Stress, stress

Who’d be a parent?

You’d think with the youngest at 21 years old, all of my troubles would be over. Olivier went to Bordeaux last week hoping to find an apartment to rent with a friend. Problem was half the youth of France had the same idea. He went off for the day and came back at the end of the week. As they wanted to be presentable they had to go out and buy clean clothes. The university tried to help. You’ve heard of speed dating? In Bordeaux they have Apartment dating under the hot sun, everyone and his dog turned up for that too.

After a little recuperation over the weekend they set off again on Monday. Then they decided to go it alone. They both found somewhere this afternoon. Tomorrow it’s job dating….

The stress isn’t over yet. Since the beginning of the year, young men have been disappearing in Bordeaux. All of the bodies have been found in the River Garonne….

Monday found Dom and J-M both in front of their classes for the first time. All went well for them.

Oh no, not another Glossy Box post!

When I lived in England I used to be a member of the Universal Beauty club. Every couple of months I would receive a box of beauty goodies in the post. It cost £5 at the time. When I left the country nearly 28 years ago, I had to cancel my membership as they didn’t ship abroad. I was really pleased to see a news report about these beauty boxes at the beginning of the summer and decided to sign up for Glossy Box.

I’ve seen blog posts and videos on YouTube about the boxes, but all by younger girls. I thought I do a report for the oldies. They ask you to complete a profile, so remembering that I’m between 50 and 60 years old, blonde with blue-grey eyes, combination skin and describe myself as smart casual, this is what I got this month:

Heel repair cream: Useful after wearing sandals all summer. I’m very fussy about my footwear so my feet are in pretty good condition anyway . This has a minty smell!

Eye pencil.: Just as my purple eyeliner died, I received this. It’s golden brown so I’ll have to experiment with different eye shadows to see if I will use it much it or not. I like the texture.

Body cream: I love this, just like a tube of paint! It is a light cream and spreads on easily. It smells nice and fresh, a bit like baby products.

Silk infusion: for hair and skin: you don’t need to rinse it off. Is it like a conditioner? I might pass this one to Dom.

The booby prize as far as I’m concerned: I have to swallow enough pills for medical reasons so I wouldn’t risk these which are to help your skin and preserve your tan. I don’t sunbathe so I don’t have to worry about preserving my tan anyway. Probably end up in the bin at the chemists (to be disposed of correctly).

The fist box I had last month had perfume in it.  I would have liked some this time too – perhaps next month.  The box costs 10€ plus 3€ postage.  I think that it is worth it as I will use everything.  The boxes are very well made too and pretty.  I’m keeping them for gift wrapping and to keep treasures in.

What a good weekend

Dom and J-M came back from Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately I couldn’t go with Rob to collect them from the airport as a couple of Dom’s colleagues needed a lift to the station. Dom’s presentations went very well . J-M went along to support her. It’s so nice when they visit, there is always plenty to talk about. They found time to explore Edinburgh. Taste the food (especially fish and chips) and soak up some of the rain. They bought back short bread with (Belgian) chocolate chips – needless to say that has all disappeared.

Dom came back with a copy of The Time Traveller’s Wife and told me that I could read it first as long as I don’t talk to her about it until after she has read it too. So far it looks as if it is going to be a good read…

This term they are both teaching: Dom will be teaching statistics to 1st year psychology students and J-M is teaching economics to students at an agricultural lycée.

Olivier is going to Bordeaux tomorrow to see about an apartment; I hope he likes it. They are very hard to find in Bordeaux at this time of the year. He starts term in about 2 weeks.

This is where Dom presented her work.  The picture comes from Wikipedia (where else?)

Somewhere in my youth, or childhood...

…I must have done something good.

Yesterday I was grocery shopping when a woman came up to be and asked me if I had a coupon and I said no; cross with myself that I’d missed one. She gave me hers saying that she wouldn’t be spending enough to get the money back. So I got 10€ ($12.58 - £7.94) off my bill at the end!  I'm sure she will never read this but, thank you again anyway.

I also picked up a BBQ tray at half price as it was close to the sell by date. When I got home I broke it up and put it into the freezer, it will make 3 meals for Rob and I.

Buzzing off

The wasps were dealt with a week ago. I did feel sorry for the poor young man having to put on protective clothing in all of the heat, but I was pleased to be rid of the them.

 Dom and J-M are now in Edinburgh. They stayed overnight here and we took them to the airport. Dom’s first presentation is tomorrow, around lunch time, so fingers crossed. They are using some of the time outside the conference to explore the city. I hope that they take a few photos.

 I took off the word verification because someone had been having problems deciphering the words. Within minutes I started to get spam comments again. Do these people spend all of their time hanging around blogs testing to see if they can get a comment through?. Word verification has been re-enabled.

If you have difficulty with the verification, you can find a link so that you can email me on all of my Blogspot blogs in the side menu.

Wasps

Yesterday I discovered what I thought was a beehive on the stonework of the garage which is not attached to the house (fortunately). After lots of looking up on the internet and in my nature book I decided that they are vulgar wasps(Vespula Vulgaris). This doesn’t mean that they swear (as J-M told Dom when we were on the phone earlier – doesn’t he fit into our family humor well?), it means that they are common. They are small and cute, but not to be underestimated.

 Normally they will die when autumn comes and the young queens will fly off to found more hives in little nooks and crannies next year. Tomorrow I’ll have to phone someone to come and destroy them, for the sake of the neighbourhood.

Not very clear, taken with my phone

We're having a heat wave

As I write the temperature outside is 35°C/ 95°F and the breeze is hot. It could be like this for the next 5 days. I feel sorry for anyone who is camping in a tent in this heat.

The house is reasonably cool. With careful use of the shutters as the sun moves around we can keep out the sunlight.

I hope it’s not too hot where you are. Whether or not it is, here’s something to cool you down. I couldn’t find the Carmen Miranda version so Miss Piggy is kindly stepping in.

My son the postman and other stories

Olivier is now a postman. He’s replacing a real postman for 3 weeks. Guess who has to get him to the sorting office for 6.40 in the morning? I think that by the last day he should be pretty fast at sorting the letters for his round into order and finding his way around the streets. Would you believe that people come up to him in the street and expect him to know who they are and where they live? His round finishes in a street along the beach which he considers as his reward for the day.
 

In September he will be continuing his studies in Bordeaux.  He will also be sharing an apartment with a couple of his friends - if all goes to plan.

Today is a holiday in France to celebrate The Assumption. It marks the beginning of the end of the holiday season here. The weather joined in this morning too; wind and rain to drive the holiday makers away…

 I’ve been busy looking into the names of some cats who were fortunate enough to have their own visiting cards.

Dinard

Dom and J-M have rented a house in Brittany for a fortnight. They very kindly invited us to stay with them in Dinard for a few days. So we joined tham on Wednesday for a couple of days.

The house was really lovely and they were the first ever holidaymakers to use it. It was so nice to sit in the garden in the sunshine and be served delicious meals. As well as eat, we played tourists too and went for some lovely walks. The sea was so blue and it wasn’t raining (rare in Brittany). We also explored other towns nearby.

The town hall at Saint Lunaire 

It was hot! 

Thank you for inviting us Dom and J-M!

Sunflower progress

I planted two varieties of sunflowers. When they’ve dried out I’ll probably hang them from a tree so that the birds can get at them without being interrupted by the local cats

Taller than the front door!