Welcome back to the Frog blog. I planned on writing this entry a bit earlier but ended up having quite a busy day so I’m finally getting around to it now, cocktail in hand. I have to say I am enjoying having work on after such a horribly long dry spell, but at the same time I’d prefer it if these clients could coordinate amongst themselves so they weren’t all clamouring at once.
So yes, this week has been mainly work. I’m making very good progress with the equestrian site, CNPV, and might even get it done by the 31st when it’s due to be presented to the association. The French Wedding site is also coming along nicely, but I’ve had to it neglect today in favour of one for a retirement village project that’s been in the queue waiting for me. The scariest part is that enquiries just keep on coming in. Most are from existing clients, and include an online shop – always a big project. We also had a new one today (that came first to Colleen and she forwarded) for a villa to rent in Crete. Wonder if they’d consider paying us in free holidays…
Aside from work, we had a number of other activities last week. On Tuesday morning we went to a house clearance sale down the road in St Pardoux. We’ve been in need of bookshelves and a chest-o-drawers for ages, so thought we’d try our luck. Unfortunately there was little of interest, but we did score some cheap BBQ tongs and some bowls. The best part was that, for the 30 mins we were there, it was like being back in Dalston: the family were as cockney as can be. It seemed very incongruous out here.
On Wednesday, our friend Morgan called round to see us around 5pm for an overdue catch up. He if you can’t remember is the young lad who we see from time to time who is bipolar. He’s been doing great recently and is definitely on the right meds. He stayed for an hour or so and then went off to meet his new girlfriend. It was lovely to see him, but slightly unfortunate that he picked Wednesday to call by as I had my French language exam the next day and had naively planned not to smoke anything the night before.
The exam is called the Test de Connaissance du Francais, or TCF, and is mainly used for people applying for citizenship. It’s also sometimes required of overseas workers coming to work in France. The full exam consists of a reading comprehension test, an listening comprehension test, a grammar test, a spoken test and a written test. I’d read up on it and been doing what revision I could online to ready myself and was dreading it, even though I was scoring enough in practises. It was at 8.30am in Perigueux, and as misery loves company and I didn’t trust myself to be able to find the venue alone, I managed to coerce Matt into driving me there. We got there right on time and he went off to shop in the big city while I made my nervous way inside.
We were a group of 12, mostly student age and mostly Moroccan. I was certainly the only Brit in the room and a few candidates later asked what I was doing there seeing as I was already an EU citizen. We kicked off with the reading comprehension test: questions based on short excerpts. They started off easy peasy and ended up very hard. The oral one followed and then we were told we’d be called up for our spoken tests individually. In confusion I asked about the other parts and was told we didn’t have to do them. Apparently they’re only for employment purposes and are not needed for citizenship applications. This was obviously a huge relief, but that feeling was tempered by being the last one called in for the individual spoken test so I had over an hour to stew in fear. The test wasn’t really that difficult but it was all being recorded and you had to speak on given topics or role-play situations for set amounts of time and I blanked it a bit as I was literally shaking with nerves. All in all I think I’ve passed, but now have a month’s wait for the result (this being France, the papers are of course graded twice, once on site and then again in Paris).
On a related note, on Friday I received the last document I need for my citizenship application. This is now with my translator for the French version and then all I need is my (preferably favourable) exam result to be able to submit everything.
On Friday, Milhac Loisirs organised their annual “galette du roi” (French New Year tradition) for their members. Our strange new neighbours who instigated “Pathgate” here in Mazeroux were both going and offered to drive us down. Matt’s fine with them, but I’m having trouble ignoring reports of their behaviour towards our other neighbours who, after all, we’ve known much longer. The problem with this is that both Giles and Miriam are actually lovely to talk to. There were about 20 of us there, with just enough cider and more than enough cake to go round. Also there was the school teacher from Nontron who saw us play at our last concert and asked if we’d play at the school. We’d not spoken since so it was good to see her and confirm that we’re definitely still on for the gig. There’s no date yet but it won’t be for a number of weeks so we’ll hopefully find time for rehearsals before it comes around.
On Saturday evening we had dinner round Nat & Jill’s. We’d not seen them since before Christmas so had lots to catch up on. The main focus was on their new apartment in Roses, Spain. They’ve been a bit frustrated that the completion date kept getting moving as they’re eager to get down there and start furnishing it. I think that they’re going to have to make a big mental adjustment to the Spanish approach to deadlines if they’re to keep their cool down there…
Nat made dinner: a duck and potato pie, which was very tasty and filling and Jill made rhubarb crumble – a nostalgic treat for me. It was a lovely evening all told and we left a little later than planned, around 1am. We had the usual quiet Sunday afterwards, and then hit the ground running today. And that brings me full circle, so I shall stop here and do something that doesn’t involve a computer. Au revoir.