Banking

I have a bank card! I can get money! But, I can only get some money...

I can:

  • spend up to 800 euros a month on my card
  • take out 1530 euros a week in cash (I wonder why the 30...)
BUT within that, I can only take out 300 euros in any one day from our bank and when I'm out of France, and only 300 in any 7 day period from any bank in France that isn't ours. For which we would be charged extra anyway, I think. Parochial, isn't it?

(Admittedly, I can't really see myself spending more than this in any event, but the limits still grate, philosophically - it's our money, dammit, why can't we spend it how we like?)

However, if I ring up their free gift helpline, I can get a free Real Leather card-holder, embossed with my initials and with gold corners. What more could I ask for?

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Mosquitos

Hate them. I don't know why they bite me, but not people around me - I had 4 bites this morning on my ankles (and toes! Why, for the love of God, would you bite my toes? Do you *know* how itchy that is? Yet how miserably unsatisfactory scratching your toes are? No, you're a mosquito, you don't have toes. Bastard thing - I hope mosquitos have a mosquito-equivalent that bites them on their mosquito-equivalent-of-toes.) and he had none. Life is unfair.

On the other hand, it's sunny and warm, my balcony smells pleasantly of basil, I've had coffee, and I'm up to 2800 words already, and it's only 8:30. Admittedly, reading Thatcher's speeches before 9 in the morning could be construed as cruel and unusual punishment, but it may be best to get these things over and done with before my brain really wakes up...

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Dinner

Dinner tonight was simple (though I'm now craving Christmas dinner and chocolate pudding, thanks to an email I read earlier) - we had pasta with organic cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, goats cheese and olive oil. I'm a big fan of meals that take 10 minutes start to finish - though our dinner would perhaps have been even nicer with some balsamic vinegar and black pepper. Being able to eat it on our new table out on our terrasse is nice though, definitely helps food taste nicer, I'm sure!

Lying on the beach reading my textbook (why yes, I am a blast at parties, you can tell) this afternoon, escaping the-hell-that-is-Lexis Nexis, inspiration nearly struck. So rather than nothing, I've written 500 words today. It's not great, but it's better than it was looking this afternoon... I'll write extra tomorrow. I'm aiming to get 7000 words done by Sunday, so I'm on the way, slowly...

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Total waste of a day

Lexis Nexis: good in theory, poor implementation - you can't save your search results as a webpage, it appears. Unfortunately, I didn't find this out til I'd sifted through hundreds of articles, saved 70 of the articles I needed to read later, and closed them all. Printable words fail me, at this point.

This really isn't my week, is it?

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Flat fixed! (Fingers crossed...)

So far, so good. It's lunchtime and nothing has yet broken in my flat today...

Also, we have a new table and chairs on the balcony! Eating outside just got a lot easier! Plus I have chopping knives and a big saucepan and all kinds of useful things! (And a new état de lieu to go through and check we have everything they think we have...)

I've also downloaded articles from the Independent now, for 1988-1990. They used to write a lot more bluntly, back then, in their foreign news sections...

And I met one of my neighbours! Who is American (or Canadian, I can never tell the difference between the accents, major failing, I realise...) and very nice. And who appears to have lost a hoover. I didn't ask how, not least because her flat probably doesn't have any carpet in it, assuming it's the same as this one...

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Flat has beaten me...

Well, sort of - it's fighting back. The kitchen sink is still safe, thankfully, but it now doesn't drain. I'm almost sure this is because our electrician/builder/plumber/general everything man, when he taped it together, taped it at too tight an angle. He does, however, get a bit... tetchy... at people trying to fix things he's broken, so I am waiting for him to turn up to recitfy the situation, so I can do washing up and generally not have a fetid swap of dirty water in my kitchen. And the pipe is leaking again, so the tape didn't actually fix the problem at all, just made new ones. Awesome.

In more positive news, my balcony/terrasse gets full morning sunshine, so I can sit and read about securitisation *and* work on getting a tan. Chilled melon in the hot sunshine is divine (sadly, the pineapple/lime/mango Tropicana has all gone already). And I've written 700 words this morning, bringing my total so far up to 2000ish. Planning to do another 800 or so this afternoon, while it's too hot to go outside, and maybe a couple of hundred in the evening, after going to the beach. Tough life, isn't it?

The local English language radio station (not named, in case it triggers a Google alert for them) is... unique. The ads are hilarious - there's one that repeats frequently, asking if we can provide services (or hotels, bars, restaurants, pretty much anything new and shiny) to very high-profile VIPs, one that starts "for last minute work on your yacht..." and, my favourite, that I've only heard once and can't remember what exactly it was for, advertised services in English and Scandinavian. Scandinavia is obviously more politically integrated than I had heard.

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Success!

I have beaten the flat! Well, the electrician the landlady sent round seems to have done, at any rate. I can now have the washing machine going *and* the kitchen tap running, without nearly dying! (Given the length of time for a washing machine cycle, this is a good thing...)

The leaky pipe under the sink has also been fixed (is there anything duct tape can't do?) and hopefully later this afternoon, we will have a working telly and everything! Maybe even bathroom door handles - the luxury!

Dissertation not going so well - but we do have spare door keys now, and I managed food shopping. (Pineapple, mango and lime juice is divine. If Tropicana sell it near you, go buy some, now.) I'm going to go and read about securitisation now...

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My flat is still trying to kill me

And its efforts have intensified. It no longer just tries to electrocute me when the washing machine is on, but when anything electrical is on. This is... slightly challenging.

On the other hand, while I can't do any cooking (because I can't do any washing up), we can still go to the beach with beer and a takeaway pizza and watch the sun set - there are good reasons for us having moved here, murderous flat notwithstanding!

(For any of you who might be concerned - I am, enough for all of you, anyway - someone is coming to fix the wiring tomorrow. I will be happier if a proper electrician does it, mind, particularly since while I can use rubber gloves to do the washing up, a similar work-around is harder to find for the shower... But hopefully by tomorrow, I should be able to turn on the tap and put my hand in the water without getting electrocuted. Progress!)

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Wise men of Nice

On the tram on the way back to the hotel tonight, I saw many drunk and sweaty French people (and tourists). On leaving the tram, finally, I saw the below and actually had my camera with me - they are giant statues of men, white during the daylight, but lit up with ever-changing coloured lights at night time, stuck up on v tall pedestals in the main square in Nice - I love them!



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A flat!

We have a flat! I'm knackered now, have spent all afternoon cleaning, baby-sitting and supervising the construction of furniture, so this will be a mercifully short post - but we finally got our keys today. The below sort of gives you an indication of the actual readiness of our flat, though - for example, it electrocutes us whenever we turn on the kitchen tap. Not so totally useful...



That said, it will be lovely when it is finished properly! Lots of light, big windows, not as small as I had feared before the furniture got put in. Lacking a telly, internet, a phone line and a sink that isn't actively trying to kill me - but you can't have everything...

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Copyright Nicole Hill, 2009-2010

All photos and text are mine - ask me *before* you use them elsewhere. Don't just copy them and hope I won't notice, it's theft.

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