Japan : 高尾山

En français
Last Sunday we went to 高尾山, a mountain in the 明治の森高尾国定公園 (Meijo no Mori Takao Quasi-National Park). We were supposed to meet at 9am but we were a bit late so they were already gone when we arrived at the meeting point. Hopefully we managed to catch up with them and to take the train. From Chofu it's really easy. We decided to cut the group in two. Some people took the easy way up while we took the more difficult. I don't think it was that difficult, especially compared to climbing 富士山. We looked for the stamps, saw the temples and eat some 肉まん and 団子 before going back down. 高尾山 was beautiful with the different colored autumn leafs. Then three of us went to the Trick Art museum but that's another story.
Travel table of content 

Vampire heart, part 3

So we passed half of the month and I'm still amazingly on track with my words. I felt behind my own 2000 words schedule twice but always made it back, once by writing 3400+ words in one session and yesterday by just getting 2700+. Of course as I am more efficient at writing in the evening, the word count of the day gets kind of confusing when I pass midnight but anyway I am happy with my word count and I think I can relax during this week-end trip.

So how is the story going. Actually pretty fine. Viorel killed one more person than expected. My friend has been telling me that he is one character I can't control as he is stronger than me. Maybe, or maybe I was just feeling like writing something completely crazy. I kind of wonder why I didn't get more descriptive on that part. Sometimes I'm scaring myself a little bit with character crazy torturing minds maybe that's why I keep it sustainable. Maybe I'll write in really crazy later just for myself. Anyway...
I also figured out a way to explain more about Viorel's past and what is happening in Transylvania. I mean those vampires are not angels, they want blood and they want Viorel dead. And you want to know why obviously. But you'll have to wait next post for that. Oh, I wrote it already, just yesterday, 2700+ words, and I know that it's going to surprise everybody who read the rest as soon as it's out but I want to let you enjoy Viorel being crazy first before meeting the rest of the crew. So stay tuned and if you really can't wait for more, just yell at me in the comments below. Viorel will love that.
All Novels Drafts 

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Go to Vampire heart part 2
Go to Vampire heart part 4

Cooking : Aubergine chicken

En français
It has been a long time since the last cooking recipe. Does that mean that I have been totally uncreative culinary speaking? Does that mean that I have been eating out so often that I didn't bother creating anything special once in the kitchen? Probably a little bit of both. Anyway, here is my recipe for today.

What do you need :

Chicken
2 aubergines
Onion
Garlic
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Dried basil
Fresh basil leaves

Pre-reparation :

Cut the chicken into pieces and baste it with some sesame oil. Add the dried basil.
Slide the aubergine and let them marinate in the soy sauce. Left the all rest for some time.

Preparation :

Cook the chicken pieces in a well oiled pan with the onion cut into pieces and the garlic. When the chicken is glazed, add the aubergines' slides and some of the soy sauce. Be careful not to add too much of the soy sauce as it would result in a dish too salty. Add the fresh basil leafs and serve with rice.




いただきます !

パーフェクトブルー (perfect blue)

En français

パーフェクトブルー is an animation movie in the psychological thriller style by 今 敏 (Satoshi Kon) released in 1997. 今 敏 also directed パプリカ (Paprika) and 千年女優 (Millennium Actress). The screen play was written by 村井 さだゆき (Vampire princess Miyu TV, Cowboy bebop) adapted from a novel by Yoshikazu Takeuchi.

Mima is a young idol singing in a girl trio. She decides to quit the group at the high pick of success to become an actress in a TV drama. Incident starts to happen around her menacing her life and the life of her coworkers. At the same time a web site describing the life of the "real" Mima makes her feel followed.



I discovered this movie years ago during a special manga night at the local cinema. I watched it several times and every time I discover something new. I like the music by Masahiro Ikumi which adds a lot to the oppression feeling of the movie.
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Week-end in London part 2

En français
The second day was went to visit Camden. In Camden you have a market and a street with a lot of shops who have really nice and crazy front. You also have a mall and a river with food stands from every where in the world. I really like London for it's diversity. It could be an interesting place to live in some day or for a longer holiday at least. I think London is one of the most interesting place for windows shopping, if I could go there before Christmas I would never have problem with Christmas presents ever again. We went visit as tourism a bit more in the afternoon before flying back to Belfast.
Travel table of content

Week-end in London part 1

En français
In February 2010, we spend a week-end in London to go to the Royal Opera House see the "Romeo and Juliet" ballet. We left in the morning and went to visit London a bit before going for lunch in China town. We then find our hotel and changed to go to the Opera. I really liked the ballet. We used to watch the "Big Screen" in Belfast every summer, that time in London we could watch the thing from closer. That was really impressive.
Travel table of content

Vampire heart, part 2

After seven days of NaNoWriMo, I can say that I'm really surprised with myself. I wasn't expecting to be writing like that, so easily. I don't really know why it is, that I feel so well about writing, maybe my will of really write that story for a long time and to win NaNo again, maybe the fact that Viorel already appeared in several story and that I know him very well, it's even scary how well I know him at time, maybe the change of style in my writing, or pure inertia. I'm not too sure. I really enjoy myself writing this and I'm already thinking of the changes that will be needed while editing.

What I mean by changes in writing style is that I'm writing in Viorel's point of view. Which means that I am using "I" all the time. I am used to write from an external point of view even when following only one character. This time I have to deal not only with describing what Viorel sees and the situation he is in but also his thoughts. And his thoughts are taking a lot of spaces and words. His thoughts are also a bit disorganized jumping from the situation he is in to what the people around are doing and I feel that it is a lot more natural. I'm almost certain that it's the reason making writing so easy this time and I'm not going to complain about it.

The changes I am planing to perform so far during editing would be at least lexical changes I want to try to have the vocabulary used evolve with the period from 600 years ago until now. That really feels like a challenge and will involve a lot of reading. I want people to feel that Viorel is old not only because he is a vampire but because of the words he is using and I want to try to make the changes palpable if possible. However that's not something that can be accomplished during NaNo without working full time on it so it will have to wait editing.
All Novels Drafts 

Here is part 2 of the first draft, I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

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And here are what I forgot to add in part 1, the counter so that you can see the process even when I'm not adding an update on the blog.









Go to Vampire heart part 1
Go to Vampire heart part 3

This second counter is for marking the advancement of "Demon and fairy". I'm not too sure how much words I need to finished but I'm trying to add 500 words a day.