Aims to aim for

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First let me start by making an apology to you all, I have been playing about a bit with my blogs look and I am sure everytime you clicked on it there was a different colour or had a different header, well I think I have settled on this one so normal service will be resumed, thanks for being patient.

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As I have said many times I am not one for making new years resolutions and anyway it is too late now by my reckoning, but it was a fellow blogger who made me realise that it is good to have aims for your year and be able to reflect on them, thank you Moira, you can find her blog here take a look, https://moisfrenchadventure.com

I think it is good to do this otherwise you are bumbling aimlessly through your year and it is 18th January already just to put it into perspective, 18 days where you had no real plans now that scares me, we have not pets to give us purpose although we often say we would like another dog but sadly neither of us would be able to take it for long walks so that's out,
Right lets look at what I would like to aim for. I know a lot of french but still struggle to hold a meaningful conversation, the main problem is the understanding part, so I guess I must get cracking with that, the language problem also brings another and that is integrating into our village life or should I say the lack of it, when you struggle to have a conversation the easiest thing is not to put yourself in that situation and I guess that is what we have done, so now when we go to our local tabac to get the euromillions tickets we stop and have a coffee, we have promised to take some English tea next week as John prefers tea, it helps us and helps them.
There are still some jobs around the house that we need to knuckle down to, especially finish the downstairs toilet, lay carpet on landing, decorate our bedroom.
We also need to get a bit more exercise.
Well I think that will be plenty to keep us busy.

1. Improve my French language skills
2. integrate more into village life
3. Finish the jobs.
4. Get more exercise

It will be good to look at it all at the end of the year and see how well we have done

What are your aims going to be, let me know,

thanks for popping by ☆

Life changes

Hello dear readers,

I have been doing some thinking about our life here today as someone asked if our lives had changed since we made the move,  I used to think there was no change in fact I would have said there was no difference in our cultures but over the years we have realised that there are some,  but nothing that is insurmountable, we came to France because we loved the fact that here in the rural countryside they seem to be at least 50 years behind England,  life is just like it was when we were kids,  safe to run around outside without getting robbed or attacked,  people especially children still have respect for others and elders,  don't get me wrong, it is starting to change now sadly and as you travel closer to the big cities you will see the graffiti some of which I find very artistic, the french in some areas are getting wise to it now and growing trees instead of concrete walls,  I very often see council workers trying for hours at a time to clean it off but I feel it would be much quicker if they painted it, I wonder why they don't invent a surface that rejects paint in the first place,
Here are a few differences we have found
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●  Children behave in shops
●  Everyone greets you even if they don't know you
●  men kiss men to greet them (usually family)
●  food and the way we eat is different
●  The French are creatures of habit
●  If you buy the barman in a bar a drink he has to buy one back until neither of you       can leave or at least that is what it is like at our bar. and of course the wine is so           cheap.

That's just a few for today.

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New Year Resolutions

Hello dear readers,

We always have a trifle for any celebration and it is always made in Mum's cut glass bowl
God knows what we would do if we broke it

With A New Year comes new years resolutions, we all make them and we all break them, some sooner than others, I guess there are some people who make them and see them through to the end successfully, sadly I am not one of them.
So with the new year upon us, do the French make them too, the answer is yes....
(Les bonnes resolution du nouvel an).
My neighbour says it is always to lose weight well if you could see her she is so slim, tiny in fact and I tell her "you don't need to lose weight" and she replies " that's because I am constantly on a diet" or Regime as they call it here.
The other one or two are to give up smoking or drinking alcohol, have you noticed these are all the things we love, perhaps not the smoking we gave that up 34 years ago but we do like a drink and we love our food, Well I got to thinking there must be an easier way to do this resolution thing, when you really think about it you don't have to give something up completely, right...why not learn a new language, in my case improve my French so that my poor friend and neighbour Jossette doesn't have to struggle so much with understanding me, you could cut down on something rather than give it up altogether, I am all for that, I am no good with diets, the minute I say I am on one I constantly think about food and can't last longer than a week so I thought I would cut back (not cut out) the snacks between meals and perhaps change some of the snacks for healthier options like fruit, yes that sounds good.
I won't make so many Trifles therefore I won't end up like this ♧

Please let me know what you are doing for your New Years resolutions. ♡

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