The calm after the storm

We had a massive, but very brief storm on Monday - for about half an hour, it absolutely chucked it down. (Video and pictures at Nice Matin, if you're interested.)

You couldn't see across the road from our flat, the rain was so heavy - and the wind was blowing the rain right at our windows. Which, this being early morning in the summer on the Cote d'Azur, were open.

Much swearing, slamming of windows and mopping of puddles followed. Not how I generally like to start my day, being more of the traditional "Don't talk to me until I've  had at least THISMUCH coffee" type.

The rain stopped and started for an hour or so after that initial burst of fury, and then by about 9:30, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was as if nothing had ever happened.

There was a nice cool breeze on Monday, at least, which had largely died off yesterday - but the storm did clear the haze from the air, leaving bright blue skies and sea:

And this morning is starting out well, with a beautiful sunrise:

(Yes, I know, for a not-at-all-morning-person, I do see a fair amount of sunrises. Insomnia is a many-splendoured thing.)

What are your plans for the day? And what's the weather like where you are?

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Happier things

Before yesterday went badly awry in the evening, it was an awesome day! My husband has recently learnt to drive, and yesterday was the first time I'd got in the car with him. (He is, as I always knew he would be, an excellent driver!)

We rented an Auto Bleue - one of Nice's electric cars, for hire hourly/daily - and drove around the coast, heading up the mountain behind Villefranche and Eze. You get some amazing views from up there, and I'd recommend making the trip that tiny bit in-land if you're here on holiday - there are buses that do the same route, if you don't have a car or don't fancy driving on French roads!

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Cleaning all the things

Today, I have cleaned all the things! Well, ok, maybe not all. But I have started, that counts for something, right? (If you haven't seen this Hyperbole and a Half post, you've clearly been living under a rock. Go read it now. In fact, read all of her blog, she's amazing. Then don't come back, because the comparison is not flattering to me!)

Anyway, assuming you did come back, welcome back. Have a couple of nice pictures of some mini-boats I took this morning.

 

 

My own epic struggle has not been so epic, nor so much of a struggle, yet. I have decided to try a new thing, and deal with the whole mess in bits, rather than doing it all, becoming knackered, and then hating everything because it's all too much. So far I have cleaned the bits that were the most visibly in need, and I've unpacked the boxes that were most in my way. (See, seeing small results motivates people - who knew all those L&D trainers and consultants were right after all?)

Tomorrow, I shall tackle the rest of the bathroom in its entirety. Once I have a clean bathroom, that's a third of the flat done. (At least - our bathroom seems proportionally big compared to the total flat size!) Then I shall tackle the bedroom, and after that I shall consider tackling the living room. This consideration may take a while, because God. Our living room.

Once that is clean, it will probably be time to start all over again - this is what I hate about cleaning. It never, ever ends. Even if no one's actually living in a place and getting it dirty, it gets itself dirty! Why dust - if I had a chance to ask one question, it might be that. (Though I'd regret it afterwards, I mean really, what a waste of a question. But still. Almost as bad as mosquitos, dust.)

Lastly, and more seriously, I have some bad news. The padlocks from the Pont des Arts appear to have spawned a Cote d'Azur branch of the species. Parasites, clutter, declarations of undying love, call it what you will. But it was bad enough when confined to one bridge in one city in one country. Since then it's started spreading to other bridges in Paris, and is widely present in other cities. And now, they've got as far as Monaco. It's like Pandemic 2, but with padlocks. Madagascar should consider closing its port...

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Back down south...

God it's beautiful down here!

 Flying in yesterday, it was a sunny day: the sea and sky were bright blue, the trees were green, and the mountain stretching back from the sea were capped with bright white snow. It was gorgeous, and today has started similarly bright and sunny, without a cloud in the sky, and the dark blue sea is stretching out to a clear horizon. Bet you wish you were here!

Today I'm supposed to be NaNoWriMo writing, but if the sun lasts til after that I might go for a walk with my camera. I've still got photos to take off my camera from my last trip down, so the next couple of posts might be more pictures than words. (Especially since I can't count blog posts for NaNoWriMo...)

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And, now, the end is near...

The moving van is booked. Stuff is going in boxes. Bags of unwanted clothes are going to charity bins. It's time to leave again.

As you'll all have noted from the long gaps between posts, I've not been around much. Not having internet at home has made blogging difficult. Work is not interesting to write about. Out of work stuff, I won't talk about somewhere Googleable and attached to my own name... Part-time expatting also takes up a lot of time, most of it spent in airports. (I don't really recommend it.) And, in a week or so, I won't even be a part-time expat.

Which means it's probably time to finally wrap up this blog.

I've been escaping packing to wander around one last time with my camera. Some photos follow - there may be a few posts of photos, depending on how inspired I'm feeling, and how long my camera batteries last.

It's been fun, looking back on everything I've written, all the weird and wonderful things I've done. I hope those of you who read it have found it interesting, and maybe useful. (If anyone reading this in the future because they're moving to Nice wants to chat about any of it, send me an email or something.) I might do one more post, a more introspective one, looking at how I've changed and what I've got out of the year or so I've been away. Not for any of you, because few things are probably more boring than other people's introspection, but because it would be a useful thing for me to do before finally leaving and getting stuck back into being a non-expat.

Anyway, photos from today...

Oh, and last but very much not least, Oscar has an orange! All of his very own! One that's actually orange!

You never know, I might start an English blog. If I do and you want the link, let me know.

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Sunrise and strikes

There's a general strike on all across France today, protesting the pension reform that Sarkozy is trying to introduce. Pretty much no public transport is running - it's a good thing we're not getting married this weekend instead!

There was, however, a train at some unearthly hour of the morning and my new husband went to get it, so I happened to be awake to watch sunrise this morning. It was quite pretty.

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Cap d'Ail

During the August Exile, we went looking for the beach at Cap d'Ail, having been told it was nice and worth going to. Didn't find it. Did find a picnic area and a very windy coastline, with huge waves. (If anyone knows where we went wrong from the picnic area, do shout...)

Photos:

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Menton rehabilitated

OK, so, Menton has never been my favourite place on the Riviera. But my last trip kind of made me nearly like it. In the sunshine, it's almost nice - perhaps this is by comparison to Nice, which really isn't...

Anyway, some pictures, so you can see some of the pretty bits. (More can be found here, if you're interested.)

Coffee in the sunshine:


Possibly the worst shop name I've ever seen:


Flesh-eating fish (For real, this time - it's their job):


Old town in Menton :


Reflections:


The sea, obviously:


The aftermath of lunch:


In Menton old town:


The church:

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More shiny things: new pendant

OK, so I know I'm being lazy by cross posting, and that the reason I set up a jewellery blog was so that I didn't have to bore you all with pictures of my new shiny things. But I've got nothing much to talk about except boring and depressing things, so you can have a post about shiny things instead. Hopefully I'll have some clarity soon on what's happening with my likely move back to the UK and then I will have something to talk about...

Anyway, so, this pendant has been quite a long time in the making. Every now and then, I get out this abalone square and wonder what to do with it. Then, inspiration struck.

Sticking with a sea theme, I've paired it with red and white freshwater pearls and argentium sterling silver. It measures 6cm by 6cm and the circle of pearls is approx 2.5cm.

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