Weekend Coffee Share

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you the last couple of weeks have been hectic! Hence why I’ve not been online much. Just nine days after returning from a family holiday in England, we were jaunting off on our travels once again to stay with family in France. It was a last-minute decision because our daughter was told that, due to changes in passport entry requirements in the UK, our French grandchildren (who only had French passports) would not be able to enter. It was complicated. I still don’t understand the gremlins of BREXIT bureaucratic logic, but as we say, BREXIT is the gift that keeps giving. But thankfully, as it happened, the situation was resolved at the 11th hour, and they were able to fly.

Yep, in light of the uncertainty, I had nagged Mr Piglet to book the flights as we hadn’t seen the grandkids since last October, and the flight was nearly full. With limited weekly flights at this time of the year, we bit the bullet and booked. I am glad we did, as we got to celebrate our granddaughter’s 15th Birthday and play in the annual village petanque fun tournament. AND, enjoy lots of delicious croissants and French food.

Petanque or is it Boules?

Anyways, whatever….we were delighted to participate once again in the annual village tournament at La Batie Mongascongon a fun tournament organised by the local youth association. This year, our daughter and I got through to the second round, and Mr P and SiL scraped through to the last 16 (they could have gone further but were both a little enebriated by this point).

We had a brilliant day so I’m determined to practice for next year by creating an area in our garden.

In fact, I am already lobbying Mr P to repurpose part of our garden to create our own pentaque area. WE will just need to remove the raised veg bed, some pots and cut down the orange tree, which is almost dead.

A new fur granbaby

Or should I say feather? Meet Gerald the ugly ducklin’!

For some reason, our SiL son-in-law bought six duck eggs because he wanted ducks to eat the slugs in the garden. Only one out of the six hatched. I am still puzzled as to how it will survive. The chickens, which have a coop and an enclosed area, are still regularly gobbled up by weasels, foxes or on one occasion, the neighbour’s dog. At the moment, the duckling lives under a UV light in a cage in the house and is only let out when humans are about.

Diet!

I was doing really well before we went to England. Even when I returned, I managed to lose all the weight I’d gained …sigh…

And then came our holiday in France, and I’m back to square one. My daughter reckons I’m a hopeless case and I’ll never lose weight. I’m half-tempted to try something like Ozempic. I’d love to prove her wrong. But I don’t think it is the amount I eat, rather a food intolerance that causes my belly to bloat. Yep, I’ve watched it grow like proving bread.

In the News!

As we enter another new era of craziness with news of the latest scare: Hantavirus, I am switching off, as I am still trying to suppress the anxiety caused by COVID-19. Nope, not going there. And then there is the fuel crisis. WWIII. Crazy politicians. Blah de blah… etc I just want to live out the rest of my years in peace and blissful ignorance.

Anyways, that’s it for this week, folks. Once again, my apologies for not keeping up with blogs over the last two weeks not only have I been away, but I have also suffered days of a migraine that refused to let go.

My thanks to Natalie the Weekend Coffee Share Host