agony and ecstacy

jesus it's been a shitty few days.

Sorry to start in such a negative fashion... let me explain: the cash machine stopped giving me money two days before I moved into my new (and rather expensive) house-share. This means that in the last 4 days, I've lived on the 11 euro that was in my wallet at the fatal ATM visit. This doesn't sound so bad, but the problem with moving house is that you start from nothing.

My room is unfurnished (that's no joke. When I arrived there was literally nothing in it at all) and I had nothing to eat. 6 Euros bought me a box of cereal, some milk, bread, a packet of pasta and a jar of tomato sauce. I already had rice and some onions. For 4 days I've eaten nothing but these 6 ingredients for every meal but I simply couldn't afford to buy anything else. I've walked everywhere because I can't pay the €1.50 tram fare and I've suffered the humilitation of standing in a queue at the unemployment office to use their free internet.

To top it all, today I had the infuriating experience of having to turn down a job on principal. That is the principal that everyone working in the school were a total bunch of bastards and I refused to let myself be bullied (I'm a qualified english teacher. You can't treat me like this!). It's a long story and I can't be arsed to recount it here as the keyboard I'm using is fucked and in French which means the keys are all in different places. Suffice it to say that when I left I was fuming with rage and could only console myself with a meal of rice, tomato sauce and raw onions. Don't ask me why I didn't cook the onions. Sometimes when you're in a really filthy mood you'll do anything to make it worse. Self-flagellation they call it. I'm still suffering from the raw onions. It's not pretty.

But, to lighten the mood a little: I have temporarily escaped my no-money-expensive-rent-to-pay hell-hole by the fact that I have been paid for the first time in 3 months. Yes kids, and in cash too! I have right now in my pocket 6 hours worth of pure hard work to fritter away on overpriced internet costs and blogging...

So misery alleviated and I'm only left with the debilitating loneliness and the furniture-free bedroom to deal with (this is not quite as bad as it sounds. Betrand's son has lent me a z-bed and I have my trusty sleeping bag)

Joy!

See you next time fun-fans.

Rob