I persuaded husband to buy the Danish Meat platter for dinner, and it was delicious!
Although he was quite disgusted with the prawn and egg mayo in the middle topped with caviar - ah well his loss!
The following day we visited the Christmas Market in Manchester City Centre. Apologies for the lack of pictures but it was too busy to pull out a camera for piccies.
But ... I got to try some Raclette from the Swiss stand
So I've been a bit lax on the book reading front and I think I've currently got four on the go at the moment.
To go back to a book from a while ago, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. A couple of weeks ago I went to a talk as part of Literary Leicester, on Catcher in the Rye. When I read it a few months back I honestly didn't get it.
I got that Holden was trying to find his place in life and his apathy meant that all the things he deemed to be phony would never be tackled. His solution was to hole up in a cabin in the wilderness, come on!
But I didn't get why it was so acclaimed, however, after attending this talk, I sort of now do. Dr Sarah Graham, University of Leicester, explained the context in which the book was written and what came before it. I can now see that at that time, it was one of better books which encapsulated the teenage experience and it's sense of disassociation from the world when dealing with grief. (Flip, that sounds vaguely academic for me! eek!)
I think this is one of the books which I needed the classroom atmosphere to digest fully, or at least a copy of the footnotes! Not sure who I would recommend read this, I wouldn't say it's a universal book because the book demands a certain empathy from its reader, because let's face it, some people won't really care about a teenage dropout drinking his way around Manhattan.
I'm currently reading Moby Dick so lead on Ishmael ...
Although I'm relearning my French, and I thought I was doing well, I was brought down to earth with a bump today!
I work in a University and one of the members of staff was needing some help deciphering the French answerphone system. Evenutally we got the problem sorted but it was a mix of French and English in the end that did it. Whoops! Oh and my Sexy Foreign Woman providing me with vocab words when I got stuck, thanks darlin!
Maybe I should have more lessons :
Or not ...
Happy weekend guys, I'm off for a dirty weekend and to improve the lives of Mancunians by smiling at 100 of them!
As fun as it sounds to try and make our house take off with loads of balloons, Mythbusters totally busted that one!
But ... we did do the balloon release this weekend. We took Paul's niece and nephew out to the Build a Bear Workshop for her birthday treat. (Got to commend BABW in Leicester, they were fantastic!)
And then we came back and did the balloon release :
Look at the joy on those kids faces!
We had also planned on doing Chat Roulette that night as part of Paul's birthday celebrations, but this happened :
Cocktails at Hakamou, Dancing at Mosh, Bed at 3am ... whoops
Ooh, and as another side thing, I tried my hand at icing a cake (albeit a dinky one) but for my first try I am pretty chuffed :
Can I count this as having properly iced a cake?!?!?!?!?!?
I'd be winter. I count down the days until the snow begins and spend far too much time frolicking in it (so if you see strange footprints in the snow in Leicester - there's a good chance it's me!) Plus, I'm one of the strange people who overheats in winter and doesn't require 16 million layers! This winter will be extra special as we celebrate our first wedding anniversary.
Colour :
I would be the deepest shade of blue - the colour of Van Gogh's Starry Night, the sky twinkling with stars - bliss. Hence the colour of my wedding dress.
Scent :
I'd be home baking. I aim to do at least one bit of home baking each month, and usually end up doing more. Nothing is more enjoyable than the scent of cakes and biscuits coming out of the oven.
Time of Day :
I would be three o'clock in the morning. It's the hour where most people are asleep in bed and the world is still and dark.
Food :
I'd be coconut - white creamy goodness that's perfect for any occasion - cocktails, cakes you name it.
Drink :
I would be a tall glass of Baileys, because let's face it pub measures aren't big enough - it has to be a tall glass!
Stone :
I'd be Snowflake Obsidian. I own quite a few chunks of the stuff and I love the contrast of dark and light, plus who doesn't love a snowflake!
Flower :
I would be a Crocus. I love the carpets of crocii at the onset of spring. Although I'm sad winter is over, I love seeing the little champions emerge from the soil and snow.
Place :
I'd be a hidden woodland copse. I think these places are so magical and beautiful because they untouched.
As you'll know by now, we didn't get to go on our fantabulous road trip and we're not sure when we're going to get to do it.
So that all the research I did was not for naught, I ask you to come with me on a virtual road trip to show you what we would have done :
Day -1 : Staying at the Premier Inn, Dunkirk, Canterbury overnight ready to catch the ferry in the morning to France!!!
Day 1 : Taking the ferry from Dover, England to Dunkerque, France. Maybe I'll repeat what I did the last time I was on the ferry (and no, for those of you who were with me on that school trip, I will not fall over!) but sing to the cliffs as we depart our fair shores :
Yes, I know, I'm an idiot. Moving on ....
We would arrive in Dunkerque around 11am local time, and drive down to Troyes for our first stop.
So why Troyes, well, whilst I was doing some research on places to go, this site told me that Troyes (along with Lyon and Dijon) was the place to go. As it happened, the route we were taking encorporated all these places quite neatly.
The plan when we arrived in Troyes (apart from some sneaky shopping - sorry Paul but you know it had to happen!) was a little bit vague. When we were making the bookings we encountered two problems :
1 - the (only) campsite wouldn't book us in for one night, however, if we turned up on the day and they had spaces we could stay. So, we had to scout out for other campsites in the area, just in case this one was full and we had to carry on down the road.
2 - the tourism website is only in French, and whilst I can speak a fair bit of it, it's a bit irritating when you're trying to plan activities having to refer to a dictionary every 5 seconds.
However, we decided to follow the Rue des Chats, which took in sites around the town, and just follow our noses to see what was around.
Recently, I visited Georgia, USA with Scarlett O'Hara and the South American jungle with the Buendia Family.
First of all, a disclaimer, Gone with the Wind is like the film - it's a bit of an epic! (1000+ pages)
I have watched the film, many many moons ago when I stumbled upon it one Christmas eve on the telly, but I don't remember it at all. The book was brilliant.
I enjoy reading books which have a historical context and although the amount of history did get a bit much at times, it was absolutely essential for those of us who haven't been taught about the American Civil War in school.
This book will take you a long time to read, but it is so worth it. Scarlett O'Hara is, to begin with, a heroine most unlikely and not one you want to relate to, but as the story develops, you begin to understand who she is and support her, even if you think marrying Frank Kennedy was a bad idea!
As for the Buendia family, or One Hundred Years of Solitude. This was definitely an interesting book and the family tree at the beginning definitely helping trying to decipher the Jose Arcadios from the Aurelianos.
I admit my attention waned when the story focussed on the male characters.
This is one of those books that sort of documents a history instead of a story. It also has a moral message coming all thr way through which for those of you who are Star Trek fans, would contervene the Prime Directive (yes, I know, geek!)In other words, let people be and don't interfere in less advanced societies, it doesn't always work out for the best.
Out of the two books I'm backing Gone With the Wind the whole way.
I'm now nearly a third of the way through the books, phew!
BTW I have read Catcher in the Rye but I am saving the review until I have been to this Catcher in the Rye seminar being held at work. Maybe another perspective will help me to appreciate it more.
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