Tonite I am smiling... and Gus knows how long i haven t been smiling, i know that in 2 days i ll be back to my unhappy place but i don t give a shit because today i smiled more than the past 3 months. Today I spent 4 hours eating in a restaurant and this is how we rule in France! Food is like spirit an religion in India.... and when it s with your family it means even more!


It is now 10PM and i am watchin the pinkish sunset laying on a pool chair while listening to some soft zen music.... me and the sky... best romantic date ever!
Today I saw most of my dad s family, except my uncle who was too sick to come, hope to see him tomorrow. We went to a restaurant and i ate like an elephant... pate... fish...meat...cheese...cake, u name it :) And the best part was the smile of my granpa who recently turned 80!


I ve seen all these smiles and laugh even with 2 people who were not getting along pretty well, have seen a brother and sister laughing... and uncle and niece tolerating each others.... it was a memorable day for me that i ll keep forever in mind!


I then came back to my grandma place to take a swim in the pool with Tony the Dolfin and Roger the Frog, i left the pool when they started to get to close from each others :P
Of course I barely ate this evening, i m still digesting my lunch and promise to fast till tomorrow lunch since my grandma is hosting a party at her place with the same people for an other big lunch!
That s it for now, i wish u guys to enjoy ur weekend as much as i m enjoying mine... spread the love People!

I guess u were all waiting for the second part of my story :) * i can hear people over excited....nah not really..anyway*
(...) I open the door of the car, one foot on the ground, stand up and I guess I freakin fell on the ground before my second foot hit the floor....lucky me my right arm was still king of functional and grabed the door before I fell so that I could hit the floor softer... I only got a bruise on my left arm, my head, and my @ss but it s ok I had some 'thicker skin' to avoid collateral damage :)
So what happened next was well I was lying on the floor unconscious, my purse was on the sidewalk, my car keys in my hand and obviously my car door still open... should i say i got lucky well in a way yes on the worst case scenario, an @ss could have let me down on the floor, grab my purse and my keys and left with my car easily without anyone seeing him, since i was living in a small street pretty quiet during the day.
So what happened next someone told me the story, because the only thing I remembered is me lying on an hospital bed holding the hand of a complete stranger... can i say i sexy stranger?
I woke up on the bed, holding my painful head wid my other hand and look at this stranger.... *conversation was originally in french, yeah at that time my english sucked even more*
Me: wtf it s going on?
*i know this is not the more attractive way to introduce urself in front of a sexy stranger however due to my situation, i was more in pain wearing the ugly hospital robe u know the one u attach on the back where everyone can see half of ur @ss when walkin... yeah that one ... so excuse my french*
SS(Sexy Stranger): hi, i found u unsconscious in the middle of the pavement 1h ago, I called the hospital, they picked u up and brought u here.
Me: really damn, what about my car?
SS: I closed ur car before leaving, ur purse is here and I did not want to look at ur cellphone but ur grandma called 5 times.
Me: shitttt I was supposed to visit her....mannnn
SS: oh my name is Tim btw
Me: oh yeah mine Cecile... so i guess u saved my life
SS: well put it like that sounds more heroique than it was, I just called the ambulance.

I could say that in my fight against migraines some good things happened to me, so of course u can imagine that i could not pass an occasion like that, how many time a sexy stranger will save ur life? usually it s the granpa neighbour or the mother with her child u never expect Prince Charming saving u so to thanks him for saving my life I invited him over for diner... and lets say that I did a break during my eternal single life at least for the remaining time I spent in Marseille finishing my master :P
And well u can imagine that the next I called my mum to tell her how effective the pills she gave for the migraine were.
Mum: did the pills stop ur migraine
Me: no but they gave me a boyfriend:)

It was in 2003... I was in Marseille, south of france doing my master. Marseille is a gorgeous city well that s not the point I wanted to make today, just a fact *shut up! and proceed*
I don t remembered the exact date, but it was a couple of weeks after my birthday, I do remember it very well since I got the most alcoholic bday with my friend vodka-caramel.
I m telling u, there is advantage and inconvenient when u know the owner of a bar cz usually u always have few free drinks, but when it s ur bday between friends who pay for u and the waiters who had strict order to never leave with an empty glass.... bad idea!
I m gonna spare u the details of what happened the following night, but the next day when I went to my hometown to spend the weekend with my uncle, it was pretty funny.
I arrived at noon for lunch, i have to say that the one hour drive to go there was pretty tiring, mostly because I did not much sleep, i spent most of my time having a private discussion with my loo:)
So when my uncle saw me first he knew right away i had a pretty heavy night before, he already saw me in that shape, I used to do the Feria each year which is a big fiesta celebration during a week in my hometown, and I used to sleep to my uncle s so he knew. But my naive granpa was missing the point, he did not understand why I was sitting on the sofa instead of at the table drinking an 'apéro' mostly a ricard my favorite alcohol that we use to have when we were doing a diner with family or friends before the meal.
I remember my grandpa saying:
'what s wrong with her'
and my uncle replying:
'leave it, i m sure she had a tough night, she ll take an aspirine and be in shape for diner :)'
then my grandpa to say:
'it s funny I haven t notice that she has that much of freckles on her face'
well he was right I did not have that much of freckles before my bday but when I told u I spent the rest of the night discussing private matters with my loos, well u know at some point there is not much u can say when everything is gone it s gone, but nahan it did not stop me, which made the discussion even more painful that is the reason why i had some fake freckles who disappears a couple of days later. I hope u got my point cz for ur own health i won t go deeper in details on my conversation with my loos :)
*awkward moment... did they got the metaphore?*
Anyway, let s move to the real topic of my post, that was a pretty long introduction. So a couple of weeks later, I was having some bad migraines, and for those who don t know I am a migraine person for 9 years now. So I have seen dozen of doctors and took dozen of drugs, nothing so far fixed it. This time my mum sent me some new pills for the migraine.
I was about to spend the weekend with my grandma actually. So in the morning I was supposed to go to class, but I woke up with a migraine, and trust me when I woke with a migraine, i m sooo grumpy and frustrated because of it but there is nothing i can do cz it s too painful. I took some lights pills first, my mum advise me to take them when the pain is really bad. I waited till the middle of the afternoon when I could not stand it anymore. I took them, so far I was ok, and I was starting to pack my bag to take my car to see grandma.
1 hour later, I felt I dunno how to explain but lighter yes like I lost 10kg like that, or when u are in a swimming pool u do feel lighter. Anyway, I took my bag and got into my car. I sate on my seat and i say 30 seconds later I fell in sleep just like that, well for 5 seconds only I guess cz my head practically smashed the wheel driver BAM that did not wake me up, no the horn woke me up cz he was in the middle of the wheel driver * yes I had an old car, I was a student... well now that i m an employee I don t have a car!*
So I jumped out of my seat thinking that's not right, something wrong with the pills I took. I got out of the car to go back home, I did not have any time, I open the door of the car, one foot on the ground, stand up and I guess I freakin fell on the ground before my second foot hit the floor....lucky me my right arm was still king of functional and grabed the door before I fell so that I could hit the floor softer... I only got a bruise on my left arm, my head, and my @ss but it s ok I had some 'thicker skin' to avoid collateral damage :)
So what happened next was..... well I m not gonna tell u, no i ll tell on my next post :P *evil laugh* now u tell me what u think happened next? and be creative!

PS: i m coming soon to ur blogs, sorry if it took me some time, I could not find any ideas to blog!!!!!

That s me with my new haircut btw :P
Anyway, this week, I went to still south of France but east, even though I moved 21 times in 28 years, some members of my family haven t move. I arrived on monday at my grandma s and unfortunately until the end of the year we had the... flood, of course everybody joked about it, telling me ' u brought us the irish climate ;( ' bunch of mean people! So, i could not do much the first days except clicking animals, i dunno i love animals so I got the chance to click some of them:

Vicky the cute doggee of the neighbour, I heard she likes to pose for the photograph, I must say she s doing it pretty good :D

Julie, my grandma s cat:)

Tigrou, the neighbour s cat, such a cute and soft cat.

Fusain, my aunt s cat :)

Some random dogs in the street, notice the leather jacket, doggeee fashion style, u don t see it but he is actually wearing a pink reabbon on top to maintain some extra hair, while the one behind is showing is tongue :P
Sometimes I also take babies like the neighbours, and she is darn cute:

On the last day of 2008, I went to my aunt s house to celebrate the new year s coming. During the afternoon while her best friend was cooking yummy stuff for the evening, I colored my aun t s hair. Why i m sure u re wondering I mentionned that, well it s simple, i can t really say i m proud of many things in my life, but for sure i m proud of one thing, I am the first person that ever colored my aunt s hair in 47 years!!!!
My aunt is not the kind of girly girly and i managed to make her change her mind and switch from a grey hair to her former brunette style, since then (it was a year ago) she started wearing make up, rings and made some highlights!!!!
I know, so that day she was in big need of a new hair color since her previous color well vanished and she looked more like Sonia Rikyel (fashion designer)!!! so I only put a pic of her AFTER the color not before, I don t want her to kill me!

I celebrated with great food the new year and funny story, if u never tried i recommend u to do it, have u ever play arrow-words drunk? No? What a shame! It is fantastic!

I did my first arrow-words at midnite after wine and champaign not only my brain was on speed but for sure my aunt s guests were thrilled to have me there since how much they laugh!
Anyway, I m not gonna through the good resolutions of the year since 99% of the time I don t reach them, I only gonna put what I would like to happen and then hope it will:
- loose weight (this is somehow recurrent each year)


- go to India (lets say in March :)
- find a great job in south of france
- move out this year (preferably before summer :P)
- why not find someone (not that i m desperately looking for it, i d rather move first)
- win the lottery (well what the heck y not)
- NB: buy a lottery ticket (that might help :P)

On friday I went to eat in a spanish restaurant with my grandma:

and my god i was so full that i could not even eat a desert, I got meat 'a la plancha' served on top of slate one word DE-LI-CIOUS.


Of course I haven t mention all the great plates my grandma did but trust I had a special yummy diet and that s not gonna help my first 'resolution'!

Now, today I went to la Grande Motte, which is a special place for me, my grandma bought when i was 1 year a flat in this city which is very original by its weird architecture but i love it.


I spent all my summer, learn to swim, my first teenager holidays and first love here so this is a special place for me.
There is a port:


giant beach where i used to go twice a year to get rid of the negative feelings and it feels GREAT


today I was happy to be there and of course I took some pics :P Hope u ll enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them :P

A seagal ready to fly, I m so glad I got this shot, click on it to have it bigger:


Black and White sunset in front of the beach



Sepia sunset



It has my AGE, I used to play there when I was a kid, I can t believe it is still here!!!!!!



The sand with the building of La Grand Motte as a background

A little bird not that shy :P


My yatch well in my dream ...Well, that s it for my 2 weeks trip in France, I packed my bag and of course with all the food I brought back i have 5 extra kilos to carry so 50 euros to pay to mean Ryanair! Anyway, I ll be back to Ireland tomorrow ;( but the only thing that make me happy to go back it s because next week i ll go to the Indian ambassy to do my visa for my future trip to come :D
Take care People

I m not back yet in Blogville, but since i m on holidays and I have less freakin-office-compulsory-stress, and for the sake of the holidays spirit, play PAUSE on my break to share wid ya my first week in France. I left on sunday the 21st my rainny-greenish-windy Ireland to South of France where surprisingly it was colder than Ireland ;( so guess what I got a very bad cold ;(

So i m back in Dublin, I left the sunny 30 degrees of Toulouse for the Irish rain ;( In order to get over it, I decided it was time to talk about my trip, about THE real Pink city, I heard some people saying it is Jaipur but it s not ;) and of course I have to mention the FOOD!
So, saturday I had a wedding (see previous post). Sunday I went to see my dad, who is the king to make bbq, really, well this time he overcooked just a bit the duck but the rest, as u can see on the pics was really good. And because the weather was warm and chill out, we ate on the terrace.


Now, I m also a paparazzi and I do love dogs, so I went to see the dogs of the 'brother-in-law of my mother-in-law' (yeah I know, I have a small but complex family ;), he has 7 hunting dogs really cute ones.


On monday, my friends from Ireland, wisely decided to go to south of France to enjoy the sun and see THE Pink City, which is Toulouse , which is well known because it s here that we are building the biggest plane the Airbus A380, also named the 'Pink city' because of its distinctive brick architecture (click on the link above).


On the above picture u can see the very famous 'Place du Capitol' which is the biggest plazza with the town hall called the Capitolum (in Latin), which was built partially with bricks. Usually, when the Stade Toulousain which the rugby team of this city wins the French Championship like this year, they come on the balcony of the city hall, holding the trophee to celebrate their victory with all the 'Toulousains' (people from Toulouse) wearing black and red (color of the team) while singing "Qui ne saute pas, n est pas Toulou - sain" which means who does not jump, is not from Toulouse!


We passed by the Cathedrale of Saint Sernin, very well known as well, Claude Nougaro a french singer who passed away recently and was from Toulouse, made a song about this city and this cathedrale. My high school was just in front of it.

On the way to the restaurant we walked through the hall in front of the city hall, where u can find very posh and expensive bars, if u looked at the ceiling u could see painting made by a local artist all the way till the end of the hall.


After a small tour of the city we went to the 7th Heaven, which a restaurant. I took the rump steak with a dressing made with mustard and seeds' mustard, and some sautéed potatoes, it was exquisite...


My friend took the duck breast which looked yummy as well:


As for the desert, omg I took the 'crepe' which is a kind of thin pancake with some hot french chocolate on top it... no word to describe it


As for my mum, she took THE profiteroles!!! She could not finished it, because of the size ;)

Now on tuesday, I stayed with my mum, of course we had to eat, she went in the garden to pick up some vegetables ;( When u see the picture below, it might look like just vegetable for u, but for me it s not just a vegetable, it s a REAL vegetable, the one that looks a bit dirty but when it s clean, u don t need anything else to eat, no dressing, no need to cook the tomatoe, no, just eat it with nothing. I m not able to do that in Ireland, tomatoes need sun to grow ;( there is no sun in ireland, it s only exported tomatoes and by the time they arrived here they lost their taste on the way. As for the second pic next to it, it s one of my favorite dish, after u did a bbq, u use the rest of the hot charcoal and put some red peppers on it, u turn it till it becomes roughly black, then u roll it on a piece of newspaper (does not matter which newspaper u sue ;) all night, the next morning, u peel it, remove the seeds, then put it on a plate, add some olive oil, salt and peper and some small pieces of garlic, leave it on the frigde then serve it for lunch or diner..... AWESOME my friends ;)

Next time, I ll show u a pic of my mum s fridge and mine here in Dublin, so u can see how sad my fridge is and me compare to my mum s one ;) Now if u are still hungry ;) u can see my pics of one of my previous trip to south of France (this time with my grandparents), I have the tendancy to take pics of everything I eat in France just to get some souvenirs of good foods when i m here in Dublin ;(

Last question: what s ur favourite dish? give me some details i m not familiar with all the Indian dish ;)

As you know, for those who read previous post, I am in France at the moment, the weather is hot, the food is awesome (will do a post for the foodies later ;), and I m sick ;( the drastic change of weather did not worked on my favor but i am still trying to enjoy my trip as much as possible. As you know, I went to a French wedding of one of my good friend Mag last saturday. I haven t think of making a post on French wed until I read recently an hilarious post from my friend Vicky about why is not a big fan of Indian Wed ; ) So, to see the difference let me tell u how it works in France:
The invitation:

Usually the invitation is personalized by the future wife and husband, an my case they are fan of diving, so they put pics of them diving.

The ceremony part 1:
For catholic, we start by a civil ceremony with the Mayor of the city u want to get married, it takes roughly 20min for it.


The ceremony part 2:
Which takes place in a church of usually the same city, with the entrance of the future wife with her father. Followed by around an hour of talking from the priest, the best man, the exchange of the wedding rings, the signature ....


The Exit from the Church as a married couple:
Because they are divers, all of their friends were waiting for them to come outside the church, holding a flipper for some, and for the others instead of throwing the traditional rice they were making bubbles (like in a sea, if it s sounds confusing for u, check my smugmug for other pics ;)


The pictures:
After the 2nd ceremony, the photographer is taking pictures of the couple with the parents, with the family, with the friends etc etc so you are waiting for ur turn to go on the picture with the couple. The more guests u have, the harder it will to get everybody on time for the pic!


The Procession:
The married couple is taking a car to go to the reception, usually it s always a fancy car, with some ads at the back of the car 'JUST MARRIED', my friends had a collection car, very old one, very popular 30 years ago, it was a simple car, well decorated, they are a very simple couple ;) Each guest will have some piece of ribbons to attach to their car when following the Married couple s car.


The vin d'honneur:
Usually the couple invite family and good friends for a diner, but some 'friend of friends' or acquaintances are only invited to a small Reception with some wine and appetizers.

The Feast:
The room will be decorated, for my friends it was around diving. Each guest was in a table, the table had the name of an 'jetsam', mine was 'Chouen'. ( If i get married, I already know the name of my tables will be wines name ;)
On each table you had a piece of blue fabric to represent the water, with some seashell, and an aquarium with a golden fish on it, which I found it very original. Our name was writen on a small roc. You will also have the menu of the diner (appetisers, 1st course: fish, 'Trou Normand", meat, cheese: of course, desert)

The "Trou Normand":
Translate "The Normand s hole" which came originally from a region of France called Normandie. It is usually an ice cream with some very strong liquor on top of it, that we eat/drink in a middle of a big feast to digest faster and then eat again (as I said in a previous food in France is a Culture, very very important!!!!)

The desert:
It is traditionally a Layer cake with the small statue of the couple that they will cut together ;) We also, well the best man, or the parents do a toast for the new couple.



The shameless powerpoint preso and songs:
The best friends usually make it thanks to the parents of the couple, it is a presentation of the couple before they met with shameless pictures of them when they were kids untill and why they met, their comon hobbies, it s really funny.
Sometimes u even have a well known song, where the friends changed the lyrics of it and adaptated it for the couple, always in a funny way.

Dancing:
Of course after and sometimes during the diner we have to dance, to at least eliminate a bit of calories taken during this feast. There is the tradional first dance as a married couple. Now, as French it seems that we are not afraid of embarrassing moments, and we do have lots of funny/crazy/traditional dances that i put together in the following youtube video ;)



The sugared almond:
Well in this case it was not an almond but a chocolate, but usually after the wedding we leave with a small decorated bad and some sweet with almond or chocolate in it
The presents:
The future couple do a list of presents in a shop and guests can buy some for the couple or simply give some money in a ballot box available the day of the reception.

The party generally stay till very late or early in the morning, including lots of alcohol and dancing and food of course!!!!!

The late question: what is a wedding like in ur country/religion/cultures? Any pics I can see ?

PS: there is no aunties who are tried to find suitable guy for their girls ;) but usually the future couple when doing the guest lists they put single people on the same table.... u never know, maybe u ll find somebody.... will it did not work for me, but it s ok, I enjoyed it anyway!
PS2: the dentist was fine, she did not hurt me much, i still have that job but it was ok, the blood injection was also done by saturday morning (damn hard to woke at 7 for that), I did not faint and It almost did not hurt ;)