Robyn and Maff Heffy!

Congratulations to Robyn and Maff who tied the knot last weekend!

The ceremony (or rather the blessing) took place at Jimmy's pig farm near Ipswich and it was an absolutely perfect day. Robyn looked great, Maff looked great and the pig was delicious!



Click here for the rest of the photos.

A week in Provence

Sophie, Dave, Laure and I enjoyed a lovely week down in Avignon visiting the surroundings and playing the train game (Sophie won). Lots of photos were taken of course...
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ianbeks/AWeekInProvence

Adrian Leeds Appreciation Society!

Hey, when abbreviated, that makes ALAS ! And I think you'll agree with me when I say, what "a lass" she is... not!

So why do we (Deepa and I, that is - we're in this together!) appreciate her? Well, not only does she try to help anglophones in France, but she makes a tidy profit from it too, I'm sure. To those of you not already acquanited, she's writes practically useless articles about living in Paris; rather than "what to do", "where to go", "where to eat/drink" and so on, she drivels on about her own personal experiences. I don't know how or why (in fact I can't remember) I started receiving regular newsletters from www.parlerparis.com but they'd stopped for a long while until just recently. Ah, fond memories of some good chuckling came flooding back. Especially one particular memory where I actually wrote back to her, commenting on one of her articles (http://www.parlerparis.com/issues/pparis26-1-04.html). In fact, I went to the bother of digging up the email from my archives...

Hi Adrian,

I just read your article. Your level of tolerance is incredible. I wonder if it's blinded by your love of Paris. Your sense of humour however is unfathomable. Nothing about the events on Saturday appealed to me or made me "burst out in fits of laughter". Quite the opposite. We did however come across a "madame" squeezing past in the opposite direction with her husband in tow, who I overheard calling everyone "smelly". So I get the impression that the chinese new year celebrations on the Champs Elyses was not the place for me or the lady with a hightened sense of smell. Why do people enjoy being squeezed together for events like this? And why, why, WHY did the event managers not even use the whole of the avenue!!! There are very few events, particularly held on the Champs, among those I've made an effort to see that have appealed to me. There are too many people in Paris with the same intention of "seeing" these things. The trouble is you see very little, if and only if you have the patience of a saint, however you do get to feel everything - mainly sardine-type sensations. You paint a rosy and pretentious picture of events in Paris, maybe for your ratings, maybe because of your saint-like tolerance, I don't know, but one thing's for sure, reading your article made me burst into hysterical laughter.

Yours...

Sophie and Laure do the Thelma and Louise

Billed as their "last chance to see the world before they have kids", Sophie and Laure hit Route 66 (amongst others) in their rental car. They journeyed from San Francisco to Austin in the space of 3 weeks taking in the sites along the way. Their arrival in Austin was a surprise to Manue and Shad who were throwing a party for their wedding.

The route:

You can see the photos too.
And watch the film...

Lee and Mark tie the knot.

Congratulations to Lee and Mark!

And what a great day it was too, up in Scotland. It all took place in Auchen Castle, near Moffat, and it was idyllic. So great to see everyone, too, having a great time. I was so proud of my sister - she looked absolutely stunning. And the groom wasn't bad either!

More photos here.

Rock on Mr and Mrs A !!!

Finally, an update.

Ooooooh-kay, I know... it's been a while.

So what's new? Where to start?!

I guess I'll start by saying that we've moved in to our new flat in Rue des Martyrs. The majority of the work is done but there still seems to be so many little things that need doing. Will it ever really be finished?!

What does it look like? You'll see as soon as I get a few photos online.

For now here's a snap taken on New Year's Eve...

My one weakness: Belgian beer.

While surfing I stumbled upon a superb and extremely practical blog entry: If this image pleases you then click the link below to find out more.

Heaven is just round the corner: http://darkmag.net/darkBlog/index.php?2006/09/10/226-ou-acheter-de-la-biere-belge-a-paris

Progress in the apartment.

Finally, after so much hard graft (laying floor, preparing the walls, etc...), we managed to slap on a lick of paint in the large bedroom. The apartment's starting to take shape! Here's a couple of shots of the girls completing the second coat (our thanks to Sophie and Manue). I did the ceiling as usual!

Now comes the fun part; laying the parquet flooring. It's gonna be easier than laying the floor panels (what wouldn't be) but nevertheless a painstaking job requiring the utmost attention to detail. Who best to assign this task to but yours truly. Watch this space...

Laters.

PS. This is not a DIY blog!

Day one of my new blog. Nothing going on.

Well that's a lie actually. I'm heavily into DIY (not!), something I thought I'd never do. We've just bought a great apartment in Paris 9th but it needs a complete overhaul. Even the floor had to come up. Things are coming along but there's still so much work to do. It all needs to be finished in 2 months before we handover the keys to the buyer of our old appartment. In fact that's where I'm headed now.

Don't worry this isn't going to be a DIY blog or anything. I don't want to bore you! However if I do anything that I'm proud of, like the floor panelling for example, then quite clearly I'm going to gloat. Here's a snapshot of my labours.

Laters.