wow

a whole almost 8 months without blogging, my life in montpellier completely *flew* by. and now i am no longer in mtp, i have a new blog: http://homelessinhamburg.blogspot.com

hope to see you there! and apologies for 8 months of absence :)

couple of things:

1) gloria is 3/4 healthy again. but definitely healthy in the sense that she has a non-smashed headlight and indicator that are both in working order (not sure if i blogged about my car crash? i crashed into a car when going down a hill to a roundabout. maybe it was more of a bump, but anyway, the woman was a bitch and i'm waiting for my insurance to call me up. she wasn't even driving!

2) i am on a waiting list for accom in montpellier - cue insane appartment/flat hunting.

i have 13 bites on one of my legs. ouch ouch. i've given up on the idea of parasailing because i went on thursday, sat waiting for over an hour, got in the 4x4 to go up the mountain, carried a parasail on my back for a while, only to get to the top to find out that its too cloudy, i sit and "wait for the cloud to clear up" for 45 minutes and then go back down the way i came up. i figure as i am mildy stressed, it might be a better idea for a spa, or something along those lines. so i'm looking into that. i have just got one week left now, then heading to montpellier, still don't have anywhere to live, but am hoping that will sort itself out in the next few days. i.e. a positive or negative response from the univeristy residences. anyway, later this afternoon i will be getting my bag out and start to pack up! eekeekeek not got much else to report, going to try and blog more regularly! is all

hi dad!

i know you're reading! (or at least i hope you are)

today is tuesday, the last time i blogged was thursday. since then i have been to marseille. it has such a bad reputation, and particularly round the area of the train station (where ursula and i happened to be staying) this reputation was justified. it was dirty, and the people hang around on the streets in a threatening manner. but gare du nord, anyone? and nobody would say that paris is disgusting. maybe some people would. but anyway, that's not the point! the area of marseille round the old port was lovely, there were loads of restaurants, things to see and do, and france's second city was bustling! it rained on saturday, which was a shame, but we managed to wander up to the notre dame de la garde, which had spectacular views all round, despite the light rain. i am now getting a cold (wonder if it's because of that?). anyway, on sunday we went to the chateau d'if, historical setting of the count of monte cristo. which was nice, and i survived the boat journey.

tomorrow i am going to go parasailing...not unexcited, but not too excited either. thinking about too many things, like leaving here and where am i going to live and how am i going to earn money etc etc etc....anyway, i will eventually post some photos...

seeing as it has been a week since the last post...

...and kerry allen has a lot of catching up to do, here is some more light reading. when i originally started writing this it was 16h30 and i had half an hour to spare. then amélie woke up and i got roped into working half an hour early as we were going out for dinner for my birthday, which is today.

i am now a domestic goddess. i have successfully made: jam, pistou and mashed potatoes. any other form of domesticity is going slowly. but i think home made jam is quite high on the scale of domestic deity!

i am no longer going to update on amélie's speech, as it is coming on leaps and bounds. she even said tartine today, she has made impressive progress (even since last week!)

i went with olivier and his brother and his brother's kids (they have just moved down here from lyon) and the kids to a beautiful lake, lac de sainte croix, which is about an hour and a half away. except it took longer because of the vomming incidents, and no it wasn't me. it was very windy (at the lake, not the vomit).

visited also frejus and nice. beach only at frejus but that was pleasant. and nice was much better than the last time i went (even though it was only for one night on a sunday night and we were miles away from the centre/beach) - we visited the famous promenade des anglais, the old town (along with Fennochio's - 100 different flavours of ice cream), the castle, the port and the beach! busy times!

not much else has been occurring, although i have set an official date for my departure from here! the 5th september it is (although maybe the 6th) as i have a meeting to be at on the 9th and may need a place to live.

Vocabulary of "NiNi" part 2

Oh things have changed a bit, progress is being made! There isn't so much to be added, but just wanted to share:

(A)neh-neh - Helen (sometimes accompanied by applause...so cute!! and nice to know I'm appreciated by someone in the family lol)
de-ssert - dessert
gateau - biscuit
n-toh - encore (updated)
sho-suu - chaussure = shoe
toe - moto = motorbike
tuu - voiture = car

On another note, lots of fun things have been occurring/will be occurring, so that's good news (including nocturnal markets and an overnight stay in Marseilles).
On a final note, I have never encountered a child who says "oui, mais..." or "non, mais..." as much as Gilles. Nothing anybody says is ever right. That is his vocabulary. Along with crying.

That's all. Will add photos soon to photobucket.

photobucket link...photos!