Journal Entries
SF's NaJoPoMo 17th November - McConaughey
Posted Nov 17, 2014
Saturday night, I went to see Interstellar with two friends.
We had picked the 8:35 showing, but only because we hadn't checked the running time of the movie.
But we were lucky and managed to get home before midnight, so no pumpkin this time.
What can I say without spoiling it ?
The images are beautiful.
The story is gripping.
The characters are touching.
It's got Killer Joe, Catwoman, Seneca Crane and Jason Bourne in it...
As the end credits rolled, we all sat still.
The whole room quiet, hushed.
A bit confused.
A bit in awe.
A bit lost.
Feeling tiny and insignificant. 
Wow.
Discuss this Journal entry [16]
Latest reply: Nov 17, 2014
SF's NaJoPoMo 16th November - Mr Potatohead goes to war
Posted Nov 16, 2014
Charleville-Mézières is the world capital of puppets.
There is a festival every other year, for ten days in September, with puppet shows of every kind from all over the world.
The next festival will be in 2015.
But this year, for D-365, they had organised a special weekend.
So it was that on Sunday 28th September at 10am, I was sitting on a plastic chair in a park next to a church in Charleville, with my sister and my niece, and around 80 other people.
The show was called "Poilu" (that's the name for the soldiers during the first world war).
And the puppets were made out of potatoes.
The main story was the Battle of Verdun.
There were round potatoes for the French soldiers, and potatoes with toothpicks on top for the Germans.
There were potatoes with firecrackers inside for the bombs and there were bits of potato peel and bits of frozen chips for the blown up soldiers.
There was even a tank made out of potatoes.
And the Arc de Triomphe was made out of wooden crates.
The show managed to be both moving and funny, to give a sense of the horror of the war, but without being horrible.
We had a good time. Looking forward to next year. 
Discuss this Journal entry [10]
Latest reply: Nov 16, 2014
SF's NaJoPoMo 15th November - McGyver Mum
Posted Nov 15, 2014
I think we can all agree that going shopping on a Saturday afternoon is one of the stupidest things to do.
Thus, breaking your garage key inside the lock when you get back from shopping on a Saturday afternoon, is probably THE stupidest thing to do.
You are then left with two choices : calling a locksmith straight away, or calling your Mum first and then the locksmith.
This being - as we might have mentioned - a Saturday afternoon, the good news is that your Mum will be home to answer the phone and tell you to call the locksmith.
The bad news is that the locksmith will charge you weekend rates.
And payday is still two weeks away.
And of course, you've just spent much of the previous pay an hour ago by doing your shopping (on a Saturday afternoon, would you have guessed?).
The phone call goes something like this :
Hi Mum! How are you?
I'm fine, how are you, dear?
Errrm... I'm fiiiine, except for the half of the garage key that's stuck inside the lock... 
Completely stuck ?
Yup.
Not even a millimeter out that you could grab?
Nope.
Ok, have you got pliers? Or a sharp pointy knife? Or tongs of any kind? Or tweezers? Or, or, or ?
Yeees, I've got that. 
Ok, go out and try to get the bit of the key out using one of those. Do NOT push it farther in. call me in five minutes to tell me how it went. 
Going out with a handful of pointy things when it's starting to get dark is an interesting experience. Thankfully, not a lot of people walked past. 
Two minutes later, thanks to my trusty pliers, here I stand, half key in hand, smile on face.
Mum? I got it ! You're the best! 
Knock, knock, knocking on the neighbours' dooooooooor...
Hi! I have two favours to ask you. 
First, I'd need you to lock the garage door for me, please. And second, I'd like to borrow your key at some point in the coming week, so I can have a double made since i've broken mine.
Oh, sure, no problem, we had that same problem a while back, so yeah, any time. Tell you what, we've got two garage keys, so you have mine and give it back whenever you've managed to copy it, and in the meantime we'll use my wife's, no problem. 
Yeah !
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: Nov 15, 2014
SF's NaJoPoMo 14th November - Mail Misfortunes, Part Two
Posted Nov 14, 2014
(For the first episode of this Saga, see my 4th November Journal).
Having had my money back, I re-ordered the book I wanted, only this time I didn't have it delivered to my place, but to the Post Office.
Fingers crossed for a couple of days, and then...
Tah dah! I received an email : 
"Your package has arrived at the delivery point you chose. Please collect it before the day before November 26th. (sic)
Here are the opening hours of the delivery point:
Mondays to Fridays 9:00 - 12:15 ; 13:30 - 18:00
Saturdays 9:00 - 12:15
Sundays 7:30 - 12:00 ; 13:00 - 19:00"
Mmh, I'm pretty sure the Post Office is not (*very* not) open on Sundays, but thanks for the "help", Nileriver...
So I left work a little earlier than my usual 6pm, and picked my package.
And it wasn't lost, or stolen, or even damaged in any way !
Hurray ! 
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Nov 14, 2014
SF's NaJoPoMo 13th November - Mandarin or Cantonese ?
Posted Nov 13, 2014
Just a quick one tonight, as I am going out.
I've been part of an English-speaking group for almost 5 years now.
We meet every Tuesday night in a café/restaurant, and have a chat and a drink.
For quite a while now, we've been having restaurant nights in addition to the usual Tuesdays.
For some reason, these are always organised by K.
So we always go to his favourite place: a Chinese restaurant called Papillons.
It's an all you can eat buffet, and the people there are really nice and the food is pretty good too.
*AND* they have a whole buffet of *sweets*.
Marshmallows, toffee, pretty much all the Haribos available, jelly these and jelly those, smurfs, tiny little cookies, ...
You name it, they have it!
Pity you're too full to enjoy those by the time you finish your meal... 
It's quite hard to find a date that suits most of the regulars in the group, so we tend to settle two or more dates at the same time, sometimes up to four months in advance!
Three weeks ago, we agreed on tonight, and a date in February. 
So, I'm picking up three friends in half an hour, and we'll be meeting ten others at the restaurant. 
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: Nov 13, 2014
Superfrenchie
Researcher U9937105
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."