Awesome Autumn

Once again apologies to regulars for no news for the last few weeks. The camera has not been on strike, but instead used for photographing plumbing and light fittings as our search for a permanent place to live intensified. The good news is we have found somewhere to buy - a brand new two bedroom flat (with double garage) near Annemasse train station with its good links to Geneva for work, shopping, onward travel and tourism (in no particular order). Its a nice size and a 'blank canvas' for us to equip, decorate and furnish as we see fit (except for the bathroom which comes 'done'!).

So the last two weeks have been spent with mortgage brokers, banks, kitchen designers, choosing parquet and generally everything else that you need to do to buy and equip a brand new flat. The flat development is still in the final stages however is due to be finished within days - and once we have completed all the legal bits we should hopefully be in by early/mid-December. So exciting and expensive times ahead no doubt.

So to help pay for the new place two salaries would help. Therefore lady luck came calling last week and I have found work. All the effort that I have put in over the last two months has paid off and I have found a job which is a really good career opportunity. So that all starts tomorrow and today is my last weekday afternoon of my mini career break. How am I spending it - doing laundry (and blog writing)!




After a busy few days kitchen planning and interviewing, we took a nice relaxed walk yesterday afternoon through the park and the lavish suburb of Conches and on to a stretch of the never too far away River Arve. This is a much quieter, more woody stretch and despite some cold weather last week, the trees were still hanging on to their leaves and their glorious colour. I know there's been plenty of waxing lyrical on this blog about how beautiful the autumn has been out here but its true and yesterday was the picture postcard crowning glory. I'll let the pictures do the talking this time with the final sobering thought from a passer-by yesterday - "in a few days it will all be gone" in other words "so enjoy it while it lasts". How true, how true....

International Peacekeeping

So its been a couple of weeks since we last posted here, so probably high time the blog was updated. Unfortunately the camera has been on strike since we went to Nyon - we have not (or I have not) really done any major excursions since so I will probably blatantly flaunt copyright laws and post random pics from Google image search or something. I do have some nice autumnal pics and some video of the rather gorgeous stretch of the river Arve not too far from here. I took them from my rubbish camera phone when I went 'the long way' to get some shopping earlier this week.

Life here continues as what has become normal. Vero goes to work, I stay at home spending my day trying to avoid scrabble and sudoku on facebook, instead trawling through the job portals and sending away job applications.

Its going well - slowly but well. I have had a few face to face interviews (only one of them was for a real job!) and plenty of chat on the phone with some very helpful recruitment consultants. I had a very nice interview yesterday with an agency all in French (or Franglais in my case) which has boosted my confidence to speak no end. My next step is to start targeting companies direct, however I have several applications pending and it usually takes a good 3-4 weeks before you get any feedback... So I am staying patient and trying to maximise my time off by boosting my French and also learning a few more technical skills via the wonderful world wide web (which was invented in Geneva, well, technically Meyrin, by some boffin at CERN).

It is a fact that people in general do like to take their time here - maybe because they are relaxed, or busy with a high volume of work, or maybe because they are trying to divide their time between coffee drinking, walking multiple miniature dogs, roller blading or scooter-ing everywhere and just randomly driving around Geneva in their cars at high speeds tooting their horns at everyone.

People here do keep very busy and are rather 'deliberate' in performing day to day tasks. I am still trying to work out that is a good or bad thing however don't get me started on the epic saga that is our kind of broken old German washer dryer....3 visits and several phone calls later all we have to show for our efforts is a new plastic on-off switch and still sopping wet washing.

We have turned the hunt for an apartment up a notch. Last Saturday we went to Annemasse for another look around, checking out estate agent windows and looking at certain areas to see where is quiet, what the transport links are like etc etc. We have yo-yo'd back and forth between the rent or buy argument and buying is winning through, to the extent that we are doing some viewings on Monday in Ambilly, a quiet small commune across the train tracks from Annemasse. Exciting times - this time next week we could be on our way to being property owners in France!

Prices here are a good 15-20% higher than in Plymouth and also much higher than in some nice alpine regions not so far away. For the price of a 2 bed flat we could maybe buy a nice 3 or 4 bed house in some parts the Savoie region leading to thoughts of a future second 'weekend' home in the Alps in a couple of years time maybe...I could buys some cows and make my own cheese. Le Jannère has a very nice ring to it don't you think?

Anyway this weekend we are going back to Vero's family home in Ruy. We leave tonight by train straight after Vero has finished work and hopefully the journey will be worth the 100CHF each ticket price. We have not been back properly since we arrived nearly 7 weeks ago - a 2 hour flying visit the day after we arrived to collect some things that's all. I was in a complete daze that day...

Not much is planned - we intend to relax and chill out with ML, JP and Philippe. The main event is tomorrow night when I will sit down with Vero's dad and watch the Rugby world cup semi between France and England. Vero would like to think I will be neutral-ish however the England shirt is packed and I am nailing my colours firmly to the red and white, sweet chariot mast. What's worse is that Vero and her mum are leaving us to it and going out, so who knows how tetchy things may get without the restraint of two level- headed women who couldn't really care less who wins. JP is a typical passionate French rugby fan so I'll try and do my best to keep the peace.

Well at least Zidane isn't playing...here's the video I promised.