virtual diaries

Ikea? On Saturday afternoon? Why yes, what a nice idea!

Hello - the above title is sarcastic, if you hadn't guessed. We've just been getting a few bits for our new flat, but it was madness - never again. Then we went to Carrefour (supermarket) which was only slightly less horrible. Aurelie even had the audacity to ask people to let her to the front of the priority lane for pregnant women - I mean, how dare she!?

Sorry, the sarcasm continues...been one of those days. I hate shopping. Ikea is OK I suppose, but not on a Saturday.

Anyway, some great news - I've got a job confirmed! It's with the chamber of commerce here in Lille; I start on a casual basis until the new year when I'll have a proper bona fide permanent French contract! :) Great! I'll be teaching English of course, mainly in companies. 

Today we signed a contract for the internet in our flat - should be a week or so till we have the necessary hardware...till then we're using the internet in MacDonalds...but we're not eating here tonight after twice eating here in the past week. I told Aurelie we should just come and sit here and not buy anything, but she wouldn't let me :(

Other than that, not sleeping very well at the moment, undoubtedly due to all the changes, stress, troublesome emotions...hoping things will settle down real soon. Aurelie and baby are fine (we hope); we're going to see doctor next week.

Well that's all for now, just a quick hello -  take care everyone - and Saturdays are not for shopping! No way Jose!!

Almost into our new appartment :)

Hello all,

We've spent the past couple of days getting ready to move into our new flat; furniture coming down from the loft here chez Fessier, then wiping off cobwebs and dust of thirty years. It's left us well equipped with furniture, Aurelie's Dad's trailer's loaded up and ready to go in the morning. All that lacks is a mattress (we've got her Dad's old bed - older than me), a washing machine and a cooker. We're hoping to get those things second hand. 

We found the flat last week - Thursday I think it was. Aurelie and I were both stressed out about the whole thing, what with wanting so much to regain our independence, spending so much on hotels and eating out, getting lost all around Lille - anyway, you can imagine. There was this flat on a list we got from an agency - I got Aurelie to ring though she preferred not to, as it was some way from the centre of Lille. In fact, it's not really in Lille, but in a small suburb that must once have been a village, called "Marcq en Baroeul". If you wish, you can use Google Earth and type in the following;

Latitude  50°41'19.01"N and Longitude 3° 6'50.32"E 

Anyway,forgive the geeky interlude, back to the story. We fixed up an appointment for later that day, and rather grudginly went to see the flat in the afternoon. As we were driving there, we seemed to be getting further and further from the centre of the city until we were right out in the middle of the countryside! I was of the thought that this was a no-go - pretty sure Au was the same. Then we turned into a little village, found the place easy enough - it was above a little cafe / bar!

Well, let's cut this long story down a bit - the landlord of the flat owns the building and operates the cafe underneath the flat, and seems a nice honest guy - in contrast to many other people we met in our quest for a roof over our heads. We had a look around the flat - small but clean and tidy - not too bad at all. 500 euros a month, no messing around with agencies (who want a month's rent in fees - behaviour undeniably parasitical, if you ask me), no need to provide evidence of earnings or such nonsense (still no contract for me, though read on)- just gave him money for a month's rent plus another as deposit - job done. And it being far away - there is a tram stop only 10 minutes walk away, and only a 15 min ride to the heart of the city.

It was unfurnished though,but lke I said earlier, we should be OK on that front. It's not massive, but I reckon it'll do very well for us for the next few months, give us time to look round for something better...we're both really happy with it, being in such a quiet area, but well communicated, and we also feel a bit lucky too - seems perfect for us. There's even a gym across the street, and woods to run in too! Looking forward to demenager tomorrow up to the first floor...

On to other news. Aurelie and my son are doing fine. Getting bigger every day. It's strange enough for me to see a thing moving about in her belly, can't quite imagine what it must be like having it inside, though Au does her best to explain. I've got a couple of hours work already, and still have 2,3,4 other projects in the pipeline. I'm firmly confident of finding enough work. There's a bi-lingual school up the road from our flat in fact, I expect I shall furnish them with a copy of the 'course of my life'. That's CV btw- but I'm sure you knew that. 

Well,that'll do for the moment. My lovely wife to be needs her electronic fix. Love to you all.

Long time no post - sorry!!

Hi there my friends,

So sorry it's taken me so long to write anything to you! I've had some real trouble sleeping recently - felt awful, and not all that much has been happening other than the search for work, going out for a run sometimes, that sort of thing. In fact, last night was the first for around a week that I've actually slept properly.

So, the sleeping problems stem from our current situation at Aurelie's parents house, where things aren't that easy. You'll forgive the lack of detail, but having two adults who've lived independently for several years back in the parental home creates a multitude of scenarios for anguish. The story is long, but neither of us are finding it very easy, so we are of course trying to move out as soon as we can. 

We've been going here and there to three different places in the past couple of weeks, called Compiegne, Amiens and Lille, meeting people, leaving CVs and the like. Well, on my lastpost I wrote about my interview in Lille. Following this I had a class last Saturday with two individual students for a different school in Compiegne, which was a kind of test of my ability as an English teacher. Needless to say ( ;-) ) this went well. So then on Monday, the boss called me back, and asked whether I'd be interested in helping them to open a school in Lille.   

We then went to meet with them on Tuesday and they offerend me a contract of 80 hours a month,doing a mix of admin and teaching. So I accepted and am now just waiting for the copy of the contract. And now, the other school in Lille have been in contact, and the long and short of it is (it's a loooong story) they have work to offer me too. So happily enough, things are finally moving. Looks like we'll be in Lille, and by all accounts it's a very agreeable place to be.

We're going there tomorrow to go into a few agencies, see what we can find. My only worry is that I have nothing as yet proving my newly attained 'employed' status...we're not too sure whether we'll be able to convince people of our ability to pay the rent...or to put it another way, what hoops we'll need to jump through (like those dogs).

As a side note, I went for a run on a track in the fields near to Aurelie's parents home this afternoon, next to the huge piles of recently harvested sugar beet. I was just skirting the edge of a wood (one of those not cut down by French farmers - hedgerows like in England are a rarity here) and a baby deer came bounding down the track towards me! He / she got to about 10 metres away, then seemed to realise I was not it's mother, so ran away as fast as it could. It was a lovely moment for me, I've never been that close to Bambi!

Take care all, and thanks for continuing to read the blog and writing your comments.

Back in the EU

Hello everyone,

Well, it's a long time since I last wrote anything for you - sorry about that! We've been back in Europe for over 2 weeks now, first at Aurelie's parents' house for a week or so, then back to England for just over a week. And now, back to Aurelie's parents' house again, here in Vermand, France.

Well, we've certainly enjoyed seeing our families again. It hasn't been smooth all the way, but we're happy to be back. For my part, I really enjoyed seeing all my relatives again - there's nothing like being away for a few months to really appreciate them. It was pretty hard to leave again,but both Aurelie and I would feel happier living in France (well, probably anyway). 

So, I went to an interview yesterday in Lille, for a job as an English teacher (what else?). It went pretty well, with the lady saying she'd contact me next week if I get on to the short list. Then I'd be required to go back and give a teaching demonstration - brilliant (not). It was with the Lille chamber of commerce, and they seem like they'd be a good employer. Lille itself seems nice, big but not too busy, with lots of interesting things happening. Even so, however, I think I'd prefer to live somewhere smaller. So, I'm still looking in the area to the south of Lille, in the slightly smaller cities here. Nothing definite yet really, but some promise of at least a day or two's work. The situation for work here is a little complicated, with almost no-one offering full-time contracts.

Anyway,I'm sure it'll all work out eventually! This weekend, Aurelie's bother and sister are coming home, and we also have her cousin and family coming on Saturday...I think my head may explode if I keep speaking so much French - it's so difficult! Trouble is, I'm too tired / lazy to sit down and really work on it - I'm just 'getting by' at the moment. Ah well, like the work, I'm sure it'll all come together in the end! Well, we're off into town now - I hope you all enjoy your weekend, and I'll try and write again next week.

A bientôt!!

Time up, Malaysia

Hello friends,

Just about an hour left before we depart for the airport to come back to Europe. Aurélie is taking care of most of the packing. She sort of likes it, I think, and she is far better at it than me. I keep telling her to just tell me what to do. We sent home a box weighing 25kg on Friday, so I'm hopeful we'll come in at under 20kg each at the check in. 

Some of Aurélie's students are taking us to the airport (very kind of them) and after some 15 hours or something we'll be back in France at 6.40am local time tomorrow where Aurélie's dad will be waiting for us.

We've been very lucky in that another teacher who arrived to teach at the Alliance Française wanted to take over our flat, and so with the agreement of the landlord we've been able to get a bit of money back for the deposit and other things we've bought.

OK, that's about it, it's been pretty good here, I'll miss the wonderful friendly people, and the little geckos, but not so much the weather which is just tooooo much.

Second installment of photos

Hello all,

Sunday afternoon here, and we're not doing very much. Aurélie's feeling a bit sick so I'm helping her out however I can. I hope she feels better soon! I've now finished my job, looking forward to staying in bed a few times in the coming mornings. The staff at the school were pretty nice at the end, we had some chocolate cake. A couple of the students were very sweet to me too.

Last night we went out to dinner with some of Aurélie's Saturday students. It was quite good fun, and the food was very nice. I'll post some of those photos here. So I'd better get on with posting these photos, I think I have quite a few!

So the last photo the other day was of Aurélie's excursion to Penang Hill. Well to continue that, here we have a snake which she photographed! She was obviously very brave to get close to it...

 

There is also an aviary on top of the hill, and Au took lots of photos of different birds, for example a hornbill (a symbol of Borneo):

 

and also this bird - a crested fireback pheasant.

 

A strange looking beast, I'm sure you'll agree. Isn't nature wonderful?

Anyway, lets move on from Penang Hill to something else. Au then went to a place called the 'Toy Museum.' Here is a photo of loads of Garfield stuff - she likes him as you'll know if you've ever seen her watch! 

 

Then she went with her friends to eat the following - apparently it was crushed ice with beans, corn, some strange black things and jelly sweets. Needless to say Aurélie did not partake. Not sure I would've either. 

Ok, moving on, the following week we went to the Penang Butterfly Farm. Here is one of the inhabitants.

 

and another one

 

A somewhat stranger beastie.

 

There were also several species of insects that looked exactly like leaves. Truly amazing.

Then here is the final insect I shall bother you with - and here we go with the technical description: a big yellow and black butterfly.

Then we went on to see many other things - including this giant bronze Buddha, that was unfortunately for us covered with scaffolding. It must have been over 50 feet high, as well as being at the top of a hill - goodness knows how they got it up there!

Here is a photo of Aurélie with her students from KDU college where she taught twice a week. They loved her apparently - weird huh!? :)

And here is yours truly with my former colleagues.

 

We get wonderful sunsets here most days - last night outside our flat for example.

Well...so many more photos of some many things...but here is the last for today - Aurélie's (and my, in a certain way) bump!

 

Enjoy your Sunday! Ben, Aurélie and bébé :)

No more pictures just yet...

Hey there,

We've got problems with the internet at home, so I can't post any more pictures yet! I'm writing this from work so I don't have time to post them here. I'll try to post them when I can - I want the world to see Aurelie's bump!!! :)

This is the end of my penultimate day here at Sri Pelita, and the lack of discipline of the students makes me feel rather relieved about it. I can do what I can to help make the kids behave (the ones I see in my lessons), but it's something of a losing battle. I'm currently writing a few words on my observations and recommendations to deliver to my colleagues tomorrow.

Well, back to it - hope you're all well - we're doing just fine :)

A few photos for you

Hello readers,

We're looking forward very much to getting back to France in just two weeks now. There's a few things we need to sort out, to pack and things like that, as well as send some stuff back (like books). I had an encouraging email from a potential employer in a place called Amiens, a small-ish city in the North of France. Nothing definite yet though.

It's Sunday today, so Aurélie is making us chicken today - yum! I'll then be off to play football this afternoon, and then I'm going hiking tomorrow on Penang Hill. I'm going with one of the teachers from my school - we plan to walk to the top and then take the cable car down - I'm not sure how long it's going to take! We're going tomorrow because it's another national holiday here. That leaves me just 4 days left at Sri Pelita school. I'll tell all the kids on Tuesday, I expect. I'll miss them, I've got to know them already.

So I'm going to post a few pictures now, starting way back when we went to Singapore over two months ago. Here I am in the swimming pool of the YMCA (which was actually more like a hotel, and suitably expensive). Au is the photographer, of course.

 

And here is the photographer, waiting for the bus - I caught her by surprise!

 

Here next is the Raffles Hotel - possibly Singapore's most famous sight. They didn't let us in the hotel, but we wandered around the outside area a bit.

 

Me and her by the Singapore river.

 

This beer was good in that heat, I can tell you!

 

Skyscrapers galore next to the river.

 

So then we came back here. This is me after a little run around in the field near our house - it's pretty humid in these parts! My T-Shirt is a bit deceptive too, eh?!

 

Next, here's my girlie in a lovely dress - I don't know if she'd fit in it now!

 

Now this is about a month after Singapore - there was a night when all of the city's cultural heritage places were open to the public - so I dragged Au along. This is a mosque. I'm afraid I have no other information - but it's pretty eh?!

 

This next picture is typical of the streets here in the 'old town.' I liked the red lanterns very much.

 

The street just above actually leads to this spectacular Chinese temple, below.

 

Here's another one (there are several here).

 

I have other temple photos, but this is more interesting - it's a petit gecko!!!! There are loas of them about, and they make a 'cik-cik-cik-cik' noise. I believe they are called 'cik-caks' in Malay. This one was hiding under a pot handle. I'll miss them greatly when we go back.

 

This is the view from Penang Hill (where I'm going tomorrow). Aurélie took it when she went there with two of her students.

 

This is a Hindu temple actually near the top of Penang Hill. I think it's Hindu, anyway...I may be wrong!

 

Well...I'll continue this a bit later - maye tonight, because lunch is nearing readiness. Stay tuned folks, for many amazing pictures, including a 60 foot bronze buddha, incredible insects and a little bump that gets bigger every day :-D

Un tres rapide hello!

Hello readers,

Late here on Monday night, and I'm just about to go to bed as I'm very tired...sleeping is not so great at the moment, as sometimes happens, and I went to play football this afternoon. I'm knackered in fact! Need sleep!

I'm actually at the end of a 5 day mini-holiday, as it was half term (didn't therefore work Thursday or Friday) and then it was independence day today, which is a national holiday. Haven't been doing all that much....reading, guitar, TV, internet, usual stuff. Plus feeling sorry for myself sometimes when I can't sleep properly :(

I've got lots of photos to post at some point, including some of Aurélie's bump (my growing son, he is called Thomas today, but his name changes every day, till we decide definitively), and of a trip we made yesterday to see various places in Penang. Petit Thomas kicks and moves around a fair bit now, which delights us, obviously!! :D

But I'm back to work tomorrow, less than 2 weeks left there in fact. Then one more week and we'll be on our way home. I'm sure we'll be busy sorting out various things...had one or two encouraging emails from potential employers in the Lille area, so I'm very hopeful that can I hook up with one (or perhaps two) of them when we get back. 

I'll write in a day or three...take care folks!

Firmer plans for our return...

Good evening everyone, I hope you are all well. My eyes are pretty much fully recovered - it was really rather unpleasant last week. I went back to work on Tuesday, all more or less OK there at the moment. Well, actually I have a fair few gripes about certain things there, but I shan't bore you all with that.

I told my boss (well, mid-level boss) that I'll be leaving and she accepted it with a minimum of fuss, for which I was very grateful. She was very understanding about it. We actually get on well, and can see the same problems and solutions, for example lack of discipline and what we can do about it. The problem is many of the other teachers don't give her the support and consistency she needs. 

Aurélie has been on the Malaysia airlines website and booked us a couple of berths on a jumbo jet back to Paris on September 21st (which is a Monday). So I've 2 weeks and the rest of this week at work, before I have the final week here to myself. I would dearly love to see some of the more lovely spots here in Malaysia, jungles and beaches and so on, but this isn't really possible right now. Aurélie wouldn't really approach it with great enthusiasm in her condition, which also means she needs me around of course. 

Like I probably mentioned, I now crave stability, and I hope to find it with my fledgling family back in the north of France. That doesn't mean however my days of adventure are over - just my days of uprooting everything in my life! I still want to explore new places, and see new things. But it's time for a stable home base with friends and family...hopefully I'll find something back in the north of France and we'll be near many of you who read this (and nearer than Malaysia to all of you). 

I look back at my reasons for wanting us to come here to Malaysia (exotic thoughts of adventure, hot weather) and I realise that it is not in fact what I want. But I think it is fair to say that often we only know what we want by first eliminating what we think we want. I now feel certain of what I want, and if I think deeply, I've probably wanted it for a very long time...

Well, I'm terribly tired after so-so sleeping over the past few nights, so I shall sign off. It's lunch on the 1st day of the final ashes test (cricket), which I am listening to online. So 1 o'clock back in the UK, 8 pm here, and it's time for me to go...but I must just mention another couple of things: first is Tottenham's great start to the new season - 2 wins in 2 games. I just put 5 pounds on them to win the league! Hahahaha you may be saying to yourself. But the odds were 40-1 or so, so I stand to make 225 quid if they pull it off! I'd be a happy man...well I am anyway, with my great wife to be and baby to be. Second thing - the name 'Sidney' has come up in our names discussions...wha'd ya reckon?? You think our son would like it?? Take care all :)