Little England

Earphones on, head gently pressed against the (airplane) window, looking outside at the bright night sky, listening to ♩Blue Jeans ♬

Smoothly, the plane descends on the flickering lights of the island where palm trees, bougainvillea, frangipani trees, and tropical blooms sway in the wind; the wind is what welcomes you the moment you come off the plane…a welcoming warm wind, soft and caressing that sweeps over the airport pagoda roofs giving the facilities their unique and exotic look. We arrive at the hotel: a quaint white washed construction with little light niches along the outside walls. A toad hops away, a monkey  moves along. Again, the wind is the only audible whisper together with the breathing waves of the ocean that lull us into a heavy sleep. The birds chirp happily away very early the next morning as our jetlagged faces emerge from the room to take in the soothing view of the ilver Sands beach. The name of the location is a dreamcatcher, where our tired bodies and souls strive to find peace. The small island is a little tropical heaven originally inhabited by Amerindians and then taken over by the English who ruled undisputed until 1966, when the island gained its independence. It is a two-faceted world: the east coast is quite different from the west coast since it stands out with beautiful pristine beaches where the waters can be extremely treacherous. The west coast is more touristy but just as beautiful in its post-card like style.

Let the double voyage begin…

Credits: TheDaydreamerDiary

Pics of the week: La Crise !

C'est juste une impression ou la crise est d'actualité depuis...des lustres ? Non parce que le film, lui, racontait déjà la crise, mais il y a de cela pas mal d'années quoi... Imaginez, il est sorti en 1992 ! Bref, c'est une crise sans fin. Malheureusement. Et encore plus malheureusement, j'ai comme l'impression qu'il y en a qui veulent bien la faire durer, faire trembler leurs semblables toute leur vie, en maintenir un certain nombre de personne la tête sous l'eau... Je ne vais pas m'embarquer dans la polémique, si ce n'est déjà fait.

En revanche, je vous livre avec un sourire en coin l'image de la semaine qui retrace une initiative grinçante tournant en dérision ces célèbres coffrets du bonheur ou "boîtes cadeaux" que l'on peut offrir sans trop de détails autour de nous : une boîte et le tour est joué ; pourvu que ça plaise. Ça vous dirait donc d'avoir un beau toit sur la tête pendant quelques heures ? Ou un brin de chauffage vu que dehors il fait -6 °C ? C'est possible ! Tout est possible !

Admirez le packaging plus vrai que nature, entre l'indispensable logiciel du moment et le paquet cadeau design. 

Vous riez jaune ? C'est normal.

Pour la peine, je vous en livre deux, des images. Et un blog intéressant ainsi que ce lien essentiel en la matière.

Bonus en temps de crise !

On a cloud...

Sometimes it is nice to be all alone on your little cloud or in your favorite retreat, watching the light play its whimsical games on the wooden floor and with the scented candle flame - they get along, these sparks of light, especially on cold and snowy days... The cloud then turns into a sensual heaven...

I am listening to...

♩This is where you need to click for a full-on experience of blog reading ♫

Sometimes the name of an artist does convey a given image or conjure up ideas and thoughts that make you envision what his musical style is going to be like. Take Ayo, for example: I find that the name is the perfect reflection of the singer's musical style. One may actually argue that the perfect correspondence between the two leaves no room for surprise. Well, with a name like DJ Cam, I find the exercise hazardous to say the least. I am fully aware that we may all react differently to a name, but for me, his name left a...blank. No inspiration, no feelings. No...nothing. This is a sad thing to say and even more sad one to write, unless you do like surprises!

Thankfully, a colleague (a musician) did encourage me to reach out of my shell and listen to his music. I am grateful for the encouragement since I have discovered a new lounge/jazzy artist that fits perfectly with my winter mood. To be honest, it fits the mood simply because I have no trouble whatsoever imagining a white sandy beach and a tequila sunrise cocktail awaiting me thanks to an ingenious transporter device hidden right now under the living room couch. And for the record, for the modern jazz lovers, his name will then be DJ Cam Quartet. Hence the picture above - and how COOL is that blue urbanish landscape?

Although the music he produces is nothing new under the sun, there are a few tracks that stand out (China girl being one of them) but all in all, they are all soothing and inspiring, which is more than I can ask for at this stage in my life.

☕ Seriously...

It is seriously high season for pears and so there is no reason to refrain myself from eating each and everyone one of them that happens to land in the fruit bowl. Fresh, I enjoy their delicate perfume and sweet, juicy taste while thinking that the month of the wine in Eastern Europe would just as seriously take the fruit to the top - pear in read wine anyone?

Since February is intended around here (west side of Europe) as the month of love (don't get me started on this Valentine thing...I may bite), I have set the wine aside and taken the seasonal and traditional route of a plain, yet deliciously sweet, pear tart. That's it, just a sublime tart to celebrate the 17th century dedication to successful pear growing (three hundred varieties were known a the time!) in France rather than some fake 21th century marketing celebration. Back to our fruits: have you ever tried the Crassane variety? If not, you are missing on one of nature's pieces of art, one that would have made Louis XIV's taste buds very happy, not to mention that it would have satisfied his skilled art at peeling fruit so that the skin could be put perfectly back into place...

Fast forward to present times: the perfect cooking inspiration was found in Donna Hay's fantastic book, Seasons. It took a while for me to receive it all the way from Australia, but it was definitely worth waiting given the quality of the photographs, the layout and the highly entertaining and easy to follow recipes - simple and efficient. The recipe calls for almonds and I am a firm believer in the perfectly loving match of those with the glorious pears.

Here we go, start peeling the beauties...

☕ INGREDIENTS

90 gr soft butter

90 gr brown sugar (+ a bit more for sprinkling)

2 eggs

120 gr ground almonds

35 gr flour

A bit of baking powder

2 teaspoons of lemon rind

2 peeled pears (cored and quartered)

Double cream to serve (I did without and the tart was very happy on its own)

☕ HOW TO

Preheat the oven to 160 °C. Process the soft butter and brown sugar until combined. You can then add the eggs, the ground almonds, the flour, the baking powder and the lemon rind. Process again until combined too. Spoon the batter into a tart tin. Coat the sliced pears with a bit of brown sugar and place them on the batter, choosing the decorative layout you prefer. Put in the oven to bake for about 35-40 minutes. When you take the tin out of the oven, sprinkle some more brown sugar on top and let it cool.

This is also when the cold winter evening descends upon me and I just light the tealights as the final  blissful touch before biting eagerly into the soft sponge and tasty fruit slice.