Week 8 - Gallete des rois, House warming and Rene's VTT Bike
Rene made it a surprising special Sunday for me.
A new friend offered me to take his second bike, which he has not been using for quite sometime.
I had been searching for a good hybrid since last few weeks. I was happy with the offer and went to check it out and pick it up.
He promptly cameup to the last tram stop (20 mins from city) and drove me home.
Was welcomed at home with lot of warmth along with his wife.
then i was offered to smell 10 different Green teas and
make a choice. I've not been a connoisseur at this, but chose the French Marrge
Tea for this time.
Followed by lot of local pasteries.
Rene gave me tips on biking in mountains, safety,
avalanches, devices to use, and also demoed the one he had.
After all this, we went down to check the bike. To my
surprise this was no ordinary bike. it turned out to be a complicated MTB.
It took us 1 hour and 3 iterations of initial tuning to
get the bike adaptable for my weight and posture.
Central shaft weight distribution check, Rear ACG check,
front shocks pressure check, Disk break alignment check, shafts alignment,
special shoes to lock my feet to the pedals, and then a whole set of
accessories to use for the rest of the season.
I've done a bit of tuning various sub systems in my
personal / professional life but not a bike.
this was initial tuning. Based on how i find it with my
rides, I was taught to tune it to my taste later.
Once all this was done, he was even more kind enough to
put this into his car and drive me home (40 mins drive) on a late sunday
evening.
Feeling more the welcomed. Adding to this was saturdays
House warming celebration at my place with guests from various national. Will
write about it next week.
this light wieght MTB is my new mate ... musical
instrument, writing, snow and Skiing being the other friends i've made here so
far
@Residhome near
caserne de bonne
Herbal Green tea
collection @ Rene's house
Rene's bike. No I'm
not borrowing this bike
Lot of stuff (or …)
:-)
Accessories
VTT bike - Velo Tout
Terrain (cycle for all terrains)
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Saturday - was an eventful gathering - a first one at my
apartment. Celebrated Gallete de
Had settled down at new place by Dec 19th. Wanted to have
a gathering at place, but since it was a holiday season, most of the invitees
were not sure of joining me.
I decided to do it just after people return, and as a New
year gathering at new place.
It was the first Saturday immediately after everyone
resumed work.
Invited colleagues from B10, Sriprem gurung and family :
the first person that I met in Grenoble,
Residhome aparthotel staff who made my stay there
pleasant one, my relocation angel Sandrine, who helped me with everything,
French tutor Nathalie and her family, my neighbors - Newzealand couple, a
french girl and a french lady.
Since I was expecting quite a few, planned to keep it
simple and minimal work for me.
Got some La Biere (mix of Irish, german and french),
chips to munch, cookies, fresh bread and olive oil and some Juice.
Also had few bottles of wine at my place, from my Ikea
visit earlier.
The only thing I planned to prepare was native Indian
sweet - Le Carrot de sucre (carrot halwa)
Based on my past experience, most westerners are wary of
eating Indian sweet, because of excess sugar, excess ghee, excess dry fruits.
Indian sweet is an excessive explosive for them.
I had everything required for the carrot halwa, except
Ghee. I tried couple of marches, and realized, there is no concept of Ghee here
in Grenoble. I managed with cooking oil this time :-)
Prepared roughly 3 bowls which is good for 3 people's
dessert.
But inspite of 12 people present on the day, only 2 bowls
got consumed. I had other one all for myself.
I prepared the
halwa, started grabbing a quick lunch at 3:20 pm and my tutor was at the door
already.
I paused my lunch.
We had a 1.5 hour lessons. I had requested her to close by 5pm, so I get some
time to prepare before the guests starts
pouring in.
Newzealand Couple -
Jackson - Rugby player and his wife research engineer, were the first one,
followed by Karim, Nathalie and Sandrine.
By 6 everyone was
home.
Mike had offered to
get some chairs and also a special King cake - Galette
des rois.
There is a story of 3 kings, who got lot of gifts for
Jesus Christ, and the cake and celebrations is linked to that story.
Karim got the small lamp and he was the lucky one to sport the crown for the rest of the evening.
Some anatomy
happening. Karim explaining to Galina
The beer buddies
enjoying their talk and one after the other :-)
Was glad I invited
Nico's friend Michael roux (I didn’t not know him). He works for 2 years and
travells for 6 months, which has become a routing for few years now.
We exchanged lot of
travel stories, and got connected quite well.
Sandrine - my angel having a deep conversation with my tutor and her family. Van der sanden seen enjoying the fun
Mr Sanden is nano
technology professor at Grenoble university, been living there for 40 years.
My French Guru -
Nathalie - a sweet and soft lady. She being married to a Dutch, unknowingly
switches to Dutch during lessons. Her kid getting
bugged with this party, as he was the only
A Brit husband and
his Chelsian Wife
Post party cleanup
And the poster my
colleague Karim brought me. He doesn’t like me being here.
Everyone left at
around 10. Karim and Nicolas, my immediate colleagues stayed back.
I offered some
freshly brought Porto Wine (Tawny Reserver - special one). Cooked some blende
pasta. Not sure if the liked it.
Also offered them
special canned porto fish to their delight.
As a french culture,
everyone gets something to eat/drink. I
got a few wine bottles, champagnes and lots of chocolates, stocked for next 3
months :-)
It turned out to be
a mini global meet at grenoble. Had people from all over the world, Nzland,
India, France, Germany, Bulgaria, UK, South America, Netherlands.
Was a long tough
day, but people brought in lot of energy and good wishes.
a Bientot!
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