Some light at the end of the tunnel

You wouldn’t think it could get any worse, would you ? Well it did…

When I finally got through to the company that was supposed to mend my washer/dryer they informed me that my guarantee wasn’t valid anymore as the company I bought the machine from had gone bankrupt. We looked on the website and they went bankrupt in December of last year. All claims had to be filed by the end of last year, so my guarantee until the end of 2011 is worth nothing. We phoned the help line and their was a message to day that they would be back in business for 12th May! We’ll be checking to see what happens next…

Anyway, I went to visit my sad machine and I was thinking about the last time I had an engineer to visit. They always ask ‘Have you tried to use the machine since the problem developed?’ So I thought I’d give it a go. Rob ready to phone the emergency services in case I blew myself up. As the machine was still full of water I decided to try to empty it, so I set the controls to ‘empty’ , held my breath and pressed buttons. The machine emptied, no problem. Next, I decided to give it something a little more complicated. I fetched in the hand washing I’d done earlier and set it to spin dry. No problem. I couldn’t resist trying a full wash…, two full washes later and it was fine. All that stress for nothing.

My interview at Manpower wasn’t really an interview, just form filling. Another of the exam supervisors was there to. Manpower are very, very busy, the phone was ringing non stop and a queue of people waiting to be seen. All I have to do now is wait for my timetable, it looks like I’ll be working more in June.

We both had emails from MIL. She fell down the stairs last week, on her back. She’s in pain but okay. She’s 86, it could have been a lot worse.

The bad news or the bad news

When it’s a case of the bad news or the bad news, I suppose the best thing to do is tell it in the order it came. Since 2000 I’ve been supervising exams at the school of commerce in town. Just over a week ago I received a letter telling me that I would now be employed by Manpower as regards my work there. Tomorrow I have an interview with them and they will tell me my hours. I’m just hoping that I can continue to work just mornings. If I stay longer I get migraines. I also have my business to run. Will I be paid less? Will I have to pay some kind of entrance fee? Watch this space.

The other bit of bad news is that my washing/dryer machine has broken down. I went to remove my washing and found lights flashing. When I checked out the problem pages in the booklet it just said “call the engineer”. So I had soggy washing and another load which I washed in the bath. I tried to turn the machine on to empty the water out – nothing. The engineer doesn’t’ work on Mondays. The good news it is that the weather is sunny at the moment so I can dry things out side and if I wash them early in the morning they will be almost dry by the evening. I don’t normally need the dryer except in emergencies or the wet days of winter, but it’s impossible to wring out washing and get it as dry as a spin dryer.

Another BlogExplosion update

You will probably come across this post on one of my other blogs:

A couple of times now the approval queue has been right down to zero. It was a strange sensation after all this time. Some of you might have noticed that your blogs were approved almost instantly! We worked very hard to get the approval queue down to a minimum. Despite all the best efforts sometimes bad blogs do get through. If you see something which offends or you think shouldn’t be there you can report the site. You’ll see the link just below the banner at the top of the page when you are surfing.

Badmin continues working quietly to fix and change things. Lots of people enjoyed the Shoutbox in the past and hopefully there will be some sort of text based chat coming soon.

The forums have been very quiet recently, why not pop by and see what there is on offer nowadays? There are new bloggers saying ‘Hi’ or details of the assigned credits bonus during the month of May. If you have any ideas, worries about BlogExplosion or general questions about blogging there is always someone around willing to help out. We’d love to hear what you think about the changes.

Carpe diem

The recent rise to fame of Susan Boyle and her incredible voice serves as a reminder to us all how important it is to pursue your dreams before it is too late. In my mind 50 is the moment when you still have the time to try. A year or so back I decided to write down the thoughts and ideas that were in my head. Word made things easy for me; when I was 10 my teacher, Mr Sadler, sat observing me while I wrote and came to the conclusion that my brain was working too fast for my hand. This was why my handwriting was and still is, so bad. It’s taken me 40 years to really start to write. It doesn’t matter that I will never be properly published, I’m having a great time just making up stories and trying to make the people in them behave as if they were real. Some stories are useless and other are much better.

What are you doing?

Just call me Orange Eucalyptus

Stolen from Peter!

1.Your rock star name (first pet, current car) – Tippy Renault

2.Your gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe) – Lemon Boot

3.Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal) – Purple Elephant

4.Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born) – Mary Worcester

5.Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name) - Knuan

6.Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) – Turquoise Martini

7.NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers) – Richard Walter

8.Dancer name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) – Opium Chocolate

9.TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) – Forrester Faverolles

10.Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower) – Autumn Rose

11.Cartoon name:(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now) – Grapefruit Jean

12.Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) – Orange Eucalyptus

13.Movie (or porn) star name (first pet, first street where you lived) – Tippy Furze


I think that the names work out well. Let me know if you decide to play.

Changes

Jo has decided to make her blog, BrilliantGirlGenius by invitation only. If you were a regular reader and would like to have access to her blog, email her at revolutioninmyhead(at)gmail(dot)com, or me at the address on the lefthand side just above the lime clock and I’ll forward your email to her. If you are shy you can always check out some of your other sister’s blogs in my list.

Easter visitor

Dom came home for a few days last weekend. She thinks that she will be staying in Poitiers after all. She wants to do research in to language/bilingualism sort of things. Well she’s already an expert there in a voice on sort of way. Her job in the library has been suspended. No funds to pay them with. She’s seen the head of her department and he’s gong to see if he can’t get the money somehow. This is the document library we’re talking about. How can a University function with that closed off?

She has a boyfriend now and it sounds as if they are pretty serious. I’m pleased she’s met someone that matches up to her high standards. She has a friend, M, who is studying in Paris. He lent them his flat for the weekend. Apparently boyfriend and M have a lot of friends in common and now Dom has met a most of them. They went to visit Iris, the fridge poetry writing, insect lady with the rabbit in the hat band of her top hat. She has a flat in Montmartre! How cool can that be? Though it is tiny she does have a real toilet. The last place she had only had a Turkish toilet (where you have to squat). Bonnie (The bird rescuer) came to visit Dom too and they went out for a drink together. It was lovely to see Bonnie again. She is such a pretty girl, very French, looks wonderful in anything – how do they do that?

Dom’s visit went all too quickly, but she has left me her first paper to read.

Creme Eggs

We managed to obtain a supply of Cadbury Creme Eggs for Easter. We paid a euro each for them. Can you get them where you are and how much did you pay for them?


Hope you have a sunny Easter with lots of eggs, if that's what you like.

Mini heros

I almost forgot to mention this one: A man walked into a school in France and tried to take a little girl by force. He hadn’t reckoned with the rest of the children. One brave boy went for him and tripped him up while the others made lots of noise and ran to fetch an adult. They were all only 7 and 8 years old.

The headmistress of the school is very proud of her pupils but still has to explain why the school gate was left unlocked. Since a hostage taking at a nursery school over 10 years ago school gates are supposed to be kept locked.

All grown up

The monuments in France are now open through the lunchtimes as of April 1st. This means that staff have to be covered while they take their lunch breaks. Now that Olivier is 18 he can work part time, so he is working weekends and throughout the Easter holidays. He’ll be working almost full time throughout the summer as well. It’s good all-round as far as our family are concerned, it gets him out of bed at a reasonable hour, he doesn’t have to keep asking for bus fair and he’ll be able to pay for his own clothes. (He’s got expensive tastes). He did appreciate working at the restaurant last summer for the same reason.

Today he is going to give blood for the first time. The blood doning centre have a mobile service which visits villages, businesses, factories and now I’ve discovered, lycées. Rob and I haven’t been for several years because of the BSE problem in the UK. (We weren’t allowed to give blood) Rob used to donate his plasma which was rich in tetanus antibodies too.

Like I said; all grown up.