Kew Gardens

Today, as it was their last day in England, we went with my parents to Kew Gardens today, as I already mentioned here. It eas a magnificent day, it was also a lovely time spent with my family. I discovered relatively recently that I love gardens, especially British gardens, I love how harmonious they look, yet how nature in them seems barely tamed, as if it just sprung from the ground and spread around the buildings, old and new. And it is lovely to see, smell and feel green. I saw little of the gardens, but I enjoyed them tremendously. And took loads and loads of snapshots, some good, some very bad. I didn't know which one to put here. This is the Temple of Aeolus, which for some reason had a strong impression on me. I know Aeolus from The Odyssey and my readership can check on this blog how much I am obsessed with the epic poem and with greek mythology in general. So I decided to put one picture here for the time being, of the Temple of Aeolus surrounded by vegetation that seems wild.

Dernier jour d'avril...

...passé avec père et mère pour leur dernier jour en Angleterre au Kew Gardens, lequel mon père voulait visiter depuis déjà un bout de temps (plus de vingt ans je crois). Journée magnifique, jardins magnifiques, la photo ne rend pas justice à l'endroit, je risque de continuer à débiter des clichés alors je vais m'arrêter là.

Cela dit, ça a fait beaucoup de bien de les voir et de pouvoir profiter avec eux de cette escapade dans la presque nature. Je n'avais pas eu de vacances depuis un bout de temps et le temps passé avec eux, même trop court et entrecoupé de travail, m'a été salutaire. Et puis on a eu du beau temps, ce qui ne gâche rien et qui est rare en avril. Aujourd'hui, c'était une fin de mois magnifique d'un mois qui a été en général étonnamment clément. Je suis un homme heureux.

Musing on that wedding tomorrow

I am home early today. And tomorrow because of "Kate and William's wedding". It sounds like they are old friends when they announce it like this in the media. I mean, really? It's not like if I ever had a beer with that guy or went to his stag night! We share nothing but a name. Anyway, as I needed holidays and the Easter ones had been too short, this is most welcome. Monarchy has to be useful about something. Still, the republican I am finds all the excitement about this wedding a bit ridiculous. In the end, it is a procession of (mainly) old people dressed like clowns. Catholics have the Vatican, the UK and the Commonwealth have the Queen and her descendants. Anachronism made flesh. At least I will have the day off.

Still, it is absurd, all that fuss about two people getting married, all that money spent on someone who will probably be the head of a state... because he was born. I guess I will watch bits of it, I don't have much choice, we will be invaded by images, soundbites, what have you. Maybe, maybe I will even drink at their health and happiness with a Windsor Knot. Not because they are royalties, but because they deserve to be happy. I am genuinely curious about this beer and this new brewery in Windsor. I wish the brewery well. A little anecdote that stayed in my head all day: in the lovely village of l'Anse-St-Jean there was a crowning, which I actually attend to. A bit of a ridiculous thing that got people talking, but the local brewery brewed a delicious beer for the occasion, "la Royale de l'Anse". It ceased to exist, sadly. Something good came up from that monarchy too, however short lived. I do hope the brewery in Windsor survives time, we need more breweries. But I hope even more than one day I will see the end of the monarchy in this country and mine.

Page de nostalgie montréalaise

Ca m'est venu comme ça aujourd'hui. Mon expérience de Montréal en tant que Montréalais (d'adoption mais quand même) date un peu. Mes souvenirs les plus vifs datent surtout de mes études à Montréal. Je me suis donc lancé dans un exercice de nostalgie, voyons un peu ce que ça va donner. Je me souviens:

-Quand la CAM était à 45.00$.
-Quand le proprio de la Binerie Mont-Royal m'appelait "jeune homme".
-Quand il y avait une boulangerie indépendante sur l'Avenue Mont-Royal appelée Le Moulin où on allait mon frère et moi parce que les employées étaients mignonnes.
-Quand je me stockais en bouquins chez Olivieri.
-Quand on entendait surtout les Colocs dans les bars.
-Quand je trouvais Pierre Bourque nono et un peu trop mégalo (ce qui ne m'a pas empêché de voter pour lui à mes premières élections montréalaises, parce qu'au moins il aimait la ville et il avait des projets, contrairement à l'autre demeuré).
-Quand on me disait après que j'aie prononcé quelques mots: "Toi tu viens du Saguenay."

Who else wants to be Irish?

I just read this article on the BBC news website, about American presidents with Irish blood, wanting to be associated with Ireland. Even Barack Obama has Irish blood. The article indicates that this might simply be because American politicians want to appeal to Catholic voters in the US and it has nothing to do with a particular affection with Ireland. I would find it a bit sad if it was true. I have French and probably Scottish blood, but like most Quebeckers I think I must have some Irish blood. From the little research I did, my ancestors, although Scottish by name, came to Canada from Ulster, they were Ulster Scots. The line between the two nations often gets blurry in history and I probably have mixed blood.

I did not fall in love with Ireland as early as I fell in love with England. Unlike my love for England, my love for Ireland is not entirely an allophilia, as I feel a natural bond with the country. Maybe because there are so many Irish Quebeckers, maybe because I feel, rightly or not, that I do have a bit of Irish blood in me. Yes, yes, I blogged about it before. But I wonder if there is not something about Ireland that makes it more attractive to other cultures. I remember a literature professor who once told us that Quebeckers were desperately trying to be latin. I think many people, among them Americans, Canadians, even some Brits, are desperately trying to be Celtic.

J'ai eu raison de me méfier

Je disais hier que je me méfiais du beau temps qu'on avait. J'ai eu raison de le faire: aujourd'hui, la température avait baissé, assez pour que je gèle en manches courtes sous un manteau trop léger pour la saison. Enfin, pour le mois. Il a suffi de quelques degrés de moins, de quelques nuages pour parfois cacher le soleil et d'un peu de vent. Le contraste était saisissant. On ne m'y reprendra plus, surtout qu'on annonce de la pluie pour les prochains jours et que la baisse de température pourrait donc devenir dramatique. Avril est un mois au tempérament bien cyclothymique.

Holiday reads

Quick post before I go to bed. I was a bit rough on Waterstone's recently. Well, I am a tiny bit happier about them now. I received another promotional email, this time about "holiday reads", talking about offers on travelling books, but also about novels from the country where one can be travelling to get a real feel of the place, etc. I do plan my reading list according to the time of the year and the place I am going to visit if I am on holiday or simply travelling. I am not original, maybe even a little bit shallow, but I found it a good way to know where to start when unread books start piling up on the bookshelves, or when I want to buy a book quick and don't know which one to choose. So I like it that a book chain helps me in my preparation as a reader and gives me some interesting reading suggestions. Now I am not planning any holiday trip soon, but I will keep a look at their website. They earned a bit of my respect back.

Étranger en son pays

Je ne suis pas allé à Chicoutimi depuis bientôt un an. Depuis la récente controverse sur la prière au conseil municipal, je me demande si je ne suis pas devenu étranger à mon coin de pays. Je sais, il y en a qui contestent la croisad imbécile de Jean Tremblay. Ces compatriotes sont comme moi, des gensde Chicoutimi fiers de leur région et de leur ville. Je suis fier qu'il y en a encore des comme eux, qui comprennent que le Québec a changé. Mais il y a tellement de gens qui l'appuient. J'ai aussi eu des nouvelles de mes parents à propos de la façon dont le maire est perçu: beaucoup avalent son argumentation fallacieuse et confondent comme lui culture, héritage, valeurs et dévotion catholique d'un autre âge. Et ça me déprime un peu. Je crois que la région et sans doute aussi le Québec ont besoin d'une communauté athée comme il y en a ailleurs, qui brasseraient un peu la cage et feraient aussi un peu d'éducation. En fait, je désespère un peu de voir un Québec authentiquement laïque. Là d'où je viens, je trouve qu'on en encore bien loin.

Agressive secularism?

Yesterday, I was not so surprised to read that a Catholic priest had again complained about secularism in this country, this time by Scottish cardinal Keith O'Brien. More here and here.

Now, where to begin. I have heard these accusations before, it quickly gets old. Cardinal O'Brien used very strong words, not only did he accused "agressive secularists", the label he puts basically on secular humanists, of destroying this country, but he talked of us as "enemies" and accused us of persecuting Christians. Yes, in a country where the sharia law is applied, where religious schools can teach Creationism as if it was facts, when Christian fundamentalists try to censor a humanist billboard advert, secularists like myself are the the threat, the Enemy, one could even say Satan. Of course, the cardinal, while fiery in his accusations, remains vague when making his case. O'Brien seem to have complained mainly that homosexuals cannot be legally treated as second class citizens by religious people like himself. He aluded to this story. What O'Brien did is downright cowardly: he draped himself and other fundamentalists (because that is what he is) in the cloak of the martyr, by doing so hoping to avoid criticism in the same time for more questionable aspects of his faith: his homophobia among other things, and his wish to have the right to be fully opressive towards gays, lesbians, free thinkers, etc. This is what he is pleading for really, a passeist view of a society that changed and which he did not follow.

And asking Christians to abide by the law is not persecution. Telling them their belief is wrong and in this case amoral is not persecution: it is criticism. Keith O'Brien hs the right to believe anything he wants and to hate homosexuals, secularists and so on. But he can be called on that, he can be criticised on that. I am not a Christian anymore, I am not a Catholic anymore, I have not to accept its moral code. And I will go further by saying that if this moral code is opressive, it is in effect immoral and should be fought. It should certainly be separated from the public sphere by a wall of fire.

Se méfier du beau temps

Il a fait particulièrement beau ces temps-ci, en fait il a fait une température rien de moins qu'estivale. Pas tout à fait la canicule, mais puisque nous sommes en avril, c'est tout comme: plus de 20 degrés Celsius en avril, c'est semblable à plus de 30 degrés en juillet. Cela dit, je me méfie de ce beau temps. Je ne suis pas superstitieux, s'il fait beau maintenant rien n'indique que les mois prochains seront horribles. Cela dit, je me rappelle encore l'été pourri qu'on a eu ici en 2007 après un avril dangereusement semblable à celui-ci. Alors je me demande si la température estivale peut durer pour les mois prochains. Cela dit, ce serait bien de respirer un peu avec des températures plus fraîches: c'est quand même étrange de se mettre de la crème solaire aussi tôt dans l'année.

Musing on Easter

It is Easter Sunday today! So have a happy Easter everyone! I love Easter, for various reasons, and like Christmas I celebrate it for its Pagan roots. I am a primitive man, but at least I am conscious of my primitive nature. For more on Easter's Pagan significance, I recommend this Atheist Eve strip by Tracie Harris. Always interesting to read her. You can also have a look at this article in the Guardian. Mixed with celebration of fertility and return to life, Easter, like many holidays we love (Halloween, Christmas, etc.) is also an excuse for eating excesses, taking as much as we can of nature's goodness. A chocolate Easter bunny, a Cadbury's egg, it is simply a sugar coated (literally!) Pagan symbol. I remember of a birthday I had around Easter (I believe it was in 1987, when Easter Sunday was on the 19th of April), we celebrated both the same day that year. We had a brunch in a restaurant my godfather owned at that time. On the center table there was a Horn of Plenty made of croissant dough, filled with fruits. Years later, I still wonder who thought about it, but I am still amazed at how powerful those symbols live in our psyche.

This picture was taken last Easter in Québec, in a sugar cabin. It was a dreadful sugar cabin, but they had rabbits. I thought that I would put one on the blog that is not in chocolate, for a change. I will not eat rabbit (or lamb) this year, but I might have an omelette for tonight's dinner, which is just as appropriate. I already had plenty of chocolate.

Mozart pascal

Okay, j'ai déjà mis l'Agnus Dei de la Messe du Couronnement ici, mais puisque je ne mangerai pas d'agneau cette année, autant la remettre. Nous sommes Pâques, c'est donc jour de musique sacrée et toute occasion est bonne pour écouter du Mozart. Est-ce moi ou est-ce que Pâques "récupère" de la meilleure musique que Noël? enfin bref, voici l'agneau (un mauvais jeu de mot avec "Ecce Homo"), interprété par Kathleen Battle, dirigé par Herbert Von Karajan, lequel m'a fait découvrir la musique classique. Ah oui, ça a été enregistré au Vatican (aaarrgghhh!), mais j'imagine qu'on ne peut éviter l'Église complètement quand on veut écouter de la musique en latin.

No lamb this year

It is officially Easter since a few minutes ago. After my parents left for other parts of England, it means that we will have a quieter Easter. I have come to this conclusion, however it pains me: one of the Easter traditions of my adult life will not be practised this year. I will not eat lamb. For stupidly sentimental reasons, mainly: during our last trip in the Lake District, I thought they were too cute. See the picture on your left, where this little fella looks like he is praying. Now can I be that cruel? If only it was offered in a stew where you can separate the product from the animal, but no, if I really, seriously wanted lamb, I would need to go and buy some in the supermarket, knowing full well that it is the part of a baby animal just like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid sentimentality, especially since that creature was pretty much breeded to be meat.

Since I hate ham/gammon, lamb was my food of predilection for Easter. It had the right taste for the season too, not to mention the right association. This year, I will probably have an omelette or eggs, which is what I used to have as a child. Simple but appropriate.

Premier orage de l'année

C'est une expérience assez surréaliste: il fait chaud comme si c'était l'été depuis un bout de temps ici. Or, il arriva ce qui devait arriver: ce soir, alors que l'on mangeait dans un pub à l'extérieur, un violent orage a éclaté. Heureusement, nous étions sous un toit, donc hors de portée, du moins jusqu'à ce qu'il commence à sérieusement tomber des cordes et que le vent se mette de la partie. Il a fallu terminer nos verres à l'intérieur. L'expérience n'a même pas été désagréable: l'orage a amené une fraîcheur qui manquait et j'aime toujours les orages. Alors voilà, on a eu droit à notre premier orage de l'année alors qu'au Québec on gèle. Être expatrié a parfois du bon.

A great unknown line (number 20)

I thought I would put here another great unknown line. I have not done it for a while. This is another one from me, not because I find myself particularly witty (seriously, I don't!), but because they are easier to find.

So yesterday, my parents, my wife and I went out all afternoon in a nearby town, to celebrate my birthday and make the best of a very sunny day. I had my first Pimm's of the year in a pub. It was only half a pint 9and overpriced I think), but full of orange, lemon and lime slices. After I drink, I usually eat them, I like to bite into raw lemon and lime, especially on a hot day. My wife had a Pimm's too and I was about to have her lemon slices, but the waitress came to clear the glasses. I first asked her to leave the glass, but then I thought it was really being silly for slices of fruits, so I said:

"Oh that's okay, I will get my vitamin C somewhere else."

Kind of obscure, not really that original, but still funny.

Chocolats de Pâques

Nous sommes Vendredi saint et je n'ai toujours pas acheté du chocolat de Pâques, sauf deux oeufs Cadbury's. Cette photo date d'il y a un an, c'est le lapin de Pâques que j'ai eu en cadeau de ma mère, acheté chez Eddy Laurent. J'ai une confession de Philistin à faire: je crois que pour Pâques je préfère le Lulu ou celui des Pères trappistes. Le chocolat sur la photo était absolument délicieux, mais le Lulu a quelque chose de plus simple et qui rappelle l'enfance. Et puis je sais que le chocolat noir est de loin supérieur au chocolat au lait (je n'arrive tout de même pas à convaincre ma femme), mais justement Pâques pour moi c'est surtout du chocolat au lait. Je sais qu'avec le gâteau de chocolat acheté hier on est stocké en sucre, mais je m'ennuie des extravagances de mon enfance, une figurine en chocolat par personne (pour moi ça a été tour à tour: un lapin, un ours, un écureuil, un lapin encore), plus des oeufs en chocolat (Lowney's, que je ne retrouve plus), des oeufs Laura Secord, d'autres trucs qu'on recevait... Lorsque j'aurai des enfants, j'espère leur faire découvrir les excès des Pâques familiales.

Maundy Thursday and birthday

I learned today on BBC news that it was the first time in 85 years that Queen Elizabeth celebrates her birthday on Maundy Thursday. Yes, because I share my birthday with the Queen of England, which is something, as a republican, I am not particularly happy about (but I guess it could have been worse). My birthday often happens around Easter time, which as a child confused me a bit: I thought Easter was my birthday. A couple of times my birthday cake was egg shaped or rabbit shaped. This is not as bad as being born on the 25 of December and it has advantages: there are more chances for my birthday to fall on a holiday when it is around Easter.

Marquise, si mon visage...

"Marquise, si mon visage
A quelques traits un peu vieux
Souvenez-vous qu'à mon âge
Vous ne vaudrez guère mieux"

C'est ma fête aujourd'hui, j'ai 34 ans. Je sais que j'ai déjà mis cette chanson de Brassens inspirée de Corneille sur ce blogue avant, mais comme elle se prête admirablement à cette journée je la mets ici à nouveau. Vous trouverez le poème original ici, avec d'autres poèmes sur l'âge et le passage du temps.

Last day being 33

And there is not so much time left of it, less than an hour in fact. So what to think of my thirties that will carry on and of my thirty third year of life that ends in particular? Some random observations:

-As I said to a colleague who turned 30 recently, the thirties are in many ways the new twenties. Back when I turned 30, it felt like the beginning of the end, don't know why exactly. Maybe because I was the oldest person in our group of friends going out (in Liverpool). And the only one who had just turned 30!
-I got luckier and in a better professional situation at 33 than my previous years.
-Jesus alledgedly died at 33. I will luckily see another Easter at 34.
-I am not feeling old, in spite of the grey hair I see sometimes. I felt old when I turned 30 though (see above). I think age is a question of perspective more than anything else.
-This year ended up being quite eventful: got a new job, started acting again, did more travelling, travels got delayed or cancelled, etc. I didn't get bored.
-And there is still 45 minutes to it. But in a way, about twelve hours, as I was born around midday. Birth is also subject to perspective.

Question existentielle (45)

Une question existentielle qui est un peu le contraire de la 41:

-Quel est dans l'absolu l'âge ingrat?