Euro : will it stop falling?

We have booked our trip to Malaysia and in around two months we will be flying off.
I was thinking to transfer some Euro to Malaysian Ringgit until I saw how Euro has depreciated against RM and dollar. Oh that hurts!


The Euro has shrunk from RM5 to RM4 within 4 months time span in late 2009. A sharp fall due to Greece financial crisis. See how a country is capable to pull down the purchasing power of citizenship in the Euro zone against other foreign currencies. The market didn't react well as well after the socialist president was elected. Gosh now 1€ worth not even RM4! I have told hubby to control his shopping spree in Malaysia.


I have never known Euro so cheap against Dollar. 1€ could always change to E1.30 and above but now this was history. It is no longer a good timing to visit USA.

On the other hand, the prices for imported French products might falling. It is time to taste some French cheeses. Or buy LV bag, in Malaysia! :-)

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.

4 year old driving a car, for real?

A Chinese girl around 4 - 5 years old was driving on the road while her parents guiding her. While driving, she was singing, asking questions and at one point was even passing other cars. The video was uploaded online in many sites and created heated discussions especially among the Chinese community in the USA. French MSN news was reporting this too.

Here's what I saw in the video:
A girl was driving a car, judging from the voice, her mother sat on the front passenger seat and her father was sitting on the back passenger seat right behind her. She was singing and talking and looked at ease, she controlled well the car steering. The parents chatted with each other from time to time. She drove for around two minutes.

Conversations with her parents:
Girl singing or talking (I have problem understanding her): "la la la..."
Mother: "Drive your car nicely, Jia zheng".
Girl: "Have the flowers blossomed?"
Father: "Just drive your car". Realizing that she was passing cars, "Pay attention while passing cars".
At this time the car in front was turning left, the girl moved the car to the right land and continue driving.
After passing the traffic light, the father was persuading her to stop and let him drive: "Ok stop stop. Let daddy drive. Hurry, hurry, let daddy drive." Girl stopped the car on the road side and a man came out from the back passenger seat.
Girl: "What are you doing?"
Father: "Let daddy drive ok."
Girl moved over to the front passenger seat, onto her mother's knee.
Father bent down to collect two woods serving as extension to the brake and accelerator pedals and threw them on the floor of the front passenger seat.
Once the father settled down in the car the mother said "Let's go".

Now I wonder if this is for real. I googled in Chinese and many news on TV and newspapers were talking about it. Majority of readers condemned the parents as irresponsible and commented that the act had created danger to other road users. A police man regretfully said that there was nothing they could do as they could not punish drivers under 14 years old. They could only punish the parents if an accident happens.

It seems real. Judging from how at ease the little girl was, this should not be the first time she drove on the road. How scary!

Miss Météo (Weather) at Canal +

The French TV channel Canal + has a program calls Le Grand Journal (The Big News) everyday from 7pm to 8.50pm. They have a Miss Météo, Charlotte Le Bon, who presents the weather forecast.


Every Friday, she arrives with Beehive hairstyle in the 1960s and the news is presented in black and white.


She has a very unique way to present the weather: She talks about anything but the weather. When she finishes, the TV shows a picture of the weather, in silent.


Yesterday she was talking about using a chain as a way of contraception.

I think that's a very unique and different way to present news and she is surely a charming lady. And she is only 25 years old!

Malaysia is blacklisted as the tax haven

I didn't follow much the G20 meeting besides the news about Obama kissing the queen and giving her an Iphone.

I didn't know what is a tax haven until my coworkers and French family expressing their astonishment that Malaysia in one of the four countries being blacklisted as the tax haven who do not follow the OECD international tax standards, together with Costa Rica, Uruguay and the Philippines.

Oh wait, they are actually taking about the Labuan financial center, one of the territories in the East Malaysia. See how a media can manupulate the readers, everyone was believing that the whole Malaysia is doing this, but actually they are referring to one territory. It is just like people missundertood that the whole France is blacklisted while only the Martini island was involved.

I have to admit that I'm equally surprised. I would have thought that those in the blacklist should be those from Caribbean Islands (impression from US movies about money laundry) and Switzerland (thats why they couldn't join the EU).

If Malaysia (Labuan) does not cooperate with the international financial agencies, why would our politicians all hide their savings in Switzerland? They might as well having their accounts in Labuan.

A little background research, what are the factors that consider a juridiction is a tax haven:

1. No or only nominal income tax
2. Protection of personal financial information
3. Lack of transparency
4. Attracting companies having fake activities

Good to know, I should start transfering my saving here to Labuan so that I don't have to pay the exorbitant capital gain taxes in France. I hope it would be easy to open an acount there. Anyone wants to join me? I will only charge a small fee if you want to use my account. :-)

Dynamite found at Printemps

5 dynamites were found at the famous Printemps department store today in Paris. They were tied together but without a detonator. The store has to close in the morning and only reopened in the afternoon. According to a report this store attracts 100,000 shoppers per day, that means literally exorbitant loses on sales, especially during the peak season right before Christmas. A French media said they received a letter said to be from a revolutionary group from Afghanistan, urging France to withdraw its troops from the Afghanistan before February next year.

It seems like nowadays people could just easily place explosive stuffs in any places and create chaos and economic lose to the targeted country. I'm sure not 100% of the shop patrons will dare to go back to the shop in the immediate future. Some tourists might even avoid Paris all in all. It will be heart broken if one day these terrorists manage to get down the Eiffel Tower. If the trend keeps going we might foresee a third world war. Just my two cents.

Wife not virgin: court granted cancellation of wedding

This happened in France. Seriously.

To top it off, it was a court decision based on the French civil code (Code Civil des Français) that allows cancellation on an union if there is an error of "quality". In this case, the fact that the woman is no longer a virgin is considered as "error of quality".

An engineer, got married to his wife (both Muslim) and discovered that she is not virgin on the night of the wedding (8 July 2006). He came out around 4am from his room, saying that "She is not virgin, I'm canceling everything". Since that day he started all the paperwork to cancel the wedding. This April, the court granted his request, agreed that he has been cheated by his wife.

This news created some debate and one of the arguments is that the woman is dishonest so it is not wrong to divorce her. She shouldn't have said that she is virgin knowing that this element is very important to her husband.

I wonder, if I told hubby that I'm a good cook and in fact I'm not, can he file a divorce according to this civil code that he is not getting a quality wife? :-)

The big jump

Please meet this ambitious French man, Michel Fournier. At 62, he is attempting to jump from 40km above the earth surface in the skies above Saskatchewan, Canada. He was supposed to jump today but due to the windy weather, he would do it tomorrow.

At 40km, the temperature is around minus 100 centigrade, and since the air is so thin, he must inhale pure oxygen for hours beforehand, in order to get rid of the nitrogen in his blood.

Once the balloon has taken his capsule up to the jump height, his intrepid sexagenarian must leap head first out of the receptacle and free-fall for seven minutes. When he hits 1,000 meters, he pulls the chute if he still can, and enjoy a leisurely descent of eight minutes. Before ripcord time, he will be breaking the sound barrier at speeds up to 932 mph, and enduring temperatures as low as minus 115C.

I hope he is going to make it this time.

Newspaper of 29 February

Today is 29 Feb.

It is also the day the French newspaper, La Bougie du Sapeur, distributes it's 7th edition today. This newspaper only comes out on 29 Feb, which means a new edition every 4 years. It was created in 1980. It is sold at 4 euros each. In the bottom of the page, readers are asked to subscribe for the entire 21th century for 100 euros.

The French is just to funny to even create a newspaper like that!

The French is importing Chinese car, will they consider Proton as well?

This company is importing Chinese cars to sell in the French market, with prices range from 20 to 30% less expensive than the locally produced cars.

Will the French one day import Malaysian made cars? I don't think Chinese cars are better than the Malaysian brands Proton or Perdua, so I think there are still room for them to sell to the European markets.

Wake up Proton and Perdua! The French is ready to accept low cost cars, the salient element now is the marketing skill!

Miss France gets to keep her title

Miss France 2008 will keep her crown, despite racy photos that appeared recently in a gossip magazine, but will not compete in the Miss World or Miss Universe pageants.

Valerie Begue, 22, will not be stripped of the title she won Dec. 8, but will not be allowed to take part in upcoming international competitions, Miss France organizers said Friday.

Begue described the outcome as "a compromise which satisfies all parties."

The pageant's criteria stipulates that candidates must "never have posed or exhibited (themselves) in dubious outfits or poses, partially or totally nude."

Photos published in Entrevue magazine last week included one of a bikini-clad Begue lying on a cross in a swimming pool and another of her licking what appeared to be yogurt or evaporated milk.

Begue is a native of France's Indian Ocean island of Reunion. She is to be replaced in international pageants by the first runner-up, Vahinerii Requillart, Miss New Caledonia.
Source

I don't know why she got to keep the title. If she can't represent France to compete in the international competition, she is not Miss France.

Amazon.fr to stop their free delivery services

I love buying stuffs from Amazon.fr, they offer free delivery for some products like books and CDs.

This week, Amazon.fr was fine 100,000 euros by the Bookstore Union, as this online giant didn't respect the fixed price of the books they are selling. Apparently in France, every book has a fixed price, and the most one can do is to sell the book 5% below the fixed price. Since Amazon is selling below this 5% discount, it is hurting other independent businesses. Amazon is ordered to cancel their free delivery services too.

At one point I enjoy the free delivery and cheaper book price, I don't want to see the independent bookstores go bankrupt due to this unfair competition. Amazon is basically selling at lost and get profit from somewhere else. Independent bookstores won't be able to conduct a price war with Amazon.

Airbus delivers its first A380 superjumbo to Singapore Airlines

After 2 years of delay, Airbus finally delivered its first A380 to Singapore Airlines.


Some info about A380:
Total capacity: 471 passengers
Private suite: 12
Business class seats: 60
Economy class seats: 399

Prices:
From Singapore to Sydney round trip:
Private suite: $5115
Business: 15-20% more than the normal flight
Economy: 1040 euros (I saw this on the news but not sure this price is for Sin-Sydney flight)

So, you can now spend $10,230 for honeymoon on the A380 and sleep comfortably before arriving in Sydney. Now Samantha doesn't have to be disturbed by the flight attendance while dating her rich Richard (a scene in the Sex and the City).