living.

There are some times when I need to focus and get my head back together. In Buddhism, we believe that everything happens for a reason. So if you don’t get along with someone, you need to think about the vibes your sending off, etc. These days I’ve been finding work difficult. Some people are just pissing me off. And I’ve lost sleep on it. Since the Air Canada days, I’ve promissed myself not to lose nay sleep about a job or colleagues. I’m too young to have the (little) amount of hair left completely turn grey. So I started meditating again. Crazy how well it works. For me anyways. I’m quite capable of doing it all in my head whcih means that while driving, sat nex to my wife, sat next to you, I occasionally reset my mind withouth notice.
Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō,Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō,Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō,Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō and on and on…

But just before that, I let myself go to a bit of nonsense. I imagined the face of my colleague and imagined the voice of my headteacher offering me £5000 raise. And I asked wether it made me mind less having to deal with her. The answer was no.
That’s when I no I have to move on.

Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō, Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō, Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō, Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō…

Sorry again for the long delay in updating but.. it’s usually because I’m very busy. Which is good..
So let’s think…

Well. I got new fishes! Indeed when Saku and Theo, my beloved Roborovski hamsters died, I decided to get fishes. So I started with 6 cherry barbs and a few plastic plants.

THEN, I added a live plant. I saw it was good and added aother live plant and 5 other fish!!

So now, my 30 litre tank has 11 fish. Some might say it’s a lot, but the live plants help with the oxigen and nutrients, the otto keeps the place algae free and the Mirabello 30’s filtering system is really good, so..

————

Another tidbit from Despair.com that I can think of is: “The only consistent feature in all of your dissatisfying relationships is you.”

So concentrate on yourself and let happy couples have fun the way they like.
(God do people like that get on my tits..)
—————

Then there is baseball. I’m having a good time. A great time in fact..

I’m hitting hard and I love it. There is nothing that relaxes me and makes me feel the same way batting does. It’s almost like I feel younger at every swing. Not that I’m really old. But for all sorts of reasons I’ve had all sorts of stresses in my life for the past few years. The last few months (fuck it: WEEKS and DAYS!) are not an exeption. But there is one thing that has never disapointed in the past few years: batting.
Of course, I always hit more or less in th same direction. But it’s not even my performance that makes me happy. Just hitting that ball as hard as possible and see it fly away. I hope I get to continue and participate for many more years…even if I lose my batting average of .636 and Slug% of .909
;)

Right!
Let’s talk about Christmas and new years in Quebec!

Christmas, some bits we’re GREAT! (i.e: running like mad in bed when NORAD told us that Santa was flying above the U.K)

Some were dissapointing. But at the end of the day, Nickie and I always manage to have a good time!

Now about our trip in Quebec..

The scenery was beautiful, the Bed and Breakfast was great, the research we did in Larairie was super cool!!

BUT! I found it a bit disapointing that some people weren’t as understanding of the fact that when you come once a year, specially during christmas times, everyone wants to see you BUT!! And it’s a big’un, I CAN’T SEE EVERYONE FOR AN UNLIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME! There is only one me! So let’s just say that next time, I won’t even try to be as flexible..

BUT, it was generally a good trip.

Another thing: work!

Work is doing great! Much better than expected. All I can say about that right now, but it’s cool. Though I must admit, I’m VERY tired..
Hopefully, it’s only a short term thing.

University… not sure. The course is really biased for LSA’s (which I am not) and the tasks are doing my head in.

Finally, baseball!

The Jaguars’s season is starting soon! And I can’t wait! I’ve started going to the gym again. The time we were a “bunch of guys coming together and playing ball” is over.

We won Division 1 last year. This year we’re in the Premier League.

So time to get fit, be a team and kick a bit of ass. In TKD, I went 15 years without losing a official fight and I’m quite pleased with that even if my last one was not necessarily one to be proud of. But one thing I’m convinced about is that I am definitely not somoene that associates with deafeat. I’m not saying that we’re going to win every single game in the season. But there is no way I’m going to let it become a habit.

I know most of the things I’ve been talking about lately have been baseball related, so lets try and talk about something else.

First of all: University.
As with most things, I am not satisfied by a pass. I want a first.
I want to be top banana. Top dog.

I want to be the shizzle dizzle..

So naturally, when we had an essay to do on my work and a Powerpoint presentation to do, I really give it my all. Specially with the Powerpoint.

I want to make an all singin, all dancing presentation. I have animated titles like nobody, I inserted the theme to Star Wars in there, had quotes, 3D transition thanks to Keynote, etc. UNFORTUNATELY, I’m over the number of slides. So what do I do, to keep to the guidelines is to reducae and thus make my presentation less fancy. What grade does she give me for following the guidelines? 54!

54!!!!
Not only was the grade naf to start with, but when I email saying that I was a bit dissapointed with the grade, she sends “To All” this email:

Dear All
I decided to make the PowerPoints ‘public’ for all to view, apart from those who did not
want theirs revealed, as it would enable you to share good practice and get a ‘feel’ for
the ethos and organisation of other schools. I took a risk in revealing the powerpoints,
because it might have tempted some of you to make onorous, futile comparisons in
terms of yours being ‘better’ than others and could even leave the door open for some of
you to question your mark. However, I had faith in your professionalism and interest in
each others’ work.

RIGHT! Let’s start with this comment. First of all. If comparing ones work with others is a show of lack of professionalism, well I’m the most unprofessional person out there. i compare my performance everytime, everywhere, and I use these comparisons to push myself !!

And she goes on after!

“I need to re-iterate, as in a previous email, that the powerpoints are there in skeletal
form-just the slides, without the accompanying notes. The notes that accompanied the
slides were quite crucial in terms of marking and allocation of grades. Notes that
substantiated the slides and included evidence of reading (use of sources) and analysis,
were given credit and acknowledged. Similarly, several of you submitted Part A with an
accompanying explanatory appendix that was not seen publically..
It is futile to ‘compare’ your mark with the public slides, or question your mark if you feel
that your presentation is (comparatively) worthy of a higher grade, as:
1. you cannot see the accompanying notes on the public slides
2. not all slides are public
3. your mark will be dependent upon the marking criteria (level descriptor grid) and the
extent to which you addressed the task/title.

GOOD! It just reiterates why I should have more grades because ALL of the other powerpoints exept 2 (me included) are within the 5-6 slides guideline BEFORE appendices!! Imagine AFTER!!

Should have told me to screw the guidelines you pompous *!@£$@!

(now I’m angry. Why did you ask to talk about something else than baseball??

to the “pencil pushers” who I met this Wenesday.

To most of you reading that know me, I’m a jolly, happy to a point some find annoying, fun loving kinda guy. There is another side of me that doesn’t often show and that can be quite surprising to some and that is that I never simply get annoyed or angry. I properly explode..

And believe me, today was the first day in a while where it came close..
I was in a meeting with a bunch of people which is never good. My general opinion of meeting goes along this line:

So basically, I was at this meeting…and it was surreal. Lots of people using abbreviations and the latest “buzzwords” for the hell of it, lots congratulating smiles and more head nodding and bobbing than I thought naturally possible. And the more this mascarade went on, the moere I thought to myself: “Surely, I must be on a different planet..” And whatever I kept saying, they just ignored it and replied something totally different. I was fuming.

Then I heard the sentence that will stay burned in my mind, probably for my life:
” The people that take the decisions and agree to the financing don’t have time and probably won’t be interested to read case studies that are over 1 page long”

Basically, what he was saying is that the project seemed to be working and they didn’t care how or why, they’ll find a pencil pusher to maybe agree, maybe disagree to prolong the project. As long as their isn’t too much thinking involved. That’s when I got really pissed off.
I could feel my face go red and my eyes dilating (can’t be pretty).

My boss, empathetically kept asking “You alright?” while the rest where nodding away satisfied about god only knows what..
I thought (and my boss as well0 that I was going to have an heart attack and a few times I had to stop myself from walking out.
The same clueless man, after the meeting came, with an inocent smile saying “You were quiet, Ioan?” To witch all I could reply was that if they didn’t have time to read, they probably had no time to listen either. The reason for our success is in our model, not simply hiring a pig with a blue ribbon around the neck and call it a learning mentor.

Anyways..

So I left Clueless be saved by one of his colleages and went to baseball my whole body aching from the anger inside me.

And I let it rip!

Not against the muppet, but I simply channelled all that extra energy in my running, throwing, catching, etc..
And what a night it was! Best training session ever! I was fast, precise, got a few claps, the whole lot.
I came back home feeling great!

So basically, I would just like to thank the pencil pushers out there and all the people who work mindlessly and infuriate me by doing so! Come and cross my path more often and who knows! You might be half responsible for something good this season:
Halton winning the Premier League title 2006!!
:)

My coach and I were having a deeply philosophical discussion today. He was obviously unaware of it, but this is kinda how it went.
I was asking him tips about how to deal with my asthma and my anaerobic (or lack of) capacity. He gave me a tip or two which were quite good I thought. Then he said something on the lines of contoling myself and listening to my body. I don’t mind listening to my body, but whenever I try to share the sounds it makes with my wife, she says I’m rude! (ahah!)

Anyways. That’s when my coach, John Mills came out with a mind blowing sentence: If you push yourself too hard, you’ll get injured.

Now, this might seem like just a sentence like any other. But it’s not to me. I simply cannot understand that idea.

You see, since I was a tiny little kid, I always believed that my body was simply a slave to my mind. If my mind screamed “GO!” loud enough, no matter what, my body would follow. A bit like that knight in Monthy Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail where he ends up armless, legless and all sorts but is still ready to fight.

If I didn’t manage a goal, I always blamed it on my mind. I figured:

“There is a key, I just need to find it..”

That, fueled by Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” where the for the first time, out of the blue and unpoven came the famous” We only 10 to 20% of our brain” have always driven me to, lets be honest here, put my body through some quite unnecessary pains and aches.

When I was around 13 or so, living on Provencher boulevard, I used to run like mad, racing with the bus. Everyday I lost on the distance of course, but everyday I’d try again, thinking to myself I need to convince my body to run faster, there must be a key…

And it’s Coach’s turn to come up with a sentence. “If you push yourself too hard, you’ll get injured.”

I can hear it, but I can’t believe it. I cannot lead myself to think of myself as limited in any way. Though it is true that I’m starting to wonder wether or not I will one day catch Nick “the bloody gazelle” Bustin, I still refuse to think that, basically, I have to slow down…

Reminds me of many things. Reminds me of the happiness whenever I thought I was “that close” to beating the bus. Reminds me of that fight I did for Marie-Eve’s birthday when I twisted my ankle, fainted only to be woken up by my coach tugging on it or something with a ref asking me if I wanted to continue.. That’s when I heard the fighters in the back having a bit of a snigger in the background and their coach saying: “Not so fast. I’ve seen him before and he’s as tough as they get. And that made me happy too. Happy that they knew and recognised what kind of character I was. Not one to simply roll-over. As Charlton Eston might have said at that point, i was thinking “You’ll have to take the championship cup from my cold dead hands..”

Of course I won, limped around with my trophy giving funny smiles to my opponents of the night and posing for the local martial arts press…
.
Makes me think of many things as well. But as much as I think my coach is great, there is one thing that I know for sure is that wether it’s a blessing or a curse, I don’t think I’ll ever intentionally slow down. I figure time will take care of that all by itself.

If it can cacth me anyways!
:P

(P.S: this blog was typed while I was wheezing from asthma. Maybe my body needs just a bit more convincing I guess? I’l tell it it can breathe perfectly fine and hope for a good night. Now if only I could stop feeling the pain under my left arse cheek..must have pulled something running)

Ioan

I want to share the lyrics of, to me, what is the most beautiful love song in the world. Fair enough, if you don’t speak French, you won’t understand a thing. But for purely selfish motives, I will put up the lyrics of George D’or’s “La Manic” who tells the tale of a man, working on the Manic hydro-electric complex of the north of Quebec, the biggest in the world of it’s type, far away from everything and specially, far away from home and the one he loves.

LA MANIC
paroles et musique: Georges Dor

Si tu savais comme on s’ennuie
À la Manic
Tu m’écrirais bien plus souvent
À la Manicouagan
Parfois je pense à toi si fort
Je recrée ton âme et ton corps
Je te regarde et m’émerveille
Je me prolonge en toi
Comme le fleuve dans la mer
Et la fleur dans l’abeille

Que deviennent quand j’suis pas là,
Mon bel amour,
Ton front doux comme fine soie
Et tes yeux de velours?
Te tournes-tu vers la côte nord
Pour voir un peu, pour voir encore
Ma main qui te fait signe d’attendre?
Soir et matin je tends les bras
Je te rejoins où que tu sois
Et je te garde

Dis-moi c’ qui s’ passe à Trois-Rivières
Et à Québec
Là où la vie a tant à faire
Et tout c’ qu’on fait avec
Dis-moi c’ qui s’ passe à Montréal,
Dans les rues sales et transversales
Où tu es toujours la plus belle,
Car la laideur ne t’atteint pas,
Toi que j’aimerai jusqu’au trépas,
Mon éternelle

Nous autres on fait les fanfarons
À coeur de jour
Mais on est tous de bons larrons
Cloués à leurs amours.
Y en a qui jouent de la guitare,
D’autres qui jouent d’ l’accordéon
Pour passer l’ temps quand y est trop long
Mais moi, je joue de mes amours
Et je danse en disant ton nom,
Tellement je t’aime

Si tu savais comme on s’ennuie
À la Manic
Tu m’écrirais bien plus souvent
À la Manicouagan
Si t’as pas grand’chose à me dire,
Écris cent fois les mots «Je t’aime»:
Ça fera le plus beau des poèmes.
Je le lirai cent fois…
Cent fois cent fois c’est pas beaucoup
Pour ceux qui s’aiment

Si tu savais comme on s’ennuie
À la Manic
Tu m’écrirais bien plus souvent
À la Manicouagan.

Slowfood.com

For thos ewho are interested in my last comment about me supporting Via Campesina and Slow Food, the Slow Food Movement was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986. Slow Food is an international association that promotes food and wine culture, but also defends food and agricultural biodiversity worldwide.

It opposes the standardisation of taste, defends the need for consumer information, protects cultural identities tied to food and gastronomic traditions, safeguards foods and cultivation and processing techniques inherited from tradition and defend domestic and wild animal and vegetable species.

Slow Food boasts 83,000 members worldwide and offices (in order of creation) in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, France, Japan, and Great Britain.

Basically it (and I) is against Mc Donalds and against touists that go in other countries to experience what they would have at home. Against stuffing each other but rather eating and getting joy out of it. As a beautifull and fullfilling experience of tastes and colours, an opportunity for socialising..

It’s about supporting your local farmers rather than your local super markets.

It’s about eating in season vegetables and fruits, when they ae naturally their tastiest and most colourfull rather than eating february strawberries..

I also support Via Campesina which is an international movement that co-ordinates movements and organizations of peasants, small and medium-sized producers, peasants, small craft-workers indigenous communities and agricultural workers and defends the basic interests of these sectors. It is an autonomous, pluralist movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. It is composed of national and regional representative organizations, indigenous communities and agricultural workers, whose autonomy will be strictly respected.

Like in Quebec, where the UPA is King and rules all subsidies, leaving no space for organic farmers, Via Campesina comes and offers their support for a better tasting, healthier and better fod for us and our childen. More on Via Campesina Here

The Constant Gardener

Now those of you who know me, know that I support different projects generally.

I’m s supporter of Via Campesina and the Slow Food movement. Buy Fair Trade and support Oxfam and Amnesty International through shopping. But one one of the reason why I’m talking about these things so much these days is because of this film i just saw:
The Constant Gardener.

Based on a John Le Carre Novel, it talks about how Africa is exploited by pharmaceuticals.

As a movie, it’s brilliant. It’s the best Novel to movie translation I’ve ever seen thanks to amazing camera play, it really puts us in the action, making us soak up the atmosphere of these Kenyan villages where people are condemned to die due to the greed of Western pharmaceutical companies.

The plot is typical Le Carre, intricate with loads of twists and turns, thought there is a strong message behind it, this mix of love story / thriller is a great watch for both women and men.

Everyone that knows me a lot knows that I’m a creature of wants. I want everything and usually want it now. Because I have accepted this, I know that it makes no sense trying to catch up with all my wants and usually satisfy myself by buying what I need which often goes down what my wife wants.
(It’s a JOKE NICKIE! Love you loads..)

But Christmas is usually a time of great suffering for people like me who are addicted to everything shiny, beautiful and new. But this year, I decided to pleasure myself by buying something that I would never actually see.

(Photo from: Gilvan Barreto/Oxfam)

No, no, not a young girl.. a young girls meal!
In fact, enough meals to feed 200+ school kids like her.
It only costs £6 per 100 kids you see.

QUICK THINKING!

An iPod is £219.
Divide by £6 (enough meals for 100 kids)
that’s 36.5 times 100…

Enough food to feed 3650 kids.

Mad isn’t it.

And with one single click, you can help too.

Go to OXFAM Unwrapped and you too can feed thjese kids for almost nothing. Or you can buy a Camel instead of trading your wife in for one!

Or go on OXFAM’s gifts that give twice to give a loved one a gift that will also support people that have much more needs that I have wants (they do exist..)

Or if you really want to be in my good books, send me an email and I’ll email you my OXFAM wish list which contains everything from feeding kids, to hygiene kits, to a goat. (every family needs an old goat. I really love mine..

So.
What are YOU going to buy this Christmas?

Right. Now, we all know I’m quite pretentious and quite happy with myself and how I’ve succeded and met my goals since moving to Britain. This should raise a few alarms, but for those who didn’t get the message yet, here’s the clue:

and yours truly has quite a few goals. And the one that is really obcessing me these days is this one:
Being the Halton Jaguars regular starting 3rd basenan!

Ok..I’ll settle for starting anything..

And I have a GREAT,INFALLIBLE and truly MACHIAVELIC PLAN to do so!

I will train more!
I will train harder!
AND (here’s the genius of it all) I will drink more water than anyone else!!!

Now, now.. I hear you all going “Uh? What is he on, stupid git..” but the thing is that my theory has been proven time and time again!
Last year, I wasn’t the regular. Well.. I was a regular, but regularly sat on the side. Fair enough I came in late, took me 3 weeks to get in decent shape and all that kinda stuff..

This year, it’s a new season and I intend to be part of it!

2 weeks ago, we started training. And I sucked. I wasn’t in shape and I was throwing all over the place, usually straight at my coach. (He wasn’t really participating, hence why it wasn’t a good thing..)

But after the session, the coach gave us a letter with the plan for us, now being in the Premier League (WOOOOOHOOOOOoooo) and all that..

80% this
90% that
and drink loads of water the paper said..

And if that’s what the coach wants, that’s what the coach will get!

Thing is, when I used to fight, my coach used to tell us that if we were to lose a fight, it was because we didn’t fight good hard enough.That we we’rent good enough on that occasion. Because if we would have, the judges would not have the choice but to give us the fight! And I always trully believed that. So yeah, I admit, when I first saw the expectations, etc..I was a bit nervous and stayed quiet for 2 days.. But I believe I can make it. And since then, I’ve started going at the gym with nickie at SIX FUCKING O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING, drinking loads of water (coach said it’s good), running (and god knows I hate running), and setting myself targets.

I want 90% accuracy.
And I want to run as fast as Nick. (I’ll tell you more about him later but basically think Gazelle v Rhino and your not far off..)
But in the end, you’ll be surprised how fast Rhino’s can run..

And I don’t just want this to happen by magic, I’ll be working my ass off to achieve this! I want this more than people could ever imagine! (see image above).

And you know what?

Today was the second training session and I already felt the difference! No, not that bit!! That was my groin that was a hurting a bit from me trying to run as fast as Nick..

I was faster though, that’s for sure!
And more accurate! I threw loads of balls at the coach! But this time, he was actually participating, so it was ok..

At the end of the day, I might or might not be selected. And my wife can think about “How cute” it is that I so much want to be part of the team as much as she wants to.

But what I think really counts is that I’m giving it a hell of a go and I must admit:

I’m bloody proud of myself for it too!

Sorry for the delay.. I was busy you see..
BUT! It was well worth the wait!
:)

Since I finished last post with work, let’s start with work.

It’s great! Last year i was running around like a headless chicken, my colleagues not too sure what I was up to. This year, I’m still running like a headless chicken..but only because I’m like that. But now, It’s all paying back. Everyday now I see “my kids” well settled in their lessons, having friends and all..

Quite a few members of staff have also praised me which as never really happened before so I’m quite pleased about that, specially sinceit’s really comming from all over.
:)

I’m a happy chappy.

Of course there is a bit of stress, restructuring and all..
Makes some of my colleagues act like assholes towards other colleagues for no obvious reason,but hey..

So that’s work for ya!

Now more interesting things…

I HAVE TWO MODELS!!

And I am dead chuffed…

First Charlotte, Katie’s friend.
She is the most bubbly person I’ve ever met and I hope to capture this wonderful personality here! More precisely, in the cove.

I’ve just discovered that I live 5 minutes from the biggest studio I’ve ever seen!

2 floors, 2 buildings..it’s amazing! And the day my mom came to visit, I had a full 2 hours proper tour where they showed us how to use everything and all..

Anyways.. so yeah, I’m going to shoot Charlotte in there and have a blast!
:D

Give you more details later..
;)

Talking about my mom, she came to visit for a week.

As it often is, it was quite an hectic and mad visit, but fun nonetheless!
We went to Yorkshire whee Nickie and I are considering moving, if the right condition comes..
Went to Nantwhich and that was alright and visited the Horseshoe Pass, Cwm Idwal and Valle Crucis Abbey

The UK really is full of beautiful places.

Besides bringing me all sorts of really good stuff from home, she also gave me quite a bit of information about our family tree! AND I have found a cousin she hadn’t spoken to in years!

And that’s that about most things..
:)

Tara!

Holidays over, its 8:30 and all hell is about to break loose. In 15 minutes, 170 young pupils, all around 11 years old are going to come to their first ever day to High School. Thinking about it, it’s a pretty big event for them. The travel, the changing rooms every period, the 12 teachers they have to meet and work with rather than 1.

4 of them are crying their eyes out and the rest have this mixture of “deer in headlights” look or simply look around blankly, totally confused..

And then, they see me.

And that look, oddly enough, is the greatest thing about my job.

You see, my first job in education was in a high school. I was working with year 10 pupils and it was quite nice, especially as I thought the year 7 looked a bit neurotic and shaky. I didn’t think anything of it. Then I worked in a primary school and what a shock that was..

The kids looked so confident! They organised things, supported each other, they were acting all grown up!

To make a long story short, I promised myself that if I was going to do anything at all that was remotely useful as a Learning Mentor it was to make sure that the year 7 pupils came in feeling excited, confident and as happy as possible, knowing that they were coming into a safe and exciting environment where they will slowly but surely transform into intelligent, responsible (sort of) individuals ready for the “Big Show” of adulthood.

So starting last April I spent half of my timetable in the Primary school. Not sure if all my colleagues understood or appreciated the work I was doing. But what it means is that for all those months, I went to all our feeder primary schools, took time to know the pupils and have them know me, met the parents, went on outings and all that jazz..

The result, 99% attendance and a whole bunch of happy pupils because they now recognise at least one member of staff (that’ll be me) that they know is always there for them if they need to talk. I’m sure that we might encounter some problems in the years to come, if I’m still around. But one thing that’s for sure is that I feel truly honoured to be able to share and see this exciting time with these young people.

Now.. after a great trip finding out more about my ancestors (P.S: again, I recommend it to everyone. makes you feel like a detective or something! LOL!) Nickie and I took the ferry back to England. Direction: CROYDON!

Indeed, the Baseball team I play for, The Halton Jaguars have been invited to the Final Four! The biggest and last competition of the year for us!
:)

I must admit, I went there and thought we’d win it. I could see myself with a commemorative hat or t-shirt, partying with the boys…

how wrong was I.

Not only did we lose, but also we lost both games of the weekend because of the slaughter rule I was not a happy bunny. Anyways. won’t go on about it, but watch this space next year to see Ioan Said (that’s me, remember?!), starting third baseman, on a posh picture with a trophy or something.. maybe nothing at all, but a smile, that’s for sure..
:)

This is the church of Jauze.
Take a good look at it.

I have (or had?) an ancestor buried in the back of it. Did I see their grave? No chance! And do you know why? Because, the administrators of this church are assholes.
:)
(Bless my wonderful 15-year-old cousin if she manages to translate this..)

See, the thing with Jauze church and its cemetery is that they want perfect looking graves and proof of some maintenance, etc. Which means that as we were walking around, we saw loads of beautiful and not so old or damages gravestones with a notice saying: Due to lack of upkeep from the next-of-kin, this graves will be removed.

I KID YOU NOT!! Bloody notices all over the bloody place!!
Everywhere? Not quite..
Indeed the ones spared were all new and modern looking grey granity and tacky things with all sorts of crazy ornaments…

A church dated from the ELEVENTH CENTURY!! WITH SHITTY LOOKING GREY MARBLE OVER THE TOP ORNAMENTAL GRAVESTONES!!

Nickie and I left the place disgusted and still can believe it..

Anyways.. if you ever visit Jauze and see any inhabitants, kick them good and hard in the gooch, which is allegedly the area between the anus and testicles.

With only 87 inhabitants, you’re likely to hit one responsible for such stupidity and prevent them from spoiling more of the local gene pool.

And that’s my thoughts about Jauze.

But one thing is for sure.. I haven’t seen or uncovered all I wanted to. So It won’t be long before I come back following the trail of the pioneers that made Quebec the place it is right now!

Indeed I am related to one of the first Quebecers to have crossed over and came to Quebec from France (Normandy)
Fair enough, my last relative to have worn that name died before the 1700s BUT, we are still relatives! Because of their historic importance, there are a few landmarks with traces of their contribution. One of them can be found here!

This beautiful church at Ige, in the Orne region of Normandy has indeed an official plaque remembering the fact that both Louis Gagne (Gasnier at the time) and Pierre (my ancestor) were baptised here.

Then, there is the Guemancais water mill that they managed and lived at.

Again, walking the clear and undeniable path of my ancestors gave me a strange feeling. Nothing I can understand, but definitely something I hope everyone gets to experience!

This is when it got hectic..
Once I’ve recovered from a panic attack thinking my £1000 worth of photography kit was damaged we set off early in the morning because we’ve got a lot of exploring to do a couple of hours south of Rouen. First stop, Mortagne-au-Perche!

Never heard of it? Me neither..
But my ancestor Perrine Malet who married Marin Boucher who was a mason lived here…
This off the beaten path village was really, really nice! First off, the church.

I like churches and have seen quite a few but I’ve never seen one like this, very blocky type of architecture.

Then, there was the narrow backstreets that took us past the walls of the old fortifications of this magnificent town where time seemed to stand still.

BUT, we couldn’t, so we already had to move on! (P.S: Not bad considering these shots where taken with my mobile phone, eh??

ANYWAYS.. Back in the car we go!

Next stop:
Saint-Martin-du-Vieux-Belleme
This shot doesn’t do it justice, but here goes:

Coming here was amazing. Not because of any attractions or anything. But the atmosphere. We stepped out of our car and it was pure 100% SILENCE! Not a noise could be heard! Combine this to the fact that it’s totally exposed on top of a hill, it was 35 degrees or something like that and the streets were made of some small stones, it just looked like a set out of an old western movie! I was sure some guy with a cowboy hate was going to turn the corner and ask for a duel I tell ya! It was surreal..

So we started walking around, looking at the buildings and again contemplating whether or not my ancestors would have looked at the exact same piece of rock a few hundred years ago.. Considering the size of the place, I would not have been surprised at all! It a crazy feeling. But it’s nice.
:)

And then, as we walked past the restaurant, the whole place came alive! We could hear a steady murmur as we walked under the window, glasses banging. you know, like in that Stella Artois advert that’s all about the ambience of the countryside. One of those things that you can only understand once you’ve experienced it. And I’m glad I did.
:)

This is where the trip really started to get interesting (on a touristy point of view as wherever I go with Nickie, it’s always interesting!). After walking around a bit randomly in the old part of Rouen, we went to the St-Vivien church, which is where a few of my ancestors were baptised. in 1600! It made the experience very different to the usual walking around town thing because it made me pay special attention to the architecture. Looking at the style, looking for extensions, looking for those old narrow alleyways. And then, you just have a bit of a think and realise that this is the actually the place where the people (some of them at least) where living there daily lives before embarking on a journey that would contribute to make that very special place in America where they still speak French and that I’m so proud of!

After a long drive from our campsite, we end up in Rouen at the Departmental Archives. The name sounds serious, the building looks serious and it IS serious! Nickie and I walk in and have to give our passports to this security guy who hands us visitor passes. A big gate with cameras and all sorts surrounds the place. Then we go in. They first make sure we have registered before sending us on a wild bureaucratic goose chase to see one person and another. Then, finally, we sit down, find a microfilms and look in horror… To say that documents, writing and language in general has evolved with the years is an understatement!

1. These very old scanned documents are often damaged and faded
2. We can’t read the handwriting!
3. When we can, it’s in over 300year old French which, believe me, is quite different!

So obviously, I start to get nervous! This is our first holiday alone in a while and I was hoping for an easier ride. This is 2005 after all..
After a few hours, we finally come across 2 very old wedding certificates! Then, we go into the legal bit in order to find more information about the boats on which they left. We ended up meeting a few people that were very friendly and gave us a few bits and bobs of information. For example, the surname Lefebvre meant Blacksmith in old French. And since there was a blacksmith in every village..
It was nice to find people that are as passionate about that part of history and were also quite curious about my family. Fair enough, I must have been the youngest by 20 years or something, but hey! If you’ve got something in common with someone, who cares how old they are!

We then got to explore the beautiful city of Rouen. Though the modern bit looks a bit of a dump, the old town was beautiful!

Right. We’re in France and we’re camping. What does that mean? An early morning! The sunlight usually does it for me. Add Nickie getting out of the tent as soon as I start to get excited and the weird noises coming out of the top-heavy girl next door and her young boyfriend and I was ready to go soon in no time. That’s when Nickie tells me to get out because the light was good and I might like to take a few shots. And this is what I see..

A beautiful horse, standing in the sunlight, huffing and puffing, it’s breath smoked in the cold morning air, it’s legs glistening from walking in he morning dew. The kind of sight that seems to freeze time.

BUT! We can’t freeze time for too long! Today is the day we’re going to Rouen to go to the archives to try and find out a bit more about my local relatives. I recently learned that the years they left, the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France had gone specifically to Rouen to recruit traders. Who knows!? Maybe part of my ancestry come from a bunch of wealthy French merchants!
:)