TikTok Pasta

You may have heard about the pasta recipe that got viral on TikTok. Grosso modo, you put a block of feta in the middle of a dish, surrounded with cherry tomatoes, olive oil and other stuff, you bake it, then in the same time you boil pasta, then finally after about ten minutes you mash cheese and tomatoes and pour the pasta in. Well, we made it recently for the second time. I don't really follow trends, but this one got me at feta cheese.

Le CH et mon état d'esprit

Bon ben je voulais souligner que le Canadien a éliminé les Jets, fa' que...

Bittersweet anniversary

 I am not sure if I shiuld be celebrating or not, but today I have an anniversary of sort: a year ago, I was having the e-meeting that confirmed that I was made redundant due to the pandemic. But as I hated that job and everything about it, that came off as a relief. One year later, it feels like it's the best thing that could have happened to me. I quickly got another job, then last month I was hired for a new role in a brand new company, in a much better position, for a much better salary and with a better team. It is still early to tell if I will be as happy in my new rol as I have been in others in the past, but one thing is certain: I am far better this year than I was same time last year. I explained my new fortune like this to my parents: "Last year, I was working in a lemonade stand, this year I work in a five stars restaurant." That sums it up perfectly and this deserves to be a new great unknown line. So yes, while I still feel bitter for the three years in professional Hell that I spent working for and with petty backstabbing bastards, last year's e-meeting was truly a liberation.

Le mois de la Saint-Jean

 Il y a une chose que je n'ai pas beaucoup mentionné jusqu'ici, mais que je prépare un peu. Je veux bien entendu parler de notre Fête nationale, communément appelée Saint-Jean-Baptiste, ou plus familièrement Saint-Jean. La quinzième (!) d'affilée que je célèbre en expatrié. Je ne m'y habitue pas et j'ai toujours un sentiment d'étrangeté lorsqu'arrive le 24 juin, le sentiment d'être en décalage à la fois entre mon peuple et entre mon pays d'adoption.

The Dinosaur Chair

Our old Mountain Warehouse garden chairs are all falling apart, so we have been looking for new ones, both for my wife and I and Wolfie. I went last weekend to Mountain Warehouse and found this one, which I thought looked very cool. I took a picture and showed it to Wolfie, just to make sure he'd like it and would not be scared.Like his dad, he thinks that a dinosaur on a chair is very cool. So I just might purchase it next weekend for him, although my wife is far less ethusiastic about it.

Le CH et moi

 Bon, je ne sais pas ce qui me prend, mais depuis que les Canadiens de Montréal ont éliminé les Leafs, je me suis remis à suivre le hockey, enfin un peu. Chose que je n'avais pas fait depuis... 1993. Je ne regarde pas les matchs et je ne connais même plus le nom des joueurs, mais je m'intéresse à ce qui se passe et je recommence à m'enthousiasmer comme le fan que j'ai déjà été et que je n'ai jamais vraiment cessé d'être j'imagine. Ce qui étonne beaucoup ma femme. Mais enfin bref, je tente de partager mon enthousiasme du CH avec mon fils. C'est une tradition familiale du côté de ma mère que j'espère bien continuer de ce côté-ci de l'Atlantique.

Finding thrillers

There is something I love to do when I go to a bookshop, any bookshop, it is to find at random a book to read I knew nothing about. Amazon gives me very accurate suggestions, but it is a bit creepy and it lacks the spontaneity of the bookshop experience, when I know I truly buy it of my own free will. So anyway, on my last visit to the local bookshop I discovered This is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield. No idea if it is a good or a bad thriller, I don't know the author, I know very little about the book except that it is a modern techno thriller, not a genre I particularly like, but the cover got me curious. I don't know when I will read it either, probably later in the year during Noirvember, or even next year. But it's just nice to find a book at random like that.

Calmar de sable

 Je reblogue une nouvelle vieille photo prise en Bretagne en août 2008, rien que parce que. Si vous lisez ce blogue souvent, vous connaissez ma fascination pour les créatures marines monstrueuses, vraies ou fausses. Je ne rappelle pas où cette photo a été prise, mais ce calmar géant de sable est vraiment bien fait. Il m'a beaucoup impressionné en tout cas.

A pint of milk and a shot of bourbon

I have recently watched action/crime thriller The Big Ugly. It is not a great film, maybe not even a good one and certainly not a very original one, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Probably more than it deserves. There are many reasons for this, each one of them worth a blog post, but let's start with one for today: the anti-hero protagonists grows fond of a rather unique drink: a pint of milk with a shot of bourbon in it.  He calls it "a pint of a milk and a shot of bourbon". There are probably more sophisticated cocktails, but I find it very cool and very badass.Milk is never a good sign in fiction, see my old post about barbaric milk. Even spiked with a shot of bourbon. Not sure if I'd dare to try it myself, but be warned if you see someone ordering that in a bar: he's up to no good.

Le chat perché sur le mur

Je suis tombé par hasard hier sur de vieilles photos datant de 2008, lors de nos premiers séjours en Bretagne. Du temps que mes beaux-parents y restaient. C'est bien, ça me fera des sujets pour ce blogue. Il y a plusieurs de ces photos dont je me rappelle peu ou pas du contexte, dont celle-ci. Une statue de chat sur un mur. Je ne crois pas que ce soit le seul que j'aie vu, mais je ne sais plus où j'ai pris la photo. Je l'ai peut-être déjà partagée ici, mais je ne crois pas. Dans tous les cas, comme c'est une image assez originale, la voici (à nouveau?).

Reading outside again

Well, it is nothing that special and I know I have often blogged about it before, but I thought I would mention it again: recently I have startd reading outside again. Like I said, it is nothing special and maybe it does not even deserve a blog post, except for the fact that I can't remember the last time I have read outside before that time last week. I can read outside almost all year long, we have quite a nice garden for it, not a big one, so there isn't much to do but gardening and reading. And since I am a terrible gardener... No, but more seriously, I noticed last time that I managed to properly binge read. That is also something I hadn't done in ages. I hope this becomes an habit.

Question existentielle (370)

 Nouvelle question existentielle, parce que c'est l'été,du moins en théorie. (Et anecdote ça fait plus d'un mois que je n'ai pas posé de questions existentielles, il fallait que je recommence.). Alors donc, sans plus tarder, la question:

-Quelle est la meilleure chanson de l'été de tous les temps?

Cerberus (myths and etymology)

I hope this does not come off as geeky, but I am a big fan of Greek mythology. I found this meme recently on the internet and I thought it was so good that I had to share it, even though I am not sure about its accuracy. Anyway, it is about Cerberus, the hound of Hades (I need to blog about the Greek God of Death one day, by the way) and the watchdog of his kingdom. Anyway, whether it's true or not, mythology is certainly not boring.

Les oeufs bleus ou verts?

 Mon père m'a envoyé une photo d'oeufs bleus, ceux de la poulette blanche de mon billet du 12 mai. Je partae la photo ici parce qu'ils ont une couleur particulière, bleu ou vert. Je les voyais bleus au départ, maintenant que je tape ces lignes sur mon écran d'ordi, ils semblent plus verts. Dites-moi ce que vous en pensez.

Casino Royale in June

They shared this image on the official Facebook page of Ian Fleming, I wanted to share it here because I love to quote Fleming's prose from time to time. Also because both the novel Casino Royale and the movie adaptation are among my favourite Bond stories. And also and finally because the novel has some great covers and I am sharing a lot of them in one go with this image. Tell me which one you prefer.

"Gros nenours"

 Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, prise d'une des caméras sur le lot de mes oncles. L'email avait comme titre: "gros nenours". Je crois que c'était vraiment adressé à son petits fils. Quand même, c'est impressionnant.

About missing pieces

 Wolfie gave me another Wolfism recently, when he was looking for a missing piece in one of his many train sets: "What I really don't like about this missing piece, is that it's missing". He sounded deadpan serious when he said that and it was both comical and very, very sweet. It is still missing as I am typing this, but I reckon it will show up again, probably when he lost interest in looking for it.

Une observation sur le mois de juin

Je n'ai pas oublié que nous sommes le mois de juin, mais je ne savais pas trop comment souligner son arrivée hier, sans dire des banalités du genre "bon, on change de mois et c'est l'été", alors j'ai décidé de bloguer sur un autre sujet. L'inspiration m'est venue plus tard. En fait, j'ai pensé à une chose: juin est pour moi ce que décembre est pour d'autres. Des gens aiment décembre et l'hiver tant que Noël arrive. À cause des couleurs, de l'atmosphère, des célébrations, etc. Mais ils détestent la saison autrement. C'est la même chose pour moi et le mois de juin etl'été: je l'aime pour la Fête nationale. Une fois les réjouissances terminées (et ici le 24 juin est une journée comme une autre), j'ai hâte que l'été finisse.

"The Train Beer"

It has been much warmer recently, so I have started drinking more blonde beers. I do try to go for the blonde ales though, not lagers. So I recently drank Cambridgeshire Golden Ale which is sold at Marks and Spencer. I don't judge a beer by its label, but yes, that it had a train on it did play a role in me choosing it among other blondes. Wolfie calls it "the train beer". So since then, I call it the Train Beer. My son seems fascinated by its label, if not the beer itself. He is like me really into trains. His mum told me that he will probably end up liking beer when he grows up.

Encore les fraises

J'ai blogué il y a peu sur les fraises, je récidive parce que c'est le temps des fraises qui commence. Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo, avec les informations suivantes sur le dessert:  "Fraises du Québec crème de la laiterie La baie et sérip d'érable avec sucre d'érable." Dessert typiquement québécois, donc... Enfin bref, vous avez maintenant la recette, si vous voulez essayer.