Pandemic (the board game)

Our last trip to John Lewis was a few months ago. We rarely buy anything there, when we do it is generally small things. That said, I love to spend time in their board games section. Last time we went there, I stumbled upon Pandemic, a board game about a world pandemic. It could have looked sci-fi a decade ago, but not anymore. I heard about it in the middle of lockdown back in 2020 and I was wondering if, when things would turn back to normal, it would be worth buying. At the time, I thought it was too close for comfort and we could not play board games anyway. Now that I saw it in John Lewis, I am tempted to buy it. The only thing is, at the moment I have more board games than we take opportunities to play them. But I am very tempted...

Chronicles of Crime

 A few days ago, we went to John Lewis with some friends. I am always on the lookout for new board games and I saw a few that caught my attention. Among them, Chronicles of Crime, which seems really cool. It looks almost like a role-playing game and some kind of interactive crime fiction, with cool characters and atmosphere. I did not buy it though. Rightly, my wife told me that we better play the board games we already have first. So we will try to invite a few friends in the new year to try some games we already have. That said, I will put Chronicles of Crime on my birthday presents wish list.

L'aéroport de petit loup

Je ne sais pas si c'est parce que nous n'avons pas passé les Fêtes au Québec cette année, mais toujours est-il que Wolfie a décidé de se faire son propre aéroport. D'habitude il est obsédé par les voyages en train, ces temps-ci, c'est l'avion. Il faut dire que je lui ai acheté un avion à John Lewis, que vous voyez sur cette photo. Alors il a peut-être seulement voulu lui donner un environnement. Mais depuis quelques jours, il passe des heures à le faire décoller, voler et aterrir.

A wallpaper of books

 As I mentioned last week, we went to John Lewis recently, the first time since 2020. To my surprise, as I generally hate shopping for anything, I actually enjoyed it. Not everything about it, and in the end wewere not really fruitful in our researches, but all the same, it felt great to be outside the house. But what I discovered I really missed is their coffee shop. Not because of the food, but because of the wallpaper: it's looks like wornout book covers. You go there and it feels a little bit like home.

Looking for an office desk...

This weekend, we went to John Lewis for the first time in two years. It was a pleasant visit overall. As muchas I hate shopping, it felt nice doing something we had taken for granted before the pandemic. And our nearest John Lewis is actually a pleasant place to go to. Wolfie got quite excited anyway. But we went there for a reason: the lockdown may be a thing of the past, but I am still going to work from home pretty much in permanence now, so I need a proper office space, with proper office furniture: a chair and a real desk. This is no longer time for guerilla working. So I looked for a desk and a chair and so far bought nothing. There is one desk I liked, the one pictured above, it looks like an old fashioned desk, with leather and dark wood. I was very tempted for a moment. But I thought the price was a bit steep for what it was and for its size. So I will keep on looking.

Excitable Edgar

There is something I must give to the Brits: they can make absolutely brilliant adverts. Especially during Christmastime. Here is the one made by John Lewis this year, the adventure of Edgar, the good natured but excitable dragon, and the little human girl who is his friend. This is too cute for words. It is like watching a Hollywood epic for children in three minutes or so and it is so adorable. Wolfie finds it a bit scary sometimes, yet he is fascinated by it. Tell me what you think about it in the comments.

La marche des rois

J'ai pris cette photo à John Lewis, où nous sommes allés aujourd'hui. Vraiment pas géniale comme crèch, mais nous sommes le premier jour de l'Avent, alors comme c'est la tradition sur ce blogue je présente une crèche et je partage La marche des rois. Car même si Noël se rapproche, on a l'impression que c'est un long, long trajet jusqu'au 25...

Un Père Noël quétaine ou pas?

C'est la question que je me suis posée quand j'ai vu ce Père Noël à John Lewis. Il est un peu mince, je crois, et ses traits sont un peu trop doux dans le genre jeune. Bon, il est assez classique, ce qu'en principe j'aime bien, avec sa hotte qui est un panier, pas un sac, et un habit rembourré de fourrure mais... Je ne sais pas, il y a un truc qui m'agace dans son apparence. Sa barbe trop pointue, peut-être? Il n'est quand même pas aussi affreux que celui qui est heureux d'avoir une barre dans le c... (voir mon billet ici), mais il a un air un tantinet efféminé.

"Indian Sandalwood" or the exotic aftershave

Since I am in the UK, I had to change aftershave, as the one I used to buy back in Montreal is not sold anywhere here (I generally buy local, see). So last year, I found out in John Lewis an aftershave from Crabtree & Evelyn called Indian Sandalwood. I have no idea what's so special about Indian sandalwood, but I thought it smelled nice enough and there is an elephant on the label of the bottle. Like one carrying people and cargo. I guess the elephant is meant to carry sandalwood. I wonder if I was not a sucker for a clever marketing ploy and I just chose the aftershave for its label.

The writers on the wall

On the wall of the café in the nearest John Lewis, there is a wallpaper with a number of writers' names, as if you were looking at a bookshelf where the works of an eclectic number of authors had been piled up. I don't know if it is the same wallpaper in every café of every John Lewis, one of my readers can tell me. In any case, I was happily surprised to see among them the name of Anthony Burgess. He is of course my favourite author. As 2017 is the 100th anniversary of his birth, I thought I needed to share this wallpaper as part of the commemoration.

The return of the Easter bunnies

I was wondering if I was not preparing for Easter a bit early. Well, I am not the only one: we saw our first Easter displays recently, in various shops, including John Lewis. There were, among other things, these bunny rabbits, including this huge, half-man size yellow rabbit. I was tempted to buy it for little Wolfie, but he has already plenty of cuddly toys and about four or five rabbits (I am losing count already). This would have been the biggest plush toy he would have had and we don't really have the room for it. Still, it is nice to see Easter displays and I wanted to share this one.

New little critter

My readership knows my fascination for little anthropomorphic fur balls (I don't know how you call them) which are used as promotional material for businesses and organizations. My last acquisition was Professor Red, which my wife brought to me from one of those jobs fairs. We found this one, the latest one in my collection, in a kiosk outside John Lewis (I think) from the Southern Central Ambulance Service. My wife was very embarrassed when I chatted to the volunteers there because she knew I had my eyes set on the little thingie. He's quite cool, with his many colours and the ambulance frame in front of him (or her?). I haven't found a name for it yet. Any suggestion?

First sign of Halloween

Yesterday, my wife and I went to John Lewis. As it is always the case there, it was crowded and reminded me why I hate shopping, but there was one sight that made this shopping trip worth it: the very first Halloween display I saw this year. You can see it on the picture. It had a number of decorations and accessories: Jack O'Lanterns, vampires, witches, ghosts, creepy spiders, among other things. Oh and haunted houses too, I am very tempted to buy one of those. In any case, it got me in a Halloween mood. I know it is getting nearer every day. I am glad I am not the only one preparing for it.