Like most French, we planned to make use of the Ascension weekend, end of May, to take a Road & Bike trip. The religious holiday always falls on a Thursday. We wanted to “Faire Le Pont” or “Build the Bridge” as what a French would say. That is, to extend the holiday by taking the …
I always wanted to see Cherry Blossoms, or in Asia what we call Sakura, a Japanese term to describe the blossoms. For the residents in Asia, enjoying the flowers means taking a trip to Japan in Spring. I was thus delightfully surprised when I saw that I did not have to travel to Japan to …
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. …
Rambouillet Semi-Marathon completed at a finishing time of 1:48:20. Mixed feelings. The result was disappointing as it was 3 minutes slower than the initial target I gave myself, and 6 minutes slower than my personal best. However, I have to admit that my target dropped to 2h00 during the race. Steep climbs, False flats, Headwind, …
Less than half a day to Rambouillet Semi-Marathon . Surcompensation Silviu and I have finished the Surcompensation (“Overcompensation” in English), our last run before D-Day. We did a relatively, easy-paced 5.5km run, interspersed with 6 sets of 20s sprints, with 30s of recovery between sets. I have never heard of “Surpcompensation” (translated as “Overcompensation”) until …
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 …
I kickstarted 2019 with a 10km race, Foulées de Malakoff, at the beginning of February. It was a Championnats de France 10km qualifying race. If I could hit below 48min, I would be qualified for the national championship at the end of the year. 10km History The 10km race was supposed to be a part …
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 …