Thursday 17 January 2008

New year, new French?

(I know this picture is offensive because it's obviously a North African doing the work, but I posted it anyway because it just totally and completely exemplifies the gas/electric/phone/anything company).

So it's a new year and there should be lots of good things to write about. Change is in the French air...

How 'bout the kick off of the twice yearly sales and my lovely new trench coat I've been eyeballing for months or the non-smoking restaurants so you can actually taste your food and see the decor or the fact that we can now choose the schools we want our children to go to thus avoiding putting Suzanne in the crappiest school in Lille. But I feel uninspired...maybe it's because of the house. That's the only thing that does not seem to be affected by the New Year.

When we last left our protagonist, GDF -the GAs Company - didn't come due to an energy strike and we had no further news so, pulling strings, the General Secretary of a major labor union balled out some little guy. They swore up and down that they'd come twice last week, once to connect the lines in the house and once to do whatever they had to do with the outside lines. I think you can guess the rest...

Jerome finally got a hold of the ghost-gas company who finally told him the problem - they hadn't gotten permission from the city to make holes in the street! See, this is what people have always told me about France - the right and the left hand don't work together! In the past, this has worked to my advantage (like when I was here on a tourist visa for an extended period of time and no one noticed) but in this case...crap, do you think this is my bad karma that's doing this? Should I start a list like Earl Hickey? Or is the power of French administration so strong that not only does it bypass my bad karma, but it's an all encompassing karmic cycle all to itself. Oh God. I can see this snowballing. Must stop writing before head explodes.

There is some positive - electricity will be done this week, plasterers coming on February 5th (assuming there is heat) and bathtub is installed. Hopefully all the banisters will be up by the time my mother comes in mid-February, otherwise, I don't think she'll be seeing the upstairs at all.

5 comments:

Elisabeth said...

Not related to this post, but I see that you're reading Sandra Boyton's Doggies to Suzanne. I absolutely loved Boyton's books, and Blue Hat, Green Hat was my daughter's favorite. I always buys those books to friends who have babies.

Reb said...

Boynton's really great! We hav a few of the books. Suzanne's favorite was Moo Baa Lalala but she moved on to barking now ;)

Penny said...

Hello

I'm just come across your blog from Madame K's. I had to laugh at all the little french things you still have trouble with - they are the same as I do! especially the Poudre a levre.

But I wonder if you would mind explaining what you meant by this

"the fact that we can now choose the schools we want our children to go to thus avoiding putting Suzanne in the crappiest school in Lille."

Has there been some change in the mandatory school catchment areas in France that has escaped my notice? Or is this just in Lille?

Thanks
penny :)

Reb said...

Penny, it's not just Lille.
http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid5170/xavier-darcos-assouplit-la-carte-scolaire.html

Penny said...

Thanks for that! If I read it right, it only applies to collèges and lycées so I wont have to worry about it for a while - my daughter is only in the maternelle!

But I have been reading with interest about Suzanne's speech in english and french. Its very interesting to me as my son is 21 months and doesnt say much at all yet and I'll be interested to see if he favours english or french as he grows.

Thanks again :)

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