Ed McBain for #Noirvember

 "The city in these pages is imaginary. The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique."

This is of course the start of every novel from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. It always gives me shivers when I read this. November is almost over and it struck me that I haven't blogged all that much about #Noirvember. It is kind of ironic, come to think of it: I used to dislike that month and could not wait until it was over and start getting properly into a Christmas mood, now I think it's going too fast and I barely had time to read and share any crime fiction on this blog. Anyway, I have started reading Money, Money, Money by Ed McBain. The novel also fits my Christmas reading list, but I digress (more on that next month, obviously). I wanted to mention that any McBain is very fitting for #Noirvember, especially if you like police procedurals. Once I am finished with this 87th Precinct's story, I will probably hand it to my parents-in-laws, who both are avid readers of McBain, as I mentioned here. Heck, maybe I can hand them one or two McBains before the end of this month and in the meantime introduce them to #Noirvember!

La tire de la Sainte-Catherine

Nous sommes le 25 novembre et donc la Sainte-Catherine et ça veut dire... ben, pas/plus grand-chose. Il était un temps où au Québec on mangeait de la tire pour la Sainte-Catherine. Ou bien on la faisait soi-même, avec de la mélasse, ou bien on l'achetait. La petite tire cheapette, ce n'est pas vraiment vargeux, sauf si vous aimez les bonbons durs, ou si vous avez vraiment, vraiment envie de manger sucré. Mais tout le phénomène de faire et d'étirer la tire (d'où le nom), sur dela neige de préférence, ben c'est assez plaisant. On l'a fait au moins une fois à l'école, en maternelle si ma mémoire est bonne, peut-être aussi en première année. À la maison, nous ne l'avons fait qu'une fois, selon mes souvenirs. Mon père a pris des photos, mais j'ai oublié de lui demander de m'en trouver (pas trop grave, ça rssemblait un peu à de la m*). Alors j'ai pris ça sur les internets à la place. Je ne sais pas pourquoi la Sainte-Catherine était si populaire dans mon enfance. Peut-être qu'elle permettait de nous faire patienter jusqu'à Noël?

Mince pies cogs

Today is my wife and my meeting anniversary. 19 years ago. As we met over a mince pie (more details in this post), I bought some mince pies from M&S. I always have them on that day, even though neither my wife nor I are big fans of mince pies. Yesterday, I was having one as a dessert and I tried to explain to Wolfie how his mummy and I met. I did not manage to keep his interest for very long about it, I think too many concepts needed to be explained (university life, friends of friends, a time when he did not exist). But he did enjoy the mince pies. Not only eating them, but playing with them. In fact, that was his great discovery yesterday. As I was telling the story of his parents meeting, he said: "Look daddy, I made mince pies cogs." And well, he did. Of course I had to take a picture. I love how his mind works.

Question existentielle (374)

 Puis que je me suis réconcilié avec le mois de novembre, je me pose maintenant cette question existentielle:

-Est-ce que novembre a une mauvaise réputation non méritée?

Wolfie's new scarf

 We went to see my wife's parents recently. Wolfie's grandmother had a surprise for Wolfie: a scarf for him and another for one of his plush toys. The scarf is green (his favourite colour), with a few white stripe. You can see it has a button, so Wolfie can have it tight on him. It will keep him warm on cold days. I love these kinds of home made presents, far more, I must say, that I did when I was myself myself a child. I received a few knitted jumpers from ym grandmother, which I never cared about all that much, until years later when I rememered them fondly. Wolfie is far more grateful than I was at his age: he loves this scarf and wears it even inside.

La petite école sous la neige

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos dea la neige sur mon école primaire. Enfin celle où j'ai été enfant. Ce ne sont pas tout à fait les premières neiges, mais presque, et elles vont je l'espère rester et s'accumuler. Je trouve toujours ça excitant, les premières neiges. Ce l'était encore plus quand j'étais d'âge scolaire. Ca m'attriste un peu que mon fils ne connaîtra pas ça: l'hiver ici commence sas qu'il neige, souvent il se termine sans qu'il ait neigé. Et quand il neige, les écoles ferment.

Preparing my Yuletide reading

We recently went to the Wallingford Bookshop for a short visit. I had promised my wife that I would behave and not go on a big spending rampage. She was very skeptical at first, but I mostly behaved. In fact, the one and only book I bought it was entirely her fault. We were checking around and her eyes fell on A Scandinavian Christmas: Festive Tales for a Nordic Noël. It is of course an anthology. And she foolishly told me what she'd found. So I had to buy it. That's going to be for my Yuletide reads. Well, we have a bit more than a month until Christmas, better be prepared. For me, Christmas is all about Scandinavian folklore and imagery anyway. My wife was not enchanted, but she was resigned. When she saw me taking the book, she told me, deadpan: "I know you too well." Which I think deserves to be a great unknown line. Anyway, I got my reading all planned for the upcoming month. Yay!

Le passage secret maintenant

J'ai blogué à quelques reprises par le passé sur le passage qui mène de notre jardin à la rue. Passage que j'ai affectueusement appelé le passage secret. Pas qu'il soit secret à proprement parler, mais il me fait penser à bien des "passages secrets" de mon enfance, qui étaient en fait des ruelles, des sentiers ou des allées d'arbres dans des coins perdus. C'est quand même pas mal cool, avoir notre propre assage secret, même s'il n'est pas si secret que ça. Je l'aime encore plus ces temps-ci, avec les feuilles mortes tout le long, pour nous rappeler que c'est toujours l'automne pour quelques jours encore.

Mr Ripley for #Noirvember

 As it is still #Noirvember for a little while, I thought I would make another reading suggestion. It struck me that The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith would make an excellent read for this month. I've read it a decade ago, after I had developed an obsession with its movie adaptation. I must confess, I actuallyprefer the film to the novel. But both are perfect for #Noirvember, especially if you like a good Hitchcockian thriller and if you like a story following the perspective of a villain protagonist. I actually watched the movie two years ago for the occasion. I never get bored with it.

La cuvée Ciné-cadeau 2021

J'ai blogué mercredi que je l'attendais avec impatience, mais maintenant c'est confirmé: l'horaire de Ciné-cadeau est enfin arrivé. Je peux donc voir de quoi a l'air la cuvée 2021 et voir ce que je manque... et ce que je ne manque pas. Impression générale: comme d'habitude, ils ont joué de prudence, mais c'est peut-être la nostalgie qui parle. Tout de même, je vois quelques classiques que j'aimerais bien revisiter (avec petit loup, bien entendu). Je vois aussi au moins un film, un film québécois en plus, que j'aimerais vraiment découvrir. Je bloguerai plus longuement sur le sujet, mais ça me donne espoir que Ciné-cadeau est encore capable d'inspiration et de prendre certains risque. Finalement une dernière observation: il semble y avoir plus de films de Noël que dans mon jeune temps. Comme s'ils voulaient souligner un peu plus son appartenance à la période des Fêtes.

Preparing clothes for winter

Winter is coming: it is much cold outside, especially in the morning and at night.In fact, as far as England is concerned, since temperatures in this country don't change as much compared to mine, we can say that winter is practically here. It will probably get colder, but not by much. So I have now prepared my clothes for winter. Not autumn, but winter. English winter, that is. I got my winter boots out. I also bought new Thinsulate gloves at Mountain Warehouse and one new Thinsulate wolly hat (forest green, my wife hates it, but Wolfie wants to wear it too as he loves green), as well as more thick socks. Because I always end up short of thick socks as I use them a lot in winter. I think I'm now fully prepared. There is not many things I like more about winter than winter clothes.I love how heavy and comfy they feel.

Muffins au chocolat

Petit billet bouffe, rien que pour le plaisir: mon frère PJ a fait des muffins au chocolat. Si je ne me trompe pas (je me trompe peut-être), la recette vient des cours d'économie familiale.La seule et unique chose utile qu'onait apprise durant ces cours, c'est la recette de muffins au chocolat. Du reste, j'ai détesté le cours. Mais les muffins sont pas mauvais, quand vous voulez des muffins desserts et pas des muffins déjeuners.

How to Put a Duvet Cover On

 Sometimes I find silly but very funny and very true things on the internet. Like this comics. I don't know if like me you struggle to put a duvet cover on, but this is pretty much how it happens every time we change bedsheets and duvet covers. I mean I don't call Neil deGrasse Tyson, but the 5th corner and the ripping of the space-time is absolutely 100% accurate. Or at least it must be, because it takes a lot more time than it should when we put a new duvet cover on.

Attendre la cuvée Ciné-cadeau

Bon, c'est officiel, la moitié du mois de novembre est passée et donc je commence à avoir hâte à Noël, enfin un peu. Graduellement. Et je commence à m'y préparer. Graduellement aussi. Je ne crois pas que nous irons au Québec cette année, ce qui ne m'empêche pas d'attendre avec impatience l'horaire de Ciné-cadeau cette année. À en croire le site de Télé-Québec, ils vont lancer l'horaire aujourd'hui (au moment où j'écris ces lignes, on y indique sur leur page que c'est le Jour 1 avant le lancement). Dans tous les cas, je devrais bloguer sur le sujet bientôt et commenter sur la cuvée 2021. Et je me ferai mon cinéma des Fêtes ici, avec ce que je peux trouver sur YouTube (chut!) et ailleurs. En espérant pouvoir partager un peu avec petit loup.

Wolfie's water bottle

There was a little bit of drama yesterday during the school run that got Wolfie quite upset. His mummy was carrying his water bottle and we were rushing as it was getting late. She dropped the bottle and the lid broke on the ground. Now this water bottle was kind of special to Wolfie. First, it was meant to be my one: it's an adult size one and adult looking (kind of black or charcoal grey) I bought at Mountain Warehouse. But as Wolfie's bottles were all leaking, we started using my one for him, as like all Mountain Warehouse products it's quality stuff and very reliable. Well, it turned out not quite as solid as we hoped. But Wolfie got really fond of it, maybe because he felt like he was using a grownup bottle. So for the next few days, to his dismay, we will have to use his least leaking one, until I buy a new water bottle in Mountain Warehouse, hoping to find the same model and the same colour.

Le Parc Lafontaine en automne

 Ma mère m'a envoyé des photos du Parc Lafontaine. Je partage parce que c'est encore l'automne...

Veneziana Pizza

Last week for my wife's birthday, we went to Pizza Express. It is a sort of almost acidental tradition for her birthday: we often end up there, even when we don't plan it. But Pizza Express is always reliable: it serves good food at decent price, Wolfie is sure to enjoy it and we are never disappointed in the meal. It is especially true for me, as I always go for the Veneziana, so I know exactly what I am going to have. It has black olives, capers, red onions and 25p is given to the Venice In Peril fund. So I feel like I do my good deed of the day every time I go there and order it. And my wife is happy because it means that I eat vegetarian.

"Dites-le avec des fleurs..."

 J'ai lu hier ce gag du Chat et je l'ai trouvé très drôle, dans le genre grinçant. Bon, pour parler sans ambiguïté, c'est vraiment un gag bête et méchant. Cela dit, jecrois que chacun d'entre nous a, à un moment donné eu envie de lancer cette vanne aux funérailles de quelqu'un de détestable dont on a appris la mort.

The Dark Flood (#Noirvember?)

Well, I have some good news for crime fiction fans: the latest novel of South African crime writer Deon Meyer has been translated. Its English title is The Dark Flood. It is available to preorder now. Unfortunately, it will be released in April 2022, so too late for this #Noirvember. I will not be able to wait until next November to read it, in fact I was planning to read it now, but oh well. You can't go wrong with Deon Meyer and his books are perfect for #Noirvember reads: they bring a merciless sunshine and its light makes it impossible to escape the spectacle of violence and brutality. They always deliver.

Une coupe en métal

Mon frère PJ a acheté cette coupe en métal à Berlin il y a presque dix ans. Je la partage ici aujourd'hui parce que je suis retombé dessus par hasard. Je n'ai jamais eu de coupe en métal jusqu'ici, mais j'ai toujours aimé de quoi elles ont l'air, surtout celles qui sont pseudo-médiévales comme celle-ci. Je trouve qu'elles ont de la gueule. Cela dit, je suis sceptique quand au goût de ce qu'on boit: me métal doit l'affecter au moins un peu et pas à son avantage.