Water pedaling or vélo en piscine!

Here is an e-mail I received today (somebody must think I need this!):

On the surface, everything appears normal. You are simply splashing about in a cozy urban pool. But under the water, your legs are slaving, pedaling their way out of winter cellulite. This is no torture device. It’s aqua biking.

This new sports center, specializing in aqua biking, is nested in a charming courtyard of the Cité Popincourt, under a large glass roof. What they ask of you is very easy. Put your bikini on, enter the pool, choose one of the bikes fixed to the bottom and start pedaling. All that cycling under water, for at least 45 minutes, massages your body and erases cellulite much more efficiently than any other method. The stimulating music and teacher help you focus on the exercise and forget about your escape plan.

Three words to keep in mind : lovely summer legs.

Personally I would require quite a few classes and then some lipo!  They even left the phone # and address:

Aqua biking classes at the Maison Popincourt
4 cité Popincourt 75011 Paris, Metro St Ambroise
Tel : 00 33 1 43 38 96 84
30 € for a 45 min class, towel available on demand
25 € if you sign up for 10 classes

I've never heard of this but it sounds like we could get a serious work-out without harming knees and what not.  I' m trying to find an application for our frozen lakes here in Canada....  

Today I'm participating in Friday Follow hosted by Lynn at Midday Escapades:  If you want to join just click on her button:

Its a fun way to discovers new fun blogs and make new friends.  Its all about sharing and having fun! Join in the fun!

VINTAGE THINGIES THURSDAY!!

What a beautiful doll!  

               What a surprise! I didn't ask Santa Claus for Chatty Cathy, but there she was under the tree dressed so pretty.  And then I found out she could TALK!

My Mom had given birth to my baby sister in September  so I enjoyed playing Mommy and now to have gotten my own little girl was a thrill.

Several hours later, some family began to arrive for their Christmas visit and my cousin Paul was among the visitors. Paul and I are just several months apart in age and we were always quite the playmates. I was rather excited to show Paul my new girl and he promptly poked her right in her eye and pushed it right back into her head. Thanks Paul, I'll never forgive ya! LOL  I dont have her anymore.  My younger baby sister marked her up with crayons and what not.    That summer, my friend who was a good 3 years older than me told me that she would look much better with a haircut.  I believed her until I saw her afterwards.  I never played with her again LOL  And then one day she was gone replaced by Wetsy Betsy!

For those who remember her or had her yourself, I found this cute commercial on Youtube so we can share the trip down memory lane together.

Enjoy!

TODAY IS 

HOSTED BY

Suzanne better known as the COLORADOLADY!

To join, click the above site to get all the information.  Its a lot fun!

WHITE WEDNESDAY

It's White Wednesday!

If I could I would decorate every room in white.  Its so peaceful and calming!  But I do have children and reality dictates that this would not be fair to them.  But I can decorate certain areas that are more or less reserved to adults.  I have a big family room and one of the walls was crying for attention. I decided something had to be done.  I found these 2 suitcases that were just waiting to be tossed out but then I saw something that caught my eye in a fancy decor magazine.  I figured I could do something similar.  I painted the 2 suitcases white and decided to add a third one.  I went to Winners which is the Canadian equivalent of  T.J. Maxx and bought a carboard storage box that looked like it would make a good match.  I liked the shape.  Once it was painted, I looked even better.  I stacked them up  and voilà! Top it off with anything you like!  Its creative, its recycling old suitcases, its simple and its cheap!  Hope you enjoyed it!  I'm off to visit your blog and discover new ideas and friends.

WHITE WEDNESDAY

is hosted by

KATHLEEN 

of

FADED CHARM COTTAGE 

Thank you Kathleen for hosting this lovely event!

PARIS IN THE SPRINGTIME!

Bonjour mes chers amis,

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today but I still wanted to participate in

This blog hop is a great way to discover new blogs and make new friends.  It is hosted by

I'm also participating in another blog hop hosted by Leigh.  She created  THE HAPPINESS PROJECT.  It consists of posting a photo or more that makes you wildly happy. You can visit her on her blog by just clicking the following button (she is wildly funny):

Today, I've decided to post some pictures of Paris.  I am headed there at the end of summer and I thought I would share some past memories . I have friends that already live there.  That always helps regarding hotel bills LOL. They are so lucky! I should not complain because I too have traveled and lived in many countries due to my husband's work. But I have never lived in Europe. Its always been one of my dreams.    My comments will be brief today because of this silly cold that's exhausting me.  Its just that time of the year in Montréal...  

Ready for a walk: (maybe I'll sit in a wheelchair and you can push me LOL)

Paris is made for pedestrians.  You can walk for days in different streets and each street is as beautiful as the last.  There are so many shops:

There are no big grocery stores in Paris. You practically have to shop every day. This shop has tasty oils, vinegars, pâtés and fresh cold cuts hanging in the window. 

 I love the narrowness of the streets and especially the ornamental iron works in front of their long windows.

I'm always amazed by all the work that goes into decorating their buildings especially over the doors. I love  their medallions!

Storefronts are tiny but what they do have is always well decorated!

Translated it means:  Street of the bad boys.....(hope their cute too)

I love figurines, especially of Tintin and his friends.  As a child I read every Tintin thatI could put my hands on!

After a long walk, its normal to want to sit down! The problem is choosing a café or patisserie or salon de thé.  And then there's choosing what you want to eat....or how much....I always bring a bigger size of jeans with me....   

The next decision is to seat inside or out.  I prefer eating outside to take in the smells of other pastry shops baking fresh baguettes or just do a bit of discrete people watching. They dont like it when we stare....

  Should I win the lottery one day, this is what my French apartment would look like! I know... in my dreams!  I hope you enjoyed this small tour of Paris.  Now I'm ready to go visit you!

SUNDAY FAVORITES: DELFT A CITY OF POTTERY

It is a common misconception that love is developed with unconditional love and understanding. Well that is one kind of love. But how come there is often so much friction in our family relationships? People are always saying, "oh, my sister and I, we fought like cats and dogs". Friction in relationships is an opportunity to realize our differences and accept that although we can never fully understand each other, nonetheless we accept and love each other. 

HAVE A BLESSED SUNDAY!

TODAY I AM PARTICIPATING IN MY FIRST SUNDAY FAVORITE MEME!

Its designed to give bloggers a chance to share a favorite post from the past.  I think this is a great idea.  It is hosted by  Chari at

 Chari has a beautiful blog.  If you decide to join,  you can find her at Happy to design !

The post I've decided to share is entitled:  DELFT A CITY MADE OF POTTERY 


ENJOY!

Last October my husband surprised me with a trip to Europe.   At the time he was working in Qatar and I was on my way to meet him there.  He decided to meet me in Amsterdam and take a week off of work.  At the time I was staying home taking care of my babies, age 20 and 22.  I know you are laughing but just wait till your kids reach that age.  You know what they say:   60 is the new 40, well 20 is the new 10.  Anyway, that is a whole different topic.  We decided to  travel throughout Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium.

I reserved a room for 2 nights at the Hotel Koophandel in Delft.  There are not too many hotels in this city and this hotel was made famous because it was the birthplace of Johan Vermeer Van Delft's father.  Mr. Vermeer was a famous painter who lived in the 17th century and painted the Girl With the Pearl Earring:

I booked the hotel using Tripadvisor.  I verified the pictures, its location (walking distance to old Delft, the price and felt very safe that I had made a good choice.  Here is the picture of the room I booked:

There was also a beautiful courtyard.  When I arrived there, I was disappointed.  First the room that I had wanted was not available.  They gave us a room way at the top almost in the attic.  Not a big deal, but we had 4 giant suitcases and there are no elevators in most of these hotels/museums.  Past forty, this is risky business.  The most deceiving part of the hotel was its location:  it was sitting on top of a drinking establishment....The Billy Beer bar and grill....  If you look way up, you will see a couple of windows:  that's where our room was.  It was Friday night and of course there was drinking and shouting and partying till 3:00am.  They say that we attract what we fear.....My husband slept through it all and I had a good book...

Before I went to Holland for the first time, here is what I knew about it:

LOTS OF TULIPS

WOODEN SHOES (that's not me)

FAMOUS PAINTERS

There was also the infamous red light district and pot and hash cafés.  It was all there of course but I wanted to see what else Holland had to offer.  I've pretty much visited every major city in Holland but Delft is my favorite.  Here are a few pictures that explain why:

The Saturday flea market full of antiques,

fresh flowers, local cheeses, etc.

Everybody participates

The old Delft with its many stores

selling mostly Delft pottery.

The beautiful architecture

The canals dotted with coffee

shops.

This was the view from my room.  The 

food was fantastic in every restaurant

that we went to.  Their butter "caken"

was decadent!

 City Hall.  The second day of our visit,

which was on a Saturday, we were lucky enough to witness a wedding in front of City Hall.  Very beautiful and

romantic!

T

Delft is highly populated but

very quiet.  Most people dont

drive but ride their bicycles.

 
 

The Delft pottery.  If its Delft

pottery you want, this is the

place.  In the 16th century, only rich 

people could afford Asian pottery.

The Dutch decided to design their own.

Its reputation for beauty became popular in many other European countries.  It was even exported to China and Japan.

See that strange vase in the center.  Do

you know what it is?  I bought something similar.

Try and guess what it is.  I will tell you at the end of this post.

We were told to always check

under a Delft piece to verify that

its not a fake (as in made in China)

which is ironic as its inspiration 

originates from Asia.

This is also very beautiful.

The more colors there are,

the more expensive it is.

This is hand painted and

very $$$

Cute fridge magnets that

I bought as souvenirs but 

ended up keeping.  My

husband was very patient

as I stopped at every store

to pick just the right one LOL

Now my fridge looks like

this display....

No trip is complete without a visit to  HEMA.  Hema  is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam.  Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.

Have a look at their website just below. DO NOT click on any of the items in the picture, don't scroll, just wait and see what happens.  This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer who does the company justice....and maybe has a little too much time on his hands.  
 
                         Click the link below and enjoy - you'll need sound to enjoy it to the max! 

                                                  http://producten.hema.nl/


PS.  That odd looking thing  is a tulip vase.  When I arrived in Qatar I could not wait  to see how it would look with flowers in it.  Did you ever try buying flowers in that part of the world where everything is dry, beige and sandy?  I think I paid more for the flowers than I did for the vase.  Anyway, the ugly looking vase leaks....I should have bought those cheesy wooden tulips... 

Hope you enjoyed this recycled post LOL!  If you want to join in you can click here !

2 AWARDS IN ONE WEEK!!!

I had a pretty good week considering the mess in my house.  We are renovating the whole house.  What was I thinking? Yes, the whole house!  In my head, it just seemed like the right thing to do.  Get it over once and for all and then I would live happily ever after. POOF:  Like a fairy tale  The house of my dreams would appear. My gosh!  Its more like a nightmare, really.  I had a mental schedule of what was supposed to happen,  first the floors,  and then the counters, etc...  But, voilà, life does not happen like you plan it.  Today, for example, I found out that the granite counter that was supposed to be installed Monday will take another month.  So now,  everything  else is on hold because I had to cancel people scheduled to help with the back splash  and then I  had to postpone painters..Nobody knows, if I will ever see these people again.  They all have other customers..Its a vicious cycle.  This is a pretty common theme in my life.  I make beautiful plans in my head but then life happens.... Anyway, it was nice to see that 2 blogger friends thought of me.

Awards! for moi! How sweet!  Merci beaucoup!

The first one is from SARAH.  Her blog Confessions of an untenured teacher is quite a riot.  She is a wonderful writer.  Her posts are always insightful and reveal what many of us teachers deal with on a daily basis.  When I need a pick- me-up, I click on her website and I'm never disappointed and I can usually  relate to everything she writes on so many levels.  Awards come with responsibilities.  Sarah, the good teacher that she is, gave me homework.    In this case I have to reveal 10 personal things about myself and then relay the honor to 3 other bloggers:

Here are 3 blogs that I love to read.  I have a weakness for humor (and chocolate).   These 3 blogs that I have chosen  are full of humor and insight about life in general.

The first one is by Browneyes of The White blue Sky .  The blog's  former name was Larry's Ass.  At first Brown Eyes  thought this was funny and cute (and it was) but then due to all the link  feeds,  her blog was being solicited  by less scrupulous bloggers. Hence, the new improved name.  She is (was) a working mom.  She just made a big decision of becoming a SAHM.  Congratulations.  I think you have to follow your heart.

My second choice is Eva Gallant of Wrestling with retirement.  This blogger has so many awards that they are now featured in a slide widget at the bottom of her blog.  She has been many things in life. She, also was  a teacher.  Might it be that to survive in the teaching world, one needs to have a really good sense of humor?  The jury is still out.  If you need a pick-me up then head on up to her blog! I'm not sure if she still accepts awards....

Finally, my third choice is Leah Rubin of Funny is the new Young.  She is another wonderful blogger with a wicked sense of humor!  In 2008, she won first place at the Emma Bombeck writing competition. We are lucky to be able to access her funny posts for free.

My second award is from a new blogger:  Mhel of Pens, pans and puns.

  She is a medical internist with many talents. One of her passion is cooking.  If you happen to be very hungry DO NOT VISIT HER BLOG.  You will immediately salivate.  She uses exotic spices and herbs with which she cooks the most fascinating food. 

Now the next award is the SUNSHINE AWARD!

Thanks Mhel for thinking of me.  You are very sweet friend all the way from the Philippines.  I'm honored.!  My duties with this award,  is to post 5 to 6 blogs that I love reading.  This will be a hard task.  I read so many of them.  There are so many quality blogs out there.  Some are just so lovely by their presentation of inspirational material, recipes, fun blog hops, themes, daily snippets of SAHM, etc.  I will post 5 blogs now and the rest I will post at a later date.  It reminds me of what certain school principals ask me to do:  please chose the best student in such and such a subject.  I dont like to chose the best of....even when it comes to adults.  Life is competitive and choices are subjective anyway.  I dont like hurting people's feelings at all.  So here goes,  I started my career as a blogger in January and  here are the first five blogs I linked to.  I loved them now and still do:

Unknown mami:    She is an actress with a great sense of humor and her blog is always full of surprises. She has so many followers that I'm jealous LOL

Natasha at 5 minutes just for me!    Natasha lives in Australia and she has such a beautiful blog full of ideas on recipes and decor .  Have a look, you won't be disappointed.  She is also a teacher.

Sandy and Pam  of Wisdom of Words have put together a very ingenious blog of their favorite bloggers. Its a palette of different bloggers that write on a variety of subjects.  I'm predicting that you will become a follower. I've known Sandy from way back in January 2010 LOL.  I was seduced by her stories of her trip to South Africa. Her blog Its a Jungle out There! is really quite interesting. 

Shell of Things I cant Say! was also a teacher but put it all aside to take care of her  boys.  She says it like it is!  She is straightforward and  very entertaining!

And finally, Rachel Cotterill.  She is a writer and a PhD student.  She lives in Great Britain with her husband and her blog contains fascinating information about a wide variety of subjects.  Her blog is really like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you will get each time you click on her website .  She is one smartcookie!

OK,   here is the infamous list.  Please dont compare it to David Letterman's 10 best list because its not.  Its my lame attempt to satisfy the demand of my first award " HONEST SCRAP"  Here are 10 things that will reveal that perhaps I should be locked up. Its mostly a list of things that tick me off.  Thank goodness for the anonymity of blogging:

1. The ticking of a clock when I'm trying to sleep drives me crazy!
2. I'm addicted to Coronation Street. There, I feel better now that its out in the open!
3. Cigarette butts thrown on the ground...it's littering! Why do smokers think they are exempt from this type of littering?
4. This ticks me off: Children whining and crying in stores (late at night) and parents don't "get it" that they are either hungry or tired and want to go home! I get some real urges to tell these young parents off.  I did once. I left the store immediately.  My husband was not impressed.  He figured I was the one that was cranky and was tired and needed to go home....
5. Another thing that ticks me off: When the toilet paper roll is finished and it's not replaced,especially when the cupboard can be reached from where you are sitting!
6. People who don't clean up after themselves (ahem, are my kids reading this?)
7. E-mails that say something bad will happen if you don't pass it on to X many people in an X amount of time. There are enough worries and stresses in the world without sending these letters!
8.  I'm a perfectionist in certain things.  It sometimes becomes a OCD.  My first language is French and it bothers me how much I still  really struggle, even after all these years  with English semantics and syntax... I guess the struggle will never end...
9. During this last year I have needed to eat a chocolate bar almost every day, sometimes 2.  I mean , I have to have it or else...
10. There are times I become addicted to blogging. It seems to come and go. When I have an attack I cant stop visiting blogs and commenting.  Its like I'm on a mission...   So there you have it , chers amis (dear friends).  Love you all!