Another Day....

Reading Paul Auster's New York Trilogy , with my financial anxiaties and longing to be away from this city are making me rather glum at the moment.DF's mother is sick in hospital. So the meeting of the parents, that we have planned for months is probably cancelled not to mention that I really worry for her and hope she will be better. Of course I'm still loking forward to a week of freedom back home not to mention all the things we have to organize but it dampens the mood that she isn't well.

On a minor but to me uite important detail the fact that his parents are'nt coming eans also that the fabric for the girls isn't going to arrive in Budapest on time ... and so goes another thing to organize.

I have been sending my cv's to Brussel job offerings for the last few days but haven't yet had a respnse , on the other hand french recruiters called me again with an opportunity here at the Bourse. Not completely my cup of tea, but if it pays better and means I don't have to brave the RER every day I'm all for it.Just have to find a way to go from my working place to the oher end of the city in 45 minutes for the interview on Thursday. Which means that I will be late for an interview ...again , oh the joy of interviewing whilst being in a job...

To get me out of my depressed pit this morning I was imaginig what I'd do if money or responsibilites wouldnt be of importance. I guess I'd buy a farm in Canada put up a few geese and mules , then have a kid, pick up my camera, travel and write books about it. Not lonely planet style but the old fashioned travel-diary books with collages in them a la Peter Beard. I would also give DF enough money so that he could open his own restaurant wherever he wanted. I guess that would be his money-doesn't-matter dream. (and yes, despite all the moaning I know that we aren't the worst of people on earth)

On a more earth bound note , I spent an hour browsing through the Peter Beard giant book by Taschen last weekend so if anyone out there cares to give me a 4000euro birthday gift thats my tip.

pictures from google, the oh-so-handsome Peter Beard and one of his works

Have been negligent of the blog.I just needed time to process it all, since we arrived back from my mothers wedding in Haarlem ( close to Amsterdam) I've had a nightmare if an interview and building work in the apartment amongst other things.

I truly thank GOD its Friday , and had the most relaxing eve.Love Friday nights , its the great ME time as DF usually working and I'm completely relaxed in the knowledge of having two days of fredom in front of me. Met DF for a drink after which he was off to work.I was planning to go check out the Grace Kelly exhibition at Hotel de Ville but got there too late, so picked up a magazine, a bubble tea at zen zoo and spent two blissful hours reading in the Jardin de Palais Royal. I always tell myself that I should go to the parcs more often but somehow never manage to do it. Except finally today. It kind of remined me of the times whe I was single and just hung out in cafe's on my own.

My mom's weding by the way was great, very low key with only the two of them , me and my stepdads daughter (now my half-sister, wow!)and my fiancee. It was lovely though cause whatever emotion you can get out of a mairie wedding they did. The dutch guy marrying them in three languages was very sweet told the story of how they met and what R. loves about my mom and even read a Dutch poem , that he also had found in a Hungarian translation!Then we all went to the town marketplace and had champagne and the groom had a beer and after that for amazing Indonasian dinner, ate the menu from top to bottom and went back to the hotel and to bed by 9pm :-) not a surprise we were all exhausted from catching flights/ trains around 4-5am that day.

next day we went to the beach where R. grew up , it was windy, stormy and grey and I absolutely loved it!! I have a thing for beaches when its stormy, almost prefer it to the tropical ones.

Oh and then this week there was also a interviewing for job offer goin on. but thats a story for next time, till then i leave u with some photos. ..

Haven't written in a week so thought I'd pop by just for a quick update before the weekend as we are off to Amsterdam / Haarlem where my mom's civil ceremony-wedding takes place.

Good wedding related news is that my mom got the things the weding venue manager said confused and though they are revamping the park next year the big proper building work will only take place in 2010 . Phew ,huh who cares as long as it doesn't put my wedding date or place in question.

On another front a day after having placed my updated cv on monster again I got an interview which took place today after work. It was only the preliminary interview with the agency so nothing certain at all yet , all I kno its some boring company in export, just as far away from home mostly french team , but on the upside quite a bit better paid. Oh well I hope I'll get the choice in any case, as things are a bit dire at work , feeling a bit like last man standing with half the troup gone for holliday the other half giving birth or being fired. The joys of a french workplace...Things should pick up in September again and my cv is quite good, I'm hopeful.

Speaking of French I guess its time to sound off here about something that's been bugging me. The poor quality of french men!!! Oh there is nothing wrong superficially , except those 16 year olds hoarding allover the city with hair like cocks and jeans so skinny you can see their veins popping ... but hey I was about to bitch about the men not the boys, Cause lately it seems to me that Paris has become the place where chivalry comes to die.I know I'm from a supposedly 'uncultured ' eastern european country , but seriously Hungarian men might be machos and not of the most sharp kind ,but they do (most of them ) still have some of the old fashioned manners that seem to have died out around here. I've never encountered as much pushing and showing and not letting me go first like lately around here. I don't know I guess I should blame the mothers . What I do not understand is the paradox that while french children are often so much better behaved then American ones all American guys I ever encountered seem to have been perfect gentlemen in stark opposition to the frenchmen.OK enough of the complaining, next time I should just shout at them on the RER. But I swear if I ever have children and it turns out to be a son , I will raise him to be a perfect gentleman , that or gay , I guess it will turn out to be one or the other.

And on that note, a la semaine prochaine when I'm back with the lowdown of my moms wedding weekend. I guess its become another lets bash the french day... sorry about that.


pic is from a time when men knew how to act around a woman...

A girl's best friend...

Just got off the phone with my good friend T.. Correction he used to be a great friend when I was still living and studying in Budapest. Seems like such a long time away and we lost touch a little bit, apart from a few e-mails and messages on facebook this was the 1st time in a long time that we spoke.He always used to be a bit of a troubled existence but one of he sweetest souls I know. In any case speaking with him brought back to me howI used to love having guy friends.Haven't found any here , not surprisingly as my University was about 96% female.One of the guys who used to be my best friend is married now and moved to Australia the other is in politics in the States and so most of them scattered around and I'm left to navigate my life guy-friendless. Having just spoken to T. after such a long time a bit nostalgic now.

On wedding matters: caved in this week and bought Martha Stewart weddings for 14 euros!!! Ok so it is completely ridiculous of me as it costs like 6$ in the States bbut I needed a pick-me-up and celebrate the weekend on Friday.Need to write to our wedding planner and settle matters plus find a wedding present for my mom's wedding next weekend! I guess I'm a bit melancholy in general , two of our good friends are moving away next week, then the issues with the venue and i guess just general moodyness. photograph by Irving Penn . what a genius ! love him .

Life in Colour ..

No Stories Today ...

So I've been on the phone to my friend Sz. back home for the last two hours, have no stories, thoughts or inspiration left for today's post but a few pictures I did yesterday of some wilting roses on our table. enjoy!

And the beat goes on ...

I thought I'd have absolutely nothing wedding related to write tonight until... I checked stylemepretty.com got on a link to www.masonjarfilms.com and watched random couples beautifully filmed wedding videos. Makes me feel slightly stalkerish and takes wedding obsession to new heights I guess, but the videos are just so gorgeous! I was always against having a video of my wedding as I hate to see myself on film. Except every bride I know who has gone through it tells me to have one made as usually it turns out to be ther most cherished memorandom after the photos. What bugs me a bit is that I actually have a friend that is a budding documentary maker and I even asked if she'd like to do it but she refused saying that it takes her too long to edit and she never gets these stuff done. Hmm am a bit peeved about the refusal, its not like I would have expected sthing Oscar worthy. ( that reminds me of the cameraman I dated before DF , the dude actually has an Oscar though asking him might be considered bad form not least by DF:-) So I might end up without a Video having all the other costs mount up thats one part where I don't feel like splashing out.Having seen the masonjar films a bit sad though.

On another note , we're discussing leaving Paris for Brussels , or at least trying to as i'd first would have to find a job there. I don't think anyone takes these pronouncements of ours serious anymore as we tell our friends about moving to a different place every few months and well we're still in Paris. But Brussel has the big plus of being central in Europe with cheap rent and nice people. Or so I hear , other things I hear is that its boring and provincial. But honestly having dealt with Paris for the last few years slowig down a bit wouldn't hurt.Plus not spending 50% of the entirety of our income on rent sounds like a bit of an incentive to move.

what does this all have to do with the picture? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING , just like it!

One lazy Sunday later...

Having written a moderately angry e-mail to the manager of our venue, I relaxed into Sunday. Its the only full day in the week I have with DF so usually we plan to do something but today after having people over for brunch and being generally social all round this week we just stayed in, lounged in our robes and stayed in bed all afternoon and i must say it was blissfull. Then after finally getting up at 6pm we had sweet drippy juicy watermelon and kirs on our terace whilst overlooking sunny Paris .Watched Enchanted for the millionth time (ok 3rd for DF , 2nd for me ) and ate brunch leftovers. All in all an incredubly slow and unexciting day, thus the perfect Summer Sunday. Yes we should have gone to church to see if they're willing to prepare us and I should have updated my CV but thats for another day...

Another hurdle...

Wow I just got off the phone with my mom and she told me something that completely knocked the wind out of me.

But first to the explanation for not posting this past week , but I've had social engagements almost every single evening after work and as that is when I usually post, it just got delayed.It has been an incredibly fun week of dinners, movies , brunches seeing friends and meeting new ones and at any other time I'd elaborate about the details,but my mother just called me to say that she has spoken to the costumer relations person at the castle where we were going to get married.

She was meaning to make an appointment to sign the contract and do a downpayment but apparently not only is the lady on holiday for the next 3 weeks , it also turned out that they are planning major biulding work for the next year (as in when our wedding would take place). Not renovation , but building an entire hotel into the Chateaux's parc.So I'm a bit spinning . Not only are our save the date's already printed but building work could mean anything from no major disruption and disfigurement to full on search for new venue!! As the ceremony is in a chapel and the dinner in a gala room it wouldnt be major if they're buildig in the parc its just that we were meant to have dancing in the courtyard, and although it's going to be dark, I don't want to dance next to major building equipment understandibly. Oh well I guess I thought that doing it at that place would make things easier but I will need to just find out more details about this project. And here we go yet another problem I have to solve whilst countries away. Just one of those moments when I wish I already had a wedding planner to take care of things.