Be My Valentine

Well, it's a while since I wrote but we've been so busy doing lots of things - like decorating. Will post another blog soon with pics of the new entrance hallway and newly finished toilet and soon-to-be-finished back bedroom.

The last couple of weeks we (especially Wouter) have been busy organising stuff for the Chambres de Metier in order to get registered as auto-enterprise (self-employed with no provisional tax for 3 years) and then get a siret number - the magic number which permits trading in a certain profession and allows you to get into the social system here. A few meetings later and Wouter is finally registered, although it was not without hitches. The lady wanted to know our social security number - you don't have one? How is that possible in France? You can't have health insurance without it, and health insurance is compulsory - yes, tell us all about the chicken and egg story......

So to backtrack slightly, last week it was Valentines Day and as we are on a tighter budget until we start bringing in some dosh we decided not to get anything for each other. In NZ Wouter would buy some flowers (I told him to pick from the garden as otherwise it's like taking - for the British, coals to Newcastle - for the Dutch, water to the sea) which was really nice, or some chocolates. I can always find room for choccy!

This year, no flowers, no choccy, but while we were at the supermarket, we saw some cheese - we debated whether we needed it this week, but Wouter said - let's get it for Valentines Day - so there you go all you people who thought romance might be dead - cheese for a Valentines gift. No complaints as I'm a cheesy kind of girl and I wasn't expecting anything.

Today Wouter came home from his meeting from registering, and he said he had a present for me - a kind of belated Valentines gift. I thought perhaps it was a bit extravagant, but it sounded exciting and romantic...... until he showed me the new paint rollers for doing more painting and being able to get behind the radiators a bit better. I guess it was hard to top the cheese.