My favourite Alexandra

Romanians celebrate a lot their name days… and 30 august is Saint Alexander day, in Romania.
My favourite Alexandra is my cousin, Alexandra Badescu, a rhythmic gymnastics national champion, a truly kind hearted kid, with lots of medals all over her walls.
I admire her for the strength and ambition and especially for getting great SAT scores and being admitted to the Bucharest Academy for Sports, when lots of sportsmen don't have time to learn, between practicing.

Me, myself and my car…or what a wonderful day!

Is this Karmic retribution or what?

Lovely Sunday morning, but I woke up at noon…read something, ate a mango with all my mouth, both hands and a poor T shirt…then went outside for a Mango- chill with O.

My poor little car was waiting for my in the front of my block with an ugly scar…then I had a revelation. Since the alarm rang some times during the night (and what a storm we had, in Bucharest!) one of my neighbours decided a rock in the car window will stop the noise. Too bad for him, I say, and I don’t believe in revenge as Hamlet, but in Karmic retribution, as I said…

Going to the coffee shop was OK. Parking, not at all. A young man wasn’t too sure of what he was doing and managed to hit my car. OK, I take a deep breath; this cannot be Saint Monica's day! As we discuss, we agree only the police will decide who was right and who was wrong on that issue so we head to the police station… too bad that in our way, as I was leading, the last stop we had in our way to the station, the same guy (angry with the parking moment?) didn’t notice the light was turning from green to yellow so he stopped his car... into mine.

So my little car was hit from all directions, when she managed to behave properly all these months.

Forgive me, Kitty, I will always try to protect you, but don’t you agree this was a day with Mars in I don’t know what house of my astral chart?

Fortunately, no human being was physically harmed in all these incidents…not sure if I am not a little disturbed since then, though… Since, with all these, came more than 6 hours of waiting at a line, outside the police station…

cartoon found here

My favourite Monica

Catholics celebrate today Saint Monica. Mother of Saint Augustin, she prayed for her son to convert to Christianity. He eventually did become a Christian.
And she did more than that: that is why now she is the patron saint of married women, abuse victims, alcoholics, alcoholism, difficult marriages, disappointing children, homemakers, housewives, married women, mothers, victims of adultery, victims of unfaithfulness, victims of verbal abuse, widows, and wives.

she is my favourite Monica, and I am happy to have her name.






I only wish one day I will celebrate 27th of August in a sunny town over the Ocean:


pictures found here and here

Death cab for Cristi

He was happy. He stopped dreaming about California, since he finally finished California Dreaming.
He knew Marilena from P7, Mihai and Cristina, the C block story and especially the fact that In Appartment Buildings People Are Crazy About Music..He used to be crazy about music, too, and his neighbours were really happy about that...
Armand Assante says he is one of the few youngsters really taught him something...
He can still teach us something: life is beautiful.
Good bye, Cristi, we've been waiting for you and your generation for so many time but we had so little time to enjoy your staying here...

Cristian Nemescu, film director, died on the 25th of August. He was going home, happy about finishing filming his first long movie, California Dreaming. He was in cab crushed by a maniac who was driving with more than 140 km/ hour, they say. He was 27.

smelly cat...

refren':
Smelly cat, smelly cat
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smelly cat
It's not your fault

They won't take you to the vet
You're obviously not their favourite pet
You may not be a bed of roses
And you're no friend to those with noses

refren'

She's coming to Romania! Not the cat, man, Lisa!

She'll be here in October, shooting for "The Deal".. detalis, coming soon, too...


I love you Phoebeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
picture found here

Martini, please!

I really need to go to NY...Central Park, the MoMa, even a Sex and the City locations tour( as my friend Cristina followed, using a book )
and night at the Algonquin, to meet HIM



According to the BBC
Hoy Wong, now 90, regarded as New York's oldest bartender can still be found behind the bar at the Algonquin Hotel

He was there for Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and so many others, and knew how to make their days/ evenings...

Marilyn enjoyed Beefeater martini, very dry so that's what I'd take...but wouldn't say no, still, to a lemon twist Martini lit with a match, as the Duke of Windsor got when asked for "House of Lords martini in and out on toast".

pictures found here and here

Buenas tardes, Uruguay!

looking through my blog's statistics, I found out somebody from Uruguay visited fleurDUmall last night...









I realised that, besides knowing Uruguay is "America's Switzerland", joined MERCOSUR, a little about Punta del Este, the capital city is Montevideo and its football/ soccer team won some World Cups, I don't know too much about this country..shame on me.

So, some facts for you, assuming you know as much I do about Uruguay:


1. The national slogan is "Freedom or death"


2. There are more women than men in Uruguay ( and they are beautiful indeed!), the population is over 3 million



3. None of the tourism agencies in Romania organizes trips to Uruguay...yet:)

4. Romanian citizens don't need a visa to enter Uruguay


More on Uruguay here, thanks to the CIA

pictures found here and here and here and here

anti ode to moths

I try to think positive lately, and avoid feelings like hatred..But I can't help myself when I see those $%&(%^ insects flying arround...I understood nothing helps against them ( thoroughly clean the house, use lavender in any form, now the last weapon against them is the vacuum cleaner, imagine me... and they are not even the type that eat wool or any textile stuff!)As Anna says here I do not much like moths...Not at all...and I am OK, like Anna says again with the other insects kingdom(thanks God I haven't seen a cockroach in ages...

And when I say that, imagine I am sitting a feet distance from a huge spider that entered my window...since it is evening, it brings luck( superstitious me!) but tomorrow morning I wouldn't be happy to find it here)


I am horrified..and need help.
horrified girl drawing found here

I am busy, sorry!

I have tons of books on my night stand...have to read them...autumn's here and I am not ready at all:)



drawing found here. Gracias, Teba!

autumn's here!

need another proof?

I don't...



pic taken in Piata Amzei( Bucharest,RO)

waiting and waiting and waiting

He's the guy I commited a crime for...who would have ever suspected me I can rip and steal a magazine page in a coffee shop?

It's me...Gael Garcia Bernal has been posted for months on my studio fridge, some years ago...

He is back in a new movie, based on a script by Michel Gondry, the same guy who did The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind so I am 100% sure I will indulge every sec of the movie...



According to Marie Claire, La science des rêves (The Science of Sleep) will be out in the UK somewhere in November...so we, here in Romania will be waiting and waiting and nothing but waiting... until then, take a look at the trailer and find the reasons to be waiting and waiting and waiting

picture found here and here

flip flops near President #2

well, not only the President shouldn't have pronounced the word, but flip flops are a no-no near a president, I found!

I read on the CBS website about a definitely faux pas that happened at the White House...

"Recently, Northwestern University's champion women's lacrosse team visited the White House and met President Bush. A photo was taken to remember the occasion, but many people, including relatives of the athletes, questioned the propriety of wearing flip-flop sandals to meet the president"

Can you imagine Bush saying " Whose flip flops are these?" as the Romanian president was heard, last week?

Well, I can...and I'm in a laughing crisis again...

I am a Murakami freak!

...so whenever I find something on him I 'd like to share...but still don't know anybody who read him...so I'll just tell you...

Thanks to New York Times via Journalissimo I found out " Murakami wrote "Kafka" in six months, starting, as he usually does, without a plan. He spent one year revising it. He follows a strict regimen. Going to bed around 9 p.m. - he never dreams, he said - he wakes up without an alarm clock around 4 a.m. He immediately turns on his Macintosh and writes until 11 a.m., producing every day 4,000 characters, or the equivalent of two to three pages in English.
He said that his wife has told him that his personality changes when he is writing his first draft, and that he becomes difficult, nontalkative, tense and forgetful.
"I write the same amount every day without any day off," he said. "I absolutely never look back and go forward. I hear Hemingway was like that."
Unlike Hemingway, Mr. Murakami leads a healthy lifestyle. In the afternoons, to build up his stamina to keep writing, he works out for one or two hours. Whenever he is in Tokyo, he also visits old-record stores, especially ones in the youth mecca of Shibuya, which appears to be the unnamed setting of "After Dark," published last fall to relatively little attention here."

A Rebel in Japan Eyes Status in America
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
New York Times
(Registration required)

The flip flops and the President

Whose flip flops are these?

OK, a normal question for someone close...but when you hear these word on TV, pronounced by the President himself, you can't help yourself bursting into a laugh crisis...

what on earth could make a president ask such a question, knowing he is recorded. besides his wish to be more and more popular?

Is there a list of words you couldn't imagine a president would pronounce?

well, flip flops belobgs to the list, no doubts...

He was at the seaside, for the Navy's Day, doing a walk on a beach...and this flip flops story...

talking about flip flops, Emilia, thanks for the pair you brought from Paris 3 years ago..they still make my day, even if I wear them only in the house...the paillettes are beginning to fall, so I have glittery floors...ain't that cool?

picture found here

Silent Sunday afternoon

Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler

DÉJEUNER DU MATIN-
JACQUES PRÉVERT

They sat at that table for at least an hour....she was reading a glossy magazine, he, a newspaper.

they never looked at each other... while sipping their coffees...
they got up and left...he came to us smiling, we chatted for some minutes...she didn't ever look at him, or us... but stopped while we were talking...

is this solitude in two...meta- communication...telepathy?


photo found here

opening Matryoshkas, one by one

You really really have to see this movie...a sequel to L'auberge espagnole

I laughed almost all the time, enjoyed Sankt Petersburg, ( even planned a trip to the Russian city), and noted some keys moments: Xavier- mother phone talk image cut, ballerina on the ladder, naked Xavier and Neus runing on Paris streets, Beauty walk on the ideal street in Sankt Petersburg, and sadness moment at Will&Natasha's wedding...

we speak the same language!

when I read gorgeoux today, I knew we speak the same language... orthodox chick, unorthodox food flick, with the mention she indulges herself more than I can well, we all have limits...)

Dear Cheezy Cheeky, not only we must meet, but we have to do a session... a food and tea one...

this is my brunch....in a day i said to myself, what the hell, today no more vegan!

and this meant somon fume, emmenthaler, special goat + wallnut cheese and a bunch of cherry tomatoes...
dinner was more fun, under the same logo, risotto con frutti del mare



The next day was Friday so I fasted with no more than water and lemon... that was it, once a month I go this way...and I am OK

saturday morning

It's another Saturday morning that I come home and go to sleep, instead of waking up and sortir

It's another Saturday morning I won't have breakfast but dinner

It's another Saturday morning I will look into the mirror and hate what I see

It's another Saturday morning and I will regret feeling hatred again, when I promised myself I wouldn't do that again

It's another Saturday morning...and it's a hot hot summer..

YEAH! Dana said we're going to the Chineeeeeeeeese rest...but she said no more, I added OK, it's SILENZIO STAMPA, since we both are stampists... so we could laugh at the dinner table...Poli will be there, too... she was on silenzio and more than stampa too...

Miki called, last night and Diana texted...everybody courts me when I sleep...does it mean I am the sleeping beauty?
where's my prince? Sleeping with his toes outside?

blurry picture found here

I deserve it!

I need it and I deserve it!

How many women fix different things and manage to do it properly?

well, I proudly say I am a treasure around the house so now I qualify for the next level...when I should have my own tool box and ask no more in the neighbourhood.

I guess this is the right choice, dont' you think so?

Somebody help me!

picture found here

re: Forgot to plug myself in

I am total disaster...went to plug myself in, realised you can all plug yourselves in...since the exhibition is on until the 23rd...

i.e. Madalina Lazar's exhibition at the Galeria Galateea

don't shoot me...

my advice...

girls, run, fly, drive away... if you are looking for your half, leave Romania...or choose an expat!

a recent WHO study shows Romanians are more and more likely to have psychic disorders... Every 11 Romanians in 100 are disconnected...and only 5% of them are sitting for once in a while on a shrink's couch ( do they really do that couch decorating, nowadays?)

one of the causes is, of course, STRESS
I am getting stressed only when I realize there are only 273 certified psychotherapists in Romania...and we are more than 20 millions!

full story here, in Romanian


banner found here

come on!

You Are 56% Bitchy

Generally, I am an average woman, with average moods. But sometimes... well, watch out! Sometimes, I let my mean side get the better of me. And I enjoy every minute of it.

How Bitchy Am I?

who would have believed this?
did this test and I started to feel sorry for all those 56% of the people I've been the B word with...

well, since this is the truth and nothing but the truth, you have to know...I am not THAT kind of girl...

PS now what to do, what to do?

meet my pet!

in the hungarian tradition, piglets, ladybirds, 4 leaf trefoils and horseshoes bring luck..

meet, then, my animated Malac( piglet, in Hungarian, pronounced malats)

my other Malac, a little china piglet, is in my purse...you'l meet him, someday...be patients!

hero of the day

stop him, he took my bag!

he ran and caught the youngster who stole the old lady's purse..

meet my father and my hero...and my town's hero, since yesterday...

the woman wanted to give him some money( it turned out she had a big sum inside it) but a lady who was passing by recognized him and said: oh, but this gentleman is really special, I know him!

proud to be his daughter:)but wouldn't have the courage to do that, in Buh...

My favourite Maria

at least 2 millions Romanians celebrated today their name day..Maria or other derivates...

My favourite MARIA remains Romania's Queen Marie though...both for her appearance( i am woman, what the heck!) and for the role she played in this country's history...She was named the soldier queen, the diplomat queen. She is my favourite and deserves a champagne glasses cling!

picture found here

The wind that shakes the Delta

Another week, another moments of happiness for the movie freaks ...Go away, far away to the Danube Delta the Anonimul independent film festival begins on the 14th!

The third edition will be graciously opened by Ken Loach's The wind that shakes the barley that got the Palme d'or this year, at Cannes.

Alex Leo Serban says this year will be a non-star game...

I wonder what does he mean by that, considering the AWAITED GENERATION will be there...and I mean Cătălin Mitulescu ,Cornel Porumboiu , Radu Muntean , Florin Piersic jr, Cristian Nemescu , Cristian Mungiu and Constantin Popescu . Or maybe he meant stars not STARS...what's in a star, anyway?

try and get there, the festival lasts all week long...if u didn't make any reservations, grab a tent and prepare for 5 days of living in the moviesphere.

The light rang at my door…

9 in the morning, on Saturday...I was sleeping deep after a night of reading, when I heard the doorbell ringing..

Covered my head with the pillow but still could hear the shout on the hall: the light!
Yes, the light was ringing at my door…

It’s the way people from the electricity company come every month with the invoice, expecting me to pay.. In an era where I go to the ATM and in five minutes I pay all my bills, Electrica keeps sending its employees to our doors.. Of course I could go and pay at their offices, but the Romanian lines are legendary…

That’s how the light keeps ringing at my door, every month…and I always answer.

it's coming!

Girls, polish your stilettos, do your nails and put at least some gloss on... IT'S COMING!

read the book , like so many other chicks... heard they are doing a movie...featuring Meryl Streep...felt a little disappointed...

promised Ophelie we'll be there...and we'll make it at the lounge room..endulge ourselves with something special...see what they have done..

I'll tell you then, if it worths the lounge room... or the effort...
too bad we won't be sipping a Starbucks mmmmocha while watching...

been to the MALL 1

...and stared for minutes and minutes at a shelf...at Kare

do I need it?
is it vital for me?
then how comes I am still standing here?!
pink or blue?
OMG...I have to have it...though I don't...

somebody stop me!

casse- tete chinoise afternoon

spent some hours solving a problem ...Radu dared me, Radu helped me and Radu finished after me... nice idea, a man to finish afer the lady...
well, I guess normally he wouldnt have done that, but he was at work.. lucky me

But what if...

PS Passed it to Alex, the BRAIN...he got stuck...elsewhere than me, while solving..ain't I great?

cartoon found here

ChocoFASHION

Just found out in WALLPAPER about Lula Cioccolato. They say it's the best chocolate shop in Milan. But that's not the issue! Some of its tasty offerings now come in perfect takeaway form — 100g chocolate bars, in plain milk, white and dark, or flavoured with the likes of chilli or pistachio — and all are exquisitely wrapped in paper sourced by store owner and fashion designer Antonio Ponte. What should I do to get some, until I go to Milan?!

His scent...

A little fizzy but more like bitter, I carry this NY scent with me for hours and hours…not only in my mind, but also on my wrist... since I couldn’t resist sprrrrrritzing some on my hand…

It’s HIS perfume ( he doesn’t know yet)…and I’m in love with it...

Now I am only waiting for a HIM ...wearing this...only he doesn't know that...oh, I said that before...and I don't know who's this HIM

picture found here

Betty, the shoppaholic doggy

meet Betty, my "niece"...a mini Schnauzer so spoiled ..I can imagine her in a Mall...shopping to calm her down..
for the moment, she finds her good mood by chewing a "calming bone" I found in a Mall..not expensive at all

Crazy things in a dead city

And what a nice country I have!

Been 400 km away to OCNA MURES, a small town in Transsylvania...that is almost dead..

but where people still have the opportunity to have fun, once in a while..

to bad I cannot translate...and too bad the town is so dead that on week-ends you cand hardly find 10 people downtown...

I wonder who accepted that funky invitation that assured people the show will be a real...crazy thing!

Chocomania

" How I have waited for your appearance.
With muted sighs and a welcoming smile
I place you within my waiting mouth.
O sweet brown and lovely velvet that clings to my lips
and sweeps past the sensitive and waiting buds upon my tongue!
Judith Ashley

Won't say more on choco....but lead you to some places that will surely increase your saliva production...:)

My favourites were Godiva, Lindt, Leonidas and Guylian

for those who've been to the Big Apple or, at least, got some presents from NY...

Evelyn’s Chocolates - 4 John St., nr. Broadway - a forty-year-old Wall Street source for old-school confections like Coconut Haystacks and homemade Chunkys.

I got the Heavenly Hash, a chocolate-drenched smorgasbord of marshmallow nuts, dried fruits, and whatever else is lying around the kitchen. yummy- yummison!

Shoes that rock my socks

"Oh, dearest shoes,
How I love you all...
I'll walk a thousand miles
So I can justify buying more"

Swerling and Lazarus

Name a woman not obsessed with shoes!

some warming up links:

Zappos

Net-a-porter

and some shoes I'd kill for, but I could never wear...
Trippen

drawing found on Sophie Kinsella 's web page, of course :)