Motivation and other things

It's been a while since I last posted. My excuse : lack of motivation. It's something which, I think, comes with this particular period of the year. Night falling at 5pm, coldness freezing your balls off and your mind is just switch on "can't be bother to do anything". I just force myself in posting something otherwise I will feel like I've done nothing all day. Well it's not exactly true because I did shop and wash up the accumulated pile of dishes in my kitchen! I even killed an hour at the Fnac going through various books, DVD's and CD's. I didn't buy anything because of my non motivation. I couldn't be bother to queue to pay whatever I fancied buying.
This morning I finished a cool book by Stephen Clarke " Merde actually". It's the sequel of "a year in the merde". The story is about an English bloke who tries to understand French culture as he is obliged to live in Paris for his new job. It's very witty and funny, English humor at its best.
This was my "advertising what I like" moment. I'm just filling the blank page I've got in front of me to convince myself I'm doing something of my free time. I know I've got to clean the flat, or at least hoover it. It's just too much work to get the Dyson out and plugit in!
One might say I'm bored and I wouldn't blame him. I'm writing a lot of rubbish since the begining of this post but I don't care. Well, after all, it's my blog, I write whatever I want!
I haven't talked about restaurant for a while too. It's probably because I haven't been to a restaurant lately. Except for yesterday. I was, for once, off and we decided to go for a brunch. We went to l'Alcazar, a former 70's club totally renovated into a trendy restaurant/lounge by Terence Conran. They have a 29€ brunch which looked good but after seeing the 29€ lunch menu we decided to go for the later. Sorry I didn't take any pictures but what we had was good. Uta had a "pot-au-feu" paté and I the salmon tataki with ginger. Then Uta had the same starter I had but in a bigger portion. I went for the bar filet with lime sauce and mash-potato with herbs. We washed it down with a glass of Côte de bourg (included in the menu).
All in all we had a nice time apart from the fact that I was seating at the first table near the door and I froze to death every time somebody went in!
To warm us up we had a mug of hot mulled wine at home and fell miserably asleep at 5pm on the sofa! It seemed like a good idea to have a little nap but when bed time came around 11pm we were not really ready to go to bed and sleep! I tried to knock myself out by reading. Normally, it takes me 5 pages to have my eyes closing but at 3am I was still there reading my book! Well next time we'll have sex and hopefully it will work better than the "book reading" theory!
To finish with today's post, take a look at this picture. It's been taken at sunset in the Grand canyon. It's to remind us that somewhere on this planet there good weather and night doesn't fall at 5pm!

Apple everywhere!

That's a title the people at Apple would really like to see some day in the news! Unfortunately, I will not talk about those wonderful products. My post is actually on the real apple fruit. For those who wonder, no I haven't got an orchard nor completely mad!
Uta and myself enjoyed a very nice meal last friday at a restaurant called Pomze. A bit of a dumb name, but an excellent little Parisian spot for those who love apples. The owner of the place transformed a former private appartment on Boulevard Haussmann into a cosy restaurant. They kept the walls inside the place so the restaurant is divided into small rooms. On the ground level, they made a shop that sells apple, of course, and also about 30 different kind of Ciders. The restaurant is on the first floor. They transformed the basement into a cool lounge where you can enjoy an after-dinner cigar whilst drinking aged calvados.
The concept is simple, make the people discover what we can do with all sort of apples. And it works!
Uta had the Artichoke and apple bavarois with crayfish and I had the Home-made foie gras with calvados, French toast and apple chutney. The French toast added a nice sweet touch to the dish. I didn't try Uta's starter but according to her it was delicious!

Then we ordered Three home-made foie gras cooked in "papillotes" with three kind of apple and an Apple and coco milk chicken fircassee with sweet potato flan. I tasted a bit of the foie gras and it was interesting to feel the difference the apple you use in the dish makes. The foie gras was the same all the way but the taste came from the apple used; sweet sour or even bitter. My chicken was also very tasty. The coco milk was mixed with some spices that made the dish a bit like like a thai one.

For dessert, I had an Aranguani chocolate mousse with thyme-flavoured apples. That was nice but a bit heavy!
We paid around 70€ per person with three glasses of cider each and a calvados as a "digestif". I must say that the guy who served us the cider was very professional and talk with passion about the caracteristics of the ciders we had. A true cider sommelier!
It's not going to be easy to stay healthy if I'm going to eat in restaurant every week. The fact that I had raclette twice this week doesn't help either. And, oh!, I almost forgot, we went to Pied de Cochon in les Halles where I had my favourite : Andouillette AAAAA! Today, I'm off to my mum's where I'm sure we won't be fed on carrots and vegetables! Well then I guess I gonna renew my application at the gym.

Going healthy again

Last week after a very big party and heavy smoking, I decided to give up smoking, since I don't really like having my lungs aching the following morning! I was going to be off and had no more cigarettes, so I thought I'll give it a try (for the hundredth time). Four days later, I still haven't touched a cigarette. It's not a big achievement, bearing in mind that I had already stopped for far much longer, but that's a start. I'm quite pleased with myself now. Until I go out on a drinking binge and smoke a pack in 2 hours!
Since I haven't got my car I'm obliged to walk to the train station and take the bloody public transportation. Doctors say that we should walk at least 30 minutes per day to keep fit. So I see the bright side of not having a car! I should get the car this afternoon though. If anybody I know is interested, I'm selling it. That means i'm going to be a pedestrian again and walk a little more.
Apart from that, the Prince is back at the hotel as well as all his requests. Within 20 minutes they were here, we had to go and buy Sim card with the recharge. They gave us a computer to be fixed and an 8mm film to put on DVD. That's just the beginning because he's staying 10 days! With that comes the wanky shifts, like 5pm to 2am or a 10 hours day shift.
Until I start, I have a little time to exercise which fit exactly in my healthy mood at the moment!

Another nice day?!

Well it's the 1st of November and I woke up to a sunny day. What is happening with the weather lately. I mean, it is not supposed to be sunny and especially, it is not supposed to be 20°C on the 1st of November. Did France suddenly changed position on the globe so we are nearer the equator. I don't think so, I think we should worry very much about these recent climate changes. I won't complain it's 20°C and sunny especially since I'm taking the public transportation but how is it all gonna end? If it goes on like that, in 20 years time nobody would even remember what snow looks like!
Good thing about that is that girls are still wearing there summer clothes! And if all goes wrong then, fuck it, we should all have as much good times as we can, partying, drinking, driving very fast and so on.
The bad thing about that weather is that I have to clean my windows, they look so dirty when the sun hit them! Well then off to "spring cleaning"!
Before I part and go on with the task of the day, I would like to show you what I had for lunch the very same day we came back from the States.Aren't they beautiful? I just pan-fried them with parsley and garlic. Sorry I haven't got a picture of the dish, it was so good that I forgot to take one.