jimandclaire.com

Tuesday 31 January, 2006

what’s news

Filed under: Claire's Entries — claire @ 3:03 pm

I am still doing a lot of knitting, however it’s mostly gifts, except for a jumper for me, so I won’t show any of it. Three couples close to us are expecting babies (5 babies between 3, you can work that out!) so there is a lot of baby garments in the planning stages. Whilst knitting I have been listening to the ABC’s Radio National pod casts, which has been a real pleasure, the other day I put down my needles to just delight in the fact I could effortlessly understand everything that was being said. Not just the basics but the depth of meaning and the nuances of speech, when listening to French I am exhausted, but delighted, to follow just the basics. One of my favourite programmes is Books and Writing, yesterday I was read to in my lounge room by Kate Grenville, Carlos Fuentes and Alice Munro, I loved the sound of Munros Runaway so much I ordered it off Amazon, but for less then $18 Aussie dollars to my door I don’t think it was extravagant.

In other news I have not had much luck with the job applications, all replys have been that it is to late in the school year, as it is a requirement that all teaching contracts are signed by early December. I will have to try private schools, however I hope to start a French course at the Lille Uni next month which is 3 full days a week and with the English classes I give I will be busy.
Jim has had some news of which he is his usual modest self about, but not I, I am full of pride for my clever husband. Some of his research has produced results that warrant a patent, it will carry his name and has required a lot of paperwork and his account details, he says the monetary rewards will be minimum. So this outcome as well has his published papers have made his post doc in Lille very rewarding

The past few weekends have been spent quietly as we are saving our pennies for a ski trip next month. Other holiday plans are a trip to Greece in May and we hope to find out soon that we have been successful in obtaining World Cup tickets for the Australia Croatia match in Stuttgart. What a coincidence it’s Stuttgart, it will be fun to return and to visit some friends and we will have no trouble finding our way around.

I have been failing miserable of late on the domestic goddess front, going through a faze where I am not passionate about what I cook for dinner, luckily Jim has picked up the slack on the weekends and has been inspired by Jamie Olivers Italy. I have been in such a rut that I resorted to cooking Burritos the other night but we both confessed they were pretty yummy. One thing I am into is bread making and the winner is Donna Hays Muscatel and Cinnamon, I prepare it of a night time and let the second prove be a cold overnight one. The next morning just pop it in the oven and 35 mins later you have a fresh delicious loaf, it so delicious that I have baked it, with variations, every weekend since we returned from Spain, last weekend I made it with banana and fig.

We saw Munich on Sunday arvo and both enjoyed it, I thought Eric’s performance was flawless, my French teacher thought it difficult to follow but I don’t agree and found it’s lack of pretension reflected well on Speilbergs part, who I am not normally a fan of. Is Eric Bana usually so sexy?

So what’s with the photo? We don’t hear or see a lot of English in these parts, so I was quite surprised to find some on a dumped mattress out the front of a neighbours!

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