Halfway

“Woooah we’re halfway there-er wooooah oh living in a prayer-er.”

We’re almost halfway though our original 3 year trial of living in the south of France, (and maybe halfway though my time on this planet too) and at this point in time we more than ever really want to stay longer term. Both in France and just general being alive. Which is great because a year ago I was quite unsure (about the France bit). I was very aware of everything I’d left behind family members, a really nice Ikea hammock, and the beginnings of a career in comedy but the kids and Dan were very happy to stay maybe forever. I realised that I could be in a situation where I wanted to leave and they wanted to stay and that there’s no good solution to that. If we came back but the boys didn’t want to, or didn’t enjoy school back in England, I would feel awful. But then I can’t imagine me just being a frustrated extrovert comedian living in a tiny village in France forever.

So I’m glad I feel different now, some of the things that have changed are making some better connections here. I met a few nice people on my French course, but also I really appreciate my mad artist friend Flick. This week we were in an exhibition together so we went to the private view, and then afterwards went for a quick dip in the sea as it was going dark and then listened to the playlist of Flick six year old daughter on the way back in the car. If you haven’t heard the song from the Mario movie where Bowser is singing to Princess Peach you really should. The evening was the perfect mix of culture and silliness. So friends like that and also being in an incredibly beautiful place where you can wear shorts for 5 months of the year really help. 

Me and Flick in the neon corner. Her work is on the left and mine is on the right.

Some more of my art inspired by Port Vendres

The post art show swim.

I’ve also realised that some of the things I was sad to leave behind don’t really exist in the same way anymore. If we moved back to England and I tried to start doing my art job again I’d have to start again from scratch. I was doing quite a lot of work in my kids school and when I left I recommended some other artists, I can’t just come back and take that back. The same with comedy, I can’t just pick up where I left off I’d have to work my way up again. The boys couldn’t just go back to their old school, their places have been filled. Even my school run friendship circle has moved on a bit with some kids changing schools this year. The tenants in our house are decorating it to their style, who knows if I’d like it. Of course all my family members still exist and it is sad that I’m missing birthdays and babies being born. But going back wouldn’t be the easy option anymore.

We’ve had a busy summer of visitors after returning from seeing 52 friends and family members over a two week period in the uk. We had a few more visitors, no one actually slept over so it was not too much but we had some friends from the school run stay in a holiday park by the coast, this week we had our old friends Lydia’s and Tom stay, they were a few days in the mountains and a few days by the sea, and we got to see them in both locations. Then in between those visitors we had Dan’s parents stay. They timed their trip around seeing a rugby match, Wigan Warriors played our local team the Catalan Dragons. Eric, who has played rugby this year, proudly wore his Catalan Dragons top, while his grandpa wore the Wigan Warriors top. It wasn’t the first rugby match I’ve seen, but it was the first one I’ve seen in France and it was a lot more fun than British ones. The actual rugby was the same, men fighting over a ball for longer than is necessary. But what I enjoyed about this match was, there was a barbecue and wooden games outside the stadium beforehand. I got to sit down, the weather was good, I got a bit of French practise and I got to make a sarcastic TikTok while watching. (See it here) 

We also went to stay at a holiday park for the weekend, that had a great pool with a few really good water slides. Unfortunately that weekend was the only weekend of rain all summer. We really need rain, the rivers are drying up and there was a bad forest fire in August but that weekend was pretty annoying. Luckily as it’s only 40 minutes away we just kept our wrist bands on any then snuck back in on a day we weren’t there. Usually I really have to justify rule breaking very hard to Percy (my 8 year old) but he totally thought it was fair, “Ok mum, we’ll go once, but only because of the rain.” He’s my moral compass for everything these days.

This week the boys were back in school after 2 months of holiday, which is at least a month more than it needs to be. Eric is finally starting “proper school” he’s now in the same building as Percy and will begin to learn reading and writing this year. Even though it’s two years since he started in reception in England. Percy who would only be in year 4 in the uk, is now in the oldest class of primary school, this is because his October birthday means he’s skipped a year and is now one of the youngest in his year, and because his school is small he’s taught with the kids above him anyway. So in two years time he’ll be going to secondary school here, unless we move back and then he’d only be in year 6.

First day back 

I also started my new job this week teaching kids English in a Wednesday club. So they don’t go to school on Wednesday but a lot of kids do activities or sports. So I teach two groups of 5-8 year olds, through games and crafts and fun. I had to become French self employed to do this and the French have a very annoying system of you become self employed for one thing and stick to it, you can’t do a bit of everything. So now that I’m self employed as an English teacher I’m looking for more work in that area. I already started doing 1 to 1 conversation practice with a friend of a friend but I’m going to try and do more and get a TEFL qualification too. Dan says I can get round the rules though by doing any job and speaking English at the same time, e.g. do an art workshop for a school, say a few words of English, it’s an English lesson. Do a cleaning job for someone, chat to myself in English it’s an English lesson. Babysit for a kid sing “the wheels on the bus.” It’s an English lesson. Maybe I should run that idea past my moral compass Percy.

Dan continues to job hunt, he’s applied for a lot of things and not heard much back, but he has got a few bits of freelance writing stuff to do for a few of our contacts, so it might be possible for him to focus on getting more and bigger clients and to do that instead of finding a full time salaried job. We’ll see. Now that we’re all on board with staying here I really hope we can make it work financially. Much as we miss our friends I don’t want to go back to the grey land!

Bonne nuit mes amis

P.S My next blog will be about the cleaning job in an almost château that I did today plus a roller skating club I might join. and after that I need to blog about gingers! I’ve got some exciting updates on the ginger bet that quite a few people got in on in 2013. Only 5 years left!