Don't you just hate technology when it goes wrong? (or, anything when it goes wrong, whether your mobile phone or your kidneys...) Well, this weekend, everything technological seemed to fail. That's partly to do with stupid French annoying things - sometimes they don't understand how to make things simple, or perhaps they do, and deliberately do the opposite. But more on that story later...
I shall continue from where I finished on my last blog, because unfortunately, I can't see into the future. Friday evening (I can't really remember what I did during the day, so probably not that much) I went to Lucy's apartment to watch some more Heroes. Thursday night, while I was at the funfair being spun around at 120 km/h, Natasha and Lucy had a Heroes watching night, so if I wanted to catch up, I'd have to watch two-and-a-half hours extra. Which I did. Then Natasha decided to join us. So after having some dinner, we watched another two (or was it three?) hours of Heroes. Then I got bored of watching five-and-a-half hours of heroes (it must have been three hours then, mustn't it) so instead I suggested we watched Remains of the Day. Natasha, being utterly addicted to Heroes and being unsociable decided to watch Heroes on her own in the corner on Lucy's laptop, while Lucy and I watched Remains of the Day on the TV. The DVD player didn't work (flat batteries in the remote control) so we were able to force Natasha to watch it with us. We only watched the first hour before Natasha and I had to leave to be able to catch the metro in good time. It's really annoying if you're running close to when it shuts, since you don't know whether you're going to make it home or not!
But before I left I borrowed Nicky's version of La Dentelliere and an umbrella owing to the inclement weather, which I promised I would return the next day.
Cue Saturday, and a string of unfortunate events and technological bafflements. I left my apartment to return said book and said umbrella to Nicky. Although I hadn't finished La Dentelliere, I managed to borrow another copy from Gabby. However, when I got there, I discovered my mobile phone wasn't working. It turns out, that without any warning of any kind, my number had expired after six months, which I would have to 'recharge'. Typically French! In good old Royaume-Uni, if you buy a mobile with a SIM card, you keep the number as long as you keep the SIM card. But, oh no, not here in France. You have to 'recharge' your number in the same way as you recharge your credit, or your battery. I can still receive calls and texts, I just can't do anything else. I wonder if I can phone the emergency services if the necessity ever arose? So, I had no way of contacting Nicky to tell her I had arrived outside of her apartment so she could come down and let me in.
No problem, I thought. I'll just ask the gardien to let me in. But, oh no. That wouldn't work, would it. I knocked on the door, and the gardien replied that he'd locked the door and didn't know where the key was. So he was locked inside his own apartment. So I had to give him the book and the umbrella to give to Nicky whenever he managed to escape from his apartment or whenever Nicky happened to be standing outside his window...
So I went back to my apartment. And I tried to email Nicky, phone Nicky using Skype and send an instant message, but, alas, my internet, being as tempermental as it is, decided not to work. So I was unable to get into contact with her. I was just about to go to a public telephone when the internet finally worked long enough for me to contact her. She went and collected her book and umbrella, the man still locked in his apartment. All's well that ends well.
Almost immediately, I was invited back to Nicky's apartment (by Lucy this time) so we could watch the Eurovision song contest. Because the internet stopped working, Lucy texted me saying she would let me in at five past five. We planned to watch the Eurovision song contest, but since that started at nine, we watched some more Heroes instead (partly to spite Natasha). And at around 11, I went back home. So in the space of one afternoon, I made 2 journeys to and from Nicky's and Lucy's apartment, each part taking 45 minutes. So that works out at three hours on the metro. Not that I mind, since it gave me time to finish La Dentelliere, speaking of which, I finished this morning. Then I did some washing. And that's about it.
And tomorrow, I have my first exam, literature (so good timing with the whole La Dentelliere thing, although it seemed every power on earth tried to stop me...). And the internet's still being decidedly uncooperative. And I still haven't got my own copy of La Dentelliere back from David's apartment.
So till next time: remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
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