I can’t feel my body anymore, but I’m going again today. Our yoga instructor having abandoned us for some good old regular vacation (I mean Come ON, he’s not even off to some silent retreat or martial arts seminar! Who leaves their students unattended?), I’ve been left with no other option than to sign up for swimming lessons. And pools are a microcosm in their own right, with rules and unspoken laws and human sharks. More on that later. 

I did host a pretty cool Friday night girl dinner (my infamous menstrual dinners), with a simple yet scrumptious menu as a mirror version of my inspiring and inspired all female guest list. Some are recent additions to my life, and some have been around so long that this blog is, after 4 years, is more than familiar with them: Fanny the Pomarium founder, Alice the photographer of inner beauty, “You rock my Life” Marion C., Art and Law student turned gorgeousnotjustrawfoodista expert Marion T., newbies music industry organic oil entrepreneur Alex and soft-spoken South African beauty turned translator Mebrak.

Of course, parts of the menu can be picked up on Mathilde’s blog, Green Dressing. My contribution to what Alka calls Mathilde’s “food porn” being, of course, saturday’s salad, since her new and awesome blog is mostly about salad. I’ll be the good friend that I am and give you my secret salad dressing ingredient. It’s soy sauce. Ha haaaa! That said, nearly everything I’ve been making for the last year has soy sauce and toasted sesame oil in it. And I made perfect quiches to go with the salad, with smoked salmon and fresh shitake mushrooms and spinach. Lots of wine, laughing, giggling, gossiping, brainstorming. And a midnight perfect crime with an Academy Award to Marion C. for beating the egg whites manually so I could make a poppy seed cake . Ha! I heard you test positive when you eat poppy seeds. Guess I won’t make the swim team.

I have 4 days to work on three different projects, nah, make that four, before packing suitcases for Clarisse and I and taking the train to Côte d’Azur bliss, on a hidden hill house, to keep working and writing, albeit by the pool, like a civilized human being I am. 

Mad Love,

MND

I have so much to be thankful for (Antony and the Johnsons surreal show, incredible art seen lately, brilliant movies, my newly-returned health, this gorgeous weather and the coolest girlfriends to hang out). And I also have a lot to share, so let’s get it going, I need to get back to work.

My razorsharp friend Mathilde just launched Greendresssing, her salad blog, at last. Gotta check it out, she’s put in the effort of writing it in both French and English. Of course, it’s more than just a salad blog, it’s a moment of shared intimacy (events in her life inspire her new salad recipes) with one of the most beautiful and acute and brilliant women I know. And she can cook. I mean COME ON!!!!

Also have been spending time with an American photographer. Alice Dison. She’s the Uber-Babe experience: gorgeous, funny as hell, laidback and easy to spend time with. And her photos are. I mean that. They just ARE. She sees people. She captures something utterly beautiful in every moment. Inspiring. Ok, she’s from Los Angeles. Nobody’s perfect. But she lives here now. She’ll get rid of the sand in her shoes. Eventually. Ha!

With all this girl time, and with the amount of time I spend working on Magda Danysz’s Street Art anthology, I don’t have time for anything else really. Which is too bad because at this point, listening to the Clash is, like, a major turn-on. Yeah… I’m turned on by the Clash. By art. By a good movie. Mmm hmmmm James Grey . Ok. Definitely need to put some of that into something else than work and girls.

Or maybe it’s because of the time I spend talking to water and food before allowing it to enter my sacred being. It’s the Emoto Experience. Strangely,  it’s changed my daily routine by adding even more thank you time to it. Beauty and gratitude pepper my morning coffee, my lunch, my evenings, I’m so spiced up, it reminds me of New York, the sense of freedom and purpose I had, and the humor I tried to increasingly add into life.

Back to myself.

Mad Love always,
MND