Rihanna Concert

RiRi Loud in Barbados is not a simple concert,
this is THE event of the century,
the biggest show ever given in the Island.....
Companies closed earlier in the afternoon.... ( I personally left the Advocate at 3pm),
town was blocked for cars, the stadium gates opened at 4 pm.....
Everyone was talking exclusively about... TONIGHT!!!!

and i hadn't gotten tickets.... they got sold out in a few weeks, when i was in France.
Peeps were selling some for $150 bbd in town a few days ago,
but the next day it was $200 bbd, and the following one the guys were not at the corner anymore...
(I could have used one a friend was selling me for $150 bbd , but only one......
I wanted to go with Shawn.)
So, I spent my all friday looking for tickets, asking around by bbm, facebook, emails, calls....
They were alllllll gooooonnne !!!!

Desperate, i made calls on my way home, Simbah told me she may have one she wouldn't use !!!
I called Alicia, bbmed Simbah again, Maria, called Fran, David at the same time.....
Alicia was ok to sell hers for $100, Jerry had an extra one for $150 !!!!! YYYEEEESSS !!!!!!
(finally Jerry's one was for $180..)

In the Blue Bus chartered for the event.

The line to get in the bus looked long like more than 100m....
Sorry for the nice people who were waiting quietly.... we got in straight...

(no camera allowed.... so here are a photographer's pics)

Now, my feed back:
Disappointment !
OK she sings and dances very well, BUT
she just did her job, like if she was doing it for a camera, not for a public.
No interaction with the public,
(like "Barbados are you readyyyyyyyy", or "put you hands in the aaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir",
or "sing with meeeeeeeee", the normal concert stuff)
no songs remix,
no guests on the stage,
no surprises
at aaaaallllll !!!

and a pause of 1hour between the first part and her.....
Shawn and I had to kill the time..... We got drinks..... That was the best part of the night :) :)

At the end, the war to get a Blue Bus back to the Gymnasium (where we left the cars) was not easy....
We had to get drinks again to overcome it......
Finally home, i was dead ..... but happy !!

Animal Flower Cave

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Animal Flower cave, Monday 18th July 2011

Nights out with the Frenchies - Soirées avec les petits Français

Thursday Reggae Lounge

Tiki Bar

Nelsons Arms

Tipsy Thursday Ship Inn

Marielle and Lukas learning the bajan dance way: the mythical WUK UP

well.... still far from the original one :

Let It Arrive Tomorrow ( On arrivera demain )

LIAT
Let it Arrive Tomorrow.

I'm so happy to have my sister Marielle, and her boyfriend Lukas in Barbados by me for 2 weeks.
Everything was going to be perfect......
But LIAT decided to make it more......
interesting !!!!!

Flight from France to Guadeloupe: OK.

Flight from Guadeloupe to Dominica: more than 2 hours of delay
BONUS: Free lunch !!!

Flight from Dominica to Antigua: 4 hours of delay
BONUS: Free lunch !!!

Flight from Antigua to Barbados: missed !!!! of course !!!!

- Good evening, We are in transit for Barbados, is our flight gone already?
- hold on....
- we have been waiting in the line for 15 minutes, the flight was supposed to take off 20 minnutes ago, do not tell me that because you took too much time chating with other users, we missed it ???
- let me ask..... I am sorry, the plane left.
- .......
- The company is going to accomodate you for the night, and you will leave the hotel at 4 am tomorrow, and take another plane to Dominica at 6 am.
- Dominica..... again...... What are we supposed to do now? and where are we supposed to go?
- After this agent on the right, turn left.
- ...... ok......
- Hello, can you tell us where to go for the hotel... the bagage.....?
- What? who are you? where are you from? where are you going? which hotel?
- Well, your co-worker just sent us to you so i was expecting you to answer those concerns.
- hold on.......
Go to take you bagage and then a taxi will come for you.


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BONUS: free night in a hotel

BONUS #2: baggage.... LOST !!!!!!!!!!

- Excuse me, we are not seing our baggage anywhere
- hummmmm, if it's not there it's not there
- Well, Can you tell me where it is?
- Not here in Antigua fore sure
- ok, but where are our bags???????
- Where are you from?
- Dominica
- oh, you are in transit ? hummmmmmmmm.......
- Yes we are; i thought you would be aware of our problem after i spoke with 2 of your colleagues about it.
- Well, you bagage is maybe in Dominica.....
- Maybe ????????? Why not in Guadeloupe then?????
- oh you come from Guadeloupe, so yes, maybe in Guadeloupe.
- What?????????? You don't know????
- No
- Can you do your job please and ask to find out where are our bags, now !!!!
- No. Not today..... it's 6pm passed....so all the desks are closed.
- Are you seriously telling us we don't have any possibility to have our bagage?
- No, maybe tomorrow. If you ask our agents tomorrow, maybe they will tell you something.
But i don't think so, because i told you the baggage is not in Antigua,
and we can not know what the other airports did with it.
- WHAT????????? You can not communicate with the other airports?????
- No, but the bags may be in Dominica when you get there tomorrow.
- You think that the bagage will be there magically, when no one will know about our story???
- Well, hopefully they will be there, or in Barbados.
- And what if they are neither in Dominica, nor in Barbados?
- Then, you will have to fill out a report to get refund of what was in the bags.
- ............
Oh and is there an internet access at the hotel ?
- hold on......
( you guess the answer dear readers?????)
no.



We arrived in Barbados Monday 18th, around 9am.
I stopped watching the time, we waited for the bagage til....

Night out with my girl friends - Boite à Paris avec mes copines

Cap Rouge, Rue Mouffetard, Paris 5e.
Jeudi 7 Juillet 2011.

Retrouvailles avec mes SUPER COPIIIIIIINES !!!!

Stéphanie  !!!!She is a real true friend, always there for me,
always listening, understanding, helping... creative, very talented, a great sculptor, passionated, courageous...

We used to attend the same high school in Evry but we became friends at
the Ecole Boulle, Paris, in the Event design section.She lived in China for a year, studying Arts.
So she understands me, she knows what is to be living in a country so far away from your family, she gave me a lot of courage, confidence and advices to undertake this adventure to Barbados.
A lot of love emanates from her.

I love her sooooooo muuuuuch when I first heard "Waka waka" of Shakira in a club in Barbados; because I realised how much i missed her.

et Shirley !!!!Absolutely no men can resist her !!!!!

We met through tilllate.com, a french website connecting parisian young clubbers, we realised we were living in the same city, Ris-Orangis, started to hang out, by train and then with my car, and we became friends.

Stéphanie's sister, Anne-Sophie, herself and the bottle we got for free because it was her birthday
HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY !!!!! (with Mousseux mmmmmmmmm......)

The crowd in the tight cave.

One of our new french friends for that night.

I said "i don't speak french" to one girls-picker, to make him go away, but he liked the challenge and started to speak en inglish with in cute french (and sometimes incomprehensible) accent.
The game was launched !!!!

Shirley followed me with a natural ease,
we were Pauline and Elena, cousins, both from Barbados, on vacation for 2 weeks in Paris.

It was soooooo funny to hear them saying to each other
- Hé Seb ! comment on dit euh.... genre....."qu'est ce que vous faites après?" en anglais ?   
- euh..... "what you".... non....attends, je sais plus, putain langue de merde aussi là, ché pu,
vas-y dis lui "follow us"
-
- merde ! elle a répondu, mais j'ai pas capté un mot de ce qu'elle a dit, vas-y vas lui parler toi sinon elle va se barer, ça fait pitié si elle croit qu'on peut pas aligner 2 mots en anglais.

( - Hi Seb ! how do we say hummmm.... like.... " what are you doing later?" in french ?
- hummmmmm "que ce....." wait, what the fuck... i can't remember, what a fucking language, dunno, lets tell her "suis nous"
-
- shit ! she answered but i didnt get anything of what she said, you go speak to her, if not she will leave, we will look ridiculous if she thinks we can't even make a sentence in french.)

We met some spanish speaking people, from Mexico, Argentina... They didnt notice our french accent in english, we made a lot of efforts to have the good intonation, so proud of us !!
(One of them spoke very well though, i was kind of destabilized because i didnt understand some of his words, but i got around as a good actress.)

It was a sort of charity night you know, because we made these young males practicing their english, without us they might never use what they learned some years ago.
AND
Now, they all want to visit Barbados ( to meet pretty girls) ,
so we should get paid by the Government for the touristical advertisment !!!!! 

Carnaval Tropical de Paris - Caribbean Carnival in Paris

Carnaval Tropical de Paris Dimanche 3 Juillet 2011

A looooot of people.... 

You have to climb on something, then its harder for the poor people who stay behind you...

if you up your arm very very very high you may see something
thru the camera....

yes !!!! like this !!!!

but... wait.... WHAT'S THAT ???

CHINESE !!!! whyyyyyyy ??? are they caribbean? what is "tropical" in them?

Tahiti, ok !

Evrybody walks to the Arc du Triomphe

For those of you who know the Champs Elysées,
you know that is pretty rare to see it full of... PEDESTRIANS !!!!

hey, an american tourist proposed me to take a picture of us, in english of course !!!
maybe she thought we were american !!! ahaha !
it is finally written on my forehead that i can speak english YEEEESSSS !!!!

On the right, you can see a piece of Bajan style

.... so, Paris = overcrowded city