What a tortuous process this has been. The last time I tried to update my About page left me plagued with self doubt (how did I post anything before?) and writer’s block which lasted six weeks so it’s with a heavy heart that I try again.
I can now see that I’m a contradiction. A natural homemaker who has moved nine times in 20 years making home-making impossible. An example, for our second apartment, I made ceiling to floor Laura Ashley curtains showing off the victorian sash windows creating a cosy interior. We left them for the owner because, quite rightly, the chances of having the same size windows were slim but in Vienna I stuck sheets of black A2 paper to the bedroom windows, showing nothing off except how little I had paid to keep the light out.
I live in a country where it’s normal for women to work and have a large family. Today I’m unemployed (out of protest) and the mother of one. I didn’t realise it at the time but when I resigned from my job in Paris 15 years ago, I would not work full time again and it would be 14 years before we returned to France. In the meantime, my one and only has become a feisty young woman who knows way too much about some things and not nearly enough about what really matters.
France seems only interested in employing graduates and as I left school early because I was tired of being broke, there’s a gap on my CV which even my best French can’t gloss over.
The blog that I started exactly a year ago was my therapy (remember how frugal I can be?). We were back in a country that had been good to me the first time, moving in the exciting world of football, I just couldn’t wait to get started. But then I discovered that the country is economically depressed (our President has to get around on a scooter) we had moved into an isolated village where people don’t talk to one another, my husband worked 7/7, school started half an hour earlier (we are not matinal) and we were too far away. I looked for work to be told that I would earn 50% less than what I was used to earning, the football team sat at the bottom of the first division and the rest is history.
Despite the above, I survived probably thanks to blogging and support from family and friends. If I ever manage to post something coherent again, it will be about the funny and/or unexpected because I think there’s a lot of comedy out there, you just have to know where to look. I’m still unemployed but I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be better for my mental health and my family, to be in badly paid work as opposed to complaining from home about a situation I cannot single-handedly change.
The About page is almost done but I think writing it should come with a health warning. If I were a car, I would be a Peugeot 205 cabriolet circa 1986, dodgy brakes, no air bag.
Wine: full-bodied red but needs regular turning to avoid risk of corking.
Furniture: A shabby chic chesterfield showing signs of wear and tear but still has a comfortable seat.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
A bientôt.
exwahringergirl 