Day 4 - today is my book out day

The work culture in France is very relaxed compared to that of Asian countries - they work 35 hours a week, take tea breaks (and smoking breaks) in between, and best of all, they allow me to use the telephone to call home during working hours!

Pity though, that the reception is quite poor and I had to switch to Skype to make phone calls. Everyone should get this program if they're travelling overseas for a period of time and has access to the internet.

A short while after I sat down at my desk, 1 of the staff came over and told me that in France, everyone (mostly anyway) works 35 hours a week, and therefore, I can go off after half days on Fridays.

I must be dreaming.

But no, it's true. And off we went, at 12 noon. My colleague (time to give him a name, let's call him yan-dao, which means handsome) and I decided to go shopping at the little town centre near our office.

The shopping mall had a reasonable number of shops for its size but that was quite enough for me, because that was where I finally found clothes that fit me nicely! It's a miracle come true! Only people of my build will understand how it feels to go through so many years wearing nothing that fits.

I seem to turn into a shopaholic suddenly (like those women that I hope not to hang out with, what an irony) trying on almost everything that looks good and of reasonable price. Poor yan-dao had to wait for me. Must have been hard on him.

So far, I've found out that C&A, Celio, H&M and Zara offers clothes of a reasonable price range. And best of all, they fit me without having to be tailor made. Think I'm going nuts.