Saturdays are always fun

Our neighbourhoods to the west of Paris.
We had our rented home in Marly-le-Roi.
Fred worked in Rueil-Malmaison.
The market and shops of St Germain-en-Laye were a firm favourite.
My letter of the 13 August mentions Parly 2, our Sandton City look alike in France, was in Le Chesnay, in the direction of Versailles, as I tell Mom. Salade aux jambon was a treat when we went shopping.

Fred has not changed! 28 years later he still gets excited about buying a TV. Our first colour TV was bought to watch Wimbledon, one of the legendary Bjorn Borg vs John McEnroe finals in the early 80's. He has just bought a 40" LED Smart Samsung for Arthur Road which is a story in itself; he stood on an upturned plug, fell, squashed the screen within 20 minutes of the installation, so two TV's in 24 hours. As the French say: 'le plus ca change le plus ca meme.'

We spent many hours in front of the Grundig mentioned in my letter. Watching the news readers helped me with my french, they spoke clearly with no jargon. In Paris, the 'langue de la rue', was fast, full of idiomatic expressions and we needed to learn slang to get by.

When we bought our second car for me to get around we called it La Poubelle, a great example of 'l'argot' or slang in Paris.

'As well as meaning bin, poubelle can also be used to refer to old cars in a poor state of repair'

Mme Brimaud did let us move in early so we avoided the caravan park. We had our electrical goods delivered, borrowed bits and pieces and camped while we waited for our container. 

Shawni's fridge with magnets 

I have been getting messages from Shawni and love all the parallels on her current reality in Wellington, New Zealand and my blogging from the summer of 1986 in Paris. 

• 24 November: In other wonderful news we were offered the place!!! 
   The owners would like earlier occupation from Dec 12^th so I don’t think we have much room to negotiate and will just have to make it work. It’s easier to make living in the place without furniture work than being homeless! So we will be borrowing those mattresses from Craig’s boss J
  
  
• 11 December: So last night in a serviced apartment. Packing up again. Craig gets keys tomorrow but I have a function so won't see place. Hoping electricity will be on, we applied but haven't had any confirmation yet.
• 12 December: Craig's at home doing the move. Got rental bed, TV and microwave delivered. But no internet or TV. For me moving in will only come tomorrow.
• 12 December: Hello! So first night in our house. Love it even without any furniture. 
• 13 December: Starting to settle in (Shawni sent me this photo of her fridge with magnets)
• 13 December: Shew busy day. Mega shop kitting out our pantry, cleaning stuff, camping stuff to live for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow more cleaning, exploring our suburb, some more shopping.
• 14 December: Weather been great today. House gets a lot of sun which is great. Camping been fine. No TV or internet but hoping I have a series on my laptop.



The breakfast nook, Wellington.

• 14 December: Bought a small breakfast table for our breakfast nook. 
• 15 December: So good admin day today. Craig got Sky TV and internet sorted. So am on wifi now.