Zaz - Si (clip officiel)

"Maman, il y a une chanson de Zaz qui dit :


si j'avais des milles et des cents
le talent, la force ou les charmes
des maîtres, des puissants
si j'avais les clés de leurs âmes
si je savais prendre les armes
au feu d'une arme de titans
j'allumerais des flammes
dans les rêves éteints des enfants
je mettrais des couleurs aux peines
j'inventerais des Eden
aux pas de chances, aux pas d'étoiles, aux moins que rien.

Tu veux bien l'écouter?"

Tout en étant surtout impressionnée par sa mémoire, j'opine. 

Je n'avais donc pas tout entendu de son récital, nous sommes dehors et j'ai du mal en général avec les conversations par dessus des bruits de fond mais je m'étais suffisamment concentrée pour entendre 'titans, rêves, enfants" et réaliser qu'il y avait un beau texte.
Elle allume son téléphone, pousse le son au maximum et met la chanson en route.
Nous marchons à travers un parc, dans les feuilles mortes (bruit de fond) et le son sur son téléphone n'est pas excellent, bien sûr. 
La voix de Zaz, si belle, le texte de JJ Goldman, très beau, les feuilles mortes sous nos pieds, encore et ma fille qui partage un bonheur avec moi, merci.





On our way to the train station this morning. We have to walk through a park. At the moment, the crunching leaves under out feet make it difficult for me to hear when she tells me something. This walk through the park is a daily precious moment. LittleSister is happily cycling or 'scootering' away ahead of us whilst MiddleSister tells me… things. She needs this time with me and I enjoy it.
Today, she started by telling me "There is this song…", and then went on reciting half of it without taking a breath. 
Whilst marveling at her memory, I nod when she asks if I would listen to the song on her phone. She puts the volume up, I can't hear half of it, but the part that I manage to get is beautiful. Zaz' voice is beautiful, the lyrics are strong, the leaves are still crunching under our feet and we are both very happy. 

Moments Trésors

Il y a tellement de moments que je n'ai pas partagés ici cette année. A la Toussaint, suite à un cafouillage de date dans mon organisation, SoeurduMilieu (c'est plus joli que MoyenneSoeur!) et moi avons eu 24h toutes les deux en Normandie. Moments précieux…

Elle était toute entière tendue vers la semaine d'équitation qui l'attendait, dans l'attente et l'excitation tandis que j'essayais de la ralentir, profiter du temps présent, marcher sur la plage, manger des frites et des churros en se promettant qu'on ne mangerait plus que de la salade pendant une semaine, choisir des boucles d'oreilles dans une boutique, acheter un doudou minimum puisqu'elle avait oublié d'en mettre un dans sa valise … 

I was lucky to turn a mishap in one of my half term bookings into a wonderful 24-hour break with MiddleSister in Normandy. She was all into her coming week of horse-riding camp, excited, impatient. I was trying to slow her pace, get her to enjoy this moment the two of us alone, it's so rare, so precious.
We ate all the wrong foods, choose jewelry for ourselves in a cute shop, had a walk on the beach, bought her a soft toy to sleep with as she had forgotten hers at home… 

Group Photo

Posting about LittleSister's birthday, I knew I had to go back and post BigBrother's birthday picture -17-, as it was only two weeks ago. Well, out of 5 pictures, I decided to pick a blurry one, because at least the colors are pleasant! Cake looks terrible, but actually I managed to achieve a delicious cheesecake, if not pretty.

Remind me to get rid of this B racket behind LittleSister, nobody has played with it in 10 years and the second one has gone awol. Why do we still have it?

GrandFrère a eu 17 ans il y a 2 semaines. Surtout ne pas réfléchir au temps qui passe. 

La photo est moche mais les autres l'étaient encore plus. Photo de groupe, sourire tout le monde, arrête de faire des oreilles de lapins à ta soeur, non ce n'est pas grave, tu caches ton frères, avale cette bouchée vite, rallumez les bougies, attendez l'appareil est bloqué, virez la bouteille pas belle de la table, qu'est-ce-qui s'est passé, mais non elle ne fait pas exprès, pousse-toi un peu, arrête de faire la tête, bon d'accord fais la tête mais souris juste pour la photo.

PS: Penser à jeter la raquette rose avec l'initiale de la grande poupée blonde (sur le rebord de la fenêtre, au cas où vous ne l'auriez pas vue.)

L'important c'est la célébration

PetiteSoeur a 9 ans aujourd'hui… "C'est Mon Anniversaire !" Je lui avais fait DEUX gâteaux au chocolat à emporter à l'école, congelés la veille pour qu'ils voyagent mieux jusqu'à l'école… Le maître n'a pas voulu les servir car les gâteaux fait maison sont 'interdits' ! Et elle n'a même pas râlé. "Du moment qu'on me fête mon anniversaire, ça me va!" En tout cas, ce n'est pas en classe qu'elle a été fêtée, ça c'est sûr.

Quelques livres dédicacés à l'Institut Français ce samedi par des auteurs et illustrateurs venus de partout pour cet événement autour des livres pour enfants, du mobilier pour sa maison de poupée, et du "matériel de maîtresse."

En déballant ces 6 tampons d'appréciations, questions (très) perplexe de PetiteSoeur : "Mais qu'est-ce qu'on met quand le devoir est mauvais ?" Aïe aïe aïe, elle a passé trop de temps dans une école française, la miss. Dans les écoles anglaises, les professeurs ne font pas de commentaire négatif sur le travail des enfants. Ils l'annotent, soulignent, approuvent, réécrivent l'orthographe correcte sous un mot mal orthographié (sans barrer l'original) mais ne mettent pas 'Non!' 'Mal!' 'Faux!' 'Vous n'avez pas compris la consigne!' Tout un système, toute une culture… 

LittleSister is 9 today. I gave her 2 cakes to take to school, she came back with both, homemade food is not allowed and 'it was just not convenient', said the teacher. No song was sung, nothing was organized. The sweet child did not even mind, she said that as long as she got a celebration at home, she was happy !! 
She got signed books by authors and illustrators we went to see on Saturday at this fair they organize every year at the French Institute, she got furniture for her doll's house, and she got 'things to play teacher'. As she unwrapped those stamps one by one, she exclaimed "But what do they use when your work is bad?" 
Aha! French question. Can you imagine an english or american teacher stamping away 'bad work!' 'not neat!' 'mind your spelling!' 'wrong!' If you are American or English, can you actually imagine seeing that kind of comment on your child's work?
I don't know what will give the best result at the end of 20 years of educating each of our children. Will they be better off having hardly ever been criticized or having been too much criticized? Actually I think I know, as I can already see the damage low self-esteem has done to some of them, but I don't want to condemn a whole system. It can't be all wrong. 
Can it?

Content

The mind-bogling starts with the title, when all I wanted was to post a few lines on how this morning was a …"content" one. Never mind, let's flow with the thoughts :
You see, whether you are french or english, the title won't give away the first language of the post. 

In french, "content" has lost its power. When I think quickly about its translation into english, I first think 'happy' but then I know straight away that that's no right. 
It means 'happy because satisfied because something has been achieved'.

So, put like this, it is not far from the english meaning. 

Which I understand as 'relaxed because nothing else is needed right now'.

But actually, that's miles away. One (fr.) means 'Things have been achieved, by me and others, to my satisfaction of mind', the other one (e.) means 'I do not need anything more than what I have, right now.'

If one was to exaggerate, the first one is bragging, the other one is thankful. YES! I caught this difference of meaning that I was looking for.

And to answer your question, I REALLY had the english meaning in mind when I started but, as you will see further down, I did achieve something that relaxed me, so there is probably a bit of french in me, hehehe.

No, I did not want to ruin the whole effect of my morning thoughts by prosaically cheating into a dictionary or even doing a 3 sec. search. No way…

This Sunday morning, I am content because :
-I am thinking about declaring it a National Pajama Day… 
-I have had my hour's peace in the kitchen with coffee, reading, unloading and reloading 3 machines, started the bread, folded laundry. Precious time. Even met LittleSister in the stairs who voluntarily said "Mummy, I am going back to bed for a moment." Indeed. She knows. She is the wise soul in this family.
I rang MY Mummy, caught her at exactly the right time, awake but in bed worrying over very worrying things in her life at the moment. Listened to her, did not commiserate to much, saw the funny side and made her laugh. (well, now just typing this is making me cry !?!?)
-And the cherry on the cake : time for this post right now.

Back to those waffles I promised for breakfast last night when now was very far away…

Traduction à venir

Happy

Me revoilà ! Pour rester présente et fidèle à mon blog, je vais essayer de limiter les idées de grandeur/longueur, donc au gré des humeurs, je poste une photo, quoi de plus simple après tout…

I am back… Even when there is no time to write, a simple photo will do, right ? ("bonheur" means "happiness" in french…)

Snow in London

On our way to school...

Sur le chemin de l'école...

We went sledging in the park yesterday. The famous hill looked like a picture from the nineteenth century, you know, the black and white ones, that are sometimes turned into jigsaw puzzles. And it says underneath 'sledging in Parliament Hill'.

Luge dans le parc hier. Le spectacle rappelait les gravures/photos noir et blanc du siècle dernier, dont on fait parfois des puzzles ou des cartes de voeux, avec l'intitulé 'La neige à Parliament Hill'.


It seemed like the whole of London was gathered there yesterday, sledging away on all sorts of devices. Estate agents signs were a big hit. There was a plastic dog basket. Tiny plastic containers on which grown-ups somehow managed to fit  half of their bottom, if they were able to keep the rest up in the air, it worked amazingly well. Speed, laughter, carelessness, excitement, all ingredients were there to spend a joyful Sunday afternoon, and we did.
The careful mother part of me was a bit worried that something bad might happen (the old fashioned wooden sledges were the devices that frightened me most, funnily enough) but it didn't and I had a few good rides down the hill too.
Have a good week all !

On aurait dit que tout Londres s'était donné rendez-vous sur la célèbre colline. En plus des luges, les pancartes de publicité immobilière avaient un franc succès pour les lugeurs fous. Un panier à chien en plastique, de minuscules Tupperware sur lesquels certains adultes réussissaient à caser la moitié de leur arrière-train, tout était bon pourvu que ça glisse, et le spectacle était désopilant.
Nous avons fait quelques bonnes descentes, bien rigolé, ce fut une vraie après-midi de neige en famille.
Bonne semaine à tous !

Neige à Camden

Je ne sais pas bien pourquoi je ne me suis pas déplacée de 3m vers la gauche pour prendre cette photo, mais voilà. Presque la même que dans l'article précédent, un peu plus grise, un peu plus blanche...

Why did I stay behind the tree to take this picture?

Anayway, nearly same view as in the post before, just greyer and whiter !

Broken Peace

I started this post just to show this panoramic picture above I took of Camden Lock Market the other day.

 Then I fished around for these two pictures I took a while back when I was enjoying a peaceful moment in my favourite TeaShop up there (Yumchaa). Sometimes, around 10 in the morning, you might find me here, enjoying a peaceful moment, a cup of tea and a scone or two.

  

Certains matins, vous me trouverez là

And then it brought up the memory of the last time I was there, a month ago, when a couple  next to me  (there is a maximum of 8 tables for 2 inside this teashop) was having a huge row. There was just them and me, so difficult to ignore. They started in whispers, then it got louder and louder, until the woman finally left, I could hear her howling inside her head.

à savourer paisiblement un thé, un ou deux scones.

Sometimes rows are necessary, sometimes when you love each other deeply, and you can't get your point across, then some anger, shouts, though very disturbing, are helping to crack the silence, the 'non-communication'. I know it works for us, because we both know that we are working things out together. Not sure I make sense here.
However this couple was not getting anywhere. She wanted something that he did not want to give her. I am not sure, was it a child or a commitment, there was no love, there was just want on both sides, and their wants were not matching. However they were together, no so young anymore, and she sounded so desperate and he so angry.
It's exhausting just to think about this scene ...

Mais il y un mois environ, la scène n'était pas si paisible que ça : les seuls autres clients étaient un couple en proie à une violente dispute sous forme de chuchotements en crescendo, et cela s'est terminée avec la femme quittant le salon de thé brusquement. Ca hurlait dans sa tête, la communication n'éait pas passée. Pas de conclusion, juste un souvenir perturbant...

Somewhere in the South

Voici le cottage du message précédent, quelque part entre Tunbridge Wells et Battle. Nous avons la chance d'y être invités quelques week-ends par an, en excellente compagnie. Il est enfoui au fond d'un vallon, il y fait souvent froid, toujours humide, mais, photos à l'appui, nous y trouvons presque immanquablement le soleil.

This is the beautiful cottage in which we are lucky to be invited several week-ends a year. Big and comfortable enough to have 10 or 12 or 14 of us all at the same time, in joyous company. Often cold and always humid, it welcomes us nearly every time with a beautiful sky and sun (those pictures were taken in November.) 

 Stiles for hikers to climb between two fields. An interesting concept for rebellious French people, for whom private property is.. private but who don't necessarily respect it.

 Passage obligé d'un champ à l'autre: des barreaux permettent d'escalader la barrière. Fortement encouragé chez les propriétaires fermiers afin de permettre l'accès aux promeneurs. Lesquels en profitent bien, à condition de bien respecter les chemins et de ne pas s'en écarter afin de ne pas effrayer la faune.

New Year 2013

New year's Eve in a cosy and warm cottage somewhere between Tunbridge Wells and Battle...

Réveillon dans un merveilleux cottage anglais quelque part dans le Sud de l'Angleterre...


First of January 2013 Hastings under the sun, some got very wet feet and trousers, joy was had by all !

Fancy finding Tintin here !

Le lendemain, à Hastings (Guillaume le Conquérant, toussa toussa...), on a même croisé Tintin et ses copains, une belle vitrine...

Quelques pieds et jambes de pantalons mouillés plus tard, le Premier Janvier 2013 fut une belle et bonne journée!