Yesterday we finally had a nice day, sun shinning and a reasonably comfortable temperature, we were well over due for it! It was so nice I gave a lesson outside using a soccer ball as a tool. This young lassie will be moving to Australia next year for 6months and I have it my head that she must learn important phrases and questions like how to ask the teacher if she can go to the toilet and what to do when one of the kids yells throw it to me!! throw it to me!! in the play ground. Do 10 year old girls play ball? At the moment Im trying to work out how to explain to her the difference between May I? and Can I?, my French doesn’t extend that far. Her father speaks excellent English so I think I will have to handball that job to him. I’m also worried she’s going to look the wrong way when she’s crossing the road, so we might have to cover that one lesson, without the assistance of Hector the Cat sadly. Was anyone else visited at primary school by Hector the giant yellow and blue cat who taught road safety?

Anyway it’s the weather I was talking about, so nice yesterday and crap again today. I am of course completely powerless to do anything about it but being so fed up I felt I had to do something. So in a widely optimistic move I have unpacked all my summer clothes and packed away all my winter clothes! So that should do it and Im confident my actions will not just benefit me but the whole of Lille as the Gods acknowledge my gesture and bring forth Spring.

Jim was recently interviewed for a local paper and today received a copy of the article in the mail. The mail came when Jim was at work but I knew who it was from so went ahead and opened it, I’m mildly disturbed by this. I never imagined I would be the type of wife who would open her husbands mail!!! I rang him at work immediately and much discussion followed about the last line of article, a quote by Jim that translates to I love living in France, the life in Australia is more stressful. We do love France and will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have lived here and in Germany, however we are both also grateful the experience has highlighted to us how much we love the lifestyle in Australia. Australia is home and as Dorothy said, there is no place like home. The interview was over the phone and the quote came from Jims response to two separate questions, one about how he likes living in France and the other as to which country has a more stressful work environment. In the article Jim talks about the importance of scientific experimentation, it’s fun to see Jim in Print, the copy they sent is a photocopy otherwise I would of taken a photo to show you.

Everyone seems very excited about the Commonwealth Games, and everyone has asked us if we watched the opening ceremony over here. Are you kidding, the French telecast the opening ceremony of the COMMONWEALTH Games!!