A Christmas Village

As I already mentioned in my previous post in French, ysterday, my family and I went to meet my wife's family for a day out in the model village of Beakonscot, which is in Beaconsfield. The village was adapted for the season and they added lots of Christmas elements to it. I want to blog about each and everyone of them, but right now I just wanted to share this picture. A perfect Christmas village, with snow and trees and people being festive. Walking there made me feel quite nostalgic, in a good way.

Le train de Noël

Hier, nous sommes allés en famille rencontrer la famille de ma femme (ses parents, sa soeur, le chum de sa soeur, leur fils donc le cousin de petit loup) à Beakonscot, un village miniature avec chemin de fer et trains électriques. Ils avaient adapté le lieu pour les Fêtes, avec enre autres un train de Noël qui transportait le Père Noël et ses rennes. Il a fait une forte impression sur petit loup. Et sur son père aussi. C'est pas le train de grand-papa, mais c'est impressionnant quand même. On l'a suivi tout letemps qu'on était là.

What movie is this from?

I blogged before about the Flying Bean Café at the Beaconsfield train station. I loved right away this small quirky place, and one aspect of it I really love is the way they offer to give tip: by putting it in a cup that is an answer to a trivial question of culture. So as you can see on the picture, they asked what movie was the following quote: "A boy's best friend is his mother." The two choices were Forrest Gump (which I always loathed) and Psycho (classic thriller which I love so much that I actually read the novel, see this post here for details). The problem is that I had not watched either movie in a while and while I thought this sounded like Norman Bates and very, very familiar... it could be in a different context given to Gump and I could thus just be wrong and my memory was playing tricks on me. I placed my bet in the Psycho cup, only because it's my favourite movie of the two. Which one do you think it is from? And don't look down, that would be cheating.

Well, it turned out I was right! My memory and my gut feeling had not betrayed me. So it was Psycho all along. And now I am really looking forward to go back to the Flying Bean Café in Beaconsfield (or elsewhere?) to test my knowledge again. Until then, tell me if you got it right (or not) in the comments.

A miniature railway to see

I took this picture in York, at the National Railway Museum, maybe my favourite museum in the world. I cannot wait to get back there with my son (which is not exactly something that pleases my wife, she does not share our enthusiasm for everything train related). Well, it turns out that until we go back to York, we can still enjoy a similar place in Beaconsfield, which is much nearer. They have a place called Bekonscot, which is a model village with a miniature railway. Just the kind of thing that we can all enjoy as a family for a day out. I will of course keep you posted of any developments and our future visit(s).

The Flying Bean Café

I recently blogged about the Flying Bean Café in the Beaconsfield train station, where we bought a coffee for my wife, a cuppa tea for me and some stuff to nibble. The essentials for train travels. I had not been in a café of that chain before, or at least I had never noticed it. I don't know how big the chain is, but I found or short experience at the train station very pleasant. It was a small place, a narrow counter in a small room. But the staff was nice and friendly, young a bit quirky and definitely hippy. And smiling. It's rare to find smiling people working in a coffee shop with genuine smiles on their face, genuinely warm to their customers, especially in a train station coffee shop. People that love their job. Anyway, I don't know if they are all like this, but it will be on our stop for our next trip from Beaconsfield train station.

Tea on the train

To go to London on Friday, we took the train in Beaconsfield. It was the quickest route for us. One of the little pleasures I have when I travel by rail is to buy a a cup of tea in one of the station's cafés and sip it waiting for the train to come, then on the journey. The Beaconsfield railway station has only The Flying Bean Café to buy food, drinks and newspaper, but it's a lovely place, with friendly and quirky staff. I will blog about the place in the future. Suffice to say now that this is where I bought my wife a coffee and bought myself a cuppa of Assam, as I needed something strong to keep me alert. Waiting for the train, it struck us that holding mugs of hot beverages and a pushchair might not be the wisest thing to do, when we'd have to get on the train. Thankfully the step was not very steep so we got on without any issue. Wolfie got a bit scared of the trains that were going through the station at high speed without stopping, but otherwise he was not difficult. Nevertheless, this new experience of our life as parents taught us that for now on, we will buy the hot drinks on the train, not the station, unless we have a lot of time to wait. I shall still enjoy tea on the train.

A swarm of motorbikes

There are strange things that happen sometimes. Two days ago, driving back from Beaconsfield in the evening, we had to wait at an intersection for ages: there were motorbikes going across. Not easy riders but some of these Japanese types motorbikes made for speed. They were rolling like hornets, one after the other, way faster than they should on such road. The driver behind us got impatient, but there was no opening for a few minutes. Later on, another motorbike took us over and we saw yet another near home. I really wonder what it was, where they were going and why were they so many.

Le brunch du dimanche

Petit billet matiné  de food porn pour commencer la journée. J'ai pris cette photo dans un café à Beaconsfield il y a un peu moins d'un an. Des oeufs pochés tout mollets avec saumon fumé et sauce hollandaise. C'était bon pas rien qu'un peu. J'y ai songé quand j'ai appris dimanche dernier que mon frère Andrew brunchait avec sa copine dans un restaurant de Québec et je me suis dit que c'était une excellente idée. Je n'aime guère le dimanche et je cherche à rendre la journée la plus joyeuse possible pour terminer la fin de semaine en beauté. Or, un brunch c'est une excellente façon de se mettre de bonne humeur et de se sustenter. Je ne sais pas de quoi avait l'air le brunch de mon plus jeune frère, mais quand j'étais plus jeune, nos brunchs étaient plus souvent qu'autrement des gros déjeuners pris sur le tard, dans des restaurants ou des cafés ou des retrouvailles de la famille élargie, parfois des réunions d'amis (enfin, d'amis de mes parents). C'était une belle façon de maintenir contact. Je me rappelle surtout de ceux au Manoir du Saguenay, sur lequel j'ai blogué ici. Le Manoir du Saguenay n'a/n'avait rien à envier à Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, mais manger des oeufs mollets avec sauce hollandaise et saumon fumé, c'est pas mal sophistiqué. On devrait bruncher plus souvent le dimanche. Ça devrait faire partie de nos rituels, dans les familles comme dans les cercles d'amis.

49% of your daily sugar intake

Today, my wife and I went to see a friend of hers in Beaconsfield. We went into a South African café which name right now escapes me. Among the various drinks on the menu, there was the Grape Fanta, which apparently is rare to find here in the UK, but very popular in South Africa. Out of curiosity, I ordered one. I am not sure I should have had: checking on the can, I saw it has 49% or your daily allowance of sugar. 49%. Half of the maximum you should take for the day. And the taste, you might ask? As the waiter said, "it tastes very blue". You can't be more accurate than, so much so in fact that it is a new great unknown line. Otherwise, I should really think twice about what I order.