Time to get this party started

Right! The fellow who will be assessing my career/choices/skills/strengths/entire life with me just called and my first appointment is on Wednesday. Are you excited too?

In other news:

Back at work today. Let's not talk about that.

Baltic in Scotland, Baltic here in France too. Still, no snow in our part of France which is a relief for 2 reasons: 1/ I can't be doing with any more snow; 2/ The French are quite crap at salting/ploughing/gritting and generally keeping the roads clear. I thought it was just me who held this view, having grown up in Scotland were car bodywork lifetime is severely compromised from all the salt the cooncils sling on the roads every winter, but French people would appear to agree that there is "un problème". As my father-in-law said yesterday, the weather forecasters foretell snow, the whole nation knows snow is coming, and the highways people awaken in the morning, open their curtains, and say "oh, it's been snowing!".

Tsk.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Happy New Year everyone! May 2008 bring only good things to you and those you love.


It's snowing! What is it about snow that makes one shiver with excitement (providing one is not embarking on a road journey of any length)? It's the memory of days off school and sledging and snowball fights. Ah, the magic of snow. It can make even scabby old Midlothian look nice ;)

Are you sure it's June?

The weather recently has been more reminiscent of October than June. The only way you can tell the difference is the late hour at which the sun goes to bed (well, you have to guess at this judging by the relative light of the sky, given that the sun is hidden behind the thick layer of cloud). It's quite depressing.

So I'm feeling a bit cheesed off. Have an unending mountain of work at work. I suppose that'll be why it's called "work". Would rather stay at home with my doggy. Am feeling like a fat little telly tubby. And I can't try to be sporty and go to work on my bike because of this useless weather. Well, I suppose I could but I don't really want to arrive at work completely drenched.

Oh dear, quite a grumpy post this evening. And now it's thundering. I can't quite figure out how that's happening - doesn't there have to be hot air for thunderstorms to form??

Hurumph.

Cup final day

Hauled myself to the chemist today to collect Hubby's prescription. More needless expenditure for the French healthcare system but there you go.

After that I went down the path with super doggy. I had intended to just drop her back home then go straight back out but she was on to me because she loitered in the open doorway and snuck back out with me. She's a so-and-so. We went to collect the bbq from Leroy Merlin (DIY spot similar to B&Q or Homebase).

Back home to cut the grass. Having had nearly three weeks of this: , we now have had this: since yesterday. Have been able to finally cut the grass and stop the garden looking quite so much like a wasteland. Didn't quite get round to doing any weeding though because the temptation to sit in the sun and read just overcame me. ;)

Now I'm installed on the sofa with some freshly popped popcorn (thank you Rich & Hannie for our popcorn popper). Did you know plain popcorn is actually very low in fat? Must be quite calorific though I think. And also have some beer :) Am "enjoying" the FA Cup final build-up. TV listings folk must love cup finals. No worries wondering what to show, just broadcast live from Wembley from 9.40am onwards (I exaggerate - only slightly).

Enjoy the match.

Rain!

It's doing this today:

Current temp is 15°C. Feels quite cool...

Clouds!

Yesterday the weather was like this:

Today, it's like this:

More of the white (even grey) things than the bright yellow-y thing with blue background.

It rained!

That's my fault, for having washed my car. :-|
Outside, it smells of "hot pavement that's been rained on".


22°C | 12°C
Mostly cloudy 15°C

The day started off fair enough, clouds forming the morning and then a front must have rolled in during the afternoon. Hey ho. Forecast good for tomorrow and Sunday though.

Weather report

Today there were some white things in the sky. But it has been windy and they have all been blown away now. Wonder what they were?


21°C | 11°C
Fair, 13°C

Back at work but another bridge soon

Didn't much like it. It doesn't matter how much or how little time you have off from work, when you go back it's always rubbish. Still, it's May, the month of public holidays (in France).

The French have a pleasant habit that works thus: when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, it is quite common for employees to take the Monday or Friday off too, making for an extra long weekend. They call it "faire le pont" (making a bridge). With the 35-hour week and the extra leave that came with it, a new custom known as the "viaduc" has arisen, whereby folk make an extra extended long weekend by taking the two working days before or after a Wednesday public holiday.

May is the month hors pair for public holidays. Three altogether, Mayday, Liberation Day (8 May) and Ascension (always a Thursday, so always a "pont"). Until a few years ago there was also Whit Monday (or Pentecost).

Many people now work Whit Monday as a "Day of Solidarity". This was set up following the August 2003 heatwave which precipitated the deaths of many thousand old people (most of whom, it is heartless but not unrealistic to say, wouldn't have made New Year 2004). The government, stung by criticism that while the nation's oldies were dying of heatstroke they were busy sunning themselves, had the bright idea of abolishing a public holiday. The claim was that we'd all work an extra day (but not get paid...) and instead of paying us, our employers have to contribute our salary for that day to the government (a not-very-stealth tax then). They would have had us believe the extra economic output would generate sufficient funds to pay for measures to protect oldies and other persons in difficulty (handicapped people mostly), in order to prevent another public health disaster like August 2003. Economic indicators have since shown that this extra day has no discernible effect on France's economic output.

And following this brief diversion, here is the weather:

21°C | 11°C
Sunny, 18°C

Current weather

I think I might try to make this a daily thing, the weather. It's a good way of recording it.
So today it's:

21°C | 8°C

Sunny, 18°C

Weather update

Just to say:


21°C | 9°C
Clear, 17°C

Nice, innit?

Blogging in the sun

Thought I'd test the strength of our wifi signal. It works when you're sitting at the garden table. That's good enough for me. I can blog here until the battery runs down. According to Dell, that will happen in 1hr 44 mins.

As the title of this post suggests, we are enjoying yet more unseasonally warm weather, thus:


21°C | 8°C
Sunny, 21°C

Nice, eh? But, air pressure is falling so some rain could be on the way. It actually would not be such a bad thing, the ground is baked dry. No wonder meteorologists are forecasting another hot and dry summer. Setting climate change worries aside, residents of northern Europe are enjoying be able to bask in the sun while in southern France and Spain the rain clouds are, well, raining down their rain. And anyway, those regions need a bit of rainfall so they should be pleased :)

Afternoon off

Which I would very much like to spend doing nothing, maybe lounging in the sun or going for a stroll with my darling doggy.

Instead Hubby and I will be venturing to Roubaix hospital. We know what time we're going, but we don't know what time we'll be coming out... He has x-ray and appointment with the consultant today. Will have the staples out and possibly a new cast as his leg has shrunk inside the current one.

Still, weather's lovely it's nice not to be in the office.

22°C
Clear
Wind: S at 11 km/h
Humidity: 50%

Tue

26°C | 11°C

Spring sunshine

We're enjoying some extremely mild spring sunshine here in the north of France, and across lots of northern Europe I think. Temps in the mid 20°C last couple of days!! Very pleasant :)

Hubby's mum came up to fuss over him from Tuesday to Friday. Was relatively stress-free and actually a good help for me. She even managed to annihilate my ironing pile. But then, I think she quite likes ironing...

Yesterday we had a group outing to Ikea. Stéph took Hubby's wheelchair and I took Hubby. And Hélène came too. We ended up having to rather rush round to get back home in time for Hubby's anti-coagulant injection. But we managed to buy a footrest to go with the easy chair. Upon our return our helpful friends helped me dismantle the old sofa and put it outside. Then I brought the easy chair down from upstairs and it turns out it's in rather a sorry state (well it was only cheap). There'll no doubt be another trip to Ikea soon enough for me to get a replacement easy chair (one where you can take the cover off to wash it!) and an armchair. We couldn't find a small sofa we liked so we're going for the 2 chairs option.

Hélène and Stéph stayed for dinner but we all had a fairly early night. I think Hubby was pretty done in after the shopping.

This morning more glorious sunshine. I moved the sofa from outside the house to the end of the road for collection tomorrow (it's the day when the waste management people come and collect big bulky things you can't put in the wheelie bin). I huffed and puffed (it must weigh about 130kg, maybe more) and managed to pull it on top of my toes:


Of course, my repressed blonde side had made me think that sandals were suitable footwear for furniture removal tasks...

After more huffing and puffing I got the blasted thing all of 30m to the end of the street. Hurrah. The house now looks absolutely huge due to empty space. But we'll be cluttering it up soon enough I should think.

Took a few pics of the lovely sunny garden. Mum and Dad take a photo of the garden every two weeks, to have a record over the year. I think it's a pretty good idea so I'm going to try and do the same.

I've caved in to various nagging and brought Hubby's blasted computer downstairs. That weighs a fair bit too. I suppose my little muscles are getting a work out. So he's happy now.

It snowed again!

This morning all was white and pretty. :)

It had all gone by lunchtime. :(

Of course, the highways agency round here claimed to have been "surprised" by the snow. Eh? I had seen the forecast on the web (meteo france) - snow. And on the BBC - snow. Do they think we came down in the last (snow) shower?? More like they don't know how to operate the snow ploughs and grit lorries so they just claim they didn't know it was going to snow. So it took me 30 minutes to make a 7 minute journey. Hurumph.

It snowed!

It snowed yesterday afternoon and evening. But it didn't stay. Oh well.

Fed up with work. Not interested in it at the moment. I just want to be on holiday.

Hubby is finally looking into doing his career review and all the stuff I've been saying he should do for the last year. At last!

And that's all.

Sunday blue

I've got that Sunday afternoon feeling. You know the one, the weekend has already flown by and it's back to work tomorrow. Plus, the sky is looking dark and stormy, so not even the chance of a walk in the offing.

Actually, we already did the walk thing. Managed to get nearly all the way round the park before the rain came. Doggy very much enjoyed herself and got nicely muddy. All over her face as usual!

Last night we were at Jo & Delphine's for dinner. Was very pleasant. We had confit de canard (slow cooked duck thighs). Yum. I had fortunately recovered from my tummy bug and got my appetite back in time for that.

Friday I was poorly with my tummy bug. Poor Hubby and to come and get me from Bailleul (where we were doing year launch, about twenty five miles away)! I'll spare you the details, suffice to say by about 2pm I was empty and didn't dare swallow anything until about 8pm, when I had half a banana.

Thursday we did year launch at work. It was in this converted barn (very rustic) and the wind was howling outside. The electricity kept cutting out. We had fun though. Shame I was ill on Friday :(

The week was busy at work, preparing for year launch and cramming five days of work into three. Thank heavens for our translation memory!!

Round here we seemed to have escaped relatively unscathed from the storms. However, Hubby said when he came home from work on Thursday our street was blocked off. Not where our house is but about eight metres further down! He saw on Friday that a tree was half blown over, which explains it. The main village street was shut off too. There is a small block of flats next to the market place and part of the roof had lifted off apparently. Closer to home, no tiles missing from us - phew.

Top Gear back next week :)