We are the magic

all the time and especially

at Christmas!

Remember that!

Doesn't matter about the gifting, just enjoy time with those you love.

It's right now, at this EXACT time of the year... the 'festive' period', when we become rather reflective and also, as the New Year approaches, with another year's end so darned near, we feel the passage of time more keenly. I do at least! Let's face it we only get so much time on this amazing planet, make it count!

Make it all count, but try not to be a shitty human in the process!

December in my mind, is the perfect reminder to enjoy those moments in life, that make us smile, dance, gift and sing.

Isn't it?

Don't Grinch it!

Also, don't be a door mat!

Personally, I'm feeling the winds of change for the better are on the way and the tide is finally turning after a very difficult year. This particular year has been more than challenging, after a year of almost the same but I got to live this year, I'm luckier than some.

2026, bring it on, I am so ready!

This year our Santa Claus is serving up a mountain of karma with an extra serving of 'you deserve this' to some I have had the misfortune to know!

Ding Dong merrily on high!

Also it's been a year since my own father and brother threw me under the bus, because somehow I don't need anything and they don't need me.

They are sooooo right! The capable daughter title claimed, F you!

No more, this is a new dawn, a new Donna!

Anyway, I digress......when we left France we thought we'd extracted ourselves from the nonsense? Not so, it actually followed us!

Lady! Please don't darken my door with your special brand of toxic bullshit ever again eh! You know who you are and what you've done! I am blonde but I'm not stupid!

No need to name names here! If the cap fits, wear it! She knows who she is.

It's very clear to me that it's now high time and a little late in proceedings, to ensure Philip and I are in charge of our own lives here and abroad. We are battening down the hatches, cutting off the fake apron strings, no longer being stage managed and the people that brought unnecessary chaos to our doorstep, can now jolly well fuck off and bye!

This December, I'm more than just a little relieved that this year is nearly done but also thankful to have lived it 'warts n all'! The fog has lifted and the road ahead is so very clear! The year of the snake is nearly over and with it? Well, no more confidence tricksters!

I will drink to that!

The drama as was, will make a great novel, I just know it but guy's I didn't need new material, I could have made it up all by myself! However, this crap is worth writing about isn't it? How folks target others for financial gain, when their victims chips are down! I suppose there's always a silver lining somewhere if you dig deep enough! I have a voice!

The boys are on their way back from France and I'm so happy the trip was uneventful but I'm still livid! There's a tornado of anger inside of me, it's been brewing a while now. How dare they hijack our lives like that!

It's ridiculous that we were stopped from picking up our worldly goods because of a lie. The lie that Philip would be 'arrested' for not filing some yearly tax docs confirming the continuing operation of the company, which the accountant should have advised us to do or done as part of the usual company accounting! Jesus!

I guess their motive was ringing as much out of us as possible first eh! Some of those that were purportedly 'helping us' were in fact taking the last of everything we had AND now and only now, the rumour mill tells me what I needed to know in advance! That there was more than one thief in our midst! One lady particularly preys on the vulnerable, it's sickening! I reckon she was shopping at our house when she needed a cash boost! Charming!

It's cost us a fortune all this nonsense and the stress? Bucket loads! It's super easy to feel one is loosing le plot when being manipulated isn't it! Seems everyone knew but us!

Like I always say, if chaos reigns in your life, figure out who's bringing it, why and then tell them to get their own f'ing life eh!

When the light bulb finally came on just a few months ago, boy oh boy! What the hell was I thinking?

Sometimes those that are helping are actually just helping themselves, right under your nose! We don't see it until it's too late! We had something they wanted whether that be cash, work or stuff! Then they backtrack and make you feel you are loosing your dam mind!

We've been 'done over' way too many times in that area of France and many folks have either sat by, watched (with glee) or joined in! One thing that didn't happen though, was a warning to stay clear of certain people. Cheers for that! Also, folks must be terribly, terribly bored around those parts, as all they ever seem to dine out on is made up gossip! It would have been really, really nice to have the facts upfront, in order to make real, informed decisions! Instead, we unwittingly let more monsters into our lives!

We feel like our lives in France were held hostage! First by shitty workmanship, then the local mafia, those same people with office to protect us and then by fake friends with agendas! Why? To steal the last coins from us I guess, who knows! It's hard to focus on the rare good workers like Steve, Vicky, Baz, Nige and a few others now but I must keep them in mind, bless them, they know who they are. In them we were always reminded how different the start could have been if we'd only managed to avoid the 'Fagan's' from the get go. Also an accountant that did his stuff properly would have been great! So called 'expert'......wow!

I've cried a lot, but I'm now laughing because in the end, people reveal themselves, they do don't they? They trip themselves up too many times and then the whole mess unravels! Time is the best revenge right? Eventually they go too far, then the universe cleans up and the trash takes itself out.

Just perfect.

Also, I do love the local rumour mill of 'they ran from the tax man' lol! No we didn't, Philip didn't have work in France! Once that happened nothing worked. Offers were there but not for France, so the writing, as they say was on the wall and we couldn't survive on fresh air! For the none believers, we are still very much in touch with ex French life and tax admin!

Facts really do matter!

What the hell ever happened to loyalty, honestly, respect and integrity? I feel super uneasy that we haven't received two lots of our mail promised to be sent to us! Our private information isn't where it should be, which is in our hands! I swear I may end up having to contact the authorities about this! Pop it back in our letter box please!

Then there was the lorry debacle. We were asked not to fight back, warned and threatened. Wow. There was also a 'not on my doorstep' mentality locally. Didn't bother you love or affect your business or life, so you didn't care eh! Bless!

The mafia closed in, because as expats we were surely fair game eh!

Utterly vile.

My husband and I were so ill because of all of the nonsense. Mark my words it hurt and we suffered, so well done eh! Also, it is a big problem when the person you think is a 'forever friend' turns out to be anything but! I'm renaming her 'Raffles'! Believe me, It was a very difficult decision to cut her off but I knew it couldn't go on. We only need people in our lives that are there because they want to be but honestly, adding to our lives and not for any other personal gain.

We really need to sort the wood from the chaff now! Chuck the bath water out and not the baby!

Our sanity is just about in tact but I'm so heartbroken and utterly disappointed!

Some so called 'friends' have 'form' apparently and are said to be on the run. I can't say for sure if thats true but putting 2 & 2 together is now making 7! I've always known bad people literally tell you what they have done or are doing but cloak it slightly. How did we not know?...Because of a web of 'lies' thats why! Must admit some people are super talented when it comes to lying, a missed opportunity or two for a job in the world of subversiveness!

I hear MI5 are recruiting!

For us it felt like a life heist but I think we will survive and thrive now it's all out in the open! I think we are luckier than some that have had their hands tied behind their back by her and her crew!

Listen, I know I sound bitter and twisted, I am but just momentarily don't worry! Giving this issue any more time would be foolish in the extreme but I felt I had to wait until we had retrieved our belongings. So I'm having my moment here and now, sure but after, I will let karma sort that one out and carry on regardless! I know you all had no idea!

There's few things I really loath in life but predatory thieves, people that don't pay tax but ask you to pay them tax free, those that lie like breathing and those that reinvent themselves on the ferry are some of them! They appear to forget what the truth is! Also she in particular was so obvious about her obsession with my husband, to the point it became very awkward. Sisters don't play that game!

I really, really wanted a decent long life friend, with a brilliant sense of humour so bad, I overlooked the obvious! Silly me. However, I kept her at arms length initially as my intuition told me not to go there. Others then convinced me she was a good un, not so!

Groomed!

Thankfully those that really helped are still around and we are blessed but the bad un's have to bugger off now! Really.... get gone before I go from nice to reporting you!

The delay to getting our stuff back has also cost us financially, as we had to set up here with very little!

Can you believe it? A French man pretending to be a legal advocate for monetary gain? I mean! All of these rotten people brought into our midst by her! He didn't file the docs, he just took the cash and ghosted us! He made us do a statement of events for him! Makes me want to vomit frankly! So very played!

It seems that in the end, it was me! I had the audacity to have an online presence, which attracted these loony folk, sitting duck and all that!

Then we had the cheek to try and renovate a mouldy, damp old set of French bricks and mortar! How very dare we? Then when we were at the end of our tether she sweeps in and clears the deck, completely undoing the good she did. This adventure never really felt special, certainly it was no great French escape, quite the opposite.

Oh yes, of course and then we innocently got the in the way of a small town French green grocer that wanted our garage access and she couldn't take no for an answer! Bless! I guess we must have deserved it all eh?

No I don't think so! I'm very clear we didn't deserve any of it!

Our garage access was protected for us under federal law, we didn't have to negotiate what we already owned!

The entitlement and sheer corruption! Good luck with that M. Macron!

The damage is done, sure, over and done and the only way is up from here but we are forever changed.

What we must do now is properly clear the decks and start afresh. They probably all sleep like babies eh! Time we did too.

I can't wait to unload the lorry, truly, it's been a while since I saw my precious stuff!

Stuff that means something/everything to me but only me, oh and some naughty squirrels!

Busy weekend ahead me thinks!

Still, what happened to us makes no sense and it started with a bad accountant who still is our accountant, yawn, and because the French tax system hasn't completed the whole 'why no tax returns for 4 years thing' investigation, even though we were filing through the accountant or so he says we were! We were paying company taxes on account! None of it makes sense yet. They are also dragging the ZRR decision out, so we wait.

The wheels of fortune and fate turn super slowly in France! We just have to get on with our lives! We will be fine because the house is a company asset with no mortage or loans attached to it. It's not gonna break us but we may need a lawyer to help get the tax office to admit fault. I'm not sure it's worth it? We will get tied up in legal matters married to huge bills for years! Everytime we ask the tax office something, it takes then 3 months for them to answer and so it goes on!

If we were French there's no doubt in my mind this wouldn't be an issue!

Folks, imagine going without tax returns and being unable to function financially, or normally and having to wing it, with the accountant insisting its all okay? We thought it was a post covid glitch and then possibly a rogue accountant? We are still not 100% clear on the why? So we kept on rolling with the punches but somewhere someone didn't do their job, that much is clear! Also imagine dealing with Madame France (tax) who doesn't answer the 'why' because she doesn't feel she has to?

Lets just gloss over it shall we!

Er no!

I've never felt this at odds with a country like I do France.

I've also been brutally honest on here always, in an endeavour to stop the expat rumour mill, it didn't work, because all too often folks like to 'pad it out a bit' with a soupçon of ugly fabrication! Why tell the truth, when a lie sounds WAY better with wine and cheese? The vultures dine out on misfortune eh!

Humans can be so shitty petal, be careful out there!

Anyway, I finally feel that we are bringing this car crash in France to an end in many ways, best we can. Once the house is sold we can really move on with our lives. Yes, it's a shame, but I can't see how it could ever have worked because of the tax issue, not of our making! We started out with a problem which just grew and grew, then was added to by fuckwits and idiots.

Meanwhile, I must not loose my ability to trust and love eh!

For now, we remain tied to our neighbour, Madam France and will make the very best of it without constant interference!

Also sweethearts, do please remind yourself every SINGLE day, that you are the queen and leading lady (other sexes are available) of your own life, don't let the rot in! Don't let other folks steer the mothership (or spaceship) and be very careful who you let into your inner sanctum, not all wolves are recognisable at first, some come in sheeps clothing.

I so hope I am wrong about my ex friend, be glad to be wrong but I won't hold my breath! I forgive her but I won't ever forget the betrayal.

Gypsies, tramps and thieves.....!

Love and gumption

D x