My Point Is...

Thoughts, ramblings, fears, happinesses, despairs, shouts and laughter, cares and don’t cares...all out loud!

[mypointis]

Show Me The Way...

Feeling positive... Back in the gym this week. ‘Baby steps’ but it’s a start. A ‘three days on the bounce’ start!

New trainers on my feet, and I’m feeling good. Ear phones in place!

...‘Show me the way to Amarillo...’ Just the tune!

Stomping away on my cross trainer like i’m in the music video! Motivation overload! Exercise like no one is watching!

There’s no one else here, i’ll move to the mat and try a few sit-ups...

Eek, has it really been so long? I used to knock out hundreds of these. I can’t feel my muscles...are they still there, buried deep beneath.

New lease of life, new regime, new path, new challenge, new horizons, new me 😊👍🤸🏼‍♀️

[mypointis]

Max Capacity.

My day starts off like most frantic week days in my household.

My husband prepares to take his clients for a tour and the children getting ready to go to Centre (holiday club). After I’ve dropped them all off in various locations, I connect with the UK via tecnology in my dinning room.

However, today is different. It’s the run up to the hols so EXTRA busy, busy, busy, organising planning and arranging for upcomming events and ensuring all loose ends are tided-up.

It’s also the day groundsmen are due to start to work in the garden on the long overdue task of replacing the rotten wooden perimeter fence.

Man down! Man down! Youngest declairs herself sick and stands down fron a day in ‘Centre’.

Ok, that’s a day on the sofa with Youtube for company for you, and my day intertwined with ‘Mummy I’m hungry, can I have some chocolate?’

Houston we have a problem! We’ve just hit a water main! Infact it’s completely severed in half and the entire village has no water! Can you come and see?... It’s gushing like an oil geyser out across the street!

Between the nosey neighbours, disgruntled villagers, concerned Mayor and panicing workmen all adding their opinions on where or where not the main supply pipe should have ran underground. The high powered jet of H2O, now stopping passing traffic, was cappped and I returned to a bursting box of emails and missed skype calls.

My youngest, is now demanding a poached egg on toast after her miraculous recovery!

Work continues...then before you know it the phone rings. My trigger to collect all remaining family members from different locations scattered over a 15 mile radius.

Is it only me or is someone pressing buttons? Am I in the French version of the ‘Truman Show?’ If so, I beg you...please don’t throw anything else into the mix. My head will implode!...and i’m looking forward to quite evening of cooking dinner, household chores and packing!

[mypointis]

Back to the Chateau!

After a tough but enjoyable couple of days in the UK full of teaching photography, facilitating radio interviews in the Smoke and a cinema trip to see ‘Mama Mia Here We Go Again’ with my wonderful work colleagues, I was more than relieved to get home to my French farmhouse.

With no plans for the weekend I let my mind wander. Maybe I’ll tackle a small area of our 2 acres of park land garden which is suffering from constant neglect.

PING!.. ...YOU HAVE A LAST MINUTE BOOKING!.. ...PANIC!

Scramble the elite B&B RRPF! (Rapid Reaction Preparation Force).

Bed to make, shower to clean, towels to fold, floors to sweep, mirrors to buff, surfaces to polish, loo to scrub...they could arrive any second!

Shopping to buy, breakfasts to supply! Flowers to arrange, prosseco on ice, a warm welcome would be nice!

An hour to turn around, all hands to the pump (including the kids). Supplies re-supplied as the shops are now shut. The last flowers and flannel in place...

‘Hello, bonjour, beinvenue a Normandie’ a smile on face!

Moral of the story: Allways check your email! Always prepare the B&B for the next guests, make a TV program about it!

All change! 😉

[mypointis]

Waterloo.

Who else has that inner urge to do something utterly ridiculous? Apart from me...right this second!

Oh hell! There is a real internal battle going on that Napoleon would be proud of. I can feel it deep in my gut, it’s real and I’m fighting to keep a lid on it!

I’m on a train heading for London packed full of commuters furiously tapping their laptops. Duncan, in the next seat and on his mobile, is apparently ticking boxes and needs to take a picture of a sample! Which is a slight distraction from the turmoil happening inside. Now I’m conjuring up all sorts of images!

My dilema is after seeing Mama Mia at the flicks last night I have diagnosed myself with an Abba earworm! The only way I can rid of it is by singing/screeching ‘Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to’, whilst dancing up and down the carriage isle!

Phew, just pulled in, I must disembark without further delay. You’ll be pleased to know Napoleon did surrender! 🚂

[mypointis]

Jam Fest!

After spending my waking hours with my eyes fixed a 18 inches away from a screen all week, how do I spend Saturday? You may ask?

So the working week ticked on and there was no time for jaming. The fridge is heaving with my prepared wild fruit. Unable to fill it with anything else I knew Saturday was J-Day!

3kg so far with at least another 6kg to process! Beautiful yellow and red jars full. Dark ones next. Then back to red but may add some ginger for a twist.

A local expat woman said to me; “Why do all Engish women feel the need to make jam when they come to France!” (Less of a question more of a statement with a ‘tut’ on the end).

Well I have and I did! It’s food for free(ish), It’s fun to foridge with my girls, it graces my B&B breakfast table and it tastes bloomin’ lovely. That’s why!

Bon appetite! I’m jammin’, i’m jammin’, I’m jammin...

[mypointis]

Daily Commute.

I’m looking at FB again. A few friends on my news feed are reporting that they are already stuck in traffic in various places. One on the M25, one on the M5, one on the M1. It’s only 0730 people! What’s going on? How early do you need to get up to get to work before your alternative hours to beat the traffic start?

Me: I’d better get a shiffty on... along the hall, down the stairs turn right. Arrive at my destination...Enter password...Hmm...It was a bit busy in the hall as the kids are on school holidays and there was a bit of conjestion at the bathroom exit but it soon cleared. Think I’ll pull into the kitchen and get a cup of tea while they, my dear collegues that is, get into the office.

It’s the way ahead folks...🚦🚘

[mypointis]

Year Out.

Pure Sunday morning bliss. The morning after the night before, which consisted of three glasses of Chardonay and a large g&t. (Is that excessive?)

The windows are wide open and i’m listening to the rain soaking into the parched earth while the parched me sips tea and dreams of far flung places. In my head i’m serious planning a year out to travel. America, India, Thailand...

The realisation: My beautiful eight year old, and my youngest, slumbers softly in the next room. Is 10 years too long to hold on to my travel dream? Will I still want to?

The rain stops, my thoughs stop, my baggy head starts 🍸

[mypointis]

Blood Moon.

I missed you BlooD MooN. I was too dog tired to stay awake to look at you. I know I have missed seeing you forever! I will languish in bed past 9 o’clock looking at everyone elses photos on FB of you, wishing I’d stayed awake.

But there it is....life of a busy working woman, mother, wife, cook, housekeeper, gardener, medic, furniture restorer, after hitting 50, the list goes on...

Me: Deep down I wanted to see that BlooD MooN so bad!! The nature loving, world wonderer, wanderluster wanted to see that BlooD MooN! Opportunity lost this time 🌔