I lifted this meme whilst i've been blog hopping - no apologies :@)

Appetizer

How many pieces of jewelry do you wear most days?

Everyday i wear my watch and perhaps two or three times a week i'll be wearing ... heuuum ... cufflinks !! I know it's a bit fogeyish, but depending on what's on for the day i might need to make an effort, in which case i just think "to hell with it, i might as well go the whole hog"

Soup

What is your favorite instrumental song?

I've got quite a few as i was really into ambient chill out music in my mad days (i still love Little fluffly clouds by The Orb). But i think the one that i always still dig is Albatross by Fleetwood Mack

Main course

Name a popular movie you’ve never seen.

There are sooooooooo many .. Titanic springs to mind - i've never been 'touched' (heuuu) by Dicapuccino and Céline Dion's voice fills me homicidal tendancies so that's why i gave that one a large berth.

Dessert

Fill in the blank:

Nothing makes me ___________ like ____________.

Nothing makes me go all inconsequential like the sight of of a woman in a slinky dress, whatever the circomstances.

Paris, Le Marais district, 4pm

I butched it out all week and finally waltzed out of work at about 2.30 this afternoon - hey, i've got to catch up on the half day i worked last weekend :@)

I'm still not feeling a100%, but the 'hump' days were on wednesday and yesterday ... trampy cough has subsided and i'm just feeling whacked out.

I got a bit chatted up today (for the first time in a long time) by one of my trainees :

"ooohhh you don't sound too good, what's wrong ?"

There then followed a nochalant : it's nothing really/ just a summer cold thing ...

"You poor thing, i'm sure you're wife will look after you "

"Heuuuuuuuu", i said, "What makes you think i'm married !?!"

There then followed an angel-passing-in-silence moment ....

Hmmm mmm i thought


Right now, my plan is to go.to.bed.

Tout seul *sniff*

Paris, rue 14 septembre, 2pm

It's not finished ...

I'm still dying with this cold/bug/tuberculosis/black death thing and today i've even developed an impressive homeless-trampy-person sounding death rattle.

It's persistant, hacking and loud enough to wake up my colleague Rustle in the office next to mine : "woarrrrr that's a nasty cough you've there me ol' cocker" he keeps saying.

Getting on and off the metro then having to hike around a very dodgy quartier in southern Paris yesterday, for a customer call, was the last straw, me thinks.

I very nearly didn't go in to work today ( it was *this* close) but i obviously, finally, decided to butch it out anyway

Upon my arrival i was instantly greeted by a phone call from MissusBossWoman : "Come ti chiami" ... ôôôôôô mon dieussss, make it stoooooooooop.

I can imagine her face was picture when i croaked back in my new found horror-story voice "mi chiamo ... guasto ambulante"

...

I should really be in bed right now with the hot water bottle and the chicken soup, building my forces in preparation for tonights battle with the demonic forces that wake me up at about three in the morning.

Woe is me

:@(

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Eye'b cawb a colbeuh

*shnifff shnifff*

In a complete contrast to last year, the weather here is changing all the time at the moment; one minute it's feeling very heavy and muggy the next it's decidedly chilly.

Inevitably, what with using the hot, steamy, germ breeding ground of a metro system, i've finally succombed to a 'summer' cold.

The stuffed up head and the non stop runny nose makes me feel (more) grumpy (than usual).

Today i'd engaged my-self with MissusBossWoman to give her english lessons in exchange for learning a bit of italian - i can now say "my name is" + "i am english" (!!)

The crunch comes tomorrow where i have to keep it all together for a visit out to see a new client.

I could and maybe should cancel, but it's a man thing - you keep your commitments.

I didn't really want to, but i relented and allowed myself to be talked into going out last night.

France came alive, for one evening, to celebrate the 'Fête de la musique'.

I could feasibly have gone anywhere and after a quick mooch around the quartier république, where not much was going on, i hopped over to la Bastille.
The place was absolutely heaving with young people enjoying themselves and just over from the middle of the main square, two huge and loudly booming sound stages had been set up.
Being the old grouch that i am, i didn't spend too much time mingling with the unwashed dope smoking young kiddies and instead opted to go for a few beers just off from the main drag.

I must have been sitting down for about ten minutes when an accordionist and a guitarist came bounding in and treated everyone to an impromptu swing manouche jazz set.It was absolutely brilliant fun with people dancing sing and having a whale of a time - i think that, that for me sums up what the night should really be about ... I stayed way too long and left at 'closing time' (bars only close here when the last client falls from his stool and goes home).It was then that i discovered that the police, fearing trouble no doubt, had closed down the metro station ...

By the time that i'd made my way to a main line station and found a taxi to take me home, it was way past three in the morning - three hours or so later i had to get up to go to work :@/

Three hours sleep and i'm ready to go ... almost.

After last nights escapade i obviously had huge proplems trying to prise my sleepy dust encrusted eyes open.

I even put the radio on and tried to listen to the BBC news bulletin, all to no avail .... i kind of surfaced at about eight thirty with just enough time to throw some cold water on my face and scrape my haystack of hair into a respectable looking shape.

I stumbled in to work at about nine forty five, not looking any worse for wear (apparently) and hung on in until i skulked off at about five thirty.

I'm working (again) tomorrow :@(

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New York

Istanbul

Mykenos

Los Angeles

I'm still trying to get over last weekend - i try to get to bed earlyish and i make sure that i eat properly.

All to little avail, i get into work on time, do my thang but by about three in the afternoon i'm dead on my feet ... and a bit grouchy, to boot.

Also, i'm trying todo a deal with MissusBossWoman : i'll (try to) give her english lessons in exchange for her giving me italian lessons over the lunch hour. So once a week we'll be having lunch and she'll point at things and tell me what it's called in italian.

Finally, whilst walking home tonight on the Champs, i got agressed by a trampybloke ...

Paris, Place de la Bastille, 1pm

After the hullaballoo of my weekend away, it was back to reality with a thud.

I arrived late, at about ten-ish after there'd been a bomb scare at La Défense which snarled up the line at my end.

For once i decided not to sneak in like a guilty little schoolboy and went straight upstairs for a coffee - MissusBossWoman was there and asked me about my visit to her homeland ...

Half an hour later i was in my office, plowing through a mini-mountain of a pile of untreated phone messages - am i really that indispensible ? *i don't think so*

BoyIdiot then descended to my hallowed turf, and most unlike a scene from the exorcist, he didn't shrivel up and burst into flames at the sight of my unwanted, and above all, disorganised clutter.

He then asked me the following "What's wrong ? You don't tell me about your weekends ... you don't tell me anything ... have i offended you ?"

I looked at him and weighed up my options :

Either tell him the truth - your persistant little manias, your incessant dumb ass questions and your own detailed answers to simple ass questions have finally gotten to me and i just don't want to waste an hour with you where 2 minutes would do ....

Or ....

Lie to him - it's not you it's me.

Worried about the consequences of a sudden rush of truth to his head, i chose the weako-o second option....

So there you go, if you read between the lines, i've turned into an antipathique bastard.

La France vue par les Normands

I'm back from Italy ...

I've just spent four great days on the border between the Lombardie and Piemont region in northern Italy in the Pô plains.

If you look on a map, to the north west of Milan and then west a bit more from lake Como, you'll see a little commune, Orta, nestled on the lake from which it gets it's name.

In the middle of the lake there lies an island (l'Isola di San Giulio) where once existed the ancient chateau of the ruling dukes - in the eighteen hundreds this was then reconstructed to house a basilica dediciated to St Jules.
Enough of the history lesson ....

Under buckets of pouring rain (in the middle of june .. in Italy !!) my older sister got married to her bloke of about ten years or so with twenty or thirty of her best friends in attendance.




I didn't know many people there, but those that i met i found absolutely charming and lovely.

Before and after the wedding we sort of naturally drifted off into ad hoc groups to go and explore the old town .










I think, ultimately, we spent more time checking out ice cream parlours, pizza houses and pasta joints than really 'visiting' anything.


Did i mention it rained almost non stop ?

No ?


One partculiar thing is the light in the area : we we're at a relatively high altitiude and had a micro climate.

So on alternate days, the basilic could look like this :

This :

Or this : Truly fascinating.

A substantial amount of time was spent skinny dipping in the lake, swatting away mosquitoes, drinking chilled wine, watching the fish jumping and just sitting looking at the way the sunlight reflected off of the clouds onto the lake ...




The final few shots of the island were taken at nightfall as we all strolled down to the town to have a last night drink and to exchange hugs and fond farewells.




I've been up since four this morning (my plane back home was at seven) and as i was waiting for the taxi to take me to the airport, i sat on a wall and watched the bats and listened to the birds singing.

It's those moments, right there, that are meant to be shared ...