A weekend of indulgent gratification. Thursday: la bienheureuse arrives home, pile à l'heure, despite the ongoing transport strikes. Friday: visit chez madame le medecin for second trimester scan; all elements seemingly present and at correct stage of development; estimated weight, a kickingly healthy 530g. Saturday: lazy day spent doing not very much, apart from figuring out, with limited success, how to connect the computer to our new all-singing, all-dancing goggle box, an expensive whim indulged earlier in the week. Sunday: we make a gesture at getting some exercise with a walk through the park, then I leave la bienheureuse in the kitchen (brussel sprouts soup, flapjack and roast pork - spoilt, moi?) while venturing out to the Wallace to suffer the latest instalment of nurtured football team vs purchased assembly of superstars. Fortunately the suffering is eased by an early bath, and the good guys coast to a gratifying triumph over oil-stained money.
Outside the nest, the social unrest continues on a slightly calmer course. Les vacances de la Toussaint began on Friday, meaning school students are somewhat more dispersed; le Senat has approved the new laws on pensions and retirement, meaning only one more stage before the reforms are pencilled into the statute books (expected on Wednesday when both houses of parliament vote on the new laws together). The unions have softened their stance slightly - rubbish collectors in Marseille voted to suspend their two week strike on public health grounds, three of the twelve refineries have gone back to work, and more than 75% of trains are now running. The protestors are hoping the government will agree to negotiate in the last two weeks before the President definitively promulgates the law. The precedent the unions are pinning their hopes on came in 2006, when a new law on employment reforms for young people was approved by parliament only for similar street protests to cause a government cave-in, and the law was never rubber-stamped. I somehow doubt Sarko will be quite as flexible this time…
