It’s a sloe process

I didn’t get that job. Apparently no-one else did either and I am told things are on hold. I am doing my best to ensure I don’t go down the spiral of ‘maybe they just didn’t like me and didn’t want to tell me’ or ‘what if my proposal was rubbish and I shouldn’t have been proud of it at all’. In all honesty I felt more relieved than anything else – a fairly good indication that perhaps I wasn’t ready to take on a full time role again after all. Since my last blog I have found other things to focus on. I’ve had some great conversations with people and companies that I hope to work with in the new year, my coaching course continues to go really well and Ed and I have had some great ‘business meetings’ about the new house and what we might do with the barn to make it income generating. Sneak peak…actual vs dream!

I also spent time enjoying the most stunning November, and the longest, most colourful Autumn I’ve experienced in years. The sun shone almost non-stop and whilst the temperature dropped significantly (something our bodies are slowly adjusting to!), it was glorious. With the temperature dropping came the first frost and with that the chance to make my first ever sloe gin. Thank you to Pippa at Coutillard for the sloes, instructions, and tastings from last years batch. Well, we had to know whether to add more/less gin or sugar. I’ve never made sloe gin – it’s not too tricky once you’ve picked more sloes than you initially think is 500g. But it also isn’t quick. After bottling it all up, it gets a good shake every day for the first week and then you leave it and wait patiently for 2 or 3 months.

On my coaching course we discussed the use of metaphor. Cliche’d as it may sound, making the gin is not far off how I’m feeling at the moment. Even though I might be shaken a few more times along the way. Not least as I continue to be thrown into situations where my reasonable conversational French is challenged.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Coupe Coupe (“Cut Cut”… why complicate things?!), the local Parisot hairdressers, having a nice chat with Isabelle, surrounded by mostly old ladies getting their curls seen to. After establishing that I didn’t want my entire hair dyed, I in fact wanted ‘les meches’ (crisis averted) we chatted a bit about Hong Kong and how we ended up here. At one point she asked me if we had any pets, so I started telling her about our old rescue dog Alfie. I described him saying he was huge, about 45 kilos, that he was really too strong for me and could easily knock a child or small adult down. At which point she said ‘oh wow, what breed of cat was he?’ Now, I know that cat is ‘chat’ and dog is ‘chien’ but as it turns out when you’re in a hairdressers and trying to speak in your second language with a mask on, pronunciation is harder. There I was telling my new hairdresser that we had a 45 kilo cat in Hong Kong that I couldn’t control. She must have thought I was barking (pardon the pun). In contrast today, I very capably explained to the lady in the computer store that I was looking for a very simple tablet, without much memory or complicated features. Just something that could download things like digital newspapers/magazines easily.

Thankfully Ed is always here to make me feel better about my language faux pas. Pippa had given us a few Christmassy things to decorate the cabin. One of which was a glittery gold reindeer who sadly took a ‘tumble’. I recalled seeing something similar in a clothes shop in Villefranche-de-Rouergue (our nearest big town) so off we went to try and replace it. They weren’t for sale, but we thought she might tell us where she’d bought them. We walked in and Ed took the lead… “Excuse me Madame, I have a slightly bizarre question” He pointed at the reindeer and said ‘Je cherche un sanglier comme ca’. The lady did seem a little surprised by the question – Ed explained we weren’t trying to buy hers, but wondered if she knew where we could buy one from as we’d broken our friends one. She was so kind, and had a good think and suggested where we might try, including where she bought hers from. As we walked out of the shop I was busy, yet again, doubting my French. I said to Ed “I thought Sanglier was ‘wild boar'”? We’d spoken enough about the local chasse (hunting) for me to have heard this word a fair bit so I was disappointed I’d got these animals mixed up. Ed stopped in his tracks. “Oh shit… yes, it is”. So yes it was a bizarre question. Ed walked into a clothes shop, pointed at a reindeer and said “I’m looking to buy a decorative wild boar, can you help?”

Some days I feel like great progress is being made with my French speaking (and Ed’s) and our French life in general. Other days it feels like I take a bit of a step backwards. But I just need a bit of a shake (and a good laugh) and then things feel good again.

Something we worked on and talked about a lot in my last few months with Bloomberg was resilience. This stemmed from living through 6 months of protests in Hong Kong, followed by the growing fear of an unknown virus in China. We worked hard on giving our employees as much support as possible through two huge life events. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about my own learnings from those sessions lately and I have re-listened to Brene Brown’s podcast on Comparative Suffering (I’ve added a link to this on our ‘Professional Stuff‘ page for anyone who is interested).

“Let’s keep our struggles in perspective but also allow ourselves and others to feel and express them”.

Christmas is nearly upon us and so now our focus is on making sure we have a wonderful few days. We have a perfect Christmas Tree from Christmas Direct, a few other decorations around the house, and a Christmas Day planned around the consumption of large amounts of delicious food and champagne whilst watching Christmas movies and no doubt a few zooms. Of course we’d love to be seeing our family and friends, or at least enjoying a drink or two in the local bistro, but that will come. Better yet, Ed still has some nougat left…..

A bientôt!