From Left to Write Book Club did an interview with Christi! Read it here. And there is still a chance to win a free book, this time leave a comment about what luxury you would pack on your boat trip around the world.The winner of the book contest will be announced on their site on July 29th.
From Left to Write Book Club is going to be interviewing Christi. They are taking questions from the general public. To encourage people to submit questions, they are giving away a free book. Each separate question posted in the comments on their site is an entry in the book contest. Now is the time to ask all those questions you’ve been wondering about! http://www.fromlefttowrite.com/ask-the-author-christi-grab/
Part 1 of the Unexpected Circumnavigation continues to sell well, for a self published book at least! We are working on getting it onto Kindle and into other e-pub and mobi forms. Right now it is only available in PDF, which isn’t quite the same as e-pub.
Part 2 is in the home stretch and should be completed relatively soon. Christi hasn’t been updated the blog primarily because she is focusing on finishing the book.
We have loaded a few photos from our circumnavigation onto Facebook (you do not need to be a member of Facebook to view them). There aren’t a ton on there now, but we have been slowly but steadily adding photos. If you “like” the page, you can see the photos as they are posted. Or, you can follow Christi on Twitter, which also notifies you when photos are added.
Work is keeping Eric very busy, but we have hopes that later this year he can try working remotely. If he can, we’ll do some limited coastal cruising and see how working remotely goes. With that goal in mind, we’ve been steadily getting Kosmos ready for cruising, including a new drawer freezer than can run on either AC or DC, new batteries, new alternators, and a whole host of other items we will hopefully get around to writing about soon.
Just a reminder that on Thursday, April 28, we will be speaking at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey. The event is open to the public! No host cocktails begin at 6:15 pm, full buffet dinner served at 7:00 pm, and we will do our presentation after dinner. Cost is $20 per person (includes dinner, tax, service and parking fees). Reservations required: 310-823-4567.
When we originally scheduled this trip, Friday and Saturday were Eric’s day off to sightsee. Sadly, at a relatively late date, his company decided to send him to Luxembourg for a meeting. He was up at 0430 and out the door at 0515 for the airport.
Christi got up with him and took him to the airport. She worked on blogs for a couple hours, took a bath, and otherwise puttered around until 0930. Sure that traffic must have cleared by then, she took the car to the town of Grasse, a mountain village north of Cannes that is the perfume capital of the world. Christi took the highway to the Cannes exit, but instead of heading south towards the beach, went north into the mountains.
Since she had gotten up so early, she was starving at this point. Right off the exit, she found a boulangerie/patisserie (bread/dessert bakery). She ordered an individual size goat cheese quiche. She wonders if she got the right one, since it was loaded with bacon but didn’t taste much like goat cheese. She also ordered a pain du chocolate (chocolate croissant) and a beignet (donut). She sat in the car and scarfed them down before heading up the mountain.
The road was narrow and somewhat windy. She had read there were flower fields surrounding the town of Grasse, so she was surprised to see that it was completely built up along the road, with no fields to be seen anywhere. The buildings were an odd mix. Some were old, as in Medieval, some fairly new, as in probably the last few years. Commercial and residential properties were mixed, with a mechanic shop next to a private mansion. She noticed signs for three different perfumeries along the way.
The heart of Grasse looked medieval. In the center of town, there was a parking garage. She turned off the main road and headed towards the garage, but she missed the entrance. She found herself on a scary one way road back down the mountain. It had dangerously sharp switchbacks, obviously originally a horse trail, not a car trail. At a couple points the road split, in both cases, she made the wrong turn. The first time, turning around was easy because she came to a roundabout, but the second time, the road dead ended and she had to make 30 point U-turn to get out of the tight little alley.
The road ended near the bottom of the mountain. Sigh. She noticed a sign for one of the perfumeries that said it was close by and decided to go there instead of back up the hill. One, she didn’t want to drive that scary road down again and two, she really liked the name of the perfumery, Fragonard, because there is a Rococo-era (early 1700s) painter by the same name whose works she particularly likes.
The facility was new and modern looking, probably built in the 1960s or later. They had old equipment on display in the parking lot.
Inside, the Continue reading