Vroooom without licence

Yep! I am a biker.. Well, not quite yet. I know how to drive this bike (the picture, it is the bike I use), but I am not quite well assured yet. "Get your licence" you will tell me. Well, I have it! This is an originality of this country. I am legally authorised to drive this motorbike without having received any practical training before (I just have a "provisional licence" which I got by passing a theory test). So I have to chance that people are tolerant enough, that I am not making too many mistakes, and that I will not get killed before I know how to drive properly. Anyway the nice weather has arrived, it should be more feasible soon to get onto the roads after the kids have left school. Wish me good luck!

Commuter in Dublin

This is a video taken from my bike (camera on handle bars) on my way to work. As you can see there is no cycle track and buses are big. I am lucky enough to be able to avoid rush hour thanks to my flexible working hours. So this was taken at around 9.15 on a sunny day. Hope you enjoy it. Bisous!

La franchouillarde reflechit

Alors m'enfin vous vous demandez pourquoi je vous emmerde a entrer une adresse email pour lire mes posts.. Bah en fait je me suis recue pas mal de commentaires haineux / pas gentils / machistes / menacants, et ca m'a pas fait plaisir. Alors je suis en train de repenser mon blog, en mettant l'option "commentaires" seulement disponibles aux gens proches mais je sais pas encore trop comment faire. Donc en attendant je ne le rends dispo qu'aux personnes qui me lisent regulierement. Ce blog est juste un moyen de garder contact avec ma famille et mes amis, pas pour lancer un debat sur le net parce que:

- lancer un debat, je m'en fous

- je n'ai pas cette pretention. Des journalistes et autres personnes qualifiees sont payes pour ca

Alors pendant que je cogite, je ferme aux "externes". Le blog devrait etre reouvert a tous d'ici a un petit mois. En attendant, une petit blague: quel est le pluriel de "petit beurre"? Reponse dans les commentaires.

Slim / fat, the image and the dictatorship of weight

A lot of you know how I look. I am slim. Very slim say some. There is a strange phenomenon when you are slim: you are harassed about it.

No, I am serious. I am getting sick of hearing things such as "oh but YOU shouldn't complain about anything, look how slim you are", "of course you don't know what it is like to feel uncomfortable, you're so slim". It even happens at work. Once, I was heating my lunch in the microwave and a lady manager was heating a soup. I told her while we were chatting about lunches (what was I thinking?) that I needed more than a soup to keep me going for the whole afternoon. She looked at me from top to toe and said "well, yes, you don't have to starve yourself, you're just lucky to be slim". Another person, a man this time, told me once I was so slim I could sit on the toaster without any problem.

So I have a question: who is this world, would dare saying to an overweight person the equivalent that would be "you are so big you would need two chairs to be able to sit properly"? It is almost like, because you are supposed to comply to a certain social image and fantasy (being thin) that it is acceptable to comment on the way you look.

Well, it is not. It is offending to be described, looked at with despising or envious eyes (plus the comment that generally goes with it), told things about your physical appearance, something that is totally private. Nobody knows but you how you feel about yourself. it can be hurtful, slim or not.

And there are always criticisms about the way you look anyway. A lot of my exes told me I was too slim. Some of my friends told me that they prefer looking the way they look because at least "they have breasts and a sizable ass". Well, good for you. I didn't know there was a competition there. I feel good with myself too, thanks very much.

It is sad to see how much the image, competition (especially between girls) and the dictatorship of beauty puts pressure on everyone, and there especially for women. You're too slim? you're anorexic! You're too fat? How can you let yourself go this way? And also, shave your legs, put make-up on, have a slim waist, be tanned, eat healthy... HEEEEELP! Just leave me alone!

And the next one who says anything intrusive about the way I look has to be warned that I have just started kick-boxing lessons....