Zenit 12XP Second Try

After the big fat failure of using the Zenit 12XP back in December, I gave it another shot.

And something tells me that I'll use it again in the near future. 

Family Time

Another afternoon spent with my family. :)

I had lunch with my Grand Pa, whom at 82yo decided he wanted to get the internet and a tablet. We've been working with him these past few weeks to give him the best information we could so this transition into the virtual world would be as smooth as possible. He bought his tablet last week and will be hooked on the network in a few days.

I can't believe how thirsty he is for knowledge and technology, he's awesome.

'Claire unbuckled the seat belt of her stroller and she fell (in Nantes)'

'Claire said GrandMa'

My Grand Pa gave me this, a little planner from 1985(I was born in 1984) where my Grand Ma wrote all the little things I was doing day by day. How cool is this! Very moving as well. I keep it on my bedside table now.

We visited my Dad and he was completely exhausted and uncoherent, a few days later we learnt he had pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. He spent 10 days there and he is now out. It was quite scary.

Brother. :)

On the way Back from Work

Remember when I wasn't jobless? Yay, me neither...

Actually I had a job about a month ago and I took these pictures on the way back home one night. Paris is so beautiful, every little street you take has its own incredible spots and they always lead you somewhere beautiful.

This is a little hairdresser shop in the Rue du Temple I passed by everyday on my 15mn walk to work. I loved the cloud lights which got taken down a couple of days after I took this picture. 

Rue du Temple.

Rue Réaumur.

Place de la République.

Delicious Memory

Now you're just a memory, delicious leg of lamb Greg cooked. You were so good!

Proud Chef.

Lunch is ready!

Lunch is served!

Reading Hell

What's better than a good book and a cup of tea? Well, probably everything concerning one of the last books I read. I usually wait until New Year to make a post about all the books I read during the past year but this time I almost died reading a book and needed to share this traumatic experience.

First, tea. Earl Grey. In my favorite cup. It begins pretty well. 

So I read Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin and hated it. When I go book shopping, I love to pick a book by its cover. This was the case. I loved the black and white picture of Grand Central Station and I read the summary on the back cover and thought I could really enjoy this book. 

When it comes to books, the tiniest things make my imagination go wild and even before I start reading I have this whole story in my head that I imagine the book is going to be about. Of course it's never the story of the book in the end but it doesn't matter.

In the back cover summary, it said that the main character was a burglar and during one of his midnight visit to a New York house he was about to rob, he met a very young girl. My mind went wild imagining this very romantic story in the heart of hectic New York before the turn of the 1900's. 

Well, I didn't quite like the style (which I found 'wannabe poet' with very childish ideas such as the one the bad guy has of building a room in the sewers entirely made of gold) but I really lost it when the passage I was really waiting for (the encounter between the burglar and the young girl) turned out this way: he is in her house at night to rob it, she's all alone, her family went away for the holidays, they see each other, he's quite pretrified to be caught red handed, she spreads her legs open and they have sex. Wait, what?

This book is quite long as well (750 pages), it took me more than a month to relunctantly finish it. I read three others in the meantime just to wash this book out of my head from time to time so I wouldn't give up reading entirely and forever.

A movie came out of this book a couple of years ago, just for the heck of it and because apparently I like to hurt myself, I'll watch it soon. It is starring Collin Farrell and Russell Crowe, I can't stand both, too bad. 

There is so much more poison I would like to get out of my system about this book, but I guess that will be it for now, I have to save some for next year's books review.

Maybe I didn't get the grandeur of this wannabe epic tale, I don't know, but it was just hour after hour of pain for me.

Findind comfort with an uncooperative cat.

Yeah a readable book!!! (Conversation d'un Enfant du Siècle by F. Begbeider)

Another Day at my Old Place

The process of packing all of my stuff from my old place is way longer than I expected... It should be done soon, hopefully on thursday, everything will be packed and ready to go.

Greg took care of taking down all of the pictures seen above. Now my restroom is a blank canvas.

Restroom warning.

Clay doll I made a few years back. It's so ugly I want to cry.

My mug collection. That's not all of it. I packed two boxes of them. I miss them a lot. They come from all over the globe and some are very ugly, but that's the point, collecting ugly mugs IS a thing. :) I can't wait to have a bigger place and be able to have them with me again, until then, storage!

In the end, the room I packed the most boxes from was the kitchen... I have so many glasses and cups, I had no idea really.

Reward after a long day of packing stuff: happy meal!

Art Crazed Valentine's Day

On Valentine's day, Greg had plans with a friend of his to go to a show. I didn't mind, I have never celebrated Valentine's day. So I spent the night home alone, watching Sense and Sensibility, drawing and painting like crazy and eating pomegranate.

I did free handed paper silhouettes. I cut them out of white paper so I painted them black afterwards.

I also came up with this luscious lady. Probably my favorite so far in this new style.

My joyous mess. Be happy the table is not pictured. I don't know why, no matter how hard I try, to keep this table clear it is just a cluttered mess all the freaking time.

Walk In Versailles

I got to spend the afternoon with my Grand Pa the other day. After lunch we drove to Versailles to get out of the house a little. It's a beautiful city full of high end antique shops. So we did a lot of window shopping virtually picking art we would love in our homes.

Reward, tea and home made pie.