March 12th, 2010 by DaughteroftheKing
Sounds OK doesn’t it, as long as you forget that it’s one large swamp they’ve built on 
What a beautiful city!! I’ve said that about ten times or more in the past 30 hours and could carry on. I spent most of my journey from the large stone and ironworks station to the interview with my nose in the air. Think of Bath and Leamington Spa and you’ll have an idea of the kind of majestic buildings I admired (without walking into any walls or people).
I’m not kidding about the swamp bit though. The cathedral is built on wooden pillars so I suppose you could say it floats on the swamp in a way. 
I love the picture of a very large stone building like a cathedral ‘floating’.
The interview went well as far as I can guess, with a number of things on my side, like the fact that out of the 20 interviewees I was the only ‘anglophone’ from birth and the only one to have spent half my life on either side of the channel. I want to be one of the 5 to be told on Tuesday ‘come back for round 2′! God knows I had enough time to make plans off the tail of a comet during the 7 hour journey home today plus the time I took to fall asleep last night.
I love the idea of a nicely paid open-ended contract doing one of the things I enjoy most and haven’t really got round to yet, with all the training I can ask for and all the guidance 3 translators (2 Rosbeef and 1 Frog) can give who’ve been at the game for over 15 years.
And then it’s **** scary because I’m in the middle of doing my driving theory, have only just settled into all my little Lyon routines and am not quite sure I want to move miles away from the little people when I’ve not long managed to move close to them.
There, that’s about it, apart from the test/transition period ( I will make a nest in my pocket for my lovely to travel with me during that time), finding a new house (seeing the buildings make that great but scarier), Fabrice getting a new job (in a time of crisis), seeking out the markets and shops to get all the yummy things imaginable and all those other practical things.
Here’s a toast to castles in Bordeaux (Oh Yes!! I’ll be 1st taster) and comet-tail plans!!
Bring on Tuesday so I know a little more.
Posted in France, More migrating?, Work | 1 Comment »
March 6th, 2010 by DaughteroftheKing
It’s not that I don’t want to write, rather that I don’t get round to it. 4 months… Hmmm.
That restaurant was brilliant. The kind of restaurant that has a small choice of dishes but where you can guarantee that any one dish will be perfect, so the meal was nice, the wine was very nice and the champagne, well, we regretted ordering a glass each and not simply a bottle instead of the wine.
The thing about the restaurant though is the view!! It is on the top of the hill next to the basilica and even with mist you have an incredible view of the whole of Lyon and at night, of course, all of it’s lights. Lyon is the city of lights. We didn’t have a clear night but, sat in the bay window with a 20 metre drop below and the hill vanishing steeply below that, we could still see so many lights twinkle, I was enchanted.
A VERY nice way to celebrate my first year in France. Thank you my lovely Fabrice!
There are so many highlights to the past three months that I’ll have to pick out a few favourites and sadly forget most.
Music:
SanSeverino was certainly great fun. I don’t know anyone else capable of singing quite as madly and rapidly as him while coming of with the daftest things all the while
The guy who did his first half was manic: air guitar with the guitar and all the excessive mimics.
Yodelice was brilliant. Truly! We saw him in first part of Tracy Chapman this summer and loved it and December’s concert was just as enjoyable. So much so that I actually went out and bought Fabrice the CD full price, something we hardly ever do since by waiting just a few months you can usually get most things for peanuts in a sale of some kind.
Little people: Fabrice and I visited a few families with kids, amongst them his God-daughter (11) and God-son (1) (for whom we had fun Christmas shopping for bath-books) and my nephews and niece. I could write so many things about them all. Fab kids!!
My niece tops the lots with two grand acts. She regularly rings Maman to tell her all about the latest scratch, bump, argument with brothers, telling off by parents etc, warning them beforehand that she’s going to pack her bags and move to her nan’s.
The second had me in stitches. I rang one afternoon when everyone apart from her was having a nap (’sieste’ is nearly as important an institution in France of a weekend as it is in Spain any day). She called her mom and dad who didn’t move and called them again, then she said something about handing the phone to her younger brother, 18 months, who usually eats it at the best of times, and I could hear her counting to 5. Older brother comes running, bullet-like, and ends up with the phone instead and I was able to say I’d ring back later and said bye. At this point it dawned on me what she was doing counting to 5 like mom does and about do the equivalent of sitting her parents on the naughty stair: giving the phone to godzilla. I love it!! The little lady absolutely rocks!!!
Work:
Ever the eco-warrior, I’m recycling ME. It’s taken me years to truly move on this.
I’m sick of waiting for the paperwork I need to get enrolled in the NVQ validation process for a job which may be decently paid but seems promised for extinction or at least is becoming increasingly rare. So I’ve finally made some of the initial steps needed to begin working as a translator.
I’ve sent out my CV and that sort of thing and put in the translation/interpreting criteria on my ‘job-shop Français’ account.
I’ve had one interview which was a shot in the dark by a company who needed a PA desperately but failed to tell me that. The guy did give me a couple of tips though including reminding me that I need to sort out the equivalent of self-employment asap.
I’ve done a couple of test translations (Fr to En + En to Fr) for an American company called ITC which has a branch just down the road whom I don’t recommend to any of you for your translating needs. They had the nerve to reply to both texts with the same misspelt and badly punctuated email words to the effect of: ‘Thank you for applying your style doesn’t suit us’! I raged at the lack of respect and tried to convince myself it must have been an automatic reply sent out by a machine.
I have an interview on Thursday in Bordeaux for full time translating job. Oh my…
Voilà!
There could be more but this’ll do as a run down of the main events of the past 4 months.
Oh no! I forgot: my little sister is getting married! She’s going to look like a fairy princess in the dress she’s thought up. Wehey!!
À bientôt!
xxx
Posted in France, Music, The little people, Work | 2 Comments »
October 30th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
I like going out: restaurants or concerts, walks, visits, picnics, it’s all good.
Tonight, Fabrice is taking me out to a restaurant to celebrate my arrival a whole year ago, and it’s a surprise. I’ve been trying to figure out where it might be but not asking because I actually like the idea of it being a surprise this evening when we get there,,,, I’ve been itching to ask Fabrice or people I know he’s told, but I haven’t.
I’ll wear something nice and hope it’s very yummy
Posted in France, My Beloved | 1 Comment »
October 13th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
I have a part-time job until Christmas in a Special school, working with the new starters, which goes from ages 3upwards… The latest little girl to arrive was actually 9. Life in the realm of disability rarely has that much to do with age.
I’ll hopefully be working there for quite a bit longer seeing as I’m replacing someone who’s just had a shoulder op and will retire next October anyhow. Now is the time to really prove myself and get chosen to stay on.
Grand!!
Posted in France, Work | 4 Comments »
August 26th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
I forgot:
Just a quickie to say that amongst the jams and gelées and syrups I’ve made this summer, some earned me the comment from Fabrice (in his Perfect English) that:
” you must be a hamster because I smell of ELDERBERRIES”
I do hope God will keep our kids sane when we have them
Posted in Marvellous Cuisine, My Beloved | 4 Comments »
August 26th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
I’m losing track of all the things I have enjoyed over the past couple of months which I still haven’t sat down and said anything about.
In short:
it was wonderful having my English and Welsh visitors,
the glorious sunshine under which we’ve been cooking has finally thawed me out of UK temperature-habits,
the beautiful ring and and other presies I got for my birthday and many lovely facebook notes and cards have made me a very happy lady,
and the afternoon in the park, pedal-boat ride and picnic Fabrice and I enjoyed for my birthday were the best
VERY happy bunny!
Erm … mouse!
Erm … Princess!
Also, a much needed update on my brothers:
Dan is plodding on along his upward road to better and is currently on holiday down south with Maman.
Guy has FINALLY moved from Dotty P’s to a better placement. He has a room he chose and likes in a house he asked for with staff he seems to appreciate. It’s closer for Dad (on their side of Brum) and to our cousins which is good too. A private trust, different from the last one. We’re not home and dry yet by far but WOW am I glad the replacement social worker and the hospital staff who took to Guy have achieved the work his social worker was putting off and talking about… Dotty P’s was a sad place but some of the workers there are bright shining stars!
I’ll have a try at figuring out how to put photos up… I want to show off the sliding wardrobe doors I put last week
Oh, and photos of the lamas in the field under the tree-house we stayed in for a break in July. That was most fabulous. It’s all the craze over here at the moment (that and camping in teepees).
www.lacabaneenlair.com
www.cabanes-de-france.com
We go on a well earned week’s holiday this Friday, on the night-train to Biarritz. Well kinda cos it doesn’t actually stop there, I thought I’d show off about going to the surfing capital of France anyhow
Posted in France, Gloria, Hols, Visitors | Comments Off
June 8th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
Well, it was brilliant and a little weird receiving friends in a new home town and a new country. I have to admit it.
Speaking mostly English for an afternoon and laughing lots was good. Dith and Jeff, it was wonderful seeing you both. Fabrice had a great afternoon when his brain wasn’t frying from ‘too much perfect English’ and he loved Jeff’s perfect French, so who could ask for more.
I finally made it down the mac shop a couple of weeks ago to ask them about a French power cable for my iMac since there’s no sign of them selling any on either .fr or .uk apple stores! I had a lovely surprise really. The guy said he didn’t have any but rang the repairs bloke who’s based round the corner and when I got there the bloke simply pulled out a new cable from under his counter and gave it to me.
Moi (in French): “Wow! Are you serious!”
Mac Man (in French, grining): ” Yes. That’s what we’re like here.”
And I walked home a very happy lady and now have a spare transformer plug and UK mac mains cable.
Work’s coming on ok but without much hope of anything permanent for a while yet. I finished a very nice month in the day-centre and had 16 hours last week in a day and then a housing centre. This week I’ve got 35 hours in housing places based next to last month’s centre… Which means I have an hour there and the same back, twice a day… Next week, so far, nothing.
I’m a little impatient for the appointment I have at the end of the month to start the process of validating my UK qualifications into the French diploma in social care.
Fabrice and I watched Monty Python’s Holy Grail on Saturday. I’d never seen it whole though I’d seen most scenes and heard about them over the years… Beware the taunting, my Lovely French Man has renewed his weapon store
Posted in France, My Beloved, Visitors, Work | 3 Comments »
May 11th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
It’s been ages since I last sat down long enough in front of this dear mac to do more than check a few mails and occasionally reply.
Throughout April I worked over 150 hours, mostly for the agency, which amounts to a full time job. In March already I’d done about 100h. This month should be over 130h. I’m getting into the swing of daytime hours with a month-long contract working roughly a 9-5.
Time really does fly. I’ve seen my sister and her little ones a few times, including them all visiting to drop Maman off before she returned south from spending a good holiday with them. Fabrice and I saw Maman twice while she was here. Both occasions were lovely calm times at my sister’s but while they’d gone away for the weekend.
In between, various friends have invited us for a meal or two and a birthday party and we’ve visited Fabrice’s parents pretty regularly. I have to say we do ok for food over here both with nice fresh stuff to buy and loads of good restaurants all over the place which are quite affordable. My cooking skills are improving no end as Fabrice finds me new recipies to try out too
I’ve got visitors coming soon from Wales and this summer from Wales and the UK. I’m very eager to see everyone
RIght, it’s just about time to eat so I’ll shut up and post this.
xxx
Posted in France, Marvellous Cuisine, My Beloved, The little people, Visitors, Work | 3 Comments »
March 12th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
Hahah!! I have a French mobile and, most importantly, SIM at last.
It plays music…
It receives French calls!
My British mobile can still receive text messages (but I can’t reply or take calls) and takes lovely photos.
With the 2 handsets, I can do alsorts
The agency still hasn’t rung me on it though.
Patience, Little Min! Patience!
Posted in France | Comments Off
March 10th, 2009 by DaughteroftheKing
You’d think that seeing as I’m looking for work I’d take time to stop and write a few blog entries once in a while You should be so lucky… And that’s in spite of Fabrice’s efforts to encourage me to get round to it. He’s been reminding me and making jokes about me not writing since before we went away.
Fabrice took us both on holiday to Strasbourg first week of February and I still haven’t got round to saying anything about the lovely week we had in one of the most picturesque areas of France.
I’m still looking for a job and it’s looking like a long haul because everywhere either says ‘No, you haven’t got the qualification’ or ‘ No, but we’ll keep your CV in case something comes up’. I do prefer the second answer by far but it has no consequence short term.
I’m low on agency work this week so far and I’ve caught a cold/sore throat so I’m happilly staying in to carry on decorating the entrance hall and catching up a little on the job-searching I didn’t get time to do last week. It’s been long enough I haven’t done many hours per week that last week’s 32h killed me dead! I was so tired by Friday, it became a joke and i forgot loads of things I was meant to do. This week’s main missions are as follows: this afternoon I get ID photos taken and put in the application for my French Carte d’Identité, tomorrow evening we go and get a French mobile and SIM (has to be on a prepaid contract cos you don’t have cheap pay&go options here!) and finally I have to take the odd form I got from the UK expats social services/national insurance dept and give it to the French equivalent office, hoping that what the form contains is what the CAF need to know, fact of which I am really very unsure.
Oh, a little news on Guy, who is still back in the hospital and seems to be doing nearly ok. He’s been given some info by a protected housing co in the Midlands and has to think about it. The social worker and hospital still seem to find it impossible to keep Maman informed and I’m not sure Dad knows much more either. Maman got this news from Guy when she last rang him. I think she’s been trying to get in touch with sw or hospital to complete the picture but it’s not an easy task.
Well well, I’ve got a cup of coffee going cold and it needs some attention
Posted in France, Gloria, Hols, My Beloved, Work | 2 Comments »