Last Monday morning my family and I set off for a short holiday to Menton, a delightful seaside resort (patronised by Queen Victoria herself) nestled in between Monaco and Italy on the French Riviera. I ought to have spent the preceding weekend organising and packing for our trip, but packing is one of life’s more soul-destroying occupations, and one which I generally put off for … Continue reading Packing pour les vacances
Looking for Adventure is like playing a game of ‘Hide and Seek’. Sometimes it is my turn to seek, and Adventure hides herself away in the most unlikely of places. Sometimes Adventure looks for me. I may think that I have found the perfect hiding spot, and am sitting tucked up in a ball in the dark, with my arms wrapped round my knees, giggling … Continue reading The Chou and la grue
Book of the day: Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. “NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLO M OF NI T CAN STAY THESE MES ENGERS ABO T THEIR DUTY” DON’T ARSK me about: rocks, fog. I should dearly like to know more about Mrs. Cake. March really has been a baptism by weather in the garden. Now that Spring is upon us I have temporarily left my … Continue reading Ça pousse, mars: refusing to dig in the glom of nit
Do you have a lawn that you hate cutting? Half a garden that you’d rather not access? A partner whom you trust enough not to sneak out at night and perform a mass plant exorcism? Neighbouring children that you’d like to scare by making your home imitate the set for a horror film? A penchant for analysing the progress of mould? A passion for planning … Continue reading Gourdon Bennett! C’est quoi ça?
How the latest strike in France affected my exciting plans. Continue reading The dreaded grève
It has recently occurred to me that I have unwittingly developed a bordering-on-unhealthy obsession with James Norton (talented actor and eye candy). I realised that, on average, I think about him once every two days, and then very intensely. Sometimes the bounder even invades my dreams. If this meant that I simply turn into a drooling heap of female desire every time he appears in … Continue reading Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est?….Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away!
Book of the day: William the Outlaw, by Richmal Crompton In the infamous words of William Brown, outlaw and Indian chief, today we are ‘macarooned’. We are (not quite) cut off from the rest of the world by several inches of snow, which has fallen heavily for the past two days, and venturing further afield than the bottom of the drive requires chaînes à neige … Continue reading Slip slidin’ away dans la neige
Coucou mes amis! Welcome to the second installment of my attempts not to kill plants after prolonged periods of torture and abuse. Despite my best intentions all hopes of a strong beginning were dashed after a willfully disobedient avocado youth decided to start withering on me only a few days after my decision to ‘turn over a new leaf’ (ha!). I had hoped to have … Continue reading Ça pousse, février: alas, poor Pomegranate…
When I was still a youthful girl of twenty-five I assumed that I had years ahead of me to compile my (practically obligatory these days) list of exciting challenges to set and then cross off before the clock struck the stroke of 23.35 on a particular day in the far off future and I became cursed with instant and irreversible old age. I got as … Continue reading 30 choses à faire avant 30 ans
Book of the day: Wuthering Heights Valentine’s Day is not a particularly celebrated occasion in my household. As much as I enjoy tales of enduring love, aided and abetted by theatrical grand gestures and heroic sentimentality, where the most sophisticated performances cause tissues to be conjured from thin air and unsuspecting women to be transformed temporarily into pandas, I only slightly envy girlfriends whose partners … Continue reading La Saint-Valentin
Chomeuse with a Chou 