Three days at home

11/07/06

Three days in Saintes was not too long but it was perfect to spend quality time with Papi Jacques and Mamie Ese, and catch up with Marie-Odile, Jean-Pierre and Benoit.

Firstly I'll show off the house where I was born. It is very reassuring that in spite of never living in one place, I still get to come back to the bedroom which was mine till 7. I have few memories about the house ; like all those naughty things that kids do: drawing on the new wallpaper; getting my head stuck in the stair railings, setting fire in the waste paper basket of the bedroom, cycling in circles around the tree on the terrace and the hours spent playing in the garden.

For history buffs out there, this garden used to be a vegetable patch; during the wars (first and second world war) the people living in the house were growing their own food supplies including making their own wine; the picture shows a very old grape vine; we do not treat it anymore so it is not producing sweet grapes and would probably make an horrible wine; however it is beautiful to see the old vine and it shades the alley down to the garden.


Papi Jacques and Marie-Odile came to spend the afternoon of Sunday with us. Doesn't my Papi still look great at the age of 91? He has been living in his own past since Mamie Suzanne past away; only remembering the days of his engagement to my grandma; so I was very pleased when over the three days he was able to tell me a bit more about his past than yet again how he met my grandma. He told Alex about his year as a soldier (March '39-July '40) and how a British caporal saved him and his best friend from being taken prisoner on the 3rd of June 1940 when Dunkerque was taken over by the Germans. British boats came accross the channel to rescue French soldiers in Dunkerque and there were thousands of soldiers and only a few boats; my grandpa and his friend (also called Jacques) and the British caporal's boat was full, but he said ten more soldiers can come on board, my grandpa and he friend were the 9 and 10th to get on board and off to Ramsgate. He also told me a bit more about his involvement with the Church and that he was part of the orchestra of Rouems, playing the flute.

Eugenie's 30th

08/07/06

I've somehow always managed to stay close to Eugenie in spite of the distance separating us. She's a very cool cousin to have. So I was delighted to be able to make it to her birthday party.

The photo on the bottle of Champagne is her at the age of 3 (and today 30); she was always a bit of a tomboy, and at a younger age whe would rahter side with my brother to torture me. Thankfully I have no recollection of that; only her bragging about it.

From summer parties in Oleron island, I knew her other cousins Rodolphe and Stephanie; and some of her teacher friends, not that strangers would have stopped me from having a good time, but it was lovely seeing old party buddies again.

The party was supposed to be "kitsch"; obviously Alex and I did not have anything in our small suitcase fitting the party motto. So we were judge of the contest instead. The contenders were to dance on a very silly song in their beautiful costumes. Eugenie won, her wig making her look 50 and orange top with pink leggings did the trick. Rodolphe did not have too much competition, but he looked good in those brown pants and orange stripped shirts. Lise also had a very kitsch dress, I would not even use it if it was kitchen rags; but she did put up a great dance performance.

We then danced the night away on Eugenie's favourite tracks. She had prepared 11 cds for the party. The selection included her old-time favourite Jean-Jacques Goldman and Toto and even some songs from our 'terroirs'. That was another great party with cousine Eugenie. Next year I'll make it a date to meet her in Oleron Island for another one.

Football fever is over

I guess at a time like this everyone has got something to say about the World Cup.
Not only was the game providing hours of entertainment, it was also great for bonding with friends and colleagues. It provides hours of conversation, teasing, analysing, showing off and excitement.

Getting serious

The office had two bets, a local UK office one (organised by Martin) and a European one (organised by Germany' general manager Winfried). The UK one involved placing all predictions before the world cup started. I asked Alex to help me, as my knowledge was limited. He took this task very seriously and taught me a valuable lesson: you can love and cheer with your heart and faith, or you can trust and follow your head if you want to take it seriously. (Actually that's kind of the story of my life.)

Italy Versus France

So there I was, with my head (and purse) on Italy, and with France in my heart. I thought, whatever happens I win. If Italy won, I would have had the most accurate predictions for the world cup, if France won; it would have been my pride and patriotism that would have won. However, when came the penalties, I felt very scared and stressed, and France did not win. I was very sad and disappointed. I did not feel like a winner at all. I wish I had been wrong and would have rather lost the bet.

A valuable lesson

In almost every life situation we have to choose between our head or our heart, between wisdom and passion. They rarely come hand in hand. (This experience does not apply to me moving to England, because that's one project that both my head and heart agreed on).

You can either be happy to have have been wise, resonable and smart or happy because you have followed your heart, been true to your feelings, tried to reach your dreams. Head or heart, which do you live by?

Divine Comedy

06/07/06

On the way to Somerset House, a grasp of the gorgeous views of London. If you ever only have two minutes to visit London, you just come to the London Bridge and you see the best of the capital.

I thought I would never have the opportunity to see the Divine Comedy live. They were awesome!I have a long love story with them. Not only because of their sometimes beautiful love songs but also because of the hilarious sexy lyrics of their other tracks.

I remember the very first time I ever heard the voice of Neil Hannon, it was a cold autumn day in Cardiff (mind you Alex' room was always cold because of the broken window letting in the cold welsh weather). It was a Sunday morning, on BBC Radio 1 and Alex and I were under the blanket; The violin caught my attention at first and later the funny yet deeply romantic lyrics:

"every body knows that I love you;

every body knows that I need you;

every body knows that I do...

except you."

I was leaving back to Paris a few hours later. Back then everytime I left; I never knew if I'd see Alex again.A few weeks later, I was back in Cardiff again, and Alex had bought me the album "A short story about love". That was the first present I ever got from Alex.

They played their new songs and some very cool songs from previous albums, like "my name is Alfie", "If you were" and of course, an old favourite "Charge". I made a video for my mom who also shares some happy memories of the Bang Bang song. For those who have not heard the song, it is about a war between the English and the French; with cannons on the right and cannons on the left that go bang bang bang all night long, and the British soldier that shouts "Charge!". My mom and I loved to sing the song very on the top of our voices in the swimming pool in Penang.

I highly recommend their latest album "Victory for the comic muse" which contains funny track "(I don't want) to die a virgin" and a song for all mothers in the world to let them know how much we love them and appreciate their love and devotion on a chirpy tune "Mother Dear". The concert had excellent review in the next newspapers, they are touring this autumn, I'm gonna go again.

An evening out in Frankfurt

03/07/06

I was down in the Eschborn office for our quarterly marketing meeting. The meeting is a great way to learn waht other regions are up to, exchange ideas and make sure I'm not going off-track or lagging behind. I am a bit more customer-focused than my colleagues; but I can see positive results, like customers purchasing our new/other product ranges. I like my boss sales philosophy and I believe that my work is more effective to meet the objectives.

Anyway, Maria and Rudiger promised us that they would take us out of Eschborn and into Frankfurt, so I had packed my camera. Frankfurt is a very modern city, with many skyscrappers. It reminded me of Malaysia. And the tour guide was obsessed about the Jews, she kept mentioning the jewish population and talked lengthly about the synagogue; is it remorse? Do they try to over-compensate by showing that they care about the Jews? Oh well, what's in the past is past... I wonder if Tante Madeleine ever forgot and forgave?

Moving on with the tour. We ended up in the old city centre, which was in fact completely destroyed in 1943 and rebuild according to the original style. That place was quite lovely. We paused in front of the town hall, like a well-behaved group of tourist. (From left to right: Torsten, Beth, Estelle, Rudiger, Me, Carrina and Fabrizio)

That church, called St Barthelomew Cathedral, has quite an interesting history (it is in fact a church and not a cathedral, because no bishop ever lived there); during the bombings of 1943, the whole church was destroyed to the exception of the tower, which is wonderful, it would have been such a waste if it had been destroyed. They only had to rebuild the annexes.

We walked along the Maine river to have dinner in a restaurant overlooking the river. Dinner was cool, I chatted with Jun about Tokyo and Manga films and about travel and parenting with Maria and Torsten; Jun and I share the same problem that the day after we got married our parents started expecting grand-children. We had a good laugh.

New Hair Cut

I did it again. In the process of growing my hair, I got bored and got them all chopped off. Ok, not that dramatically, but I am back to showing off my neck.

I just cannot believe that I can never make up my mind about whether to wear them long or short. I guess, like Manny noticed, I do look different with my hair around my face or up in a ponytail, and there is no real in-between. Oh well, nothing stops me from having a yo-yo hair length.

Pornography, Drugs and Bigamy

Now that sounds sinful.
Last night, Alex exitedly said there was a documentary on John C Holmes, the porn star renowned for the size of his penis. I was not too interested so I went to bed with my book; but I did listen to the documentary. It started out arguing the size of his penis and the number of girls he slept with; legendly 14000, probably more like 3000, (that's still more than I can possibly imagine).

If I thought that guy was not for real, I was in for a surprise. Next on the topic was his widow, an ex-teen porn star; and then I got confused because they started talking about another wife he had kept secret; if the sudden news is not surprising enough, he actually had a girlfriend who lived with his first wife, while he lived with the second wife.

Not weird enough? He was a coke addict, lived the high life, doing cocaine parties and hanging around with Eddie Nash (owner of a night club and drug dealer in LA). So far, it's no surprise, but he was so much into the white stuff that he started loosing 'his ability', and instead went into crime, fraud and prostitution. He joined the Wonderland gang, and when he smoked an entire delivery, he had to make it up to them by setting up a heist at Nash's club. Nash suspected John's involvement and took revenge by killing four members of the Wonderland gang, (event known as the Wonderland massacre). John who was present, was thrown in jail for his involvement in the murders. His secrets came to surface or rather his lies were uncovered. Out of jail he went back to porn, being the 80's, AIDS was the hot topic, he was diagnose with the virus. He chose to live his last years doing more coke till he died in 88.

Of course you may have seen the movie Boogie Nights (1997), when I told Alex they should make a movie out of this man, he said they had...

What I find the strangest is that none of this shocks me. Either that or it is so out there; that it becomes unbelievable and just stunning (in a cool way), that one person can live like he owes nothing to no one. He does what he wants when he wants and people around him either accepted him with his sin and madness or chose to live along with his lie; somehow that's respectable.

Royal Ascot

24/06/06

The day did not start its best, meeting at 10h10 was a tad too matinal for me. I dragged myself out of bed at 8h45, jumped in the shower, struggled with the brushing, put the room upside down looking for my black shawl (which I did not find), applied make-up in a foggy mirror and ran down to the station with my small heels, while Alex finished getting ready. We eventually made it on time and the girls were waiting for us when we reached Ascot. Orla brought me a perfect little black hat that matched my dress perfectly.

I was very pleased to meet Alison and Nikki's little sister Sarah; and Jo, who is leaving for Kenya for a 6-week volunteer project on Aids education, tha's brilliant, and it comes at a great time, since I am planning to take one next year, I will definitely catch up with Jo when she returns from Kenya. It was lovely seeing Joanna, Peggy and Nikki again as well.

The new grand stand looks impressive. Here with Alison and new beau, Greg.

Joanna, Peggy, Claire, Orla, Nikki and seating are Jo, Alison and me.

Alex with Barclay's ex-colleague Philippa from Australia and her friend. Philippa actually did the hats herself! How talented is that? The hats were brilliants, feathers, bow, comb; apprently she asked her friends what colours were their dresses, and she sawed hats for each one of them matching perfectly their outfits. Philippa is going back to Australia at the end of summer. I might ask her to do one for me. She will start her hat business back home, I don't think she'll have any difficulties with that much talent.



Before the races started, the Queen paraded around the racecourse in her carriage. I have some good shots, and it actually feels nice to be able to say I've seen the Queen!

Then the races started, we bet, we laughed, we cheered, we won some, we lost most of them; but we had all the fun we planned on having and drunk lots of Pimms.

At the end of the day, I am pink like a cooked lobster, so I will show off my tan another day ;) Quite looking forward to the summer skin and the freckles.

O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park

21/06/06

It's the big day! It's the day that I get to watch The Strokes live!!!

Alex and I went to London early so that we could enjoy the festival to the fullest. There was really a hippie feel about it, in spite of the festival being more punk rock.

The gig was opened with three sexy things from Los Angelos called 'The Like', they sounded good, a few tunes sounded very cool, I'll buy the album to find out more. They were followed with very entertaining Gypsie Punk 'Gogol Bordello' from New York, who were particularly popular with Italians.

Dirty Pretty Things and The Raconteurs were not as exciting as the CD, then again, I only like a few songs of theirs. I think Belle and Sebastian were the best perfomers of the day. Don't get me wrong, The Strokes were great, but out of all the gigs I've been to, the Festival was not that good, it is only memorable because of the whole festival experience, whilst Belle and Sebastian were solo gig quality good.

Finally the stars of the day, The Strokes, came on stage, we were very near the front so we could have the best view, but when they started playing the crowd went so wild that I just too busy trying not to fall and be stampeded to actually enjoy the music, so after picking up a girl on the ground (who was being stepped on), I walked a few meters away from the stage where the crowd was a bit better behaved. They played 'automatic stop', 'Reptilia', 'The End has no End' and 'I can't win', when the drummer played 'Three Lions', the whole crowd came singing the chorus, including me because it was fun! They finished the festival with Lou Reed's 'Take a walk on the Wild Side'.

We got home drained and strung up at the same time, on the journey home I was humming Queen's 'another one bites the dust' there was so much dust raising from the ground while we were dancing, that my face and hands were grey with dust, and my mouth tasted dusty, and my nice new trainer looked like I had run along Route 66 accross Arizona. One regret, we missed Guillemots, they were playing at a different stage, that's truly a shame, they are so awesome; I hope they have a tour of their own soon. Oh well, what a great way to spend the longest day of the year.

Next gig up July 6th Divine Comedy at Somerset House.

Royal Windsor Race

19/06/06

Ron invited us all to the Royal Windsor. We finished work early so that the girls could change into pretty little dresses and make-up.

I had no time to check out the favorite runners for the evening, but I had learnt a thing or two at Cheltenham back in March, so I thought I'll use my little experience and gut feeling.

The place was nicely planned, we had a view of the finishing line, and down the corridor was the bidding place, and from the balcony, we could see the horse around the circus, so that an expert eye (not me) could probably weight the shape and nervousness of the horse (I could tell, but I did not know if it was a good or bad sign).

Dinner was not great, but the company was and champagne was flowing, and I had a few winners, so it was a brilliant night.

I predicted allt he right winners, but because I am a cheap gambler I did not make much money. It does not matter, I only bet, so that I could have the satisfaction and feel the exhilaration when you cheer your horse to the finish line.


The pretty bunch from Verbatim, there's few pretty ones missing from the picture, but these beauties are the ones I work with most often. From left to right, Julie, Beth, Emma, Carrina, Hannah, Ann and me.

The evening ended at 10 PM and I was not drunk, but I was hungry, came home to finish Alex's KFC, bluntly putting an end to the glamorous evening. lol.