july already?!

so i've been thinking lately about why i've lost my blogging mojo. really, it comes down to the name of my blog. before i start typing there are so many other piddly things that jump into my mind: oh, i need music, do i remember my password to log into my Typepad account, should i grab a drink before i start, and what the heck was i going to write about? when i get to that last one, i get so frustrated i just hop on Facebook, write on a few people's walls and my need to write is satiated.

however that does not help in chronicling our life in Corsica. plus this blog has brought me some good things, for example, this month's issue of Islands Magazine features an article with yours truly! i've never done an interview before and it was an interesting experience. it's rather strange to read one's own words in print and of course i think i sound like a big dork. ahem. but it does give a slight, but accurate, insight into our lives.

back in January/February, this blog helped me snag a little job writing for easyJet's inflight magazine in the destination guide section. for two months i wrote about Ajaccio and Bastia both before i realized that it was a lot of work, time and travel, and therefore just decided to concentrate on Bastia. it's been rather enjoyable writing these articles each month, although i must admit that they are some of the cheesiest things i've ever written. that's saying a lot as i once wrote for my high school newspaper - interviews of the band teacher are never going to win a Nobel Prize for literature. the only downside is that i don't get an expense account in order to try out the restaurants. :(

now that school is out and i am no longer doing the English Assistant thing at the lycée and IUFM (where they train wanna-be primary school teachers), i've been working "part-time" for a British tour company as a client representative. this is the same company i worked Sundays for last year. while i really enjoy this job, it certainly comes with challenges. as i have to liaise with cleaners and owners, my French is definitely improving. i still find it incredibly difficult to talk on the phone in French, but by the end of the season, i'll be a pro. i hope. my favorite part is the client visits where i get to sit and chat, in English, to some rather fascinating people. of course not all clients are fascinating and there in lies some of the challenges. for instance, how do you react when a client hands you a square of toilet paper with two tiny black specks - squashed bugs - on it. she wants to know if they bite. your first reaction is to laugh and say, "not anymore!" alas, that is not the right and proper British way to answer.

and speaking of challenges, i should go now as i need to search in the pages jaunes for a company that can take care of wasps. one of my properties is inundated with them and it's my job to get that taken care of as the owner basically shrugged his shoulders in that way that only a Frenchman can do, and said, "The villa is in the country, not Paris or London. A few wasps are normal." yeah, thanks buddy.

so that, and incubating a baby girl, is basically what i've been up to in the last little while.