Party preparations begin

Rio and assistant Helena, very busy preparing birthday party invitations, while having an in depth discussion on whether or not mermaids exist (in French, of course). Quick consensus was reached rather quickly - obviously they must and do.

This year's birthday party theme is pirates and mermaids! Goes with the scenary.

Sunny day at Cap Ferrat

We finally managed to make the "big" journey to the neighboring Cap Ferrat. The goal was to go to Plage de la Paloma, which is close to the Cap Ferrat port. However, we accidently stumbled unto an unnamed beach on the other side of the trail (Sentier du Bord de Mer), which was much less crowded and overall a better ambiance.

After the beach we took the trail around the point, which is quite breathtaking and offering lots of scenic picnic and swimming opportunities. Along the trail we've learned from the informational posts that there are 350,000 blue and white dolphins in the area (not counting the giant dolphins), as well as orkas, love birds (which we've seen in town), and that a plastic bottle thrown into water can last up to 1000 years. Quite an educational walk.

Now this is what I call a good forecast - especially for a long weekend!

Tonight		Mostly Clear	Low: 15°C (59°F)	Calm	10% chance of rain	69% humidity	Sunset: 8:56 pm
Tomorrow		Sunny	High: 22°C (71°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	64% humidity	Sunrise: 5:59 am
Tomorrow night		Clear	Low: 16°C (60°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	76% humidity	Sunset: 8:57 pm
Sunday May 23		Sunny	High: 21°C (69°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	67% humidity	Sunrise: 5:58 am
Sunday night		Clear	Low: 16°C (60°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	61% humidity	Sunset: 8:58 pm
Monday May 24		Sunny	High: 21°C (69°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	58% humidity	Sunrise: 5:58 am
Monday night		Clear	Low: 16°C (60°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	62% humidity	Sunset: 8:59 pm
Tuesday May 25		Sunny	High: 21°C (69°F)	Calm	0% chance of rain	61% humidity	Sunrise: 5:57 am
Tuesday night		Mostly Clear	Low: 16°C (60°F)	Calm	10% chance of rain	66% humidity	Sunset: 8:59 pm

YumBox: Small Adventure in Good Nutrition

I'm having lots of fun playing with our YumBox prototype. It's amazing how easy it is to create colorful meals in roughly 10 minutes. And it's a great way to use up leftovers. I've tested the box with all types of food - shook it, put it upside down, carried it in a backpack sideways. No leaks, spills and the food actually looks just as good as when I put it in - it helps to have little containers, so everything is snug.

I, for one, am a YumBox fan!

Ila the Fashionista

Ila was very quick to disrobe once she realized there are new clothes in the Opa/Meemee package. She then very carefully selected her playground outfit. And then selected another one. Finally deciding on this. Never took her for a little fashionista - but she definitely likes to dress up.

Making 3 year old's wishes come true

Ila and Rio got a package today from Opa and Meemee. They quickly disappeared into their room, barricaded the doors and called me after 20 minutes of squeels and laughter to a room filled with tinker bells, princesses and very happy girls.

The goal for tonight is to sleep in Rio's bed together so they can play with the stickers (as in Ila's stickers that were moved over to Rio's side this evening). Rio really knows how to sell her decorating strategy.

Espadrilles Weather

Finally after two weeks of persistant rain and cold temperatures our weather forecast is looking more encouraging. I was starting to worry about the lemon tree, as its blossoms were starting to fall off with the heavy rains.

Did final garden plantings today - strawberries Anais (which are supposed to resemble wild strawberries in their flavour), two types of tomatoes, spanish peppers, basil, dill, parsley, asian greens, and lots of flowers to attract butterflies and scent the air.

Our orange trees are also in peak bloom. At night it smells really good, especially since we also have lots of jasmine growing nearby.

And the terrace is slowly getting more furniture...so any day now we'll really be ready for visitors.

YumBox makes its appearance in Nice!

Perspective scale - you can fit in an espresso maker, a coffee pot, sugar pot and lots of plates, cups - all in one box! Handy.


Just kidding! The dolls were having a tea party.


We've received the first YumBox prototype today in Nice. I'm going to spend some time with it - testing it and styling it for test photos.
Then off it goes to Taiwan to be reviewed and perfected by our manufacturing crew. We have an artist putting together really nice illustrations to decorate the interior tray. I will post some photoshoot pics in the next few days.


Even though it's barely finished in terms of colors, artwork and materials, Rio and Ila have already declared their absolute love and want to put lots of yummy foods inside and take them to school. I have to say the shape feels really nice and is so compact and pretty, that I think we'll tempt many people to take the plunge to become YumBoxers.

We're still looking for few extra investment dollars, if anybody is interested! We're offering very good profit sharing/convertible equity returns.

Will Nice get a sandy beach?

Du sable à la place des galets sur la baie des Anges ? | nicematin.com

Apparently there's an effort in place by the new mayor of Nice (who is actually quite effective at getting things done) to transform the pebbly beach into the new Copacabana. What I'm thinking is that we need to get some real estate before that happens!

l'Orage

Walking home last night from work, I took a breather in the driving rain and looked down from Mont Boron at the port. Was shocked to see waves slamming into and over the port mole, washing across the mammoth yachts!

Looking farther west, the waves where jumping up to the roadside that is at least 30 feet high. And then farther west, off in the distance, I could see the the waves slamming against the ocean wall in Nice - which is a good 50 feet back from the ocean generally, and another 20 feet up from sea level.

Well, that was all very impressive. But it wasn't until I took a stroll down to the beach at lunch today, that I realized that these waves were unheard of in Nice. Every single cafe built into the ocean wall was destroyed. Smashed furniture strewn up and down the beach for miles - store owners shlepping their soggy binders up from the flooded restaurants. Poor tourists barred from going down onto the beach, gawking at the wreckage.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me yesterday or today - but the following video indicates how massive these waves were:



Note that the edge of the concrete visible from the camera angle is the top of the sea wall. The beach is at least 10 feet below that at this point, and those +ten feet house cafes and terraces. Note also that the waves would generally be twenty feet down from that edge, and fifty feet back.

Fête du Travail

Since all stores are closed and public transportation is non-existant today, we've stayed home continuing our garden clean-up effort. Kai is preparing the old koi pond to become a sandbox in the upcoming weeks.

As for the children. Well, they worked really hard as well. After all, child's work is play. And they played very hard today.