Cream Soda (and memories)

I recently stumbled on a can of cream soda from A.G. Barr in a local corner shop. I hadn't had cream soda in decades, so i decided to buy some. Growing up, my parents were fairly strict about the treats we could eat and drink and we never had cream soda or colas at home. My grandmother on my mother's side, however, was always spoiling her grandchildren and we had there were stocks of soft drinks with different flavours, including cream soda. Some cheap brands that don't exist anymore. My cousins, my brothers and I drank them eagerly. So I had that can last Saturday. It tastes exactly like I remembered: horribly sweet, more like liquid ice cream or cream cake. Absolutely vile and not at all refreshing. That said, I will drink more. It's only 49p, for one, and it does remind me of my childhood.

Les orages

Je l'espérais, je désespérais même, finalement c'est fait: nous avons eu un orage il y a deux jours. Au milieu de la nuit en fait, ça a tonné et ça a réveillé toute la maisonnée. On en prévoit d'autres. Ce soir, demain, puis de la pluie. Ça devrait rafraîchir le temps. Je l'espère en tout cas. Je sue sang et eau depuis une semaine.

Seagulls are a portent of doom

Recently, and even though we are far from the sea, I often heard the cries of flocks of seagulls. Even though I cannot see them, I can hear them. They cry is rather harsh and somewhat menacing, especially when you cannot see the birds when hearing it. I became increasingly distrustful and wary of seagulls, as I witnessed their daring behaviour when on holidays. I discovered that my distrust for seagulls might actually be justified: today I read this article from The Guardian, about seagulls )seemingly) becoming more aggressive, nasty, if not downright violent. Read this and tell me what you think. Of course, what comes to my mind automatically is a certain movie. It also reminds me that I have the book the film is based on and that I should find time to read it.

Les bleuets sont arrivés!

C'est en tout cas ce que j'ai appris sur la page Facebook de la Chocolaterie des Pères trappistes. Deux jours avant la Sainte-Anne, c'est assez tôt. Mais ça veut dire que bientôt, les chanceux qui vivent au Québec pourront manger du chocolat aux bleuets.

School Holidays

Schools have started breaking out from last week on in the area of England we are in. If I am not mistaken, today is the very last day of school everywhere. Pupils and students are on school holiday. It means nothing to me personally anymore, as I do not work in education. I have definitely left the teaching world in 2010, although I did not know it then. I don't miss it one bit, to be honest. I don't envy English students, as everywhere in the shops they start to advertise the return to school next September the moment schools break out. And that's not nice. I also think the school year ends far too late here. One of the many reasons I don't miss working in the teaching world.

Guille siempre!

Je partage un gag de Mafalda, pour le plaisir et parce que lorsque j'étais enfant, je lisais pas mal surtout ça comme bédé durant ce temps-ci de l'année. Mon personnage préféré de la bande est sans doute Guille, le petit frère de Mafalda. J'aime sa candeur qui n'est pas dénuée de lucidité. Guille, c'est l'enfant que j'aurais aimé être quand j'avais l'âge. Enfin bref, j'ai (re)trouvé ce gag sur une page Facebook de fans. On n'a pas besoin de savoir l'espagnol pour comprendre.

Blast from the sun

I was dreading it, I was half hoping that we would avoid it this year, but there will be no escape: it was hot yesterday, it will be hotter today and the upcoming days as a heatwave is forecast. There will be a 34 degree Celsius  blast, apparently. The horror, the horror. We are bracing ourselves. Better brace ourselves, keep hydrated, put suncream on, and just hope it will not last too long.

Fleurs noires

Mon père a pris cette photo il y a deux ou trois jours et me l'a envoyé. Il n'a rien dit d'autre que "fleurs noires" dans le titre du courriel. J'avoue qu'elles sont assez saisissantes. Rien que pour ça, je partage la photo ici.

#MoonDay Books

I did not do anything to celebrate the anniversary of the moon landing, except this post. Our local bookshop did far much and far better: they made it a special event, with one display of books about the moon and space travels (and space travels to the moon). Abd they shared this picture on social media, with the hashtag #MoonDay. I did not share it on the anniversary then, but decided to do it today because... Well, because it is Monday. I haven't been to our local bookshop recently. I wish I had paid it a visit then, if only for a moment. But any excuse is good, so I should find one soon.

Chronique d'une canicule avancée

Deopuis le début de l'été, on avait réussi à l'éviter jusqu'ici: il avait surtout fait frais, parfois chaud, mais sans plus. La chaleur était toujours endurable, sinon confortable. Mais cette semaine, nous aurons droit, pour la première fois depuis l'été 2019, à une vraie de vraie canicule: le mercure devrait monter à plus de 31 degrés Celsius. L'horreur, l'horreur. Je n'ai vraiment pas hâte et j'espère que la canicule sera de courte durée.

Cutting grass with Wolfie and his granddad

My parents-in-law came today to see their grandson. Wolfie adores his grandfather, so he was overjoyed. He also wanted us to play in the garden with him, therefore we spent a good deal of time outside. His favourite game today was to go around the garden with his little toy tractor and the trailer that goes with it and filling the trailer with grass. He was enthusiastic tearing off bits of grass from the lawn and putting it there. Moments like this makes me glad to be a lousy gardener: I don't have a lawn that is worth saving from the games of my son. When my mother-in-law asked if he wanted to sit down on the chair, grandpa (or daddad as he is called) said: "Of course not. We are very busy cutting grass and you can't cut grass sitting in a chair, everybody knows that." Grandfather's logic. I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line.

Dimanche: en faire le moins possible

Je crois avoir enfin découvert une manière de ne pas avoir la mélancolie du dimanche et de pleinement profiter de la journée: en faire le moins possible, voire même paresser. Ne pas faire de grand ménage, éviter les tâches ménagères et les corvées, éviter même de sortir trop loin de chez soi, bref respecter cette tradition du repos dominical. Jusqu'ici, ça marche assez bien.

All that washing up!

I took this picture at the National Railway Museum in York,as usual I put it here because it goes with tonight's topic. No, I am not talking about traveling with fragile items (Eggs? Who carries eggs in his luggage?). I am having a break from house chores at the moment. And there is a massive amount of washing up to do. My wife started it, but we need to carry on. Hence this picture. I thought it was a good excuse as any to share it.

Partys chez les voisins

Au moment où j'écris ces lignes, il n'y a pas un, mais deux partys chez les voisins. Notre voisine immédiate a une fille qui fête la fin de ses études secondaires, et deux maisons plus loin on fête pour je ne sais quelle raison. Je sens que la soirée risque d'être longue...

Man on the Moon

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. I didn't witness it, in fact my parents hadn't even met yet. The bad thing about it is, I miss an important historical event by almost ten years. The good thing is, I am almost ten years younger than said event. Nevertheless, I think such an important event needs to be celebrated on this post, so tonight I decided to put here Man on the Moon. Yes, it's truly about Andy Kaufman, but it's a lovely song and the moon landing is mentioned. Sort of. But I love the song in any case, and it is as good as any and better than most to mark the anniversary of that first step outside our world.

Demain l'orage?

Nous n'avons pas eu d'orage depuis le début de l'été, ce qui ne me plaît pas du tout. En fait, jusqu'ici ça a été plutôt sec, même s'il n'a pas fait de chaleurs insupportables. Hier soir il a plu un peu, aujourd'hui il a plu beaucoup plus. Et la météo annonce maintenant qu'il y aura sans doute (peut-être?) des orages demain. Je l'espère. J'adore les orages. Et je ne me rappelle plus la dernière fois où j'ai assisté à un vrai orage.

KLM is against motherhood

I never liked KLM. Back when I was a young boy and we were traveling as a family to Europe, we used this airline a lot. I dreaded it. I disliked the food, the entertainment, everything. Now I see that the company is even worse than I remembered. I read that a KLM flight attendant told a breastfeeding woman to cover herself while she was breastfeeding her baby daughter, as of not to offend other passengers. Now it produced a huge backlash on social media and yet another Twitter storm. This time, for good reasons. Because that policy is stupid, prudish and downright anal... Their excuse about not offending people of certain cultures and backgrounds (gee, I wonder which ones). They literally put the (ahem) "cultural" susceptibilities of some hypothetical passengers ahead of the most needs of a baby and her mother. I thought that in the XXIst century, mothers had the right to breastfeed their baby when and where they deemed fit. Period. A baby should feed when hungry. Period. I never liked KLM, I now have the proof that this was not just an impression. KLM sucks. Pun completely intended.

Les feux d'artifice (à l'année longue)

Il y a un peu moins d'une semaine, nous avons entendu des feux d'artifice. Ils devaient être assez loin, car je ne les ai pas vus. Mais on pouvait les entendre vers dix ou onze heures du soir. Je me demande toujours pourquoi il y en a autant, aussi souvent, mais on dirait que dans ce pays, les feux d'artifice sont produits à l'année longue.

Never too many books

I was looking for a good meme about books, something that is funny, but not too silly. Preferably wise, even. Then I found that one, at total random, apparently from the For Reading Addicts website (which I know zilch about). This is, in a nutshell, how I take things and the reality of my own ever growing stocks of books. This is what I say to my wife when she complains about my new purchases: we just need more (a lot more!) bookshelves.

Un grand requin blanc aux Îles-de-la-Madeleine

Je suis en retard dans le rapport de nouvelles, mais je ne voulais pas l'ignorer: un grand requin blanc a été aperçu au large des Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Quand je dis un grand, celui en question est en fait petit. Qu'à cela ne tienne, c'est quand même impressionnant de savoir qu'elles ont eu un pareil visiteur. Alors chers lecteurs, si vous çetes fatigués, allez vous baigner au large des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, ça va vous requinquer. Désolé, il fallait que je commette ce calembour atroce. Dans un registre plus sérieux, Vraie Fiction fait dans la nouvelle marine ces temps-ci (voir il y a deux jours). La vie sous-marine me fascine depuis des années, je suis servi ces temps-ci.