Ozzy Cat Rules!

Blessed with ignorance, our rather large cat, an Australian short-hair-Maine Coone cross (so she tells us!), has cruised her way through the global pandemic blissfully unaware of the chaos around her, spending time exploring, protecting and defending her new territory. She has made herself very unpopular with all the other local cats. She hates them and they hate her! There is a distinct lack of entente cordiale in these French-Australian relationships! Whenever another cat strays onto her kitchen windowsill she emits a low rumbling growl and flings herself at it with wild abandon - safely protected by the window in between of course! 

She is about twice the size of the petite and delicate local cats, but she is outnumbered by them by about 12 to one! These odds make her reluctant to go outside when they are on the prowl but happily she has a number of comfy and not so comfy indoor resting places - she's recently taken over a wooden chopping board, using it to sharpen her claws but also to sleep on! No point spending lots of money on accessories for this kitty - her favourite toys are straws, and she completely ignores the scratching post and rechargeable flapping fish we bought her for Xmas! Aaahh, but she's worth it! 

Stand off! She looks like a giant!

Waiting for dinner!

What a beauty! Who could resist?!

A Year of Lockdowns and Curfews

First post in over a year! What does that say?! As for many people around the world, 2020 didn't really go according to plan, and here we are in March 2021 still a long way from "normality". It's nearly a year since France went into its first, very strict two-month lockdown, followed by a period during which public places - cafés, bars, restaurants but also including beaches and lakesides - were still off limits unless you kept moving. Things opened up again in summer but there were none of the usual fêtes and festivals, and mask-wearing and social distancing remained in place (as they still do today). 

Another strict one-month lockdown followed in November, and since then, all the places that we go to gather socially and amuse ourselves - the bars, cafés, restaurants, cinemas, cultural and tourist venues all remain closed, so there's basically nowhere to go except for shops. Just as well we like walking! We are lucky not to have caught covid, that's for sure, and we are lucky to be living in a relatively sparsely populated place at this time. But it has been an isolating time, and it has taken a toll. 

During our strict lockdowns, we were only allowed to go out once a day for exercise, for up to an hour and within 1km of home. An upside of this is that we have discovered two or three local "lockdown loops" that we probably wouldn't have otherwise found. 

My definitive "lockdown loop" photo from first lockdown

We also had to take an 'attestation', a sort of "exit permit" justifying why we were out and about, even if it was just to the local shop to buy a baguette! There was suddenly a lot to remember whenever you went out: on top of the usual wallet, keys, shopping bag etc, there was now also a need for a mask, hand sanitizer, an attestation, ID, and a proof of address. Phew!

Another lockdown loop with "attestation" in hand

Despite all these constraints, life goes on, and we were still able to accomplish things. Richard completed a two month full-time french course, albeit mostly by Zoom so not the greatest when you imagine a bunch of pseudo-French speakers all speaking at the same time with their microphones left on! We also both trained as Property Sales Agents for an Anglo-French web-based estate agency. A highly stressful steep learning curve but it was probably going alright in the circumstances until Xmas when the UK went into a strict lockdown, variants emerged and the French-UK border closed until at least mid-May, effectively cutting off most of our potential clients at source. Throw in Brexit, and the closure of the local airports from October until at least May, and it has become trickier than anticipated. I have now also started an online course to teach English as a foreign language to diversify our income-earning options in these uncertain times.

On the plus side, we are still alive, and we still have our health as do friends and our immediate family.  Thanks to the lockdowns, we have now had plenty of time to sit around and appreciate the wood-burner much talked about in earlier posts - it has done a fine job of keeping us warm and cosy! The Ariège government has been busily installing fibre-optic internet throughout the area so our house will soon have a mega-fast internet connection - a far cry from our early days when we used to have to leave the village to get an internet connection! 

Much to Richard's delight, we now also have a large, flat-screen TV (became a must before the second lockdown!), and we also have our Bose Soundtouch for music and radio. This was one of the sorely missed items in the ill-fated parcel that Chronopost kept sending back to Australia (see earlier post) . We had to reroute the parcel from Australia to family in the UK as Chronopost were determined not to let us have it, but because of covid, we have been unable to travel to the UK to collect it. With Brexit and border chaos looming, we eventually arranged for the Soundtouch to be delivered by courier, hoping to avoid the disastrous Chronopost service again. Thankfully it arrived safely and works perfectly, unscathed from traveling around the world at least twice! What a joyous moment that was! 

Admittedly though, when the going gets tough, there are times when we have looked across to the other side of the world, to our old home in Perth where they are virtually covid-free and living near normal lives (apart from not being allowed to travel overseas) and thought that maybe we would have been better off staying put a little longer. I guess the grass always looks greener ...