Téléthon 2005

At the weekend there is going to be a national telethon here. There are events happening all over the country. It looks like it's going to be a bit like children in need. They are raising money for disabled kids (if you want to check it out the site is www.thelethon.fr it is all in french though). To support it Philips have had little things going on all week. There is a big space cleared in the building next to us and they have had a 'baby-foot' aka table football compotition, teas coffees and crepe served with the proceeds going to the telethon. Today we also had a band playing to entertain us as we drank our coffee. It was fun.

Last night was also fun as we celebrated Suzanne's 27th birthday. So all the english and americans, plus Anna, Inez, and the flat's newest resident Maude, had a lovely time munching on some spanish omllets that Anna made for us. As the evening wound on we went from birthday mode to Christmas mode as the fairy lights were lit and the christmas cds were played. It was really nice having Maude there as well, not just because she is really nice, but because it was a reason to speak french. Normally all of us talk english, and only speak french when we are joined by french people. so to have her there was great for the language side. A good evening.

First time ever

Well I'm very glad I came back to work today, for this afternoon I have been given my first ever chocolate advent calender. One of the guys came round with one for everyone in the team. Our family has an advent calender each year, and each year the three kids fight over which of us will open a door first (we all want to be the third so we get to open the last door). But it's never been a chocolate one. I never cared coz we always end up with far too much chocolate at christmas anyway. I think my first year away from home I got a candle and last year I kind of missed the entire count down thing!! oops. Actually I can't have had a candle my first year- we weren't allowed them. Oh I dunno what I did my first year. this year though I was determined to have a calender. I kept seeing all these chocolate ones and thinking "I just can't chocolate everyday for a month!! terrible idea". Now of course I don't need to feel bad, because it would be rude not to take advantage of a present!! It is rather exciting- and it all for me!!
Simple things....

Sickness and snow

Being sick is never fun, but being sick when you are far from home, in a foreign country when you have no idea what the ‘procedure’ is, it is horrible.
On Wednesday lunch time I went in the space of about half an hour, from my normal chirpy self to a bit of a wreck. So after a very un-productive afternoon I headed home for bed, because everything feels better after a good sleep, or so I thought.

Waking on Thursday morning I gave my boss a ring only to be told that to get a sick day from work I had to have a doctor’s note. So I asked at the foyer reception to find the nearest doctors. I was advised to ring up first, but this wasn’t very successful. In the end the lady just asked me to come down to the surgery because neither of us were having much luck in understanding the other. So I battled down to the doctor’s surgery only to be told that the first appointment I could get was over an hour away. So I battled back to the Oasis to wait for a bit before going off to see the doctor.
Thankfully the doctor (Dr Piquey was lovely. He was one of those lovely people that you mean every now and then who don’t see my lack of French as any kind of problem.
Since being in France I have met three kinds of reactions to my language struggles, The first gets frustrated and makes you feel about as big as an ant, the second are understanding and very willing to help (most people are like this), the difference between the second and the third is very hard to explain. However the best I can do is to say that the third kind of person is so unconcerned by the language barrier that you notice it. It is not even the tiniest problem, they simply explain the word you don’t understand and carry on. With such people I have never felt bad about not understanding, it is one of those things. This Dr Piquey as the third kind of person- a lovely man. So I got my doctor’s note, paid 20 euros for the privilege (chances are that the salary I save from it won’t cover the doctors bill, but never mind).
So then I returned to my bed, and didn’t move for the next four days! I lay in bed alternatively sleeping, watching Quantum leap and watching winter envelope Caen. First we had snow:

Then hail (this didn’t photograph so well). Unfortunately it was too wet for it to settle, but it was certainly something. It did also show up how high a temperature a had. I was lying in bed with the window open, snow blowing into my room (only a tiny bit though) and I was still too hot to have my duvet on! Eek!

The first real trip I made from my room was to Monoprix for some munchies. As I got there I saw that the Christmas market was open. They set up about 40 wooden huts along the road outside Monoprix. It is so cute, all these little huts with small Christmas gift ideas. There were stalls selling chestnuts, scarves, little statues and some little wooden puzzles. Well you know me- I can’t resist logic puzzles and so I treated myself. I got a little wooden star puzzle, though I had solved it within about 2 minutes of getting home. This little outing of mine knackered me out big time, so I retreated back to my duvet cocoon.
Sunday was a thanksgiving dinner that some of my American friends had organised. I was feeling tonnes better that I had been so I thought I’d go. Also I had hardly eaten anything since Wednesday so I figured a bit of turkey would do me good. Now we didn’t have turkey, but he had chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad, M&Ms, pumpkin pie and fruit salad (not all at once). It was really nice, good food, good conversation and great company. The company btw was as follows:

(left to right and back to front)
Jen, Etienne, Thomas, Gemma, Charlie, Vincent, Roman.
Jenn, Elaine, Jane, Lauren, Kristen.
Christina, Emily and me.
When we eventually left I was very content, fed, watered and very ready for bed :)

Spiders and picnics

I have been meaning to write this entry since sunday afternoon, but for one reason or another it just hasn't made it onto the net until now.
I guess the main thing that can be said about life in Caen at the moment is that it is very cold! For several mornings there was been frost and ice on cars, I have also had to employ the services of my hat to keep my little ears from falling off with cold. I can well beleive that we might have a white christmas this year.

On sunday I found that the cold had show up some of nature's rather impressive engineering feets in a suprisingly beautiful way. So thin, so strong and so intricate that their design has been copied by the jewelery industry to for some of the most expensive peices around. I am of course talking about cobwebs! Each strand was shining with fost and glittering in the sun. I know that spiders have a habbit of getting everywhere but I had no idea that there were so many cobwebs on my way to church. They were so pretty. It was just another of those moments when I was just so impressed with how increddible the world that god made is.

Sunday lunch time was a wonderfully fun affair. Maria and Josine came round to mine and we all sat on the floor having a little picnic. It made a nice change for the three of us who normally end up eating alone. I was incredibly grateful that I had not only completely tidied my room the day before, but had actually finally gotten around to doing the pile of washing up that I had been hording for weeks. With only me eating and then only eating at weekends I can go for ages without needing to wash a plate (especially as I tend to end up eating straight from my saucepan). But as it was we were lucky and had plates to eat from.

PS. This post was (excuse the pun) post dated. real post date= 26th nov

Good old guildford

Well the wander has returned. And what a lot of wandering I did too. I saw sooo many people it was great. Helen acted as my own little personal secretary and organised my days for me, arranging meetings with various people and generally taking care of me. So now every body take a deep breath and prepare for a mammoth post!

Thursday

So Thursday evening after a dinner of coq au vin (chicken in wine) that turned out to have been made from pork- the foyer cooking is such an interesting experience, I wandered down to the bus station. On boarding the bus I was so nervous about having the right bus and everything that I completely forgot to tell the driver where I wanted to go, I just said 'One journey please' luckily for me the vast cast told him where I was going.
On arriving at the bus stop in Ouistreham I trekked the 5 or 10 mins to the ferry terminal, got my boarding card and settled down for the two hour wait I had before boarding started (and before you ask this was not as a result of me being stupidly early for fear of being late, but because the last bus from Caen to the port was that early).
Finally we boarded and I found me seat. It was already 23:30 local time so I settled down for the night. Now reclining seats really are not that comfortable and after being woken up by a screaming child after about an hour I took my lead from fellow passengers and moved to the floor. This was fine, with my bag as a pillow and wrapped up in my sleeping bag I was fine.
I then woke up about 5 in the morning really needing the loo, so got up to find one. Now if you have ever been on a boat you know that it can take a while to get you 'sea legs'. Well I hadn't done any walking so had no balance at all. I was wandering all over the place. I also notice how choppy it really was. So after grabbing a handful of seasickness bags (which luckily I didn't use so are now destined for the LINKS first aid kits) I took a travel pill and settled down again.

Friday

At six am British time the boat pinged into life. The lights flicked on in the reclining seat area and the messages began about breakfast in the various restaurants. Half an hour later I still didn't feel like eating as the ferry pulled into Portsmouth harbour. So I went out on deck and tried, in the light of the just rising sun, so see how many battle ships I could count. Although battle ship grey is very distinctive in the day time (especially among all the sleek white ferries) in the dark, or near dark, it is not so obvious. So my game became see how many ships I can see that I think are battle ships due to the extraordinary number of radar and communications bits and bobs it had silhouetted on top (I think I got to 11).

Once we had arrived, docked and disembarked it was time to find transport to Guilford. It turned out that there is a national express coach that runs from Portsmouth to London via Guildford. So I waited around for the coach to see if they had any spaces. (I had time to spare and it was much less of a walk). Unfortunately they didn't have space, so I along with a very tearful lady were left standing in the cold. This poor lady had forgotten forgotten that by booking an overnight ferry the date of travel changed halfway, so had booked her coach for the same date as the ferry. Eventually I left her to try to use her expired ticket on the next coach and headed for the train station.

After getting myself a good old cuppa from the station cafe I jumped on the 8:40 to London Waterloo. I half expected myself to sit glued to the window watching good old English countryside wizz past. But I didn't. Instead I sat and read my book- "A year in Provence". The book is about a couple who go to live in Provence and the guy has written about their experiences. It is hilarious especially because I can relate and understand much of it from my own experiences.

On finishing both my book and the train journey it was off to Helen's for a shower. Having slept in my clothes and been on the go for over 24 hours it was the best shower ever!

After a shower and change of clothes, Helen began to take up her role as my personal secretary. She had organised meetings and get together with all kinds of people.
First in was coffee with Helen Cooper in Roots. With all the chatting her hour break kind of turned into a three hour break and a trip to McDs for dinner.
On our return to campus Helen and I (Helen Brookes this is) headed back to Roots to see Shane from our course.
Eventually we quit Roots for the day and headed back to Helen's house to get ready for a night on the town (well a night in the union anyway).
Once ready my housemate from last year- Tom came round for a few drinks before Tony came, picked us all up and deposited us all safety in senate carpark. As we got near the doors Helen spied Ben and asked if she could get in free as she did duty on Wednesday. I then smiled sweetly and asked if I could have the same privilege "What are you doing here?" was his lovely hello, but he still let me in so I'm not complaining.

So once at the union I got to see loads of people (and very sorry if I miss anyone out). First aiders: Adam, Emily, Tony (again), Paul (new guy), Hom (sp new guy). Punters: Julie, Brains, Lucky, Nicole, Nicole’s very loud friends. And of course Phil doing Teas and coffees.

Despite the bad music I had a really good time. Though it was really bizarre. I was at the union often twice a week every week last year, so I got to recognise the faces of the regular union goers. On Friday however I only saw a handful of faces that I actually recognised. It was strange. All evening Tom kept commenting on how young they all looked (most of them obviously being freshers) and the really sad thing is that I had to agree with him. They did all look really young. There’s only a couple of years between us! When did we become such old foggies? LOL

At the end of the evening Helen and I indulged in an old tradition- Pizza man. I’ve never had a pizza from there but the combo starter is great. It also gives you the incentive to get home- the need to walk off all the calories!! Hee hee.

Saturday

Saturday dawned bright, but we of course didn’t see if for many hours as we slept off our nights partying. Eventually I managed to drag myself out of bed long enough to switch on the TV and watch a few Saturday morning kids cartoons. Then it was off into town with Jon.

We mooched for DVDs (I finally got the Indiana Jones box set), lunched in the friary food court, which I found out do jacket potatoes- very yummy, and saw the new Zorro film. It was so nice to have a chat face to face, as a pose to the millions of e-mails we have been sending, and moan about the amazingly annoying kids who sat behind us in the cinema, and trust me both of us were ready to hit them by the end. They just kept kicking the chairs and throwing pop corn and talking the whole way though (and not cinema voice whispered talking, but full loud conversations). It was a good film though, with some comic moments, and the cutest little kid. I think I prefer the first one though Jon disagreed and though the new one was better.
After the film we headed out to Hazel farm to visit Tim (Jon’s old housemate and a member of our cell) for a cup of tea and chat- very nice.

Finally it was home time, so Jon left for Horsham and Helen and I settled down to watch the princess diaries before turning in for the night.

Sunday

Neither Helen nor I were very effective at getting up on Sunday morning so the shopping trip Helen had decided we would have became a pop into New look (to get me some shoes) and then lunch. But hey lunch was Nandos so it was worth the trip into town just for that!

In the afternoon we headed back onto campus, Helen to do some work and me to go and have a bounce, bounce, bounce. I used to do trampolining at school for PE and was not bad at it, but by the time I got to uni I had lost it all so had to start from the beginning again. I was determined that no matter what I wasn’t going to be scared of doing my moves, I wouldn’t loose all that I had learnt. So I jumped straight into it (excuse the pun). As a result I got a rather flattened nose by landing a front drop wrong! But there was no obvious blood so I picked myself up, went a bit slower and managed a few good ones before I quit. I’m really glad I went, not just because I got to bounce but I also got to see more people: my twin Helen (yes I know it’s another Helen but this one is Helen Clark and everyone thinks we look alike), Ben, Graham, Lucy, Spider man, Emma, Emily, Penny, and some new people as well.

After bouncing it was back to Helen’s for pizza. Tom and Mark came round so although we sorely missed Chris and the cat it was like a little Maydene re-union. Man I miss that house (even though the boys were the messiest people in the world!). Then it was my last nigh on Helen’s sofa. I had thought that I wouldn’t sleep that well on the sofa considering it was about a foot too short for me, but I was so knackered I slept like a log. Also the fact that I curl up in my sleep must have helped.

Monday

Monday was my lest productive day. Helen and I sat and watch ‘This morning’ on TV then Helen had to go to a lecture. So I packed my bags, said my good byes and made my trip to Tesco. It was weird. I’m used to being able to go in and know exactly where I needed to go to get what I needed. However the store is currently undergoing a refurbishment. Now as it is a 24hour store they are moving sections as you shop and fixing the new bits up while you are there. But I got my squash and Suzanne’s Hob nobs, so it’s all good.

I then headed to town for a spot of shopping. I got a couple of DVDs and a copy of empire from HMV, a couple of tops from the sale rail in New look and treated myself to another of those yummy jacket potatoes. Unfortunately there is only so much shopping you can do with a suitcase and by about 4 I was done. I could shop no more. So I jumped on a train to Portsmouth. I had arrived by about half 6 and was at the ferry port by 7. Now I know I like being early (just in case) but this was a record even for me. I was there four hours before the ferry was due to leave! So I can safely say I have read almost every single word that was printed in this months Empire.
Once we had finally boarded I found my seat, organised my stuff, made up my little bed in a corner and this time I slept right through the entire voyage. I even learn a lesson from the last time and didn’t get up when they turned on the lights, but snatched another half hour of sleep.

Tuesday

Once back on French soil I was chuffer driven back to Caen. Well not quite but all but. There was a shuttle bus running from the port to town and I was the only person on the bus, so it did feel a bit like it.
I was back in my room by about half 8, had a wash, changed my clothes and headed out to work.

Man what a weekend!

Huge thank you to everyone that I saw while I was over. I had a fabulous time and it’s all thanks to you guys- you rock!. Extra special thank you to Helen for the loan of your sofa and your fantastic secretarial skills :)

3 days to go

I had a startling realisation today. Since I have the chance to once more grace the isles of Tesco this weekend I thought I probably should make a list of all the 'English' things that I want to bring back. However I couldn't think of anything worth putting down. When I first arrived I had the hugest craving for Cheddar cheese. However since I only cook for myself at the weekends and somehow manage to not eat at home most meals over the weekend I haven't had the chance to miss it. Also apparently I can get it from Carrefour (though I haven't checked this one out yet). So what exactly does England have that I really want. I decided that the only foody thing I'm really looking forward to is mum's Sunday roast (well in fact all mum's cooking) which is tricky to get from Tesco.

So I might get some cheese just for good measure but I have no idea what else. Got any ideas?

4 days to go

It was suprisingly hard to work out how many days it actually was until I'm back in England. Thing is, if I mark it by the number of sleeps do I include the sleeping I do on the ferry? (it being an overnight ferry and all). If I mark it by days do I include today? coz half of that has already gone!
Oh the dilema!!

I'm well excited though. It has been way too long since I cast my eyes round little old guildford, and I can't wait to see everyone. It smells a bit that so many of my friends are also away on placement so won't be there. But never mind.

So my weekend. Well I didn't do much out of the ordinary. Saturday I of course did my customary sleep in (really should tran myself out of that one!) then hit the shops. I actually managed to find myself some shirts. Now I know to all of you (bar my mother) this means very little. So let me explaine the ever so small problem I have with shirts. We all know that shirts tend to look really nice and smart and it normally a good idea to have a white shirt to pull out of interveiw, concerts and gerneral smart occasions. I love the idea of wearing shirts, I can just never find one that fits and that I like. I don't like having anything tight round the top of my arms. Cotton is fine coz it moves with you, but shirt material (mind blank on what that might be) just doesn't. also shirts have a habit of gapping between the buttons which really annoys me. So I found these fab shirts (well the same style in two different colours) wich feel fine round the arms and have little hock and eye fastenings so the holes are so small they don't have the chance to gape. And even better was that one of them was reduced!! yehey :)
On on my shopping trip I also got myself a Céline Dion CD. And I must assure you she is much better in french than in english. Tis a pretty CD.

Sunday was church, then choir. At choir Armelle put forward a new song that she had hear at another church which turned out to be 'Come now is the time to worship' I happened to have the music with me so they had me playing the piano part over and over again while they learnt it. Big respect to concert pianists- I have no idea how you play for that long without your hand completely cramping up!! A nice bonus was that Benjamin brought his clarinet along so we had instrumental bits added as well.

Then after the rehersal Benjamin, Maria and I went to go and see Elizabeth Town at the cinema. It's really funny when you only understand half the joke (we saw it in french) so I imagaine it is even better in english, hee hee. Good fun. Though Benjamin is one of those people who talks all through films, not that I mind that- I myself am rather prone to doing it, but I had no idea what he was saying. Whispered french is impossible LOL.

Happy birthday

I got an e-mail from my mum this morning telling me that my cousin has just had her baby (well she had it yesterday but still). So Tammy and Neil have been joined my little Eva. It's so exciting. It's just a shame that I won't get to go and see them all till Christmas.

I discovered that today is another birthday and once more I was alerted by e-mail. Aparently today is the one year aniversary of me opening my account on ebay!!! I struggled not to burst out laughing when I read the e-mail "Congratulations froggy_lou, it's been a year since you joined" Fantastic!!! lol

*singing* All by myself

It does seem to have become a bit of a habit me being all alone. First there was church on sunday, then work on monday and now this afternoon at work. Today almost the entire department have some kind of team building meeting thingy so aren't in this afternoon. Tuesday was a national holiday (so no work!!) but as a result most people took Monday off as well to give themselves a nice long weekend. So I'm getting quite used to having the office to myself. Makes it harder to be motivated to do work (really has been an effort) but at least it is nice and quiet. Another plus side is that I can sing along to the radio while I work!!! hee hee.

Monday evening as you know was haloween.
Haloween always sadens me. The celebration of goasts, witches, and generally evil things is so wrong. It is a blatant show of a disregard for God, by glorifying all that is not of him.

Although I hate haloween I have to admit I was quite impressed with the decorations I saw. First of all was dinner in the Oasis. They had the lights off and the room lit with loads of little floating candels in glasses on the tables. Our dinner was served out of a huge hollowed out pumpkin and all the napkins and stuff were all haloween themed.
After dinner a few of us headed down to the pub. O'donnals as well had fully embraced the haloween theme. The pub was decked out like.. dunno must have been a graveyard. There were a ton of dry leaves on the floor, people dressed up in actually quite realistic costumes- gave me a shock when I walked in and saw the grim reeper sitting there! Despite the apauling sound effect CD they had put on we had a good evening.

On tuesday the only one of my plans for the day that I actually managed was sleeping in in the morning. I didn't actually get dressed untill about 15:30. Then I popped down to Elaine and Suzanne's room and managed to stay there untill about 12. We watched friends in french, and I realised I might have seen them too much as I sat there translating practically the entire episode into english from memory :)
Elaine and I sat and did a couple of crosswords and played call my bluff with her new dictionary. Elaine has a bizarre habit of collecting dictionaries. She had english, french, welsh, russian, briton (as spoken in brittany, france) of and probably some others as well I didn't see. But it's only because she is one of those people who just has a facination with words, what they mean and where they come from. I have to say that I agree with her. Elaine is great fun and it was so nice to have an intelegent conversation after my months of simple chatter (don't get me wrong, I love the chit chat but every now and then it is nice to have a conversation that stretches you slightly). So I had a thououghly enjoyable evening.