Wow, that was pretty bad.

Also this is sort of a lame post. I have had the hood up on my blog for the last few hours, trying to recuperate functionality after transferring to a new host, with entirely new content since the old host borked up my blog.

Specifically, I got the subscribe functionality working again, and since it was an external service, all the old subscribers are still there. I am writing this post hoping that my subscribers that read it will comment so that I know it is working for them.

Anyhow

Yesterday we went to Bordeaux to celebrate 35 years of marriage, and to check out a Mexican festival.

Train travel, light commuter rail, metro and big cities are always surreal to me.

Mass transit in Los Angeles was always dicey for me. I recall an incident when a gentleman at the back of a bus stood up and started singing in an exceptionally loud voice “Michael rowed the boat ashore.” As he did so, the dark stain in the front of his trousers was spreading as he continued to wet himself. Note, this man is a victim of ‘Murica’s lack of care for those that need it, and I am not making fun of him, merely describing a situation that should not exist. Read about the LPS act here

Wow, focus Mike.

So being on light rail to Bordeaux, taking the metro in Bordeaux, and dodging 1000 electric scooters and bicycles per hour is somewhat new to me still.

Being in a big city after being in the countryside for 18 months is also new. I never much liked crowds, Covid enforced that, so now Bordeaux is a bit of a shock. Bergerac is more my style.

I am not saying I was borderline disassociated from it all, but I was a bystander looking at all of this strangeness in my life compared to my old normal.

We had a great day in Bordeaux, Had Ramen at Fu Fu which is fucking amazing, and noodled about town, shopping here and there, grabbed a cafe, checked out some book fairs.

*That is real ramen folks!

Book fair… Not one, but two.
People gathering to sell books. Used books. Books with knowledge in them. Thoughts, mental stimulus. Things that they ban in some states in ‘Murica. Books bad. Books make bad things happen in brain… Yeah.

Mexico

We hopped back on the metro and took it back to the train station, walked 15 minutes to where the event was happening. We were not expecting big. Our expectations were met, precisely.

There was Mexican food, a table selling Mexican sundries like salsa, canned nopales, tortillas.

There was a singer belting out Mexican songs that everyone else in the room knew but us. She was in front of a big screen playing a Cantinflas movies.

Been a hot minute since I have seen Cantinflas.

and there was Mexican food.

We were surrounded by Mexican culture. I love ancient Aztec, Mayan and Incan culture. I grew up steeped in Mexican culture (I purposefully don’t call it Hispanic because I believe Mexico to be it’s own entity,) to this all was super cool. Culture.

I even considered a Mexican Lottery Card as source art for a tattoo to remember Los Angeles by.

La Rana: Frogs are often associated with transformation and adaptation, given their ability to live both on land and in water. In Mexican folklore, frogs can be seen as bringers of rain, making them a symbol of abundance and good fortune.

Homeward

It was awesome. We had only a few minutes there before we had to catch the train back towards Bergerac,

We walked back to the Gare St Jean, got onto the TER heading to Bergerac, and got home in 80 minutes.

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*I say real ramen because the poke place in town serves “ramen” during the cold months. It is a watery broth that they throw noodles and poke ingredients into. The poke ingredients are bizzarro enough, being salad centric with seeds, croutons and other salad bar offerings, but imagine soup with grated carrots, salmon, noodles and croutons.