Settled in, sort of…

Judy has been coughing up a bunch of green and yellow stuff since last Tuesday. Seems to be calming down so we will take it one day at a time. Looks like there is an epidemic around here. She had severe sweats for almost three days; the bedding was drenched

Our neighbour, Jean-Louis, rapped at the door while Jude was chatting with Janis, so I made small talk. Extremely small, given my puny French. He just turned 70, so I could identify. Can’t believe how many of us are…..you fill in the blanks!

Speaking of denying age, while we were at the Waves Grill on the Marina, the hostess mentioned to Judy that my fly was not quite where it should be. That sends several messages, not the least of which is that my darling wife is not paying attention as much as the service folk.

Wednesday morning I have to take the car for an 8:00 AM appointment to sort out the warning lights on the dash,. Probably nothing but this is France. Who can say?

In case you are wondering, I checked my fly and all is good, or as good as might be expected. Will provide an update later, if I remember.

Garbage!

Tuesday is sac jaune night, when we all take out our yellow bags for recycling. It is the highlight of the week…we probably have over 100 bags ready to load up with plastics, bottles, whatever is allowed.

The trash disposal rules keep changing, but that’s what the bureaucrats are paid for. When we set up here in 2014, everyone had to sign for their own plastic bin with a number on it for tracking, I guess. For the units in the upper château, the bins would be placed by the church every Sunday and Thursday evening.

It was a pain hauling our bin up the eleven dangerous steps just for one bag of garbage. So I would take the bag up and add it to someone’s bin.

These bins will be obsolete by the end of 2023, and will be replaced with LOCKABLE bins, like this :

Today is Wednesday, so I got up at 6:30, shaved & showered, frittered around, and took the car in to the Renault dealer to see if they can fix the warning light.

So after a long hour, the guy said they had to order a part and it would be there by 2:00 PM. It’s almost noon now, so I will go back and perhaps get this mystery solved. Will let you know later in this edition.

Judy had a croissant and cup of Earl Grey with honey, and is continuing to improve. We should enjoy the terrace later today, soaking up the Vitamin D and listening to the neighbours’ coughs.

Fast forward to 2,00 PM. After a lunchtime snooze I was back at Renault right on time. The mechanics, staff and hangers-on were just wrapping up the two hour lunch and engaging in some banter. Good news: the part had arrived on schedule so by three I was on my merry way.

The guy who worked on our car looked like Prince (?) Harry’s double, but taller. Same red hair and beard. I may have to return to take a picture because I can tell you don’t believe a word.

We have now gone almost a week without a restaurant meal and it’s a bit tiresome. Judy has had no appetite but this afternoon I did whip up some delicious crunchy peanut butter on baguette toast. The oven actually serves as a surrogate toaster. Two out of three local pizza places were either closed or defunct, so after scouting the shelves at Intermarché the best option was prepared macaroni and teeny meatballs. Eeek!

Time to polish off a glass of red, raise à toast to Harry Belafonte, and wish you all a good night! Sleep well, and don’t forget that tomorrow is another day, just like today was.