j&j down under!

j&j made their *first* trip over last april, and it was a great trip... minus all the rain... which seemed to follow us around the country. they hit sydney, canberra, melbourne, brisbane, the gold coast, and noosa in 2 weeks - such seasoned travelers! 

after spending a few days solo in sydney, they visited us (and bob, of course) in the can. we grilled lamb on the barbie, admired sidney nolan's portraits of ned kelly, and studied australian aviation at the war memorial (there's not much to do in canberra)...

then we flew to melbourne, and headed promptly for the builders arms hotel...

... where jim had trouble making up his mind!

and we went for a meal at coda, a really fantastic asian-style tapas restaurant, where - if you get the right table - you can dine while looking up fancy lady's skirts. 

 then the rain set in... so we decided to do the bus tour.

 then kp and i hit the national gallery of victoria...

after melbourne we headed to brissie, where it was finally sunny. three cheers for sunshine! we checked out uq's campus, enjoyed the views from the citycat, and spent an afternoon at the lone pine koala reserve. 

jp makes a new friend!

another afternoon at the gold coast...

...then we finally made it to our real destination... la plage! 

they look like locals! 

La vie en smog

after almost four long years away, i finally got back to paris in march. landing at charles de gaulle was like a dream, and not just because of the oneiric effects cast by the crazy smog that had descended upon paris before our arrival. at first i thought it was the haze that comes with a 14-hour flight followed immediately by a 7-hour flight, but when i saw that all the public transportation was free (score!), i knew it was for real. 

after two years in canberra... and covered in smog, paris did feel a little icky at first. i'm not going to lie. nothing a proper croissant or hunk of stinky can't fix, of course, and within hours i was over the epic journey, the funk, and the ick, and absolutely delighted to be back.

we changed things up a bit for our first joint return to la mère patrie. kp found us a really great little studio on the right bank this time, in the 2nd. and though we hit up a few old haunts (chez gladines, obviously, deux bis crepes, obviously), we tried mostly new restaurants. my fave was a simple lunch joint we went to in the 6th to fuel up for a book-buying spree: la cuisine de bar. a menu full of the most delightful tartines you'll ever taste. i would brave that flight again tomorrow if it meant a ham and cheese tartine from cuisine de bar. 

i would also pack up right now for another morcel of duck confit (of which i ate a rather embarrassing amount given that i was only there for a week!). french food. ahh, FRENCH FOOD! no pictures, though. i'm trying to reign that in a bit.

our pad - etienne marcel fairy tale

our metro stop

drinks with old pals

we were both there for work, but that was only 3 days for me. the rest of it we spent eating and museum-going. we saw some great exhibits, including an small agnès varda video installation, this one...

... and the bill viola exhibit at the palais royal, which was AMAZING.

my pictures don't do it the slightest bit of justice

when not eating or art-admiring, i was conferencing at Inalco (the Institut des langues et civilisations orientales). an entire conference in paris devoted to vietnamese literature and film... a dream come true for old lb! and it was a major milestone for me to give a conference paper in french in france, a right of passage if you will.

and of course, we wondered around... enjoying the sights and sounds of our favorite city, our home away from home.

christmas 2013

i figured i should have christmas pics up before may at least... last year we spent christmas on the beach, and this year we decided to spend it in the bush, in other words, at home in canberra. we were all three pretty worn out from moving, finishing up projects, traveling to europe and the u.s., running away for 24 hours (bob), and all we wanted from santa was REST!

rest and food. and when we weren't napping or catching up on 'game of thrones', we were cooking and eating and taking bad photos of our culinary delights.

first up... raspberries from our own backyard!

whenever the house has gone quiet, it usually means two of the three of us have snuck off for a nap.

at the farmer's market

 our christmas bush!

 christmas, à la provençale. why the aussies cook a ham in this heat is beyond me.

homemade christmas morning sausage swirls, a family tradition.

 our minimalist christmas

 my favorite gift, every year!

 preparing roast figs, also from our backyard!

 nye, 2013

 new year's day, 2014. kp tries his hand at black eyed peas.

 on our way to the pub for our first pint of 2014.

we call this bob's 'beat the heat' pose. kp has a whole series of them on his phone.