Project 366 : Photo Diary week 31

Our trip to Belgium seems like a lifetime ago, even though we only got back ten days ago ! We timed it just right though as they have reinforced their Covid measures this week, reducing the number of people who can be in any place at any time (I would guess this means even bigger problems for the attractions) and, if you eat in a restaurant, you have to leave your contact details so that they can get back to you if there is an outbreak. You also have to wear a mask all the time when outside, but we were doing that anyway, as were most of the others. Our trip to the UK is looking less and less likely unfortunately. We've been watching the news on Covid measures and were happy to see that the 2-week confinement on arrival has been lifted, but now, we've discovered that the ferry and Channel Tunnel prices have gone through the roof - paying about £400 instead of £50 just seems totally wrong, especially as there's no justification. You have to stay in your car all the time in the tunnel so there is presumably no change to the number of cars that are using it. We'll have to wait and see. I haven't seen my family since February so we're a bit gutted though.

So, what did we get up to this week? Not much really ! Our big dejunk continued !

  

Sunday 26th July - Sophie has been making smoothies all week, using combinations of fresh and frozen fruit, and they have all been delicious. Even better, Juliette and Pierre think so too, so there have been vast quantities of fruit being consumed this week ! This has been a great way of using the food mixer that the kids bought me for mother's day. :)

Monday - We had a big sort-out in the living/dining room, going through all the drawers in the cupboards and dejunking the shelves. We had so many mugs and glasses that never get used, it was a bit ridiculous ! After tackling Pierre's room before going to Belgium, I have bin bags and boxes of stuff all over the place now though, to throw away when there's room in the bin or to donate. It's a total mess but at least it will get better soon. We finished off walking the dog along by the canal. Plants have sprung up everywhere since the last time we went a couple of weeks ago.

Tuesday - We needed to replace our printer ink so I headed to the big local supermarket with Sophie. She always makes me buy totally random stuff ! This time, she found fresh aloe vera and, as it wasn't very expensive, I said she could buy it. You can eat it, drink it or use it in beauty treatments, according to the label on the shelf. Right now, it's still sitting on our kitchen table though !

Wednesday - Today's photo is of the canal in Dunkerque town centre and it suddenly made me realise how similar it looks to Belgium. I had my appointment at the bank to sort out the kids' money from their "inheritance" and it took forever. For a start, the woman who deals with my account was forty five minutes late for the appointment and didn't even apologise ! Then we spent an hour filling in the paperwork for the money transfers. We got Sophie's sorted out fairly swiftly (about half an hour) but for Juliette and Pierre, it's more complicated because they are under 18 so it's all "highly protected", as she explained. I wouldn't care but this is literally moving money from my savings account to their pre-existing savings accounts, so it surely can't be that complicated ! At the end, she said that she'd fill in all the remaining paperwork for them, send it to me by email and I could drop it back in at the bank. *sigh*

Thursday - We're in the middle of a heatwave and the kids asked if we could buy a swimming pool for the patio. Well, why not ?! It'll make up for missing out on the usual summer holiday ! We popped to the local B&M store (about ten minutes away on foot) and found everything we needed at a reasonable price (the pool, pool cover and a pump to blow up the top part for about £40 total) then Juliette and Pierre spent the whole afternoon in it. It's a good size - they can both lie down in it. The yellow rubber ring is one of the big ones that an adult can lie on, for an idea of size.

Friday - Juliette and Pierre spent the day in the pool again, while Sophie and I cracked on with sorting out the living/dining room. We reduced the size of the table, taking out the add-on segments so it is now round rather than long. Having already emptied out Pierre's cupboard in his bedroom, we moved a huge pile of games and puzzles upstairs. We found a big bag full of stuff (official documents, ticket stubs, plane tickets, travel plans written out by Madhouse Daddy) from his year as an au-pair in America, which was nice for the kids to look through. We finished off cleaning the floor and the windows and the room looks so different now ! We finished off walking the dog along the canal, just as the sun was starting to set. I love this photo with the moody reflections in the water, but I still can't work out why we can see three suns !

Saturday - Having received a message on my phone, asking for me to go back in to the bank to sign the papers (that we had decided she was going to email to me - grrrr !), we popped back in at 11.30am as arranged. The bank closes at midday and she finally appeared at ten to twelve. No comment ! I signed everything ... then discovered that this was just the official request to transfer money. (So what was all the stuff I signed last time ?!) I'll have to go back in again next week once the request has been authorised, to sign more papers to finalise the transfer. Talk about making a song and dance about it ! Just as well I'm on holiday at the moment with all these appointments. We headed to a pizza restaurant for lunch afterwards which was nice, but the pizzas weren't as good as usual. The eggs were overcooked (they're supposed to be runny but they were rock hard !) and they just lacked a bit of oomph. We popped into a shop (our version of HMV) where Pierre wanted to spend the end of his birthday money on a pair of headphones. He found a pair in the sales, €10 instead of €24.99, and was utterly delighted when, for some reason, they went through with a bonus €3 reduction so he got them for €7 !

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