Out with the old...

In with the... same.

Unlike the Chernobyl nuclear cloud that stopped at the French borders, Jan 1, 2021 did not see the end of Covid-19. We're still wearing masks, still teleworking, still under a curfew from 8 pm (or 6 pm) to 6 am.

Looking back over 2020, it was definitely a mixed bag of good and bad, like most years, but last year, the bad was a shared global bad.

It started with a nasty shock for me in February. I was told to either buy the house I had been renting for 15 years or leave because the owner wanted to sell. I believe I went white, the agent was quite worried. In the end, he had a solution for me because I had decided to buy a house, just not the one I was living in (too expensive) and he had the very thing. I visited it, liked it and we went into lockdown.

Thanks to diligent notaires, a helpful bank, and technology, I was able to complete the process of buying and spent lockdown teleworking and packing boxes, sending my son on endless trips to the tip, and we moved at the end of May.

Despite the problems brought on by Covid-19, Fate gave me a helping hand with timings. After the luck with the house, we were able to go to the UK on holiday, and the confinement restrictions were lifted the day I had to pick up a rental car and drive us to Wales (which had just opened its borders). 

Glorious Rhossili with my mum

Having more online opportunities during lockdown, I explored the internet and found ways to add daily pleasure and exercise. The gyms were all shut of course, but I started doing exercises with Ballet Based Movement for the over 50s with Susan and her mum Elizabeth. Ballet is an excellent way to exercise even if you're not a kiddie or professional dancer, and with the gentle movements and lovely music, it was soothing and also fun.

I got hooked on total escapism with Korean series on Netflix which are wonderfully varied in setting, storyline and genre, often beautifully filmed and well acted too. My link sends you to a list of the series I've enjoyed if you want to try them out.

Last year ended for us with a bang, literally. A couple of weeks before Christmas, my son crashed my car. He was perfectly fine, but the insurance refused to pay for repairs, and we've been without a car since while waiting to find another. Shopping has been a challenge but luckily I have my motorbike and two large side-cases. I can get most of a weekly shop on my bike by keeping to a strict list. Carrefour have been doing regular deliveries too for the big shops. This year has been full of new discoveries by necessity.

Did anyone have the Christmas they were expecting? We certainly didn't. The UK was ravaged by a highly infectious variant of Covid-19 and much of the country was locked down over the Christmas period so we didn't spend Christmas with my mum. Instead I had to hurriedly create Christmas at home along with very many others whose arrangements were totally disrupted. This was a challenge as I'd had bookshelves delivered on the Monday so, together with the 20 boxes of books, there were boxes everywhere. I was thinking I'd have to buy a green marker pen and draw Christmas trees on the bigger ones! Luckily, the guy who was to put them up was able to do the work on Christmas Eve, and I spent the afternoon emptying boxes of books and putting up a few decorations. 

A big thank you to Schmidt for the fantastic shelves and helpful staff. What a relief to have a civilised room at the end of it. I even discovered crackling fire videos on YouTube. The one on the tele has acoustic guitar Christmas music playing. It was so beautiful and restful. Christmas was saved.

I had managed to get to the shops for Christmas food and in the end it was all okay.

We are still here, staying safe and, hopefully, well. I hope you are too. Fingers crossed 2021 will see a lifting of restrictions to civil liberties and we can see family and friends again.

Covid-19 Season 2, Lockdown Day 11

It's been 11 days so far in this the second season of pandemic catastrophe Covid-19 lockdown. Back to teleworking, new and improved this time with a printer and set of shelves to tidy up my files, and it's back to limited outings for walkies and essential shopping. 

Local to me now

The bookshelves in Carrefour have all been screened off but you can buy books on Carrefour Drive and collect them 20 minutes later. Where there's a will... and all that. If bookshops have any sense, they'll set up a 'Drive' system too. Install a table outside, get customers to tell you what they want, shoot off and get it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Another variation with season 2 lockdown is that you can't buy alcohol after 6pm even in the supermarket. There was much horrified shock on Facebook and the word spread so that we all knew about the dangers of shopping after 6pm. Forewarned...

Pre-lockdown bike ride to Palavas

Meanwhile I finally got round to some tasks I'd been putting off, but was so in need of variety, I was spurred to action. The hedge in the front garden has been drastically pruned back to allow visibility of the front door and hinder the nefarious activities of potential burglars. And Sunday afternoon was spent shortening two pairs of jeans using the visible hem method. If you don't know it, it's really cool and you don't need a sewing machine (although it would cut down on the time it takes!) although you do need to sew. There are lots of videos showing you how to do it, here's one:

While I sewed away, I listened to a documentary on Melania Trump on ArteTV. Do you remember when she read out a speech that plagiarised Michelle Obama's speech? I was shocked to learn that the White House aids did it on purpose because they thought Melania was getting too much attention. The lesson there is never to read a speech someone else has written for you without checking it first! I'll remember that if I ever find myself in a similar situation.

This is the week when we remember those who were sacrificed in the Great War. I watched a live service from Great St Mary's Church, Cambridge on Sunday as I can't access the BBC live. I've also been reading Ben Elton's 'The First Casualty' set in World War I. A disgraced police detective sent to prison for being a 'conchie' (conscientious objector) ends up investigating the murder of a viscount in France. It was a bit slow to start, but there is some magnificent writing on the war in the frontline, life in the trenches, and the abundance of poets (Elton seems to have a thing about war poets). There's some great humour too.

It's a book that's received some scathing reviews, including one by The Independent's Jane Jakeman who describes it as 

a Barbara Cartland story re-written by a dirty-minded schoolboy during a monotonous history lesson.

A bit harsh, it's not at all like that although it was vaguely reminiscent of Blackadder Goes Forth in places. I enjoyed it, she didn't.

To end on a positive note, here's a photo of my purr-sonal assistant being a real help while teleworking at my makeshift desk of cardboard boxes and bookshelf shelves. Fun times.

Day 56 Covid 19 LAST DAY of Confinement

Theoretically. If we're too naughty they'll bang us up again.

Just in case anyone thought they could anticipate being liberated and sneak off to the beach, the weather decided to cooperate with the government and we've got a day of determined rain. Further anticipation is being dampened by having to continue to stay at home to telework, and no liberation parties of more than ten people (who are at least 1 m apart), in any case the bars and restaurants are closed until June.

We had our weekly barbecue yesterday when it was fine. They have been a great success, and it was agreed that they will be continued so that's a Covid-win. I have put on a kilo since the start of the confinement which is pretty good as the average is 2.5 kg.

How am I celebrating today? Packing boxes, that's how. All very tedious and boring, so here is some more Covid-humour.

One of the best things to come out of all this is seeing how creative people have been, and praise be for the internet for bringing it all to us in our homes!

I had all sorts of high hopes of doing interesting high-brow stuff like listening to serious podcasts but it all fell by the wayside in preference for light-brow humour and absolutely nothing that required intellectual effort. I think my mental charge was sufficiently heavy (what with buying a house in the middle to add to the fun) that I couldn't face anything more taxing than, for example, searching out my ten favourite albums for a Facebook meme.

I was only able to do that because I found my box of old LPs in the garage (moving is so handy in many ways...) and was able to rediscover my old friends which I had forgotten all about.

"Nice tests facial recognition"

Yesterday I was clearing out the kitchen cupboards and found the usual suspects right at the back such as pots of herbs dating back to 2007 - garlic, and fried onions all stuck together. They had to be prodded and excavated out so I could throw the glass pots into the recycling bin.

What has kept me going in all this? Gin and rosé, video-aperos, and regular phone calls, and of course many snuggles with Kittypoo who has established herself as head of the household and has us all thoroughly trained.

Kittypoo relaxing on the piano

Day 33 Covid 19 Masks Galore

We're still here confined, banged up, locked down. Yay...

This week's main activity after teleworking has been making masks. There has been a national dearth of masks, the government having taken over the monopoly of acquiring and distributing them. Government monopolies rarely result in efficiency or efficacy and the mask situation has been no exception. Even essential health workers have been hard pressed to get their hands on a mask so you can imagine that non-essentials like charities dealing with the homeless and vulnerable get nothing.

The FFMC34 (Motards en Colère) decided to take action and help out by making masks for local groups that go out into the community to bring aid to the homeless and needy. It followed on from watching a video tutorial by an emergency doctor on how to make masks from kitchen paper and tissues that were as effective as the ordinary medical masks.

A number of us volunteered to get to work, and in two weeks we made around 3600 masks that were distributed to four charities. My contribution was 260.

260 masks, an FFMC34 initiative for charities without masks

You might think that having nowhere to go we might be saving money like mad. That's what I thought until I realised that in fact it's costing a fortune in food alone. Added to that the fisc that has started (belatedly) the prélèvement à la source (PAYE) system taking tax money directly from my salary but is also continuing to take it out of my bank account despite action on my part back in February to avoid this. I'll get it back later I expect but in the meantime... YIKES.

My mini trampoline has seen regular action, to the extent that it's lost 2 tabs connecting the springs to the base. It's showing its age but can still be used as long as you jump with care. I'm trying out interval training so doing a 'jog' for thirty seconds then a 'sprint' for twenty seconds and repeat twice more. It's much kinder on the knees when you run on the spot on a trampoline... as long as you don't fall through the hole.

In contrast to the trampoline, I'm continuing with my ballet based movements for the over 50s (http://www.balletbasedmovement.com/), very enjoyable exercises to lovely music, and movement that's a bit different from yoga and my exercise mat. Here's the introduction to the series.

Kittypoo is having the time of her life. She's got us all under control and jumping to attend to her every whim. She looks very contented with life. Glad someone is!

Day 11 Covid 19 How do you pass the time?

Day 11 and I'm getting into a sort of rhythm which it will probably be difficult to quit once the barracks doors are reopened. You know the score... just when you're at cruising levels of containment activities, it'll be back to work and we'll be in shock all over again!

But that is all in the future, something to look forward to.

In the meantime there is telework, exercise and finding things to do.

Exercise
We are allowed to go jogging beyond the front door but I've always hated jogging, so I'm currently congratulating myself at not having thrown out the mini trampoline I bought over a decade ago and haven't used in almost as long. It's proving to be a merry little activity, bouncing in various ways for 10 minutes or so at intervals during the day. I've even got the instruction leaflet which I found when I was going through a bunch of papers. Glad I never invited Kendo Bled (?) into my home to throw out stuff that no longer brought me joy. You never know when it might bring you joy and much needed exercise relief in the future!!

Finding things to do

Housework is very very boring, and there is a whole internet out there to explore. I've drifted into a daily theme. One day I might be listening to some of the excellent podcasts on Radio 4, such as File on Four or Out of the Ordinary, with lots more to explore on Sounds.

The other day I watched video after video of Dame Emma Kirkby, enjoying the brilliant lightness of her soprano voice singing early music, plus a masterclass that she gave which was very interesting. There's a wonderful recording of the Messiah from 1982 with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient music performing in Westminster Cathedral. Emma Kirkby's voice is that of an angel. Here she is singing some Purcell.

Another day the theme was ballet and I watched a number of beautiful performances and discovered the videos by a former Royal Ballet Company dancer Claudia Dean. I am no ballerina. I had some ballet lessons when I was knee high to a grasshopper but was convinced my teacher didn't like me. At the end of each lesson we finished with a butterfly dancing in the middle of a circle of the other dancers. I always wanted to be the butterfly, but her choice was based on who had been the best pupil, and obviously even at that young and tender age, it was clear that a career as a ballerina was not going to be my path in life, and I never got chosen. Even on my LAST DAY! I've never forgotten it (as you can see...).

Anyway, I'm sure my whole life would have been different if I'd had Claudia Dean as my teacher. She is motivating and fun. She is no longer dancing, but is now a ballet coach and she makes these merry videos not just of coaching, but dealing with ballet issues, messing about with her sister (who is not a dancer), and doing little tests. One that I enjoyed was testing the English way of dancing to the Russian way. I didn't know there was one, but now I do!

Starting the day with humour is definitely one way of beating confinement blues, and I have a good laugh watching Tripp and Tyler videos. If you have ever participated in a video conference, you'll recognise this:

Finally, I've also been watching L'atelier des Chefs chef Nicolas Bergerault who has been making cooking videos from his home. He is stuck at home, like the rest of us, with his family, and so his daughters are filming the cooking with a phone, and he cooks dishes that he can rustle up easily from the stuff in his cupboards. On day one he made a salad of frozen peas with lardons and a homemade curry mayonnaise. On another day he made a spinach lasagne, and on another day he did pasta with an anchovy and caper sauce. His daughters amuse themselves adding the odd silly filter and giggling behind the camera. It's all very homely and merry.

Fun times!

Day 7 Covid19 Lunch

I'm going to lose track of the days, I just know it. Unless I do something organised like count them off on a calendar. Or I could even scratch bars in groups of 5 on the wall... May not go down well with the rental agency when they bring round prospective buyers after-this-is-all-over though, whenever that may be. If ever.

Anyway, I told the boys it would be a good idea to share the cooking. My youngest immediately offered to do a barbecue. My eldest muttered something like 'yeh if I must' in one of those 'at your own risk and peril' voices.

We have a barbecue but needed everything else, so my youngest who can now drive armed himself with the Gestapo-approved food-buying attestation, hopped gleefully into my car and drove to Intermarché. He came back with everything he needed plus one or two essentials such as iced tea.

I remember last year he and his friends wanted to do a barbecue by the river, so I took them to Intermarché, stocked him up with sausages etc. and drove them as far as I could. They had a great time and became great barbecue experts.

So it was with total confidence that I abandoned lunch into the competent hands of my son.

Barbecue champ at work

Actually, when I say 'abandoned lunch', if we were to eat anything other than sausages, it was up to me to rustle it up, so I kept it simple and did pasta and salad. Then we actually sat round the garden table and ate. You might think this is no big deal but my boys wage an anti-table campaign, extremely successfully, and meals are usually taken together but on the sofa. I wage other battles...

A rare experience

We had a nice lunch, talked and chatted and I said how lovely it was to eat and chat around the table, and was told that, yes it was nice, but I shouldn't expect it to happen too often because it would cease to be a pleasant, extraordinary event, and would become boring and annoying. So that put me in my place.

I am, however, grateful for small mercies and will treasure this rather extraordinary UK date Mothers' Day (it isn't until June in France) thanks to the little bugger of a coronavirus. Every cloud, as they say...

Day 5 Covid19 - Shopping

We were out of crisps, and running low on various essentials so instead of waiting until Saturday to do the weekly shop, I went on Friday thinking that there may be fewer people.

If you thought you could still pop to the shops for a quick shop, think again. The supermarkets have instigated a restricted flow of people, no more than a certain number inside at any one time. I had to wait with my trolley outside in a nice orderly line. This being France, you might expect a disorderly line, pushers-in and so on, but no, we were all meekly waiting with our barrier-trolleys ensuring a distance of 1m between us. The over-70s and infirm could legitimately jump the queue and were invited to by kindly security guards as they watched over us...

I waited for an hour to get inside. Luckily the sun was shining and it was nice and warm. I worked on dosing up my vitamin D levels and texting my son on which specialised shampoo he wanted.

Once inside the hallowed halls, we were exhorted over a loud-speaker to hurry up and get on with it so that the people outside could have their turn. No dawdling please, no perusing every single aisle. Just grab what you want (in sensible amounts) and go!

I found just about everything on my list, and chucked in a leg of frozen New Zealand lamb at the end because by that time, I'd been there for 2 hours (including waiting) and was aching for something to look forward to.

When I'd finished I went to the checkout. I had to stand at one checkout, and ping my little hand-scanner at the one next to it. When the woman ahead of me went to pay, she walked down our line, went through the security gate then crossed over to the checkout with the caissière in order to pay presumably so we weren't breathing all over her. She also had a plexiglass barrier between her and the customer.

I felt quite queasy after all the stress of a simple shop and could practically feel my temperature rising as I walked out of the side door to avoid the queuing shoppers. It's a brave new world!

Day 4 Covid19 - A Little Ditty

Coronavirus stalks the earth,
With current killer Covid-19
Targeting the old and fragile
Without discrimination.

We are 'en guerre'
Says Macron
Who speaks solemnly
And in as deep a voice as possible
(Though not so deep...).

No longer free to move about
We're confined to barracks
With outings just for food and meds
And a signed paper,
And fines for those who flout the rules.

The aged mutter of Vichy France
As they do their market shopping outside
Too close together.

Meanwhile, supermarkets
Are stripped of pasta, rice and
Toilet paper.
Just in case...

The neighbourhood is quiet,
A bit like Christmas Day
But with better weather.
Birds are singing and we can hear them
For once
Without the constant rumble of
Society in action.

When will it end?

Day 3 Covid 19 Confinement

Kittypoo (NotMyCat) teleworking

Thus spake the Prez unto the nation - thou shalt not go out except to purchase victuals and toilet rolls. It is now Day 3 and we are bearing up under the pressure of teleworking in our PJs, watching Netflix, Prime Video, reading books and playing computer games, etc..

Frankly, it could be worse.

Kittypoo has made herself very much at home and is enjoying the Covid19 crisis enormously. She is helping everyone with their teleworking, providing solace and a source of snuggles.

My eldest has set up a whiteboard outside propped up on the shutter catches.

Meanwhile, Wednesday afternoon is my afternoon off so I've made some waffle batter because it looks like we're going to take to comfort-eating and tomorrow is another day. Last night we tested out the pizza delivery options. There were none, but we could pick up at a distance swapping boxes for cheque in a parody of a dodgy spy scene.

People on Facebook have been sharing useful sites where you can watch rare films, shows from l'Opéra de Paris currently free online, and virtual museum tours. Maybe later... Plus things to do with kids inside. Not my problem any more. My youngest is watching an action movie with the woofer connected which is shaking the house to its foundations (and the neighbours' probably), and my eldest is on the XBox. Thank goodness the internet is Covid19-proof!

Here in France there is no going out any more unless you have a signed paper which states your reason - and it had better be a good one! Going to buy food, okay; going to the pharmacy, okay; going to buy cigarettes, okay... but not okay is wandering aimlessly about in search of inspiration. You can do that at home.

I have set myself a little challenge to do 30 minutes of exercise per day. I found an exercise mat when I was sorting out the very dusty top of the cupboard in my eldest's bedroom and it has some suggestions printed on it. So I'm doing a mélange of those exercises, some yoga and the plank. I tried to do some press-ups yesterday. Managed two lots of 3, then tried to do a series of 5 and collapsed at four and a half. Something to work on...

Time for a cuppa and a waffle. Stay safe and well and tune in again for another fascinating insight into a life on hold confined to barracks.