Too much to buy, not eough time/money

I always seem to start these with "well I..." but I refuse this time.

So I....Ive been working now for a little over a month and its all going well. I'm cooking a good Provencale meal tonight (some artichoke thing but since I'm cooking from a French recipe I'm not 100% what it is) but I still don't understand it. The French are masters of sauces right...well they have some great fresh vegetables as well but they seem to boil the hell out of them before they eat them...it seems like they have something to learn from the English :-)

Anyway, I still haven't been paid yet and im starting to think I should cut my spending. However, while food is a lot more expensive over here (price in EUR= price in AUD), outdoor gear is a lot cheaper and I just spent close to $1000 EUR (about $1800 AUD) on outdoor gear. Speaking of buying things, everyone pays for things with Carte Blue (a visa card), but it is actually just an access card. There is no such thing as a credit card in france...no really, absolutely no such thing.

Marseille is a funny place, they LOVE their football team (Olympic Marseille) and is a strange city. One thing you have to remember is the French regional loyalty, you don't say "I'm French" you say "je suis Marseillais" or "Lyonaise", or "Parisian". As for Marseille, everyone hacks on it, including those who live here and love the place. Its one of Europe's oldest cities (Roman originally) and has a very large middle eastern and African population. In general it is quite a poor city and has a crime problem and a particularly disaffecuated (yes I made that word up) youth. However, once you see the place its actually really nice. I went for a walk one day with a map in my bag but aiming to get lost. I stumbled across the Palais Longchamp which was amazing and then wandered back home. However, I didn't recognize the house because I was looking at the beautiful buildings, tree lined streets and wonderful architecture and not focusing on what the other people were doing and whether I was going to step in dog poo. I think its one of those things that Marseille has its problems because people thing it has problems. Something my father always said "think positive" and he is right, if you try and think positive you will see the beauty in things. Never focus on the negatives.

So that said, my Hard drive exploded and I lost everything on the weekend, so I've lost everyones email addresses etc. My camera also died and has been sent back to Australia.

Also if people want to telephone me (you know you want to) you can call a Sydney number 62235026. Which will connect at local rates to me here in France.