Bits 'n' Bobs

Categories: life-in-general

Tags: cats, church, Food, w*rk, pootling

Date: 08 November 2009 15:24:47

I'm starting a new ESL class tomorrow. In a bid to find some interesting ice breakers I searched t'internet and have found a couple I look forward to trying out. One of them might well be fun - put the students into pairs. Give one 2 minutes to communicate as much information about themselves as possible to their partner - without speaking. Then the partner must introduce the other to the class. I wonder what misconceptions we might end up with....

"This is Pierre. He eats cats."                                                                                                                                          "Non, non, I said I like cats!"

The other I often play is "Truth or Lie". I give them three facts about myself, two are lies and one is the truth. They have to ask me questions to guess which is the true fact. Then they do the same with the group (or a partner). I wonder if you can guess which is my truth from these three (I always use the same three. I've made quite a good little "back story" for my lies!)


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The weather here is grey and dull and November-y. Which is hardly surprising, it being November.

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We had a feline visitor in church today. We were worshipping in the little Methodist chapel that we use once a month, in a village some 20 km from Thiers, where the main Temple is. As we arrived there was already much hilarity over the young cat who wanted to come in.The yoof were trying to chase it away. We started the service, and as latecomers arrived so too did the cat. It slunk in as the door opened, and then started trotting brazenly around. When it jumped on the communion table Matthias, our Pastor, took it by the scruff and ejected it, but within seconds its loud plaintive meeowing and scratching on the door forced him to allow it back in (with the proviso that if it jumped on the table again it would go out.) We gather it was hungry as its meeows became louder as it trotted around. I cuddled it for a while, but it wanted to explore. Finally the yoof were given the task of finding its owner, while I plotted how to smuggle it home if it was still around at the end of the service. Which it wasn't, as the yoof had fulfilled their task. Dammit!


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Honey and peanut chicken tonight. I wonder how that will turn out. I cooked an amazingly brilliant Spicy carrot soup. It was similar to my Spicy Coconut-and-Butternut-Squash soup, but (huzzah!) with ingredients that are more easily found in France than Butternut squash.


I'm using my Wagamama cookbook to cook for friends on Friday evening. Some of the ingredients are beyond finding, but I've got some reasonable substitutes in mind (e.g. Gewurtztraminer in place of sake). Others (Ramen noodles, lemongrass and Wasabi paste) are usually findable in the enormous Géant hypermarket or La Grande Fraise Marché (Does that translate as "The Enormous Strawberry"? Or maybe I've got its name wrong.)


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And finally, some photos from the Cider making on 24th October. I look forward to trying the product at a later date.


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