Recently, I had nearly a week without a cold draining the energy out of me. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked up another one – but the momentum is there.
We now have six months to go of our adventure. We have negotiated a departure date with our landlady for the middle of August, so this week has been a good time to focus on what I want to achieve before I head back to the UK.
The first goal has to be putting in six months work on my French skills. Although I have continued to watch French TV, read French newspapers and speak to friends and to people in shops and restaurants, I had given up a systematic learning process.
Now I am spending a couple of hours a day studying to improve my vocabulary. One of my teachers is Michel Vaillant – a cartoon (or bande dessinée) character who I like. I read the books with a dictionary and learn loads.
The surname Vaillant means brave, courageous or valiant. There is a great phrase in French – je ne me sens pas très vaillant – which means “I don’t feel too good”. However, the literal “I don’t feel very courageous today” is a wonderful phrase for people with long-term health conditions where feeling brave is a pre-requisite for facing the day.
The other goal of being in France for a year was to look back at life in the UK (and the last ten years of being ill) with a bit of distance and perspective and start thinking of some of the things I want to do when I get back in August.
I am slowly doing this – without having any ‘eureka!’ moments – and the list is growing. The key, I guess, is to recognise that my health does prevent me from doing some things and forces me to do other things in different ways to most people.
Yet, this year proves that most things are possible if I apply my mind to careful planning, work out solutions to potential problems and, of course, be valiant.
