OK it’s been a while since the last time I posted to the blog.

It’s frankly been a bit too long…

So, It’s now spring and my wedding is fast approaching, I wouldn’t say I am nervous because the majority of the stuff has already been organised.

I have my Kilt, the future Mrs has her dress, and we have had our rehersal… Just 26 days to go.

So apart from the wedding organising I have been quite busy, I’ve even been absent from Twitter.

Last week I was in the Poitou-Charenntes local paper – The Littoral – because I visited a local primary school where I am getting married.  The aim was to talk to 80 pupils in English about Scotland.  After the ’set questions’ it was an open floow with the kids asking me a whole range of questions.

My favoutite question was by far “Monsieur, porquoi tu portes une jupe ?!” this was asked by a little girl who came up to me while I was walking to the room I was meeting the classes in.

I had to explain that I was wearing a Kilt and not a skirt as this is the traditional dress of Scotland.

In a way the visit to the school was like a dress rehersal, except in 26 days I will be wearing a different version and that we will be led by a bagpipe between the venues!

Thankfully this will likely not happen as we have already informed the local police that no cats will be harmed during the wedding.

Well I have to go and learn the words to “The Flower of Scotland” so for now…

Slainte!

Well it’s now been a week since I left my last job.

At first, I was quite enthusiastic as I had a promising second interview with a company on the Monday.  Admittedly the interview did have a question or two which caught me off guard.  This did hit my confidence but I know it is a job I want to do and it is a job I could do very well.

So while waiting to hear from them I’ve had to apply elsewhere though at the moment the fish aren’t biting my casts into the waters of the job pool.  I have an interview with the pole emploi which will be fun as my French is definately limited for this sort of thing.  The future Mrs Scotsdreamer is coming along for both morale support and to act as my translator.

One downside to this is I still do not have my french equivalent to the NI number and this could stop me for getting any benefits, which I may be entitled to.  Saying that I may still be able to get some French Lessons so here’s hoping…

So I haven’t sat on my laurels this past week, apart from job hunting I have been finalising my wedding plans.

The kilt is ready and about to be shipped!

I had a rather smooth and red tape free experience at the British Consulate (Rue d’anjou in Paris).  I had to obtain the Certificate of Law (rough translation), by post this can take about 2 weeks to do but if you go in person (and get told off for not taking a ticket) it takes all of 5 minutes.

I even had the local mayor sign my attestation on my honour that I’m not married in the UK.  The certificate of celebacy is a requirement in France but does not exist in the UK, so I had to give my word infront of the officials.  Didn’t actually meet the mayor though.

Only thing left is getting my birth certificate translated.

…and making sure my best man is up for the job…

…and paying the caterers…

…and getting the flowers…

…and finding the DJ/MC for the night…

…and getting the drinks…

but it is only in April, just over 10 weeks  or 71 days or 1704 hours or 102240 minutes or 613440 seconds away – give or take…

Did have one highlight this week.  I was mentioned by Ashok at Amrut (the Indian Whisky which I love) in an interview with WHISKYhost.  The interview was done through twitter and then blogged.  If you want to read it heres the link: http://whiskyhost.blogspot.com/2010/02/hark-blue-bird-tweets-again.html

So off to bed now to get ready for the interview tomorrow…

Whish me luck!

p.s. The cow on holiday… it’s the one with the wee calf

When we moved to France the Future Mrs Scotsdreamer and I put ourselves up for adoption and on Thursday our wishes finally came through!

We are now the proud adoptees of a cute, little baby girl called “Fluffy”.

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Why “Fluffy”?  Well when we got her she was just a bag of bones and a HUGE ball of fluff.

Fluffy is approximately 2-3 months old and was rescued from the cold and the snow after her mother decided to abandon her after the loss of one of her siblings.  The third of the litter is like her mother and a bit feral.

So we couldn’t really say no and let the poor little thing freeze…

Fluffy has a penchant for feet, socks and boots which my big toe can testify to with it’s little scratches.  Thankfully she has not left us any presents in the boots yet.

I am normally allergic to certain types of animals, cats being one of them, but so far so good with Fluffy.

Next thing is going to be the trips to the vets, heat and the furball…

Well I have my first Hogmanay as a French resident has come and gone and it was not all that bad.

Just before New Year my mother came to visit which was really good as I couldn’t really spend my first French New Year in Scotland.  We were going to go down to the tower to ring in the bells but I am really thankful we didn’t.

Apart from the thousands of people that were there, there were no Fireworks!

See what I mean?

Fireworks at New Year is an absolute necessity, the fireworks, apart from being part of the celebration and light show, mimics the old tradition of opening your front door, opening your back door and firing a gun to scare off the old year – Realistically you cannot do that now, that is unless you live miles from anywhere.

It made me ask what happened to stop all the fireworks, and apparently it all stems back to the activities in Suburbia and the riots that have occurred in previous years.  So while there are fireworks for Bastille Day and other special occasions you would be hard pushed to get a display at New Year, unless it is that of 1,000+ burning cars (as seen in 2008/9)

So next year, or should that be this year, I fully intend to be somewhere with smaller crowds and an organised display…

They say you live someplace but don’t see things until someone visits you…

That is actually quite true… since we’ve been here we have always intended to go to the Louvre, go to the cité des sciences, see the Sacre Coeur and other wonderful touristy stuff.

So with my mum in tow we decided to do some of it.  First we went to the cité des sciences more specifically to la géode which is a omnimax type of Imax theatre.  We saw a great 3D film about Dolphins and Whales – Highly recommended!

Trouble is with the cité is since it is a captive market they can and do make you pay through the nose for everything, even for Parisian standards.

If you do go, DON’T eat at the steakhouse named after a water dwelling African safari animal.

The 1st Sunday of the Month

In Paris on the first Sunday of every month, the majority of the museums are free entry.  Since this thrifty date happened while my mum was here we decided to go to the Louvre.  What a mistake that was…

Normally you get queues when waiting to get into the museum but this was beyond belief! there was the usual queue at the front of the pyramid, then an extended zigzag line, then round the pyramid stretching back to the old courtyard…

We gave up the first time and went for a coffee to warm up and returned with a fall back to go to the Musée d’orsay,  but after 40 odd minutes we finally got in.

I’ve been before and knew where to go for the main attractions, though the crowd of paparazzi around La Jaconde meant that the guards when the saw flashes pulled the offenders and anyone in their vicinity out of the throng and away from the relatively small – and in my opinion, lacking – piece of art.

We have since resolved to only go to the Museums and other touristy things on the Saturday before the first Sunday of the month…

So now back at work (for another three weeks) and looking forward to see what twenty ten brings…