Joyeux Noël!

 

Joyeux Noël! // Merry Christmas!

That's all we wanted to say :)

Happy Ninja Day!

 

Chaque 5 décembre, c'est la journée mondiale du ninja // Every December 5th it's the Day of the Ninja

...would you believe it. 

I think we are due for the annual "Middleofnowhere, NW residents turned out for the annual Ninja Parade, where no ninjas were seen for the 30th year in a row" jokes, don't you agree?

Where the cat  lacks the flexibility of Hokusai's ninja, he compensates with enthusiasm. 

That's all I have to say on the subject.

Une porte ouverte

La lecture, une porte ouverte sur un monde enchanté // Reading, an open door to an enchanted world -- François Mauriac

The cat is very fond of reading per se, but here, judging from the illustration, he is reading something about central Gran Canaria. In which case I would strongly advise him to forget the book, go and check it out with his own eyes. He won't be disappointed, of that I am sure.

Toute l'obscurité du monde

Toute l'obscurité du monde ne peut pas éteindre la lumière d'une bougie // All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle

There seems to be a confusion as to who said this beautiful phrase. The Citation Célèbre site claims it was Confucius, while most English quotes have Francis of Assisi as the author. Not sure which version, if any, is correct.

Anyway. Here is the cat, peacefully reading his book by the light of a single candle. Is he aware of all the darkness in the world that surrounds him? Sure he is, he is a very aware person. Does it bother him? Well, that's debatable. He can't combat all the darkness in the world. But he can read a couple of chapters, while the candle lasts. And, being a cat, maybe he can continue reading even when it goes out. 

Maybe it doesn't really bother him after all.

people whom one has ceased to love

Les émotions des gens qu'on a cessé d'aimer paraissent toujours un peu ridicules // There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love

 Oscar Wilde said many interesting things. 

Today I suddenly realized that the use of "one" as a pronoun in English  could originate from "on" in French, used there more or less as "we". Wikipedia confirms.

Chaque anniversaire est un cadeau. Et voici le tien !

 

Chaque anniversaire est un cadeau. Chaque jour est un cadeau. // Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift. -- Aretha Franklin   🐱 Et voici le tien ! // And here is yours! -- Sumo Wrestler Cat

Here is the cat, wishing all birthday people out there a happy birthday. And  a happy day to all people out there. 

By coincidence, today's Inktober prompt is "knot" - "nœud" in French. So here you have it, too.

Celui qui ne sait où aller

 

On ne peut montrer le chemin à celui qui ne sait où aller // You cannot show the way to someone who does not know where to go.

 

The quote in the caption, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - btw, did you know he was a French aristocrat? I either didn't, or maybe I did and forgot all about it till right now - reminded me of a small episode from our two-year stay on Fuerteventura. 

We were standing close to a bus stop in Corralejo, waiting for somebody or something, maybe even for a bus. A middle-aged couple appeared, the guy visibly agitated, the woman resignedly trailing behind him. The guy asked us "Can you go anywhere from here?". And when we, reason personified, asked him where he wanted to go, he nearly shouted "Anywhere! I don't care!".

Mind you, I sort of understand him. Fuerteventura in general, and Corralejo in particular, is one of the best beach destinations I know. You can swim, sunbathe, surf or fish. You can take a ride on a boat, or on a dune buggy. You can drink cheap beer and eat in various restaurants, many of them excellent. You can catch live music shows, many of them free, and offered by the restaurants, the previous item on the list. But the list of things you can do is still quite limited. If you didn't realize that before you come, you might be quite disappointed, as the guy obviously was.

The little story had a happy ending, we hope. We convinced him to go and check what the local travel agency, specialized in one-day trips and experiences, had to offer, and he departed, the woman in tow.

Craignez la colère

 

Craignez la colère de l'chat patient // Fear the wrath of the patient cat

Although today's quote comes from Citation Célèbre website, it doesn't really. Partially because the citation doesn't deal with cats, but with men, in a typical anthropocentric manner. Partially because they say it is an Irish proverb, while it is a quote from John Dryden, quoting Publilius Syrus.

The cat, as we all know, is very patient. Look at him there, patiently filing his claw, as all patient cats do, at least according to some memes out there.

La lutte éternelle entre les alouettes et les hiboux

 

Rendez-vous demain à 7h30! Non, mieux à 7h! -- Ce n'est pas mieux -- C'est juste plus tôt // Let's meet tomorrow at 7.30! No, better at 7! -- It's not better -- It's just earlier

There is a facade repair going outside our window right now. Several guys turn up in the morning on a platform suspended from the roof and then go up and down the whole day, doing what needs to be done, talking and playing music. 

I must say the work they are doing is very necessary, but I do have an issue with their working hours. They seem to be turning up earlier and earlier every day.

Which reminded me of a small conversation from the very beginning of my working life, which you can read in the pic. I have to add that we were a tiny, recently formed private company, all working very hard and that our boss was a lark, that is to say an early bird, and proud of it.

The eternal struggle between larks and owls goes on (and on, and on).

Une maman c'est une montagne

 

Une maman c'est une montagne de compréhension // A mother is a mountain of understanding. Jean Gastaldi

Rêver, c'est le bonheur ; attendre, c'est la vie

 

Rêver, c'est le bonheur; attendre, c'est la vie // Dreaming is happiness; waiting is life.

The cat is waiting for his dream of hanami to become reality.  He, unlike me, already did it at least once, but he wishes to repeat it. While waiting, he assumes the attitude of Zhdun, The Awaiter, closes his eyes and shuts the current humdrum stuff out.

Admittedly, you can do hanami on Gran Canaria. But it doesn't feel the same somehow.

Ses erreur

 

L'expérience est le nom que chacun donne à ses erreurs // Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes. Oscar Wilde

We already knew that the cat likes cooking. It seems that he is taking it to the next level, with book signing and everything. 

Not everyone can extract so much value out of their experiences in the kitchen.

Sans perdre son enthousiasme

 

Le succès c'est d'aller d'échec en échec sans perdre son enthousiasme // Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm

The quote above is apparently being credited to Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln by almost equal amount of sources, but Le Parisien wants to credit Winnie, so let it be so.

 

 

Prenez du chocolat

Prenez du chocolat afin que les plus méchantes compagnies vous paraissent bonnes // Take some chocolate so that the nastiest companies look good to you.

Today’s quote, by Madame De Sévigné, brought to mind a picture of the cat enjoying his hot chocolate while a brawl was raging about him. Then I decided that maybe a scene in a bar while a football match is going on will do. Not sure why the cat went to the bar, he should have gone to a nice quiet pâtisserie, but I guess he was overcome by an attack of acute chocolack and decided to take his chances in the nearest place he can find.

And the chocolate is working its magic on him. Look at his pleased face. He doesn’t even mind the guy on the left, clearly angry about his team losing, leaning on his shoulder. Long as the cup stays full, he stays happy.

Je peux résister à tout

Je peux résister à tout, sauf à la tentation // I can resist anything except temptation

The quote by Oscar Wilde naturally lead me to all sort of cake-related things. Cats normally are not much into cakes, but the cat is. Btw, the cake in the pic is "медовик", Russian honey cake, as I remember it being served in Parunāsim cafe in Riga — except that now I see they make rectangular pieces, not wedges.

More stuff related to cats, cakes and temptations on shutterstock.

La plus belle courbe

La plus belle courbe sur le corps d'une femme est son sourire // The most beautiful curve on a woman’s body is her smile

Yesterday, local and national TV stations were showing a "virtual" carnival show in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Its equivalent in Las Palmas this year had the carnival spirit diluted to the point of being insipid, not to say homeopathic. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Santa Cruz managed to keep at least some of the normal exuberance. It was just one show instead of many, and there were no public in attendance, but at least the costumes were beautiful. Maybe not as huge and expensive as normal, but still, quite impressive, very feathery.

Yesterday's quote by Bob Marley from Citation Célèbre got connected in my head with the show. The costume of the croquis is loosely based on number seven in yesterday's list.

Why God invented cats

Dieu a inventé le chat pour que l'homme ait un tigre à caresser chez lui // God invented the cat so that man could have a tiger to stroke at home.

 

 

 

When Victor Hugo wrote this, he probably had in mind fluffy cuties who indulgently allow themselves to be stroked in exchange for food, cushy bed and other necessities. 

I wonder what breeds of cats were around in his times. Perhaps unstrokable cats, the hissing balls of fury, all claws, teeth and glowing eyes came into fashion later and he simply wasn't aware of their existence.

Deep and profound brain things inside my head

La meilleure façon de se venger d'un ennemi, c'est de ne pas lui ressembler. // The best revenge is not to be like your enemy

 

I am sure Marcus Aureluis meant something much more profound than the lack of resemblance between the cat and a chihuahua, but well, it serves as an illustration, n'est-ce pas?

Two observations:

 --  A chihuahua en face looks very much like Yoda. Same goes for fennec fox. 

-- As you probably know, chihuahuas are "hate and tremble" type of dogs. I first read this definition in Russian - "дрожь и ненависть". Now, just for the heck of it, let's translate it into French. Google Translate comes up with "haine et tremblement" as one of the possibilities. But a search on these words plus "dog/chien" doesn't bring up photos of chihuahuas, as it does with Russian and English versions. So I probably got the translation wrong. Surely the French have made the same observation. 

Well, three observations, actually. The word "chihuahua" replaces but perfectly the first line in the chorus of "Que sera, sera".

 

There is no winter without snow

 

Il n'est pas d'hiver sans neige, de printemps sans soleil, et de joie sans être partagée // There is no winter without snow, no spring without sun, and no joy without being shared

While the Canary Islands are being slowly getting covered by a thin reddish layer of calima dust, Moscow is blanketed by a record-breaking layer of snow. My sister is sending me snowy pics of the beautiful, if very cold, winter they are having. 

Some of the photos show a small boat on the river Moscow. It stayed there for a few months already, caught in the ice by the first big frost. Now, with all the snow around it, it positively looks like something that belongs to a book on polar exploration. 

The phrase above is a Serbian proverb. Going by it, I didn't have a single winter in the last few years, if we discount the snow on Teide. No shortage of sun, though.

Vivrais-tu un siècle ...

Vivrais-tu un siècle, apprends toujours. // Should you live a century, always learn.

 

Today, the  Citation Célèbre site  came up with a Russian proverb. As usual in these cases, it took me a few seconds to figure out what they meant. Well, I say "as usual", but I admit there were cases where I failed to figure it out. Not this time though.

So. The Russian proverb in question exists and looks like this -- "Век живи, век учись". All nicely didactic. To bring the tone down a bit, it must be noted that on hearing or reading it, an addendum "дураком помрёшь"//"you will die a fool" immediately pops up in the heads of most Russian, even if they are too polite to voice it.