Thwarted!

Been trying to find a job for a while now; signed on at the job centre, they were very nice (Before you ask, I don't qualify for dole payments, didn't ask for it, didn't expect it, but I had to sign a form to say that I had been 'refused payments' anyway).  I asked for help with my (french) cv and 'lettre de motivation' (basically, covering letter, french style) so they very kindly sent me off to 're-travailler' a type of agency place to help people who are looking for work.  They signed me up for three months.  Well, it doesn't take three months to wirte a cv or a covering letter, so have spent the rest of the time been hassled by the woman in charge about my job applications (or lack of).  Basically, she wants me to go around the local towns, knocking on doors, begging for work (call me 'Yozzer').  She says applying for jobs advertised on the internet is basically a waste of time. 
Not that any of them really suit me anyway.  Can't work five days a week on a permanant basis as we work all weekend from June through to September and that's knackering enough.  (Plus, need time during the week at the moment to do all the jobs that need doing here).  Can't work weekends for same reason.  So I am a bit limited in my available time.  Have seen a few jobs in shops (like till work, shelf stacking) but unemployment is so high around here, employers can demand a lot and all want previous experience.  (How hard can it be to learn to stack a shelf or pass an item in front of a scanning machine?).  I've seen a few very suitable jobs helping out in schools but they are all 'CUI/CAE' which has something to so with the wages being mostly government funded and you can only do them if you fit certain criteria - over 55, single parent , long-term unemployed etc etc, which needless to say I do not qualify for.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the last post, I've been volunteering at these English classes for French children, and I thought, 'I could do this' (Surprisingly, I do have some experience in this area).  Discussed it with some other folk and they thought it was a good idea.  So today, I started making enquiries.  Turns out that I am not allowed to do it.  Not because I am not a teacher (that's not a problem apparently), but because our existing business is currently in my name and I am not allowed, by law, to have two businesses in my sole name.  How bloody stupid is that?  There are two possible options:

Firstly, to change the name of the existing business into hubby's name.  There is no chance of doing this.  The problems we have had, and continue to have, since arriving, with the RSI (who we pay our social charges to) have been so horrific, that to tell them we are changing things just doesn't bear thinking about. 

Secondly, I can take (yet another) trip to Nantes to ask the powers that be if I can have a kind-of 'associated business' alongside the current one.  By all accounts this is highly unlikely to be allowed because teaching English is so completely different from running gites.  I could, for instance have a
B&B alongside the gites, or something else with some relevancy, but English classes would not normally qualify.

So there you go.  No wonder so many French folk work on the black.

Nothing for ages and then three things at once.

Blimey!  It's been a while.  I've even received complaints for not writing anything.  Not really sure why though.  Am really trying to watch what we spend, so not going out unecessarily, and therefore not meeting people who give me cause to complain.  Until now that its, and it's all gone a bit like the buses, nothing for ages and then three come along at once.

Firstly:

Three days ago I nearly fell in the septic tank.  Partly my own fault I suppose, I was standing on top of it and the lid broke.  In fact, my left leg did go in, but fortunately it just missed the contents.  Could have been very nasty.  And then, to get over the shock of nearly landing myself in the shit, I went back to the house for a drink and nearly swallowed a small grasshopper having a swim in my glass.

Secondly: 

I won't go into too much detail here, nobody needs it, but the following day I had an appointment at the hospital.  All I will say that it involved stirrups (and not of the horsey kind) and a student.  Why do they have to take so long and why does there have to be a general discussion about the entire process as well as the 'view' whilst I am lying there as helpless as I would be if I was in handcuffs, only slightly more undignified.

Thirdly:

I have started working as a volunteer at an 'English Club' - ie - for French children to learn English.  The woman who runs it is very nice, but not very organised, poor thing couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.  I've got lots of ideas for improvement, but I've only been to two classes so far, so it's not really my place to take over (yet).   Late last night she sent an e-mail with a copy of an article in the local paper about the club, accompanied by a photo of us all.  Now, I don't look good in a photo at the best of times, but in this one I am particularly bad. 

That's me, third from the left, sitting down.  Eyes shut.

I must point out that the article has the wrong hours, the wrong number of children (there's almost 80) and I've never heard anything about a facebook page.   But then they interviewed the woman in charge so that would probably explain it.