Category Archives: Humourous

Photo Of The Day: Former Russian Soldiers Making A Living

Peruvian pan pipe music wafting through an open air mall in Australia or Europe? Classical music being played by soloists in the subways, tubes, and metros worldwide? Flamenco guitarists or Celtic musicians at weekend markets? Jazz musicians in New Orleans or Chicago? We’ve seen them all in various places around the globe.

But we had not expected to see former soldiers from the USSR making a living by busking — singing for donations — and selling their self-recorded music cds of Russian military and folk music. That truly was a first!

The picture below is of those singers in the huge plaza in front of the Frauenkirche Cathedral in Dresden, Germany. It was interesting and yes, I tossed a few euro into their hat since I was taking photos. But I don’t think it was a set of music I would have wanted to take home.

Former Russian Military Singers Busking in Dresden, Germany

Photo Of The Day: The Furniture Maker

In the midst of our travels, I always try to keep an eye open for interesting signs or clever advertising. This unique sign contains a man working with a wood plane and advertises a furniture maker in the old quarter of Bayeux in Normandy, France. I love the simplicity and almost cartoon-like quality of it. But it instantly tells any observer what goes on in that building. Brilliant!

Furniture maker sign in Bayeux in Normandy, France

Choucroute Soiree in Normandy, France

Posh food? Not really. Sophisticated music? Not really. An entire Friday night of fun in France? Absolutely!

We’ve met some lovely people as we’ve travelled through France this year and those include our friends Marian and her husband Fred in the Calvados region of Normandy. A few weeks ago we were invited along to a village ‘do’ in Sept-Vents and Marian told us to expect a lively evening. She certainly wasn’t exaggerating.

The food was choucroute, a French version of sauerkraut and pork with potatoes — and along with the starters, wine, and dessert, it was quite a hearty meal and well worth the €15 per person since there was entertainment to follow. The picture below is of my own plate after I had smeared the tops of the sausages with a punchy Dijon mustard.

Choucroute dinner at a soiree in Sept-Vents, Calvados in Normandy, France

Almost everyone at our table spoke only French, but they were charming to us and Marian translated when necessary. The highlight of the evening arrived rather late though and it was well after 9 PM when the musicians finally began to play. What a surprise was in store.

Marian and Fred at the Choucroute Soiree in Sept-Vents, Calvados in Normandy, France

Country music — Billy Ray Cyrus “Achey-Breaky-Heart” style American country music — and the hundreds of people there all seemed to know the words by heart! Slowly at first and then gaining pace, people rose from the tables and flowed onto the dance floor to do the Texas Two Step, the Boot Scoot Boogie, or plain old line dancing.

American style country line dancing in the French countryside of Normandy

We were flabbergasted at finding this hard-core group of country music enthusiasts in rural Normandy, but then again, these were all country folks — farmers and truck drivers and people who worked in tiny village shops. I guess for some people country music transcends national boundaries.

Next we heard Celtic music coming from the stage and the country dancing morphed into Celtic circle dancing. From young to old, the floor was packed with smiling faces. And didn’t they let their hair down and dance, dance, dance the night away. From new-style country music and movement to old-world traditional country songs and dancing, it was an evening that we will never forget.

Celtic circle dancing at a Choucroute Soiree in Normandy, France

Even if you are travelling in a country where you have little ability to speak the local language, I’d like to gently suggest that you try to get past your anxiety about the language barrier and go out with the locals as you travel overseas. You’ll soon see how friendly and welcoming people can be, especially in the smaller towns and villages where a smiling face and some hand gestures along with a lot of please and thank you in the local dialect can get you a very long way.

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Abundantly Awash In Normandy Apples

Apples — we have an abundance of organic apples here at the house in Normandy where we are house sitting and child sitting for friends while they are in England at a conference.

It’s been remarkable to see how the apple processing in our mini production line has sped up each day as we got into the groove of peeling (with Mark’s expert assistance!), coring, chopping, and stirring-stirring-stirring.

Peeling and chopping apples in Normandy, France

Yesterday we did all of the peeling by hand since I was having problems with the mechanical peeler. And Mark certainly did come in handy when he saw how slowly I was going!

Peeling apples for chutney and compote in Normandy, France

But the most successful (and speedy!) method has been to use the small red metal mechanical peeler as seen in the video below.

Memories of canning and bottling and bread baking when my children were small have come drifting to the surface and the juggling of hot sterilised jars is now back to being second nature.

But I’d honestly forgotten how much fruit it takes to simmer down into a comparably tiny amount of final product. So I moaned a bit when I saw how few jars were created after the first on-my-feet-all-day of kitchen work. An entire afternoon and evening and only SEVEN jars???

Finished jars of apple chutney and compote

But oh my — the fragrance of apple chutney and apple compote bubbling away for hours!

Off to a new part of Normandy in a few days. Keep coming back to read about new adventures in living on the road!

One of Those “Only In France” Kind of Stories

Seriously??? Do YOU really fancy a bit of wildlife interaction as part of your ‘retail experience’ on the weekend? This is truly one of those “only in France” stories.

Down in the Pyrenees in the south of France, a wild boar caused Saturday shoppers to flee as it raced through the packed-with-people retail district in Toulouse on Saturday frightening the shoppers. I don’t know how I would have reacted in that situation!

The link for the story is here — complete with a news video (all in French).

London’s Funky and Vibrant Spitalfields and Brick Lane

One of the nicest aspects of living in a thoroughly metropolitan place like London is the market scene and we’ve recently discovered two back-to-back and quite wonderful areas. The neighbourhoods are gritty and funky and full of a mix of old shops, new shops, converted warehouses, and vast spaces that formerly housed manufacturing of some kind and which are now partitioned into market stalls where up-and-coming fashion designers ply their wares. Art galleries, performance spaces, and the vintage clothing and goods scene are all quite well accommodated in this part of London, too.

The markets at Spitalfields and Brick Lane are both a short walk from the Liverpool Street Station which serves both the London Underground and the regional above ground trains.

Just getting there is an interesting walk past a mix of old multi-story buildings with shops or restaurants on the ground floor and apartments above juxtaposed with glossy, glass, and oh-so-contemporary skyscrapers such as the London landmark amusingly nicknamed ‘The Gherkin’ and more correctly named 30 St. Mary Axe.

London landmark skyscraper nicknamed 'The Gherkin' looming over older buildings.

The walk that leads to the Old Spitalfields Market has the beautiful Christ Church, Spitalfields at the end of the street. Shops, pubs, and galleries flank both sides of this lovely street.

Christ Church Spitalfields at the end of Brushfield Street.

We entered the vast glass-covered area filled with market stalls and stumbled upon an in-progress beauty pageant featuring four-legged contestants — the Paw Pageant.

Spectators and participants at the Paw Pageant in Old Spitalfields Market.

The Paw Pageant in the Old Spitalfields Market.

Leaving the market and turning right onto Hanbury Street, we popped into a vintage store, Absolute Vintage, that was lined from top to bottom with purses, dresses, shoes, and more. In case you were wondering, that perfectly posed female is not a mannequin in the picture below — it’s a shopper frozen in the moment of deciding what purse to take off of one of the many overflowing displays.

We walked a few blocks further and arrived at the cafe-lined Brick Lane. I can honestly say that I have never seen such a concentration of Indian restaurants in one place!

Brick Lane in London's East End is lined with a vast variety of Indian restaurants.

More markets are held within the old Truman Brewery buildings — the smokestack of which is seen in the photo below. Everything from one-off sales to designer samples in sparsely furnished warehouses line Brick Lane so it is a slice of shopping heaven for the hip and trendy.

Smokestack of the old Truman Brewery off Brick Lane in London.

The funny, funky streetlamps on funny, funky Brick Lane in London.

One last note — in spite of the occasional crowds in various restaurants (and that is to be expected on any weekend!), this entire area felt less like a ‘tourist market’ and more like a local market with quality products that are aimed at London residents. In a previous post that discussed a visit to the Camden Markets, I aired my aggravation with the throngs of pushy people, the overlapping food smells, the sheer tattiness of most of the goods on offer, and the distinct sensation that it was being touted as a ‘must do’ thing for tourists in London.

Camden Market was such a jolting disappointment that we were thrilled to visit the Spitalfields and Brick Lane area after a recommendation from our friend Claire. This is the happy, upbeat, relatively uncrowded, and genuine market experience for the kinds of quality items that we were looking for in London.

Try it for yourself and see!

Photo Of The Day: Meditating Atop A Waterfall

Hiding behind the stone walls and down a twisting path through the woods, the old chateau had an interesting secret. We were in Mortain in Normandy in the north of France and our two young friends suggested a walk to the falls. We were standing on one of the main streets of the town and I thought to myself, what falls are they talking about?

Down a gravel path alongside a stone wall, on through into the woods, past a couple of crossings over the water, and we emerged into a clearing where we could see the waterfall in front of us. We weren’t alone and there were a stream of tourists hiking up and down the steps and paths to the falls and the flat area just above it. But our friends Sonia (on the left) and Lauren (on the right) weren’t satisfied with that!

I had juggled two heavy cameras with large lenses and a camera bag on that trek into the woods and I stood looking through one of those lenses and laughing as the two girls scrambled onto the rocks, sat cross-legged, and began to meditate. They didn’t know until they saw my photo afterward that they were being looked at quite curiously by the other tourists who were passing.

Two young women meditating atop the falls in Mortain, Normandy, France