Panama hats in Wallingford

I was blogged a few weeks ago about my wish to buy a hat, possibly a Panama hat. We were visiting a few days ago in the quaint little English town of Wallingford when lo and behold, I say this window. They have a shop selling hats, including... Panama hats. Very nice, very stylish, very everything Panama hats. They sure look good. That said, I was taken aback by the pricing: the normal price of £85 is too much, even at the reduced price of £68, that is asking a lot and there are other, better ways I can spend my money, even to spoil myself. I still took this picture, just because they look stylish. Anyway, if I ever want to buy a Panama, I now know of another place to get them from.

Encore le chocolat aux bleuets

Mes parents ont acheté il n'y a pas longtemps du chocolat aux bleuets des Pères trappistes. Et des bleuets sauvages "ordinaires", donc sans chocolat. Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo. C'est le supplice de Tantales, rien de moins.

Happy Birthday Mary Shelley!

I took this picture in Totnes in Devon. It was during their carnival and I know it might be a rather cheap way to illustrate today'stopic, but here it is anyway: today is the birthday of Mary Shelley.The genius author of Frankenstein and thus the accidental mother (or grandmother?) of one of Halloween's and horror's most iconic monsters. Which in his original incarnatios has nothing to do with the popular image of its Hollywood adaptations. In other words: read the novel. On a side note, it will be my wife and my wedding anniversary very soon, so this picture is kind of fitting for that too.

"Couleurs de l'automne"

Je ne dois pas être le seul à trouver que l'automne est en chemin ces temps-ci: mon père m'a envoyé cette photo hier, avec comme titre de courriel "couleurs de l'automne" Bon, elle est floue, mais ça donne une idée. C'est vrai que ce sont des couleurs automnales.

Bookshelf Personality Types

I found this image totally at random and found it quite interesting and revealing. For those who are not helpless geeks like me, here is some context about the references: the so called "personality types" are in fact alignments from Dungeons & Dragons. I thought at first I was Neutral Good in the way I organize my books, but come to think of it, I am most definitely Chaotic Neutral. Basically, I shelve them, in order of importance: by genre, by author, by height and in order of how much I like them (i.e. I have a few on a special shelf near my bedside.) Anyway, this is how I mix and match, I am thus Chaotic Neutral. Tell me what you are in the comments section.

Bouquiner aux Bouquinistes

Bien que je sois expatrié, je suis de manière assez assidue la page Facebook des Bouquinistes, la librairie indépendante de Chicoutimi, toujours là après toutes ces années. Comme je ne reverrai pas mon coin de pays d'origine pour un bout de temps, je suis heureux d'avoir pris le temps d'aller aux Bouquinistes à la fin de l'année dernière. La librairie n'a pas beaucoup changé depuis toutes ces années, à part qu'elle a pris de l'ampleur et qu'elle a en plus un café. Même si je n'ai jamais vu qui que ce soit dans la section café, en tout cas je n'en ai aucun souvenir. Non, les Bouquinistes, tu y vas pour acheter des livres, puis tu vas dans un autre café par après, le Cambio ou le Café Croissant, ou tu y vas avant si ça te chante. Mais le mieux, je pense, c'est de passer une bonne heure à bouquiner, puis de revenir chez soi avec le pactole et lire, lire, lire.

Mushrooms: the new signs of autumn

Well, autumn is on its way, getting closer and closer every day. There are signs all around: the cooler evenings, the sun going down earlier and earlier, that kind of smell in the air and now, mushrooms. My father sent me these pictures, so it is from the other side of the Atlantic (either in my parent's garden or the forest), but I know for a fact that they have appeared here too:one of my Facebook friends shared pics of mushrooms too. But they were not as cool as these ones.

So autumn is almost here. And I am not the only one saying it: my friend made the same comment about the mushrooms she saw. Even my wife is feeling it and is actually happy about it. She caught me by surprise two evenings ago when she said that it felt autumnal and that it was lovely. She changed her mind about the season, as she used to be sad when summer and the holidays ended. I am not sure what changed her mind, maybe the fact that Wolfie was born in autumn, maybe  just finally got her enthusiastic about it. In any case, these pictures got me very excited.

Besoin de chouclaques

Pas pour moi cette fois-ci, mais pour petit loup, qui n'a pas eu de nouveaux souliers depuis environ un an. Et il a beaucoup grandi comme la dernière fois. La pandémie n'a pas aidé, bien entendu. Alors c'est notre nouveau projet pour la fin de semaine: lui trouver des chouclaques et, de préférence, des Clarks. Ce sera difficile, parce que le plus proche magasin Clarks n'est pas à côté, celui de notre ville a fermé et idem pour celui de la ville voisine. En plus, avec les règles de distanciation sociale, on ne pourra peut-être même pas entrer dans le magasin. Mais ça sera une excuse pour sortir et voir autre chose que notre petite ville, peut-être aussi acheter autre chose dans ce qu'on trouvera d'ouvert. Après des mois de confinement, toute sortie devient excitante.

No more gloom and doom

It's been a little bit over a month that I started my new job and more than two months since I officially lost the old one. Due to the current pandemic, the last time I was in an office and had to commute was back in March. So it might be time for a bit of reminiscence and pondering about my old and my new professional situation. For a bit of context, I did not like my previous job one bit. Something both my wife and my mum noticed almost before me, is that I don't drag my feet going to work. Partially of course because for the time being I don't have to commute. I don't have to walk for long. But it is also because I completely lost, at least for now, this feeling of dread that I had. In a month in my current position, I am still learning the trade, but feel like I am naturally better at it than my previous job, I appreciate my colleagues better and I am more appreciated by them than my previous colleagues, I feel far more valued as well. It has been day and night. I know there will be hard days, but it is as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. So I am carefully optimistic about the future.

Question existentielle (363)

J'ai récemment blogué sur les conseils que j'ai donnés à mon frère Andrew quant à son rôlede futur père. J'ai pensé que mes lecteurs en auraient aussi, alors j'en fait une question existentielle:

-Qu'est-ce que vous conseilleriez à de futurs parents pour les préparer à leur nouvelle situation?

Trinity: Titoli

I thought I would put some music on this blog, as I haven't had much recently. I don't know why, but recently I got in mind the theme song of the spaghetti western They Call Me Trinity. Which to my great shame I have never watched (I intend to correct this one day), but I know it from Django Unchained. I loved that movie, but I also fell in love with that song, which is simply uber cool. So here it is:

Les bourrasques (mot du jour)

Ça fait un petit bout de temps que je n'ai pas donné de mot du jour sur ce blogue, alors voici celui d'aujourd'hui: "bourrasque". Une bourrasque est, selon le Larousse, un "coup de vent violent survenant brusquement". Il vente très fort depuis ces derniers jours et les bourrasques ne manquent pas. Ça ne me dérange pas, parce que j'aime le vent, surtout quand il est fort. En autant qu'on peut demeurer en sécurité et confortable, bien entendu.

A frog in our garden?

Last night, as I was putting the rubbish in the bin, I saw something small jumping. I could not even see the shape clearly, but I could see the movement, if that makes sense, and it leapt like a frog would. I was still skeptical about it, but when I told my wife she said she thought she heard a frog this afternoon, although she did not see anything. If it is the case, I wonder how it got here, as there is no pond nearby and the nearest one is not so easy to access. It would have needed to travel quite a lot to end up in our garden.

Offre de la Bouquinerie

Pour les étudiants à Montréal (et dans les environs j'imagine), j'ai appris une bonne nouvelle sur la page Facebook de la Bouquinerie du Plateau. Ils offrent un rabais de 10% pour vous. Détails dans l'image ici. J'aurais aimé en profiter, rien que pour trouver une excuse pour visiter ma librairie de seconde main préférée à Montréal, mais l'offre arrive presque 25 ans trop tard.

Best Wolfism yet?

Wolfie said a new Wolfism recently, that was so funny, even though he said it in a grumpy and impatient way. I don't think it needs a context, as it can work with almost any situation. So anyway, he told me this: "When I say "please" I need it now." I don't think he quite understand manners yet, but this was in a twisted way quite sweet. And maybe it is his best Wolfism so far.

Conseils à un futur père

Comme vous le savez sans doute, mon frère Andrew va devenir père dans quelques mois. Nous avons récemment chatté sur la paternité, et je lui ai donné quelques conseils basés sur mon expérience sur comment aborder les premières semaines. Je les reproduis ici:

-On n'a jamais assez de vêtements pour le bébé qui arrive.
-On n'a jamais assez de couches pour le bébé qui arrive.
-Parce que ça prend beaucoup, beaucoup de son temps, vaut mieux faire des réserves de bouffe autant que possible, comme ça on n'a pas à préparer de repas.

Il y en a d'autres, mais ce sont les plus évidents.

Emperor Augustus

This picture comes from the Facebook page of the British Museum, which reminded me earlier this month that August is named after Emperor Augustus. I wanted to share the photo on the 18th of August, which is the anniversary of his death, but I forgot. So anyway, here it is. I have to say, when I see one of his portraits, I'm always surprised that he doesn't look like Brian Blessed. (I hope you can guess why I said that.) Be that as it may, you can easily believe just looking at this portrait why this man once ruled the Western world for 40 years. Anyway, on a side note the British Museum is reopening on the 27th of August. I won't go there any time soon, although I hope to visit it at some point in the future.

Des frelons (correction)

Concernant le billet d'hier sur le guêpier dans l'un des pommiers chez mes parents, j'avais tort: ce ne sont pas des guêpes, mais des frelons, frelons à tête blanche pour être plus précis, lesquels sont moins agressifs. Ils vont quand même défendre leur nid s'ils se sentent menacés, la récolte sera donc tout aussi difficile et mes parents cherchent à s'en débarrasser.

The wasp nest in the apple tree

Scary moment for my parents: they found a wasp nest in one of their apple trees. This is the first time in a long time we had a nest, especially this size. As my brother PJ said, it will make harvesting more difficult this year. I hope they get rid of it safely, as harvest time is pretty much right now.

L'ours noir

Photo prise il y a quelques années déjà dans le lot de mes oncles, grâce à une de leurs caméra. Je la partage ici rien que parce que c'est cool un ours noir et parce que ça change un peu des photos de bouffe.