The Smashing Pumpkins

I don't go to many music concerts, I never have done really but I'm glad I didn't miss the Smashing Pumpkins last week. They were amazing!!! I love Billy Corgan, he'd have to be one of my favourite song writers of all time.

I've been a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins since the early 90s and was pretty disappointed when they broke up in 2000. I hadn't even realised they had got back together until I saw an ad in the metro saying they were going to be playing at Bercy. See, the metro isn't all bad.

I admit I was much more interested in their old songs but I'm old, ya know, and that's how it is. What I really couldn't believe was the stamina of Billy Corgan. He played for 2 and a half hours non-stop! Not one break! Incredible.

Even the support band, Puggy, was great.

I'd love to see both these bands again in the future, maybe next year.

France Telecom Does it Again

I'm on a bit of a blogging blitz at the moment because I haven't had internet access for the last 6 days and so now I'm playing catch up.

I use Orange for my internet access and they showed once again that their customer 'service' isn't up to scratch. I know most telcos have a bit of a bad rep for customer service but FT seems to take the cake.

Here's a timeline of how things went:

• Saturday: Woke up to no internet access. Gave it a couple of hours before calling FT to be sure my connection wasn't coming back.
• Saturday afternoon: Called FT. Spent 45 minutes testing different things which determined it was a problem on their end, which I told them in the first minute.  Technician is to call me Tuesday between 12 and 1pm to fix it. Naturally they don't work on the weekends.
• 5 minutes later: FT girl rings back saying it's a general problem so it should be fixed much earlier.
• Tuesday afternoon: Still no internet access. Glad it was fixed earlier than imagined. Technician rings as promised. Performed the same tests as on Saturday and 45 minutes later confirms the problem is on their end. Makes appointment for a technician to call between 4 and 5pm Tuesday.
• Tuesday at 6:30pm: Technician calls and spends 45 minutes doing tests which confirm the problem is on their end. Glad we sorted that out. Promises a technician will call first thing Wednesday morning to fix the problem.
• Wednesday afternoon: Still no internet access and no call from FT. I call them and customer 'service' says it's only 3pm so I shouldn't be worried - if they say they'll call, they will. Ok, I believe you.
• Thursday afternoon: Some guy calls to see if I my connection is working. It's not. Says the technician is working on it at that very moment and he'll call me back within 30 minutes.
• 3 hours later: I'm back online.

Thanks France Telecom/Orange, you're the best.

Promets-Moi

Asterix isn't the only crappy movie I've seen lately. Last weekend I saw Promets-Moi by Emir Kusturica. I generally can't stand his films but I didn't realise it was by him until the film started. Then it was too late to escape.

I just don't get that kind of humour. It's just silly. I didn't laugh at all. All I could think about was when I could get out of there. I'm surprised I managed to sit through the whole thing. I would have left early if I had been alone, that's for sure.

Astérix aux jeux olympiques

I was physically forced (dragged by my hair) to see Asterix aux Jeux Olympiques the other day, by a friend who has completely different taste in movies to me. I like to see art house films like De l'Autre Cote and Le Grain et le Mulet so you can imagine how much I dreaded seeing Asterix.

So was it it any good? No, OF COURSE NOT, it was complete rubbish! I didn't even laugh once. That's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. My friend didn't enjoy it either so that's something but now he wants me to see Cloverfield with him. Umm, I'm gonna say no.

Shopping in le Marais

My husband and I have kind of a mixed up relationship where he likes to do girly things like shopping, trying the latest skin care products, taking long hot baths, and shopping (I mentioned that twice for emphasis if you didn't notice).

Me, I like to do stereotypically boy things like play computer games, read geeky internet marketing and computer programming forums, and hang out at the gym.  Oh, and I HATE shopping. Especially during the evil soldes.

A couple of times Ferbent dragged me along to the sales and it was utter hell, especially in the first few days when there were like a billion people shopping at once. He bought a few things and I bought nothing.

Shopping in le Marais on a Sunday is like shopping in the sales because the shops there are the only ones in Paris which are open on a Sunday, so every man and his dog is there.

Ferbent the shopaholic dragged me there last Sunday but at least this time it was worthwhile because I actually found something I wanted, a gorgeous bag from Brontibay. I don't think they have anything I don't like. Thankfully I found out about them from The Late Bloomer.

I also found a cute little store where Ferbent bought a gorgeous jacket at 50% off.  That wasn't too painful.

How to Tip a Hairdresser

I found out just the other day that you're supposed to tip the hairdresser when you have you haircut in France. I had no idea! I'm so hopeless at this kind of thing. It's just not in the Aussie culture to tip so I don't really know how to do it or how much to give.

Ok, so I admit I had a suspicion that you're supposed to tip or I never would have asked the question but now that it's been confirmed I really should figure out how to do it. So if anyone can help me...

1. How much do you tip?
2. Do you tip the person who washes your hair or the person who cuts it or both?
3. Do you give the tip when you pay at the end or when they finish washing your hair or somewhere in between?
4. Help!

Blogs I read

I used to read quite a few expat blogs but I've narrowed it down recently to just my favourites.  I probably should update my blog template to link permanently to these blogs but I'm too lazy. So here's the current list:

• An Aussie Lass
• The Bold Soul
• Le Tigre in France
• Family in Paris
• La Coquette
• The Late Bloomer
• Malaysian in France
• Misplaced
• Ms Glaze
• My So Called Life
• News From France
• The Paris Blog
• Paris Breakfasts
• Paris Musings
• Peregrinations
• Petite Americaine
• Petite Anglaise
• Sam de Bretagne
• Stepping Stones

Facebook

I wasn't really that interested in Facebook when I first stumbled upon it but now I'm kinda hooked. I'm back in contact with friends I haven't seen in over 15 years which is pretty amazing, I think. I'm now chatting with people I haven't seen since primary school! It's kinda weird but fun.

It's also a great way to meet new people. I've met a couple of Aussies who are also living in Paris, a Moroccan guy who lives just down the road who I met through the Neighbourhood application and a French guy who is now my gym buddy.

Add me as a friend if you like and we can chat.

De L'autre Cote

I don't usually like to make plans because they just never seem to work out. I had every intention of going to the Australia Day celebrations last night but at the last minute decided to see a movie instead. I don't know why, I guess seeing a movie is just more appealing than sitting in a pub with 200 drunk Aussies!

Anyway, I'm glad I changed my plans because De L'autre Cote was great. It's a German/Turkish movie set in Hambourg and Istanbul. A lonely old man invites a Turkish prostitute to live with him resulting in disaster. Her daughter is missing as a result of her political acts. A young German girl gets messed up in a situation which turns into a nightmare.

The way I see it, there are a serious of events which lead to one shitty situation after another. Nothing goes right for any of the characters. It's a great story but really sad. Worth seeing for sure.

Distorted

I thought I wasn't photogenic but maybe I'm just not that proficient at using Photoshop.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id=6909

Australia Day in Paris

I can't remember the last time I celebrated Australia Day so that must mean it's about time I did, even if it's here in Paris. I've signed up to go to the Paris Aussie Expat event at Cafe Oz, Grands Boulevards.

I've never been to a Meetup event before and never been to Cafe Oz before so it's all going to be new for me. If anyone is interested in going you'll need the password which some idiot made, "Any chance of getting a drink around here? I'm as dry as a dead dingo's donger!" Nice one.

I've been invited to a FB friend's birthday party later that night. It's in une boite just down the road from Cafe Oz. Nightclubs really aren't by my thing at all but it would be nice to actually meet this guy after weeks of exchanging messages. No, it wouldn't be a date, we're just friends, but he's a nice guy. I doubt I'll end up going though, 11:30pm is a bit past my bedtime.

Only in Albania

For Ferbent. Only in Albania.

Only in Australia

Only in Australia

Yoga

I've been doing a bit of Pilates lately and seeing I really enjoy it, I thought I'd give yoga a go too. I've seen some online videos so I know a lot of the exercises I do in the stretching classes are yoga moves.

I took my first ever yoga class tonight and it would have to have been the worst class I've ever done in my life. I know yoga is supposed to be spiritual and you focus on breathing and all that crap but to start the class with 20 minutes of lying on my back and concentrating on my breathing was a massive waste of time!

In the one hour class we only did 3 yoga stretches! wtf! How is that possible??? I go to the gym to workout not waste my time. Surprisingly that class is really popular but then they are all oldies as was the prof - who was well over 60 and looked liked the only exercise he'd ever done was walk between the fridge and the couch.

I think I'll stick to pilates for now, even if it does cost 10 euros per session.

Kiwi

Is it just me or is this extremely sad?

La Graine et Le Mulet

It's been a while since I've been to the movies. I was at the Champs Elysees today and couldn't resist stopping by one of my favourite cinemas, Le Balzac.

I saw La Graine et le Mulet by Abdel Kechiche. I recently saw another of his movies, La Faute a Voltaire with Sami Bouajila (one of my favourite actors) which was great, so as soon as I saw this movie was by him I had to see it.

The film is about a man in his 60's who loses his job basically due to his age. He decides to open a restaurant but is faced with a severe lack of funds and the typical nightmare that is the French bureaucracy. His family comes together to help him but he is just so unlucky, nothing seems to go right.

The movie was very long at 2 and a half hours but it wasn't really noticeable, although I do think some scenes could have been cut down. Like one scene at the beginning when the whole extended family is at the table eating couscous and there are extreme close-ups of everyone eating and talking. It really wasn't pretty!

The ending was fantastic though, really amazing. This movie is well worth seeing.

Pilates

A few weeks ago I started doing Pilates at my gym. It's not free like the other classes, which is a bit annoying but at 10 euros it's much cheaper than at other places.

Most of the classes are Pilates au Sol which is done on the floor with mats rather than the machines. I really don't see the point in paying for that. The class I was doing was with the machines though and I really enjoyed it.

The instructor I had has now left the gym and it doesn't look like they have someone else to replace him so I don't know if I'll continue with it, without the machines.  I will give it a go but I'm sure it won't be the same.

The loss of T also means no Monday night stretching which I've been doing for over a year and no one gorgeous to check out, hehe. He's going solo and at 100 euros per hour for personal training I can understand why.

Topaz 13/12/2007

I've missed my cats a lot since being away from Australia and was very upset when I recently got the news that Topaz had died. She was 19 years old and had been frail for a couple of years so it wasn't totally unexpected but it upset me a lot anyway.

She was gorgeous - a grey long haired Persian with a cute squashed face. She was extremely friendly and especially loved to have her tummy rubbed. I'll miss her.

Now there is just Jade left. She is 19 too but is in better health. What worries me though is that she is really stressed about losing her sister. She is crying day and night and has started pulling her hair out. I hope she's going to be ok.

Gad Elmaleh

I've been a huge fan of Gad Elmaleh for a couple of years now so was pretty excited when I got tickets to see his show at the Olympia. I don't have any trouble understanding him in his movies or when I've seen him in interviews but his comedy act is a bit difficult for me to understand due to him speaking super fast and using a lot of slang.

I knew it might be pointless to see him live for this reason but I bought the tickets 6 months ago with the hope that my French might improve enough for me to understand most of what was going on. Well, it didn't.

So I saw Gad last night and probably understood less that half of what he said. Poor Ferbent didn't understand a thing! Everyone there was laughing hysterically the entire time and I only got a few of the jokes. I was so upset! What a waste of time and money.

I don't think I'll ever be able to understand French well enough to see that kind of show. I'm so disappointed.

Albanian News

The second site I created for Ferbent is about Albanian news. F is forever on the internet reading the news. He loves to read about anything to do with Albania, whether in his own language or in English. So I figured he may as well make better use of this time by posting the most interesting news stories on his own blog. He's decided to go ahead and do that with his blog called Tomorri.

Again, I hope he will continue to update it often and won't lose interest. He could easily get quite a few visitors to his site if he works at it so fingers crossed.