"Happy Birth Dya"

Finally, this is the cake which Wolfie had for his birthday. A chocolate cake, but not my mother's family recipe. It is something my wife found on BBC Good Food, an easy chocolate cake with some coconut in the icing. Wolfie did the baking of the cake with his mother, then his mother and I did the icing. Then finally, Wolfie himself added the candles. He insisted on doing it. You might now see it, but some of the candles are letters, meant to create a "happy birthday" message. Wolfie got creative putting them on, so the message says: "Happy Birth Dya". I thought it was too cute to put the candles in the right order.

Vendredi 13

Nous sommes le vendredi 13. Le premier de l'année, ce qui est assez tardif. Je tenais à le souligner.

The Star of Cate Blanchett

My borther is on holidays and he is spending some time in Los Angeles and Hollywood. And he took a few pictures and shared this oneon Facebook. I know I am silly, because it is just a star on the pavement and the person it pays homage to is not, was not nearby, but I was still dying with envy. As the regular readers of this blog know, Cate Blanchett is my favourite actress, bare none. So not many starts in Hollywood impress me, but this one does.

Les cadeaux cette année

Voici tous les cadeaux que l'on a emballés pour notre petit loup cette année pour sa fête. C'est sans compter ceux que la Chatouille Blonde et sa mère nous ont apportés. Je crois que l'on a su modérer nos transports, comparativement aux années précédentes. Je vous jure.

18 years of 9/11

Today is the 18th anniversary of 9/11. When the new century in which we live in truly started, in blood, fire and death and history was made and more importantly lived. I will not say that I remember it like it was yesterday, that would be a cliché, but I do remember it vividly. I guess it is difficult to avoid commonplaces when one talks of such event. For my own experience and my reflection on 9/11, please read this post from 2008 and this one from 2009. They are the posts I am most proud of of all my years as a blogger. Talking of years, 18 is, in man's age, the one when he reaches maturity. I know at least one child the daughter of my friends (the big sister of my godson), who was born late in August and was actually on the 11th of September. Strange to think of her as an adult, stranger to think of her as having spent the first weeks of her life among the chaos and horror of that time. Thankfully and of course, she was oblivious to it. And on a sadder note, I don't think we matured much as a species, if at all, since the 11th of September 2011.

"Social traître" (cocktail)

Mon frère Andrew a inventé un cocktail, qu'il a appelé "social traître", allez savoir pourquoi. Il l'a fait pour le lundi, ce qui ne serait pas dans mes habitudes (je ne bois pas les soirs de semaines). À caue de cela, je voulais bloguer la recette lundi, mais finalement je n'ai pas eu le temps. La voici:

"Cocktail bourgeois du lundredi:
1 once (ou deux) de vodka
1 cuillère à soupe de crème de cassis
Le jus d'un quartier de lime
3-4 glaçons
1/2 canne de soda
J'appelle ça un social traître."

Je ne sais pas si j'aimerais ça, mais je suis curieux d'essayer. Dans tous les cas, la recette et le nom, ainsi que l'allusion au "lundredi", tout cela mérite d'homologuer la citation plus haut en nouvelle grande réplique inconnue.

An almost perfect September

This post is of course part of my autumnal chronicle. I have been quite happy since the beginning of September, mainly because it has been so far almost perfect for the autumn lover that I am. I am counting my blessings:

-We've had a few cold days where I could wear warm clothes. For the first time in months I have been able to wear my thick jumpers that are so comfy.
-Even when most of the days so far have been warm, it is always quite cool in the early morning and in the evening. And it has that kind of chill that you can only feel in autumn.
-The trees are still quite green, but some leaves have started changing colour.
-The ground is often already covered with leaves in any case.
-Sometimes in the evening, you can already smell bonfire.

So yes, not the ideal September, but has been a very pleasant one so far. The temperature should go up in the upcoming days, but given how the month started, I am fairly confident that it will not last. And for you, how is the month so far?

Cabane à oiseaux

Je partage aujourd'hui une nouvelle photo prise par mon père dans le Vieux-Montréal. C'est bien entendu une cabane à oiseaux, mais pas mal plus belle que celles qu'on trouve d'habitude. Elle est artisanale. Je ne sais pas si on peut dire ça d'une cabane à oiseaux, mais elle a pour ainsi dire un charme rustique. En tout cas elle a beaucoup de personnalité. J'aimerais en avoir une pour ici, on pourrait attirer de nouveaux voisins. Mais bien entendu, allez trouver quelque chose de joli comme ça pour des oiseaux ici...

What cake for Wolfie?

For some unknown reason, my father sent me pictures he took at a Première Moisson, one of the most famous chain of bakeries in Montreal. Including this one, of very decadent cakes. And it reminds me that the birthday of Wolfie is going to be very soon and that we haven't decided yet of what cake to give him. We will most likely bake it ourselves, based on one family recipes, but we are not sure of which particular sort of cake to have. We showed a few pics to Wolfie, asking him to decide, he seems to like them all. Any suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

5$ pour entrer au Salon du Livre

Comme ça se rapproche, je pensais faire un rappel:le Salon du Livre du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean se tiendra du 26 au 29 septembre. Et ça coûte rien que 5$ l'entrée, une véritable aubaine. Du temps que je vivais encore au Saguenay, c'était mon moment fort de septembre et je m'en ennuie encore beaucoup. J'ai retrouvé mon laisser-passer catégorie cégep parmi mes cartes récemment, rien que pour retourner le fer dans la plaie. Je crois qu'il a dû me servir une fois. Enfin bref, à 5$ l'entrée, vous n'avez pas besoin de laisser-passer.

Rebellion Red (autumn chronicle)

This was tonight's poison: Rebellion Red by Rebellion Beer. I am very familiar with it: their products, especially this particular beer, are sold all around the South East of England. In fact, it is one of my favourite mcirobrewery in the country. There is a special reason why I drank this one and no other tonight: the Red has become their seasonal beer for autumn. I am of two minds about it, as it used to be available all year round. And while I love the beer itself, which is dark and dark reddish brown as I love them, I always thought that the name is a bit meh. I wish Rebellion had chosen something more evocative. But hey, with this colour, it is suitble enough for autumn.

Cochons de bois

Photo prise encore une fois par mon père dans le Vieux-Montréal. Je ne sais pas trop s'ils ont une autre utilité que de faire joli, mais je les aime bien. Ils ont une bouille sympathique.

Writing Workshop updates

Today I had another writing workshop. It started earlier than usual, 9:30, but to my surprise I got there on time. We were not many this time, only six, but it went on for two hours and a half. I showed them a bit more of the novella I wrote a few years ago, they enjoyed it a lot, I was told that I write really sharp dialogues. So all positive feedbacks. Next time we meet it will be October and I will share a ghost story for Halloween. Something I already wrote and shared on the blog. I will let you guess which one.

Les chuchoteuses

Mon père s'est promené dans le Vieux-Montréal aujourd'hui et a pris beaucoup, beaucoup de photos, de petites et grandes choses, dont des sculptures. Celle-ci s'appelle Les chuchoteuses et je la trouve très québécoise. Comme quoi les matantes peuvent être le sujet d'une oeuvre d'art.

Calvin, Hobbes and my Saturdays

As it is the first Saturday of the month, I am sharing tonight for the first time in a long while a strip from Calvin and Hobbes which made me laugh a lot. My son is of preschool age, nevertheless this is the story of my Saturdays since I became a dad.

Question existentielle (350)

Voici une nouvelle question existentielle, saisonnière étant donné mon état d'esprit:

-Quel est selon vous et votre expérience personnelle l'endroit dans le monde où l'automne est à son plus magnifique?

"What did the Roman ever do for us?"

There is a parody video about the ahem, current political situation in the UK that has been going on social media a lot recently. They used an audio from a very funny scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian. Now I must confess, for all my love of British humour, I have never watched Life of Brian. I will try to do it before next Easter or something. But in any case, if the new video was funny, the original is absolutely hilarious and as it is trendy, I thought I'd share it tonight here. The new one you can find here, the original below. Tell me which one you prefer.

Camion de pompier

Photo prise sur le Plateau par mon père. Les pompiers sont venus colmater une fuite paraît-il. Ils ne se déplacent pas seulement pour des incendies. Je crois qu'il a envoyé cette photo pour que son petit fils la voie, car notre petit loup est très impressionné par les camions de pompier. Il aurait peut-être eu un peu peur, mais je crois qu'il aurait néanmoins aimé voir ça en personne.

Geese (autumn chronicle)

This evening, as the sun was almost completely set, we saw and heard (boy did we hear) a whole flock of geese flying. We had seen them the month before, more and more, but it was this evening that they were more numerous and loudest. It was very impressive. One goose, or even many of them, do not make the season, but migrating geese is another characteristic of autumn. It was a short moment, but I very much enjoyed it and it was the highlight of my evening.

Nouveau foyer

Photo envoyée par mon père, ils ont installé un nouveau foyer dans le condo à Montréal. C'est franchement laid comme ça quand le foyer lui même n'est pas fini et j'espère (j'imagine) que ça aura plus d'allure quand le tout sera rénové. Cela dit, je tiens à faire un commentaire: ça va être vraiment plaisant les soirs d'automne quand il fera frais et qu'on pourra l'utiliser. J'ai vraiment hâte de pouvoir en profiter. Quoique pour les foyers, je n'en ai jamais trouvé qui battent les deux qu'on a à Chicoutimi. Ils ont vraiment de la gueule.