I'm not very fond of Topshop's jokes!

Argh, I was so excited to receive my parcel from Topshop today... But my enthusiasm quickly vanished when I realized, horror-struck (yes horror-struck indeed, fahion is a serious business, remember?) that the luuuuverrrly (à la My Fair Lady song) cameo necklace (adorned with a key & clock) I had ordered had been turned into an über-tacky "love" pendant necklace. First, I thought of a joke, not a very good one, though. Now I'm waiting for a reply from the customer services. Come on guys, how can you get your love's and cameo's mixed up, eh? But the terrible thing (or should I say tragic?) is that the coveted necklace is now no longer available from the website... And as I won't be in the UK before another 3 weeks, I'm not very hopeful.
Still, I just thought the "love" trick was very ironic. If they did love me, why would Topshop send me a "love" necklace instead of the one I wanted?

So if anyone comes across this fab necklace, I'd be very grateful if you could think of me!

Well, enough about futilities (and parentheses) : oops, I did it again!
Tschüss then (yes, that means I've run out of things other than vanities to say!)

Carrrrrdiff!

I'm so happy: spring break means London escapade (as usual now, why did I have to leave London in the first place, whhhyyyy????) and a daytrip to Cardiff, the nation of the Kingdom I haven't visited yet and I'm sooo excited! (One month and 6 days to go)
Maybe I'll stumble across a local Myfanwy or a Daffyd, if I'm lucky & if he's "out" of his village... Enough about Little Britain. Well, actually no, it's never enough, isn't it?

(Note to sensitive/prissy people, do not watch this video, I decline all responsibility for what may happen to you, thanks)



Well, gotta go now, I'm almost too tired to go to yoga class but I'll go and breathe from the nose all right (i.e the exercises we're doing at the moment, well it's just my 2nd taster class & I must admit that sadly, it has had no effect on me so far - I'm still as stressed as before, with sore muscles, at that. Am I just a hopeless case?!)

Vintage interlude

I realized this blog lacked pictures and you can see for yourself that I'm not a professional photographer, no need to even specify that! Yet, I like that out-of-focus effect...

Why vintage? Because that bag comes from my gran's (straight from her old wooden cupboard, if you wanna know) and I had an absolute crush on that tapestry fabric thingie as soon as I saw it. It was in pretty bad shape but thanks to modern technology (ahem, by this I mean smelly cleansing products) it was rejuvenated.
Quite a few times, on my shopping trips in London, sales assistants asked me where I had found that bag, hee hee - my gran rocks!

Here, it is accompanied with two of my now-favourite pairs of shoes (among too many others) that I like to wear with it.

Oh my! (again)

OMG, I can't believe it's been almost 2 years that I haven't posted any *effing* thing in there and have just let this blog decay...
The thing is, I'm busier (lazier?) than ever and anyway, I'm not that sure I've had any faithful readers in a while, so I'm just a prey to that "what's the point" existential stuff - blogwise, of course!
To defend myself, I spent such a nice year in London, but such a time-consuming one as well, that I just didn't feel like using my precious spare time blogging but rather exploring the world and, of course, work on my thesis but that doesn't count as spare time, does it?!

Actually, I have been much engrossed in fashion blog reading lately and as I love fashion, trying out outfits etc, I've been blessed and I'm even thinking of turning (perverting?) this blog into one of those, and yet again, I'm not really into showing myself around like that especially as I wouldn't appreciate being recognized - given my position - by this, I mean job, not social standing or anything of the kind, don't get me wrong, I'm not that full of myself!
Well, you never know, among the 2 monthly readers of this blog, one of them might be one of my students, lol.

So, to match my current mood, here are a few links to the blogs I like to peruse:

http://mahayanna.wordpress.com/
http://www.leblogdebetty.com/
http://www.misspandora.fr/
http://seaofshoes.typepad.com/
http://ledressingdeleeloo.blogspot.com

... Yes, you may say that my superficial side has cropped up and is now out in the open, sorry! But you could actually reply that fashion really is a serious business.
Enjoy, anyway. Not that these bril' girls need advertising, some of them are already very famous in the world of fashion. Sigh.

Oh, and I just wanted to have a thought for Alexander McQueen who died today, he was such a great artist, quirky and so British, rest in peace.

I'm in an Italian mood!

Hi there!
I know I haven't posted anything in a while...Been pretty busy!
Here is an old tv ad featuring a funny Italian guy!
By the way, let me explain why i'm in an Italian mood. It's just that i've been teaching "French as a foreign language" at university this summer & many of my students came from Italy & they were all very nice & funny (as well as those coming from other parts of the world, of course!!) So here i am, pining over the "loss" of my students. But i've got over it now & i'm soon to teach at the university of London, i.e to brand new British students! So, gotta go back to my stressful packing (i have to move out in less than a week) & PhD conference paper writing (that i'd ideally love to finish before leaving...) & to tears-inducing friend-gathering-for-a-last-goodbye event!
Enjoy the video (in French, though I think it was originally "imported" from Germany)

I've managed to split myself into 2!

Oh my god, I'm so exhausted...
Let me explain, and keep in mind we are on a saturday, i.e supposedly a relaxing day, when you can indulge in some trivial things to do & can allow yourself to linger a little...

Well, I had to get up at 8 am, i know, it's not so early but i'm not a morning person & have had many days of early waking-ups-without-a-proper-good-night's-sleep...So, i had to get up (quite early for a saturday) to go to university for a course that goes along with my job as a volunteer in a non-profit organization (dealing with education & social inequality). When i arrived, there were only the two of us and when the coordinator arrived she told me she had sent me an sms to tell me the meeting was actually to take place 30 minutes later. Well, never mind that; that mishap actually allowed me to meet another PhD student like me, very nice (just like me again, hee hee!), with whom i probably hadn't talked with if i had arrived on the "legal" time. The course was not that bad, though not highly informative, nut after the 1st hour, it became a bit boring (i felt as if i were back to high school, hearing about stuff everyone knew, or should at least).

Then, i realised once that my mind had been wandering off, and when i came back to the solid reality, i realised that this daydreaming could probably be a good thing to make time go faster... So i started conjuring up some memories & other things that inhabit my imaginary world (from Six Feet Under to Virginia Woolf) but then i realised my imaginative world wasn't enough to escape this & i felt even more disheartened...
There was also this conference taking place at university at the same time and which i would have loved to attend (i had already been there the day before & really wanted to pursue my discoveries ;)) so for some time, what soothed me was the thought of being able to attend the colloquium on the afternoon & listen to interesting talks about the reception of Shakespeare in the Victorian period & its refashioning by Oscar Wilde. So i told the coordinator that i had to attend that conference & finally was "released" from the afternoon session... The thing is, the other PhD student seemed aroused by this idea & also quit to go to the conference: now i'm feeling like some devilish literary missionary or proselyte, hee hee!

Well, after that i had to hurry to give a course to my student, but met some friends on the way, & unluckily didn't have that much time to talk.
Well, the long day is over (as Norah Jones would say), even though i managed to go & try on a pair of boots and buy a cameo-necklace on my way back after my lesson!

AND NOW, I'M IN DESPERATE NEED OF A CUP OF TEA! (yeah, i know, i'm so British on that matter!)

From a soon-to-be-expatriate teacher

Oh, god, I've just spent almost 6O euros on books this afternoon... All in less than an hour at that. I went to the library to pick up a book by Leonard Woolf I had ordered and then perused over a few books in my favourite British bookstore/coffee shop and found another one & then went to another library for French titles and found two by Flaubert, one entitled "Journey to the East" and i couldn't help thinking it might be useful for my thesis & anyway, i like Flaubert, now I just feel like acquiring his complete letters cos I keep coming across great quotations precisely from his correspondance. On my way to Flaubert, I saw the wonderful picture from "Lust Caution" the latest Ang Lee film, and I just thought that would be a pale transcript or synopsis from the movie, but it was actually the short stories on which the film was based, i'm so stupid, i didn't know the film was an adaptation. Now i'm secretly praying to find some link with the stories and my PhD subject, since the British writers i'm studying are within a trans-cultural dimension. Anyway, I keep telling about my books-imbued life... & i hope soon expatriate. I'm all focused on my teaching assistant application right now & i went to meet the English assistant from the university i'm applying for this afternoon, even though he wasn't that enthusiastic about his home university & city (i.e London!!) at first... How can you not be thrilled by London? He said he was a bit tired of it & I couldn't help replying to him with that famous quotation (by Woody, I guess) "When you're tired of London, you're tired of life", but he immediately contradicted the latter bit; hopefully i hadn't ran into a prematurely depressive student! Anyway, he gave me much information, making up for his apparent lack of enthusiasm, which was nice & fueled my already strong desire to go there. Let's pray I'll be chosen (well, it sounds like a religious assumption, the choice lies on the university commission). Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Exhausted or just bankrupt?

I feel so worn out...Why? Well, don't you guess? I've been shopping. Not that long actually, I'm no longer used to spending hours on end of rambling from store to store; still... I've been indulging in some shopping orgy (even though the term is a bit strong, I'm usually quite sensible & think twice before buying something, with the risk of seeing my hoped-for piece of clothing disappear, which happened twice in less than a month!). Well, I was supposed to prepare my tomorrow "intensive course" but one of my "students" wasn't available so the course is postponed... I also have to go on reading extensively for my thesis, there are so many things I want to read (and need to get hold of, incl. Chinese books that haven't been translated, but I may have to put this one aside...) & I'm meeting my supervisor next week.
Apart from that, I went to a conference last week-end and discovered a yet unchartered academic building at the other end of Aix, pretty lovely actually! On my way to the university annex I came across an old lady who stopped to tell me something. At first, I thought she was just asking me for directions, cos, yes, another troubling & upsetting thing in my (quite uneventful) life is that i must unconsciously carry some signpost saying "i'm a tourist agency, for enquiries, ask me"... So, she started to speak but i was in a hurry and didn't really catch all her words. The terms "fortune teller" reached my ears, and she started to unravel her "prophecies", which stirred my inner laugh, when she said things like "you're pretty, you'll be very lucky in your love life", and which completely destroyed her credibility and struck me with its falseness: my love life is simply non-existent! Well, of course, if she can see my future, there's still hope!
Right now, I'm so into my British-mood (kind of England-sick) that I spent almost an hour on Sainsbury's grocery store online, just to browse the incredible range of teas, and the typical biscuits...How pathetic is that? (But among them are custard creams, one of my favourites, just after scones, my all-time favourite) that we can't find here except in a bookstore picturing itself as British (am I being nasty, here?) where the owners aren't warm at all and where you pay 3 or 4 times the normal price. Yet, there's another British bookstore-coffee shop in the city which is so cosy and makes great, original teas. And I really need my shot!

Don't you dare "madam" me again!

I'm facing serious existential questions nowadays, or existential crisis even... I'm a bit troubled by the fact I'm being addressed to as "madam" in shops and so... Well, it depends, once, a salesman said "madam" and then "miss, rather, sorry"... Hum. As John Cage - aka "the Biscuit" - in Ally McBeal would say (yes, I've indulged in some Ally episodes over the Xmas holidays, i must admit it), so, as he would have it: "I'm troubled", I really am! I mean, I've always looked younger than my age and that used to annoy me a lil, except when I could get reduced fees in museums or fairs, but that was hardly worth the existential trouble. And now, all of a sudden, I look like a madam, though ringless and unmarried, which makes it even more ironic. Help?

What's happening?

Today, I've lived an experience (well, that sounds a lil bit too official for what i'm about to tell, but never mind) that has seriously qualified my – well – hatred, or rather lack of enthusiasm for city buses. I had to give a course quite far away, i.e not in the city centre of Aix… So I had to take a special bus in addition to the normal one (a kind of minibus, called "proxibus", nothing to do with an internet-related thingy, though the process of getting a chance to have a ride is to book it by phone, modernity has taken hold of us, hurrah!). The outward route was pretty good, the bus was even ahead on time and I didn't even have to care for my stop, the driver just knew where I was going and stopped by himself. Then, on the return journey, I feared – for all the time I was running full blast since I had done extra (unpaid) hours (Sarkozy, where art thou?) – that that bout of technology wouldn't meet my expectations, or at least, wouldn't meet me…But there it was, waiting for me! I felt so grateful (yes, that deserves to be noted, I rarely acknowledge gratitude for the public service) actually, I was only 1 minute late. Then, it dropped me whereabout I was to catch the other bus (the "regular"one, are you following?) but there were several stops and no mention of where the bus I was waiting for was to pass… And, lucky as I naturally am, I was waiting at the wrong stop, so when I saw the bus arrive, I took to my heels (after a few seconds of hopeless hesitation) and was running again; I saw the bus stop and then start driving again to reach a green traffic light, but I didn't stop running (the irony of hopelessness? A repressed Forrest Gump surging up?), and to my great surprise, I saw it stop and waiting for me. Grateful again; no really, that was too much! I'm not use to having such a stroke of luck with public transport! What's going on?

Ist es schlimm??

Ist es schlimm dass ich (ja, muss ich's gestehen...) "Verliebt in Berlin" mag? Tja, nur ein bisschen... Let me try to explain & defend myself… please...?
The "phenomenon" has reached France for a couple of months now and I watched a few episodes and pretty much hated it. No one would deny it is quite ridiculous and boring! But when I searched about "Berlin" on the internet the other day, I came across "Berlin, Berlin" (another show I had heard much praise about and am now eager to watch, I've only seen a 4 min extract on the internet 'cos it's not on tv here, except on the satellite…Schade) but I also found about "Verliebt in Berlin". I didn't know about the German title, but quite intrigued, I followed the link & oh surprise, what did I find, Lisa Plenske and her posse! I couldn't help watch the video (I'm weak, I know, don't mention it ever again, please) and then another one…as if I was addicted to some weird substance. Actually I found the voices much better in their original version (of course) and relished hearing German, and I must admit I was quite happy at myself grasping every word. And the brevity of the video really alleviated the boredom of the real-length thingy.
So, I feel relieved now after that confession!
Hope you're not ashamed of me…
Well, maybe you can have a look at the videos now, I dare you! ;)

Tschüss! (yep, I'm becoming more & more infatuated in German: a side effect of Lisa Plenske's predicament?…I love saying (or writing) that name now, oh Gott, es ist wirklich Schlimm!!)

Six feet under...again & again! I just can't help it! It's so gorgeous. Just have a look...

Six Feet Under Promo saison 5
envoyé par Ofca

Long time, no say... except that, which rather puzzles me, but it's positive ;)

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant.You're up for just about anything.

Who's" Your Inner European?

No, I'm not narcissistic!

Try it for yourself too!
It's nothing but random I guess, anyway.

L	Lively
E	Explosive
T	Terrific
T	Tough
Y	Yum

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

Daily miracles

Everyday life is actually full of tiny details which are rather interesting, if not amazing. If you really pay attention to them (what i probably don't do everyday, far from it) it can be enough to brighten up a not-too-terrific day! If you're in a receptive state of mind, only, such little "miracles" can take place. Well, they're miracles only if they are funny ones; discovering a fresh, annoying little fine on your car is not among those! But discovering one on a shiny red Porshe can be. It's all a matter of perspective in fact.
Today, still receptive as i was, i.e still in a good mood, which is not an all-time feature of my character these days, and the heat is not smoothing things out, i saw an old lady (well not THAT old, but still...) riding a really tiny bike, i mean really short for her. Please, don't think i was making fun of her, (well, maybe a little?) but what was really "funny" was the way she believed it so hard, trying to go faster and faster, even though more and more cars were passing her by. It's like you could invent a whole story behind that. Maybe she had to borrow her grandson's bike to go and visit her husband at the hospital, er, no, that's not funny.
Now, I'd love to abide by Rilke's principle, who said that if life isn't interesting, don't blame it on life but blame it on yourself (and your imagination) for not being able to see its richness, to make it interesting. For a long time i've loved that idea, and i still do. But what could we then say to people starving in shabby houses in poor countries for instance?

I need my "Six Feet Under" shot!

Billy: That's the thing about Narcissus, it's not that he's so fucking in love with himself, because he isn't at all, he fucking hates himself. It's that without that reflection looking back at him... he doesn't exist.

Margaret: Just because both your parents are shrinks doesn't mean you're a shrink.
Brenda: Well, just because you're a shrink doesn't mean you're not insane.

David: I have to get control of myself.
Claire: No, David, if you were any more controlled, you'd be a sculpture.

Claire: [to Nate who is angry because she can't watch his baby] You know, Nate, this isn't "The Matrix." The rest of us that don't have babies - we're real.

Arthur: [after Ruth & he broke up] Perhaps you'd prefer if our laundry didn't mix anymore.
Ruth: Honestly Arthur, I don't care what our laundry does.

Post world championship thoughts...

Hey guys, I'm just recovering from France's defeat in the final...
No, I'm joking, i'm not feeling that bad, but i was really disappointed, especially about Zidane's rash gesture (and the attitudes of the Italian team...no comment!) that's too bad it ended that way. But it was just unbelievable our team reached that far considering its difficulty at the beginning. I was so sad Germany didn't reach the final, they really deserved it... And i would have loved to watch a Germany vs France final (so i wouldn't have been that disappointed if we lost then). The final was the only match i watched entirely, cos the great thing is that we had our exam during the whole championship. But the atmosphere was truly unbelievable, every time France won the streets were resounding with horns, shouts etc., and the main streets were full of people, bathing in the fountains, etc! Quite funny!
And even funnier were the excuses the players tried to find, at first, during the qualification stage, accusing the grass, the ball or the judges.
And let me end with the French team's coach most brilliant thought (yep, unlukily, they decided to keep him...) "we played better than yesterday but not as well as tomorrow"... Wow, he seems to master his subject and have a really great theory there. But enough irony! May we all find such mottos to help us cope with life!

Nostalgia...

Some pictures of Brighton...


A view of the "Brighton Pier" by night

The "West Pier" ... or what is left of the Victorian structure, built in 1863. It burnt in 2003, just a few month after its partial collapse.

P.S: If you want to see more pics, just click on the link in the sidebar.

How Victoria Beckham can help me improve my German...

When reading my weekly French-German magazine the other day, I came across this supposedly touting article with a picture of Victoria Beckham & the title "perfect bottoms". Stunned as I was to see that this article had been published in the serious newspaper "Der Spiegel", I read on, to discover that her pair of jeans costs 349 euros ("because she's worth it" probably...), and the whole growing market of clothes customizing.
It's actually pretty ironic that holes are more expensive than the cloth itself... How void, emptiness can become more valuable than matter? mmh, wide subject.
The clothing industry seems to be a good epitome of society itself.
I didn't know that Victoria Beckham, beyond helping me with my German, could also contribute to raise (pseudo) philosophical & sociological questions!

Enjoy... (if I may say so!)

And here is the script matching the image...