Time for A Trip Home

Isn't it funny, here I am living in S.W. France for 4 years now, which is basically my current home, and I still refer to Northern Ireland as my home. But it was the same when I lived in Canada, and South Africa, I always referred to home as being N.I.

So our flights are booked and now the count-down begins. It's only 5 weeks away and already I am excited. Lucky enough we know someone who will mind our dogs, Bailey (caviler king charles) and Buttons (Cocker spaniel), she has been looking after them whenever we go on holiday, and she stays in our house which is an added bonus.

This time of year we have to get two flights unfortunately, Jet2 travel from Toulouse to Belfast direct, but only from May to Sept. So we have to get a flight from Toulouse to Gatwick with Easyjet, and then from Gatwick to Belfast.  But we consider it a holiday and take advantage of drinks on the plane and shopping in the airports and of course when we hit Belfast oh! la! la!

All the things I look forward to are seeing family and friends. When we are descending in the plane into Belfast the first thing I always notice is how green everything is, of course with lots of rain its bound to  be greener.

The next thing I notice is how easy it is to communicate with everybody, you don't have to think what you are going to say when going into a shop or asking questions it just seems so natural. Then there is the shopping, it is so nice to see all the familiar things like my favourite sweets and chocolate. Clothes are so much easier to buy and shoes. Of course with it being November all the shops will be getting ready for christmas also, can't wait.






Quote for today:
'Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.'

Going to the Hairdressers in France

When I first came to France in 2007, it took me a while before I could force myself to go to the hairdressers. Even in my native tongue describing how you want your hair done can be a challenge.  There are several hairdressers in our town of Realmont, but there is one in the square called Blondy's and for some reason that's were I made my first appointment.

Now when you don't have a good command of the language, it can be quite difficult to go to a French hairdresser, and explain exactly what you want. Besides the usual, Bonjour and Je voudrais un rendez-vous, (hello I would like an appointment) I hadn't a clue how to say what I wanted.

So the first time, and I must say every-time now, I always take a photograph with me. I learnt to say a cut and blow dry, which is un coupe and brushing. When explaining how much to cut off my hair I was very careful. In France they don't work in inches like the UK, its centimeters, so for a trim I would say 3 centimeter, which sounds much the same French only with a French accent.

If you want to have your hair layered its 'en dégradés' and to have it straightened its 'raide'. So after a couple of years I decided to have highlights. I must admit I was very nervous about this, I could imagine coming out like the jolly green giant.  So I looked up the French word for highlights and found 'les mèches', I also found a good photo of blonde highlights and printed that off. Well I have to admit they did a very good job. But like every language you need to be very careful on your  pronunciation, and not say something like 'I would like my horse cut' as the French word for horse is Chevaux and the word for hair is cheveux.

But I manage alright, and they know me at the hairdressers now and they know I can't speak French very well.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of small talk going on, but so long as I get what I want I'm happy enough.



Quote for today:
'Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words'