Sunday was a beautiful day here in Toulouse, so I went and spent the afternoon fig and blackberry-picking with a couple of girlfriends. The fruit was deliciously ripe and we predictably succumbed to the temptation of taste-testing our fresh produce along the way.
The girls braved the stinging nettle to pick the best fruits, while I…
… admired how happy my feet are in the new Birkenstocks I bought a couple of weeks ago in Biarritz 
I came home with a huge bag full of figs that we would never have time to eat before they went bad, so I decided to try my hand at fig jam. I have no idea how it tastes yet though, because one recipe said I had to let it sit for 4 days in an airtight jar before tasting it… I’ll let you know!
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September 6th, 2007
If you read the Sunday Telegraph today, then you probably came across this article. (Click here for a larger view).
My mate Dan and his trusty sidekick Steve, recently completed the Mongol Rally 2007 in a $900 Suzuki (Stacey-Jane) they found on Ebay, accompanied by a Telstra touchpad phone (Touchy) as their mascot; they called themselves Team Touchy. The Mongol Rally, now in its fourth year, sets off from London’s Hyde Park and the goal is to arrive in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. Rally cars must meet certain specifications to be eligible to enter, but once on the road the teams can follow any route they like to get to their final destination.
Dan and Steve were among the 150 teams to make to Ulaanbataar! It sure sounds like they had a most excellent adventure. Way to go, guys!
Check out Dan’s facebook and the Team Touchy website (linked above) for photos and details on the rally. Well worth a squizz!
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September 2nd, 2007
In just over one week, France will kick off Rugby World Cup 2007 in a match against Argentina at the Stade de France in Paris.
The next day (8 September), Australia will play its first 2007 World Cup match in Lyon against Japan. My mate Craig will be volunteering at the World Cup and he has managed to pull “show the Japanese rugby team around Toulouse” duty. I wonder if he’ll still manage to be nice to them if by some miracle they beat the Wallabies.
Toulouse is one of the Rugby World Cup 2007 host cities and, since this part of France is completely rugby-mad, I’m expecting quite an exciting atmosphere to reign over the city until the end of October. Especially since this year, Toulouse’s beloved rugby team, the Stade Toulousain, is celebrating its centenary.
29 September should be a particularly festive day for Toulousains and expatriate antipodeans: French rugby fans love the All Blacks - so much so that you can actually buy All Blacks memorabilia in certain roadside rest stops along the highways - and the New Zealand team will be playing against Romania on this day, at Stadium Toulouse! Fast-forward to 3 pm and, two hours up the road in Bordeaux, Australia will be playing against Canada in their last match of the group stage. Let’s hope they make it to the quarter finals!!
Last but not least, that same evening, the Garonne River that runs through Toulouse will be set ablaze with fireworks as part of the Stade Toulousain birthday celebrations. And of course there will be parties and entertainment. Phew! what a day it promises to be!
In the lead-up to that big day, Remi and I will be attending the Romania vs Portugal game on September 25th with some mates. It’s not one of the major matches, obviously, but we managed to get some decently priced tickets and wanted to experience Rugby World Cup fever first hand.
Go the Wallabies!
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August 29th, 2007
Summertime spells fields of sunflowers in certain parts of France. These ones are just outside of Toulouse. And now, for a totally unrelated post…
Since seeing the movie Transformers, I’m convinced that our old beat-up Peugeot 205 is in fact an alien robot in disguise. Her name has evolved from plain “Lucy” to “Lucy Prime”. So she is Optimus Prime’s little sister and one day, she will save us.
Lately we’ve gotten into watching an American series called Heroes. You must have heard about it, it’s actually very good in a comic-book-set-in-real-life kind of way. It’s a little like X-men, but without the funky, weird haircuts and costumes. It’s set in our everyday world and life and centers around ordinary people who find out that they are in fact extra-ordinary - something to do with evolution and genetic coding. Together they must, of course, do no less than save the world! And we follow our Heroes on their journey.
Friday night, we went to see a wonderful movie: Caramel. If it comes out at a theatre near you, make sure to go and see it, if you can handle watching subtitled films, because the movie is set in Lebanon and is in fact in Arabic. I guess it’s in a similar vein to Volver and Chocolat, so if you liked those, you’ll love this. It was heart-warming… warm and smooth just like Caramel. Loved it. It’s interesting to note that the lead actress actually wrote and directed the film! But I didn’t know that when I was watching it.
This was a quick post to break the silence of the last few days. The new French school year starts tomorrow, so people have come back from their seaside holidays and as a result, since Thursday work has resumed for me and my life is once again ruled by deadlines. So, back to the grindstone!
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August 26th, 2007
Today is my big sister Elise’s birthday Apparently she’s coming over to France around Christmas time. Can’t wait to see her!
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August 15th, 2007
Through a series of happy events, the Toulouse Football Club, affectionately known around these parts as the Téfécé (that’s Tay-fay-say for those of you who speak French with a really bad English accent *gnarf*), managed to secure a spot in the UEFA Champions League behind the Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and the Olympique de Marseille (OM). This marks the first time ever TFC will compete in the Ligue des Champions, so it’s all very exciting!
In what could be a real stroke of bad luck though, when came time to draw the teams that would have to play each other to qualify for the group stage, our beloved TFC got lumbered with Liverpool. Liverpool has 5 Champions League wins under its belt and came in second to Milan AC in the last Championship. I’m sad to say that I don’t think our Toulouse team stands a chance against them as I do feel TFC relies too heavily on Elmander, its Swedish secret weapon. The home game is tomorrow afternoon and I’m still hoping that the home crowd can boost them on to a victory.
We went to see TFC play Lyon on Saturday (which is when we took this photo of the countdown billboard at the stadium). It was the second time we went to see them play live, and the second time they played - and beat! - Lyon, France’s number 1 team. Let’s pray that tomorrow they play to win… and not Toulouse! 
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August 14th, 2007
For some time now, I’ve been completely unable to update my blog because our friends over at Google are becoming too big for their boots. Why change something that doesn’t need changing? Anyway, whatever the problem was with Blogger I had no inclination to fix it, so I jumped on the bandwagon and got myself out of there. Here I am now, all shiny and new, powered by WordPress. There is still a lot of cleaning up to be done, namely in the categories and the headings of the posts I imported, but we’ll get there eventually and for now I’d like to try to settle back into a habit of blogging regularly. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to import my old comments, but so be it.
So what’s new? Well, Remi and I spent a couple of weeks in early July roaming around the Loire Valley and Normandy. The Loire Valley is also known as the Valley of the Kings - not to be confused with the original Valley of the Kings in Egypt - because of its numerous châteaux that, over time, usually served as holiday houses for the French royal families or important noblemen. You could probably spend two whole weeks in that region and still not see everything there is to see, so we limited ourselves to two of the most beautiful and notable châteaux: Chambord and Chenonceau, before continuing on our way to Normandy.
It’s difficult to talk about Normandy without sounding like you’re giving a history lesson, so I’ll try to keep it short. Among the things Normandy is known for are unpredictable weather, the Mont Saint Michel (though the Bretons contest ownership), and dairy cows. The world at large, however, will no doubt always remember it as the site of the famous D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, when the Allied forces began their liberation of Europe. Reminders of that day and the days of bloody battle that followed are found all along the Normandy coast: memorials, ever-present American flags, landscapes scarred by shellfire, and bunkers and blockhouses dot beaches and neighbouring fields. Indeed, Remi’s father bought a piece of land with a bunker on it and he has since converted the bunker into an underground kitchen, larder and spare room in which we slept on the night we arrived. It had rained so much over June, however, that when we awoke the next day, water was rising up through the inches-thick cement floor. We didn’t waste a moment in moving to the greenhouse where we slept for the remainder of our stay. (more…)
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August 13th, 2007
Here is one of the exercises I did at last week’s writers’ group: You are in a waiting room (doctor’s office, job interview, etc.). People are sitting more or less in a circle. Describe several of them — focussing only on their feet! Type of shoes, cleanliness and condition of shoes, toes if they show, how they let their feet rest. Are they quiet or do the feet move? What can you tell about the person from the feet?
Below is what I wrote, but please bear in mind that the writing is spontaneous and unedited and I think I was jumping from one tense to another at one stage:
I dreaded coming here today. Even as I stood outside in front of the entrance, I hesitated and almost walked away four times before adjusting my cap on my head and pushing my sunglasses back to make sure they really covered as much of my face as possible. I pulled my oversized man’s jacket closed and readjusted my thick woollen scarf around my neck. All the while knowing just how ridiculous I looked, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want to take the chance of someone I knew being here and recognising me. Finally I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly as I opened the door, and walked in summoning up false courage from god knows where. (more…)
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June 13th, 2007
There is great satisfaction to be had in actually finishing a project.
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May 29th, 2007
My darling dearest uncle has been putting me to shame by updating his blog very regularly now. It’s nice to see though, and it’s good inspiration for me. What would also be good inspiration for me is … comments. So please feel free to leave your digital footprint!
The last two weeks have been absolute madness due to some big projects for work. I have pretty much spent every waking hour working, including weekends, and my life was literally put on hold. As a result I’ve been spending yesterday and today trying to catch up on all the Christmas organising. Well, mainly the gift shopping. The next two days will be spent taking care of administrative and official type stuff so that the new year can be started with a clean slate.
One blog that I read regular is that of Moby… yes, THE Moby. Sometimes he goes on a little too much about political subjects for my liking, but I persevere all the same because I like the way he relates to the world. Anyhow, one thing Moby is fond of is lists. So perhaps for today’s post I too will try a list: (more…)
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December 17th, 2006
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