(listen to the podcast ici!)

This is where we are, Paris. This is what we’re doing. I have asked for you and thus you exist for me – the you I have imagined so far. One by one, things are revealed to us that bring us closer to the vision—alright, too abstract for you?

Well, you see, the boat in Chelsea is booked for a hull service at the dry dock on 12^th January for a couple of weeks. Now, consistent with madness as my method, I was totally calm about where I was going to live during those days. In any case, my favourite boat neighbour, who likes my cooking (surprise, surprise) because he’s the only neighbour I’ve cooked for, who thought my break up news dangerous (for single men) and is away in India until February, has immediately offered me to stay on his boat upon hearing the update he asked for.

However, at about the same time the service date was confirmed, I saw a Facebook status of a dear jazz singer friend, whose concert I had just attended at Sunset Sunside over a week ago, announcing that her flat in Montmartre will be empty for some days in January, in February and in March. Never mind February for now, this is my favourite part: it’s available for a week from 13^th January!

Can you see that things are unfolding, Paris? Things are unfolding, and I am enjoying the little details. Like the French long stay visitor visa (I know: Brexit is still painful for some) that got stuck on to my British passport within two days of submission of documents; like the return of my passport from the consulate that matched my filming dates in Paris; like me finding out where I was staying on the day of my Eurostar departure without specifically looking except for a place where I’d feel good, which turned out to be the film producer’s family home, where all my scenes were to be shot – I enjoyed all of it.

I often say lately that I’m not a religious person; I don’t believe in verses. I believe in miracles, however, and my life is full of miracles—well, and verses: I’m a poet after all! Speaking of which, bilingual republishing of my first poetry book, is scheduled to enter “preprint” stage by February. Get excited, people! You don’t have to be religious to read my verses; you’ll see that the book itself is a miracle in your life, says I.

I feel exhilarated, Paris! I feel that everything is falling into place all of the time. I understand my strengths better, like hitting the 400-word mark without espresso – wow! And, thanks to these Sunday podcasts and late Saturday nights (artist friends – you know who you are!) that have forced me to wake up and write before I get to do anything else – other than meditation in bed, I have swapped my running schedule with writing first thing in the morning – well, after meditation in bed – for the last couple of days and it is mwah! Thanks to the same, I have also been able to write pretty much wherever I am.

What am I writing again? Stuff. I’m writing stuff. I’m a writer and I write stuff. I remember just a few months ago, though it feels like a lifetime ago, when life – work, relationship, place to live – seemingly suddenly felt highly uncertain, a question was posed to me, by myself: what do you really want? I wanted to feel free from all these chains so I could be with Paris and write, so I could write. Well, I’m writing now, and you know we’re inseparable, Paris, wherever I am.

I started writing for Imagined Paris again after years that same month and I understand now how something seemingly so little and so insignificant could be the thing that ties everything up together. I mean, how many of you are listening to this right now? Just you? Wonderful – you are so significant! You are as significant as every little detail in this orchestra conducted by the universe to fulfil my wishes.

Yes, things are unfolding beautifully, Paris. Things are unfolding, and just like that, I’m hitting my 700-word mark.

Mon coeur est avec toi, le 28 decembre 2025

Je t’embrasse !

d.o.