Friday, October 31, 2008



What a week!Survived it somehow.

The bad news is I can't go home for Christmas.It's a BIG DEAL for me. I know, I know its not exactly surprising , seeing that I'm working in a customer service job and we make most of our online sales in the period before Christmas . But when my boss categorically just informed us that nobody would be getting any holiday before the 27th I was heartbroken , at least a bit.
I was looking forward to going home for Christmas to Budapest for so long and though I guess it was naive of me , never thought it wouldn't happen. Christmas is so nice in our family , we have our rituals and there is no stress , just chilling out all of us together , cats and dog included, and eating well and maybe taking a trip to wine country on the Austrian boarder...I liked my boss until now but from now on in my mind at least she's the Grinch who stole Christmas. I'm being childish I know but turning 26 was enough growing up for one year , having to work at Christmas is a bit too much.

Anyway I'll stop the whining and try to see the positives of this whole misery, so this is what I came up with:

-For the first time I will be spending Christmas with DF ( he couldn't have come as the he has to workt Christmas too)

-We can start our own traditions.

-Tickets will be cheaper if I go in January

-Df will cook a delicious Christmas meal ( we are talking stuffed goose, or something equally fancy)and we can invite friends

-For the first time I have justification for going full out in decorating our little Paris apartment

-Mom and stepdad might drive over from Germany for a few days with Jackie (dog)

-For my friends back home I can buy Christmas gifts just after Christmas when everything is cheaper.

-I don't have to start to diet as soon ;-)as the dress fitting will be in January

OK thats it no more positives that come to mind, but if you guys can come up with some reasons why Paris christmas beats Budapest feel free to cheer me up :-)

Oh and one thing that is definitely makes me happy is the ticket currently residing on my nightstand , the invitation to fashion's holy grail ,the vente privee invite for Dior (though DF pointed out that the nr1 holy grail would be an invite to Chanel's private sale)in any case its next week and I'm hopeful I'll score.ha am not materialistic at all...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Not quite a winter wonderland...


It seems that winter has started in Paris , mind you its not like the winters I remember in Budapest , the deep frost , slightering over the streets, seeing Jackie mom's doggie play in the snow.

No its more like Paris winter is the nasty aunt that has stolen itself in the backdoor. Its wet and cold and slimy grey. Not the proper cold and frost that makes me want to bake cookies and think about christmas (far too soon I know, I know) just uncomfortable enough to wish myself far far away.Oh well I'm just crossing my fingers that when I'm back home for the holidays it will be cold enough to freeze the lakes near Austria,so I can iceskate when we go buy wine in the vinyards around there with mom n stepdad.

Had quite stressful day today my favourite collegue from work is gone to her grandads funeral sadly and thus not only is she sad and miserable it also makes work quite a bit harder for us.Poor girl she just broke down yesterday in front of us and I felt so bad for her, truly , but also very uncomfortable. Never know how to react when other people cry, even best friends, it just makes me freeze and feel bad that I'm so bad at comforting. Really stupid of me as I often burst out myself when I'm exhausted, but with others just can't cope.Just awkward .The whole thing made me think how weird it is that while I was at a wedding ths weekend her grandad was buried.( He was 80 and apparently lived a happy life) I'm not going to go into the whole circle of life funk here , but it made me think.

On a far more light note am thinking what fun things we could eat or do with DF this weekend. I am voting for Breakfast in America , haven't been in a while and just feel like I should enjoy my last 2 weeks before going on a radical hardcore diet for my next dressfitting in Dezember.I need to somehow approximae the weight I want to be next June , so I can avoid too many last minute alterations.Stupid stupid vanity , but whats the point in paying so much for the pictures if in the end I won't like myself in them. DF is 'lucky' he's running around in his job all day and quite a bit thinner, and might I add cuter (for one he has hair now) then when I first met him. Lucky bastard not only does he get to marry me but he desn't even have to diet.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Happily Ever After...






The bachelorette party happened... as did the wedding. And though the early oganization might have been a tad chaotic, all worked out beautifully.That's what matters in the end we were all happy had a fun time and the bride and groom where glowing and in love and will hopefully get to chill out a bit before heading back to normality.

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the bachelorette party as my cunning plan to jst take DF's hyper cool cameraphone backfired as I could not get it to take picures, but hey fun memories. The night started off by the bride being an hour late and th club/bar where we were meant to start off , having a singles speed dating event and thus no smidget of place left for us. But no worries after walking around for about half an hour we found a bar , we found enough seats for 16 parched girls and we could start with the gifts ...Though I think some shocked the bride less than some of her ultraconservative friends (niple pasties & sex dice anyone!?)Even though it was a weird mixture of midwestern US girls frenchies and other, It worked out great, and I still managed to haul myself to work the next day.

Saturday we had to get up fairly early for the wedding, I even defied DF who had a horror of getting the reputation of the late comers to weddings of all our friends.So we made it on the dot and I must say of all the ceremonies I've seen lately this priest was the most sympathetic and the sermon very touching. Then we hauled ourselves a cab to the reception site a restaurant right by the Canal St Martin and apparently (noted buy all the french guests) immortalized in a classic 60's frech movie.Food was lovely so where the speeches, funny touchinng n all that but the piece de resistance was the Pierre Herme macaroon tower. Seriously that thing was amazing . 300 macaroons (Olive oil & grapefruit, white truffel, and classic vanilla.)I was in heaven.
And really really want one for my wedding too except from Laduree and except I have no idea who and how would bring it over to Budapest , I mean NO IDEA!!!(and those babies have to be fresh and cool, like same day to 2 days) ah...

When the reception resumed DF and me decided to go home and change before the party started in the evening at the couple's house. So we did something super prosaic , bought two frozen pizzas to help align against the drinking of the evening (enntirely DF's fault I wasn't hungry ).

We got home ate the pizzas and fell asleep.
Then woke up (late of corse) managed to get dressed and ready to go, and had fun and some more macaroons at the party. I love being around my friends on their wedding day , so glowing so happy and just seeing them be happy about and with all the people around them is great. So for the time being all the grumpyness has vanished and I'lm really happy. It helps too that for the first time in quite a while I'm looking forward to a full weekend with DF . We'll be able to sleep in and just do mundane stuff together and invite friends for brunch.yeay!

The pictures are taken at the wedding but I really did not wanna put my friends on the spot without their permission, so no faces.(facebook friends can see the full album on my profile.BTW the dancing /hugging picture is not of the first dance but the Bride/ father of the bride dance.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Little Miss Sunshine has taken a vacay...


I'm feeling very very grumpy today, just one of those days. I woke u tired, nothing went too well at work I came home grumpy, got to clean up the remnants of yesterday's feast with DF, and somehow nothing was right in the wold. So I'm gonna unload for a paragraph or two and leave feeling invigorated , all positive and shiny. At least thats the plan.

First of all my mom is acting like a stubborn mule.I and only I am alloved to say that, (I'm her daughter after all) her husband/my stepdad asked her to move to Germany into his new house for six weeks and she acts like its doomsday, like some 70's feminist under siege.Talks about loosin her freedom, independence, how boring Germany is ....In any case I had to remind her that spending 6 weeks with the man she just married in his beautiful house surely beats living alone ,working 11 hours in front of her pc every day at our home.

Oh and another deluded female my friend Sz. who I absolutely adore is planning to move to Italy with her liar/cheater boyfriend who's first reaction to her moving with him was (and this should be duly noted) that she should stay where she was.

Now in my communication with her I'm trying to be the most supporting I can muster , and generally I would be all for leaving Hungary and living in Italy for a while.Just taking into account her carrer and the cool experience.
But as DF says with guys she should see the first reaction and his actions.And his actions and first reaction were not exactly positive. She of course says that she is in love with him and that things are great and though I completely am breaking my own rule of not judging others relationships and matters I can't help but think that its vasted efforts even for somebody who isn't in the business of wanting to get married. Whats the point in vasting energy and efforts an emotions on a guy who has betrayed her. hmmm venting stops there.

Oh yeah tomorrow I'm meant to attend the bachelorette party, the girls (of whom I know only the bride) organized "Sex &the City" style " bachelorette party , and nothing against SATC love the show and going to fancy bars is always great but for a special occasion it would have been nice to bring in something just a tad different. I'm sure it will be fun once I drag myself there,But my idea of Cocktails at Yoba (ladies toyshop par excellence in Paris on Saint Honore) might have been a bit spicier.Seeing my present mood I doubt I will grace the party with my presence too long anyway.

But before I come away from this post like complete bitch , I must note that DF is great lately, cooked amazing food for me yesterday, bought me flowers lately (loooved the yellow roses) and did silly errands like post save the dates etc.The lovely thing about him is that even if I go on one of my play grumpy funks he just gets me to laugh at myself and snaps me out of it.

Now if only my planner would take the caterer to take a look at the castle before my mom leaves Hungary..; oh yeah and my boss would ok my christmas break..the world would indeed be a fine place again.

btw photo is of some roses we photographed on a flower stall in Netherlands its the colouring we want for the table arrangements.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Private Sale season...


Long long time since I last posted. Ok so it was only a week ago but still I feel guilty. My apologies all around . The job isn't bad or hard or such things but the shedule changes daily and I worked yesterday so another 6 day week, which sucks. On the upside get to go to the famed Dior private sale in November. There are legends around that private sale one has to have I.D.'s, Dior badges and wait in line for hours but if lucky the rewards are worth it , well I'm hoping.

Quite excited , last time I got to go to the Vuitton private sale was back in the day when I was working for Fashion File and it was amazing. I scored some python leather heels for 80 and a coat with fur collar that I adore and whose retail price was in the thoudsands(I got it for just a few hundred my score of the year 2006). Only problem is that I should really save all the extra money for wedding stuff. Unfortunately I doubt that will stop me.

There is also a Baby dior sale happening. Of course to me this should be completely irrelevant as I'm definitely not planning to have kids any time soon. But I love those little Baby Dior stuff, and apparently they sell them for 7 euros a piece . Asked my collegue to buy a bunch for me told her its for gifts , of course ;-).I guess I'll just hide them somewhere for the next 10 years or until the time comes...
Of course DF laughed at me for wanting to buy them.

He's right we are so not ready just this afternoon we spent with our friend on pont des arts swigging champagne from the bottle and making a fois gras tasting ,right on the bridge. Then off to eat some more at Chien qui fume and of course spent (again) way too much just cause I felt like fois gras poelee , though it was heavenly .Our friend P. then dragged me to watch Superblond or whatever that movie is called , by that time iI was drunk on champagne and sancerre . Thats my only excuse for watching that horribly bad movie. Though in the end of the day who cares she invited me for it and it was so so silly that it made for great girly bonding.

All in all not the worst day . Too bad I need to go to work tomorrow . And find something to wear to this weekends wedding. And find battery for my CANON. And find a club for bachelorette party , pick up shoes from shoemaker and and and ...

Monday, October 13, 2008


Huh yeah so the weekend wasn't exactly as relaxing as I planned it. Was all fun in the daytime met up with DF we had sushi,sittin in cafes and walks through palais royal and fondue dinner in our amazingly romantic lil place (except WARNING! fondue not so romantic and sexy afterwards when u get home and all u can do is roll around moaning and holding your stomach trying to digest a pound of melted cheese, sorry TMI, I know ...)moving on ..;
So the not so great part of the weekend was that our neighbour above us had his son come for the weekend who kept me up until 3-4 am both Sat and Friday nite. I get that he needs to party but seriously moving furniture at 4am ??!!! But then yesterday I went over to my friends D.'s house to help her unpack, decorate a bit and chat weddings (hers is in two weks) and then we all went out for dinner ... D. , me and five boys . Ok so one was her fiancee and the rest his friends but it was fun , gotta love those good lookin easy goin Aussie boys , anyway poor DF was of course workin while I was flirting n sipping cheap mojitos (who knew the 20th arrondisement 6€ a drink anyone?!)but as fun as it was , after dippin my little toes in the old times it was nice to come home to DF and just know that we are good and on the right path. Seeing a bickering couple and snide remarks fly made me see the good in our relationship. Though I guess its just pre-wedding jitters and I'm rootingfor D. and her fiancee to pull together and be happy with each other.

Thursday, October 9, 2008


Hmmm a bit too tired to blog but I was going to share my newest project. My friend D. is getting married next Saturday and as her sisters are only arriving from the States on Friday the bachelorette party is planned for the Friday nite before the wedding. Again as her sisters aren't yet here she asked me to get in touch with them and help them plan it.
Since then I've been racking my brains and thinking of ideas of the perfect bachelorette party. especially in view of the fact that we don't want her waking up like zombie,I was thinking a spa party would be great or as we are in Paris a Hammam party , soaking in a a Hammam being massaged with scented oils sipping champagne and eating gooey Moroccoan sweets sounds pretty good for me but then again I would love to take her to Pink or some burlesque show as well. Any ideas out there for bachelorette parties???

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Random Sunday


The week is still in my bones ,worked 9 straight hours yesterday , on a Saturday. I guess a lot of other people have it much worse , but hey I live in France and till now was pretty spoiled regarding hours I clocked in.
Also one day to relax just doesn't feel enough.I went to the mosque in the Ve arrondissement today to meet a friend for morroccan mint tea and sticky arabic sweets , I love this friend, S. she just came over for the weekend from Barcelona. And was very happy to catch up wth her but then, when I went to meet DF on his break between shifts (poor guy worked today too) I just threw a hissy fit. We were meant to stick around Bourse where he works and go for japanese soup , but all I wanted was just to be at home and chill and nap. But he was sweet came home with me and we relaxed. Watched new gossip girl, brainstormed a list of things we want to put on our wedding gift list and checked out the website of the the restaurant likely to cater our wedding (check it out its a pretty cool menu ; www.loulourestaurant.com).

So nothing exciting today. I will have to go shopping for a dress to wear at our friends wedding in 3 weeks, just wish I could sleep for three days straight , oh and I fell in love with a yellow woolcoat on anthropologie.com, really not good as I should save for wedding and not spend 500 on a coat, oh and also got my veil from the states yesterday.Its great!sorry for all the random thoughts. a tout ...

I thought I'd put up a yellow styleboard from stylemepretty.com to counter the horrible autumn mood that and it reminds me of the yellow coat I sadly can't have.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Crazy Horses ... (warning long post!)


So last night was one of those crazy unexpected Paris nights , and boy am I still recovering. Granted it doesn't help that I am working tomoerrow , a SATURDAY! Its so depressing, but hey thats not the story. I guess I need to recount it all for it to make sense.

One of my best friends from Uni was visiting this week from the Philippines. And well I guess the fact that over there she is somewhat high profile actress/singer etc kinda is part of the events . In any case she and her entourage were already meant to have left Paris when she called me yesterday after work that " Hey we decided to stay a day longer , do you feel like joining us for a dinner cruise + show at the crazy horse?! All on us of course!"Seriously? I was still beat from going out on Monday but it sounded fun so I finished buying my magazine&books at WHSmith, and met them at their hotel, of course still in work clothes just like another friend who came straight from the fashion salon's where she's showing her head pieces and heats.

So all the girls cram into my friends room franticly trying to catch up on girl talk, stuff laduree into us and put on various make-up and hats of our friends colection.(Did I mention the head pieces were sparkly embroidered girls spreading their legs Klimt-Schiele style, we were basicly wearing very stilish vaginas on our heads!) Then its off, a group of six friends in a chauffeured car to the dinner cruise. Its all great and fun except when we arrive turns out there was a misunderstanding and cruise is without dinner. Plus seeing lines of shivering people wait for the boat to let them on , didn't look too glamorous , so we decided to find a restaurant.
And on it was to the 6New York where our fabulous french friend L.(who by the way will be awarded the legion d'honneur this month) talked them into freeing a table up for us. Thats when the champagne started popping. We had a quick dinner and off it was for the show at the crazy horse.

I guess for me the legendary trio of Lido / Moulin Rouge / and Crazy Horse had always kind of enticing entertainment promise about it. But today I was shocked to find that not one but two collegues have never heard of them.

Its kind of hard to describe them . I guess its circus meets stripping meets burleque. Wih perfect dancers bodies and lots of titties and ass. (sorry guys but there is no classy way of expalining the crazy horse). It was fun and funny. The place was full with groups of business men or poor naive couples who thought it would be a tame dinner show.But honestly I think the only way to experience it is with friends and copious amounts of champagne. The girls are so perfect its sad and the tapdancing twenties era twins the funnies bit. The way those girls move I fascinating, my female friends all started getting jelous, but seriously there will always be more attractive people than oneself and just the sheer easthetic of those bodies made me proud to be a woman. I mean such a show would never work with men's bodies. Though honestly I thought it would be sexier , I kind of wished it had more of the gritty glamour of 20s burlesque. The 80s style lights and music gave it all a bit of a sex prepackaged in cellophane feel. I feel like checking out the Lido now maybe its more like I imagine it.

In any case we all had fun, I left the party after the show to go to the caveau to pick up my slightly drunk fiancee, with whom we then made it home by 3am.

So that was last night as I said I'm still recovering and well my musings about Paris fall and work etc will have to wait for next time... unless something exciting happens of cours. :-)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Unsolicited Advice


What is it about big life decisions like getting married that invites all kinds of people to forget their manners and offer their often rude and unsolicited advice. Everybody is entitled to an oppinion, that I get and being very oppinionated myself I know the itch to share it. BUT I think decisions like getting married , the size of your wedding, having a baby , how one raises their children etc should be off limits to advice giving.One should congratulte be happy for the other person or shut the hell up. I guess I should more often heed my own words but hearing a few 'friends' comments these days makes me more aware of how personal and hard to explain these decisions remain.

Like when at a dinner amongst friends on monday an older gay stylist aquintance upon hearing about my wedding plans cried out

" Married? Oh you are getting MARRIED???!!! But why??? Don't get married , you guys don't get married , its just so ..."

OK so I smiled and assured him that YES we indeed were seriously planning to get married .
Or even my very good friend whom I honestly love , just in passing posing questions like
" So you are really gettig married ? Are you sure? Why did you say yes?"
And that without any malicious intent ,well and without much tact but hey.

I think I chose well with DF , he's a good man, we share the same humour, he makes me happy and there are so many reasons why I think marriage with him is a great adventure and doesn't have to end badly or in years of anymosity. In any case the comments still bugged me. Why would I listen to an old bachelor or my friend who grew up amongst the ruins of her ambitious high-profile parents relationship ruins.
And yet no matter my faith in us , nobody sees into the future.But there's another commonplace truth and that is nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. So my resolution is to try judge other people's relationshis less , and well care less about the comments.

picture from sexanthecitythemovie.com,