wedding bells

it all started back in august, about a week after i’d got back from Malaysia. my friend emailed me to tell me her boyfriend had proposed, and would i come to the wedding and be her bridesmaid? fine by me, except for my location (France) and the timing (the wedding was scheduled for november: i’d just been to Malaysia!) i went anyway, having both time (ie, no job) and money.

but it’s become a trend, apparently, to invite me to a wedding halfway across the globe, with only 3 months notice. a friend of mine in Sydney has just changed her wedding date to the end of may (as opposed to 6 months later), while another friend’s decided to marry his sweetheart in Wisconsin at the beginning of july, which i could just about manage if i wasn’t going through a month training for work at that very time.

i guess the real question is, how did i manage to make friends with so many people strewn across the world, why couldn’t i just do what normal people do, make friends with locals? there’s a serious anthropological question someone might want to write a PhD about…

conversation with a bumblebee

i saw my first bumblebee of the season the other day, and we struck up a conversation that went like this:

me: tell me, bumblebee, how do you fly?
bumblebee: notice those translucent things on each side of my body? they’re called wings.
me: well, yes, of course. but, you see, physically, you’re not supposed to be able to fly.
bumblebee: what else would you do with wings? [ok, let's not think too hard about that]
me: what i mean is, according to the laws of physics, your wings are too small to support your weight. it shouldn’t be possible for you to fly.
bumblebee: clearly, the laws of physics are totally wrong. otherwise, as you just pointed out, I wouldn’t be able to fly.
me: …

what could i say? clearly, the bumblebee is right.

rescue mission

i was walking my dog, the other day, when a tiny Jack Russell puppy ran toward us. we'd met before, the previous day. it had followed us for a while, and despite all my efforts, refused to return home. i thought i knew where it lived, so we all three walked back to that house. i rang the bell, screamed and shouted for someone to come for a full 5 mns before someone appeared. i could have just put the dog back inside the garden, but i wasn't absolutely sure that's where it came from. as it turned out, i was right, and the hunky (but married) man i spoke to, told me she always ran away.

so here we were again, and as we walked past her house, i put her back in her garden, but she didn't care. she'd obviously done her homework and knew all the holes in the fence and 10s later, she was back out with us. as the guy had said she did this often, i gave up, and thought she'd eventually go back once we reached a certain no return point that i hoped she had. she didn't. she followed us all the way to the playground, where she found another source of amusement: kids and balls. although she's tiny, this one little boy did not seem all too happy about it, but there was nothing i could do so long as my dog was with me. so i walked him home, got in the car and drove back to the playground (all of 30s away by car, but i really had other things to do). i made sure the dog didn't belong to one of the kids, in which case they could take care of it, but she didn't. so i picked her up and put her in the car. she was very quiet. i drove the other 30s to her house, took her out and put her back in her garden.

she's an adorable dog, but this can't go on, which means i'm going to have to avoid walking past her house, which is really annoying, actually, as 2 of my favourite walks go that way...

new zealand

i spent a year in nz, and somehow, only managed to take about 150 pics (compared to the 1000 i took in japan over 3 years, half of which were taken in the first year!). true, i earned very little money then, so it was hard to buy film and develop it. anyway, thought i'd share some of those pics now. nz is a fantastic country, a land of contrasts, as you can see. if you haven't been, it's worth a visit!

Whale Bay, the most magical beach up North... notice, if you can, the footsteps on the left side of the beach, which can only be reached by water. I swam in those waters... 

at Wai-o-tapu, aka the sacred waters, the Champagne Pool! 

Lake Hawia, South Island, at the end of the day 

the Canterbury plain in the dry season 

the great outdoors

walked into school, the other day (i'm a teacher), and the noise was overwhelming. the school's being redone, you see. while i couldn't see (or hear) that it was much worse than a couple of days earlier, i was told that i could take my class outside. actually, it was strongly recommended i do. so off we went. as it happens, the school is downtown, a hundred metres from the lake, so we went to the lakeshore and we sat there, across a small wall, for the 1h30mns of the lesson. in the sun. i'm glad it wasn't yesterday, where it rained all day. it was quite fun, really, except for the no board, no CD player, kinda windy, part. but we managed. and it was fun, really. people walking up and down, looking at us wondering what was going on, some people stopping to listen to the lesson. reminds me of the time my boyfriend and i were 'not breaking up' at a bus stop and people missed several busses to listen in on out conversation (we were so into it that we didn't notice until the end, and about 20 people were standing around us like it was some street show...).

home

how do you know you're home? by its smell. this of course, doesn't actually happen on a daily basis. you normally have to have been away for a while, on holidays or a business trip, for example. then, when you walk in, you realise that your house/apartment, has a very distinctive smell. and that's when you know you're home.

a friend of mine came over for dinner the other night. i've know her for years and she used to come by really often. as she was leaving, she started going from room to room. then she said 'it smells the same', and that it brought back memories. it was funny, and nice, that she would attach importance to it.

i work on smells a lot. they really remind me of places or situations. the other day, when it was really hot and summery outside, i walked into the basement, where it's always a lot cooler than the usual temperature. and the smell, as well as that temperature difference, really brought me back to earlier years (i've only just come back after 10 years away). it was like time travel.

the red dragons 2

we WON!!!!! we did. it was so cool! for the first time since 1978, the Welsh rugby team won the 6 Nations Tournament. and it's been a great season. true, yesterday's game was not all that good, but altogether, they did an AMAZING job! I'm so proud of them. good day for the daffodils to be out (daffs are one of the Welsh symbols, like the leek - I know, they can be weird some time...).

spring in the air

so, last week i reported that it was still snowing, and not stopping. it was also between -5C and -1C. and then, out of the blue, this week's been amazing. monday started off sunny and warm, and already temps were above 10C. now, nighttime is around 5C, and daytime around 20C in the shade, much more in the sun. last week, temps were about 15 degrees less than the seasonal average, now they're about 8 degrees more. go figure...

demo week

it's demo week down at the United Nations, due to the fact that it's human rights week and delegates are coming in from all parts of the world to discuss the situation in the world. this is why, when my bus passed the United Nations square, i saw what i saw. it took me a minute before it sank in that this was part of the demo, cos it was way too realistic.

a woman wearing white clothes was, for lack of a better word, 'strapped' to something that looked like a door frame. meaning, each of her hands was attached to one of the corners with rope. there was make up blood on her face and in a few place on her white overalls. next to her was a policeman standing with a truncheon on his hands, in a striking pose. next to them was another man dressed in white, crouched on the floor with his head on a huge tree stump (like in medieval times, to cut off the head), also with fake blood all over, and another policeman was there with his truncheon, also in a fixed pose that suggested he was about to hit the other one. all these people were of Chinese origin (although it was the Tibetans' day for demo, so i guess they were Tibetans).

now, i knew it was demo week, but it was so realistic that i first thought the policemen were the local Swiss policemen, and that they were hitting the demonstrators. it sounds silly, cos they never would, of course (then again...), and these people are allowed to demonstrate. but that's how scary it was. next to them all was a sign that said 'this happens everyday in China'. well, if everyone felt as i did, i think it must have got enough people's attention. whether it will change anything... i just feel slightly better knowing that, due to road works, the demo place has shrunk to about a tenth of its normal size, and seeing this scene on the bigger scale would probably made me throw up. on the other hand, it would have got loads more people's attention, which would obviously have been better for the demonstrators. the thing is, i don't think that all the delegates coming in will really be able to help. and that just makes me very sad.

irrelevant but not pointless

notice how:

• you're freezing in winter but burning up in summer?
• you find stupid people annoying and intelligent people (more than you) annoying?
• men can go to strip joints but still tell you a girl is sexier wearing clothes?
• most kids have secret, invisible friends, but most adults do too ('well, i was talking to my great friend [insert name] the other day, and s/he said...'; or, 'that was [insert name] that just called, and i'd forgoten i said i'd help him/her with...'; or, 'i have a friend who is seeing this girl/guy, ... what do you think s/he should do')?
• most people want a better job with more pay and responsibility, but often wish they hadn't got it all when they do?
• you're expecting me to get to the point?
• i'm not getting there?
  

you're sharp...

on a side note, i'd like to tell you about a conversation i had with my dad the other evening, talking over a fruit bowl. we'd both been eating hazelnuts when he throws one back into the bowl, untouched.

me: how can you do that? imagine the poor hazelnut's feelings!

him: it feels quite happy now that it's back with the others.

me: it's feeling rejected, that's what it's feeling!

him: well, no. see, it wants to be with the others. it's relieved to be back with the family.

me: come on! it had prepared itself to death, it was all resigned, and now you're totally ruining it for it. it's gonna get a nervous breakdown if you do that again.

people who think i'm crazy, raise your hands.

the name game

there is this thing, on the french msn, that supposedly calculates the success ratio of a couple formed by two names. you enter the names, click go and you get a percentage, together with a one word description. i don't believe in these things, but it looked like a fun thing to try, so i did.

the results were that my name coupled with Daniel gave 'us' a 97% chance, ie, we are ideal. right. i know lots of Daniels, but two of them were taken (and thus totally off the chart), one preferred my friend, one flirts with anything in a skirt, and another one is gay. type in 'Dan' instead, and our compatibility drops to 68% (a mere passionate). tried with the name of my most recent ex, and it told me we were 'hot' (ie 71% compatible). i guess we were, but that's the whole point, isn't it? we're not anymore. tried with other names i get a lot around me, and while Fred got us 83%, Frederic made it drop to only 22%, while Mike got us 88%, Michael only scored 4% (otherwise referred to as 'accidental').

bear in mind that the first time i was on the page, i had no idea what was going on, and the thing calculated that for the entries 'name 1' and 'name 2', the success rate was 78% (very hot)!

bamboo

i've always loved bamboo. we brought some back from Japan, when i was a kid (not an entirely legal operation, apparently), and planted it in the garden. with the years, they have even grown thicker, so as to produce the variety known as 'take' (ie, the real stuff).

last year, my friends took me to a bamboo museum, in Shizuoka. it was a small place but every square metre was covered in different types (striped, patterned, black, yellow, green, etc - some you can see below). it was totally amazing, not least because of the obscure location (behind a factory in a small town near Mt Fuji).

nevertheless, nothing can replace the huge bamboo forests to be found in various parts of Japan. i walked around one when i was about 7 (there's a funny story about a snake, but you'll have to wait for that), and was entranced by it. i've since only seen them on tv, but i dream of a day i can go back and take millions more pictures...

fuzzy bamboo 

bamboo on drugs...totally wild 

bamboo in a suit! 

bamboo in Kamakura 

bamboo shoot, young and very green 

manga

at university, i was member of an anime society. anime is Japanese animation. we met once a week for 3 hours, and then twice a week the second year, to watch anime. we saw some superb stuff. and there was manga too, the book version of anime. i read some, but promised myself never to start buying them (i said the same about videos, but now have 3 complete series, and 2 half ones...). except i then found out about a place to get them, and next thing i knew, well, i'm trying to finish 2 series, and i've got some random ones, and one complete series.

then, when in Japan, i found out about dual language manga, which is written in Japanese and English. it was a great and interesting way to practise Japanese, so i bought the only one that looked interesting to me, Fruits Basket. and i loved it! problem being, there was only one, and in the 7 months i stayed thereafter, number 2 never came out.

imagine my surprise, then, upon returning to Europe, to find the whole series, readily available to me in French. had to buy the 1st one again, cos here you get 2 in 1, so to speak, so that i now have 2 books, which would have been 4 in Japan. i disgress. point is, i am insanely happy and cannot wait to lay my hands on the rest of the series, albeit slowly, otherwise i'll 1) use all my money and 2) run out of crazy 'cute' stuff to read.

snow

snow is amazing. when it falls, it doesn't make a sound. only if you stand near a shrub or a small tree can you hear it. and even then, the sound it makes is very quiet, peaceful. even if there's a lot coming down. it is so nice to look at.

there's been more snow here than in the last 20 years. and it shows no sign of stopping. it's snowed everyday in the past week. i love seeing the winter scenery covered in white. it's so much better than the other colours, just a little more inconvenient, too. but it doesn't last forever, and who knows how much longer there'll even be snow? so no matter what others say, i'm still totally happy when i see single flakes in the sky, cos i know more will come...

attached is a picture of my garden, on a day it snowed a lot, in January.

snowing lots... 

commercials

i've noticed that commercials are getting better and better. less waffle, more impact. and there are 2 commercials running at the moment, that i really like. the first one is for EDF (the French electricity company). it shows 'normal' people trying to live in a world set-up for handicapped. there's an image of a woman trying to make herself understood at a bank where they only use sign language, a guy at a library finding out all the books are written in braille, people trying to get around a place that's all at wheel-chair height, etc. it's great. it's not its purpose, but i really hope it makes people think about how hard it is for handicapped people to get around in a world that is not , for example, wheel-chair friendly. i remember having to wear a sling for a week, and it was the heardest thing to do. it gave me an idea of how hard it must be for people who have a permanent disability to live in our world.

the other commercial i like is the new dove campaign for real beauty one, where there are pictures of women with 2 boxes to choose from. e.g., a woman with grey hair and the boxes captioned 'gray' or 'gorgeous', an old woman and the boxes 'wrinkled' or 'wonderful', a woman with freckles with boxes saying 'ugly spots' or 'beauty spots'. i think they're very cool.

slumber party

slumber parties... a thing teenage girls do? well, we older girls do it too!

we didn't do anything involving nail polish, pillow fights or telling scary stories, but i did get a head massage - apparently it was a sin that i'd never used hair oil, a thing i'd never heard of.

after having had some wine, we went to get DVDs (mostly romantic comedies), and once back, made pizza. watched the first movie, ate, watched the second movie (during which one of us went to bed - not me), and decided to call it a night. it was 1am. in our defence, i'll say we all three work quite hard, and at least 2 of us had had a rough week.

in the morning i found out i still talk in my sleep (but that's ok cos a certain somebody was laughing through hers), we had a heart to heart about our respective men-related problems, got around to making breakfast and watched the last movie.

results? a headache from the massage, but a good feeling from having spent time with some girlfriends and just with them. to be repeated...

volcanoes

i love volcanoes. it started when i lived in Auckland, NZ, for a while. there are about 60 volcanoes in or around the city, which makes for quite a strange scenery, sometimes. all are extinct and very old, but they're there and they're taking up space. and then, in the bay, there's Rangitoto, the youngest of them all, which rose out of the waters around 1400, i think. must have cause quite a stir...

then i moved to southern Japan, and not only was there a volcano in the bay, Sakurajima, but it was active! it didn't 'ash' much while i was there, but we did had a couple of ash storms. everything was black outside and people who'd been outside were covered in it. this whole ash thing made it a little hard to do laundry: you could never be sure it wouldn't ash, if you put your clothes outside, to dry, so it was best to do it on a weekend, or on a day you could keep an eye on the weather.

you can't climb Sakurajima, but i climbed nearby Mt Aso instead. also an active volcano, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. not because of the smoke coming out from the rim, but because the downward path we chose was neck-breaking. i couldn't believe it when we got to the bottom in one piece!

Asosan, up close and personal 

Sakurajima's ash 

Sakurajima, the flower of southern Japan 

Rangitoto...came out of the sea 

live long and prosperous

so here i was at the pub talking trekkie with my mate... can't remember how we got onto it, but hey. he starts telling me about why the vulcans are the best (i prefer klingons myself - much more fun) and takes an example from voyager to elaborate. that's not the point, though, it's what he said after that, which was that apparently (forgive me for not knowing), vulcans are the way they are because they had had several genocidal episodes within a very short period of time, and had then decided that the only way to stop the killing spree was to not show any feelings. i'm not sure i agree with that. i mean, i know people who never really talk about how they feel, and they just end up bottling everything up and exploding. personally, i'm all for the 'let's talk and be honest about this' approach. which is what scares most people about me (see my short intro on the right). anyway, all this to say i really think the vulcans got the wrong end of the stick. and i love the klingons.

the many arts of wine

i saw Sideways last week, and for the second time in my life, something occurred to me as being strange, but i couldn't quite put my finger on it.

you see, i have spent a great many years living in France, and its wine culture has sort of seeped into me. while i'm totally useless at drinking wine (i know, it's a sin, i'll go talk to a therapist about it one day), i'm usually good at choosing a good bottle in a restaurant.

but a few years back, when my friend asked me if i liked Syrah or Riesling better, i was dumstruck. Syrah? Riesling? what on earth were they? while it seems the rest of the world defines a wine by the grape it's made from, the French define it by where it comes from. is it a Bordeaux, a Bourgogne, a Champagne,...? and as if that wasn't enough, there are tons of subgroups. for example, if it's a Bordeaux, is it a St Emilion, a Margaux, a Pomerol,...?

i think the way they refer to wine in Sideways makes a lot of sense. but then i wonder what happens when they mix the types? a Côte de Blaye my father often drinks is part Merlot, part Cabernet-Sauvignon, part something else (i think…). would that be called a Merlot Cabernet-Sauvignon 'something'?? (i would actually really like to know...)

it was just a thought, of course. let's face it, wine is really made to be drunk, and, at the end of the day, so long as it tastes good, who really cares? i just obviously have way too much time on my hands...

as i was saying, it's all in the soil, people!