Saturday, March 24, 2012

28th month

Highlights of the month:


Finally brought her to swimming pool and she totally loved it. I didn't know there exist disapoable swimming diaper for baby until someone told me. Since she is so excited to go swimming, I plan to buy her a swimming suit with diaper integrated.


It was so warm today so we decided to bring her to the beach. As usual, she has a blast.


Introduction to ski. We were watching young kids having ski classes and she was intrigued. She wanted to join them and didn't understand why I kept pulling her away. She will be able to join when she will be 3 or 4 years old.


Making snowman


Go racket walking in the mountain


Snow sliding with papa.

Another great month passed and hope she will be a happy girl forever.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

A heavy heart

On the last day of our vacation, while packing, I received a phone call from Aelig's babysitter.

She spoke with a heavy tone. If Aelig was not with me, I would have thought that something had happened to her.

"Something serious happened in my family. I would not be able to take care of Aelig next week. I waited the last minute to tell you this so that it would not spoil your vacation." Said her.

"So you can resume the week after then." I inquired.

"I don't know." She hesitated. "My son died, I don't know what would happen in a week." Announced her.

When I heart this, my heart broke. I said sorry and I will find a solution for the childcare next week. I think no word can console a mother who just lost a child. She said the funeral would be next Tuesday and I didn't dare to press on on what happened to her son.

I consulted with my MIL and she said it would be best if we go attend the funeral. I didn't know her son, but hubby said he saw him once. We checked the obituary online, he was only 28 years old.

We finished the vacation with a heavy heart. Hubby's leg hurts badly, so he decided to stay home with Aelig tomorrow. We would look for temporarily solutions, but I fear that she would not be ready to resume her work in the near future. There is a Chinese saying:" The white hair sending off the black hair". This is one of the toughest and saddest things in life.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

On ski break

This will be the first time I'm going on ski vacation. I do not like cold places, so I was not motivated to go. Now, I want to see how the little angel reacts when she walks on the snow and realizes that it could stay for a while.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in France, do like the French, go on ski vacation during winter. Hope I could stand the cold though.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

International Women's Day: What did they talk about in Grand & Petit Journal

The Grand and Petit Journal are two news programs from Canal Plus that hubby would watch every evening. It caught my attention a while back as news are informed in a unique way: host and guest hosts making fun / insulting of people (usually politicians or celebrities).

Just to give you an idea, this was what they presented on International Women's day. Two women politicians were invited, one is the spoke person from President Sarkozy's camp and the other from Hollande's camp. Since the presidential election is about 1.5 months away, they thought they would discuss about women's right. But the guest host has her own agenda. She was curious if Sarkozy prefers Coca Light and if Hollande watches his weight. I think Sarkozy's spoke person was bright to tell the host that she has a brain so they could surely talk about the current ongoing campaign instead of Sarkozy's weight.


Canal Plus also has a special way to report about the weather forecast. They chose a blond who would make a joke before asking to display the weather chart. Since today is international women's day, she leashed a man and talked nastily to him.


Leashing a man, I'm not sure if this is the goal for 3.8 Women's day.


From these two TV news, I concluded that it is not easy to be the President of France. You will be insulted / humiliated / making fun of, almost everyday. It is International Women's Day, of course they will not let go of Sarkozy, who has been portraited as a President submissive to German's President Merkel. Today's insult is considered light if compared to...


being fed by Merkel as a baby, and...


being a dog to Merkel.

French news have a lot of freedom. I don't know if they use the freedom wisely, but insulting politicians daily have been a way of life here, whether you like it or not.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Internet shopping: What is my right if I did not receive the good?

Updated on 3rd March 2012

I have been very unlucky with the internet shopping lately. Three purchases I made online went wrong.

1. Book 3 A Storm of Swords, George Martin
Like I shared earlier the vendor from Amazon sent me a different book from what I ordered. When contested, they told me that Amazon has listed the book with a wrong ISBN number. Basically, it was not their fault, if I want the money back, I need to send the book back to UK at my own fee. I think to send a book to UK will already cost me half the price so it is really not worth it. I wrote to Amazon, no reply after a month.

03/03/12: After reading the message from Jeremie and Ker Leed, I decided to call Amazon. Indeed, as mentioned by them and by YongLing, they have a good customer service. I entered my house phone number on their website and they called me instantly. The staff was nice and helpful. They proposed me a 5€ rebate coupon, which I later used to place another order for this book. Hope it will arrive before our ski vacation.

2. Book 4 A Feast For Crows, George Martin
I ordered it at the same time with book 3 with a different vendor on Amazon. It never arrived. I contacted the vendor and they said they were going to send me another one. It has not arrived, yet.

03/03/12: I have received the book! I wanted to use the rebate coupon from Amazon to order Book 3 from this same vendor, but the coupon was only valid for order with Amazon.

3. Two pairs of stocking for Aelig on Vertbaudet.com
I bought the bed, mattress and stocking from the same site but they used a different delivery services. We received the bed and mattress, but not the stockings. I sent an email to Vertbaudet and they said they were going to investigate with La Poste. Today I received a letter from them with a mail from La Poste saying that they have delivered the package to me end of January. The problem: I never received it.

03/03/12: Vertbaudet called me and explained that I could send back the letter claiming that I never received the order and hope to ask for a refund. So we will see.

Now, what is my right as a customer? For case 1, should I take the time and the pain to call Amazon so that they will pay for the postal fee? I feel tired just by thinking of it. I think I will just go to a bookstore and pay again. As for case 3, I had sent an email to Vertbaudet saying that I will not buy from them again. I don't know who's fault is it but I'm an unhappy customer so I could do whatever I want.

Urgggggghhh.