Doing the madison at Remi's grandma's 80th birthday party

A little more pensive on the train home...

Sorry about the rather lengthy bout of silence, but there seems to be quite a lot going on right now. Some good news though... I have my first official, legal translation contract: a 46 page document for a public administration whose name will look great on my CV. I got my first go at writing an official quote and contract for my services. Yikes! :)

The weekend before last, we set off by train to Perpignan for 3 days to help Remi's grandmother celebrate her 80th birthday. On the way there I saw pink flamingoes in the wild for the first time ever. Apparently they are pink because they eat shrimp.
In Perpignan I finally got to meet Remi's aunt from Vancouver: Micheline. Lovely woman :)
At a party full of geriatrics I let loose on the dancefloor and busted a couple of madisons and paso dobles before sitting down to a dinner of about a hundred pigs :/

Other than all that I've also been working on a genealogy project that will eventually involve the greater part of my family. It's a pretty huge undertaking but very rewarding so far!
What else can I tell you... Oh yeah... I ate crumpets!! real ones! My friend Anne scooted over to Bristol for a week and brought me back crumpets :) :) Thanks Anne!

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "G"

Yes, G is for Giraffe, Gallipoli and Goggomobil, but it's also for... Garden Gnome!
Just for fun, next time you're on the phone to someone and spelling out a word that contains a G, try saying "G for gnome"... It reminds me of a woman I once had on the phone and who spelled out "Z for xylophone". Aah tricky, tricky phonetics!
What is it about the furry-footed gnome that has inspired not only gardeners the world over (apparently) but also political movements, blogs, fan sites... ? I bet you never knew garden gnomes made the news?
Check out this picture from news.scotsman.com depicting a gnome near drowning following flash flooding in Scotland.
And of course from CNN, the French, having just about run out of things to protest about, have formed the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. Try a search on Google and you will soon realise just how prolific this movement really is. To do your part to support the general cause you can even buy a "Stop Oppressive Gardening - Free the gnomes" t-shirt here!
Then there are garden gnome fan sites such as Gnometastic.
Oddly enough there is a fan in Afghanistan and there are no garden gnome fans listed in Australia, though I'm hoping to have a few converts after today's post. As expected, the biggest garden gnome fan base is located in none other than... you guessed it... the United States of America. Aaah God bless those crazy yanks ;)
And let's not forget the Movie Star Gnome... those heartwarming scenes in the film "Amelie" when a gnome breaks free of his patch of lawn to go and discover the world at large, sending postcards along the way.
We also have 'vintage axe-wielding hillbilly woodsman' gnomes!! Good to see that the gnome community also has their lot of bad eggs. Ok he IS pretty creepy *shivers*... or how about this one...
How much more convincing do you need... adopt a gnome today!

Brushing past fame in Toulouse

Grumpy from a long day of information gathering, I decided I needed to get out for some fresh(ish) air and a change of scenery. I established I was way too tired to go and quiz myself at the driving school, and after a last minute phone call, as I was stepping out the door, that left me grumpier still, I decided the only place I was going was to the video store to see if they, by any chance of a miracle, might have the first DVD of Desperate Housewives Season 1 in store. Then I was headed to the supermarket for something to feed us for dinner. A simple schedule.
Once in the city I was crankier still from just having spent 15 minutes of idle metro time stewing over the phone call and by then everything was getting on my nerves so much I decided to withdraw my mind from my body so as to avoid punching some poor bystander's face in. You know what I mean right? When your whole brain just goes blank and you move through fuzz, barely conscious of your physical existence?
So it was in this haze that I turned on to rue St Rome and came upon a man with a funky London haircut. Somewhere through the fuzz I thought 'hey, cool funky London haircut', and without conscious thought my eyes locked into the gaze of these amazing bluest of blue intense (blue) eyes and as I walked past him, still reeling from the colour of his eyes, through the fuzz the distant voice of my brain said to me 'hey, that's whatshisface Gallagher' and I slowly turned around as all around me little bunches of teenagers started frantically whispering to each other 'wasn't that Gallagher?!', but in French of course and without mention of a first name because let's face it... even though we all know they are called Noel and Liam, who can really tell them apart?
Well I can now. And it was Liam. And on top of having contributed to bringing some great music to the world, he has incredible eyes.
Coming from Bondi, I'm pretty used to bumping into celebrities but this is my first sighting of a big celebrity in Toulouse! So there you have it, I had to share it with you hehehe