Back by popular request

Or a moan from Owen, more precisely.

So, quoi de neuf? Passed my exams! Tried to get all the French lot out for drinks on the Thursday night before I got them, we went out to a bar 2 mins from my flat and I nipped back to check the website at 11pm. There was the usual problem of the French not drinking - the first round consisted of 3 shandies, a perrier-menthe and a leffe (mine). It got worse after that - nobody was in the mood (probably because they were all stone cold sober!!!) and I was pretty stressed. Luckily after that my kiwi friend Mai and my Irish friend Niamh turned up and so I was able to get a bit merry with them to help calm my nerves. When I got my results I offered to buy a round but they all point blank refused and just sat there without drinks. All very odd. I'm not a big drinker particularly but I feel like a real alcoholic here!

A week back in Manc should sort that - I'm flying back home on Friday for a few days in between finishing at Mercer and starting at WW. Have already been recruited for a netball match by Lydia! Reckon living on the 4th floor with no lift must have made me fitter somehow so I'm counting on a thrilling comeback...

Life in Paris is getting good as the weather improves - it was 35 degrees at the weekend. I managed to find myself trekking up the only hill in Paris trying to find some random park where there was apparently some random people of whom I knew one. It all worked out fine in the end though and I spent the afternoon/evening eating lots of cheese and saucisson and drinking cheap fizzy wine (no corkscrew required). Later we went for supper at a Chinese restaurant called the Cok Ming. Mmm...

Good atmosphere here at the moment with the World Cup on - all the expats are bonding even more excessively than usual and the English/Irish pubs are always busy. Just watched the England match on French telly with French commentators - they were utterly scathing about the English team and basically spent the whole 90 minutes ripping it out of daddylonglegs Peter Crouch. Sorry, make that 80 minutes. Happily they shut up after that ha ha.

Here's a silly picture of my friend Sarah at Sacre Coeur to finish off...