Read The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein, presumably following a recommendation in The Guardian or on Tor’s Reactor blog. This is a 2002 book, labelled as gothic horror by the review I read then. However, there is little horror in the novel and much more of a diffracted snapshot of a perturbed pupil at a US boarding school, traumatised by the suicide of her father. As the story is told through and only through the diary of that pupil, most facts being reported second-hand and not always coherently, it becomes quickly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, especially the veracity of another pupil being a vampire. Or just the new best friend of the narrator’s former best friend. Which makes the book much more interesting, if unsettling. (Especially regarding how a sexual assault by a teacher on the pupil is not reported by her as such.)
During a May 01 trip to Caen, if not for the half-marathon, next month!, I visited the nearby fish market in Courseulle, where I tasted fantastic, local, oysters, possibly at the height of their growth, despite the warning to avoid oysters in months without R’s! I also taught a restaurant waiter how to make affogato! And visited the amazing archaeological site of Aregenua, in the tiny village of Vieux, of which I had never heard. This Gallo-Roman city was the centre of local power in the early centuries, when Caen hardly existed, with 5000 inhabitants, temples, a forum and a theatre. All of which gradually vanished in the Dark Ages… The site is now protected from pilfering, but a large fraction remains un-escavated. (Too bad the museum boutique was not selling garum!)
Watched some episodes of The Night Agent (2), rather efficient copycat of the Bourne movies, but also requiring a huge suspension of belief in its accumulation of coincidences and the ability of the agents to operate in completely new environments. With a completely implausible reception at the Iranian Embassy. (And a DGSE agent with an awful French.) But the tension in the cat & mouse “game” is there, to the point I had to split episodes when it got too intense!
During 
In-between two weeks in Venice, I cooked a veg curry with (old) butternut, leeks, (new) onions and a yellow species of beetroot I had never seen before, Eaten with my freshly made kimlchi that was somewhat too fresh. The second pot is still burping! And had the worst ramen dish in my culinary experience, in Strasbourg, obviously not the centre of the ramen universe!, where half the ingredients were freezer cold (and the other half just marginaly warmer). (But tasted a new and nice category of curly pasta while in Venice (2), 
3), which led to a lengthy security check at the CDG airport!
Read the most recent Rankin’s Rebus (#25), 
