Last Day of #Noirvember

I know I plugged it before, but today is the last day of #Noirvember, so if you're looking for a crime book for the month, ot maybe this month next year, I suggest The Last Hunt, by South African writer Deon Meyer. It is very dark, it has suspense, violence, political intrigue, in fact like many novels of Meyer, it mixes crime fiction with espionage, so it could just as easily be considered a spy thriller. Oh and it made me discover Rovos Rail, the luxury South African train company. I now want to travel the country in one of their trains. If only I had the money... But I digress: while the novel has a good deal of glamour (because said Rovos Rail), it is nevertheless very gritty, often grim, sometimes gloomy. Nevertheless, and again this is a staple of Meyer, there are as many good men (and women) as there are scheming, heartless bastards in The Last Hunt. It may be Noir, but there are lights that shine through.

Le chemin de neige

 Photo prise par mon père. Pas de commentaire.

Snow at last!!!

Well, I had heard snow was forecast, but I did not believe it, or at least I took it with a barrel of salt. But in the night of Sunday to Monday, it did snow, not much, but still, enough to cover some of the ground this morning. Doing the school run was hazardous, as there was black ice. But after leaving Wolfie at the gate, my wife and I stopped for a moment and I took a few pictures. This early, right before December, in this country, it is borderline sci-fi. I am starting to dream of a white Christmas. I know I should not, I will end up disappointed. But still. Winter is here.

La gratte...

 Mon père m'a envoyé une photo de la gratte qui passe. En fait, quand je dis qu'il me l'a envoyée, je crois qu'il l'a surtout envoyée à son petit-fils, qui aime tout ce qui est gros engin et qui est fasciné par la gratte depuis qu'il en a vu au Québec. Sa nordicité se manifeste comme ça et ça me fait toujours plaisir.

Grandad's Workshop

 We went to see Wolfie's maternal grandparents recently. I could say my wife's parents, but once you have children, your parents are promoted or upgraded into grandparents and really, all that matters in the family are the grandchildren. Anyway, so I saw this on one of the shelves and I thought it looked as cute as it was funny. And very true. I don't know who thought of buying that, I think it is my sister-in-law. I completely forgot to ask. I took a picture anyway, because it really shows what a granddad (or a "daddad" as Wolfie calls his grandfather) is all about.

Butte de neige

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de la neige qui tombe chez nous. Enfin chez nous de l'autre côté de l'océan, chez nous de l'expatrié que je suis. Ici, on en espérait, il n'y en a pas eu, bien entendu. Mais enfin bref, j'ai grâce à cette photo pu expliquer à petit loup ce qu'est une "butte de neige". On n'en verrait pas ici.

Will it snow today?

As I am typing this, BBC Weather has issued for the area we live ina yellow warning of wind and a yellow warning of... snow. Now I don't get my hopes up: amber or red warnings are generally reliable, something is bound to happen with them. But yellow warning could go either way, and we could only have some normally annoying nasty British rainy weather. And the Beebs tends to be dramatic when it comes to snow: they are quick to send alerts and in the end we only get a bit wet. But if it did, then I would be very, very, very happy, as it would mean winter is truly started and started properly. It has been very cold recently, at least for England this time of year. And there is that snowy smell in the air. We will probably stay in all day and do house chores, but if it does snow Wolfie and I will play in the garden and I will take a few pictures for here.

Le séisme de 1988 du Saguenay

Mon frère PJ m'a rappelé que le 25 novembre, c'était l'anniversaire du tremblement de terre de 1988 au Saguenay. J'avais bêtement oublié de le souligner. Qu'à cela ne tienne, c'est samedi, comme le lendemain de cette journée-là, enfin cette nuit-là quand ça s'est produit, il y a maintenant 33 ans. Je présente donc le bulletin de nouvelles de Radio-Can de l'époque pour en souligner l'anniversaire:

The Maltese Falcon for #Noirvember

As I mentioned before, I read , The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet for this year's #Noirvember. The first time in decades, but I watched the I watched the movie over and over again. I read it at a snail's pace, shame on me, but it was great to read a proper old fashioned hardboiled novel and to revisit a classic in its original form, and meet again so many larger-than-life characters, private eye Sam Spade and all the array of shady, vulgar, obscene villains the plot has to offer. And at the heart of the plot, the Maltese Falcon of the title, the most perfect and maybe the most emblematic MacGuffin crime fiction (or indeed fiction in general) ever offered. I don't think any other book or film ever gave us a MacGuffin that is so perfect. Anyway, I don't want to give anything away for those who have not read it or watched the film, but if you are still looking for some #Noirvember read, this is the novel for you.

Sept de douze (pâtés à la viande)

Ma mère m'a envoyé hier une photo des pâtés à la viande que mes parents ont préparé pour les Fêtes: en tout et pour tout, sept douzaines.Il faut ce qu'il faut, même si nous ne serons pas tous là cette année. Petit loup, c'est je crois ce qu'il a préféré comme met typiquement québécois de Noël, il a littéralement passé deux semaines à se bourrer la fraise de pâtés à la viande. Il faut dire que ceux que mes parents font sont vraiment bons.

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.