Oat Milk in Tea?

For a few months now, my wife has switched from milk to, well, oat milk and various vegan alternatives. But it is mostly oat milk. Not so much for ethical reasons as because it's meant to be healthier. Now, she does not drink milk by itself anyway, but she pours oat milk in her coffee and in her cereals. You know how I feel about milk substitutes. Read this post for more details. Well anyway, I noticed something on one of the oat milk bottles sh bought. The brand is Oatly, if you are curious. Something that shocked me and left me speechless. On one of its sides, it says: "It works in tea". And no. Just no. Hell no. This is a lie. Oat milk does NOT work in tea. Real, proper milk does not work in tea. Tea and milk don't work together. Tea stands on its own. Milk, or any milk substitute, poured in tea, is barbaric.

Tempête de neige

Il a neigé sur le Québec récemment et mon père m'a envoyé des photos... Ici, il tombe un centimètre de neige et tout ferme. Mais ça, c'est un blizzard en bonne et dûe forme.

The Sad Ghost Club

Sometimes, I find useful books in the local library, books I wouldn't buy otherwise, but they come in handy at a certian point. So yeah, during our last visit, I stumbled upon The Sad Ghost Club (subtitled: A Hopeful Guide to Getting Through Bad Days) and I had to borrow it. Don' worry about me: I'm not depressed or anything like that. It's just that my job has been rough as of recently, I have been going through a lot of bad days, I know there will be more, and I thought I needed something to help me keep my head above water and focus on the good things that I have. I have been in worse situations, job wise, but I don't want to have the feeling of dread I used to have a few years ago, so I am using this guide. It's quite cute, full of of good, simple advices to follow. And sad ghosts. I'm good with melancholy, I even thrive through it. However, I don't like gloom and doom.

Gâteau

Samedi dernier, ma femme était allée voir une amie dans la journée, alors petit loup et moi on a décidé de faire un gâteau avec les restants de sucre, de farine et d'oeufs qui étaient sur le bord de passer date. Des fois, rien que pour le plaisir et rien que pour manger un dessert maison, je fais du gâteau, que j'improvise tout le temps un peu. Avec petit loup, l'impondérable c'est souvent le sucre: il y met tout ce qui reste. Il n'y a que le glaçage qui est préfait (Betty Crocker, je crois). Sinon le gâteau lui même est à la vanille. Enfin bref, je suis assez fier du résultat.

A Railway Themed Birthday?

My birthday is only in April, but I know for a fact that my wife and Wolfie are already preparing for it and have already bought at least one present. So I thought it is not too early to start planning for it and giving some presents suggestions. Which should not be too difficult. I learned on the Facebook page  of the National Railway Museum in York that they have lots of new (and old) nice things in their the online shop. Last Christmas, I got spoiled by my wife who got loads of cool things from there, I think this might be the case this time too. This First-Class Seat Retro Cushion would be quite handy. But maybe we could be even more daring and take a quick holiday to York and make a day trip to the NRM to celebrate. Okay, so anything train related is not Veggie Carrie's idea of a good time, but she is outnumbered and she would love to get out of the house in any case. Or I can just stick to railway memorabilia for presents.

Presque la Relâche

C'est la semaine de Relâche cette semaine pour petit loup. Mais pas pour moi. Il est avec ses grand-parents maternels et je m'ennuie déjà. Je n'ai pas eu de vraie semaine de Relâche depuis que je ne travaille plus dans le merveilleux monde de l'éducation. Cela dit, comme je n'ai pas besoin de préparer mon fils pour aller à l'école, j'ai presque une semaine de congé. Je dis presque: je peux me lever plus tard le matin avant de travailler. Les avantages d'avoir une job qui me permet encore de travailler de la maison. J'ai pas mal eu toute ma vie adulte des presque Relâches: à l'université je devais souvent terminer mes travaux, au cégep ma semaine de Relâche ne tombait jamais en même temps que les autres. C'est encore un peu le cas aujourd'hui, j'imagine.

Two guys and a gal

You may remember, a month ago or so I blogged about Five Guys. I have been curious about the one we have nearby and last time we went to the cinema we pondered about going there for lunch. In the end we didn't, mostly because there is little if anything that is vegetarian, so my wife cannot really eat anything there. Not that she like fastfood all that much to begin with. But Wolfie was quite curious about it. My wife explained the conundrum in these terms: "The problem with Five Guys and us is that this family is made of two guys and a gal and the gal is vegetarian." Which I found very funny and deserving to be a new great unknown line. Wolfie and I share a lot of things, but he got his wits from his mother's side.

Cymbidium (2)

 Encore une photo des orchidées de mon père...

The 87th Precinct, in order

I blogged about a month ago about my wish to continue reading Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, which I haven't done in a long while. Even though my TBR list is quite long. Be that as it may, I thought it would be nice to read more McBain, especially since it has been a long time and the books tend to be quick reads anyway. And it struck me: I should read them (as much as possible) in chronological order. Something I haven't really done so far. So it means my next entry would be The Mugger, the second novel of the series, as I already read the first one. So I am very tempted to buy it. And if my wife thinks it's too many books, I can give it to her mother once I am done with it, as it is a sort of family tradition to read McBain.

Cymbidium

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de son cymbidium en fleurs. Il cultive les orchidées et il en est très fier.

Amadeus for Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. As it is sometimes a tradition on Vraie Fiction, I celebrate by sharing some love songs and I usually go for classical with Mozart. Because nothing ever put love in music as well as he did, whether it was its ideal and idealised aspects or its more problematic ones. So yeah, here is one love duet that is also a duet of deceit and unrequited infatuation, with Miah Persson and Gerald Finley. This is taken from Le Nozze di Figaro. For those who do not understand Italian, there are subtitles.

Dites-le avec un chocolat chaud

Tout d'abord: joyeuse Saint-Valentin à tous. Cette photo a été prise de la page Facebook de Première Moisson: un chocolat chaud choco-framboises. Vendu bien entendu pour la St-Valentin. Ils offrent vraiment des belles affaires pour la journée. Ma femme est une chocolique avouée et je trouve qu'ici le choix pour la Saint-Valentin n'est pas vargeux. Il faudrait vraiment que je célèbre à Montréal un jour.

Preparing Saint Patrick's Day

 I took this picture last time we went to Marlow. One of their high street's pubs, the Duke of Clarence, was already advertising for Saint Patrick's Day. Now that's a pub after my own heart! Preparing for Saint Paddy's more than a month in advance. And it looks like they are starting the celebrations with a brunch, so they will start drinking before noon. How perfectly Irish. I am not sure if I will be around there come the time, but short of a typical Irish pub (how I miss the one we used to have), this might be the next best thing. Time to start planning, anyway.

Se pourvoir en cidre

J'ai pris cette photo l'an dernier dans un centre de jardinage. Il y avait pleins de trucs intéressants, franchement je préfère aller dans les "gardens centres" anglais que dans des centres d'achat pour me pourvoir en quoi que ce soit. En alcools aussi, bien entendu. Toujours est-il que mon bar est pas mal aride ces temps-ci, pour ne pas dire à sec (ou presque). Je corrige ça dans les plus brefs délais: j'ai déjà commandé de la bière et je compte m'acheter du vin en fin de semaine. Mais j'y pensais et je me suis dit que ce serait bien de m'acheter quelques bouteilles de cidre quand j'en aurai l'occasion, histoire de varier un peu. Et puis le cidre est un des rares alcools que ma femme aime bien.

Arctic Explorer Ship (Lego)

There is one of Wolfie's Christmas presents he received last year which I have been wanting to blog about for a while: this Lego Arctic Explorer Ship.  We didn't get nice toys like these when I was a child, not even Lego toys. I mean it has everything in it: action figures of various professions, a Viking sunken ship, a helicopter, a crane, a little robotic submarine and a killer whale. It can even float on water, like a real ship. It's maybe the best Lego set we ever had (well, as a family, I mean, I know it's not mine) and it really stimulates imagination. But what got me happy about it, more than anything else, is that Wolfie finished it in two days, all by himself. Except for the string on the crane, which mummy helped setting up (because you have to put the string in a tiny hole). But otherwise, it is all my son's natural engineering skills and patience. Two things I am utterly devoided of. I am a very proud father.

Guille siempre!

 Je ne crois pas avoir partagé ce gag, pris de la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda. Son petit frère est mon personnage préféré de toute la série. Enfin, en Argentine et dans tout l'hémisphère sud, c'est l'été et les vacances, voici donc un gag bien estival. J'adore l'attitude de Guille. Il me fait souvent penser à mon fils.

Forever Autumn?

 There are some memes which I find on the internet which capture perfectly my state of mind. Like this one, for instance, which I found recently. Now, for the record, I love winter, but I wouldn't mind to skip summer entirely. I know that's not something common, but there you go. So yeah, why isn't there a place where it is always autumn?

Un renard dans la neige

Je partage encore une fois une des photos des caméras de surveillance sur le lot de mes oncles, envoyées par mon père. Rien que parce que c'est vraiment beau, un renard dans une forêt enneigée. J'en enverrai d'autres dans les prochains jours.

The arsenal in crime fiction

 Okay, so I don't ave a gun fetish, or a weapon fetish, but there is one little thing I like in crime fiction: it's how some weapons reveal something about characters, whether they are good guys or badguys. I love signature weapons in crime fiction. South African crime writer to Deon Meyer is keen on this trope, as I blogged here. He does it again with Leo, when police officers Vaughn Cupido and Bennie Griessel do the inventory of the arsenal of a murder victim, a mercenary with a shady past. I love Cupido's connoisseur appreciation: "Number two, the cute but deadly little Heckler & Koch 416. (...) This time the elegant but deadly G36, in mint condition.(...)the very sexy bad girl of assault rifles, the AR-15. (...) Glock 17. Impeccable taste." It's a least a page of exposition, but Meyer reveals a lot about the victim and Cupido and makes it engaging. I found it really neat storytelling. So yeah, read the book.

Chevreuil ou orignal?

Je partage une photo prise par une des caméras de surveillance sur le lot de mes oncles. Est-ce un chevreuil ou un original? Quelqu'un qui s'y connaît parmi mes lecteurs? Je crois que c'est un orignal, parce qu'il semble un peu gros pour un chevreuil, mais je peux me tromper.