Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Le Countdown has begun

Well my sister-in-law left to go back to SA today. I'll miss her. She does laundry every day.
LOL, no, that's not why I'm going to miss her! It was just really nice having family around for a while.

The good news though (for me, anyway) is that this weekend I'll be reunited with my mother and BOTH my sisters. Yep, I'm flying to Paris on Saturday morning, and will be meeting up there with my li'l sis from London, and my Mom and big sis from SA, for four whole days... Lookout Paris, here we come!
You have been warned.

I'm so excited I can't type properly.

I'm so nervous I haven't slept properly in a week.

Of course, being The Most Organized Person On The Planet, I have everything sorted. Today I sent out an email to the Gals with all of our respective flight details, our hotel details, where we're meeting at Charles De Gaulle airport, and how to get to the hotel if for some reason we miss each other at the airport.

The only thing I haven't done yet is spend any time looking at the guide book which Hubby so kindly procured for me, or the French Phrase Book that I bought for our last trip there 2 years ago. This is most unlike me.
Although, in my defence, I have been rather distracted, having had a house guest for the past two weeks.
[Thanx for being my excuse, M, hope u enjoyed ur visit :-)]

Besides which, I have a pretty good idea what there is to do in Paris - there's that big arch thing, the tall spiky tower, a couple of churches and a gallery or two... the only thing I really need to find out is where are the best places to shop?! Priorities, girls, priorities.
And I'll have a few hours on the 'plane to read up on that.

As for the phrase book, it may well be a complete waste of time and effort (and I am nothing if not efficient) because as I have mentioned before it appears I suffer from StageFright when in a foreign country. What this means is that when I am faced with a genuine French person in France, the only French word I can remember is "Oui".
I think this dates back to my childhood, when our grandmother's sister would visit from France, and she would drum it into us:

"Nod your head, smile and say 'Oui', and she'll just keep talking and not even notice that you don't understand a word."
It worked a charm.

But, being as diligent as I am, I will probably spend my train journeys for the rest of the week with my nose dutifully buried in said phrase book.
I can't help myself.

Ce La Vie.

Hey, I may as well use it while I remember it, non?

So Au Revoir for the moment, mon petit mange touts...
:-D

I think I'm going to have a go at re-reading The Da Vinci Code before I go.

PS For those of you who have been following my little life recently, you may be interested in reading Hubby's take on his recent
adventures in Venice.

19 comments:

Ben O. said...

Dude - I wanna go back to Paris. I love it there.

Did you know that your music likes in your profile both start with "M" and then end with a #?

Have fun in France -

Ben O.

anne said...

Don't read the Da Vinci Code! It's full of crap as far as Paris is concerned!
And for shopping, there are great streets or department stores where you can find it all without your feet surrendering too quickly.
And whatever you do, enjoy - I hear the weather was fab these past couple of days, so I hope it stays like that for us both, eh. ;)

LiVEwiRe said...

Man, I wanna go too! Hey, I hear Anne is having a great party though. And the only thing she requires in French is 'Oui'... you'll be fine! =) Of course she might throw on some 80s music... I'm so jealous. Have fun for me too. =)

L said...

'Oui' 'Oui'
Shopping is #1 priority. Have a fabtabulous and funkalicious time LOL.

Terri said...

Ben - d'ya think that, like, means something..? [insert eerie music here] Actually, U2 is on that list too, but it doesn't show up for some reason. More letters & numbers...

Anne - Yay shopping! Yay weather! I promise to ignore whatever the book says about Paris & concentrate strictly on the religious aspects ok?

LW - I vote we all get together one time for an 80's revival party. U have to wear toe-socks to get in though.

Lori - Thanx and I promise to tell u all about it. Yes, really - watch this space!

kyknoord said...

Have a good trip. Give my regards to Jim Morrison.

Framesby 86 said...

Ag nee man. Ek wil ook saam gaan!! [translates - oh no man, I also want to go with] Have a wonderful time!!!!!

Bosbefok said...

Oh God !! Poor Paris !! 4 of them all in one place ...... its just as well Im going away for the weekend with Inga :-)
Hope you have a great time and dont spent most of it trying to get them all to agree to anything :-) Oh ja, And the shops are all closed this weekend and my credit card is offline for repairs :-)

Terri said...

KN... am I having a blonde moment or something? I thought Jim Morrison was dead.
But, sure, I'll have a great time and will send him your regards if I bump into him... are those rattling chains I hear...?

Buddess - next time maybe?

Bosbefok, that's just MEAN!!!

ChittyChittyBangBang! said...

J'aime Paris!
Whenever I think of paris, the words C'est Si Bon immediately come to mind.
Appréciez Paris!
And make sure you spend a least a day in the garment district, with hubby's credit card in your purse of course.... hehe.

DelBoy said...

Paris! I can't wait! We're going in November to watch the test (Go Bokke, go!) against the French!

Hope you have a great weekend cuz! Are J & L coming over to the UK at all? I'd love to catch up!!

jseetra = 'je suis Terri, ja?'

Terri said...

Chitty oh yes, there will be garment shopping!
Del I'll reserve judgement on the test match, considering last year's dismal Autumn International results. And yes, they're coming to Dublin for a week before heading off to London so I'm sure you'll get to see them.

auskcb - Austrian kebab

LiVEwiRe said...

Ack! Toe socks... I'm DOOMED! Er, can I cut the toes off? =)

Terri said...

LW, toe-less toe socks? You rebel, you!
But since you'll be bringing the crunk, and your vast collection of appropriate music, we'll let you off on that one... if you insist.

xktksc - clandestine spelling of ecstasy

kyknoord said...

Yup. You'll find they rattle quite loudly at the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Terri said...

KN, due to my diligence I now know wot u were talking about wrt ol' Jim... read it in my guide book yesterday. Boy those things are just full of useful info!

Ben O. said...

Hey - I have the same problem with putting U2 into my music area of the profile. What's up with that? I feel so fake when I look at it, because they are my favorites and they don't even show up.

I am actually a complete U2 nerd - when we were in Dublin, we went around to what we considered "U2 sites" and took pictures. The old Windmill Lane studios, Dockers Pub, their new studio and the Point Depot. The pictures are actually pretty good, though.

Ben O.

Terri said...

You would've loved their concert in Croke Park earlier this year then, Ben!

Ben O. said...

That must have been awesome - I have seen them 11 times, but never in Dublin. That would be pretty cool, I must admit.

They were in Denver before they headed over there to Europe and we were fortunate enough to see them for both nights while they were here. Each night, we were on the floor about 8-10 feet from the walkway (it connected and made an elipse on the first leg).

Pretty dang cool - Nice to hear you are a fan too.

Ben O.