Our very first meme!

We've been nominated for an award!!!!

Behold, the Kreativ Blogger Award, and our very very first blogger's meme:

The lovely Julie B. from The Sardine Tin has asked us to tell you seven things you didn't know about us, and then pass the award on to seven other bloggers, so they can do the same.

We had a hard time deciding which of the three of us should do it, so we settled for all three! Yes! Bargain! You're getting three for the price of one!

At the end of the each post, we will tag some other bloggers. We don't know if it will add to 7 – we're new and we don't know anyone yet!

Seven things you didn't know about Sandrine.

This should be pretty easy. I'm brand new on the blogging scene so no one knows anything about me. On the other hand I've done these things on facebook before, and a few (erm, most) of our readers actually know us outside the blog. So I'll try and be original

1. I'm useless at Geography. I mean really bad. Much worse than I am at maths, quantum physics, or remembering to take my feverfew tablets, for instance. Don't ask me where anything is, unless it happens to be Paris, London, New York or somewhere big in Turkey. I don't know. Not even roughly. I certainly don't know how many rivers run through France, or which departments they go through (or how many departments there are?). I know Scotland is at the top of England. Until last week, I thought Oxford and Cambridge were both south of London (and was always slightly puzzled by the phrase 'going up to college').

2. I have had a broken tooth since mid-december. It broke while I was eating ice cream! Allegedly I haven't had it repaired because I haven't had time. But given the amount of time I have spent brushing it compulsively, I reckon that was a miscalculation. My glasses are also broken, and I've fixed them with a bit of wire from my daughter's jewelry making kit. It holds better with tape, but I'm not a complete dork, thank you very much.

3. I really like writing books (philosophy, not fiction – that would be much cooler). I never thought I would, I'd always imagined it would be too much work, that I wouldn't have the staying power. But I'm on my second one and loving everything about it, from planning, to drafting and even revising, and, especially, buying the requisite stationary.

4. I have a stationary fetish. Maybe not a fetish. Maybe a mild obsession. Ok, I like it a lot. And I don't just mean pens and rubbers and paper and stuff. As far as I'm concerned, a pink mini laptop is stationary, as is an iPod you can store ebooks on.

5. I never look at the time when I'm baking. And I've done a lot of baking over the years. It's not strictly intentional. I put a cake in the oven, I say: I must find my phone/watch to find out what time it is, then I wash up first, then it's time to check my email, and before you know it I say: 'oh my god I'd forgotten I had a cake in the over!' It mostly works.

6. If I wake up in the middle of the night I think it's the end of the world. Literally. I'm a very sound sleeper, and even crying babies don't wake me unless accompanied by a sound shaking from my husband. So when, on a couple of occasions I was woken in the night (once a hurricane, the other time an earthquake - both mild, non-life threatening) I sat up in bed and asked 'Is it the end of the world?'. To which Husband replied: 'No, go back to sleep'. So I did.

7. Last but not least: I'm going to Florence this summer for the first time ever! Without the kids! I'm so excited! I've never ever been, although I stayed in Rome for a week and visited Venice briefly. I've always been a fan of Room with a View, the book and the film (yes, I know, the ending is different, and the film is a bit lame, but I love it!). I can't wait to throw my Baedeker in the Arno.

So now I have to tag other Bloggers. The rules are as follows:

1) Copy the award to your blog

2) Insert a link to the person who nominated you (see intro, above)

3) Share 7 things about yourself you haven't told us before - see above,

4) Tag 7 other bloggers (I am cheating, I have only come up with 5)

5) Link to their blogs

6) Tell them they have been nominated

So now I tag: my friend Ecomum from You can't diaper their faces. Her blog went on a hiatus because she moved back to Canada and I'd really like her to start again!

The lucky because she moved from Ankara to sunny Antalya Charlotte from Charlotte, Guillaume et Lucie en Turquie, just to see if we can get the meme to speak French!

The lovely Anabelle from the self-improvement blog 'get in the hot spot' as she says she hasn't written strange personal updates or given readers a laugh at her expense recently! So here's her chance!

And tune in in a few hours' time for Sister3' s version of the meme!

In-flight Movie

I thought I would review the new Doctor Who this week, since I actually saw it. But I'm not a huge fan, in the way that my husband and daughter are, so I'll just say this: he's young, his eyes look funny, but he's a good doctor.

I'm happy to report that Lost picked up a bit with the reappearance of my favourite character Desmond D. Hume. The middle D stands for David. Those of you who know some philosophy will no doubt know that David Hume is the man who was skeptical about causation: So everytime you do x, y happens, he'd say: big deal. That's certainly no reason to be sure that next time you do x, y will follow. It might, in fact it probably will, but you can't be sure. Given that that's what the real Hume believed, it's little weird that Desmond gets so het up about fate, and how you can't change it! If it's meant to happen it's meant to happen, he keeps telling us, brother. Oh well. Nobody said that just because they used a lot of philosophers names (also John Locke, aka Jeremy Bentham, and Rousseau!) they have to stick to what the original name holders believed!

Now I know it's different but I'd really like to do a product review; I'd like to review the iPad. Except, of course I don't have one. Nor I am likely to get one in the near or distant future (are they even coming to Turkey?) So I think I'll engage in a bit of well structured sour grapes.

Reason why the iPod touch is better than the iPhone:

with the iPod you don't run the risk of someone calling you while you're listening to your favourite track!

Reason why the iPod touch is better than the iPad:

that's easy – can you carry an iPad in your pocket?

Plus, far as I know, there isn't a proper word processor on the iPad – and what's the point of a computer you can't write on?

Ok, I feel better now.

Weekend charter: Drinks anyone?

Drinks, anyone?

OK, so I’m the one who suggested this week’s theme and I realize now it does not make me look so good. But hey, I am what I am (I can hear you sing, don’t deny it) and now that my sister tried to make you think she’s some sort of angel on earth, I’ll be the little devil. I don’t care how unpolitically correct it’s going to sound, so there you go : I like to drink and I don’t really get people who don’t, but I like to enjoy all the pleasures life can give me, so... I like wine, red especially, even though as I grow old, I slowly drift towards rosé in the summer and white for the aperitif.

But what I really love are cocktails. They look gorgeous in their large glasses, with ice and sometimes, when you’re lucky, an umbrella (eh, eh, as Rihanna would say). My favourite is the caïpirinha, a very dangerous mixture made of cashaça, a Brazilian alcohol, lime and cane sugar. I’ll always remember the first time I tasted one. I was in Cuba and, well, actually, I don’t remember much except from the next day when I woke up with a massive headache and walked to the restaurant through the hotel hall facing smiling faces. I think I even heard someone congratulate me, but I chose not to ask why. A girl has her dignity.

Once more, I was supposed to be a real reporter and take you to a new Parisian bar where you can create your own cocktail and name it after yourself “Little Miss Perfect”, your former boyfriend “Stupid Troll” (sounds good, doesn’t it ?) or your cat “Gudule”. I think all cats should be called Gudule. Dunno why. My cat’s name is Zoe, though. Anyway.

Isn’t that great ? Isn’t it way better than naming a stupid star no one will notice ? They’re called Le Pixel Bar, it’s the 6^th arrondissment . I can actually hear the oohh’s and aaahh’s of our non French readers. Yes, the 6^th, the Latin quarter. Saint Germain des Prés, Rive gauche. Even I think it’s romantic, and I’ve lived here forever.

After trying lots of combinations, I wanted to take you and a few girlfriends at the Wagg to shake our booty (I like Beyonce more than I like Rihanna, after all) but guess what, it never happened. And this time, it wasn’t my sisters’ fault. I got sick. As in, really sick, couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink water, nothing, but since I lost 3 kilos, it’s OK. I’ll live.

To make it up to you, and to show you how professional I am, I’ll go to the Pixel Bar and try all the cocktails on the menu pretty soon. I’ll do my best to drag sister3 so that she can take pictures. I’ll write all about it, it’ll be fun. The night will be glorious, and so will be the hangover, I guess. But hey, let’s live a little.

Marianne (who cannot post today because she is on strike so is entrusting her sober older sister to do for her).

Weekend charter: Watering down my wine...

This week, the Weekend Charter brings you alcohol. Not literally. We haven't yet figured out how distil online.

Next week we'd like you to decide what we'll be talking about, so please leave comments with suggestions, contact us on twitter, facebook, etc. The sillier the better!

Part 1: Watering down my wine...

I don't drink very much these days. This is because my migraines have recently learnt to interpret every little change as stress, and that includes the aftermaths of over-indulging. So if I have more than a couple of beers, or glasses of wine, I'll start off by having a (perfectly manageable) mildly troubled stomach the next morning, but by three o'clock in the afternoon, I'll have developed a full-blown migraine. Not worth it, frankly. So I end up drinking mostly white wine spritzers, with plenty of fizzy water. This works really well for me. I end up having a glass in my hand all the time, I can refill as I talk – even though sometimes just with water – and I don't have to be careful how much I have. I used to worry about having to cut down on drinking before that. I'd resent suggestions that I should, because I'm older, because I'm a mother, because I'm woman. Frankly I still do. I thought that if I did cut down, I'd be capitulating, that I'd loose a part of myself, another one, as I'd already given up smoking (many times, actually). I also used to be slightly suspiscious of non-drinkers. I used to think they couldn't really be enjoying life as I was. Stupid, I know. But this from the woman who until very recently thought that smokers were a cool bunch! So when Marianne suggested we do a Weekend Charter on drinking, I thought it might be a good time to review my attitude on people who don't drink.

So let's leave out those who don't drink for religious reasons – I have nothing to say about this; as far as I'm concerned, abstaining from alcohol is a pretty harmless thing to do in the name of God! I'm also not commenting on people who refrain from drinking on special religious occasions only: how they interpret their faith is their business, not mine. Also, of course, I'm leaving out recovering alcoholics, and those who've suffered at the hands of an alcoholic. No question there. And those who can't drink because it will make them seriously ill. So that leaves me with one class of people, I think: those who just prefer not to drink. You might not have noticed them much, because they'll often have a glass of wine in their hand. They just don't drink it very fast, and they don't refill it. Maybe we should call them light-drinkers, rather than non-drinkers. Also, you might not have noticed them, if like me, you tend to gravitate towards people who drink as much as you do. You might feel that more fun stuff will happen with the latter. Maybe the ones who don't drink will be talking sensibly about politics, chuckling quietly, while you and your friends are laughing uproariously at some dirty joke. Maybe the drinkers look more attractive too, even if their lipstick is all washed out, that their hair is coming undone, whereas the non-drinker is still immaculate.

Now I don't think any of this is true, but I strongly suspect that on an unconscious level, at least, I used to believe it. So what's changed?

A few weeks ago, I went out with some friends for our regular girl's night out. After a while, I noticed that one of my friends was being incredibly discreet whenever she ordered. Not being the soul of discretion myself, I asked what she was drinking. It turned out to be water (not, as I'd assumed, g&t). But why did she feel she had to hide this from us? We were after all, her friends, and the girl's night out was supposed to be a place where we could open up to each other. Well, thinking about it, it's also a place where we all drink a bit more than usual (even I take my chances with the migraine when I'm with my girlfriends). Each one of us on arriving had exclaimed that she needed a drink. I, anyway, probably did have a history of not spending much time with non-drinkers, and talking up the act of drinking. So no wonder she would have felt uncomfortable with her glass of water. But the point is, if I hadn't noticed her secret ordering, I wouldn't have known. She was just as engaged as the rest of us, just as enthusiastic about the jokes, just as verbal in her condemnation of the husband would wouldn't do x. Just like the rest of us, really. Not drinking in no way affected the fact that she was good company.

Don't know why it didn't occur to me, but there are also plenty of people out there who drink at parties and still aren't good company! The point is, if you're good company, and you're a drinker, it's probably not the alcohol that's making you good company. If, like me, you need the extra confidence that a glass of wine can give you, and you like to drink as you speak, then mixed drinks are good. I found out something about myself when I had to cut down on my drinking, and that's that I really do need the sensation of putting the drink to my lips and refilling it often. Maybe that's just a taste I acquired over the years, but the good thing is that I don't need to reform on that, I don't need to change my habits – and for me, that's really what matters, not the actual alcohol consumption.

But what matters even more, is the realisation of what an arse I have been to all the light-drinkers I've met over the years. All the assumptions I made about them. All the times I didn't speak to them at parties. All the times I talked the talk about drinking, making it sound as if that was the only way to be cool. A bit naff, really. So here and now, I apologise to all these people, and hope that next time I bump into one of you at a party, you'll let me chat to you!