... and a happy new year !

I may, or may not have used the same post title last year, but, well, it's seasonal. And appropriate.

In any case : Happy New Year reader ! I am off to Berlin, to celebrate the new year with my friends and enjoy a bit of the German atmosphere. First time in Berlin in my whole life, though I've studied German for... wait... 12 years. Quite a lot von die Motivation !

My plans for next year : Eat less, work more and spreaaaad love. What about yours ?

I wish you all the best, anything you might wish for yourself (except if it involves whatever form of death and destruction), and love, health, glory and riches on top of that !

Fahlala lala, lala, la, la !

** MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU **

I wish you all the best, a very, very merry Christmas, and also this :

Loooove all around !

The world is all around you...

Hej! Hej hej hej! I am back from Copenhaguen where I spent these last ten days for the Klimaforum09. It. Was. Awesome. And really weird sometimes. A mixture of hope and despair and stress and love and hate and tiredness and music and noise and laughter and tears, and yes I do believe I'm out of clichés XD

It was very exhilarating and if you add all the excitement to the message and the depressing-ness of the situation, you end up with being perpetually on the verge of some kind of break down. The kind of state where you start crying because your keys fell to the very bottom of your handbag, and you fall in love with anyone who says hi to you in the corridor. The kind of state where you want to hug people half the time, and kick the furniture and scream the rest of it. Nothing in between. It is all very exciting. And very tough to describe. But here are 5 things I wanted to tell you about more particularly. My top 5 Copenhaguen "Here's to".

1) Here's to guitar playing hippies Yes indeed. Guitar playing hippies. Here's to vegan people, here's to the Via Campesina, here's to love and vegetable soup. Here's to woolen hats, here's to yogis, here's to trees and raisin bran, here's to organic coffee beans and to activist T-Shirts, here's to that lady from Tibet, and the other one from Bolivia, here's to you all who came and went and changed the way I see the world like nothing that happened to me before. Here's to me becoming a little less cynical and a little more sorry.

2) Here's to the danish pølse (and to those danish letters with the slashes and the ° on them...) Pølse is a type of special Danish hot-dog, with pickles and three types of sauce on top. They are very inexpensive, and they include some meat. Pølse are murder. Here's to vegans indeed, but I needs my proteins.

Pølse saved me from turning into a turnip at day 5, or falling into the dark pit of vegetable-spread induced depression.

Look Marion! Cool stuff on the walls in Copenhaguen too!

3) Here's to the Danish people in general, to their English skills which helped me a lot throughout the trip, to my hosts who were very, very kind and accepted to give me a bed for 10 days even though I came home at crazy hours every night. I need to find some kind of karmic offset for my hosts.

4) Here's to the Danish currency, which also saved me from starvation (had the prices been in Euros, I would probably have eaten nothing but the free vegetable soup they gave at the conference center). Honestly, Denmark, what's with the crazy prices ? 5€ for a coffee ?

5) Here's to the booth technician P, J from GoodPlanet, and the grey-haired lady who believed our tales of peanut and chocolate-fueled interpretation and brought us sweets and water all the time : Just seeing them got me in a good mood. I really like those people who are always, always in a communicative good mood.

I forget many, many things like the guy in the black hood talking about "ze pipole of ze Bretagna", the øko-chocolate cake of the conference center, my pillow and my blanket, the little christmas gnomes they have all over the place in Copenhaguen, my awesome lipstick from Japan which helped a lot with the frostbites, MSN and IT in general, all my colleagues and cinnamon rolls, but if I go on for too long, I'll start crying and saying things like "we are all part of one big human community" or "spread love" and then we will all be sorry .

PS: Sorry about the layout of this post, blogger seems to have gone wild

In the box right now

Hi reader! I'm writing here straight from my hotel room in Le Mans. I'm so glad to have a blog, sometimes... It's been a nice working day, and everyone was really nice, only I must admit to feeling slightly stupid in comparison with the experienced interpreters I worked with today. But I learnt plenty, and it was really cool. I left my hometown in the morning, (at 5.30, in fact. Too morningy for me, I am afraid) and thought about my blog in the train, since I stupidly forgot my Dorothy L Sayers at home. I hate forgetting my book at home, especially when it's as great as this one. But let's get back to business : I have a new list ! The top 5 amazing things I learnt over these past two weeks. I learnt many more things besides these five, but these are the ones I feel like talking about.

1. On the latest album of my favourite French singer, there's a duo with Eagle Eye Cherry. Now. This number 1 thing implies my admitting to the world that my favourite French singer is Gerald De Palmas. And I know for a fact that most of my readership (one is a person, two is a "-ship") knows what De Palmas sings, and is familiar with his lyrics. But I have no shame, and I love De Palmas. He's great, he is!

The reason why it's amazing that he sings a duo with Eagle Eye Cherry now, is that when I was at the end of junior high (i.e. about 10 years ago), my very very first pop-rock concert was a double bill Eagle Eye Cherry and Gerald De Palmas. It was sooooo great. I went with my sister M and my best friend V, and had such a great evening. I saw De Palmas and Eagle Eye Cherry afterwards too, but each in their own concert. So it's really strange that they should record a track together now, but it makes me very happy. Besides, it's a really cool track. Called Pandora's Box. I likes it. Makes me happy. Listening to it right now and shaking my head like those plastic dogs they put in cars...

2. Reading a book by Jane Austen is just not the same as reading another book. Now I knew that already, but last week, I read "Persuasion" in a beautiful room with golden chandeliers and portraits of dashing officers on the walls, and then I had two gin tonics, and then I went completely crazy. The kind of crazy where you pretend you are slightly lifting the long skirt of your dress when going up the stairs so that you wont step on it, even though you are wearing jeans. The kind of crazy where you can't help smiling when you remember about the "you pierce my soul" part, even though you are on the subway. Aaaaah, my. Jane Austen. One more person I'd like to thank if I ever go to heaven.

3. A good reason for tall people to wear nice shoes. I have noticed in Paris lately, and very often before, that people tend to look at my feet when I get up. Now I might be paranoid, but I can't help thinking that they are checking if I'm wearing heels. So, I figure, it's a good reason to have nice shoes. And yes, I am just trying to justify buying two pairs in two days.

4. If you are doing something silly in the street, there will be someone to watch you. Say you are in a small town, where hardly anyone is out after 10 p.m. except for you, apparently, since it's midnight and you're going home trying to be furtive as a ninja so maybe you can startle someone who's just like you, except going the other way.

Say there's a little chain dangling from the top of a shop window. Say you want to try and see if you can touch it, and then you jump a little and make a little jingle-noise with the chain. Well, statistically there is a 100% chance for a parked car to materialize right there on the spot, with a guy inside, and then you look ridiculous. And it really doesn't go with the vampire image you are trying to have when walking alone at midnight. But then again. Who knows. Maybe vampires play silly games in nightly cities all the time. If I were one, I know I would.



5. I can eat a shrimp with a knife and a fork and not use my fingers. What the mind can do... :)



Have a nice day !

Rows and rows of big dark clouds

It's Sunday. No big and interesting adventure ever happened on a Sunday. I hate Sundays. I don't really, cause they also mean sleeping till 11 a.m., only since I don't really have a job these days, I can pretty much sleep all I want any day of the week, which robbed sundays of their sole purpose. And outside of family reunions, I really do hate sundays, because there is nothing interesting to do on a sunday, and I don't know why, but they seem to be rainy all the time. So today's top 5, in honour of Crap-Sunday-Weather, will be the top 5 things I sould remember not to do when I am down on a sunday, together with possible solutions. I do not actually believe there is a cure to sunday crap-ness, but you never know. There we go. I should not :

1. Listen to the music I want to listen to. What I should do is choose whatever track I feel like listening, and then pick its exact opposite. I should avoid, in particular, listening to sad tunes (it only ever makes things worse. Patty Griffin nearly killed me today. By the way, about Patty Griffin... Is it cool to listen to Patty Griffin ? I like it, but I also have to be pointed out what's cool, so I'd really like to have your opinion... Long Ride Home is such a nice song...)

Also, listening to rock music that you believe will make you more... say tonic and... wake you up is not a good solution. I tried the Babyshambles (whom I really, really love), and all it did was adding a wish to kick the furniture and punch innocent walls to a feeling of down-ness. Whatever you call it. It's no good.

Because then either you stay aggressive till it's time to go to bed, or you do punch a wall, and then you hurt your hand, and then you feel so stupid you want to punch yourself. I would say... stupid hip hop stuff. Or maybe also "Superman (It's not Easy)" by Five for Fighting. But that might just be me. Cause it's a sad song, but it makes me feel happy, somehow. Scouting for Girl also does the trick (especially "James Bond", which is really cool).

2. Go back to bed and do nothing. Then I feel bad because I haven't done anything worthwhile with my day and it adds guilt to the lot. Baaad idea.

3. Start making a complicated recipe that I always wanted to try. Are you crazy, Reader? On a gray sunday under the sign of Craponus, roman God of failures? Usually, I find out that I am missing a key ingredient AFTER I melted half a pound of butter. Then what do you do with half a bloody pound of melted butter? Drink it? So no complicated recipe.

Then again, you might never have thought of baking a cake just because you're down, but that's what comes up first when I think about things I could do when I am bored. It's also valid for any creative work. Start with what you do have, and then figure out what you could do with it should be the general guideline.

4. Procrastinate. Cause it's sunday and you're supposed to rest and you're entitled to do nothing. No good at all. The logical thing is to start on the most boring task you can think of. Like... I dunno... cleaning the windows. Because, look at it this way : you are already bored to death doing nothing, so why not go on being bored to death, but at least figure you've done something worthwhile at the end of the day? (There, even I would argue that cleaning windows is really not worthwhile at all as long as you can see through them. But I'm sure you see what I mean).

5. Go. On. Facebook. Going on Facebook when you are bored will only EVER make things worse. I don't know why I like Facebook so much. I think I like the Facebook pages of other people so much that I pretend I like it myself in order to absorb some of their coolness... Doesn't work. Three hours spent on FarmVille are a good equivalent to drinking half a pound of melted butter.

Now, reader, time for me to follow my own advice and go 'glossarize'. I promise I'll write something a little more... interesting and cool next time. When the sunday afternoon jinx is gone again. Have a nice week-end!! Hu hu hu... that sounds kind of cynical now, doesn't it? Well go ahead, then! Clean the windows!!

You make my dreams come true

Hey reader !!

My sister F is going to Japan tomorrow (Bon voyage, F !! Keep breathing until you're on the plane, and then everything will be fine. You are a tree. Your roots go deep, deep in the earth, and you feel the wind in your leaaaaaaaaaaves. No? Ok, then...) and the other day, when she came to visit, she told us about two of her favourite movie lines ever. Now. Is that not a great idea for a top 5 ? It is. Let me not forget it is. But it is not today's. (Feintés :D)

Today's top 5 is also a movie-related top 5, concerning "those moments that make you shiver even long after you have watched the movie". Please, please, for my sake, read the top 5 rules. I probably forgot great ones. And also, please, please, tell me which in the comments.

So. Here goes. (Oh, and I make no claim to originality). (Oh, and now that I think of it, possible spoilers ahead)

1. The Dead Poet's Society (unexpected, huh?). At the end. I love the movie, I love that scene, and it makes me shiver just thinking about it right now. You know which scene I mean, I'm sure, and I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, do.

2. The shower scene in Casino Royale. Now Casino Royale is hardly a "favourite movie ever" candidate, but that scene ?! That scene is wonderful. I told you about it already I know. But let me tell you about it once more. Eva Green (oh, if I just could look like Eva Green, just for a minute) has killed a man. It was self defense, and she had no choice, but still. She killed a man, and she's traumatized. James Bond (yeah, OK, I say Eva Green and James Bond. Indulge me.) comes up to her room to see if she's OK (This is getting real long, but I love it so...) and he finds her sitting under a cold shower in her wondrous dress. Now what does James Bond do ?

Does he take her out of the shower and dry her hair ?

No he does not. He sits next to her under the shower, keeping his expensive leather shoes on, because does he care about his expensive leather shoes ? No, he does not. And then he takes her in his arms and turns on the hot water tap to make her warmer. I can hear you hardcore James Bond fans at the back going "Sean Connery would have thrown her a blanket and poured himself a drink". To you I say : "You do not exist, I only ever have 2 readers, whom I both know, and who are no hardcore James Bond fans". And "I don't care. I like Daniel Craig 100 times better".

3. The prison scene in Dark City. I don't remember the movie so clearly, to tell you the truth, even though I remember it was great, but that scene is carved in my memory for ever. He's in prison, and she comes to visit him ("he" being Rufus Sewell, and "she" being Jennifer Connelly --If only I could look like Jennifer Connelly...--) and he's got the power to change reality, and he shatters the parlour's glass, just so that he can kiss her. OK. Those "shiver" scenes are always big, girly love scenes. Breaking news, I'm a girl.

4. Collision. Now it's not a scene, it's a movie. But there are at least 5 scenes in that movie alone that make me shiver just thinking about them. My favourite one involves Sandra Bullock and her cleaning lady, but I cannot say more, because 95% of my readership has never seen the movie (in spite of my insistance, pleas and numerous begging sessions). I guess I might have spoilt it for them.

5. The scene in Amelie when she bakes her cake at the end. A French movie in a top 5 is not a usual thing. But then again, Amelie is not a usual movie. Anyway, she bakes a cake and imagines her love is at the door. Then it turns out he really is. Might be because I've baked so many cakes and imagined my love bringing me the missing ingredient so many times without him ever showing up at the door that seeing the scene was kind of like having a wish granted. I love that movie.

Now, reader, I have to go, because a top 5 includes... well... 5 things, so mission complete, and also because lunch is ready and I should go take it out of the oven. Weirdly enough, I now really, really want to see Sense and Sensibility. Do you ?

PS: The title is tacky, but the song is cool. Have you seen 500 days of Summer ?

Ashes to ashes

Well reader, it's me again! I'm coming back from my first international business trip to Lille. What do you mean, "it's not international if you stay in France" ? What do you mean "we don't give a rat's ass"? Have you been watching Craig Ferguson again, reader? Oh no, wait. That's me. Guess I'm talking to myself again...

Anyway. First mission complete, it was really nice and interesting and I love my job. Did I tell you already? Well, I do, anyways. And while going to Lille (and coming back from Lille, which included missing my stupid train because of my stupid alarm clock and waiting for three hours at the stupid Lille train station in a stupid café and having to pay for my stupid ticket twice) I watched videos on my laptop (which I had probably brought with me because a part of me just knew I could not catch a train before 7 a.m.)

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 (while going to Lille. That's a paragraph ago. I know I should go see a doctor about that brackets issue...). What I mean to say is: I watched the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 and THE WHOLE season 1 of Ashes to Ashes. And I just thought I should tell you that it was great.

Both were great.

And I will never, ever understand why shows like Smallville manage to stay on air for years on end, and shows like Dollhouse and Firefly get cancelled in a jiffy. Bad ratings. For DOLLHOUSE! It's great! It's fantastic! It's moving, it's original, it's funny, it's sad and I love it. I hope it's going to keep things up until the end, which I know to be near. So here's to Joss Whedon, and I hope he keeps up the good work for years to come, even if it's just one season at a time.

But let us not be bitter, and let me tell you more about Ashes to Ashes (nothing whatsoever to do with Joss Whadon there. It's an English show). It's a Life on Mars spin-off. Or a follow-up, I don't quite know which, but it's really good in any case. It's the story of a single mother who gets shot in the head (things are starting out great for her...) and who is sent back in time to 1981. She doesn't know if she's dreaming or if it's some kind of paranormal time travelling thing, but in any case, she knows for a fact that she's one second away from death in her real life, and she still wants to get back to her daughter.

You might or might not enjoy the main character being a little too hysterical for my taste, (even though she plays really well), but not liking Gene Hunt (who is about as unlikable as they get, since he is racist, homophobic, bitter and rude) is a real challenge. I don't know what it is with English series these days, but between Dr Who, Life on Mars and this one, I just can't wait for the next one to come up.


Anyway. I guess this is all for today. I hope you are well, and I hope you managed to follow. Next time, I promise, less brackets and more interesting stuff. I know I can do it.

PS: We do have TGVs in France. The steam train thing is just because my TGV just looked like a weird rectangle.