Saturday 14 December 2019

Christmas can come!

I am ready for Christmas.

1. Christmas cards are on the way and most of them have already reached their destination. My friends will be solving labyrinths this year :-)


And if they solve the labyrinth correctly, a christmas tree appears.

2. We've got snow! There just can't be a proper Chrismas without snow.


3. Most of this year's presents are neatly wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree :-)

4. Although there is a strike in France, the parcel I ordered arrived in time. Now the whole house smells like... sunshine ;-)

5. Although I've got tons of work to do, I don't care. I'm happy :-)

Friday 6 December 2019

Classic blue

Ooooh, I like Pantone's colour of the year.


And, for once, I actually agree with the justification:
"Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era."

The colour "brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the human spirit, offering refuge."

We all need a little bit of that, don't we?

Thursday 5 December 2019

Winter is here!

Don't you just love the weather?


Temperature is -7 at 1000 m and +6 at 1300 m above sea level.

13 degrees change in 300 meters!

It's just too bad that I am stuck down there. Yes, down there.


Data, image and photo all taken from ARSO webpage.

Tuesday 3 December 2019

Three random things

1. Talking to a group of my (ex)students, I realised that they do not know who Kraftwerk are.


What are we teaching them?!?

2. I don't often go out. But when I did go out, I sat under this poster.


Is the Universe trying to tell me something?

3. I did another Exit puzzle. While I liked the solution this time, the riddles were just toooo simple. Disappointingly simple.


Oh well, I am a very demanding customer.

Saturday 30 November 2019

End of November

A lovely cycling tour at the end of November ...


Sunday 17 November 2019

More little joys

It is the middle of November and

- this year's Christmas cards are already finished. All of them!

Here a little teaser for the impatient >:-)


- there are still strawberries (and raspberries!) growing in our garden!


- and we finally made an under sink cabinet for the ground floor toilet. Although it is oiled beechwood, it goes well with the oiled oak wood doors and the mirror. I think.


And it goes well with the fern photo I took several years ago. 


One "room" in the house finished. The others are yet to come.

Saturday 16 November 2019

A bit about cycling

Talking about cycling. Let's talk a bit about professional cycling.

And what a season it's been!

The highlight obviously being La Vuelta, with Roglič winning and Pogačar coming third - it does not get better than this!

But La Tour! It was one of the best Tours in years, possibly decade(s)! I mean - Alaphilippe - you just have to love him! And the way he fought was insane. I am also very happy about the individual stage winners, Quintana, Yates, Sagan, Viviani, Pinot, Nibali ... I actually loved everything about this year's tour - except the final two stages and the final results. At least he got the most combative rider award but I hoped for so much more... Oh well.

I don't think I ever watched as much cycling as this year: Tirreno-Adriatico, Basque, Romandie, California, Giro, Le Tour, La Vuelta, Pologne (RIP 143) Arctic race, Lombardia... did I forget anything?

A great season indeed!

PS. I forgot Yorkshire, obviously. How could one forget such a rainy, flooded race!

Tuesday 5 November 2019

My eyes hurt!

Mr Mojcek has been looking for a light cycling vest for quite a while now. The problem being that XL in a Quintana/Roglič/Alaphilippe world is just not big enough for him.

So I made him one.

I've been looking at this bright, almost fluorescent yellow for the past couple of days now and my eyes hurt.


But the vest is nice, windproof and waterproof.

85 grams :-)

Monday 4 November 2019

The little joys

When you accidentally find yourself using matching mugs and tea tins ...


and they remind you of the time you spent in Portugal and Cambridge ...

and the colour of Le Soleil à Nice matches the yellow of your kitchen walls :-)

and you have this beauty in your kitchen ...


and are always amazed by what these little creatures do for us ...

and you just had a wonderful weekend - one day with the extended family and the other with close friends ...

accompanied by four cakes, five strudels and two tiramisus :-)

and the warm wind that is blowing ...

just makes you happy.

Thursday 31 October 2019

Bernadette Fox

Finally a film I really liked: Where'd you go, Bernadette.

Photo stolen from the web.
A film that I liked and understood on so many levels.

And to everyone who gave this film a bad rating (which is a lot of people), well, you just don't get it.

I do.

Sunday 27 October 2019

I've been away.

It wasn't for long.

But it was incredibly intense and inspiring.



 
 
 


 

  




Thursday 17 October 2019

Arizona green tea dress

What do you do six hours before the airport shuttle picks you up?

You make yourself a new dress.

Of course.


A lovely soft jersey. Lovely, but difficult to sew.


And since the fabrics reminds me so much of the Arizona green tea packaging, I'm calling the dress the Arizona dress :-)

Wednesday 16 October 2019

Oh well...

Let's say you make an impromptu decision to visit a friend of yours in a place that is famous for its good weather.

But:
Oh well...

Saturday 5 October 2019

A lovely day...

... on the river.


But as so often, life is not fair.

The other three were in kayaks, I was in the car taking care of the logistics :-(

Saturday 14 September 2019

Seriously?!? Part 2

I thoughts numbers could be trusted.

Well, not when it comes to sock sizes.


43-46...


... that is about 10 cm shorter than my feet!

I've written about the insanity before, but now I've reached a new low. What's next?

A sunny day

What a perfect late summer day...

 

Although it is a bit crowded on (and around) the river :-)

Wednesday 11 September 2019

Wednesday 4 September 2019

Updates - B

B as books.

I've been reading a lot lately, some books were good, some were average and some ... meh.

- Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. That was a nice surprise! Easy and entertaining to read albeit a tad predictable. Great writing style and a very likeable main character. I could easily imagine myself writing such letters :-) Thumbs up.

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way. The whole secret is in being pliable."

"I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant... Most people don't live; they just race."

- The Daffodil Mystery by Edgar Wallace. A lovely classical mystery with some likable characters and unexpected twists.

- The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah. Another wanna-be Poirot story. While the book starts very very promising with a highly interesting plot, it fades away and becomes increasingly dumb towards the end. I've read it about a month ago and I already cannot remember who the killer was. No surprises, nothing special, nothing memorable. And why can't the Battenberg cake be called by its name? In the age of The Great British Bake Off, we know all the cakes by their names :-)

- The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Oh, boy... No wonder I got this book for 2 € only. Nothing happens in the first 150 pages, then Tom randomly kills a guy, dresses up as a woman, goes into a gay bar, does not steal the ransom money, which he could, and... that's it. No twists, no surprises, no action, no subplots - no plot, actually. Meh.

- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc. Oh, a classic. Needs no description. Pure joy to read. Except one or two stories that I didn't like, the rest is just ... charming.

Updates - A


A as away.

We've been away.

We rode these birdcages:


We've been to some lovely old towns:

We've seen some sunken treasures:


And admired some local art:


Wednesday 31 July 2019

A lovely afternoon

One afternoon: a castle, a cave and a lake.








Monday 22 July 2019

Bored?

Sheldon in me speaking but if you ever get bored, Project Euler gives you hours of fun :-)

It can also cause frustration - you write a lovely code, solve the problem, look up other people's solution only to realise it can be done about 10-100x faster than what you did.

Oh well...

Tuesday 16 July 2019

Reading

On my way to recovery - still pretty much unable to do anything - but I can read. So I've read.

- Joel Dicker: The Baltimore Boys.
A very enjoyable story about life. I felt the vibe, I understood his way of thinking, I can relate to his cluelessness and I would want to hang out with them. They must have been a cool gang... Even the random time-jumping is forgiven.

- Tadej Golob: Jezero.
A Slovenian "Scandinavian" crime novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly realistic characters, realistic dialogues, interesting story. However! The writer should stick to the rule "if you're writing fiction, keep it fictional". There are way to many things from real life, which are completely unnecessary and irrelevant for the story. The author included them because... I don't know why. To show off? That's the only thing I find (highly) disturbing in the otherwise very enjoyable book.

- The Golden Treasures of Troy. About the life of Heinrich Schliemann. A truly fascinating life he had and this is just a short summary of the important events in his life - and yet so captivating.

- Le Petit Prince. I've read the book in Slovenian before but this is the first time I've read it in French. There were some words I had to look up but all in all I'm pleasantly surprised of how much I remembered!

Oh, and, of course, what can be better than being on sick leave during Le Tour.

It just makes me want to go back to Vosges, Massiv Central, Alps, Pyrenees ... One day.