Les réserves de Kraft

C'est pas loin d'être une catastrophe, voire une tragédie, pour mes déjeuners: je n'ai plus de beurre d'arachide... Terminé fini, avec les English muffins ce matin. La famine matinale me guette, en tout cas en ce qui concerne mes déjeuners la fin de semaine. Bon, il fallait bien finir les pots (qui en passant ne sont pas aussi jolis qu'il y a quelques années, je trouve, on voit moins les nounours) et ça ne sert à rien de faire durer le plaisir si on a faim. Tout de même, le beurre d'arachide Kraft m'a fait survivre pendant des années, de mon enfance à l"âge adulte. Je n'en mange pas aussi souvent ici, parce que je dois faire des réserves et parce que c'est difficile à trouver. Là, je vais devoir attendre à Noël, ou trouver une compagnie britannique qui en livre.

The fish pie of the Kingsbridge Inn in Totnes

This post is killing two birds with one stone, so to speak: I am both observing my Friday tradition of plugging a meal of a certain pub or restaurant and it is also a countdown to Halloween post. You will see why. Anyway, during our last holiday in Devon, my wife and I went to the Kingsbridge Inn in Totnes. That was my idea, she was not so enthusiastic at the menu at first, because of little vegetarian choice (or so she thought). But the pub itself was lovely and atmospheric, just dark enough to be homely and atmospheric. I thought it would be a perfect place to drink in a cold autumn night near Halloween, because I have this kind of mindset. But I digress. After an apéritif, we hesitated a bit about staying for dinner, then we asked about the menu and my wife was brave enough to tell the owner about her reservations. He actually asked the chef to come to us and explain what he could do! The man was enthusiastic and he did something on the spot for Veggie Carrie (a veggie sausages and mash). I had my eyes set on the fish pie since I had seen it on the board, so this is what I ordered. Pictured on the left. It was hearty, filling, delicious. In fact, it was so filling that I could not finish it and could not have a dessert. But I cannot complain about portion sizes or value for money: I ate plenty and it was good, honest food. And so far, maybe the best fish pie I had in a pub. You can read my wife's own review on Trip Advisor. I am merely plugging the fish pie.

So what does it have to do with Halloween, will you ask. Apart from the look of the pub, especially inside, the Kingsbridge Inn was advertising at the time of our visit ghost tours. I heard the landlord mentioning to some clients that the pub had the reputation to be haunted. I don't believe in ghosts, for the record, I think very little of paranormal tourism in general and from what I could gather paranormal tourism seems to be going strong in Devon. That said, I am very much into local folklore and legends, old or new, urban or not. So I kind of liked imagining myself in an old Hammer movie or a ghost story and having a meal in a haunted pub. I almost regretted not seeing one, or not being for an hour the superstitious child I used to be. But what a fish pie!

Bonne fête PJ!

C'est aujourd'hui la fête de mon petit frère PJ. Je cherchais un moyen pour souligner, j'ai trouvé une photo de sa fête de six ou sept ans, à compter les chandelles du gâteau. Je ne savais pas trop s'il fallait que je mette toute la photo ou non, puis je me suis dit qu'il avait tellement l'air geek qu'il n'aimerait pas, alors j'ai fait une (mauvaise) coupure pour qu'il ne reste que le gâteau. Et le menton de mon frère, et son gilet rouge et son noeud papillon. Les fêtes d'enfants ont leur charme que les fêtes d'adultes n'ont pas. Et celle de mon petit frère était en octobre, alors elle avait un attrait particulier, puisque même à l'époque c'était l'un de mes mois préférés.

Don't Fear the Reaper (but keep your eyes open)

I know, I uploaded this song before. But I thought I needed some music for my countdown to Halloween and this song is perfect. Because it is about the Reaper, among other things. More importantly, it is featured in Halloween, as I mentioned two years ago. In it, Michael Myers, or more accurately The Shape, is tailing Laurie Strode and Annie Brackett as they drive to their babysitting job on Halloween evening. Moral of the scene (and maybe the song?): don't fear the Reaper, whatever form he takes, as you would succumb to panic when danger arrives, but do keep your eyes open. Anyway, Don't fear the Reaper is also a perfect Halloween song, because of the association of both song and holiday with harvest. And one last note: is it only me or so many 70s songs are scary? I wonder why.

La rivière Saguenay en automne

Je télécharge ce soir une nouvelle photo automnale du Saguenay, en fait de la rivière. C'est à peine si on voit la végétation, mais je tenais à montrer la rivière. C'est quand même impressionnant, avec la falaise et tout. Comme la dernière fois, elle a été prise par mon père. Et c'est encore une excuse pour moi pour faire un billet de pure fierté régionale. Je viens quand même d'un beau coin de pays.

A time for werewolves

Quick countdown to Halloween post, even though I blogged tonight already. This picture was taken from All About Monsters, which I blogged about here. Not my usual read for the weeks leading to Halloween: as a child, it was this book of the same collection I was reading around Halloween time. But I always loved this particular image from All About Monsters. Influenced by old horror movies more than the folklore, this werewolf, all furry, with strong fangs and a mouth dripping with blood, was very scary. Anyway, it is the full moon tonight and it is very bright right now. So it is a time for werewolves. Just in case you wanted to enjoy a walk in the night.

L'embarras du choix

Il y a des moments comme ça... En cherchant dans mes photos pour la photo du mois d'octobre, dont le thème est "Prendre l'air", je me suis rendu compte qu'il y avait au moins trois ou quatre photos qui feraient l'affaire. D'habitude, je ne sais pas quoi trouver. Là, je ne savais pas quoi choisir. En fait non: je savais quoi choisir, je me suis seulement rendu compte que j'avais l'embarras du choix.

The wise man, the jester and the loud mouth idiot

I have not posted about a controversy on Vraie Fiction in a long while, but here is the time and I could not ignore this. You must have seen or heard about this recent controversy: on the show Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Ben Affleck attacked not only the TV host and stand up comedian, but guest star Sam Harris, because they criticized Islam. You know where I stand: I am an atheist, like Maher and Harris, I am a secular humanist, I am also left leaning, at least on social issues. I think that you cannot be all this and not be very critical of any religion, including Islam. Affleck in a juvenile tantrum, reverted to name calling, ad hominem attacks instead of actually defending his point, or trying to demonstrate he actually had any point. Harris defended his view very well, both on the show and on his blog. Affleck, well, let's just say he is as honest a debater, as educated on these issues as he is a talented actor. And no, I don't consider him much of an actor. I wished Hitchens had been alive and there, so he could have hitchslapped the loud mouth idiot like only he could do. But Harris remained intelligent, pondered and polite. He did not have to remain polite. But hey, some people have class, some other are crass.

Les affres d'être locataire

Nouvelle ce soir en rentrant du travail: le loyer va augmenter. Ca ne me surprend qu'à moitié, mais ça m'emm*rde un tantinet et me déçoit. J'ai souvent l'impression qu'on nous prend pour des pensionnaires ici, avec des règles strictes et parfois anachroniques, . Un pensionnat de plus en plus dispendieux. Le pire, c'est que j'aime bien la ville où je vis, j'aime même assez bien l'appart lui-même. Mais je m'y sens de moins en moins chez moi, au prix que je le paie et sachant que je n'y ai aucun droit. Et le lit n'est même pas confortable. Home sweet home? Tu parles!

Barn (ghost) Owl

This is a horrid pic I took of a barn owl in the Chestnut Centre in Derbyshire, a sanctuary for animals, mainly otters and owls. My wife and I visited it with a childhood friend of hers and her husband. We loved it. I took many pictures, the ones of the owls were mainly poor one, like this one, which is actually the less bad of all the ones I took of barn owls. But I wanted to upload at least one for tonight's countdown to Halloween post. Because barn owls, as I posted before, are at the origins of many ghost stories. Because they are ghostly in appearance, because they could easily hide in a barn or an attic, then reveal themselves for a second with this spectral white face they have, then fly away or hide in the shadow. I think that however bad this picture is, it does show the ghostly nature of barn owls and this is why I wanted to upload it tonight.

L'automne saguenéen

Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, parmi d'autres, de l'automne au Saguenay. À Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, pour être plus précis. Puis? Puis rien. C'est de ça que ça a l'air, un automne digne de ce nom. Et je tenais à encore montrer ma fierté saguenéenne, même si je n'y suis pour rien. On ne choisit pas les parents qu'on a, là où l'on grandit et la beauté du paysage. Mais c'est quand même beau pas rien qu'un peu, mon coin de pays.

The Signal-Man (a ghost story)

This there were major disruptions on the train line, so I arrived late at work. I don't mind when it is late in autumn, I can read more scary stories to put myself in a Halloween mood. I mentioned it here. But anyway, I said to my fellow disgruntled commuters that we needed a signalman. It made a few people smile. I was thinking of course about The Signal-Man, the ghost story written by Dickens which I discovered a few months ago in its play adaptation. Which I am going to read soon in this book. But you can find it in many anthologies of ghost stories. As I mentioned here, I love that it mixes elements of modernity and in particular technological progress with the supernatural. A common trope in many XIXth century ghost stories, and modern ones too. This morning, I was thinking that however technologically advanced we are, we are still vulnerable to nature and malfunctions of human inventions. Which is maybe the main theme of Dickens' story. I took this picture of a signal box in Devon, on the steam train from Totnes to Buckfastleigh. I was thinking of ghost and ghost stories. Like I did today. And I am certain you now noticed that you just read tonight's countdown to Halloween post.

Camembert

Cette fin de semaine, ma femme et moi sommes allés dans le Derbyshire chez des amis à elle. En fait, son amie d'enfance et le mari de son mari d'enfance. Nous avons été reçus comme des rois. Genre: on a beaucoup bu et beaucoup mangé. Ce que vous voyez à gauche, c'est l'entrée. Ca aurait pu être le plat principal, en tout cas presque: un camembert chauffé au four, avec du pain en croûtons pour tremper dedans. C'est presqu'une fondue. Et pour une journée froide comme c'était, la première vraie journée d'automne qu'on a eue en fait, c'était parfait.

Halloween stories

I already wrote a post on Halloween in French tonight, however I am writing a second one for my countdown to Halloween. I have recently finished (as in: today) Halloween: Magic, Mystery and the Macabre. I plugged it last year, but then I had only read one story of the book. I read them all now. I will come back to specific ones, by specific authors, as of course I have my favourite. But overall the book is a great read and I want to recommend it for all my Halloween loving readers.

Little observation here: while most of the stories have elements of supernatural, not all of them are properly speaking horror stories. Some while supernatural are not scary or even meant to be scary, Some belong more to the scifi genre and at least one is a what I would qualify as scifi allegory. But all use Halloween as a driving force and use it to great effects. And there are genuinely scary moments in many of them, even those that are not supernatural tales of terror. It matters a lot to me: Halloween still needs to give a good chill. And what I love of the scary ones is that they are not necessarily gore fests. Very little is needed to cause terror and the authors know it well. Anyway I intend to blog more about them and do not wish to spoil the read for you. Please get your hands on a copy.

Citrouilles montréalaises

Petit billet de fin de soirée pour annoncer tout d'abord que j'ai récemment acheté la première citrouille pour l'Halloween. Mais bien entendu, cette photo n'est pas d'un comptoir anglais: ça vient de chez Valmont (je crois) sur Mont-Royal. Ou Fruits du jour. Ou la Fruiterie du Plateau. Je ne crois pas avoir téléchargé cette photo par le passé. Je l'ai prise lors de mes vacances automnales de l'année dernière à Montréal. Alors j'ai décidé ce soir d'y aller d'un petit billet bien patriotique et montréaliste: on ne trouve pas des citrouilles aussi grosses, aussi bon marché et aussi belles ici. Et présentées avec autant de style, encore moins. (Bon, promis, j'essaie de changer de sujet pour mon prochain billet en français.)

Are werewolves cute?

Quick countdown to Halloween post. I am asking myself the question: this is what the daughter of a friend of my wife told me recently: "I love werewolves, they are really cute!" She is tomboy who loves all things horror, but I am wondering if one can find werewolves cute. Maybe because of their often tragic nature. Anyway, it deserves to be a great unknown line. Her second one. Do I need to say I adore this child?

Question existentielle (240)

J'espère ne l'avoir jamais posée:

-À part l'automne et l'Halloween, à quoi est associé le mois d'octobre?

Halloween soups

This is tonight's Halloween post, about my new Halloween meal: pumpkin soup. As a child, before my brothers and I went trick or treating, we used to eat pizza for our early supper.But now as an adult, and as an expat living in England, I eat the soup of the month of Covent Garden Soup Co on Halloween night, and in many nights leading to it. Usually, their special October recipe is Halloween themed. It has pumpkin with whatever else. I accompany it with garlic bread, just to be decadent. This was last year's soup, with Stilton and sage.

In 2012, they had made a ghoulash (see the pun?), which was delicious, but I think last year was their best so far. I think it is because of the Stilton. There is just something about cheese in a soup. I love all pumpkin soups, all variations of it, although I am not sure the taste of pumpkin is very distinctive, as it is not very strong. But it gives the soup a nice colour, if nothing else. And it is nice to use pumpkin as something else than Jack O'Lantern. This year, it is going to be the ghoulash again, and you can find its recipe on their website of you want to try it. Sadly I could not eat the pumpkin soup on Halloween night: I was sick with a nasty cold so I had chicken noodle soup instead. But this year, it is going to be pumpkin soup and garlic bread.

Le temps de la tourtière

Ca m'a prisen regardant les photos de mes vacances d'automne au Québec de l'année dernière: je mangerais bien une tourtière. Enfin: de la tourtière. Pas une toute entière, car la vraie tourtière, celle de ma région, n'est pas un pâté à la viande et ne se mange pas entière par une seule personne: c'est un repas convivial. Enfin bref, c'est l'automne et qui dit automne dit temps plus froid, dit aussi saison de la chasse, donc gibier, donc repas consistants constitués de gibier (en tout ou en partie). Rien ne vaut de la tourtière comme souper automnal. Alors donc, j'ai une envie soudaine de manger de la tourtière. Celle que vous voyez plus haut a été cuisinée par mes parents, il y a presque un an. je crois que c'est en apparence l'une des tourtières les mieux réussies que j'aie vues.

About a black cat on Halloween

This is my countdown to Halloween post. A bittersweet one. Last year, I had here, throughout the whole weeks leading to Halloween, maybe the animal most associated with Halloween: a black cat named Odin. The regular readers know about him, how he died and how devastated I was when we lost him.  But for a few months, he was out cat and I had the happiness to celebrate last year's Halloween with him. My best Halloween in ages. Odin embodied Halloween: he was naughty, even devilish sometimes (in a good way) and gluttonous. Oh and very shadowy. However, witches disliked him. One witch anyway. Different even among black cats, because of distinctive left eye, all white because of a cataract, which gave him his name. I miss him a lot, now more than ever. Black cats have now bad reputation, but they used to be considered good luck. Odin certainly was good luck. If I ever adopt a cat again, it will have to be a black cat. And I had to mention Odin on at least one of my posts on the countdown to Halloween.