Summer vacation - Sassis

Lucas with new friend Tigrou

Freshly picked cepes

LIDL

At least once a week, I shop at LIDL in Avenue Corps Franc Pommiès, Tarbes. LIDL is a German owned discount supermarket chain with 8000 stores worldwide. LIDL has many promotional priced items at different days of the week which is why I would go into the store often enough. I buy a lot of children's books, toys, art supplies, kitchen utensils and Asian groceries from LIDL. What I like about shopping at LIDL is that they bring in many imported food stuff from different countries - this week, they are featuring groceries from Greece; last week was Italian.

Yesterday I bought a pair of shoes that were on sale for Lucas for 7 euros. What a bargain :) However, the size was not right, and LIDL advertises that if the customer is not fully satisfied with any of its products, the customer can ask for an exchange or reimbursement. I had 7 days to make an exchange if the size was not right. I bought that pair of shoes in the morning and went back in the afternoon to get a bigger size that same afternoon. The cashier was obliging and gave me my exchange.

Unfortunately the shoes were again one size too small for Lucas so this morning I went to LIDL right after sending Lucas to creche. As the bigger sized shoe was out of stock the cashier was going to reimburse me. Imagine my surprise when she re-scanned that pair of shoes and gave me back 3 euros instead of 7 euros. I showed her the price I paid on the receipt. She called for the supervisor who turned out to be a real bitch.

The supervisor accused me of bringing back ANOTHER pair of shoes instead of the one on the receipt.

First of all, any fool would realize that for that extra 4 euros, no one would go through all that trouble. Secondly that pair of shoes are full leather and even a discount store like LIDL would not sell them for a mere 3 euros. Obvious to the cashier and I, there was a problem with the bar code. But this supervisor was so pig headed she refused to listen to my explanation and even shouted at me (in front of customers, no less) that she had "no time for this". She would not listen, so in my agitated state, I would have jumbled up my less than fluent french even more; yet I found that the cashier was nodding her head at me and seemed to get what I was trying to say. I even offered to bring the supervisor to take another pair of the same brand of shoes and scan it to check the pricing - she refused and walked off. The cashier had to call out to her and ask her what to do, she shouted at the poor cashier to "give her whatever she wants" and the cashier had to ask her how to reverse the sale and reimburse me the full sum. All the supervisor had to do was walk towards the cashier counter to key in a few numbers. Instead that bitch stood near the door to her office and talked down at the cashier, talking to her like she was a  5 year old. (what happens when you have already given 3 euros and now you need to give her 7? How much more do you need to pay her? What do you need to do now? You need to give her another 4 euros, correct? Do you know how to add that 4 euros? etc, etc)

After about 5 minutes of talking to the cashier (and she said she had no time...?) she asked the cashier again if she knew what to do, the cashier by now was bright red in the face and looking down at her shoes, shook her head and mumbled "non"; so that supervisor marched over to the cashier, typed in a code and voila! I got my 7 euros back.

I almost ran back to my car, feeling humiliated and inept and really, really upset with that supervisor. Whatever happened to customer service, LIDL? How on earth can this person be hired to be a supervisor? 

I do not think that my french was so bad - if she had taken the time to LISTEN she would have realized what I was trying to explain and could have easily verified my story by scanning another pair of shoes. Instead, because my french was not super fluent, she accused me of trying to pawn off another pair of shoes costing 3 euros with a 7 euro receipt. She said that the receipt is for a different pair of shoes. As a supervisor I am surprised she doesn't even know what she has on the shelves. I am appalled at being shouted at, dismissed with a wave of her hand and accused of trying to scam 4 measly euros.

No wonder this LIDL never has enough cashiers - who would want to work for someone like that? She doesn't hesitate to humiliate her staff nor the customers of the store.

I told Fred what happened when I came back. He is going to bring me back to that store and lodge an official complaint.

For those of you reading this blog and shopping in LIDL, a word of caution - if you are going to do an exchange, make sure you get the item RE-SCANNED and retain your receipt. I hope what happened to me will not happen to another but as long as that woman is working in that branch I will not be shopping there anymore.

Lucas at 33 months

Lucas had a sudden growth spurt recently. He is now taller and looks lankier than before; lost a bit of weight while he grew vertically.

At 33 months, Lucas is growing more independant in the home while he clings to me when I drop him off at the garderie. Lucas now helps himself to the fridge - yes, he now knows how to open the fridge and I've had to move all the breakables up to the top shelves.

His favourite phrase in the morning is "mama, milk! I'm hungry" while rubbing his tummy. He also says "I wanna watch Mickey" and "put it back" and knows how to switch between french and english depending on who he is speaking to.

Lucas can now cycle on his tricycle (he also says "tricycle") and will insist on bringing the tricycle with us everytime we go out the door. He also switches the TV off when we are about to go out and tries to shut the windows. Lucas can now insert the correct key into the keyhole for both the main door and the main entrance.

Last week Lucas was downstairs playing on his tricycle when a neighbour's kid came out to play on his battery automated tricycle. Lucas watched the boy press on the pedal of the tricycle to move it and then when the boy climbed off, Lucas promptly climbed onto that tricycle and pressed on the pedal and off he went, with the other boy screaming murder!

At 33 months Lucas is still resistant to the potty. In fact now, he refuses to put on his pull ups. He wants his good old diaper. Even though he is going without the diaper at home, I notice he tries to keep it in til he gets the diaper OR he will tell me he wants to ka-ka and pass me the diaper.

Since the weather has been scorching lately Lucas' favourite snack is the ice cream cone. He doesn't ask for chocolate anymore - in fact he sometimes imitates me and says "no, no, no. no more choco" waving his finger. He knows well enough to ask for ice cream when he finishes his meals.

One significant difference lately is that Lucas refuses to nap - its hard getting him to take a nap even though he is tired as when he eventually sleeps after screaming and crying, he will sleep for 2-3 hours. At night however, when he goes to bed, he doesn't make a fuss. We can hear him talking to himself in bed until he nods off.

Lucas at Gepetto

Night market in Tarbes

Bubbly time at Gepetto

McDonald's drive-thru

Today I decided that I would use the McDonald's drive-thru. You'd be surprised how daunting this is for me because that voice coming out from that box is not normally very clear and the person behind it speaks really fast. I have tried to avoid using the drive thru because I have not had the confidence to do so, until today.
I know, I can almost hear some of you going "what???!!!" but unless you have been living in a non english speaking country where you are at a disadvantage because you do not speak that country's language fluently, you cannot possibly understand why a McDonald's drive-thru is considered a milestone for me.

Roger and his daughter

The past couple of weeks we have been busy, going to Val D'Azun on the weekends again and trying to see Roger in the weekdays. However, after last week's visit, Roger has yet again been admitted back into the hospital and this time the doctor says that Roger won't be able to go back home. His state of mind has deteriorated very quickly, he is more than forgetful; though he still recognises us. But it is no longer safe for Roger to live at home on his own with the aide coming to cook and clean for him twice a day.

Everything is happening so fast. Just 10 days ago, he was still able to walk down his street. When we saw him last week, he was feeling very down as the medicine was giving him the shakes; so feeding himself was annoying him as his hand would shake so badly. He refused to eat very much because of that.

Roger has been divorced for over 20 years. He has a daughter Delphine and his ex wife has since remarried with her own family. What has been irking me is this - Delphine had to be TOLD to come to Tarbes to visit her dad. She works and lives in Toulouse and says the commute is too far (1.5 hours away) to come to Tarbes every weekend. Her aunt had to put her foot down and tell Delphine to grow up and that her dad is very very ill and wants to see her. In the past 6 months, when time is running out so fast, she has been to visit 3- 4 times. Even then she would arrive at Roger's and then leave for a walk in town without her cell phone for the whole day, coming back only in time for dinner. She expected dinner to be ready when she came back. When anyone would try to advise her that she should visit more, she comes up with excuses like she has a soccer game or was too tired or she wanted to sleep in the weekend. The worst thing she said to her aunt, the neighbours and anyone else who would listen was that Roger is her ADOPTIVE dad, not her real dad; so she does not need to be here with him. Roger and his wife adopted Delphine yes, but they adopted her when she was 4 months old! It is so sad that she would abandon her dad when he needs her the most. Roger makes excuses for her, saying that she doesn't understand that he is very ill and he still speaks to her like she is his little girl, not the 35 year old woman she is.

Well, if she doesn't understand that Roger is ill and doesn't have much time, why then did she try to take Roger's car last weekend when she knew Roger was not home and was in the hospital? She didn't even visit Roger. She just called the neigbours to open the gate to Roger's house so that she could take the car. The neighbour refused to do so. Then she called my mother in law to open the gate for her. She told my MIL that Roger no longer has the need for the car so she wants to take it. My MIL refused to open the gate and told her to call her aunt who also refused. This went on all weekend, as she was in Tarbes trying to get into Roger's house to get her hands on Roger's car. She went around to my MIL's house. She waited outside Roger's house, hoping someone with a key would happen to "pop by". The neighbours were on the phone with her aunt and my MIL regarding her antics.

Last night my MIL came over for dinner and told us Delphine wants access into her father's bank accounts...! The gall of this girl. I am speechless.

In France parents cannot disinherit their children. It is against the law. As Delphine is the only child of Roger I suppose she would inherit everything from Roger. But Roger is still here with us. And she is acting like he is gone and she has every right to barge in and take his possessions. Its sad for Roger that he is going to leave knowing the child that he has brought up with love has turned into such a monster. He may be forgetful but he knows what is going on - his sister has told him. He should be able to live out his days in peace instead of constantly wondering why his own child would turn out this way.