• 08:11 So, today we move house. Third time in two months. :) #

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Posted at 11:32 PM # | Comments

• 15:02 Just heard someone playing tunes on church bells. Go bell-ringers! #

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Posted at 3:47 AM # | Comments

• 09:19 So, the French GOVT. Admin staff are all on strike today. That makes of the instant babysitter again. :) #
• 19:35 Shit. I managed to break the fireplace. Fark. :( #

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Posted at 11:34 PM # | Comments

• 15:48 365 Days - Day 23 - Random Arthouse shot www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3230777507/ #
• 15:50 365 Days - Day 24 - Hiding from the storm and reading www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3230777511/ #

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Posted at 11:39 PM # | Comments

• 06:47 Happy hottest 100 party, er, australia day! :) #
• 08:56 Ooh. School's out because of storm damage. I'm an instant babysitter for the day. :) #

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Posted at 11:32 PM # | Comments

• 08:41 Wow. When they say it'll be windy here they really, really mean it. I nearly broke my finger opening the door! #
• 09:57 Whoah. Warned to stay indoors all day as the storm is going to get really bad later. And we're not even the worst hit! #
• 10:53 Uh oh. 7 year old has taken over my laptop. Apparently, Smultron is the most exciting program because it looks like a tomato and she can ... #

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Posted at 11:33 PM # | Comments

• 14:12 Just got back from a girly lunch out. Now for tea by the fire and work. Cosy. :) #
• 15:54 Work it. Make it. Do it. Makes us. *dances* #

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Posted at 11:34 PM # | Comments

• 15:11 365 Days - Day 20 - Spider! www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3218050872/ #
• 15:11 365 Days - Day 21 - Prefecture!!! www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3218052602/ #
• 15:12 365 Days - Day 22 - Back in the office that isn't mine www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3217200339/ #

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Posted at 11:45 PM # | Comments

• 15:47 So, Bruce is an official French (temporary) resident as of today. And he's off in Vienna now. #

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Posted at 11:33 PM # | Comments

• 15:24 I'm stressing out about French Govt departments not doing what they say they will, leaving me to deal with everything at the last minute. #
• 17:56 I love teh intarwebs. It's great to watch the inauguration with the rest of the world. #
• 18:24 Seems like Obama will be very open about all policies and future plans. Wish that was more common in politics. tinyurl.com/8zsatr #
• 18:44 Lost in translation - Literal fail. FrenchGuy: Ready? Me: Yup. Ready to run out the door whenever. FrenchGuy: Yes, but we'll take the car. #

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Posted at 11:36 PM # | Comments

I've been meaning to get around to some serious movie watching. This is the top of the list - Movies that both David and Margaret gave 5 stars. There's also a short(ish) list of movies I am terribly embarrassed to have not seen yet (or need to see again because it's been so long I hardly recall them): Movies I need to see in 2009.

The next movies to tackle are movies rated 4 stars or above by David and Margaret, the 50 best dystopian films, top 100 Sci-Fi films, best indie films and the IMDB top 250 movies.

I think once I've seen all of them I'll be doing pretty well. But then there's another, much bigger goal: 1001 movies you must see before you die. I can't believe how few of the movies I've seen. Bad!

To watch the 2.5K or so movies already on my wishlist (which is in no way comprehensive) will take about 7 years at one a day or nearly 20 years with 2-3 a week, not counting movies I find in that 7-20 years that get added to the list! I need to get started!











PS. Here be moar lists. I like lists. :D
PPS. My reading list is just as scary. Eeep!


Posted at 10:43 AM # | Comments

• 15:58 "Gotye - Thanks for your time" has become my theme song. :/ #
• 16:32 Okay, here comes the backlog of pics. Sorry :( #
• 16:32 365 Days - Day 13 - Walking towards the sunrise flickr.com/photos/smange/3209960660/ #
• 16:33 365 Days - Day 14 - Tipsy Photo flickr.com/photos/smange/3209116061/ #
• 16:33 365 Days - Day 15 - Bruce went to Nimes flickr.com/photos/smange/3209965086/ #
• 16:34 365 Days - Day 16 - Quick walk at dusk flickr.com/photos/smange/3209967354/ #
• 16:34 365 Days - Day 17 - Sunset from the canal over the river flickr.com/photos/smange/3209122567/ #
• 16:35 365 Days - Day 18 - Rollerblading at the airport flickr.com/photos/smange/3209972138/ #
• 16:35 365 Days - Day 19 - A gorgeous sunrise flickr.com/photos/smange/3209127857/ #
• 16:47 In other, less picturey, news: I've finally got my mobile phone sorted out again. So, I can tweet from that when I'm offline. Woo! #

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Posted at 11:37 PM # | Comments

As I'm not online a lot at the moment, picture updates have been few and far between. I've got a huge backlog of pics to get on to flickr (going back to September 2008, but mostly from this year). We're taking lots of pics of Agen and the family we're staying with. But, when I'm only online for minutes at a time, I can't really upload and organise piles of pics. So, they have to wait.

On the other hand, I have managed to find time to upload a few pics ever few days. I started doing the Flickr 365 days project, which means that I'm taking one photo every day and putting it on Flickr with some sort of explanation as to why I took it. Some people swear that you should take pics only of yourself, while others swear that it will get boring very quickly if we all do that. Some people are also very picky about who clicks the button. I figure I didn't exactly sign up to any rules, so I'll do it my way. I'm planning on taking a photo that shows what makes that day unique for me. So, that means two things: to show what makes that day different to any other day I've lived; and to show what made my day different from everyone else's in the world. I'm also writing a little description with each photo so it makes sense to people who don't know me, since the pics are also being submitted to flickr groups.

It's kind of interesting to do and sort of interesting to watch other people's posts too. It should also be a good record to look back on in years to come. Either way, here it is (or use rss). :D

Posted at 4:37 PM # | Comments

The people renting the house we we re about to sign for screwed us around a bit. The agent asked us to fax docs as her bosses weren't sure about us. They were scared of renting to foreigners and didn't want to sign anything with us until Bruce has permanent residency here. So they said no. Then they had a change of heart and asked us to email more docs. We sent those docs to them and they have kept us hanging (officially they haven't given a final no).

We've given up on them and decided that most landlords are going to have a similar sticking point, so our hosts have organised for us to get a short lease in a house currently owned by our host's ex-wife. She's apparently trying to sell it, but not having much luck. She works in another part of the property and is talking of renting us a part of the full house (apparently it's HUGE). We're talking two months at the moment, as we should have residency papers sorted by then and can get a more permanent place. Bruce and I still haven't seen the place, but our hosts assure us it's pretty nice.

We're pretty disappointed about not getting the other place, but our hosts tell us it's a good thing we don't have it as likely to be flooded in a big way sometime in the next few years anyway. Apparently the huge river near here (the Garonne) hasn't flooded in 50 years even though it used to flood once every 30 years. The Garonne is pretty huge already and flows VERY quickly, so I can easily see how it would flood. Our hosts pointed out the flood measure and flood observation tower, which was further away from the river than the house we were looking at and was about the same height as the second floor on the house. So, maybe this is a close save. We'll see.

Posted at 10:22 AM # | Comments

• 10:48 Day 12 - The Booyah flickr.com/photos/smange/3198975052/ #
• 10:49 That's all the pics I have on the computer. More later. :D #
• 10:52 I really, really, really need more time online and less emergency paperwork to complete. #

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Posted at 11:41 PM # | Comments

• 12:09 Day 8 - Failed dinner pic www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3191230796/ #
• 12:11 Day 9 - Tea by the fire www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3191232040/in/photostream/ #
• 12:13 Day 10 - Bike ride!! www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3190386597/ #
• 12:14 Day 11 - Armagnac www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3191235876/ #
• 12:16 Okay, that's it for my internet fun for the day. Might be back in a few days. :D #

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Posted at 11:32 PM # | Comments

We have the appointment Thursday to sign for the house and then we'll
get keys on Friday or Monday. Woohoo!

Our new house is in a small housing estate of similar houses, with a
communal garden area and a pool. The place is really well maintained
and looks quite nice. Apparently there is an Australian couple a few
doors down, too. It's only a short walk from a new shopping district
and a twice-weekly market. Not too far from Bruce's work, either
(Bruce's bosses think it's forever away, but it's only a few
kilometres, really).

The actual house is a two bedroom, two storey town house. There's a
garage (read place to store bikes and boxes of stuff from the
shipping), decent sized lounge room, kitchen (has NOTHING in it except
a sink, but we'll fix that), bathroom etc. There's a little private
backyard with a place to put a table. It's all very new, well designed
and clean. We have a 3-year lease, good landlord etc. It's all looking
great.

We're allowed to be here for now, but we need more documentation to be
allowed to stay permanently. At least when we have a house and
internet we will be able to research stuff easily, then I can dedicate
a small amount of each day to negotiating the paperwork.

There's a million years of historic bureaucracy that says Bruce needs
a bunch of papers approved before he can work, even though technically
he shouldn't anymore. Meh. It's paperwork we needed to do eventually
anyway, but it's still annoying. We may have found a loophole to allow
Bruce to work right now. At least then Bruce can start work while I
keep hacking at our paperwork.

The really annoying thing about French bureaucracy is that they've
given local councils HUGE powers and then left them with confusing,
conflicting rules (and no information on EU rules). Plus, they don't
seem to have effective communication on changes in the rules. In the
end we think our guarantee to stay here will depend on whether the
people at the prefecture like us. *fingers crossed*

Posted at 7:31 AM # | Comments

• 12:11 Very quickly adding some 365 pics... #
• 12:11 365 Days - Day 5 - Paperwork dooom flickr.com/photos/smange/3178753427/ #
• 12:12 365 Days - Day 6 - Snow! flickr.com/photos/smange/3179592334/ #
• 12:12 365 Days - Day 7 - Proper Snow!! flickr.com/photos/smange/3179595178/ #
• 12:17 Sorry for the sporadic picture updates.. Lack of internet = Arse. Anyway, we are about to sign for a house, then internet will follow. :D #
• 12:20 In the meantime, our French hosts are lovely. They're helping us do lots of paperwork and feeding us lots of awesome French food. Cheese! <3 #

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Posted at 11:33 PM # | Comments

• 12:18 Quickly putting up some 365 pics before getting back to French bureaucracy... #
• 12:18 365 pic from 3 Jan - Road Trip across France: www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3172965705/ #
• 12:19 365 Pic from 4 Jan - Making new friends: www.flickr.com/photos/smange/3172965709/ #
• 12:20 Apparently the other pics aren't on my computer yet, so they'll have to wait until next time I have internet... #

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Posted at 11:32 PM # | Comments

• 07:19 Today = Road trip across France! I'll be taking a 365 pic en route (ooh French that makes sense) and back on the net tomorrow hopefully. #

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Posted at 11:31 PM # | Comments

Right. It's time. Today's adventure will be scary. Today we have to face French traffic and learn to drive on the other side of the road. Then after a day of driving, we are staying with Bruce's new bosses, so we'll have to work out how to make a good impression after a day of stressing and getting smelly in a car.

We're heading to Agen, which is between Bordeaux and Toulouse. I've checked the vitals: There's plenty of free wifi around the main street, so I'll be online probably once a day until we get our own house set up. Don't know when this will be, since we don't have a house yet. All that is to be sorted out this week - Huuuuuge week ahead.

Anyway, here's a map to show you where we're going. Enjoy!


View Larger Map

Posted at 6:12 AM # | Comments

• 08:13 Noting even more features that are broken in InDesign CS4. Geez Adobe, make sure the product WORKS before you sell it. #
• 14:04 Last full day in Lyon, so I had to take a picture of the Old Medieval City, Vieux Lyon. #365days flickr.com/photos/smange/3159780654/ #
• 15:42 Freelancer Win: Now that I can work with my music up loud (not headphones) I can sing along as I work. Woo! *sings* #
• 17:09 Hating Gimp for making me search help files and net forums to MOVE A SELECTION. Not intuitive at all = Fail. #

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Posted at 11:33 PM # | Comments

• 07:03 #last.fm #love Jason Mraz - I'm Yours tinyurl.com/3q7eag #
• 12:56 Having a play with Disqus by setting it up on my blog. And seriously, it looks VERY cool. Love the idea of video comments. :D #
• 17:46 Is it going to get boring if we all post links to our 365 Days projects? flickr.com/photos/smange/3156677816/ #
• 17:59 How the hell did I get "Ice Ice Baby" in my head? Aaaargh! #

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Posted at 11:34 PM # | Comments

Just in case anyone's keen to play, I've set up my blog so comments are now made using Disqus This means you can log in using all sorts of openID logins, Facebook etc. It also means you can choose to have your comments show up in your Facebook feed, Friendfeed and whatnot. Plus, if you're feeling a little adventurous you can post a comment using video via Seesmic.

Anyway, I pretty much set it up just because I could. I'm also kind of keen to see what happens from here. :D

So, have a play. It looks like it might be fun.

Posted at 12:33 PM # | Comments