Well there's been a break through. I finally realised why I was getting very little action on the house swap site I have joined. Instead of posting that we live in Sydney, I put in my suburb instead. That's because by some quirk of nature in Australia, when you write your address, you don't include the city in which you live. So I just wrote my suburb, then New South Wales (my State), and Australia. That's the funny thing about Australians, we assume that we are the centre of the universe, when the reality is that the majority of the planet knows nothing about us at all. No wonder I wasn't getting any offers, as no one knew I was located in Sydney until they clicked on my profile, which as we all know in blog land, has to be pretty "sexy" to even catch someone's interest.
So the inclusion of the fact I live in Sydney has immediately netted the desired result. It was with great joy that I opened my email yesterday to a beautiful email in French, that went like this:
Cher Carolyn,
Nous sommes français, mon mari et moi aimerions aller dans votre pays. Nous serions intéressés par un échange de maison en 2012 C'est notre premier échange.
Nous arrivons a la cinquantaine et commencons a nous faire plaisir par des voyages
Nous sommes actuellement en congé sabbatique afin de visiter quelques pays et de nous faire de nouveaux amis.
Notre maison est très agréable à vivre. La région est magnifique et nous y mangeons bien . Vous pourrez visiter la Normandie qui est à moins de deux heures de Paris.
notre voiture est a votre disposition
Seriez vous interessé ? et si oui sur quelle période?
Nous attendons votre réponse avec impatiente.
Cordialement
My school girl French allowed me to understand most of the letter. Before responding, I checked the authors' profile and it said they only spoke French. My French is terrible, as you will see below, but I thought it only courteous to write back in French and I want them to know how I feel and they possibly wouldn't understand if I wrote back in English, here's what I wrote:
Dear Brigette et Eric
Merci pour votre email sympa. Nous sommes tres interesent rester dans votre maison. Je voudrais Julliet/ Aout/ Septembre pour un de trios mois.
Mon Francais est tres malade. Parlez vous Anglais?
A cet moment c'est difficile faire un decision. Peut etre nous decidons en Janvier ou Fevrier. Je veux discouter avec mon mari.
Cordialment
Carolyn
Sydney Australia
I would love to go to Normandy, I read a couple of wonderful blogs written from Normandy, so I know a little of the region. I also got out the travel books and this is one awesome place. It's known military history stretches for over 1000 years. From the Norman conquests by the vikings, to the launching of the last invasion of English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. To the D Day landings of 1944.
If that wasn't enough, there is the intense cultural history in terms of food and architecture. It's only 2 hours from Paris and is located next to the sea. Well who in her own right wouldn't want to live there for several months, if not a life time?
But the other thing that happened to me yesterday, was that I did Mr Beach Houses BAS. For the uninitiated, that is the Business Activity Statement for the September quarter, which is basically then submitted to the Government with a hefty tax cheque attached. And that's the down side. The bottom has dropped out of the boat building market. Competition from China, the fact that boats are a luxury item and the general economic downturn, has meant that our income has reduced by 75% this quarter, with no end in sight. Going through the numbers yesterday really brought it home to me, that we are in trouble. At the moment all we are doing is squirrelling together enough each week to pay our wonderful employee, who we so don't want to lose and putting food on our own table each week.
I don't want this to sound like a sob story, cause it's not. We will be fine..... we still live in paradise in our own home and are all pretty happy. But how ironic that on the day I get the first genuine offer to swap houses with someone in a beautiful region of France, that our true financial position is made very clear to me.
I wonder what it all means. I am determined to get back to France......so watch this space.
In the mean time, here are some shots I have pulled up from my photo library. The weather has turned foul again, to match our financial status, so the photos I wanted to shoot didn't happen.
I bet when the sun comes out I'll feel a whole lot better. Healthy happy children and a husband who's doing his best to keep all the balls in the air. Hey, I'm the lucky one here!!!!!
Have a great day gals. I feel better already. You're a true pal if you got this far.
Today I am partying at
