Just a quick note to my brother:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY :) GRATULERER MED DAGEN :) TANTI AUGURI :) BONNE ANNIVERSAIRE :)

Summery Problems

From April to now the weather has been pretty bad according to the spoilt Southeastern French people. A few hazy clouds will draw a frown from most people - "Argh, cloudy now again!" They've all been wondering if the summer had skipped this region this year but then last Wednesday the temperature rose, the clouds disappeared and all the cigales came out from their groundly hidingplaces to make their characteristic noise all day long. Summer's here! It's hot in the morning, it's hot in the evening and sleeping becomes a hot affaire but we love it and love to complain about it too. Well, I don't. I'm too Norwegian for that. But don't get me started on the moustiques, mosquitoes... There must be some flashing neon arrows saying "Great Blood" pointing my way.

I'm now here, after our more-than-welcome B&B guests have gone back to their own homes, tidying away all the warm winter clothes and taking out all the swim gear. My skin colour is way to white for being the end of June so in a moment or two I can be found on the beach catching up on some reading and sunbathing.

Il Milanese più Bello

This cutie is here with his parents for a few days and I get to squeese, hug and hold him as much as I want. The photo of Gabriele was taken his baptism earlier this June.

Tai Cuc

Yesterday evening I finished the first of four cycles in Tai Cuc (Tai Chi)!! Below you can see what I'm able to do now (shown by my teacher ;-) ... and see what sometimes keeps me sane, so voilà :

Beyond P.I.A**

Thank god I had my Tai Chi class tonight otherwise my head might have exploded. The bathroom saga seems to only have begun...

You'll never guess what I found out this afternoon - a few hours after the shower door revelation. A person working in our bathroom has broken and cracked the corner of my new, chosen with care, plenty of euros worth, new bath tub. I was less than happy to say the least!! Not only has it been broken by someone but that same someone hasn't told anyone and had just tried to hide it with a white paste... Did he really think we wouldn't see it???

Changing it would involve breaking half the bathroom and the new tiles to get it out. I'm utterly gutted. Mr Company Owner told me they'd try to fix it but he couldn't even tell me how because he didn't know yet. Will they ever finish? I guess if we're lucky, we'll have the bathroom done by Christmas. FYI, we're talking about a 5 square meter bathroom and not a bathroom suite in some Saudi Arabian palace.

*Breathing deeply and thinking Ying Yang thoughts*

I'm oozing of wellbeing today - yup there's definitely a happy vibe coming from my blog today... (irony ;) Sorry about that.

** see link in previous post

I'm so insanely happy I'm married to a guy (the most handsome and lovely of course) that just takes matters into his own hands and can manage to verbally make someone want to go to hell - in capital letters. He is making a nice little phonecall just now...

Oh, and that, sometimes, just makes my whole day, week, month and year!
*happy sigh*

Royal P.I.A.*

So guess what?? - The shower door seem to be faulty and it might have to be returned. And that means we'll probably have another 3 week delay to finish the bathroom!!

#Pulling out my hair in despair#

The light in the tunnel : UPS has managed to send missing bathroom stuff from Spain. It should be here... soon?

*find a fitting meaning from this list

Strike / Grève

I've never been a supporter of strikers or grèvistes. It always involves innocent people. When truckers block the motorway - who suffers? The company or all the other people trying to get from A > B ? Both. And is that fair?

I'm even more pissed off about it when I'm affected personally.

I understand the cause and the strikers but there must be other ways - for goodness sake, we live in a modern society. Yesterday, in an interview, a lady was worried she would get fired from her new job because her train arrived late because of the grève. Her statement was: You have a job, now let me keep mine! I couldn't agree more!!

I'm angry because now my carreleur can't finish the job in my bathroom because the last few bits missing are stuck in Spain on the motorway because of the truckers, they've blocked the border between France and Spain for everybody. Arrrgh!

To answer the question I see coming, yes! they have been working in my bathroom for what seems like an eternity! Two months and it's still not finished... *sigh* And on top of that I came home last night to find that Mr. D had assembled the shower door wrong, and drilled a hole in the new tiles. The instructions were so easy to read - IKEA like, and he got it wrong.

I wonder if Guinness book of records have a record of countries in the world where there are the most strikes. If so I guess France is on top of the list!!

Sardinia 2

I love the design on these ferries!

An empty bay which in the summer is too crowded...

I have a facination with flowers and plants (though I can't seem to keep them alive at home :)

The Family!

The rock contains a lot of iron and gives the beaches a red glow...

For enhanced colours keep your polaroid sunglasses on...

Heard Outside the Post Office

Funny episode happened yesterday outside the post office. A small lorry had parked and blocked my car in the parking space. Quickly I realised that the driver, standing 20 meters away, was about to receive a fine from a handsome Gendarme.

From his body language it was clear that the small Moroccan guy was not at all happy. After 5 minutes he turned on his heal heading back to the lorry while shouting something to the Gendarme. At first I didn't realise what but after a few repetitions I understood:

- "Je vous souhaites que du mal !!" (I just wish you harm)

I thought it was kind of funny that he'd use the polite form for 'you' (vous) when clearly his statement was not polite at all.

Apparently he had parked in the middle of the road to buy cigarettes blocking the road for 10 minutes. And clearly the fine didn't teach him better manners because he didn't apologise for blocking me and my car in the parkinglot for another 10 minutes either.

And how stupid is it not to realise that the policemen are just doing their job as everybody else? The lorry driver was just making a bigger fool out of himself by not accepting the fine and not taking responsibilty for his actions. If I park on a yellow line I know that I'm breaking the law and that I'm risking a fine. If don't get it, well I'm relieved. If I do, on the other hand, I suck it up and pay it. I don't go around blaming the world or wishing harm to all the policemen.

Raining Spiders

I opened the window and something fell to the floor. It looked like wall plaster. As I expected I saw another nest of what I always believed to be some type of flying insect.

I paused and looked out, breathing the rainy air.

Then I looked down to the floor and guess what I saw - 5 big spiders. Yikes! Falling, they just missed my head and face by a few centimeters. I think they were dead but functioned as big spider egg machines because they didn't move when I whacked them with my slipper but they did make a big mess. I'm officially grossed out.