Bah!

So that didn't really turn out too well at all. The Fingernails passed on their germs and Mrs. F and I were laid low the whole day. Rather than infect all my colleagues I called in sick and slept most of the afternoon. Having taken care of the Fingernails the whole morning I passed the baton just before lunch and hit the sack. It would have been nice to have started this blog whilst surfing a tide of good fortune, but ach, 'twas not to be. With any luck, things will be better by the morning and I can take the Fingernails out to the market, get a paper and then sit with them on a café terrace while they sip their little drinks. It's a simple pleasure but a delightful one. That also gives Mrs. F a couple of hours to do whatever it is than women do when holed up on their own for a limited period. Monday heralds the start of the autumn half term holiday in our region. Thankfully, it's only a week and Fingernail 2 will still be going to her crèche, so it's not so bad. Growing up in England, we always lived in a house with a couple of gardens and it seemed everyone else did, too. French cities are low on green and high on pollution and dog turds, so battling your way through the streets to the park in the afternoon is not always rosy. The first time I saw a family living in a flat was when I moved to Germany about twenty years ago. They were clearly well-heeled, so I couldn't understand their choice. Here, having a house and garden here would mean moving a long way out, getting two cars and buying a timeshare on the ring road. The Fingernails would breathe much better air, but I'd hardly ever see them. Living the way we do, I take one or both to school in the morning, pick one or both up at lunchtime, have lunch en famille, then I go off to work in the afternoon, generally being back before they go to bed. The park is close, so it's a fair compromise.