"Most girls would give their eyes for the chance of seeing Monte"

"Wouldn't that rather defeat the purpose?"


Ah, if there's anything better than a lame old joke, it's a lame old LITERARY ALLUSION. Ahhhh...

If that little auto-amusing exchange wasn't sufficiently clear, I went to Monaco the week before last, on a day which was sunny and glorious, instead of cold and rainy like today. Due to ongoing lack of internet access (still counting down to this Friday, yessss) my memories have become as blurry as a bus ticket left out in the rain, sad at my age, isn't it? So, what can I say about it then... It's pretty obviously the preserve of the rich and leisured - if nothing else, all the joggers out in the middle of the day on a Monday can tell you that - "there is no recession in Monaco" and all that. It has probably the best sea-front I've seen - the main drag has terraced rooftop gardens hanging over the sea - these are built on top of rooms of nebulous purpose, fronting directly on to the sea. You'd think they'd be luxury apartments or hotel rooms, but the ones I could see in to were identically and pretty cheaply furnished, so a bit of a mystery. Maybe you rent them by the day like you do with beach chairs in these parts? Prize (of my temporary gratitude) to anyone who has the answer. I got all excited, of course, whenever I spotted where the F1 is raced (they keep the red-and-white curb markings so you can tell). Other than that, I wandered about, tried and failed to find a Monaco charm for my bracelet, sat by the sea, and that was about that.

The rest of the week and a half has been pretty dull. I went to the Russian Cathedral as you will have seen, that's been my only expedition. Funny how easily you can fall into a routine when you live somewhere, and never stir outside the quotidien round of work-home-occasional outing to the "old man bar" (aka local Tabac, only watering hole of note in the neighbourhood, but I must give it props because on our second visit, more than a week after our first, they remembered us and proudly introduced me as "the New Zealander" to some guy trying to emigrate to Australia. I feel we are a conversation-piece in the old man bar, which is all to the good). Of course, I have been busyish working, although I've still only really taught one class (with three students), the rest has been mostly observing and introducing myself around - and at the end of this week, it's our first holidays! Yay! I've been sick for the past few days as well, so you know, nothing spesh.

We went out again on Friday, to this little jazz bar and then to the ubiquitous Wayne's touristy bar, because we seriously could find nothing else that wasn't a restaurant. Will have to keep working on this... It transpires that I dropped my camera, and it now functions perfectly in every respect except that every photo is just a mass of blurred lines. Displeased, but what can you do? Obviously no use crying over spilt milk or drunken clumsiness... Will have to see if I can get it repaired, presumably can't be that hard if it's not completely broken altogether?

Anyhoo, after this Friday I will probably be online at all hours, so my multitude of fans can look forward to more regular postings; always supposing that I have anything to say...