IBIZA MADE ME DO IT
JUST LIKE A HAIKU
A pop star in a pickle
Sitting beside her.
Fasten your seatbelts!
Good morning!
I couldn’t resist writing a fun haiku to celebrate the release of Chapter One of my romantic comedy, Just Like A Movie, on The Empress’ Substack yesterday. Chapters will be posted each week over the next few months, so I hope you will enjoy following the story as it unfolds on the sun-drenched island of Ibiza.
Ibiza is a small Spanish island in the Mediterranean with a reputation for being party central. And while you can certainly still go full-on wild and wacky over there, that was never what drew me to it. In fact, I might never even have discovered Ibiza if my friend Victoria hadn’t moved there with her family, back in the late 1990s, when they bought an old farmhouse in the north-west of the island.
Victoria and I were both in our mid-to-late thirties at the time, so partying wasn’t exactly our top priority, although we did our fair share of carrying-on into the small hours. We went to private parties, to smaller clubs like DC-10 and the Pink Pussy (I know…), and sometimes to Space and Pacha, especially if it was Flower Power night, when they played what we considered the very best music.
Over the years, I built an entire Ibiza wardrobe. Out went the classic navies and crisp whites, the beige chinos and polo shirts. In came long, flowing dresses in bright colours, petticoat skirts in Indian fabrics worn with sari tops, and beaded, jangly jewellery. I even pierced my belly button before my fortieth birthday, convinced it would force me to keep my belly taut forever! Sadly, it kept getting infected when I returned to Geneva and real life – it rubbed against my jeans – so eventually I gave it up.
But what I loved most about my summers in Ibiza was how free it allowed me to feel. For the six or so weeks I’d spend there with my husband and children – my husband flying back and forth to Geneva for work – I became a slightly different version of myself.
Returning to Geneva always made me a little sad. I’ve always been creative, and while Switzerland is beautiful and has always been my home, until very recently, it never felt like a place where my creativity could truly blossom. Also, those first few Ibiza years coincided with some dark and difficult times in my extended family, and I felt overwhelmed.
So I escaped – if not always physically, then in my mind – to Ibiza. And I wrote a romantic comedy about new beginnings, fabulous female friendships, and falling in love with a world-famous pop star.
Which is how Just Like A Movie was born.
Fasten your seatbelts…
Chapter One of Just Like A Movie is waiting for you on The Empress’ Substack
With love and gratitude,
Francesca xx
