” items seem to migrated over there and vice versa. And we still haven`t found the garden trowel!
Geoff soldiered on and got back into his teaching routines but, once again, has been frustrated by people cancelling lessons and then the school holidays which always upset the applecart. However. he has had quite a few revision documents to work on which has made up for the cancelled lessons and has kept him out of mischief. I havent fared any better with the B&B guests this month either. The Swiss family who had booked the 2 rooms as a Sunday night stopover en route to their home, were a bit annoyed to find there was no where locally to eat - Sunday night, arriving at 7.30pm not having eaten - not a good idea here really - and so set off to eat probably in Clermont. They then rang to say that they had decided to stay there rather than coming all the way back here! They did pay me though for one of the rooms so all was not lost…just annoying. And I had to ring the other BandB couple yesterday to tell them not to come as we had 40cms of snow here overnight & no electricity either ☹ Im hoping they might come another day. We havent closed up the gite for the winter yet though. as we normally do, as one of our neighbours asked if they could host a birthday party there for their son as their house wasnt suitable for 11 five-year olds. Im glad to say that the snow didnt put the party goers off and all went well in the end despite the electricity outage! They told us that they had had one of the best night`s sleep ever in the gite and asked if they could stay last night too. Our guests always sleep well here 
The weather has got worse as the month progressed…not unusual but that amount of snow certainly was! We eventually put the garden furniture and parasols into storage last weekend…just in time as it turned out! And we have been lighting the wood burner each evening now for a while because when the sun goes down, so does the temperature. I have to say that when the electricity went off the other night we were thanking our lucky stars for that stove
The other big news this month has been the removal of the cataract from my right eye. It was a bit of a different experience from the first op, not least because the ops now take place in a fancy new department in a private clinic near Clermont Ferrand. The administration phase of reception and booking in was chaotic - not well organised at all so people were getting quite frustrated which was not good. After that was finished, I was immediately taken through to the theatre suite where a very sweet, but frankly over zealous, aide soignant insisted in helping me undress and into the paper gown and knickers -arrgh! Nothing like that for making you feel ancient! Then I was left to sit with 2 similarly clad gentlemen to wait my turn! The op itself was also different, in that I was much more awake and aware of what was going on due to a different anaesthetist, who was not so generous with the happy juice as the previous one! However, all went well in the end and now I have two working eyes with much improved vision. It still amazes me that such a small op can make so much difference. I no longer need my glasses for long distance and the next step is to get new specs for reading only. I have an appointment for that in November
We have been out and about a bit this month. We went over to our friend Mutas for lunch one Saturday. Muta lives near Vichy and quite close to the big Emmaus depot at Puy Guillame, so, as well as enjoying the drive there and back, plus the lovely lunch, we took advantage of the trip to get rid of more stuff from our attic. This time it was bags of curtains from two houses ago and which have not been looked at for many years. I have no idea why I keep all this stuff…but I do! We also enjoyed a nice visit to our friend Tots house to see the new “writing room” veranda she has had built onto her house. It makes a huge difference and was very nice…as was the tea and cake she provided! Our latest venture out was to Clermont Ferrand to go to the cinema. We watched “A Star is Born” and thoroughly enjoyed it too. I had been a bit reluctant to go and see it as I loved the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version, but I really enjoyed this one too. Who would ever have thought that Lady GaGa could act???
It was also our villages annual Randonee de Cidre last weekend…but the cold snowy conditions did not help the event at all. Geoff did the 12km walk with the dog & a few other hardy souls, but the turn out for the walks was not good…no surprise there really as the weather was awful. We both went up to have lunch in the salle de fetes and we were pleased to see a fair amount of local folk supporting the event too. It is such a shame when these fetes are so badly affected by the weather as there is a lot of preparation involved in making them a success. We had looked after our young neighbour Cindys little boy the day before so she could spend the day up at the village preparing some of the food, so we know how hard the committee works. I hope they made a bit of money out of it…but I have my doubts.
As part of my determination to “declutter” a bit I have decided to part with my small collection of vinyl LPs which have been sitting in various attics unplayed for a long time now. After making sure our children were not interested in keeping them (they dont seem to want any of my “treasures” unfortunately ☹) I want to try and sell them. Having looked on E bay and other selling sites I know that they are not really exceptional, but they do sell for small amounts it seems. Now, I am useless at selling stuff like this so we asked a guy we have seen selling CDs and vinyl on the market to come and have a look at them and maybe take them off our hands. What a disaster that was! He came, declared them all, to be “folk” (said with a sneer) and therefore worthless! Ok…so there are a few Cat Stevens, Dylan and Simon & Garfunkle LPs in there but the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple etc are never “folk” …are they? Anyway, needless to say I was glad when hed gone! I hate people dissing my treasures like that! So, its back to the drawing board I`m afraid! Anyone want the lovely treasured LPs of my youth?
October seems to have gone by very quickly in spite of not being very busy. This early start to winter conditions is not really going down well with me really. I hate the dark evenings now that the clocks have gone back and all this snow so early, is thoroughly depressing. Since I slipped & broke my wrist last year I am not so keen to go out in the snow so much and so it looks like being a long winter for me. We have our Halloween pumpkin lantern sitting outside –and it has now emerged from its snowy covers today so we might just get it lit tonight! Not that we get many trick or treaters here of course…but you never know! One bright spot on the horizon though for next month…we have booked tickets to go and see Kylie Minogue in Paris, so that will be something to look forward to. I`ll tell you all about that next time
A bientot mes amis
