Have just picked up some new Post-it notes from the stationery cupboard and the fact that they are different bright colors instead of standard yellow has made my day.
Who says I'm hard to please.
Wednesday, November 30
Tuesday, November 29
Rufus Wainwright
... gave a fan-bloody-tastic concert last night.
I have no idea how to describe his musical style, so I won't. See here if you're interested.
But you've got to love a performer who does 2 Leonard Cohen covers, a duet with Jane Birkin*, and dedicates a song to Marc Jacobs, who designed the tux he was wearing. With no shirt underneath, only a big bling bling necklace.
If I were a gay man I would be madly in love with him.
*except that she did not impress me, frankly.
I have no idea how to describe his musical style, so I won't. See here if you're interested.
But you've got to love a performer who does 2 Leonard Cohen covers, a duet with Jane Birkin*, and dedicates a song to Marc Jacobs, who designed the tux he was wearing. With no shirt underneath, only a big bling bling necklace.
If I were a gay man I would be madly in love with him.
*except that she did not impress me, frankly.
Saturday, November 26
Mold
No sooner had I managed to get rid of it in one place (bathroom ceiling, due to insufficient ventilation) than it appeared in another (under the windows in bedroom and living room due to condensation running off the window panes). Plaster is all water logged and paint is scaling off.
Bugger shit damn.
Bugger shit damn.
It's snowing !
It's snowing this morning ! Woke up and looked out the window to see big fat snowflakes. They've been coming down pretty steadily for at least an hour now.
Actually it snowed yesterday afternoon too, but it was more like hail. This morning it is fluffy snow. Nice.
But also bizarre, coming so soon after the warmest fall ever. At the beginning of the month it was still T-shirt weather, now it might as well be January. Il n'y a plus de saisons, ma bonne dame.
Actually it snowed yesterday afternoon too, but it was more like hail. This morning it is fluffy snow. Nice.
But also bizarre, coming so soon after the warmest fall ever. At the beginning of the month it was still T-shirt weather, now it might as well be January. Il n'y a plus de saisons, ma bonne dame.
Friday, November 25
Thanksgiving blues
(Yes, I know it was yesterday. Bear with me.)
When I was growing up, my parents always had a combined Thanksgiving/ birthday dinner party, my father’s birthday being on December 2nd.
When I moved to Paris as a student, the other American students in the foyer and I would celebrate Thanksgiving together. We would each cook one dish that was a family tradition or specialty, make toasts about what we were thankful for, and it was a lot of fun. Even though for a lot of people it was their first holiday away from home, they were in Paris ! We were all so young and giddy and everything was possible and we felt like grown ups. It was a lovely time.
Then I got a job working in a restaurant/grocery store/catering business called, guess what, Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving itself I worked, but then on the following Sunday the staff would all have a great Thanksgiving meal together and be thankful that the busiest time of the year was over.
Even after I stopped working there, I would still have the post-Thanksgiving meal there with the owners, who are good friends, and staff past and present. Again, a lot of fun. Interesting to see what people had become some years after working there, and there was always someone’s American friend visiting from somewhere who of course should not be left alone on Thanksgiving, and the more the merrier, and someone’s new French girlfriend or boyfriend who had no idea what Thanksgiving is and had to have it all explained to them. (The only day in the year where Americans eat as well as the French, according to Art Buchwald).
This year I was at a bit of a loss. My restaurant-owning friends have decided not to host a post-Thanksgiving party this year because they are just too tired of turkey.
All my other American friends have moved away, either back to the US, or elsewhere.
S, who is English, very nicely offered to roast a chicken for us, but I said no. The point of Thanksgiving for me isn’t in the roast fowl, but in a big table full of friends, making toasts both funny and sentimental, eating far too much and perhaps drinking a wee bit too much as well.
So we ended up deep frying wonton dumplings for dinner (which were delicious but the apartment now reeks of grease), and going to see a silly French comedy, and I told S how thankful I was to have him in my life.
Not a bad evening, far from it, but not Thanksgiving.
Next year I will have a dinner party and turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.
When I was growing up, my parents always had a combined Thanksgiving/ birthday dinner party, my father’s birthday being on December 2nd.
When I moved to Paris as a student, the other American students in the foyer and I would celebrate Thanksgiving together. We would each cook one dish that was a family tradition or specialty, make toasts about what we were thankful for, and it was a lot of fun. Even though for a lot of people it was their first holiday away from home, they were in Paris ! We were all so young and giddy and everything was possible and we felt like grown ups. It was a lovely time.
Then I got a job working in a restaurant/grocery store/catering business called, guess what, Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving itself I worked, but then on the following Sunday the staff would all have a great Thanksgiving meal together and be thankful that the busiest time of the year was over.
Even after I stopped working there, I would still have the post-Thanksgiving meal there with the owners, who are good friends, and staff past and present. Again, a lot of fun. Interesting to see what people had become some years after working there, and there was always someone’s American friend visiting from somewhere who of course should not be left alone on Thanksgiving, and the more the merrier, and someone’s new French girlfriend or boyfriend who had no idea what Thanksgiving is and had to have it all explained to them. (The only day in the year where Americans eat as well as the French, according to Art Buchwald).
This year I was at a bit of a loss. My restaurant-owning friends have decided not to host a post-Thanksgiving party this year because they are just too tired of turkey.
All my other American friends have moved away, either back to the US, or elsewhere.
S, who is English, very nicely offered to roast a chicken for us, but I said no. The point of Thanksgiving for me isn’t in the roast fowl, but in a big table full of friends, making toasts both funny and sentimental, eating far too much and perhaps drinking a wee bit too much as well.
So we ended up deep frying wonton dumplings for dinner (which were delicious but the apartment now reeks of grease), and going to see a silly French comedy, and I told S how thankful I was to have him in my life.
Not a bad evening, far from it, but not Thanksgiving.
Next year I will have a dinner party and turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.
Thursday, November 24
amazing...
... the crap that I manage to come up with sometimes. I actually said this to S last night:
"You're more than an accountant, you're a lifestyle guru !"
Of course this is only really funny if you know S, because he is not an accountant, or even what one would generally think of as an accountant type person. And certainly not a lifestyle guru type person.
Whatever that may be.
"You're more than an accountant, you're a lifestyle guru !"
Of course this is only really funny if you know S, because he is not an accountant, or even what one would generally think of as an accountant type person. And certainly not a lifestyle guru type person.
Whatever that may be.
Tuesday, November 22
message for KT Tunstall
Yes KT, I’m talking to you.
If you want to start your concert 2 hours after the scheduled time, that’s your prerogative. No doubt beginning a show on time is not cool, not the done thing for the latest hot pop rock husky voiced cutie. Fair enough. I don’t approve, but fair enough.
However.
Please do not come on stage and flippantly say "I’m a girl" as if that were any kind of justification. No doubt some people found that cute and endearing (the men in the audience ? the women in the audience who also use their gender as a dismaying excuse for lack of punctuality ?), but for my part, it just made me want to kick your ass. Say "I’m a rock star" if you must say anything, but not “I’m a girl”. Thank you.
Good show though, once it got going. You really do have a fantastic voice and if you can avoid the pitfalls of the dreaded "second-release-after-a-very successful-debut-album" then you may have quite a career ahead of you.
Nice boots, too.
If you want to start your concert 2 hours after the scheduled time, that’s your prerogative. No doubt beginning a show on time is not cool, not the done thing for the latest hot pop rock husky voiced cutie. Fair enough. I don’t approve, but fair enough.
However.
Please do not come on stage and flippantly say "I’m a girl" as if that were any kind of justification. No doubt some people found that cute and endearing (the men in the audience ? the women in the audience who also use their gender as a dismaying excuse for lack of punctuality ?), but for my part, it just made me want to kick your ass. Say "I’m a rock star" if you must say anything, but not “I’m a girl”. Thank you.
Good show though, once it got going. You really do have a fantastic voice and if you can avoid the pitfalls of the dreaded "second-release-after-a-very successful-debut-album" then you may have quite a career ahead of you.
Nice boots, too.
Friday, November 18
my favorite joke, ever
Why did the snail have a big "S" painted on the side of his sports car ?
So that people would watch him drive past and say "Look at that S car go!"
OK, so it's very silly, but it is both culinary and bilingual (well, sort of)...
So that people would watch him drive past and say "Look at that S car go!"
OK, so it's very silly, but it is both culinary and bilingual (well, sort of)...
Wednesday, November 16
yoga
Yoga is wonderful.
It is good for the body, the mind and the spirit. It soothes yet energizes. No matter how blah I may feel before a class, afterwards, when I leave the studio, I am walking on air.
Except when I slip and fall halfway down the stairs on the way to the changing room and hurt my foot, arm and elbow.
Then it sucks.
My dignity needs a sling.
It is good for the body, the mind and the spirit. It soothes yet energizes. No matter how blah I may feel before a class, afterwards, when I leave the studio, I am walking on air.
Except when I slip and fall halfway down the stairs on the way to the changing room and hurt my foot, arm and elbow.
Then it sucks.
My dignity needs a sling.
Friday, November 11
Sunday, November 6
Feel-good films
When we get around to buying a TV set and a DVD player (some day... maybe...) these are the films I am going to buy :
Say Anything
Princess Bride
When Harry met Sally
A room with a view
Bend it like Beckham
Strictly Ballroom
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Wedding Banquet
Elizabethtown
Now these are not necessarily my favorite films, but they are the ones I have seen more than once (twice, three times...) without tiring of them, they are the ones I know I could watch again and again and again. Because they make me laugh, but more than that, because they leave me feeling warm and fuzzy and optimistic.
Say Anything
Princess Bride
When Harry met Sally
A room with a view
Bend it like Beckham
Strictly Ballroom
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Wedding Banquet
Elizabethtown
Now these are not necessarily my favorite films, but they are the ones I have seen more than once (twice, three times...) without tiring of them, they are the ones I know I could watch again and again and again. Because they make me laugh, but more than that, because they leave me feeling warm and fuzzy and optimistic.
Wednesday, November 2
Mine, all mine
This was initially meant to be a co-blog. The idea was that I would sometimes write a post, S would sometimes write one, and occasionally we would write together.
So far S hasn't been inspired to post so this seems to have turned into "my" blog rather than ours. Oh well. Perhaps he can make special appearances every now and again like a guest star.
So far S hasn't been inspired to post so this seems to have turned into "my" blog rather than ours. Oh well. Perhaps he can make special appearances every now and again like a guest star.
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