Everyone seems to be pretty eager to find out how my guitar practice is going these days. Even my lab-mates at work are begging me to bring my guitar in and play something for them. I guess they all would like to know why my left hand fingers are covered with callouses.

Actually, guitar strumming has simply become an addictive passion for me. I am devoting a lot of time learning different kinds of guitar styles/techniques such as the finger picking, the arpeggios, the hand-tapping for percussion effects.

This fascinating hobby has turned my life upside down: I rehearse 2 hours daily, have music sheets, sticks, guitar wires scattered everywhere in my flat!!

However, only a few privileged people have ever heard me performing live: my beloved Eka, my great guitar mentor Claude, my best friend Laurent and a few other supportive ex lab-mates from Panchim (but only over the phone), my sarcastic geek friend Steph, my neighbours, my cool on-line pals Philip and Robert over the internet.

Anyway, I really have made tremendous progress over the months while playing the guitar. I finally seem to have reached some control over my clumsy fingers. My barre chords still sound muffled though (especially the hard F chord and all the A scheme resulting barre chords), but they all pass in time now, no blank in between changing chords.

I also have managed to improve my rhythmic patterns. Now whenever I turn on the radio, I can more or less guess the key of the song, the chords involved and propose a rhythm that could match. Even Eka is pretty amazed how quick I can catch up with tunes. Here is a selection of authentic great acoustic guitar songs that I enjoy playing on and on :

"Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd, "Weather with you" by Crowded House, "More than words" by Extreme, "Good riddance (time of your life)" by Green Day, "The River" by Bruce Springsteen, some of the wonderful Oasis songs like "Wonderwall", "Champagne Supernova", "Stand by me", "Little by Little", a few funny songs by Travis especially the bass parts in "Why does it always rain on me?" "Side", "Re-offender", a few cheerful songs from Hootie and the Blowfish and last but not least the fantastic "Mr Jones" by Counting Crows which really jazzes the whole house up.

So, yes my guitar repertoire has pretty much increased over the last six months and so have the accuracy and the eagerness of my ears. Maybe one day, when I'll have my 30th middle age crisis, I'll be so fed up with Chemistry that I’ll start touring all across Europe. Who knows?

It’s been ages since I've come here to post a blog; I wonder if I still recall how this works... Anyway, after months of silence, I thought I'd drop a few lines for those who might wonder what has happened to me within the past few months.

To make a long story a short one: work has been on my mind a lot and so has guitar playing. Being the perfectionist and passionate woman that I am, I put all my energy and heart to get things done the proper way and it is finally starting to pay-off professionally and musically speaking . Even Stephane has acknowledged that I make a decent acoustic guitar accompanier now, when he strummed the solo part of that "Wish you were here" song on my Malibu Strato Fender electric guitar (See the awesome picture of my vintage sunburst guitar below).

However, as every form of refuge has its price, my on-line time has suffered a bit from all the challenging changes going on in my life. I barely ever come to the #chemistry channel to chat with people I used to. The only on-line pals I still talk to on a weekly basis are Philip and Bobby when I log on to MSN to check my e-mail account. So Sam and Alex, this short message is for you:

Don't worry, I am still alive and Life is treating me fairly! I miss you too guys and I'd like to thank you for keeping up with me via emails even if I make a very lousy long distance on-line friend these days. I'll try to make efforts to be more available on-line so that we all get a chance to have entertaining powwows together again.

Something funny happened over the weekend. On Friday, as I was coming back from guitar practice and grocery shopping, Fabien, aka Eka's boss, gave me a buzz home.

At first, I thought that he wanted to talk with Eka who was at that moment on a return plane from Paris. But it turned out that he was aware of Eka not being around yet and that he had simply called to kindly ask me if I could let Eka leave for a one-week trip to L.A, starting Monday. As if I were such a huge tyrant!!!

What I hadn't entirely grasped at that time though, was how poorly organized Eka’s accommodations to L.A were going to be like maybe due to a lack of time in planning out well such an unexpected trip.

Anyway, to make a long story short: all is well that ends well now cos Eka got an excellent bargain on a last minute plane ticket booking to L.A (even flying with a major airline company) which enabled him to save up to 20% off from a regular ticket. So I just wanted to thank Fabien and all the other people involved in that process for having moved heaven and earth, especially during a weekend, so that my beloved Eka has a pleasant trip to L.A.

A lot of people are complaining about me not putting enough pictures or crunchy stories about my life these days. Well to be totally honest, Eka and I are working together on a brand new project: another gallery of great pictures from us that should be available, hopefully, before the end of this year. So more haste no speed!!

In the meantime, to test your patience, I thought I would post some pictures taken last weekend from one of our favourite spots in London, namely Hyde Park. For the record, I had never seen such a huge pelican in my entire life. Has anyone had?

I don't have much to blog about. Life has had its share of ups and downs lately. For those who might be interested, we haven't found our puppy yet.

Actually, it is more Eka than I who is pushing for getting a dog. Some might find it selfish but for the time being, I still enjoy sleeping in late on weekends or flying away for unexpected trips throughout Europe, without worrying about walking the dog when it is pouring outside or wondering who will look after it while we are gone .

Moving on to more cheerful subjects, last weekend, Eka and I went to a store hat and he was very patient cos I did try a lot of winter hats on and finally bought two well actually three (cos one is a purple knitted beret he hasn't seen of yet: oops, now I spit it out - I fear some severe retaliations against me like a pillow fight or the purchase of an Atari ST all rotten and dusty from eBay) .

Speaking of hats, in the meantime, I thought I might end up this blog by posting a picture of me in another cool straw summer hat. Don't worry, I shall update you with more pictures of me in my stunning winter hats as soon as the weather allows me to wear them...