Ok, so as far as comebacks go, that attempt back in September was pretty lame. I’m sorry for that. It’s just that no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t bring myself to update my blog. I had a blog identity crisis. I think I’m still in said crisis, but I feel guilty enough today to actually put fingers to keyboard.
The above photo was taken a couple of weekends ago, at Remi’s aunt and uncle’s lovely house about 2 hours drive away from where we live. You should be able to see the picture full-size by right-clicking on it and selecting “display image” or some such thing (sorry, I use a French version of Windows since I replaced my hard drive, and I can’t remember how the option is worded in the English version).
Lately things have been good and bad, up and down, but this week things have been mostly good… very good even. Firstly, after a few meetings with an advisor I have decided to take the plunge and declare myself freelance - a complicated administrative process here in France, one that requires serious consideration considering the risks and fees you are faced with when you take such a plunge. (more…)
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December 1st, 2006
Well, it’s been a long time and life keeps keeping on. Three months, and the site was totally offline for at least one of those due to a server meltdown. The blog and galleries haven’t fully recovered yet: some of the photos were not backed up and I would have to take the time to go back and re-link/re-upload/re-reference the pictures that are missing. BUT at least we have the text and all the archives and a great majority of the galleries! (more…)
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September 18th, 2006
The place where we live is being overrun by ducks. We must have about fifty of them at least. We always had ducks here, perhaps about 10 at a time on average. They qwacked away merrily and gladly scoffed down people’s leftover bread when lunch time was over. Then, at the beginning of spring one female had her first lot of babies… 10 of them. Just as those babies started growing, another female had another lot… of 9. Before we knew it we’d lost count. They are so cute as babies that none of us could resist feeding them to encourage them to come close. Well the result of this now is that they no longer fear humans one bit and just see us as a meal ticket. You can be peacefully walking home after work and about 25 ducks are there ready to pounce on you! (more…)
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June 15th, 2006
A couple of weeks ago Remi had an ex-colleague/friend visiting from Montreal, so we headed off for a few days of discovery in Basque Country, taking full advantage of the 4 day long weekend in honour of the ascension of Christ, the 40th day of Easter.
Basque Country (Euskal Herria in Basque) is made up of 3 provinces on the French side and 4 on the Spanish. Remi’s mother now lives on the French side, in Bayonne on the Atlantic Coast. Bayonne is famous for its “ferias“, its ham, and apparently its chocolate. Trivia: linguists still have no clue as to the origins of the Basque language, which it has to be said is quite strange.
We arrived early afternoon on the Wednesday and after a tasty lunch set off to the beach at Anglet and then on to Biarritz, a playground for the rich (once a favourite holiday spot of the British royal family) and favourite spot for surfers.
The next day we set off to St Jean de Luz then over the Spanish border onto Hondarribia, stopping for a picnic between the two at a choice cliff-edge spot looking out over the ocean. They are both lovely towns, though St Jean de Luz could be considered more of a playground for the rich and Hondarribia has more character with its colourful fishermen’s houses.
[…] I have to admit that first part was written just a couple of days after our return and I hadn’t had a chance to get back to it since. As such, I have forgotten the details of the trip such as what day we did what. What I can tell you is that we went to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim museum and you will see in the photos that this building truly is amazing, all made of titanium, sandstone and glass. Once there we got to see the Russia! exhibition, apparently the largest collection to ever have left Russia and some of it was awe-inspiring… namely standing in front of a Rubens portrait and wondering how the hell. Some are so well captured in paint that they literally look like photographs.
We also visited San Sebastian, a city burnt down to the ground in 1813 by English and Portuguese and then rebuilt. For a while it was the Summer residence of the Spanish royal family and also a playground for the rich! Quite a lovely city, it would be nice to go back there one day and spend a little more time.
We also stopped by Guernica which we very much liked and appreciated even more thanks to the friendly bar we visited where they served us some delicious tapas for a very good price… so be sure to stop off at Auzokoa if ever you happen by Guernica with a rumble in your tummy!
Some of you may actually have heard of Guernica because of Picasso’s famous depiction of the Guernica massacre… “the first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.” (…) “aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.” (ref. wikipedia entry). Very interesting from a modern history point of view.
Anyhow all these places have a very interesting past and for those who are curious I highly recommend searching Wikipedia for more info.
And last but not least we visited the lovely little town of Espelette, famous for its red Espelette chilis. All in all, a great 5 days! Click here to go to the photo album in the galleries section.
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June 14th, 2006
I was sitting here proofreading a friend’s report because she has to hand it in tomorrow and had to write it in English. Remi was out and the TV was just background noise I had no trouble tuning out, until Remi came home and started laughing, saying “do you know what you’re watching on TV?”. “No, I wasn’t watching, I was working.” “You didn’t hear anything strange?”. “No, I really wasn’t paying attention”. Turns out the TV was tuned to a channel that plays soft porn this late at night. So Remi goes off to the shower chuckling and I suddenly become too aware of the sound of this TV program. I get up to go turn it off and to my surprise, who do I see in the starring role?
CAMERON DADDO!!! hahahaha! couldn’t believe it! I guess it would have been done some years ago but still! Cracked me up, had to share it… and no, I didn’t stick around to see him butt naked 
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June 5th, 2006
Well, it’s finally revised and updated, done and dusted, check it out at www.fizzylight.com and let me know what you think. The new look was a long time coming but I think it was worth the wait… for me at least. Now I can concentrate fully on getting my pro one up and active.
Remember to check out what we did last weekend: the Pic du Midi; you’ll find it in the galleries under France (fancy that).
I’ve been flat-chat lately with a lot of work and projects so looking forward to some R&R. Tomorrow we head off to Basque Country then for a couple of days in Spain… yay us! 
Catch you on the flip side!
xx
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May 23rd, 2006
I realise I have not been updating my blog regularly for some time now and I probably should provide an explanation. The gap between February and April is explained by my 5-week impromptu trip to Australia to spend some time with my Mum and make her birthday this year all the more special. I probably won’t really write about that, though you will eventually get to see some photos.
The gap between my return on April 9th and today is due to my concentrating on getting constructive projects off the ground and a considerable amount of work done.
I am currently working on the finishing touches of my new-look personal website, so hopefully that will be up within the next few days. Part of those finishing touches involves getting all the photo galleries up to date and that is a huge task since the presence in my life of a great digital camera!
This morning I was looking up how to say “parapente” in English (I found it: paragliding) and as it turns out this sport qualifies as an adventure sport, though it doesn’t seem it to me. Is adventure sport the same as extreme sport? Anyhow, trusty old Google led me to an A to Z guide of adventure sports, a couple of which triggered a raised eyebrow or a quiet “What the…?!”. Check this out:
Extreme Ironing: the list description is “The world’s newest adrenalin sport. Combines the thrills and spills of your favourite extreme activity - be it rock climbing, surfing, snowboarding or whatever - with the rosy glow and sense of self-satisfaction that only a razor-sharp crease in your slacks and neatly-pressed lapels can provide.” I mean is the world really that short on thrills?? I still don’t really understand the concept, but if you’re game to find out more you can visit their website.
Fly by wire: “Oh my god! James Bond eat your heart out. Imagine being strapped to a rocket pack and propelled around a mountain. I shall repeat that… Imagine being strapped to a rocket pack and propelled around a mountain. I cannot do it justice, you should visit the site and watch the videos.” So H, there’s something for you to try out on your next ski trip to NZ.
Free fall: “Falling out of an aeroplane is not always an accident, you can actually pay to do it. From the moment you jump your body will accelerate at about 10 metres per second until you are approximately travelling at 120mph. This speed is dependant on how long you are in free fall. Then hopefully your parachute opens and you can slow down a little before hitting the ground.” Sounds great! I’ve always wanted to fall out of an airplane, where do I sign up?
Rap jumping: “This is basically abseiling, except with a little more adrenalin. You launch yourself off a cliff, facing downwards but attached to a rope. When you start to get close to the floor you use the rope to decelerate your self, hopefully with enough time to spare.” Facing downwards, Geezus! Apparently you can learn more about it here.
Or you can go for Tank Driving, some particularly strange activity they call Vindaloo which I believe is just the morning after a very hot curry but I can’t confirm that because the site link leads nowhere, or you could even try Wadi Bashing - it sounds like you go around bashing Pakistanis or Middle Easterns, but that’s not it , or Zorbing!
Well there you have it… choose your adventure. I think I’ll just stick to learning to ride a bike and drive a car for the time being, both of which I am doing at the moment
BTW… the above quotes were pulled from the A-Z list located here.
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May 13th, 2006
The French seem to love Midnight Oil, a phenomenon I am having trouble understanding since even a friend of mine who speaks English very well for a French person, asked me the other day what Peter Garrett was saying in a particular song and what it meant. This baffles me even more because it seems to indicate that they like the musicality of Midnight Oil. I always thought anyone who liked them only did so because of the political messages carried in the lyrics and their in-your-faceness, rather than any musical talent per se.
So everyday without fail “the time has come to say fair’s fair, to pay the rent now to pay our share” comes blaring on over the radio waves. Just now they even played a sound clip: “Bonjour, c’est Peter Garrett, je suis sur RTL2″. Well actually it was more like “Bon-jor, set Peter Garret. Jay soui sur RTL2″, but great effort all the same… though to me it was all just extremely bizarre.
So yeah in France, when they talk Australian music the first band mentioned is not INXS but rather the Oils. Dear lord, who’s gonna shave me!
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April 30th, 2006
Is it completely wacky to think that my dead grandpa used the frogs in the pond across from my place last night to show me that he is still around and with me?
I was thinking about him and about the whole life after death thing when in my head I asked him to manifest himself - quickly asking him straight after not to freak me out by showing up in the dark as a freaky blue ghost. As I finished my request, the frogs across in the pond started going nuts. In my head I said “if that’s you, make it louder”. That very second it got much louder for a couple of seconds then quietened down again. I said “if that’s REALLY you, do it again”. And again the noise level went up considerably for a couple of seconds, until I said “ok stop it, you’re freaking me out now” and everything stopped.
I have had a couple of experiences in the past (not with my grandpa) that were much more straightforward than this - I mean that made it hard to leave room for any doubt. Freaky every time, mind you. But this time I thought, would it be so implausible since my family has always called me Froggie? maybe that was just his way of getting the message across?
Anyhow, I’m kind of… well not kind of, I’m REALLY interested in hearing any stories of “supernatural” stuff that you may have experienced. Don’t be shy!
If you’re too self-conscious to write the stories in the comments, you can email them to me at tash dot fizzylight dot com
Hasta la vista!
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April 23rd, 2006
Doing the madison at Remi’s grandma’s 80th birthday party
A little more pensive on the train home…
Sorry about the rather lengthy bout of silence, but there seems to be quite a lot going on right now. Some good news though… I have my first official, legal translation contract: a 46 page document for a public administration whose name will look great on my CV. I got my first go at writing an official quote and contract for my services. Yikes!
The weekend before last, we set off by train to Perpignan for 3 days to help Remi’s grandmother celebrate her 80th birthday. On the way there I saw pink flamingoes in the wild for the first time ever. Apparently they are pink because they eat shrimp.
In Perpignan I finally got to meet Remi’s aunt from Vancouver: Micheline. Lovely woman
At a party full of geriatrics I let loose on the dancefloor and busted a couple of madisons and paso dobles before sitting down to a dinner of about a hundred pigs :/
Other than all that I’ve also been working on a genealogy project that will eventually involve the greater part of my family. It’s a pretty huge undertaking but very rewarding so far!
What else can I tell you… Oh yeah… I ate crumpets!! real ones! My friend Anne scooted over to Bristol for a week and brought me back crumpets :) Thanks Anne!
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February 21st, 2006
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