It rained on Sunday

... so we had a cupcake competition. As one does. Please submit your votes as to the most apealing cupcake, judging the following:

cuisson / cooking

decoration / decoration

quantité / quantity (I put that in because someone 'tested' their mixture so much that they had three cakes less at the end)

We take your votes very seriously and every vote counts. Otherwise the Angel's sister will just keep voting for him and I'll lose! To diferentiate, just put with or without hearts on top.

Move over Lawrence!

I am feeling particularly smug at the moment as I have a wonderful new office, 'what I did!' I shan't waste space telling you about the three lawyers of wallpaper I had to scrape off to get through to the mouldy old walls of my bureau. Nor shall I wax lyrical about the 'lovely' handpainted frieze I found on the bottom lawyer. I shall let you see for yourselves. There's before after and of course the 'helpful' Holly lending a hand.

I found some cartoons

Kersplat/boom

Yes, with my usual amount of finesse and feminine delicacy I have managed to do myself harm. During my holidays (of course, because these things never happen when you time is not your own), the door- bell rang. I jumped to my feet and ran to the door - not noticing the little puddle left by our adorable four-legged friend. To say that I slipped would be an understatement, I flew to the floor. Crushing, on the nice hard tiling, my right knee, right hip, right elbow, right shoulder and right cheek. J'ai tombée dans les pommes - literal translation, I fell in the apples, expression meaning- I fainted. Luckily for me, the person ringing at the door was in fact the Angel, who had just rung the bell to get the dog excited - what a lark. So, after opening the door and seeing my spectacular flight and the ensuing kersplat/boom, he picked me up and put me on the sofa. He then got me some ice for my cheak, as, in his words - he wasn't going to have people thinking he was a wife-beater.

So there you go. The moral of the story could be don't have a dog, or tiling or boyfriend who plays with the door-bell. The choice is yours.

New installment coming soon as I have done a changing rooms on my office and I am so proud of it that I shall be posting heaps of pics.

Rain rain rain

It's a load of b%§?µ* that the weather is better in france. I need a boat to get to work at the moment. I am going on strike. And I have a cough, my special Ardennaise cough which rattles the lungs. My little ray of sunshine - I'm on holiday. It's only little the ray because I have to do my other job which means I still have to get dressed each day.

Valentines

For once I must have done something right: the sun shone, the traffic was moving and all was as we wanted it to be. It probably isn't the same when you live there but 'going' to Paris for le St Valentine is pretty cool. Despite the days of endless rain before-hand the day was surprisingly warm and sunny. So we wandered around St Michel and dosed up on Starbucks. We visited the ducks in the Luxembourg gardens and checked-out the animaleries along the Sienne, where we found a little sister for Holly. We didn't actually take her home owing to the fact that she cost €1,200. A mere snip! The Orsay museum was conveniently holding a reduced price night so we both got in as youngsters - oh ok, so I was the only one who needed a reduction. It was almost a shame to have to get back in the car and go home again - except of course for the sausage waiting for us who hadn't see a human bean all day.

I managed to take a whopping 100 photos, all in the space of a day. However I didn't have my camera whilst we were eating which was a shame. We went to Paris's oldest Japanese restaurant where they prepare the sushi and sushami in front of you. Pretty cool, huh? So we ate a mamoth plate of raw fish but were both decided afterwards that we felt like we hadn't eaten a thing. Perhaps good for the diet by doesn't work on the brain! Which is why we were 'obliged' to go to Starbucks and pick up some carrot cake and giants coffees for our duck visiting.

So there we go, another Valentines has past and not been forgotten. Perhaps one shouldn't make a fuss but then at the same time I feel I should make the most of it whilst it's just us. Hope yours was a good too.

Valentine's in style

The Ardennes may be little more interresting than the Milton keynes countryside but it has at least one redeeming feature. It's only two and a half hours away from Paris. So is Waterloo now I know, but you see what I mean. So we are going. Just for a coffee. Because we can.