So why is the festive title in French with a picture of Tintin? Well I'm in France this Christmas to celebrate along with my folks as this is where they now live. I've been here for several days now and I've not seen the sun. This is not due to me getting totally trashed on the local wine, but, as like back home it's really foggy!
The trip started a few mornings ago when I went to pick up my Grandfather at 3am, ready to catch the 7:05 flight... this is something I would not recommend as it means you arrive in France an hour and a bit later with the tiredness that you've just flown back from the West coast of America. The fog on the way up was really bad, sometimes driving at only 30mph on the A3. You'd still get the odd idiot travelling past you at 60-80mph where the visibility is really crap.
We flew from Gatwick to Bordeaux, fog bound airport to fog bound airport... If it wasn't for driving on the wrong side of the road and seeing my folks again I'd say we were still in England.
Hopefully tomorrow the sun will come out, maybe the day after, who knows. More importantly I hope my Mum gets better as she's bit ill for many days now.
That's the last few days, the last few months have been a slight roller coaster of a ride for me, so here goes...
Late in August I started working for a company based in Havant called Wartsila Propulsion. This part of the company design and manufacture ships seals and bearings, Wartsila as a whole are a global company in the ship design and manufacturing business. My role here is to draw round things all day... which beats the square things that I used to draw. Okay both of those tasks are a little more complicated than that, honest.
I'm now living back down in Old Portsmouth. I'm sharing a nice 2 bed flat with my mate Simon whom I've know from school. The rooms are huge, which I need as I have a lot of crap... well I thought I did, until Simon moved all his stuff into his room, omg he has some crap. It's got a massive lounge with parquet flooring, which may sound flash, but is bloody slippery especially if you are trying to get up off the sofa from a lying position when you need bed after night on the piss... or if you are Sarah, it is somewhere that you can pass out on. The best bit is that it has two off road parking spaces and a garage... which naturally is full of boxes. Okay that's not the best bit, the best bit is the walking distance to Gunwharf, Guildhall Walk and the abundance of local pubs in the area. The most local pub is The Pembroke, which you can just see from the lounge. The pints in there are reasonably priced and the bar staff on a Saturday night are very easy on the eye! Must go back there asap...
Ah, nearly forgot, my good friend Navid, whom I've know since I was 11 (how long ago!), married Shara. The wedding was on a Tuesday, which you might think is odd, but as they had only met 10 months beforehand getting a weekend wedding was practically impossible. A Tuesday wedding, worked really well and it meant a day or two off work... Weddings on the other hand they make people disappear... where is Nav, has anyone seen him since the wedding? Also, Sally, whom I've known even longer got married to Andrew. Strangely in both sets of official photos you cannot see me in any of them apart from the group shots...

Nearly 12 months ago, my freinds Darren and Jodie went on a round the world holiday. Their time is almost up as they are back in the country on the 27th. I cannot really believe it's been a year since they went! Where has the year gone, what have I done it a year? I must do more next year...

On a note about the previous post, I've still not got any money back from the insuranc company regarding my lost camera... Their initial reason for not paying up was because I didn't get a police report, this is something that the French Police do not give out for lost items. They then wanted the phone number of the Police station so they can phone them up and ask them themselves... which I did, ages ago and I've not seen the all important cheque in the post. Something to add to the 'to do' list for the New Year...

Ps (can you put a postscript on a blog entry?) While looking at the webstats for this site a few places keep coming up a lot. Sunnyvale, California... who there keeps looking at this blog, seriously it's not that interesting?!? Plus there is someone in Manchester, but I might know who that is... :) (edit: nope it's not who I thought it was...)