Roasting weather……and ‘toothache’ in your shoulder…and little finger!!

Hello folks!

Herself has been up to her eyes in it this week, she says…juggling work things and admin, etc etc – but she has managed to get out and about with the camera and take some new shots of her adopted city, and says she must get around to uploading ‘em

Well, I dunno about you, but this roasting weather is the ticket, ain’t it? Herself has abandoned the coat, scarf and other winter accoutrements – and felt herself getting a tad sunburned today, while struggling with the grocery bags. Nothing like a huge bag of potatoes and bottles of wine to weigh you down, bags of other stuff, and a big plastic thing containing 10 toilet rolls!

She says either she has pulled several muscles down her right side, or she slept ‘all weird’ on her right side – she’s muttering something about shoulder pain, arm pain, and a weird pain at the base of her little finger. The best description she can come up with is that it all (the whole lot of it) feels like toothache in her shoulder & hand..y’know that gnawing bugger of a pain that lingers and won’t go away. Tea would help y’know – but I suppose she’ll opt for a glass of the red stuff instead!

She’s not long back in from Lidl, and swears the price of stuff has doubled in a couple of weeks – is that possible? €30 spent, and not exactly a huge pile of stuff either

Herself’s off now to pop a Neurofen for the muscle pain thing, and then beautify herself – she’s off to meet Himself in town, and they may pop in to the English Forum for a while

By the way, I wonder would any of you know of any work going a-begging for an English speaker? Herself is on the lookout for jobs. Nearly all things considered, she says!

She’s off now to get ready to go out, so I’ll log off and say

A Bientôt!

TP

Recommendations: How much should one get paid per hour for teaching? and: know of a really good Vide Grenier in Nantes?

Howdy all!

Herself and Himself are thinking of going along to a Vide Grenier today in the Nantes area – and were wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to the best place to go?

By the way, on a different note – she has been approached to do a little teaching of English to a few kids in their home, but the rate of pay will be just €9 per hour – is this far too little? And if so, what exactly should be charge?

All suggestions and hints gratefully received!

Back soon!

Bon journée!
TP

Rummaging on a Random Sunday

Pigeons roosting on the balcony outside, the smells of summer, and just noticed that pigeons ‘blink’…a lot!

Howdy dooo folks!

Teapot is back with a vengeance (well, not really – back rather gently, but it sounded better to say otherwise!)

Herself is a very busy bee these days with work related stuff, so she doesn’t make enough time to sit down and dictate what she’d like me to write, y’know? She’s embracing life to the full at the minute – off out here and there, integrating with various groups, interviewing folk (journalism work), mixing & mingling – you know yourselves, how some weeks seem to be busier than others.

French lessons are progressing slowly (she’s a slow learner, she says) – but overall, I can report that Herself is indeed feeling very much at home these days in her adopted city. It’s like she was always here (except for speaking French well, of course).

Herself and Himself are off out again this evening, this time to see an English-language theatre production. It’s being performed by a theatre company called Word for Word (they’re from San Fran) and they literally perform everything that’s written on the page – so this, she gotta see!

Since the beginning of the week, the weather here has taken a turn for the better – and the temperature is said yesterday to have reached a staggering 24 degrees! Hot! Hot for mid-March! Lovely, she says – more of that please.

She has tried to describe the smell of summer – the scent of cut grass, whitethorn and cherry blossom all mingled in the mild air last night – and she says it’s a smell from childhood – a definite reminder of those lovely long summer evenings from way back in a very distant past. (Way, way, way, way back!) The best way to describe it, she says, is that it’s like stepping outside and taking a (literal) walk down memory lane. Fab!

On a completely different note: two pigeons have taken to roosting around on the balcony fencing outside – two big juicy pigeons, who may or may not be ‘in a relationship’. Herself studied them closely yesterday and was shocked (bless her lack of knowledge!) to find out that pigeons blink! Yes, they blink! A lot! Not sure how many people know that, but there you go – and pics of these fine blinking specimens can be seen below..

She’s off now to get stuck into more work related things, so I can safely say I’m not going to be commentating very much at the moment. Y’know – I think I quite liked it when she had loads of time to spend hanging around the house. Well, I have my spout pointed away from her, in protest at how busy she’s become

Anyway folks, enjoy the glorious weather if you have it, wherever you live (smashing weather in Nantes), and..
A bientôt!

TP

To poo or not to poo - that is the question!

"Have you finished yet, dear?" "Haven't started yet, luv!"

Morning all….finally made a chocolate gateaux yesterday evening..yumyum! Fancy a slice?

Morning all!

What a fab day it is here today!

How’d you fancy a bit of cake with/for your brekkie? Or your tea? Well, Herself says you can taste her choccie cake this evening if you happen to be passing by The English Forum in Nantes round about half past six or so…….she’s bringing the cake in to celebrate her birthday (that was last week, but the Forum peeps were on a week off, except for the hardcore Brit expats who met down the pub instead!!) Nothing can separate some peeps from their beers!!

Well….(drum roll)…….It finally got made! Wonders will never cease! A cake has been born, mesdames et messieurs!

Smells lovely – very chocolatey indeed, she says – and she’s in a great mood. What more do you want, she says – when you’ve got the fab smell of chocolate wafting throughout the house, and the sun is splitting the stones outside! And – bless us all – she’s now started singing What a Wonderful World (but with out the Louis Armstrong-style vocals, ha!) ;p

Now, that cake looks so appetising that Himself was overheard to say something along the likes of: “that IS a lovely-looking cake! Can we not have it? Do we really have to give it away? Do we? Do we? awww……it looks so tasty, too. Are you sure you want to bring that cake along for a crowd of hungry strangers to devour? I think the cake would prefer to be consumed by us. Just look at it’s little face!”

(Okay – I made that last bit up, the bit about it’s little face!!) But yes, Himself is very taken with said cake, and even peered in at it in the oven where it has been residing since last night. In fact, he opened the oven, and breathed in the chocolate fumes in a manner reminiscent of the Bisto kids in the TV ads from years ago! For all I know, he may even have come up with a name for it!

Well, she says she’ll slice off a portion to keep for themselves, then bring the rest of it along this evening, to be washed down with Newcastle Ale or another beer they have every so often, interestingly titled Bishop’s Finger! Say no more!

Loads to do here today at Teapot Towers, as usual, and work to be done, so I shall lend myself to service as I usually do (I deserve a medal, me!) and keep my spout pointed in the direction of interest – so I shall log out now, and catch y’all later!

See you later, and have a great day! Enjoy the fabby weather, she says!

TP

Me & the Cake....now y'see it, now y'don't! yumyum!

Make yourself feel younger – dance around the kitchen in your PJs to 80s CDs!

Morning all! how are things?

Well, I haven’t been a lazy teapot as such…but Herself hasn’t really been in the zone for dictating notes this week, and that’s pretty much due to a family illness issue (her dad’s been hospitalised this week, and the outlook ain’t great). But – fingers crossed, she says. She’s hovering by the phone for updates, but trying to stay upbeat all the same, you know how it is yourselves. So she watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian the other night just to hear ‘em singing Always look on the bright side of Life!”

Cheered her up a bit, it did!

Weatherwise – Spring has sprung around here – the past few days have been glorious, she says. Cherry blossom in full bloom (she says it smells like Fry’s Chocolate Cream, as I think I’ve mentioned before)

She’s been attempting to keep busy, but her head is ‘a bit all over the place’ as she says herself – but she has been getting on with some work stuff all the same, and has to follow up a couple of work leads today as well.

Paris last Friday was terrific, she says. They were lucky with the weather, and after she’d got business out of the way in the morning, Himself and Herself strolled around Montmartre, explored the Marais district, spent some time at Montparnasse, had lovely meals and enjoyed a naughty bottle of wine at around 4pm! It was her birthday y’see, and she says what is a girl to do when she finds herself turning 21 – again!

And it was a very busy weekend at Teapot Towers, the kids were here, so there wasn’t a moment left spare to chill out. She says it was like Clapham Junction at times!

Herself has just let out an almighty sigh and says she feels really old this week. Ah look….she’s off to the bookcases rifling through the CD collection and….yep…..a pile of 80s stuff is making its way over to the CD player! Well, she says, that’s one way to feel young again!

LOL …. you know you’re old when….. you dance around to 80s stuff in your pyjamas!! At 9 o’clock in the morning!

Dancin' around the kitchen in your PJs

Sorry – no actual pics of Herself in her PJs – that’s not allowed… She says she doesn’t want to put peeps off their brekkie!!

Right folks, off again I am, to be of service to the household – so until later..

Bon journée!
TP

CakeMix cheat! – but at least there’s a halfbottle of wine in the stew for tonight’s dinner!

Morning all!

Fabulous sunshine here today – makes a great change!

Quick post this morning – Herself has a busy agenda lined up – off out in an hour or two to do some journalism work. So – update: a few enquiries have been made as to the status of The Birthday Cake. It hasn’t been baked yet (TUT TUT!) – but it will be baked tonight. She cheated – bought a readymade cakemix in Leclerc yesterday and all she has to do is add 4 eggs and a drop of milk. Couldn’t be easier. Next week she says she’ll graduate on to making the cake from scratch. (We’ll see, eh?)

The stew got made though – and there’s a very generous half-bottle of wine in it! She says it smells fabulous – and it’s wafting all over the house. Not quite brekkie material though……or is it?

Tonight, the ‘hardcore element’ (ie: Brit expats) are meeting in a local pub, as the English Forum isn’t officially set to reconvene until next Thursday…so she says she’ll be running around today at top speed to achieve a pub visit. Rush back from journo work, have French lesson, rush out to pub, rush back to bed. Up at Stupid O’Clock for the train to Paree in the morning – and she says it will be at least 1pm tomorrow before she can sit down and relax – preferably on a little cruise up the Seine or some such treat

She’s dashing off to get ready and ‘beautify’ herself’ (a difficult job, she says – but she’s gotta try!)

Right folks, until later
Ciao!!

TP

PS: have a good day!!

Feng Shui – a hint of the OCDs?, wine in the stew, and baking her first cake!

Howdy-do folks!

Well, this morning has flown past, and Herself isn’t too long out of bed. She faffed about until the wee small hours rearranging furniture and trying to Feng Shui the place up a bit. Don’t know if it’s working though, lol

She says she’s moving around in slow motion this morning, doing a very good impression of a Zombie and being very un-French indeed – having an über late breakfast (boiled egg & a piece of toast) right at this minute. She boiled the egg too long she says – not the correct texture at all …. and then she spent an age checking emails and what not, so now the toast’s gone cold! And the egg!

So back to Feng Shui – are there any rules in particular that one should follow, she says? She’s making sure that the middle of the living-room is uncluttered, and there are neat lines and patterns of furniture and whatnot. Although she says she sounds like she’s got a bad case of the OCDs, arranging furniture in lines (Heh heh … I think she HAS got the OCDs….has ‘em reeaal baaad!)

Decluttering is great for the mind, she says – it provides wonderful ‘thinking time’. She achieves a near-minimalist look, y’see (but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t hoard stuff! Oh no sirree!). It means stuff is out of sight – and when it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind! So every possible storage space in the house is being wisely utilised. She says she’s just got to declutter the bathroom now, and her mission is complete (for another while). She enjoys getting the house to herself, she says, as she can really let rip with the Feng Shui experimentation (and hoovering the place to within an inch of itself). Or something like that!

Today, she says she’s going to shop for the ingredients of a lovely stew (she’s been keeping some red wine aside for it – to put IN it, y’see, not to drink with it. Slurp! she says) – and also some cake mix. Some cake mix or perhaps all the cake ingredients from scratch. Now seeing as Herself hasn’t baked since the last century (!) (many decades ago at school, in domestic science class! – urgh, bad memories, she says), she reckons she might play it safe this week and just opt for the ready-made cake mix – as an experiment. The results of this experiment will be known as, referred to as, and eaten as The Birthday Cake. I’m wondering myself how it will turn out!

Back to limerick composition now, she says. People are getting very excited indeed about this Andouille competition on A Taste of Garlic. She says she’ll brainstorm a few more whilst faffing about getting ready to go out. The old creative juices were flowing like wine the other evening – 4 gems in a row, she wrote (well…..liberal use of the word ‘gems’ there. I’d say ‘efforts’ would be a better description!!). So she says it’s about time she wrote a few more!

So, it’s a bientôt for now, and I’ll try to remember to post during the ‘creative baking process’ later! ;p
Bon journée!

TP

To cake-mix or not to cake-mix - that is the question!