Week 2

My second week in Paris went off without any further disaster. Alright! Score one for Team Oz. We even made it out of the city and into some beautiful (if brief) sunshine in Normandy to visit B's mum's new place in Houlgate (pronounced 'oolgaht'). Unfortunately, I completely missed out on any ANZAC services. But I made a giant ANZAC Biscuit yesterday to make up for it. Here's a pic:

Which reminds me to write that I've updated Flickr with some pics of Normandy, the planting we (and by 'we' I mean the resident green-thumb, B) did on our return, and of my second week in Paris in general.

Anyway, sorry it's been so long since my last entry. It's been more than a week and that's not how I wanted this blog to be. So, after discussion with my better half regarding my addiction to being online, I've decided to write smaller posts more often. Hopefully that'll result in more interesting stories at more regular intervals. Hopefully!
And while I'm aware of the irony of this post dragging on a bit I did want to say that life in Paris is working out really well. In fact, the only negative thing to report was that I had my first bout of homesickness last Friday. I felt low and emotional thinking about being away from family & friends and missing outrigging on Sydney Harbour with KT...but I had a few hours to myself in the afternoon and went for a walk along a Normandy beach and up onto the headland. Being outdoors in the sunshine and wind did the trick and the rest of the weekend was lovely.
I'm still jobless (although might have lined up some short-term casual work for an ex-boss in Sydney) but am not so fazed by it anymore. I'll find work soon enough and in the meantime will try to enjoy my oodles of free time to explore and discover.

And finally (I promise), I've been to a nice restaurant and cafe in the last 24 hours. The cafe was 'Le Select' (coffee, with Eric, yesterday. One of the few places that are as they were in the 1920s), and a great-because-it's-so-average Italian restaurant (dinner, with B, last night) called...um...oh bugger. I've forgotten the name. I'll get back to you. It's on rue Guénégaud if you're in town and desperate for cheap but tasty Italian food. [Editor: It's called La Main a la Pate]

Gotta go - the sun is out again!

Dear France...

Dear France,
I recently received a complaint regarding the alarming amount of your 'ipp-opp' flooding online music channels (specifically, radioblog). If you would be so kind, please stop this nonsense altogether.
Gratefully,
The online music public.

Dear France,
What's the deal with your 'service' industry? I understand this particular part of business nomenclature is foreign to you - 'entreprise du secteur tertiaire' translates to 'company of the tertiary sector' - but does having a name not directly linked to service give you an excuse for not actually providing adequate levels of said concept to your clients? I think not. I point, in an admittedly-general way, to your Parisian supermarkets. Look, we've all had a hard day, right? I don't want to be waiting in queues any more than you want me to hand you a €20 note with no change (quel horreur!) but is chatting to your friend in the queue next door while we wait patiently (if while secretly planning to stab you with a baguette) really the level of service you'd like to become known for? I hope not.
Plottingly yours,
Parisian shoppers

Dear France,
Re the frustratingly brief sunshine your sky flashed us with last weekend: Apart from unexpected sunburn, the premature exposure left a strong sense of unfulfilment. What's that? Oh yes, I'm sure it happens to most countries. There are probably all kinds of support now for nations with your...issue...
Look, it's not really a big deal. Truly.
Hmmm? No - this doesn't make me love you any less.

Okay, enough of the silliness. :o)

Wombat

Meet Wombat. He'll be travelling with us for a while. He came with us to Fiji but since then has spent the time on a shelf in B's living room so it's time he made an appearance and was introduced to the world...again.

Sadly, Wombat replaces Frog. To be honest, I don't know where Frog is. At one point he left me during a trip and never returned. If anyone has any clues as to his whereabouts please come forward. There's a reward - my undying gratitude (and, really, what's more valuable than that?)

Oh, and I had a good day today. A sleep-in, some email catch-up, French class, gym, and now B's cooking quiche. Niiiiice.

JW = WMD

Yep, that´s me - a veritable cataclysm that, apparently, was just waiting to happen. Things are fine now (as the smile on the Pont Neuf indicates, thank goodness) but in the last week I´ve:

• Destroyed the wok B bought us before my arrival, without even having cooked with it. Apparently, the highest setting on the stove is actually higher than any normal substance can withstand. Who knew? Note to self: Don´t leave things unattended.

• Unintentionally dismantled (read: caused to come crashing down) the new shelves B bought to accommodate my stuff in the bedroom. They´re back up after some serious DIY but not without me wondering what was next.

• Caused B's laptop to malfunction in a seriously-not-good way (so THAT'S what was next!) So bad, in fact, it couldn't get to the log-on screen and instead stuck itself in a restarting loop. Ay. 3 days of missed work for her, 6 trips to Belleville and €80 for me later we finally have the laptop back. The worst thing was the missed working time for B. She´s trying so hard to get a landscaping career going and finally landed a gig designing a garden for a friend of a friend. Unfortunately, the time the computer was being repaired was the time she had put aside to do the Autocad and Photoshop work required for the job, which meant a lot of unnecessary stress and much hand-drawing of plans for her. Needless to say, I haven't felt like a particularly useful member of the global community lately and it's only in the last 24 hours or so that I've felt like I've made amends.

Anyway, this makes it sound like my time in Paris has been doom and gloom when it's actually been (barring the instances above) wonderful! I've had several "Ah!" moments:

• Watching pigeons (the really nice, big ones they have in Paris, not the dirty ones in Sydney) glide slowly on the morning breeze between the narrow rows of trees in the Jardin du Tuileries (while B was locating bins...a story for another time)

• Sitting across from a beautiful African woman and her daughter of about 5 on the metro. She had her chin resting on the head of the little girl, both had their eyes closed, and the mother had the most serene look on her face. When she opened her eyes I wonder if she was surprised to see most of the carriage looking at her with silent sighs?

• Finding a great Sth Vietnamese restaurant in the 13th today. I hadn't had Asian food in over 2 weeks so I just about stuck my head completely into the pho when it arrived. It's called 'Indochine' if anyone's in town and wants a great feed. We're definitely going back, hopefully with Axa and Jes, B's sister and brother-in-law.

So at the end of my first week in Paris I can honestly say I'm having a fantastic time. I don't feel at home in the city yet but I do feel comfortable and not like I'm a short-stay tourist. The people in Paris have been friendly and welcoming, proving to be the exceptions that change the rule; my pathetic attempts at French conversation haven't been met with scorn; and living with B has been a truly wonderful experience. I do miss friends and family and think of them every day, often several times, but I'm in love in a city designed for lovers and when I'm not burning down the kitchen it's a sublime existence.

I end this with an offering of Berocca to any Tsunami's feeling the effects of a big night out at the End of Season Party. I'm sorry I missed it and am dying to know who won what!

When good cheese goes bad

No kidding - these are the same cheese at different stages of development. Both delicious though!
Paris is wonderful - sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy but always beautiful. It's cold but in a crisp, refreshing way, especially when the sun comes out.
I've started French classes at Alliance Francaise on Boulevard Raspail. The classes are nothing like what I'm used to - in Sydney they were 98% grammar and 2% conversation; Here it's the other way around. Everyone in the class speaks French reasonably (if not completely) fluently and seems to be taking the classes to get a more sophisticated understanding of the language and culture, whereas I'm still trying to figure out how to identify the COD and COI when used in a sentence together. I have a 2-week intro to the course and will make a decision on whether to stick with it or not after that. I'd probably benefit from doing heaps of homework out of class so I'll hit it hard for the next fortnight and see how it goes.
I've also started going to a gym, which B very kindly bought me membership for. It's just about the best gift I could've hoped for as, after an absence of a week or so from daily exercise, I was starting to get a little antsy. It's a Fitness First gym and - no, wait! It's not so bad!! It opened this week so it has that new-gym smell and not many people to hog the equipment, plus I'm seen as something of a novelty being one of a handful of non-French speaking clients at the moment. Watching someone giggle while trying their broken English on me is nice in an odd sort of way - it reminds me Parisians aren't as perfect as their attitude can sometimes suggest.
So the only thing remaining is to find some work! I'm not in any hurry, at least for a couple of weeks, and B has been very understanding and patient about that, but I still want to find something reasonably soon. Ideally it'll be something I can do from home (editing, proof-reading, etc) and which I can do alongside some fitness training. Having language class in the middle of the day puts a barrier on having a regular 9-5 office job, which, I must say, is a great feeling. So if anyone has any contacts in Sydney, Paris or elsewhere who need things worked on let me know. I'm available right now!
It's now 10am so I suppose I should amble off to the gym or the market to find some food for tonight's dinner. Sigh...life is tough...

Paris

Touchdown!
What a great day - Paris is beautiful, even when raining; I had croissants for breakfast; and I'm with the Frenchy!
One downside - the French keyboard. As an example of the devolution being forced upon me as I watch every tap my fingers make, here's the first sentence as if I was writing in qwerty:
"Ahqt q greqt dqy ) Pqris is bequtiful, even zhen rqining; I hqd croissqnts for breqkfqst; qnd Iù, zith the Frenchy1:"
So, um, sorry but no - I'll do the flight update tomorrow when I have the requisite number of functioning brain cells to figure out how to change the keyboard layout...
Ps: But I'm still in Paris so it's all good ;o)

Biscuits

I'm scoffing the Chicken's famous white chocolate and berry biccies - YUM - while sitting in Hong Kong airport (the Plaza Premium Lounge, no less) after a 9hr flight from Sydney. There's still another 13 1/2 hr flight to Paris remaining but I have 4 hours to enjoy a hot shower, have a meal, relax and update the blog on the journey.
It's been about a week since I last wrote and so much has happened I might be forced into bullet points...but I'll try to give the detail where important. You'd better make a cup of tea just in case. Here we go.

• Saturday April 5: Trained in the morning - the last time before leaving. Wendy made much of the fact - embarrassment ensued. Spent the rest of the day packing and procrastinating about cleaning. Went to Simon's house-warming in the evening (nice place, Sime!), walked home (stopping for bags of lollies for the Mixed crew) and got back into more packing.

• Sunday April 6: Got up at 5am for a 5.45am pick-up by Chris to drive to the State Champs. Have been getting up at 5am feeling anxious for a few days...only natural, I guess. The day was AWESOME though. The best racing I've seen and been of a part of with Tsunami ever, including that win over Snatch all those years back. The Mixed crew came 5th in the State (must've been the lollies) and the Open team came 7th. The team presented me with life membership to Tsunami after the racing and for once I was speechless (not to mention quite teary with some of my closer friends in the crew). It's a huge honour and one I'm not sure I deserve, but I've packed the picture frame to remind me what I have to return to.
  After all that we went to the Aussie Yoof for dinner and drinks. I crashed big time that night.

• Monday April 7: Got up at 5am to finalise packing (does it seem like I've been doing this far longer than I should?). Dad drove from Bundanoon (the Southern Highlands) with a large trailer to take me and my mountains of gear back to their place. We managed to avoid most of the rain on the drive back and made it in time for some unpacking before an (as usual) amazing dinner cooked by mum. We had a bottle of white from Vouvrais B and I bought ages ago which wasn't bad at all. Surprisingly good, in fact, considering how unsure we were at the time of buying.

• Tuesday April 8: Left Bundanoon at 6am to drive back to Sydney for a final cleaning of the Glebe home. It took me 3 hours (the drive), including lengthy periods at 20km/h. Yawn. But after 4 hours of cleaning, my landlords signed the bond and I was free. I dropped by Ro's place in Queen's Park to hand over some stuff she gave me many years back but no-one was home so I left a note. After that I swung by work to finish some things off and have lunch with John. I've made a friend in that guy, really quickly, and I'm going to miss the laughter a lot. At least I won't have to hear anymore his pathetic sob stories about not getting any because of his new diet. I mean, really.
  That night Aunty K and Ann came over for Ann's birthday dinner. Another amazing meal (thanks mum) with an equally amazing bottle of wine to match (thanks Steve)

• Wednesday April 9: Spent the morning faffing around home before lunch with Tom and Katie (looking forward to seeing them in the UK for lunch one day soon - they're starting a journey of their own) and yet ANOTHER brilliant dinner with the folks, including - drum roll, please - mum's in/famous self-saucing chocolate pudding. I slept well that night!

• Thursday April 10: Said goodbye to dad at 7am (he was going to a garden trip he'd organised) before taking the dogs for a 90min walk around the villages. I'm going to miss my shadow and her partner in crime. And yes, dad too!
  Mum drove me and about 35kg of luggage back to Sydney at about 1pm. We had lunch near C's place before I said goodbye to mum - thankfully tear-free. Just. Spent the rest of the arvo drinking tea and reading the paper before C got home and we headed out for dinner in Newtown.

• Friday April 11: Said goodbye to C at 6.30am and was finally overwhelmed by everything. The poor cabbie...listening to a grown man cry... Saying goodbye to my best friend was the straw that broke the camel's back - the thing that ultimately brought home the finality and the reality of the move. It was like all the emotions I'd held in check and pushed down when they threatened to overtake me were finally able to have their time in the sun. And all it took was me looking up from my seat in the cab into her eyes, welling up with tears. I hope I never see that or feel that way again - it was heart-wrenching. I will miss the Chicken immensely - we've hardly spent more than a week or 2 apart in the last 4 or 5 years so this 12 month stint is something I'm going to find hard to deal with. But such is the price of adventure - sacrifices are made to hopefully bring about something spectacular.

Which brings me here, with 3 hours left before the HK-Paris leg of the flight. I think it's time for a coffee and more of the biccies. The next post will be from Paris - and more up-beat, I promise!

One week to go

Yep. 1 week to go. Aack! Mais non, it's not that bad.
The car got sold - MAAAAAASSIVE thanks to Mr Roberts for helping me out. I'm now halfway to paying mum back. Phew.
The Salvos picked up a reasonable quantity of stuff this morning but not the biggest items (the 2 bookcases). Most things are now boxed and ready for transport although there are still a few things to pack or throw out. The laneway outside my place won't know what hit it...
Sunday is my last dragonboating event in Sydney. I can't believe we have 2 mixed teams, a women's team AND an open crew. Awesome! Go Tsunami!
And it's my last day of work today. I'm going to miss the people I work with, some quite a lot, but they have given me support in the move and that brings me closer to them. Plus several are thinking about a trip to Europe some time soon. I think, above all other forms of contact, visiting me in Paris will be my most-desired form, so if you're reading this and are contemplating a trip don't delay! Grab that wallet, head to the nearest Flight Centre and get a wriggle on!