Moroccan Nikita's

"Romantic lady, single baby, sophisticated mama,  Oh yes it's ladies night and the feeling's right,  Oh yes it's ladies night oh what a night!" Women stuff.. one week, every afternoon spent in one of the most girly environment , presenting the refined handbags of my talented friend and designer Mimi at the Prague Design & Fashion week.  So far from what I am , hating shopping, but so close to what I love, for all the beauty.  I have to admit I realised I was smiling more genuinely at the  men who were timidly daring the world of women to get a beautiful present for their beloved than at certain wannabe posh bitches with Louis Vuitton bags looking at the whole world with contempt, just because they had the (possibly fake) LV handbag.  Dressed up in LFM clothes and thus wearing high heels (Devil knows I did suffer for LFM :) , I was probably looking like a sweet candy to these men. It was the aim anyway. These guys were sweet too, especially whe...

How long, Essaouira... a place that seems always wrapped in a dreamy haze. A place where everything goes very very slowly. You ordered a coffee or an orange juice in one of the town's trendiest cafes? well you have to wait. Call the waiter three times, remind him you are there, repeat your order, cause no, it's not a tea you wanted, and in the end maybe you'll get your coffee or you'll have to deal with a tea. You're coming from Europe where things go more or less fast and precise, normally you would complain, but when you get the tea that you never ordered and the waiter smiles at you as if the world was perfect, well you inhale the perfume of the fresh mint, taste your sweet tea, lay back and start to believe the world is perfect, indeed. After a few days in town, nothing can bother you anymore, for you're so relaxed that you couldn't care less about the surrounding slow motion. You're probably smoking some dope, too, which helps. I remember thes...

Now it's official, we are three. Three people, in two eyes. Doesn't make sense?  Well someone , somewhere wrote I was a fanatic xenophile, which maybe explains I was meant to gladly welcome strangers not only in my country (ies), in my home(s) but also in my own body to coexist and more, to live together till death make us part.  The receiving of donor tissue is a quite curious thing. This time, when I was taken to the operation room by this funny guy who was telling me about his testicles operation (?!) they gave me a box and some files to hold in my arms and take with me, which was fine until I read "donor tissue " on the box and asked, horrified, if the box was containing what I thought it was. One nurse laughed and said, "well it's for you, you gotta bring it with you!"  I was feeling really weird to transport in a box the human cornea that was going to be a part of me. Well, I didn't drop the precious treasure, only asked them to put it...

“ Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.” Rumi Sadness, blues, spleen, anger, fear, all those who settled in my mind lately in a kind of final assault of a soul under siege for a long time. They entered, triumphant, displaying their Trojan horse , that suitcase I had bought from the Chinese and that started to break up right at the beginning of my complicated journey from F. to P. via two other cities. No, you don't want to be in a big city taking the metro with two suitcases, the heaviest one having a broken handle. Well I felt that the whole universe had conspired against me, and I felt like drowning myself in the Guadalquivir out of shame (but even the Guadalquivir was gone), or just leaving the luggage somewhere in a corner, hell take whatever makes my life so horrible. It is probably my raging nature that made me hold on till my final destination with all that stuff. (cursing the Chinese industry all day long helped, obviously). My arrival marked, though, m...

In solis sis tibi turba locis (In solitude, be a multitude to thyself) Tibullus  I surely have no problems with this. As much as I agree with Montaigne when he says we need solitude, I think that arriving to a new country or a new city is the best time for a retreat with yourself.  I've always done that for a few days  at least  (to entire weeks),  in any new place I was settling for a bit longer than just holidays. Is it to absorb the surrounding atmosphere, take a deep breath of the environment and appreciate it on your own. The timing is ideal, you are on site, but not really yet, which gives a kind of freedom that one gradually looses - voluntarily - while integrating a society. Once you'll have lost it , you'll seek to get it back again etc... The first moments are magic.  And here, in F. with the beach within bike reach, solitude can be a luxury. Who needs people to go to the beach with? it's like going to the movies , or...

"ay que si el mar es tan azul es de mirar tanto al cielo ay que si el mar es tan azul es de tanto mirar pal cielo" It was definitely the best house in town. In fact it is located in a district named like one of ex-Yugoslavia’s republics. After a surprisingly good meal made of cuttlefish, leaves of the garden’s over present basil, apple and more secret ingredients, all served in green melon, we moved to the terrace to enjoy coffee and cigarettes. The sun was high in a pristine blue sky, a light but refreshing breeze was blowing and we were gazing at this beautiful orange grove surrounding us. After the blue (or white, or bright purple - depending on the pair of eyes) painted orange trees, there was the marsh, silver blue naps among deep green isles. On one side this scenery continued toward the sea, on the other side, we could see, in the distance, the buildings of the city center.  It looked as if these were part of another world. From the Laranjal,  where we felt...

It started the day when the weather was so hot some would see kangaroos flying in the crowns of the courtyard trees. Coming from Sevilla, I was finally feeling at ease, or better said, I was not feeling cold. As I was sitting in that kitchen where everybody was complaining about the heat I suddenly noticed this glass filled with all the sky and the moon of that summer night. Prague becomes so beautiful when the sun shines and illuminates both buildings and faces. Since I arrived I could not miss a traditional walk crisscrossing the river, one bridge after the other, carefully avoiding the sightseeing rush on the Charles Bridge for, in the end, for an ex-homie, that one is much better to look at from a hill above or from another bridge. I had forgotten this little path just across my bridge that I had taken last time some 25 years ago since the restaurant Expo 58 had closed down in 1991. Good surprise to see that the building that impressed Brussels so much together with the Latern...