Yawara (Signature Weapon)

This post is part of my Signature Weapons series, which I only officially started this year. Although there were a few older posts that could be considered officiously part of the series, such as this one. Anyway, so I am reading at a slow pace Fight Write, by Carla Hoch, to help me depict fights and violence in my own crime fiction writing. And the book made me discover one exotic weapon from Japan, called the yawara, or yawara stick. It looks like nothing, it is as it says a short stick, a blunt instrument that is barely bigger than the palm of your hand. Yet apparently it can be quite effective and is even used by Japanese police forces. I checked a few videos on YouTube and I must say I am a bit skeptical. Sometimes people praise a thing only because it is exotic and think the world of a weapon simply because it's use by martial artists in the Far East. But since Japanese police officers use it, it must have some utility. In any case, it's a simple device and from what I understand fairly easy to make weapon, so I might add it to some of my character's arsenal. Heroes or villains? I'm not sure yet. So yawara is the word of the day, as well as today's signature weapon. If you have used one, or seen one (if you visited Japan, for instance), please let me know in the comments.

Rosettes au chocolat des Pères trappistes

 Une fête débarrasse le plancher assez vite, une fois terminée: si nous avons encore des chocolats de Pâques à terminer, les épiceries et les commerces ne vendent même plus les stocks de chocolat pascal à rabais. Et selon ce que je vois sur la page Facebook des Pères trappistes, ils ont changé d'état d'esprit aussi, se concentrant sur la vente de rosettes: aux atocas, aux bleuets, au chocolat noir, au chocolat blanc, etc. Des rosettes au chocolat pour les temps morts avant la saison des bleuets. On est quand même gâtés au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, côté sucreries.

Time to grow a pumpkin patch?

 I found this meme a few days ago in one of the Halloween pages I follow. Now is the time to grow pumpkins, apparently. I am not so sure I should: last time I did was catastrophic, the slugs ate them all, no matter what I tried to keep them away. It broke my heart, it really did, and crushed my hopes of becoming a half-decent gardener. That said, I love this meme because it reminds me I am not so far away from spooky season. I just need to be patient.

Mafalda s'en vient

 Grâce notamment à la la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda, je peux suivre au moins un peu l'arrivée (encore lointaine) de la série télévisée sur Netflix. Bon, c'est encore très fragmentaire, mais nous avons quand même eu droit à un trailer, qui est vraiment plus un teaser, parce que c'est vraiment très court. Je n'ai pu trouver de sous-titres nulle part, ni en français ni en anglais, mais j'ai trouvé quelque part sur YouTube un doublage (grâce à l'intelligence artificielle?) en anglais. Dans tous les cas, je vous partage ce nouveau teaser, en espérant qu'il y en aura d'autres. 

Wanderlust (word of the day)

As you may know, I have started reading William Boyd's Gabriel Moon. So far it is a solid spy thriller set in the sixties. And it made me discover a term, which I have seen before, but never paid attention to it: wanderlust. It is our word of the day. It means "a strong desire to wander, to travel and explore the world". I have ambivalent feelings about it: I do experience it sometimes and I suspect it is because of wanderlust that I ended up in England. Wanderlust made me an expat, if you will. Anyway, I am not complaining and whether you experience wanderlust or not, it's a feeling that comes in handy when your are writing an adventure novel or... a spy thriller. And reading a spy thriller, or indeed any other novel where the protagnist travels, might make you feel wanderlust yourself. Anyway, that's the word of the day and my take on it. What do you think about wanderlust? Did you ever experience it?

Pain aux raisins (et thé)

 Ma belle-mère nous gâte quand on la visite. Lors de l'une de nos récentes visites, elle nous a offert ça pour le dîner: une tranche de pain aux raisins et du thé ( du café pour ma femme, mais pour moi c'était avec du thé). L'légance dans la simplicité. Elle a fait le pain aux raisins elle-même. C'était la première fois que j'ai mangé un pain aux raisins fait maison. Il y a une première fois pour tout.

Farewell to the local Mountain Warehouse

 I learned some very sad news last weekend. As we were walking downtown, I saw that there was a closing down sale at the local Mountain Warehouse. Now I know I'm not exactly the natural target customer for Mountain Warehouse. I don't do hiking or much outdoors activities. But I still enjoy their products, especially their clothes. And their enamel mugs, and other things. Anyway, the shop os going to close down permanently at the end of May, so I have time to make a few purchases at a really good price. I guess that's one positive thing. All the same, I wish it didn't have to shut down.

Guille, c'est moi

Je reviens sur mon sujet de billet de vendredi dernier, sur le prénom Guillermo et son diminutif Guille. Je dois m'y faire: Guille, ou plus précisément sa prononciation de Guiché, façon Argentine, est mon nouveau surnom au travail. En ce qui concerne mes collègues hispanophones. Qui sont à peu près tous originaires d'Amérique du Sud, ce qui j'imagine tombe sous le sens. Bon, ça va, je ne meplains pas, j'en ai eu des pires. Et puis je trouve assez flatteur de partager le même nom qu'un autre Guille/Guiché, lui aussi d'Argentine. Tout ça pour dire que j'aime bien ma nouvelle job et mes collègues.

Sunday Roast In the Pub

Two Sundays ago, after a friend informed me that we could walk to a country pub from our house, we did just that. We walked from our home, into the nearby woods and we walked to a country pub in a nearby village. It used to be one of our favourite pubs, before we became parents, but since then it had shut down, had new owners and we hadn't had the chance to go and eat there. Of course I had a Sunday roast. The first one I had in a long while. In fact, I can't remember the last time I ate one. It was long overdue. As you can see on this picture, I didn't stay hungry. And there is not many things as rewarding as talking a walk and then having a hearty meal in a country pub.

En avril...

 Voici une autre photo prise par mon père au début du mois d'avril. Chicoutimi et le Saguenay au printemps...

Future Train Travel

I took this picture last year at the National Railway Museum in York and I am putting it here because it goes with today's topic. So the family is going on a train journey soon(ish) to celebrate one of my wife's cousin's birthday. I'm very happy about it, not only because it's always nice to celebrate, but because we will travel by train. I haven't been on a train since February, therefore it is long overdue. For me, every train journey is always a bit of an adventure and often a bit of holiday in itself. So I am really looking forward to it.

Taureau hispanique

Parfois, voyager quelque part nous permet aussi de s'imaginer ailleurs. Ainsi donc, j'ai pris cette photo aux Roman Baths de York. Apparemment, la neuvième légion (est-ce que ça ne devrait pas s'écrire IX, d'ailleurs?) a déjà été en Espagne, ou plutôt en Hispanie. Moi je n'y ai jamais mis les pieds. Je sais que ce n'est pas une affiche authentique, mais j'aime bien l'image quand même, ça fait un peu exotique, même si les chiffres romains ne sont pas exacts. De l'Hispanie jusqu'à York, c'est un long voyage, en tout cas ce l'était à l'époque de l'Empire romain. 

"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.