"Les Jardins de Versialles"

Thursday 9th August

Graham:

Hi,

Victor’s having a great time exploring Paris; Just like ET he doesn’t bother to phone home much, but we’ve had sufficient contact with him to know at least the outline of what he’s been up to. Apart from getting to know loads of lovely little bars and tucked away restaurants He has been to “Notre Dame”, “le Tour de Eiffel”, Le Place du Concorde”, “Les Jardins de Tuileries” etc. Tuesday night he went to “le Quartier Latin” to “hang” with crowds of students. He had a great time, met students from every corner of the world, got a real chance to practise his French and still somehow made it home after checking out a few bars, to his apartment in Curbevoire.

Yesterday he went with my friend Saman to visit the Louver museum. It’s a massive place and would take days to see, so they had to pick a certain area and do a sort of micro visit.

Today he is going to take the train some 20km to Versailles, where I lived when I was working for Citroen, in their design dept. His plan is to visit the gardens of the “Le Chateau de Versailles”, perhaps have a bit of a picnic there and a sleep beneath the shade of a tree and then at about 8pm head for the market square, which is the epicentre of Versailles. There are many restaurants and bars with terraces in the square and many of them are inexpensive, as Versailles is a student town. (It has three lycees (6^th form colleges.)).

I used to live at 7 rue de la Poivererie, Victor is going to install himself in a bar restaurant very near to there and have a few nice cold beers, whilst he waits for Sanam who is planning to met him there. They are going to have diner together and enjoy the atmosphere. It real is most wonderful to have a nice meal in an ancient cobbled market place and be entertained by musicians who pass amongst the tables playing “”La Vie en Rose” and other great songs from the marvellous “ Musique François catalogue.

Tomorrow he plans to go to “”Montematre” which is the student/artist quarter and has more bars than shops, where he plans just to chill and meet other students.

How I wish I were 18 again!

I've been mislead about Victor's trip to Paris.

Wednesday 8th August

Olivia:

Hi,

I am not a happy puppy! Information has been purposefully withheld from me by Victor and Graham. I distinctly remember us all sitting together in the bar when they told me that they’d booked Victor on a holiday to Paris for two weeks. He was to be leaving on 31st July and returning on the 13th August. Today Graham casually tells me that Victor’s not coming home until the 16th. I am really missing him and now I have to wait longer before I will see him. I do not feel good about this. I feel a little bit angry because I have been mislead and I feel sad and disappointed because now I’ll have to wait another 3 days before I see my son again.

When you’ve had a bar on the Costa del Sol for a while, you know that the first two weeks of August are just completely loony. All the hire cars are out, there are traffic jams all over the place, there’s nowhere to park and the supermarkets are just out of control, trying to cope with 5 times their normal flow of customers. What do you do? well after 20 years of fighting my way through August madness, I am now walking on the wild side. I just adopt a completely chilled out attitude to the high density of people, the non-existence of supermarket trolleys etc. I once heard a Doctor talking about depression and here’s what he said. “I always tell my patients that an attack of depression has a beginning a middle and an end and one must simple tranquillise oneself accepting that one must pass through all these stages and then in a flash, the world will suddenly appear beautiful again.” What a very wise man. So what do I do about August? Well I go to my bar every day and act just like I would during any other month of the year. I remain relaxed. I calm my bar staff down and if people have to wait a long tome for their food, well that’s just how life is during August and if one can accept that simple fact instead of fighting against it, it is possible to stay both calm and happy. Oh! And counting great piles of notes flowing into the till also has a Zen like tranquillising effect on one’s spirit.

Victor in Paris Alone, Fit of Panic and Depression.

Monday 6th August

Olivia:

Hi,

Victor my only child as you already know is away in Paris for TWO weeks on his OWN! Thursday I was panicking all day. I’m just simply not used to being separated from him. Friday morning I had breakfast with Graham in a bar in Cancelada, just 1km west of our own bar/restaurant and I have to admit I was horrible company. I told Graham that the whole idea of sending Victor to Paris on his own was a big mistake and that I thought he would be very lonely and feel very lost and of course I made sure to BLAME Graham for all this. Most of this negativity came from my video chat with Victor the night before and from the act that I am a woman and like most women, I am in the short term totally ruled y my emotions. Graham explained in a typically male rational way, that I had talked to Victor at midnight and that Saman had had to wake him up from a deep sleep to come to the computer and talk with me. Of course he seemed dull, distant and lacking in any semblance of excitement about his Parisian sojourn.

Last night Graham talked to him, this time by old-fashioned telephone. Victor told him that the day he’d talked with me, he had walked miles and miles al over Pairs and eventually got lost and then walked miles and miles again to get to the right place to get a bus to Courbevoire, consequently by the time he’d arrived back at his accommodation, he was dead on his feet. He had a quick meal and then went to bed with aches and pains in every part of his body, fallen into the deepest of sleeps and then he’d been woken up and dragged to the Skype system to talk to me, of course he sounded negative and down. We mothers with the best intentions in the world and wanting only to help and protect our children can at times be the most selfish and stupid breed on the planet.

Last night when I got home graham downloaded the product of his chat with Victor a few hours earlier. He’d had a great day out in Paris and was ecstatically happy with his holiday on his OWN.

What a difference a day makes. I feel a complete fool, all that negativity, giving Graham a hard time, feeling depressed for a day, all pointlessly. I wonder what it would be like to change places with Graham and be a man for a while, you know see everything rationally and sensibly. Except when it comes to buying a car for the family. A while ago he wanted to buy an Audi TT, great for doing a big shop and taking Victor and his friends to the Salsa bar. Not!

Spain for a Great Quality of Life! www.26intgheshade.com

Panic, panic, panic, Victor's going to Paris.

Wednesday 1^st August

Olivia:

Hi,

Oh my god! I have just arrived in my bar and Panic, panic and more panic. Months ago I agreed to Graham’s suggestion that we sent Victor to Paris for two weeks in August, to help him learn the language and to allow him to gain some life experience. Now I can only see everything black all the time I have visions of terrible things happening to him. All my friends in the bar say that I am just being hysterical and need to settle down.

At times it’s a terrible dilemma being a mother. I have just the one child after loosing a second, a little girl who we lost at just 12 weeks. I love my son so much and want him near me all the time, but deep down I know and Graham also keeps telling me that Victor needs to learn to become more independent. It is all absolutely true, Victor has done really well academically, but that will count for nothing unless he can build up some self-confidence, he’s done well helping out in the bar but, what better way to do that than go out on his OWN and get some life experience. He is going to learn to drive this summer, so that will give him a big lift and tonight he is flying on his own to Paris. Oh! My god I am starting to panic again. There are tons of horrible criminals who head for Paris in August, just to rip off, rob and con unsuspecting young people, but I must shut all that out of my mind and do as Graham is always saying, think only of the positive. “There is no point in looking for and dwelling on the negative.” That’s what Graham says.

So he flies directly to Paris Charles de Gaulle from Malaga and will be met by Saman at about 00:30h. Saman will then drive him to his apartment in Courbevoire. Saman is a good friend of Graham. He is a retired Maths teacher and although he is pretty busy, he will take Vincent around on his first day, show him the main bus and metro connexions and he may even spend a little time in the evenings, teaching Victors some 1^st year university level Maths.

I know that Victor will have a fantastic time in Paris, there’s so much to do and so much to see and more than anything, I hope that he meets a few new friends of his own age and you no what; I have to be in my bar here, As it’s my busiest time of year, but I wish I was going to Paris, I went there a few times when Graham was working for Citroen and I really. Really loved it!