i have been reading....

it seems that everywhere i looked i kept seeing this book a year in the merde by stephen clarke so i took that as a sign of a must-read title. i really enjoyed it, it's not sartre, but it seems like a good insight into the parisiens. the main character is a brit who's been moved to work in france for a food company, if you have ever struggled to learn a foreign language you can appreciate some of the humour. when i lived in spain, it was hard not to laugh a little when some spaniards would say "axe me, axe me", finding it hard to pronounce "ask". it's defintely not a year in provence, in fact, it could even put you off living in france but it's a good read. i enjoyed it so much i went out and read the sequel too merde actually by stephen clarke, which was also amusing.


one of the authors i have read a fair bit of is gregory maguire, he's brilliant at rewriting classic fairy tales with his own unique spin. if i was planning to rewrite the wizard of oz, i don't think i would ever have been able to come up with anything as original as wicked. the sequel to which is son of a witch and it wasn't a bad follow-up, maybe i was just disappointed that the story has now been nicely tied up and wrapped in a ribbon.

if you have never heard of candace bushnell then shame on you, where have you been for the last decade? sex and the city, anyway, she is an author of several novels, the latest of which is lipstick jungle. i've never read sex and the city but i did read, and enjoyed, trading up and 4 non-blondes, she's a bit of a feminist, which gets tiresome, and the subject matter is a bit one-tracked, it's a bit donald trump, lots of money and women doing it for themselves, but overall it's a fairly enjoyable read. a tiny thing that annoyed me were the characters names, victory, nico and wendy, but i still managed to enjoy the novel.

good quote

"This life is a hospital in which each sick man is possessed by a desire to change beds. One would prefer to suffer by the stove. Another believes he would recover if he sat by the window.
I think I would be happy in that place I happen not to be, and this question of moving house is the subject of a perpetual dialogue I have with my soul."

Baudelaire

jet-blog

we are back from our travels to Europe, and not alone, we brought along some european germs too. needless to say the return flight was not a lot of fun, to put it mildly, threats of "never again, we're staying in canada" rang through the terminal building on our arrival. the good news was that we landed (official speak for becoming permanent residents of canada), the immigration agents were cheerfully surprised, they didn't seem to have a lot of faith in the speediness of canada immigration these days and rightly, it took us 3 years. good to have it from hangin over our heads. our car parking bill was a huge 210 dollars and then we drove into a slight snowstorm. still, good to be home.

my first impression of England, usually Heathrow Airport so not an overwhelmingly good feeling, is of how small England is, the cars are tiny and seem to veer far too close to the other lanes, and there are way too many people for such a small place. but then, once i have been in the car for a while, i start to appreciate its very verdancy, seeing sheep for the first time in about 12 months and the fact that our motorways are so useful, if not again full to capacity. i was grateful too to our folks who picked us up, the queue for flight transfers at heathrow was enormous. overall i enjoyed england but wish we could have stayed longer.

the rest of the trip we spent in Ireland which was also good, always good to see family again, especially for the little ones. we are always surprised by the expense of everything but maybe we no longer question the cost of our own canadian lifestyle.

the only thing that brings me down is not knowing when we will see our families again but we are lucky in that we have friends here, who are keeping us busy with their social invitations. and now, to plan our immigration success, an immigration party. all ideas accepted gratefully and invites to all of course!