Of Paris, brothers, bicycles and races

· 7/27/2007

Paris with Simon and meeting with Dominic Bowan. Perhaps this could be the job breakthrough I am looking for!

Fri - Eurostar to Gare Du Nord, a walk to my local church, St Denise near Bounne Nouvelle. A walk to Simons apartment in the 17th. A drink down by the river of the Paris Plages. Japanese for dinner with Simon and discussion of french politics and work.

Sat - Gym and Dance day. Workout. The kind gym operator lets me in for free. Thankyou kind lady. We do back and calves. Then we dance Salsa, my second lesson downstairs. The gym in near a red metro stop. Then we are on the motorcycle to go to the dancing quarter for my second ever Dance Classique ( ballet ) lesson, and Lazarelli, the instructor who danced in the Romanian Ballet Company remembers my name and I'm not too bad. We discover the church nearby called St Gervais. Beautiful church where adoration was on from 7 til 9. Then off to some more salsa dancing by the river Seine. Simon dances with about 7 girls, but I am not in the mood and so we go to a student bar behind the Pantheon where a girl grabs my butt. It was a welcome interruption and we talked for a while.

Sun - Back to my church that I love for a Latin mass. And then meet with Simon. I have to wait an hour for him. I am hungry, thirsty, tempted to go to Starbucks. I walk past it and spot a little french boloungeie just up the road. Starbuck beckons, but I am strong and enter the french place and order in my fractured french. I can survive in this city.

We meet up and get a vole - a Paris Cycle for one euro and we pedal in glee to the Champs de elysee. We watch the tour. Where no one is racing, just riding. Apparently it is not the done thing to race on the last day. Dinner tonight is in a small piano bar. We are eating dessert when Dominic Bowen appears. We chat, I ask him for a job he says maybe. This is the way to do business in Europe.

Then we drop by the Oz bar and the bourse, again on bicycle. Finally we go another bar and then to bed. Thanks Simon. Thanks Paris.

I am still yet to go up the Eiffel Tower and to the Louvre. Am I saving them for something special? A honeymoon perhaps? Je ne cest pas.

This also posted at http://www.ourstory.com/thread.html?t=259680

Day 52, Wed 11th July. Travel to Croatia

Nuff said.

Day 45 Part II, Wednesday 4th July, A splash of water, a dash of colour (black)

The invite appears quickly like glimmer out of the corner of your eye. Did that just happen. Don't be impolite, answer. OK, I'll go. And so you're booked on what you think might be a small trip to brighton with Richard and his lawyer/DJ friend Dave. Lawyers have a bit of free time while studying and many take on other hobbies and pursuits.

Dave, the Silkman DJ. Alcohol flows round the bus. I dodge it and shield behind my crossword. Still trying to figure out the author of Mary Poppins. Rafael and Mel prove to be admirable crossword buddies. We arrive 10pm at Brighton as Richard points out to me the Taj Mahal lookalike and the Pier. Oh the pier.

Richard, sober for 14 years is not going to spend the whole of the next four hours in the club. Let's go for a walk along the pier. Ok, you say, let me just have a drink or two to warm up. We enter the club. Small room with black walls. Empty. I resist the urge to be concerned that this place is empty. It's early, people will show up.

Richard and I take a trip to the pier, via the cigarette shop. It's closed. We venture to a small jetty. We poke our head over and three meters below our little cliff the waves crash and shoot up to meet us. We play a game of trying to watch the wave ascend as long as we can and jump back before getting covered. I find more fun and excitement here that in the club. Simple pleasures.

We venture back and dance and watch as Dave does his turntable work and one or two others perform their modern rhyme with the microphone over the music. I'm in admiration.

I sleep fitfully on the coach home and am tempted to get off somewhere near my place but I don't really know the way. We get back to waterlook at 5am and I manage to get the overland train which takes 20 minutes home.

Day 44, Tuesday 3 July 2007, St Thomas the Apostle's Feast Day, Wimbledon

Four seasons in one tennis tournament. Brash Australian Lleyton Hewitt beats Argentian possible named Ganas. Tour courtesy of and in the presence of Anna Rynne.

Stay at the Rynnes house, thanks Anna, Mary, Faith, Louse and Sassy May. Do not bring a change of clothes and still have smelly gym things packed. Go to Wimbledon. Do not need the one page of rules for queing as there is no queue. Note that for later. My smelly gym bag emptied and viewed for security purposes. Padlock for Virgin Active gym consficated.

Go to Japanese. Get off at Tottenan Court Rd Tube Station, advance up New Oxford St, turn left into Museum and on your right not far from the British Museum is Abenos. Consume copious amounts of pancake type food with chicken and fish cooked in front of you. Drink copious amounts of saki from tiny wooden crates. Banter with McGuire, Nick B, Kate and Steve and Cath M of Cambridge fame. Sleep in new big room.

Day 45, The London Eye

Clouds cover the sky as I watch London from the London Eye