Reflections on Sunday

• While in France I started and finished a book gifted to my by a good friend. It was a bit blah. She bought me Train Dreams by Denis Johnson mainly because it’s short, so I would finish it in less than a month (yes, she knows perfectly how I feel lately). But it didn’t ring my bells. At all. Too fragmented, too ‘loose’. Not my style.

 

• I started another one with more luck. I really enjoyed Cinnamon and gunpowder by Eli Brown. The main idea of the story already made me smile. A famous chef working for a rich English lord watches his boss being shot by pirate Mad Mabbot. She kidnaps him and promises him to let him live if he manages to cook her something glorious every week on the ship, with what he can find on board. That’s not much and he’s really upset by the whole idea of working for her and betraying his country, but has no choice. I love to cook so I had a blast reading his menus, and I appreciated how the well developed the characters were. I can absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves stories with tons of humor, a style that’s a bit oldish yet witty and good story with enough layers to keep you interested.

 

• I had a rough week. Little Boy was not in his best mood. Really testing me and not sleeping very well so rather grumpy too. But this morning we went strolling through the weekly brocante market to find him some little metal toy cars (we bought some new, but honestly, both my husband and I think those older cars had more variety and were simply more fun). I found him several and chose the to take home. LB was over the moon, especially with his bus. The kid loves busses.

 

• I’m finding joy in cooking and decided to make Jamie Oliver’s 15 minutes my best friend this week. Not because I actually believed being able to make everything in that time span, but because I loved the show on television and I had seen several great meals that I wanted to try. It’s a winner. My husband loved almost all of them and I will certainly do some recipe posts (because I never ever stick to a recipe if it’s not baking) in the coming weeks.

 

• I’m completely in cooking mode, so it’s a bummer that my veggie box subscription is on hold right now. First I was in France (no complaints there), then the company that prepares them took a week off and for the next to weeks the shop were I pick them up is closed. So I’ll just drool on pictures of Denises CSA share.

 

• And my home office still is a mess, so procrastination wise there’s nothing for me to learn yet, but I could very much relate to the solution offered by Sally. Calvin and Hobbes are the best. Which reminds me I actually have a decent excuse to go through hundreds of their gags, as I am updating my course material. Win.

 

• I had planned to post more regularly but that turned out an epic fail. I really should work on a decent editorial calendar and whip up some posts ahead of time. I’m losing myself on pinterest looking for examples, so if anyone could tell me what works for him/her, any advice is appreciated!