Last news from Gluhwein kingdom

I take 5 lil minutes to answer ma coupine Dr Caso and for the pleasure to make a last bloggie for 2008 ...

We've indeed spent the week calling the insurance companies in France and Germany, and the car will be destroyed soon, we need another paper to give our agreement ...
Next step, I dunno, we've to list all what we lost and bring proofs (photos, invoices, etc), We'll do it once back in Paris.

Despite the accident, we've spent 10 wunnerful days in a Hamburg, Martin's parents helped a lot, taking care of the kids, bringing the love we needed... so after a couple of days when I felt pretty down and stressed, life's was fine again. Made some sport (ran a lot, something I never did before), went out pretty often. I'll share lots of pics once back.

The plane tickets were (much) too expensive for us so we managed to get the insurance pay for renting a car to go back to Paris.
We've rent one for 10 days, and Martin right now has just left to take it back and and then will go to another agency to rent another. We'll celebrate New Year's Eve really on midnight and not before, no doubt :)

I can hear the fireworks everywhere already and that will last the whole night, people love it here, and so do I.


We leave tomorrow early in the morning, and I'm not soooooo excited to leave Hamburg that I really like!

I wish you more than just a happy year, wish you one full of Love & good music! :P

More than just a Xmas ritual :

Wishing you some precious time with yours
Take care of your bits

love yas

Some kind of bad trip

I just take a couple of minutes (because I knowwww some of you does not go on Facebook)to tell you how bad our trip has been on our way to Hamburg.

Our car is dead, we're not (which is the miracle in the whole story)

It was 3.00am, heavy rains, we were near Dusseldorf.
Thank Gawd, I had just given the *wheel* to Martin, to sleep a bit.

We were on the highway, middle lane, on our right a truck, behind on the left lane a big BMW.
The driver of the BMW was going fast, despite the rain. Fell asleep and at full speed, changed of lane to drive into our car from behind, our speed was about 110)

The chock was terrible, dunno how Martin managed to control the no more controlable car, to cross the lanes in front of the truck and other cars.

The kids were not even hurt, whereas the back of the car, window, etc was totaly destroyed. The cops expected dead ones when they arrived.

So at 4.00am we were in the middle of nowhere, comforted by the guys that came to help. Honestly, I felt like on planet Mars.
We had lost our coats (everything just flight out of the car), clothes, Christmas presents, bottles of wine, all the paintings I had to deliver in Hamburg, computer (coats, everything into pieces), camera, all my painting equipment, etc.

Our poor car can't be saved.

But we're here, very alive. I don't sleep well, feels pretty down, but I'm fine, so happy to have my kids around! Martin's been a hero :)

Ich bin ein Hamburger (miam!)

well, at least from Saturday -and for 2 weeks- I'll be one! :)

We will leave tomorrow night by car, should be there in the morning (12 hours to go there) if we don't get caught in any snow storm (but we won't! It seems to be warmer up there at the moment)

The last days and weeks have been so busy here that it will be a most pleasant chock to arrive there and be on real holidays... with the family, with friends, with kids over excited to go up to the North (closer to ol' Santa) :-)

I wish you all happy times with those you love
Mwaaaaaaa!

A Facebook moment

I just can't help blogging this... hehe

With Mahie, we luve playing @ wordscrap' on Facebook. A kind of scrabble. Boring? no way!
We do fight hard!

We play together in French. And earlier I started a game with something that... (see the score, see the word? hehe)... I just HAD to blog! :P


click here

Starting the Christmas season with Italia!

Oh that was nice!
Yesterday we were invited to an Italian Xmas party. Among our group of friends here we get some from Italia and they decided it would be nice to make a lil something with friends before we all leave Paris to join families for Christmas.

Brilliant idea!

We had a *real* Italian meal, made by Italians... talk about Heaven!!!!
It was fantastic, and the wine... mama mia!!!

(do you understand now why I *need* to do sport? lol... our weekends are simply very terrrrrible... terribly good!)

We were 10 adults and twice more kids and after the great lunch, we had the time of our life playing some traditional Italian games like loto, etc. (happy sigh)


click here

Memorable

So I was there, with my 7cm heels... hehe
The party (Martin's company) happened in an old abbey in the middle of Paris, fantastic.
Loved the contrast between the place and a certain level of *decadence* happening there.

The atmosphere was really nice. People feeling comfortable, no dress code. About 200 people.
Excellent champagne (I was stuck to a kir royable with a yummy lovely raspberry inside), lots of it, excellent wine. Excellent everything.

The food, my friends, was .....

Oh my God, I think it was real fooding (food+feeling) ... a buffet with many guys running everywhere to please us (huhu).
And the most delicious food served in small quantity (like in spoons, etc)
but with such a variety, so many spices, and ... unexpected tastes! Fois gras, scallops, crayfish, vegetables flans, most exotic tiny brochettes, etc. Really, it was paradise for the one who luves real good stuff. Top quality time... a *ohhhhh haaaaa yummmmm*'s sucker one.

And then, still with a glass full of delicious champagne, still with my 7cm heels, I joined the dance floor with Martin and .... we had fun! Real fun!

It's just that we had to leave early... metro oblige.

... It was so cold and my feet started to hurt badly (finally! Victory on the side of the bloody heels!)... but had spent such a good time ...

I slept wunnerfully!

Ode to Betty Page

Betty Page has just died, but really the Betty Page we love died years ago, didn't she? ...

It is strange, because the *pin-up*, the icon she's been, has never been a *problem* for me. I have never seen her as an object, a toy for men. Though I think she was precisely all of that.
I'm not sure she had great fun as a pin-up... did she ever know that for many of us girls, she was an icon of freedom (at a time when nekkid women were ignored, denied, not publicly accepted), a woman proud of her own body, a woman who smiles at the cam but will never let herself tame by it? Her poses and attitudes echoing a certain happiness with life, celebration of it. (and I don't tell that she was happy here, she pretends, and that's what we get)
The more she smiles the more sexy she gets. Is Hapiness the key to sexyness? Probably for me, yes.

Anyway, she's an icon. Often inspired me in my paintings. If there's one thing I love in women, it's their feminity. Let's be sexy and proud of it.

Merci Betty **~~*^* * *

Got my Xmas present !

I swear I haven't given any candies to Ol' Santa to get my presents earlier!

It's just that my step father decided we might need some eeepc! Yup, one of these small internet books that you can carry in your handbag!

I'm so happy!

We will bring it to Hamburg and I'll definably update my facebook status (what! you're not on facebook, yet? ;-)

Anwyay, that's very cool... My step father needed a bigger one, and instead of selling it, he just gave it to us!!!!



(dancing around the totem)

Porsche

Earlier today, we were crossing a street when I asked the kids: "have you seen the tiny tiny little car there?"



Lola (6 years old) answered "Mom, it's tiny, but it's really rock and roll"!

//oO\\

Quickies & shoes

If you don't mind, I might be in the mood to write one line posts :D

I wanna talk about a lot of things, just haven't the time. So I'll make my posts shorter than usual :)

...

Tomorrow, for the first time in 6 years, we will attend the BIG *end of the year's dinner* of Martin's company.
For once I might not wear bikers' boots, but ones with high heels (wish me luck!!!)

Do you enjoy heels? (Are you that masochist? :P)
Do you ever wear them?

(Of course I ask the question to goils! .... Men ALWAYS love heels!)

R.I.P , Julia

Booo oooooooooooo

Julia died last night.

She was so cute, she was so much part of the family.
My step-father found her dead in the early morning, with the lil black sheep around her :(

I miss her, I'm sad I haven't seen her in the past weeks. She was a real brave one, she was very communicative (answered when you talked to her), she loved cuddles and I think she was like a mama for the lil ones.

That breaks my lil heart

Xmas, etc

It seems that for Lola, the real Xmas song this year is this one... she heard it once in a café where I bought some parking card, and that was enough.
Since then, she's into it!

I dunno what I'm into really at the moment. I just run. Adding regular sport to my timetable was a bit like very masochist.

And I don't stop on weekends, it's almost worst. My weekends are like lil bombs of busy-ness, I just keep running.
On Saturday, I've been to the Paris boat show, which was great! For the boats I don't know really (well I do, if you want a boat, go there, seems that there are some kind of huge discounts), but for the ol' *sailor* friends, yeah, fantastic! :P

Then we ran to Martin's company where a Christmas was organized for kids. Very nice!
(It was just a VERY bad idea to cross Paris on a December-ish Saturday!)

Then Yesterday I had much sport, then spent the afternoon with an old friend of us. And by the way, if the Gods would really want to please me for once, give her the strength to make the right decisions!

Do you have plans for Xmas? Joining your family? Not celebrating it?

End of next week, woooosh we go to Hamburg.
And THAT is very exciting! I can't wait, we're going to spend 2 fantastic weeks with my beloved in-laws and relatives, and friends there of course! Can't wait. It's gonna be exotic for the lil Frenchie that I am.

The kids have made their letter weeks ago to Sandy Claus....... asking for bloody DS ..(hehe that was for Mahie :P).. which makes us sweat pretty much!

And what would YOU want for Christmas?
I would love fitness clothes.... hehe... yeah I know I'm a desperate case!
Shoes, too, naturally... hmmm... a nice restaurant maybe?! yeahh! hehe... no, but really what makes Christmas wunnerful... it's the kids. They're magic. They do bring the magic!

Operation Rescue Major Tom

Here's the last one hanging on the walls of the gallery :-)

I had the topic in mind since months. Took me a few hard hours. But got what I wanted!


click here

Petit business

Well, I'm quite proud and very very happy... in the past 3 weeks I sold 4 paintings!





I think there the lil "books" I made helped a lot, people sit down, look at them, and again, and again, they compare, and suddenly they fell in love with one painting.

That's great!

I've also another order for candle holders, and that is also really great!

Just have to find the time for biz!!!

gimme fuel gimme fire

It's getting hard to find time for blogging (yet still lots of time to blabla on facebook :P)

I'm slightly less motivated ... like blogging more than once a week would be way too much for me.

I think though blogging is very special... when you blog, you really sit down, relax, type and share bits of yourself. (Usually) you don't play, you don't pretend, you are yourself.

That's precious.

It's just that after almost 8 years talking of the xmas tree in December, the good jokes on April's fool, etc... there are some topics you're not so excited to talk about! :P

So, I just need a ..... *Xmas tree* break, won't talk of it! :P

Well, I could change my mind there!

For me, sure thing, Daniel Craig, despite (or because??) his body-builder shape, is the James Bond I really love.

But then, when I see this fantastic pic of Sean C., I think sex-appeal might be where we do not expect it...

... Or not!!!


from here