Monday
First thing we went to the supermarket, printed photos and bought 4 euro stalls for the studio and some old man sleepers for the studio as our feet were soaking from the rain. We finally started painting in the studio. I started working from one of the photographs I’d taken of the girls playing the guitar in the laundrette. I’m interested in a new subject, out of proportion, disorientating angles. Here are some of the photos I took and here’s the finished painting.
Can’t remember what we did that evening…
First thing we went to the supermarket, printed photos and bought 4 euro stalls for the studio and some old man sleepers for the studio as our feet were soaking from the rain. We finally started painting in the studio. I started working from one of the photographs I’d taken of the girls playing the guitar in the laundrette. I’m interested in a new subject, out of proportion, disorientating angles. Here are some of the photos I took and here’s the finished painting.
Can’t remember what we did that evening…
Tuesday
We had the politics lecture. We desperately wanted to paint instead as we’d finally got started and didn’t fancy making fools out of our selves all morning at the lecture but we went to it and it wasn’t that bad. We didn’t talk any French though. Patricia asked us to go to the front of the room, sit on the desk and face the class and asked us to talk about British politics….. So we started talking about the NHS, identity fraud, identity cards dispute, security cameras, getting syringes over the counter at pharmacies, Gordon Brown and various other things that popped into our heads. Meanwhile everyone just starred at us. Then Patricia asked us to talk about French politics. All we knew is that it’s right wing and the President has a singer for a girl friend so we didn’t really know what to say. Anyway this went on for about 2 and a half hours and although it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, I was glad when it finished at I could go back and carry on painting.. At the end a girl came over to me and asked me if I was a scout. I was wearing my painting scouts shirt which used to be my brothers. She seemed quite excited as she hung around for about 5-10 minutes to ask me this question. Apparently she used to be a scout. After this we went back to the studio and continued painting.
That evening Grace, Liz and I went out to an Indian restaurant which was delicious. Both Liz and Grace broke there ban on cheese for the night and had a dish with cheese in it. We had the restaurant to our self and I forgot we were in France for a little while because the Indian man spoke to us in English. When we’d finished we decided to go to Boite a bierre for a quick drink. We ran into Christoph there. We played some pool with him and I actually potted quite a few balls for once.
Wednesday
We painted in the studio while listening to music. I don’t think we did much that evening.
Thursday
Liz, Hannah and I went into the studio and painted. A girl called Aline came over to us and said ‘you like punk music?’ to which we said ‘yeah’ so she invited us to go and see a punk band that evening. I went to Liz’s at around 5 and she cooked me dinner. I got the hick ups and then we headed to the Irish pub to meet Grace, Christoph, Hannah, Aline and another girl.
The band…… well they were interesting. The first band was just a lot of noise and bad dancing I’d say and then the singer decided to take off his shirt. To make the band more bearable we had a few drinks. Grace had 1, Hannah had a few and Liz and I had about 4 and Christoph expressed his concern over how much we were drinking as it was more than he drinks and he didn’t want to carry us home later. We just laughed as we weren’t even tipsy let alone drunk. He said French girls don’t drink. Anyway the next band was a cross dressing German band who spoke in English as a common language. I did not like them either. They were dressed as snow white, a saucy bunny rabbit and a rocky horror drag type outfit. The singer was an even bigger poser than the last one and I guess he thought the stage wasn’t high enough as he thought it would be a good idea to stand on a chair whenever he sang and some times when he was just playing guitar, just in case we forgot he we there. A few people were taking up his dress angle photos of him, which he obviously loved. All in all… a strange but good night. The gig was on the other side of the bridge. This photo was a view from the bridge. Stunning! I love Rouen.
We had the politics lecture. We desperately wanted to paint instead as we’d finally got started and didn’t fancy making fools out of our selves all morning at the lecture but we went to it and it wasn’t that bad. We didn’t talk any French though. Patricia asked us to go to the front of the room, sit on the desk and face the class and asked us to talk about British politics….. So we started talking about the NHS, identity fraud, identity cards dispute, security cameras, getting syringes over the counter at pharmacies, Gordon Brown and various other things that popped into our heads. Meanwhile everyone just starred at us. Then Patricia asked us to talk about French politics. All we knew is that it’s right wing and the President has a singer for a girl friend so we didn’t really know what to say. Anyway this went on for about 2 and a half hours and although it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, I was glad when it finished at I could go back and carry on painting.. At the end a girl came over to me and asked me if I was a scout. I was wearing my painting scouts shirt which used to be my brothers. She seemed quite excited as she hung around for about 5-10 minutes to ask me this question. Apparently she used to be a scout. After this we went back to the studio and continued painting.
That evening Grace, Liz and I went out to an Indian restaurant which was delicious. Both Liz and Grace broke there ban on cheese for the night and had a dish with cheese in it. We had the restaurant to our self and I forgot we were in France for a little while because the Indian man spoke to us in English. When we’d finished we decided to go to Boite a bierre for a quick drink. We ran into Christoph there. We played some pool with him and I actually potted quite a few balls for once.
Wednesday
We painted in the studio while listening to music. I don’t think we did much that evening.
Thursday
Liz, Hannah and I went into the studio and painted. A girl called Aline came over to us and said ‘you like punk music?’ to which we said ‘yeah’ so she invited us to go and see a punk band that evening. I went to Liz’s at around 5 and she cooked me dinner. I got the hick ups and then we headed to the Irish pub to meet Grace, Christoph, Hannah, Aline and another girl.
The band…… well they were interesting. The first band was just a lot of noise and bad dancing I’d say and then the singer decided to take off his shirt. To make the band more bearable we had a few drinks. Grace had 1, Hannah had a few and Liz and I had about 4 and Christoph expressed his concern over how much we were drinking as it was more than he drinks and he didn’t want to carry us home later. We just laughed as we weren’t even tipsy let alone drunk. He said French girls don’t drink. Anyway the next band was a cross dressing German band who spoke in English as a common language. I did not like them either. They were dressed as snow white, a saucy bunny rabbit and a rocky horror drag type outfit. The singer was an even bigger poser than the last one and I guess he thought the stage wasn’t high enough as he thought it would be a good idea to stand on a chair whenever he sang and some times when he was just playing guitar, just in case we forgot he we there. A few people were taking up his dress angle photos of him, which he obviously loved. All in all… a strange but good night. The gig was on the other side of the bridge. This photo was a view from the bridge. Stunning! I love Rouen.
Friday
We went met up to go to the internet café oh and while we were there grace over heard some women speaking badly about us. She has this amazing nack of listening to French, even while she’s talking. Apparently they mimicked us going ‘oooh look at me I’m English!’ This was the first encounter of some unfriendly French. Well we’re a month in so it’s pretty good I’d say.
That evening Hannah, Liz and I went over to Grace’s for dinner. She made a kind of Japanese rice, veg meal that was delicious. I played the guitar for a while then we watched Ghost. I fell asleep. I’ve got a bit of a nick name… Mary Fatigue.(can’t find accent ) It was ever since Pap said it and now if I get a bit tired at night I always hear it.
We went met up to go to the internet café oh and while we were there grace over heard some women speaking badly about us. She has this amazing nack of listening to French, even while she’s talking. Apparently they mimicked us going ‘oooh look at me I’m English!’ This was the first encounter of some unfriendly French. Well we’re a month in so it’s pretty good I’d say.
That evening Hannah, Liz and I went over to Grace’s for dinner. She made a kind of Japanese rice, veg meal that was delicious. I played the guitar for a while then we watched Ghost. I fell asleep. I’ve got a bit of a nick name… Mary Fatigue.(can’t find accent ) It was ever since Pap said it and now if I get a bit tired at night I always hear it.
2 comments:
Being unable to phone because it seems to cost you to receive, I fall back on blog comments. But you know me, all I can do is something to embarass you ('cept it won't). They don't know their own minds over there because they're too busy. You take after your brother. Not in height and sex and maybe a few other things. Hooray, you're working. Hope there's lots by the time I get there. You're going to have to get your skates on - oh no, you are (you're) never going to skate again.
I'm tired and stressed but fine. Good weekend in Derbyshire and meanwhile the boyo visited GA with 3 friends Sat night. No sticky floors or cheese on the turntable though. Gondaliers in Woking (Andrew and Thomas) this Fri eve.. and I bet John didn't tell you about Ant and Dec in the 'bathroom' and one of them (I forget which) doing a dance.
Ahh, the memories of that party...
Mary, I haven't read your blog (recent entries) yet but I have copied it only my USB to read on my laptop on my way into London this afternoon.
I hope we do come and visit you while you're over there. Will be in touch once I've read your (I nearly wrote you're accidently!) blog.
Glad you're having a good time. I'm a tiny bit jealous.
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