On the road (for the last time?)

Strasbourg's poorly named river Ill

To celebrate the nth anniversary where n is a number I'm no longer bothering to count, of my being on the road, so to speak, (by this I mean living out of a suitcase, not really having any friends, not knowing what I'm doing from one day to the next or where my next pay-check is coming from) I'm going to give myself the gift of a shot at stability.

This is to be my last weekend at Sophie's dad's house in a state of flux, temporariness and general disarray. Tomorrow I move to my new flat. And it's great!

Strasbourg in the Sunshine

It's going to be me, a 26-year-old Medical student and a 27-year-old Ethnology student (male and female respectively) and we're slap bang in the centre of town on the 4th floor.

The apartment itself is tout neuf meaning that the other two who have been living there for around 4 months were it's first ever occupants. It's relatively swish, full of great CDs and is west facing (read late afternoon sunshine streaming through living room windows. pure charm!) with a wild cat about 6 months of age stalking the corridors.

For all this fantastickness I have to pay of course. The rent is going to be around 1.7 times that which I was paying in Toulouse but now that I'm a working man (4 hours a week!) I feel I can justify it. Plus I'm in the process of applying for all sorts of state aid, which will start pouring into my bank account just as soon as the form that the British Department For Work & Pensions sent about 2 weeks ago arrives. Am I worried it's been lost in the post? A bit. Do I trust the French postal system? Not in the slightest, those work-shy, strike loving chair-warmers. But we'll see. Never say never.

I'm also in line to get my first real pay check sooner than I thought, as the month of February surprised me by only containing 28 days that sneaky beggar! So a bit of paperwork to do and (6 x €15 - scandalous french tax rates) euros will be winging their way to me via La Poste (uh oh!).

So, the next time I write I will be a man with a job and a home. A combination of things that has thus far eluded me in this difficult, inexplicable and (thus far) entirely pointless journey of mine.

Let's hope it sticks for a while.

Love
Rob

What awaited me on my bed when I got home from Hungary.
I personally found this very moving!