Birthdays and a new job

What a mad week we had last week! We knew going into the week it was going to be the week where we found out if we were going to be staying in France or leaving, based on if Dan got a job or not. We were told we would hear at the beginning of the week (Monday 28th April) it was also Dan’s birthday on the Wednesday and Eric’s birthday on the Saturday. I was a bit worried that Dan might get bad news on or just before his birthday. So they phoned on the Monday and instead of saying yes or no they invited him for a third interview on his birthday! His birthday was sort of weird, he had already found his birthday present. It’s very hard to hide things when you’re moving house and every box gets moved and looked in.

One day Dan said, “why has the landlord left brand new roller blades under the kids beds, they’re in my size too!” Happy Birthday! He’s going to join me and Eric in the skating crew, we just need to get Percy on board now. So the birthday morning was opening a few cards, and then I was getting ready for my kids group that comes round on Wednesdays to learn english, and Dan was getting ready for the interview. I then had an online lesson to teach and then I had a good few hours gap before I do an in person lesson in the evening. So in that gap we ate out next to the beach as a birthday post interview treat. Dan said the interview had gone well and it was down to just him and one other person and that they would tell him on either Friday or Monday. 

Thursday was one of the many random bank holidays in May. So we had more of a proper Dan celebration and went to the wake park. Me and the boys just watched and hung out in this cool little cafe area while Dan had a go. It’s pretty hard wakeboarding, we did it together once in Croatia and I fell off a lot.

This was the knee board that he tried before the stand up one that I didn’t manage to get a photo of.

We didn’t hear anything from the job on Friday so we just got on with preparing for Eric’s 8th birthday, he wanted a cake of a specific Pokémon. 

This is Snorlax in case you were wondering

On his actual birthday he went go karting with 3 friends. They had a lot of fun although they had to wait ages to do it, they were much more patient than me. There was another birthday group there that had birthday banners and themed ballons and little back and white flags (you know chequered flags) then they had a nice picnic table set up with a cake and sweets. I didn’t bring anything and I regretted it. But we did go home to a feast including a chocolate fountain that didn’t work, so we just handed out small bowls of melted chocolate to the kids instead. It turns out the fountain is the least important thing in a chocolate fountain.

On Sunday night I said to Dan, “if it’s a no I think we’ll have to go back to our old house in Liverpool.” I was happy to do that, I love that house, but Dan was not pleased about that idea and was wishing he had spent more time on looking for opportunities elsewhere in the UK. The problem is we would have to tell the people renting our Liverpool house off us pretty soon if we were going to return, and without a job this house was our only option for housing. I had weird dreams all night about the fact that our whole lives were being decided tomorrow. That night I dreamt that Dan got the job but his new boss was Harry Hill. As if Harry Hill had just decided that he’d had enough of show business and wanted to be a manager in a swimming pools company in the south of France.

It was hard trying to get on with normal life stuff like lesson planning while waiting for this phone call. I considered listening to a French podcast at one point, but then thought what’s the point if we’re going back. By lunch time I was annoyed they hadn’t rung, they must know right? They can’t still be deciding. Then by 5pm we thought we’re not going to hear today, and I was expecting another night of struggling to sleep followed by weird dreams. Then just before 7pm Dan went for a poo, and mid poo they phoned to offer him the job!

The job, which he starts on Monday, is digital marketing for a swimming pool company. Writing google ads and all that kind of stuff, in French, but English is a plus because it’s the international language and some documents and stuff are in English. I hope he will get to use my favourite French word a lot. “Piscinable.” It means could put a swimming pool in it. In English you would use it in the sentence, “Oh yeah this garden is totally swimming poolable”

A few people have asked me if I’m ok about staying, and I do appreciate being asked because I’m not really sure long term if I can stay here forever. I am sad about the things I will miss out on, like career opportunities, seeing all my nieces and nephews grow up, being not far from grandparents and doing comedy. But I know if I was in England I would struggle to ever swim in the sea again and I would miss the mountains and skiing and I would be sad watching my kids forget how to speak French. So I’m trying to see the positive side. In the short term it is all positive, we can relax about money and enjoy the warmer months and then over the summer, because our current house is an airbnb I will go back to the UK with the boys and see all my friends and family and Dan will stay and work. (But he’ll visit for a bit.)

Maybe check I’m ok in November, when it’s just normal boring life and it’s cold here. But for now I’m going to try and enjoy life. We’re going to Corsica at the end of the month, somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages and from here it’s just a 3 hour drive onto a boat and then a sleep on the boat and wake up in Corsica. Shortly after that I’ve got my art exhibition which I’m excited about, and I’m working hard at the moment to get ready for it. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “live every day as if it was your last” for me that’s taking it a bit far. I imagine my last day will mainly be spent crying and trying to remember internet banking passwords, so I don’t want to live every day like that. But I think “live every year as if it was the last year in that place” makes sense. That’s why we booked Corsica, because we thought it would be the end of our time in France and we really wanted to go. 

Some of the work that will be in my exhibition:

Tomorrow me and Dan will be having a little recce round a couple of possible areas to move to, so we can try and make the decision on whether to move nearer to Dan’s new job or not. France has a strict school system where everyone goes to their nearest school, which in general is good but can be annoying. For example if we wanted to stay in our current village Percy would go to the secondary school in the next village that’s a bit bigger and 5 minutes away, but if we were to buy a house in that village (because there are hardly any houses for sale in our village) then Eric would have to move primary schools even though we would be more than happy to drive 5 minutes for him to stay with his friends. It’s possible he could get permission to stay but the Mayor would have to approve it and normally they say no. 

Happy VE Day. It was another random school holiday in France and we went to the lake with some English and Irish friends. These are the moments that make being here seem worthwhile.