Post wedding blues

I’m most definitely in a post wedding comedown. As I settle back into my French routine, I can’t help but wish I could relive last weekend's festivities. I loved everything about the wedding: the company, the food, the dancing. There’s no denying that seeing my family after such a long time did wonders for my mental health. In the weeks running up to the wedding, I didn’t feel myself at all. I can’t exactly pinpoint when I started feeling down, but as time went by I gradually got more and more desperate to go home. By no means do I hate it here, but as Dorothy herself said ‘there’s no place like home.’ 

Divonne is otherworldly, in the sense that it’s like no other place I’ve ever known. Everything is a tad disjointed, like everyone is living in a bubble where reality is just within arms reach, but is light years away at the same time. I’ve noticed that the children don’t have much understanding when it comes to poverty, homelessness and other global issues. Nor do they have any regard for anyone less fortunate than themselves. Here, there is only ‘less rich’ or ‘more rich’, because everyone has a crazy amount of money. You get plenty of examples of how not to raise your children, that’s for sure. I feel as though an integral part of my childhood was participating in non-school uniform days to raise money for charities and spending weekends sifting through old clothes with my mum to donate to our local charity shop. I’d like to think that my mum insisting I gave things away shaped me into a bit of a humanitarian. 

The day after I returned, I made one hell of a pasta bake (yes, pasta...again). I was well impressed and I think I scored points with the semi-vegetarian too. 

Somebody needs to tell the weather to chill out. It is not normal to go from 13 degrees to 4, come on now. I’m fully blaming my sickness on this stupid weather, it needs to stop. Also, snow? No. Thank. You! Snow is probably my least favourite weather condition, unless I can get away with being inside for the whole time. Even with extra clothes, I am in no way prepared for the incoming cold. Nope.

I had a nice chilled morning on Wednesday. Luckily, Mar had done all of her homework during my weekend off, so we had the freedom to do whatever. She chose to make dreamcatchers, finally. We’ve had the materials for an eternity and I’ve been desperate to make one for weeks. I think you’ll agree, that they were a great success! 

She’s adamant that we’re going to go into business together, designing, making and selling personalised dreamcatchers. We shall see, last week it was a farm where we would look after animals, instead of killing them.

For anyone who doubted me, yes I am still going running twice a week! When you have a view as good as this, it’s hard not enjoy it a little bit (even though I moan for the entire time.) 

It still hurts like crazy every time I do it, but on Friday I finally made it around the entire lake without stopping. Another thing to note, when I fell in the ditch by Kristi’s house I lost my inhaler, so I couldn’t breathe for most of the time. Major points to me! 
A big shoutout to my running buddies, Krisztina and Clara, who consistently keep me coming back, you guys are amazing. 
I did go back later to retrieve the aforementioned inhaler. It made for quite a picturesque walk, and I got the chance to catch up with Mum via a very long phone call. Doubled my usual step count that day, ha! 

Obviously, after that more than eventful day, I definitely needed the aptly named ‘food Friday.’ It was the usual haunt, Casa Italia, for slightly below average pizza, but I had great friends to share my time with. We followed up with some drinks at Charly’s (still rubs me the wrong way that they spell it wrong.) I’m sure we all needed a few drinks after having long, hard weeks! 

Saturday, the girls and I met up again for lunch. I’m pretty sure that whenever we meet up, it rains. Not that I mind, we spend most of the time indoors eating anyway. I had to sneak in a cheeky waffle after seeing Ellen’s a few weeks ago. No regrets. 

Afterwards, we traipsed around various shops that sold things we couldn’t afford. The fashion here is… interesting to say the least. And decidedly overpriced (especially when you buy most of your clothes in Primark or at jumble sales!) 

The following day I was reunited with my little ginger love. His parents told me that he was super excited to see me, after two weeks apart we had a lot to catch up on. It went smoothly, as it always does, but he was clearly upset when I had to go. His dad came upstairs and simply said ‘you are welcome to stay for as long as you want, but I thought I’d let you know that it’s 11 so you can go if you need to.’ I reckon that I could easily stay for longer than an hour, but David’s brain might explode. 
As always, after my hour at David’s I headed to the market. I can’t say I’m thrilled to see snow falling on quite a frequent basis, but thankfully it’s not really settling yet. Touch wood! The crêpe man STILL isn’t there so it was, yet again, a taco for breakfast. 
I seem to be spending my weekends whiling away the time in crappy cafés and pubs. I swear things will be different when I have my car over here... Maybe... Probably not.

On Monday morning, Jukka left for a work trip to Ireland. This filled me with absolute dread, especially when Doreen said that she might need some extra help. 
I went to French all the same, with the overhanging worry of becoming a temporary parent for four days and sporting a rather attractive snotty, red nose. Thank goodness my lesson was relatively easy, because I was not okay.
That evening, I forgot that I can’t cook rice. Like, I literally can’t cook rice. I have successfully ruined it every single time I’ve tried. First it was sticky AND hard. Now it’s just hard, so it feels as though I’m improving. Baby steps. 

For some strange reason, I still went on a run on Tuesday. I wasn’t quite ill enough to bunk off (unfortunately), but it was a bit of a fail. I was even less able to breathe than I normally am, which is some kind of impossibility. It’s about time some scientist came up with a way to do a lung transplant, because I’d really like some new ones, please. 
Anyway, it was super cold and I’m probably going to get double sick now. Hoorah for freezing to death! Hopefully I’ll survive the winter here, but I don’t seem to be doing very well so far...