Post #4: About Me

The girls (aka The Cuplrits) tell me I can't gossip about them until I've told you about me first. So here are twelve completely random facts about me.

1. My father's French, my mother's English. Gallic charm vs English stoicism - not a pretty mix.
2. I have a boring older brother who's in training to take over the family business, and a fun younger brother who now lives in new York. Both of them dutifully followed my father to the Sorbonne. I am the only disappointment who didn't go along with The Plan.
3. I was thrown out of two schools in France before they finally moved me to an English boarding school. Best. Decision. Ever. That's where I met my BFFs Sophie and Olivia.
4. I'm still in love with my First Love. (He wasn't my First, though!) He just doesn't know it, and I haven't seen him in years.
5. I work in PR. Even I don't know what that means. But it's fun and I seldom get bored.
6. I'm a Gemini, and I share a birthday with Lenny Kravitz.
7. My favourite food is veal ragoût, like my Grandmaman makes. Followed by a classic lemon soufflé.
8. My favourite drink is... champagne, a good Bordeaux, a Pimms in summertime, cocktails, a decent craft beer... hell, as long as it contains alcohol, I'm happy.
9. I hate exercise. But I do (occasionally) use the gym equipment we have at home, and do yoga classes because, well, one has to - and because The Culprits make me.
10. I'm not good with discipline of any sort, which is most likely why I don't like to exercise. I think it's a reaction to the fact that I did ballet for many years.
11. I like to read. A lot. It's kind of my guilty secret, since everyone thinks I'm such a party animal and they can't imagine me sitting still for so long. But I do.
12. Oh, and last Wednesday Sophie took me to see the the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition. Yes, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

Post #1: The Dare

Yeah, yeah, I know that posting anything online when you've been drinking is a bad idea. But this doesn't count. This is a dare.

My friends (and you can thank the Easter chocolate that you still are!) tell me I'm useless at seeing things through. In fact, they seem quite adamant that I don't finish the things I start. Apparently I flit from idea to idea and project to project like a butterfly high on pollen (or whatever butterflies get high on).

So...this blog.

I am going to blog once a week, every week, for the next 52 weeks. That's one year for the numerically challenged.

And if I do it, there's a bottle of Krug in my future. And not just any Krug. The winner gets a bottle of Clos d’Ambonnay. Yes, please!

52 posts. That's do-able.

One life

Anyone who knows me knows I don't do newspapers. And unless it's to catch the results of the boat race (yesterday was a sad, sad day) I don't watch much television news either. There's enough misery in the world without dwelling on it.

Besides, I figure the important stuff will get through, and today it did. Today someone younger than me died tragically. Okay, so people die every day but this one touched me. Our lives may have been nothing alike, but she's someone I've met. Maybe not to talk to, but close enough to wave to during London Fashion Week.

About a year ago someone I worked with died suddenly. It was only after she was gone that I realised how little I knew her and how much I'd have liked to know her better.

Today just reminded me what I promised myself then: we only have one life to live, so let's damn well live it the best we can. Let's drink the vintage champagne, let's rock the party, let's hold nothing back.