Snails n acorns.

Time : 9:18pm


Location : the Chair

Weather : a humid 13 C..yes it is night time



It took me almost all day to get going. I just could not function. I tried to, I really did. But apart from the vacuuming and laundry, nothing.

Once the late afternoon hit, I decided to go out for a solid walk. I was out for a little more than an hour and a half, walking along my favourite path in the Hill.

I noticed something;

There are a lot of snail shells and a lot of acorns here. An odd amount. I really should have photographed some evidence, but I chose not to. A poor decision on my part.

gooooaaattttt
with a bell :)

With this bountiful amount of acorns about, I wondered, would they be good to pick up an eat, once shelled? I remembered gathering acorns from the Oak trees at school and taking them home to be roasted in the oven. But I can not remember if we picked them off of the tree or off of the ground. I feel like the ones on the ground would “not be clean” like picking apples off the ground, but also, acorns are in shells… Feedback please. Also, if you have any acorn recipes, please post!!

Oh, and I saw some goats.

When I got home I felt a zillion times better, fully energized and ready to roll! Too bad I had to roll out the door almost immediately to get Lou from school. Oh well, it’s the way she goes.

I brought along a little something to do while I wait for the class to pass, and by the end of the class I felt very productive. So productive in fact I was in a very good mood. So good, I did not mind waiting with Lou and her friend for the long lost mother to arrive 20 minutes after the class, as always.

When we returned home, something odd happened; Lou asked me for help with her homework. I see this as a forward step in our relationship. Turns out we had to do some research on comets and asteroids. Sadly all my Magic School Bus in Outer Space knowledge is stored somewhere deep within my mind, and is inaccessible due to the large amount of Bananarama lyrics that are on top. (Corner Gas reference anyone? Haha)

While Lou worked, I did some doodles and drawings with my wonderful German pencil crayons. Lou was so impressed with my incredible artistic abilities that we coloured for almost an hour.

When Marie-Anne got home, we played tag and took mirror photos while modeling my many pairs of sunglasses. Awesome.

I also managed to make the perfect amount of food for supper. Score!


kewl catz


Yes, today was a fine day, once I got myself going. I should have gone for a run, then washed my running clothes, but unfortunately that was not the order of events. What’s done is done though, and now it is time for me to withdraw to my room, sadly it is not in the basement, actually, we don’t have a basement. I don’t think anyone here has a basement.. I wonder why..

Speaking of houses, when you build a house in France you are only allowed to build X square feet (actually I think it is meters here) of living space (not including garage). What people do, is build a large garage, then turn it into a living room, or an office. Interesting trick of the French eh?

Back to the basement. Too bad my room is not in the basement because now I can no longer scoot away and exclaim “I’m going into my cave!!!” which is one of my favourite lines to throw around at home. I could replace Cave with Lair though…

Well, time to withdraw into the Lair and work on the Project.. hah hah hah..

9:39 pm

H.P.

Time: 9:29pm


Location : the Couch

Weather : spitting rain and a breathy breeze



Today was rather relaxing. Again.

I woke up not feeling very snappy, I had had a tough time falling asleep because of all the extra light in my room. For some reason the ON light from the stereo was extra luminescence and even though my shutters were well closed as every night, a ton of moonlight was spilling into my room, reminding me of the story of a classical composer that copied his music by the light of the moon, giving him very poor eye sight.

I did go out for a quick run in the rain. I quite enjoy running in the rain. I do not know why. It is very refreshing and even though you feel very hot from your layers, you still feel very cool.

Nobody in the house (Marie-Anne, Lou or Pierre) could wrap their head around the fact that I like the rain. I don’t think many people in southern France enjoy weather that inhibits their relaxing lifestyle. Examples: rainy days making the outdoors less pleasurable and the snow bringing everything to a halt. One must not cramp the ‘style of a southern French man, as I always say (as of now..).

There were no cooking adventures today. Boo hoo.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room, planning out the trip to Germany for the holidays. After about an hour and a half of planning with my counterpart via Skype, we discovered we were not on the same page.. of the calendar. I’m not saying that the trip is cancelled, not at all, for me at least. I will definitely still be exiting the country to visit my German friends as well as my French ami, my plans are just a little different now (maybe). We did start some new potential plans (if I get a week or two off during the winter break in February) to visit Spain. Again, this plan is merely an egg, the plan is not even hatched.

I needed to stretch my legs, and as the fitness campaign here says; Mange! Bouge!. I had eaten, and now I needed to move. So I headed outside, in my beloved brown raincoat, for a walk.

I started off the general route, on my way to down town, but I decided to see if anything was popping at the Sports Complex. As always, the lights were off. Unless there are some kind of meditation in the dark, or dodge ball in the dark classes that I am missing out on, nothing goes on in that complex. Ever.

My route, now lengthened, took me through the heart of Luynes. I looked to my right and saw a road I had never walked on before, so I veered right. (Please note, that while I was walking this new territory, all in my mind I was narrating my adventure, in my mind, and I will do my best to copy it, from my mind, on to here)

The road appeared really European to me. The road was straight and went on forever. Maybe it was the darkness of night, or the fact that the rainy ambiance made everything glisten and the wind gave me chills. The houses looked a little older, and the trees looked slightly menacing, all curved over, sans leaves. Did I mention the road was awfully straight? And that a fence had little pokey spires on it? I felt like a Dementor (creature from Harry Potter) might swoop down on me.

Why had I not brought my camera?

I noticed I had subconsciously quickened my pace, I didn’t mind, I was out for exercise.

The road went on forever. I walked for 10 minutes before I came to an intersection. I found it very very weird. And oddly European.

I went left. The road curved up a hill and I felt a little more at ease when I saw a train go by on the hill above me. I finally had something to bear my location off of.

A side road on my right distracted me. It went wound downhill and looked a little more inviting, there were some light houses. My very active mind reminded me of a time a couple of summers ago when a group of friends and I were returning from a weekend camping trip up North. In hopes to make it to the Yukon instead of going home, we decided to take all the right turns that we could. We ended up returning a couple hours late after a pit stop in the P.A. Denny’s around 9pm. A very fond memory of mine..

Back to the present.

As I turned right, reminiscing, I found this road to be not friendly at all. Still very light, and seeming nice, I got an eerie feeling. Like a well light house with nobody in it. My mind was running wild. Then I went around the bend (on my feet, not in my mind). Right in front of me was a van like vehicle with its Hazards on. It looked like the Green Goblin from Spider Man. I promptly turned around and continued home.

I got my little bit of exercise for the evening. I felt refreshed. And my mind was tired, after all, it had ran wild for nearly an hour while I was out.

The remainder of the evening was filled with my doodling aimlessly and writing this entry.

No photos today, sorry!
9:50pm

Julia.

Time : 9:45 pm


Location : My spot on the couch

Weather : very agreeable, although it was tad chillier than normal today



One of my favourite things about Saturdays, are how I can wake up whenever I want, but I still get up at a respectable time.

An interesting bit of the morning, also a very small amount of the morning, was spent in the kitchen wit h Marie-Anne. I learned how to make Beouf Bourguignon. It is actually really simple.

en route to Aix

You start with a little bit of olive oil and some chopped up onions in the bottom of the pot (in our case, the pressure cooker). Next you throw in the pieces of beef so they can start to brown. Once they are nicely browned, you put in a couple carrots (sliced into rounds), two bay leaves and some garlic cloves (whole). The sauce is actually just wine. The kind of wine is Bourguinon, hence the name. We also put in some flour to thicken it, along with some salt and pepper to season. We did add some water just so there would be some more sauce. We sealed the lid on and left it on the stove on a low setting. A couple hours later, paired with some potatoes, we had a delicious lunch.

carousel

Lou and Marie-Anne headed out to see a Christmas show for the afternoon and Pierre went off somewhere himself. I headed to down town Luynes to catch a bus to go to Aix for the afternoon. Unfortunately I did not know that I have to hail a bus like you would a taxi, and it passed right by. Welcome to France.

This little learning experience gave me some time to check out the Téléthon that was going on in the town square. There were a few tables with little crafts for sale, along with tons of baking that I was tempted to buy. While I was there, a girl, Chloé, was on stage singing. This kid has an amazing pair of pipes. Even with the extremely sore throat, that was evident, you can hear the raw talent coming out of her raw throat. Wonderful.

Please note that I made it to and from Aix, driving, without getting lost, turned around or in any kind of mishap. Although this is a plus for me, sadly it does not end with a funny story.

Christmas Market

Since I did not take the bus, I no longer had time to stroll around a certain art gallery I had wanted to visit. Thankfully the collection will be around until mid-January, I’m in no rush.

The movie I went to see was Pitoche. Set in the late 70s, an aging housewife takes over her husband’s umbrella factory while he is ill. The rest of the movie revolves around her realising there is more to life than being a housewife and trying to break the way for women in the working world, keeping in mind this was set in 1977-1979. Also a French film, I doubt anyone reading is going to watch it, so I’ll reveal the spoiler (if you are intending, skip to next paragraph now). While working through her divorce she becomes inclined to run for Office. And thus becomes the first female president of France.

the fountain

I do not know if this story was based off of someone’s life or not, either way, it was very good. It was funny, but also had it’s serious moments. I was also the youngest person in the theatre, by at least a decade. But hey, that’s what you get for going to a movie in mid-afternoon right? Haha, just kidding. Throwin’ some humour around ok?

Before heading into the theatre, I was feeling rather lethargic, and was afraid of falling asleep, so I headed to the concession to get a coffee. You know you’re in France when you order a Café and get a little cup of espresso. What was I thinking I was going to get a cup of coffee? End of story.

rides for the children

Upon returning home, I learned how to make a Quiche, which is also fairly French. It is also fairly simple, so I will skip the recipe part and just let you know that is ridiculously delicious and I am going to make them ALL THE TIME. When I feel inclined.

Enjoying some piano and incense, I am in the living room and bringing my day to a close.

A positive aspect of me missing the bus, I was able to return home and get my camera, and now you will be able to enjoy a couple of photos of Aix during the winter months fully decked out in Christmas lights.

10:12 pm

Lights everywhere

why,why,why.

Time : 9:53pm

cool house (from yesterday)

Location : The Chair, enjoying live piano

Weather : Apparently cold, I thought it was pretty nice..



I was wiped this morning. Zero energy.

I spent a good hour and a half trying to figure out the most economical way to tour Germany; Rail Pass or individual tickets. I’m leaning more towards the tickets, but I found a pass that may be cheap enough to equal out the trouble of buying many tickets. I had a killer headache from all the thinking and started to doubt myself on being able to plan this trip.

Not a house, but still cool
(from yesterday)

I think I have now learnt quite a bit of German and a little bit of Dutch.

Eventually I dragged myself out for a run. Half way through I decided to go exploring and work out with some intervals. I ended up staying out 20 minutes longer than I had planned. I have no idea how I kept running the whole time.

I had also planned on doing a bunch of housework to kill away the afternoon, but I could not find anything to do once I had swept and cleaned the general areas. I would have cleaned Lou’s room, but we need to do that together. Otherwise precious items will be misplaced and I do not want to have to deal with that.



Awesome trees (from yesterday)



More trees, still awesome though
(and from yesterday too)


I ended up going for a rather long walk. I tried not to walk on any roads that I normally walk along. I saw some very pretty houses I never knew existed. When I left the house the sky was a bright blue with the odd clouds. Halfway through the walk the sky got nasty and filled with huge rolling storm clouds. They seemed to be coming from the direction of Marseille and I was worried we were going to get horribly stormed on tonight. I was almost home when I looked up at the sky again. Everything had gone dark, and the sky was all grey. This reminded me of the day in ODS when Kim told us that the time it rains is when the clouds are low and all grey, no definition between them. Then I remembered the day while driving with Marissa and the sky was just like that, only there was no rain, just as I started saying how Kim taught us wrong, the hugest rain drop of my life landed smack dap in the middle of the windshield. Right then, I was sprinkled on, so I ran home.

The evening was not overly exciting. The most I got up to was finding out how to cook celeriac. I chose a dish that looked simple enough. But somehow I messed it up to the max.

a very intense scene

- Lou doesn’t like celeriac, I was doomed from the start

- I’m used to cooking for people who actually eat. Aka I made wayyy too much rice

- It was the wrong rice, again. All sticky and not granular. Why don’t I learn!!

- I thought we ate simple one dish meals, not multi dish meals on weeknights. I guess Friday is not a weeknight..

I’m in a bitter mood now.

On the plus side, I discovered two more kinds of cheese. Both of which I forget the name, and I am too tired to go check in the fridge.

I also have a stomach ache.

I’m just going to call it quits for the night. Haha

10:16 pm

Moments before Kim was right.

Magnetic.



mornin walk



Time : 8:43 pm

Location : The Chair

Weather : Apparently double jacket weather..



I finally made it to yoga today. But before that..

I had a relatively productive morning. I went to the town hall, which is more like a small office, and checked out some of the fliers they have there. I left with a bunch. My next move is to write down all of the events on my calendar so I always know what is going on around town and in Aix.

always gettin distracted by
that mirror..

I also stopped by the post office to check out some stuff. I almost bought a cook book for 5 euros. It looked so good. Everything super tasty. But now that I look back, it definitely was better that I did not. I’ll tell you why later on.

Today the reno guy was jamming out to No Doubt (Gwen Stefani’s old band) for half an hour. I found it relatively amusing, and hence the comment.



headin down town



rectangular square



So yoga class. The one thing it did for me was make me miss going to classes at One Yoga. I’m used to having 30 some people in a relatively small room, doing what I think is Hot Yoga. As in it gets really hot and you really pu sh yourself beyond your limitations. This was quite the opposite. There were three of us. The woman that ran it was nice, very considerate to how I sometimes got mixed up with the directions (Yoga in French, a good learning experience). Apart from us, there was one other person. It didn’t seem like anyone was missing either. We went very slowly. So slowly I couldn’t breath slow enough to keep my breaths in time. We did not go through many motions, or stances. We mainly worked on stretching out our backs. It really did not help that fact that I was the youngest by at least 40 years. At the end of the class, instead of feeling exhausted, nice and loosened up, relaxed, and sweaty, I felt like I had stretched my vocabulary and not my limbs. I was kind of disappointed. This was a trial class for me, and that is all I’m going to do from the place. Oh well.



a produce shop

I should have gone for a run after, but I did not. Instead I worked on The Project. I hope you all are happy to know that I made an incredible amount of progress, and have over come some major obstacles. I am well on my way to producing a master piece of this Project.

I also made a killer mochachino. I figured out how to make steamed milk without an espresso maker. All you have to do is put it in a jar or something, shake it vigorously for 30 seconds, microwave it on OPTIQUICK for 40 seconds, and there you go. You can pour the milk into your cup and them spoon the foam on top once you are done mixing it all up. Excellence in a cup.

After school, Lou and I spent about 40 minutes arranging all the English words on the fridge. We even missed the night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. We were enthralled. I wrote a message, as you will see, and found a way to teach Lou English!



most of down town



Lou lost a tooth today. I was really worried she was going to be unhappy or scared about it, even though it was not her first tooth, but it went over well. Until her mom got home, then it started to hurt. That’s jus the way it goes sometimes.

 
I made oven roasted garlic potatoes for supper. Along with some kabobs I found in the freezer. It all looked so delicious.

pretty much all of downtown

going out of town

Then Marie-Anne got home and popped some artichokes in the pressure cooker. I was worried that she had not seen that I had started supper already. Well, she had, but she did not see the kabobs. Apparently they do not eat a lot of meat on weeknights. I still do not know why. They seem to prefer eating pieces of deli meat with baguette and cheese. It seems very French to me.

also going out of town..

I have never eaten artichokes before. I was slightly intimidated by the massive mass of vegetable that sat on my plate. I picked off a “leaf” and popped it in my mouth. Lou looked at me like I was an alien. I’m very used to this look so I thought nothing of it, I got it the other night when she found out I eat the kiwi skin. She commented “You eat that too.” Again, referencing to the kiwis. I slowly took the “leaf” out of my mouth and said, “I have no idea if I do.” This is when I learned that although artichokes are slightly intimidating, they are not substantial food providers. All you do is nibble off the end of the leaves, after you dunk them in some kind of mustard sauce Marie-Anne whipped up.

Our work

My potatoes were a HUGE hit. Thank you Mom for making me love them as a kid, even though I did not like potatoes at the time. Lou said I should open a restaurant, which I found to be an odd comment for not 5 minutes before that she was explaining how she is not picky, she just does not like “weird food” (accented with a little eyebrow raise and look in my direction that I pretended not to notice).

Lou’s in bed, my day is pretty much done. I actually took photos today, as you can see.

Hope you enjoyed all o’ this!

9:10pm
PS once I got to adding the photos, I was having troubles arranging them, kind of the same problems you get with Microsoft word when things move to their own accord for no apparent reason.. Sorry for the disorganisation and unappealing-ness. :(
I did not put up all the photos, saved some for tomorrow in case I don't take any haha

my message

Parmesan Zucchini Casserole

Parmesan Zucchini Casserole


1 package (16 ounce) penne pasta
4 zucchinis, 1cm thick slices
2 teaspoons butter
1 large onion, sliced
2 large clove garlic, minced
4 c milk
¼ c flour
¾ c parmesan cheese, grated
Sal t and pepper to taste
4 carrots, peeled, grated
5 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/3 c dry bread crumbs
2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated



1. Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F)
2. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook 5-8 minutes. Stir in zucchini and let cook for 5 minutes, or until pasta is al dante. Drain.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pan, melt butter and sauté onion and garlic 1-2minutes. Add milk and flour. Stirring occasionally, let cook 5 minutes or until spoon become lightly coated. Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper.
4. In a 9x13” baking dish, combine pasta, vegetables, milk mixture and 4 tbsp of basil. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, 2tbsp parmesan cheese and remaining basil.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.



Makes 8 servings.
Proabably really good with some garlic butter sauteed shrimp.
Just sayin haha

found the measuring cup :D

Time : 9:33pm


Location : The Chair

Weather : Lovely 8C, enjoyed a full sunset today :)


Today was an all Lou day. Aka; Wednesday.

Due to the rain and non-functioning windshield wipers, we did not go to gymnastics. The Bureau of Employment needed to be tended to.

Having nothing else to do, and Lou was apparently starving (haha I sound so attentive to her needs), we had lunch before 1pm today. Which totally threw me off. Not really, but I found it odd.

Something else I found odd; the package said for them to be mini steaks (steakettes), but once I cooked up the little pucks of meat, and cut into it for our lunch, it turned out it was more like a hamburger patty. I’m not a huge huge fan of eating pucks of meat, and even less of eating pucks of meat that are supposed to be cushioned between a bun and other fixings. However, I made do with a little Dijon mustard.

Our one outing of the day was to get Lou some fake nail kit of some sort. We had no luck with that. While on the hunt I continued the Quest for the Pink Floyd CD. Also a flop.

Just looking at the track listings and comparing songs I know, like and don’t know, I think I will buy either Dark Side of the Moon, or Wish You Were Here. Anyone have any comments or suggestions?

When today first started, I was weary of Lou and a potential hang over from a little disagreement we had on if Moccasins are classified as shoes or socks from the previous night. I had let it go and accepted that they were shoes, even though the way I wear them they are 100% slippers, but when I went to tuck Lou in I was reminded.

Back to today, I was weary of the potential of me wearing ‘shoes’ inside, thankfully, the issue never arose and instead we bonded over nail polish. I painted her nails that lovely orange red color I have, mine were already done, and even got complimented on my skills.

Later I found out that nail polish is not to be worn to school, and only on weekends and holidays. Which I probably should have asked about, but did not think of it at the time. Now I know.

More bonding happened over a lovely bout of karaoke. Who knew ABBA was popular with young French kids? And of course, a near classic for kids; Aqua.

If we weren’t getting on well enough already, we solidified in the kitchen. I pretty much supervised the making of a casserole. I combined two recipes to make some kind of semi creamy Parmesan zucchini dish. It would have been pretty good, but Marie-Anne got back 45 minutes later than either of us expected and I did not put tinfoil on soon enough. The results were still kind of tasty, but not too creamy. Next time I will use a deeper dish and maybe a little more sauce. What sauce there was did taste very good. I’ll post the recipe ASAP.

That brings the day to a close.

I really should have taken a photo of the casserole so that I would at least have one photo for today, but it got eaten up too quick.

Oh well.

Tomorrow I will again attempt going to yoga. With my luck I will end up exiting the highway too soon and end up in Nice or Marseille..

9:58 pm