Some news

Hey hey!

It's a long time I haven't post something here. Sorry, busy times recently. Including few days working in France.

Some news so:
1) To improve my culture I took some very legendary movies from one of my French colleague/friend. They are in French but at least I will watch them! And I will tell you what I thought about them.

2) So many moves in F1 recently. It's official, Kimi has gone and will try a new career next year in WRC. This news in not such bad as I'm sure he will put some interest back in Rallye which really needs it. Also, I prefer seeing him impressing the world than being criticized in F1 despite his fantastic last year.

Lotus seems to be definitely ready for next year with the anoucement of its drivers. And what drivers: Trulli and Kovalainen! They are not my favourite ones but it's quite impressive to see a begining team able to hire such experimented drivers. Virgin looks good as well with its drivers, Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi. They are young and agressive, it would be interesting to see what these 4 drivers can do next year with that debut cars. The two other new teams, Campos and USF1 are too quiet at the moment. It smells bad for them. Campos is maybe better because they already hired Bruno Senna. But for me, I think USF1 will not be in Bahrain next year. This team has nothing, even not drivers!

The big rumour is the coming back of Schumi for Mercedes. I didn't believe it at the begining but now, considering what said his Ferrari's boss, his press attache, it is clearly possible. I am very interested to see that!

Still in F1, Jean Todt has started quite well his new job of FIA president taking good decision: changing the point scale, now rewarding the 10 firsts. But the new gap 25 points for the winner, 20 for the second doesn't change a lot as every points from 6th place have been multiplicated by 2.5. Todt also decided to include a former F1 driver in the decision of the marshalls about incidents and accidents. It's a very good point to stop seeing very stupid penalties.

3) In music now, I fell in love with a song from Blondie. A song which has been a hit here in the UK in 1999. It was the return of the band after their successes in the 80s. We didn't get it in France, but now I know it, I love it!

Blondie - Maria | Music Upload

Gone Baby Gone

I have recently watched with the housemates, this interesting movie. The first one of Ben Affleck as a director!

Starring? Casey Affleck... In morality: if you have trouble to find a job, try to have a helpful brother!

Despite that shame, the movie was quite great. A very good thriller using the theme of kidnapping to, eventually talk about the good and the bad. There is two situations that you really ask yourself "is that good or bad?" Because considering points of views, these acts can be good or not.

Casey Affleck is quite good. Just his voice, a little bit too high sometimes for a thriller...
Again Morgan Freeman... I will not say more about him.
The character of the little girl's mother is very well played by Amy Ryan I have never noticed her before. His brother in the movie is a good character as well. He is played by Titus Welliver. Ed Harris is good, as everytime. Actually the cast is very good for this movie with stars Ed Harris and Michelle Monaghan. The first one is good, as usual. But I did not feel Monaghan's performance incredible.

Anyway, a good time of cinema!

The day I tried to make my own pork pie

I don't know why, two weeks ago I started to have a big craving for pork pie. I also remember now as well, that few weeks ago I saw on TV a food magazine about doing your own Ploughman's: giving the recipes of farmhouse-style bread, paté and pork pies!

I didn't use this recipe anyway because I could not find it back. I found my inspiration in several recipes on the net and my own tastes. Very disapointed by the always high-fat pork pie you can find in shops and supermarkets, I tried to make a lean one... And then, I understood why commercial pork pie are fat.

My recipe:
The dough:
300g flour,
100g lard (yes, i know, for a less-fat pork pie it's not ideal, but there are some ingredients you cannot avoid!)
Salt
Warm water

Of course, mix the salt with the flour before. Then add the lard cut in dies. Try to mix it. Add as much as warm water you need to make a dough.

The stuffing:
400g lean mince pork (the double mistakes of my pork pie)
100g lardons
1 small yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine
Parsley
Salt and pepper

I fried the lardons with the onions. Not the garlic! Keep it raw at the moment but cut it in dies. Then I mixed with my hands, the pork with the lardons and onion, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and... the wine.

Spread the dough, put it in a pot. Stuff the dough. Design a dough cover and close the die. Just open a hole on the top. Cook it. I think 2 hours in a oven is necessary. Better to start to cut it and eat it ater cooling a night in the fridge.

My critics: choosing lean mince pork has been a mistake. Eventually my pork pie was low-fat as I wanted it. But at the same time, it was too dry! And that's the big problem. I tried to put geltine at the end but there was no space to pour it inside the pie...
So to make it less dry, I think it is better to chose fatter meat. The mince is also a mistake. Pieces of meat like lardons, chopped ribs, mixed with lard would have been better. And next time I will try to add the gelatine before covering the pie. And see what happens!

Before that, let's see the result (presented with chutney and salad):

A must-see I eventually saw: Million Dollar Baby

Culture lacks, I told you!

Anyway, this is done. I always heard so many people talking about this movie as a very good movie, a must-see! It has won 4 oscars.

This is what I thought about it:

For me this movie treats several subjects, and more than this sport which is boxing:
- the lost love between a father and his daughter reached in the idealization of another person,
- the equality between men and women, especially in a very violent and macho sport,
- the feeling to be graceful to our parents even if they do not deserve it,
- fairplay,
- and of course, euthanasia.

Everything was really well told in this movie. Some characters were very interesting: Frankie, Maggie, her mother and the funny Danger! Clint Eastwood is very good, Hilary Swank, perfect! But I have a problem with Morgan Freeman. He is a brilliant actor but I think I am bored to see him everytime, everywhere, a bit like Gérard Depardieu in France: he does too much movies! He was good in this movie anyway and he won an Oscar for it by the way!

This movie was a good moment, moving and interesting. It makes think about euthanasia, and alos the wills to live after reaching the top of your dreams and dropping in happiness then...

I tested for you: electric karting

As promised for Olivier's 25, I offered him, and to myself at the same time, a session of karting in London!

Sadly, there is not a lot of tracks around this city. But I found one in Mile End, east-London. We eventually went karting last Saturday. We arrived: the tracks seemed to be a bit wet at some points despite the good weather from the begining of the day. The track didn't look very quick at a first view: only one straight line.The briefing was given by a very cool old marshal!
Then we discovered the machines: electric go-karts!
It was the first time I tried this! Of course, we did not know there were electric when we booked the session. I have always been sceptical about electric go-kart before, thinking it was for sure not as fun, not as quick and not noise, no smells!!

Well I was wrong because these go-karts were just amazing! The feeling of speed, and power is very good! I would add that the acceleration even seemed to be more powerful! The noise: no problem when you are in, you forget there is no noise of the engine as you can hear the wind, the tyres. The main problem is that you hear less your competitors... Anyway, they were far far behind me! I may just have afraid some by overtaking them quickly without the time for them to see me arriving :=))

Oh dear...

A very good fun so! I am looking forward to see electric motors going more and more in cars now, and even motorsport!

Soups!

Already three soups tried this year, and not an article about them yet!
Yes, I have made my first soup of the winter last week and made two other ones on Sunday. A soup can contain everything you want. It can be blended or not, whatever you prefer. You do not really need to follow recipe: follow your imagination! If you do not have any idea, follow one simple rule: build the recipe of your soup around a principal "theme", for example: countryside, seafood, chinese food, italian, etc...

Let's me give you the three themes I have explored and the recipes I have done with:

COUNTRYSIDE:

Oignons,
Potatoes,
Celery,
Leek,
Mushrooms,
Cloves,
Bacon

Put the quantities you want, how much water you like. Cook it slowly for two hours, mix it. And don't forget, add salt only in the plate, not in the pot. It's better to put a bit of salt in the plate, than a lot in the pot!

MEDITERRANEAN

Red Peppers,
Red Oignons,
Courgettes,
Pesto,
Tomatoes,
Potatoes.

I first fried the peppers, oignons and courgettes in a wok. I then added pesto and tomato purée. It was looking like a pasta sauce. Then I added more courgettes, potatoes and a can of chopped tomatoes, water and I cooked that slowly for 2 hours. And blended it. Enjoy!

ROOTS

Carrots,
Potatoes,
Swede,
Sweet potatoe,
Butternut squash (I know it's not a root but it goes very well with this theme)
Creme fraiche,
Fresh coriander.

Again, cook the vegetables in water, slowly for 2 hours. Add only after the crème fraîche and the coriander. Blend the mix!

Soup is a perfect dish because you can do it quickly the weekend and keep it for the rest of the week in fridge or freezer. Then it is easy to use, cheap, and it provides a widen range of products, flavours, vitamins and other essential nutrient in the same dish!

Enjoy!

Smelling bad for Renault F1 Team...

I don't know if we should consider this as bad or good news for F1 as I never really like seeing too much big manufacturers in F1. When they are in, they make F1 too much expensive and commercial, I would say "bling-bling"... That kills a bit more this sport which does not need it because some of its stakeholders do already shit (FIA for example).

And of course the problem is when they eventually leave F1 because they don't need anymore. 3 this year, maybe 4 with Renault. Indeed I've read news about another team, Mercedes GP, which indirectly put doubts about Renault's future in F1. However, this news is a very happy news for me and other Kimi Raikkonen's fans! Kimi would apparently still be on the top on the choice list for the second Silver Arrow! The main negotiating problem might be the money. The second on that list is a big surprise: no, it's not Nick Heidfeld, who would be third I guess, it is Robert Kubica! The driver Renault has already signed for 2010!

Conclusion: first, it's a very bad point for Heidfeld that I was thinking being the perfect second driver for Mercedes. But what about Renault? They apparently admit that the Polish negotiates with Mercedes, but they don't want to comment about it... If you add that this week, Carlos Ghosn, the Renault Director, said he was pessimistic about the future of its team and the overall future of F1.

And what about this news of new car manufacturer interested by joining F1: Volkswagen? Well, at least, they have a good point of view about this project: they are only interesting in providing engines. But they don't think about entering this jungle now because with current rules, building an engine is not that good for image as there are so many restrictions that all engines are too close together. This is one of the main working point of the F1 in the future and there is a good opportunity to find new developments track: make the engines cleaner!

Raisin, Grape, Grapefruit

Thank you for the very debut of this brand new blog!
Nice comments, French people reading to try to improve their English (my sister at least), a good debate open by Ed on the Thierry Henry handball! This starts very well!

I hope you will continue being such enthusiastic!
If you canno, don't want or are not inspired to leave a comment, you can, at least "react" by ticking "Funny", "Interesting" or even ... "Boring", if you consider you can read that anymore! lol. I may understand that some people tick "Boring" for F1 articles.

You have perhaps noticed that I struggled a bit with the style of this blog. I had found alternative template but eventually I find them not really convinient, even if they look nicer. I eventually prefer the simplicity of the original blogspot. It's also for that reason I change from Centerblog.

To finish, a piece of illogical English vocabulary which has always disturbed me: the three fruits Raisin, Grape and Grapefruit.

In French, this is "raisin", in English "grape"



And for "dried grapes", we say logically "raisins secs", but English prefer "raisin"...



And why the hell calling that a "grapefruit"? We use a very different word "pamplemousse"


Anyway, it's very unusual that English is illogical, especially if you compare it to French... So, don't worry, I like it, as I like the English language, its country and its people! ;-)

My umpteenth blog...

I know what people who are used to visit my blogs are gonna say: what? A new one? Again?!

Ok guys, let's explain it very quickly: the Centerblog platform is not convinient at all! I can post only one image per post, I cannot post any videos or music samples.

Moreover, Blogpsot has a much more nicer presentation and less adverts, so it's all for you comfort!

I copy some of the interesting articles I wrote in my Centerblog and start from zero... again!

Thank you for following me here!
Mwahh!!

Adverts!

I know that my blog is not a one talking about my everyday life. I mean, not everytime. So, if you want to know a bit more about what I do. And not only via Facebook photos, you can read the very interesting blogs written by my lovely housemates and friends: Cora and Ida. They also speak about their lives (very interesting by the way). I also put the links to their websites (see on the left column)

Cora in London:
http://coraatlondon.over-blog.com/

Little Ida's Flowers:
http://www.littleidasflowers.blogspot.com

Copenhagen 2009

I am, or at least, try to be environment-friendly! Living and enjoying our modern and rich societies doesn't help to be such good but at least, I try to make efforts and I like thinking about these questions. I am so very excited and interesting in the next summit which will happen in Copenhagen (Forzaa Denmark, Ida!) next month.

Hereunder is a link to website.
http://www.copenhague-2009.com/

It's in French but don't worry, I explain you. It is a massive petition to show to the governments that the populations are really interested in the need of change for a better future for the human-being. To sign, you just have to write your email address in the orange rectangle on the top right. And valid it with the button "Valider"

I would like a lot of you do it. Tell me via a comment if you do it. Thanks!
Thank you for the future human-beings!

Scandalous handball to send France to South Africa

What can we think about this controversery?

First of all, facts:
Did Thierry Henry voluntarily play with his hand? Who can put a blame on him? We all voluntarily play with our hand(s), sometimes... :-) Stop kidding, when you watch the images you can easily see that it is a deliberate hand from Henry. But as he said it, the referee didn't whistle it so he continued to play and Gallas scored on his pass. France won its flight to the first African World Cup thanks to this goal.

Today, I've actually noticed two controverseries, reading the Irish and British news, the French news and the comments from French and Irish supporters. People say Thierry Henry should have said to the referee to not valid the goal. And because he didn't and, if you add that the handball was deliberate, people makes him a big cheater and raid against him with an excessive violence I think. When I say people I mean, Irish supporters of course (we can easily understand they speak because of their deception), Irish and British journalists (as violent, and from journalists, it's more difficult to understand why such an uncontrolled vehemence) but also French people! French people who love spitting out on a team they currently hate because they struggle but who will be very happy to support them if they do well in South Africa (exactly what happened in 1998 and 2006). French people who also like proving themselves they have a clear conscience to be able to judge Thierry Henry as unfair and even crooked player! But I ask this question: who would have been fair-play enough in the place of Henry, to say deliberately to the referee that the goal is not valid? When you imagine the stress of the match, the difficulty the team had to qualify, the sport and economical stakes! I would love to know the reaction of those who say Henry is pathetic if he would act as that great fair-play hero and then France would have lost qualification! No blame to Henry. The responsibility is the referee's one. And the real debate is: does he need any video help?

The second controversery I have noticed is again and again, everytime, the conspiracy theory! The one which says that obviously the FIFA only wanted the qualification of France and not Ireland. Really? So, tell me, why did they not "make up" the game or corrupt the referee in the previous qualifying step? It would have been much more discreet to do it in a "Romania-France" match than in this match! So please, this kind of theory people love to believe in when they are not happy with the commonly agreed truth piss me off!

FormulaWan

Since the last article about Formula 1 I have written in September, things have changed.

Button is now the new World Champion. I don't have anything against this fact. With a better car and a better team at the begining of the season he did an impressive 0-mistake start. I remember that I've been very impressed by his consistancy and his level without doing any mistakes (compare to his teammate Barrichello and even the young, still learning Vettel). Then, the car started to be caught up by richer competitor (RedBull and McLaren). Button perfectly managed his lead in Championship, helped by other mistakes from teams and drivers. Barrichello has been fantastic at some occasion, considering his age. Vettel gained progressively in power and has learnt so much this season. He is definitely ready to become a great Champion. Will his RedBull make it possible in the future? In 2010, there's still a chance. Later, he would better go in a stronger team.

Vettel will now replace in my heart the missed Kimi Raikkonen. I am so sorry when you see him again being great this season and winning at Spa with a shit car. I can't believe he will not be on a F1 seat next year. And I think it will be difficult to come back in 2011. Such a good driver, unfortunately not a formatted enough for Formula One.

And what about Button moving to McLaren? If Mercedes would not have bought Brawn GP, I would understand that Button would think McLaren is a bigger, richer team, so better to make him fighting for the title again. Ross Brawn does not understand either. I think Button really wanted to take up a new challenge and for sure, for a British driver, an opportunity from McLaren may mean too much! That decision makes Raikkonen out because he only wanted to go to McLaren. Mercedes now have to recruit two new drivers. Nico Rosberg will be one of them and we will eventually see him having a winning car. I would like Nick Heidfeld being the second driver because he deserves it and he is a very strong driver who is totally able to outclass Rosberg and even becoming World Champion.

I am looking forward seeing the great battle that's gonna give inside teams. Button vs Hamilton, Massa vs Alonso, Rosberg vs Heidfeld and again Vettel vs Webber. Hopefuly, this and the new rule of no-pitstop, the new teams and the new future great Champions such as Hulkenberg and Senna will be enough to forget about Raikkonen leaving.

Blabla

Let's talk English for the resumption of this blog. Because actually, I live in England, I like this country and I even think I want to live here. So I try to build my life in London. And this life will be definitely in English!

I still have to improve my English. I have started something I wanted to start for a long time: reading a book. I chose this one, Panic from Jeff Abbott. A thriller which seems to be easy to read. I already found loads of new words I've never seen before. I will try to learn some of them, will see... At least I understand the overall story, at the moment. I may give you my point of view about this work when I finish it. It might not be soon as I only read the evening before sleeping. And reading makes me sleeping very quickly. So at the pace of 1 or 2 page per day...

Tuna Pasta

Cooking is also something I like doing sometimes. I want the blog to help me to remind the receipes I do. And to share them as well, of course! It is almost always easy to make food, so, try it!

For 2:
200g pasta,
1 tuna steak or chunks box (size, arround 125g,
1 yellow onion,
1 courgette,
2 tablespoons of crème fraîche,
1 tsp of olive oil,
Salt and pepper

Cook the pasta while cutting the courgette in thin slices and the onion in sticks. Fry them with olive oil in a wok. Be careful to not burn them, just colour. Add a bit of water to help making them “melting”. Then add the pasta, tuna chunks and crème fraîche in the wok. Salt and pepper, mixing and it’s done! Enjoy!

Culture lacks

Culture lacks...

Music and film culture, I mean. Because for the rest, I am quite happy.

Why do I feel these lacks?

Concerning the music, I reckon being a bit close-minded. As a kid, with teenagers big brother and sister, I listened to their music, followed their style. They flit from danse music in the 90 to heavy metal (I know chain is stange), and then to reggae and ragga. But I never really liked what I was listening to, especially reggae and ragga. I felt from age 18 that I didn’t really have my own tastes. Today, I “take music easy”. I mean, I am not one of those who spent ages to discover new artists. This time spending is not one of my priority.I discover music thanks to what my friends show me, and ... thanks to the radio. I will go back over commercial music. At the moment, I tell you that in order to better understand when I would talk about an artist or a song I appreciate and which inspire my quill.

Cinema. I like it but once again, it is not one of my time spending priorities. As I haven’t been used to often go to the cinama as a child, through lack of money, I have never had a keen interest for it. However I love watching a great film or criticizing a rubbishy one but I lack some references. Questions such as “Have you seen the film..” to which I too often answer “no” exasperate me. Watching more films is one of my “target” in the future and I won’t hesitate to talk about my discoveries here.

PS: France Culture is a French radio. But I don’t listen to it, it’s a bit boring at the moment, aged 23.