Farewell Summer, we hardly knew ye...

Yep - it's been and gone. I'd like to whinge and compare it to the gloriously and perpetually sunny summer of Sydney...so I will! Seriously, it only just going before throwing in the towel. It really seemed like just a few weeks of warmth and sunshine before the grey skies returned and brought us today - rain, greyness and cold. We did have some lovely weather, though - going out late at night with the sun still up, crossing the Pont Neuf feeling the sun from the west still strong on my face, is a feeling I'm not soon to forget - but it's over. Sniff.
And for the Frenchies out there, yes, I know that I'm being a little harsh and probably more than a little inaccurate given my recent recollections of the season in Sydney (which, truth be told, were not much better than here) but still, a month? Really? Well gee, thanks.

Still, it's not all bad. In fact, things seem to be balancing out:

• Last weekend we went to Cellettes for two days of sunshine, bike riding, swimming, tree chopping, and, of course, eating and drinking with friends of B's. But then I got sick and am still, five days later, working through what seems to be a throat infection.
  

• Today I navigated on my own the world of French medicine (read: I visited a doctor). Speaking only in French I managed to convey that I had a sore throat, a mild fever, and was in need of the kinds of drugs the French are known to swig every time the wind changes direction. But on the downside it cost me 60€.
  

• I've continued to search for full-time work and had continued to receive nothing in response...up until two weeks ago when I finally heard back from a company. It now looks as though they're interested in hiring me, but I won't jinx it by giving away the details until I've signed on some kind of dotted (or not, I'm not fussy) line.
  

• And, while we didn't conquer the pool like I'd hoped we would, we're still doing HEAPS better overall in the Olympics than the French. Ha!

So yes, it's all balancing out.

Oh, and yet again I almost forgot to send this week's instalment of 'Friday means music'. An oldie but a goodie: The Whatnauts with "Message from a Black Man". You'll probably recognise the guitar riff - a common grab for contemporary hip-hop artists (including the great MF Doom, whom I adore, who's linked on the same page under 'King Geedorah'. Slightly NSFW lyrics in the remix).