I think I would like to be a dog

Okay y'all here's one for the okay Mel please esplain file.. Actually I think I would like to be this dog.

This was our tour guide at this little chaple off to the side of the road.. We were on our way back from lunch in Tarascon and we saw this small chaple off to the side of the road and thought hey what a neat spot to photograph... Well, we got out of the car and this dog stood at the top of the steps and greated us.. She actually took us to the chapel then she walked with us up the path as if to say hey there is more up this way... It was cool.. I mean really.. She probably lives in the Mas near the site but she wanders around showing tourists the sites... cool huh? Ah to be a dog. No real worries, well, if you have a person who loves you.... You get all the food you could possibly want... Yet sometimes you still want more... You have pretty much free roam over the entire domain of your people. You ask no real questions like where when why and how? but you do, however, make many many many demands... And being the sucker that your person is.. They always give in... Cause they know that you love them. I think I would like to be a dog.. But not one of those sissy celeb. dogs that get dressed up in stupid little outfits.. Those poor things are nervous all the time.. Hell, I would be too if i walked around with a half baked ditzy master who liked to put little shoes on my feet cause they thought it was cute... yeah i wanna be this dog.. tee hee.... ~mel~

Off to find dragons

Hey hey gangaroonies.... Iknow it has been a while since my last post....... Well, almost a month... whew!! Alot has happened since the last post.. Mi Amiga Prima was here for two weeks.. We did quite a bit... Having a car allows you a bit more freedom to find little places that you didn't know really existed.... We found a whole bunch of little churches... Well, actually they were chapels.. word of note: small abandoned chaples are great places for when you have no where else to go to the bathroom. Yeah yeah... i know you shouldn't pee on a church... eh... okay... tee hee... We had a blast tooling around provence... acting like we owned the place. it was fun... of course whe spent time with el primo amigo too so... Now i must speak about what happens to be one of the strangest days i have ever had here....... My saturdays start like any other saturday... Clean up after the friday night before.... Not that I make a huge mess but i usually leave it until the morning... so i did the dishes and picked up my stuff... then i headed out for the market... After the market i headed to one of my favorite to places to eat... where a friend of mine was telling me that there were some chinese or lunar new year events going on here... cool, i could go take pictures.... so i headed back home after lunch... stopping at my favorite cafe for yet another cup of cafe.... oh la la no sleep for me tonight... i headed back home to drop off my goodies from the market. i headed out in search of dragons... yeah kinda like martha in tarascon.. yet my dragons weren't a threat... these are good luck dragons.... after searching and searching i found no dragons.... Rat balls..... but i did find a funky band of dudes playing beatle's tunes... rather badly... the weird thing is that they had old couches and toilets sitting near their little stage. trying to listen to them play... oof if you could call it that?? i was pretty bummed out.. no dragons.... i headed to the cafe where i tap into the internet.... and i heard chinese drums and fire crackers... AHHH DRAGONS!! i found them but they were running away from me... quick mel catch the dragons... so i ran after them... tee hee camera in tow they passed by and made their way to the place du repbulique where there just happened to be a wedding and the band playing beatles tunes.. AWESOME..... chinese drums a really bad band and a wedding... WHO SEES THIS STUFF?? Well, i had found my dragons and i got my good luck for the year... It's the year of the Rat.. my year.... woo hoo so unlike martha in tarascon i did not conquer these dragons i tickled one on the chin and took his picture... Well, kids that's it from Roman Gaul again... I am off to see what i can see..

Just a post from Arles

Well, I am sitting in a cafe where I have probably sat a half a dozen times before.... Actually it's where my first short story took place and where I wrote it.. Difference being all of Europe is now under a smoking ban..... Awesome for me, i don't have to choke on the smoke of half a dozen ultra tragique young people who have aged way beyond their years... Well, now they sit outside... hmm they are just outside the door.... oh well, i guess it's a start!
kinda like the dog poo rule here.... It's actually a nice day here... the sun finally came out after a 3 or so day absence.... I need my sun.... i get grumpy if it's gone to long... It is after all, why i came here... Well, one of the reasons...
I am sitting here watching kids playing football in the square.. and people pouring out of the cafes about every 10 minutes or so to get their nicotine fixes... oh well... Not much else going on here.. it's sunday in Arles.... Quiet but nice...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, It is that time of the year again.... Whew where does the time go???
"No se" As is often quoted from many of my Amigos... I suppose New Year's
Eve is the day where we look back at the previous year and see what we have accomplished or what we haven't.. Did we keep that resolution we made, this day last year??? Well, the way I see it is keep it simple... For instance I usually make a resolution not to fall down... Then that way it's a pretty easy one to keep... Though this year I couldn't even keep that one... Tee hee..
Damn knee... So to all of you who are making the grand resolutions here's what I have to say to that... You won't fit in the skinny jeans by this time next year so eat.... You won't just have one glass of wine so drink.. Your kids won't stop being a pain in the neck so let them be.. Your hair won't stop turning grey so quit dying it. You won't get any younger so stop trying and just love yourself for who you are. What I do hope for you is this... If you play the lottery... I hope you win big. If you do plan to take a trip as part of your resolution, it better not be a car ride to your parent's house in the sticks... Ya better go somewhere big!
Okay here is my wish for all of you for the New Year!
Dream big!! Think of the most outrageous thing you can possibly think of and do it!!
and please for God's sake don't use the word CAN'T!!
Okay that's my New Year's wish for y'all hope you have a healthy and happy one...
No matter where you are. If you are watching the ball drop in Time square or playing the Rhumba in Dubai, having a quiet night with your pets, or you are falling asleep on your couch and waking up at 12:30 to kiss your sweetie.. Have fun... And don't fall down!!

Happy Day After Christmas!!

Hey Hey!

Well, with all good intentions I had planned on posting yesterday but I decided that I needed a break from technology.... It was an extremely wonderful day... I had a wonderful Christmas dinner with my a friend of mine from London and her family.. Well, we met about 4 or so weeks ago here in Arles. Her son in law cooked and I was happy to celebrate the day with her and her family!!

THANKS FAITH!!

Here are a few pictures of more of the holiday lights that lit up Arles on Christmas Eve Night.

These were lights they used to light up the facade of St Trophime church... It looked like the front of the building had been painted...

It was beautiful!!

I wondered around on Christmas eve night and took some pics of the lights.... Arles is so beautiful this time of the year..... And it's so quiet... Well, As soon as I say that I see a boat load of English speaking tourists take over the Neighborhood.... I can't tell you how many people strolled by my door and laughed...... Okay gang enjoy the pics I'll post more soon

Here's hoping at least one of your Christmas wishes came true!!

~Mel~

Here is a shot of the lights in the "Roquette"

Happy 21st of December

It's a fine line we walk when our heart's are allowed to sing... Today I saw a friend of mine who I had not seen for almost three weeks... I know that seems like a short amount of time... And realitively speaking it is... Seemed like an eternity to me.. Three weeks gives you just enough time to run through a whole range of emotions, feelings whatever... It gives you just enough time to be angry... To fill your heart with rage.. To let your head attack what your heart is feeling. You sit and try to justify what you are feeling... You talk to friends your family. They offer your their opinions.. And what your heart feels gets burried. All of the things of the past run through your head and you start to doubt yourself and why you ever did what you did. You start to curse the day your heart ever started to feel the way it did. You wished it would just go away. You simply wish that someone or something would take the hurt you are feeling away.. Further burying the feelig you have in your heart. Well, at least I did. I ran through all of the emotions of why when where, who what..... Made me sad to think about it. Makes me sad now even to think about it.. How could I have possibly pushed something so wonderful away? Then one day it just stops.. The anger goes away. The name calling subsides. And the big wish of "please take this away from me" goes away. You start to feel again, you start to find that little bit of hope deep in your heart that never really left. You know that it's still there.. And again the feeling gets stronger. Again, It comes back.. As if it ever left in the first place. Today I talked to a friend who I hadn't talked to for a while. I asked him how are you? He said to me I am playing again. Honestly, that was one of the best Christmas presents I could have ever had. Made me happy to know that he IS making music again. I had started to get that feeling back a few days ago. I knew that I had to clear through all of the crap to get to what really mattered. Hearing that he was making music again solidified the feeling. It was back. Bloody hard to hold onto but it was back. Tonight I saw him. Tonight I saw something in him that I had not seen in a very long time. I saw him, again. The beautiful soul that connected with mine well, exactly 4 years ago. I saw it again. Somehow through all of the chatter of different voices his song, faint though it may be right now, is being heard. I heard it. Somehow I think, that I am the only one who hears it.. Maybe I am the only one who listens? It made me smile to see him today. Honestly he wasn't feeling all that well.. But I saw it in his eyes. I saw what I saw 4 years ago. He has changed in those 4 years and so have I. Today, today I connected again with the love of my life. As much as we push each other away as much as we try to literaly remove each other from our lives.. We see each other and we smile and it's there. Amigos? Si! It's all we can be. I am not sure I believe in soul mates. I know we connect with certian people and you know when it's right. And right now it's simply RIGHT. Thank you so much for being who you are. Thank you so much for your song my friend. Most of all thank you for your smile.. For it is the one thing that keeps my heart strong and my head at bay. My Christmas has come early. So when I walk home tonight from the hotel where I "borrow the internet" and where I sat for the very first time in Arles, filled with hope and a dream that one day we would be close. I'll look up at the moon and next to her will be a small bright light, the planet Jupiter. And It will all be RIGHT again. I'll smile and whisper a Thank you on the wind and I know he'll get it.. That makes my heart smile. So HAPPY 21st OF DECEMBER MI AMIGO! & THANK YOU!

Christmas time in Arles

Hey Hey

Yeah I know it's been a while since my last post.

I thought I would post some photographs of the holiday lights here in Arles and some of my own holiday decorations. OOOh and it did snow here... Once every 4 years... hmm the very first time I came here was 4 years ago and it snowed then too.... So here are some pics of the sites around here.. And my stuff too.. I have offically added a touch of "white trash" to Rue Renan!!

tee hee... No lights... haven't quite figured out how to exterior illuminate my door... Oh well, don't want to piss off the neighbors just yet.. ha ha!!!!!

okay kids enjoy...

Snow in Arles????? Yeah the official "blizzard"... The Saturday market was a bust but this was something to see....

Here are a couple of shots of some of the Holiday lights in Arles. I took these about two weeks ago...

And finally here are some pics of my own holiday decorations.... Tee hee... Okay that's it for now from Roman Gual... I'll post more as the Holidays get closer...

~Mel~