Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Wishing all my US blogging friends a very Happy Thanksgiving Day! x

My dear MIL and her pension

Today was my dear mother-in-law's birthday.  She would have been 101 if she was still alive, but alas, I feel she died much too soon at 77 years, a huge loss to us all, she was a lovely woman.

The reason I'm remarking on it is that we have been doing some pension paperwork today, and apart from realising the date, I was reminded of her story of her querying why she hadn't received her pension paperwork before her 60th birthday, and being told she was not entitled to a pension until the 25th December.

Of course, she was most indignant and as she rightly said:

  '... my birthday is 25th November, it's always been 25th November: don't you think I'd remember if my birthday was Christmas Day?...'

She was summoned to the local social security office, and armed with a copy of her birth certificate, confirmed the correct birth date.

She did get her pension, but always loved telling the tale.

Happy Birthday Hilda. X

The Paris trip is cancelled

The lycée has cancelled my daughter's trip to Paris, and  (cowardly) I am relieved.  She isn't of course, but she has youth and innocence on her side.

Paris

My goodness, what can I say about the devastating news from Paris this weekend?

Sorrow, disgust, anxiety: I think everyone feels this way.

A week ago, my son was happily mooching about Paris, waiting six hours for his connecting bus to Limoges.  Next week, my daughter is representing her lycée in a large get-together of young people in - you've guessed it - Paris.

Now, what is a mother supposed to do?  Grab my kids, hug them to my body to protect them, stop them living their lives freely?  I want to do that of course, but when I discussed this with my daughter this morning, she was quite withering and said that life must go on and no way would she not go to Paris, other wise the terrorists would have won again.  She's right, but it doesn't stop me being extremely anxious.

I wrote the following on my Facebook page last night, having received ever-so-slightly sarcastic messages from a couple of people regarding the use of the French colours on my page:




  " The reason I've changed my photo to the French background is not to make any political statement, just to show my solidarity to the land I have chosen as my home. It doesn't make me feel any less towards any other country, nation, religion, just lets me think that I can show my fellow citizens of France that I feel for us all, the people of France, and my sorrow for the young people killed in Paris - it could have been one of my loved ones. I don't care what sort of passport was found with the dead terrorists, I don't care which boundaries any government decide to open or close. I cannot change or take sides in, if I'm honest, what fighting is happening where as it seems to me the human condition seems to need conflict and has been so for ever and will continue until the human race finally expires. God - which ever one you believe in - help us all. X  "