25th November

I will share the holiday shots and photos when I can. Being self-employed I am so busy with the run up to Christmas - I have no time to myself. :( I do read my replies, and the xanga threads I subscribe to, and I will be more responsive just as soon as I get through my next batch of orders. It's going to be a long busy weekend!

Not long after my sister's driving instructor getting beaten by a taxi driver, she rang today, and her Uni friend Maria was in London and took a taxi (yes, you already know it's not going to be a good story!). He drove her round the houses and through the back streets until she couldn't quite afford his overcharged fare. At first he threatened to take her to the police and then he started punching and kicking her! She's okay, but shocked. I hope the police get him - they haven't even bothered to come and investigate the attack on her driving instructor yet! What is it with taxi drivers.

09th November

My little sister had a driving lesson in the city of Oxford where she's studying at University, today. She was practicing parallel parking, when a taxi stopped in front of them. The driver got out, banged on the window and dragged out her driving instructor and proceeded to kick and punch him in a totally motiveless attack.

Fortunately there were witnesses from nearby houses and they have the registration of the vehicle, but she's a little shaken by it.

Will write more gleefully about my Barcelona holiday soon!!

07th November

Last week I flew to Paris to be with my Parisian girlfriend Prisci, taking a long weekend in Barcelona together. Whilst in Paris I had days of entertaining myself whilst she worked in the office at La Defense.

I've visited Pere Lachaise cemetery a few times now - it is where you will find the graves of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Proust amongst others. The cemetery is huge - you could literally spend all day here, walking amongst the varied sepulchres. I spent my first day in Paris here in the unseasonable hot autumn sun, with few people around, wandering up and down hills, and between tombs and monuments.

It is the colours light, solitude and reflections that interest me. Many of the graves are pretentious, expensive monuments reflecting the egos of those who left them - complete overkill if you'll pardon the expression! The only ghosts here are the ghosts of egos, so it was refreshing to discover both Morrison's and Proust's graves were a very modest affair.

It was probably around this time that the riots first started in Paris, but as Prisci has no television I hadn't kept up with the news in France, and I first heard about them in Barcelona. Fortunately the violence didn't come into the city itself, although Prisci's colleague's 5 year old son was very sad, as they had burnt down his school.

 

 

06th November

This morning I woke up in Paris, and later passed through Seine-Saint-Denis where two teenage boys died, creating a lame excuse for many nights of rioting and destruction, now spread across France. Fortunately I didn't bear witness to any of it, and the city of Paris itself remains directly unaffected for the most part. I was also in Barcelona last week, which is beautiful (not to mention warm), but now I'm sat down at my computer, looking out a window towards a bleak, wet and cold England. I WILL write about my new adventures soon, and I'll also write up my summer adventures as they are way past due.