During the long Easter weekend, we decided to make a trip to a local local farm, La Ferme de Viltain, just 10km away from us. La ferme de Viltain, a family farm specialises in diary cattle farming. Diary products such as white cheese (fromage blanc and faisselle) and yogurt are produced from the on-site morning milking. …
What do you do with leftover rice from a sushi-takeout meal? Turn it into home-made fried rice – a quick-to-make, fail-proof recipe for a lazy runner like me. The local sushi restaurant always gives us two portions of white rice to go with our sushi takeout. It is a waste to throw them away. One …
My favourite crime fiction author of the moment is Pierre Lemaitre, a French writer. For those of you who are fans of crime fiction (French it call “Polar”), I strongly recommend you read his books. Pierre Lemaitre writes only in French. However, some of his more famous works have been translated into English. I came …
I first heard of Moxie two weeks ago. It was in a dialogue between elderly Mrs. Strauss and the Jimmy McGill, the protagonist of Netflix’s Better Call Saul (Season 1 Episode 5). Mrs. Strauss : “Moxie is in such short supply these days.“Jimmy McGill : “I pride myself on my Moxie.” What is Moxie? Not …
I have just added two more fresh-from-the-bookstore books to the wobbling pile of ‘to-read’ books on the shelf. This pile does not include the stack of Reading-In-Progress (RIP) books (my 3 summer reads too) sitting on the other end of the shelf. And, the latter has yet to account for my various kindle purchases sitting …
One of my summer projects is to catch up on my readings. The fickle-minded and multi-tasking me embarked on my ‘to-read’ list by with the following three summer reads, in parallel. Summer Reads Read 1: The Three Musketeers I want to read the original text of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Why? We happened …
We moved! We bought and moved to a bigger apartment. Still in the same city, just 3 minutes walk away from the previous flat. It’s in a 70s building with a balcony that goes around the whole flat – the kitchen, living room, study room and bedroom. More than twice the size of the previous …
Time really flies. It’s already 13 days into 2018. Time to make New Year Resolutions. Ready to start 2018 I have had a good rest since I got back from Italy 3 weeks ago. There was not much teaching and my second semester of French classes will only start next week. It will be a …
I have enrolled in a one-year French classes at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3). It’s one of cheapest (compared to those offered by private institutions) language courses in the city and has a very limited of places. Hopefully the 16 hours / 8 classes per week heavy-duty schedule will bring my French to the next …
The year end festive season is coming to an end with Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day), a christian feast day. During the weekend of Epiphany, one gets to eat the Galette des Rois (The Kings’ Cake). It is a cake stuffed with almond flavoured filling. King of the Household The tradition goes that a figurine is …