It Snew Yesterday! March 1, 2009

 

On the right is a photo scan of my new (& first) nephew. It’s alot clearer than the scans my wife had when she was pregnant with the twins. It was like an 85 year old on drugs drawing on an etch-a-sketch. But as you can see, you can clearly make out the head, nose, mouth & arm. He also looks like he’s scratching his head. (just like my brother). Kids are wonderful at stating the obvious, embarrassing you in front of strangers & family & making you fall over laughing.

Teaching the kids the subtleties of English whilst they are being brought up in France can be funny & frustrating. A few years ago we were trying to teach them that the past tense of throw is threw not throwed, & the same with grow & grew not growed. But then our daughter said “Oh I get it, if today it’s snowing & tomorrow it will snow, then yesterday it snew.

NO NO NO NO NO. It’s impossible, I thought learning French is hard having masculine & feminine everything. But teaching English grammar rules, & when they are to be broken is not easy.

Because a child when told something like that says the one thing to stop you dead in your tracks “but why?”

Can you answer it? No, it just doesn’t sound right to say “it snew yesterday” or why the word “close” can be said two different ways even though they are spelt the same.

My brother is looking forward to the birth of his son, but I haven’t got the heart to tell him what he’s in for.

PS my spell checker has just had a nervous breakdown

Weather girls don’t do it any more February 12, 2009

It was as predicted cold & frosty this morning but it soon melted away when the sun came up. It’s been sunny & almost warm. Sat on the terrace this afternoon in the sun felt like it was spring time.
At bloody last.
I’m fed up with the weather girl coming on in the morning telling you that there’s been a months worth of rain in 24 hours or that there’s so much snow you can ski to work. & the whole time she’s wearing a mini skirt & a skimpy t-shirt. Don’t get me wrong, theres nothing wrong with that. But not when she’s telling you how bloody cold or wet it is outside. They should have Francis Wilson there in his suit with his tie all skewiff almost sober wearing a pair of ski’s or big yellow mac. Then you might take it more seriously. Or you could move to France & sit on your terrace in February & wonder what all the fuss is about.

The Frog Blog February 6, 2009

A day in France is about our day to day life in the Vendee. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. We are a husband, wife & three children. We have lived in France for the past 10 years, firstly in the South & now in the West.

As I mentioned we have 3 children, the eldest is 15 & the twins (boy & girl) are 12. They are all going through the normal French school system & are perfectly bilingual.  We have a gite that is pictured above, that takes up a lot of our time during the summer. If you click the picture it will take you to our web site.

Now lets start with today. I was going to call this page the Frog Blog, but decided against it in the end as it might lead people to think that we don’t like the French. We do, but that’s not why we live here. A lot of expats say they live in France because they like the French way of life. I think it’s more, they like to live in France because of the way of life they can live. We still watch UK television & we all speak English in the house. Well not the kids they have a strange kind of Franglais language from time to time. But living here suits the way we want to live.

Today my wife & I have been to La roche sur yon, to sought out the never ending national health insurance problem I have had for the past 6 months. For once & I promiss you the first time ever in France we managed to sought it out in 30 minutes by visiting the goverment office that deals with it. Face to face is the best way forward in France, they love to talk.

This afternoon I set up this new blog, sat on our terrace & smoked a number of cigarettes but still could not come up with something to write about. I picked up the kids from school between 5 & 5:30pm, came home opened a can of beer & here I am typing about nothing in particular.

Yes today has been OK but could have been better.  Tomorrow might be bring who knows what.