Things I miss

Happy Australia Day Everyone!
Since its just clicked over onto Australia Day back home I thought I would do a post about what I miss about Australia in no particular order(I miss my fam and friends too obviously!).

1) Take-away Chai Latte from Parkhouse - they don't do takeaway coffee here and if they do its this really strong bitter stuff in a shot glass!
2)Living 7 minutes from work - I don't believe I drove to work when I lived just down the road but would kill to have such little travel time now
3) My car - sometimes waiting for the bus is so frustrating, especially weekends!
4) TV - ok France has TV but I don't have any in my room which sux when you just want your brain to go numb
5) Real men - french men dress way to well (not a good thing in my books!) and some of them are just so full on - don't make eye contact otherwise they will stalk you scary
6)Outdoor lifestyle - I'm sick of being cooped up, I like doing outdoor things and with the weather being cold and miserable the only things left to do are museums and galleries...yawn!
7)Not wearing shoes in the shower - as a consequence of paying close to no money for rent, showering is not a nice pastime anymore...yuck!
8) Tropical fruit - I haven't had a mango since last summer, manged to get my hands on a few litchis (that were mainly pip), I miss getting in-season cheap fruit so easily.
9) BBQ's in the parks - I love Australia for having the free BBQ's in the parks, although cheese and baguette are good ntohign beats a sausage sizzle!
10) Knowing the road rules - for one I still look the wrong way down streets...pedestrians crossings don't seem to work following a pattern other than a hope and pray (maybe thats just me!). There are no buttons to press, a zebra crossing doens't mean pedestrains get the right of way... so confusing!

10 will do for now..when I leave I'll do a post - 10 things I'll miss about France!

The Cold

This is for the hockey girls - don't ever let me complain about running around in the cold for hockey. It's not cold at home! I've recently taken running up again - Matt gets here in less than 5 weeks (Yay!) and these French croissants are not good for dieting! Because I live so far away from work I generally only get home at about 7pm so head out for a run then. It is dark and bitterly cold. I go running with a hoodie, beanie and gloves and I'm still cold until about half way through. Here's a truly sexy photo to demonstrate just how odd I must look...
Overall, the cold isn't that bad because I'm inside most of the day and the heating is pretty good - normally too hot actually. I do miss just going outside without taking half an hour to put on the layers, but overall the cold isn't as debilitating as I though it would be.
The dark on the other hand is not fun. I leave home at 7.3am in the dark, when I get out of the metro at work at about 8.45am it's only just dawn. I get a bit of sunlight when walk into the metro after I finish work, by the time I get off at home its dark again...not nice. Thankgod I have work from home days!

J'adore Montmatre

I really do love Montmatre, it is so pretty and has become a bit of a ritual for Rach & I to visit if we are having a Paris weekend. We even ahve our favourite buskers who try and see! Last weekend we walked from Rach's house to Montmatre which was about 10km. We then managed to undo all our good work by eating a 3 course dinner at 'OUR' restaurant, Rach has been in there a few times so we got free champagne on arrival and then a free plate of cheese afterwards - were well and truly stuffed! Isn't it beautiful..
Went there a few weekends ago with one of Rach's visitors and got serenaded by some of the performers. Slightly uncomfortable and not the nicest place for 3 girls to be out after dark. Some guy was telling me I need to enjoy my life to the fullest - he'd just gotten out of prison himself (scary!). Now that we have our restaurant and found an awesome little bar down the hill, I am sure it will become our regular haunt on the weekends.

Galette de Rois

A galette de rois (King's cake) is to celebrate Ephiphany. The galettes are all over Paris at the moment - they have like a maripan filling with puff-pastry outside. They all come with a paper crown and they each have a ceramic trinket baked inside them (this one had a rolling pin). Whoever gets the trinket in their slice of cake gets to choose who becomes King for the day!
Rach bought one for us to share for breakfast (healthy!), one of her au pair kids got the trinkets and I was lucky enough to be chosen as King!

New Job

Faire du ski

After all my travel woes and a nice relaxing train trip to Grenoble I arrived at Les Deux Alpes for a week of skiing. I opted to join a group trip with outgoingski which included everything – meals, ski pass, ski’s lessons and accommodation – it was a great deal – thanks Craig! I was in a shared dorm with another Australian and 2 girls from UK. Admittedly we were crammed into a tiny room but the view from the window the next morning when I woke up was amazing.
I was in the beginner class obviously and we had lessons at 9am for the first 2 days so it was an early wake up to get fitted with boots and borrow some ski gear from the resort before heading out to the slopes. I was a day behind everyone as I arrived late but managed to catch up after the first few falls! Ended up getting a private lesson at the end as everyone was tired from their après-ski events the night before and bailed early. It helped that I knew a bit of French too!
After a well deserved lunch and nap (skiing is hard work!) we hit the slopes again to get in a bit of practice. This was to become a bit of a routine which was nice after doing so much travelling! Improved my confidence on Tuesday although I got a bit cocky and went up one of the button lifts, freaked out at the top because it was too steep and ended up walking part of the way down while little kids wizzed past me!
We had the Wednesday off, so a massive Tuesday night was had by all. We went on a pub crawl that night with lots of free shots, foam, crazy dancing, too much noise in the dorms and the hangover to go with it all! Managed to get onto the slopes for a little while on Wednesday with a lot of effort, my legs needed the day off too!
On Thursday, our lessons changed to the afternoon so had a nice late start on the slopes. The weather was awful so had to buy some goggles, it was snowing and windy and blizzard. Trust this to be the day that we headed up to the big slopes – scary much! Had a good time on the green runs and learnt how to catch a chair lift successfully after a few goes! The snow was gorgeous and fluffy and deep and I felt so much more confident than when I was on the nursery slopes which were so icy and really scary if you fell over because you would just keep going! I absolutely loved skiing, such an awesome feeling and will definitely keep it up!
On Friday – my last day skiing- the other Australian girl offered to take me up in the morning to do some green runs with her. The weather was really really bad; they closed down the gondolas so we had to catch one of the bigger ones up to the top. When we eventually got up the mountain, it was even worse up there, the snow was being wiped up like sand and flicking into you. Managed to do a few runs before we gave up and went to have a drink and lunch at the bar on top of the slopes – much nicer! Luckily I had to rush downt he mountain to get to my last lesson – which I missed coz I was too late. But shortly after I got down they closed all the lifts up and down the mountain which would have meant I would have had to ski down the mountain most likely on my bum!
We had a few farewell drinks on the Friday night and were up bright and early on Saturday to leave. Ofcourse it was a gorgeous day for skiing, but was nice to travel down the mountain in the daylight – it was beautiful.
I loved skiing and now I can say I learnt to ski in the Alpes – how awesome is my life!

Travel Woes

I hate Ryanair but they are so cheap its hard not to forget how absolutley shitty they are. I was travelling back on New Year's Day from Glasgow (or the Ryan Air terminal at Prestwick), not the best day to travel with the hangover and everything but was 100 euro's cheaper than travelling on the 2nd. Anyway, was awake and packed with plenty of time to catch the train to the Airport - got to the station. Bad news the only day the trains don't run in the UK is the 1st of Jan...the ONLY day and it is the day I am travelling! So I was in a bit of a panic to say the least, ended up getting a taxi (luckily a private taxi which is a bit cheaper) which cost me 70 Pounds - Ryan air is not such a bargain. But anyway managed to get home eventually - after the hour and a half bus ride from where Ryanair reckons 'Paris' is...

The next day I was catching a morning train down to Grenoble to go skiing. Set my alarm nice and early only to wake up in the morning 20 mins after my trian was due to depart. Thanks iPhone! Turns out there was a bug in the software which meant that the alarms set on the 1st and 2nd Jan didn't work - just great! Due to being tired and grumpy I phoned my parents in tears wanting to come home, woe is me etc. etc. They managed to calm me down and I booked another train to Grenoble at a cost of 100 Euros - I really want to send the bill to Apple. But anyway, long story short I eventually got to Les Deux Alpes 6 hrs later than anticipated. Was totally worth it as you will find out!