Cake Wreckorating.

I just found a new blog to amuse me, and thought I would share. Here's a seasonal sample:

[This cake] looks like a really well-made Santa suicide scene:
(Yes, of course Santa bleeds sprinkles. Duh.)


Go. Now. Check it out.

Christmas in Sarajevo.

First of all, the day started well, because I got to sleep in, and then walked into town and got paid! Only a day late, due to my silly boss's power games, but whatever. It was relatively stress free getting the money today, so I'm happy enough and I'm free! That was the last dealings I have to have with Bipolar Boss and his crazy school.

So to celebrate I had coffee and cake for breakfast (at only 2pm) and then went Christmas shopping (no time like after the last minute). I finally went out and bought a 500gb external hard drive and a 4gb micro SD card, as christmas/birthday presents from my parents, which adds considerably to my digital storage options, and makes me very happy. Now I can spend the next few days nerding out in backing up, sorting out and reformatting my computer.

I followed this by buying a book that I really want to read (called Sarajevo Malrboro) to give to one of my friends here, and some long stripey socks just like mine for the other (it sort of didn't feel like Christmas unless I gave something to somebody!)

Then as my (now EX-)colleague Napoleon and his friend messaged to say they'd be 10 minutes late to meet me, I popped into what is fast becoming my favourite second-hand shop, and bought two long sleeved t-shirts for a total of 5euro. I realised that in my new life as a Lady of Leisure (yes, that means unemployed) I would need more warm clothes to not go to work in. I was most excited to find an orange shirt much like my old favourite one that I finally decided was dead earlier this year. I'm happy to find a replacement!

Then I met Napoleon for a drink at Cafe Eclectic (which is what we have decided the name of this apparently nameless cafe is, as it is fulled with all sorts of bizarre things like fruit baskets and carved coconuts and old passports and felt hats and bakelite televisions and telephones...)and then we walked over to the Sarajevsko brewery for a couple of pints (the dark beer's the best), which on my empty stomach meant I really appreciated the sobering 20 minute walk in sub-zero temperatures to our next stop, which was Cafe Hot Wok, where we ate asian food! ASIAN food! Or at least something that closely resembled it. There was actual real lemongrass involved! It was very exciting.

We finished with coffee and cakes (yes, twice in one day. But it's Christmas. And they do some pretty amazing cakes here) at a nice cafe type place which was right at the bottom of the stairs that lead here to the place I'm currently staying, which meant it was only a 3 minute stair-master session to get home, which was probably a very good thing after such an indulgent day, but then, what else is Christmas for?

Photos on the left, as per usual!

Christmas in Montreal!

So, after having no idea what to do for Christmas as late as Friday, the offers just poured in over the weekend, and I ended up with too many options! So here's what I ended up doing:

Around 5ish, I went to a place called the Co-op sur Genereux to help cook for an orphans' christmas that I wish I could have stayed for - it was great to see the place, as I'd heard a lot about it, and to meet more interesting people.

About 7pm, I went to Leyla's new place (she the person I'm currently subletting from) to meet her flatmates at her new place: Romain, an ever-so-cute-Parisien, and Rosie, an entertaining American who hasn't been here much longer than I. An hour or so later, and we set of to the 'loser's christmas party' at Romain's old host-family's house, which turned out to be full of architects and their teenage kids. Enjoyable, but definitely different to the sort of company I've been keeping for the last few months! And the food was delicious, but entirely meat-based, which unfortunately rather disagreed with my mostly vegetarian stomach, which made me a little antisocial for the last hour I was there.

So around 11 I took my upset stomach away from that party, taking Rosie's keys with the plan of napping on their couch for a while. On my way back, I passed a church that was ringing bells, so I stopped in for the last 15 minutes of their mass (which had been going over an hour already, I gather - glad I just caught the end!). But that nicely satisfied my vague traditionalist's desire for a little bit of church at Christmas. And I had a revelation about the purpose of organs in churches. I don't know the name of the piece the organist played for the recessional, but played on that massive organ, it sure put the fear of something or other in me!

When I got back to the apartment to find Rosie already back there much earlier than planned, Leyla just arrived home from her other party thing, and everyone wondering if I had dropped dead while walking home. I really thought no one would miss me when I dropped into the church!

As I was soon feeling better, Rosie and I went upstairs to our next party - one that we could already hear most of anyway, in the form of elephants on the ceiling. Their upstairs neighbour Marco was also having a late-night orphans' christmas party, and we arrived just in time for the massive turkey, which had been planned to serve at midnight. Despite not knowing anyone there, managed to find so many interesting people to talk to, that it was 4am before we went back downstairs to bed!

So that was Christmas Eve, which is the more important day here (because of the French tradition, I think). While I enjoyed the parties very much, they were interesting parties, didn't really feel christmassy enough. Christmas day solved that:

I stayed at the apartment for the night, and this morning (by which I mean, at about 12.30pm) we opened the few little presents from under their little tree (well, they did) while listening to Christmas music (the one day a year it doesn't grate), and ate french toast (which is apparently pain-perdu, en francais) and fudge and cookies.And then we set of to got ice-skating. Outside. On a bit of frozen water! In a park! About 5 minutes walk from their house. AND I didn't fall over and break a leg. (That's me on the bench in the background - I swear I was skating for all but this 5 minutes!)

And then we came home (to their house) and had tea and more fudge and cookies, and toast with pesto and olives and cheese, and more tea, and I spent about 3 hours explaining my entire life's travels (well, they did ask!) and then we invited Marco from upstairs down for more tea and a tarte au citron that Romain had whipped up while Leyla was making the french toast earlier.Finally, I came back to my little flat, so that I could feed the cat and sleep in what is currently my own bed. Which I should do about now, as I see it is now nearly 5am!

An Archbishop's view...

Here's an interesting take on the christmas legend - at least, interesting coming from the Archbishop of Canterbury! I've always mostly liked Anglican dogma...