Moments by the sea

The beach in Dieppe...

The thing about the ocean, is that it can inspire me for anything. After being by the ocean for a few minutes, I always feel as though I could write any book I could think of, and I've thought of many! 62 and counting, my friends, that's how many story ideas I've started! (Finished, well, that's a different story entirely...I've finished 11. Don't judge me.)

Lest we forget...

I got to spend some time in Dieppe, Normandie in the north of France for the past five days, and it has been a grand and fantastic experience. What with them having Canadian themed areas all over the place because the beach was where the Canadians landed during in an attempt to free the people from the Nazis, and the fact that it was the 70th anniversary of that landing while we were there, made the whole trip pretty downright fantastic. Canadian flags, flapping all over the place or patterned out in flower beds - quite the sight for a Canadian who has been away from Canada for now over a year (the 8th of July was the one year "anniversary" of sorts). We were quite ecstatic at the sight, my family and I.

My country's flag.

Aside from that piece of awesomeness, Dieppe is an altogether beautiful city, and the beach is absolutely gorgeous, when the sun decides to show itself. There's a lot of clouds there - especially while we were visiting - and it gets really windy, so that put a small bit of a damper on things, but in the end, the trip was fabulous and I enjoyed every minute of it. I'd love to go back, just to walk on the rocky beach. The water was shimmering and amazing, it seemed to stretch on forever, and if you imagine that it does keep going, on and on and on with no end, it's a pretty cool thought. At least for me.

Walks on the beach, sights of Canadian flags, going by the marina every day for five days to get to our friends house for meals, five straight days chock-full of awesomeness.

Maybe you can tell that I've been feeling slightly company deprived recently, and all this people action is making me unbelievably content...yeah, it's not that obvious, is it?

Furthermore, the experience was topped with a cherry when we went out for dinner on the last night of our stay. We went to a little restaurant called Le New Haven - I know what you're thinking: "Those silly French, putting their French article in front of two English words. Why not just use "the"?" Well, I actually have an answer for you. It's simple, really: "Le" sounds so much cooler. It's the French way. Make English tiles sound totally epic by adding a French article or word at the beginning, or end, or even in the middle if it fits right. The French have truly perfected the art of "Franglais", as we like to call it. It's fun being bilingual, when it gets right down to it...

Finished dish of Mussels

Anyhow, Le New Haven is a sea food restaurant - considering the location of the Atlantic in proportion to Dieppe, it makes sense that it would be - and as such I decided that I would have to eat sea food, rather than ordering the omelette, which was the one item on the menu that did not having something fishy about it. I ended up sharing a menu with a friend, an excellent idea since the menu was comprised of four courses and I never would have finished it by myself, and neither would my friend. First course, as expertly photographed and illustrated on the right there, was mussels. Understand my excitement: I had never ever, ever, ever, ever tried mussels before that meal. In fact, I had seen someone eat them when I was a young child and I had thought to myself: "Never. Never in my life will anyone even be able to shove that monstrosity down my gullet. Over my. Dead. Body. And nobody feeds a dead body. So never."

But, alas! My childish dreams were not meant to last, for I have officially demolished that idea from my brain. Mussels are delicious, meant to be gobbled up and tasted and savoured and-and-and-and- I could go on. They were so delish, and I will end my description there (lathered in a cream sauce, they were, my dears. These cooks knew what they were doing.).

Next! Course number two, another item of food that I had not tried before. I may have tried it once...but I was so young I had no recollection of it, so it was a new thing for me. And - drum roll, please - it was duck! Yes! A duck leg! Ta-da!

Duck leg

Once again, this part of the meal was absolutely scrumptious. Delish. Wonderful. Beautiful. Delicious, and tender, and greasy, and so freaking good. And you want to know something?

It did not taste like chicken.

Maybe it did a little,  but seriously, there is a difference, and if you tried it you would be able to tell. Different, and terribly, temptingly scrumptious.

I do believe duck is a French thing. You don't hear of many people eating duck in Canada or the USA, ducks are creatures that swim in the lakes at the park across the street, the swim with their ducklings trailing behind them, cute and fuzzy, and people freaking feed them bread! Fatten them up, and cook 'em! That's what you Westerners should be doing! Or are you saving ducks for when every other species is extinct because of the damage to the planet, and they'll last you for a while longer? I guess that works too, but you should all have some duck meat sometime in your life! Totally worth it!

And as we're on the topic of French foods, I will move on to the next course, the very French course, the cheese course.

The official cheese from Normandie

Now, as I am under-age, I therefore cannot drink wine, so no, I did not have win with my cheese course, but what I can say, is that I had official French cheese, Normandie cheese, actually, and I had it on fresh French Baguette. That's right. That wonderful bread that people wearing berets, riding bicycles, wearing striped shirts and suspenders carry around town with them, that famous bread that everyone seems to be so envious of.

I eat Baguette quite often, actually...weekly, in fact. They don't sell much western bread - you know the loaves you buy in the grocery store that you are so familiar with, they come in those plastic bags, and unless you buy the right kind, they taste like cardboard? Yeah, the French don't really sell much of that. They do, it's just that they have a very limited selection. Rather, they buy their fresh Baguette from the bakery down the street. Everyone does, just about. It's common, it's wonderful, it's delicious, and it's one of those things that makes living here pretty darn awesome (and yes, you know I'm just bragging to make myself feel better, but you can just ignore that part, so it's all okay).

And lest I waste more time, I shall present to you the final item on the menu of delish and scrumptiousness that I ingested into my system.

Poire Melba

Dessert! Allow me to paint you a picture of words: a perfectly rounded scoop of creamy ice cream, three perfectly formed splashes of whipped cream, pears laid into the bottom of the plate in a crimson red sauce, and finally, a few slivers of almonds sprinkled on top. All of this inlaid into a white dish, and set before us with grace, by a French waiter wearing a tux. Basically. He was wearing a white shirt, black bow-tie, black pants, black shoes. Close enough, just without the top jacket.

And the dessert: splashes, sparkles, explosions of beautiful tastes, erupting on your taste buds, filling your whole mouth, forcing you to close your eyes from the pleasure. 

Look at me, right now, right in the eye, and tell me that you wouldn't like that.

If you hate pears, maybe I'd understand. If you hated whipped cream or ice cream or almonds, you could ask them to hold them and to simply serve you the pears in the sauce. I have never had a more pleasant restaurant experience in my life. And by pleasant, I mean amazing, fantastic, sublime.

Imagine yourself leaving the restaurant, your stomach as full as it can get, feeling enormously satisfied (and enormous in size, naturally), and then you get to walk to your car parked in the seaside parking lot, and you get to see the sight of the sun setting orange on the horizon, far, far away, as far as the sea stretches, as far as the eye can see.

Dieppe, Normandie beach at sunset (10:?? pm)

If I had a better camera, a tripod, and if it hadn't been past 10 at night at the time, I definitely would have taken a much better and more professional picture of the beauty of that sunset. But as it were, this is as good as I could do in a rush to get back to the hotel and sleep before we'd have to travel home the next day. I still didn't get to bed until around midnight, and then I didn't get to sleep until later because my younger brother and I were sharing a room and we kept hitting each other and laughing our heads off...yeah...tiring, but a lot of fun, and totally worth it. If there was an offer, I would return in a heartbeat. That is one place that I would not get tired of quickly at all. Daily strolls on the beach, all the inspiration I could wish for, the sight of a castle on a cliff whenever I felt the need to look at one...

The Castle on the cliff in Dieppe...saw it every day.

Indeed...that would be the life. I will have to satisfy myself with believing that I may be able to return one day, and thinking of all the other places I will yet have the opportunity to see in the future.


As a very good friend of mine encouraged me to remember: Wide horizons!

Lest we forget...

A week of pure joy

View looking down from the third level.

Stephanie, Zach, and myself on the third level  of the tower.

I don't think I've ever had as much fun in Paris as I did this past week. We had guests staying over from Monday to Friday - the Beck family, minus Alexander, sadly :'( We had a lot of catching up to do with Steph, though! Crazy times, man. First day, we did mounds of touring! So freaking awesome, but it was super tiring, too. I don't think that I've ever done that many sets of stairs in one day in my entire life. We took the metro to the Arc-de-Triomphe, took a couple pictures, then got back on the metro and went to the Eiffel Tower, where we climbed over 600 stairs to get to the second level. Then we lined up for the elevator for level three, took it up, and saw that fantastic view.
We descended the tower, and when I got to the bottom, my legs were actually shaking from all the stairs...fun times. Then we went, got back on the metro, and went to Notre Dame Cathedral, took a walk through that, and then on to Sacre-Coeur, where we took a couple pictures of a crazy-talented guy with a soccer ball (shown below). He was awesome! Maybe a little egotistic when he took off his shirt, but his soccer-juggling skills were a-ma-zing!!!!!
After Sacre-Coeur we went to a cafe, had a little refresher, and headed back home for the day. That was the most tourist-filled day I have ever experienced, and IT-WAS-AWESOME.

Day after that, Tuesday, we went out with plans to go to see the Catacombs later on in the day, but we never ended up getting around to it because we got there too late and it was closing...a little disappointing, but the day was still fun! It's the people that make the experience what it is!
Thursday was the next big day! Versailles! The monstrous collection of gardens outside that terribly flashy château. A little too glittery for my tastes, but still pretty darn cool. We didn't go inside, because the line-up wound around for the longest time and we knew that it would be ages before we got in, and everyone said that they were satisfied with just seeing the gardens, so...it was great! Besides the scantily clad statues, it was quite gorgeous out there! I can't imagine how much time it would take for them to take care of those gardens, to manicure every bush, hedge, and shrub, to water and care for every patch of flowers, to mow the lawns and keep maintenance of the fountains! I cannot imagine the

 work they would have to go through! It's fabulous, the things people will do for tourists...
But I appreciate the work to the fullest! I thank you fabulous workers for the effort you put in to this beautiful tourist-hotspot! Thank you! Merci beaucoup! Danke-schön! Arigato-Gozaimasu! Gracias! Grazié! Shokran! Abrigado! The languages in which I could express my thanks, to my knowledge, are limited to there, but if I knew any others, I would surely say them!

Anyways, Friday was the mark of a new day. Our guests departed (I miss you already! :( Come back soon!), and Dieppe, Normandy was set as our destination of the day! Packing, travel, a walk on the beach and through part of the town, and then a little tea at the cafe with an ocean-front view made for a fabulous afternoon, and then on to a wonderful dinner with some friends.
Here in Dieppe, they're getting ready to celebrate the 70th anniversary of when the Canadian commando unit was sent to storm the beaches here, but were unfortunately slaughtered. Us Canadians, we're quite appreciated in this area, and we really enjoyed seeing Canadian flags all over the place, even flowers were planted in the pattern of our wonderful red and white maple leaf flag! Beautiful! I was definitely filled with a sense of pride and joy for my homeland. True appreciation, right there, my friends.
I speak the truth: it has been a very good day.

Happy travels!

Define Beauty

You sit there fuming, when really you're sad.
You give credit to the world for making you mad,
While you pity yourself, think of all that you had,
Disrespect yourself, why don't you think a tad?

The masks you put on are paper thin.
Start peeling them off, stop falling for sin.
Unmask your true self, let the ones who care in.
The ones who care can only try until you want to win.

Beauty shouldn't be defined by how much skin you reveal,
But rather, by the heart you show is real.
Stop yourself from doing something now, feel,
That you know you'll regret later on, deal?

An excerpt from a book I wrote...

Antoinette Valentine slipped gracefully out of her black BMW and walked up the steps into the building before her. Just another day at work. She took the elevator up to the fourth floor of the tall office building and bypassed security with a simple flash of her badge to the security guard. She opened the door at the far left of the hallway by sliding her card through the slot and entered into her familiar office space that she shared with her three other teammates: Ryan King, Noah Jimms, and their "leader" of sorts, Jake Freeman. She was the second person to arrive at work that morning, after Freeman. He was at his desk, actually doing his paperwork for once.
"Morning, boss," she greeted him with a smirk as she settled in behind her own desk and began organizing herself.
"Valentine. No coffee this morning?" he asked, with only a quick glance up from his desk.
"Traffic was awful today - I bypassed. Sorry, boss," she shrugged. She usually brought in coffee for the team, including herself, but hadn't had the chance, "No one else decided to show yet?" she enquired and booted up her computer.
"Not yet. You're second, as usual," he replied.
"One of these days, I'll have to be first," she sighed.
"Then you'll most likely have to stay here all night, but even then, chances are slim," he responded, signing a paper with a flourish and slamming it down onto an increasing stack before him. Antoinette chuckled. The scary thing was, it was true. Sometimes, Freeman never left the office. It was almost like he lived there.
The door beeped and in walked Ryan King, carrying a tray of four coffees.
"I assumed right!" he called over his shoulder and Noah Jimms sauntered in behind him, looking as mischievous as ever.
"Assumed right in what?" Antoinette demanded. He set a coffee carefully on her desk, then on Freeman's, Jimms', and took the final one for himself.
"That since there was so much traffic today, you wouldn't be bringing us coffee this morning," he answered, and sat down behind his desk that sat across from hers and next to Noah's, who's desk sat across from Freeman's. The boss' was situated next to Antoinette's.
Presently, Freeman's cell phone rang. He answered quietly, never taking his eyes off of his paperwork, said yes and okay a couple times, and hung up, grabbing his coffee and standing from his desk in one fluid movement. Antoinette grabbed her small back pack before he could even say "Time to go" and followed him out. Ryan and Noah scrambled after them, coffee in hand, back packs over their shoulders.
"I'm gonna' guess a double murder in an underground parking lot, each stabbed," Ryan said as they hurried to the elevator and descended to the underground parking where their team car awaited, "And I get to drive."
Freeman threw the keys and Antoinette caught them and headed for the driver's seat.
"Guess not, Ryan," she smirked, and unlatched the door and slipped in. Freeman got into the passenger side and the other two hunkered down in the back.
"And I thought my premonitions were on a roll...was I at least right about the case call?" he complained.
"No," Freeman answered simply, not bothering to elaborate. He gave Antoinette the address and fell into pensive silence, no doubt preparing himself for the crime investigation.
"Does the boss seem a little more moody than usual?" Antoinette heard Ryan murmur to Noah. She grinned.
"How would you like to do my paperwork all night, King?" Freeman asked slyly. The backseat fell silent. No secrets were kept from the Boss, "Better prepare yourselves this morning: triple homicide, two of the victims are children and the third is their mother. Ayesha is already on the scene."
"Great..." Ryan mumbled, already apprehensive. No matter how many times you saw or heard about it, you never got used to seeing murdered children. Not that it was any different with adults either. Children were just...harder to deal with as murdered.


Antoinette pulled up to the curb next to the blue gabled house labeled 330283 in black metal numbers on the side and cut the engine. Everyone removed their seatbelts and climbed out of the car. There were a couple police cars out front, two ambulances, and one black car belonging to Ayesha Malestre, their fifth team member who occupied herself with the dead bodies and what had caused their deaths. There was yellow tape lining the front yard. Freeman slipped under it, showing his badge to the cop on the other side, and Antoinette and her two co-workers followed suit. They entered the house and showed their badges to the cop inside the front door.
"Second floor, in the bedrooms. You can't miss it," he told them solemnly. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pretty, "And the husband and his daughter are outside," he added.
"Ryan, Noah," Freeman ordered.
"Yes, boss," they said, and headed back outside to question the remaining family members. Antoinette followed him up the stairs and down the hall to the bedroom where Ayesha had already started working. The sight of the body made Antoinette's stomach turn, but she managed to keep her expression neutral.
"Morning Ayesha," Freeman announced his presence to the deeply engrossed Ayesha.
"Morning boss. Antoinette," she called, barely glancing up from her work at hand.
"So...what've you got?" Freeman asked.
"Well, by the looks of precision and care and ritual appearance, we've got a homicidal maniac who had personal connection with this particular victim...but that's only premonition," she replied. Antoinette couldn't help but agree. The way the eyes and mouth had been stitched shut; the position of the hands over the chest. It was definitely ritualistic.
"Time and cause of death?" Freeman questioned.
"Sometime between 1 and 4 in the morning. Cause is yet to be determined, but I'd guess that it was the slit throat," Ayesha replied nonchalantly.
"Tell me when you know for sure. You've already checked the other two victims?"
"Yeah, they were in the other bedroom. I had them wrapped up already and just got to work here," she said, and resumed the pace of her work. Freeman nodded and led Antoinette out of the master bedroom and down the hall to the kids' bedroom. They'd also been assaulted in their beds.
"Remind you of anything, Valentine?" Freeman enquired.
"No, boss," she frowned, "You've seen this before?"
"This is how my sister was found," he responded simply. Antoinette stared for a minute. How could she have forgotten? Of course...and they still hadn't caught the murderer. That explained his silent behavior, "Maybe you can help me solve it this time, Valentine," he murmured, and headed out of the room. She followed him, after snapping out of her initial revelation, and descended the staircase on his tail. He led her outside towards where Ryan and Noah were speaking with a tearful man who was holding a young teenager close to him, who was also crying. They turned and walked to meet Antoinette and Freeman, leaving the crying ones behind them at a safe distance.
"The daughter came home at around eight this morning from a field trip with her grade ten class and found her mom and siblings in...the state they were in," Ryan recounted immediately.
"What about the dad?" Freeman asked.
"He came when she called him. He'd been at work all night. He's a surgeon at the hospital and he was on his break when the girl called. She'd already called the police and was waiting for them to come but she was panicking and all. He came down immediately and arrived shortly after the authorities," he replied.
"They said that they didn't know if it had anything to do with it, but the mother, the victim? She'd been receiving odd phone calls. All she would hear was heavy breathing at the other end of the phone. They reported them in but no one did anything about them," Noah added on.
"Well, you don't have to tell them yet, but that has everything to do with the case," Freeman told them quietly, "This exact scenario has happened before, except that there were no children involved and the woman was single living alone in the country. She got the same calls once a week - they started a month before she was found," he explained, "They never found the killer."
His light grey eyes bored into each of his team's meaningfully.
"It's time we did."

Goodbye

Sit here and cry for a while in my arms.

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

Let the tears flow,

Like a waterfall of sorrow and goodbyes,

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

The worst pain there is,

Is pain of abandonment.

Can saying goodbye compare

In any way at all?

The throat constricting,

Heart is pounding,

Sorrow screaming to be heard.

And they don’t come back,

They can’t come back at all.

Sit here and cry for a while in my arms.

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

Let the tears flow,

Like a waterfall of sorrow and goodbyes,

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

How do you handle

The pain raging in your heart?

Do you cry so quietly,

Lock yourself away?

Or do you scream out to the heavens

Asking why, why, why?

Can you stand it,

Can you take it?

Aren’t you like everybody else?

Sit here and cry for a while in my arms,

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

Let the tears flow,

Like a waterfall of sorrow and goodbyes,

Don’t hold it in,

Just let it go.

And know

That if you need me,

I’m there, forever there.

In you heart,

You can always find me and see,

We’re not that far apart.

But still…

Small consolation…

So you sit here and cry for a while,

In my arms.

You will be,

Warm and safe and dry,

Ready to see.

It’s not forever nor

Forever and a day.

So take your pain and wash it all away.

Please take my pain,

And wash it all away.