Amazing Graze...

...Or Amazing Place, either way it was a beautiful wedding! The place was just like out of a fairytale and the bride too - looking like a princess. The ceremony was in a beautiful church in Milan and the party in Villa Panza in Varese, just outside Milan.

We had a great time with the people on our table which we'd never met before. Actually we only knew the bride and groom in advance. The whole evening we talked to a really nice couple and it was one of those times where you get along straight away and realise you might become good friends. Time will tell I guess...

Summer in the Fast Lane

Have you all seen the MasterCard adverts? I have a new idea for them: Having your best friend visiting your expat home in France... - Priceless!!

Heidi and I had a great time the past 7 days. Well, I did at least so maybe it's better asking her for her opinion. The general activities were: 1) beach, sun, wine 2) beach, sightseeing, wine 3) resolving the world's problems on the beach and reading on the terrace with a glass of pastis ... and the days flew by. Oh, not to forget she is a great shopping support - she'll convince you to buy an expensive leather handbag with matching shoes any day! (I'm SO looking fabulous when I'm in Milan this evening - a bit Sex & the City Carrie-like with new Manolos)

So I thought I'd have more time to blog lately. There are posts I've had maturing in my little head for some time and I wanted to share but unless I have an Internet connection in the Azores that might be difficult. L needs to work there and I'm there for moral support and working my tan.

Seriously, I'm really curious to see the volcanic islands and I've planned to rent a bike or car to get around. The Azores (Portuguese islands) are usually the last islands for sailboats crossing the Atlantic and there's a famous bar there called Peter's Bar where the boat members gather and leave the name of their boat on the walls. The islands are also famous for their flora since it's hot and sunny in the summers but humid. Hopefully I can tell you more about it when I get back or if there's an Internet point in the hotel (crossing my fingers!).

Now I'm off to manicure my hands before we're off to Milan for a wedding before taking the plane Monday morning to the Azores. Pheeew, life is busy for a girl with new leather shoes and a matching handbag... :)

Provencal Pleasures

A great advantage of living in the South of France is a large choice of local produce like fresh fruit and veges from the markets. Or like us, buying a house which turned out to have Pandora's garden - with fruity surprises all around. The last discovery was the apricot tree which gave us exactly two apricots and which tasted so, so good. Strangely enough the tree has survived our frenzied cuttings when the garden decided to turn jungle on us. We've just learned that fruit trees needs special care and can otherwise die if they are cut in a growth period.

The previous owners left a garden full of whatever plants and fruit trees. It's by all means not a big garden but it's rather packed with a lemon-, pear-, 2 apple trees, a hazelnut-, fig-, plum-, apricot- and a peach tree placed around the house. This might sound a lot, but it's only the peach tree and the lemon tree giving us a good quantity as the other trees seems to have a disease making the leaves black and curled into balls. Considering our gardening skills we'll hand that problem to a gardener this autumn.

Last year the peach tree gave us 14 kg of fruit, this year 16 kg and what on earth can you do with so much fruit apart from making fresh organic peach jam? Luckily my mother in law came that weekend to help us peel some of the peaches. Here are a few photos: From the garden to my Provencal kitchen and into jars.

Think Again

There are so many cool photographic blogs out there and every day I take a magnificent tour around the world. However, on my many trips I've noticed that the photos I've liked the most have been taken with a Hasselblad camera. I had a vague idea of how the old film version of it looked and googled it to get some more information.

First link up was the right one, a little click and I saw this text:

If you thought you couldn't afford a Hasselblad. Think again.

Now that made me kind of hopeful. Until I saw the bottom of the page and I started laughing because for the small sum of €11,995 a Hasselblad H3DII-31 could be yours.

For sure it won't be mine :))

See my New Bathroom

Yesterday they finished, well almost, the bathroom. That means I can now decorate the bathroom with curtains and new towels. And most importantly, I can have a shower in my new spacious shower cabinet. *Happy Sigh*

The tiles are 20x40 cm, and the mosaic is rectangular as well. I wanted a sober colour scheme which I think I achieved compared to the pink flowered bathroom it used to be. *Another happy sigh*

As for the bathtub, it's still broken. The guy's been telling me for weeks that he'll talk to his friend who knows a guy who can fix these things. But I needed to "understand that these things take time and it's complex". Bullsh**. I called Ideal Standard today explaining the problem and within a minute I was told that a repair kit is available with the exact colour coded paint as my deep wonderful bathtub. Now it's ordered and on it's way.

It's been 2,5 months and I've learned a lot:

Lesson 1: Next time I'll be the most irritating and controlling client ever.
Lesson 2: Don't be so confident that the contractor know what he's doing.
Lesson 3: Don't count on other people to repair what they have broken - without proving that they're incompetent first. (Sounding bitter, no. Sounding pissed off, yes!)

Oh, and the tap is still leaking after the guy apparently fixed it twice. Hmmm...

I. Need To. Have...

I was surprised to find so many things that I liked today considering most shops also dig out whatever's been lying around the storeroom for the past decade. And I'm not a big shopper in general. For instance, I have a strained relationship with shoes, trousers and underwear. Either it's a pain to try on 19 bras to find one fitting without making me feel like I've swapped breasts with Jordan, or the perfect shoes are too small in n° 38, too big in n° 39 and 38.5 never exist. Or all trousers are made for 2 meter tall models!!

Shopping. Not only once today but twice. A friend rang and told me she managed to get off work early and wondered if I'd come along to the sales. It wasn't hard to convince me. Really. A few things for L and a few things for me and these babies. It was love at first sight. The shopkeeper told me it was a great brand in France(?). Whatever. It was a perfect fit and a "I need to have" situation and that means I don't care what the shopkeepers say as long as my Visa is with me.

Les Soldes

I don't know why but every region in France have a different start date for the summer sales. Promotions and sales are strictly regulated and shops get a heavy fine is they get caught starting ahead of the rest of the commerce. Here it starts today and I'm off to catch some bargains hopefully. However, I never seem to find anything when I decide to go shopping but if I just happen to be in town for a stroll I find heaps of stuff. So I'm bringing my camera, so if nothing else I can get a shot or two that might be suitable for the expo in September. (Ah, and that's a post I've been planning for some time now and haven't yet taken the time to write).

Stay tuned, I promise some more interesting posts shortly.