Vin Glögg and other Xmas stories

Ok, it's early to make a Xmas tree, but what's the point putting it for a couple of weeks only..
Besides, when there's a 2 years-old one around, you can't resist much!
(Ok, Lola does not even know what a Christmas tree is and I am using my shrimpette as an excuse! Shame on me... not! :P)

The tree is done, and it smells wonderful around here


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Once it was done, we had a very bad idea (but which seemed appropriate ;-): trying that bottle of already prepared mixture for hot wine... eeeeeck!!! Never again!



I'm almost happy the wine was yucccky because the picture of that Xmas tree with the three of us around was a bit too purrfect! Almost as if we had been playing in some advertisement for Xmas decoration in a purrfect Xmas atmosphere!
hehe

phewwww...

PS: Lola calls the angel on top of the tree the "clown"...lol

Marine

And here's the lil Marine, keeping my sister and Luc busy enough since a few days ;-)



... Gweno and Marine are just back home, the two of them doing well
(happy sigh)

...Now let's see what kind of funny nights the happy moma and popa gonna have! (mwahahaha!)
**~~*^* ***

The lil carpenter and the red district

It could be a fairy tale, yes yes.
And it's almost one.

Have you ever seen such creatures moving their body in good dancing clubs (=metal clubs)?





Ok, the malish photo is almost ridiculous, which is NOT the case in reality (trust ol' Candy)

I've only seen that in Germany... and when you see a large black hat in a club or in a pub there, you can be sure a carpenter (male or female!) is hiding under.
I'm frustrated I haven't found better photos ...because they look trooly beauDiful in their black costume, with such stylish flared trousers and all!

(faint!!!)

Anyway... they are real carpenters! Not yet "masters" though, but improving their art while travelling around the country to learn more. Just like in the old times. I find this fascinating.

That makes me think about the hero of one of my favourite books (The Pillars of the Earth), he was a carpenter... a crazy job, for passionate people... that inspire me a lot!**~~*^* *^^* *

Main weekend menu

Gimme a weekend like that any time!
(happy sigh)

The very first thing we did after leaving Lola was putting some loud heavy metal stuff when we jumped in the car.
That was the signal! We were free! hehe

While Lola was making half of the family RILLY busy, we started our free weekend shopping for... Lola's Xmas. lol

Then we went at the hospital to see Gwénola, Luc and their lil angel Marine. She's so beauDiful, so small, so alive already... Marie (other sister) and I spent the weekend repeating we wanted a baby like that!**~~*^* *

Once back home, same *neeeeeed* to put REAL loud music, sowwwy for the neighbours... but it felt guuuud!

Then we left for this yummmmissimo restaurant. Traditionnal French cuisine.
First exceptionnal restaurant in 2 years!
We had booked quite early... to not miss too much of the fookin rugby later... Scary, no?! hehe

We started with a cup of champ' to celebrate a lil professional something (I'll talk of it later).
Then, let's be crazy, we had champ' for the whole dinner :P

Martin had (grabbing my dictionnary: food is hard to translate!)
-poultry croustillant (croustillant=crispy) on a bed of spinach
-doe with bilberries and its chestnut purée
-pear pastry with chocolate sauce

On my side, I took (be prepared to drool again)
-fois grad escalopes with fresh figs
-scallops on a bed of endives with its soufflé
-pistachio fondant with its white chocolate sauce

Et voilà! Come on, you'd sell your soul to the devil for that, neee?
hehe
I sighed and fainted zillions of times (just like I wanted) while having my fois gras and figs and while tasting Martin's doe. These were the best!

I had a lovely talk with the waitress about the menu, asking about usual female or male choices... she said that doe was something typically male-ish, we shared a wink and a laugh while Martin was making a face like "it is not my fault!"! hehe...

Once having reached this first heaven, we left to enjoy in a more smoky place the end of the rugger game. We lost against New-Zealand 45-6... eeeeeck!

Then we went back home. Music, candles. Other heavens.

And finally at about 2.00 am, we started to watch Master and Commander that we had borrowed without much motivation, weeks ago... That was ok, and an excellent way to end this very free day***~~*^* *

Flying high

And no, I am not talking here about that Pink Floyd Concert in Chantilly a few years ago..lol...sowwwy...maybe sometimes, one day!

No, I'm just here to introduce a new illustration for another Xmas card! (it should be Xmas everyday, I could make good biz!)
Santa Claus, having fun, again:)


Flying high

24 hours

without the shrimpette!
Believe it or not... in 2 full years, it's going to be the first time Lola sleeps somewhere else!!!
Whenever we went out, we've always come back where Lola was sleeping, even if it was at 5.00 am!

Time for her to enjoy some independence you think?
We agree!
;-)

So on Saturday morning we send her to her grand-mama and grand-papa till Sunday.
And I tell you, we're going to enjoy every single minute we'll spend alone.

There are so much we wanna do...and days are so short!

Besides work, (sigh yes, work), on the list there will be:

-Shopping (not much, just enough for me to enjoy taking my time -poor martin!-)
-A Breton pub near, where we'll watch rugby! Weeeeee
-wearing what you usually never wear when you have to play the horse on your all four! ;-)
-a restaurant whose menu will steal me a few tears of pleasure. I want a menu that will be pure poetry! I wanna sigh and drool even before sitting at the table.
-painting (words!) on tshirts (yup, something I wanna do since ages)
-candles and soft music times
-candles and metal music times!
-oh! and one morning sleeping late (late = anything after 8.00 am)

Lola will have the time of her life there, being spoiled and all... and same for us!

(dancing, throwing rose petals in the air around the bubbling champ' bottles)
**~~*^* ***~~^* *

Bright side of the Moon

I doubt we can see the full moon in Paris tonight, and anyway, I'd be the moon, I would run away from such cold place! (it's fookin freezing)

cold place, full moon... typical clichés coming to my mind: a dark forest, hungry wolves hiding, waiting for *you* to come around.

lol I know, I have a limited imagination! :P

Happy full moon ;-)


Kimono

Confessions for voyeurs

hehe..nope, I'm not about to reveal you anything that crispy!

Yesterday, I was telling Jenny about this site.

Some of you probably know it (it's in Frawnch, sowwwy), and for those who... it's a site where people share *confessions*. Some are trooly hilarious, others are just way less good. But it's fun

Here are 2 confessions that made me laugh... The first one sounds like an old joke, but it's so well told! hehe

"Fiston, 17 ans, Paris
J'avoue que mon petit neveu est vraiment un chieur, pire que ma très chère mère. Il a toujours la joyeuse idée de laisser tous ses jouets en plein milieu du passage. Son bordel constitué d'une grosse moto, d'une armée de soldats sanguinaires, un camion de CRS, deux moutons et un dinosaure. En pleine nuit il me prend une soudaine envie de pisser (bah oui on peut pas prévenir !). Et là je me gaufre sur la moto, m'explose le genou sur le car de CRS et m'étale de tout mon long sur le carrelage et je me prends le dinosaure en pleine tête. Je commence à hurler des insultes et la seule chose qu'arrive à me dire ma mère qui venait de se réveiller, c'est de faire attention de ne pas réveiller le petit bout de chou ! Donc moi et mon genou entaillé, on va pisser et se recoucher pour pas emmerder le morveux. Le lendemain ma meilleure amie me demande pourquoi je boite, et pour ne pas passer pour un con j'ai dis que j'ai eu un accident de moto et que j'avais percuté un car de CRS qui venait à contre sens... J’ai pas osé lui dire qu’il y avait un dinosaure au milieu de la route."


"Petit nem, 22 ans, Babylone
J'avoue qu'hier j'ai eu un coup de folie, et que j'ai décidé de m'acheter une belle paire de bottes qui allaient très bien avec ma minijupe que je ne met jamais.
j'avoue que ces bottes étaient le coup de grace à donner à mon compte en banque...
j'avoue que ce matin mon père m'a dit "petit nem, ton compte va mal".
J'avoue que je n'ai rien trouvé d'autre à lui répondre que "faut souffrir pour être belle"."

Auntie Candy

Et voilà!
Marine was born earlier today at about 3.00pm!

(yeeeeeeehoooooooooooooo)
(lightning sparkling candles all around)**~~*^* ***^* *

My lil sister is going ok, though I could not talk much with her.
She said her belly was very painful though.

The lil one is doing fine, starting to train at breast-feeding (Gweno is courageous to try it with her painful belly). The only thing is that apparently Marine has some stiff neck due to some wrong position while in the belly.
But it should not be a problem, really.

It won't be too hard to remember Marine's birthdate, Martin's papa was born today too! A few years earlier :P

Now I can't wait to hold Marine and see Gwenola at the hospital. I'll go on Saturday.

Holding Marine... lol, one of my best friend is called Marine too!
That really makes me laff thinking about it. I wonder if my way of talking to Marine -the old- (sorry marine! lol) will be influenced by my way of gazouilling with Marine -the young-!

summer 1976

Back in summer 1976, my mama, lil sister Gwenola and I were enjoying some extremly dry summer in Normandie (which is nebber ebber dry usually). Here's one photo of it, a photo that I've already put in my bloggie before.


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I have no memories of my sister's first years, a pity though because I've been told I was the most careful and protective sister. Which did not last, I tell you!
We were very close in age (she's 1.5 year younger than I) which may have been one of the reasons of many tensions between us.
That or rather the fact we're really different. Opposites.

Anyway, now I can tell we get on well, accepting our -huge- differences.

And tonight, Gwenola is at hopsital (lol! no, nothing terrible happened!!!)... She's pregnant for more than 9 months now, and the baby does not arrive as expected, with the head downwards... sooooo, tomorrow morning Gwenola will get a Caesarean.
I'm so excited and so stressed!
I'm very happy she's there, with professionals around, etc.

She's already one daughter, Eva... who's tonight at my grand-mama's and who fears she'll never see her mama again. She knows how the baby is going to come and I think she's having nightmares' about her mama having her belly opened (I have the same nightmares though I'm not 6 years old!)

Anyway, 1976 does not seem so far... but, ne, I'm not nostalgic! She and I being now mamas make us the happiest!
What makes me smile with that pic above is the way my mama holds my sister on my knees... a love gesture I feel now so natural when holding Lola, when holding babies.

(happy sigh)
**~~*^* ***~~*^* *

(dancing around, waiting for news from Gweno!)
**~~*^* *~~*^* *

It began in the year 2257

...or rather at about 1.00 tonight on my tv screen!

I've still some work to do tonight, but there will be some highly expected rewards: a hot dog whose sausage has a funny (I don't say really "stooopid" though...)face.

this:



wanna fight that:



And the lil one below..



..wanna try what it feels to be in-between... how salacious!

Cause nothin' lasts forever...Even cold November rain

The Guns'lyrics really suited our weekend in Bretagne!

Just the three of us there was fantastic. When we arrived on the first evening, at about midnight, we started a warm fire, had warmer drinks and definatly hot music.


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We finally jumped into bed early in the morning!... a few hours later we were about to turn into Hercules in rubber boots :P

(memo to self: green rubber boots should be an old story nowadays)

We spent 3 days getting rid of the cob on the walls of another room... so that we can make the old stones visible again.
You have to be so organized when you restore such a old house...you just can't imagine... To make the floors, you have to make the walls first, and when you want to make the floor, you must *KNOW* what kind of heating system you will use.

House Elf, I *neeeeeeeed* you

Anyway, the country side was in some particular november mood. All looked grey.. the yellows, the greens, the reds... they all looked grey.

But it was fine, with the work on the hobbit house, then the warm times around the fireplace of the family house... it was purrrfect!

I could not help though projecting myself in the future, living there at this time of the year...

Living in a hamlet will be something for the city goil I am! Sometimes I feel like I'm going to turn into a fat farmer having some heavy peas'soup at 7.00, jumping to bed at 8.00, etc etc...
eeeeck

hehe... I will need my comfort there, I tell you! (Do I sound posh??)
I will definatly need to be connected to the world with a (slow) internet connection.
That might sound stupid to think about the internet when you start a new life, running -almost- neekid, happy in the country side. But that will means a lot to me. I will *neeeeeed* to keep links with what I've used to enjoy in Paris since 30 years. And the internet will definatly help me.

Phewwwwwww

I feel better now!
lol!

Not so easy to change of life... and never easy to get overpositive when November rain is around :-)

We are not alone

Starting the weekend (yup some are lucky) with another quizz, isn't life full of bubbles?!

A test found on Etolane's blog...there you go:

Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?

you are William Gibson
The chief instigator of the "cyberpunk" wave of the 1980s, his razzle-dazzle futuristic intrigues were, for a while, the most imitated work in science fiction



I like SF, but I've never been attracted by Gibson's word. I've started a couple of times again Neuromancer... but neeee... I just got fed up.
I should try it in French I think, maybe that would be somehow different...?

F, 30, looking for a strong, obedient and motivated HE

Yup, I'm looking for a really helpful, House Elf. The deal is... you help us with the house and you'll enjoy the happiest times with us, I swear it! (spitting)

We leave tonight for 3 days in Bretagne. 3 days of work again...
This time, there won't be anybody to take care of the shrimpette (who's fookin ill by the way: double otitis + scarlet fever + flu! no kiddin!!!)... so Martin or I will do it while the other works.
Talk about organisation...

And yes, I RILLY need a House Elf because I've just listed the BIG works that mus be done soon... and Gawd... that's a lot (of energy + money)!

-the heating system
-the water-heater
-water evacuation
-the floors
-2 stairs
-restauring the old fireplace
-electricity
-plumbery

These are the most important... the works that have to be done before we can hope to live there.
And for each kind of work, you have to chose which system is the best, at what coast, if you're able to install it yourself, etc, etc... (yawn)

This time, we'll prepare the floor so that next time we can put a new wooden one (that we hope to find at a good price).

We'll also clean an old beam we have to be used for the top of the fireplace (I really wonder how we'll manage to make it stand on top!!!) and prepare the old stones for the 2 walls around the fireplace.

I really hope we'll make something nice with all that... because we are not expert at all in anything!

Have a good weekend, you lucky ones! ;-)

Monthy Python's gang

You are a Lumberjack...with definite issues...


What Monty Python Sketch Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


LOL! I don't know what I am exactly here but it looks funny!

Training for Xmas

The only thing Lola's accepted to do today was cooking. She's caught such a cold yesterday... and today she's been like sitting on the moon, with red eyes, hot head, running nose and terrible cough. Poor Shrimpette!
She was awake most of last night (and so we were), and I believe tonight won't be better. If it's like yesterday, I will go and take care of her and sleep with her (challenge: her bed is only 1m40 long! lol).
But Martin has to recover, and the shrimpette is feeling so bad.
We'll see.

Anyway, we've cooked today Lithium's biscuits! they were excellent! They look less nice than his, but trust me, you'd drool to have dem! hehe
Thank you, you Chef!

Our mason's gone

Yesterday we called to check if we could meet our mason next weekend in Bretagne. We want to build the chimney and need advice.

But, to go straight to the point, our mason's just died.
Schock.

His deperate wife managed to explain that it happened very quickly, but that is was not an accident. A few weeks ago, he had felt some pain in the back.. Nothing suprising with his job. But as it was a kind of constant pain, he finally agreed to go to the doc for a checking.
A cancer -which had spread to its terminal form- was discovered. 3 weeks later, that was it. He was not forty. had 2 lil kids.

That really broke our heart. He was such a nice man. Available, generous, talentuous. We have to sculpt his name somewhere in the house.

I'm happy I do *believe*, *praying* has suddenly helped me here. I really did not expect it. I was not looking for it.

Anyway, such a sudden death make our life so fragile. You don't know what tomorrow will bring.

We've to live every minute to the maximum, and these are not just nice words...
sigh

I feel lucky and alive today. I feel selfish too for inevitably focusing on my own life and threat of death.

Not loving stairs today...

After a few hours of intense work (with cross legs) yesterday, I stood up and just... fell!
lol... (I wish I had a more adventuruous story to tell, but nenene)...
Dunno, it felt like one of my leg was asleep, or maybe my body was asleep, my energy just concentrating on my working hand.

Anyway, I got a sudden violent pain in the left ankle, which is now blue and getting bigger. Today I can hardly walk.

No way to practice my sophisticated cat walk! lol

Anyway, I laugh, but I have to follow the shrimpette, of course, I also have to go out at least 2 times... eeeeck... and when I think of the 5 floors, the stairs... the shrimpette in the arms (she's now almost 14 kg!!!)

Wish me luck!

When black is beautiful ridiculous!

Martin just came across this site which has listed the top 10 most ridiculous black metal pics of all time
LOL
What a brilliant idea! Have a look at it, and read the comments, it's good, really good! hehe

I think I also like metal for that too... it can be really fun when people are getting themselves too seriously!.. Because wether you want it or not, metal is that too! :P

Frolich Geschray

Next time we go to Hamburg might be earlier than we thought... which would be end of Spring.

Thorsten, Martin's old friend and leader of the band in which he used to play -Frolich Geshray-, would like Martin to sing one of the songs on their new cd!


Frolich Geschray in 2004

Martin has a great deep voice, specially when it comes to sing such medieval songs. He would sing actually a medieval song for which he re-wrote the lyrics at the time... making them more salacious I think!
hehe

So when they start recording the cd, we might join if we can afford it really.
I find the project really kewl, and I luuuve the idea that Martin still participates a lil bit to his "old band" with this song!


Martin and Thorsten back in 1997

(dancing with the tamburin)