Fête du Travail (en France)

Un détail que j'avais presque oublié pour aujourd'hui, mais que mon employeur m'a rappelé hier: c'est la Fête du Travail en France. Ce qui veut dire que c'est un congé férié, ce qui veut dire que j'ai été en congé, même si ce n'est pas un congé férié ici. J'ai donc une fin de smeaine de quatre jours, puisque le premier lundi de mai est un lundi de congé en Angleterre. Comme je suis à contrat et à temps partiel, le congé d'aujourd'hui ne fait pas vraiment mon affaire: je ne suis pas payé pour les jours de congé. Mais bon, on ne boudera pas son plaisir, ça fait une longue fin de semaine et ça fait plaisir d'être en congé un vendredi. Et puis, c'est pas comme si je suis au chômage.

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.

Second Friday the 13th

For those among you who are superstitious, I am offering my commiseration as I have to remind you that we are Friday the 13th of March. And, to make matters worse, we are the second Friday of the year already. And, to make it even worse, 2026 has three Friday the 13th. For those among you suffering from triskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia, or both (I guess it's always both when you have such phobia), well, this is not your year. But on the plus side, after today, there will be only one Friday the 13th to go. For me, any Friday the 13th is just like any other Friday. I love when evening comes, and it is pretty much the weekend, however, it's a day out at the madhouse, whatever the date Friday falls on.

Friday the 13th: a Doomsday Memory

So, as you probably have noticed, today is Friday the 13th. We have three this year, so the superstitious among you better brace themselves: it's going to be a heavy year. I never was superstitious, except maybe when I was a child, and then it was more for fun than anything else. I always had a certain shiver of fear, of playful uncertainty, when it was Friday the 13th. When we were walking back from school, we sometimes walked along the way with a fellow pupil, not a friend but a friend of a friend. He had a wild imagination and had invented a sort of Doomsday calendar for Friday the 13th. He used to say that this particular day was Zombie Day, or Axe Wielding Maniacs Day, or some such things. He started saying whatever horror Apocalyptic things was meant to happen on this specific Friday the 13th we were on. Then he carried on for the rest of the week. It might have sounded scary, but I found it entertaining in its sinister way. So yeah, this is my most vivid childhood memory of Friday the 13th. What is yours?

Question existentielle (401)

 Nous sommes le vendredi 13, j'ai donc une question existentielle sur le sujet:

-Avez-vous des souvenirs spécifiques liés au Vendredi 13? 

Moi j'en ai, voir le billet suivant. 

Friday the 13th of June

Let's just state the obvious: today is Friday the 13th. The very first this year and the only one too. Not that it matters: I am not superstitious, for one, and second, I know from experience that sometimes every Friday is Friday the 13th, in a way, when things go bad. I used to call Friday "the day out at the madhouse". But I digress. Yesterday was truly more Friday the thirteenesque: we lost the internet connection in the neighbourhood for a few hours. I am not saying things cannot go bad today, of course not (I am not jixing anything), but let's face it: a bad day is a bad day is a bad day, whatever the date. Worrying about what may happen is pointless. If a bad day happens, you need to cope with it then and there. So anyway, to all of you, I hope you have a good day today.

Question existentielle (396)

Nous sommes vendredi 13, alors je me pose une question existentielle:

-Est-ce que le treize du mois, surtout un vendredi treize, fait le mois? 

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. I always loved Good Friday: it's a holiday, it's generally a relaxing day and it means that I can, ahem, fast. By fasting, I mean stuffing my face with fish and chips. Since I live in England, it's not Good Friday without fish and chips. I often enjoy more the Good Friday meal than what we have at Easter. I had these ones last year in Belfast, at the hotel restaurant.

Friday, Gloomy Friday

 Okay, so we are the very end of the month and it's Friday. February is a difficult month in my line of work, end of months are always difficult, when they come on a Friday they re generally worse. Accursed, accursed 28th of February. I never liked the month all that much, because it seems that every rubbish that happens at work always fall in late February, or thereabout. So two years ago I was at risk of being made redundant. In the end, I managed to get my job back at the last minute. I have been doing well since then, except in the last few months, where it has become more difficult, for various reasons. And now I am again at risk of redundancy. It's not as dire as before, because my wife has a job as well, so we don't depend of my salary. And I have learned to be prepared for the worst, since I got made redundant by the employer I hated during the Covid year. I know how to job hunt in difficult times and I am generally good at interviews. But it makes things a little bit more stressful all the same. I'd rather skip February sometimes.

Post. Halloween. Blues.

 Today is the first of November, All Saint's Day, the one and only day in autumn that I don't really like. Because Halloween is over, of course. And that it is Friday does not make it any less painful. I have made my peace with November. I used to dislike the month, now I take it as another autumnal month and I enjoy it almost as much as the others. But its very first day is always, always, always painful. Nevertheless, I will not spend the rest of the month moaning. Watch this space, I will blog more and I will be more cheerful, promise.

Se sentir misanthrope

 Bon, les deux filles de la voisine font le party en ce moment. Je crois que ça se passe dans la maison d'à côté en tout cas, donc que ce sont elles, mais ça pourrait être plus loin. À tout prendre, c'est peut-être la voisine, mais je crois que les voix que j'entends sont jeunes. Et c'est proche. Je sais, je sais, je passe pour un vieux grincheux: c'est vendredi, elles ont le droit de faire le party, je ne devrais pas me plaindre, mais je n'y peux rien. Je m'entends assez mal avec la voisine (longue histoire), je pensais avoir une soirée calme à lire et peut-être regarder un film. J'espère juste que ça ne continuera pas jusqu'aux petites heures du matin. Il y a des soirs comme ça où je me sens misanthrope.

"Monday the whatever"

 Last Friday was Friday the 13th and I saw this meme, which made me laugh. I thought it was more fitting to share it on a Monday (also, I had already shared a meme on Friday itself). It is so very true, for most people who work on a Monday and probably for those who don't too. I will make a confession here: this is very true for me these days. I feel like every Monday is Monday the whatever.

Happy Friday the 13th!

I know I already blogged about Friday the 13th today, but since then I found this meme online and it really made me laugh. I have nothing else to say about it, only that I thought I should share it.

Friday the 13th

 Today, we are Friday the 13th of September 2024. The first of the year. And so...? So nothing. I'm not superstitious. But I do have some interest in superstitions and I like to mention it on the blog. 13th or not, I always liked Fridays, so I should enjoy this one. When I was a child, I had a feeling of dread every Friday the 13th, but a pleasant one, it gave me a certain frisson of undefined fear. I daydreamed about being scared of something. One of my acquaintances, a friend of a friend, used to imagine imminent zombie Apocalypses or kaiju attacks every Friday the 13th. I'm not sure why, but we just chit chatted inventing all sorts of horrors on that day and we really enjoyed it. Sadly, nothing ever happened. Nothing exciting like what we imagined anyway. So yeah, that was back then anyway. Any memories of Friday the 13th?

Greggs: bring back the Friday treat

Remember when, back in the days, I paid myself a special Friday treat for lunch, usually a big bad sandwich, to celebrate the coming weekend? Well, it struck me that I haven't done that in a long while. Like for months. And it is no longer a tradition I follow. I used to observe it religiously: Friday means something bad but oh so good. And we have a local Greggs and it's not so far from our house. I had a sandwich from there fairly recently, a couple of weeks ago, but not on a Friday and because I was feeling too lazy to make myself one. Also, I'm a sucker for a chicken baguette sandwich full of mayonnaise. But I should really make it a weekly ritual.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

I took this picture at Billy Winters in Dorset. Iam sharing the picture today because it is Good Friday and as it is tradition for me and many others I had fish and chips tonight. Not as nice as these ones, sadly, as I bought them in the supermarket. That said, the fish and chips at Billy Winters did not impress me all that much. They tasted all right, but knd of gentrified, if that makes sense. The chips were more like French fries. The local chip shop make better ones. Cheaper too. I should have bought it from there tonight. Oh well, at least I had fish and chips.

Mozart for Good Friday

It is becoming a tradition for Good Friday (and also Easter) on this blog to put something of Mozart. His music makes most of my Easter playlist. I have shared the Kyrie from his Great Mass in C Minor time and again, but it fits this day so well, I have to do it again. Here it is sung by French soprano Julie Fuchs, who makes her débuts on Vraie Fiction (ha, ha!). She is also really cool as a person, check her on social media, she reallly is fun. Anywya, now onto more solemn matters, enjoy this great piece of music.

Odin for Friday the 13th (and Halloween)

For today's countdown to Halloween post, given that it is Friday the 13th, I propose a trip down memory lane: ten years ago, I had a black cat named Odin. he was named because of his right eye that was white due to a cataract. We loved him very much. My wife found an old picture of him recently, taken round this time if year. destiny was calling. I had to share it today, because you need a black cat for Friday the 13th and for Halloween.

Fish and Chips for Good Friday

First I want to wish a happy Good Friday to my readers. Even though it is meant to be an austere day. It is not austere to me, in any case. As it is Good Friday, I am going to have fish and chips today. You know, because fasting and all that. I don't know where I will buy the fish and chips. I had the ones on that picture in a pub of Sandown on the Isle of Wight. Not sure if I can find a cod as good as the one we can find on an island, but there's plenty of decent chippy shops round here. And I haven't eaten fish and chips in months, so it is long overdue.

Jeudredi Saint

Hier en après-midi, le ciel s'est soudainement couvert de nuages noirs. Nous avons ensuite entendu un coup de tonnerre. Il s'est ensuite mis à grêler. La photo que j'ai prise ne lui rend pas justice, ça tombait comme des billes de glace. J'adore les orages, tant que je suis au sec à l'intérieur. J'ai simplement trouvé ça étrange que ça arrive un Jeudi saint et non pas un Vendredi saint, ça aurait été plus circonstanciel. Alors nous avons eu un Jeudredi saint.