Bonjour!

Still can't believe I'm going to Paris next year, ahhhhh!! Someone please pinch me! *ouch*, not so hard :P

Oui, I'll only have slightly over a day at the city of lights, but it's exciting nonetheless to finally visit a place I've dreamt so much about growing up. Not to mention I'm more of a Francophile now thanks to Anna and the French Kiss.

There's so much I want to do there but so little time. Let's see, if I could I'd...
- Visit the Louvre
- Gawk at the Monets at Orangerie Museum and Musée d'Orsay
- Sip on Angelina's divine hot choc elixir
- Taste Pierre Hermé's omg-best-thing-ever macarons
- Find out what's all the fuss over Christine Ferber's jams (Monsieur Pitt's a famous fan)
- Watch an old movie in one of the Left Bank's many cinemas
- Picnic at the Tuileries Garden
- Soak in the literature at Shakespeare and Company
- Show some leg at the Moulin Rogue *wink wink* hehehe

I've sort of sorted Shakespeare and Company, My brilliant plan: When the tour bus stops at Notre Dame, I'll dash across the road to the store, mingle a little, pick a book to bring home and have it marked with the store's eponymous stamp :D

{Toshio Kishiyama}

Books, glorious books. I hope heaven is as well stocked :P

{slowtalk.com}

Stamped on every book bought from the store.

Anything else you'd recommend doing in Paris? :)

See You Tonight

Two summer holidays spent working at a quaint little boutique owned by a young, bubbly proprietor fond of country music has given me an appreciation for banjos and smexy Southern drawls

Just draw out the vowels in "ya'll" in a deep baritone and I go weak at the knees. That's all it takes, really. Easy peasy... but only if you can talk like a cowboy and charm the legs off a filly.

Scotty sounds like he could and heck, I'd gladly listen to his voice all night long. So how could anyone resist his plea of "girl I gotta see you tonight", I don't know. Especially when he sings, "I would drive a million miles just to see that little smile in real life."

*Swoon*

See You Tonight ;)

Official vid isn't out yet but from the teaser it looks a bit like a rehash of I Love You This Big

Late Night Stimulation

Just before drifting off to sleep last night, a renegade fragment of my mind decided it wasn't ready for slumber (wish it had asked my opinion first) and started wandering off on a textual analysis of On The Jellicoe Road.

I love the book, I really do, and the brief literary rumination was enlightening. After last night's sudden burst of insight, I'm all the more incredibly amazed and impressed with just how brilliantly Melina Marchetta has taken two seemingly unrelated narratives, carefully shredded them to pieces and proceeded to join them back into a fragmented whole -- like you would a jigsaw puzzle. Who knew it'd be possible to love a raggedy bunch of fictional characters more than you thought you ever could?

Honestly though, mentally pouring over a book's literary devices in the dead of the night when you're trying to shrug consciousness off your tail, is a few marbles short of cuckoo if you ask me.

[Image courtesy of papaija2008/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Impressionist

I could spend hours pondering a Monet, just thinking up stories to go with the dreamy watercolour scene.

Yeah, I know, sometimes I fear for my own sanity too ;)

In my defence:

Poppy Field in Argenteuil

The Garden Gate at Vetheuil

The Iris Garden at Giverny

Springtime

Clifftop Walk at Pourville

The Sea and the Alps

Everything's Going To Be OK

Carried Away // Passion Pit

Cover Lust

For Darkness Shows The Stars // Diana Peterfreund

Not something I would read (teenage sci-fi/dystopian fantasies aren't really my cup of tea), but ohemgee if that isn't a pretty cover. 

I loved the idea of galactic travel and the infiniteness of space as a child, and my bedroom wall used to have glow in the dark planets held down with blue tack.

This one reminds me a little of Across the Universe.

Weekend Playlist

One Grain of Sand // Ron Pope Ron Pope's so underrated despite being such a gifted singer and songwriter.  Lego House // Ed Sheeran
I Need Your Love // Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding