What a day I have had and its only lunch time

[dept71]

Got sorted to go our nearest big town to pay some bills as off to France Sunday, got my bus pass ready then looked for my wallet, could we find it anywhere, no. looked in the car as its about fully loaded, not there looked all over the house. but I could remember putting it into some bag, looked through all the bags that might be used, then thought I might have to cancel the cards as we will be in France for 6 weeks and wanted to make sure they couldn't be used just in case the wallet was mislaid outside. Phoned Barclays to cancel, they don't want you to speak to humans, they asked for the debit card number, but I don't have it, in the end I put the phone down frustrated. Got on bus and went to Staines, visited Barclays there, it has just become a large room with loads of self service machines with one poor receptionist trying to sort out all the visitors. They are a joke, when this is sorted I'm changing banks. Got home and swmbo said look in the fridge, well on Wednesday we purchased a large pack of bacon to split and try to smuggle some into France on Sunday, you guessed it wallet was in the bag we put the bacon in.

Where is that darkened room.

[Martin963]

Reminds me of my parents.    In my teens we went to France three times a year,   and my father seemed to be under the impression that it was akin to going to the south pole.   Apart from loading the car with butter and coffee and tinned ham,   he himself would wrap himself in multiple layers,   thick winter jerseys,  sports jacket,   raincoat,   heavy winter overcoat.

We'd scarcely be on the road before he'd yell "Ye Gods,   the passports".   If he was driving he would have to be persuaded to stop,   as the search would entail going through the fifteen or so pockets of his sartorial over-complications.    Eventually the passports would be found,    a few miles would be achieved,   then "Ye Gods,   the ferry tickets".     You can imagine,   and this would go on throughout the entire journey to Southampton or Dover.

 

Famously later on they managed to leave their picnic for the journey in the fridge at home;   another time when they'd just bought a little chalet in 05 they managed to leave a cardboard box full of mugs,   plates,  chocolate etc in a layby on the N75 south of Grenoble (a little layby off the road and très delaissé),   only to be able to pick it up three weeks later on the way home (and demolishing the chocolate there and then they were so pleased to see it,   having no doubt left the picnic for the return journey behind;   the box eeventually got the the chalet on the next run!).     As my mother observed,   France was still in back then like England in the 1930s,   where you could leave your luggage on a station platform and it would be left undisturbed for as long as you liked.......

Eventually they DID - on one of their last trips - lose their ferry tickets whilst in France in the eighties,   and also managed to lose track of which day of the week it was,   this was of course long before mobiles,  and they weren't sure if the copies of the papers in the Librairies were today's or yesterdays.    They eventually turned up at the wrong time at the wrong port on the wrong day to catch the wrong boat.

 

As a result of such chaotic moments in my childhood I am boringly pretty well organised,   but of course one never sees one's parents' good points,   many of which I more than suspect that I am entirely lacking.

 

Good luck finding another bank.    They're all pretty useless,   although generally I find Nationwide (and,  suprrisingly,  Tesco) quite good at picking up the phone.    Opinions may differ of course.   FWIW had you been able to log in to Barclays Banking you could have "frozen" your card,   most of the banks allow you to freeze them until you find it again.

Edited April 27 by Martin963

[Martin963]

PS   Have to add this:    my parents,  whilst searching for somewhere in 05,   drove down a couple of times with a caravan.   My father would always wax lyrical about how good the French were at building roads,   (to hear him swanking about the marvels of the Bouleveard Peripherique you'd honestly believe he'd built the entire thing himself single-handed).    Anyway,   their journey used to take them to Grenoble,   but before the A48 had been entirely completed.    On one occasion my father was rabbiting on about how wonderful this new motorway was,   how the French anticipated traffic levels so early,   and even my mother had to admit that there didn't seem to be a single other vehicle on either carriageway.   They did a happy five miles or so totally on their own,   before hearing "Ni-nah ni-nah ni-nah" becoming audible behind them.     A police car overtook them,   and signalled for them to stop.     It turned out that my father had got the wrong side of some cones (he was colour blind,  which didn't help,   and French signage wasn't as comprehensive as it is now) and he'd managed several miles on an unopened section of the A48.    Had he carried on another couple of miles he and the caravan would have ended up in a large hole.    They were escorted back the wrong way (my father got in a total panic and it was the gendarmes who had to disconnect the caravan,   turn the vehicles round,   and reconnect them).   

[Lori]

What stories Martin !!!  You should write a book on your memories.  😀

[Judith]

It makes forgetting where I put my glasses seem like child's play!  But, yes, I suspect that more people than we'd like to think of  have done some things similar ... and I must confess to checking passport location even when I know I have put in where it always lives when travelling!  It's where I have put the house keys for safe keeping in the room, when I am away which I forget!

[dept71]

Re Martins mum & dad and tickets, years ago when the shuttle used to issue tickets our friends came to visit us in France, they also bought our daughter in the car. They got to the shuttle booths where the wife said to hubby got the tickets, no was the reply the last time I saw them was on the mantel piece. They were still on the mantel piece. They had to buy new tickets there and then, they told us later that by having our daughter in the car saved their marriage.  Our friends usually had these kind of adventures, missed their flights back to the UK while on holiday in Africa etc.

 

Martin I do actually do online banking at Barclays, didn't even know that I could freeze the card, was more concerned if someone had used it.

Edited April 27 by dept71
spelling

[Martin963]

Actually I wonder if I've misled you a bit over card freezing.   You can do it from the Barclays app,   but having looked at the Barclays on line banking system (ie from a computer rather than a phone) I'm not sure it's possible.

[menthe]

Martin, I could see you have very fond memories of your parents!  I say "lucky you" because parents were people who mostly embarrassed you at school and stopped you doing things when you were young.  It's strange how some things remain in the memory and some completely disappear into a dark hole.

I have missed a flight once while on holiday in the far east and my flight was around midnight THEIR time.  It was mega confusing, what with the heat and everything else.  Cost me a bundle to pay for another flight and even then it was a 48 hour wait.

Also missed the ferry once in Brittany and had to go all the way to Ouistreham to take another ferry home.

While these things might seem funny in retrospect, at the time they were extremely distressing.  Increasingly, I am not so keen to go too far from home, pityful object that I am.

[Lori]

3 minutes ago, menthe said:

Increasingly, I am not so keen to go too far from home, pityful object that I am.

You are not alone and no you are not pityful either.  I find traveling long distances these days to be very stressful for a great number of reasons.  So I generally avoid it.  There's a lot of very nice scenery within an hour or two of our house.  I'm happy with that.

Edited April 27 by Lori

[menthe]

YES, Lori, you are a woman after my own heart!  We are lucky to live in such a beautiful and large département.  You are right, there is always a delightful corner to be discovered, even if you just go on foot.

I managed a walk yesterday evening and I really enjoyed looking at the land and crops, the contours of green and brown plus the swifts, ducking and diving they way they do.

[Martin963]

Well not entirely happy,   and my parents were capable of embarrassing beyond belief.   But the country would not be in such a mess with more of their sort still around....

As to long journeys I'm with you Lori and menthe.     Where we are in Devon is very very rural,  and I think we've only set foot outside the county a couple of times in the last four years.   Heaven forbid that I should ever have to go anywhere by plane - I haven't flown since 1997 - but I'd need someone with me to show me how all the new e-tickets etc work,   and I have no idea what one is now allowed to take with one,  or baggage excesses etc.    TBH I don't *want* to know,   I've never been further than Austria and 99% of my abroad time has been in France,   as I failed ever to see the point of going any further than that beautiful country,  with its (mainly) lovely people.

 

Sadly since we sold the house in 24 we've not been back - in nearly five years now.   It's not helped by the fact that we both still have paper driving licences,   and part of the Brexit punishment beating has been that France no longer recognises them.    And that makes me feel no longer welcome,   or inclined to trouble myself to regularise my position.   I'm afraid I feel that if they don't want me I'm not going to make the effort,   particularly as I was one of the "victims" of Sarkozy's (illegal) policy of refusing residency to anyone below retirement age with a pre-existing medical condition (totally minor in my case).   

[Lori]

33 minutes ago, menthe said:

We are lucky to live in such a beautiful and large département.  You are right, there is always a delightful corner to be discovered, even if you just go on foot.

So true.  Yesterday, on my way back from the Dentist in Montignac, the return road I normally take had decided to become a one-way (the wrong way for my return home) since my last travels there (no idea when or why).  So, I took a different route (Rte de l'Escaleyroux); seemed to be going in the right direction (no GPS). 

Tiny, winding road heading uphill (what a shock round here 😉).  After a km or 2, I came upon a parking turn off and wondered why the heck would anyone want to park here in the middle of nowhere (no houses, no businesses).  Just after the parking spot, there was an observation point built out on the left (cliff side) of the road.  I turned my head to see that I was WAY up a small mountainside and the sweeping view from the observation deck was jaw dropping. 

I have a dreadful fear of driving on tiny, mountainous roads, so I would have been better off never looking towards the view point...  However, it was so incredibly beautiful and in the middle of nowhere, yet I've driven around it (yet not taken this particular road) a dozen times.  So many hidden beauties.

And yes Menthe, we too managed a walk yesterday around 17h00.  Only got slightly sprinkled on.  Came across a beautiful, very large hare, that jumped into the surrounding fields once he saw us coming.  Also enjoyed the gorgeous, green rolling hills all around us.  So pretty.

Don't know if the google map view will copy over, but this is the Observation point.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.0888531,1.2121814,3a,75y,349.31h,71.23t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sBmgLkzas-6XI9q4sApk3Tg!2e0!5s20210301T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

 

[DaveLister]

I'm much happier driving small roads rather than motorways. In fact the sat nav is set to disregard anything from a duel carriageway up. I'll quite happily take four or five days to get up to Brittany, when I have to, stopping off at small hotels en route. Sometimes I can drive for hours without seeing another car and, as others have said, this country has such amazing scenery that I just feel blessed to be able to see it.

I also hate airports and have only used small regional airfields for over 20 years. This year, however, I've decided to go to Canada and take the Canadian across country from Toronto to Vancouver. That means a departure from CdeG so I'm having to gen up what to expect. That part of the trip I'm not looking forward to.

[Lori]

11 minutes ago, DaveLister said:

I'm much happier driving small roads rather than motorways.

Oh I hate driving on autoroutes too.  I'll also avoid them whenever possible.

As to CDG, I have found that to ease the stress of airport manoeuvres, I arrive the evening before travel date and stay at either the IBIS or Novotel at Roissypole.  And easy CDGVal shuttle to the terminal(s).  I'm used to CDG, but arriving the day before (no matter what time my departure flight is), still eases some of the stress.

 

 

[DaveLister]

7 minutes ago, Lori said:

As to CDG, I have found that to ease the stress of airport manoeuvres, I arrive the evening before travel date and stay at either the IBIS or Novotel at Roissypole

That's exactly what I thought of doing, thank you.  ☺️
I'm also flying out to Manchester a couple of months earlier as a practice run.
 

[Lori]

If booked in advance, the IBIS is normally reasonable and worth it to me.  I've always found it clean, quiet with good beds and clean linen.  Food choices are not great, but there is a decent supermarket and boulangerie just around the corner from the hotel (5 minute walk from your room). 

[menthe]

Well, well, well, what a great deal we have in common.

Firstly, Lori, thank you for that link.  It is one of those places where I just long to get on that bridge and walk along those paths!  We do have lots of these panoramic points in the Dordogne.  As the French walkers always exclaim, it is so "vallonnée"......hills and views everywhere you look and a joy to go up and down all day long if you are walking!

I am another one who loves driving on small country roads and don't care if I take a couple of days to go anywhere.  We used to do this a lot, drove around and if a church tower was visible in the distance, we stopped at wherever it was, looked for a small hotel or chambre d'hôte and stayed the night.

I also like to arrive somewhere the night before and spend time in a Novotel or some such and go onwards the following day.  But, like Martin, I no longer fly and can't bear the thought of all the hanging around, the queues to pass security, the machines for getting your boarding pass, and la di da di da.....quelle horreur!

 Also I'd have nightmares about going on a long distance flight sitting next to a fat person who would overflow into my seat, monopolise my arm rest, and block my view of the aisle.  Then I'd think about if we needed to evacuate the plane and this person got stuck and I couldn't get out and perished in the ensuing crash and I am not sure they'd know how to get my dental records from my dentist in order to identify my remains.

I remember a delightful old chap telling me years ago that, when one got older, there was no more agreeable place than your own home.  And now I myself am getting on, I wish he was still around so that I could say I have found out that he was right about that!

[Lori]

4 minutes ago, menthe said:

Also I'd have nightmares about going on a long distance flight sitting next to a fat person who would overflow into my seat, monopolise my arm rest, and block my view of the aisle.

Oh I have many stories about the horrors of long haul flights and sitting beside arm rest hoggers or oversized bodies are some of the lessor horrors. 

I've unfortunately had to sit behind a smelly, long haired pre-teen (I'm guessing) who kept her seat back down the entire trip and flipped her stinky hair on my tray table. 

Then there was the other time that I was stuck beside a family and the, again, unkept pre-teen kept falling asleep on ME. 

Then, there was the flight where the traveling family allowed there (2 to 3 year old boy) to be passed from the row in front of me to the family members sat in my row (behind them) multiple times with him knocking his feet on me at each passing. Then same boy was allowed to roam up and down the aisles unaccompanied and then dropped his pants and pooped on the aisle floor. 

Then on yet another, I was sitting in an aisle seat, the male sitting opposite me in the aisle seat of the same row, removed his shoes and propped his feet in my direction as he laid down taking up the empty seat beside him.  I've never smelled worse foot odor in my life.  Others seemed to take note of it too, but nothing was done. 

Then, there was the family who decided it was a good idea to pack a family picnic of some of the stinkiest foods possible and unpack them early on in the flight, stinking up the entire cabin. 

Or perhaps the couple with the baby that decided that changing his extremely bad smelling diaper on the tray table was a perfectly acceptable thing to do.  I've seen this same faux pas on French trains too.  I'm sure I'm leaving a few things out. 

I avoid long haul flights as much as possible.

16 minutes ago, menthe said:

I remember a delightful old chap telling me years ago that, when one got older, there was no more agreeable place than your own home. 

This was a wise man.  I agree completely.

[DaveLister]

Sounds horrendous!!!

I'm hopeful traveling Business Class will be slightly more civilised.

Lori, there's a video on twitter ( X ) of a girl doing exactly what you describe, flicking her hair over the back of the seat onto the tray table of the person behind. Unfortunately the person behind her was as uncouth as she was and proceeded to chew pieces of gum which she then removed from her mouth and stuck into the hair.

 

[Lori]

9 minutes ago, DaveLister said:

Lori, there's a video on twitter ( X ) of a girl doing exactly what you describe, flicking her hair over the back of the seat onto the tray table of the person behind. Unfortunately the person behind her was as uncouth as she was and proceeded to chew pieces of gum which she then removed from her mouth and stuck into the hair.

I think I've seen that one, amongst a few others.  As tempting as retaliation might be, I'm not willing to risk the fist in the face I might get these days - or worse. 

Yes, I think Business Class seats will avoid most of these 'people.'  On our last flight from the U.S.A. to Paris in January 2019 (just as the pandemic soup pot was beginning to boil), we flew first class.  I'd never flown a long haul flight in first class.  Lie down sleeper seats, exceptional service, outstanding food (can you imagine) and top notch wines.  Worth every penny.  And, the cabin was quiet the entire journey.

 

[menthe]

Oh Lori, I am horrified and traumatised by what you have said.

The couple changing their babiy's nappy would definitely have been the last straw for me.

 

[Lori]

I know Menthe.  What can you do?  You are a captive on a contraption in the air.  It does do a number on any idea that your fellow man might have any redeemable qualities.

Far too many of today's humans have no regard for anyone other than themselves.  Sad state of affairs.

 

[Lori]

I had such bad luck on flights that whenever I arrived to my destination, my family and friends would always ask - so what disastrous thing happened on this flight.  It was a rare, rare moment when I had no reply.

And I did leave off the flight from Germany to the USA where, upon arriving, winds decided to play havoc and we had an incredible touch and go (back up) attempt at landing.  Many screams were heard.  The poor German gal sitting next to me grabbed the barf bag and well,  .. used it..  I make a point of eating little if anything on flights.  She had enjoyed everything served to her.

[menthe]

Lori, I am definitely never flying again.  You'd have to put me under a general anaesthetic and leave me in the hold.  I'd MUCH rather be amongst the suitcases.

[Lori]

I know, I have always said that type of thing.  Yet, I have family members who have never encountered my bad luck.