... propped longways beneath the window of my study. The drops are falling from the hundreds of seed pods dangling from the wisteria - their removal a future task for a cold, bright January afternoon when the low sun has crept round to the west.
For the moment, we huddle indoors, gossiping, spending too much time on our computers and making endless cups of tea. Storm Alex is working its way across swathes of Europe and we are (probably) catching a soggy, blustery trailing edge.
Almost overnight the weather changed. We had a couple from Germany in the cottage for two weeks. They arrived to a pool that was a pleasant twenty-six degrees. By the time they left on Thursday the temperature had dropped to eighteen. Even so, he went for a swim. Somewhere in the middle of those two weeks it rained and rained and rained. They assured us they were content - more so once we'd put the underfloor heating on - and over those grey, no-point-in-going-out days, she knitted us multi-patterned socks as a gift, left socially distanced in the pool house for us to find after they had gone.
Some of our computer time is spent (reluctantly) addressing what may be the impact of Brexit, now only three months away. Firstly, it was the UK banks. Are they going to close our accounts because we live full-time in France? Now - it looks like fun and games with our cartes vitales, which show our entitlement to healthcare here. Maybe it's as well it's raining. I would really resent dealing with this if I could be out in the sun gardening.
We have the trailing edge of a tropical storm......not that you would notice the difference as it is the rainy season...just that the rain started earlier and caught Danilo and a mechanic friend taking the car's engine to pieces on the drive. They have rigged up a tarp and a light and carry on...
ReplyDeleteWhat a faff it is with the banks...always assuring us that they are there for us, except when they are not. If they were not going to apply for the licences could they not have given more notice?
We never had cartes vitales....our private health insurance was cheaper than our contributions would have been once we were allowed to join the system and as it covered us wherever, there was no point anyway even though Leo qualified for the chronic illness exemptions. To add to which the sheer nonsense of it all.....in our area you had to wait - no appointments - in a sort of shed in the local town to see the relevant official - no, you could not 'phone her - who referred everything to her head office and wanted you to repeat the waiting process to find out the result, which, of course, was not ready by the next time the shed was open.
I'm glad your Germans enjoyed themselves, despite the weather....but I bet the underfloor heating was a boon to them!
Hello Fly, hope the engine is ok and that the bits are going back in the right order. The bank scenario is painful, not least because most of us have been very loyal customers - ugh! I think we will be doing a trip to Agen to the prefecture. Better than a shed I'm glad to say - that sounds quite uncivilized. The Germans are lovely - we've been very spoilt this year.
ReplyDeleteStorm Alex has moved on to affect us but I had hoped that more could have come from Storm Teddy that was was around N. America a while ago - only that it's named after The Dog. I suspect that all Post Brexit will settle down to business as usual for residents not living in their home countries. Posturing and Tit-for-Tat will be high on the agenda now. I hope that I am right for your sakes! Lesley
ReplyDeleteHello Lesley, good to hear from you and Ted. I hope you are right about post-Brexit. At the moment it's getting rather tedious. You stay warm and dry - still raining here. Good for the garden mind you.
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