Archive for the Wines Category
Château La Coste [jatp]
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Ai Weiwei, Aix-en-Provence, Bob Dylan, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Château La Coste, clair obscur, contemporary art, Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence, French wines, jatp, Languedoc wines, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, organic wine, Provence, sauvignon, Syrah, Vermentino, Yoko Ono on September 20, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the plague, &tc, year
Posted in Books, Travel, Wines with tags BD, Black Plague, book reviews, bullying, campus violence, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, drug trafficking, fantasy, gambling, Hugo Awards, John Scalzi, Journal of the Plague Year, Korea education system, Korea TV series, magic, paladins, South Korea, suyeongsaeng, teacher burnout, world building on September 18, 2026 by xi'an
From the Hugo Award package (leftover), I read the fifth and sixth volumes in John Scalzi’s Old Man War, namely The Human Division, and The End of All Things, the former a rather loose collection of short stories, and the later not even pretending. Efficient writing but nothing exciting. (Still part of his Hugo Award 2026 for series!) In the plane to Tokyo, I finished a new Kingfisher novel, Swordheart, set in the same universe as the Paladin series, which is similarly efficient but overly delayed by witty exchanges (in the least appropriate situations) and endless inner thoughts about romantic feelings! I also read a French BD, Tourner la page by Zep, whose drawings of Greek islands are nice but whose thriller scenario is rather conventional and predictable.
Watched at high speeds the Korean TV series Teach you a lesson (참교육), which addresses the woes of the Korean education system (bullying, teacher burnout, campus violence, gambling, gang links, teachers’ corruption, parents’ harassment, drug trafficking, suyeongsaeng) but is deeply flawed in supporting violent interaction with and generally extra-legal actions against delinquent high school students.
a journal of the North year
Posted in Books, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Battle of Hastings, Black Plague, book reviews, Cassis, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, England, fantasy, grotto, Guillaume le Concquérant, Isle of Lewis, Journal of the Plague Year, Lewis and Harris, Lugano, Outer Hebrides, Parc National des Calanques, salmon, Scotland, sea kayak on September 12, 2026 by xi'an
Read a surprisingly enjoyable book, Pagans by James Alistair Henry, taking place in an alternate Britain, split into three warring ethnic nations, the Celts, the Saxons, and the Norse. Where Christianity is a fringe sect, The Norman Conquest never happened, and the Industrial Revolution (first) took place in Africa. The ethnic traits and enemities are rather overdone, the evil one(s) are as too often too omniscient but the building of the alternate World and of the collaboration between Saxon and Celt police officers work out well. I just wonder at the title since there are several pantheons attached to the different ethnicities. The part inspired from the January 06 Capital storming is riveting and terrifying. I also read The Black Loch, by Peter May, which mostly supports the general theorem that trilogies should never exceed three volumes! The trilogy takes place on Lewis, Outer Hebrides, with cases always related to the traumatic childhood of a group of school friends. This more recent addition is set ten years later and involves the same (surviving) characters, but the frequent returns to (yet undisclosed) events of their youth feel reheated and improbable, while the cliffhanger episodes defy any flavour of plausibility. The many mentions of the island geography and beauty would fit a Lonely Planet guide, for a while, but are quickly annoying here. A good point, though: the book will put you off from farmed salmon!
Cooked chicken and made salads for a 30⁺ person picnic on a Marseille island beach as part of our daughter 30th birthday, leftovers being eaten from a kayak the following day during a paddling tour of the Cassis calanques! No one got sick and I even brought back leftovers of leftovers to Paris for a final meal..! I also enjoyed very nice Italian fare at a “grotto” in Lugano.
a journal of the chaos year
Posted in Books, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Battle of Hastings, BD, Belledonne, Black Plague, book reviews, Cambridge, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Detroit, England, fairy story, fantasy, Gloria, Guillaume le Concquérant, horror story, Iceland, Japan, Journal of the Plague Year, Paris - Texas, pissaladière, Roma, Spaghetti alla bottarga, sumo, Sunset Boulevard, tapenade, Thelma and Louise, tuna on August 27, 2026 by xi'an
Read a few other books from my (physical and virtual) piles, starting with Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey, an horror story set in post-conquest England, when Mathilda and Stephens are competing for the throne and the country suffers. While the setup is much to my liking, right after Guillaume‘s conquest of Britain at Hastings, the story is too lame to be continued, with cardboard characters and an awful style, if trying to create a fake 12th Century feel. (With potatoes!!) I think I bought this book upon The Guardian’s recommendation. Or maybe it was Tor Reactor Mag‘s… And then Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett, another variation on the fae theme, with a mock scholarly approach but too much infodump and a contrived scenario. Not to mention idiotic characters and an incomprehensible avoidance for acknowledging Iceland as the location of the story. Volume 1 of a series shortlisted for the Hugo Awards, I wonder how it ended up there. (Same question about it being Elle Best book of the year!) I also went quickly through The Human Division, which is Old Man War #5 by John Scalzi, essentially made of several short stories in the OMW universe, regrouped into a single one, rather loosely. Not worth the time. Thanks to Andrew, who was in Paris at the time, I borrowed a great BD, DETROIT ROMA, which is a road movie, from Detroit (Michigan) to Roma (Georgia), drawn in an unusual if not pretty style, with many links to film classics like Gloria, 8 ½ and Sunset Boulevard, but also Paris, Texas (of course!) and Thelma and Louise.
Under the relentless heat, I prepare salad after salad, an uninterrupted series of rhubarb preserve, and my own version of Banh mi, with Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp oil (what else?!), peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, coriander and HM Breton tuna tataki, in a fresh whole wheat mini-baguette… I also made another batch of red onion pissaladière, cooked long enough to turn the onions into a tapenade. And had the pleasant surprise to see spaghetti alla bottarga on a restaurant menu (and have a great meal).Upon my son’s recommendation, I watched Sanctuary (サンクチュアリ-聖域) a Japanese series centred on modern sumo. While it is quite interesting and revealing for someone like me who never paid attention to the sport (it being as far as possible from running! Or climbing!), it is also a challenge to watch with a high level of violence and bullying, and not truly any frankly positive character. Plus a rather ambiguous perspective on hazing and harassment. It also made me wonder at the impact on bodies the training and combats involve.
流氷ドラフト[Abashiri Okhotsk Blue Ryuhyo Draft]
Posted in pictures, Wines with tags Abashiri Brewery, airbnb, Chinese yam, flavoured beer, gardenia, Hokkaido, ice-water, Japan, Japanese beer, Okhotsk, seaweed on August 20, 2026 by xi'an
