Magical childhood memories

I saw this post about Dinovember (a month-long imagination invasion) on Facebook today. I thought it was BRILLIANT.

Picture of Dinovember from here - go check it out! 

The parents sound like fun, creative, imaginative people. The kind of people who probably enjoy setting up the scenes (after a few glasses of vino?) as much as their kids enjoy discovering them.

 

I love it. 

 

For two reasons:

1) these adults sound like me - still a big kid inside
2) it reminded me of my own similar magical childhood experiences...

*cue wiggly lines across screen to nostalgic flashback*

When I was small my Nanny used to do something similar to Dinovember with my colouring books. An early recogniser of my OCD tendencies, she would see me getting frustrated with myself when I would go over the lines in my colouring books. I'd only ever use pencil so I could rub it out, and I was fastidious about sticking to the correct colours - especially with Disney characters! 

 

Sometimes I'd get up in the morning and whilst eating my breakfast (porridge with lots of crunchy brown sugar and "children's tea") I would discover that one of the pictures would have been beautifully shaded in, facial contouring, light and shade and even patterns on the clothing.  Nanny would always say the fairies did it!

 

After a while I realised it was her, but I kept it up for a long time afterwards. Even though I knew it wasn't magic, it felt magical anyway!

I also remember when my Granddad used to paint big pictures on canvasses (apparently I have an arty family!) of a field or the beach or a garden, and even just the view from their front window on to the cul-de-sac (which is now in my baby bro's old bedroom at home). Sometimes we'd go to stay and a new character would have appeared in the picture. There'd be people eating a picnic on a blanket, or playing with a ball or sitting in deck chairs soaking up the sunshine. That was fun. To run in and spot any differences. Then in the morning I'd wake up and it'd be raining and cloudy and all the people would be gone. 

 

Again, I got older and eventually worked it out, but even then it was still fun to see the characters he came up with. 

 

Other magical things happened at Nanny and Granddad's house too - the family in my dolls house (handmade by Granddad and furnished by Nanny) or the workers in my brother's petrol station (again painstakingly designed, made and decorated with their own fair hands) would go about their daily business - food would appear on the tables, cars on the garage forecourt and one day even a baby arrived.

Ahhh, magic!

Baby moi!

*cue wiggly lines across screen to bring me back to present day*

Ahhh, imagination and magic. You can't do that shizz on an iPod. I'm off out to buy a colouring book.

When I get home

Don't get me wrong, I am loving Paris - luh-uh-uvving it, daaarling (quick SCD reference there) - but as my return date approaches, I'm thinking more about what I'll be doing when I get home. Resting, mainly I hope. That and catching up on everything I've missed... which is mainly TV and food, which says a lot about my life I suppose. Hmmmm, just call me Onslow...

Although I'm not really missing home at all, and I'd happily stay for a few more months (with the caveat that my loved ones would have to continue visiting me, of course), I am however missing my sofa, Sky+ box and local take aways a lot. I have only two English speaking channels (BBC World News which shows death, destruction and financial ruin ona  continuous loop and BBC Entertainment which shows 90s sitcoms, mainly) and watching catch up TV on my iPad basically results in me being distracted by YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. I have no sofa, just a chair and my bed to sit on and though I can find various international cuisines here, but Fish n Chips ain't one of them!

So, I'll be home this weekend and I actually can't wait to snuggle on the sofa with Mr G in my Reindeer PJs, with take away Thai, and fish n chips (yes both - I want them so badly I refuse to choose!) my body weight in cinema sweet pop corn (and that's a lot of pop corn because I have put on a LOT of weight) and a bucket full of tea and get stuck in to the list below...

1) Bridget Jones' Diary - because I'd like just a little reminder of how lovely London is in the winter, after all the loveliness of Paris.

2) The entire Harry Potter series, from start to finish – goosebumps! No explanation necessary.

3) Love Actually – Christmas is coming! CHRISTMAS. IS. COMIIIIIING!!! Literally nothing makes me as simultaneously sad-and-happy as this film (Sappy?). And is there anything more perfect than "To me, you are perfect"? And of course, more London...

4) Moulin Rouge – ahhhh, Paris... Glitter. Music. Dancing. Sigh. And talking of Paris….

5) Midnight in Paris - a love affair with the City of Light and its inhabitants of old... and some fabulous costumes, of course!

6) Pride and Prejudice - It has to be the 1995 BBC version, because Jennifer Ehle IS Lizzie Bennett and Julia Sawalha is the most perfect Lydia. Makes me yearn for a stately home Christmas lunch and afternoon tea in bone china! Ok, technically it's not a film, but it's on a DVD so it kind of counts... "Mis-Ter Bennett!"

7) Heathers - just to darken it up a little - it can't all be happy happy joy joy, you know.

8) The Muppet Christmas Carol - taking the line "no cheeses for us meeces" to heart (too. much. cheese. consumed. urrrgh.) and a bit more London.

9) Elf - because "I just like to smile! Smiling's my favourite" - FACT - and because I love NYC like I love London and Paris.

10) Jurassic Park - ahhhh, memories. "Clever girl...!" and also, just stay away from the dessert buffet. Nothing good happens there.

11) Home Alone - because, you know, it's not Christmas without "Keviiiiiiiin!" and that wonderful, wonderful Christmas tree at the Rockerfeller Centre.

12) Top Gun - to remind me of those sunny, sunny, sunny California days as the nights draw in.

13) Miracle on 34th Street - because, you know, Christmas, New York, Lawyers... it's all there. Also, I just love Elizabeth Perkins.

14) The Hunger Games - because Catching Fire is almost here, and I've missed my biggest girl crush. She's been quiet for a while...

15) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - last Christmas we watched this five times in three days as it happened to be on every movie channel going. Easy watching and I think I may have learned something about pre-war European history... maybe.

So that's Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning taken care of, now what to do with the rest of November...?

Paris fashion

No, no, it's not what you think.

I haven't gone all Paris-Girl cool, I wish.

I have tried and failed (miserably) to absorb even a modicum of Parisian chic, to no avail.

I most certainly haven't gone all high end designer and independent boutique crazy. More's the pity.

I just found these little babies whilst perusing ASOS last night (in full hangover recovery mode - PJs, crisps, tea, internet) and I feel like they are necessary additions to my wardrobe..

Non?

Sometimes you just need to spell it out and sometimes you just need the Eiffel Tower on your tights.

"Take me to Paris" jumper

Paris skyline tights

I'd keep it subtle though. I wouldn't wear them both at the same time.

Obvs.

Out and about: Brunch in Paris

I mention quite regularly my love of Brunch. I'd say that it's my favourite meal of the day (closely followed, in order, by Afternoon Tea, Dinner, Breakfast, Midnight Snack, Lunch, Supper and Elevenses) due to it being a food experience, as opposed to eating for eating's sake. It's an indulgence. A time to sit, enjoy, muse, chat and catch up... and eat. Oh, to eat.

I think it's my love of brunch that draws me again and again to the US for holidays. I just find it hard to better buttermilk pancakes with crispy bacon, berries and maple syrup and perhaps a mimosa or a breakfast martini...

This weekend I discovered that Paris is pretty good at Brunch too. Not just a pick-a-dish-from-the-menu kind of brunch, but a multi-course, set-menu kind of brunch. Erm... hello new favourite Sunday dining concept!

 

 

So, upon recommendation, at midday on Sunday (the clocks had gone back, which is why I was up, *ahem* so early!) Mr G and I jumped on the Metro to Chatelet and strolled up to Grizzli Cafe on Rue St. Martin. We nabbed a table just before the entire restaurant filled up with local families and couples (and their pooches) and placed our order.

To get started, a choice of freshly squeezed juices ("pamplemousse pour moi"... just because I love saying it!) and hot beverages ("cafe creme, s.v.p") with bread, conserves and pastries.

... followed by Mr G's all time fave - Eggs Benedict.

Still got room? In which case, your choice of steak tartare or salmon with potatoes...

... all finished with fromage blanc and seasonal fruit coulis.

We followed it with a mosey around the Louvre courtyard and a mile-long walk back home, to work it all off! Phew.

Who's with me for next weekend?

A thought...

#cheesy

I don't want to get cheesy, but... 

Just treat others as you wish to be treated. Please.

Be nice, and people will be nice back. Help them and they will want to help you in return, to do things to make your life easier, better, nicer.

Care for people and they will care for you. If you're lucky they will care for you anyway, though you may not deserve it.

Don't bully people, lie about people (or to them), be mean or try to make people feel small on purpose. Don't try to make yourself look good by making someone else look bad. Don't try to take things from people just because you don't have them yourself. Don't point out someone else's faults to make them hate themselves, without first ensuring you are wholly perfect (just FYI, you're not!).

One day you'll want that person to help you out. One day you'll want that person to be a friend to you.

And you want to hope that they are a bigger person than you are... otherwise, quite frankly, you're f*cked, love.

Remember, what you put out there comes back three(or seven*)fold. Karma's a b*tch and often, so become your victims, when you treat them like dirt.

I'm happy. If you can't be happy for me, then that's your problem.

I'm nice. If you can't be nice to me, then that's your issue.

I'm good. If you can't be good too, then that's your failing.

I'm having fun. If you can't have fun with me, then you're missing out.

Just sayin'...

A note from my friend's kids. They know what it's all about.

*depending on which tales you listen to...

Reasons to be happy: in Paris

Off to Paris!

I don't often get all soppy and talk about happiness and such like, but today, at the end of my first week in Paris (or half week, if we're being precise) as I sit in my cute little roof top apartment catching up on last night's Strictly, a mental list of reasons to be happy popped in to my head...

Celebrations for one!

1. After a long, complicated and hellish process, that involved a cast of what felt like hundreds putting in thousands of man hours, my boss led our team to a great great victory. It made me so happy I cried when I heard the news. Admittedly I am a little delicate, which could have been the reason for the tears, but still, it made me happy that I was so happy about something work related.

The office! So pretty...

2. Also work related, I am so happy that whilst working here in Paris, that I can call an absolutely beautiful building "My Office" and I can say the words "Yes, that's right, I work in that building, one down from the Ritz".  I'm an office snob, yes, I know. But really, I've hit the jackpot and I want everyone to know!

View from my apartment window!

3. So, I'm here in Paris, in a teeny tiny studio apartment that's smaller than my spare room, on the top floor of a building with no lift (and very slippery wooden steps), no oven (but who are we kidding, I don't use the one at home, so how likely am I to use one here?) all alone... and I love it. My view in the morning is like a scene from Moulin Rouge (one of my favourite films, indeed), I have a cute little pizza restaurant underneath my apartment, a wine shop on the corner and my street is lined with beautiful shops with a hustly bustly feeling. There's a butcher, a baker (no candlestick makers though), a fish monger, cafes, bars, restaurants, green grocers, perfumeries, a champagne shop, sushi shops, a cheese shop or two, ice cream parlours, patisseries, a shop selling artisan coffee beans and teas (imagine the aromas in the morning!) a mini Sephora, a florist... It's like something out of a film. I want to dance along it singing like Belle in Beauty and the Beast! "Bonjour... bonjour... bonjour bonjour bonjour... There goes the baker with his tray..." ("...look there she goes that girl is so peculiar...")




"on the way home treats" from my street

to accompany the "on the way home" treats? Also on my street

4. After a supremely drunken apartment party last night, I woke up this afternoon realising I had no hangover-curing food in my fridge. Upon venturing out (unwashed, without make up) in to my hustly bustly street it was less like the scene from Belle et le Bete, and basically SHUT! I forgot that Continental Europe shuts on a Sunday. I was worried that I'd have to eat in a posh restaurant looking and smelling like a tramp, so I did a bit more hopeful wandering and lo! I found a Subway. God bless America and their 24/7 living. Normally I hate Subway, even the smell, but at that moment I could not have been happier to smell their plasticky cheese! One tuna melt, a bottle of full fat Coke and a bottle of Nestea later and I was back in my PJs thanking the fast food gods!

Got any ice for my G&T?

5. I am also offering up praise to the Internet, on demand TV and Apple devices gods, without whom I'd still be watching back to back episodes of True Blood in French (as there's not really much of a story line I found it the best thing to watch in French until I could access some British telly!) and documentaries about food wastage in India.

So there you have the reasons I'm thanking my lucky etoiles this week. I'm a lucky, lucky girl!

I also can't stop thinking about how proud Mme Holloway and Mme Baldock would be of me today... stumbling around on the streets of Paris, looking a state and ordering disgusting fast food in broken French. Hmmmmmm.

Looking for Devils in Prada

Continental hair

Bye bye Vegas hair.  Hello Paris hair!

I always knew it was all coming off, just like last time I let it get long, but this time it was just a question of when.

As I had only a short time* between Vegas and Paris I ummed and I ahhed about when to cut it all off: pre-Vegas, between Vegas and Paris, or post-Paris.

After a chat with my hairdresser we decided I needed long hair for Vegas, to facilitate TOWIE-style hair for pool parties and cocktails, and also low maintenance for all those "only 15 mins until breakfast ends/check out/to get ready for the wedding because you got engrossed in the cocktail menu next to the craps table" moments and absolutely needed a short bob for Paris.

Pretty sure it's Paris fashion law, isn't it, to have shirt hair?

Anyway, I got straight off the plane, collected our cases and car and drove like the wind (but within the spend limit, obvs) around the M25 to Chelmo, with a quick pit stop for petrol and a clothing change at BP, and Mr G dropped me off outside the hairdresser.

And off it came.

Please excuse the dazed and confused expression and jaded faced. I was indeed dazed, confused and jaded, due to six nights of Vegasness and a 10 hour cross Atlantic flight, with no sleep.

One issue... I forgot how many products and how much styling time short hair requires!

Hmph!

* at one point it was meant to be less than 24 hours, so you understand my predicament!

Out and about: Chocolate, cocktails and London!

Here are some of my favourite things...

- eating chocolate
- eating in general
- drinking cocktails
- walking around London with no particular place to be.

This weekend I partook in a combination of all three when I signed the whole family up to a chocolate walking tour with Great British Tours. Aren't I the best? The tour took us via some of my favourite chocolateries, including tastings and discounts, through Soho and the west end and it even introduced me to a couple of hidden gems!

The meeting point was the Algerian Coffee Store on Old Compton Street where our guide met us with chocolate coated coffee beans and a gigantic grin!

First stop was Hotel Chocolat where I convinced my parents to buy some chili hot chocolate...

... then on to Paul A. Young introduced us to unusual recipes such as limoncello and cucumber, pink guava and lychee, goats cheese, rosemary and lemon and Marmite truffles and Aztec hot chocolate...

... a quick pit stop at Freggo to refresh the palate with some Malbec and berries sorbet...

...a browse round the sweet counter (and a quick dash to the Christmas boutique) at Fortnum and Mason...

... a quick history lesson at Prestat...

...all ending up at Charbonnel et Walker where I stuffed my face with my favourite violet and rose cremes (Queenie and I share the same taste, you see).

After all that chocolate I was desperate for something savoury so we grabbed some mini tacos, tostadas and quesadilas at Wahaca before settling in at the secret gin garden at Carom at Meza for some floral cocktails.

All in all a fun filled day! Great British Tours also do a cupcake and macaroon tour. Guess what I'll be doing this winter...