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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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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Good Morning Internet!

Merry Christmas and all that - I hope you had a good time and Santa brought you all the toys you wanted!

Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote here, despite my newfound good intentions - December is manic for the jewellery part of my life, as people suddenly realise Christmas is coming. But things are more or less back to normal on that front, not least because I'm still on holiday and so the shop is closed.

We're down in Beausoleil for New Year's Eve, and it's gloriously sunny. I desperately need to find a way to move here full-time - any (legal) suggestions welcome! In the meantime, I feel like sharing, so have some photos: yesterday on the beach in Nice during the day, and at sunset, and sunrise in Monaco this morning.


Nice beach yesterday:

Sunset over Nice last night:

Sunrise this morning:

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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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