"My cat is named Odin"

 Oh the things you discover sometimes thanks to old friends. My Italian friend sent me this picture a few months ago and I wanted to share it here. This is the book she read to her two boys during the summer holidays: Il mio gatto si chiama Odino. Translated into English, the title would be "My cat is named Odin". The book is about a black cat with one eye. My long-time readers will remember that I once had a black cat with one eye, also called Odin. I guess I was not entirely original naming him. He was the best of cats and I miss him very much. So I think I need to brush up my Italian and get my hands on that book to read it.

Guillermo, Guille et moi

J'ai blogué il y a un mois sur une collègue hispanophone qui m'appelle Guille, le diminutif de Guillermo, qui est l'équivalent de Guillaume. La collègue en question est d'Argentine (en fait elle y demeure, nous nous connaissons via Teams) et depuis avant-hier est ma manager pour un projet, alors j'ai pu lui parler plus longtemps. J'ai donc appris une chose ou deux choses sur mon prénom en espagnol, façon Argentine. Guillermo se prononce "Guichchermo/Guichermo" là-bas, les l étant prononcés "ch", en tout cas s'ils sont placés au milieu du mot. Enfin selon ce que j'ai compris. Guille, encore une fois si j'ai bien compris, se prononce également "Guiche". Morale de l'histoire: j'en apprends tous les jours. 

Precious Stones

Something the simplest and most primitive things can make a little boy happy, when he is inquisitive. Since he received this issue of Aquila, and maybe before that, Wolfie has been fascinated by rocks. Gems especially: diamonds, emeralds, rubies, etc. But also semi-precious stones, such as jade, and other stones of lesser value, like quartz. Anyway, we visited a friend on Easter. She had chocolates for Wolfie, but also gave him a bag full of crystals. She is a bit into New Age, so she has loads of crystals she keeps in a drawer and plenty to spare. So Wolfie is now the happy owner of a loot of crystals. He was more grateful towards these stones than the chocolates he received, and that's saying something. In fact, he finds the stones more interesting than many of his toys.

P'tit Train du Nord

 Il se vend bien des niaiseries chez Archambault, mais aussi des affaires cutes. Comme ceci. J'ai acheté ce napperon pour petit loup, et un peu pour moi aussi. C'est à la fois mignon et éducatif, devrais-je ajouter. Et c'est aussi un jeu cherche et trouve.

Black socks on a plane

 I read this article in the Metro a while ago now. Well, a long while ago: about a month, to be precise. I am therefore very late in the news, but I wanted to mention it to you, for safety reasons. So without further ado: when you travel on a plane, do not wear black socks. Especially if you take your shoes off. As they are hard to see in the dark, you risk getting stepped on, or have a whole food and drink trolley roll over your feet. So yes, avoid black socks when you travel. I don't know when I will go on a plane, but I will now keep this advice in mind. Thankfully, I have a lot of bright, colourful socks. I even blog about them sometimes. So yeah, I should be safe. 

Mafalda s'en vient sur Netflix

J'apprends une bonne nouvelle aujourd'hui sur les réseaux sociaux, notamment sur la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda ainsi que sur Suvenirs de Ciné-cadeau: Netflix a publié la première image de leur future série sur Mafalda. Je dois l'avouer, j'ai eu des frissons. Bon, j'avais déjà vu le teaser qui date de 2024 et rien ne semble s'être produit depuis. Mais bon, on dirait que les choses progressent enfin, touchons du bois. La sortie est prévue pour 2027. J'ai vérifié sur Netflix et Mafalda semble bien y être en préparation, j'ai donc cliqué sur "reminder". Il ne reste plus qu'à attendre.

About An Evening of Murder

 

You may remember that last month I blogged about the murder party series An Evening of Murder, more specifically Forever Friends, their second entry. My father had sent me pictures of the box sets we kept. Forever Friends was the very first set we bought and the game was in its very early years then. See the back of the box: it looks very cheap, unlike its front cover it is not really immersive, the accent is put on party, not murder, and I think I spotted a typo in the text. It got better, but this is for another post. I also discovered that the games have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Still called Twitter on their website, so things are not up to date. All the same, I will spend some time there just to get a healthy dose of nostalgia.

Grand-père à l'érable

 Mes parents ont fait des grand-pères à l'érable. C'est bon, des grand-pères à l'érable. Faudrait que je m'en fasse.

The God Sucellos

The things you learn sometimes thanks to a café. I took this picture the Coffee #1 in Wallingford, one of my favourite quaint English towns. So I learned about the Celtic god Sucellos (or Sucellus). I might have read about him before, but have forgotten. I must confess I don't know all that much about pre-Christian Celtic lore, except from what transpired through and into the Arthurian legend. He seems, in appearance at least, to be the Celtic equivalent of Thor, what with his hammer. Anyway, I'm glad I know a little bit more now about Celtic mythology.

Les neiges d'avril

Mon père a pris des photos de l'accumulation de neige à Chicoutimi. Nous sommes en avril et on dirait décembre ou janvier. Surréaliste. Cela dit, j'avoue que si j'étais au Saguenay, je ne m'en plaindrais pas, en tout cas j'essaierais de ne pas me plaindre.

Post-Easter Blues?

 Okay, so Easter is now over, but here it is a bank holiday. How was your Easter? How are you feeling? I am of two minds about it: I am always sad after any big holiday, feeling like it came and went way too soon for my taste. For Easter specifically, while I do feel a bit melancholic, I find solace in the fact that there's a lot (and I mean, a lot) of chocolate to go through, we have one Monday that will feel like a Sunday and that in the coming weeks we will have more reasons to celebrate: it will my one of my wife's cousins' birthday and then it will be mine. We literally have no time to feel melancholic, we already need to get ready for the next celebrations. And, in my case, get mentally ready to become older. That is one aspect of the post-Easrer blues I like: it's generally short-lived.

La vieille, vieille tortue

Mon frère PJ m'a envoyé une photo d'un de nos premiers toutous. En fait, je crois que le toutou apaprtenait à ma mère avant nous. C'est une vieille, vielle tortue, faite de manière artisanale, peut-être par un membre de la famille. Je crois qu'elle est plus âgée que moi.

One Easter Bunny

You may remember that I was getting desperate, as there are no Easter Bunny this year at M&S, which is patently absurd. Well, there are some elsewhere. Not many, to my chagrin, not very big, but some all the same. Anyway, last week I went to the local Lidl and I bought this one, which I shared today with Wolfie. As you can see, I can hold it in my hands and it's really a far cry from what I am used to, but it tasted delicious all the same. Maybe I went there too late and bigger models were gone, I don't know. But hey, it's a proper Easter chocolate rabbit, he even holds a basket of eggs.

Les paniers des poussins

Ma mère a acheté ces paniers (ces sacs?) pour ses petits-enfants, les cousins de petit loup. C'était bien entendu pour utiliser lors de la chasse aux oeufs de Pâques. Un vert et un bleu, avec des petits poussins. Nous faisons ici aussi une chasse aux cocos chaque année, mais les paniers que je donne à mon fils ne sont pas aussi jolis que ceux-ci. Bon, il n'est pas jaloux, c'est pas comme s'il n'avait pas beaucoup de chocolat à manger depuis ce matin. Mais j'aimerais bien trouver quelque chose d'aussi joli ici.

Mozart for Easter (Et incarnatus est)

 Happy Easter everyone! As usual, I share some music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I shared his Et incarnatus est from his Great Mass in C Minor more than once, but it's just so fitting for today. Performed here by French soprano Julie Fuchs (Wolfie's favourite, because he finds her cute). And to accompany this post, a picture I took in Vienna. If you think it's not Easter-y enough, well, I think Mozart is always Easter-y enough, because it's his music I listen to at Easter and because he was the Christ of music.

Pâques sous la neige

 Mon frère PJ a pris cette photo. Il est à Chicoutimi chez mes parents pour Pâques, avec le reste de ma famille. Il n'y a que la branche anglaise qui est ailleurs. Le printemps au Saguenay, c'est parfois souvent enneigé. Pâques est donc sous la neige cette année et peut-être plus que d'habitude.

Goddess Fortuna

I took this picture at the Roman Baths in York. If you want to celebrate Easter in an English city, York might actually be the best one, because of its history with the Roman Empire. And let's face it, who does not associate Easter with Ancient Rome somehow? I know I do. The Romans are both the villains of the Biblical story (or at least often depicted as such) and the originators of many of the Pagan elements of Easter. Anyway, you can find in York's Roman Baths a shrine to Fortuna, the goddess of luck and fortune. You could make an offering of 30p, which we did. Hey, you never know! No but more seriously, seeing this shrine made me feel like in another time altogether, both familiar and exotic.

Pâques au Saguenay

 Photo prise sur la page Facebook des Pères trappistes. Je fais un appel à tous ceux qui peuvent: leur boutique est ouverte jusqu'à 16:00 h auhourd'hui, si vous avez encore besoin de temps pour vous acheter quelque chose. Ici, c'est le désert côté chocolats: y'a même pas de lapins des fois, misère!

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Can one wish a happy Good Friday? I love Good Friday, sometimes just as much as Easter. Because it's a bank holiday, at least in this country. And because every year I commemorate by "fasting". And by fasting, I mean I eat fish and chips.It has become a tradition since I live in England. We spent last year's Good Friday in York.It was our last night in the city. I bought these fish and chips in the nearest chippy. It tasted absolutely perfect, even though it stank up the place. I'm not sure where I will eat my next Fish and chips from.

La chasse aux oeufs des Bouquinistes

J'ai prise cette image sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes. Je tenais à vous faire un rappel: ils font une chasse aux oeufs, du 30 amrs au 4 avril. Et vous pouvez gagner des prix de commerces régionaux, voire l'image plus haut. Et puis vous pouvez toujours vous acheter un livre ou deux, une fois que vous êtes là.