The Paris Episodes: The Plague

Sorry friends, there's an unplanned intermission between acts (read: chapters) I have come down with a case of SST (severly sore throat). Feels like the plague ...

'Should this prevent you from using your fingers for typing?' I hear you ask... 'Do you have to repeat every thing out loud while you type???'

No - but head is pounding too (it's from hearing that little voice telling me to go to bed with a hot lemon toddy and look after myself).

Then, the Adventure Racer in me says "YOU WOOSS! Get over it and get writing, you have a deadline to meet! You've done 500kms non-stop with 7hrs sleep and a dislocated shoulder blade before, this is peanuts next to that! Not to mention other people, like Julie for example, who work sooooo much they start talking backwards! You're a poor excuse! "

Then the WOOSS in me says, 'Yes but I don't want to get really sick and spend a week in bed and get behind in my blog art, with all the Chrismas orders to get off, (scoff scoff, you're a mother, who'll give YOU time off to have a week in bed anyway?) so maybe if I went to bed before 11pm just once I would feel a bit better and then I would make up for it by getting up earlier in the morning...

The WOOSS wins! The Adventure Racer can only win if she is outside and still has 400km to go to get to the finish line. When you don't have a feather bed in sight, it's much easier to brave the rain and make radical decisions like that!!!

See you first thing tomorrow with la suite aux Paris Episodes.

The Scaffolding, the Stalk, and Smell of Greek food...

PS, Found this little book when rummaging through the garage - may take it to bed for a read and see what a 'Parisienne' was in the mid 1700s!!

A demain...

L'Aveyron: Off the beaten track

This weekend I ran for my life. On and on, up and down, around and across the Aveyron region looking for inspiration (or a bit of Roquefort cheese and l'Aligot more precisely).

After 20kms and 1000m elevation, as well as a quick wander round the gorgeous little village of Nant, this is what I came up with:

At the end, it's the feet that suffer most (and the thighs, ohhh the thighs)

But that's not the worst of it...

Feeling a bit shabby? Need a pick me up...

Or maybe something more substantial from the local boulangerie!

Mmm - over 5000 people flooded in for the races over the weekend. That's one busy baker!

I needed more. A girl needs to pamper herself after a race... Maybe a new handbag?

Just me: vintage, reused, recycled...

... into a letter box!

I needed a shower then - and with parking being difficult...

(Must be tricky getting your car out of that one!)

The race was back on...to the hotel!

Looking forward to the next adventure though...

These little French villages all have a story to tell

so if I come back a bit shabby maybe,  it's definitely uplifting!

A little Magpie told me ...

... to "leap and the net will appear"... Ah miss magpie, if only you knew! 


I am big on leaping.


I even once conquered my fear of heights by bungee jumping off an old roman viaduct during an adventure race in Normandie! Conquered it so well that I did the race again the following year and jumped for TV to inspire other people to conquer their own fears! 


Sometimes you get pushed! Like, when our house burnt down 3 years ago (no sympathy please, we were in Australia sipping champagne on a beach and watching dolphins, no one was hurt!)
With nothing much left by way of furniture, and home wares and personal effects etc however, there was a HUGE hole to jump into! Suddenly, as if by magic, this gigantic net of friendship appeared out of nowhere, enveloped us and led the family into adventures that would never had existed, had we not had that hand encouraging the next leap forward...


Not to mention the fact that my recycling ideas really paid off during that period ;-) Nothing like having a crooked insurance company and a few burnt pickings to teach you how to be creative with what you've got! 


To the honorable Monsieur Lagerfeld and Coco, who are surely turning in their graves at these words (bless 'em), through my own experience I offer this humble thought, "Comfort Kills Creativity." 


I dedicate my next plank to you Miss Magpie (you definitely have a talent for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary), and offer you this in return:


" Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps!! 

Speaking of leaps of faith: here is today's plank. ECCE FIAT MAGNIFICAT
Eternal gratitude to SkippY for fixing his roof and bestowing me with the condemned planks...

What's your ultimate challenge? or 10/10 for trying!

The ultimate challenge? I thought it was a 7 day adventure race across the Himalayas and implementing a fair trade project with a local women's group at the end (at least that's what I dream about for my big 40). No, it's something else. Something far more nerve wracking and insidiously close to home...
It's trying to figure out how to upload my hand-calligraphed and hence scanned photos to Picasa for the first time, while sorting out this links option (looks like I just got the hang of it), putting on the same load of washing for the third time since yesterday afternoon (guess who never got the time to hang it out!), simultaneously quaffing a diet coke (THIS IS SOOOO NOT THE MOMENT TO GO ON A SUGAR FREE DIET), and panicking about not having painted anything yet today when I have to pick the mess monsters up from school at 4.30pm

 Angela (Oh Heavens, now my MOTHER'S HERE!)  you need to pull yourself together woman.

Rightyo then, as the word 'objective' for me has never been used in the same sentence even remotely close to that other word, 'realistic,' I propose we design an adventure race with events that closely resemble the life of a working, or non working mother. Or anyone else for that matter. On any given day, what is your ultimate challenge?

By the way - I should manage to sort the photo option out by tomorrow if I stay up all night so stay tuned!
P.S. really do LURVE you Mum!