le foie gras, etc.

Aside from snails and oysters, it's one of those delicacies found on French tables during Christmas' or New Year's eve dinner, one of those standard traditional entries on a holiday menu. For the French, foie gras is not just a delicacy, it has become a part of the people's cultural and historical heritage. And no réveillon is complete without it.

Everybody in the family, except Cléms (she's still in the process of getting used to the taste, her first time eating it...) loves foie gras. We had it served last Christmas eve dinner. Oh, I really like its sumptuous flavor and its velvety texture on the palate. And tonight, Miko insisted of having it again comme entrée before our creamed spinach and chipolata sausages dinner; to think that we're having it again tomorrow - we'll be spending New Year's eve dinner with Séb's cousins. Ah, gotta be careful, with its high fat content, we wouldn't want to end up like those geese and ducks that produce it, overfed, hehe.

Tonight, on the news, I heard that starting in 2012, the US will be banning its production. Why? Because foie gras is produced by a special feeding process and that the American people think that the feeding method is cruel. Oh, c'mon... Just before this news ... "in New Orleans, three white policemen, caught on videotape, holding a 64 year-old black man to the wall, punching him.", and oh, here's another one, still in the US... "about fifteen white policemen surrounding a black man as he was waving his arms and flourishing a small knife. The man was eventually gunned down by these officers as according to one of them, they're not trained in knife fighting - they're trained to shoot-to-kill..."

And now they say that the treatment these waterfowls get is cruel? N'importe quoi...

la fête de Noël

Busy, busy, busy.

Comme tous le monde, pendant les fêtes...

On a fêté Noël avec la maman et le papa de Séb. Ce qui est marrant, c'est que ils sont divorcé. Mais pourquoi ils sont ensemble pendant la fête de Noël? C'est arrivé au hazard, on s'est bien amusé et c'est tous ce qui compte. Personnellement, j'ai beaucoup aimé cette soirée.

Nous avons commencé par les apéros. J'ai servi des tranches de saucissons secs, des olives vertes, des chips au fromage et des petit-fours salés. Séb a ouvert des bouteilles de champagne pour faire du Kir Royale. Et comme d'habitude, moi, étant allergique à l'alcool, je n'en ai pas pris. J'ai descendu deux cannettes de coca cola, c'est tout. Haha!

En même temps que l'apéro, Cléms et Koko ont ouvert leurs cadeaux. Koko, avec son ordinateur et son parfum. Cléms avec ses innombrable paquets de Playmobile, l'ordinateur Barbie, la maison Charlotte au Fraises, etc, etc..

Ensuite, nous avons le foie gras, le saumon fumé et les éscargots comme entrée. Les cailles au raisins comme plat principale, des frômages (brie, munster, bleu, chèvre et au noix) et des profiteroles pour dessert. Il était déjà 3 heures du matin quand on s'est levé de table. Ils sont rentrée vers 3:30 a.m. et on s'est couché une demi heure après.

J'avais mal au crâne le lendemain matin, une telle migraine, je ne pouvais rien faire jusqu'au moment de partir chez la tante de Séb (eh,oui, on était bien invité pour le goûter de Noël) pour récupérer les autres cadeaux. Encore? Comme j'ai dit ... eh, oui! Clémentine a eu tous ce qu'elle a demandé au Père Noël! (Merci, Papa Noël!!!)

Alors, même je me sentais pas bien ce-jour là, je peux dire quand même que je me suis bien amusé, Séb et les enfants, surtout.

bonjour la "douloureuse"!

We have our gas boiler checked by Calor Express' service technicians once every twelve months. Last week, the technician que cette entreprise sent us, apparently had his surdosage of alcohol. He looked as though he wanted to sleep. Was he drunk? Aucune idée, all I know is that he smelled strongly of perspiration and alcohol, ah!, I almost threw up! His way of manipulating our boiler seemed odd and I didn't know if it's because of his alcohol intake he lost his equilibrium and almost fell of the ladder. And even before I could tell him that I'd cover the gas range and the kitchen worktable for protection, he already had his filthy rubber shoes on them! Dégeulasse! Oh, j'étais super énervée! Then, we told him about the problem we were having with the boiler -- less hot water the past few days. But he said that since we didn't report it to his superior (he was right), he couldn't do anything about the defective part as he didn't have a replacement in his car (oh, and he's driving too?!). "Je peux rien faire, désolé", he said, mumbling. So, he just cleaned it (I'm not even sure if he really did...), he stayed barely 15 minutes and handed us the bill, 135 Euros. J'ai halluciné...

Yesterday, another technician came. This time, to replace the defective part. I remembered him, it was him who cleaned the boiler last year, un monsieur plutôt sympathique. He stayed for about an hour. And the 'damage'? 205 Euros!

Voilà, so expensive la maintenance en France, eh? Pas de chance, c'est tombé au mauvais moment, en pleine période des fêtes où il y a beaucoup de dépenses!!! Oh, punaises...

enfin, je peux souffler (?)

Voilà le 21 décembre, the first day of winter - the shortest day of the year. The street lights were already on when I and Séb got back from more of our last-minute Christmas shopping around 5 pm. We had Cléms and Miko stayed with grand-mère this afternoon. Comme ça, we were able to do it tranquillement (it's not always easy going shopping with Cléms...).

We actually had to wait for the USB WiFi adapter that we ordered from our internet access provider. It's for Miko. Moi et Séb agreed on buying him un ordinateur as a Christmas present. In fact, he used to have one (w/out internet access) in his room about three years ago but since he didn't really show interest in it (not at all, he had a preference for the PS2), Séb just gave it to his brother (with Miko's permission of course).

Now that he's older and everyone in his class talks about nothing but this MSN thing (?), he asked us if he could have one now, but specifying that a flat-screen monitor could be more "cool" than the classic one. (Eh?!) And since I don't let him use my laptop for a long period of time, nor Séb with his G5, we agreed, we said okay no problem just as long as he won't visit the "hot" sites. And ce machin key USB, we, finally, got hold of it this morning. So, after having lunch, we left the kids with my maman-in-law and off we went to buy a G4.

We put it in the basement together with Cléms toys ... Oooh I almost forgot, I have gift wrappings to do... Merde, it's already late... But I have to do it now, now that the kids are asleep...



à demain...

préparant pour les fêtes...

Today's gonna be another big ménage day. Yesterday, I spent my whole morning cleaning the kitchen cupboards. This is one of those activities that I don't find 'stimulating' but I had no choice, if I wait for Séb to do it that'll be presque impossible. But since I do it regularly, at least once a month, our cupboards are not that dirty. I just had to discard old foodstuffs - especially the ones that were not properly sealed. I threw away lots of chocolates (Easter Eggs) from last year's Paque and some things/ingredients that I don't really use - like curry paste and curcuma powder. I love curried dishes but I don't cook them at home, I hate its pungent smell that seems to stay forever in the house (I had an Indian neighbor a long time ago, so I know...). I also discarded old chinawares - the ones that nous avons récuperé de Séb's grandmother's house years ago. Oh, I'm not throwing them away, they'll go to Emmaüs International, just like what we did with our old dining table and buffet.

Then my whole afternoon was 'consecrated' scrubbing our oven. Since we still have the old kind, the one that Séb's grandma used to own, cleaning it has always been an arduous task for me. We don't have the one that everybody seems to own nowadays, the one equipped with "continuous clean mode", the one that is called "self-cleaning". But can't just throw it away as it still functions impeccably, I just need a lot of elbow grease when cleaning it. So yesterday was again one of those "high" days, after an overdose of chemicals and aerosol propellants, ' sooo sorry mon Séb for being 'unfunctional' last night, hehe. (Tonight, I promise... ^-^)

So today, I'll re-wash our strictly-for-special-occasions-only dishwares, clean the balcony and wash the windows. Then tomorrow, I'm gonna get Cléms to go through her toys and make her pick out the ones she doesn't play with anymore (considering she's again be receiving toys this Christmas), pack them up and take or send them somewhere... Ah, gotta make sure everything's in tip-top shape before Saturday night.

encore une journée bien rempli

Sunday. Normalement, les magasins sont fermés le dimanche but exceptionally, comme tous les ans, they're open as it's the last Sunday before Christmas day. Le magasin where we regularly fait notre courses was offering, just for this day, 30 percent off on DVD's and CD's, same with chocolats de Noël and silver/chinawares. Although I told Séb last night that I would try to wake up a little early today to be able to get what I want without rushing nor squeezing my way through a very crowded department store's on-sale-items sections, I stayed in bed till ten o' clock. Le temps de prendre mon petit-déjeuner, a quick shower and scraping the ice off my car's windshield, it was already 11 a.m..

After 5-7 minutes, I was at the department store's parking lot. C'est tellement incroyable it was full, I spent at least 10 minutes driving around looking for a space. Merde! The people seemed to be so excités ce matin, "gotta avoid them", I thought. So I decided not to park in customers' parking lot for fear of getting 'dinged' from another car door. Oh these people just don't care, you know! Alors tranquillement, je me suis garé dans un endroit plus sûr, in the department store's employees' parking lot! Voilà! Et je m'en foutais complètement. Haha!

We will be having my in-laws here pour le réveillon. So, I bought everything, from l'apéro (champagnes, mini-fours apéritif, etc.) to dessert (les bûches de Noël). And since les DVD's et CD's sont moins chers, I bought 3 of each. One of them's Tom Hanks' "Le Pôle Express", putain, j'ai beaucoup aimé ce film!. Like what I told Séb, "excuse the profanity Séb but putain! le film m'a donné la chair de poule! Hehe. We had our eyes glued to the screen the entire time. Clémentine, elle même, a été enchantée par le film... I also did buy some chocolates, too bad there were no more Pyrénéens de Lindt, it seemed to be people's favorite. I saw lots of them clutching plusieurs boxes of them. Ah, I came so late, that certain shelve was empty! Bof! I just contented myself with boxes of Ferrero Rocher and Kinder Surprise Eggs in a metallic SpongeBob Squarepants box. My goodness, I spent super cher today... but that's alright, tous le monde était heureux...

sacrée tété

Aujourd'hui c'est le dernier jour de l'école avant les vacances de Noël. Nos enfants sont très excités car dans neuf jours, c'est le jour des cadeaux! Clémentine en particulier, est très impatiente de savoir si le Père Noël la "trouvé sage" pour avoir tous les jouets qu'elle a "commandée", hehe. Bon, comme on lui a dit souvent, c'est lui (père Noël) qui decide si elle aura tous ce qu'elle veut, ça dépendra de son comportement cette année. Par contre, des fois, je me demande -- est-ce qu'elle va nous en vouloir d'avoir menti au sujet de Père Noël? Phew, on verra bien, je ne crois pas, euh, j'espère pas... Ce n'est pas pareil à mon cas quand j'étais petite car dès le début, ma mère nous à dit avec mes soeurs et frères que le Père Noël n'éxisté pas (imagine ça?). Mais bon... je ne parle pas de ça maintenant.

Cléms s'est bien amuser à l'école aujourd'hui. Comme c'était le dernier jour avant les vacances, ils sont organisé une petite fête, comme tous les ans - une boum. Elle paraît d'avoir beaucoup dansé car elle était bien trempé de transpiration, hehe. Oh, mon petit bébé, comme si c'était hier qu'elle était encore en grenouillère et buvait son lait au biberon. Et là, elle s'amuse comme une grande et ces derniers temps, elle n'arrête pas à me dire qu'elle est amoureuse de James Blunt! oh la...

Son maître d'école m'avait parlé ce matin de quelque chose à propos d'elle. Apparement, elle invente pas mal des choses, genre, elle a mal au jambe et deux minutes après c'est son ventre, deux minutes plus tard c'est son coeur et finalement, mal à la tête. On ne savait pas vraiment quest-ce qui c'est passé. Mais bon, Séb a parlé à son maître cette après-midi et il a dit que Cléms est une adorable petite fille, "une adorable hypochondriac précoce" (hmmmm, maître Philippe, j'aime pas trop ces termes là!). Ok, j'étais très inquiete, il y avait rien grave en fin de compte! Sacrée Clémentine!

mon beau sapin, roi des forêts...

We bought our Christmas tree last Tuesday. Since the trees are being sold in the supermarket's parking lot -- rain, sun, snow or wind, they're exposed to it. The one we bought was wet and we had to wait for the branches and needles to dry out before having it decorated. This time we chose an evergreen, the one that doesn't shed its needles. And compared to the ones we usually buy, this tree has needles that I find less sting-ish. Ok, it's a little bit expensive than the ordinary ones but I'd say I prefer this - with needles that don't fall off easily, I wouldn't need to vacuum daily.


I remember myself being so excited about decorating the Christmas tree when I was small. To think that what we had back then was just some kind of a small-time tree made of plastic -- just couldn't deny it because it really had an unpleasant, pungent odor of plastic that would permeate the whole house, but the excitement and happiness I had was just inexplicable. So I can imagine how my kids feel decorating a 6 to 7-foot real Christmas tree! You bet they had a fun time spending their Wednesday afternoon putting up our Christmas tree -- singing x-mas carols, sipping chocolat chaud, etc...

soulagement...

Voilà, enfin, I can breathe easy... Séb arrived safely from le pays du soleil levant last Sunday afternoon. I didn't realize I was going to miss him that much... we were never separated from each other from the day we got married, not even a single day. Each telephone call was vital, for three nights I had trouble either going to sleep or staying asleep. Not having him for three days was a revelation I just couldn't live sans lui and my kids know that, I kept telling them.

He came home looking so tired ... but quite happy and satisfied with his voyage. He brought home lots of goodies and Cléms & Koko were just too excited they didn't know which package to open first, hehe. Ellen, aside from being Séb & Frèd's "guide" in Japan, a la gentillesse de nous envoyer candies, crackers (hmmm, they're really good especially the spicy one...), etc...





Thanks Ellen! ^-^ (tho' you don't know this blog exists...)

il est là!

Enfin, Séb est arrivé! Bon, il n'est pas encore à là maison mais il a juste bien d'appelé de l'aeroport. Whew! C'est un sacré soulagement, je n'arrete pas à penser de lui. Je prié fort que le voyage sera impeccable. Et voilà, il est enfin sur la terre française! Je me demande comment il est car Ellen m'avait dit hier que il avait l'air fatigué. Bon, je verrai. De toute façon, ça va lui faire du bien d'être à la maison. Et comme on dit souvent, there's no place like home.

(Bon, je vais continuer à écrire tout à l'heure, il faut bien que je me prepare à l'accueillir... hehe.)




a suivre...

des nouvelles...

C'est dingue... I miss the hubby so much. He's only been away for two and a half days and yet il me manque déjà... énormément! Good thing he will already be coming home tomorrow. As per ma correspondante la-bas, a blogger I consider a friend -- la jolie et gentille Atinna (whom they met this afternoon), hubby looked so tired. Poor Séb. A time difference of 8 hours with Japan, flying for 12 hours with no sleep at all, who wouldn't be? Well I guess, for Frèd, he's not that much affected as he's used to it, it's his job. But for Séb... Ahh, (prepare-toi, bébé, je vais t'aider à récupérer tes forces, hehe).





Thanks to Atinna -- she sent me these photos this afternoon, at least giving me an idea on how he's doing. Despite extreme fatigue he seems to be enjoying (?) his very short stay there. Oh, well...

mon cher frimeur au Japon

It's very rare that I have bad dreams, but each time I'm having one, what I usually do is to wake Séb up. I usually ask for un câlin, a particular one. Hehe. Last night, I had one and woke up in the middle of the night shivering, only to realize that Séb's not home and hadn't called up yet from Japan (Huh!, pourtant I told him to do so once he set foot on Japanese soil!). I was so scared the dream would continue I stayed up for hours. At around 6 o' clock, the phone rang. It was him. Enfin.

Alors, Séb and Frèd arrived in Narita after twelve hours of flight. Then from there, they took a navette and it took them less than two hours to get to Shinagawa. By the time they arrived in the hotel it was already about 9:00 am, Tokyo time (2:00 am here), so he opted not to give me a ring, knowing that I'd be taking the kids to school le lendemain, he just let me sleep. Aah...

So, he got lucky having a first class seat. And with a little bonus - he was also able to visit the pilots' cabin. Voilà, un copain comme Frèd, c'est cooool!

(Ok, Séb, I don't envy you, just don't forget my japanese sandals, oki?) ^-^

bon voyage bébé!

Et voilà, Séb already left for his 2-day escapade in the land of the rising sun. He left at around 8 o'clock this morning. He's right now at the airport and just called up actually, he said that he's feeling a bit stressed. It's already 9:23 and the boarding will be at 9:30. It's the first time since we got married that he'll be far from us -- that far. I don't even know how it would feel sleeping alone in that sooo big bed! Oh, I won't be alone really, Cléms will be sleeping with me. But the fact of being alone with the kids at night gives me a feeling difficult to explain. Whew!

quelques préparations

Séb va pour trois jours au Japon et il part jeudi. Même c'est un séjour très court, il fallait lui acheté des affaires. Ben oui, quand même! Au fait, j'ai insisté, je trouve que son blouson est déjà un peu usé, ses baskets également. Alors je lui ai dis qu'il vaux mieux de acheter quelques affaires car étant dans un pays riche où les gens font très attention à leur 'looks', ces gens-là vont penser qu'il y a un SDF (sans domicile fixe) qui se promène dans les rues de Ginza, haha!

Il fallait aussi acheter quelques choses pour une correspondante, elle a la gentillesse d'offrir son aide à Séb et Frèd pendant leur séjour la-bas. Et de mon côté, ça me fait plaisir d'acheter des choses (produits typiques) pour elle: des vins, foie gras, terrines, etc.. Early cadeaux de Noël, quoi!

Je suis contente pour Séb, vraiment. C'est juste que je suis un peu angoissée de me trouver seule avec les enfants, étant donné que ce n'est pas encore les vacances et ce n'est pas très facile surtout le matin - emmener les enfants à l'école; faire la cuisine, les devoirs, etc.. Mais bon, je survivrai. Merde! je n'ai plus d'habitude de dormir toute seule! Courage, Bok, hehe.

la Princesse de notre princesse

Clémentine's new copine, Princesse (she named it). Oh, they're just inseparable!

est-ce une obligation?

It's been a while depuis la dernière fois que I talked to someone par YMessenger. Funny, It's only months since I got myself an ID and j'en ai un peu marre de ça. Actually, chat is not really mon truc. It's been 8 years that we got internet access but chatting had never interested me and it's only recently that I finally decided to download it. Well... just for the sake of having a way to communicate avec ma famille aux Philippines without sacrificing my husband's wallet, c'est pour ça, hehe. Gosh, I even asked him to buy me a webcam. There, I realized how fun it really was talking to someone and at the same time, seeing him/her.

But I don't know if it's only because of having no time to chat où simplement, je le trouve un peu ennuyant déjà that I almost don't use it anymore. All I know is that when I needed to talk to my parents, I prefer calling them up. Cela m'est égal maintenant if we should pay more at the end of the month but I still prefer having them par le téléphone. Simply because, thru the net, the tendency is I am condamned to sit for an hour or two and the problem is I just couldn't do that, je suis bien une maman très occupée. (But) thru the classic way, I could do other things at the same time, say, cook or do the laundry. (Eh oui, je suis bien capable!!!) I could be more productive using the phone rather than having my face glued to the monitor.

Now why am I talking about this? Well, nothing. It's just that one of my Yahoo contacts/friends sent me an email today - on why my 'emoticon' is always in invisible mode. "Is that because you don't wanna be disturbed, you snob?", he asked. Nice guy, eh? Pffff! franchement... (!!!)

Now I'm wondering what my other Yahoo contacts think of me too. Ah, well... Just one thing I know for sure, I miss talking to my blogger friends already...

les actualités...

Le premier décembre. Déjà? Voilà les jours qui passent vite! Alors, quest-ce qui c'est passé aujourd'hui? La journée a commencé tôt, il fallait reveiller Cléms, pas pour aller à l'école mais pour aller chez son pédiatre. Elle est malade (simple rhume et toux) depuis plus d'une semaine et malgré tous ce que je la donne comme médicaments, elle n'est toujours pas soignée. Alors, ce matin on a decidé d'appeler son medecin pour prendre un rendez-vous. Heureusement, il y a toujours une place à chaque fois on l'appele, il faut juste le faire a 7:00 du matin. Le rendez-vous était vers 10 heures. Nous avons quand même resté longtemps dans son cabinet et rentré à la maison seulement vers 11:30. Cléms a supplié pour un déjeuner "hamburger-frites avec un petit jouet", en deux simples petits mots - Mc Do. La coquine, sa façon de demander... haha!

*******

Nous avons enfin mis la guirlande sur le balcon. Oh, ce n'était pas si facile car avec le temps qu'on a aujourd'hui, rester sur le côté nord de l'appartement pendant un bon moment m'a donné des mains et des pieds glacials. Au début, je voulais le faire toute seule, laissant Séb faire tous ses boulots (illus) tranquillement car il en a vraiment beaucoup en ce moment. Il est debordé. Mais bon, ça ce terminé quand même par lui demander de l'aide, sinon j'allais passer toute l'après-midi dehors, hehe. Et voilà, cette fameux guirlande est enfin mis, il fait nuit et ça clignote!!!

*******

C'est confirmé, jeudi prochain, le 8 décembre, c'est à Shinagawa qu'ils vont Séb et Frèd. Ils vont rester à Le Meridien Pacific Tokyo. Le problème, ça sera la premiere fois que ces garçons vont au Japon, alors, les endroits touristiques, ils ne connaissent pas du tout. Alors, j'ai contacté une amie qui habite en banlieue de Tokyo et elle est juste heureuse d'être leur "guide" le samedi. Wow... Ce qui est marrant, je n'ai jamais vu cette femme personnellement, elle est juste une de mes amies dans le 'monde de blogs'. Mais bon, elle a l'air intelligente, humble et surtout super gentille. Je sais que tous passera bien...

*******

Il est tard, je vais me coucher...