Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Random gobbets

  • I'm vaguely thinking about getting a breadmaker (mostly because I keep seeing recipes that require one on a fellow Bordelaise's blog). Does anyone have any recommendations?
  • Memory from a couple of months ago that still makes me giggle. I step out of the shower and E. exclaims "Mummy, je vois tes narines!"( "Mummy, I can see your nostrils!)
  • Favourite snippet from Moondust by Andrew Smith: "[He] radiates a weird, goofy anger and always sounds like he's trying to juice a lemon with his sphincter muscles. " (p.201)
  • Quote from The Sopranos a couple of weeks ago: "If the Empire State Building represented the history of the Earth, then man's presence would only be a postage stamps at the very top." Quote from Z's dinosaur book at bedtime tonight: "If the history of the Earth was reduced to 100 years, humans would only be present for three minutes."
  • I have to go from Bordeaux to Nantes for a conference on Friday. I have to be there before 1pm but the earliest I can get there by train is 3H15 pm. Why is that? Look at the map, Nantes is just up the road.

14 comments:

leon's life said...

A bread machine in France. Oh la la la, isn't that against the law !!!!

Seriously:No sorry Lesley I can't recommend one, although I can tell you that my fellow Brit. and colleague Susan has one. She regularly brings in all sorts of goodies (Brioche yum yum ..) and it's always good when very fresh, but soon goes pretty hard.

The only reason she bought one is that she lives out in the sticks and there is no bakers for miles, so it is very convenient.

Lesley said...

I'm lucky enough to have a boulangerie just 100m down the street but unfortunately their bread is of the cotton wool variety.
The more I think about a bread machine though, the more convinced I become that it would end up at the back of a kitchen cupboard beside the ice-cream maker.

Anonymous said...

Why not prepare the dough while watching the Sopranos (more therapeutic than knitting)? then stick in oven overnight?(this advice from someone who never even stirs the Quaker oats ....)

Does a bread machine just churn round the dough ...? when not at back of cupboard perhaps it could be used as a potato peeler or semi-precious stone polisher which usually end up same place.

I supose noone commutes to Nantes ...maybe a tgv to Paris first?

Anonymous said...

Well perhaps not all the way to Paris ....



BORDEAUX ST JEAN
ST PIERRE DES CORPS 06h34
08h59 Vendredi
12 Mai 05260 2e classe - Non fumeur
Place(s) assise(s)

1e Passager
(26 à 59 ans) TARIF NORMAL. : Billet échangeable et remboursable. Voiture 5 - Place 76
Fenêtre

Supprimer
ST PIERRE DES CORPS NANTES 1 25.50 €
ST PIERRE DES CORPS
NANTES GARE 09h48
11h16 Vendredi
12 Mai 05353 2e classe - Non fumeur
Place(s) assise(s)

1e Passager
(26 à 59 ans) TARIF NORMAL. : Billet échangeable et remboursable. Voiture 16 - Place 26
Couloir - Duo côte à côte

Supprimer
TOTAL SNCF payable en ligne 64.70 €

Lesley said...

Deborah: You should apply for a job at the SNCF enquiries desk because I couldn't find that possibility on the internet and the woman I got on the phone said that it was impossible. Anyway, problem solved, but in another way, I'm driving up with a friend from Pau which will take three and a bit hours instead of 5 by train.

PS. The good breadmakers actually cook the bread too.

Anonymous said...

good! yes the sncf web site for finding trains can't figure anything out of the ordinary .... I always end up looking at a map myself to plot a route as I love train journeys, and preferably not tgv's! however if one is in a hurry ......
It is the same for journeys by road, the web sites always send you on the motor ways.

Anyway bonne route, and the bread makers sound tempting .... I'll come and test your first loaf

Anonymous said...

ok, so you went to Nantes, what happened there, and more important :

When are you coming back?

Lesley said...

Deborah, You've shamed me into posting something new! Nantes was enjoyable but not bloggable.

Anonymous said...

Good! thought of you and all the medical students because there was another radio 4 programme about key-hole surgery .... will try and find the link.

Jonathan Wonham said...

Come on Lesley, 3H15pm, simply does not exist in France...

Lesley said...

Jonathan: Ooops, that is a bit of a mash up.

Ksam said...

Hey, this is a bit late, but I have a Kenwood breadmachine that I bought from Darty, and I absolutely LOVE it. It saves us a ton of money, and it's so great to wake up to the smell of fresh bread in the morning. Not to mention all the delicious breads you can make with it: cinnamon & raisin, banana, honey oat, whole wheat, brioche, etc...I could go on and on.

Ksam said...

PS. Just noticed we have almost the same avatar!

Lesley said...

Samantha: Ah yes, but your eyes are MUCH bluer than mine! Thanks for the breadmaker info. Mmmmmm cinnamon and raisin, I am definitely re-tempted by the idea.

Confinement

Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...