Journal Entries
Paris, April 30 2007
Posted Apr 30, 2007
They said : Who will take care of the kids? They said: She's too pretty to have any brains. They said : How can a woman deal with foreign policy? They said : She's not married to the father of her children. They said : She has a foul temper.
And yet. This week might be a historic turning point in French history (forgive the purple prose) is enough French voters finally decide to vote for a woman.
I can't wait!
B. and I will be counting the votes next Sunday evening in the village.
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Latest reply: Apr 30, 2007
Paris, October 22, 2005
Posted Oct 22, 2005
Hooray, half term is upon us! Full programme starting with two days at the seaside near la Baule for a lot of wind and rain I assume.
Yesterday I got a huge pile of books from amazon and read The History Boys (faber). Rather enjoyable, though less frothy than Forty Years on, more boys' genitals and general bathos, but who am I to complain? I am only a woman.
Perhaps it is the schoolmistress in me but I was shocked by the typos and the lax punctuation and syntax they had allowed in. No proof-readers these days are there?
"A stock vision of an undergraduate then (gleaned from movies like Robert Tatylor in 'A Yank at Oxford') was...". page viii
"Once there had been polished parquet floors the woodwork was of bright chestnut polish, and ..." page xviii
"abandon" (the noun) twice in the introduction (?)
"in the nick of time I began to get grips with it myself" page xxiv
"Ne soit pas timide" (should be "sois"). Other mistakes in French usage but that was the point. page 14 of the play itself.
Still it is very comforting to see misprints...
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Latest reply: Oct 22, 2005
Paris, October 21, 2005
Posted Oct 21, 2005
Windy and rainy today. The little sweet and I had to rush home from the park. She has made huge progress in her eight weeks of nursery school and now masters quite complex syntactic structure, like the difference between "viens" and vienne". She has been told her mother had a little baby in her tummy and takes it in her stride. Her first copy book with drawings and photographs... Bless.
Poor dil is having a hard time at work. One would like to see young women treated fairly. Alas...
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Latest reply: Oct 21, 2005
Paris, October 20, 2005
Posted Oct 20, 2005
Well, autumn has set in at last so it's back to the closet with summer things and roll on the shoe-buying spree. I tried to start a shoe thread but quite unaccountably, noone was interested, apart from Polly, who is not interested in shoes (how can that be?). And now I see it is more foreign travel for her...
We have a two-week holiday now looming and I have been kept busy all morning trying to organise the work I'll take to the country with me, thus spoiling the joy of using the new rotovator in the jungle.
Also had to check the corrections for the pocketbook edition of Port Mungo. Alwasy a sobering experience, alas, to discover you've used "encore" twice in the same sentence and DIDN'T SPOT it at the time.
The only consolation is that I insisted on leaving in New York's SoHo, instead of using Soho for both New York's and London's.
Thursday is cleaning lady day; we usually have a cosy chat over coffee and biscuits but she's fasting (Ramadan) so it's just the gossip and a few giggles.
Back to work. I miss the old boards.
I thought I would say that.
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Latest reply: Oct 20, 2005
FWT: "nana", "gonzesse", "nŽnette"?
Posted Oct 20, 2005
Literal meaning : "nana"= girl/ woman; "gonzesse"= woman/cow; "nŽnette"= young thing, Now this is a serious subject, this business of what you can call girls/women and what you can't.
"Nana" is the most innocuous. I would say (meaning no offence), "The BBC nana is having a hard time coping with the complaints". She might be any age between 25 and 65. Male equivalent: "mec". Could be replaced by "bonne femme" as in "la bonne femme de la BBC m'a envoyŽ promener" (= the BBC cow sent me packing). perhaps not quite "cow" but definitely not complimentary. Male equivalent would be "un bonhomme".
"Gonzesse" is more vulgar and derives from the Spanish "gonzo" ."Cette gonzesse me tape sur les nerfs" (This cow is getting on my nerves). I wouldn't use it but many men would.
"NŽnette" means young and cute and pea-brained. Of course no one could possibly have called me "nŽnette" for a while now, but few did it to my face even when I was young and cute. "Minet" (kitten), cute young guy, and "Minette" (=pussy..., in all meanings of the word) , both slightly passŽ.
Now I bet that will make your day.
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Latest reply: Oct 20, 2005
martine_s
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