ey up!

phew, after a very brief period of notdrinkingnotsmoking verging on purity it has all been chucked out the window for a last ditched attempt at hedonism. and boy, they know how to do that round here!

welcomed
back up the front
with my reddtich crew.

and the family has expanded....

loads of new faces, old faces, slightly wiser faces.
it has been a little crazy to be back somewhere that i'd never thought i'd be but crazy mad lovely all at the same time. aiie.
so, quite predictably, i'm making this a rather quick entry 'cos i'm off out, down the pub....
xxx
b

draw this

as we were out walking the other day we passed a window without anything for sale that still managed to catch our eye. the window was filled with portraits: sketched printed glued in pencil in ink in coal. as part of the nation wide thingo (campaign?) 'the big draw' various schools and community colleges around the place are opening up and holding free workshops. so pascal and i passed an interesting afternoon covering ourselves and various bits of paper with charcoal ink glue and arrived at the end with some very interesting portraits of one another and the conclusion that we are very different. pascal preferred to use very simple but in fact very elaborate techniques: single lines, very suggestive. a minimalist. me (and i don't think you'll be surprised at this), i wanted a go at everything. mixing up the medias; not at all suggestive, totally apparent, but a tiny bit secretive at the same time. lets face it, you all knew it: a maximist.
anyway, we were allowed to keep everything we made bar one portrait. the portrait we left behind will be displayed in an exhibition next week (so if you're anywhere round georges rd on the way between elephant and castle and blackfriars, london, look out for the morley gallery).

it was kinda nice to see how everyone sees everybody completely differently despite the fact we've all got 2 eyes.
xxxx
b

nitecar

i know this picture is already in the collage but i like it so much i thought it deserved a biggerbetterfaster go at it. 

paris/london

so, one minute we're in paris the next we're in london.
not quite next minute (try24hrs later). bizarre.
the weekend past we wandered into the city to do a little shopping. absolute chaos: full tilt consumerism with wall to wall people grabbing things to buy like it was the end of the world. crazy. after all that we needed to escape to a park to try and capture the last of autumn's sweet sunshine. we headed to le jardin du luxembourg where we found the non-shopping half of paris doing the same thing: enjoying the subtlety of autumn. there were people playing chess, people playing cards, kids on ponies, a science fair, people playing pétanque. it was just like one of manet's paintings (but his was at les tuileries, and everyone was wearing tophats)..... we kicked leaves, looked over shoulders at games of chess and cards and tried to guess which people has recently left the science fair.
zip, cross country, cross former battle-fields, past wargraves and mining towns. onto a ferry and plonk, old blighty. we parked up road-side to sleep the rest of the night before driving north to london in the morning, stopping briefly in canterbury for an english breakfast enroute.
and london; big, busy, double-decker buses, tubish underground, not a sign of the wombles.
popped into the kiwi embassy for a quick kiaora and passport exchange (surpirsingly bloke there didn't comment on appauling photos), sampled some delicacies from home like buzzbars and peanut slabs (mmmmmmm) before wandering off to do almost exactly the same thing, but in london. look in on shop windows (carnaby st, regent st, oxford circus)- monopoly anyone?
but then we saw the national gallery was holding a quick exhibition: 'from manet to picasso' and there's nothing like being impressed by impressionism while you're already being overwhelmed.
london, eh? showing us scenes of paris. which is busy sampling bits of london.

paris par nuit

tuesday night, on the town, zooming round.
and even that it was midnight, even that it was a tuesday they were all still at it. sipping coffees, leaning on posts, cycling somewhere, driving somewhere, consuming, being consumed by the fantastic city. 

paris, non smoking

2 weeks into the city of couture, culture and cuisine and i think that we've managed to sample a little of everything.
thanks to the generosity of the french government and our status of being 'poor' (and a piece of paper to prove it) we are able to visit many galleries, museums and swimming pools (amongst other things) for free. very nice. although at the centre pompidou i'm sure the patrons spent as much time looking at one another as at the exhibition itself!
we were very lucky to visit the french president's latest gift to the republic: the branly. the design of the building is rather controversial (for those who are the conservative/bourgeoise type): incredibly modern earthy coloured 'boxes' stacked, interspersed with glass walls (which are shaded by what i imagine would be sun-reactive metal venetian-like blinds) and a wall clothed in a great moist plant-carpet. the landscape design is rich, again providing contrasts between texture, colour and the sculptural aspects of both the hard and soft materials. the branly is plopped right smack in the middle of 7th arrondisement: to me and you that means the eiffel tower is right behind it and the rather affluent art-nouveau neighbourhood en-route to invalides is on the other side.
and all that before you get inside the museum!!
the museum houses a vast collection of indigenous art from around the world. most of the art was collected during the period of collonisation, which provokes a thought or two; but mostly i just appreciated the simple and equally elaborate beauty of everything there from musical instruments to rich tapestries, carvings, jewellery and beautifully embroidered clothes. monuments to gods and talismen for men.
and then we went shopping. or at least window shopping (the french call it lecher les vitrines which means window licking!!). my lord. it's a jolly good thing that the government are sponsoring us!!!
however, we need something to ocupy us as we're now up to day 5 in the non-smoking marathon. (although i think i am somewhat more occupied than pascal in the shopping bonanza).
yes, i am a non- smoker!!!!!

this is how much of a non-smoker i am: today we went for a drive around paris (on the perepherique: mental ring road; up the champs elysees: mental shopping district (no window licking from the driving seat, damn!!); round the arch de triomphe: super mental roundabout where there are no rules other than don't hit anyone, which i only just managed to not break!!!) without once fancying a cigarette!!! or killing anyone (nearly killing people doesn't count).

so, the cuisine bit. i guess that ties in with the non- smoking bit as i am currently eating a rather large and varied selection of almost everything (except animals). i hope to have that in check before things get out of hand (thanks again, monsieur le president for the free visits to the swimming pool). i can now thoroughly recommend at least 200 types of cheese, especially the goatish varieties (vegan? abandoned that planet as soon as i became french!!), which can always be appreciated with a glass of wine. :)


la vie est belle, n'est-ce pas?

i'm more than happy. even though the sun drags itself across the sky now in a sulkish fashion indicating that autumn is here; the trees flashing red warning us that winter is on its way. i'm a little scared of winter, but i can't wait till spring!!! loving the french people, life and culture.
xxxxxxxx
b
oh, ps, about to hit the road again in a coupla days, heading towards ol' blighty.