Je ne sais pas où on était, peut-être sur la route vers le Parc National Grand Teton, ou quelque part sur la US-287 entre Yellowstone et le Parc National Glacier, mais on a commencé à se demander à voix haute… et si on pouvait faire ça plus longtemps? “Ça” étant un mélange entre voir défiler le paysage, voyager, être loin, avoir du temps et stimuler les sens avec des nouveaux environnements.

Ce n’était pas la première fois que nous avions parlé de la possibilité de voyager à plus long terme, mais c’etait le debut de queqlue chose de beaucoup plus sérieux. Après de nombreuses conversations (et des calculs sur un bout d’envelope), on a convenu qu’on se donnerait un an. Le temps d’économiser, le temps de planifier, et le temps de penser a tous les details.

Maintenant, on est ici. Un an plus tard. Et on est prêt.

Le (ou autour du) 7 Septembre, Justin et moi allons monter à bord d’un navire porte-conteneurs, le Cap Cleveland, à Philadelphie (Pennsylvanie) à destination de Auckland, Nouvelle-Zélande. On s’arrêtera aux ports de Savannah (Géorgie) et de Cartagena (Colombie), avant de traverser le canal de Panama.
En tout, nous serons sur le bateau pendant 28 jours — la plus longue période en mer étant de 18 jours entre le Panama et la Nouvelle-Zélande.

(Cap Cleveland photo © Knut Helge Schistad)

Le voyage est certes une aventure en soi, mais ce n’est que le début d’un plus grand voyage autour du monde. On n’a pas de plan après notre débarquement à Auckland, sinon d’explorer les deux iles et peut-être visiter certains fromagers. Après la Nouvelle-Zélande, il y a plusieurs autres pays qui piquent notre curiosité, dont l’Australie, le Cambodge, le Népal, le Kenya, et la Turquie, mais nous n’avons pas l’ombre d’un itinéraire. Juste un désir brulant de découvrir où la route du monde nous mènera.

Qui sait, on peut aller quelque part, tomber amoureux de l’endroit, et ne jamais partir. Ou bien on pourrait se lasser de la vie sur la route et rentrer aux États-Unis après deux mois. C’est ça le plus beau. On est complètement ouvert à toutes les possibilités. Et on est prêt.

When I ride the cable car I feel as much of a tourist as any other foreign (to SF) passenger, which makes me want to take pictures. Recently I also got hooked on a nifty little iPhone app called ToonFX Paint. It pretty much cartoonifies any image you take and you can colorize it later.

You then get neat little effects like this…

View from the cable car, up California St.

I preferred to keep the images black and white.

Looking down California St. towards Financial District.

Cable Car wannabe’s (yep, they’re buses).

Looking out on Jones st.

What a fun ride home.

The piece of cheese with eyes is pretty much the universal symbol for representing the idea of cheese in general. If you were to play a game like Pictionary and draw up a piece of cheese, it’s likely you will end up with somewhat of a triangle wedge with holes. If no-one gets it, you’ll draw a mouse and point at the cheese. At least, that’s what I would do… maybe I watched too many cartoons as a *cough* child.

I knew that making a cheese with eyes required a culture called Propionic Shermanii. I went and got that here and flipped through my favorite cheese making recipe book to figure out which type I would make. I needed to start easy (with mild ripening necessities, aka no brushing the rind for months and months, for example). So I settled with Jarlsberg.

After a fairly easy washed curd cheese-making process and a couple of months to ripen, the result is pretty darn great. Starting with the way it looks:

I know Jarlsberg as being (quote from Wikipedia): “mild, buttery, nutty and slightly sweet. It is an all-purpose cheese, good both for cooking and for eating as a snack. It has a characteristic smooth, shiny-yellow body, and a creamy supple texture. ”

And my Soleil Jarlsberg ended being “mild, buttery, nutty and slightly sweet. [...] It has a [...] smooth, shiny-yellow body, and a creamy supple texture. ”
Incredible! Success! Hurrah!

I could just eat the whole wheel as is (ok… with other people too) or I could use it in things like quiche or potato gratin.

And then came the very un-poetic Facebook. I slowly reconnected with my old French friends. Incredible! My friends! From France! From tiny villages of Provence! One of which was Magali Escapin. She was traveling in Australia for a long while trying to escape from certain aspects of the French mentality (just like me). Long story short, she loved Australia so much that she wanted to take her MBA in Melbourne. To do that, she had to get out of the country and take the GMAT. Turns out the most convenient pace to do that was where? In San Francisco. Well gosh darn it, what a coincidence!

And there she was, on my door step, 15 years after we saw each-other last. What a trip! She stayed in the city for about 2 months, so we had time to catch up, have a few lunches… and take some photos…

So, Magali… how is it being here in SF?

Yep, we got our groove back on.

And yep, we still like each-other.

Oh oh oh and the BEST part is… remember that old little ballet photo? She was there too! On the very left!

And guess what? Here we are, more than 20 years after that photo was taken…

… not too bad, no?

Photo courtesy of www.ville-fayence.fr

20 years ago, I was a little ballerina. And there was an excellent (and very small) ballet school in Fayence. Our teacher, Jacqueline Lavielle, was a fine ballerina herself and was considered one of the finest teachers of the region. She taught us well. Gave us a strong foundation and a passion that most of our little group carried on as an adult (several of us became dance teachers, another danced in a company and others kept dancing for pleasure).

In 1987, I was 8 years old and we were photographed for the local news paper in honor of our success at the ballet exams of Monte-Carlo. Yep, in ballet, you take exams and dance in front of a jury to move up to the next level. Frightening! Jacqueline’s students pretty much always passed and had honorable mentions regularly (I did twice!).

I wish I had more photos of that time period, but I treasure this copy of the article. We were all so proud.

From left to right: Magali Escapin, Vanessa Moltenis, Alexandra Ducamp, Stephanie Soleil, Vanessa Cottone and Sadou Zeeghers.

Update: The photo doesn’t represent all of us in the group. Others not in the photo were Sarah Paiman, Magali Ghiglione, Severine Fromentin and Sandra Tiberi. If anyone out there remembers who else should be mentioned, please comment!

I started with the Chacos ZX/2® in black thinking they are sturdy, waterproof and look fairly cute. Granted we (Justin got a similar pair) put them through a 7 mile flat hike the first day, the result wasn’t too positive. The toe loop wouldn’t stay loose, bits of gravel kept getting stuck and the shoe ribbing was sanding my precious little body carriers raw. Ouch. I did take advantage of REI’s awesome return policy.

At that point I had exhausted all of REI‘s sandal offerings as well as Sports Basement, who offered pretty much the same options. So, after the sports stores, what was next? DSW! They actually have a surprising number of “sports” and “comfortable” shoes. There again, I tried everything on. The only pair that had somewhat a potential were the Teva Tirra, which I had tried at REI already and didn’t quite win me over. The second try at DSW had more positive aspects, but I read that Tevas sometimes fall apart when they get wet, which makes me nervous… uh yeah, I think I want to go rafting again sometime! I left DSW empty “footed”… mwah-ha-ha.

Gosh, when DSW has nothing to offer where do you go? I went to Macy’s. I remembered they had brands that were targeted to hard core travelers, so I thought hard core traveler = comfort + style + function. They indeed had quite a bit of options. The pair that came really close to winning were the Privo® Seabreeze sandals. The only thing that kept me from buying them is the fact that they didn’t have brown (only crazy blue) and that they were super duper sporty looking. I thought, no problem, I’ll look them up online and order them or something. Couldn’t get myself to do it.

No sandals found yet. I think my intention was to go back to Macy’s on a weeknight when there would be less tourists and give it another round. Saturday morning we went to the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building to get a few fruits and veggies. On our way back, we walked a stretch of Market Street that we normally pass. At some point on Market between Pine and Bush, there was a little shoe repair shop with some shoes inside. The shoes looked exactly the type that would carry the sandals I’m looking for. After some browsing and getting advice from the shop owner (one of those guys who has been in the shoe repair business for a long time, carrying the pride of being a cobbler) I found this pair:

They are Clarks Unstructured sandals made out of waterproof leather and a breathable sole. Yep, my feet chose them almost immediately. They are comfortable, sturdy, ultra-light, pretty cute and colorful. Sold! I was super happy to finally find the pair of sandals I’ll probably hang onto for a while in a small local store who cared about what they sold. I mean, the guy sprayed an extra waterproofing layer for free just because I mentioned they may be used around water. Pretty sweet, don’t you think?

I wore them for the first time today to walk to work. I’ll be honest and say that I did feel a couple of tender spots after two miles, but nothing that can’t be overcome by wearing them a couple more times. I love them. I’ll stick with them.

As a refresher, this is what I’m aiming for:

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The width is supposed to be more or less the same as the height, the rind is bloomy but not thick, the paste is solid (but not hard) and it dries/hardens as it ages.

This time I achieved a much better shape. To get that, you just pack the molds with more curd. “Pack” is actually not the right word since you have to let the curds drain a bit before you add more curd. The draining happens solely thanks to holes in the molds and the natural weight of the curd.

You can tell that the bloom is fairly thick though. There’s lots of fuzz happening, which tends to get wrinkly after a while. That’s great in some cases, but it’s not what we’re going for here.

When you cut it, a nice fairly firm paste is discovered wrapped in a fairly thick rind, with.. with… with… ash! Yep, I played with ash. It’s that darker, grayer layer in between the paste and the white rind. It’s purely for aesthetic purposes and I have to say… I like it! I know, I know, I should only be tweaking one thing at a time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. But man, adding ash was fun!

Anyways, you can also notice that there’s a thin layer of cream forming right under the rind… quite nice, but again, not exactly it.

I criticize, I analyze, but to the taste, this cheese is de-li-cious. It’s light and slightly goaty, a little chalky to the texture (but good chalky) with a subtle sweet finish. No acidity, no bitterness.

So all in all, this second attempt is MUCH better than the first one. It still has some cosmetic tweaks to be made. I think I’m most guilty of inoculating the milk with way too much mold bacteria which makes the rind bloom too much and creates that cream layer… I think.

Guess what? I’ll try it again. I love this hobby!

Like their big brothers, they are all acrylics on canvas… they all want a new home… want one?

#1 Warm abstract — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 14″x11″ (36cm x 28cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I think I made this one before the big warm colors abstract. I wanted to play with gradients, but not in a smooth way and with a bit of energy. I really like this painting.

#2 Blue Rose — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 10″x8″ (25cm x 20cm)
Date: Aug. 2005
Story: Warm colors, warm colors… gotta explore the other side too! And here we are in the blues, in the off centers.

#3 Crouched Man Holding Head

Dimensions: 12″x12″ (31cm x 31cm)
Date: 2005
Story: There’s a statue like that… I can’t remember what it’s called. You know, when you hold the guy in your hands it’s supposed to fit all of your fingers nicely along his spine, muscles and arms. Anyways, I like that body position and wanted to step away from my bright colors for a minute to see what happens.

#4 Nude laying and facing back — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 16″x8″ (40cm x 20cm)
Date: 2005
Story: Female attempt of the no-Stephanie-bright-colors series. I’m pretty sure this is an image I found in an art book or magazine.

#5 This and that and lots of chaos — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 10″x8″ (25cm x 20cm)
Date: 2005
Story: Back to colors! This is probably the quickest painting I’ve ever made. It took probably 45 seconds. Splash splash splash! It’s actually the color palette for another painting that I just flipped onto a canvas. Thought it would be cool and fun. Turned out messy, but still really fun.

Voila! You know everything of my past artistic life… on canvas.

They are all acrylics on canvas… want one?

#1 Upside down — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ (31cm x 62cm)
Date: July 2005
Story: I thought it would be cool to paint only a portion of a body position leaving the rest to the imagination. Some people think this person is diving. I thought of it as a hand stand. You can think whatever you wish.

#2 Ladders — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ (31cm x 62cm)
Date: 2005
Story: This one has a more philosophical meaning to me. I was in my spreading-my-wings phase, in the I-can-do-this-on-my-own phase. This is about the point where you can keep climbing the ladder (evolve, not the career ladder) without any support or guidance (the sides of the ladder) and not be scared to take risks and keep going. You are free.

#3 Abstract Rain — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x18″ (61cm x 46cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I don’t know what kind of mood I was in that day, but apparently lots was going on. I just remember having fun making it. Splash!

#4 Fun with Tape — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 18″x14″ (46cmx36cm)
Date: Sept 2005
Story: Oh yes, this one was fun too. It was like a surprise. I would paint a bunch of vivid, warm colors and let dry. Then place some tape on the dry layer. Over the whole thing I then painted an opaque layer of dark blue. Let dry. And then came the best part… peeling off the tape. Surprise colors! Surprise contrast! Anyways, that was fun too.

#5 Fish in Coral — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x18″ (61cm x 46cm)
Date: 2004
Story: Hmm yeah… don’t ask. That was probably right after seeing Finding Nemo or something. Not sure how this one came about but apparently I needed to get my candor out. Cutesy, cartoony wittle fishy.

Since then, my tastes have evolved, and so has my life situation. All of these paintings are sitting in a closet, being ignored and collecting dust. Well, not really collecting dust, because I wrapped them really well, but you get the point. Justin and I have been getting rid of stuff (almost to the addiction level) and I realized that I didn’t need to hold onto these paintings any longer.

I have large paintings, medium and small ones. I would like to give these paintings away… if ever you’re interested, just leave a comment. I’m not selling them, I just want them to find a home. I know most of them are a little weird… but hey, maybe one of you will like something.

Here they are… large paintings… acrylics on canvas… want one?

#1 Abstract warm colors — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x 30″ (61cm x 74cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I have gone through a very warm color phase (you will notice….) and needed to cover a lot of wall space. So there you go… lots of energy in this painting.

#2 Female – Male – Hot – Cold — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ each (31cm x 62cm)
Date: Dec 2004
Story: These are 2 separate paintings but meant to be near each other, very much like I was viewing male and female – very different, almost opposites yet needed to coexist. Their energy is different, their colors are different, but in form and intention, they are the same. I had these in my bedroom for a long while.

#3 Deconstructed wave — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 36″x18″ (92cm x 46cm)
Date: May 2005
Story: Another one of those situations where I needed to cover a lot of wall space. I thought it would be cool to make a wave, but without its fluidity, yet evoking movement. This is my attempt.

#4 Flower — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 18″x24″ (46cm x 61cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I remember being attracted to flower paintings in general and thinking I could make one. Warm colors were obligatory and I started playing with really wet drips of paint to give the sort of flower veins a certain controlled randomness.

#5 Hippie trinity — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x24″ (61cm x 61cm)
Date: Dec 2004
Story: Ok, this is my hippiest creation, I think. There’s not much to say about the women themselves. I thought of the positions more like a choreography than with an actual meaning. I just wanted to focus on the primary and secondary colors with their complementaries. The basics.