So much for living more simply...

Yesterday on the shortest day of the year my Mother and Brother arrived. I went to the hairdressers and learnt more than I ever wanted to know know about how things are "at home in the Elysée palace with Nicholas Sarkozy". I don't find reading Paris Match very edifying, but some of my colleagues in the French Reformed Church are so convinced that it helps them to keep a finger on the pulse of what people are thinking that they buy it every week. Ah well.
Today we have shopped at the Ferney Christmas market and the supermarket. And our guests have helped us tidy up, throwing out a large number of empty wine boxes after a sortie into our garage to find some kitchen furniture. The neighbours were impressed at the provenance and quantity of the cardboard filling up the recycling bay. A visit to the tip will have to preceed the arrival of Stephen's family tomorrow.
In the meantime unlike Tony Blair I won't be converting to Catholicism before Christmas. It gives religious news watchers something to ponder on. I shall meditate on how this year once more I have not been living much of that simpler lifestyle, there's a call to conversion.