Sporting Life

December is almost upon us, dear reader. The nights are drawing in, the heating's on 'roasting' - why, it's even almost time to decorate the Christmas tree. And, after a mince pie or two, there's nothing Kitty and I like better to while away a long winter evening at Rhino75 Towers than a game of cat rugby (complete with made-to-measure ball). In this action shot, she's preparing to go for a conversion after scoring a try underneath the bookcase. Well, she's thinking about it anyway. We're still working on the scrum, though. Oh, ALRIGHT THEN, this ball is just one of the - completely useless - rugby freebies I stole received at a **glamorous beer-themed showbiz** dinner for the 2007 Rugby World Cup here on the Champs Elysées last night. Like every self-respecting "sports" fan, I was, of course, hoping for a Dieux du Stade 2007 calendar (look, the elastic's gone in that poor man's shorts - it happens to the best of us) but no such luck. Instead, there was a photo op with French team coach Bernard Laporte, a scarf, an ugly t-shirt and a book of old and less interesting (to my mind) rugby pics. But dinner was fab, particularly the big shank of lamb and the beer-flavoured ice creams (sounds ewww but they were actually quite subtle - the fig 'n' beer one was particularly nice, Ben & Jerry please note). In fact, this is shaping up to be a bit of a "dining out" week, as Monday evening found me sharing a table with fellow Parisian blogger Matoo. He didn't give me a scarf or an ugly t-shirt but he was totally charming, which is much better, isn't it? Smart guy, read him (but after me, he doesn't need the traffic as badly :))