Un vieux suspense

 Les trésors que je trouve parfois dans les livres de mes parents. Quand elle était jeune fille, ma mère lisait les romans publiés par la Bibliothèque verte. Des romans qui se sont retrouvés chez nous. Je ne les avais jamais lus, enfin pas la plupart d'entre eux. Mais je compte changer la donne prochainement. J'ai donc piqué (avec sa permission) L'Homme de la 377 de René Guillot. Un vieux roman d'aventure pour la jeunesse dont l'intrigue se passe durant la Deuxième guerre mondiale, avec des trains qui se font saboter? C'est dans mes cordes. Et peut-être qu'un jour, petit loup le lira aussi. Ce serait bien d'avoir une tradition de lecture de ce côté de la famille, comme c'est parfois le cas du côté de ma femme.

Un 'tit avion

Si vous vous en souvenez, j'ai blogué en avril sur des petits avions en foam que j'aurais bien aimé recevoir pour ma fête. J'ai été très gâté, mais je n'en ai pas reçu, alors j'ai décidé d'en acheter moi même. Au prix qu'ils sont, c'est presque donné. Et ils sont basés sur des vrais avions de la Deuxième guerre mondiale, autant dire que ça a une valeur éducative. Celui-ci est un Hawker Hurricane. C'est le seul que j'ai déballé et monté: je veux faire durer le plaisir, car ils sont peu solides. Wolfie a adoré et a passé la soirée à jouer avec. J'ai bien fait de n'en déballer qu'un: il va les maganer vite. Comme je le faisais à son âge.

A squadron of toy planes

It is my birthday soon and I have been looking for present suggestions to give my wife. I don't know why, maybe it is because as the father of a little boy I live a second childhood through and with him, maybe it is just me being nostalgic, but I have been eager to get old classic toys. I thought yesterday of the old foam army planes my brothers and I used to play with. They were very cheap things and never lasted long. Two years ago, we bought a fancier one for my father-in-law, with some kind of elastic to make it fly. Wolfie really enjoyed flying it with his daddad. Although, just like the toy planes of my childhood, it quickly got damaged. I found on AMazon these cheap toy planes (and I do mean cheap: £1.89 for 12). They are apparently modeled after classic WWII engines. They are not as fancy as the ones we bought for my father-in-law, but they would do nicely to play outside with Wolfie.

"On the 15th everybody got drunk."

"On August 5th Hiroshima was blasted, with over seventy-eight thousand dead.(...) On August 8th Russia declared war against Japan and, the following day, was perhaps present in spirit at Nagasaki when seventy-five thousand were blasted. On the 14th Japan surrendered unconditionally. On the 15th everybody got drunk."

A Vision of Battlements, Anthony Burgess

 To celebrate and commemorate Victory over Japan Day, the very end of World War II, I thought of this quote from the very first novel of my favourite writer. The novel is in fact a rewritten Aeneid, set in Gibraltar during the war. It is also a very fictionalised account of Burgess' own wartime experiences. I could have pondered a lot about the anniversary, but I don't think one can beat this brief yet very lively account. In essence, this is what it meant for the conscripts, maybe not so much the heavy loss of lives in a nuclear blast, but the end of a long time of servitude. And I will add that you read A Vision of Battlements for lines like these.

Scones for VE Day

Today is VE Day, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Apparently, it is celebrated a lot here and from what I learned, one of the traditions is to have cream tea and eat scones. This is how we will celebrate anyway. We considered making the scones, but in the end we decided to be lazy: one of the local cafés that now delivers grocery shop has a special offer on cream tea: we have tea (four bags from Tea Pigs, a brand I quite like) and scones for two, including clotted cream and jam. So we ordered the cream tea and if everything goes well we should receive it this afternoon, just in time. Of course, it's tea for two and we are three, but I will have all the tea for myself, as my wife does not like tea and my son does not drink it yet. The scones, however, will have to be shared and they should go quickly.

An old anecdote about the Isle of Man

Here is an anecdote from a fairly long time ago, told by my mother-in-law yesterday. It is about her father and mother, so my wife's grandparents, when they traveled to the Isle of Man in their youth. It was when they were married, but before they had children. Ity happened sometimes after World War II and I think their years of war partially inspired it. They were taking the boat and the future grandfather said: "Don't worry dear, it is only a short journey, thirty minutes at the most." Future grandmother said: "Oh, are you sure we should not bring emergency rations?" Which apparently made him laugh so much that he repeated it to his children years later and it became a family's running gag. I thought it was so funny myself that it deserved to be shared here, as a "new" great unknown line.

Trouvez l'anachronisme

Nous sommes l'anniversaire du Débarquement de Normandie, le 72e. C'est un anniversaire solennel, je vais pourtant le commémorer ici avec un billet moqueur, voire humoristique. Alors donc, j'ai vu au musée local cette bouteille de vin (vide) qui a date du cinquantième anniversaire. Et... et c'est une bouteille anachronique. un anachronisme vraiment bête qui m'a bien fait rire quand je l'ai vu. Regardez bien la bouteille, l'anachronisme est clair comme le nez au milieu de la figure si vous connaissez un peu l'histoire. C'est vraiment bête. Veuillez donner les réponse dans les commentaires.