Day 357 (Wednesday)

There was a huge cruise ship in again today so I wasn’t looking forward to the crowds in the old town and on the train station so I left a bit earlier to make sure I got a ticket. I was very happy to see this bougainvillea blossoming on the wall on the way to the station – it’s so great to see this colour everywhere again – not that it wasn’t colourful over the winter – the colours are just a lot brighter now.

It was also lovely to see the bright red geraniums outside the petanque club, I really want to get some for the terrace this summer and we really must join the petanque club soon as well.

As I walked past Le Phare I was amazed to see that Sean and Andy were already there and it was only 11am. I stopped for a minute to chat and they told me that they had started work at 4.30 this morning and had finished for the day – I think I believe them. The narrow streets of the old town were packed and although I’m pleased for the shop owners it was very annoying trying to get past them all. The station was absolutely packed and there was a queue for the ticket machine. As I have said before the ticket machines here are very complicated and it was important I caught this train to get to work on time. There were two people in front of me speaking English so I asked if they would be so kind as to let me go first because I can buy the ticket quickly and show them how to use it. The man was quite tall and looking down at me he asked what train I was catching and when I said it was the 11.14 he said, ‘so are we so you can wait’. I watched him struggle with the machine and he tried to pay with notes, which the machine doesn’t accept. He finally used a bank card and I saw that they had just paid 23€60 for two returns to Nice! It should have cost less than 7€, serves him right!

On the way to Bruno’s I saw another delightful car worthy of my poster (no, I still haven’t done anything about it.)

Noe was really well behaved for at least an hour before he started flagging and became obnoxious once more. I think I told you two weeks ago that he has to sing ‘I wanna be like you’ from the Jungle Book for an international day at his school in a few weeks. I took my DVD with me so we finished the lesson with a few practices of the song. He started off well enough but soon got bored and fidgety; if Jungle Book can’t keep him interested what hope have I got?

On the walk over to Place Massena I ate a quiche I’d bought earlier and then got interrupted by the new guests arriving at the studio. I had been very misinformed about the arrival time of the guests so I had to phone Huw who very kindly went to meet them and to give them some keys. Huw sent me this photo of the dog they had with them

  

As Huw said it’s not so much a dog than a bear! He also said that both the guests are very tall, the studio is very small so I think they will have a very cosy ten days.

I had another pleasant two hours with Paulina and during a role-play at the pharmacy she made a delightful error; she was supposed to say that ‘you shouldn’t drink alcohol while taking this medication’, instead she told me that I should drink alcohol, why can’t all pharmacies be like that. She really appreciated the joke and we had a good laugh. At the end of the class she told me that she really enjoys our classes and appreciates the research I do, which I really, really appreciate. I asked her to tell Guillaume and she said that she already had – what a star!

I had 45 minutes to wait for Jeanine so I went outside and sat on a flowerpot in the sun. I went to buy a bag of crisps, which I asked for in French and was told the price in English. In my best French I told him off saying that I am trying to learn French so please speak French to me.
(J'essaie d'apprendre le français s'il vous plaît répondre en français)

He laughed very pleasantly and said it all again in French – I was chuffed!

Jeanine arrived on time and we did a fairly quiet hour of grammar finishing off with a very noisy hour of speaking. She is a lovely woman but she can talk for France!  At around 5.30 Guillaume came to say goodbye and reminded me to lock up as we were the last in the building again. We were in a different room this week so it was a different key. He told me that the key was on the same key ring in the safe so it was easy. I asked him to show me just in case and he rolled his eyes and said, with perfect intonation ‘bloody women and keys, what’s their problem?’ I adore this man and his British sense of humour.

For once I was lucky getting home, the tram was as smooth as ever and after last week’s fiasco with the 81 I walked to the old port and the 100 had just left the bus stop but had to stop at traffic lights, I ran towards it and was chuffed when the driver opened the doors for me and I got a seat. I was home exactly half an hour after leaving the school – see what I mean that there is no rhyme or reason to these buses?