A Sunday Afternoon Blog

Today it's been cloudy, raining and, most of all, cold. We actually had a mid-autumn heatwave this week (26°, yay!), I was gutted when i woke up and saw clouds this morning.
So I watched the Desperate Housewives episodes I missed last Thursday night. Two episodes are shown back to back once a week. It's the same with all shows on French TV, Doctor Who (2 eps back to back on France4), Torchwood (3 eps back to back on NRJ12 - although not in order), CSI (3 eps back to back on TF1 - not all 3 eps necessarily from the same season), The worst week of my life (2 eps back to back daily - I saw the whole 7 episode series twice in the same week). The absolute winner has to be Friends, on about 3 different channels anywhere from 4 to 8 episode doses - back to back. Pretty sweet deal, French telly.
I've put some more photos up on Picasa - you should be able to get a closer look at them by clicking on the newer slideshow box on the right (the one under 'The Snow')
The photos are a few of my faves from the trip to Paris, Cabannes, Athens, Thessaloniki and Naxos. Enjoy

The One About Badminton

Unplug your phones, lock your doors and ignore the cats, it's Thursday today and that means only one thing here in France: Desperate Housewives night on Canal+ (C'est la saison 4 Simon!) Now, normally I would love to sit around and watch the plight of Wisteria Lane's finest; however for me, and a few others, Thursday night is Badminton Night.
There's a bit of a story behind this (not really, just filling up space), Karim, the German exchange student who left last June, kept telling me that I should find a sport to get involved with. He told that doing a sport outside of school helped him with his french, he made new friends, kept fit, got him out of the house, and the list goes on. He had even offered to help me find a sport! I figured what the hell, couldn't hurt right? So he told me he'd put together a list of the sports available in Uzès. He showed me the list and asked me if I'd like to try any of the sports. I told him rugby. Hey, everyone over here has already decided that I'm a champion rugby player back in Oz, despite my multiple (yet feeble) objections. Anyway, he told me he'd find out when I'd be able to start. A couple of weeks go by. He comes up to me and admits that he hasn't found out about the club. I tell him "No worries" (afterall, I'm not really a rugby champion - I don't even like rugby). So at this point I forget about rugby and sport altogether, right up until a couple of weeks ago (the week before I went to England to be precise - a blog I have been meaning to write by the way...) when a friend of mine was talking about her badminton club. The rest is pretty straight forward.
So here's the rest of the blog: Now Monday and Thursday nights I practise badminton from 7:30 'til 10 (it's not that long, the time just flies by). It's good fun and energetic! Except the Tuesday night session, which is just training for those serious folk. I avoid Tuesday's session for that very reason. Hey, I don't need training - don't you listen to people? I'm a rugby champion, I'll pick badminton up like that!

The Long Awaited Return

This just in, hot off the presses, straight outta the horse's mouth my return date is set: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. I'll be catching a plane from Paris (CDG I imagine) to London and then a long flight from London to Sydney, with a stop over in Bangkok (my second visit to everybody's favourite canvass roofed airport) then a leasurely city-hop to Brisbane. We haven't been given definite itineraries yet (not sure how I'll be getting TO Paris in the first place - EF wants to keep up the suspense!) but, given the long flight duration, time difference, scheduled flights etc... (EF flies exclusively with British Airways and QANTAS - that's what they told me anyway) I estimate an arrival time some time after 08:35 (local time) at the Brisbane domestic airport on the morning of Thursday the 4th. See you there!

Guardian of the Flame

A warm bonjour to all readers, how are we all? Hope things are heating up back in Oz as they are certainly cooling down back here in France! From lovely mid-30 degree summer days not (too much) more than a month ago to top temperatures of 22. And that's if the sun comes out...
It's started snowing more regularly in the French Alps, and at lower altitudes.
I've cracked out the winter gear and have started layering again.
Suffice it to say it is getting cold again. It came early this year, at least that's what everyone has been assuring me (it isn't really that assuring).
After freezing off our little French behinds, we decided that it was time to light the chimney. Yay! It's a brilliant idea to have a fire in you house, in a strictly non-destructive capacity of course. Since everyone went off to work this afternoon, and I was home alone (teacher strike, don't ask), they made me Guardian of the Flame. That just means putting more logs on, but hey, we don't have a fireplace at home, so this job, this mission if you like, is something really special. Plus, in french 'Gardien du feu' is a play on words (although only for those of us who live in the number 30). 10 points to who works it out.