Here and there

Night is wonderful. My 10pm to 7am sleeping schedule has collapsed a few weeks ago, when I rediscovered the magic of the night. Everything feels nicer at night; epiphanies strike, inspirations visit, and the bells of silence resonate so beautifully.

Unfortunately the rain continued from last week, but according to the weather forecast, the end of the streak of rain is near! I haven’t been taking nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, partly due to the gloominess of the rain and partly due to my own laziness. However, on my way back from church today, I noticed how magnificent La Bourse looked at night from across the river, and my desire to photograph has once again been ignited. Also, Christmas lights are starting to be illuminated, and I can’t wait for the night to come alive in the weeks to come! Let’s hope the rain leaves me alone for now.

Today’s collection of photos were scavenged from ones I took earlier but didn’t post. The four night photos were taken last-minute on Friday after work, as I was walking to the tram stop from the lab. I realize this post is sort of half-assed…cut me some slack, I blame everything on the rain.

This was taken a few weeks ago, on a particularly foggy morning as I was walking towards the bus stop. It must have been at least two weeks ago because I only take this path if I take the bus, and I’ve been avoiding the bus for awhile now due to the construction en route. The actual morning was much foggier than it appears in the photo.

I found this scene rather neat as the tree was shedding its leaves, and the yellow ring of leaves on the ground provided an interesting stage for the grand tree as it undressed itself for the year. It was a good thing I took this picture while I could; the attack of the rain came almost immediately afterwards and before I knew it, the tree was already bald.

Just a random bird near my residence. I see a bunch of them around all the time.

I call this the “star building” because of the etched star-shaped decor on the outside. It may be a little hard to make out the shapes from the picture, but it’s a pretty building. I haven’t been inside the actual building, but it is the Forum des Arts et de la Culture situation by Forum tram station, close by my residence.

Building across from my lab and overpass that leads to the hospital right beside my lab.

Street of Bordeaux, near the entrance of the hospital.

A narrow but lively street right beside the Bordeaux city hall. I love looking at this street at night, especially the people walking up and down, in and out. The Christmas lights can be seen hung up high, but not yet lit when I was there on Friday night. I hope they’re lit the next time I stop by!

Side door of St. Andrew’s cathedral, located right in the centre of the city. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome this building is. I tried to take a photo of the actual cathedral once, but what I ended up with does not do justice to the sheer magnificence of it. The architecture is stunning. From every angle, you can see unique structures that altogether form this gorgeous cathedral. One cannot stop wondering how man is able to construct such a fascinating giant. I promise I will do a detailed photo session of St. Andrew’s sometime in the future, but for now, there’s the door.

Now, in terms of wine and cheese (I can’t believe I’m actually keeping up with this), you’ll be glad to know I’m going back to real wines. And this time, I got a standard sized bottle (75 cl or 750 ml) because clearly I can drink more than one glass a day, or so I thought. It was a bottle of 2006 wine, the oldest I’ve had so far. The cheese that caught my attention this week was the Mimolette jeune.

The wine was interesting. On Tuesday, I opened the bottle and had two glasses with my dinner. Then I got slightly tipsy. I will now pause the entry while you laugh at me. *Pause* Okay. So I don’t exactly know how red wine can even remotely make someone tipsy, but I was definitely not feeling normal after the two glasses. And I thought I was pretty tolerant to alcohol, but maybe I have always been overestimating myself and should re-evaluate it. One reason (or excuse, maybe) that may explain my reaction was that I drank the wine way too fast, which I did notice during the course of drinking. Apparently patience is key in French dining, and for someone like me who eats and drinks quickly during meals, French etiquette has a lot to teach us.

Oh, the wine was good, by the way, but again, it loses its flavour after the first day. I will have to build up my tolerance to alcohol before Geoff comes so we can devour a bottle without having any leftovers.

As for the cheese, “jeune” means “young”, so you can deduce that if there’s Mimolette jeune, there’s also Mimolette vieille and extra vieille – “vieille” means “old” (feminine form, so I guess the cheese is a girl). The cheese wasn’t particularly too appealing, although its appearance resembled that of a giant slice of orange, which complimented well with the giant slice of apple that was Edam from the previous week. Now, I’m more interested in the extra old Mimolette, especially the hardness and texture. Apparently extra old Mimolette could be as hard as a rock. They are on sale at the supermarket, but are three times as expensive as the young guys. Therefore, trying it may not be a priority for now…

No wine or cheese has been obtained for next week yet, and that will be a task for tomorrow’s grocery shopping. Till later!