The End of March

Suddenly I turned around and it was the end of March. I’m not sure how that happened.

Suddenly it’s light after work and we’ve been enjoying the novelty of temperatures above ten degrees celcius. Transitional wardrobes at the ready.

And suddenly we made an offer on a house in France we saw a year ago… and even more suddenly it was accepted. Apparently Brexit isn’t a concern!

It’s both terrifying and exciting as we haven’t been approved for a mortgage and don’t have any money anyway but somehow it seemed like a good idea and somehow we’ll make it happen…or not!

The house in question is an old stone mas typical of the south of France except they’re very hard to find for the price we wanted to pay. 

Of course it needs work but it’s mainly cosmetic and the house comes with the added bonus of a mature garden (think olive trees), an outdoor kitchen and even more appealing, a pool. Imagine sitting by your own pool with a glass of ice cold rosé in hand, what a fantasy.

It’s a house I felt was going to be ours when we saw it but then again, I’ve been wrong before. This time I hope I’m right and we’re able to embark on a new French adventure of renovating and brocanting. 

My fingers are tightly crossed, I’ve missed brocanting!



 

Spring Skiing

As much as I would like to think of myself as Geronimo Gem, daring to ski where no others dare to go, the reality is I’m more of a Health and Safety type skiier.

Helmet, check. Sunscreen, check. Protective eye wear, check. 

Heading for lunch…

That all being said, I’ve happily progressed to blue runs which means I’m slightly less shit than I was. My goal next winter would be reds and that’s as far as I’m aiming, blacks are not on my agenda. 

When you have blue skies, snow-capped mountains and fresh Alpine air, there are worse places to be…

Aller skier

After breaking the ice in Gstaad, we decided to head back to the mountains for a weekend of Spring skiing. 

This time we were in the Southern Alpes skiing in France at Isola 2000. 

It was a challenging start to the weekend. I flew into Nice as Big T was already there working for a couple of weeks. 

We collected a hire car after a long wait for a Friday evening and eventually we set off towards Grenoble. 

It seemed we missed a turning as we ended up on a very small, very dark and very windy road in the middle of nowhere. Hairpin bends were many and it was hard driving but eventually we made it to Rimpas, a small Medieval mountain village where we were staying for a couple of nights, an easy drive to Isola. 

After dinner of the local speciality, the tarteflette which consisted of about ten sliced potatoes covered in ham and cheese, the low carb option, we went to sleep. 

Ready for another attempt at skiing!

Isola

We started the day with a buffet breakfast. 

The egg boiler was a little challenging. Three minutes was still raw. Six minutes was slightly dubious. Eight minutes was perfect and ten minutes was a stone. 

Big T had four eggs ranging from salmonella to stone. I had one egg cooked for eight minutes, perfection!

After breakfast we set off to the slopes. We arrived nice and early, got geared up and off we went!

It was a great day on the slopes. Blue skies and sunshine, the ideal conditions so we were actually too hot. 

We sat outside for lunch enjoying the ambiance before skiing off for round two. 

We had both progressed from Gstaad and by the end of the day were happily tired. 

Challenging Technology

On Friday my work computer crashed and I was left with a useless black screen and not much else. Luckily I had backed up as I had a sense of the impending doom over the past few weeks. Denial is always a good option.

I have been waiting for a laptop for months as it seems large corporations don’t make it easy to order new equipment so I was down to working on my phone while I did a lot of complaining and threatened to strike in protest.

In the end there was nothing I could do so I left for the day. It seems Monday will be an interesting day. Hopefully I have a temporary laptop but if not, I’ll be protesting from home, sending emails from my phone.

Sometimes technology is not all that.

After five years… back to yoga

It’s only taken me five years. Hard to believe but true.

Today I finally went back to yoga and started right back at the beginning. I went to the Iyengar Institute in Maida Vale, only a five minute bike ride from home. I have no excuses other than procrastination, I am a yoga disgrace!

I have done quite a lot of yoga over the years, my muscle memory is good and remembered what it was supposed to do. Only one problem, I appear to have seized up in various places. A good mantra to remember, use it or lose it. Apparently I’ve lost it!

I imagine I’ll be feeling the results tomorrow as my back was feeling it by the end of the class but I’ve got to start somewhere. 

It’s not as if I’m rushing into it after all!

Blossoming

It is slowly changing here in London as we inch towards spring.

The trees are dressed in their best frilly knickers in delicate shades of pink. The park is full of bold yellow daffodils and delicate, bruised purple and yellow crocus and slowly, slowly, it is getting lighter in the evenings as the cycle home becomes less of a chore and more of a pleasure.

It’s a wonderful time to be in London. The hint of Spring arrives each year and fills everyone with optimism. We are reaching the end of another grey, cold winter and we’re optimistic that summer is coming. Londoners are transformed, they might even smile.

We are casting off our layers of wool and this weekend, ventured out into the heady temps of 17 degrees without coats on. A novelty indeed!

Our optimism lasts until May at which point we realise that summer is inevitably replaced with rain and we all need to make sure we’ve booked a summer holiday to a place where sunshine is guaranteed. (we haven’t yet).

In the meantime, we’re still in the excited phase and are counting the days until the clocks go forward and we leap excitedly into British Summer Time!