And more photots here and here.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Halloween is near
Lately, I have had some anxious dreams.
For example, I dreamt that I forgot to pick up my Halloween costume before flying off to the murder party. My heart was racing like mad when I woke up.
Just the day before, I had this dream where I am running like mad to return to shelter because the person I was somehow following did a U-turn and started running after me. And for some reason I know that he was going to explode. Again I was panting like I had run for real a 60m sprint.
For the costume, I understand my impatience to get to the party. For the other one...
For example, I dreamt that I forgot to pick up my Halloween costume before flying off to the murder party. My heart was racing like mad when I woke up.
Just the day before, I had this dream where I am running like mad to return to shelter because the person I was somehow following did a U-turn and started running after me. And for some reason I know that he was going to explode. Again I was panting like I had run for real a 60m sprint.
For the costume, I understand my impatience to get to the party. For the other one...
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tartiflettes and Génépi
About 1h30 by bus from Geneva, we got to Annecy, a pretty small clean old city with a pleasant paved old town area and canals that lead to the purestand cleanest lake in Europe: lake Annecy.
The idea of the trip was to window shop and eat. So we wandered about the Sunday market, making a mental note of the different cheese stands and the million types of saucissons. It was quite painful to walk past all the food and not being able to make a decision on what to buy. We were quite reasonable though and didn't even taste a single sample!!
Getting lost along the small streets, we were really looking for a place to sample the local fare: tartiflette. To those unaccustomed to the dish, it is not something you would eat if you were on a diet. Made of potatoes, and usually bacon and cheese (Reblochon) it is quite easy to make. I have made it a few times myself, because trust me, my pants size didn't increase by itself.
1-cook the potatoes and bacon a bit
2-put in a baking pan
3-put the cheese on top
4-cook in the oven until its melted and all gooyey
5-serve hot
We eventually found one restaurant calle the 'Munich' that served tomatoe tartiflette and goat cheese tartiflette. As you may guess, those were just additional ingredients....Imagine eating potaoes and bacon and 500g of melted cheese....feels good and heavy. We had to sit for an additional 30min chatting to digest and be able to move.
About 15minutes alter though, we stumbled on an ice cream shop that had yummy sorbet: I had a scoop of grapefruit and another one of passion fruit. We kept on walking in order to discover more shops, and so I discovered Génépi in one of those tourist trap shop. It was the perfect digestif after 800g of good food.
By 4pm we were by the lake and embarked on a 30min cruise. The weather was nice (about 16C) and no wind, so we sat outside, which was a mistake because once the boat picked up speed, the wind froze my face and the sight of the beautiful autumn leaves became secondary to protecting my eyes and nose from icy winds.
After that less than warm experience, nature blessed us with a beautiful sunset reflected on the white rocks and cliffs surrounding the lake. The setting sun reminded us of the time and so we hurried back in the shopping area for a crepe and cider before heading back to Geneva. We weren't really hungry, but it would have been a crime not to have one.
Annecy will definetely see a bit of me in the future.
The idea of the trip was to window shop and eat. So we wandered about the Sunday market, making a mental note of the different cheese stands and the million types of saucissons. It was quite painful to walk past all the food and not being able to make a decision on what to buy. We were quite reasonable though and didn't even taste a single sample!!
Getting lost along the small streets, we were really looking for a place to sample the local fare: tartiflette. To those unaccustomed to the dish, it is not something you would eat if you were on a diet. Made of potatoes, and usually bacon and cheese (Reblochon) it is quite easy to make. I have made it a few times myself, because trust me, my pants size didn't increase by itself.
1-cook the potatoes and bacon a bit
2-put in a baking pan
3-put the cheese on top
4-cook in the oven until its melted and all gooyey
5-serve hot
We eventually found one restaurant calle the 'Munich' that served tomatoe tartiflette and goat cheese tartiflette. As you may guess, those were just additional ingredients....Imagine eating potaoes and bacon and 500g of melted cheese....feels good and heavy. We had to sit for an additional 30min chatting to digest and be able to move.
About 15minutes alter though, we stumbled on an ice cream shop that had yummy sorbet: I had a scoop of grapefruit and another one of passion fruit. We kept on walking in order to discover more shops, and so I discovered Génépi in one of those tourist trap shop. It was the perfect digestif after 800g of good food.
By 4pm we were by the lake and embarked on a 30min cruise. The weather was nice (about 16C) and no wind, so we sat outside, which was a mistake because once the boat picked up speed, the wind froze my face and the sight of the beautiful autumn leaves became secondary to protecting my eyes and nose from icy winds.
After that less than warm experience, nature blessed us with a beautiful sunset reflected on the white rocks and cliffs surrounding the lake. The setting sun reminded us of the time and so we hurried back in the shopping area for a crepe and cider before heading back to Geneva. We weren't really hungry, but it would have been a crime not to have one.
Annecy will definetely see a bit of me in the future.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Jazz a Geneve
I was surfing for concert venue when I stumbled on AMR. Got to the concert page and saw a trio playing Thursday night. I tried to talk some of my colleagues into joining me in an evening of jazz, when one of my colleague pointed out he was going because his brother was playing there on that night.
I guess Geneva is such a small town that it was worth it after all to ask if he knew the saxophonist who bear his name...LOL
It was a night of magic, in a cute non smoking (*) venue. The saxophone was at times whispering, then exhilarating in a fugue, Bach style, with unimaginable sound. The bass was consistently melodic, with classical guitar and Segovia inspired touches, and the drums were just as punctual and supportive as ever, with its own melody and breathing sounds.
They played all kinds of atmospheres: from children's sounds, to melancholic views of a traffic packed bridge on a sunset, a beautifully sad remembrance to an old friend...
I also found some known tunes among the improvisations: oscar peterson's night train, Satie's gymnopedie's tones played as a bass line.
It made me travel through time and through my emotions, and mad eme relax from an uneventful day, bringing me home smiling with a peaceful satisfaction, and 2 CDs.
Soundbites here.
Steve Swallow – www.wattxtrawatt.com
Ohad Talmor – www.ohadtalmor.com
Adam Nussbaum – www.adamnussbaum.net
(*)Geneva once voted to ban smoking inside public places. But then the referendum was apparently unconstitutional or toor esticting, so the result of the vote was cancelled. This weekend, they will vote again for all sorts of things. As a results, some venues are smoke free by putting a sticker at the door advertising so, and some are just smokey, by putting a sticker outside claiming prohibiting smoking is limiting liberty...so much propaganda everywhere...that will be topic of another post!
I guess Geneva is such a small town that it was worth it after all to ask if he knew the saxophonist who bear his name...LOL
It was a night of magic, in a cute non smoking (*) venue. The saxophone was at times whispering, then exhilarating in a fugue, Bach style, with unimaginable sound. The bass was consistently melodic, with classical guitar and Segovia inspired touches, and the drums were just as punctual and supportive as ever, with its own melody and breathing sounds.
They played all kinds of atmospheres: from children's sounds, to melancholic views of a traffic packed bridge on a sunset, a beautifully sad remembrance to an old friend...
I also found some known tunes among the improvisations: oscar peterson's night train, Satie's gymnopedie's tones played as a bass line.
It made me travel through time and through my emotions, and mad eme relax from an uneventful day, bringing me home smiling with a peaceful satisfaction, and 2 CDs.
Soundbites here.
Steve Swallow – www.wattxtrawatt.com
Ohad Talmor – www.ohadtalmor.com
Adam Nussbaum – www.adamnussbaum.net
(*)Geneva once voted to ban smoking inside public places. But then the referendum was apparently unconstitutional or toor esticting, so the result of the vote was cancelled. This weekend, they will vote again for all sorts of things. As a results, some venues are smoke free by putting a sticker at the door advertising so, and some are just smokey, by putting a sticker outside claiming prohibiting smoking is limiting liberty...so much propaganda everywhere...that will be topic of another post!
Sunday, October 04, 2009
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