Salut!

I think I may be knitting the most expensive scarf in the history of mankind - by mistake!

In the wool shop I saw a lovely big chunky scarf and asked about the wool to make it.  She said it was 11€ the ball and they used 4 balls!  OK then…what about a cheaper option…  So she showed me some wool for 4.50€ which was less chunky but still lovely.  She told me I would need 4 balls adn some chunky knitting needles.  So after spending 25€ and thinking, ‘this had better be a good scarf’ I leave. 

Anyway, I knit the first ball and it gives me a very little and after measuring it against an exisiting scarf I realise it’s only 1/8 of a scarf!  I would need 4 more balls…this scarf is getting more and more expensive.  So I ring up the shop to see if they have 4 more of the same batch, and they don’t.

So I trundle back in to Paris to get my moeny back on the 3 balls I haven’t started and buy something cheaper.  They refuse to give me my money back and insist that I exchange.  I had already bought the chunk needles so I was pretty much stuck with those.  So I had to buy more of the chunky wool in another colour that I liked less.  So I have now got 10 balls of wool - my scarf has cost me 45€ plus the needles!  Can you imagine?!  What a nightmare!  I will frame it.  This is not a scarf for wearing!! 

At least I’ve learnt a few lessons.  Go to cheaper shops and always make sure they have enough of the right wool to begin with!

However, the one ball that I did knit was good fun!  It’s like reading a book when you can’t put it down…I can’t stop knitting!  Pity I didn’t decide this in October…I’ll have to wait til next winter to wear one of my creations!

Check out my knitting!  I almost succeded in making a button hole - one stich somehow escaped and now cuts the hole in 2, making me 2 small button holes!  Not quite what I had in mind…  Also the casting off started off wrong and finished right…  But anyway, it was only a first try!

I gave someone their first driving lesson thi evening!  How grown up did I feel!  Although I did feel a bit stupid because I didn’t know how to say things like biting point, clutch, bunny hop in French!!  Anyway, Fifi survived, although I had to rag on the hand brake a few times so I’m sure it hasn’t done her any good!!  What was your first driving lesson like?  I’m sure you can remember!  A real rite of passage…

Tonight is the first time SINCE JULY that I have done a big shop with a shopping trolly!!!  I was very excited! 

During the day I can’t use Fifi to go shopping becuase it defeats the object…I would never get a parking space anywhere near to my flat for it to be of any use.  So I usually take my little old ladies trolly (which in fact are quite trendy in Paris!) and do my shopping twice weekly.  But things have changed!!  I’ve joined a gym which is near a big supermarket.  Which means I can go for an evening class and then do a big shop!  Oh the joy!  There was a whole aisle of different cereals to choose from, all different kinds of pitta bread - such exotic food isn’t stocked in my local mini-shop.

Another bonus is that the gym is in the neighbouring town up on the hill top.  So when I drive back down to Cachan I have a wonderful view for about 20 seconds over Paris, and I can see the Eiffel Tower!  How cool is that?  Burn some calories, buy some fancy muesli and see the Eiffel Tower twinkling, all in the same evening.  Can life get any better?!

I went out tonight with a couple of friends and got the last RER train home.  It’s always a time to learn more about French culture and realise how much I like it!! 

1pm, Friday night, last train out of Paris…if it were London I would imagine lots of very, very drunk people and feeling quite intimidated.  Here, it was like a party!  Were were crammed in like sardines and everyone was talking to one another and making jokes.  They had obviously been drinking but not ‘drunk’.  It was good fun.  I was just thinking - in England somebody would have been sick…

And then someone was.  But the reaction was SO different.  It was a girl.  And nobody could believe it!!  "A bird?  A bird was sick?"  (We were crammed in and, fortunatly, we all couldn’t see.  Those who couldn’t see couldn’t believe it!)  "No, girls don’t do that…"  "Darlin’ that’s not very pretty."  It was all quite amusing considering what you see at throwing out time in the UK…

Anyway, I had a very nice evening and spent most of it talking about God.  Which was fantastic but rather exhausting!  One of the lads is going to come to a jazz event at a church with me on saturday night, we’ll see what he thinks…

Hello there!

Ian and Lynn have been here for the past couple of days.  It has been great to catch up with them and just spend time together.  We have been very ‘culturel’!  We went to a museum on the history of Paris and L’Orangerie where we saw lots of famous paintings uncluding huge big murals of a pond by Monet.  I feel very grown up! 

Lynn has also inspired me!  I was learning to knit at the church but it was all a bit complicated and I couldn’t cast on and off.  Lynn has sorted that out and I’m now all excited about making a little purse!  I’ll show you the photos as I go…

  The lesson…

  the humble beginnings of my purse. 

Le Petit Parisien, 1952, Willy Ronis

I love this picture!  It’s so French!  It’s so true!

Today I was walking back to my flat with a baguette under my arm amidst the commuters.  In my line of vision I could see 3 other poeple with their baguette!  I LOVE French bread.  I LOVE the little tradition of buying fresh bread every evening for the meal.  France is good! 

Stacey and skirts don’t really mix.  Stacey and a new pair of tights, plus a skirt…well that is a recipe for disaster! 

Today I dressed up for a meeting at the federation headquarters.  I had to rush out at 6pm in order to get to my dance class on time.  I slipped in the snow and ripped open a big hole in my tights and gained a big bruise on my bum and a grazed knee. 

I KNEW!  I knew this morning as I put them on.  I could feel the foreboading…