It has been a while... again, a year has flown past, and I have added nothing to my blog.

The biggest news in my life (although there are plenty of other things going on-- school, Easter, Arthur's birthday was exciting-- ) the thing that has touched me most in the last month, is that Arthur is enrolled for school in September... as I'm finally coming (fingers crossed) to the end of my education, Arthur is beginning his! --ALREADY--!

Here's my monkey in his element:

The 2014 update

Lauren came to visit in April 2013. It was a very short visit, but certainly made me happy! AND I finally made it to the musée d'orsay! Since 2006, I have planned many times to go, and had never made it until then.

There were many grey days last spring, but we still managed to have some fun in the sand at the park! (April 16, 2013)

  

This was one of the first sunny days last spring, April 21. I couldn't resist the balloon man at the gate to the park. I got Arthur a red helicopter. We gave it to another boy before we got home (no extra space in our apartment for a big helium balloon helicopter! Hopefully he enjoyed it too!

 

Another sunny Sunday! May 2nd 2013. We all went to place des vosges and enjoyed the rays! 

 

We escaped the city with Séverine and Amaël for a week. It was bliss and green grass! (May 7, 2013)

 

Arthur was pretty open to trying most things, including a number of playground elements. (June 8, 2013)

We went to the Louvre. It was Arthur's first visit and he did a stand up job, but his second visit was SO much more gratifying for me at least... he ran into the first room and said in a pretty loud voice... "WOOOOOOOOWWWWW" I will admit to being a little embarrassed at the time because of the volume, but my pride went through the roof... he liked it, he really liked it! (June 9, 2013)

 

We had a lovely visit to Canada during the summer, it was kicked off, however with an insufferable delay... about 5 hours if memory serves. So that's 5 hours plus the 2 hours that we arrived before the initial flight. (June 29, 2013)

 

Our Boogie Woogie weekend was fantastic and Arthur found the love of his life, STRINGS! Stringed instruments, that is. Enamored by Jon and Liam's sweet serenades he is now a sucker for a guitar, a bass, ANYTHING with strings! (July 14, 2013)

 

We did lots of fun things in the "Great White" including camping with Mab, Mary, Ange and Keelor and swimming at the dog beach (for Keelor's sake). It was a little grey, but we had a blast in the sand! (July 22, 2013)

While we were home we enjoyed (as much as we could) fresh Ontario sweetcorn from Gillespie's. We also enjoyed their corn maze... well, I think I enjoyed it more than Arthur, but he humored me for a little! (July 24, 2013)

Although I had thought, based on our flight time, that he would sleep for the majority of our flight back to Paris, it took him a very long time to get over his excitement of being in the plane. We had the three seats in the middle to ourselves, so he did have one of the most comfortable spots in economy class. It still took a while! (July 31, 2013)

By the time we got back to Paris, they had finished the renovation work on Place de la République. We very much enjoyed the "mirroir d'eau" --the water mirror. (August 2nd, 2013)

 

Arthur attacked a little girl in the park one day while he was there with his father. In fact, it was only her boots that he was attacking. So we went to the sports store and bought him some rubber boots. He LOVES them! He wouldn't take them off for anything, and puddles became his new best friends!

The catch up will be continued shortly!

The Dobbie T

 

 

 

  

An un-commented collection of photos that represents the visit I had with my cousin Anna and her two boys almost 2 years ago! It has sat in the list of unpublished posts for a long time now! Oops!

WOW! How times have changed!

My last post was in November 2011 on the subject of buns, funnily enough, at the time, I had my own bun in the oven. He has since grown into the most rambunctious incorrigible little character I know. Arthur Jugurtha!

Arthur arrived on the 29th of february, he just couldn't wait for his due date of March 4th. My mum,
Mab, made it in from the airport just in time to hold him and then go home and crash!

Mab brought his stroller from Canada, and Papa put it all together so that we could all walk home from the hospital. It was a much longer walk than I remembered it being!

 

Arthur was a very lucky little boy, he received many presents from far and wide, in particular a fantastic Hudson's bay blanket that has kept him warm on many an occasion.

 

He did not hesitate long on his back, and started crawling as quickly as his little body would let him. Since then he has not slowed down, exploring ever square centimetre of our little apartment. He has left, no stone un-turned!

  

It didn't take him long to pull himself up, and then a whole new set of adventures began.

 

 Climbing of course followed quickly after his first steps.

And running and we've almost gotten to jumping even! He's a great entertainer, and giggles like mad when we play peek-a-boo! All that in a year and a half. 

And now I'm getting ready for my second shot at finals for 2nd year. Deep breath, and looking forward to the summer!

 

The BUN-anza

Dated retroactively to August 2011:

After a gruelling 9 exams in 2 weeks... 7 in 4 days, my final exam had been written and Canada Day was around the corner. My brilliant idea to celebrate initially involved a rather long pub crawl through the Canadian (and other) bars of Paris, to culminate in a large after work party at la Roseraie boasting Canadian (perhaps not delicacies, because Canada's not particularly famous for anything delicate in comparison to France) specialities.

However as most of my plans go, I forgot to invite everyone early enough... and my preparation for the Canadian "feast" at the end of the tour ended up taking all day... thanks to the buns.

The buns... ahh the buns... thinking that mini burgers would be more fun than big ones (and less expensive for more of them) presented one problem, president's choice does not exist here, so there are no slider buns easily available. I therefore decided to make hamburger buns that I could size accordingly.

The result was positive, but perhaps a little amusing. The process went as follows:

 

Step 1: warm the liquids

 

Step 2 : prepare the yeast and sugar

  

Step 3: add warm liquids to the yeast and sugar and allow to react.

Step 4-6: add flour, separate into buns and allow to rise

Step 7: bake...

  

Apparently I over estimated a little on the quantity of recipe to buns... They served as good snacks for Lyaz for a month!

The Sandwich

One of my favourite things in London and is to this day the first thing that I look for upon returning to London is a crayfish and rocket sandwich from Pret a Manger. More commonly refered to as "Pret".

On one occaision while browsing the wonderous aisles at La Fayette Gourmet I found Crayfish... so you might imagine I was immediately inspired to try to recreate my favourite London lunch break!

  

And it was such a fulfilling experience, however not the same as the real thing!

  

Someday soon I will make it back to the UK. Upon writing this entry, I did notice that Pret has been exported to the states, or at least to NYC. Unfortunately with the name like Pret, and being based on a rather french idea of lunch, (meaning the fresh sandwich thing is pretty much everywhere here) I don't think it'll be rocking Paris anytime soon. For the time being, I'll have to stick to the DIY crayfish and rocket sandwich. 

Not too shabby, but definitely not the same!

The Visit from Caroline

A very good friend from University, Caroline, came to Paris on her way to do a pilgrimage through Spain (I might clarify that she's not in the least bit religious, but was following her mother's advice for an incredible adventure). As such her first day here we bought lunch and ate it by the canal. 

 

 

Caroline's stay most unfortunately fell in the middle or my first round of exams. Although thankfully it was after the bulk of the significant exams, so I had a bit of time to relax, and needed it!

 

While enjoying our lunch, or more specifically while digesting a bit and trying to clean ourselves up after our lunch (lebanese wraps are very juicy!) the adjacent bridge began to open. While I have watched many locks and a lift bridge here and there in operation (thanks to my father's insistance), I had never seen a swing bridge open.

 

Apparently, it was therefore very important to document it in photographs. Unfortunately just after I took this photo, my camera's battery died. So for further documentation, one would have to refer to Caroline's photos!