I ate Boudin and I liked it

A bit of a mixed bag for ya’ll today.

It has been a hectic week with a lot going on, so a few updates.

Firstly – JOB.

Things look – dare I say it – promising.

The lady who is helping me with my paperwork seems fairly confident and clearly knows her way around the prefecture and she seems to think it will all work out. I officially love her.

Sooooooo, unless the French Government decides AGAIN to completely fuck up my life, I should be starting as a full time teacher in September.
Alll-right.
I’ll be teaching English, Drama, History and Geography.
Yeah, you read that last part right – Geography.
Oooohh Boy.

Is now the time to tell them that my go-to colour in Trivial Pursuit is always Pink – Entertainment, and that the colour M always chooses when it’s down to the final question and he knows I’ll get it wrong is Blue – Geography? Should I mention that in either year 8 or 9 when asked to place Australia’s main cities on a map I put Canberra where Darwin is and Perth in Northern W.A? (Glad you paid all those school fees now parentals??) Geography is NOT my strong suit.

So I’ll be doing a fair bit of Geography prep work over the summer break. That and reading a whole lot of English plays and novels - Kafka should provide some light beach reading....
And learning about the French Revolution. And the Industrial Revolution.

Wanna hear the kicker? I’m also teaching the origins of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
What do I know less about... Geography or Religion .... hmmm.
I blame Reverend Pill and his damnable Question Time. Everyone just wanted to ask rude sex questions and see if he'd answer them. I also scheduled my Clarinet lessons to coincide with R.E classes for most of year 8.
I know nufffing.

But I’ve been to lots of meetings with various departments and staff and met lots of super dooper nice and interesting people who I hope to make my new teacher besties.

So I’m involved now.
Engaged, preparing, thinking, planning, worrying.
This job and me? Our relationship is now serious, we’re at the heavy petting stage.

Which means if it all goes pear shaped – and it very easily could. It’s going to suck giant donkey balls. Positive thoughts. Our fate will be known soon.


A timely distraction from my powerlessness in the face of retarded bureaucracy is our impending trip to Switzerland. Our 8 day road trip through gorgeous scenery with a few adventure activities and chocolate eating thrown in should be a whole lotta fun. And the bromance and man-love between M and Herge will be epic.


Secondly – We’ve been busy little social butterflies this week with dinners chez nous with friends, drinks and – bien sur – more bloody World Cup viewing.

Last night we had dinner at one of M’s colleague's house and I ate my first Boudin Noir – also known as blood sausage.

With two Pina Coladas under my belt I wasn’t paying that much attention, and being the piggy that I am, I just tucked right in. It was actually really tasty, but about half way through I realised it wasn’t a ‘normal’ sausage I was chowing down, so I asked M what it was. “You don’t really want to know” was his response.

Correct.

I was much happier thinking it was just an oddly textured spicy sausage.
Normally my philosophy is Offal = Awful. But this was kind of yum. Maybe that’s the rum talking though ...


Thirdly – Had a series of humiliating experiences at the Mechanics this week as I lack the appropriate vocabulary to discuss car troubles in English, let alone in French. To explain the problem we’ve been having I was forced to resort to arm gestures, mime and making “grrrrrr” “chickitachickita” “vwrrrr” noises . I was one step away from pulling out the Pictionary board to see if that would help.

Suffice to say, the guy thought I was D.U.M.B. So much so that he asked to speak to my husband instead.
Ouch.
And kinda sexist.
So we got the awesome guy M shares an office with to pretend to be my husband as the real husband it even more useless in pressure-cooker French situations than I am!

We did get to the bottom of the problem. All sorted.
Fan Belt and Timing Belt replaced. €800 poorer. Double Ouch.



To end with – a treat for you in case you missed it this week. The awesome AWESOME new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So good. So sad. Our little trio are all growned up. I won’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it for fear of serious mockery.

Is it November yet??




** Double Click to jump to YouTube if the weird layout thing is cutting off part of the screen.**

Will update when back from Switzerland.

xxx