2014 Now ACTIVATED

Wishing you all

Happy New Year 2014 - Bonne année 2014

My son in the meanwhile in Australia

 In the meanwhile in Australia 

... Mid-December, my son took part as a guest to a scientific research trip in the Far Northern Territory with his dad and a colleague, who is also a trusted family friend.

My son and Jason

Walking like a bushman

Moment of exhaustion

Moment of sheer delight: he learned to drive in the bush TWO HOURS in a row !!

Working with the Rangers and Locals

Proudly showing as solar powered nature acoustic sensor

Going bush

Hands on mate !

Team work in progress

Computing Data Gathered

Relaxing in front of a cold drink at Sunset

Northern Territory Sunset

Accommodation

Best moment of the day for my son !

'I did not remember the sun being so bright!'

Last week in Paris and Return to Australia

On Tuesday night, my girl friend living nearby calls me for a lesson of Savoir Vivre:
"As a Parisian woman, you ought to sit down with your a friend at a café with a coke on your return from work'
This sounded very 'civilized' to me, so we did and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

It was like pressing the 'Pause' button on the computer.

On Wednesday, I had an impromptu reunion with my two high school friends and we spent the evening together. All I remember now is a feeling of content and I also remember how the dog took his sleeping basket under the table moving it next to my feet to sleep.

Thursday afternoon, I ventured to have a body scrub at the local hamman, as you do, in Paris. I did not go to the mosque where one can have it done for 10 euros, I am told, because I had been warned that I would be scrubbed in front of and with every other women. I am not yet that liberated, I am afraid!

Except for the harsh invigorating brushes, I had a very delightful rest with mint scented tea afterwards, indulged in a mud mask and my skin definitely felt smoother and perhaps purified from the urban stress.

On Thursday evening, I dropped by at a friend's neighbourhood amateur Painting Club exhibition in the 18th district, and I bought this painting (below) as a Christmas present for an infamous electrical guitar player I know :). I also bought a painting from JP. The exhibition theme was 'Music' and JP thought about gluing a Mozart partition paper on the canvas and painting a huge white cheese in the middle, thus mixing all kinds of medium and ideas.

So what was this cheese in the middle about?

Well, you would never guess in a million year

Clue: Mozarella!

Hint: Mozart est là.

...

I am not displaying his painting here, for fear it might be copied by the millions !!!! aha ha

Anyway, a bit of humour and ideas go a long way. The benefit of the sales pays back for the material and is distributed to homeless people in Paris. In Peace Building terms, it is a great way to create local communities with the purpose not only to enjoy and heal yourselves (through painting) but also to give back to those who happen to be less fortunate at the moment in your community.

Red Guitar Player ... finger-painted

There, I immediately connected with a woman whose work was being displayed. She said she could relate 100% to my comments on the painting and I could see that I was driven by the same sense of awe and our emotions could be triggered in a similar fashion. I must meet more artists ...

I then hesitated whether I should put a bet on an apartment for sale in the level down from my friend's place ... I would fit in perfectly in the neighbourhood, I thought, and I even imagined I would go to this club once a week! hum ...

On Wednesday, I was invited to a raclette cheese party.

We placidly sat down imperturbable Joconde style smiling while our teenage kids were throwing jokes at our expense. We shared a sense that teenagers parents are often used as their offsprings' emotional trampoline!

Later on that week, the kids were again reunited as my friends triplets (2 girls and 1 boy) celebrated their 17th Birthday party. I came to collect my daughter around midnight at my friend's place. She was having a fantastic time, and as they danced along remixed 1980's back in fashion. My two friends and I were dancing hidden in the kitchen and all the words were coming back to us as we danced!! We loooved it ... When we came back home, I asked Josie if she knew any of these musics, she did not, but she did recognize a rap song, and as she could sing it in English at a ryhtm that no second language speaker can follow, she said she got RESPECT eh ehe... I learned later that 'getting RESPECT' is a fashionable teenagers' expression, like I kif (I like) this or that.

It is a good thing my daughter did not see me earlier as I was making my way to the party from the 93 infamous suburb where my dad still lives. As I was driving through the night, 5 post-teenage guys were walking in the middle of the road and did not come apart, neither moved on as they heard my car coming up their way. I purposely did not stop the mini van but continued driving very steady and slowly. As I reached 3 meters, I decided it was time to press the car central locking system... except I did not know which button! (it was my father's car) ....I saw one button with the symbol of a door and I had hoped it would be the central locking system, but as I hesitantly pressed it, my father's mini van's left hand side door noisily and widely opened all of a sudden!!!!

I may have misread their intention or I may have startled them with this strange action.
They moved and I continued my way :)))

Friday night, I moved back to my dad's place before the imminent take-off on Sunday. 

We had a meal at the local couscous restaurant. Since it was Christmas Time office parties, and that my dad has known the owner for years, we were treated with a complimentary starter plate of Foie Gras and Salmon. Then, the real thing I miss having in Australia :

Couscous 

Then, I went to the local market to buy some bargain Argan oil straight form Morocco, and I shared a nice meal in my dad's company alone that evening since my daughter was at her friends' birthday party.
 On Saturday night, we went to see the Lido review in Champs Elysées, an idea from my dad: "your daughter has to see that before she goes". I was not too sure about it, but not much I could refuse to him in his old age. The only problem is that, at the last moment, he said he would not come with us 'because he had already seen it', so I ended up going with my daughter and a very good friend. The review may have been hot (*although very much diluted and certainly not vulgar), but the cold was biting cold outside.

Lido evening glimpse - sorry actual show picture taking is prohibited !

This probably triggered a worsening of her cold, and by the time we arrived in Bangkok for a night transit sleepover in the Airport Hotel, she was coughing non stop (like a asthmatic cough)...  so much so that I was afraid she may not make it through customs checkpoint.
In the middle of the night, I called the BKK Hotel Reception and asked if we could get a ventolin puffer. I was told that the only way was to get it at the airport pharmacy. I explained that she was distressed, so I could not leave her in he room alone. The hotel manager came to the room and said 'don't worry, I will not leave her like that', and he went himself to the airport to get her some ventolin and a Thai cough syrup. I am forever thankful to such kindness. I wrote a note to the Hotel chain to thank him for his action that night, after my daughter immediately settled down, after the ventolin shot.

The flight was quite long when you travel with someone in pain.

PAIN WAS INDEED IN PROGRESS

On the other hand, we were lucky enough to board a massive A380. No, we did not visit the top deck but my daughter remembered doing a presentation at school on A380 a few years ago, and she immediately texted her dad 'not to get jealous' about it!

As we arrived in Brisbane, it was 34C and my daughter said:

'I did not remember the sun being so bright'. 

It was 12pm when we arrived. There was a bit of housework to do before 6pm when our guests arrived for Christmas eve. For us, it was only 9:30am in Paris, so we were in full swing!

6:30pm: Get set!

A concerted effort: one friend brought this delicious and healthy first course 

Girls will be Girls

Parisian Boxer Short ... even Metro Monge station shows on the left-bottom hand side!

The following day, I found a note in my letter box from some neighbours who noticed I came back: "Welcome back home, and be sure to catch up with us when you are both rested"

These flowers are another token of the welcome extended by my friends last night, and I caught this shot this morning at 6:30am on these magnificent flowers before writing this blog, while all is calm and felicity around ...

Merry Christmas

Chocolate Bath tube with two chocolate happy frogs left for my dad to open in Paris today

Where I come from for the last 200 years ...

On Friday night, we took the train to visit members of my family who remain in our ancestral village. I revisited what I regard as my sacred places, where I spent so much time observing every minute detail of this landscape as a child, probably out of boredom some times, but that I grew to cherish.

I used to spend endless summers and other school holidays there at my grand-parents' farm while my parents were minding their business in Paris

This village has never known any tourist passing by, does not have a bakery or any other shop and no advertisement board. For this reason only, I would classify it as an oddity in 2013 Middle of Europe.

The graveyard is full of people bearing the same last name than me, and many farms belong to more or less distant relatives.

My Village in East of France (View from my grand mother's house window)

Farm-house gate

Champagne chilling out outside near the old well

Paté en croute (home grown pork and home made pastry) usually kept in a very large freezer

When I was little, my grand-mother used to kill a rabbit for lunch as soon as she saw us arrive in the car. It was quite shocking for a 6 years old who grew up in Paris. Later on, she grew chicken and this is a 4.5 kg half chook out of 130ish grown by my cousin. She sells them only by word of mouth.

Children making puzzles

Cheese matchsticks for aperitif

Gewurtztraminer

Endless walks in the fresh air

Rich earth, freshly sowed, two month too late because of two unusual rainfalls

The village was coming together on Sunday morning and this was the only time of the week when you would dress up and meet people other than your direct family members. People would sing altogether, children had to stay still and it seemed to last forever. Sometimes, the priest would make us reflect, but mostly it made you develop critical thinking as a child; you knew you could not take all the imagery literally.

Timeless Roman church always open

Where children get baptised

The fountain

The local source - hideaway for teenagers and first romances

Village from afield

Now is time to clean my boots to take the train back to Paris (grand mother's home fountain)

"Mud and cow manure are not dirty", my grand dad would say, "what is dirty are car fumes" he would say when I was 10 years old and when it was not fashionable to say such things.

On the way back to Paris, we visited another village, my mother's village and in the house where my mother was born, my uncle gave us access to this photo.

That is me on the left hand side learning to walk
next to my cousin Laurent in a pedal car. 

My findings this week

Snapshot in the Metro

This is one of my finding of the week, and I found it in the Metro!

Oû vais-je

et pourquoi ?

Je me rue

dans la centième rue,

bruissant essaim d'humanité.

Vladimir Maiakovski, Traduction de Christian David

Later on, as I get lost over and over and again walking, I sometimes find something wonderful that I have never seen or visited before, and I always ask myself: how could that be?

This time it was Old Arena built at the end of the first century. They were excavated in 1870 only during the grand Haussmann's building spree. Not far from Metro Monge. Note that no one is visiting, it is only a park. So peaceful though.

Red Arch - La Défense

This morning, I am getting ready to go to work to my company's Paris Office

I take the Metro to La Défense RER Station

It is early morning and I witness the sunrise on the Parvis de la Defense  

Christmas Markets in La Défense

Sun Rising higher, and all colours come to a symphony

Frosted Christmas Tree in a Frosted Landscape

Arriving in La Défense Metro/RER Station IS NOT being there yet. I had to use Google Map on my mobile to locate myself first, and then to locate the office. The app served me right until it said Turn Right and all there was no street, just a LIFT (like in The Doctor movie). This bizarre lift would take me two levels down to a street below the Parvis (plaza) - I had to pinch myself and ask a lady if it was OK to take this lift :P. After that, I had to take a passerelle-bridge to cross a highway - piece of cake :( - NOT - , and FINALLY Google Map said 'you have reached your destination', except I could not see anything. ONE and only one man turned up and asked me 'you look lost, where are you going?'... an IT company ... and he said: there are many IT companies is THIS building (below), so here I was, I finally found my destination. It took me precisely 14mns - Google Map was right.

The Lift from Le Parvis La Defense to Puteaux suburb streets 2 levels below

Hot Desk with a View !

The Office just like in Brisbane in many way

The Neufchatel (Switzerland) office manager in Paris office for a visit gave me a Swiss chocolate bar (yes!) I also had a madeleine and a coffee (a choice of capsules and no milk option, sorry)

I had a great spot near of window and my Brisbane office pass opened all the doors! - I had been told it would be the case before I left Australia but I had to test it myself to believe it! The receptionist was a lovely Australian woman, and I spent lunch at the Canteen The canteen was a shared building facility with a fantastic choice of cooked meals and I sat with my European colleagues (I should say since most were French but there were also some English and Italian people there) ... so multicultural, just like in Brisbane, and same wonderful open-minded people.

I particularly like this picture - office workers lunch time at La Defense - it seems that the stairs have transformed in a beach under the Grande Arche de La Défense

Today, I was still in Paris, but it was another world, .... and I liked it !