Another month, another update...

So. The last couple of months have been full of pretending to be a grown up, pretty much.

I'm now vaccinated with all the vaccines one could ever want - I have had jabs for tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, Hep B, measles, mumps and rubella. I am basically immune to everything in the world, now. (Except those things they don't have vaccines for. There are a surprising number of these. Clearly we need more medical researchers working on this stuff. Get cracking, people!)

I have had an apparently long overdue smear test - one of the benefits of moving around a lot is that invitations for regular medical checkups can't find you. It was as much fun as you'd expect.


I have had blood tests to a) check the vaccinations worked and b) see whether my internal organs are functioning properly and that my arteries aren't all clogged up and the like - somewhat to my surprise, all is well.

I have an appointment tomorrow to check out some teeny tiny lumps and bumps that shouldn't be there; this will, hopefully, turn out to be nothing - but I'm now working on the basis that it's better to check and be sure, while I'm being all medicalised and stuff.

And lastly, some slightly bigger news, which I've mentioned to some of you, but not all: I'm about to start a new job in a new town in a new country, so this blog will soon be shutting down (again...) - as will (at least temporarily) my jewellery and web-design work. My jewellery and web-design stuff will hopefully come back once I work out the tax situation and legal registration stuff I'll need to do in the new place, but given the somewhat location-specific nature of the blog, it probably needs to stay closed once I move.

I'll think about this some more and let you know what I decide - if you've got strong views, do let me know in the comments! And if you want me to let you know if/when I start a blog in the new place, let me know that, too, and I'll drop you a line once I'm a bit more settled.

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It's been a busy month

What have I been up to?

Well, I've been brave and had a haircut. (Those of you who know me will maybe begin to appreciate how traumatic I find haircuts. Adding in the complexity of a foreign language actually makes it easier, because it's expected that I won't know the relevant vocab. Not knowing the vocab in your native language does tend to make you look like a bit of an idiot...)

I've started remaking my jewellery website, and been learning more about responsive web design, as part of my new web design venture. (Did I ever tell you about that? It's here.)

I've continued dealing with the unemployment centre - a post on how the whole unemployment system works here is bubbling away in my brain, since it's (I gather) quite different to the UK one, and I couldn't find any information on the process when I started dealing with them.

I've made a thing: a green variscite and copper pendant

I've seen lots of sunrises.

I've been to the Monaco Yacht Show, and watched the Red Arrows flying over the port. (As an aside, unless you own a yacht I think you would not believe the peripheral industries that spring up around yachts. I was certainly surprised - I guess defining a niche market is good, but I'm not sure I'd ever have imaged that the number of customers looking for a handmade mattress to go in their yacht is big enough to support a whole business. How wrong I would have been... I also liked the handmade furniture - the inlays on the dining room tables, with sterling silver finishes, were particularly stunning.)

Prior to the yacht show, Monaco also hosts a series of events with classic boats, like this one:

I watched a couple of those sailing around, and realised I love them. Maybe I was a sailor in a past life, or something. I certainly couldn't be one in this life, climbing rigging is probably not for me!

I watched the moon over the sea for a while one night. The photos didn't come out well, but this is a nice picture of the moon.

I've watched several firework shows. Last night's was nice - over at Fontvieille, rather than the big port, but still lovely. (You can see quite a lot of the skyline from our flat.)

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