And here I am again...

I have a sudden urge to blog again, which begs the question...


Pourquoi? 


First thing that comes to mind: procrastination. This is highly probable as I do fancy myself as quite advanced in the subject. However, coupled with the overwhelming desire to not to what I should be doing, there is also this inner creativity that is just screaming to get out.


I'm not sure what I want to write about. I read several different blogs on varying topics (Ok, who am  I trying to kid here? The vast majority of them have to do with food) and whereas I really enjoy cooking, I lack the patience required for the beautiful photography I drool over on the aforementioned sites.


I guess, like many people, I'm just trying to remember to enjoy the sunshine in my life. It's absurdly easy to forget to stop and get a whiff of those roses. I find myself getting caught up in the details and not being able to step back and appreciate the big picture despite all the blessings and wonderful things that surround me, when honestly, I should be wearing sunglasses for all the sunshine here (figuratively speaking. I live in a city with an extremely rainy climate...)


So, let me begin by describing a perfect moment. It is fresh off the press, having just taken place this morning. But first, the scene must be set. Sleep has not been a top priority recently. I've had far too many sleepless nights in the month of April (probably more than my entire life combined, but that's another story for another day. I will say that I regret none of them since they have all been linked with unforgettable experiences such as galavanting across the world). The most recent was Saturday night. 


Despite a decent night's rest on Sunday, by Monday evening there was just no more energy left. I was running on the afterthought of fumes. I was exhausted and falling asleep sitting up. I was delighted to finally climb into bed and be swept off to la-la land. Sweet bliss...until 3am. Bam. Wide awake and ready for action. I tried talking myself into sleeping. No dice. I got up and tried to tire myself out. Nada. I tossed and turned until the alarm went off. Due to the lack of sleep, the thought of coffee was less than appealing. I did have this sudden desire for hot chocolate, so out came the pot, and I heated up some milk.


Let me tell you. It was one fine hot chocolate. Sitting at the table, with the mug cradled between my hands, feeling the warmth and smelling the chocolate, I no longer felt tired, I just felt present, in the moment, and relaxed. A perfect moment and a perfect way to start the day.

What time is it?

I think someone is trying to tell me something. It started back when time changed, my cell phone just can't get on the right time. It's always an hour ahead. Then, came my alarm clock. It's one of those radio one with the red numbers, from 1990 and I'm quite attached to it. Well, the power went out. I thought I had a battery in there for back up but alas no. And guess what, I can't change the time. I can change the time of the alarm though, so my 6:15 am alarm happens at 9:05 pm. It's funny waking up in the middle of the night, tryng to figure out what time it is. Then, then my watch died.

So, I took the hint. Maybe I focus too much on time.

For the past two weeks, I've been more or less time-telling less. And you know what, it's kind of liberating to not stare at the watch, "how long is this going to take?", "How much time is left?" etc.

The only downside is the bus that only comes twice an hour...

And once upon a time it snowed.

A little bit of a shocker to the system. Do I even remember how to walk in the snow? It's really really easy to block out years of snow experience. Especially the bit that involves trudging around in damp clothes all day. *shudders*.

I might just stay in bed...

Time has changed. There's nothing better than waking up at 6:00 am naturally, soooooooooo well rested it's ridculous.

My body is in über pain from some weight lifting classes this weekend, but I'm still going to go for a swim this morning. I find swimming laps crazy relaxing - kind of pointless as well because for all the swimming that you can do, you never really get that far. The only problem is that my hair is quite long (ie. the longest I've ever had it- growing it out for the wedding, but I may just go for the shaved look shortly) and I actually sometimes consider not exercising because of all the effort washing my hair takes. How awful is that? I guess it's not the washing as much as the drying...so much heat...and no kitchen to get out of.

I'm in a really good mood this morning - let's hope it's a trend for the week. The good mood week, first week of November. I hope you all have a good mood week too, or at least a good mood day!

I was on fire on the blog front last week - these week so far has been a little less stellar. But there's still time to make up for lost time.

The biggest news this week, I think everywhere is the new fancy H1N1 vaccine. Let me set things straight. I dislike needles. I used to not like them from a "they provoke pain" perspective but over time that has developped into the "I don't like injecting foreign substances into my body". The public clincs have began in the province, and begin in the city on Monday. Hummm....of course the goverment is trying to convince me to do it. We'll see.

The end.

Le Canada ? La France ? Mais pourquoi ?

Everyone knows that there is generally no logical rhyme or reason to the genders assigned to nouns in France - a table is a chick, la table, where as a wall is a dude, le mur. There are some clues which can help you in your quest to properly determine whether or not it is in fact le or la, for example, words which end in "-tion" tend towards the feminine. You can read more about these here (or if anyone knows a better site)

Of course, OF COURSE, these don't work at all times.

There are also words which have two genders with different meanings. Once, a big kafuffle was caused in my life due to the difference between le foie and la foi - Maybe I've even already gotten into it before.

An interesting article (ha ha ha - such a nerd) was brought to my attention about countries and genders, Pourquoi certains noms de pays sont-ils masculins et d'autres féminins ? Interestingly enough, the interest arose from a mistake, and as I make mistakes in gender all the time (and have accepted that there is only so much I can do to remedy this) nothing makes me happier than when a born and bred French person errs in their ways. It's nice to know I'm not hopeless and alone.

Happy reading!

If you live in Canada and have a need to translate something from English to French or, of course, from French to English, the goverment wants to help you out. Termium, a goverment-made database is now available to the Canadian public. Before, access to this expert-made ressource required a subscription. Now, anyone can go nuts.

When launching it to the public, the Language Portal of Canada was also created which has some interesting information, in both French and English about common mistakes made in written expression as well as access to Termium in a handy box. Naturally, as I'm interested in languages, I poked around the sight for awhile and found some interesting content.

In French, I saw something named Ticket ou Billet? Which was something I had been wondering about, as I only ever learned billet in school yet upon my arrival in France, almost everything seemed to be a ticket: ticket de métro, ticket de bus, etc.

However, this is the arogant sentence that struck me:

Il faut dire que les Français sont moins aux aguets et sentent peu leur langue menacée.
(It must be said that the French are less on the look out (for anglicisms) and do not really feel that their language is threatened)

I feel this is a fairly bold statement. What do you think?