Christmas is over!

After 2 days of stuffing ourselves with foie gras, oysters, game roast, desserts and, of course, various wines and spirits, I feel like I'm gonna blow up! I really need to go back to the gym! For now on it's gonna be soups and salads.
Check those pictures taken on the 25th. We went to my uncle's place in the countryside. He has a great house with a big pond and all sorts of animals around and in it like swan, ducks, peacocks and chickens! I found heaven on earth! Great wine cellar with vintage Bordeaux (1982,1985). So good! I want one of those!Now that's a BIG bottle of wine, shame it's empty!After all this food this is what everybody should have at the end of the meal! A first aid kit to help you digest and be more drunk!
I was that drunk that I even helped doing the washing up!
Morning after, just remember hitting something with the car whilst reversing into my parents garden. Luckily it was not the dog! It was a huge "sand dune"! Like the fat guy says in "Snatch", it was in funny angle! I didn't see it! I guess I'll have to clean the car now!
I'm off for a few days and I managed, cos it's freezing cold and snowing, to go to the city hall this morning to inquire about our future wedding. I've been complaining previously about French administration and my little trip to the "Mairie" proved me right again. You need at least half a kilo of papers to apply! Birth certificate issued less than 2 month prior the wedding! Can you explain me why it has to be less than 2 month old? Is my birth date supposed to change between now and the next month? It's going to be fun! On top of that you'll have to think of the place where you gonna get paralytic after the ceremony, the wedding list, the people you're going to invite and of course the wedding rings. For the later, I know what I want so we can consider that we have one thing less to worry on the list!
And now, as said, off to the gym because tonight I'm meeting with Carlos for his birthday. I probably should ask him a "less than 2 month old" birth certificate just to be sure it actually is his birthday!

Oui!!

That what Uta said when I asked her last night if she would be my wife. After more than 6 years together, I thought it was time to make the move. So I bought the ring and the flowers and delivered all that to the restaurant we were having dinner last night. When dessert came, came also the flowers on the table and the ring out of my pocket! You should have seen the look on her face! She did not expect that at all and that's what I wanted!
To all the people I know, prepare yourself for next year because there's going to be a celebration and that means a lot to drink!

A nice drive indeed!

I just came back from my mum's place and it was a nice drive back. I, again, drove a bit fast on the motorway.
Can I go faster?
Not bad, let see a bit more.
Nearly there. Oh shit that fucking van is pulling in front of me!
I wanted to get to the 200 kmh marker but a van decided otherwise. Fortunately it was not a Police van! Just a white van pulling in front of me without checking is mirror! He did put his indicator on so I was expecting him to do that, I still had to brake hard to avoid collision. I did actually hit 210 kmh on the way in but I didn't think of taking a picture. That's true that it's a bit dangerous driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other trying to get a picture, but, hey!, where's the fun if you don't act like a complete fruitcake sometimes!
As I said on my previous post, I went to chek my parent's house and it certainly looks different. From that:To that:Good looking house I say!
Then on my way back I went to see Ludovic and Karine's baby, Aymeric, which apparently means "king in his house" in German!He's beautiful and has got more hair than me on his head! Not bad for a 5 days old baby!

Going green

Today I'm off to the countryside to my mum's. I'm going to check on the work they've done since last month. They should have a new kitchen and a lot more. They don't fuck around when it comes to renovate a house (unlike me...) It should be a nice drive because it's sunday and sunny! I'll pop in tomorrow at Ludovic's to see is baby.
Until then goodbye polluted city and hello geneticly modified field of cereals!

Tof's sandwich

What do you do when you don't have the car and nothing in the fridge? Well almost nothing! I had a bit of toast left and some chicken ham with herbs. So this is how it went : open the fridge and feel depressed by its emptiness. Then you spot that lovely mayonnaise à la moutarde à l'ancienne from Maille, then that chicken ham and the "Grison" meat. All of a sudden you remember there might be some bread left that's not passed the date.
Finally you just improvise : "what about that Morbier cheese?"Will it goes with the mayonnaise and chicken and "Grison" meat?Who cares let's try it! And ladies and gentlemen this is the result. Nice and tasty, and much, much better than those already made crap you find in any supermarket!
It might not be in Thomas Keller latest cookbook but it took me a bit of imagination and less than five minutes to fix me somehing to eat.
And now, off to the gym to burn those extra calories I just had!
I just received a text message from my friend Ludo who became a father last night at 12:20am. Karine and the little boy named Aymeric are fine. Welcome to the world little boy and congratulations to the parents! May the sandwiches be as good in 15 years as they are now (especially when I make them!)

Homework

Not that I'm back to school, but I've got a week off and I'm trying to make myself useful and renovate my bathroom. It has already started badly because I went to the DYI shop yesterday to buy the tiles for the walls and the guy told me I would have them in 10 days. So I guess this is over for now because I have to have the tiles to start doing the bathroom. Then I need a plumber to get rid of that awful, useless "bidet" and sink. I'm thinking about changing the bath tub too and the tiles on the floor. At this rate the bathroom is not going to be finish by at least 2 months once I get all the things together!
Let's change subject and talk about my weak will power over drinking and smoking, especially smoking. At the moment I can't stop smoking and I don't know why. It is, for sure, related to the fact that I smoke when I drink. Like yesterday, we went to the anniversary of a trendy restaurant called "La Cantine du Faubourg". We thought there will be food there, the place being a restaurant and all that. How wrong were we! We just enjoyed ourselves in drinking as the only thing available was drinks. Open bar is the coolest thing you can have when going out. Especially when you've just splashed 400€ on bathroom's tiles! After a little while hunger was stronger than "I went to stay there and get paralytic". So off we went in the coldness to "Le Boeuf sur le Toit", a parisian brasserie. We started with a bottle of Champagne and then proceeded to order what we came for : food. I had oysters and a tartare steak. It was just good apart from the fact that one of the oysters had a funny taste. Gladly I'm not sick today, so I guess it was alright afterall. I would have hated it if I could not eat any oysters for the rest of my life. I just love those little things! We washed that down with Gewürztraminer and Pessac-Leognan.
Then this morning came the well known feeling of hungover. I feel almost exactly the same as I felt last week. I won't smoke another cigarette for the day (well we'll see because it's only 1pm)! I'm going back to that DIY shop to look for floor tiles for the bathroom and I'll post some pictures of them in a short while.
I went to the shop to change my order for the tiles. Instead of having one wall of the red ones and three of the white ones, we decided yesterday evening in a flash of soberness to do 2 walls of each color. That should be good looking! The tiles are a reproduction of the ones you find in Paris subway. Exept that they make some funky colors now to match your expectations in terms of bathroom decorating. The other pictures is of the bathroom furnitures I have sitting in my computer room since February! That should look almost the same apart from the tiled wall behind. I still have to find a decent lighting because there is only one main light source for the room. It is not a big room but still we need something strong enough for Uta so she doesn't look like she's going to a Halloween party every morning trying to put on some make-up! I think I found something nice and good looking. I need to get the agreement from Madame until I go ahead and buy it!
And this is how my bathroom looks like at the moment : Not a pretty sight I agree.
I even changed those dripping taps from the bath tub. Quite pleased with myself for that one! Now it's not letting any water out when the tap is closed, which is the usual thing that should happen when you turn it off! My water bill should be much better next time too!

In need of rest!

Last week has been pretty hardcore as far as partying is concern. Last friday was wild. I haven't been in such a good party for a long time. Austen and Adrian were there that's probably why it was so good. We haven't been able to meet for a drink the three of us for at least 2 month! It was one of those party when you wake up the next morning you say to yourself : 1) Where's the Paracetamol?, 2)Where am I?, 3)Why do I have to work at 12noon? and finally 4)Why did I smoke that many cigarettes? I felt like a miserable c***! I was quite happy that it was the feeling shared with my colleagues who were also unfortunate to work the day after! Small compensation! Well it was good to see all the direction of the hotel completely off their trees! Yes it was a company party, on a boat near the Eiffel Tower. At least they had decent vodka but not much of it unfortunately! We had to go for beers after a little while.
Then on monday after work, Adrian and myself indulged ourselves in a cold and welcomed beer, well 2 to be precise. Then we went to my place and had a couple of vodka with Red Bull. Then I drove him back to his place and Austen came along, it was already 11:30pm! We carried on till 5 or 6am, I can't quite remember!
All in all I am just glad I have to work only 4 days this week.
Yesterday, after having spend a lovely day and a bit of money buying myself a new wallet at Louis Vuitton, I had enough energy to cook us a lovely meal. Saint-Jacques and brocoli with quarters of apple. Here's how it went : 1) Pan-fried the quarters in salty butter and a few bits of ginger. 2)Steam cooked the brocoli with water and slices of ginger. 3)Saint-Jacques ready to be pan fried. 4)Et voila! It was excellent, the steamed brocoli had a slight taste of ginger as well as the apple. I did not add any salt nor pepper.
In conclusion of today's post, I decided not to smoke too much this week as well as not drinking too much to! (We will see how long I can resist!)