Thursday, October 30, 2008

Holidays are over

One more day to go and it's back to work until at least Christmas. Then we will patiently wait for the Baby to come (normally end of January but we never know...)
I had quite a mellow holidays. I redecorated the living room on my first week and it looks pretty cool now. I still have a few bits and pieces to put together but the result is satisfying.
I also went to the auto show and despite the financial crisis there were a lot of beautiful cars around. My heart will go obviously to the 8C Alfa Romeo. Magnificent body and powerful too. The new Lamborghini was quite interesting, 4 doors and a stunning look!
The highlight of my time off was our trip to Venice. This is really the romantic place everybody is looking to go to! Plus at this time of the year, there is not that many tourists which make the visit very pleasant. And we had a beautiful weather too, 26°C and sunny all along! Of course we couldn't go in Italy without eating a pizza and it was delicious! and cheap too, 10€! We stayed at the Molino Stucky Hilton, an old floor mill transformed into a luxurious hotel. On our last evening we ended up eating in front of former Russian president Gorbatchev. I witnessed a lovely interaction between him and the waiter which could have resulted in a big diplomatic problem! Mr Gorbatchev asked for a coffee but did not want the local favorite, espresso, then the waiter went "Ah yes you want an American coffee!" Glad the Russian had humour and laughed.
After this Italian escapade, I went on a road trip to the South of France, Nice, Marseille and Nîmes with an incursion in Monaco and Italy. It took me 7 hours to drive down to Nice at the average speed of 138 km/h. Not bad and I still haven't received anything from my friends in blue! It was good to see people I haven't seen for a long time. Laurence in Monaco who's working at the Metropole. Beautiful hotel design by Jacques Garcia! We had a lovely time in their bar talking about this and that. On my way to Marseille I stopped by the Four Seasons in Provence to have lunch with Jean-Jacques at a lovely restaurant in a charming village. Then going through the French version of the Grand Canyon, les Gorges du Verdon. Huge cliffs dropping down to the unique green colored river. A truly amazing experience for the eyes!
And now I am back from all this adventures! I even had my car broken into 2 nights ago in my garage! Nice, bloody track suit low life! They stole a few Cd's and my sunglasses not even worth the price of the broken window.
Anyway it's all repaired, thanks to top notch insurance (nothing to pay). This afternoon, I went to check on the Old Beast since it has been undergoing a massive body renovation. It's back with a new paint job and it looks like brand new. It's brilliant, I can't wait to go and get it once they finish to put back together all the parts and stuff.