My Francophonie week

It's the French Film Festival week!

Both GSC cinemas in the Klang Valley are screening seven wonderful french films. I went a little crazy last Sunday. Watched two films in a row- La Science des Reves and La Mome and they were both brilliant! Loved the eccentric bizarre story of La Science des Reves and the heart-wrenching tragic life story of the legendary French diva, Edith Piaf in La Mome.

And that's not all, for the past two days I've been sneaking off in the afternoons to catch a French film. Both were hilariously funny - Fauteuils D'Orchestre and Mon Meilleur Ami.

Ooh la la, I just love love love French films.

Today, I went to the Alliance Francaise to return long-overdue French books but unfortunately the library was temporarily closed. So I headed to the Gourmandines Restaurant there for lunch.

I was greeted by the French restaurant manager and because I replied in French, he proceeded to take my order 'en francais'. The waiter-customer order-taking 'en francais' sailed smoothly until I was stumped as how to ask him what juice flavour he has. I merely stared blankly at him for a few seconds until he prompted, "Orange? Carrot? Apple?" and then it all came back to me, "Quel jus de fruits avez-vous, s'il vous plait?"

Gee, the last time I spoke French was a year ago in France. Mental note to self - Got to enrol in French classes.

Sigh, I still have everyday moments when I catch myself reminiscing of my France trip.

France, tu me manque beaucoup!

* Quel jus de fruits avez-vous, s'il vouz plait? - What fruit juice have you got, please?
* France, tu me manque beaucoup! - I miss you so much, France.
(* Images taken from www.gsc.com.my)

Back!

Gosh, I didn't realise that it's been 2 months since my last post and my site hit has reached 20,000! Anyway, I'm back. Needed to a break badly as I had to deal with some niggling issues in my life.

During my hiatus, I followed "The Artist's Way" program; a 12-week program created by creativity guru, Julia Cameron who teaches one how to live a more creative and fulfilled life.

Many years ago, I took a creative writing course in uni and both my writing tutors highly recommended "The Artist's Way" to everyone in class. I had the book for almost a decade and still follow some exercises recommended by the author, Julia Cameron. One exercise which I still do religiously is the morning pages, which is basically writing on longhand three A4 pages, first thing in the morning. All good thoughts, bad thoughts, cranky thoughts, hopeful thoughts, wishful thoughts, fearful thoughts end up documented in three pages. The Morning Pages have worked as I've accumulated a 3-feet high Morning Pages journals written over the years.

When I started the cake biz, I had both good and negative reactions from people I know. Somehow, earlier this year, the naysayers got louder and appeared more frequently in my life while I was struggling on a steep and slippery learning curve.

At times, I fought back and set boundaries but I found myself wasting precious time and energy defending my dream. Soon, I got caught up in the negative spiral of being angry, defensive and mad with all discouraging remarks and negative presence from contaminating people.

I had wanted to so badly take off and run away from all my problems. Go visit France. Or maybe I should have a short break at Bali, Koh Samui. I dunno. I just want to get away from it all!

I spent weeks wallowing and moping, plagued with negative, self-defeating thoughts- Maybe I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur. Who am I kidding myself, really? Why am I doing this?

One morning, while cleaning my bookshelf, my eyes keep glancing back at The Artist's Way. It was as if my instincts kept prodding me to go open and read the book.

Some life lessons I gained from "The Artist's Way":

- I just have to bake and decorate cakes today,even if I don't feel like it.
- Do whatever it takes today to get back on track - bake, write, draw, etc.
- For now, I need to keep quiet on my biz plans.
- Choose to surround myself with people who believe in me.

Thank you, Julia Cameron for your wonderful book. You are my life saviour.

* Photos of sugar orchids made for Laine's wedding cake.