Maurice Béjart 1927 - 2007

I was too young for Béjart's Sacre du Printemps, but I remember his 'Bolero' with the charismatic Jorge Donn. I should add that I am grateful for his contribution to modern dance: his Mudra school, established in Brussels, brought forth such choreographic luminaries as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker., whose work I love and to a certain extent led me to dance (13 years of it). I think that Béjart contributed to making modern (and classic) dance a more accessible art for the general public. The rawer, more physical and even sensual style, as is evident from this clip, appealed to people, who did not always understand the magic of classical dance.
He recently completed his swansong, Tour du Monde en 80 minutes, which his company will be taking on tour.

Another day, another must-have: Claus Porto soaps

No, I'm not one of Oprah's little minions. But I happened to catch the press release regarding her favourite things list (which she gives away every year during some monster show) and my eye happened to fall on the following item.

I am by no means a label junkie; what I am instead is much worse: a packaging junkie. And these soaps are classic when it comes to packaging.

Claus Porto was founded in 1887 by two Germans near Oporto. The soap-makers soon become renowned throughout Europe and the world, for their fine soaps. The factory is still family-owned, and run by the great grandson of Achilles de Brito, who continues with the great soap making traditions that were a matter of honour for the original founders.

Only the best shea butter and the finest fragrances from the south of France are used for these soaps, which include wild pansy, poppy, honeysuckle, grapefruit & fig, etc.

But the packaging, oh the packaging...

Because age is just a number really

Quick background: Eileen is my uncle's neighbour and over the years really has become part of the family. She's our unofficial gran really. And rocking 83 years.

Last week BBC Radio London's Breakfast Show had an item about riding pillion on a motorbike. Eventually Eileen called in, discussed motorbikes, the fact that she'd been riding pillion with her husband since 1945 and her desire to ride one again (since Vic died, she's not been on a bike except her son's but he lives in the US).

Well, one thing led to another, and yesterday Eileen finally got to ride a beautifully buffed bustin' black Harley... I wish I could have been there to see that first-hand.

So here's a little shout-out to Eileen, who is never in a bad mood, who is a wonderful spritely lady and who at 83, believes in experiencing something new every week. I know a lot of people who are lots younger, and who certainly don't have this frame of mind.

To read the story and listen to Eileen, click here.

Inane ramblings of a mothership

Makka Pakka,
Akka Wakka,
Mikka Makka moo!

Makka Pakka,
Appa yakka,
Ikka akka, ooo

Hum dum,
Agga pang,
Ing, ang, ooo

Makka Pakka,
Akka wakka,
Mikka Makka moo!

(for those of you aren't in with the 3-year old in-crowd, point your mouse towards cbeebies, In the Night Garden. The only consolation that I have when being forced to watch this drivel is that my ears are at least cossetted by the dulcet tones of Derek Jacobi, who has kindly taken on the role of narrator).

Christmas wish list

It's that most wonderful time of the year when people start asking you about your wish list for Christmas. I usually have no idea what I want, so this year I'm going to put down every random item that hits my coffee-deprived brain and eventually pare it down to the one thing that I really, really want (ziggazigaaaah!).

- the Mitfords - letters, ed. Charlotte Moseley
- CD Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall
- Marcella Hazan cookbook
- a back massage
- Claus Porto soap
- Objekto table lamp
- good health in 2008
- to have another child
-

to be continued

Le current mood - the washing machine

The clip is self-explanatory, I think. Family surgery no. 2 has gone well. My mother is in slight pain, but will be able to leave the 'ospedale' tomorrow. Meanwhile, I venture onwards down the path to domestic demi-goddishness...

Mogilino - action should be taken NOW!

If you haven't seen Kate Blewett's documentary on the children's 'care' home in Mogilino in Bulgaria, then I simply urge you to please launch a query in google now, or sign any petition pertaining to the subject.
The only question that arises is: WHY? I cannot even begin to express my rage or my tears.

http://www.tbact.org/

Someone has been kind enough to put this profoundly disturbing documentary online. You can find it under the word documentary. It is higly disturbing and thus not for the sensitive.

Oh she was gorgeous - Aishwarya Rai

OK, I'll confess. I don't really know that much about Aishwarya Rai beyond the fact that she is a L'Oreal model and I've only ever seen two of her movies. That said, I really enjoyed from Amritsar to LA or Bride and Prejudice as it is known over here. Oh wait, there was also the whole Richard Gere kiss incident, which led to warrants for her arrest and public outcries of obscenity all over India. I will refrain from commenting on the latter fact as I'm completely not au fait with India's local customs.

And so off to Wikipedia I went, where I learnt that the lovely Indian actress is younger than myself, is a former Miss World no less, an extremely popular actress in India, who married an even hotter Indian commodity, Abhishek Bachchan. The last phrase in the Wikipedia article was midly intriguing to say the least: "The actress is said to have married a peepal tree at Benaras, a banana tree at a Bangalore temple and a god’s idol in Ayodhya due to astrological reasons".

Her fans and Bollywood aficionados call her Ash.

I just call her hello gorgeous.

Hung up over being hung over - screamin' placemats

As the weekend draws to its close, we are both slowly edging out of the darkness known as a hangover of magnificent proportions. What have we learnt from this adventure? That La Grande Dame champagne, a good but killer Rueda and a bunch of Cosmopolitans will not mesh well together. On the upside, though, we had a great time on Friday evening... with some great friends, so I cannot complain too much. My mother kindly babysat our munchkin, plus smaller monster niece and when they started chortling the next morning and jumping up and down on our bed at 7.30 a.m. (ouch!) kindly stepped in and shooed them downstairs to the kitchen.

Saturday was a veggie day (with us two couch potatoes). Today we actually ventured outside and breathed in whole lungfuls of fresh air, even headed towards the playgarden. Two lattes, a brownie and a muffin later, we felt human again. We also found the kitschiest placemats ever for our kitchen table. Scream, if you will. We did, but with glee.

The moral of this story is: thou shalt not go out like Lindsey Lohan when thou aren't used to it because you will end up buying some pretty loud placemats as a result.

In other news, 35,000 Belgians actually thought it was worth coming out to march in favour of the nation that is known as Belgium. Well done, now can we have a government, pretty please?

In more other news, the first of the series of surgeries in my family (it's surgery season, watch out) took place last Wednesday. My sister will be released from the hospital as my mother enters it (the same hospital, but to treat her Dupuytren syndrome, which is a nasty disease of the hand).

And so another week awaits us. Blah.

Le current mood - It's a beautiful day...

The sun is shining outside, I'm slowly beginning to come to terms with Windows Vista and Office 2007 (and oh, the swear words that have emanated from my mouth in the past days), it's my so's birthday today (yay!), my daughter leapt into her classroom this morning merrily chatting with her little boyfriend, parents smiled at me, I didn't get a parking ticket and when I returned home there was still some hot coffee left.

All is well in the land of Lula de Montes.