sitting 'round the kitchen table

Body image issues

2010-07-03T20:03:00.000+02:00

At the Nike store, trying on work out gear, and I feel fit, muscular and empowered. Hear me roar.

Cross the road to the Gap, try on a bathing suit and apparently within the last 5 minutes I've transformed from strong confident woman to pudgy dumpling with low self-esteem.

Briefly wonder whether Nike dry-fit leggings and a tank top (with built-in bra, suitable for medium impact workouts !) are appropriate beach wear. Probably not. Damn.

Pet peeve du jour

2010-04-28T15:08:00.000+02:00

People who complain about colleagues using the "reply to all" function indiscriminately and cc'ing everyone in the company, by, you guessed, it, using "reply to all".

Now can we all just let it drop and get on with our lives and the rest of our overflowing inboxes, or will the original offender apologize to all, followed by a handful of good humored "don't worry, it happens" replies, also addressed to a few hundred people ?

Good intentions.

2010-03-25T19:08:00.000+01:00

Hypoallergenic deodorant.
No aluminum salts, no paraben, no alcohol.
But at the end of day, ew, what's that smell ?
Oh wait, it's me.

You know

2010-03-03T11:16:00.000+01:00

.... that point of "too much work" when it ceases being a challenge and instead just feels like you're trying to bail water from a sinking ship with the help of a teaspoon ?

That point when you've worked all day practically without a bathroom break, but you still have 29 items on your to-do list at 6:30 p.m. ?

When you receive a new email every 4 minutes on average, so you barely have time to read them all, let alone act on them ?

When you think fuck it, it won't all get done no matter how hard I try, so I might as well just play Mafia Wars on Facebook, even though all those Zynga games are kind of pathetic ?

Yeah.

30-second review, Wolfman

2010-02-22T22:19:00.000+01:00

The best thing about this was the constant amused glint in Anthony Hopkins' eyes. Which makes no sense, because his character's wife slits her throat - or does she ? - and dies in his arms, he is estranged from one son and the other is horribly mutilated and killed by a mysterious beast. But on the other hand, maybe it makes perfect sense, because old Tony is thinking "OK, so this isn't very good, but I've gotten paid, and you're still sitting in a theater watching this, so mwahahahah, suckers".

Self-appointed beauty police warning.

2010-02-17T19:06:00.000+01:00

If you want to give your face a healthy glow in the dead of winter - and why not - please go easy with the self-tanner applications. Or you run the risk of looking like the woman I saw today in the metro, with lily-white hands and a dark bronze face.

And if it's too late and you have gone down that unfortunate route, at least try to keep the fiddling with your hair, glasses, etc to a minimum so that the contrast is not so glaring. Thank you.

30-second reviews

2010-02-10T22:30:00.000+01:00

because I haven't done these in a long time.

Brothers: what, no Oscar nod for Jake Gyllenhaal ? I'm surprised. And it's always good to see Sam Shepard do his thing.

Sherlock Holmes: hey, it's Tony Stark ! In 19th century London !

And another thing.

2010-02-05T22:03:00.003+01:00

I'm searching through my iTunes, trying to make a motivational playlist for the gym. However most of my music is more of the sit around and have a bourbon and another cigarette genre, rather than, "woo hoo, let's get our heart rates up!" type.

Yoga and Pilates...

2010-02-05T20:51:00.001+01:00

... not cutting it anymore in the battle of the bulge, and the studio I went to was pretty expensive. So I've gone and joined a real gym, with cardio machines and weights and loads of those scary Les Mills classes which are all called Body Something and feature REALLY loud music and overenthusiastic fitness freaks who yell and punch the air and are probably an entirely different species than me.

The good news is they also offer Pilates so at least once a week I'll be able to take a class where I'm not the totally uncoordinated newbie.

Met with a trainer today so he could show me the ropes and he asked, as they do, what my goal was in joining the gym.

"Be able to eat more and weigh less" just got a blank stare, until I said "No, just kidding, I'd like to improve my cardiovascular fitness and maybe gain some muscular definition". Then he nodded approvingly and suggested a routine for me. But honestly, eat more, weigh less. Isn't that why everyone joins a gym ?

Back to the grind

2010-01-04T21:57:00.000+01:00

Holidays are over.

No more waking up from a nap and thinking, hmmm, must be time for another meal soon.

Speaking of which, back to eating more reasonably, instead of having leftover foie gras for breakfast.
Back to drinking "everyday" booze instead of the treasures of my uncle's cave: Margaux, Pomerol, Volnay, Pommard, Ruinart, and Laphroig Quarter Cask.

Ho hum.

It always makes me sad

2009-12-31T14:43:00.001+01:00

Waiting for men in white coats

2009-12-29T08:34:00.000+01:00

... To come and take the Mac away. OK, so they probably won't be
wearing white coats. I'm just happy that after months of slow
performance and sudden freezes, someone from the FNAC helpline finally
admitted that yes, it could be a hardware problem, and that they would
indeed repair or replace, instead of telling me to do yet another
clean install and implying that I "don't know how to use the Mac".

Actually that wasn't implied, that was actually said out loud. Right,
so for instance all I've got running are Safari and iTunes, out of the
blue the computer freezes and won't respond to trying to force quit
the programs, the disk utility warns that the hard drive is failing,
and it might be my fault because I don't know how to use a Mac? Wanker.

Anyway, here's hoping it gets sorted, and thank goodness we were
obsessive about backing up files!

Baffling

2009-12-07T22:34:00.004+01:00

Why would a perfume company hire one the most beautiful women in the world to be the "face" of their new fragrance and then photoshop the hell out of her, to the point where her head looks like it's been stuck on an anatomically incorrect mannequin ?

There are days

2009-11-23T20:43:00.001+01:00

...when I enjoy Pilates and yoga classes. Not today though. Today they
were 2 hours of discomfort and inadequacy.

A blah day...

2009-11-22T22:48:00.000+01:00

made better by a trip to WH Smith. Got the New Yorker's Book of Food and Drink, Foreign Tongues, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. New books are always a good antidote to whatever ails you.

Then went out for dinner to a fondue place in Montmartre that serves wine out of baby bottles. Yes, it's a bit of a tourist trap, but it was more fun than expected. I had last been there when I was a teenager, believe it or not, and it hadn't changed a bit. Even the waiter was the same. He used to be a metal worker and started working there 21 years ago, is retiring at the end of the year. Crusty and irreverent and funny and intolerant as only an old-time Parisian waiter can be. Plus, I scored a phone number. I've still got it baby, whatever "it" is.

Madness.

2009-11-13T22:41:00.000+01:00

An orange alligator/croc skin pattern iPhone case in a shop window near work has been calling me. Sounds bling, but trust me, it's a nice shade of orange, and I wear mostly neutrals, so it's good to have a shot of color in a fun accessory. Anyway, I assumed, as one does, that it was decent quality plastic embossed to look like leather. Turns out, it's real, and it costs the princely sum of 490 €.

I'm not sure what is more pathetic, that some people would actually spend that much money on a case for a phone (global financial crisis? what's that?), or that this is the topic for my first blog post in 2 months.

Missed photo op

2009-09-25T18:26:00.000+02:00

Just saw a girl - definitely pre-teen, maybe 10 or so - hurtling along the sidewalk on a unicycle.

(And no, this probably isn't enough content for a blog post but I can't be bothered with Twitter, where most of my followers are spammers who get banned before I can even click on their profiles to find out who they are and why the heck they would want to follow me).

Mars and Venus brush their teeth

2009-09-20T23:19:00.000+02:00

When S first moved in with me, his toothbrush was yellow, and mine was blue. Since then I've always stuck to the same color code, to avoid confusion and because, well, I admit it, I'm a creature of habit.

Buy new toothbrushes, point out to S (not one of my more scintillating conversational topics, granted) that they have a nifty thing that's supposed to polish teeth in addition to just brushing them, and conclude perkily with, "and of course there's one of each, yellow and blue!"

Blank stare.

- Ummmm... you mean you haven't always been using the yellow one?

- No. I just grab whichever one is on the left.

Some things are not meant to be shared, even in the closest of relationships. Plaque, to my mind, is one of them.

Strange days

2009-09-20T10:30:00.000+02:00

S bought 3 pairs of shoes yesterday. I think he's turning into me.

30-second review - Inglorious Basterds vs. Un prophète

2009-09-10T22:35:00.000+02:00

Granted, the movies have nothing in common other than both being about 2h30mn long. But while every single scene, every line of dialogue in Un prophète served to move the story forward and/or reveal a bit more about the characters, Basterds felt bloated and pointlessly long, rambling on without making much of a point. Un prophète was tense and intense all the way through. Basterds had its moments but never lived up its opening scene.

getting old...

2009-09-10T22:22:00.000+02:00

Did some more strenuous than usual housework - amittedly, that's not saying much - and now I'm feeling twinges of back pain. Eeek.

An unfortunate

2009-08-21T23:10:00.001+02:00

...juxtaposition of articles in my RSS feed. One is "How could a
mother eat her baby" immediately followed by "Sometimes abortion is
the better choice".

Greetings from the Cantal

2009-08-11T19:45:00.000+02:00

Testing mobile blogging

2009-08-05T22:34:00.001+02:00

Because I'm off for 3 weeks without a computer but with my trusty
iPhone and I want to see how this works.

Good grief.

2009-07-29T21:31:00.001+02:00

I haven't posted since June 14th?

That's also the day I started dieting. Coincidence? I think not. Not stuffing my face = too depressed to blog.

I did lose 3 kilos, though. 2 of which I gain back instantly as soon as I have a "normal" meal so I'm not sure a) how sustainable this is going to be in the long run and/or b) how reliable my scales are. And is it somewhat worrisome that I find it much easier to give up desserts, and second helpings, and fries, and so on than I do my daily glass or two of wine? Nah, I didn't think so either...

In other food related news, it's not "la crise" for everyone - I just called 5-6 restaurants before I could score a table for tomorrow night. Will be checking out Pramil with two dear friends who just happen to be very fit athletic men with healthy appetites, so I will eat and drink with them to my little heart's content and not mention calories, or they will mercilessly take the piss out of me for being such a girl.

Good, Bad and Ugly - a frivolous post

2009-06-14T23:05:00.000+02:00

Good: tried out a new nail place near home which is open on Sundays (yay), good (double yay), and cheap (triple yay). Now have a lovely bright orangey-red polish on toe and finger nails, and my feet are as smooth as a baby's bottom.

Bad: except that I went for a rather long walk today and as a consequence of having had my calloused skin pumiced off the soles of my feet, I now have blisters there instead. Booo.

Ugly: well, not really ugly. And I don't want to turn into one of these neurotic women who talks of diets and calories and nothing else, BUT, at my work medical on Friday, the Dr. pointed out that I had had gained a kilo a year since 2005. "It's normal", he said, "the metabolism slows down, your lifestyle becomes more sedentary..." (he didn't add "as you get older", but that's what the little rascal was implying). Extrapolating for photographs and clothing that I still have in my closet, dating from 2000, or even, gasp, the late 90's, I can safely assume that the one kilo a year gain has been going on for the last 10 or so years. So normal it may be, but FFS, I'm only 36 - if I continue gaining a kilo a year for the rest of my life I'll soon be larger than I am tall. Guess this is the start of a new era, one of will power and portion control in the face of salty greasy goodness. Bummer.

30-second review - Looking for Eric

2009-06-05T23:26:00.001+02:00

I never thought I'd mention "Ken Loach" and "feel good movie" in the same sentence, but there you go: Looking for Eric is a real feel good movie, directed by Ken Loach.

Official site of the film here - careful, it opens with music and the trailer.

Hilarious.

2009-06-03T22:39:00.005+02:00

More of their ditties here...

Over 5 years

2009-06-02T23:06:00.000+02:00

... we've been together, and during that time I've counted on him to introduce me to All Things English.

Not to, say, Jane Austen, or Emma Thompson, but more prosaic, everyday pleasures such as Marmite, bitter shandy, pork and leek sausages, and weirdly flavored crisps. Not necessarily all at the same time, though. And while I can happily say crisps instead of chips, I refuse to spell flavor with a "u". But I digress.

Why, then, had I never tasted milk chocolate Hobnobs until this most recent trip ?
Why ? WHY ?
Oh the bitter, wasted years.

"Oh, you'd never had Hobnobs before? They're classic."

Well yes. Indeed.

Don't laugh, he says.

2009-06-01T16:26:00.000+02:00

...you'll fall in.

My job

2009-05-19T09:36:00.000+02:00

... is simply not interesting enough to wake up thinking about at 4 a.m. Unlike, say, Hugh Jackman's chest or Fergus Henderson's marrow bone and parsley salad, or Matthew Williamson's colorful 70's style print tunics for H&M's summer collection.

Of course, as S helpfully pointed out, it's not really interesting enough to think about much at 4 p.m., either.

But at least from 9 to 6 I'm getting paid for it.

On a slippery slope...

2009-05-13T19:49:00.000+02:00

... to trashiness.

Monday after Pilates and yoga I was too lazy to change back into street clothes, so I took the metro home wearing sweatpants. For the first ever, I wore exercise clothes "out" in public.

Yesterday after going to the movies (Wolverine, fab eye candy, not a great movie, but hey, Wolverine has always been my favorite superhero, and how could I resist an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Ryan "The Abs" Reynolds, and Liev Schrieber looking as butch as I've ever seen him?) we had dinner, at, foodies please forgive me, KFC.

And today I was seduced by a buy one, get one free offer and succombed to the allure of white wine in a plastic bottle.

This is the end, my friends. I used to be a fairly classy chick. It's all downhill from here.

Riddle me this.

2009-05-07T22:39:00.001+02:00

The movie The Boat that Rocked was released in France this week with the title Good Morning England.
Not "Bonjour Angleterre", mind you, but "Good Morning England".
Why bother ?*

*I don't mean why bother seeing it - please please do - it's great, the music is, of course, fantastic, but so is the cast, and it's a real feel good movie.

I had a dream...

2009-05-07T15:40:00.000+02:00

... about Hugh Jackman last night. I was in a bar with a group of friends (one of whom admitted to me that she had for years been the lesbian lover of the mother one of my ex-boyfriends, in the dream that is, not in Real Life. But that's neither here nor there).

Hugh was there, wearing a black leather jacket (well of course), sort of at the periphery of the group. We kept looking at each other from across the room. I couldn't take my eyes off him for more than a few minutes at a time (well of course not) and whenever I glanced back at him he was already looking at me, and smiling, and I knew that he loved me already. We went out for a stroll in the night and and nothing bad could ever happen to me while he was near, and we kissed and it was all magic until I told him I couldn't possibly run away with him and leave S.

When I woke up and told S about it he was amused but not, I feel, suitably impressed by my loyalty.

Yes, it's kind of adolescent to have celebrity crushes, but isn't there something simply irresistible about a man who can sing, dance, snarl, and kick ass all with equal aplomb and grace ?

late adopter

2009-05-05T19:08:00.000+02:00

Years after everyone else in the Western world, I now have an iPod. No, actually, I have an iPhone, and I'm such a loser that I kept the automatic email signature that says "Sent from my iPhone" because I think it's the coolest thing since, well, warm baguette.

So now I can be even more spaced out and in my own little world than ever before, listening to my private soundtrack while balancing precariously with my nose in a stranger's armpit on the metro at rush hour.

Having Born to Run come on the shuffle while grocery shopping, though, that's a bit anticlimatic. So much for rolling down the window and letting the wind blow back my hair. Instead I chose white toilet paper (instead of pink) and muttered to myself at the price of broccoli. (2,40 euros for a little head of hardly 500 grams, outrageous...). But I did it all with Bruce instead of supermarket muzak, and that, my friends, can only be a good thing.

No comment.

2009-05-04T21:10:00.000+02:00

- groooooaaaaaan, I've eaten way too much. My stomach is huuuuuuuge.
- you have the experience to cope with it.

30-second review - Chéri

2009-04-10T22:17:00.000+02:00

Fabulous art direction - I wanted to wear every single one of Michelle Pfeiffer's outfits (and there were many) and the interiors were stunning.

Other than that, a disappointment. I expected better from Stephen Frears. The editing was seriously awkward - some cuts between scenes seemed very strange, the more serious bits of dialogue were laughable, and for a 90 minute movie, it sure felt long. Not at all up to par with The Queen or his other work. Too bad...

You know...

2009-04-06T15:27:00.002+02:00

... how sometimes you just have to take the blame for something even though it's not really your fault, because in certain circumstances, saying "it's not me, it's so-and-so" would just make you look worse than calmly saying, "my fault, sorry", and even though it's taking the high road, it still sucks ?

...how 98% percent of the time, you double-check that everything is just so, and the one time you don't , because you assume that other people do their jobs correctly, it all goes pear-shaped and you're told that you should verify instead of assuming ?

...how half your working day is spent doing what constitutes your job, and the other half is spent writing e-mails just to cover your ass so that you have things in writing just in case you have to justify something you've done, or haven't done ? And another portion of your time is spent reading e-mails written by other people who are just covering their asses ? (And yes, of course yet more time is spent faffing around on the internet, but I didn't blow off steam from time to time my head would implode.)

Anyway. All that.

Surprising

2009-04-06T15:22:00.000+02:00

...how restful a short weekend away can be. A one-hour train journey, one night in a different bed, a different city to stroll in, and I feel like I've been on holiday for a week. Which is wonderful except that the Monday blues are all the more hard-hitting.

Soul-destroying corporate whoredom, as I said to a friend last week. Tongue in cheek, mostly. Well, partly.

Well, actually, let's face it, if I never had to work for another day again in my life it's not like I would miss the challenge, is it.

OK, now I'm just blathering. Enough.

In breaking news today,...

2009-03-24T19:23:00.002+01:00

..."A government-financed study finds eating red meat increases the likelihood of death"

As opposed to just being born, which also increases the likelihood of death to, oh, about 100% ?

OK, when you go to the actual article it specifies "early death", but the title of the RSS feed blurb didn't say that...

Anger Management

2009-03-17T11:31:00.000+01:00

First words out of my mouth this morning (aimed at my computer, thankfully, not at a human being):

"No, I don't want to change my fucking password again. Fuck off!"

Closely followed by, "Oh for fuck's sake you've got to be fucking kidding me!" once Outlook opened and I got my emails up on screen.

Deep breaths, and more deep breaths.

30-second review: Pranzo di ferragosto

2009-03-14T10:03:00.002+01:00

Charming and unpretentious film, about a middle-aged man living with his elderly mother, who ends up mamma-sitting for 3 other old ladies during a mid-August bank holiday. And that's all the plot there is. Nothing much happens. He cooks, the old ladies eat, and bicker amongst themselves, and sulk, and make up. No earth-shattering revelations about the women's pasts, no deep reflections on growing old, on time passing, on family and responsibilities. But there are looks exchanged, and quantities of white wine drunk, and a ride through Rome on a Vespa, and wrinkles galore, and how nice to hear Italian being spoken, and to see the summer sunlight, even if it is only on a movie screen.

That's not slime, that's radiance.

2009-03-14T09:24:00.000+01:00

The text on the packaging says "(Insert name of fabulously overpriced product) intensely corrects all visible signs of aging and helps recreate the deep radiance of a visibly younger skin".

I apply in lieu of usual moisturizer and prance around S until he starts paying attention.

- Do I look radiantly youthful ?
- You look slimy.

Oh. Good thing it was only a free sample then.

Yes !

2009-03-09T14:36:00.001+01:00

Isn't it great when you read something by an author you love that describes you perfectly ?

Case in point, Kate Atkinson in an August 2008 interview in The Times: “I was an only child and read a lot. You can be a happy adult - I am - not a happy child, or a happy child and not a happy adult. I think I was probably just too solitary.”

Twittering, twattering

2009-03-01T22:33:00.002+01:00

Not sure whether it's a good idea to join Twitter. Is it just another webpage to update, in addition to the blog and Facebook ? What's the difference between Twittering and the FB update thingy ? Can I be witty and interesting in 160 characters or less ? Does anyone care ? Does it matter ?

A sign of spring - now could it please hurry up and get here already ?

2009-02-24T20:39:00.002+01:00

30-second review - The Wrestler

2009-02-21T20:16:00.000+01:00

Just give the man the Oscar already.

This film took all the elements of a cheesy underdog sports movie and turned them around into something that left me in an emotional stupor for the rest of the evening.

For Rourke fans, this is a great interview on Charlie Rose.

Just one of the many reasons why

2009-02-18T13:11:00.000+01:00

...I love Pajiba so much.

From their review of The International: "At some point, the suspension of disbelief required by The International becomes equivalent to lynching a hippo with dental floss."

Of course I'll see it anyway, but forewarned is forearmed. I'm just in it for the eye candy.

And a happy Valentine's day to you, too!

2009-02-14T23:29:00.000+01:00

Seen today:
A couple in front of a clothes shop window, woman ooh-ing and ah-ing over a skirt. Man with her says curtly "That style doesn't look good on fat people".
Think they're going to have sex tonight?

The 2-mn serious conversation in our household

2009-02-10T22:47:00.012+01:00

- Honey, do we have a long term plan ?
- No.
- Oh.
- I was just thinking about that this morning, actually.
- About a long term plan ?
- Well, I thought about the fact that we don't have one.
- Oh? And?
- I didn't really come to any conclusions, though.
- Well that's fine. I never have long term plans, I was just wondering if you did.
- No.
- OK.

Flummoxed.

2009-01-22T12:17:00.000+01:00

Well and truly flummoxed. Where is my red wallet ? Huh ? Huh ? Where is it ?

In other highly exciting news, the new DSLR has been upstaged by an even more recent new toy - we've switched over to Mac and we're not coming back.

Which is great because everything just works, as all Mac users say - you turn it on and there it is. Easy to use, intuitive commands in the various applications, fast, and yes, ridiculously good looking.

Which is not so great because after resisting the iPod siren for years, I now have iPod/iPhone lust, and we need a new external hard disk for back-ups (you never know...) and this, and that, and everything else, so a major purchase is now being followed by smaller but not inconsequential purchases, and if I'm spending all my money on tech stuff I don't have any left over for shoes and handbags, and surely that's not right.

New Year's resolutions

2009-01-09T21:40:00.000+01:00

It's going to be hard to top last year's triumph of learning how to ride a bicycle.
So this year's resolutions, in no particular order, are:

keep a clean and tidy house so that I can consider having people drop in at short or no notice without having a panic attack. (Should be feasible, if S cooperates...)
develop a better attitude about my job, or find a new one. (Attitude adjustment, meh. I'll try, though. New job, perhaps feasible but not ideal due to economic downturn)
become a better photographer instead of just a snapshot taker (yeah, I can do that. And it will be fun)
exercise, exercise, exercise. (So far so good: 3 yoga classes and 2 Pilates classes this week. Effects probably counteracted by having brownies, more brownies and nothing but brownies for dinner last night, but never mind)

Happy holidays !

2008-12-22T09:38:00.000+01:00

Off to spend Christmas in England, then off to Auvergne for my birthday and New Year's. Two weeks vacation with my new toy - bliss.

My top photography tip of the day

2008-12-22T09:16:00.000+01:00

If you've taken a picture that's blurry and out of focus and just not very good, in post-processing, blur it even more, turn it into black and white, and by virtue of the photo looking more "artistic", you may just manage to convince people that was exactly the effet you were aiming for.

Or perhaps not.

Should I be concerned ?

2008-12-10T19:05:00.000+01:00

Used the computer after S. last night and couldn't help but notice that the most recent term in the Google search bar was "low frequency weapons".

Seeing that I had been out for the evening, I suppose I should be happy that he hadn't been searching for "hot lesbian nympho porn" or some such thing, but still. What an intriguing man he is.

30 second review: Pride & Glory

2008-12-07T19:13:00.002+01:00

Disclaimer: I would happily sit in a darkened theater to watch Edward Norton read from a phone book for 2 hours.

Well scripted, well acted, well shot rather intelligent cop thriller. By "rather intelligent" I mean it's plot and character driven as opposed to special effects and car chase driven. So OK, some of it's a little déjà vu. (Good cop, bad cop! Ooh, they're from the same family! And family is really, really important, because look, here's a Christmas dinner scene with everyone gathered around a table, and the matriarch is saintly for putting up with those rowdy men of hers, and the kids are cute as a button!) . All in all though, well worth seeing.

WTF ?

2008-12-02T15:21:00.000+01:00

Got an e-mail today inviting me "to become a key member of the exciting new conservative bloggers central". Apparently these people believe I am "an important member of the conservative blogosphere", which is of course completely laughable. I would love to think I am an important member of any blogoshere, and hey, flattery will get you anywhere. But conservative? How on earth did these people establish their mailing list? It reminds me of the time I got a personalized brochure and letter trying to sell me what amounts to time-sharing a private jet. Wrong target audience, dudes.

Things I fantasize about before going to sleep

2008-11-25T11:48:00.000+01:00

Fergus Henderson, and more specifically his Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad. Sadly, I've never been to St John's, and haven't been to London, in oh, 10 years or so. But I can feel a trip coming on in 2009 and if necessary I will plan it around getting reservations.

S thinks this is rather strange and that roast bone marrow is not what one should be thinking of as one drifts off to sleep - or admit to, anyway.

Move over, Thomas Lynley.

2008-11-24T21:49:00.000+01:00

I've got a new crush.

Why had I never bothered to pick up a Lee Child book before? Heaven knows, but it's all good, because there are 12 books in the Jack Reacher series, so they'll keep me happily occupied until the new Elizabeth George/Peter Robinson/Minette Walters come out in paperback...

30-second review - The Duchess

2008-11-22T22:01:00.001+01:00

Meh, and meh again. A soulless historical drama with gorgeous costumes and stately homes and no emotional impact whatsoever. Couldn't bring myself to care about the bad marriage, or the doomed love affair, or the inability to bear a son - I was just curious to see what hat Keira Knightly would be wearing in the next scene. Best line, by a deadpan Ralph Fiennes: "My wife is in labor. I believe this calls for a toast".

PSA for my foodie friends !

2008-11-20T10:55:00.000+01:00

Cookstr beta launched today - haven't had time to have an in-depth look, but at first glance it seems very user-friendly (want to find a list of recipes featuring chicken, using 5 ingredients or less ? it only takes 3 clicks!), the roster of contributing chefs and cookbook writers is impressive (Madhur Jaffrey , Alice Waters, Marcella Hazan,and many, many more...) , and the site itself has a nice clean lay-out.

30 second review: Body of Lies

2008-11-16T18:43:00.001+01:00

Just saw this a few hours ago and already it's indistinguishable in my mind from every other espionage-in-the-Middle-East thriller I've seen in the last 10 years:
- aerial views of 4x4s driving through the desert - check.
- people (both good guys and bad) being tortured - check.
- bombs going off - check.
- people talking urgently on their mobile phones - check.
- chase scenes though busy market squares and alleyways - check.

Omaha beach, Normandy

2008-11-13T23:01:00.003+01:00

This photo looks like it could illustrate one of those corny "inspirational" poems à la Hallmark card. But I like it better without words.

Can't wait.

2008-11-13T21:53:00.001+01:00

I love Pixar.

There's a series of Ikea ads

2008-11-08T09:18:00.003+01:00

....playing at the cinemas at the moment. One of them shows a woman finding a little yellow pencil - you know the ones - in her husband's pocket while sorting the laundry, and tearfully confronting him about going to Ikea without her, while he squirms guiltily.

I turn to S. and whisper, "I don't have to worry about that, do I. I know you would never go to Ikea without me."
Deadpan response: "That's right. And I would never go to Ikea with you, either".

Harrumph.

2 h and 15 mn of blissed out music

2008-11-06T23:01:00.002+01:00

Trilok Gurtu and his band with special guests Jan Garbarek and Oumou Sangare at the Salle Pleyel. Not sure how to describe the mix, as world music doesn't quite cover it, nor does jazz - but if the combination sounds interesting and you have the chance to see them live - together or not - please do so - it was a fantastic concert.

Inspirational

2008-11-04T21:02:00.000+01:00

I love stories like this one: 81-year old retains marathon crown.

Go vote - now !

2008-11-04T09:51:00.002+01:00

...because I can't.

As an American who has never lived in the U.S., I am apparently "an American citizen who has no voting rights". There are only 16 states that allow U.S. citizens born overeas who have never lived in the U.S. to vote, and to qualify, the parent who passed on U.S. citizenship must also be eligible to vote. Well, that rules me out.

30 second review: Quantum of Solace

2008-11-03T14:58:00.002+01:00

Couldn't wait any longer and braved the opening weekend queues to see it... What can I say - not as wonderful as Casino Royale, but still a wildly entertaining ride. And it really does feel like a roller-coaster rather than a movie. Bond chases or gets chased on foot, in a car, on a motorbike, in a plane... no trains, hot-air balloons, roller-blades or bicycles though. Perhaps in the next instalment. Judi Dench's M just gets better and better, owning every scene she's in. And Daniel Craig is the sexiest man alive. And that, really, is all you need to know.

Simple pleasures

2008-11-01T11:44:00.003+01:00

Waking up with a start, thinking it seems late and wondering why the alarm didn't go off, and then realizing it's Saturday.

Getting a haircut. This isn't just getting a haircut you see - it involves having a glass of bubbly, then of rosé when the bubbly runs out, bumming a cigarette from the hairstylist, discovering whatever singer she currently has on rotation on the salon's stereo system (currently, Asa), nibbling on 36-month parmesan brought in by the owner of the cheese shop next door, who's come in with his girlfriend for a natter and a glass of wine.

The sweet anticipation of knowing that Quantum of Solace is out and that we can see it today, tomorrow, any day now, but perhaps it would be better to wait a while because once that's done, it will mean a 2-year wait for the next one...

30 second review - Tropic Thunder

2008-10-24T23:16:00.002+02:00

You know how you type LOL to express amusement, even when, let's be honest, you didn't really laugh out loud ? A lot of comedies get that response. Yes, I find them funny enough, and I'll smile or snort or chuckle a few times, and still think they're good comedies. But Tropic Thunder's opening scene made me LOL so hard I cried, and then I LOLed and LOLed some more.

30 second review - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

2008-10-18T16:15:00.002+02:00

I can only despair of a movie that features the line "I love him, but I'm not in love with him". And I can only admire Patricia Clarkson for being able to pull it off without ridicule.

Whew, the week is over.

2008-10-17T22:06:00.002+02:00

Started off tired and grumpy, and got worse. My dear friend J's sister died, and talking about it with her brought on a dream of my father, which was a happy dream, from which I woke up sobbing and the next day I just kept tearing up whenever I thought it. And I'm not a teary person.

Work was well, work, and boss n° 1 was terribly annoying - I swear she has a built in alarm clock that goes off at 17:44 every day, when 17:45 is the official quitting time - "oh,I know you're going soon, but could you just..." Now if it's a real emergency, fine. When it's every single day, and it's "just" something she could have asked me to do mid-morning but simply didn't bother to tell me about, and I have to take up her slack, well, it gets old. Real old. When I'm happy and chipper I can deal with it with a smile, when I'm tired and grumpy and over-emotional... not so much.

Damn, I missed it.

2008-10-16T20:16:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, apparently - has anyone heard of this before ? - was Love Your Body Day.

I love my body most days. It is, after all, the only one I've got. It's healthy. It's strong enough to allow me to do pretty much whatever I want. What's not to love ?

Clever S.

2008-10-09T19:28:00.002+02:00

He's in charge of dealing with the anti-virus for our home computer, which also comes with all sorts of fancy security settings one can fine-tune according to personal internet usage. All well and good.

I may need to have a word with him, though, as when I tried to click through to links of a couple different shoe-shopping websites (just browsing, I swear!), I got the following message:

"This webpage has been blocked by BitDefender Parental Control!

This webpage has been blocked by the Web filter."

Hmmmm.

Shout, shout, let it all out

2008-10-07T21:37:00.002+02:00

Walking past a little Italian restaurant in my neighborhood the other day, I notice a little blackboard in the window facing the street. It says "Everything available to take away, including the chef". Thinking it's rather cute and would perhaps be a nice photo to post, I take my little point & shoot out of my bag and am about to take a picture when a man YELLS (WOAH WOAH WOAH what are you doing ?) as he rushes out from the restaurant to the sidewalk.
Just thought the sign was funny and wanted to take a photo.
You can't take pictures without asking permission first.
(Big guy, wearing cook's apron, still shouting).
I say OK, fine, bye, and walk away, thinking to myself there's no way any sane person would want to take that chef home with them.

Wasn't really intimidated but very unsettled - made me realize later I can't remember anyone raising their voice in anger at me before, and I'm certainly more of a sulker than a shouter myself.

No real point to this, and no photo posted, obviously !

30 second review - Appaloosa

2008-10-07T21:28:00.002+02:00

Ed and Viggo and Jeremy - oh my. Loved the laconic banter between the two leads. OK, the little cutesy running joke about Ed Harris' character not having a good vocabulary and needing Viggo as Everett Hitch to complete his sentences for him got a bit twee after the 3rd or 4th time. But still, some good lines delivered in fabulous deadpan fashion. And Jeremy Irons makes a convincing baddie, sneer and all.

30 second review - Go Fast

2008-10-03T22:30:00.002+02:00

If you love Roschdy Zem, see it. If you love cop/drug dealer movies with lots of fast cars and shoot outs, see it. And even then, you'll be entertained but not blown away. Otherwise, this is probably not for you.

One of the truly great ones.

2008-09-27T21:30:00.002+02:00

Photo by Sid Avery/MPTV.net.

30 second review - Jar City

2008-09-20T23:22:00.003+02:00

Having never seen an Icelandic film before, is it strange to say that Jar City was exactly what I expected ? An excellent thriller, bleak and dark - no neatly wrapped up happy ending here - but very human and not entirely devoid of humor.

Last weekend

2008-09-20T22:30:00.002+02:00

...was great fun. Well, for me anyway.

S having planned a weekend in England canoeing and camping with his best mates, I made plans to entertain myself and see friends and keep busy - not that I can't do that when he's around, far from it, but I was looking forward to some me time - absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.

Well, S's plans were ruined by the almost apocalyptic combination of flood (canoe trip cancelled for security reasons) and fire (in the Channel tunnel, so no Eurostar service...) so the poor guy ended up having to amuse himself while I gallivanted around without him - Friday night was drinks and sushi and great conversation, Saturday was a lovely afternoon at the Opéra Bastille admiring the New York City Ballet, followed by dropping in on a friend and his daughter - just turned 5 ! - and Sunday was seeing Mamma Mia at the cinema followed by more chat with my gal pals.

I did feel a bit guilty about having so much fun while S's weekend had gone pear-shaped, but instead of moping and feeling sorry for himself - which probably would have been my reaction - he very sweetly told me to "stop being stupid". So I did, and it was wonderful.

I don't usually post about politics

2008-09-15T23:11:00.002+02:00

...but as the line between politics and comedy has become increasingly blurred, please check out Saturday Night Live, with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, with thanks to Chez.

Well, I was going to

2008-09-14T23:04:00.001+02:00

...write a weekend round-up, because it was great and I saw friends and did loads of stuff, but instead, can I just say... Deezer.com !

Why had I never heard of this great site before ?

Mamma mania

2008-09-10T17:08:00.002+02:00

The film was just released in France today. I'm a bit nervous of going to see it - just seeing the posters around town means I've had Abba songs stuck in my head for weeks now (Daaancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeeeeen....), I'm afraid of what seeing the movie will do to me.

30 second review - Deception

2008-09-08T19:52:00.004+02:00

The only thing I enjoyed about this movie was the line "I haven't had this much fun since I saw Van Halen in '97". Oh, and Charlotte Rampling's cameo appearance was good - she's always a pleasure to watch. The rest ? Meh, and double meh. This review pretty much sums it up.

Madness

2008-09-08T14:12:00.002+02:00

A 59-year old woman gave birth to triplets in a Paris hospital this weekend.

While I don't want children myself, I feel the utmost sympathy for people who do want them but can't conceive "naturally", and I can understand why they would turn to medical assistance to make their dreams of having a family come true.

But at 59 ? Nursing three babies through the night at that age ? Running after three toddlers to make sure they keep out of mischief in one's early 60's ? I hope the new mom is in fabulous shape and has plenty of help lined up. Best of luck - and better her than me...

It's "la rentrée"... back to school.

2008-09-01T21:39:00.002+02:00

Or to work, for me anyway. Couldn't remember my network password when I arrived this morning, which is, in my opinion, a sign of a truly good vacation. Had a ridiculous 254 e-mails in my inbox this morning - wasn't everyone else in France also on vacation in August ? Who were these people and why were they writing to me ? Thankfully there was loads of spam so the contents of the inbox didn't automatically translate to 254 items on the to-do list. Whew.

Last night I kept putting off going to bed, because, as I explained to S, going to sleep meant waking up to a Monday. Make sense ? Perhaps not. But when Boss n°1 came in, also after a 3-week break, the first thing she said to me was "I didn't go to bed until 2 a.m. because I didn't want to wake up and have to come to work !" This shared attitude is probably why, for the most part, we get along quite well...

Street of Millau, seen from the belfry

2008-08-31T22:11:00.000+02:00

This is the view

2008-08-29T20:28:00.001+02:00

...from the terrace of the lovely B&B we stayed at during the second week of our vacation.

Wake up, open the door, and look right out at that valley. Fire up the cafetière, and while coffee is brewing, assemble breakfast from the fresh bread, butter, and jam that the B&B owners left outside our door before they left for work. Their work ? They grow fruit. So as an additional breakfast treat, every day there is a perfect peach. Once there was a necctarine, for variety. And I do mean perfect, only just picked, and transported just a hundred yards or so from the orchard up to the house.

Drink coffee, eat, marvel at the view, say hello to the cats if they're feeing social, and think about what to do for the rest of the day. Life is good.

How could I resist

2008-08-29T09:22:00.002+02:00

... an action movie called Bangkok Dangerous ? I was expecting a gloriously so-bad-it's-good B-movie extravaganza of gun fights and martial arts (Ong Bak, anyone ?), but it was just plain bad, and even the big final shoot-out was, well, boring. And it certainly didn't help that I spent the whole movie wondering why on earth Nicolas Cage had the same hairstyle as Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci Code.

B&B cats

2008-08-28T09:35:00.000+02:00

Alas

2008-08-27T08:42:00.000+02:00

... we are no longer on vacation. Photos are being uploaded to Flickr. One sample here.

Beauty

2008-08-09T09:23:00.002+02:00

Bandwagon

2008-07-13T10:25:00.002+02:00

Yes, everyone has probably seen this already, but I can't resist posting it anyway. Because it made me cry the first couple of times I saw it and even after repeated viewings, it makes me happy and, dare I say, it actually gives me some faith and pride in humanity.

And how often can you say that about a 4 mn YouTube video ?

Isn't it fabulous

2008-07-13T10:20:00.002+02:00

...when you have a great Friday evening and Saturday and then wake up Sunday and realize that you have another 2 full days off before having to go back to the office ?

Vive la France, and vive Bastille Day falling on a Monday this year.

My mother, the sports fan

2008-07-07T22:34:00.002+02:00

I called my mother this evening to have a chat. It's been a couple weeks since we last spoke, which is quite a long time, for us. She hears my voice and starts to wail, "oh, I'm so sad!" and my heart sinks.

My grandmother is 100 and suffering from, well, old age. A close family friend has cancer, and seemed to be on the road to recovery, but who knows what might have happened?

- What's wrong, Maman?
- Haven't you heard? Federer lost!

Oh no !

2008-06-19T11:25:00.003+02:00

"In light of recent legal complications, Notcot will no longer be operating Tastespotting.com"

Well damn it, there goes my favorite food porn site. Come back soon, please !

Amazing.

2008-06-09T19:40:00.001+02:00

Grant Achatz, of Alinea in Chicago, won as "Outstanding Chef" in the 2008 James Beard Foundation Restaurant Awards.

I recently read this profile of him in the New Yorker, and wow, what a story.

Just a few months ago

2008-06-09T19:33:00.002+02:00

...I couldn't ride a bicycle. Tonight for the first time I f'ed up a new pair of silk trousers on the chain. Am trying to look at that as an achievement. Go, me !

Underwhelmed

2008-05-15T14:20:00.001+02:00

...by all the Sex & the City movie hype.

Sure, I'll probably end up seeing it, but truth be told I am far more excited by Indiana Jones...