Pub wifi is the least productive wifi.

But at least it gets me out of the house. I just dislike staying at work any longer than I have to, especially if I have to wait to use the computer until after they've finished browsing beautiful Parisien apartments for Mamie, which is slightly sickening. Imagine ever having that much money! So I'm at Wos, again, thinking that because I did two TEFL grammar quizzes I have now earned the right to day-dream all over the internet with a half pint, and maybe some crisps. It's the weekend for goodness sake, let's go wild. My weekend will be totally non-existent and at the same time it'll drag- I'm working both days. Booo. But I'm off tomorrow and Friday, and unlike the past two mornings I'm going to go and do stuff. To be fair to myself I have finished my CV and written a pretty good cover letter, but when I was about to finish the job and send it to LingoBongo (who will hopefully send it to all language schools in Marid like they promised, and not just take my 10 euros and spend it on beers) I realised I don't have 10 euros to pay them with.
Ach well. That's depressing.

There are loads of exhibitions to see, so I shall do them, if I can be bothered and if they're free. Laura's coming at midday for lunch, so at least that ensures I'll get up!

Princesses and jewels

Never felt so girly in my life as this morning watching The Wedding. Instead of being cynical I just ooohed and ahhed with the others in the Big Ben pub in Neuilly where I went with the girls (plus one kid in his buggy, don't tell the parents). She did look lovely and really happy and so did he and maybe there's a happy ending and a prince for all of us! One with more hair if possible, please.

Despite being told by the American (old) man in the pub that I am a princess, I still don't think my wedding will be a French affair. (See Left Bank Manc's blog for an idea of why.)

I've been here 7 months, that's a bit mad. Only 4 left.

Big dinner party tonight, getting completely British-ed up, I have made myself a crown. There have obviously not been enough outlets for my creativity recently, I got really enthused by the idea, ripped up my cardboard recycling and an Elle magazine and voila, some royal headwear. I'll get the photos up afterwards, they're guaranteed to be funny. Just wait.

Yes I'm procrastinating. Came to the pub to use their WIFI to do more of my TEFL course, but there's music on and people about and the wedding on repeat...

More paintings.

Still Life - after cakes at Le Loir dans La Theiere

A flashback to art-school days, I do like painting horses.

Violent Rage

I have officially finished work for the night, the mum is at home but in bed sick, so as soon as I had put the boys to bed I could go home. Unfortunately I have stuff to do, which means I need the internet, so I'm still 'at work' sitting on my laptop in the living room. The boys are awake and acting like evil brats, and finding it hilarious past belief that because I'm still here it's me they get to annoy rather than their parents, who actually hold some sway over them. I really don't want their mum to have to come downstairs and shout at them, as she's ill and has a really sore throat, but I have things to do and I might have a heart attack if I stay here much longer trying to suppress the violent rage within me. Or kill a child.

Sunstroke or something

I've been up since 5.30 this morning, worked the morning and evening shifts, and had no nap yet I'm still fairly awake and it's 11.30pm, and I've offered to take the boys on an all-day-adventure tomorrow, when I'll have them from 9am to god-knows-when, the elusive 'end of babysitting' hour. I blame the sun- it makes everything seem so lovely and I get optimistic, thinking maybe the boys will listen to my desperate screeching and actually stop running (heads down, full speed, downhill) before they crash onto the road at a Red Man. Maybe when I tell them to get out of the bath they'll just stand up and do it, instead of spitting the bathwater they'd been holding in all over my legs and then jumping on me so I'm soaked, furious and unable to get up off the bathroom floor. Maybe, they'll hold back from calling me 'miss caca' in public, loudly. At home at least I can pretend it's affectionate...

For a few happy minutes we all thought the little one had missed me after being away for 2 weeks of hardcore skiing, but it turned out he just said it wrong. 'She missed me' ('but I didn't miss her'), is what he was trying to say, but because of my excellent teaching skills he knew how to say it in English but confused it in French.


Again, I'll blame the amount of sunshine I've sat in today, but I did have a momentary 'oooh he's very cute, maybe it would be nice to have children some day' moment, which was a shock to be honest. Thought all this au-pairing had put me off for good. Please note this does NOT mean I'm open to conversations like the one Helen tried to start the other day on Skype, slipping in "so how old do you want to be when you start having kids?" into a perfectly lovely stress-free catch up. NO NEED!

Here goes...

 Seeing as I'm here to paint, as well as work and have fun, I thought it would be good for my motivation to put some of it in a public place, and hopefully shame myself into doing more, better work! (even if no-one sees it up here either!)

 

Paint what you see... there's not much to see inside my flat, so I look outside... 

Still find all the rooftops and chimneys a bit romantic.

My kitchen:

(Images are copyright; don't nick them without asking)

Grammar.

The problem with not having the internet at home is that when you suddenly find yourself in the well-connected 21st century you get a bit over-excited. I do, anway. Hotmail, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, streaming websites for (Glee, Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty) Couchsurfing, Spotify, jobsearch websites, the BBC, friends' blogs, strangers' blogs, brother's new music, old photos... and still never quite getting round to -shudder- online banking.
I ws meant to be studying.
To my credit, I have finished Section One in Grammar. (woop!) But in the part where they teach you how to teach all the grammar you've learned, I've got stuck. They seem to think it's necessary to learn (and presumably teach) the phonemic alphabet. And what is it? Gobbledegook.

ˈɡɒb ^ə ldɪˌɡuːk