Thanks

I know the (non obligatory) theme for this month's NaBloPoMo is "Thanks", but I really don't have much to give thanks about today.

It wasn't exactly a bad day, I mean nothing really bad happened, but oh, I'll still be pretty glad when it's over.

I'm still only half way through making my 50 truffles. The recipe says "quick and easy". Well, it is reasonably easy, I suppose (though finding suitably-sized-and-heatproof recipients for the bain marie took a certain amount of inventiveness), but it certainly wasn't (hasn't been) quick...

I still have a shitload of crap to do, and realised last night that my passport - my only legally accepted identification - will no longer be valid as of Christmas Eve. And, according to the website of the British Embassy in Paris, new passports take "4 to 6 weeks" to be issued. Fuck only knows what I'm supposed to do for identification purposes during that time... Plus, I'll have to get my photo taken and I HATE that - I always look older and uglier than even I could imagine. *sigh*

D has been in some kind of snit all day, mainly with me, and I don't know why, so that's put ME in a snit, too.

The girls have been kind of difficult today, too. Everything takes so long to do, requires so much shouting (on my part) and sulking (on theirs), it's totally exhausting. 25 minutes just to get their teeth brushed tonight!

I'm exhausted by my crap lifestyle (in bed at 4 yet again last night, still addicted to eating mindless crap all the time) but feel totally powerless to change. Too weak, too undisciplined, too much of a failure.

And I got my first Christmas card today - which made me realise I still haven't sent any. Gah!

But there is one thing I can most definitely give thanks for: the happy conclusion (at least for the baby and his parents) of this heartaching tale from Orthez (in south west France). I'm sorry, but the article's in French. Basically, yesterday afternoon, while his mother was having a shower, a 2-day-old newborn was snatched from the maternity hospital in Orthez. A "kidnap alert" was broadcast and made it possible to identify the woman who took him. The police found the baby, in good health and well cared for, and have returned him to his (obviously severely freaked out) parents. The woman has been taken in for questioning. A happy ending, then, for the baby. Thank God. There are too many horrible stories as it is.