Power cut

We haven't had a power cut, but I feel like I maybe have.

Getting up at 4 to drive to the airport really doesn't suit me.

Then all day in the office at school marvelling at how much there is to learn about doing the finances for a tiny teeny school... and how little I know.

And the evening just frustrated by the world. First by our electricity system. One of the only things I detest about France is the weird system where, not only are not allowed to just buy as much electricity as you want, but also you can only have a certain amount of electricity at any one time per 'circuit'. I wish we had more circuits. And I wish I could remember what our electricians called the rooms in our house before they were really rooms... (What is this 'salon' of which they speak?) Each of these switches is permitted 3.2 (or some other non-rounded number) kWatts (or some other measure) of electricity at any one time. I decided it had reached the coldness point of having radiators on in bedrooms. So I put on TallGirl's radiator, then mine, than CarbBoy's. And all the switches in this section clicked down.

Now, we definitely had that many radiators on successfully last year. So, I tried changing things around. I remembered that me and TallGirl are on the same circuit, so turned my radiator off. But it was definitely CarbBoy's that was tripping the system. So I moved my (definitely ok) radiator into his room. Still tripped it. So I trailed a long extension cable from my room to his - and it still tripped it. Somehow the system knows if the radiator is in CarbBoy's room and just doesn't want him to be warm!

At that point I gave up on heating and went downstairs to order the long-anticipated freezer that will enable us to go forth into the mountains and buy a whole butchered sheep and feast on it all winter (etc etc).

That was where the real problems began. Now the company I bought it from (Darty) want copies of two forms of ID and a copy of my electricity bill to accept my credit card payment, even though I have bought from them before. One whole hour being passed from pillar to post on their phone system did not resolve this. So, I thought I'd just go online to cancel the order and start again somewhere else. Turns out you cannot cancel online, but only by calling the pay-number (and waiting on average 15 minutes for an answer....)

At this point I went into the kitchen for a good cry. TallGirl, driven by hunger I think, found me there and had to cope with a weeping nonsensical mother. She sensibly prescribed a back rub and some wine. She'll go far. Well, round here she will anyway.

Sometimes life's just all too much and I don't want to be in another country where I don't understand the rules and don't (really) speak the language. Sometimes I just want a boring ordinary life where two parents go out to work at 8.30 and come home at 5.00. With central heating.

But only sometimes.

(Apart from the central heating.)