Pierre Hermé Macarons

Yesterday, I officially turned 1 as a Swede. Yep folks, that is correct.. I have been a Swede for a whole year so to celebrate the grand occasion, Emma and I partook in a little over indulgence of macarons.. direct from Paris. We grabbed the Pierre Hermé 2012 Jardin Collection which consisted of a few hits and misses for our palates.. I am not a big fan of the soapy ones, however the French seem to like that "I swore, therefore I need to wash my mouth out with soap" flavour. It is not that they were bad as such, it just wasn't really a flavour I like. I like mine fruity and fresh.. much like me! I am a little fruity and fresh!

We started off with JARDIN MARIN, which is green tea, chanterelle mushroom & lemon and actually very nice indeed.

Next up was JARDIN PARFUMÉ which is rose & jasmine and well.. soapy mouth.. actually I think Emma might have likened this one to shampoo.

Moving away from soapy and right into one I didn't have high hopes of liking, mainly coz I don't overly enjoy saffron and sure enough it wasn't to my taste, but it was to Nemo's! JARDIN DU PARADIS is aniseed & saffron.

I was excited to have this next one, Emma and I first tried it in London when it was released. JARDIN D'ÉDEN which is vanilla & basil and really quite nice.. even nicer the second time around actually. Perfect for a less sweet macaron.

This one here, as it turned out became the favourite of the lot. JARDIN D'ÉTÉ which is lemon & caramelized fennel and quite bluntly really frakkin yum! It had a lovely tartness to add to the sweetness and I could see myself eating many of those if given the chance.. luckily for my ever expanding waistline, we don't splurge and have these couriered to us much, but I can see myself just grabbing a box of those (if available) each time we do splurge it for those special occasions.

Next up.. JARDIN SAUVAGE which is chocolate & lime.. I am not a huge fan of the chocolate macarons to start with. This one because of the lime actually had a rather boozy feel to it. It went down at least and we moved on to more! Just over half way now!

This one, another non fave, for that same soapy reason. They are still nice don't get me wrong, they just aren't ones I would chose to eat again. JARDIN ORIENTAL is orange blossom, rose & ginger.

JARDIN D'ANTAN  is violet & aniseed and umm.. a little meh.

Now this one.. had a little kick! JARDIN ENCHANTÉ is lime, raspberry & espelette pepper and rather enjoyable indeed. I did like it, not as much as the favourite but it was pretty close.

And lastly we have.. JARDIN SECRET which is rose, vanilla & clove and I was a little disappointed to end on a soapy note. Seriously Frenchies, what is it with the soapy flavours?

Oh but wait! There's more! You see, it was a 12 pack and the Jardins collection only has 10! so they doubled up on the last 2, so we swapped them out with a couple from the Paris collection (we got the duo pack of the Paris & London collections) that we also bought...

We tried the liquorice and violet, which was... ok.

And again.. the actual last one for the evening.. we have crème brûlée! Which was I was expecting.. rather nommy! Lovely to finish on and then relax on the couch in a macaron coma! Best first birthday ever!

Tonight, we shall head around to the parental and enjoy some sliders and then munch on a few more of the macarons.. and over the weekend there shall be no more macarons and I can honestly say.. it is just lovely to be able to splurge in life and enjoy mouthfuls of delight.. even if some are soapy.

Broken.

I don't really know how to begin this post without just ranting hardcore. It is not something I overly want to do, nor is it something that I feel I should have to do.. but then again, this past month should not have happened the way it happened. I really wanted and hoped that having a house-guest from Melbourne over Christmas would be fun and all kinds of epic. Sadly it was not.

I just cannot fathom why you would come to a friends home for an entire month and not contribute a single cent. The cost of living is not free, there is power that one consumes that is extra, there are rolls of toilet paper being guzzled at a staggering roll a day. I know of kids who waste less than that! Not to mention food. We worked out quickly, especially after there was no money given to go towards the big Christmas shop (which she was present for), that our house-burden guest wasn't going to contribute a single thing.. she had no problem buying some fizz and junk for herself and stashing it in her room.. so we just stopped buying things that we knew she would eat. Which made me feel mean, but given it had been discussed right at the point when she asked if she could come stay, that she had to contribute to at least food I didn't think it needed to be pointed out.. plus you know, it is common bloody courtesy if you are in someone's home.. you contribute.

I mean, if you are unsure how to act in someone's home.. then google it and you will quickly find information. Here is the Wiki-How version.

 http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-House-Guest

I wanted to tell ask her to leave but then I didn't want to be that bitch who kicked someone out when they were on the other side of the world away from the comfort of their own home.. so I stopped putting any kind of effort into the 'friendship' and hoped that would either make her buck up her ideas or take it upon herself to just leave. It did neither. Instead she just used us like a hotel even more than she already had been. We got a few days of reprieve when she would leave for a few hours to go 'exploring'. Before she came, we had planned on doing some exploring with her, but after doing a couple of small trips with her (& how she acted on the Berlin/Stockholm trips), it honestly felt like she wasn't that interested in anything and walked around sour-like, sour til the point when she wanted to take a couple of photos for the people back home.. to show them how much fun she was having.. so I didn't want to have to waste more money (despite what people seem to believe, Emma and I are not made of money) by being out and about when I could be enjoying the company of just Emma while she was herself on her Christmas break and of course our little man Nemo.

Our house-guest travelled half way around the world to mainly watch trashy tv on her iPad and read books on her kindle, mainly closed off in 'her' room.. for the month. Which brings me to her room, not once in the entire month did she clean it, vacuum it. The dusty, dirty mess I have had to clean up now that she is gone is just plain rude.. she couldn't even strip the bed upon leaving. It really isn't that hard to just be tidy, is it? To clean up after yourself? To do your OWN dishes? I expect that from children, not from grown ass adults. I would be embarrassed to be a parent of an adult who acted this way in someone else's home. If she was expecting someone to clean up after her, cook all her meals (not once did she offer to cook for us.. NOT. ONCE.) and hold her freaken hand then perhaps she should have just stayed at home with her mummy.. even then, would a mummy really do that for a 33yr old?

To not even be up early enough to catch a single sunrise here is just crazy in my eyes. The sun doesn't even come up until after 8am. Even when Emma and I have gone to bed late, we are still up before 8am. We found ourselves going to bed earlier than we usually would while Emma was on break, just so that we didn't have to think about the house-guest. It really wasn't a pleasant time.

Had I known I was going to be treated like a hotel, I would have charged hotel rates and then I would not be so bitter about the fact that I had to deal with a House-Guest From Hell. I should have just hardened up and booted her out but I am still someone who wants to see the best in people. The last week was really the hardest for me, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but I was also feeling very used and betrayed and just wanted to scream at her. It was very uncomfortable for me to be in my own home, I could barely look at her. It just makes me so sad that someone who I thought was a friend would be this way, but then what should I have expected from someone who couldn't even stay in touch with me for the first 6 years I have lived in Sweden. In saying that, I guess that means that there is no real great loss with not having her in my life. Schedule resumed as normal.

Like this mug, the friendship is broken and beyond repair.