OK, I’m a few days past due, but hey, it’s my blog.
Note to self: It’s important to read the labels, especially when many of the words are not so familiar.
Today was Toussaint, which I now know is the French equivalent of “All-Saints Day” elsewhere. The day after Halloween. Here, it’s a public holiday, so no mail, no banking, and many stores are closed or open reduced hours. Apparently also means a shortage of baguettes. So when there was no fresh bread to be had at the Bio-C-Bon store (Rayons Verts was closed), I grabbed a package of two mini-baguettes from the shelf. If I’d paid attention, I would have noticed it was “bake-yourself” bread. But not all is lost: One of the suggestions, via illustration, was to cook up a couple of slices in the toaster. Cool, found a use for the toaster I didn’t expect to use! Turned out quite yummy paired with some packaged hummus. But really, Fred, read the labels, even if you have to bring up Google Translate on the phone.
Next note to self: When shipping random stuff, take the time to take an inventory of what goes in each box and bag. As sensible as I thought I had packed, I’m still surprised by what comes out of the box of vital computer peripherals. Fortunately, with each external hard drive I in fact included the power supply and appropriate USB cable. <phew!> Which means I can, as planned, transfer data carefully and logically (?!) to the new iMac.
Yes, I recycled the near-6-year-old iMac in Santa Cruz with the rationale that shipping it to France would cost at least half what a new one would cost. And I’d still have a 6-year-old iMac. So I ambled into FNAC (roughly equivalent to a Best Buy that doesn’t feel like it’s going under any minute), and said “Je voudrais acheter cette iMac,” pointing to the stack of 21.5” iMacs near the entrance. Bare-bones model, no frills, I don’t need 4K video, thank you. At least here there’s no add-on sales tax to bump up the price; in fact, having an FNAC card newly added to the phone saved a few Euros.
Oh, and it’s pronounced like a word, F-nack, not F-N-A-C. And the fidelity/loyalty card cost is not trivial — yes, you pay for the privilege in many cases — but the savings over time can be substantial.
Final note to self: French keyboards are significantly different from standard QWERTY models. M is under the right pinky, A is a top-row pinky reach, and so on; the numbers row includes several essential accented characters, such that the numbers actually require the shift key. And more. I’ll learn, I’m adaptable, really.