★✩✩✩✩ Having read and enjoyed several dozens of John Grisham’s novels, I made myself finish this one, but it took me four or five months.
Every time I closed the book I would see the testimonials printed on the cover “no one does it better than Grisham”, and “just when you think you know Grisham he surprises you.” Well, the former is true only up to this book, and the latter is true particularly in light of this book.
It takes ploughing through 400 pages (out of 550) for the book to begin to start. But it never really takes off, and seems even rushed at the end. Such a disappointment.
The book was boring, shallow, and while the writing isn’t bad, it is too verbose and very tedious. The plot is weak and stretched ultra thin; in this form it could and should have been a novella.
It is astounding that over the course of so many pages, and despite a rather small group of characters, we readers get to know hardly any of them.
The book is touted as “The sequel to A TIME TO KILL” which was such a fine novel that I hope that anyone who hasn’t read it isn’t put off by this one. Commonalities between the two are the main litigator and his family and a couple people who work with him, and a few irrelevant references to the other story. This novel attempts to shine by association but fails.
À la suite d’une conversation sur la variété dans les repas, à la fin du déjeuner de Pâques aujourd’hui, j’ai entrepris de dresser la liste de ce qu’on mange en plat principal habituellement chez moi (ordonnés arbitrairement).
Tournedos Rossini à la sauce crème fraîche et porto, et pommes noisettes
Hotdogs maison dans des baguettes viennoises
Hamburgers (Charal) et frites bistrot (Casino Délice)
Filets de poisson pané et purée Mousline
Bacon (en tranches) frit, œufs brouillés aux toastinettes, crème liquide et maïs
Quiche Lorraine maison dans pâtes feuilletée
Pizza (surgelées Buitoni: fresh up, fiesta)
Steak haché 5% de matière grasse (Charal) et pâtes ou haricots verts et brocolis
Spaghetti ou linguine carbonara maison
Spaghetti bolognaise maison
Saumon fumé sur blinis et tzatziki avec du riz long grain
Brochettes yakitori et riz basmati
Salade verte et carottes, maïs, conté
Tomates noires de crimée à la mozzarella, basilic, huile d’olive
Poulet mariné 24h, cuit au bbq, et frites ou pommes noisettes
Poulet à la crème avec du riz long grain
Ramen au caramel aux crevettes
Risotto au poulet cuit à l’ail et au vin blanc, ou/et aux légumes
Fajitas au poulet (Old El Paso non pimenté)
Jambon en tranches fines (froid) ou épaisses (à la poêle), avec accompagnement non spécifique
Jambon en tranches farci au skyr (ou fromage blanc) au basilic ciselé
Poulet au curry, beurre de cacahuète et lait de coco au riz basmati
Lasagnes maison
Confit de canard avec des haricots blancs à la sauce tomate
Boeuf bourguignon / daube maison
Tournedos Rossini maison aux pommes dauphines
Poulet rôti aux pommes de terre nouvelles et au thym
Pommes de terre vapeur au Mont d’or
Raclette
Gratin dauphinois maison
Pommes de terre vapeur à tremper dans du skyr (ou fromage blanc) aromatisé aux herbes(e.g., ciboulette)
Gnocchis maison (à base de purée mousline, farine et œuf) puis revenus dans du beurre
Quenelles natures à la sauce béchamel maison avec du riz long grain
Crêpes maison au jambon, œuf, gruyère
Bruschetta sauce tomate, thon, olives noires et mozzarella
Soupe veloutée courges, pommes de terre, crème fraîche (maison ou en brique)
Falafels coriandre trempés dans du skyr (ou du fromage blanc) aromatisé aux herbes
Croques Monsieur (maison ou pas)
Je suis surprise de l’écart entre « ressenti » et « effectif » car j’avais annoncé avoir entre 10 et 12 plats de prédilection, or il s’avère qu’on pourrait manger différemment tous les jours pendant plus d’un mois (et c’est sans compter les plats que je fais rarement, ceux qui ne me sont pas revenus en tête, et ceux que l’inspiration ou l’opportunité m’invitent à faire.)
Au prochain épisode, peut-être la liste des desserts que je fais ! 😁
Roses aux pommes caramélisées sur pâte feuilletée saupoudrées de sucre glace
What my top-five most viewed photos tell me is that I should have been a model in my early thirties rather than a wannabe photographer.
I have been using Flickr since 2005.
Well, I have not used it for several years now, and I think I just understood why:
The most viewed photos are almost entirely pictures I posted that picture me. They are part of the story I told about me on this platform, but they are not photos I took. (Although I did a series of self portraits in a dusty mirror which are of me, by me.)
But I don’t use the platform to show myself (that’s what Instagram is about, right? And I left that one already), as much as to showcase my photography at the same time as I photo-document bits of my life.
The only photo where I am not, among the top five, is a byproduct of its title being the same as swingers club (a coincidence, which I blogged about in 2006 when I figured out why it was my most popular photo.)
I think I will find out how much longer the pro membership I paid is, and find an exit strategy for all of my photos on this platform. There is appetite for how I was about 10 years ago more than there is appetite for the stuff I want to show, much to my dismay.
When I last wrote about exercising I found the totals quite unbelievable. I look back at those today with a smile, because the ones I now have 9 months later are even more unbelievable. So I’ll check back here in a year to see how relative this all is.
My Apple Watch is my coach
This wearable wonder of computing makes it very easy to stay on top of sports. The reminders can be annoying but useful and I noticed that I got those only when I slacked (hint, hint), which does not happen frequently. That’s how driven I am.
Monthly challenges
In 2021 I earned each of the monthly challenges, which are determined based on recent past progress and are meant to either keep you at the same level or elevate you a bit, so that at the end of the year you have improved. I wonder how big they can be after a while.
10x double move goal
180.9 km (6.5/d)
17x double move goal
30x close all rings
19x double move goals
349.5 km (11.7/d)
3695 minutes (120/d)
26700 kcal (861/d)
4220 minutes (140/d)
318.4 km (10.2/d)
27500 kcal (917/d)
4770 minutes (153/d)
Apparently there is a point after which every challenge rotates between kil(ometers), min(utes) and (k)cal.
In 2020 I earned all monthly challenges but one, which I decided not to go for (24100 kcal, or 717/d) because I knew I could not earn it even if it was the month of August.
The January 2022 challenge is to walk or run 366.7 km (11.8/d). I’m not particularly up for it but I want to do it anyway. I miss the easy challenges though.
New gear
I now rotate between 7 pairs of running shoes. I have also invested in some proper running outfits for chilly weather. It is to note that all of the sweaters I got were from the Men’s section. Not out of peculiarity but really because the colours are less flashy and the sizes fit me better because I have long arms.
My sidekick: Gizmo
Gizmo is now 8 years old. He happily prances along and I’m very glad he’s with me. We both get our share of daily exercise, fresh air and adventures, and it gives me greater security to be accompanied by a muscular yellow Labrador. When it’s not too cold and we are next to a river he gets to swim too (but not in the sea because the sound of the ebb and flow scares him.)
Long gone are the days when he would lag at the end of the leash after running only 3 or 4 kilometers. We now go for 5K jogs once a week or twice, come back walking, and it’s perfectly fine. Or we just walk. Sometimes for two to three hours on the weekends, and on average for an hour and a half everyday.
Graphs
Daily average of exercise in 2021: 116 minutes (December peaked at 164 minutes per day on average)Daily average of active energy in 2021: 773 kcal (December peaked at 996 kcal per day on average)Daily average steps in 2021: 12340 (August peaked at 15859 steps per day on average)Daily average running and walking distance in 2021: 10.2 km (August peaked at 13.4 km per day on average)Activity graphs in 2021: move, exercise (both going up), stand (steady at 19)Tallies of fitness and exercising metrics for the year 2021
Notes on the graphs
According to those tallies (generated by the excellent and free Fitness Stats iPhone app), my 2021 in sport can be broken down as follows:
711 hours of exercise (= 29.6 days, so a twelfth of the year)
3746 kilometers walked/run (whereas I drove a bit over 5000 km with my car)
… of which I ran 226 (average of 4K every week)
103 hours on the elliptical (this is equivalent to watching 123 typical TV series episodes, and guess what: that’s exactly what I did while on the elliptical)
650 workouts (on average I did almost two different activities everyday)
From an addiction to another
2021 is when I stopped smoking. I made up my mind in January or February and my strategy was to ramp up exercising, pick up an electronic cigarette, gauge if that was going to work, and carry on with the routine without smoking. That happened in May. I have not smoked since then. Woohoo!
But ramping up exercising meant that I burned more calories and therefore needed to up my food intake. Stopping smoking made me more hungry too, so I had two reasons to eat bigger portions.
I remember starting to eat as much and then a little more than my teenage boy! (Who abandoned basketball during the first year of the pandemic, and now more or less refuses to walk or hike with me even every now and then.)
I gained a lot of muscles apparently
I was a bit dismayed when I saw my weight ramp up slowly but very very steadily. It has now stabilized after 8 months or so, sometime in September.
However, my clothes continue to fit me so that means that I lost fat and gained (6 kilos of) muscles.
Weight graph for 2021: 62.42 kg on average (current trend is 63-64 kg)
Strava’s year in sport
One of the perks of being a paying subscriber of the sports tracking app Strava is the yearly report. See below.
Aside: I used to complain a lot about how that app was geared towards triathletes only. They fixed almost all the things I complained about and now it celebrates and motivates every kind of athletes, not just those who cycle, run and swim.
Cover of the report348 days activeLongest streak: 245 days between May 1 -December 31Top sports visualization (walking at 39% is top)Fastest running pace: 5:56Total time: 637 hoursTotal distance: 2281 kmLongest activity: 31 kmTotal elevation: 20010 mHilliest activity: 1064 mTop photos: fireworks, Auribeau, Mandelieu airportSummary cover
