Posts from the ‘Paris, Trains, Facecream’ Category

Some pictures

FACIAL MOISTURIZERS

First…….

What’s with the price of face cream?   Or is it ALL that  REGENERATIVE stuff and costs a bloody fortune?  Did you know, that when you run out of what you think you MUST have under penalty of womanly LAW   (your face cream) that you can actually get by with HAND cream and it’s not so bad? (It’s a very good handcream, but still…) So!!  Since I can’t even entertain the idea of getting some face cream right now – I have resorted to the handcream and it will work until we absolutely can afford for me to spend the 25 euros for their very expensive face cream/moisturizer here in France!!  (I’d actually rather have a french phone, if you want to know the truth!!)

Continuing of a new day in Paris……

The apartment smells so clean now.  Who knows what I put in the kitchen sink, but it’s WHITE and you have no idea how happy that makes me.  I am such a 50’s kind of  housy-wifey –  it’s not even funny. The towels are all hung up and the dishes washed and I’m quite happy with the way the kitchen looks now.  Even though it’s MISSING a STOVE.  Nevermind. I’ll heat things in the oven. There are no pans in here anyway for the stove.  We’ll do sandwiches again like we’ve been doing for 5 weeks!

I’ve got KNIVES though.  They left their knives. Lucky me – I can cut more BREAD!!  Yeah!  I could cut up a chicken though and throw it in the oven.  That’s a novel thought.

David will come home from his FIRST day of teaching at the British Council and I’ll be waiting with a glass of wine for him and  – um…..bread.  There’s always bread in France. (Except during the Revolution some 300+ years ago).  Too bad I didn’t have the Saran Wrap………

It’s a New Day in Paris

Nov 5th – This is something day. I’m not sure which. Wine day?

Celebrate paper month?  Anyway, someone told me but I forgot.

Here’s the deal.  I walk North, or is it South, who cares I walk. And walk & walk & walk and these signs keep saying AUCHON, which is the “Costco” of France, where they sell EVERYTHING,

only, not in large packages.  NOTHING is in large packages in France –  Nothing is LARGE in France – PERIOD!   So, I am totally exhausted by the time I get there but take a sideroute  to the McDonalds, thinking, wow! my iPhone will work there.  It does.

I eat a humongous meal, the biggest meal I have had in 5 weeks.  A Chicken sandwich, small fries and an expresso.Oh! And then that carmel icecream with nuts thingy.   I know, I know, it doesn’t seem that large, but for me, and what I’ve sustained myself on these past weeks – it was HUGE!

After totally pigging out I walk to the AUCHON and start to shop. This is my first experience shopping in 5 weeks.   I need bath towels, (one) – we actually share now, (that would normally bring an EWWWWWWW from my lips, but not anymore) – I need kitchen towels and saran wrap and foil and cleaning supplies for this apartment and shampoo and bubblebath and conditioner and just ordinary things like that. The bottles of all these items are just so beautiful but I have no idea on EARTH what they are SAYING…….I smell EVERYTHING…..it smells like it can go in the bath for my bubbles, but when I ask a shopper, she looks at me with horror  -” NOOOOOOO!!!”  she says, “ you cannot wash yourself with that(in Fr.) – it’s for the CUISINE!!!” (kitchen)…..and I say, “But it’s so pretty!!”……….!!   So, I have a variety of bottles that may or may not be CLOROX that I’m bathing in, or the shampoo may be used in my CUISINE, instead of on my head and my real cleaner for the kitchen sink may actually be toilet bowl cleaner and the little tablets that I bought for the washing machine may actually be for the DISHWASHER – – – WHAT DO I KNOW!?!?!  It’s SO confusing out there!!!!!!  I never did find the saran wrap or the foil. I did find the wine.  I had to get out of there.

I REMEMBER NOW!!! It’s CHANGE YOUR BANK day!!!!   What a wonderful thing to celebrate actually!  Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone we just opened an account with Barclay’s so we can transfer money from that OTHER horrible big American bank.  It’s okay, really, we don’t have any money in it anyway………..

WELCOME TO MY BORING LIFE! (Not so much anymore)

     You’re Invited to my boring life…………….

(Or, a Senior’s life  – and how to get out of a rut & into something interesting with NOT a lot of money!)

Do you know what is really interesting?   That when you delete your account on FACEBOOK, NO one, and I mean NO ONE!!!  Notices.  Not a soul.

And you have just spent the last 2 + years of your life, writing comments and making philosophical statements and shooting the breeze and posting photos on this WALL of yours and sometimes getting back stuff and sometimes not, but then on your BIRTHDAY you get a thousand  HAPPY BIRTHDAYS from people you really don’t know all that well, and then BOOM! You delete your account and no one notices you ever again.

Well – that is my life.  It is SO boring that I just had to write about it. Because as I write, I am sure going to find a way to make it a bit more………..

INTERESTING!!

(Below, written sometime in August 2011)………….

Today is the day before my birthday.  It is a scary birthday.  Everything is scary to me lately…..the world, the economy, my lack of cooking skills, my future, my cat.  EVERYTHING.  I mean, things that never bothered me before, bother me now and I don’t know why and I’m thinking that it’s my age.  How old you say?  I can’t tell you.  I will shrivel up and melt away like the wicked witch of the west if I tell you.

Okay, whatever, I’m 63 (tomorrow).  I do not feel that old, oh wait, yes I do, cause my knees don’t work  when I get up from a sitting position!!!!
So, you know what I’m going to do because I ‘m 63?  I’m going to act like I’m not 63 but 23 and I am going to adventure out to never never land and take trip across the big blue ocean and take a course.  A COURSE, you say?   YES.  This is so that I can work in another country and teach our fabulous language of ENGLISH to a bunch of people that desperately want to learn this language!!!

How’s THAT for scary? It also is a necessity as I canNOT get a job here in America, in the middle of the country, where I am now, – which is Saint Louis Missouri.

But – if I don’t try this – if I don’t do this?  That what?  What Have I got?  The same ole same ole boring stuff that I have going on right now.  Which is just about NOTHING!

I have missed some movies these past 2 months while my husband has been away (teaching ENGLISH, btw, to a bunch of people who want to learn it) and I have been busy working as a “nanny”.(And, yes, ofcourse THAT is a job, and a very important one- but it’s – ahem, rather lonely.)  Me and “my little man” did some good bonding, and I will miss him as the job is over very soon.

How’s that for timing?

TIME MARCHES ON…………..(or – You’re not getting ANY YOUNGER!!!!)

SO!  It is the perfect time for me to pursue SOMETHING to cut down this feeling of OLD, RETIREMENT,(though actually – NON RETIREMENT,)  ANCIENT FEELING and do something that is respectable and fulfilling and finally accomplishing a goal I have had for the past 40 + years.  YOu heard right…….40 + (actually 46 years).   “What took you so long?”, one of my friends asked me the other day.   What?  Well, marriage, having kids,  having a career, all the things you do inbetween those times – (which may have something to do in not having any money……..)  But EVERYONE has NO money, usually, sometime in their lives.     I still have no money, but the kids are gone, and are reproducing so there are MORE kids, which is a beautiful thing but then scary and sad because I would miss them so much,….. but then what are they going to think of their GRANDMOTHER, their BABCIA (what they call me) – just sitting around watching NEWS all day, or listening to NPR in the BASEMENT while she IRONS, or making GRANOLA BARS, or cutting & trimming down the rose bushes?  HUH?   What?  Don’t you think that these kids that are now having KIDS of their own, would like to know that their MOM, their BABCIA (Grandma in Polish) is doing something CREATIVE, UNIQUE, DIFFERENT, OUTLANDISH, AUDACIOUS?)  Well, yes maybe,  – maybe not……..

Doesn’t matter.  It is time.

TIME.

TIME is forever marching and ticking on………

As I read this I see on CNN Money the following:

Middle class income took a steep hit in the latest decade, falling 7% between 2000 and 2010 according to the latest census data. The median U.S. household makes $49,445, a level not seen since 1996,

@#$&()@#%&()@&*#%(@*&#)$@#&$*

I’m a SENIOR, that was (I thought) middle class, but hmmmmm,  – really not so sure anymore.

ANYWAY……..

We’re on the countdown now – soon I will be leaving for the great unknown.  London, Bournemouth, Poole, Cherbourg, in between – Toulouse, Barcelona………yee gads, what am I going to do and HOW am I going to do this? (Especially on little Savings, and IRA and really pathetic Social Security?)

FB people would eat up this stuff, but I don’t feel like sharing it, because it’s so personal and I’m beginning to feel like I don’t want to share. SO here I am sharing it afterall, in a SENIOR BLOG, and hoping that I can be of interest to someone out there…….

I tell you how I’m going to do it.  CREDIT CARDS!   No, seriously, I realize now there was a reason I didn’t declare bankruptcy.  LOL.  Okay, truth be told, I’m going to take my little savings, my pathetic social security, dip into the IRA, (just dip) because GOD knows there is LONGEVITY in my genes and I WILL need that someday………

and I’m going to make this WORK!~!

My life has just stopped being boring.  August 23, 2011…..David’s lucky number…not just because I got away on “holiday” and met my husband after 2 long months away, but because it just has.

AND – Not just because I’ve mettled through 30 hours of tiring travel experience – cancelled flights, no clout at all because you’re STANDBY on non-revenue passes thanks to your retirement with the AIRLINES, or that my reunion with David was just so perfect and brought tears to my eyes.  No. Nor was it that we meandered through the old sea town of Bournemouth to get over my jetlag before doing something more ambitious…..

No.

“Is it the FERRY, then, that’s taking you over to France”, you say?  Oh, that could be a start……..it’s a very good beginning actually, or end of a long dry hot hot hot summer and lonely days of keeping baby while hubby was away………and yes, it is SO good to be going to my beloved France where bells chime and streets are narrow and misty rain is falling as I write.  It’s also good to have a good novel and that makes it just about bliss.
The taxi driver on the way over from the bus station said so poignantly, “Why are there so many miserable buggers out there?  Life is what you make it.  It doesn’t take anything to smile and have a happy day!”    I loved this guy!!!

I’m over the waters now, where the boys threw up – those brave men of the Normandy invasion- some made it; most did not.  It’s so choppy right now, but I don’t feel sick or anything as it’s a huge ferry and not some awful landing craft that felt everything. 

Things.   It’s always things.   Touchy feel-y things that people seem to want.  I WANT.  it’s ridiculous when you think of men fighting for our country. YOUR country.  I mean really, what do we need but our freedom?  Okay yeah, we need the means to be able to see things, do things, but stuff – stuff is so much a part of our lives and we consume SO much stuff, and I think as I watch the white caps slapping against each other as we are  going over the channel, “what do we really  need in this life? ”

I need my husband. That is for sure.

OH !!! And mussels!!! This is the place for mussels and I am going to indulge and indulge and indulge……..then I’m going full throttle ahead for OYSTERS!

Yes!  Food makes the world go ‘round……..

There are 3 children across from me, like ages  8, 10 and 4……the 2 oldest are trying to teach the 4 year old how to speak French!   They’re saying “Ca va” means it’s okay – and how do you say Hello?  (Bonjour)……it ‘s the cutest thing…& how do you say, Hello, How are you?  Bonjour – comme sa va?  It ‘s SO precious watching them. I wonder if this is their first trip to FRANCE?!?!

A FEW HICCUPS.

But then, that’s FRANCE.   First of all – upon arriving to the Port,

getting off the ferry was fine – they even helped on the stairs with my luggage, but taking a taxi to the hotel – it starts at 6 + euros – or $10.00.  By the time we got to the Ambassadeur Hotel – it was like 13 euros or $20.00. That’s because the BRIDGE was closed for construction and he had to go out of the way, plus the clock ticks away as you are sitting in traffic.  Taxis make me nervous bigtime, because of the ticking away of the meter.   But we had no choice.  We couldn’t walk it. (My knee is still recovering from  knee surgery 7 months ago). We don’t see a lot of buses here…..so people must walk everywhere.

The 2nd hiccup was that I couldn’t get on the internet, and then I could, so that doesn’t count as a hiccup but the LOUD NOISE outside my window till 3am does – so I couldn’t sleep, but the good thing was that I read 60 pages of my Agatha Christie autobiography, so that’s a plus to the hiccup.

The first night we ate at the Pizza place – which was incredble pizza and MOULES (mussels).  Oooh la la.  We enjoyed it so  very much, but with 3 biers and pizza and moules it was 50 US Dollars.  Ouch.  Then the 2nd night we ate at La Regence, where we ate really well with salmon cakes,with a curry mayo,  little fingerling potatoes, and mine was cod with vegetables with a bernaisey kind of  sauce and great bread and white wine, shared a belgium beer, had calvados for dessert plus a chocolate mouse cake – and at which time  the waiters seemed in an awful hurry to leave!  AND,  – and because of THAT- we didn’t get a bill!!!!  Now, some people might have just taken off about now, but no, we said, “L’addicion si’l vous plait!!!” Hmmmm.  We look around.   They all LEFT!   Out the door with their backpacks, even the CHEF……and we sat and sat, and sat and David GOT up and found a girl and she reluctantly did the math and gave us a bill.  It was incredibly reasonable for the vast amount of food we had consumed.   I’m not complaining.