Creepy Geese

I recently blogged about a menacing seagull. Tonight, it is going to be about creepy geese. As you know from my previous post in English, we went yesterday to meet my whole family in law. It was the occasion to see our niece again, the daughter of my brother in law, who I hadn't seen for two years or so. She is now a teenager, but apart from growing up, her personality hasn't changed all that much: she is as outspoken and full of life (and attitude) as she ever was. She was really happy to see us and we spoke about lots of things...

...Including her pet peeves and fears. She, among other things, developed a disgust for geese and ducks, and pretty much all water birds. And yes, she saw The Birds, but it was after she decided that geese were evil. According to her they are like seagulls (which she does not like either) aggressive, greedy, have a nasty cry and are overall creepy. We walked by a lake near the pub and she exemplified it when she saw the geese on the lake and the shore: "Look at these dark, soulless eyes, as if they'd have empty sockets, these dead stares!" Her dad thinks she uses "like" too much, like all teenagers, but I thought she was nevertheless very eloquent then. Her depiction of the geese certainly deserves to be a new great unknown line. Not her first great unknown line, but it has been a while since I wrote one from her mind on this blog. And because of it, for now on, I will find geese creepy.

Atocas

C'est mon plan pour l'après-midi: préparer les atocas pour le souper de Noël. Je préfère le mot atoca (ou atoka) à canneberge. C'est par ce nom que je les ai connues en premier et puis il a une dimension culturelle que les autres n'ont pas. Il faut bien se souvenir de ses racines, même de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique et au Québec on appelle les canneberges atocas. Joli nom bien amérindien.

L'atoca peut servir à bien des choses: pur, son jus rajoute du goût à un verre de jus d'orange. Mais en confiture, avec du sucre, elle accompagne parfaitement la dinde de Noël ou son équivalent véggétalien. J'éprouve une certaine fierté à préparer la "cranberry sauce" depuis que j'ai appris que ma nièce avait beaucoup aimé celle que j'avais faite il y a quelques années. Elle ne mangera sans doute pas celle-là, mais au moins ça va sentir Noël dans la maison.

The Halloween Game

This is a picture of a card my niece gave us recently. It fits the topic of this post. Yes, I blogged about it before and actually at the very same date. But Halloween is coming very soon and I cannot help but feel that when you are an adult, is slips through your fingers and you cannot appreciate it as much. Like many holidays I love, Halloween is deeply rooted in childhood memories.

So anyway, back when I was a child, Halloween was not merely one night of trick or treat, it was also a long make belief game my brothers and I were playing. We had long, elaborate make belief games, this one was very developed. We called it the "Halloween game". We started playing in August, when school was about to start, so we would forget about it. I was the good guy, a sort of Zorro turned vampire/ghost hunter PJ the evil devil general of the Armies of Hell, aptly named Draco, Devadar I cannot remember who he played, I think he was a good guy. The story was simple, even simplistic: Draco was gathering monsters, witches, ghosts and what have you to take over the Earth or something of the sort on Halloween night. Every year he was failing, but just. Strangely, mankind was unsuspecting of the yearly Armageddon. And of course, the story was set in England. When we were going trick or treating, the neighbourhood was our battlefield. The decorations were real evil creatures, the Jack O'Lanterns were inhabited by evil spirits and so on. At bedtime, the story was over until next year. When I hear my niece telling us what she is planning to do on Halloween, I envy her.

A great unknown line from my niece

My wife told me this anecdote about our niece, she heard it from her mother (I mean my mother-in-law, not our niece's mum). The family was planning to go to a lecture together (with a child?). Obviously, our niece did not like it at all. She said to her parents: "Why would I want to go and see a lecture? I don't want to listen to a one way conversation!"

Fair criticism, I have to admit. I say this and I gave lectures in my past. But they often are one way conversations.

My niece and I

Two weeks ago, when we went to visit my brother-in-law and his side of my wife's clan, something happened to me that made the visit worth it by itself. And I am not talking about the cat on the roof. You see, my niece used to dislike me before I became her uncle, which is a shame as we have a lot in common: we both love Halloween, old legends, mythology, scary stories, etc. We have the same tastes and a similar sweet tooth. She learned to appreciate me over the years, more and more as the wedding was approaching. And now she finally accepted me. I had another a proof of this during that weekend. Maybe it was a bit because we spoilt her rotten by giving her a years worth of presents and she now associates me with the generous uncle. But anyway, she invited her friend over on Sunday, and when she saw me in the morning, my niece said "This is my uncle."

I don't know why, it moved me. This single event was worth the trip.

Another great unknown line...

...this one from my niece. She deserved to be quoted here, especially in this category. It was back when she was just my then future wife's niece, very jealous of her aunt and disliking me strongly because of this. It was our first meeting, she was something like four and she asked us to draw scary monsters. I can't remember what the others draw, but I decided to impress my future niece by making a really scary monster. It was a big wolf's head, with the wings of a bat, the clawy legs of a hawk, the tongue, tail and fangs of a snake (the fangs looked like a mix of wolf's and snake's teeth actually), nasty red eyes, black fur, horns, what have you. Verdict of the niece:

"This monster isn't scary AT ALL!"

My wife and I still laugh about it to this day.

Calvin and Hobbes

I bought a Calvin and Hobbes today in Reading (at last I could get into a real bookstore). My wife already wants to give it to our niece. I am not sure about that yet.