belle de jour -01.04.2004

It's a chalk-bright afternoon and I've been walking, listening to music all day the last few days. This helps - no one assumes you can hear them, with the headphones on, so no one speaks to you.

jeudi 29 avril
It's a chalk-bright afternoon and I've been walking, listening to music all day the last few days. This helps - no one assumes you can hear them, with the headphones on, so no one speaks to you. This is good. I don't understand the language very well. When I want to hear the sounds around me, I switch the player off but leave the headphones on. I smile a lot. People smile back. Are people happier everywhere else in the world? Sure seems so.

HT Image

But I know it's not the truth. I was in a bar, talking to a man my age. He'd been through three wars before he was 21. "Why are men so horrible to each other?" I asked, naive.

"In my experience all people are horrible."

"So why are we this way?"

"We don't know how else to be." And we were quiet. He finished a drink, smiled at my guidebook. It was a smile that said, 'Where do you want to go? You know you won't find it in there.' Not that I've used it very much anyway, I like to choose a direction and keep going. In this way I found the Jewish quarter, decimated and abandoned forever ago, like a forgotten film set, and the edge of the water, which I hadn't figured as being quite so close. His smile, it was so understanding, so accepting, I could feel the waves of goodwill just pouring off him, mixed with a little pity for me.

That, or he may have just been trying to pick me up. We girls have an absolutely appalling reputation abroad. Was there a pamphlet distributed in the last decade to men in foreign countries saying that the small islanders are simply gagging for it?

(I mean, I am, but yo, I'm on holiday, creep. So lay off.)

// posted by belle @ 2:01 PM

jeudi22 avril
Greetings from a foreign location...

I have seen a cathedral and acquired a sunburn, drunk the local tipple and taken many, many pictures of flowers bright and exotic. It took almost a whole day to get here and I´m not keen to leave, in spite of my ineptitude with the language. I have forgotten how much I want to live somewhere sunny. There is a plane beginning the journey home at some point early next week; not certain if I will be on it or not.

Note to self, on returning home watch Shirley Valentine again.

Weather is pleasant, wish you were here -

Bxx

// posted by belle @ 12:25 PM

vendredi16 avril
You may have noticed I am spending more time out of town than in it. The current good weather in London is pleasant and welcome, but an unfortunate case of too little, too late. I am packing again - knickers (all varieties), books (Dodsworth, My Name is Asher Lev, some silly crime thrillers and the ever-reliable Princess Bride) and sunblock.

In search of beaches. Will report back with detailed analysis of several of the locations discussed yesterday.

// posted by belle @ 9:59 AM

jeudi15 avril
Escape hatches - a brief consideration.

Kyle of Tongue. Pros: favoured by child molesters and lovers of cold weather. They clearly go for the fantastic scenery. Cons: bleak isn't the word. What can you say about a place where the incoming tide swallows up the main road?

Home counties. Pros: so soul-destroying, so boring, so obviously bad, that no one would think their new neighbour is me. Cons: so soul-destroying, so boring, so obviously bad, that no one would think their new neighbour is me.

West country. Pros: dairy products, moors, beaches. Pasties. Ponies. Dreamily gazing at bronzed surfers in summertime. Cons: while the trains go there, am not certain they come back.

North America. Pros: charming accent might attract general goodwill, free drinks. Cons: am frightened by the concept of Texas.

South America. Pros: sunshine, interesting food, mountains. Cons: rumoured expatriate contingent of Nazis in hiding may prove constricting to social life.

Australia and environs. Pros: a few acquaintances, rumoured good weather, decent confectionery. Cons: rumoured expatriate contingent of Brits in hiding may prove constricting to social life.

The Med. Pros: excellent weather, superlative food, inexpensive housing, reasonable entertainment possibilities and not terribly far from home. Cons: Costa del Croydon is not quite the vibe I'm after.

Fulham. Pros: the transport links are decent. Cons: what does it say about a place if the ease of escaping is its highest selling point?

Israel. umm, no. Just... no.

East Anglia. Pros: good beer. Oh, I don't half fancy a pint of IPA on a sunny afternoon. Cons: aesthetically displeasing 'bump' bit of map.

Africa. Pros: no idea. Cons: once I had a client from Zimbabwe. It doesn't sound like a terribly nice place at the moment.

New York. Pros: extremely menschy. Cons: if television is to be believed, pressure to meet and mate is all-consuming. I am the alpha stiletto-wearing, lingerie-obsessed, Pulitzer-reading female here and competition could be disheartening. Particularly if the quarry is an unemployed finance graduate still living at home in the Bronx.

// posted by belle @ 9:54 AM