Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Retour aux sources

Nouveau chapitre dans notre vie et fin de ce blog. Nouvelle aventure: la France! ... Nimes! 

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Rock for Obama

Got Hope? Got Vote?
By a strange twist of fate we were invited to a " Rock for Obama" fundraising event last night in London. So to all the Americans who live abroad, don't forget to register to vote here: http://www.votefromabroad.org

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Goodbye California


Derniers jour en Californie, dernières marches dans les Santa Monica Mountains avec John, Charmlee et Satwiwa, dernier vernissage et dernière journée à Santa Barbara, sortie à la plage de Carpinteria et dernier tremblement de terre, 5,4 sur l'échelle de Richter, Earthquake rocks Los Angeles!
Au volant de ma petite Chevy Cobalt dernier trajet jusqu'à l'aéroport en passant par Las Virgines et Pacific Coast Highway à Malibu et Santa Monica. Dernier verre au Rat and Ferret, non, Crown and Anchor Pub à Thousand Oaks avec Janet, Richard, Michael. Un peu de nostalgie et le sentiment de suivre le flot de la Vie vers notre prochaine aventure.
I feel I am leaving a bit of myself behind.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Malibu from Charmlee Park in the Santa Monica Mountains



A little walk in Chamlee Park leads you on a cliff overlooking Malibu. This was our last trip to the Pacific Ocean. There is something about that colour...

Friday, August 1, 2008

my Chevy and I


Here we are My Chevy and I in one of the numerous parking lots of Thousand Oaks!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Murder at the Arroyo Villas?

Trouble in paradise? On our way to the pool we saw four police cars and a building taped like we see on films. Where we live is the quietest place in the suburbs of Newbury Park, surrounded by palm trees, the most serious crime I can imagine in this white clean gated community is a burglary. Even so, the wardens make eye contact with everyone and would spot anyone unusual.  
It is Sunday afternoon and families are in the pool, kids are shouting, the usual. It is just strange to see on the other side of the fence police officers coming and going.  After my lengths I decide to go home and here is a police officer asking me to go back a different way as he is also taping my path. "What happened?" I dare ask. Well, you should have seen his face...He seemed offended that I even ask anything. He should realise that in a place so quiet, and with the box feeding us hundreds of "Law and Order" episodes we are all craving some action. "I can't tell you anything" he said with a disapproving tone.
Miffed as I was I walk home the long way around. A minute later a lady asks me what the policeman had told me. She delighted in informing me of the "rumour" that had been going around the Arroyo Villas since the morning, that the lady from the office "got killed". I thought she too must be watching "Law and Order". I didn't know how to end the conversation other than uttering some patronising sentence about "We should all be careful..."
As I was walking away I was imagining some angry resident coming back to the management office with a weapon. A bit surreal. What could it be? Issues about garages, neighbours, leaf blowers?
The following day I went on the site of my favourite local paper the Ventura County Star and the content of the article, I am afraid, was quite gruesome, Man arrested in relation to death of his mother.
Stephen had reminded me that most murders are committed by someone known to the victim.

Monday, June 23, 2008

San Diego

A brief week end heading South to San Diego. Beautiful boats, including the Star of India which circumnavigated the globe twenty-one times, the Gas Lamp Quarter, with gambling halls, brothels and liquor dens where sailors would come and spend their meagre earnings.
We also spent a day at the zoo which is the home of cute pandas, and travelled back on the Pacific Coast Highway through Orange County, San Clemente, Huntington Beach. 




Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Cactus Rock


Who dared fencing off our walk to Cactus Rock?
I prefer not to think that the sprawl of suburbia is threatening Hill Canyon...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

New York



As I am preparing to go back to Europe I still can't believe how lucky we were to be able to go to New-York last month. And how likely were we to be there at the same time as Emily, and as Janet's gallery opening and also to be able to stay with Paul and Morag in the Lower East Side? 

Morag has a particular liking for the F-Train, she jokes "It is so sassy!". It took us from the Lower East Side to Brooklyn where we met up with Emily for her birthday/PhD celebration brunch, then walked to Brooklyn Bridge Park in the rain. Looking across to Manhattan and drinking hot chocolates to warm up and back to the Lower East Side. 
The Lower East Side is quite "Brick Lane-esque", full of History and trendy restaurants and edgy fashion boutiques and on 248 Broome Street, Baby Cakes NYC, the wheat-free, dairy-free place to ha
ve breakfast. The Lower East Side is the place where all the immigrants arrived from Italy, Easter Europe to  start there lives in the New World (check the Tenement Museum Website on Orchard Street).  The Lower East Side is also the home of the incredible Katz's Delicatessen of Houston St, open since 1888, where all things are smoked, pickled or cured, the deli where the waiters are fierce, you have to be ready to fend for what you want, and where was filmed the fake orgasm scene from When Harry met Sally( 1989)

From there we hopped on the F-train again to Greenwich Village for a walk from Washinton Square, Henry James on one side and New York City University on the other; to Union squar
e, via the Village, the Cherry orchard theatre, Grove Street full of Old-World charm, Bleecker Street, with the cute trendy boutiques. We loved the Village. And we just had to go to Strand,  biggest second-hand bookshop I have ever seen. The following day another trip on the F-train, to Midtown where the Museum of Modern Art is. As we experienced MOMA is closed on Tuesdays!
We did change though to Uptown and spent time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, outstanding art collection! The Guggenheim Museum was under a huge scaffolding but we went in to look at the staircase. We got soaked again in Central Park, I hadn't quite worked out that my plimsoles and jacket weren't waterproof!!! I never thought New York in May would be so wet. It added a certain charm, walking under the umbrella " un petit coin de parapluie contre un coin de paradis" in Central Park.
How lucky we were too to be shown around Little Italy and Chinatown by someone who has lived here and loves the area so much. Chinatown in the rain looks a bit like Blade Runner
 (1982) with little merchants, shoe repairers in the streets. In China Town we went to the most amazing Chinese restaurant, in a big empty room we come in and three old men sit at the back playing Majong; there is no menu, and we are the only customers and Paul orders dimsungs for all of us warning us that pork is the local vegetable! The shop feels like it would have been in the fifties, old New York with the original tin ceiling in case of fire, grim yellow walls. For an amazing $8 we had lunch for three! I wonder what was in those dumplings hidden under the hoisin sauce...
We crossed Canal Street and were in Little Italy, Italian flags everywhere, with restaurants called Benito, how strange! Apparently some immigrants came here during the 30's and were loyalists... Some bars were used as a set for the television series the Sopranos and very proud of it. Paul also knew the stories of shootings between gang members in the 70's...
On our last day we went to the Upper East Side to Janet Amiri's opening, East West Dialogues, Mysticism, Satire and the Legendary Past. The fifty artists exhibited had lived or worked in Iran and show their vision of the Persian identity, including the film maker/artist Abbas Kiarostami.

Best walk: from the Lower east side to the Staten Island Ferry terminal.
Best free ride with a view of the Statue of Liberty: Staten Island Ferry
Most stylish dinner: Café Daniel Boulud on 76th Street

Five days was far too short. I hope I'll be back some day.




Tuesday, April 15, 2008

My other car is a yoga mat


Has anyone out there ever tried Kundalini yoga?
For the past five years, Down Dogs, Sun Salutations, Warrior poses, Cobras are part of our lives. And I can only recommend learning to lengthen your breath, to open your chakras, to "let go" rather than "try"... Yes, I know, it sounds odd, but in the practice of yoga it is actually happening.

But Kundulini is something else, pretty "out there". Who would have thought so? A little lady sitting on the floor, surrounded by books, candles was instructing that workshop, but believe me, the "serpent yoga" is really an exercise. Instead of stretching, you do repetitive movements, find the rythm, coordinate the breathing, but do the exercise for a few minutes. I can still feel in my shoulders the swim. Is there a pool in a yoga studio? No, you sit there miming swimming movement for a good five minutes, while the little lady is leading; "Imagine you are at sea, you swam far form the shore and a storm is brewing. You lost sight of the shore and you have to find your way. Swim faster, faster, and trust your Inner Voice, your guardian angels to swim in the right direction..." I can still feel that in my shoulders two days later, and believe me after a few minutes, you can actually see the scene...

I would have thought California was Yoga heaven, and yes, stretching out on the beach, looking at the Pacific Ocean, or outdoors, on the grass in the sun is pretty amazing but I still have a thought for Nina, Yves, Rachel, Jane, Peter, my favourite Iyengar instructors. Here we have Janet and Purusha who are very inspiring too. To get inspired by Mr Iyengar himself, who is still teaching today, check this out on YouTube: BKS Iyengar Pranayama

When driving seriously gets on my nerves, and I switch to KUSC "Anti-Road Rage Melody" I think that my yoga mat is my other car and takes me to a better place, flying carpet of the Arabian Nights. 

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Cours de sculpture


J'ai enfin fini ma sculpture de Zak, à qui j'ai ajouté une casquette, petit Gavroche de six ans au bord de la Manche. Bien loin d'ici. 

Même ici!


Les Marseillais sont partout!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

L'ami Gustav et périgrinations à Satwiwa


L'ami Gustav est un cadeau de Cyn et vit avec nous depuis novembre. Il n'est pas bavard mais est aussi distrayant que la télé. Il a une phobie du rouge, peut-etre parce que c'est un poisson combattant " fighting fish " et que lui même est rouge. Il fait alors sa grosse figure et sort ses ouies!!! Il a vécu une semaine chez les voisins, puis Noel chez Janet. Comme ça Zak pourra voir qu'il est toujours en vie....

Mon animal préféré est quand même le colibri qui vient sur le balcon tous les matins mais il est trop rapide pour que je prenne une photo, et il vole comme une abeille!

Le week-end dernier nous sommes allés à une marche guidée par un botaniste Chumash qui connait les noms des plantes en Chumash, Latin et le nom d'usage. Il apprend avec une "Medecine Woman" les usages des plantes et nous a ravis pendant deux heures avec ses histoires. Saviez-vous que les "Medecine Men" voyageaient déguisés en ours pour qu'on les laissent tranquiles...et pouvoir accéder des terres avec d'autres plantes. Et que la sauge guérit de tout!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Université californienne




Imaginez-vous à nouveau étudiants dans un cadre pareil! Est-ce vraiment propice à l'étude??? C'est pourtant California Lutheran University où se trouve la galerie d'art Kwan Fong.

Monday, February 25, 2008



The incredible sculptor Paul Lucchesi from New York came to Thousand Oaks to teach a wokshop on sculpting the body. What a fantastic three days!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sur Hollywood Boulevard


A l'approche des Oscars!.... Quoi? Une star dans la famille? Non, juste une chanteuse oubliée des années trente.

Big Sur


Incroyable voyage de retour sur la Highway 1. Sur des kilomètres, une côte escarpée et l'océan Pacifique!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Marriage of the Ringed Moon and the Sea


Some things don't need a caption. Paintings by Cyn McCurry are like that.
I feel so lucky!
J'ai maintenant ce beau tableau de Cyn chez moi, quel bonheur!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Winter in California



Il peut même neiger en Californie!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Sunset opposite La Brea Tar Pits


Coucher de soleil sur Wiltshire Boulevard, en face de La Brea Tar Pits.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Chat with our neighbour

Back in the US after three weeks in Europe, we are jetlagged, relieved, and amazed by the weather, blue sky, warm and windy.
Our next door neighbour is always happy to chat, so we struck up a conversation. I was so proud to describe the canyons where we go walking, well, he knows them well: he grew up in this area. That’s surprising! Everyone I know has come to California and settled down.
Where we live there used to be an airport, Conejo Valley Airport!!! This used to be just ranches, it is so dry. It is only in the last twenty years that it has developed so much, thanks to Amgen! When the biotechnologies change the face of a region!

What a shame in a way, it is now quite built up, clean suburbs, growing fast and pushing away the wild spaces, making the coyotes, mountain lions hungrier, and more aggressive.
He told us about the tumbleweeds that used to roll around on windy days, and be in corners everywhere, in schools, in homes. Nowadays, the wild spaces are somewhat far enough to stop the tumbleweeds.
Instead of the Civic Arts Plaza, our local theatre/ museum, there was farm. One day a cougar that escaped, and people said it hid in a canyon for years. Cats and dogs disappeared regularly. It survived for more than a decade, he said.

Our neighbour also told us how to behave when you come across a rattlesnake. Always watch your steps on sunny paths, listen for the rattle sounds, back away slowly if you see one.

So he knows all the canyons. He used to roam around Hill Canyon, with his friends, and get into mischief. He remembers when people made the TV series, “Gunsmoke”, “the Rifleman”, because he and his friends would ride up to the set on their motorbikes, and were chased by the crew. Thousand Oaks was a film set, being so wild and with striking scenery.

How it has changed!

Coucher de soleil à Wildwood Park


Retour en Californie!

About Me

Fille du Midi et exilée volontaire au Royaume-Uni par amour et esprit d'aventure depuis 1993/97... Nîmes, Djedda, Avignon, Cambridge, Londres et Los Angeles!