Cappuccinos & Lattes…

Today was really crappy weather...since last night it had been raining and it persisted through the morning. I got up just after 8 and since Andrea had to leave at 10 to catch her bus I made us both bacon and eggs. Strangely enough I haven’t seen streaky bacon or back bacon here; they only have lardons which they sell in the supermarket. So it was that and some scrambled egg which is very un-French but I still can’t really have bread or pastries for breakfast. It just makes me feel so sluggish.

Had my protein shake, 2 cereal bars and a little chocolate dessert after that and then we just chatted while Andrea did the dishes and then prepared to leave. Even though she left around 10 she still ended up missing her train as had been her bad luck on her trip so far...she told me that she had almost missed every single one of her trains by mere minutes. Ha-ha so at least she got some more time to chill and have a pastry and a croissant.

French people don’t seem to have cappuccinos or lattes from what I’ve seen. It’s usually an espresso or an Americano (allonge a francaise). I don’t know why this is; it’s just how they roll.

Around midday I decided to get off my ass and get out a bit. I had been planning to walk around a bit and look for a place to do some running or some callisthenics before I start to get a bit of a boep [beer belly] from doing sweet fanny all. I have to draw money every day from a specific ATM (to add it up and pay my rent) as I can’t do international transfers via my internet banking even though I have Fatima’s IBAN and BIC because TIA...while the world went there we were like “no its fine, we’ll get you there...just going to take a sho’t left”.  [a detour]And only 1 ATM I found can give me cash even though I can make payments with my card because I have no clue why. So I walked towards the ATM which is maybe 7min walk from my place. On the way I could smell some pork being cooked as I walked past the extraction unit of a bistro and then further down the road I smelled caramelised onions. Man it was soooo good. And the previous day I had smelled some sort of lamb stew or tagine...it’s so like food porn.

Ok so I got the cash and then walked back and picked up some groceries from “Casino”, there version of a woollies/spar. The other brands are Carrefour which is more like Pick and Pay (a national retail store in South Africa); and Monoprix which is more like a spar. Generally I’ve been having some sort of pasta dish for lunch as its cheap and filling and I can feed myself for about 3 days for the price of going out and having a burger... that way when I do go out I don’t break the bank.

Walking back past the market which had had almost finished by 1pm (here in France they don’t say 1pm, but 13:00. They work with a 24hour clock only, not a 12 hour one) I saw that the produce vendors who had some spoiled stock would just leave it in a crate in the square. I have no idea who clears it up if at all.

My brother gets here tomorrow so then we can walk around a bit. If I do it on my own I’m just going to mission and not take time to appreciate everything.