2007! when did that happen?

Since my last blog we have had Christmas, my daughters birthday, many house guests and a new year came!!! I am a bad, bad bloggette!

I hope you all are having a happy new year, ours has been none stop, the girls started back at school on the 8th January, it is soooo hard getting them (and me) up in the morning when it still looks like the middle of the night outside! Pete started back at uni. on the same day and I took up my home studying with renewed enthusiasm... this lasted about half an hour when the feeling wore off and it became the normal challenge... is it the imparfait one uses here or the passé simple? conditionnel or future? what is a plus-que-parfait? the suggestion is that we use it in English too but no-one told me... so far, all my French happens in the present, if I venture into another tense I am beginning to use the just happened or just about to happen method, I will build from there. My immediate challenge is to practice speaking out, I don't like to talk if I know I am saying it wrong, so I tend to listen more than talk (always a challenge for me) I need to try to talk more without worrying about the tense, the grammer...

The latest blunder...
there are 3 words that sound very alike...
cou (ku) =neck
queue (k as in look) = tail
cul (pronounce queue in English) = not nice word for ones bottom

I was giving a lift home to a French lady, after our prayer meeting, my eldest daughter was in the car, I was driving, it was dark, it was raining... and to top it all the conversation was in French; that's an awful lot for me to concentrate on!!! To top it all, there was a Frenchman driving on my bumper- this is something I totally dislike even in daylight hours in the dry, but the present conditions added a danger element...
I, in my frustration at the driver behind, said-in French-
The car behind is driving up my tail-
or so I had meant to say.

My 2 passengers' reaction said I hadn't,
my daughter was appauled at what I had said, my newly converted, being taken home by the missionary, fellow Christian passenger sat with her mouth open looking aghast!!!

It transpired that her surprise was 2 fold, 1. she was astounded that I said that because 2. it is actually a French expression (albeit a vulgar one)

And a neck was not mentioned!!!

Safe to say, when I do dare to speak it's true I don't need to worry about the tense, the grammer... as I said, but it would be good to work on the prononciation.