Farewell to the local gift shop

There's some sad news I have been wanting to share: one of our local gift shops, an independent shop, has closed down recently. At first, I thought it was temporary, but no. It's completely shut down. I seldom went there, but I always enjoyed my time there and it was one of my go-to local shops when I wanted to buy birthday presents, especially for my wife, sometimes also for Wolfie. So this is really not good news. Especially since both their birthdays are fairly soon. Tragically, the gift shop it had been here for at least twenty years. It was open when we first move to this town. So yes, this one hits hard.

Fête des Pères

C'est aujourd'hui la fête des Pères, que je fête depuis 2016, quand ma femme m'a offert une carte avec une photo du phoetus qui allait devenir notre petit loup. Il prépare avec sa mère quelque chose, je ne sais pas quoi. Sans doute au moins une carte, ils me donnent toujours une carte à la fête des Pères, toujours très élaborée parce que Wolfie a pleins d'idées. Mais j'ai souvent eu des cadeaux: des bas, des livres, du thé, etc. Je me fais gâter, disons. Alors donc, je me demande ce que ce sera cette année.

Shiny Gems

A few weeks ago, Wolfie and I went to the local toy shop. Not to buy anything, just to see what there was available, see if we could find as a present idea for the next birthday, or just the next special celebration. Every time we stop, I get a few pictures, as a reminder for the future. And this is one of the things that caught Wolfie's attention: a bag of "shiny gems". I can see rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds. All in plastic. They'd make for great MacGuffins in some of our games, especially our Secret War Game. And for props at D&Dr. But the nicest thing about these shiny gems is that, unlike real ones, they're quite cheap.

Epic Train Trips of the World

 I hope you can forgive me to blog yet again about trains. Maybe I am experiencing wanderlust, but of a specific kind, maybe it is just that since my last train trip, I have developed an appetite for it, as well as a realisation that I don't travel by train often enough. Anyway, be that as it may, my wife knows my tastes, so she bought me for my birthday Epic Train Trips of the World. She knows my tastes. My birthday often end up train related in some way. It is a beautiful book, with beautiful pictures and it really makes me want to experience all these journeys. I might never be able to, nevertheless it gives me inspiration for future holidays.

Precious Stones

Something the simplest and most primitive things can make a little boy happy, when he is inquisitive. Since he received this issue of Aquila, and maybe before that, Wolfie has been fascinated by rocks. Gems especially: diamonds, emeralds, rubies, etc. But also semi-precious stones, such as jade, and other stones of lesser value, like quartz. Anyway, we visited a friend on Easter. She had chocolates for Wolfie, but also gave him a bag full of crystals. She is a bit into New Age, so she has loads of crystals she keeps in a drawer and plenty to spare. So Wolfie is now the happy owner of a loot of crystals. He was more grateful towards these stones than the chocolates he received, and that's saying something. In fact, he finds the stones more interesting than many of his toys.

Mille/1000 Bornes

Une petite nouvelle sans vraie importance: j'ai retrouvé le jeu de Mille Bornes que ma femme m'avait acheté pour ma fête en 2022. C'est bien, je vais pouvoir jouer avec petit loup. Je crois qu'il comprendra mieux les règles et aura plus de plaisir à jouer qu'il y a quatre ans. Mille Bornes a été l'un des jeux de société de mon enfance. Bien que je n'aie pas autant joué avec que d'autres, notamment parce que l'on n'avait pas notre propre Mille Bornes, j'ai quand même de bons souvenirs. Lire ce billet pour plus de détails. Il serait temps de le revisiter, notamment lors des vacances de Pâques de petit loup.

First presents wrapped

Here is a quick post about Christmas preparations. I am being slow, but yesterday, Wolfie and I wrapped together the presents to his cousins, my nephews, aka my brother Andrew's sons. I'm not going to blog pictures of the presents, because I am terrible at wrapping, even Wolfie told me I was hopeless. But it gets me in the mood for Christmas. Anyway, what about you, dear readers? Did you start wrapping the presents, or you leave it to the last minute?

Everything Train for Christmas

You may remember that last year I blogged about the Christmas presents you could buy at the shop of the the National Railway Museum in York. My wife spoiled me last Christmas with, well, lots of train related gifts, among them a Christmas train jumper (which you can see on this picture) and scarf. I think most of the presents she bought me were from the NRM, actually. You know how much I associate Christmas with trains. It is even more so now.

Crime Fiction during Advent

 I found this picture thanks to Books Are My Bag. Although I did not get my hands on this issue of Booktime, its cover got brought my attention to Murder By Christmas. You know I associate Christmastime with crime fiction, so I spent Advent reading crime fiction. I am kind of kicking myself that I did not buy this book to have as my literary Advent calendar. I have been wanting an Advent calendar related to crime fiction since, like forever. Maybe for next year.

Christmas in the Jewellery

Is it too early to talk about Christmas? I guess not, although I try to avoid the topic until December, or at least until very late November. Well, it gets hard, as Christmas comes earlier and earlier. So anyway, you may remember that I blogged last year about a jewellery in Marlow that had really nice decorations. They did it again this year, with this big teddy bear and sort of slide of presents. It's very cute. Last time we went into Marlow, I took this picture so I could share it here.

Bradley's Railway Guide

We went to the local bookshop today, just for a quick stop to see if we could find any present ideas for Christmas. Yes, it's early, but Christmas will come soon enough and it's nice to be prepared. Within two minutes, I saw two books about trains that I would love to have. One of them being Bradley's Railway Guide. My wife told me: "You are really too easy to buy presents for." I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line, although she might have said it before. In any case, a quick visit to the local bookshop should get her sorted regarding my presents.

Des cadeaux pour Wolfie

 C'était la fête de petit loup récemment. Wolfie a neuf ans. Je vais dire un cliché mélancolique: le temps passe trop vite. Cela dit, célébrer son anniversaire est toujours vraiment plaisant. Je veux dire, j'aime plus sa fête que la mienne, même si c'est dur de voir qu'il grandit si vite. Et puis on le gâte. J'essaie de ne jamais être excessif, mais, ben... Jugez-en par vous même. Vous voyez ici les cadeaux achetés par moi, pas les autres achetés par sa mère. On n'y est pas allé avec le dos de la cueillère de main morte, mettons. C'est peut-être un peu parce qu'il est enfant unique, même si je m'étais promis de ne jamais trop le gâter, c'est un peu aussi parce que sa fête est un peu une seconde enfance pour tout le monde. Mais au moins, il n'est jamais ingrat ou blasé.

First Class Tea Mug

 Okay, this is one of the very last time I will blog about Christmas until next year. And this may be my last post of the year too. I had to share another great present that my wife got from the online shop of the National Railway Museum in York. Not directly related to trains, but sort of. This tea mug. My new favourite tea mug and one I may say is very much me. I like to consider myself a first class tea maker. And, for the record, any use of milk with tea is improper milk usage.

Gifts from the National Railway Museum

You may remember that I blogged about the stuff  the National Railway Museum in York sold for Christmas. Well, I got spoiled this year by Santa, or rather Mrs Claus (AKA my wife). This Christmas has been for me very much train themed. I mean, even more than usual, at least when it comes to presents: I got the NRM's Christmas jumper, Christmas scarf and Christmas socks, as well as some other train related but not Christmas related items, which I will blog about in the coming days. I have been wearing the jumper since the 25th and my only regret is that I will soon have to put it in a drawer until next December. But I finally have a proper Christmas jumper.

Analyser Mafalda

 Vous savez que je suis un fan de Mafalda. Je n'ai toujours pas les albums ici, hélas, mais j'ai reçu ceci pour Noël: un livre qui examine son histoire et son influence. Traduit de l'espagnol en anglais. Ce qui est assez ironique, puisqu'elle n'est pas si tant populaire dans le monde anglophone, en tout cas pas autant que dans les pays de langues latines. Mais enfin bref, ça me rappellera mes belles années d'universitaire. Et puis un livre sur Mafalda (ou de Mafalda) comme cadeau de Noël, c'est vraiment approprié, puisque je l'ai d'abord connue grâce à Ciné-cadeau.

New Lego train station

For Christmas, Wolfie took to heart my love of everything trains related. He decided to give me a special present built by him: this train station made of Lego pieces. I don't know how my wife managed to wrap it and keep it in one piece, but it looks absolutely lovely andit might be the best present I had this year. Okay, so we might not have the fancy Christmas village and train set my parents have, but my son sure put his heart into it all the same. This is truly a labour of love.

Christmas Anthologies

'Tis the season to be reading and I know I have not been giving any reading suggestions for Christmas as of yet. It's because I am only reading at a snail's pace and have been reading too many books simultaneously. One of them is Fill My Stocking, by Alan Titchmarsh. Who was in the news recently, but I digress. I struck me that, like for most seasonal reads I have now, my Christmas reads are mostly anthologies. They're not really demanding, this one isn't anyway, but they put you right in the Christmas spirit. The cover is quite cute too.

Christmas at the National Railway Museum

 'Tis the season to be... errr... railwaying? Anyway, I love trains every time of year, but I associate them with Christmas a lot, because this. My Christmas is never whole without trains playing a role in it. So I was happy to see on the Facebook page  of the National Railway Museum in York that they have a whole range of Christmas themed things in their shop that would make very good presents to yours truly. This jumper, for instance. So yeah, it is on my list.

Christmas Books Guide

 Among all the things I have yet to do before Christmas comes, is pick up this freebie. I try to get my hands on it every time I see it, just to see what books I could add to my to be read list. We went to the local bookshop yesterday, Sadly I didn't see it. Maybe they were all gone, maybe I didn't look hard enough. Be that as it may, I hope to find one before long.

Choose Bookshops This Christmas

Today is the first day of December, so it's officially Advent, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat and 'tis the season to be reading. So I would like to ask you all to purchase the books you will buy as presents for your loved ones or yourself in bookshops, preferably local ones. I took this image from ted by Books Are My Bag, which promotes this every year here. I think they hit the mark with that one, big time. I should myself make a few seasonal reading suggestions in the following days and weeks.