Friday, 22 June 2012

PARIS

Without a doubt, Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, it has such gaity and energy and after not going there for so many years, its nice to have been back. Everyone has heard about how bad the French treat foreigners but I'm happy to report that their attitude has now changed and despite me having a very limited French vocabulary I sailed through without a hitch speaking in English all the time and the French were very polite and helpful trying their best to understand me and succeeding in doing so. There was only one particular time in Montmartre in a small crowded shop where I bought a small red handbag in the shape of a rose for my sister Patty and seeing no queues, naturally I proceeded to go directly to the counter to pay and someone sighed: Arg! English! as though I had taken her place. "I'm not English" I said just so the English didn't get a bad reputation and they all laughed relieved. They are like us, if something goes wrong, we always blame the French so I suppose they do likewise. We really enjoyed our few days in Paris, walking around the iconic places like Notre Dame Cathedral, La Plaise de la Concorde in glorious sunshine, what a sublime place Paris is, full of restaurants, cafes with their sweet little tables al fresco enjoying a good conversation. Parisians really know how to enjoy life. We also went for a spot of shopping at Lafayette (which is the largest mall in Europe) and it is by no means like the other generic malls you see everywhere else in the world. At Lafayette's when you look at the ceilings of the building it has this Belle Epoch wonderful look but very modern and chic in the counters. When you are in Paris, you notice the fashions more, as the Parisians are very elegant indeed. I was searching for the latest look in make-up and found it there. Somehow I managed to describe what I wanted to the assistant who was a young fellow with very little English who produced exactly what I wanted with three different products and I left the shop completely enchanted as I thought when I first went in, that I didn't stand a chance in hell to get what I was looking for, so I was very happy that it didn't take too long either. We did this was after spending all day at the Louvre Museum which by the way, how much it has changed for the better. No more queues to see the Mona Lisa, everything seemed so airy and light plus they have opened up more restaurants along side the corridors upstairs of these beautiful buildings shown in the picture. Although when we were having our lunch over-looking the glass pyramid, I noticed that the police had cordoned off the big plaza around it and the public were barred from coming in. Two police cars were at the front and suddenly an enormous bomb exploded! What a fright! but it had been a controlled explosion of an abandoned suit-case. I wondered who had missed their pajamas and their tooth-brush that night. Ha,ha,ha.

Friday, 1 June 2012

I HAVE A NEW FRIEND.

I have a new friend, his name is Louis but yesterday I learned that his real name is Freddie. For weeks now, Peter and I have been wondering: where does he come from? We came across him in a rainy cold day outside at the back of our home. He was looking drenched,cold and hungry. He has beautiful green eyes and his fur is jet-black, so I let him in for a bit of warmth and tried to see what I could give him to eat as I don't own a cat since Diana passed away 4 years ago. I gave him a yogurt which he quickly polished off. What do you do when you have a cat that comes around every day howling to be let in, hungry and cold? you give him warmth and comfort. He is not a wild cat and he wasn't looking as if he was sleeping rough so he obviously had to have an owner somewhere but the way he devours his food was making me wonder if he belonged to an elderly couple who perhaps couldn't afford the cat food every week because of the austerity measures or perhaps he belonged to a family who was away working all day and left the cat out to fend for himself during the day? These were just suppositions of course and apart from food and shelter people tend to forget that cats are sentient beings just like us, in need of affection and company not some furniture or a plant that needs feeding and watering every day. I cannot deny that I'm enjoying having the cat around and perhaps you must be wondering why don't I get my own cat, but since my cat Diana died, the pain of losing her was too great and the sorrow was so much that even after 4 years have passed, I feel I couldn't go through this whole process yet again and I don't have to.- Besides, we travel too much and cats need security. Anyway, going back to my predicament, I wouldn't want to have a tug of war with my neighbours over the cat either. Maybe now that I know who the owners are, I could go round to their place and talk it over with them but right now, I find myself ill with a sore throat and am trying somehow to get well enough, to travel this evening to another town to attend a wedding vow tomorrow, an invitation which has been received and accepted months ago since January. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee is also tomorrow and a street party has been planned in front of our home which would have been the perfect venue to meet my neighbours and talk about Louis/Freddie but that won't be possible either. Life is so complicated sometimes.