Day 265 (Tuesday)

There were a few snowflakes this morning but they didn’t last long and by lunchtime, most of the clouds had dispersed but it was still very cold all day.

Good news – I had a letter from the bank saying that my bank card has finally arrived in the bank on the top road. Huw had his two weeks ago, even though we applied on the same day. I went up to the bank and it was ridiculously easy to collect the card, so why on earth had it taken almost two months to deliver it to the Villefranche branch? Ah well, at least I finally have it. I was very happy to see Chuchiface in the bar; we haven’t seen that much of him since the weather has cooled considerably.

I saw some daffodils in the flower shop so I bought myself some to celebrate finally having a bank account in France. As I was re-potting the daffodil bulbs I took a look at my triffid-like plant and they are flowering. They are rather lovely, if a little bit odd.

This afternoon the doorbell rang and when I answered it I found a very smiley woman at the door, who said, ‘ hello, great to catch you at home. Do you speak English?’ when I said yes she went on to say, ‘I saw your name on the door so I guessed you would.’ She was chatting and smiling away and for a moment I wondered if I’d met her before. It was at that moment that she revealed what she’s been hiding under her arm – the Watch Tower! She asked me if I’d seen it before to which I replied yes and no thank you. She said thank you as I closed the door in her face. If they have to preach do it on the street, don’t come to our homes, it’s a real intrusion of personal space.

This incident reminded me that I had a visit from Jehovahs when I lived here before. This was when I lived on the 6^th floor of a very old building in the old town. To get to the flat you had to walk up 74 very uneven steps. It was because of these steps that I gave up milk in tea and coffee. I ran out one morning and I was damned if I was going to walk down and back up just for some milk; I haven’t taken milk in hot drinks since. Anyway, nobody ever called unannounced because of this trek so I was very surprised when someone knocked on my door. I didn’t have a peephole in the door so before opening it I asked who was there. A male voice answered saying that he knew the man who lived in this flat before I did and wanted to ask me some questions. I knew the bloke who lived there before me so I opened the door. There were two young American men there and they didn’t even carry on with the pretence of knowing the previous tenant and went straight into their spiel about the Watch Tower! I was so horrified that they’d lied to gain access to my home that I made it very clear how I felt using some choice vocabulary before slamming the door in their faces. You have to admire their faith to be bothered to walk up all those stairs with a pretty good chance of having the door slammed in their faces.