Pashmina

I LOVE this picture of Pashmina...I know I have already posted it but when I went back on my photo album, I just could not resist posting it again. Poor Bunny, last week with both of us sick and Mark being on a business trip she did not get many walks!

J'ADORE cette photo de Pashmina...Je sais que je l'ai déjà mise sur mon blog mais alors que je fesai un peu d'ordre dans mon album photo, je n'ai pu résister de "re-publier" cette photo. Pauvre bête, alors que Bhavishya et moi-même étions malade et Mark étant en voyage aux US elle n'a pas eu trop de ballades!

What's this? C'est quoi ça? II

These are Bhavishya's new Mini Moo cards...
Ce sont les nouveaux Mini Moo cards de Bhavishya

I've selected 6 of my favourite pictures of Bhavishya where she is having fun. I've uploaded them on http://www.moo.com/ and this is the result.

J'ai séléctionné 6 photos que j'affectionne particulièrement. Je les ai téléchargé sur http://www.moo.com/ et voici le résultat.
On the other side of them it is written:
De l'autre côté c'est écrit
Come and Play / Viens jouer
& our address, tel numbers and email address
& notre adresse, numéros de tel et adresse email

Fun No?

Sympa non?

What's this? C'est quoi ça?

Help needed / Besoin d'aide

We are looking for an idea for a birthday gift for my 42 year old B-i-L. He is a casual guy, a professional photographer, who is the father of a 15months old boy and they live in the country. He loves his family, community (typical British village with church and a pub) and cooking....

On est à la recherche d'une idée cadeau pour les 42 ans de mon BOF. C'est un type assez relax, un photographe professionnel et il est le Papa d'un petit garçon de 15 moins. Il habite à la campagne, il adore sa famille, ses voisins dans un village typiquement anglais (avec église et pub) et il aime cuisiner....

Any ideas are welcome

Toutes idées sont le bienvenue

One of Mark's favourite recipe

WARM SALAD OF ENDIVES WITH SHRIMPS AND SCALLOPS

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Lb shrimp


• 1/2 Lb scallops
  
• 2 belgin endives


• 1 chicory lettuce


• 1/4 cup olive oil


• 4 Tbs of Vodka


• salt and pepper
  
• Chopped parsley to sprinkle (decoration)
  

Vinaigrette:

• 1 egg yolk


• 1tbs green peppercorn crushed


• 1/4 cup Champagne or white wine vinegar


• 1/4 cup Olive Oil


• 1/4 Walnut Oil


• Salt
  
• (optional 1/2 tsp of Dijon Mustard)

* * * * *

1. Peel and devein the shrimp. Clean the sinews off the scallops and slice if necessary.
   


2. Wash the endive and cut in julienne. Trim and wash the chicory lettuce.
   


3. Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking, add the oils slowly, to form an emulsion.



4. heat some olive oil in a pan(not too hot, or else the shrimp and scallops will end up with a "plasticy" texture) and saute the shrimp and scallops. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes. Flambe the pan with some Vodka. Set aside.



5. In the saute pan, add more olive oil and heat the lettuces, stiring well.



6. To serve, arrange the lettuces shrimp and scallops attractively on a plate. Sprinkle with the vinaigrette and chopped parsley. (I did not have any parsley but I happened to have loads of chives in the garden and used that for decoration although a little strong flavour for the recipe).
   

Bon Apetit!

NASTY / TERRIBLE

Someone posted a NASTY comment on one of my post...I blocked my blog for 24 hours and blocked the message...

FYI the person who wrote this post can be prosecuted...by finding the ISP address it is very easy to find who wrote it!

Quelqu'un a écrit quelque chose de DéGOUTANT SUR MON BLOG...je l'ai bloqué pendant 24 heures!

Pour votre information celui qui l'a écrit peut être poursuivi en justice...c'est très facile de le trouver en trouvant l'adresse ISP de la personne qui l'a écrit!

A bon entendeur!

Un petit clein d'oeil à ...A little wink to...

...Jean-Luc!

On pense à toi et on espère que ta mission n'est pas trop difficile!

Merci pour ta carte qui nous a fait chaud au coeur...Bhavishya pense que le facteur est le Monsieur qui apporte des cadeaux...elle avait raison...ta carte était un réel cadeau et ce qui était sympa c'est qu'il n'y avait pas de factures dans le courrier du jour ;-) Cela doit être ton énergie plus que positive ;-)))

Tu nous manques,

Grosses bises et encore plus grosses bises de ta Super Copine

A TRUELY AMAZING STORY! UNE HISTOIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I was surfing a little on the blog sphere this morning and came accross the amazing story of Julia and her family...

J'étais occupée à surfer ce matin et je suis tombée sur l'incroyable histoire de Julia et sa famille...

Here is the link.

Voici le lien.

Quote

I love this one...I thought this one would strike a chord for you Moushette! ;-)

"...Even Mother Teresa had her critics. That's what I've always told myself. No matter what you do, someone, somewhere is going to find fault. And each of us must decide whose opinion matters to us, and whose does'nt. Because God knows, you can't please everyone. It's futile to try. "

By Monica Pradhan
The Hindi-Bindi Club

Pink for October

October equals Breat Cancer Awareness Month. My Darling cousin, Veronike, died of this nasty disease and by inserting something about breast cancer on my blog makes me feel I am honouring her and make people aware of what needs to be done.

• How many times do health professionals need to stress out to women how important it is to TAKE ACTION?!? This month, please acknowledge it, in either way you can, you can visit any or all of the following web sites to inform yourself on the disease itself.
  


• The Breast Cancer Site



• BreastCancer.org



• National Cancer Institute



• National Breast Cancer Foundation Inc.
  

How many of you, honestly, perform monthly a Breast Self-Exam? Here it is shown how to do it.

Maybe you could also remind your Mother, your Sister, your Aunt, Friend(s) to schedule their yearly mammogram?

It is a BIG mistake to assume that breat cancer only occurs in women. This is WRONG!!! Men can also get it. If you click here you can read more about it.

You can make a donation to the:

• American Cancer Society



• The Breast Cancer Site

just to mention a few...
and...

If you need to make a gift you might consider buying something from a company that "goes" PINK. Below a non exhaustive list of these companies:

• Estee Lauder. They have a whole range of beauty products.
• Clinique. They also have a whole range of them.
• The Republic of Tea is making a range of pink grapefruit green tea.
• OPI Nail polish have a Pink Positively Pamper Pack.
• Filofax
• Boots pharmacy, health and beauty care in the UK.
  

NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO...JUST DO IT!

Veronike, tu nous manques tant!

Adoptions worldwide

I often refer to the magazine I have a subscription to called "Adoptive families".

Today I am quoting them on Dr Selman's research on Adoptions Worldwide.

"

• of the 45'000 children adotped internationally in 2004, about 50 percent were adopted by Americans; 43 percent found homes in Europe.
• in 2004, most kids adopted from Guatemala, Kazakhstan, and Korea were placed in the U.S., while most from Ethiopia, Ukraine, and Colombia went to Europe.
• The countries witht he highest adoption rates were Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the U.S., and the United Kingdom.

For more on Dr. Selman's research, go to adoptivefamilies.com/news

"

Interesting...no?

Message to Mark

SLS

Today the Sunday Link Sharing is about my shopping list I have given Mark as he left for his annual banker's conference. This year it is Boston after Sidney, Copenhagen, Singapore, Atlanta...

At William & Sonoma:

Potlatch Seasoning It is a mix of different spices: Paprika, Crushed Red Pepper, Chili Pepper, Oregano and Other Herbs. It is delicious on Salmon but also any kind of fish and apparently chicken (I've never tried it with chicken).

Pop up Sponges:
Apparently they were discovered in Europe but I never found them! They are of all-natural material. Compressed to a flat rectangle and when they come in contact with water, they expand to a full-size sponges. You can put then in the dishwasher in order to keep them clean.

A set of silicone spatulas. They are great as you can leave them near a

heat source and won't melt!

A measuring cup unlike others. They can be read from above, so when you pour the liquids you can see how much you are pouring and it is graduated in standard cups, fluid ounces and milliliters (great for me who uses a lot of European receipes. The 1/4-cup size displays tablespoon incremements.

At Target a Halloween outfit. Anyone but I really like the Kids' Marabou Dazzle Catsuit Costume.

That is it for today!

Have a lovely week!

Small update on Bhavishya

Un Dimanche à la campagne...A Sunday in the country

Thank you Mandip for these gorgeous shots!

New Picture

Bhavishya's teacher took this cute one last week. Thought I would share it.

L'institutrice de Bhavishya a pris cette photo la semaine passée. Je voulais la partager.

Mardi, le 25 Septembre...Tuesday, September 25 2007

This is what happened this afternoon after lunch & nap:

Voici ce qui s'est passé cet après-midi après le déjeuné et la sièste:

N.B. Did you notice the name of her bike??? I certainly didn't until Mark pointed it out seconds after Bhavishya unwrapped it on her birthday! It is supposed to be a very good German brand! HA!

Planning your next holiday? Vos prochaines Vacances? bis

Well no one really seemed interested on my last post re "your next holiday"...shame...Let me tell you about it anyhow as I think it is a really cool concept and that if I was younger, a richer than I was when I was younger I would definitively do it...

This company called Ozbus operates a regular overland service for backpackers travelling between London and Sydney. It takes 12 weeks to get to destination and one crosses 20 different countries!!!

• On September 16, 2007 the first bus left London.



• On September 23, 2007, the first bus left Sydney.

This is their route:

Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Transylvania, Gallipoli, Istanbul, Turquoise Coast, Bam, Taj Mahal, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Kathmandu, Mount Everest, Bangkok, Ko Samui, Kuala Lumpur, Sumatra, Komodo, East Timor, Kakadu National park, Ayers Rock, Sydney (hence the pictures from my previous post regarding this subject). If you just click here you will find the detailed itinerary.

Picture of the bus (compliments from Oz-bus.com)

They seem to stop every night and use all kinds of "accomodation" varying from desert camps sites to hostels and guesthouses.

Appart from paying your trip (which is NOT cheap £3750 or AUS$9000) you will also need to assist in various chores such as market shopping for provisions, collecting firewood, washing up the dishes etc.

To be it seems a blast except if you have 1 (only 1) pest to ruin everybody's journey! And usually there is always one on those trips (sigh!)

'cause I wanna remember...parceque je veux me souvenir

Last week in school, Bhavishya was asked the following by her teacher:

Teacher:
"Bhavishya, does Pashmina (our dog) sleeps in your room?"
Bhavishya:
"Noooooooooooooooo"
Teacher:
"Why?"
Bhavishya:
"Pashmina is dirty"
Teacher:
"So where does Pashmina sleeps then?"
Bhavishya:
"In Mama's room"
;-)

La semaine passée, l'institutrice de Bhavishya lui demande si Pashmina (notre chien) dort avec elle.
Bhavishya:
"Noooooooooooooooo"
L'institutrice:
"Pourquoi?"
Bhavishya:
"Pashmina est sale"
L'institutrice:
"Alors elle dort où Pashmina?"
Bhavishya:
"Dans la chambre de Maman"
;-)

A virtual trip around the world...Un voyage virtuelle autour du monde...

Yesterday lunch, a friend of ours told me how his mother would gather pictures of "wonders of the world", monuments etc. into an album so her Grand Children would learn about them.

Hier, l'un de nos ami nous expliquait que sa Mère rassemblait des photos des "Merveilles du Monde" et de Grand monuments dans un album photo afin que ses petits enfants puissent apprendre.

I thought it was a great idea so I am going to start doing so on this blog on a weekly basis with 2 pictures.

Je trouvais que c'était une superbe idée et que j'allais faire de même sur ce blog à raison d'une fois par semaine avec 2 photos.

This week I chose The Jet d'eau in Geneva, my home town.
Cette semaine j'ai choisi une photo du Jet d'eau de Genève, ma ville natale.

Photo compliments of: ahoward

and Mark chose Hong Kong harbour as Hong Kong is the town he grew up in.
et Mark a choisi une photo du port de Hong Kong, la ville oú il a grandit.


Photo compliments of: gingerluk