Tonight, on our bimonthly issue…

Ouch! I’m sorry to be so… quiet lately. Martin and Zhisou, thank you for reminding me I used to have a blog!

Ewok is doing fine, she’s adorable: please-let-me-sleep-on-your-lap adorable, but I’m afraid we’re spoiling her – she does this thing of purring on your lap while you’re at the computer, and then either biting your wrist for fun either putting her paws on your face to get you to caress her… I must admit the latter makes me ‘awww’ and melt inside, but the biting thing is a bit annoying when you’re trying to fight 2 enemies at a time in WoW. Anyway, she gets us to cuddle and pet her every time, so that’s why I think we might be spoiling her!

And… Yep. World of Warcraft. I think I’m hooked. F started playing 2 months ago, and I… well I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about! I  had some time during my holidays and I’m really ashamed to tell you there was gorgeous weather outside and I just stayed inside, playing on the computer with a furry little purring ball on my lap — oh here she is again, now gnawing at my wristwatch. Isn’t she lovely?

Fortunately, the first half of my holidays was NOT spent in front of the computer: my parents came over to visit! They only stayed for 4 days and a half, but we enjoyed long walks around here, taking in the views and shooting many many pictures. They got to meet F’s parents and got along pretty well too – we visited Vannes, Carnac and a couple more really nice spots a bit north from here, sharing a delicious homemade picnic right by the sea, with no one else around except boats in the distance… It was amazing!

When I got back to work a week later, it felt like I was away from the office a while longer: it did me a lot of good to meet my family, this time on ‘my’ side of the border. They left happy to see I was doing fine – and yes, there was the dreaded ‘meet the parents’ moment for F! Of course he got out of it brilliantly, preparing oysters for my dad on Sunday for lunch, driving us around the beautiful coastal area, playing the good host over the weekend. Sadly, he had to work during the week so we didn’t see much of him during the other 2 days (parents arrived on Friday, left on Wednesday). The only thing my parents had to say? Well, nothing that would surprise me: he has to quit smoking! {sigh} As if I didn’t tell him so every time I see him light a cigarette…

So now I’m back to work and it’s hectic! Big things going on, lots of meetings, new planning method to get in place, changes in staff… Hopefully in around a month I’ll leave it all again, this time for a longer period of time: we’ve chosen to take some days off in October so we can travel to Spain!

And now… pictures!

Ewok on my computer chair - her preferred napping spot, either with me in it or not...

our picnic spot - right by the ocean!

Vannes - a gorgeous medieval center of town!

F & Dad about to eat some yummy mussels and fries!

news after radio silence

*ugh* I know it’s taken me too long to come write here when wordpress asks me to log in…

it has been a way too long radio silence, mainly because my life became a whirlwind of activities, it’s been running on at a wild speed, not a moment to sit back and ponder about it all.

So… you can guess there are many many news to tell, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you everything tonight. Here I present you with the reason I’d rather spend the rest of my evening cuddling in bed: people, meet Ewok, my just-over-24h-ago-adopted kitten…

little ewok - adorable female kitty!

so… she’s why I want to spend my evening cuddling with… Carla!!

She’s not really excited nor happy to have a little buddy at home – it’s still a little intruder she doesn’t like the smell of. And she’s been, for the very first time since she’s living under my roof, mewling in sadness just a few minutes ago, while I was petting her… it just breaks my heart so see her like this! so Ewok will be happy in her little hut (the one carla didn’t even use… no matter how many toys or blankets I put inside to ‘bait’ her) while I cuddle in bed with that big and shy cat of mine!

Oh, other news: there’s another cat home also since last weekend – some awesome leopard, all dressed up in an iMac suit!

News before radio silence

Yes, news because it’s been soooo long since I’ve told you anything!

These 2 months, my pearwood luggage has been ‘closed’, I’m guessing there are even cobwebs around here! I’ll sum up the reasons why in just 2 words: apartment hunt.

That search for an apartment with F has taken my life over for 2 months! Actually 1 month and a half – the last 2 weeks have been about setting everything up for our move – until we were able to choose AND get one we liked.

So you can imagine my free time was devoted to phone calls, visits, frustrated sighs, etc. Plus, if you add that I haven’t been able to drive for a month already, having lost my driving license and all – ‘lost’ as in ‘left it somewhere I don’t know’, not in ‘taken away by the authorities because I did something terribly wrong’ – plus the hassle it still is to get those papers back, a good 1000 km away from the people they issued it…

Anyway, you get the picture: frustrated because of all the ugly flats, annoying owners and bad timing, dependant again on public buses and a darling boyfriend, getting (over?)loaded with new responsibilities at work, then overwhelmed at the thought of moving out of the flat where I have lived on my own for the very 1st time (5 months of erasmus Flogsta-kitchen-sharing in Uppsala don’t really count here), procrastinating instead of packing boxes…

Today, you find me restless, surrounded (at last!) by those brown boxes, getting out of bed insomniac and trying to tell you I’ll miss you for the few days we’ll have to go without the internet!

Rest assured there’ll be pictures of the new place (cute place 2 minutes away from the beach!) and lots of stories about sharing ‘our’ space! I hope it will be easy enough, but we’ve already argued about where the TV and dining table should be… *sigh* that’s what a small living-room/kitchen gets you… Juggling furniture!

So, see you all later!

Interview meme – questions #4 and #5

[this time I'll start with an apology: I am so sorry for all this silence around here. And for stretching this meme for so long... right now, I'm just so ashamed, I almost didn't even write this... which is why I haven't come back here for so long: the vicious circle of blog-silence - the longer you stay away from your blog, the less you feel you deserve to go back to it... ]

So, the meme started here, and the previous posts have the other 3 questions & answers…

4. Let’s say you were given the opportunity to travel through space and time and spend the day with anyone one person, who would you choose and why?

Before I came up with my answer, I had to really think about this. One of the first ideas was an important person in History… but which one? Then I realized it didn’t appeal to me to meet with a politician, a warrior, a ruler… But I found myself curious about how other kinds of people ‘ticked’: how did Dumas come up with the twists and turns of “The Three Musketeers”? what inspired Leonardo? how did Monet obtain his colours and brush strokes?

I guess I’d choose an artist or a scientist, someone deeply in touch with his or her muse, someone who’s given birth to something extraordinary and wonderful that we now admire and cherish or find extremely useful – just so I could get a glimpse of their genius. Again, I couldn’t decide which one: being so curious about so many things, it would be really hard to pick one genius in History, although the 3 mentioned above would make the top-10 list… Also add Pasteur, Lope de Vega, or just the inventor of the wheel… *sigh* SO many sparks of genius and beads of sweat to be witness to!

5. And to end these questions on an entirely deep and thought-provoking level would you rather wade through a pool of spaghetti or bathe in a tub of oatmeal?

This particular question was the easiest one: the tub of oatmeal of course!

What would be the point of a pool of spaghetti? Although I love pasta, it would be pretty tiring to try and swim in those curling slippery threads – I almost always add olive oil to my pasta, that’s why I imagine they would be slippery.

Whereas oatmeal… well, I don’t really like to eat oatmeal, at least didn’t like it the day I tried it… But I’m guessing it would exfoliate my skin pretty well!

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There you go, Abby, I really hope you’re not mad at me for letting it go unfinished for so long – it’s just that life has been pretty busy and I haven’t really found myself wanting to write lately. More on that in my next post!

Interview meme – Question #3

[I saw this meme here at Abby's, and here are my questions #1 and #2]

3. If you had all possibilities available to you, what is your dream job?

This one required a bit more thought than it first seemed to me as I read Abby’s questions – of course, something I’d love to spend doing – but as I started to ponder, I realised I like to do *many* things, and not all of them have ‘related jobs’…

I don’t think there’s a dream job for me: I would have to know what the work is about, to find out if it’s really as I imagined it… This is because I may be enthusiastic and naïve about so many things I don’t really know, I tend to be disappointed later when I do experience how it actually is…

So I’ve come up with a short list of jobs I’d like to give a try:

• travel guides writer: I love visiting new places so much, I think this could be at least a very interesting job! Moreover, I could get to fill as many notebook pages as I feel like, jot down all my impressions and thoughts about everything I’d see and taste and experience… without feeling embarrassed or like a nerd. Oh and take pictures of course! – you should know F makes fun of me for taking half a dozen pictures of any place I like, and doesn’t really get the whole ‘planning before travelling’ I love to do: he’d rather wing it all the way… yeah, bit of a clash here, but I’m trying to make him see 1) it’s just *me* doing all the reading, and 2) it’ll save us time later when visiting and trying to decide what’s worth the walk or ticket fee – but I’m digressing…
• food critic: although I don’t know if I’d be any good, there’s something about being able to taste all sorts of food in all kinds of restaurants that appeals to the food-lover in me. Except that there are things I don’t eat, or digest well, or simply don’t like at all (read here: offal, lactose, cayenne pepper/chili-hot dishes, oysters, celery to name a few) – so I would be a picky food critic then!
• book proofreader: I love reading, and typos or spelling mistakes usually just pop out at me, so I guess I could be good at this work – except that I would only read books from the authors I like… and might let some down if I didn’t like them… hum, I’m guessing I could be a book critic too, or even a translator – I actually considered becoming a translator while in high-school, but soon changed my mind when I realized I didn’t want to stop learning about science completely, while I could always study foreign languages on the side.
• movie or tv series critic: I love watching movies and tv series as much as I love reading – I couldn’t live without one or the other! – so this sounds cool too. Besides, my memory does this trick of remembering *so many* film-related names, not only actors but also directors, music composers or screenplay writers, so it could be useful for once, not making me look like a nerd – again.

Hum… I’ve noticed a pattern here: almost all of these jobs would allow me to write down things all the time! I love handwriting and since I finished my studies I’ve missed it so much, I’d gladly incorporate it much more in my current job – except that there’s not much you can do in the aerospace industry away from a computer… – Oh, I also love notebooks and stationery, all paper-related products, so I could also satisfy my appetite for pretty papers & notebooks!

If you’re missing some sort of charity work, a job where I’d be able to help people in need… you’re right: I am glad to help people, I love feeling useful, but I am just so empathic that seeing people sad and suffering would just make me miserable, so I couldn’t be able to help them that much I guess – that is how I know I could never be a doctor, veterinary or such: hard to when I feel other people’s pain almost as my own! (Can’t even watch someone crying on the news without crying myself…)

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That was question #3! Stay tuned for the last episodes…