Settling in, finding friends

I have been trotting off to work in my studio now for a little over a week and it feels good to be working.  I have met quite a number of the other artists in the courtyard, all whom are lovely and have made me feel very welome.
Yesterday and I had young visitor for the afternoon.  I'm not exactly sure of his name but it sounds like Louik - I shall have to get him to write it down so that I get it right.  He was very interested in what I was doing so I had him make a bead. He is 12 years old and so polite and is very good at helping me with my French! His dad is one of the artists in the courtyard.  I made him three little marbles and he helped put bead release on mandrels and take beads off mandrels.  I always love it when children take such an interest in what we do.

It is Le Mois Moliere here in Versaille which means a month of theatre, arts and music all around the city.  A few nights ago I went to see Les Fantaisies mythologiques  at Potager du Roi.  It was made up of twelve different mini plays or monologues, each of a different mythological creature and was set all around the park.  I didn't understand much of it bu it was still very interesting to watch and the actors were all very good.

Tomorrow my son Shasa is coming to visit for a few days so I am looking forward to doing a few things around town with him as well as spending some time together in the studio.  Peter is still in Brazil - working hard!

Working Girl

I am now moved into my studio and trotting off to work like all the other locals here! Today I spent a lot of time getting things together like putting together my drawing table and a new easel.  I bought a new projector in England so thought I would plug it into the computer today and try it out.  It's a wee baby one so really handy for travelling with.  However, having followed all the instructions - it didn't work.  The message said "no signal".  There wasn't a trouble shooting page anywhere so I ended up packing it all up and along with the computer set out to find a "fix it" computer shop.  I found an Apple shop but of course they couldn't possibly help if it wasn't an apple but the man showed me on a map where to find another place that could. He said "just catch the B bus"  Yeah, right!!! I didn't have a clue where a B bus might be or how to pay for it so I set off on foot and finally made it to another part of town and a very nice young man who was able to rectify the problem.
Seems there is a particular order in which you turn everything on and if that doesn't work you just press a couple of buttons - well, how I was I to know!!  So back I went to the studio and my arms are another three inches longer from carrying things so far but it all works and I am happy.
Tomorrow I shall start on another painting so I shall attempt to put up some progress pictures.

We are also settled into our temporary apartment although not until after some very anxious moments when they told us at the last moment that we couldn't move in because the Company hadn't signed the lease. After a day of phone calls and e-mails to Australia and Switzerland we finally made it in with minutes to spare before Peter had to run off and catch a plane to Brazil!

Now I come and go from behind a big blue door which leads out to the street.  The door leads to a courtyard hidden away form everwhere and everone and the apartment looks out on to the courtyard.  It's very peaceful and quiet and a whole heap nicer than a hotel room.  We shall be in here a month and then move to our permanent apartment in the same courtyard as my studio.