Ode to Layli

We have a mystery writer on Forage today .. Guess his or her identity..

I sit here waiting as you dance,
Wondering what I’m doing in France.
I texted Florence, no reply yet –
Perhaps she’s playing hard to get.

I don’t know how your camera works.
In that respect, me, it merks.
“Rinsed” and “seen” you prefer to use,
If only we had Urban Dictionary in Toulouse.

The French language, it brings me pain
Like your studded nose – how insane?!
On Forage I hope this doesn’t go
Or the world will know of your honteux.

Dr Lopez, Pancake boy, the list goes on
Your liaisons, they’re far from bon.
So shamefully dressed, you had to return
To pyjama lady – when will you learn?

“Cochonneries“: the word has served me well
But “je suis confondu” is all I ever tell
La langue francaise, c’est merveuilleuse
But spoken vite, it’s affreuse.

Now it’s time for Taylor Swift,
This poem has suffered drift.
The points it made are very scattered
But killed some time – that’s all that mattered.

Bare Jokes Day

strolls. red thread. cheese.

Marianne and the Garonne

Little Red Man.

A Sunday afternoon, Marianne and I decided to take a stroll around Toulouse to see the beautiful river and check out some of the photography that was being displayed at the ‘Manifesto’ photography exhibition.

There were some bizarre thought provoking photos of people from Bucharest staring at you from a scene of decay, there were photographs of random people at the Toulouse swimming pool, there were some disturbing photographs taken by Les Krims of all the Krims and their neighbours … there were some clever photos of photos in the toaster and hanging on a washing line, and one that I particularly like was the set by Flore Gardner. Flore Gardner sews on top of found photographs and I enjoyed her board of photos with her addition of a ‘little red man’. You’d have never thought a stick man could be so adventurous and versatile … I like these images because the random red man has just been plopped onto the photos, like I’ve been plopped here in France. Although I think I am less noticeable than a red stick man. A girl in my dance class said that my ‘r’s are very good for an English person … I don’t know whether she was being polite or whether the English ‘r’s are just really really bad. I also find it impossible to say the word m’inscrire. The stick man is also very friendly and is consorting with all sorts of people so friendly, open and helpful… what an example this stick man is.  Got to “strive to be shining examples unto all mankind, and true reminders of the virtues of God amidst men” as advised in the Tablet of Wisdom (Revealed by Baha’u'llah). This is so important, if we change ourselves we can change the world around us, if we turn on a lamp it will shed light on the whole room…

Marianne doesn’t like art that tries to think. There was a lot of art that tried to think at the late night expo the other night of modern art in a gallery nearby. This included the ‘Tableaux Vivants’ which means ‘living paintings’ so it was basically people doing shoulder stands or holding a leg up and there was a dinner table with people sat around it eating … I ate ‘fromage vivant’ which is this cheese with micro spiders that live on the outside and apparently bring out the taste … it was nice … but you could see them moving…

Pre-jeune. Perles. Pistolets.

” Salut, Bonjour, Coucou … Je m’appelle … et en ce moment la communaute Bahaie de Toulouse est en train de lancer un groupe de … a Junior Youth Group for the young people between the ages of 11 and 15 in Empalot. This group is a chance to bring young people of all different backgrounds to work together and become agents of change in their world, in their neighbourhood. It is incredible listening to the ideas of the junior youth as they discuss how to help others and improve the life around them; raise awareness about the environment, organize a football match for the children, offering lessons teaching others how to read and write, taking care of the aged, cleaning the buildings, painting a mural…

What is excellence? What does the word excellence mean to you? In this group we are going to develop our spiritual and intellectual excellence. What are some of the spiritual qualities that you can name? What are the qualities that you see in the people you admire or love very much?

“Que chaque matin soit meilleur que la veille, et chaque lendemain plus riche que le jour précédent”

What does it mean to make each morning better than its eve?

“That tomorrow will be a beautiful day and it doesn’t rain?” says one JY (in French)

Mmm…unfortunately the weather is slightly out of our control … but we can work on ourselves to so that “Demain je serai meilleur qu’aujourd’hui”…

Although, it’s always better when it doesn’t rain. Though to be fair the weather here in Toulouse is pretty good despite it being October.

And the energy of the junior youth is endless … we had the group with discussion, games and rap and then played basketball for about 2 hours and then a few persuaded us to let them back into the apartment to collect their sheets of paper and then they stayed at the apartment for about an hour singing and trying to make a human tower. Those boys are pearls, as Bassim says.

“Ca t’interesse? Il y a un session chaque samedi, point de rendez-vous devant la mediatheque a 14hr!”

Another thing I noticed here in Empalot is that all the boys run around with guns! Just after the junior youth group and on our way the basketball court, two boys ran into the house and brought out two guns to shoot at us and each other just after having thought about how to help others …

The other side to Marie revealed...