Timbuktu

Timbuktu, by Paul Auster

This book is written from the point of view of Mr. Bones – a dog. The book starts as his owner’s life is nearing its end. The book isn’t particularly interesting, nor is it a hard read. I guess I just liked it because it was written from a different point of view.
The book continues and follows Mr. Bones' journeys. He talks about his ideas, opinions, and emotions...as a dog. It's kind of fun that way.
I felt like the book didn't pick up until a lot later than it should have. It was centred around the wrong character for the first part, and finally I could really get into who I cared to learn the most about. I guess that the author wanted to build up a background that he could refer to later in the book, but I found it a little dull. Anyway, once it got going, it was more interesting, but then, just when things were getting good, the author decided to change things up. I wanted to read more about what was happening, but I guess that's not how it was meant to be. I was happy for Mr. Bones for getting to where he was after what he'd previously been though, but I guess that's the whole point. Mr. Bones, as a dog, has one thing that he's going to stick with: loyalty.
The end just seemed so confusing. Why would the author decide to take a turn like that all of a sudden? Why not make the book a little longer, and then go down that route a little later? It was just a little too abrupt. Oh well.

Anyway, it's an easy read. I'd recommend it to someone that wants to know what a dog thinks, and wants a light book to finish reading in a short amount of time.

-picture courtesy of www.chapters.indigo.ca

Amsterdam (May 25th-28th, 2006)

I've been wanting to go to Amsterdam, but my head was filled with a lot of ideas about what it would be like. Anyway, I finally decided to go and I'm glad that I did.
Unfortunately, I ended up picking a weekend that was filled with gray weather and rain, but it's not like there's anything that you can do about it, so I tried to make the most out of the trip and the hairdryer in my hotel room got a good workout.

The first day, I set out to cross some tiems off my list of “things to do”. I thought that I would beat the crowds and go to the Museums first thing in the morning. It took a little while to find it (took the wrong tram by accident), but after walking by the Rijkmuseum (and seeing a sorta long line up), I kept walking to the more interesting (to me, at least) Van Gogh museum. The line up was long, it didn’t move quickly, it was raining a lot…oh well. What can you do. The museum
tried to make us feel better about our wait by sending out staff to give out free buttons. Inside it was also really crowded (and I got there pretty soon after it had opened) and because everyone was wet, it was a little gross feeling too. At least it wasn’t as bad as the Vatican.
I gotta say that I'm not a big fan of Rembrant and that type of artwork, so I didn't bother waiting in the super long line (while it was raining) to get into the Rijkmuseum. I did however see Rembrant in the Van Gogh museum in a special Caravaggio/Rembrant exhibit as well as in the Historical Museum. No biggie...I guess if I go back to Amsterdam, I'd probably visit the Rijkmuseum though. It just wasn't on the priority list, and I didn't have any extra time for it.


Yet another concert hall. They always look so impressive. I wonder why?



I was looking forward to buying tulip bulbs to take back home to give as special souvenirs. The flower market was so incredible. All the colours, the selection. Unfortunately for me, the bulbs that were for sale were from Tazmania and couldn’t be taken to Canada. It was too early for the Dutch bulbs (in case you want to get some for yourself, go between July and November), so my fantastic souvenir idea totally went down the drain.
Of course I wanted to go to the shops and see what Amsterdam had to offer. It was so depressing. Everything was bloody expensive, and it was all the same stuff that I’d been seeing around Europe for the past while. I’ll blame the bad weather too…maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for shopping. Whatever it was, I didn’t find anything special.
That night I went to the Anne Frank Huis. It was fantastic. The museum was set up in the actual building in which Anne hid in the secret annex, and was done in a way that you walk through on your own through the different rooms, leading to the hidden stairs leading to the areas where she stayed during hiding. Being in the space where they were really made it all come to life. I would highly recommend this museum to all.

And later that night:


Yep. Red light district. Nothing more to say.




The next day, it was raining again. Sucky. Still, headed out to cross off the remaining items on my list.



Unfortunately, I was too late to see fields of tulips, but darn it, I was going to try to see a real Dutch windmill. I had to go out of the city to see it, but it was pretty darn cool.




I did a lot of walking on this trip. When traveling, I love to just wander as I feel like I get a better taste of the city that way. The canals and cobblestone streets were so nice. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if it weren’t raining, but again, nothing I can do about that. There were bikers everywhere. It was so cool. I want to start biking some more. Maybe I should get a bike first.
I went in search of a cheesy, must-have souvenir of Amsterdam. Clogs. Of course they weren’t very hard to find…there were walls of clogs in many souvenir shops, or other shops that were dedicated to the wooden footwear. I don’t really post pictures of myself on this blog (there’s only one so far), here’s another one:
They were REALLY uncomfortable, and for the rest of the day, I felt like I had splinters in my feet. I didn’t end up buying those ones, but instead opted for a miniature pair. If I have kids, maybe I’ll make them wear them for my amusement. Tee hee.
When traveling, I tend to eat pretty lightly. I usually don’t want to waste my time sitting down in a restaurant, when I could be walking and exploring. In Amsterdam, it was perfect, because it meant that I could fill myself with fries and mayo. When I first came to Europe, I really needed my ketchup, but I think I’m starting to get used to the mayo idea, and during this trip, I would start craving it.

Anyway, the trip was enjoyable. Too bad about the weather, but even still, I feel like I saw everything that I really wanted to see. This trip would be the start of a series of travels leading up to the end of the year…up next: Copenhagen!

Darn it...

Grrr....so frustrating. Everytime I actually get "into" a TV show, I have to miss the best parts becuase I'm leaving the country.
Last summer, I got into the original "So you think you can dance", and then I had to leave. Same with "Big Brother" (number bazillion, or something like that). Right now it's "Strictly come dancing" (the third one I think). It's the semi-finals tonight, but that'll be the last one that I get to see.
Argh. Makes me mad. Anyway, I hope Colin wins.

Anonymity

I love the feeling of walking around, lost in your own thoughts (or with no thoughts at all) on your own without worrying about having to bump into anyone you know.
Often that's what makes travelling to places in which you don't speak and understand the language such a nice break. You hear a lot of background noise, but you're a lot less stressed becuase your brain isn't trying to process it all.
Sometimes I feel that it's a little too empty and quiet here in Neuch (especially since during your year you can't get away from the hoard), but most of the time the calm is helping me wind down from the year (I really like to have time to decompress). The past couple of nights have been the perfect temperature and humidity so I've done quite a bit of walking.

Les Ambassadeurs (June 28th, 2006)

The Hotel de Crillion in Paris has a couple restaurants, the star of the show being Les Ambassadeurs overseen by chef Jean-Francois Piege, a Michelin Guide two-star restaurant.
The decor of the restaurant was quite ornate with luxurious fabrics and lots of gold. You know the whole French over the top thing. A nice little touch was the footstool-like device next to the lady's seat. A purse-rest, naturally.
Way too many service people were at your beck and call (also with Philippe Rochat), but this place was done discreetly. It was just a well-oiled machine, and if they were a little too early to make their entrance, they'd wait around the corner where you couldn't see them (I only noticed, because I was closer to the corner and caught them before they had pulled themselves back from sight). At Philippe Rochat, it was just ridiculous. I hope that it's only because of the set up, but it was more than obvious when they would casually walk by...only to look out the window, change the order of chairs at an empty table or add wine glasses to a table which didn't need any. It was just silly. Don't pretend that you had something else to do. I'd rather you walk by, see that you're not needed, and walk out. Don't waste your own time doing useless things. Sigh.
I do have to saw that all of the men and women working at each of the restaurants were very gracious hosts and super nice. Chatting with them was fun.
Oh I forgot to mention that Philippe Rochat came out to meet us (at his restaurant, not Les Ambassadeurs obviously). It's always nice to
be able to give credit to a great meal to the chef in person instead of just passing your compliments along. And not really related, but I noticed that his team is quite young. I wonder if that's normal. Maybe once they're older, they'll move on to their own restaurants.
Instead of Badoit or San Pellegrino, we opted for Chateledon as our sparkling water of choice. I was also brought a non-alcoholic cocktail which I wasn't too impressed with. It was too much orange, and not even a high quality orange taste. Oh well.
The butters were sorta special too. The domed one was salted and the other one was light. I don't really like salted food, so it was pretty obvious which one preferreded. There was a great assortment of breads as well (also the case at Philippe Rochat).
Anyway, again, I'm not going to try to give some great restaurant review or anythinbecausese I don't know enough about what I was eating. And in this case, I can't even tell you the fancy names of the dishes because we had a degustation and I don't have enough of a memory to remember the amazing descriptions that were told to us.

So, in the order that courses were presented:

This was the amuse bouche. Highlights include the molten green liquid filled fried ball, ham cream cigar, and truffle butter bonbon. Not shown is the tabouli drink that came with it. The lighting in this picture is so different because I had forgotten to take a picture of my own, and send my camera with the host to the kitchen. Maybe I should have done that for all of them. I didn't want to use the flash at the table, and so the lighting provided for not great pictures.

This was a crab meat dish and the sauce that went with it was really yummy as well. Jeez. This is bad. I'm not giving this restaurant justice with these descriptions. I was just going to do a post with pictures titled: "What a meal costing ______ looks like". But then I didn't for some reason. I guess I could always go back and change it.

I'm drawing a blank. I know it was described (oh, I'm also doing translations in my head for some of these) sushi-like, but you can see that from the picture. I wasn't really into the creamy tartar sauce that went with it.

This was a mushroom dish that was well contained in its crispy little package. Really good mushrooms though...yummy. I do have to say that here in Europe, I've gotten to try a bunch of different fancy-schmancy mushrooms. Most of the dishes came dry with small artistic flairs on the plates, and the service staff would spoon out (with great flair) the sauce to go on top.

Oh sweet bread. This one I don't think I could forget. The two pieces on the bottom were cooked two different ways. I liked the one on the right better. Above it was a cylinder of pasta with a rich gorgonzola filling and bacon on top. I managed to eat most of the brown cooked sweet bread, tried the one on the left, scraped off the bacon and unrolled the pasta and ate it after trying it all as a whole. It was just too rich for me. And it was clear that the chef really liked using foams in his sauces.

As if the last dish wasn't rich enough, we then had the cheese course. I'm really trying to work on my disliking for cheese, but it's just not natural to me. I'll taste it, but it's often too much. This was just one of the two carts, and I ended up trying a little bit of every type of cheese they had (15!). They only had French cheeses and they were divided into two groups...goat cheeses and Camemberts. Or wait. Maybe the second one was Roqueforts. I think I liked the Camembert the best. It tasted most like the Swiss cheese I've been exposed to (Gruyere I think?), strangely the waitress said that it was the strongest of the cheeses on the non-goat cheese plate (she said to eat it last so as not to overpower the other ones). And I don't like strong cheeses.

And of course...the desserts.

First, they brought out popsicles. I guess the haute gastronomie version. They were chocolate covered abricot sorbet.











And then strawberry was the theme. A hamburger (that's the word they used!) containing a strawberry mousse and a meringue cage around a strawberry cake. Yum!





The petit fours...and there was also a box of friandises that I guess I didn't get a picture of. Lotsa desserts!





Along with being able to order different coffees or teas from a menu, we could have fresh tea from the cart. I decided to go with something that I'd never heard of (as usual). It was very similar to citronella. The leaves were picked, washed and then put into the teapot. We also had a selection of three different honeys. I went for lavender.












So I guess that was the meal! On our way out, we were sent home with a brioche to eat for breakfast the next morning, which was super buttery and good.

Philippe Rochat (June 30th, 2006)

Recently, I dined at Philippe Rochat in Crissier.
I'm not going to even pretend that I know lots about fine cuisine, so I'm not going to really say much about the meal, because it probably wouldn't do the restaurant justice.
The pictures will hopefully give you a better idea of what it's like. I guess the fact that it was given three stars by the Michelin Guide would speak for itself I suppose.
I enjoyed all courses except for the wine jelly at the bottom of the second course. But that was to be expected. The moules were wonderful. I just want to say that I had PLENTY of dessert and passed on the cheese cart because I'd already done my share at Les Ambassadeurs (will have its own post). Multiple desserts in meals should be a must. Especially when they were as good as these ones were. We decided to go Swiss and drank Henniez (legierement gazeuse) that night. I had some fresh orange juice as well, after being told that there weren't any non-alk cocktail options (a tad disappointing).
I've added additional notes in square bracket for some clarification, and for continuity purposes wrote them in French - excuse the errors and lack of accents please.


Croustille de tourteau de Camaret

Espoumas de melon charentais rafraîchi au Maury

Filet de rouget de la mer d'Iroise à la plancha, pressée d'aubergines de Sicile miroir de citron de Menton

Fines lamelles de cèpes de Bordeaux consommé à la livèche à l'huile vierge de pépins de raisins

Moules de bouchots du Mont St Michel au safran de la Mancha

Grosses langoustines de Raasay à l'unilatéral émulsion menthe bergamote

Lapin argenté de Champagne aux deux apprêts, polenta de Lombardie dorée

Fromages frais et affinés
[autrement, on peut avoir une salade]

Feuilleté caramélisé de framboises du Midi, mousseline de meurons












Glaces et sorbets
[Gouts de glaces: creme brulee, vanille et creme citron]

[Gouts de sorbets: pamplemousse rose, fraise et melon]

Friandises













[Aussi, il y a le chariot des desserts avec votre choix de patisseries et un assortiment de fruits en compote servi avec un sort de pudding blanc]

Mad shopping in Paris

I just have to say that the first day of Paris summer sales is CRAZY. It's like the city is one big warehouse sale and people go nutbar. Stores close early the night before to get ready for the sales and it's just a frenzy right from the early opening hours that morning.
The streets were crowded, the stores were crowded and the air conditioning didn't have any effect due to the number of people. In order to get the best deal, some people became pushy and inconsiderate. Common etiquette went out the door as did some people's deodorants it seems. People forgot how to pick things up that they so obviously knocked over, and folding became a novelty. It was a gong show. I wish people could have just relaxed a bit. It was a little too intense for my purposes.
Most stores have up to 70% off discounts on merchandise. So, obviously LaFayette and Printemps were mayhem with people queuing to get into the various designer label sections. On the footwear level, they had to section off different areas where security guards had to oversea queues of people waiting to look at the different fashion houses shoes. I don't know how to describe to you how ridiculous it was, but seriously, there were 4 metre squared areas roped off with tens of people waiting to get into them. I guess 50% off that stuff is a pretty big draw.
It was all the stores that were enjoying to goodness (well, obviously not the ones on Rue/Faubourg St. Honore, Rue de la Paix and company), but I was disappointed that L'Occitane didn't jump on the bandwagon too (I was sort of excepting it though).
Zara was a mess. As was Mango. I didn't even bother trying to venture into H&M. It's already a nightmare on a daily basis. Don't forget folks that I hate shopping in cluttered stores. Folded merchandise on shelves doesn't bode well for me. Bins of items is unthinkable. I like sparsely hung items. Sweaty people shoving each other out of the way for a deal doesn't really do it for me.
I went into the Repetto store thinking that I could use the store as a refuge from the crazyiness. I was looking forward to just staring at wonder at the wall of pointe shoes and other dance merchandise (along with a couple ready-to-wear footwear items). WRONG. The store was mayhem. Boxes strewn everywhere. Shoes all over the place. People going crazy trying to find the perfect shoe...or at least any shoe in their size. I don't think that there was one dancer in the store. The shoes are absolutely gorgeous (I give the people credit, they were going to get a great deal on some serious quality stuff) and I have to admit this is one store I could almost loose my cool in and purchase nearly everything. Still, I managed to talk some sense into myself an not get the quite impractical fushia suede slippers or the ballet pink terry cloth ones. They'd be great to prance around the house in, but in the dusty, dirty, often rainy (at least in Neuch) great outdoors the shoes would be put to a quick and unwarranted death. The gorgeous leather soles would hold up fine, but the rest of the ballet flat would just cry at the sheer torture. I strongly considered a pair of beautiful sandals, but in the end, my long toes ruined the moment. I disappointingly left the store empty-handed. One day I WILL get something from that store. I just need the perfect item.
All in all, I did okay. I came out with some good stuff. Strangely enough I didn't feel like getting anything too costly. Even though the deals were amazing, I didn't really feel like getting a designer bag (don't worry, I'm not sick or anything). I just didn't really want one. It wasn't even the line ups or crowds that was throwing me off either. There were plenty of opportunities for crowd-free shopping (I guess I have good timing) and lots of beautiful items (a couple things that come to mind - lotsa shoes, a Vanessa Bruno tote, Longchamps totes, any-name-you-want totes, clothes clothes CLOTHES), but I just didn't want to purchase. I've already made my special French buy, and while I wouldn't mind having some additional great items...I really don't feel it necessary. Hooray for rational thinking and self control! And no regrets about the decision either!
Plus, it was a weekday...don't people work in this city? Or maybe it's a city-wide holiday. Yes, there were a lot of tourists, but the locals were out in full force too.

I think by the time I get to London, the craziness will have died down, but I hope that there will still be a couple good deals. Although, being an average sized person doesn't help when it comes to selection.
Oh, and I love Massimo Dutti more and more. I think it might be my European CM.

The World Cup

So obviously, the World Cup is going on...here's a couple pictures of how Neuch takes it all in.

During the Switzerland vs. France (0-0) game:
This was beside the huge tent that was set up downtown by the water. We got there too late to go into the tent (too packed), which was fine by me because although it wasn't too hot outside, the temperature inside
the tent was pretty bad. Sure, they had a super huge screen, but I wasn't really there to watch the game afterall, it was more for just being there and to watch the people who were watching the game.



After the Switzerland vs. South Korea (2-0) game:
So this is downtown beside the university library (the building on the left of the picture). It was taken soon after the game had ended, and people had just started to assemble downtown. You can see some smoke in the right side of one of the
pictures...some people were setting off flares. The bus service was quite non-Swiss that night...you can probably see why as one of the buses was a little stuck amidst the crowd. There
was a person on the bus at one point too. As we were heading out from the area, we noticed that the police had blocked off all entranceways to the core area. Pedestrians could still come down and join the festivities, but cars couldn't. Of course that didn't stop them from driving around every other street nearby, honking horns, yelling, waving flags and such.

I really love the tn. After every game, the screens in the buses which tell you the time, what line you're on, what the next stop is and other
transit announcements also added scores from the recent games and general positive sentiments toward the Swiss team. This message was on the screen on the outside of the bus after the England vs. Portugal game. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

The video footage is obviously a lot better because the sound is what really does it (I'm not daring enough to really get in people's faces to catch their expressions and stuff) but I don't know how to post it. I still don't really understand the point of physically leaving your house after the game to pack a bunch of people into you car and stick random limbs and body parts out the windows while often holding onto paraphernalia. Or just coming out of your house and standing by the side of the street wearing a jersey or waving a flag as people drive by. I guess it's only because I'm not a fanatic.

Holler if you love m0851!

I'm happy to report that if you're in Europe and wanting some m0851 products, I've located two places for you.
1. Louisiana Modern Art Museum store (35 minutes outside of Copenhagen, Denmark)
2. Le Bon Marche (Paris, France)
It was a nice slice of home when I was at the respective places and saw the familiar products.

A message from *L*

Dearest few folks who read this blog:

I'm still here...just winding down another year (remember, my years still run from September to June).
Lots going on and stress has finally started to subside, but will not have time to post anything substantial until sometime next week - if that.

Cheers,
*L*

Lindt Noisette Sensation Caramel & Meringue (chocolat au lait)

A milk chocolate bar with pieces of hazelnut, chewy caramel and crunchy meringue, this chocolate bar is intense. It's amazing because there's lots of stuff in it, like the generic chocolate bars that we're so used to...but this is gourmet.
It's so good that you feel like just munching through the whole thing, but I'm sure that it would be so enjoyable to just let melt in your mouth (I definitely didn't have the patience to do that though). The different textures of nuts, caramel and meringue really compliment each other as well as the variety on tastes that they provide.
It definitely needs some kind of drink with it because it's so rich and yummy, but I give is two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

-picture courtesy of www.lindt.ch

Who knew?

I never really thought I was scared of things, but I've realised that I get really scared when I'm standing on a train platform and a cargo train goes by really quickly without stopping. I actually have to turn around so that I can't see it. Interesting.

The World Cup

Since I'm here in Europe, one would expect that the World Cup would be a pretty big deal...and I guess it is. Doesn't mean that I'm less apathetic about the whole thing though.
I did care enough to join the Swiss in downtown Neuch last night at the big tent that was set up with big screens and stuff showing the games. The Switzerland vs. France game was on, and since there's a pretty big rivalry between these two countries (at least from the Swiss' point of view), I figured it might be interesting to watch (the really good weather didn't hurt either).
Anyway, the game ended in a draw (0-0)...which the Swiss were QUITE happy with. I still don't really care much for the game, but it was pretty fun being in the middle of everything and seeing everyone's reactions to all the different things in the game.
I'm sure I'll watch another game sometime soon...in the meantime...report cards!!

The last whoosh...

I've been so busy travelling, keeping active and working that I haven't had the chance to really write anything.

I still don't have any updates, and don't know when I'll have the chance to do so anytime soon, but here's a little bit to just let you know what I've been up to:
- Still really hate running (it's just so boring, even if you're surrounded by scenery)
- The "pack" isn't coming back as quickly as I would like it to. I have to work on that for the summer.
- Amsterdam was great. Unfortunately there was really bad weather, but I did get to see a real Dutch windmill! The Red Light District really wasn't as sketch as I thought it would be and I now own a pair of clogs.
- Copenhagen was incredible. It's such a great city and we had good weather too. The new opera house is amazing (didn't get to tour it), everything is so bloody expensive, but I ate lobster for the first time in a long time. The herring is pretty good and I bought some caviar. Took a train across to Sweden, so that's another country off the list, Scandinavian's really are beautiful.
- Sad that the school year's coming to a close becuase I'll miss my students. I guess it's all part of the job though and I am looking forward to the summer and all the things to come.
- Helsinki this weekend bringing the whoosh close to a close.

I *heart* planning ahead

Coming up:
- Amsterdam
- Copenhagen
- Helsinki
- a bunch of trips to Burgdorf
and, most likely one to Paris too.

I'm so Swiss...

One step closer to becoming a real Swiss...I finally got a Freitag! I've been looking for one for awhile, but didn't find the perfect one until this past saturday. Once you see it, you'll understand. Oh, I'm still looking for more though. I can't have just one of course!

Only in Europe...

would you have a chain-smoking skating coach that smokes on the ice (indoor rink) as he talks and coaches. He's learned how to stick his cigarette under the middle of his upper lip so that it's hanging straight down and I guess as he breathes he's inhaling the smoke.
I found it pretty amusing.

It's official...

You've got an extra year to get your butt over here and visit me!

Home comforts

Seeing friends from home makes all the difference.
Good times with good friends.
Please make plans to visit me soon...it'll make everything so much easier.

Free view of a lake and alps included.

Working on the pack...

The problem with being so flexible is that you're naturally a lot weaker. I gotta get back into the game. I'd like to get my six-pack back sometime in the summer.

My obliques are uber-weak right now.

I still hate running, but I know that I've got to do something. Yucky...what should I do?