first born

My paternal grandmother (Jessie - pictured here with her two sons) once gave me an insight into my parents' state of mind, and into my upbringing, that I often think about. My parents would have been around 25 years old at the time - I was due to start playschool.

They were worried that I would be exposed to 'bad' people, who would not be kind to me, in contrast to the people I knew as an infant who were always kind. My grandmother found this attitude a little exasperating and over protective.

I like to believe that my parents wanted to preserve for the longest possible time, the untainted energy and delight of their first born child.

I was reminded of this today at work - it is not often that people are kind to each other at work, the atmosphere is competitive and it is rare to come across energy and delight. So I am very happy to be taking a 3 month sabbatical this summer, to try and find my inner child again.

mocking bird

Not Scout and Jem, but a bar, Le Merle Moqueur, in the 13th, Butte aux Cailles. It was a relaxed evening with Séb, Dominique and Augusta. We drank the Route du Rhum there before it got too crowded. My favourite was rum with lime. The bar seems to play only 80s music - Blondie, Wham and La Bamba. Then with rum sticky fingers we cycled home, Mr L on vélib and me on my bike. He tried to lose me by cycling fast, but my legs have a hundred times more pedal power than his.

electric

I love thunderstorms. The best one ever was last summer in Tuscany, it was a zinger of a rip-roaring super-charged storm.

The second best was about 24 years ago in the Dordogne when I was working as a Eurocamp hostess - I spent the night fishing a tent out of the campsite swimming pool, finding emergency accomodation for a Dutch family and drinking whisky with some stiff upper-lipped Brits in the campsite bar at 5am.

The third best was last night in Paris - belly jiggering thunder and purple pink sheet lightning.

My sister reassures Mr L that you are highly unlikely to be struck by lightning, unless you are all alone with your arms upstretched in a field of grass with no trees or buildings within striking range... this does not reassure Mr L, who is doom laden in matters of health, dying and lightning strikes. In all other matters he has the sunniest disposition of anyone I have ever known.

helmet hair

Emmanuel and Nadia commented on my sun-kissed look and surfer style curls. I couldn't tell them it was because I hadn't washed my hair this morning and had just come in from a muscle-busting Pilates lesson. I left the salon looking like an American baseball Mom. As soon as I get home from the hairdressers' I wash my hair and let it dry naturally.

new breath

My last blog spluttered to an end about 5 years ago. I rescued it from internet oblivion a couple of weeks ago by copying and pasting it into a text document, as it seems like the 20six blog platform is defunct.

I'm not making any promises about this new blog. Let's see how it goes.