Matt & Kim concert!!!

I had the greatest time ever last night! I have only ever been to one concert and that was AC/DC so I was far off in the back. This concert was at la Flèche d'or, a pretty small space so we were really there in all the action.
Matt & Kim have the best energy ever! I can honestly say that they were the most positive, energetic and happy-go-lucky musicians ever and that they're probably the only ones I'd ever really want to meet in real life.
It was great fun and next chance I get I'm definitely going back to see them!

Kim did a booty dance on top of the crowd, nearly fell a couple of times but it was awesome!!!


Only after concerts do we indulge in the nasty kebab shop fries and sandwiches.

Since I don't have great pictures I'll put in an extra from another source so you actually know what they look like.
 I pulled this image from a blog last night but I don't remember which, you could probably find it on google.

PS: Matt & Kim are probably more famous for their awesome videos. I really recommend... all of them! They're such a great laugh!


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Cute and Bothersome

Don't animals have a knack at looking especially adorable when they are in the way?

 Sitting on my brother's IGCSE study guides.

 In my camera box, the second we finished shooting.

Just after I scolded him for trying to climb on my lap at the dining room table.

Just before.

In front of the door.

In the sink.

She wasn't really in the way but we were in a hurry to leave the forest and she was tired so took a little sit in the water. I had to go and fetch her and the back seat was soaked.

Sightseeing and the beauty in Paris

I love going shopping with Jess because he'll just change our route when confronted with a beautiful building and have a little turn inside just to appreciate it. I'm lazy and only leave the house with a purpose so it's good to have somewhere to go with him.






















These were taken at a church at the 'Le Marais' stop in Paris.





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At least you can say you lived through it

I was on the metro today with my darling Jess, line 1 to be more exact, and the metro car stopped. Not unusual as they often stop a bit on strikes and continue right after. The car however stopped very hard and the bruise on my back is enough to prove it. Then it stayed stopped, for quite some time... Then the car started to fill with some kind of misty smoke... Suffice it to say everyone on the metro looked at each other.

Me and Jess decided that, when the metro started going again it was a better idea to walk to the nearest station that connected to the lines that brought us home so as not to continue on the smoky one. Unfortunately as we tried to exit the metro line we were confronted by a metro grill, a closed metro grill. We all looked at each other again. Until a nice man came up and opened the grill.
Jess and I fondly recalled that scene in Titanic where everyone gets looked on the lower decks of the boat as it is sinking, or a zombie movie scene where the gas would have infected everyone and we would have to stay in there until the zombieness takes us over and we start eating each other. Or wait, zombies don't hurt each other do they?
In any case we got to the next metro station unharmed and slightly relieved. We parted ways and I trotted off to my metro line 12. As we sped off into the tunnels a flash of light ran up the sides of the tracks and the metro car and the metro jerked a bit as all the lights started flashing. It then continued as if nothing had happened.

I might never be able to face a metro again...

One day we'll look back on this and laugh

So a couple weeks back our little basin/tank for our koi fish started to lose water. We've been having some rat problems because they love the bird seed and our Husky does love to eat the rats but since he comes in at night there are still some that get through his guard and raid the bird cage. In the bird cage is the kois basin. Naturally we thought the might be a hole or a problem with the water system. Turns out there was both, but this isn't about that.
What do you do when the water of your fish tank is decreasing rapidly and you have no idea how to fix a tank and your handyman is away and the replacement giant plastic basin/tank is apparently glued to the second basin that you bought together because it was cheaper to do so? Well in my mother's case you call on your daughter (i.e me). The two basins were so damn stuck that I had to go crazy on them with a hammer before they would separate. Then came the fun part of bucketing the water from the fish tank (that was still left anyhow) and putting it into the spare basin and all-the-while trying to fish out some temperamental jumping koi fish.

Having fish is fun.

Accidents and bad people

Yesterday my husky, Eldur, was out on a walk with my mother and the other dogs in the forest near my house. Elder likes to run a lot and often runs off into the trees to enjoy his speed. After the few first minutes outside my mom heard the anguished screams of a dog. She knew instantly that it was Eldur.
(Let me just take a second to mention that barbed wire is illegal in France. Anything other than electric wire of picket fences is punishable by law.)
My Mom spent the next few hours looking for Eldur only to find him limping back to the car.
Eldur had caught himself in barbed wire and in fear had torn a whole part of his chest away.
I was horrified as she brought him back and we rushed to the vet.
(side note: our normal vet said that she couldn't see us because she was off for lunch and we could see her at 2. Just clean the wound she said... Suffice it to say we are no longer going to that vet....)
We got Eldur back today. The poor darling wines whenever he has to use his leg, the muscles had been ripped, but he was such a good sport with the vet.





I guess I'm just horrified at French vets for the moment...




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Supposedly so...

I love going on walks with my Mom and the dogs, but sometimes the walks seem to take us places that don't seem to be made for actual walking.

Below you will find the 'entrance' to the passage.

This is the passage. I looked questioningly at my mother as she pointed onwards, a big grin on her face.

There were trees fallen or just growing sideways all over the path. This particular branch was slightly to high and slightly too low for Feanor to get over or under. She managed to squeeze under it by pushing it up and dragging her back legs across the floor. I couldn't help but laugh.

My mother, cheering me on as I got caught for the fifth time to some branches.

All in all, walking can be a dangerous sport too you know.

On this rainy day in the South of France

I think, on days like this, about old French sayings.
When it rains a lot in France, they say "il pleut des cordes".
Literally, it's raining ropes. Basically it means that it's raining so much that the rain looks like a continuing rope of water. I agree with this saying today.







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Something tasty to think about

A delicious way to make your children eat vegetables. I think this is possibly one of my favorite vege dishes!

Slice up some Carrots, Parsnips, Sweet potatoes and Rutabagas into thin slices and place in rows in an oven dish.






Cover the all with six tbs of Thyme Honey, 6 tbs of Olive oil and 6 tbs of Water (I recommend a few more tbs of water maybe make the total 8 tbs). If you don't have Thyme Honey just crush up some Thyme and put it in regular honey. Add a few twigs of Thyme on top of the whole package and then insert in the oven at 220°C (I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit). For 1 hour.






These are now a delicious arrays of crispy, sweet, and absolutely mouthwatering vegetables!






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Monday's Recommendation

Today's recommendation may be considered a children's book, and it probably is, but this set of short stories is delightful for all ages!

An Eva Ibbotson Collection
by Eva Ibbotson

First Story
Which Witch?

Second Story
The Secret of Platform 13

Second Story
Island of the Aunts

Each story, as you may have guessed, is magical and follows one or other magical occurrences or creatures. My favorite of all three stories is "Which Witch?" but I'll let you decide which you prefer on your own. I don't think I can give a synopsis without giving away too much since the stories themselves are not that long in themselves. I can just recommend the beautiful way the writer creates the atmosphere and stays close to the original ideas about evil magic (and good). You will love the romance, the humor and the all around mystery of these stories.

Japan!

I'm sure everyone has heard of what is going on in Japan at the moment. I have a couple friends there and my father works in Asia. Than God he was in Singapore when the earthquake and Tsunsmi hit, but I have a friend who lives near the nuclear plant and I really fear for Japan if another nuclear disaster hits their country.
I've discovered, in donating to Red Cross, that you can donate through Amazon (it wasn't working for us on the Red Cross site). I urge anyone who is willing to give a little something to help our game making, katana wielding, robot creating brothers and sisters.

My job, my studies, my life

This is all I'm going to be looking at for a couple of days.... It'll be my first action film to edit! Woohoo!

 

PS: This is ProTools

Spring, Spring, Spring!

Eldur was the one that enjoyed the sun the most

I really, really, really want it to be spring! Can't wait for the flowers and the birds and the bees and the SUN! During this whole week it seemed to me that Spring had finally showed itself (when we went on a walk two days ago I was in a tank top! Now its raining), but then as the weekend came along I realized that it was just a sneak preview of what we could expect in what... a month or two. Sigh...

I thought that maybe others had not experienced a sneak preview yet so I might as well display the South of France, when it tricks you into thinking it's going to be warm.

The situations we find ourselves in

I do not have any pictures to describe what just happened to me. I hope my words will do the scene justice.

Moments after we got out of the car, just getting home from bringing my little brother back from his boarding school, I ran around with my dogs as I always do when I return because they are happy and I am happy that they are happy (...yeah!). It was when I ran into the garden happily chasing after my husky and getting paws in the face as he played with me that I noticed a flopping kind of wet sound coming from the birds' cage. I turn, only to find one of the koi fish has jumped out of the basin and is wriggling on the floor helplessly! As this is not a situation that happens often and my koi are pretty big fish I bolted for the house screaming for my mother at the top of my lungs and gesticulating madly as she appeared in the doorway. I slammed past her screaming some inarticulate words and many repetitions of the word net, net , net! She dashed after me as she finally grasped the meaning of my babble and got to the net before me.
I took firm hold of the net and made a quick run for the door, unfortunately (because during all this time I was still screaming at the top of my lungs about the fish, the fish, the fish!) my saint-bernard was becoming extremely excited and as she is a young dog she still has a fetish for biting when she plays. Because I was running away quickly the only thing she could thing to hang on to was, of course, my ass. Screaming, in pain this time, as the big dog's teeth slammed into my butt and pulled down on my pants, I tossed the net to my mother. Slapping the dog away we made it into the garden and sprinted to the cage.
When we arrived in the cage the fish was motionless, my mother's step faltered and she muttered something about it being too late. I screeched yet again as I saw its mouth move and I pushed her towards it with the net. She quickly flicked it up and dropped it down into the water. The fish, his name is Stanley by the way, started swimming immediately and swam a bit wonky for a few minutes before he joined the other koi.
Safe from danger, I finally let out a long sigh and crumbled to the ground. My mother stood there, heaving slightly with a worried look on her face, and then Valentine (our Cockatiel) flew over and landed on her head.

Missed recommendation

I'll just spring right into it and not mention that it is actually Wednesday and in fact not Monday.

I'm pretty sure that everyone knows this series and that most people have read this book. But this is about sharing how freaking awesome this book is nonetheless! I have probably read it about... ten times before putting it down and then reading it again a couple more times.

Martin the Warrior
by Brian Jacques

Redwall is already a fantastic series to be sure. But if there is one book from the Redwalls, other than the first book of Redwall, that I will just have to recommend to you, it is Martin the Warrior.
Martin the Warrior tells the story of Martin the mouse and how he became one of the greatest warriors in the history of Redwall. The story switches between a narrator and the actual Martin as he goes along in his journey. I won't say anything about the story because every moment should be enjoyed to the fullest, I'll just say that this little mouse caught my heart in just a few pages and I'm sure he'll do the same for you.

Because when you're a Belgian, you just can't help yourself

So my mother and I noticed that our beer supply is dangerously low. We shrieked for a few minutes and then threw ourselves in the car to speed off to the nearest Belgian beer shop.

Some things you just can't hurry.

Finally we got two crates worth of delectable beers!

Since I forgot to recommend a movie, I just noticed, I will recommend a beer for now until I can think of a good book.


If something light is what you prefer than I recommend:

Cuvée des Trolls! A great light blond beer.

If you want something a bit stronger than I have two to recommend:

Kasteel Bier. Blond. I don't remember the exact percentage of this beer but it's really delicious!

Malheur is just about the best in strong beers you'll find. It's 12% alcohol, like it says in big on the bottle. The beauty of this beer is that even with a higher percentage of alcohol it still preserves its taste (it doesn't just taste like alcohol).