Sunsets

Sunsets here in St. Lucia cross an amazing spectrum of reds, oranges, yellows, blues...never the same one twice. Every evening when they arrive there is a small twinge of sadness that another spectacular day of stress-free life and fancy-free fun has ended. But that is merely fleeting as you sit back and hope for the green flash as the sun sinks just beyond the horizon.

I am always impressed by nature's ability to select from her palette another array of colours equally spectacular as the day before. After seeing so many amazing art exhibitions in Paris over the time we've lived there, I remember thinking once, how truly limitless is the creative possibilities of artists? When will all the ideas of subjects, combinations of colours and images be used up? Well, if the well of creativity for man is as deep as that of nature, which we are ultimately a part of--though for how long, only global warming will tell!--then I for one will continue to revel in the talents of those artists and nature for as long as I can take them in.

In the meantime, here in St. Lucia, sunsets signify the coming of a wonderful night's sleep (as much as I miss my Freya, currently enjoying her fab ski holiday with Gabbi, Eric & buds Uston/Utopia--see photo on left, so kindly sent to us by G!)--I am taking full advantage of sleeping through the night for once! Talk about opposite holidays....does this have something to do with why people say they want to come back in their next life as our pet? ha ha ha.

And so, as always, I shall leave you on a note of cheer and happiness....as in Cheers!! to another successful day in paradise...tonight we toast you with a chocolate shake (their island produced chocolate shakes put Haagen Daaz to shame, out of this world!) & some coconut based tropical beverage (I'm making my way through the beverage menu with Maryam, we shall do our rating....ok, well never, but fun trying!)...in any case, always refreshing to bid adieu to the beacon of light with a fun drink!

Bon soir and good night!

The colour BLUE.....

I'm not sure why the colour blue seems to have such negative conotations....when the sky is blue it's always a good start to the day....blue has always been one of my favourite colours, yellow is the other tied for first, with hot pink waxing and waning through the decades....here in the tropics, though the water isn't that startling blue as in other locations, there are other areas it's presence makes a jolly appearance.

Take for instance my 'island blue' beverage I had during a refreshment pause...right off the bat, it arrives at the table and reaction is 'oooo prrreeetty drink' (beginning of the uplifting)....then I sip the beverage and 'mmmmm' is all that escapes my lips. Perfect blend of tart, sweet, fruity...hey, a lot like me! Haaaaaaaaaaaa....hey, this is my blog I am allowed a certain level of self-entertainment ;o)

The beach chaises here all continue the theme in their royal tone, so even as the occasional grey clouds roll by, providing at times welcome relief from the sun that may be attempting it's sneaky infiltration of my 45spf sun creme, the blue chairs remind us of what is peeking just behind the clouds. I leave you today with our chairs of contemplation....it was rough laying there, composing my next posting, ah well, all in a day's work......So take this moment to savour my blue and I hope it perks up your day! Gros bisous, St. Lucia style......a demain!

Welcome to paradise.

As is the usual M-J custom, we hit the ground running....and I do mean that literally....as is the usual french departure fashion, we arrived late in Martinique, with minutes to spare before we had to go through immigration, pick up our bag, exit the arrival area, re-check in our back and get tickets for the 15 minute flight to St. Lucia, go through security and immigration again, yes, nothing is ever logical or efficient...siiigh.....the 28oC temperatures eased the rushing (that's 82oF for you non-metric folks)....as we walked across the tarmac to our plane.

Up in the air we soared, and had all of 5-7 minutes to view our arrival island before we began

the descent:

A quick de-plane, 15 minute taxi ride later and we were in our little corner of paradise for the next week.

To ease your acclimation to warmth and wonder, a cooling beverage is always the way....as the room keys were readied for us and the shuttle called, T & I choked down (ha ha) the proferred beverages.

We arrived at the villa, and after hugs were exchanged settled in...a lovely welcome message was laid out on our bed (though apparently spelling is not their strong suit!) we then gathered to view what are absolutely magnificent sunsets here. At last, a deep breath, and final exhalation of any remaining stress from the journey and life at home.

Time to kick back and do NOTHING!! Ok, that's not completely true, strategy was planned for the morning to grab the best seats on the beach...the benefits of jet-lag in this direction are that we beat the masses to the beach, waking up at the ungodly (at least in this family!) hour of 6:30am, means after coffee and breakfast and ample slathering of 45spf lotion, we are still on the beach by 8:30!....truth be told, this wears off half way through the week when our bodies regain their more civil sleep schedule...tsk tsk.

Vacaaaaaation!

So, we're St. Lucia bound...after more paper chasing, late night gathering and sending of information for the house, we're riding out the waiting game on a holiday planned long before la maison was a twinkle in our eye. It actually is good timing, a chance to catch our breath and plan out the next month or two....a chance to find a bit of humour and blow off any stress that may have crept in....see here as T begins to 'shut off' from work and find his humour at the airport-->

The last couple of days have been manic, getting Delfia & Freya ready for their respective 'holidays', packing for the move, packing for the trip, working, and lastly finalizing the rental of our pied-a-terre here in Paris. More on that exciting detail later, but we were able to follow the signs with a lighter heart and more open mind, pondering the possibilites....normally I would plan to plan during the nine hour flight, but in this case, after several late nights, I knew the flight would pass quickly as I snoozed away! T however was giddy with the glee at the upcoming R&R...as is clearly witnessed in the photo to your right....

Just before we boarded I glanced out the porthole window to this picture of gray gloom....and so my spirits began to lift at the upcoming sun and company of family.

We settled into our seats, and the long journey ahead popped up on our screens...uggh the pain of seeing time pass before your eyes in one red blip after another....well, time to get comfortable and sleep the journey away!

So, for the next week or so, French Fatum will be coming to you from the sunny isle 'o St. Lucia as the M-clan catch up. For those of you only tuning in for house information, check back in a week, as other then some outstanding updates I am going to take the time to catch up on, I'll be posting the ugly photos of our sejour in the sun.....I mean if you can't torture your family and friends in person ....ha ha....so, see you on the ground!

** A 'fix' for my addiction **

One day this week whilst out running yet another appreciable series of errands somehow related to this great house ad-venture (that was a dramatic pause there...) of ours, the sun briefly broke through the grey rain of the day. I had just exited the metro at the top of the Champs Élysées and joined the throngs waiting at the crosswalk...as I waited for the merry green man telling me to 'aller' I glanced over my shoulder and had another one of those 'aaahhh' Paris moments. Fortunately for those of you following along with us here, I also am making it a habit to carry along my new best friend, 'lil Can (also known as my new Canon). Here's what I saw: aaahhh... The little green man bid me to hurry the hell across the road before being run over by the impatient french waiting to hurry to the next red light....

So off I went to my errand....visiting the new location of my dealer....the supplier of my 'fix' for what has become a true addiction. What is this that has brought down our good girl?...oh it is not just me, T too has succumbed...and worse then that we have brought our parents down the dirty path...my Dad's dependence is satisfied daily when visiting, and Mom-J went so far as to find a local east coast dealer AND has even brought the heavenly Dad-J into the sordid picture....he bought her the equipment to get a hit.. as a ...ha ha...Christmas present!! Just say no to drugs kids!!....alas, I could hear the angels start to sing as I approached 119 Champs Élysées... the door parted and I stepped into heaven...

The canaan of café, mecca of mocha, life everlasting for latté, empyrean of espresso....

Nespresso's Star Boutique, 1500 m2, two floors, circular, capsule-like staircase, private tasting room, café, barista bar, every make and model of machines...and now Club Members can even design their own coloured machine....shishi galore my friends. As a card carrying addict..err...member, I entered the member line, rattled off my colours to refill and as any other luxury consumer, took my black designer shopping bag (only available at the CE store!) and slowly sashayed up the stairs, stopping to admire the gold behind glass...

The trinkets and baubles on shelves as high as the eye could see. The sheer audacity of architecture all in an ode to the capsule. Or as my Dad says--it's the Gillette razor--in other words, sheer marketing genius, it's not the machine, or in his speak--the razor blade holder--but the refills that make the company the millions...refills I happily slurp down several times a day (and no, to answer your burning question, I am not writing this entry in a caffeinated frenzy).

I know many of you Starbuckophiles out there feel I have strayed, but this is for when we are in the privacy of our own home...that hit you need when you come staggering out from the bedroom with bed-head....or trudge through the day and need that little tasty pick-me-up....plus, just look at the cost savings.... 33cents for a coffee of café quality....more money for suuuuushi addiction or La Matta!!

I leave you with an image of the exclusive Café Nespresso set up in the cult of coffee headquarters....all coffee beverages created there for your tastebud titillation are re-creatable on your very own Nespresso machine, though I doubt any of you visiting will ever receive presentation such as this:

Sorry, but I am just a mere coffee drinking mortal! Well, after several technical blog issues it is time for me to go pack, what is to be the theme of our existence in the coming weeks...though it is not only for the move but a forced (I mean that in a good way!) holiday visiting my Papa & family in the zen setting of St. Lucia. Unfortunately our travel Nespresso maker will not be making the journey in it's handy travel case as the voltage in St. Lucia does not support...so T and I will have to care for one another as we go through withdrawal, I hear it is an ugly process ;) .....do pina coladas ease the pain??.... :o)

'Our Home' theme song

Ok, so for those of you that are perhaps not so into reading my verbose entries and keep asking about pictures...uhm... those are listed throughout the blog, but then you'd have to scroll through my plethora of words and I realize that may be tiring for oh so many of the masses...ahem, a bit of sarcasm is always present in my world!

I have thus taken a small task upon myself to create a slideshow of all the pictures related to the house that I have so far posted on the blog, there may be a few new ones slipped in there, that's just to keep the interest piqued of you daily viewers...ha ha, what is this, Good Morning America? Did Joan Lunden ever retire?...ahhhh, early Monday morning, I'm digressing....

So without further ado, please turn your eyes to the slideshow that should be playing on the right in my sidebar...cool effects huh? I think I may even have just a little bit impressed my IT Director, Mr. T with this little bit of independent work!! The song is our new home-to-be's theme song, I couldn't have written words more appropriate myself, T even liked it so much he downloaded the whole album to our ipod!.....if you do tire of the song playing, HINT: just click on the little speaker and it will mute the song.....so I shall leave you as I happily hum along off to do my oh so tedious paper chores for the day....I think I could almost build a new house with the amount of paper we have to collect for this venture!! Happy Monday all......