Sassiland

Some Photos From our California Sojourn So Far

No time to post, but here are a few photos that show a bit of what we've been up to, and with whom!

Aidan with chalk on her face from her backyard patio drawing.

We're off to San Diego today!

Ca m'eneeeeeerve

For once, it's not me complaining.   "Ca m'enerve,"  -- in French, that bugs me, or that irritates me, or that annoys me, or that makes me mad, or that drives me crazy -- a song and video by a certain Helmut Fritz, is the number one video in France these days.  And it's quite hilarious!

Here's a link to the video on YouTube.   I also think it's funny that it's got this totally catchy dance tune.

The 'character' in the video is Helmut Fritz, who is pudgy but dressed to show his bling, aviator glasses, gold 1980s high-tops and all.  In  his video, he appears in his very Jacques-Garcia-ish salon, taking tea and complaining about all the things that annoy him -- basically he keeps getting dissed all over town, and the beautiful people won't accept him as one of their own.  Sketches of all his rejection appear again and again.

original French lyrics after the jump

I go to (Hotel) Costes to have a drink
But the hostess blows me off
I don't have a reservation
I leave, -- I look like a dunce
That annoys me, yeah, that annoys me

I need to get a gift
from Zadig and Voltaire
I want that shirt that says "Rock"
But it's sold out

That annoys me
All those girls who wear their bangs like Kate Moss
That annoys me
Lipstick is over, now it's all lip gloss
That annoys me
Everyone who fits in slim jeans size 0
That annoys me
One sole look at their thong and I feel like hitting them
Scheiße!  (yes, in german)

In front of the VIP club there are several Lamborghinis
I arrive on my Vespa
They tell me I can't go in
But that makes me mad
I go into Weston (shoes), there's a blondie on the phone
She asks, "Can I help you?"
I didn't ring you!
She bugs me, my God she bugs me
I drank the Millionaire's mojito
In the carré, I threw up all over the ground
I lost my ticket for the coat check
I couldn't find a taxi
ACH! It's war!!

That bugs me
All those girls who have bangs like Kate Moss
That bugs me
Lipstick is finished, now it's all gloss
That bugs me
All those girls that drink rosé champagne
That bugs me
To forget that your feet hurt in your Jimmy Choos

(THEN MY FAVORITE PART:  The music stops for a moment, and there he is with a beautiful round box in his hands, picking out bonbons)
That bugs me
All those people who line up at Ladurée
All that just for macarons  (he says with a sneer)
(Then the camera pulls back and we see he's sitting, fully clothed, in a bathtub FILLED with macarons of every flavor and color)
Well, okay . . .
It appears that they're good.

That bugs me
All those girls who dance on the dance floor like they're princesses
That annoys me
All those girls like you who listen to the music way too loud
That bugs me
Me, I go up to see them and I tell them avec le cric "That bugs me"

All those girls who dance on the dance floor like they're princesses
That bugs me
If you have the black (credit) card
That bugs me
ah, bah, you'll see their butt
That bugs me
All those girls like you who listen to the music way too loud

800 Years of History of a Village in an Hour-and-a-Half Walk

It's been a couple of weeks, but I couldn't NOT post about our wonderful walk with Lindy's father to learn about the history of Pirton, where he and Mrs. Cameron moved Lindy and her brothers some 30 (?) years ago.  Pirton is in Herts, and the village is mentioned in the Domesday book! 

After the beautiful breakfast that Lindy's mother laid out for all of us on Monday morning, L-A and I joined her father on the village walk.  (Marco was still sleeping, Lindy and Nicole both went running, and Sinclair went to a pub and spilled a pint of beer on himself.  In other words, everyone was acting their typical selves.) 

So Lindy's father Craig took me and L-A out on the walk of the village.  The day dawned a bit gray, but pleasant enough, and as we walked, the weather continued to improve.  In any event, the gardens were in full fettle (how I wanted to say that!), and a great part of the fun was stopping to talk to various neighbors and townspeople.

 

So we headed out through the Camerons' garden. Their home, Pear Cottage, sits near a large duck pond (which, according to Mr. Cameron, made the purchase of the house a given when the then-young children spied it all those years ago).  In fact, he pointed out to me and L-A, it had served the Blacksmith as a place to plunge newly-made wagon wheels so the wood expanded to fit the rims properly after having been inserted.

 

The former blacksmith's:

We then passed this lovely home, where the garden caretaker was out and about.  This was Mr. Cameron's first introduction of us of the morning.  Lots of folks were out working in the yard as it was a bank holiday. Note the thatched roof and beautiful half-timbered construction.  The gentleman was preparing for an open gardens weekend to be held soon -- maybe this weekend!

 

Next we crossed the street to meet a lovely lady (whose photo I didn't take) in her 80s; she was waiting for a friend to come pick her up to take her to lunch.  She lives here, in this exquisitely beautiful and simple home -- the home in which she was born (at the time, it was her grandparents' home).

 

She had the most elegant accent, and was full of charm, and then totted off to lunch when her friend arrived.  Lovely!

Then, we saw this sign, which I recognized from Carolyn's exploits in England:  Public footpath!

Here, we crossed into a field -- in fact, the old village, or bailey.

 

Mr. Cameron described to us how Pirton was situation almost at the crossroads of two important paths -- the Icknield Way and  . . I admit I forgot the second path.  But the village was strategic enough that in medieval times it had its castle -- the Motte.  (not to be confused with moat!).  One could see where the early villagers had built up the ground to place the castle (of wood) on higher ground as a look-out.  The castle was never converted to stone and thus eventually rotted away.

Heading up to envision ourselves up on the castle grounds!

 

On this map (a replica of which appears here), you can see the notation at the bottom that Henry II ordered over 300 unlicensed castles to be dismantled around 1300 a.d., leading to the decline of Pirton.

There's no way I can begin to cover all the information Mr. Cameron conveyed to us on our walk, so let me choose a few little bits.  Here's the crest of Pirton:

 

Yes, those are stalks of wheat.  Pirton was a center for the platting of straw, which was then taken to another nearby town that specialized in making the hats!

There were many charming houses with wonderful lush gardens:

 

The pictures don't begin to do them justice!

A former pub converted into a house (Mr. Cameron said they've been in the village long enough to have seen buildings be converted from business to houses and back again.  Their own home used to be a butcher's !)

 

The Motte and Bailey pub!

Unfortunately, this artist didn't have her studio open, but I loved her artistic vision and execution!

To learn more about Pirton, look here.

Back to Work for (Gasp!) Four Days a Week

The bookstore asked yesterday if I'd be willing to work Thursdays and Fridays for the rest of the summer after I come back from the U.S. in addition to my regular Saturday/Sunday schedule.  Of course I said yes.  But heavens, the idea of working four days a week!!! (wink)  It's going to be an adjustment for me.

The timing is good too because while Kaplan was very productive for me this past month, the summer means that there will be almost no hours with them (with the rentrée, it will get busy busy busy).  So this will help keep my income from dropping too precipitously.

So we'll see if I've got what it takes to work four days in a row.  What a funny thought.

Friday Morning with Another Dear Friend

I got to see another friend!  Another case of way too short (in this case, literally just two hours) but also a case of so-good-to-physically-see-her-and-be-able-to-hug-her. 

My friend Lauren and her daughter Rion were flying through Paris on their way from Cameroon (where they're stationed with the Foreign Service) home to Boston.  Husband Matt was still in Cameroon; he will join them in the States in a week and a half or so. 

Matt and Lauren were the first friends I made upon arriving in Paris in 2004; Matt and I worked together in the same office (and by the time our two years were done, we actually had to *share* an office for a time due to construction in our suite of offices). And, as they point out, they were newlyweds when we met, and I was "their" first friend (as in the first person with whom they as a couple became friends -- I wasn't a legacy of either one of them).  It was Matt & Lauren who I hung out with the first night I avoided Marco, wondering why I hadn't had the courage to call back that guy and set up that date -- and they who heard the tales after I subsequently did go out with him the next night.  Matt and I were so close that Lauren started calling me his 'office spouse' -- a term we later saw validated in the Wall Street Journal, no less!  She would call up to the office and say "Office spouse, this is home spouse.  Where is he?"

We all went back to DC at the same time so they were bedrocks for me during that terrible 18 months while I was back in DC, trying to get approval for Marco to come to the States, hating my job, and just generally being miserable.  I stayed with them, dog-sat for them, and they gave us a wedding party on Memorial Day weekend in 2007.

The last time I saw them was around this time last year, when they had a few days in Paris for meetings before their posting to Cameroon.  They came over for dinner, and I got to meet their new baby daughter Rion.

Now Rion is more than a year old; the spitting image of her father with her mother's coloring, and they are expecting a second baby in November -- a boy.

Yesterday morning we gathered at Lauren's friend's Heather's apartment to share a couple of precious hours in between her flights.  So here was my yesterday morning:

 

 

 

Another morning that did the soul good.  I sure miss Matt and Lauren (and Rion!).  It was so good to have even a little time together yesterday.