Spy Meeting at the Compleat Angler

 Today marks a special kind of anniversary, which I mention it every year as a sort of tradition. January is kind of an uneventful month, so this is a good excuse as any to give it a bit of atmosphere and mystery. Anyway, he following quote is from a letter you can read in John Le Carré's Call for the Dead and is addressed to George Smiley. It is dated on the 3rd of January:

"Dear George, 

    It is essential that I lunch with you tomorrow at The Compleat Angler at Marlow. Please do your best to meet me there at one o'clock. There is something I have to tell you.

Yours,

Samuel Fennan" 

I have been a few times to The Compleat Angler in the past, as we live fairly close to Marlow. I don't think I can be there tomorrow, but I so wish to make a pilgrimage of sorts there on that very date, at one o'clock sharp. I'm sure nobody else would think of doing this. But maybe, just maybe, there might be spies around.

Feu de foyer

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos du feu de foyer qu'ils ont fait le Jour de l'An. Une belle manière de commencer l'année.

Greenwich

 I recently made an observation about the new year. In fact, it is an observation I keep making every time we celebrate it in the UK, which is now pretty much my reality: living in England, we enter the new year at the same time as the Greenwich meridian. Which is of course historically THE standard prime time, THE staple to calculate time, so to speak. In a way, England is the center of the world when it comes to count time. It is purely anecdotal, but it always comes to my mind round the new year.

Casse-tête des Fêtes

Bon, petit billet pour simplement dire que mes parents ont terminé le casse-tête de Noël. C'est une nouvelle tradition familiale, ils en font un à chaque année. Celui-ci était paraît-il très difficile.

Bookshop(s) this January

 This imae is from Books Are My Bag. I share it here for two reasons: 1)I find it very cute, with the cat and all. And 2)I want people to remember to bookshop this January. In local bookshops. Make it one of your new year's resolutions. Oh, and another resolution of mine: I must read more books this year.

Nouvelle Galette des Rois

 Photo prise sur la page Facebook de Première Moisson. Une annonce en ce qui concerne les Rois, justement, qui va mettre fin officiellement aux Fêtes: Pemière Moisson a une galette framboises-pistaches. Si le coeur vous en dit...

For Auld Lang Syne...

Happy New year everyone! I am starting it with u Auld Lang Syne, as it is a tradition here in the UK and elsewhere.

Mafalda et la nouvelle année (siempre!)

Tout d'abord, bonne année à tous les lecteurs et toutes mes lectrices! Ensuite, afin de commencer l'année du bon pied, je partage un gag pris de la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda il y a quelques jours. Mafalda a souvent des pensées pertinentes pour le nouvel an, celle-ci est sans doute ma préférée. Et j'avoue que j'ai peu d'espoir pour 2025 en ce qui concerne la bonté des gens.