The tea and milk heresy again

 I read yesterday this article in The Guardian from Emma Beddington (no idea who she is). It is titled: "I've been trying milk substitutes in my tea- it's a stomach-churning experience". You really don't need to read the article, the title gives you all you need to know about its content. And I have no difficulties believing that milk substitutes are an abomination' I tried almond milk before and I cannot believe I survived the ordeal. That said, normal cow's milk with tea is in my opinion is a stomach-churning experience. Milk in tea is barbaric. So my solution is simple: drink tea straight, like your whiskey. No milk, no sugar, no substitute. You don't need to thank me.

"Malva rose"

Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, avec comme titre de courriel "Malva rose". Je crois comprendre que c'est la sorte de fleur, mais je ne m'y connais pas en botanique.Tout de même, comme ce blogue doit prendre la couleur du temps de l'année, je partage aujourd'hui. Ah oui, c'est peut-être, sans doute, la dernière photo du mois de juin. Alors je profite pour poser la question: comment a été juin pour vous? Le mien a passé vite.

Railway Memorabilia

I don't know if it is because of the lockdown that is slowly fading away, or if it is because WOlfie will start school in September, but my wife has been talking a lot about holidays. I don't know where or when, and it will probably someplace new, but I secretly hope we can go with Wolfie to the National Railway Museum of York. Partially because he's a train lover, partially because his dad is too. Recently, I have been checking their online shop, checking what I'd like to buy during our next visit. ome items are costly, some less, but I love them all. I have a few from our first visit, including this guidebook, which needs to be updated. As you can see, it has been very much loved. I have it on my bedside table.

Des geais bleus

 Non, non, je ne veux pas dire que nous avons des geais bleus ici. Je ne crois pas qu'il y en ait en Angleterre. Mais on en trouve parfois au Québec, même s'ils sont rares. Cette photo a été prise par mon frère PJ en 2015 du temps qu'il restait à Gatineau et je l'ai piquée (avec sa permission) pour la partager ici, rien que parce qu'un geai bleu, c'est déjà rare, mais deux c'est encore plus rare. Ici, on n'a pas grand-chose, à part des pigeonset des merles.

First Sunday Roast

Yesterday, we went to the pub for the first time in a year and a half, to meet a friend of my wife and her boyfriend. After our first shot of vaccine and keeping our distance, I thought it was a reasonable, calculated risk. So we ate, for the first time since... since forever (I can't remember the last time we did, honestly), a Sunday roast. It was delicious, with plenty of chicken and gravy, but I am so not used to pub portions that I struggled to finsh it. I didn't have any dessert. But anyway, it was really nice to get back to the pub for a Sunday roast. I had really missed it.

L'arbre croche

 Des fois les choses les plus simples m'intéressent, pur peu qu'elles soient un peu étranges. Donc, hier, nous sortons au pub pour la première fois depuis un an et demi au moins. Je ne me rappelle plus quand c'est la dernière fois où nous sommes allés, mais enfin bref. Sur le terrain du pub, il y avait cet arbre, qui faisait comme monter par dessus la clôture. Je sais pas ce qui lui a fait prendre cet angle (s'il y a des experts ici, expliquez-moi), mais c'est assez saisissant. J'espère qu'ils ne le couperont pas.

Waiting for the storm (still)

 You may remember that about two weeks ago I was blogging about the forecast of thunderstorms. They didn't happen, or if they did it must have been during nighttime.  I am a bit disappointed, but at least it rained, enough so the temperature cooled down considerably. So far we are in a very bearable summer, rarely going above the lower twenties. I am relieved, as I hate scorching hot summers. That said, I miss a good old thunderstorm, the one thing I love about this season. They are forecasting some this coming week, but I will believe it when I see it.

Nouvelle gâtastrophe

Des fois j'aime essayer des choses, d'autres fois je fais quelque chose parce que j'ai promis à petit loup et qu'il insiste. Enfin bref, hier, il m'arappelé que je voulais faire un gâteau, alors j'ai fait un gâteau. Avec confiture de bleuets  au milieu, c'était mon idée de départ. Il a insisté pour que je rajoute du glaçage blanc. Trop, c'est souvent comme pas assez, le mieux est l'ennemi du bien et quand t'es fatigué, ben enfin bref, ça donne ça. Cela dit, il était très mangeable.

A diamond for cryptocurrency

Sometimes, just sometimes, I start thinking about diamonds. As I mentioned in this post from 2020, I think they make for great MacGuffins in crime fiction. Precious gemstones is one of these tropes that in my opinion never gets old. So yes, sometimesI think of diamonds and I then read about diamonds. So I thus recently learned that Sotheby's will accept for the first time cryptocurrency for the auction in Hong Kong of a 101.38-carat diamond that could be worth $15 millions. Now, I don't know much about cryptocurrency, but I don't really trust it. I read this and it was like Sotheby's is selling a $15 millions rock and they'll accept Monopoly money. Something of the romanticism attached to diamonds get lost. Nevertheless, I can imagine the potential for a solid crime story, especially given the volatile (in my view) aspect of cryptocurrency and the ever darker aspect of diamonds, the embodiment in stone of human greed and the cause of so many crimes and wars. It's easy to imagine something going wrong in that auction.

La coupe se rapproche des lèvres

Je sais, je sais, j'ai blogué cette même chanson il y a deux semaines. Mais comme le Canadien a éliminé les Golden Knights, je crois que ça mérite de partager à nouveau. Je ne veux pas vendre la peau de l'ours, mais ça me rappelle beaucoup 1993, quand Montréal avait affronté des équipes soi-disant plus talentueuses, mais trop sûres d'elles. La détermination, la discipline et l'acharnement, dans le sport comme dans le reste, ça ne garantie pas le succès, mais ça aide. Et puis sinon, il nous reste toujours cette chanson:

Everything is Communism

I found this meme recently online and I thought it was hilarious, so I had to share it on the blog. Have you noticed on social media and the internet that labelling of communism are quickly spouted at someone who disagree with right wing loudmouths? It is particularly true in the US, but it's not exclusive to it. The same can be said of accusations of fascism from leftists, but that is for another time. And for the record, I'm not particularly leftist, but that is spot on.

Fêtons avec le Vent du Nord

Mon père m'a conseillé de mettre un peu du Vent du Nord pour célébrer la Saint-Jean. On peut difficilement faire mieux pour pour faire très québécois, même si ici, ils sont en Écosse. Et puis il faut se rappeler aussi que le Québec a des racines celtiques.

Wolfie the "Quebeckan"

Today is Saint John the Baptist's Day, which is also the Fête nationale of us Quebeckers. I tried to explain this to Wolfie yesterday and I don't think he quite understood. I explained to him that tomorrow was going to be our celebration. I told him that daddy was a Québécois, and so was he, but not mummy (except when Quebeckers do well during the winter Olympics, but that is another story). He then told me: "When I grow up, I will be Quebeckan just like daddy." Which was quite cute and a new Wolfism. It's not much in terms of national identity, and it is very likely that he will identify first and foremost as an Englishman, but it's a start.

C'est notre tour

C'est le 24 juin, le jour de notre Fête Nationale et je commence à célébrer avec de la musique québécoise, il tombe sous le sens que je commence la journée avec notre hymne national. J'ai déjà utilisé cette version en 2018, mais ça demeure la meilleure. Aujourd'hui, je vais essayer de la faire écouter à Wolfie, pour lui faire découvrir ses racines québécoises. On verra comment ça se passera.

His name is Sésame

Well, I learn things every day, even about stuff I thought I knew everything I needed to know about. So anyway, I learned last month on the St-Viateur Bagel Shop's Facebook page that the mascotte of the business actually has a name: Sésame. He was created more than 40 years ago. For me, he is more Montrealer than Youppi. It is St John the Baptist's Day tomorrow, which is Québec's national day. I am not sure how I will celebrate it, but had I been in Montreal, I would have eaten bagels from St-Viateur. What I will do however, and maybe it is fitting, is wear the shirt I bought there, with Sésame on it. It is blue and white, like our flag, so it is fitting.

Les orchidées sauvages

Mon père, son frère qui est aussi le père d'Amy ma cousine l'artiste photographe sont allés se promener dans la forêt dimanche dernier. Ils ont trouvé des orchidées sauvages, oui ça existe et mon père peut les identifier. Il est cultivateur d'orchidées, voyez-vous. Vous trouverez d'ailleurs quelques photos d'orchidées sur ce blogue. Amy a pris des photos des orchidées, qui n'étaient pas encore en fleurs, malheureusement. Mais quand même, c'est joli de la verdure et je soupçonne qu'il n'y en a pas des masses, des orchidées en pleine nature, alors je partage.

Godot Logistics

I never played Samuel Beckett, but I did study him a bit at uni. He is one of those writersI wished I had studied more. Read this post from 2010 and that one from 2013 to know a little more about Beckett and me. But anyway, I saw this meme online recently and it really made me laugh. Of the works of Beckett, his most famous might be Waiting for Godot, which of course I studied, so yeah, I thought it was hilarious. I guess I'm easily pleased.

Vin d'Alsace et conversations françaises

Petite anecdote locale: nous avons un nouveau magasin, une petite épicerie fine qui vend des produits fins et aussi et surtout du vin. Le proprio est français, ce qui est encore mieux. Afin de faire ma part pour l'économie locale et pour parler un peu ma langue maternelle, j'y suis allé il y a une semaine. J'ai acheté deux ou trois trucs, dont ce vin d'Alsace, selon les recommandations du marchand. Je bois peu de vin et du vin blanc encore moins. Celui-ci était fort potable et désaltérant lorsqu'il faisait chaud. Je compte m'acheter plus de vin, pas parce que je me sens plus connaisseur, mais siplement pour pouvoir converser en français.

Highs and Lows of Summertime

Yesterday was the summer solstice, according to some sources. But I read other sources, including the Wikipedia entry, saying it is today. Good, because I pretty much missed it yesterday, being Father's Day and all. But in fact, it feels like summer missed solstice this year: after a week or so of hot weather, temperatures dropped dramatically and last weekend I had to wear long sleeves shirt to be warm enough. It is still the case today, as they are forecasting the highest teperatures to be 14 degrees. In June. On the day of the solstice. Because it has been mostly cloudy these last few days, the days don't feel like the longest of the year. So summer might be passing smoothly, at least for a while, which I can't complain about. I prefer low to high temperatures and I love when the sun goes down earlier rather than later.

Portrait pour la fête des Pères

C'était hier la fête des Pères, que j'ai eu le temps de célébrer, mais que je n'ai pas eu le temps de souligner sur ce blogue. Cette année est une première: nous sommes trois pères du côté de ma famille et c'est la première fête des Pères de mon frère Andrew. J'ai donc appelé mon père et mon frère. C'est encore un peu surréaliste pour moi de recevoir des souhaits le jour de la fête des Pères. Wolfie m'a offert quelques cadeaux, dont ce portrait, qui est je dois dire assez ressemblant, avec les cheveux en bataille et surtout la barbe de quelques jours. J'étais très touché.

Independent Bookshop Week

Since yesterday, it is Independent Bookshop Week. I celebrated by going to the local bookshop, which is of course an independent one, and I bought a few books. Not that many, I behaved myself (mostly). And I got lots of goodies: a £5.00 voucher as I am a regular client, a £5.00 book token for the occasion and a free bag. What I like about Independent Bookshop Week is that I help a local business by truly treating myself, then I get some freebies on top of that.

Un gâteau pour la Saint-Jean?

J'ai fait ce gâteau il y a quelques semaines, avec les restes que j'avais (dont très peu de sucre à glacer). Wolfie veut que j'en fasse un nouveau pour la semaine qui vient et ça m'est venu à l'esprit: pourquoi ne pas faire un gâteau pour la Saint-Jean? Un gâteau au glaçage bleu, avec entre les deux de la confiture de bleuet, ou autre chose de bleu? J'imagine qu'il nous faudrait un peu de blanc, peut-être des fleur de lis blancs dans le glaçage? Dans tous les cas, je crois que je peux facilement développer l'amour du Québec et le patriotisme de petit loup par son estomac et sa dent sucrée.

When we read cereal boxes

 I found out not long ago this meme, which I thought was both funny and interesting.  I might sound like a grumpy old man and like a terrible nostalgic. I am not certain I am the former, being sitll in my early forties, but I am certainly the latter. And I am happy with that. I used to love to read the back of cereal boxes when I was a child, sometimes the literary content was better than the food content.

Omble (le poisson)

Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo. J'ai cru un instant que c'était du saumon, mais non, c'est une omble de l'artique. Jamais mangé, enfin je ne crois pas, et c'est pas la première fois que mon père m'envoie une photo de l'omble. Le reste, c'est de la salade à la crème de La Baie, avec patates et poivre d'érable. Morale de l'histoire: je veux vraiment manger du poisson ces temps-ci.

The voice of a Bond girl

I got this image from the official Facebook page of Ian Fleming. I share it here because I quite liked the novel The Spy Who Loved Me, more than the movie of the same title if I must be honest. I know Ian Fleming disowned the novel, but there is a lot to love in it. It may be an atypical Bond novel, ut it is an interesting hybrid of a crime story with a coming of age one, where the Bond girl, Vivienne Michel, is the actual main character and narrator. So this is truly the story of a Bond girl, seen through her eyes, in her own voice. And she is a fellow Québécoise, no less.

"Si j'avais les ailes d'un ange..."

Si j'avais les ailes d'un ange, je partirais pour Québec pour le 24. En fait, ce serait sans doute plus Montréal, voire même Chicoutimi. Enfin bref, parce que ce sera la Saint-Jean bientôt, je partage un classique de Robert Charlebois, je vous laisse deviner lequel...

A Sockwork Orange

As you know, I am since my teenage (and maybe before) a big fan of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and the movie it inspired. So I got quite excited when I learned of the existence of these socks, featuring one of the classic book covers of the novel. I find them real horrorshow. Burgess allegedly hated this cover, because it was directly inspired by the film and he wanted his novel to stand on its own. Be that as it may, I really want these socks now.

Les 'tites bières d'été

 Je ne suis en général pas amateur de blondes. Je parle bien entendu des bières. Cela dit, parfois, je vais me commettre à boire de la bière blonde, ou bien par curiosité (parce que j'aime essayer de nouvelles bières) ou bien parce qu'il fait chaud. Les blondes, je les bois donc surtout en été. Mais j'essaie quand même d'en trouver des pas trop insipides. Celle-ci, je l'ai trouvée à Marks and Spencer. En cannette, trois pour 5£, un assez bon rapport qualité-prix. C'est vraiment une bière d'été,une bière en cannette en plus. C'est encore plus rare que je boive des bières en cannette. C'est dire qu'il faisait chaud quand j'ai bu celle-là.

What to Look for in Summer

 Last weekend, I went to the local bookshop and I mostly behaved. I only bought four books and they were all for Wolfie: the four seasons Ladybird Books which I mentioned in this January post. I thought I might as well buy him something educational. So this month and the next two, we will be reading and consulting What to Look for in Summer. I love reading with my son, it's a nice moment and he is very interested about this book, asking lots of questions about both texts and images.

Tissé serré

C'est la Saint-Jean dans un peu plus d'une semaine et je me prépare très peu ces temps-ci. Est-ce l'effet d'être un expatrié? Peut-être un peu. Mais je veux quand même célébrer,même si c'est pas toujours facile, d'autant plus que j'ai un fils qui est à demi québécois et qu'il faudrait bien entendu le lui rappeler de temps en temps (dautant qu'il n'est qu'au quart anglais, mais c'est une aure histoire). J'ai donc jeté un oeil sur le site officiel de la Fête nationale et j'ai vu quele thème cette année c'est "Vive le Québec Tissé serré". Avec la pandémie, je crois que c'est une belle façon de rappeler nos liens de solidarité, mais pour l'expatrié que je suis tentant de donner à son fils un fond bleu québécois, ç me rejoint aussi beaucoup.

Thunderstorms

We've had a few hot days recently, a few weeks of hot days in fact and I am already getting fed up with summertime. I don't like the season, especially not when it gets hot like this. However, soon I will hopefully be happy as they are forecasting storms for the next few days. Not only this should cool down temperature, but if there is one thing I love about summer it's a summer storm. The weather warning issue for thunderstorms is in place for the next four days, so that should be interesting.

Pâtes au Pesto

Petit billet gastronomique rapide: le Chef Michel Dumas a aujourd'hui fait une vidéo sur comment faire des pâtes au pesto. Or, c'est le repas préféré de mon fils de quatre ans. Je dirais même qu'il fut un temps où il ne mangeait que ça ou à peu près. J'ai donc regardé ça avec Wolfie, qui était bien sûr fasciné.

Dry Well

I was walking a few days ago when I saw this well, or this imitation of a well (I don't know if it ever was a true well of course, but it looks like one anyway). I thought it looked striking, in the front of a house, on a hot and dry day, filled with weeds. I find wells mysterious and fascinating, even a bit scary sometimes, see this post from 2009 for more details. So anyway, I wanted to share this picture because I thought it looked quite nice.

La couverture familiale

J'ai aciethé il y a quelques semaines une nouvelle couverture pour nos pique-niques. Nous en avions déjà une mais 1)elle était vraiment vieille, 2)celle-ci était cheap et vendue à rabais et 3)ma femme aime vraiment beaucoup les cerises. C'est une raison comme une autre. Nous n'avons pas encore pique-niqué dessus, mais nous l'avons déjà utilisée. Enfin, je devrais dire: petit loup l'a utilisée comme aire de jeu, en mettant ses jouets dessus. Je soupçonne que ça sera so nutilité principale et qu'on ne pique-niquera pas très souvent dessus.

How to bluff your way about football

This weekend, we went to a car dealershipbecause my wife needs to buy a new car. The salesman was chic chatting with us, asked me what line of work I was in and he got very impressed when I told him. Without giving any details, it is true that the title and the industry I am in sounds quite impressive. So I could see he was impressed and at some point the conversation switched to football, because it is Euro 2021. I know nothing about football and care even less. But I started talking to the guy as if I knew something about it, saying in an assertive tone that the English team needs to stay focused and disciplined and they should do fine, that I think the French team has the best chances to win, and so on and so forth. It is the tone that matters, and the fact that I talked without hesitation. And maybe, the idea he had that I was a man with a big title and a big job. The salesman was literally drinking my words as if I was a football expert. That was quite funny.

Notre nouveau potager

Ma belle-mère nous a offert il y a quelques jours ces plantes pour notre jardin. Je crois que c'est pour nous forcer à nous en occuper plus et mieux. Il y a un plant de tomates, un plant de courgettes, des plants d'autres choses, je ne sais plus quoi. Je suis étonné, car elle connaît mes très piètres talents de jardinier. Qu'à cela ne tienne, nous avons maintenant de quoi faire un modeste potager.

Whatever happened to Bass?

 This is a sort of nostalgia post, about one of the first English beers I discovered and enjoyed. I can't remember when exactly I started drinking Bass, but it was when I was around 18. Don't know why, maybe because of its very recognizable red triangle (the first trademark registered in the UK), maybe because I was already an Anglophile, but it quickly became my go-to foreign beer when I was in the mood for something else than local products. And, I am ashamed to admit it, I ended up drinking more than many local products. There was a bar in Montreal, the first regular drinking place I wen to there, that served Bass in draught and in pints. It became my favourite bar partially because of Bass. So I was surprised, when I first arrived in the UK to study, back in 1999, to find it nowhere in pubs and students common rooms. When I asked why I could not find what I thought was the most common beer England, I was told by a barman at uni "it's a good beer, but bad suppliers", or something of the sort. Apparently, the company had proven difficult to work a good deal with the various authorities managing the drinking places in campus. And their bottles were nowhere to be seen in supermarkets. That was not a problem: it's not like this country is short of good beers. But I was very surprised to find a bottle once, back in February 2020, when we went grocery shopping. So I bought it, out of curiosity and drank it the very same night. And it was... OK. I think my tasteshave evolved since then, because I thought the beer both looked paler and taste blander than how I remembered it. Now I know the brewery has been sold to a major brewer a couple of years ago, maybe they don't follow the original recipe, but I suspect it's the explosion of microbreweries that got the better of it. And I am kind of sad that I don't feel this connection with it anymore.

Première chauve-souris

Hier soir, j'ai vu ma première chauve-souris. J'étais sorti quelques minutes dans le jardin alors que le soir tombait pour ranger toutes les bébelles que petit loup avait sorties durant la journée et je l'ai vu voler un instant au dessus de ma tête. J'aime bien avoir des chauves-souris dans le voisinage, je ne sais pas trop pourquoi.

The "Amoral Afrikaner"

Sometimes, I spend far too much time on TV Tropes, either looking for something specific, or just browsing. So anyway, yesterday I stumble upon the entry on the Amoral Afrikaner, which I found quite interesting. I have developed a certain fascination for South Africa, became my father-in-law is from there and because I love the crime novels of Deon Meyer. Meyer's novels are actually full of amoral Afrikaners, often badguys, sometimes good guys, so I am familiar with that trope and really like it. There is just something about cynical, amoral villains, or antiheros who are almost entirely self-interested. I was also happy, but not surprised, to see that Meyer's novel Blood Safari was mentioned in the Literature section as an example of this trope. I wish there was a Northern equivalent of this trope, maybe I could use it in my own writing.

Mon filleul veut voyager

J'ai appris une nouvelle de la mère de mon filleul récemment: il ramasse de l'argent pour faire un voyage d'un an après son cégep. Il veut aller en... Chine. J'espérais un peu qu'il vienne ici, même si on ne peut pas vraiment l'héberger, en tout cas pas pour longtemps. Dans tous les cas, ça m'a fait un choc de voir qu'il grandit et qu'il a des idées de voyage. Il est très sérieux et discipliné dans sa démarche, paraît-il.

Did I find my editor?

As you might remember, I am working on a crime fiction novel (or novella). Well, I have written the whole story, but it is short of a novel and some things need to be developed and clarified. I can say that I have written my first draft. I have decided to push things forward and go to the next, so I can hope some day to be published. So I got in touch with an acquaintance of my wife, an American living here, who is also a professional editor. We had discussed about my stories in the past and she seemed interested about it. Anyway, long story short, I sent her the draft for a quote, she gave me one which is pretty much what I was ready to pay and gave me some helpful and more encouragingly very positive feedbacks. I think I will accept her offer, after working a bit on the story with the comments I received from her. So yes, I might have found my editor and I am quite happy.

L'anniversaire du SagLac

Petit rappel aujourd'hui aux Bleuets comme moi, expatriés ou non: aujourd'hui, 11 juin, c'est l'anniversaire de la fondation de la région du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. J'ai essayé de l'expliquer à petit loup, à ma surprise il a tout compris d'un coup.

Whole Earth Organic Cola

I knew about Whole Earth, particularly their peanut butter range. It's an ethical food company that produces organic and eco-friendly products. I discovered at the local artisan grocery shop that Whole Earth also sells drinks. I bought their organic cola out of curiosity and also because I kind of like fizzy drinks in general and colas in particular. I was pleasantly surprised. It does not taste as sugary as a Coke or a Pepsi, but it's very drinkable (maybe because it is not sickeningly sweet), if a bit costly for what it is. I think I might actually make it my go-to soft drink.

Le rhume des foins

Photo prise en 2008 en Bretagne, je sais pas pourquoi je l'ai prise, mais elle va bien illustrer le thème de ce billet. Toujours est-il que c'est l'été ici, ce qui veut dire pour ma femme le rhume des foins. J'y suis sujet, dans une bien moindre mesure. Quand je dis que je n'aime pas beaucoup l'été, ben c'est une des choses qui rend la saison moins agréable à mes yeux (ou à mon nez).

The Green Man of Henley

My wife and Wolfie recently went to Wallingford to meet her parents and she sent me this picture from their time there. And now I love Wallingford a bit more and I really envy them for being able to go there. You can all recognize I hope the Green Man, the legendary creature associated with vegetations and fertility and so on. Just above a public bench somewhere. Now I want to see him myself and I want to see if there are other ones of his kind in Wallingford or nearby.

Erratum: I made a mistake, the Green Man was not in Wallingford but in Henley-on-Thames. Boy that is embarrassing. But hey, Henley is an okay place too.

Pommetier: un pronostic

J'ai blogué le mois dernier à propos des pétales du pommetier familial, qui étaient tombées comme de la neige ou de la grêle sur le sol. Mon père m'a déjà dit que le pommetier que l'on a est un arbre biannuel, donc il donne des fruits une fois tous les deux ans. C'est du moins le cas en principe, je crois qu'il en a souvent donné plus souvent que ça. Dans tous les cas, il m'est venuen tête un pronostic: cette année, à en juger par le nombre de pétales, la récolte de pommettes sera importante. Je ne sais pas s ceci est garant de cela, mais j'en fais le pari. Même si je ne peux pas en profiter, j'espère avoir raison.

TikTok Pasta

You may have heard about the pasta recipe that got viral on TikTok. Grosso modo, you put a block of feta in the middle of a dish, surrounded with cherry tomatoes, olive oil and other stuff, you bake it, then in the same time you boil pasta, then finally after about ten minutes you mash cheese and tomatoes and pour the pasta in. Well, we made it recently for the second time. I don't really follow trends, but this one got me at feta cheese.

Le CH et mon état d'esprit

Bon ben je voulais souligner que le Canadien a éliminé les Jets, fa' que...

Bittersweet anniversary

 I am not sure if I shiuld be celebrating or not, but today I have an anniversary of sort: a year ago, I was having the e-meeting that confirmed that I was made redundant due to the pandemic. But as I hated that job and everything about it, that came off as a relief. One year later, it feels like it's the best thing that could have happened to me. I quickly got another job, then last month I was hired for a new role in a brand new company, in a much better position, for a much better salary and with a better team. It is still early to tell if I will be as happy in my new rol as I have been in others in the past, but one thing is certain: I am far better this year than I was same time last year. I explained my new fortune like this to my parents: "Last year, I was working in a lemonade stand, this year I work in a five stars restaurant." That sums it up perfectly and this deserves to be a new great unknown line. So yes, while I still feel bitter for the three years in professional Hell that I spent working for and with petty backstabbing bastards, last year's e-meeting was truly a liberation.

Le mois de la Saint-Jean

 Il y a une chose que je n'ai pas beaucoup mentionné jusqu'ici, mais que je prépare un peu. Je veux bien entendu parler de notre Fête nationale, communément appelée Saint-Jean-Baptiste, ou plus familièrement Saint-Jean. La quinzième (!) d'affilée que je célèbre en expatrié. Je ne m'y habitue pas et j'ai toujours un sentiment d'étrangeté lorsqu'arrive le 24 juin, le sentiment d'être en décalage à la fois entre mon peuple et entre mon pays d'adoption.

The Dinosaur Chair

Our old Mountain Warehouse garden chairs are all falling apart, so we have been looking for new ones, both for my wife and I and Wolfie. I went last weekend to Mountain Warehouse and found this one, which I thought looked very cool. I took a picture and showed it to Wolfie, just to make sure he'd like it and would not be scared.Like his dad, he thinks that a dinosaur on a chair is very cool. So I just might purchase it next weekend for him, although my wife is far less ethusiastic about it.

Le CH et moi

 Bon, je ne sais pas ce qui me prend, mais depuis que les Canadiens de Montréal ont éliminé les Leafs, je me suis remis à suivre le hockey, enfin un peu. Chose que je n'avais pas fait depuis... 1993. Je ne regarde pas les matchs et je ne connais même plus le nom des joueurs, mais je m'intéresse à ce qui se passe et je recommence à m'enthousiasmer comme le fan que j'ai déjà été et que je n'ai jamais vraiment cessé d'être j'imagine. Ce qui étonne beaucoup ma femme. Mais enfin bref, je tente de partager mon enthousiasme du CH avec mon fils. C'est une tradition familiale du côté de ma mère que j'espère bien continuer de ce côté-ci de l'Atlantique.

Finding thrillers

There is something I love to do when I go to a bookshop, any bookshop, it is to find at random a book to read I knew nothing about. Amazon gives me very accurate suggestions, but it is a bit creepy and it lacks the spontaneity of the bookshop experience, when I know I truly buy it of my own free will. So anyway, on my last visit to the local bookshop I discovered This is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield. No idea if it is a good or a bad thriller, I don't know the author, I know very little about the book except that it is a modern techno thriller, not a genre I particularly like, but the cover got me curious. I don't know when I will read it either, probably later in the year during Noirvember, or even next year. But it's just nice to find a book at random like that.

Calmar de sable

 Je reblogue une nouvelle vieille photo prise en Bretagne en août 2008, rien que parce que. Si vous lisez ce blogue souvent, vous connaissez ma fascination pour les créatures marines monstrueuses, vraies ou fausses. Je ne rappelle pas où cette photo a été prise, mais ce calmar géant de sable est vraiment bien fait. Il m'a beaucoup impressionné en tout cas.

A pint of milk and a shot of bourbon

I have recently watched action/crime thriller The Big Ugly. It is not a great film, maybe not even a good one and certainly not a very original one, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Probably more than it deserves. There are many reasons for this, each one of them worth a blog post, but let's start with one for today: the anti-hero protagonists grows fond of a rather unique drink: a pint of milk with a shot of bourbon in it.  He calls it "a pint of a milk and a shot of bourbon". There are probably more sophisticated cocktails, but I find it very cool and very badass.Milk is never a good sign in fiction, see my old post about barbaric milk. Even spiked with a shot of bourbon. Not sure if I'd dare to try it myself, but be warned if you see someone ordering that in a bar: he's up to no good.

Le chat perché sur le mur

Je suis tombé par hasard hier sur de vieilles photos datant de 2008, lors de nos premiers séjours en Bretagne. Du temps que mes beaux-parents y restaient. C'est bien, ça me fera des sujets pour ce blogue. Il y a plusieurs de ces photos dont je me rappelle peu ou pas du contexte, dont celle-ci. Une statue de chat sur un mur. Je ne crois pas que ce soit le seul que j'aie vu, mais je ne sais plus où j'ai pris la photo. Je l'ai peut-être déjà partagée ici, mais je ne crois pas. Dans tous les cas, comme c'est une image assez originale, la voici (à nouveau?).

Reading outside again

Well, it is nothing that special and I know I have often blogged about it before, but I thought I would mention it again: recently I have startd reading outside again. Like I said, it is nothing special and maybe it does not even deserve a blog post, except for the fact that I can't remember the last time I have read outside before that time last week. I can read outside almost all year long, we have quite a nice garden for it, not a big one, so there isn't much to do but gardening and reading. And since I am a terrible gardener... No, but more seriously, I noticed last time that I managed to properly binge read. That is also something I hadn't done in ages. I hope this becomes an habit.

Question existentielle (370)

 Nouvelle question existentielle, parce que c'est l'été,du moins en théorie. (Et anecdote ça fait plus d'un mois que je n'ai pas posé de questions existentielles, il fallait que je recommence.). Alors donc, sans plus tarder, la question:

-Quelle est la meilleure chanson de l'été de tous les temps?

Cerberus (myths and etymology)

I hope this does not come off as geeky, but I am a big fan of Greek mythology. I found this meme recently on the internet and I thought it was so good that I had to share it, even though I am not sure about its accuracy. Anyway, it is about Cerberus, the hound of Hades (I need to blog about the Greek God of Death one day, by the way) and the watchdog of his kingdom. Anyway, whether it's true or not, mythology is certainly not boring.

Les oeufs bleus ou verts?

 Mon père m'a envoyé une photo d'oeufs bleus, ceux de la poulette blanche de mon billet du 12 mai. Je partae la photo ici parce qu'ils ont une couleur particulière, bleu ou vert. Je les voyais bleus au départ, maintenant que je tape ces lignes sur mon écran d'ordi, ils semblent plus verts. Dites-moi ce que vous en pensez.

Casino Royale in June

They shared this image on the official Facebook page of Ian Fleming, I wanted to share it here because I love to quote Fleming's prose from time to time. Also because both the novel Casino Royale and the movie adaptation are among my favourite Bond stories. And also and finally because the novel has some great covers and I am sharing a lot of them in one go with this image. Tell me which one you prefer.

"Gros nenours"

 Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, prise d'une des caméras sur le lot de mes oncles. L'email avait comme titre: "gros nenours". Je crois que c'était vraiment adressé à son petits fils. Quand même, c'est impressionnant.

About missing pieces

 Wolfie gave me another Wolfism recently, when he was looking for a missing piece in one of his many train sets: "What I really don't like about this missing piece, is that it's missing". He sounded deadpan serious when he said that and it was both comical and very, very sweet. It is still missing as I am typing this, but I reckon it will show up again, probably when he lost interest in looking for it.

Une observation sur le mois de juin

Je n'ai pas oublié que nous sommes le mois de juin, mais je ne savais pas trop comment souligner son arrivée hier, sans dire des banalités du genre "bon, on change de mois et c'est l'été", alors j'ai décidé de bloguer sur un autre sujet. L'inspiration m'est venue plus tard. En fait, j'ai pensé à une chose: juin est pour moi ce que décembre est pour d'autres. Des gens aiment décembre et l'hiver tant que Noël arrive. À cause des couleurs, de l'atmosphère, des célébrations, etc. Mais ils détestent la saison autrement. C'est la même chose pour moi et le mois de juin etl'été: je l'aime pour la Fête nationale. Une fois les réjouissances terminées (et ici le 24 juin est une journée comme une autre), j'ai hâte que l'été finisse.

"The Train Beer"

It has been much warmer recently, so I have started drinking more blonde beers. I do try to go for the blonde ales though, not lagers. So I recently drank Cambridgeshire Golden Ale which is sold at Marks and Spencer. I don't judge a beer by its label, but yes, that it had a train on it did play a role in me choosing it among other blondes. Wolfie calls it "the train beer". So since then, I call it the Train Beer. My son seems fascinated by its label, if not the beer itself. He is like me really into trains. His mum told me that he will probably end up liking beer when he grows up.

Encore les fraises

J'ai blogué il y a peu sur les fraises, je récidive parce que c'est le temps des fraises qui commence. Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, avec les informations suivantes sur le dessert:  "Fraises du Québec crème de la laiterie La baie et sérip d'érable avec sucre d'érable." Dessert typiquement québécois, donc... Enfin bref, vous avez maintenant la recette, si vous voulez essayer.