Ode to the Sartorialist

I literally had to shoot this from the hip as I was embarrassed that I might be caught taking a photo - but these two ladies were so so chic I thought "what would Sart do" and couldn't resist...Of course, Sart would have spoken to them and taken the photo from the front, but I'm far too shy !

S is a gem

... and I’m keeping him. And he’d better not leave me, because I’d find him. (Yes, that is a line from The Wedding Crashers. I have no shame).

He spent the whole weekend food shopping and cooking, so we now have:

2 liters of leek & potato soup
Enough Bolognese sauce for at least 2 meals
A fair quantity of chicken stock
Chicken curry
Loads of fresh veggies just waiting to be stir-fried.

All divided into tubs of various sizes and neatly distributed between fridge and freezer.

And what did I do during the weekend? Read blogs and online newspapers, finished one novel and started another, slept, napped, dozed and generally just lazed around.

Dans Paris

A lovely little film about brothers, fathers, mothers and lovers - set in Paris at Christmas time, and yet devoid of clichés - starring the delicious Romain Duris and the no less delightful Louis Garrel, both seen in various stages of undress. Mmm-hmmm.

Google has taken over my life.

Hardly an original thought, I know, but it's been on my mind lately.

Between Blogger, Picasa, Gmail, and the new Google homepage which I've played around with cutomizing (Paris weather forecast! Word of the day! CNN! Le Monde headlines! and more!), there isn't a lot "they" couldn't find out about me if "they" wanted to.

Do no evil, people. Do no evil.

The problem with winter...

... in addition to the obvious issues such as cold and lack of sunlight, is that dressing well is so much more expensive than in the summer.

Summer clothes can be cheap and not necessarily look cheap, and even if they do, it really doesn't matter because they can be fun and cheerful and not really meant to last. You can buy new white cotton T-shirts every single year and just toss them when they get grey and dingy at the end of the season without breaking the bank. There are always inexpensive plain linen shirts and dresses on sale at various high street stores, in half a dozen different colors that are easy to look great in, with a bit of a tan and sunglasses.

Now consider winter. Sweaters needn't all be cashmere (although wouldn't that be great!) but you do want a nice merino or lambswool, which isn't cheap. Boots, especially knee high ones in good quality leather, are obviously more expensive than espadrilles. Jackets and coats need at least halfway decent tailoring to look good, so ooops, there you go, costly again.

The good thing about winter is that in a pinch, you can wear the same black turtleneck, dark blue jeans, black boots and beige trenchcoat every other day for months and still look fine - exactly like 80% of women in the 20 to 55 age bracket, but fine nonetheless...

The anti-Miranda Priestley

I *heart* my boss. We were supposed to have lunch together today, but she had to postpone to next week (for a perfectly legit reason).

She just got me flowers to apologize.

Awwwwww...

Paranoia

Among the assorted bills and ads in my mailbox the other day, I found a chocolate bar.

No kidding, a full-size, 70% cocoa, dark chocolate bar from Lindt, with a “30 cents off next purchase” coupon on the back of the packaging.

Obviously a marketing promotion from Lindt, right?

But the idea of getting something edible (chocolate!) for free, just dropped into my mailbox, is disconcerting. How do I know it’s not, well, tainted? How do I know it’s not a chocolate version of phishing? It looks like real Lindt packaging, but what’s if it’s really…oh, I don’t know...something bad...

Am no doubt completely paranoid and neurotic and shouldn’t look a gift chocolate bar in the mouth, so to speak, but not accepting candy from strangers is so ingrained I really don’t think I would be able to eat it without suffering from psychosomatic stomach pains...

Cultural differences

Talking about the impending smoking ban, and whether it will be enforced or not.

- well, probably not at first, but then someone will probably sue their employer for not providing a smoke-free environment.

quizzical look.

- oh, but people don't really sue each other much here, do they.
- erm. no.

And it's true, France is governed, in the widest sense of the word, through legislation rather than litigation. And practicing law, by and large, is seen as a respectable profession, there are no French equivalents to the plethora of jokes in American pop culture about lawyers being despicable scum of the earth. Not sure that there is any relation there, but I find it interesting...

The 2nd ever post...

in this blog was about Mr. Apple. RIP. What a character.