Technical difficulties

Okay, I'm back from London - huge thanks to Mr & Mrs B for housing me, and to my many lovely friends who fed me and watered me - all much appreciated!  However, having said that, it's probably a good thing that I don't intend to go back there again until June (when I am being lured back by Ladies Day at Ascot and a friend's wedding - two excuses to wear a hat in a 10 day timeframe?  AS IF I would miss out on that!) because when I'm there I have no time to write and it's quite hard to get back into the habit of doing it again once you stop for a few days.

So it's my own fault I didn't write while there, but I am now having technical difficulties here - for some reason my wifi connection seems to have completely deserted me, which is making blogging somewhat difficult.  I am currently writing this from my landlady's son's room, because that's where I had to plug in to connect.   And he'll be home this weekend so even that won't be an option then.  I am literally being forced to go to a café to write.  And in the café one must buy something - and since I am very poor and the cheapest thing on the menu is wine, I am literally being forced to drink in order to write.  Honestly, gentle readers, the things I do, and it's all for you.  I hope you appreciate the sacrifices I make...

So, this weekend I will be blogging from a café in the heart of Paris (hopefully the nice waiter who gives me free peanuts will be working then so that I will also get to eat - yay!), with wineglass in hand.  And if the post starts off with perfect spelling and good punctuation and then degenerates into something that looks like shegoapbr drgijeroigbn irghalbi, then you'll know I might have ordered a second....or possibly third glass.  What?  I'll be writing, it's thirsty work!

Paris, je t'aime... (Part 1)

Okay, so here's the thing. I've been having a bit of a crap time since I got back to Paris from Toronto at the end of December - a combination of the post-holiday blahs, horrible weather, a terrible New Year's Eve, having no money, and a prolonged and ferocious attack of insomnia had me pretty down. However, today cheered me up immensely and was a good reminder of why I love Paris. And it's about time, because I promise you this - no one will ever give you sympathy if you moan about how hard your life is when you are lucky enough to live in Paris. And really? That's fair enough.

It was a perfect winter day: cold and crisp with bright sunshine blazing out of a clear blue sky. A lot of places look pretty under such circumstances, but Paris? Ahhhhh, pretty is not even close to being an adequate word. Anyway, I took a walk along the river and crossed the Pont Neuf to the Ile de la Cité, meandered around there and then crossed over to the Ile St-Louis, where I treated myself to a Berthillon ice cream. I don't care if it's below zero outside (which it was) or if you're broke (which I am) - if you're on the Ile St-Louis, you eat a Berthillon ice cream, bitches. It's Paris - that's just what you do.

After wandering around the island for a little while, I decided to check out a café mentioned in my guidebook (photo above). So I got a table, ordered a chocolat chaud and relaxed. It's a tiny little place, and all the tables are very close together, so I literally had a front row seat for the following. A woman came in and sat at the table across from me. A man came in and sat at a table against the back wall. That was it - no one else around. Then a second woman entered and looked around and this is, word-for-word, the conversation which ensued between her and the first woman (they spoke in French, but I will translate for you):

Woman 1: Hi, may I ask you a question?

Woman 2: Sure.

Woman 1: Do you like poetry?

Woman 2: Ummm...yes...?

Woman 1: I've just finished writing a poem, would you like to hear it?

Woman 2 (clearly a very good sport): Okay, why not?

So she joins Woman 1 at her table, they introduce themselves to each other, and then Woman 1 RECITES AN ENTIRE GODDAMN POEM TO THIS COMPLETE STRANGER!!! I have no idea if the poem was good or not, I was too busy scalding my mouth with hot chocolate in order to keep from giggling at the whole situation. Anyway, Woman 2 (who was really kind of awesome about the whole thing), was very politely appreciative and then the two of them ordered coffees and started chatting away and telling each other their life stories. I swear to you, it was so surreal it was like being in a scene from a movie. Is this how you meet people in Paris? Just accost random strangers in cafés and start reading poems to them??? Lord, I hope not - my blogging skills might be crap but my poetry skills are a lot worse!

Anyway, my fabulous day continued its fabulosity, but you will have to tune in next time to hear about the rest of it, there was just too much to include in one post...