At the new work site

<-- the new building is super eco blah blah blah. The green path leads to a dead end at the fence, requiring more fossil fuels to return the way you went. There's a 110km/h freeway out the front, as with most "eco" buildings standing by themselves in the middle of nowhere.

Babyfoot (pronouced babby). Should be like a miniature fusball table, but they made people into the toy figures -->

Today we all went to Carros, where the new office will be. I ran 1km to the bus, and ran another k odd to work, since they said you must be there at 8. I didn't want to be the idiot they're waiting for, when all the buses had been loaded. The plan said the buses would leave 8.10 at the latest, and we took off at about 8.30.

The new place is energy efficient with double glazing, solar panels on the roof and a green path in the front yard. Nothing says green like painted concrete. The car park is very big. There are paper towels in the toilet. They don't use electical power.

I'm in the group doing activities in the morning. There's rock climbing, archery, "babyfoot" (a fusball table) and step class. We get a tour of the M340 factory on site after lunch. I can't understand a thing.

Lunch looks like a Roman feast. A long table full of cheeses, with green grapes and other fruits around the outside. There's 5 different kinds of meat, prawns in hot sauce, some gourmet meatloaf things, quiches and some salad if you look hard. Deserts are fruit flans, brownies, and slices. The marquee in the car park holds about 300 people, and fills with smoke from the rotisserie at times. It's like a bbq at Vince's, but huge.

For now, we're in the old offices at Sophia for another 2 weeks. Then we move to Carros. At the moment, the offices at Carros aren't ready.

The new software is a bit slow, so I bring a book to read while I wait. One of the guys says that we should ship a book with each of the software sold.


<-- Linde supplies a lot of gas to the plant.

See the green checkered path on the left. That's where I get to play frogger with two roads worth of traffic. The path dips down to the far side of the road, then joins up again on the near side in the photo. -->

The language

<-- Old Antibes near where we were living during September-->


When you come to France, you will have 62,000,000 people who really want to help with the language. Everyone from the shopkeeper to your coworkers will spend time explaining and giving tips. They tell me I'm doing well, but I am not sure about that.

Yesterday, Patrick invited me to hear his presentation on his work trip to South Africa. I waited until 6pm, and then asked where's Patrick. He'd gone already! I asked if the time had changed, but it was always on at 4pm. Philippe thinks he must have said "sez", which is 16, or 4pm, and I got it wrong. Six sounds like "sees" and 16 is like "sez". Oh well.

As per usual, I run for the golden #9 bus. Philippe stops in the traffic right near the bus stop. I pretend to thumb a ride, telling him it's not far to Antibes, and only a small side trip (20k in heavy traffic). He says "side kick?" then has to drive off. I'll be glad when I can speak some more French.

<-- the backyard in Antibes, Juan les Pins. Our little unit is on the left on the ground floor. We moved out at the end of September. No-one told us we had to clean up the unit, so 41 euro later, we gave them a job.



They are very happy if you can say a couple of words, so here they are:

French lesson for today:
le parking - parking spot
le weekend - the weekend
le t-shirt - the t-shirt
le GPS - the GPS
organise - organise
shopping - shopping.
on street signs "stop" means stop.
but!
demande - ask
correcte- something like honest

On the bus

The first couple of times I walked out of work, and almost straight onto a bus. I don't know how I did that. The #9 is about 40 minutes apart. Today I missed it by 5 minutes. Last Sunday, we ran up to it carrying Ollie as the doors closed. Nothing sucks more than knowing for sure that's it's going to be a long wait, and there's nothing you can do. Everyone keeps saying we must buy a car, and my fantasies of going car free have been smashed.

A trap for young players: when the #9 gets to Antibes, it loops and leaves again. So if you're like me, you wait for about a good 15mins to go 1k before realising that they're now taking you 10mins walk away in the wrong direction.

The 100 is fun. Yesterday I was wondering how brave the driver was to go down the local shopping street. Turns out another driver was bravely coming the other way. It took about 10mins to fold mirrors in, back away a bit, then inch past. I honestly didn't think there was any way he could make it, but of course they did. I think our driver gave a Merc 4WD a decent nudge on the way. Noone parks within the lines here. I can see why they complain so much about the calls during tennis. A pumping truck wisely waited for the 100 to get past on the roundabout.

If you miss the golden #9 going home, you need to walk another 10 mins to wait for the #1 or express #100.  There are displays at the stops stating exactly when the bus will come. Yesterday, the 100 was due in 15 mins, but the #1 arrived. I ran across the street for it with 2 others. One guy with his hand on my bag, I think pretending to drag me, soccer style, definitely not suspicious. Meanwhile, another #100 turns up. So we all run back over the road for that (buses go all over the place). The queue looks huge, and the bus half full, so I give up and run back again in time to board the #1. After sitting on it for over an hour, I vow never to catch the #1 again.

On the way home, I stop at the Orange store to get instructions on how to use our mobile internet recharge. He tells me it's not possible to do it from a fixed land line, even though someone did this for us last time. You need to pull the SIM card from the key, and put it in our phone to do the recharge, he says. Once home, I see that the instructions specificaly say not to do it. After doing it anyway, I can now say that this does not work. For the record the number to call is 0800224224, and it took 30 secs. I hope they're not paying him to work there. After waiting for him to waste more of my time, it took 2 hours total to get home. Last week, I had a bike, and getting home is less than 40mins door to door. A car takes from 20, but mostly 40 mins to get home, and is just dead set dreary.

<-- most of the way is pretty good, with occasional hair raising tight busy streets

a little bit of the way by bike is a real mini holiday -->

===============
Tasting notes for today
===============
Cheese
Saint Nectaire production fermiere AOP. Fromage au lait cru
- sorry not sure what the names of some of these cheeses are. We just buy whatever. This one has so much mould on the outside, it dries your tongue. It's like a brie, with a stronger flavour. Thumbs up.

Saint Nectaire. Fromage au lait pasteurise
- weak but nice flavour. Like brie. Thumbs up.

Fourme d'ambert A.O.P.
- blue cheese with so much mould, it means business. Serious furry mould does not translate into strong flavour though. Thumbs up, 8 / 10. The search for a truly hard biting blue continues.

Beer
8.6 special blonde Bavaria - made in Holland, 7.9% alcohol. 4euro odd for a 6 pack.
- this is lethal. If it was in Australia for this price, I would be an alcoholic. The flavour is awesome, but it's more like a meal than a drink, so not sure if it would wear well.

Guiness (last week) - brewed in Dublin. About 7 euro for a six pack.
- mate, who could ask for anything more? Irish beer is heaven.

Cheese count: 347 varieties to go.
Beer count: 2 down, unknown to go.
Wine note: had 250ml for lunch. It cost 85c at the cafeteria at work. It's true, they do have wine for lunch all the time! Felt super sleepy in the lab afterwards.

Grasse

While we still had the hire car, we drove to Grasse. It's another beautiful old town high on the side of a mountain, with more mountains soaring high behind it. Just as well we drove, as it p'd down with rain for a bit.

<-- I don't care where we go, as long as I can run around like a nut.

Beautiful old homes packed into the hillside of tiny streets. Get fit walking around here. Sadly most people don't want to live in old town centres, as you can't fit many cars in. -->

<-- Ollie souvenired this umbrella as soon as we bought it. It was supposed to be shared. Do we really need to buy 2 of everything? Not really, luckily the next day they forget whatever was their favourite thing today.

Who could ask for anthing morrrre? -->

<-- hope you put the brake on.

Juan les Pins - Antibes

<-- the street outside our current home in Juan les Pins. Our building is just left of where I'm standing to take the shot. It's a little bunker with some sloping grass out the back. The boys love to kick a ball, and run around with the other kids here. Dan, 2, and his 2 week old brother Aaron were here for a week, getting eaten by Mozzies and having fun. Crazy Paul, 6, speaks German and French, and is on his way to getting English from Ollie and Louis.

We're finally getting to know our way around here. We stumbled onto the old part of town yesterday, lovely. Went furniture shopping. Our budget allows for serious chipboard action, so we're checking the 2nd hand website. The stuff there is a fraction of the price, and so beautiful you'd just cry to look at it. We might be getting a container to bring it home to Oz!

We ran for the bus. I got to the closed door as the lights went green. He practically ran me over, and the next one was an agonising 35mins later. Marie says we're getting a car for sure (it would be a ten min drive max to the ugly furniture shop).

We had a hire car, but after 2 weeks, we didn't really need it. I came home early, had a tea with Marie at about 6.30pm, pulled the kids seats out, cleaned out the odd stuff, got on the road about 8pm. Tried to fill up at a petrol station. There is no attendant, and the pump won't take my credit card. Get to the 2nd one after going the wrong way up a one way section. Same credit card problem. Speak to the lady, and work out I have only 20 euro, and start counting my change, which is 8.50, so I can prepay the 28.50. She says "Quelle caburant" twice, then a bit louder, while people wait behind. The penny drops, it means what fuel (like carburettor I suppose), so I say diesel, and I'm ready to drive around to some pump, and try it out. Finally, I head for the A8 at about 8.30, wondering about public transport home, and realise that since I've spent every cent, I now can't get on the freeway. I drive home feeling completely defeated.


<-- president Wilson street. It's the one street name that's easy to remember. It's the main connector to the local shops, and square, and has the bus to work running down it.


We've got 2 or 3 beaches, the town square, the old part of Antibes, and a little fun-land with dodgems all within walking distance of home. It's like the Gold Coast, but a bit more compact, and everyone looks good.


<-- the ladies of Antibes tonk along down the middle of the street, and don't care what the cars think. She's just gone down possibly the busiest street in the middle of Antibes. Hats off to you matron of the 2 wheelers.

Avenue de Nice is one of the main connectors, but only 2 lanes for most. There's a cycle track on the side. Many of the riders are dressed very nicely. -->

Monaco is go

Louis had a temperature. Normally, you can drive him 5 mins to the hospital for a checkup in the middle of the night, go home, and forget about it. Here, we wouldn't even know where to go.

He seemed ok overnight, and we went off to Monaco. Then he seemed to detiorate. We got out of the car, and went to the pharmacie. The pharmacies in Monaco have a lot of perfume, makeup and vitamins, and no plain old panadol. We spent the morning trying to locate the one real one that's apparently open on Sunday. The guy was really nice, and after about $75 australian, we had a thermometer and 2 bottles of panadol/ibuprophen. Louis' temperature came down.


<-- the patient makes a recovery during afternoon drinks. The table behind had willie-wonker style super deserts in monster elevated glasses. They got through them ok.


We went for a stroll past the Ferrari, Lambo and McClaren dealerships, where you can buy a car that will get you across the whole of Monaco in 2mins 33secs. That's at least a minute faster than a Hyundai, or catching a bus.

<-- nice fountain.

Monaco is a couple of k's long, and not very wide.-->

Anna visits

<-- the boys sit still for a minute

water pistols at 3 paces -->

We were here for about 2 days, then Anna came which helped us feel at home. The boys loved having her around. Not sure if Anna liked having the boys around. They were still tired, and a handful.

On Thursday, we check out some places that are miles away from anything. At a toll booth, we pull up. They don't take cash, just coins, and we don't have any, again. The guy stuck behind us helps me feed the credit card in, in any way we can, but it won't take 1.50 from an Australian card, and us + 2 other cars back out of the toll booth. I beg for coins for the 2nd time, standing on the road waving a 5 Euro note, but no-one will stop. Walking around, one of the machines tells me to go to the empty looking office, where we finally get change. "What happened??" says our agent when we get there.

parts of Nice are well preserved -->

On Saturday, we moved from the hotel to the holiday unit. The email from HR said 3pm. Reception said the booking was for 5pm. After hanging around from 3 until 5pm, while smacking Ollie every 5 minutes, they then told us the room wouldn't be ready for another 1 and 1/2 hours. We went for dinner, and I wondered if the office would be closed when we got back. It was stressful, and I had the, oh-no what are we doing here feeling. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce - really awful, and expensive.

<-- near the holiday unit. The sand has been trucked in, a lot easier to walk on

The unit has a 2 rooms, and feels like a palace compared to the hotel. We have nothing to eat for Sunday. I ask reception at about 9pm where there is a supermarket. I don't know what she's saying, but it seems there's a Carrefours off the A8 highway. I set off with the GPS, and cruise around, to try to find the one supermarket. It is hopeless. Before I go on the A8 again, I check, and it seems the 50c piece is Irish, and I give up, skip the highway, and go home. It the full light, it is stamped Ireland, but it is 50 euro cents, so I could have travelled on the A8 after all.

Nice one.

<-- the stones kill your feet.

On the way to the beach -->

Since the normal accomodation in Juan les Pins was not available, they put us into the Novotel next to Nice airport for a week. We settled in and walked to the beach. The boys loved watching the planes on the way.

Everyone's helpful here. Even the lady in the supermarket was patient with us, explaining "sac" is the right word for a plastic bag, and wishing us "bonne courage", whatever that means.


<-- water's nice except after rain

mini-gangster scooting past the locals -->

Arrival!

<-- aaa, do I look (*^^&*^ happy after a 1 hour drive, a 2 hour wait, an 11hour flight, and during a 4 hour wait?

Louis gets ready to drop something over the back, and Ollie is not too bad -->

Emirates is awesome! They gave the kids colouring in pencils. They didn't hassle us to put on their seatbelts too much. The shows on the TV were pretty good too.

The boys eventually went to sleep after getting on the 10.30pm flight. Apart from kicking each other, trying to get comfortable on the too-soft pillows, and falling off them, they got some useful sleep. In Dubai, felt ok, but it was 4 hours of wandering around, trying to stay awake and stop the kids from throwing coins, paper, and dropping things down the backs of chairs, under other people's feet, on purpose. Got 2 newspapers, read none.

The flight to Nice was ok mostly, until the last couple of hours, when it started to be a bit of a torture test. We gave Louis something to eat, put on a movie, and gave him his dummy. We were all a bit ratty, but survived. Got off the plane last, and they'd locked all the doors. It took about another 15 minutes to get someone's attention through the glass.

Pulled our 100kgs off the conveyor, and thought how do we move all this? There were trolleys, but you needed Euros. Marie commenced the search through all our 7 bags, and I eventually asked someone for some money (not the first time I begged for coins already). Not sure if she understood the question, and I didn't understand the answer. Angela and Steve saved the day with the handful of coins they gave us.

Said "Bonjour Monsieur" to the customs guy in the booth. Our book says this is very important in France, and in our experience these couple of words open any door, and get anything you need! He stamped our passports with a pleasant hello and goodbye in French. Then we were out into the hall to wonder how to get a car, how to get out, how to understand the signs. I wished we'd read a bit more!

Waiting for us was Sophie the manager. What an angel! She'd been through the same going to China, but it must have been much worse. We got a car, went through some impossibly small openings, and headed into my first roundabout. You have to go the wrong way, on the wrong side of the road, and guess which road to exit that doesn't end with oncoming traffic. Thank goodness she was there to guide me through that bit, and get us to our hotel.


<-- Party on in the 33cms around the bed!


The hotel is one room, taken up completely by the 2 beds, and then with the bags and stuff all over the place. Luckily that was only for the first week.




------------------------------------------
More shots from Perth, I forgot to post:

<-- we miss our English speaking relos already. And their kitchen is bigger than our whole unit (at present).

Maryanne chased Louis while watching Peter play soccer -->

<-- we accept dogs if you post them over (with Ollie stamps)

Farewell to sunny Perth

<-- the coast at Mindarie

Louis goes for an early morning scoot in the beach car park -->



Apart from the nice welcome, all the food, wine, etc, Perth has a fantastic winter, plenty of sun, and nice weather. All the worse for the drive to the airport, when it suddenly hit me: it's now that we're not going to see this or our families for a while! We won't know anyone, can't understand much, and can't leave for 3, yes 3, years.

<-- when should you not hold Louis close to your nose? Don't worry, he'll let you know!

running down the dunes -->

Perth

<-- the boys enjoying the Rock and Roll show

having a scoot prior to being told to stop scootering on the grounds -->

<-- cats are friendly, as long as you don't chase or shout at them. This one has no tail, the other had 3 legs. Both are lucky!

Louis tries on his new dragon suit -->

Now we're in Perth

<-- asleep at Maryanne's. After waking up at 5.30am, and going to bed at 6.30pm local / 8.30pm Sydney time, the boys seemed to be ok.

7 bags, 2 child car seats and a pram were about 110kgs. -->

Well what a nice way to break up the trip. All the cousins were pretty excited to have a few days together. Too bad about the school days.

On the weekend, we saw Julia sing in a Rock Estedford.

<-- scootering everywhere is easy with the excellent paths -->

And we're off

<-- after the biffo, all is forgiven (I think) when the 2nd cake turns up



A good time had by all.

Many thanks to Evonne for getting up out of bed at 6am to drive us to the airport. It was starting to feel like it's really happening. Louis pees past the nappy, down his pants, and into his shoes. After looking through some of our 7 odd bags, and 40 minutes later we're ready to checkin, pass security, and board. -->