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EMILY IN PARIS

Have you been watching Emily In Paris? It had been recommended to us but the description didn’t really appeal until I read a blog written by an American woman living in the south of France. Her thoughtful comments on sophistication and cultural differences apparent in the series interested me. Time to find out what was causing the furore.

Emily, played by Lily Collins, is a social media marketing guru. She’s unexpectedly sent from Chicago to Paris when the company she works for buys a small French PR company, Savoir. Non-French speaking Emily is on a mission to get the French company using social media for their luxury branding company, the American way, of course! Energetic, determined and totally culturally unaware, she finds herself in every clichéd situation imaginable.

Sometimes funny, sometimes painful and often unbelievable, this fairy tale takes you on a great journey through Paris. Written by Darren Star who also wrote Sex In The City, there’s beautiful people, gorgeous clothes and all the famous Parisian sites plus glittering events.

I think we kept watching because we’ve been in a similar position. We moved to a country where few people spoke English. We’d been there quite a few times before and had worked hard on being culturally aware. We knew some local staff members. My husband had a driver and interpreter but I needed to find an apartment, organise schooling, sort out shopping for food (mostly from the local market down the road) plus furniture and everything else we needed to live there for some years. I didn’t have an interpreter most of the time. I learnt what I call “market” language. Room for many misunderstandings! We had to live in a compound with other expat families who luckily also spoke English, which was helpful.

Emily is extremely confident, creating some obvious opportunities for cultural awkwardness. She slowly becomes more attuned to the  nuances of French behaviour. Sometimes funny, always fast moving, very glamorous this is an entertaining series. There’s a second series scheduled for this year. Cleverly, the announcement was issued under the letterhead of Savoir, the luxury promotions company Emily works for in the series. It includes her bosses comment; “We hope that by extending her time in Paris Emily will…delve deeper into our culture and perhaps pick up a few words of basic French.” We’ll be watching.

MENDING

MENDing 1

One of the planters on this narrow ledge was disintegrating. This is the top of a retaining wall and gets good sunlight during the day. I have two planters both planted with blueberry bushes. I couldn’t find a replacement planter of the right size. I would have to replace two, as well, as they sit side by side and something different would look strange. I went hunting for a way to repair the one falling apart. The planters are made of fibreglass.

Lots of online research led me to Builders Filler, a two part filler intended for repairing metal, wood, concrete and fibreglass. Following the directions I thoroughly cleaned the surface to be repaired and then read and re-read the instructions.

Preparation involved mixing the filler and the hardener and then using it immediately. The job was done with the blueberry and soil remaining in the planter as it was too hard to do it any other way.

The filler dried very quickly. It is as hard as the fibreglass and filled the hole well.

Left to cure for several hours then sanded the patched area.

Used a damp cloth to remove the dust created by sanding the planter box and then painted over the mend. It’s not perfect but looks a lot better.

mending 2

This shabby chic/rustic bird house came from an open garden day on a farm down south. The farmer had used leftover scraps of timber to make a few bird houses. They were pretty rough but that was part of the appeal. I’ve had this one for at least five years and bits were beginning to fall off the front.

Quick clean then I used Liquid Nails to glue the pieces back on. All pretty rough. My usual clamps are pegs but the wood was too thick, so I used masking tape. Left it over night to cure. I realise this piece does not have a long life expectancy but it’s fine for now!

MENDING 3

This mohair rug is thrown over our doona most nights. We have used it for about 20 years. During that time I have repaired it a few times as it is quite loosely woven. The latest problem occurred when the dog jumped onto the bed and his claws got caught in the fringing.

Spread it out on the table to assess the damage. Hard to see what a tangled mess it’s in but I’ve repaired this rug before and got to work. The pulled threads were a mess. I used a long, blunt needle to gently push the weft threads back up. Then I had to thread the two lengths  pulled out of place and stitch them back where they belonged.

All good….until next time!

Now it has become a chair throw instead of a bed throw. It was really fiddly mending this rug. It took more than two hours to repair and is so loosely woven it could easily become damaged again. Much safer on the chair.

Did you know modelling predicts it will take 550 years for a disposable nappy to decompose entirely?

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