There is no easy way to explain this but I will try.
We will be changing apartments in Paris. We moved into the Madrid apartment on the 13th of August. There are many issues in the apartment that the management company/owner are reluctant to address. The one issue that is a deal breaker for us is the condition of the hardwood floors. The floors in the living/dining/guest rooms are a very nice parquet design. When we visited the apartment for the first time, they were still working on the floors and Julia asked the agent what they were going to do with the floors. She was told that they would finish and repair the floor. Well, unfortunately, the floors in the hallway, Samuel's room and our room, have many cracks and gaps. Some of the cracks are more than 20 cm long and 2 cm wide. One of them is over 4 cm deep. If just Julia and I were living in the apartment we could cover most of the floor with rugs and we would be happy. However, with Samuel we cannot(and will not) take the risk that Samuel will start crawling and get his fingers, toes, knees caught on one of these cracks. For us it is a safety issue. The owners do not see it that way.
The other issue is noise. Double glazed windows were placed in our room. However, the windows do not fit tightly within the frame. The bedroom with double glazed windows is noisier than the living room with single glazed windows.
I will not detail all the issues we have. I will note that the workers that were in the apartment were not properly supervised. As an example, the radiators in Samuel's room and the guest room are behind screen doors. The workers painted the doors shut and took the handle off the doors. So we are unable to turn on the radiators in those two rooms.
Many of the window shades also do not work. This also adds to the noise issues.
We will keep you all updated with our new search. As strange as it seems. The first apartment that we bid on in July appears to be on the market again. Unfortunately we have tried to verify this through our agent but she is incompetent and she has not returned e-mails/phonecalls for 3 days.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Greetings from Frankfurt(edited-to amend ignorant American comment about tower
It has been a long day. Our flight was delayed due to weather. We were scheduled to leave Paris @ 9:50 and we did not leave until after 11:00. Samuel was pretty good on the plane. It was warm until they finally turned the air on. After the air was turned on, Samuel did calm down. He slept for part of the flight. The air crew was very good and gave us a couple of toys and a bib for Samuel
Julia attended meetings from 2 until 6:30 and then she returned to the hotel and pumped before attending a "business" dinner. Samuel and I had a good time reconnoitering around Frankfurt today. We found a nice park for Samuel to eat his lunch. Samuel had his first exposure to live opera as we walked past the opera and we could hear a rehearsal through the open windows.
Not sure if I should share this story as it does not portray me as a good parent. I was carrying Samuel facing away from me in his baby bjorn as we were walking around the Romer area of Frankfurt. A woman approached us and said how cute Samuel was and pinched his cheek(He will have to get use to this as he is an exceptionally cute baby) then, before I was able to stop her, the woman leaned over and kissed Samuel on the cheek. Samuel's first kiss was from a stranger on the streets of Frankfurt.
Have busy days scheduled for the next 2 days, as we do not depart for Paris until 1800 on Wednesday. Tuesday, Samuel and I will go to the top of the main tower(they could have thought of a better name(Edit-I should have known this, but I am stil sometimes an ignorant American. The tower is named for the river that runs through Frankfurt, the Main)), the tallest building in Frankfurt with an observation deck. We then may head to the woods outside of town for the view of the city or we may go to the zoo. On Wednesday we will spend the day in Museums. There is a film museum that I am looking forward to seeing. We will also plan on going to a modern and ancient art museum. If we have time we will go the home of Goethe.
Julia attended meetings from 2 until 6:30 and then she returned to the hotel and pumped before attending a "business" dinner. Samuel and I had a good time reconnoitering around Frankfurt today. We found a nice park for Samuel to eat his lunch. Samuel had his first exposure to live opera as we walked past the opera and we could hear a rehearsal through the open windows.
Not sure if I should share this story as it does not portray me as a good parent. I was carrying Samuel facing away from me in his baby bjorn as we were walking around the Romer area of Frankfurt. A woman approached us and said how cute Samuel was and pinched his cheek(He will have to get use to this as he is an exceptionally cute baby) then, before I was able to stop her, the woman leaned over and kissed Samuel on the cheek. Samuel's first kiss was from a stranger on the streets of Frankfurt.
Have busy days scheduled for the next 2 days, as we do not depart for Paris until 1800 on Wednesday. Tuesday, Samuel and I will go to the top of the main tower(they could have thought of a better name(Edit-I should have known this, but I am stil sometimes an ignorant American. The tower is named for the river that runs through Frankfurt, the Main)), the tallest building in Frankfurt with an observation deck. We then may head to the woods outside of town for the view of the city or we may go to the zoo. On Wednesday we will spend the day in Museums. There is a film museum that I am looking forward to seeing. We will also plan on going to a modern and ancient art museum. If we have time we will go the home of Goethe.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Samuel 4 month check-up
The doctor confirmed our belief. Samuel is perfect.
Okay, maybe he did not say perfect. Grant me a little parental bias.
Samuel is fine. He fell slightly under 50% in weight. Understandable considering all that we have put him through in the last month. His height is slightly over 50%. Long and lean, just like his Papa.
Weight: 6.2 kg (13lb, 10 oz.), height 64 cm(25 1/4 in.)
We walked back from the hospital, stopping at the Neuilly aquatic centre to sign Samuel up for baby swim lessons. We were too late to get him in the classes starting September so he will begin lessons in January instead. We will have pictures and videotape. By then I hope to have learned how to download video onto the mac.
New pictures will be posted soon to the kodak website.
Monday, August 25, 2008
We lost another cat last night....
The bathroom in the master bedroom has four windows. I opened one early on Sunday morning to air out the bathroom. Julia went to take a nap late Sunday afternoon and closed the window.
When I came to bed at 11:00 I noticed that Molson was not with us. This is unusual as he always sleeps with us. We began a search of the apartment which turned up no trace. We walked the stairs in our building and checked the courtyard. No joy.
Tried to sleep for awhile, to no avail. Searched again. Still no joy. After returning from a 6:15 am search I thought about the window. Sure enough, opened the window, and there is a ledge that leads to the terrace off of Samuels room. There was Molson, curled up in the corner.
He very noisily returned to our bed for the remainder(?) of the sleep period.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
All is right in the world.....
Chelsea is on top of the table with Liverpool trailing behind. Life is good. The picture is of Samuel and me in our our Chelsea gear awaiting kick0ff.
Samuel and I spent the afternoon at the big ben pub watching chelsea v. wigan. Samuel slept through the second half and I almost joined him.
Julia, Samuel and I went to the indoor market this morning. There is a very nice organic market where we picked up some wine and oils. Of course, since it is still August none of the stalls was completely stocked. It will be interesting to see the difference once everyone returns in September.
Our new neighborhood is very nice. Went for my first run on Saturday and had a really good time in the park. Most of the time I was able to spend on dirt packed trails. For the first run in over a month, my knees did not hurt when my run was finished.
-Dave
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Stuck in the dark ages
Every move has its moments where you just want to go home, slam the door and forget that a move was ever proposed. This week has had plenty of those moments.
I'm posting from my Bberry as France telecom haved @#*! up our phone line, so no phone, internet or TV service until either Saturday or Monday at the earliest. It takes FOREVER to get help in this country. First they refuse to admit there's an error; then they say they are fixing it; but only when a technician comes to see the problem does he agree there is a problem... And then we have to have another technician come and fix it (not before Saturday... Even though all this started Monday), and then yet anothjer technician come and install the TV / internet / etc sometime next week...
AAAAAAARGH
France Telecom. HATE.
And then there are all the other issues... Useless Darty (electronics store) salesman who screwed up our order, so we had to have items replaced, delivered late (or not at all), who didn't arrange to get the fridge fixed into the cabinet, etc... I'm actually quite proud of the fact that I won my first big French customer service face-off - he emphatically (and loudly) told me he was right; I responded in kind (ok, let's just call it yelling) and told him to fix it; he is now fixing it and we get the fridge installed for free. Still never any admission of error... But this is France. That would be expecting too much.
The apartment still has some cracked window panes, loose electrical sockets, doors that won't close (new paint), broken blinds, holes between floorboards, a crooked and wobbly kitchen faucet, and single-glazed (not double, as we were led to expect) windows in the living & dining rooms. We are trying not to let this depress us - when fixed, it will be a great place. But getting anything done here seems to take forever. At worst, we are thinking of trying to get all these repairs done ourselves instead of w-ting for the management company to come through, and then deducting the cost from our rent. We shall see.
The highlight of the week... Drumroll please... Samuel rolled over for the first time from his back to his front! Unfortunately Dave wasn't home to see it as he was in French lessons, but I consider myself very fortunate that at least I got to see this milestone as I will miss so many once our roles are reversed and I go back to work. Samuel has also taken to scooting quite far (several feet) across the floor on his back, so he is getting increasingly mobile.
We'll post again once we get back into the 21st century. In the meantime, just have a drink for us.
I'm posting from my Bberry as France telecom haved @#*! up our phone line, so no phone, internet or TV service until either Saturday or Monday at the earliest. It takes FOREVER to get help in this country. First they refuse to admit there's an error; then they say they are fixing it; but only when a technician comes to see the problem does he agree there is a problem... And then we have to have another technician come and fix it (not before Saturday... Even though all this started Monday), and then yet anothjer technician come and install the TV / internet / etc sometime next week...
AAAAAAARGH
France Telecom. HATE.
And then there are all the other issues... Useless Darty (electronics store) salesman who screwed up our order, so we had to have items replaced, delivered late (or not at all), who didn't arrange to get the fridge fixed into the cabinet, etc... I'm actually quite proud of the fact that I won my first big French customer service face-off - he emphatically (and loudly) told me he was right; I responded in kind (ok, let's just call it yelling) and told him to fix it; he is now fixing it and we get the fridge installed for free. Still never any admission of error... But this is France. That would be expecting too much.
The apartment still has some cracked window panes, loose electrical sockets, doors that won't close (new paint), broken blinds, holes between floorboards, a crooked and wobbly kitchen faucet, and single-glazed (not double, as we were led to expect) windows in the living & dining rooms. We are trying not to let this depress us - when fixed, it will be a great place. But getting anything done here seems to take forever. At worst, we are thinking of trying to get all these repairs done ourselves instead of w-ting for the management company to come through, and then deducting the cost from our rent. We shall see.
The highlight of the week... Drumroll please... Samuel rolled over for the first time from his back to his front! Unfortunately Dave wasn't home to see it as he was in French lessons, but I consider myself very fortunate that at least I got to see this milestone as I will miss so many once our roles are reversed and I go back to work. Samuel has also taken to scooting quite far (several feet) across the floor on his back, so he is getting increasingly mobile.
We'll post again once we get back into the 21st century. In the meantime, just have a drink for us.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Yet another move...
The cats are now installed in our new apartment. We hope they will both still be there tomorrow, when we move in. We drove them over this evening as tomorrow the movers come at 8am to pack up our stuff in the temporary apartment - so as of tomorrow evening we will finally be installed in our new home! (Albeit with rental furniture and a lot of empty space... but our sea shipment should arrive soon. The boat is due to dock in Le Havre tomorrow, so we're hoping to get the shipment delivered at the end of the first week of September).
It's been another busy couple of days. We hope that in a few days time things may calm down a bit as we are really all getting quite exhausted. I consider it a minor miracle that Dave and I are still talking to and being supportive of each other given all the stressful situations we have been through - but that just goes to show what an amazing man I married, and what a wonderful son we have, as he helps to remind us what is truly important.
We've spent the last few days checking out options for curtains, lighting, furniture, etc. Suffice to say that I would rather rip out my fingernails than ever go back to IKEA (quality slipped dramatically vs. my memories of 8 years ago, far too many people, miles to walk, hours to wait... generally a pretty close approximation of hell on earth), and we are now the proud owners of a GPS system and a mapbook. Yes, we took many not-so-scenic routes around Paris this weekend as we tried to find various places. We did manage - unintentionally - to find what appears to be one of the (or even the) largest mall in France at La Defense. We didn't have the time or patience to explore much, so we'll go back during the week by public transport (2 metro stops) during the work day when hopefully there will be far fewer people. In the meantime, after the last few days of dealing with all the problems in the flat, deliveries, bureaucracy & paperwork, etc., my feet hurt, my legs are tired, I've had a splitting headache all day... and I know Dave is also exhausted. It is an understatement to say that moving is hard work.
The great news though was that we had our first visitors this weekend! Our friends Lucy and Julian and their 3 children stopped off on their way back to England from Italy. A real treat as they live in Johannesburg, so we hadn't seen them in a couple of years. It really struck me how much I miss seeing our friends more often, and how nice it would be if we could live close to them all... but then I also realize that they wouldn't be the people we love if we all statically lived in the same place and only lived the same experiences. So I content myself with the knowledge that we will hopefully see a lot more of our European friends and family over the next few years, while still seeing our American friends and family with some frequency. (Reminder to all - great guest room!! Hotel Charter is now taking bookings!!). I have to put in a quick plug for anyone reading to take a look at Lucy's book, as she is now a published author and has some fascinating stories/experiences to share - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welcome-Islam-Converts-Lucy-Bushill-Matthews/dp/1847062164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219009734&sr=8-1
Anyway... we'll post again in a few days once we have internet access again (10am Tuesday). The next few days will be a marathon of events - moving, dealing with workers to repair, deliver, install, etc. a whole series of things, and getting the family settled in the new location.
In the meantime, please start thinking of when you might want to visit us!
- Julia
It's been another busy couple of days. We hope that in a few days time things may calm down a bit as we are really all getting quite exhausted. I consider it a minor miracle that Dave and I are still talking to and being supportive of each other given all the stressful situations we have been through - but that just goes to show what an amazing man I married, and what a wonderful son we have, as he helps to remind us what is truly important.
We've spent the last few days checking out options for curtains, lighting, furniture, etc. Suffice to say that I would rather rip out my fingernails than ever go back to IKEA (quality slipped dramatically vs. my memories of 8 years ago, far too many people, miles to walk, hours to wait... generally a pretty close approximation of hell on earth), and we are now the proud owners of a GPS system and a mapbook. Yes, we took many not-so-scenic routes around Paris this weekend as we tried to find various places. We did manage - unintentionally - to find what appears to be one of the (or even the) largest mall in France at La Defense. We didn't have the time or patience to explore much, so we'll go back during the week by public transport (2 metro stops) during the work day when hopefully there will be far fewer people. In the meantime, after the last few days of dealing with all the problems in the flat, deliveries, bureaucracy & paperwork, etc., my feet hurt, my legs are tired, I've had a splitting headache all day... and I know Dave is also exhausted. It is an understatement to say that moving is hard work.
The great news though was that we had our first visitors this weekend! Our friends Lucy and Julian and their 3 children stopped off on their way back to England from Italy. A real treat as they live in Johannesburg, so we hadn't seen them in a couple of years. It really struck me how much I miss seeing our friends more often, and how nice it would be if we could live close to them all... but then I also realize that they wouldn't be the people we love if we all statically lived in the same place and only lived the same experiences. So I content myself with the knowledge that we will hopefully see a lot more of our European friends and family over the next few years, while still seeing our American friends and family with some frequency. (Reminder to all - great guest room!! Hotel Charter is now taking bookings!!). I have to put in a quick plug for anyone reading to take a look at Lucy's book, as she is now a published author and has some fascinating stories/experiences to share - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welcome-Islam-Converts-Lucy-Bushill-Matthews/dp/1847062164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219009734&sr=8-1
Anyway... we'll post again in a few days once we have internet access again (10am Tuesday). The next few days will be a marathon of events - moving, dealing with workers to repair, deliver, install, etc. a whole series of things, and getting the family settled in the new location.
In the meantime, please start thinking of when you might want to visit us!
- Julia
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