An English Girl. Sophie. Sophie. An English Girl.

Ooops.

I had no idea how long it had been since I last posted. A couple of people have asked me whether or not I would be continuing it and I was always like - "yeah yeah, when I have time". Truth is I have had lots of time. And I have had lots to write about - important stuff and not so important stuff. But I haven't pulled my finger out my arse and done anything about it. And as such I haven't posted since the end of May - since I last went home to be exact - and in a few weeks I will be going home again - it's been a lonnnnng time.

So the main things that have happened - I embraced another year of being alive. I passed my wine exam (with a merit). I learned a few things about myself. I went to Champagne Bollinger. I survived a very minor fire (which I will obviously elaborate in very great and graphic detail to anyone who asks). I decided where I wanted to go when I come home next year. And I missed all of London 2012.

All in all - it has been pretty fun.

A pretty fun six and a half months (that is how long I have been in France.) It's flown by. And I have had some of the best times here...

So sorry (to those who care) that I haven't updated in a while.

I promise I will try harder from now on.

Four days in the homeland...

To me, Chorley isn't the be all and end all of life. It isn't where I want to settle and grow old and just 'be'. But, to me, Chorley is home. It is my past and it holds memories and it (in the most horrifically cheesy way) it made me who I am. And although i don't want to grow out my days there, going home for 4 days is always fucking awesome. I have three of the best friends based there and more in the surrounding areas, and no matter how much time i spend away from there, it always welcomes me back. Maybe it's because I am not there all the time, but when I go back, no night out is ever the same, and there are always new or different people to meet or I end up meeting up with people that I haven't seen in years. It makes a girl feel good.

One thing that is for certain, being back in the UK in general was amazing for being able to be in touch with people!! The ability to tweet when I wanted, to text people all day or to call people all  night. I am enjoying not depending upon the internet in France, and not sitting at my computer watching Facebook update every second, not stalking people it is always nice to be able to chat away to people easily (and without it costing the world). However, being back at home, and being connected to the internet did mean that I have completely updated my Spotify without judgement (everytime i go to Bureau with my computer you can see the staff collectively sigh as I highjack their internet to download loads of music). I was meant to update my Kindle as well, but as the majority of my weekend was spent with a hangover (don't drink kids) I completely forgot and so I am left without stuff to read, which is OK seeing as I have my WSET exam next week, but is lame cause I am missing reading books (which by the way...Katie you need to download 'The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides' you will love it - also we need to arrange a Skype, I'll email you over my days off next week).

So yeah, after four days at home of drinking or recovering from drinking I have done absolutely no WSET work and I have an exam in a week, and instead of revising for at the moment like I should be, I am blogging...seriously (somewhat hypocrytical - I know, don't judge...) I am contemplating wacking on 'The Circus' DVD and then 'Progress', but it just wouldn't be the same pretending to work without my Jew. So instead I am listening to Minaj (major girl crush) really loud, dancing round the flat in my jimjams, drinking copius amoints of caffine and trying to keep my concentration long enough to right some coherent sentences to add to this blog. It's hard. I'm not gunna lie.

And whilst you guys are experienceing a heat wave...it's raining in Calais.

Today I am mainly drinking Christmas Tea - I know it's not Christmas...andwhat?

Hanging...

OK, so I landed in the UK yesterday, drove straight to the hairdressers and had my mop chopped (a bit too much was taken off but considering I used to have my head shaved I can definitely work with it) then scooted on over to Majestic Preston for some wine that you can't get in France which my lovely mother will bring over on her next visit out to see me and then headed home, had a quick Facebook sesh and then headed on over to Emma's for pizza and cider.

Oh to say it was a struggle to decide to go out. We were in Emma's conservatory. It was raining out. It was grim. I was tired from travelling all day and Emma was tired from a Thursday night sesh but we made a pact and we went out...for one. We both knew that we would go for one and it would either kill us or it would makes us want to stay out and play. It was the latter.

Sarah and Kelly joined us later in the evening and we drank, and we danced and then we drank some more. More and more people started to come out, people that I hadn't seen in ages and people that when we bumped into I forgot how much I liked/missed them. When, after 22 hours of being awake and travelling etc I decided to call it a night I hugged the gang goodbye and then went to get a cab. Only, I had a missed call from Boardy (whom I haven't spoken to in a while) and we chatted and I inadvertently walked half way home in the rain before getting a cab. I got home at fourish and just remember sitting on my bed (which is fucking amazing) for ages just chatting....to myself. I was a mess.

But it was a good night, and it made me realise just how much I love my home kids, and how much I miss them.

I have spent the rest of Saturday moving from my bed to the sofa watching DVD's and the TV and just generally having a nice time. I am just starting to be able to feel and function like a human being again and I am about to get ready to go out for dinner avec la mummy which is always exciting. And then I have to arrange a couple of hot skype dates for tomorrow before heading over to see the grandparents.

I'm a busy little Frenchie, what can I say.

I am excited to go back to France as well. Being at home has made me focus a little more on what I want to get out of being over there so it's time to go and put this plan into action.

I travel back to au Francais on Monday so if anyone wants to come and keep me company at the station on Monday morning it would be amazing.

Love and stuff

P.S. Tonight I am going to try La Grille Vouvray to wake me out of this hangover depression.

Apologies...

OK, so I want to start this with a big apology...I seem to have fallen off the radar somewhat for which I am ever so sorry. With the introduction of  a new English member to the Majestic in France team I have got carried away being ever so French and ended up neglecting 'An English Girl in France' (which I always thought was a witty title, however after watching a Sex and the City marathon I realised I had subliminy plagerised from Series 6 - it's a good job that this doesn't have to be run through a plagerism machine!!!!) Shit.

I find myself, three months into my secondment, facing really big, scary, adult questions that I never wanted to ask and yet I have somehow found myself having to in order to continue in life (somewhat dramatic I am aware, but my life wouldn't be my life without some drama). Being in Calais feels slightly secluding at times, I am missing out on a lot at home both locally and nationally, small scale and big time and it is hard. I spend a lot of time after work hours are done perusing BBC news to find out whats going on on that littles island we call home, but it is the personal things, the things that I used to just know that I am missing the most. I am trying to stay in touch with as many people as possible, I am skype when I can get to the internet cafe, I text, I email and I try to facebook but this while lack of internet is really sucky sometimes (other times I love it, I can't stalk and worry and obsess). It's also hard when people don't seem to want to get back in touch avec me. I am aware that it is expensive to text me like normal (I haven't had a phone bill under £100 since being here, I must be O2s best customer...or biggest mug) but there are other ways, and yeah I might not get bck in touch for a couple of days if you have facebooked or emailed but I always get back to you. It seems somewhat one sided soemtimes which is shit but ah well.

Anyway, so I am back in the UK for four days on the 18th May, Chorley Girls night on the 18th, open to anyone but there are three little ladies who I am going out with and I won't be taken away from them on that Friday. In honesty, it is a flying visit. I wouldn't be coming home if I didn't have to take Tallolah back cause her French insurance runs out on the 21st. I will only be out and sociable on the 18th, I am off to see family on the Saturday and Sunday and I am travling back to au Francais on the Monday so if you want to pop out and say hello I will be in Chorley town looking fantastic.

And no.

I am not bringing any wine back for people.

Not because I am tight... Actually yeah because I am tight. You want cheap wine. YOU GOT TO SEE ME!!!

Hope and safe. xxx

Maybe i'll stay French for just a little bit more...

So it has been a while since I have blogged, several things have happened that I should have blogged about but didn't really have the time to so it got left to the wayside. But I am back now, bigger and better. And this English girl is considering staying in France for longer than she first thought.

I am having such a good time here in France, and I am not sure what I have to go back to. My friends and family are planning visits out here, and it really isn't that far away. The guys at work (and shockingly, in the pub) are teaching me French - and once I have my WSET down and out I will be all up in the face of learning French. Maybe it is time to start again in France. Not necessarily Calais, I am up for moving around France, finding somewhere to settle. I am off to Champagne Bollinger in June so maybe I could make friends and influence people down there. That would be so much more than amazing, but hey, you know how it is. A girl has to dream big.

I have been watchiing Sex and the City again - it is opening my eyes to a world of possibilities. At the end of the day I am 22, I am young and I am pretty much open to anything. Maybe it is time to make something of myself? Does it really matter where I try and make it? I don't know. So many people are doing such amazing things now they have graduated, Katie's doing what she always wanted to do, Lauren (Lang) is taking the world by storm. Surely I can be in that list. Is it too self-conceated a thought to want to be seen to be doing something different with my life? And do I really care?

I am not planning on staying in Majestic forever, but this company is giving me a great start up for the wine world, to which I am going to take by storm (obvs). But the wine world is global, and it would be rude of me not to explore it further. Life really is too short to settle.

As Julien at work would say - I am going to break bollocks in this world.

What's the French for Retard?

Dora came out again today, although planned this time it is still very exciting for someone as analy retentive as I have been known to be. Today I headed out to Dunkirk. It's only about half an hour from Calais, and I thought at the very least Talloolah could do with going for a longish drive reaching speads of over 30mph. So I headed out on to the A16 which is the main motorway in the North of France and zoomed on over to Dunkirk. Excitingly, in sunny weather the speed limit on the motorways in France is 130kph which is like 80mph, which although many drive the UK motorways at IS NOT LEGAL KIDS!!! So I let Talloolah zoom over to Dunkirk, found myself a nice little car park - that was FREE and headed in to Dunkirk town centre.

My first find was a lovely little wool shop, not as nice as Bah Ram Ewe which has my heart (until the dream is established Kate - obvs) so I purchased some lovely wool. I have a wicker chair in the flat which is perfect for knitting in although when it and knitting I facially age about fifty years. I really need to find a youthful hobby...

With one purchase (quite literally) in the bag I headed over to the Toursit Infomation Centre - a personal necessity when scoping out a new place  - got myself a map, found what I was looking for (the War Museum - god help me) and headed off in the complete wrong direction. Only reasing this when I had convinced myself that I had found the War Museum, double checked the map and realised I was stood outside the Boat Museum - great start. Finally found the right direction, walked in that direction for fifteen miinutes, took a wrong turn and ended up outside the Tourist Information Centre again. If it wasn't so funny I would have cried but I must have looked a right tool and that image of hilarity kept me going.

After a good forty-five minutes I was in relatively the right place according to the map but in relality I convinced myself I couldn't be where I needed to be as I seemed to be stood in the middle of an industrial estate. Giving up slightly I wondered into a sculpture park and walked round taking loads of photo's, annoying the locals and then after another wrong turn (I am getting dead good at it) ended up...

....outside the War Museum.

I did a little squeel with excitement that I had finally found it, which had to be surpressed when I realised that it was 1pm and of course, everything shuts in France over dinner. Looking at the opening times, I saw that it would be open again at 2pm and the beach was about five minutes away so I headed off to the beach and mooched around for an hour before heading back. It was still closed. I was really bummed by this point and was considering an angry letter to someone in an authoratitve position (I was going to get someone at work to translate it in to French), when I spotted something on the opening times, a seasonal date. 1st April - 30th September. I mean come on, we are only like four days away from April - you would have thought someone would have been there dusting down the war relics or something and the could have just let me in for a browse. Nah such luck. So this means another trip back at some point which is not a problem as Dunkirk is a lovely little town that has a Jeff du Bruges (chocolate shop)

After this adventure (debarcle) I headed back to Calais to do some essentials like get things in for tea, sort out my train ticket for Sunday (I WILL BE IN THE UK FROM 9PM SUNDAY TILL 7PM MONDAY FOR A HEAD OFFICE DAY - BE READY FOR A BOMBARDMENT OF TEXTS). And I popped down to the little cinema near the town hall that shows English/American films with French subtitles to pick up this months timetable - and I thought fuck it, I can't be bothered to go back and do WSET work so I went and watched 'La Taupe' - Tinker Tailor Soilder Spy. It is a tiny little cinema with four screens, with about 18 rows of seats (around 20 seats per row) - teenie tiny and I was the only person there. I have never been to a cinema where there is no one else in and it was epic - I felt like a rich kid who had a cinema in her house it was ace. the only issue were the parts of the film that were in Russian that obviously had English subtitles, cause they were over-ridden by the French ones, but I don't think I missed too much.

All in all today has been a good day. The weather is lovely and I am getting over yesterday's right hand side sunburn (Tracey I think i may have evened out today). I am missing people lots but both Mum and Dad (and fam) have booked to come over and see me which is exciting. Although I do have to go and do my washing at the Laundrette tomorrow which always depresses me. You do not know how hard life is without a washing maching. It's horrific.

Tonight I am drinking Whittards Christmas Tea (spiced imperial) as the mother has secured me 250 bags which will be winging their way to me in a couple of weeks so I can now move from Chai to the few spiced imperial that I have left.

Peace and  Love x

Today I wee'd in the sand...

So, today is the first day of my six day holiday and France has held out for me, it is GORGEOUS! The sun was out and shining this morning and gloriously hot so I did what any true English girl did:
Put on a strappy tee (That Fav Night top Kate), a Henry Holland Jumper, my thick wool short cardy, my long wool cardy and my Kate Spade bow ear warmers. The sun might be out and shining but Calais wind is unreal!

I packed my beach bag - including my old school towel and all my WSET stuff and I headed on down to the beach. Although it was beautiful the wind was chilling cold and after half an hour I was ready to call it quits. But, for some reason, I thought I might try sitting in the dunes, they weren't massively deep so the sun still hit the whole place but it was just deep enough to sit it and be out of the wind, which I did, for about five hours.

Now, anyone that knows me know's how much water I drink. And five hours and a few liters of water later I was fit to burst, so I did what any good Northern Lass did - I went into the next dune, dug myself a little trench (considering my location this is an apt description) and I did a wee. Now I can't say it was my finest moment, but I didn't want to miss any of the sun and the flat was a good twenty minute walk away. It was either that or wee myself. And lets be honest, I didn't do it in the dune I was in - and coincidentally, I know exactly which is (affectionately termed) 'My Dune', so I won't go and sit in my wee one.

So at around 4 I wandered back to the flat (it was starting to fill up with school kids - not a pleasant experience in any country) and had a quick power nap - it was a stressful time - and then headed off out to Bureau to (yet again) steal their internet to download more songs so I can have some more music - my iPod is driving me nuts.

Anyway, this is all. I am off to have another WSET day on the beach tomorrow and then off to Dunkirk on Wednesday - which I will no doubtedly bore you to death with.

Tonight I am drinking €11 Cotes du Rhone Villages (Bureau) - Fuckin'Bangin!