It must be love
This photo makes me melt: she is my little furry sidekick. We’re together all the time, and when we’re not, she runs to the door and does little pirouettes (which I call ‘tourniquets‘) when I come home. We nap together and she always finds the best place to curl up into (the small of my back, between my feet, along my arm with little head on my shoulder).
She brings me toys and leaves them in a heap at my feet when she wants to play. She will sit opposite me for half an hour straight when she wants food (I’ve never seen such insistence in an animal!).
In other words, I am completely and un-objectively smitten with my dog. And she knows that.
PS: Did I mention her little black nose?
La plume
As much as I love Louise Attaque’s first self-titled album, I think my favourite is their second. And as impossible as it is to pick a favourite from all the songs in ‘Comme on a dit’, if pressed I will say ‘La plume’.
Which features a little cork with eyes, arms and legs up to slightly confusing adventures which involve swimming around like a medusa and pushing a fellow cork on a swing. Let me know if you figure it out.
Their official site is here – and if you visit you will learn with dismay they are on hiatus again. Bum.
Eye nose and ear
I was looking through our Lightroom catalogue the other day and found these – detail pictures Mira and I posed for on my birthday nearly 4 years ago.
I like them for the following reasons:
- in the first one, you can see my lentil!
- I have an unhealthy obsession with animals’ noses (and feet) so a close-up of an animal’s nose naturally blows my mind and excites me.
- the last one is slightly blurry and even shows the little raspberry I have behind my left ear.
So yes: today is a slow day and I don’t have much of a story to tell, nor do I feel good (crazy irregular heartbeat and palpitations included).
Which is when a large Lightroom catalogue comes in handy :)
You look like a cliché
I love Anna Bond’s illustrations and stationery – to the point I am thinking about commissioning a portrait of us for our 10th (crikey!) wedding anniversary this year.
And I love this print of hats – which includes a béret, which I can’t get away with wearing without being called a cliché by Christian (he’s probably right).
You can buy the illustration here, and look at the rest of Rifle’s shop here.
Scooty Puff!
One of our favourite Futurama episodes has given us a funny quote for when we want Mira to move over on the couch (which is every time we want to sit down – that little monkey likes to spread).
It starts like this: ‘Scoot!’ – then ‘Scooty Puff!’, then ‘Scooty Puff Junior!’ as we try to nudge her to one side.
If we have really gotten into it by that point, we might add ‘Scooty Puff Junior suuuuucks!’ (which is why the Nibblonians upgraded Fry to Scooty Puff Senior – ‘the Doom Bringer’ – since Scooty Puff Junior fell apart).
I’m pretty sure I’ve lost most of you by this point.
Just watch ‘The Why of Fry‘ (season 4) and all will be explained.
PS: When you type ‘Scooty Puff’ into the Google search bar, it auto fills! We’re not the only ones with a slight obsession.
PPS: Same episode contains another great line: ‘Detecting trace amounts of mental activity!’. Oh, and also ‘Sometimes I fear we are cute’. Gold.
Long months, short months: a simple possibly French trick
Christian calls it ‘your little trick’, and I always nod emphatically to that with a big smile. Before I showed him ‘my little trick’ he had never seen or heard of it – which makes me feel quite smug.
It’s something I was taught very long ago (I don’t even remember by who), it’s quick and it always works.
What is my little trick? Well, if you’ve ever tried to remember if a month has 30 or 31 days, instead of going to a calendar you can use your hands instead – and this is how.
Ready? Make a fist with one hand, and place your finger on your index knuckle. That’s January – it’s a bump, so 31 days. Now move your finger left, between your knuckles: that’s February – it’s a dip, so it’s a short month. Left again: March! Bump! 31 days! Keep going: April, dip, 30 days.
When you reach your little finger’s knuckle you should be at July (bump, 31 days).
Then return to the starting point – your index knuckle – that’s now August (bump, 31 days!). Go left again until you reach December, which will fall on your wedding finger’s knuckle. Et voilà – my little trick, as demonstrated by my pasty hands.
At least this is not contentious like finger counting at our house.
Classics in Lego
The cat meteorologist: a well accepted French fact
There have been many things to adapt to for me since moving from France to Australia, and this is the beginning of an attempt to explain.
I feel misunderstood and isolated sometimes – and it’s not because I’ve used the wrong word. It’s actually more vexing than that: I say something grammatically correct and intelligible, and I’m laughed at (rude!). Without any of my countrymen to back me up and confirm what I’m saying, it can sting.
Case in point: we were at the vet a few years back with our cat Astin and I joked about the weather – ‘It’s raining’ I said ‘because I caught him washing behind his ears yesterday.’ Both the vet and Christian looked at me with clear doubt about my sanity.
Trying to rehabilitate myself and explain further, I tried again: ‘Haven’t you ever heard this before? If you see a cat licking his paw and then going behind his ear, it means it’ll rain the day after.’ Same blank stares. Then the vet said ‘No, never heard this before. Sounds crazy!’. So I kept going (you have to hand it to me for not letting it go): ‘It’s a well accepted thing in my country! It’s even used as a plot device in a beloved children’s book*!’. Vet: ‘So back to Astin?’.
All right you close-minded veterinarian, have it your way. Your loss to miss out on the suspense of watching a grooming cat get closer and closer to his ear, pleading in your head he doesn’t go all the way behind, and having the opportunity to scream ‘Noooooo’ if he does.
No one better call me crazy in the comments.
*The book is ‘Les Contes du Chat Perché‘ by Marcel Aymé.
(Image is from here, the cat is called Spencer).
PS: nothing to do with feline forecasting, but an amusing fact nonetheless: when cats wash their business and stick their paw straight up in the air, in French it’s called ‘Playing the cello’ (‘Jouer du violoncelle‘). Cracks me up every time I think about it.
Ork Posters!
I love Ork Posters (and they are so enthusiastic they put an exclamation mark after their name!).
I love this – it reminds me of Monsieur Alfonse and his ‘teekie teeker’.
Ork also does a handful of city neighbourhood posters (only US and Canada though… Guys, Paris?).
Buy the Heart print here, and see everything else here.
(Via Monoscope).
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