Mad Darby Diaries

 Just as you think it is safe to travel, a new covid scare is inflicted on us.  Nations rush to  close borders and tighten mask wearing rules before the scientists have had a chance to look at the data and follow the facts.  It apparently spreads easier and quicker than its predecessors but we don't know if it is anymore lethal or if it is resistant to the vaccine.  I just want to go to the UK to spend Christmas with my family, without having to spend time in quarantine. I played tennis this morning, doubles.  The first set I played with Therese and we lost, the second with Danielle and we lost, the third set with Yvette and we lost.  That tells me something. The sewage problem is fixed so it is safe to exit my apartment again.  It only took 4 weeks and when it was repaired we, the apartment owners, found the company and agreed a price.  Why are we paying a management company?  I agree with Franck, one of the owners, when he raised his f...

 As the sewage piles up around the apartment I think it is appropriate that we highlight World Toilet Day, which took place yesterday.  I have lived in countries where sewage systems were non-existent and where toilets were a luxury, even outside but I didn't really expect to endure the same in the middle of Saumur.  However, after 4 weeks, tomorrow will see workmen arrive to deal with the problem.  Please don't let there be a strike.  When they have fixed the broken  pipe we have to work out what we do with all that sewage just laying around.  I don't normally wish for torrential rain, or any rain at all, but please can it pour down on Friday?   The mairie phoned yesterday to say that they had spoken to the Prefecture who had given them a telephone number that I can ring to get an appointment to change the address on my identity card.  It is the same number I have been dialling for weeks and which is always busy. I read that Boris Johns...

 As usual I am fighting fires on all fronts.  Sewage,  bureaucracy, not to mention sorting out my son's problems  in the UK.  French regulations state that I have to change my address on the Identity  Card within 3 months of moving.  Pushing a truck uphill would be easier.  I have tried websites, prefectures, messages to the government, but all attempts have failed.  On Saturday I went to the Mairie in Saumur and explained the problem.  The woman asked, 'Are you French?'  'No,' I replied 'but it is a French Identity Card.'  She shooed me away, saying if I wasn't French then she  couldn't help.  Three times I tried and three times she shooed.  I stood my ground.  I noticed that the old lady next to me was signing in with the date 24 June 2024.  Finally the receptionist relented and said she would go  and get someone's advice.  While she was gone I tried to help the old lady change the date but ...

 The climate emergency is here but rather than countries recognising that we only have one planet, which they are destroying, they put making money and retaining power, both at home and abroad, before a common goal of saving the world.  Do they think that when they have annihilated life as we know it on earth that they can just move to mars?  The young have every right to be angry.  The decisions concerning their future are being made by mostly oldish men wallowing in the depths of corruption. As you drive around France you see men in high visibility jackets ranged around fields and wielding guns.  They put out signs everywhere saying beware of the hunt, take care - hunting in progress.  No, we shouldn't be taking care, you are the ones with the guns and so  far this year a man has been killed in his own garden, another driving along in his car, a grandfather has killed his grandson and a grandson has shot his grandfather,  as well as numerous oth...

 While the sewage continues to run through the courtyard in front of my apartment I am sending daily, polite but firm, emails to the company who is supposed to manage the buildings.  It has got so bad that I can no longer leave my apartment by my front door and today is a public holiday so the situation just grinds on.  Yesterday the owners of 4 of the apartments held a meeting in the courtyard until the smell and the cold drove us into my kitchen.  One owner, Franck, said the company is so bad that we should just get rid of them and run the buildings ourselves.  Fighting talk.  My neighbours nodded in agreement, clearly not understanding the consequences of such an action, but Franck was determined.  Raising his arm in the air he declared, 'c'est la guerre!', 'this is war!'  Gosh, my own yellow vest in our courtyard.  They took a vote.  I said it was worth exploring but the immediate problem was getting the managers to take action on th...

 I opened a new packet of tin foil and I was having trouble tearing off a sheet.  Finally I reached for the scissors and cut it before examining the packet carefully.  There was no serrated edge. A pipe has broken in the communal courtyard and unfortunately it is the sewage pipe.   I rang the managing agents and said it was a health hazard, apart from a big hole that has appeared in the middle of the parking area.  She said that as the estimate for the repair is nearly a 1000€ a decision whether to repair it or not would have to wait until the owners' annual general meeting in December when they would  all have to agree to do  the work.  I pointed out that there was raw sewage running past the bottom of the steps,  which I must go up in order to get into the apartment but she would not be swayed.  I spoke to the other apartment owners.  One is depressed and just burst out crying, the young couple above me didn't really care but...

 It has been busy this week because my son and 6 year old grandson came to stay.  They were only here for five days so we reluctantly spent Tuesday morning waiting for a package to arrive as apparently it needed a signature.  The post lady arrived first about 11am but she said she didn't carry packages because she was on a bike.  Half an hour later another lady arrived and asked my neighbour where Madame lived.  He showed her my door but she didn't knock, simply put a card in the post box stating that I wasn't there and to collect it from the post office.  'Did you get your package?' my neighbour asked cheerfully.  'No,' I replied. On Wednesday we trooped off to the post office.  The woman took my card and went in search of my package.  Five minutes later she said she couldn't find it.   'Come back tomorrow after 2pm.'   So Thursday we all went back, in the pouring rain this time, but once again they couldn't find it....