well it's all action in Fortworth, TX too....

I woke up this morning feeling hungover, possibly a combination of jetlag and last night's wino...
Around 11am the day began by picking up marco from his SAT (a standard test everyone takes in high school) and dropping him off at home again, he will be able to drive on his own soon which should put a stop or at least slow down mothe's taxi carreer. anyway, the next thing we did was hit the mall and the buying urge started to grow on me relatively quickly. the mall is alright; probably quite small in US standards but seeing different stores than the ones in Sydney was a slight relief. we didn't buy anything as I was only on a discovery tour and you wouldn't want to take all the fun out on the first day.
the problem i guess here is that to a store accross the street/highway we had to take the car and drive for five minutes... By that stage i was getting hungry so we got a sort of burrito and a place that works like subway, meaning you chose the ingredients that way. there was a whole array of sizes you could chose for you wrap, going from 1/2 freebird (name of the place) to monster freebird. we got the normal freebird and shared it. it wasn't bad at all but i don't think i want to see what the monster version looks like since the guy looked at me funny when i said that my miserably small one was HUGE....
we walked/drove around for a bit longer and decided to go home. some houses on the way were quite astonishing and absolutely gigantic... those families must AT LEAST have 2 kids (with only one of them in college) to "need" such a big house...
once at home, I managed to convince Marc to have a dip with me and we had heaps of fun; plus once i got into the shower, I was already a couple shades darker, yeeeee haaaa!!!
Marc was playing basketball at school tonight so we went and watched that. it was pretty exciting, as far as a bunch of distorted and sweaty teenagers go but Marc played well, scored a few baskets and they won a very close game so that was really cool.
well we're back home now and i'll go make myself something to eat,
more news soon, hope everyone is going well wherever you're reqding this from,
lot's of love, FB

don't mess with texas!!!

yeaaah ha there; well here i am writing from texas (on french keyboards though....) after a pretty long and somewhat painful trip... indeed flying with United Airlines proved to be pretty rough; a bit messy and just not the nicest. The long flight, a bit over 13 hours, felt VERY long, and i mean really loooong. i didn't manage to sleep much at all and watched too ,any bad movies... for which i cried a few times (usually for the most ovioulsy emotional bits) because i was thinking about christo... i mqde the departure overly dramatic;;; crying way too mqny times considering it's only a few weeks but i think it really annoys me now that he couldn't come, not hiom of course but just the situation of him not being here... oh well, i am here now and that's really nice: how funny to land into this whole new world and call it "home"...
the house is splendid, just really nice and well, BIG but homy. once i feel less tired, mothe will take me through the story of every new item in it....
the weather is quite warm and it didn't tqke long to transfer into a light summer dress....
tonight, we had dinner out and christo; you*ll be glad to know thta i was very "sensible" and had a very nice salad... hopefully it will last a bit...
anyway, looking at the screen is threatening to put me to sleep qny second but i shall be back soon; time to catch up on some sleep for now,
ciao ciao, more news soon,
FB

caz, secret weapon..............

THE SYDNEY BUSKER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA

reply to comments on previous entry

I started by wrting this as a new comment but realised that i might as well make it into a blog entry.... so
caz, i thought that you would feel a bit nostalgic seeing my hot looks in winter. i tried to remain as desirable as i could for as long as possible but it's just too cold now.. so out came the big green socks.. on the other hand, you should see chris' winter attire... it involves some massive himalayan socks which can only fit in his hiking boots....glad to see you will have a look at those tickets, and you have mishaped my comments about your dad and dallas slightly missy but it was probably for comment's sake...will speak to you soon, skype is cool and i hope the roast was good.
yo, ph, cool de voir que tu lis toujours mon modeste blog, le tien me manque il faut l'admettre. je serai bientot en vacances, donc on pourra mieux se causer. j'espere que tout se passe bien a paris et qu'un beau nuage de pollution se forme joyeusement pour l'arrivee de l'ete... hihihi, l'autre jour il faisait pourri ici et ca nous a fait penser a l'ete en hollande.... aaaaaaah, deux poids, deux mesures comme on dit chez nous......muahahha
mothe, i hope you had a mega cool time with john and mathias, you'll have to tell me about their waltzing skills...yeah, i'm back at work because the house i had been working on for so long had a big change and it needs about one or two days of work to get finished so it hurts me too much to leave it off when it;s so close to being finished....oh well, i estimate i'll be on vacation on wednesday. i certainly hope so because there are a few things i need to get done before i get on the plane. i bet it's getting warm in your parts, i can;t wait although poor chris will be sooo so cold... the poor.
the long week end was really good, we had a really nice time since chris didn;t do ANY work (he was meant to but manouf) so we rented some movies, had some nice snacks, went for walks and spoke on skype!! that was cool, i had a nice long chat with cazita, and then chris spoke to Jacinta in barcelona for quite some time. She is on her way to Nice next, possibly to find a cook job on a yacht... or something like that.
so mothe you should get on skype too for when i come back here and papa, si tu lis ce message, il faudra que tu me donne ton contact skype par email. ph, t'as skype toi? surement donc donne moi ton contact aussi!!!
well now, that;s a pretty long entry.
well, i might go get myself a coffee and until the next one, take care of yourselves and each other,
ciao

fiiinally

a photo is worth a million words so i won;t go into too much detail on that one, since you will all guess that the entry is about how we finally got the bed done. it's nice though, really nice, so well, we're two happy chaps!!!
also i was going to keep my updating for next week when i had all the time in the world for it since i wasn;t going to be working but a message on someone else's blog forced me to update sooner..... sucked in!!!!
ps: mothe, we were quite excited to inaugurate your new sheets on the new bed!!!

sucking concrete through a straw...

that's what chris and I have been sounding like in our sleep this week as we both have a cold....
anyway, that might explain the long silence, we have either been working or going to bed at 9:00.... an exciting life we have...
i will be replying to everyone of you this week end,
Leanne and Caz about the road trip USA...
papa about ton programme qui a l'air super,
mothe about your packie,
and Dawny, if you are reading this, about your last email and our date in a year from now......

Simon's "bush" 30th...

Last night was Simon's birthday, and the theme was bush so we all put on our sunday bests and gathered at the pub for some tucker and chilled Ale...jolly good times them were!!!!!!!!!

a word of reassurance

not to worry, all is fine, i was a bit upset off a few days ago but it's all fine now!! indeed, it wasn't because of chris!!
will be booking my tickets today and will let you know the exact dates..
speak to you very soon, ciao ciao

DOES IT HAVE TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER????????????

OR DOES IT ONLY GET WORSE??????? THAT'S ALL I HAD TO SAY FOR NOW......

shnitzel shnitzel and more swimming....

the most information in the minimum number of words...
friday morning we got to Albury, leaving at 4am and getting there for morning coffee and hot cross buns, we had a good week end, cold but had an electric blanket!! photos are on the way!
We travelled back on monday, and because of trackworks, had to be bused to Cuttamundra before getting on the train to Sydney central... we were surrounded by young germanics, female in tears from leaving their aussie host families and males offering a reassuring shoulder to cry on, as well as wandering hands.... Soon the tears were replaced by german manifestations of joy and excitement to which chris systematically replied to with a series of "shnitzel shnitzel..."
Went back to work on tuesday and back to the pool after work, am a good breast stroker, although not surprising according to chris since I am a frog afterall..... muscles aching a bit two days later but feeling good, going back tonight!!!!!
Last night, a fantastic dinner was awaiting my return with candles and beef kebabs...what else could you want!!!!!!!!

underwater australia

this is where i got the photo for the post below, papa je pense que tu devrais aimer.....
http://www.underwateraustralia.com.au/

just can' get enough of it

all day long, i am forever thinking of things that i want to put on this blog and then, i get home and the idea of going through my brain to remember what i was thinking of is overwhelming and so nothing appears on here for you.
so, let;s try to change that.
first of all, i did not mean to offend anyone by saying that J. Simpson was useless and that we shouldn't bother talking about her. eventhough i mean it, feel free to continue these interesting debates on this blog. i am happy to be the host of it and it makes me laugh a lot to read what you two have to say (mothe and Caza of course). knock yourselves out!!!!
Also, not much happened over the week end, except that i got out of the house on saturday and ended up spending 5 hours reading on the floor of a book store in the city. that was cool and, well.. i had a damn good time and might do it again sometime... i mainly spent my time in the photography section and then bought myself two novels, we'll see if they were good choices.... so tough which reminds me of one of my potential blog thoughts on how hard it is to chose a book.... in retrospect, i think it might be pretty boring for anyone but me to analyse the criterias i have set up to pick a book so i won;t go into it....
on saturday night, we went to watch "the world's fastest indian" and I really liked it, i cried the whole time and mothe, i think you would too. it was a happy emotional follow your dreams kind of movie with an old chou.... puuuurfect. This also reminds me that we saw "V for Vendetta" last thursday I believe and it was pretty cool except that I, by principle, hate a woman who looks super hot with a shaved head and prison clothes... so that was a real problem as you can well imagine.
Yesterday, which would be sunday, we went for another swim at 8 am and i totally broke my record as i swam 1.5Km and loved it....i'm mega supa sore as I speak and it should be even worse tomorrow but we might go after work tomorrow night....it was my idea so we'll see if it really happens, the main problem being that i am submerged with work and not sure what time i'll be getting out of that fish bowl......
i think that's about, we shall be on our way to Albury in a few days, normally going down with Carolinna and Simon on their way to Melbourne... from what I understand, we might leave on thursday night and camp in the bush......in-te-res-ting.......
ok bye bye for now, keep writing comments, it's so mega exciting to check everyday and see what you have to say about brangelina and whatever else, and i mean that!!!!!
CHEERIO as they say..........................

I tried...

... to accuse chris for the lack of social events in my recent weeks... the truth is , it's not really his fault at all and while i might not be any kind of Paris Hilton party animal, I certainly make for a good granny... just a bit in advance!!
So I have decided to take control of my life and kick start this whole friendship thing that a lot of people seem to enjoy so much.... problem number 1 is that I have temporarily lost my best friend in the whole southern hemisphere (probably northern too since emails haven't exactly been flowing that direction either lately....bad) and problem number 2, I never see chris anymore and so hanging around, mindlessly dragging myself from one room to the other all week end might give me a chance to bump into him if only 5 minutes.....i guess i see him physically but we never have time to play anymore... :(
Back to the control thing, i suppose that in a time of serious drought, we could say that this week was a moonsoon season as I have met up with Tuna (tina) last night and we had delicious japanese food and ridiculously expensive beer..... and have a double date organised tomorrow night (to celebrate the week end I guess and catch up mostly) with should include Charmaine and her boyf and the boyf and I...we're going to Newtown which puts us a few notches higher on the scale of coolness.........no need to say Newtown wasn;t my suggestion as I would have settled for randwick even, so i guess it only makes me cool by association to Charmaine but i can live with that!!!!!!!!

bam bam chicccc (drum joke sound)

Frenchbeach: Hum Baby, you are the reason for the downfall of my social life...
Hot dot: oh really, and why is that?
FB: hum, because i have too much fun with you and so I don;t want to do anything else...
HD : Baby... the downfall of your social life was when Caz left.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so I picked up all my teeth from the floor and went to bed.....

boy oh boy

it's the start of anotehr year on this blog and so i really ought to put a bit of effort into it and write a line or two from time to time....it's all about discipline...
and not only the blog, this mornong we (as in Emma, Chris and meself) went to the Unipool...at 8 (thank god for day light saving business as it changed this morning so it was really 9 o'clock...) anyway, i swam 800 m while the Van Lint gang swam 2.5K but I don't care because I had a whole lane all to myself and i was making up my own very personal swimming style...kicking and using the floating kick board as a pillow....so cooool!!
i finished swimming a tiny bit before they did and so I was able to observe real discipline... when they swim, their bodies are like machines, with every movement so clear and sharp and defined within time and space.... pretty cool to watch plus i get to see how the sommersault thing at the end of a lap is really done, like on TV...
around 9, we went to Em's house and has deeeelicious pancakes, ohh so yummy!!!
After that we went home and that;s about where the exciting stuff ends really. oh yeah, i repoted my cactus friends (still alive) and so I expect them to loook very happy soon, at the moment they still look fairly tiny in their new big pot...
and now that;s really it, chris is stuck doing homework and I wander from one room to the other finding temporary occupations, i think i might go put my glasses on and have a bit of reading time.... reading a supa good book at the moment, but can;t say too much about it yet....
ciao, i hope this new entry will set a pattern for the year to come....

this is what happens when an obsession is pushed too far

Chris has a uni assignment on photoshop due this week so I put my two cents in....pretty funky huh?

happy.............

Birthday to youuuuuuuu!!!
In a few different ways, today or tonight is a bit special and it’s like everything came together to make it that way.
Special because I am able to take the time to write an entry…(it could be a long one my friends) as Chris is out at a rugby game with his uncle tonight (a kind of bonding session I suppose) which means I can use the computer and it is Friday night which means I don’t have to do any homework either ( and yes, I have been bringing work home with me….).
What’s special is not so much the entry itself though but more the fact that it is TODAY and why is today different…?
Well, precisely!! Because, we are celebrating this blog’s first birthday!!!!!! Wouhou partay on!!! So we are celebrating the existence of this blog but does anyone remember how or why this blog came about?? Well yes again, a year ago today, Chris left and was on his way to Nepal which was the subject of the very first entry…
So as things don’t always follow the plan (ask Caz), this blog was intended to be a record of Chris’ travels and I guess it started that way but quickly turned into a big jumble of stuff, from daily life material to whatever crossed my mind… I don’t think I will forcefully subject anyone to a long and tedious flashback session but I will definitely skim through the “pages” myself and have a good laugh or a private smile about what appears on the screen…. How time flies, it’s funny and how small events, because they were recorded at the time keep their freshness intact…. And so Caz, you might remember the “Macarena” entry quite well, and or the photos of one fateful night at the CBH when we met the Frog man…., possibly even our daytrip to East lakes…. I realise by going through it that most of the blog ended up being dedicated to you and our common silliness (caz), that;s alright, I don’t think I’ll stop laughing about it for a while still….
Anyway, Revisiting all these great memories makes me regret not having posted more often lately and well, this blog is also the proof that nothing is ever too boring to find it’s place in there…. So after a whole year of random bable, I decide that it must go on for at least another one and another one and…… because, it’s actually pretty cool!

surprise surpise!!!!!!!!!!!

this is what 3 months in front of a computer will do to you......................

not to worry though, they are only for comfort and my sight is fine.....

.....DKNY......

here we go here we go

hey, long time no see... or write... anyway, we still don;t have internet at home (should be working soon) so here i am, at work, about to send you the first photos from the new love nest. the main problem, which caused the delay, was that it is quite a difficult exercise to take photos inside that will look half decent, not too dark and dingy and give something close to the right impression of the thing.
Anyway, it still probably doesn't and i'm afraid all of you out there will have to come (back) downunder to appreciate it. as it is now, we're pretty happy and the furnituring?arranging of the place on a tight budget is making significant progress, well mainly on week ends but still. things have changed slightly since the photos but not much, and more photos will come shortly... (i promise.. to try)

other than that, things are going fine, as I said, the place is going great and we are having a good time trying to make it even better. we had a few feasts on the bbq already which was very exciting, we have a matress which actually hurts my back more than when we were sleeping on the floor... and my only wish would be to spend more time in there, making it feel like home...

Chris has just started Uni again, and the poor thing is going to be a busy man for the next few months. he's going to learn french which is cool and we'll see how that goes. the studio is actually the most elaborately furnished room in the house so he should be very comfy in there.

Work is going well, and I am still learning a lot everyday, plus I'm getting used to this new lifestyle and i don;t really mind it at all. still, it would be cool hanging out at Uni and sleeping in from time to time but that will come back, very quickly too since time is flying these days and have realised that I am already halfway through work experience, which is hard to believe. The other cool thing about work experience is that this uni session is costing us $39... hihihi!!

I' afraid that's about it for now.... will be back soon for more, take care, love you, Laure

love shack...baby love shack!! (2)

so this morning, at 9 0'clock, the lease was signed with both our names on it!! we now have the keys and no time to go admire our new home...
Anyway, we have also been packing the infinite number of things of all kind that I have managed to accumulate. I am being careful to use "I" as chris' stuff took about 5 minutes and one suitcase to pack... while I'm still going and going and going.... i like it though and my only regret is not having time to look at every thing and tell chris the related story and ask him if he remembers when we took that photo or went to this cafe etc etc..... i hope we can do that when we unpack... and again, you'll notice the use of "i" as I am probably the only one hoping....
It is all highly exciting although the week end might be a bit loco!! we have booked a van for tomorrow and so we can move all our stuff and also find a fridge and maybe a bit of furniture if anything nice comes our direction... on sunday, we'll have to get on our hands and knees, and as Cinderella probably did it better than us, clean and scrub and dust and wash and wipe.....
The going away inspection will be next friday and i hope i get all my money back, normally, I should...
I think we'll try to spend our very first night, sleeping on piled up blankets and sleeping bags, in the new place tomorrow night!! i don't really care about comfort, I'm just way too excited and all my clothes are packed up anyway!!
So that's what is going on right now... we're both really really excited and i hope it is as good the second time as it was when we visited it for a whole five minutes...
I can't wait to hang the thong shower curtain on a real steel bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!