men of other times

France, night

I just finished to watch the movie "To kill a mockingbird". Not only I loved the book, but I loved the movie in the same way. Some old movies are so good, that they are just not comparable with any recent Hollywood movies....

and let's say the truth....where did men like Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart disappeared? There is no Brad Pitt or George Clooney that could stand the comparison.....Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart were gentlemen with a lot of charm.

I am planning to watch many more movies with these two actors...

cookies with almond flour

France, afternoon

I am a disaster in cooking. I guess that anyone reading this blog knows this. But, I am pretty good in making cookies, pies, cakes. And because we are in autumn and because it is not so hot anymore and because it is just nice to be at home on the week end with a cup of tea and some cookies, and because I love the small of cooking cookies, I decided to try a new recipe and make some cookies for myself.

They are still in the oven, so I can't say anything about the result, but so far the smell is very very good....I am making some coffee to try them with it as soon as they are ready.

I leave the recipe here if someone else wants to try it (and maybe also give me some advice on how to improve it, to change it):

Ingredients:
200 gr normal flour
300 gr. almond flour
200 gr. sugar
250 gr. butter or margarine
3 eggs
10 gr. baking powder

Prepare the oven at 180C. Melt the margarine in a pot and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and let the dough rest for 30 min. Put some flour and some margarine on a cooking tray on which to put the cookies to cook. Since the dough is pretty sticky and since I don't have any nice shape for the cookies, I just spooned a bit of dough on the cooking tray. Let them cook in the oven until they start to get a golden color. Take them out and leave it out for a bit before to eat them.

I know, the description doesn't sound very professional. I just got the first cookies out of the oven...they look a bit like in the shape of a madeline, but they seem quite good...I am going to try them in a bit...

PS. I just tried the cookies...they are VERY GOOD!!! Gnamm!!!

The giant moth

France, night

I like animals. I love animals, actually. Well, of course, not all of them. But most of them.
A giant super-sized moth flu into my apartment tonight. I was on my couch, getting in the mood of going to bed when I started to hear this sound like if an electric plane was flying in my apartment.
It wasn't an electric plane, it was an undescribed object of unclear origin.

After visualizing myself sleeping with that object falling on me during my deep sleep, I decided to declare a war to it. Uncaring of the freezing cold, I opened all the windows and the door hoping that it would flu away. Of course, it didn't. It was warm inside the apartment, cozy, with some light and a nice atmosphere. I truly strongly hoped that a super-sized gecko would walk into my apartment too and eat that. But it is definitively too cold for geckos now.

So, it was just me and the monster. A quite beautiful monster to be honest. But a beautiful giant monster that I didn't want to have flying around my head while sleeping. I got the broom and started to run around following the animal....without success, except making it flying much faster and in a much more in a crazy random way, and making myself having some healthy gymnastic.

It got also very close to hit my cup of tea in the crazy ran. I couldn't tolerate the possible vision of the beautiful giant swimming in my tea. So, I got a couple of neurons in my brain to work and I switched on the lights closer to one the window. And then, like if I was playing baseball and getting warm with my bat, I directed the monster toward the window. Instead of flying, the tired animal decided to just sit on the broom....which worked out anyway for me, as I deposited it outside my apartment.

Now, I changed my cup of tea (you never know what it dropped in it). I will sip a bit of that and hopefully have a restful night of good sleep!

men for sale

France, lunch time

I am back to France. I have been traveling so much for work in the last weeks (and I will have to travel more in the coming weeks) that I feel a bit lost and very very tired. In any case, I enjoyed any place I have been and I met a lot of cool people. So, overall, beside the time spent on the train, on the plane and at various airport, I am happy.

I also had a chance to dance a lot, so this was even more positive.

My plan of the day is to answer to as many emails as I can. My email inbox is more than full....

Last trip was to Turkey. I got back here in France last night. I liked what I saw of Turkey...I actually saw very little, but for what I saw, I liked it. Except one thing. I was in a tourist locality, Kusadasi, where many many tourists from the UK, Germany and Holland go as soon as it starts to get colder in their countries. Among these tourists, some are groups of women in search of some tenderness and attention....I saw something similar in Madagascar. Men and women moving around desperately searching for company. And men and women from these countries offering themselves just as whatever object.

I am not living out of this world. Prostitution always existed. But one thing is to see the women in the windows in places like the Netherlands, where actually prostitution is under rules and everything at least from the outside looks controlled and more like a job than as human exploitation. Another thing is to see desperate human who look from anyone who could give them any attention.

I am especially sad when I see women who seems to not know any limit to get into bed with someone. One thing is playing and joking and flirting, another thing is to get on the knee to convince a man to spend some time with you. I am wondering if getting someone at these conditions would actually help to feel less lonely, if it is filling their loneliness what they are actually looking for. Wouldn't make it feel even more lonely to know that this person is willing to give you exactly what you want just to get something from you? It is too commercial. And so sad to see it.

We went dancing one evening and there was a group of women just looking for men there. And looking for men with such a desperate attitude to be scary. One of them actually decided that one of the guy of our group was very interesting for her and that she should have tried to have it at any cost. It was very sad to watch.

I am for the "case chiuse" as they were called in Italy, for the red light districts like in Holland, for anything where this kind of sexual exchange doesn't drive to exploitation of people who don't have enough money to live. In Madagascar, depending on the places, you can even find teenagers who offer themselves to you....a sign that they know that foreigners come there and look for them.
I don't care if people need sex and love and they are willing to pay for it. But when this drives human exploitation, this is something that I can't stand to see. I wonder if there is any way to stop this trend.