piezloves.

So today I was fired – actually I quit… to be honest, I don’t know what it actually was but bottom line is – now I’m unemployed… again. As most of you know, when I arrived in Paris I was desperate to find work and this lovely Finnish family came along with three gorgeous children, an amazing apartment in the 16eme and a cute little pug dog and ‘swept me off my feet’. However, I was unaware that their rate of pay was so dismally bad that not even Willie Lopez from down on the corner would get off his stoop for it. When I pointed out that I was being paid below minimum wage, the family (or the Parents really) were not too happy and showed me their other side. All in all I’m happy to be out of there despite the feeling of not having a job or a future or money.

On the up side – today I had my first photography job in Paris. I was hired by this lovely couple from New York who wanted some nice photos of them in Paris. I hope they are happy with what I did for them. It would be great if I could do that full time but I just don’t know how to advertise for this sort of thing. Ideas anyone? I’m not selling myself as a professional photographer, just someone that can take nice photos and capture the moments from their holiday. Plus I consider myself to know Paris fairly well now and can take them to those places that aren’t packed with tourists. It was really good and the pay for those few hours was about 1/3 of what the Finnish family paid me for the week. So it worked out really well!

While I was waiting for my clients today at the Metro station, I saw these young girls hanging around. Normally you wouldn’t notice them if you were walking through the station but because I was standing still watching people it seemed strange that they were just ‘hanging’ at such a boring place for children their age. They looked about 13. The first thing I thought when I saw them was, ‘they must be freezing’ as their midriffs were hanging out over their jeans like most tarty girls their age who ride on the metro (generalisation?). I brushed off the weirdness and continued to look for my clients. After a bit an older man came up to me and said ‘attention! Those girls are pickpockets, watch out for your things’ I was a little shocked because when I was 13 I was hanging out at Mulbring oval eating blocks of chocolate with the money that we knicked out of Poppa’s work pants (haha) – so innocent in comparison to these girls. Anyway, I continued to watch them (Oh My Goodness! It wasn’t until typing up to here that I realised that Stef and I were doing the same thing but just to her grandfather!!! Haha – it was different though). As I was watching them, there was one girl who was the boss, she would scout out people and either nod or shake her head to the two other girls, if she nodded them they would all follow up the escalator or down the stairs where there would be a lot of people bunched together. I watched one girl thieve off an old lady up an escalator. I was so furious that I yelled out to them and they started pulling faces at me through the Perspex. I actually started crying tears of anger and thought, if I could abuse you in French quickly then I absolutely would. I went and ‘dobbed’ on them but there was nothing that they could do of course. The girls came up to me later and asked me what was wrong. I said ‘rien, c’est bon’ (nothing, it’s good/OK) because I got a bit scared like they were going to bash me but then they asked if I had a light (probably so when I opened my bag they could steal whatever was in it), I said I didn’t smoke and then I asked them why they were doing it and told them to stop. They couldn’t have given two hoots – no joke – they literally said ‘you are beautiful’ (I think to keep me on side) and then said au revoir, gave each other the nod and chased after this other poor, unknowing Asian tourist – NO SHAME! I even called out to them and everything… What is this world coming to? I literally just watched them try to get people over and over again. I can at least be happy that when I hear the pickpocket announcements I know what to look for. I previously had an image of an older, swift, little man – for some reason I never assumed it would be children, but apparently it’s all the rage in Paris. Especially in the tourist packed areas such as Bir-Hakeim Metro Stop (right by the Eiffel Tower).

So my day was pretty full today with working this morning until 12pm, getting fired, dealing with Parisienne criminals, being a photographer, blogging and tonight I go to the Hillsong Sisterhood conference which I’m really looking forward to.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Will blog more soon – I have much to say – as per usual xx