Goodbye la France

I'm Francesca Tereshkova, a British girl who washed up on the shores of France aboard a Eurolines bus in 1998. I came to France the day after I finished my University finals. I'm now 32 with two children. I married my Russian boyfriend (now 'hubski') in 2003. And I've learned as much about France as I need to know. In August 2006, I brought my family back 'home' to the UK. We're still adjusting... This is my story.

Name:
Location: Formerly the Parisian suburbs, now the town of E., Darkest Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

I get perverse enjoyment from doing the opposite of what everyone else does. I wish I could stop but I can't. So when thousands of Frenchies were leaving France to find work and to make a better life in the UK, I chose to do exactly the opposite. That was in 1998. My French experience is unlike any I have read about in the vast Brit-in-France literary sub-genre. I have no French boyfriend or family, no country house. Dog poo has never inspired me to pick up a pen. I have recently given up on France ever changing, or me ever changing, and brought my family back to the strange new world that is England in 2006. This blog, part life-story, part diary, is my way of saying goodbye la France, and hello Angleterre (or in the Oxfordshire vernacular, 'Orwoight?').

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

And so I'm back...

...from outer space. Walking back into my blog with that sad look upon my face.

Not that I intend to reveal my face, or real name - I have a pointless, but important (in the bread-winning sense) job to lose. But I still have a story or two to share, and so I will spend the brief window of opportunity between completing the last item on my to-do list 'consider garotting self with washing line' and trailing upstairs to bed, regaling you. Until tonight that time has traditionally been spent trawling e-bay for Hobbs and Boden clothes at Tesco's prices, but I have decided there must be more to life than this.

It's hard to cram two years into one post, even though they have galloped past. The most important thing is that we have survived, and we're still surviving. But as I struggle with a full-time job, raising two children and a hubski who thinks that if he continues to be "creative" with the English language it will eventually warm to him and the dictionaries will get changed accordingly, I find that something is lacking in my life (and no, it's not MAAF).

It's writing. My first love. Just like the Abba lady who thought that 'everyone listens when I start to sing', my dream is to captivate through writing. Make people laugh, reflect, and have a laugh myself.

So please indulge me, and sorry for being away for so long.