Vive la France

What can I say? It's been a bit of a hectic couple of weeks as we've moved out of our house and ultimately left the great land down under. We arrived in France yesterday and picked up our little Kelpie (iconic Australian dog) from the pet transport company - thanks to Swissport Import and Eric over there - brilliant people. 

There are a few things that have immediately hit me as I settle back in to European life, and here's a sample

1) Oh my God its f***ing cold!

2) It feels like Christmas here, the weather, the decorations

3) People are a lot nicer than I remember

4) The TGV and Eurostar is the best train experience ever

5) Central heating rocks 

But, as it all starts coming back to me, as I watch BBC breakfast News (eat your heart out Kochie) and I hear about all the news from this great continent of hours, well....it feels great to be back.

Normal service will resume soon, Tinternet Treats, Video of the week and my usual observations on all things digital.  Off to London for some interviews and meetings today, so if anyone fancies meeting up, ping me!

 

All aboard the banter wagon

The London Olympics is a fair way off, and as a Brit heading home from Australia I found this viral by Bullseye quite funny. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the greatest show on earth (sorry Madonna, it’s true) in my own fair (and damp) country. But apparently there are sections of the UK press that have gotten their knickers in a right twist about this, calling it "distinctly odd and morally dubious".



As a pom (POME/POHM - Prisoner of Mother England/Prisoner of Her Majesty) as British expats are referred to out here, I’m quite often at the receiving end of a fair bit of sporting banter, but you don’t moan about it, you play the culture card…. to which I often get the response “what’s that then, warm beer”…thank you Miss Yanco. Or you could point out a few other facts, take you pick:

1) The Wallabies haven’t beaten England in any MEANINGFUL game since before the 2003 World Cup….which we (the poms) won in your backyard
2) The English football team (the game you call soccer) has missed only a handful of World Cups since the comp began, The Socceroos have featured in just two
3) Great Britain finished fourth in the medal tally at Beijing, compared to Australia’s sixth place
4) We won’t mention the cricket……..

My Take - A bit of banter between the Brits and the Aussies is healthy and fun, so I say to the British press – don’t get mad, get even! I seem to remember a certain UK tabloid driving a truck around Sydney with the slogan “where the bloody hell were we? Above you in the medal tally”. It’s a bit different when the shoe is on the other foot isn’t it. But please, I beg you, stop the whining….we’re already referred to as whinging poms.