Touched down in Malaysia!

After 23 hours of traveling, we arrived safely in Malaysia. When we left Nantes at 3pm (Malaysia time 10pm), it was raining with grey sky. When we finally arrived at my brother's house around 9pm (2pm French time the second day), it was humid and warm.

This time, surprisingly, we were happy with the services provided by KLM. Flight from Nantes to Amsterdam was fast and unevenful, Aelig slept through the whole trip and didn't seem to be bothered by the difference in air pressure.


Things turned painful from Amsterdam to Singapore. We were seated closed to the toilets and she was deeply disturbed by passengers passing by. KLM provided us a basket but each time we put her down she cried. Eventually, I was not able to sleep much as she demanded to be on my arms all the times and a tiny movement would wake her up. At the end of the flight, she was exhauted and finally fell asleep.


It was ugly when we touched down in Singapore. KLM Nantes was not able to issue us the boarding passes from Singapore to Malaysia because they are not partnered with Malaysia Airlines. Once we arrived, we were told to go to the gate, which had status as "boarding". Well, we had only one hour of layover in Singapore, so we rushed to the gate just to be told that we needed to first pass through a transfer counter for the boarding pass. We followed the instruction, but it was the wrong transfer counter. We ran again, this time to the right counter, but the gate was closing and there was no way we could catch the flight. After a long wait, we got issued tickets to the next flight, which was scheduled to take off 50 minutes after the initial one. Well, it was good that Changi Airport has PC with free internet at every corner so I sent an email to inform my family about the flight delay. This time, luckily, Aelig slept through the whole flight.



So, we are happy to had finally touched down in Malaysia and be reunited with my family.

13 months

The girl has mastered the skill of throwing food on the floor and refusing everything come near her mouth (except bread and chocolate cream).

The parenthood is becoming more and more challenging.

Euro to MYR heading south

This is not looking good. 1 euro is worth only RM4.17 compared to RM5 two years ago when I sent money home. That means for every 1000 euros exchanged, I will lose RM830, which is almost equivalent to 3 days 2 nights travel to Redang Island, for both of us!

Ok, time to tell hubby that he needs to cut off certain items from his shopping list in Malaysia.

On the other hand, for those Malaysians who have been eyeing for the latest LV model, it is time for action. A bag that costed RM5k two years ago is only priced at RM4170 now!

Does full moon affect baby's sleep

On the way home yesterday, my carpooler looked at the full moon and said:" Do you know that full moon affects baby's sleep? Both my kids were giving us trouble at time when it was full moon."



I remember someone told me this once but I didn't believe it. I'm still skeptical about this theory. Baby could have a bad night when the moon is full, is sounded so weird to me. Then at 10.45pm, hubby said:" your daughter ah, still don't want to sleep!".



Well, I think this is just a coincidence?

BCG done; PD asked us to feed her as much as possible

Despite the pain to get an appointment for the BCG vaccination, Aelig had it done last Saturday. So far so good.

However, there is still an unsolved problem, that her weight is progressing at a decreasing rate. She was doing fine when she was on breast milk, but ever since we switched to milk powder, she was not gaining as much weight as before, and now she is at the edge of underweight for her age.

The pediatrician (PD) suspected that she was allergy to the glucose protein, she suggested us to have a blood test. It was an horrible experience, Aelig was not one year old yet, and it had to be done early in the morning before she eats anything. So, both hubby and a worker in the lab hold her arm tied, another worker took her blood (8 samples!) and me trying to comfort her but failed as she was looking at me with eyes full of tears and kept yelling as if why I let all these happen to her. The result came, there was no sign of allergy, what a relief!

While waiting for the result, we followed the PD's instruction to change the milk. She didn't like it so didn't drink as much, resulting in her losing weight.

The PD was trying to find an explanation, now she wanted us to feed her as much as possible to make sure that she could gain weight normally. It was insane, in the health book it was clearly described that we should limit / delay any intake of chocolate and sugar, but the PD asked us to give her chocolate cream. Aelig loved it instantly and ate the entire 125g, but later her stool was chocolate cream alike and smelt very very bad. We got scared so we stopped.

I do not grow up eating chocolate cream nor those sweet stuffs for 4pm gôuter so I'm not keen at all to let Aelig have all these sweet stuffs. Now I wonder if we should listen to the PD, she might be underweight just because she is half Asian!

An incident at a grocery store

I was waiting at a checkout to pay my grocery and was witnessing this incident:

A young man was checking out and wanted to pay his grocery with some restaurant tickets and cash. The cashier informed him that they can only accept maximum 2 tickets. He was surprised, asking when did the rule change, and he did not bring enough cash with him and he has no credit card. He was embarrassed and didn't know what to do, and the cashier was very cold, she told him that he has to return the items that he couldn't pay with cash. I really felt back for him so I proposed to the cashier that I would take his extra tickets and pay him cash in return. And she refused! She said she didn't want to create another mess. Well, I kept my mouth shut and keep watching the drama. The young man has no choice but to select among the grocery, slowly pulling out the tuna, endives, chicken...I peeped on his restaurant tickets, he was planning to pay 4 tickets with 8€ face value, so he was short of 16€ to pay for everything.

I sympathized with him, several times the words were at my lips but I just couldn't spell it out to him. I wanted to help but at the same times I didn't know if he would take it well. Anyway, the drama continued, the cashier announced that some of the items he bought could not be paid with a restaurant ticket, so she took more items out from him. Then, when she entered the two tickets, the system didn't want to accept them and she has to call someone else. What a mess! Ended up, we (there were a couple queuing between him and me) had to checkout with another cashier.

Conclusion: Always bring along spare cash / credit card with you when buying stuffs, you never know what would happen.

PS: Talked to hubby, he said by law it is illegal to have someone else's ticket, so the cashier was probably just following the rules. Still, her attitude was quite rude.

We speak the same language but still...

This morning when I arrived at the car park to join my group, I was surprised to see the carpooler who was supposed to be on vacation showed up. Since they were four already, I had to drive alone.

A little bit of explanation about the carpooling: Usually a group consists of 4 people and I'm the 5th person. One member of the group only join three days a week so I fill in the blank for the remaining two days. Since I have to go to R town 3 times a week, I need to drive alone once per week, or sometimes joining them when someone is on leave.

The confusion started with a simple sentence: je serai en congé du 3 au 10 janv (I will be on leave from 3 to 10 Jan). Both me and the other member who handles the planning interpreted that he would be back only on 11 Jan. Both of us were wrong, he meant he would come back on 10 Jan. I asked around, everyone said that it was confusing, he should have said "I will be on leave from 3 Jan to 10 Jan included or until 10 Jan evening. Now, I'm reassured, at least I didn't show up due to my bad French comprehension!

She had been spoiled with gifts

Happy 2011 everyone! I had been too lazy to post, I'm just slowly recovering from the holiday mood.

"Alors, elle a était gâtée?" (so she was spoiled?) was the question everyone asked after Christmas, knowing that Aelig would get both her birthday and Christmas presents. Yes, she was very very spoiled was my answer. In our family, we do not wait under Christmas morning to open the gifts, gift distribution was done over the Christmas eve dinner. I don't know how many round of gift distribution we had, I just know that when everyone finally got their last gift, Aelig still had tons to open, but she was more excited to play with the gift wraps on the floor then the gifts themselves.

Here are some of the gifts:

A little car that she hardly play at home. She hasn't figure out how to use her legs to push the car.


Several set of clothes, this one is my favourite.


Baby cellphone from us. She played with it a lot but it annoyed everyone as it rings when there is a movement. We left it in the car while driving home and it was a huge mistake as we were hearing the stupid ring ton all the way from L town to Nantes.


Two sets of moving train. This whole book is about a train and you need to unfold it in order to let the train moves on the rail. While, Aelig's favorite act is to throw away the train and fold the book. Another set came with 6 pieces of railway plus several little trains. She loves to destroy the railway and kick all the trains away.

The conclusion we have from this precious experience: it is just a waste of money to buy her toys, she doesn't know how to appreciate them yet. I have gathered three boxes of toys which she seldom lay eyes on. Her favorite spot is our recycling bin, where she happily throwing every bottle and paper on the floor.

Happy birthday and Merry Christmas!

One year ago:


One year later:

Driving under the snow

10 years abroad, I had not driven under the snow. Well, winter in Austin is quite mild, and I managed to avoid the worst snow storm last year (I was on maternity leaves).

There's a first time for everything. This evening when we left Rennes, my carpoolers' spouse called to warn them about snow in Nantes. I got a call from hubby too, but along the highway the traffic was flowing smoothly. Arrived at the parking lot (carpoolers meeting point), the floor was covered with white snow.


I was a bit nervous, but since everyone drove slowly I got calmed down after a while.


The usual 10 minutes journey ended up taking 50 minutes.


Luckily when I arrived home, Aelig was fed, food was ready, hubby was smiling, all Christmas gifts ordered online arrived. Everything was fine until I realized that, I will be the one driving tomorrow and the weather forecast says snowing in the morning. Gosh...

Message from Embassy of Malaysia in France

Received an email + one reminder from Embassy of Malaysia in France , asking all the Malaysians in France to update their registration. If you did not receive it or if you have changed your email address, please refer to the following message:

OUTGOING E-MAIL

TO : All Malaysians in France

FROM : Mohd Ridduan Mohd Nor
Third Secretary (Admin & Consular)
DATE : 21-12-2010

SUBJECT : Update Registration of Malaysians in
France

With reference to the above matter, I wish to thank you for taking your time to read this e-mail.

For your information, the Embassy of Malaysia in France would like to update the Registration of Malaysians in France. Kindly let us know if there is any changes on your house address and telephone number.

Thank you.

Wishing you & your family ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR’.

Best Regards,

MOHD RIDDUAN MOHD NOR

PS: You could send your update information to Ms Rogayah Decombredet at par.rogayah@kln.gov.my

All I want for Christmas is...

-that all the presents I ordered online would arrive on time before the big day. I could not imagine having to tell my love ones that I'm sorry, but their gifts are stuck somewhere due to the snow. I swear I won't laugh anymore at people who have their Christmas shopping done in Nov

-that the weather condition will not be too harsh for us to go to work and most importantly not preventing us to travel to the family reunion

-that Aelig manages to fight all the winter viruses that are causing her to have running nose and coughing

-that everyone could attend their family reunion as planned. One coworker just have a kid and his parents couldn't come because the train was canceled. Another one is planning to to Germany to see her family but Frankfurt Airport is closed...

-that Rudolph the red nosed reindeer leads Santa out of the snow storm and delivers me those presents I wanted

Our first gift to Aelig

I just realized, that we had not bought any toy to Aelig. Well, she got some from friends and relatives, plus passed down toys from her dad. So, overall, she has a lot of toys to play with.

Since she walks now, we decided to buy her a baby cart. She could put all her toys inside and wander around with it. We could put her in and push her around in the apartment. I also love the colorful design.



We consider it as her Christmas gift but I could not wait until Christmas, so as soon as we received it (we ordered from internet), I asked hubby to assemble it and immediately let her played with it. She was not too keen at the beginning, but now we see her playing from time to time.

Big traffic jam

I took me 2 hours to arrive at work today. When I thought I was the last person to show up, some coworkers popped in after 10.30am. One told me that she left at 7.45am, got stuck in heavy traffic and only arrive at 10.30am, almost 3 hours even though she lives around 25 minutes away.

It was all due to the freezing weather with ice formed on the roads which led to accidents /slowing down traffic. Since November, we got stuck almost every morning on the highway when approching Rennes peripheries (highway that circulates around the city).


This map shows the usual road we take to go to work. We arrive from the South, get stuck for around 10 minutes, then take the East peripheries to go to North East of Rennes. This morning, there was a very heavy flow on the East peripheries, we got stuck far far before the peripheries due to two car accidents. I was the one driving and at the last minute, I decided that we should take the West peripheries instead. It ended as a good decision, as when we were driving smoothly through West, traffic going to East were forming a long long queue, cars lining bumper to bumper. It took us 20 minutes from the Peripheries to our office.

In the evening when going home, my carpoolers were saying that the other groups coming from Nantes, who left earlier than us, arrived much later than us because they got totally stuck on the East peripheries. We are considering changing our itinerary, which suits me well as we will pass by my office first and I don't have to walk as much before arriving my office. Well, I don't mind walking, but not in this cold winter.

A side note, during winter, with the traffic jams and weather conditions, I think it is wiser to live close by where you work than have to spend time traveling. I could be very frustrating and dangerous.

BCG vaccination - Who could give it?

While preparing for our trip to Malaysia, hubby consulted our family doctor which vaccines should Aelig take before the big departure. She sent the question to The Department of International Travel in the University Hospital of Nantes (CHU Nantes), who recommended BCG vaccine. Our doctor doesn't give this type of vaccination, he was told to contact CHU Nantes and receive the vaccine there. At that time, hubby thought babies need to get the vaccine in a special place.

We started contacting the hospital 3 months before our departure date. All our calls were redirected to an answering machine with a message saying that we could take an appointment with them through email, and that we will get a reply within two days. One month passed, albeit several attempts, we didn't manage to get someone on the phone, and we didn't get any reply from the mail.

So what should we do? I told my MIL about this problem, and she approached the hospital in her town for more information. She was told that no vaccine was necessary to go to Malaysia. I prefer to have second opinion before resting the case, so I talked to the pharmacist in our neighborhood. She confirmed that no special vaccination was necessary.

I went to see our doctor today, she insisted that we should get it done. Only then I realized it was for BCG. For me BCG is not a special vaccine for travel, during my time it was mandatory, I got vaccinated the second day after I was born. Hubby got it before he turned 3 months. But today we can only get it done in a a travel department under the hospital? That doesn't make sense to me.

I started asking around, a coworker who has two kids said it was the pediatrician who did it to her kids. I called her pediatrician but she was not in. I called a general practitioner in our area, the secretary said they no longer doing it. I tried my coworker's family doctor, she said I could come in for a visit, but it was not guaranteed that she would do it. At this point, I was a bit desperate so I seek help from my MIL. She called her family doctor and found out that neither she was doing it. Finally, she got the Protection Maternelle et Infantile (PMI), who finally agreed to give the vaccine but they are fully booked until mid January.

While scratching my head over a possible solution, my coworker thought that the whole situation was insane, that it was impossible that I would have so much troubles finding someone to give a BCG vaccine to Aelig. She suggested that I invent a story and call my pediatrician, to whom I was reluctant to call as with her I always have to take appointment several months in advance. Surprisingly, my pediatrician's secretary bought my story and agreed to receive Aelig on a Saturday morning (but she told me last time that the doctor does not work on Saturday!). Now, I got an appointment with my family doctor for the Mantoux test (to be performed several day before the real vaccination) and another appointment with the pediatrician to give the vaccination. BUT we got one big problem: CHU Nantes recommended us to do this at least one month before the travel! Now we will be 10 days before the travel, if Aelig has any negative reactions to this vaccine, we will be in big trouble.

Please pray for us.

Winter: the beauty and the pain

Whenever I hear people saying how much they love winter, I admire and envy them. I just don't know how to appreciate winter when my body has to fight with the cool constantly and I have to equip myself with gloves, hat, big coat. My inner fear is always about driving in a cool winter day on a slippery road. I still remember vividly a situation last year: I was pregnant, it was my turn to drive, it was raining heavily + windy, and I was passing a truck. The truck was pouring a lot of water towards my windshield and my car was shacking. When I finally passed the truck, my carpooler screamed "bravo" towards me as he was as nervous as me. It was one of the reasons that I accepted my doctor advise to be on maternity leaves earlier than planned: to avoid driving during winter.

But, I cannot avoid driving on winter, just like it is unwise to dislike winter since chances are I have to deal with it year after year. So, I just want to show one positive side of winter: the tranquil scenery!

This is a lake inside a park not far from my office. We went for lunch and discovered that it was frozen and covered with snow.




Hubby said that the weather is getting warmer now that I don't have to scrub the windshield every morning now. What a good news to hear.

56000 Chinese characters 汉字

Read an article recently in sina.com (article in Chinese) about Chinese characters. Here are some interesting facts / point of views from the author:

- There are 56000 Chinese characters in one of the Chinese dictionaries (howly cow I didn't know that)
- During the nine years mandatory education in school, every Chinese student is introduced to around 3500 characters (I had 14 years of Chinese classes but I'm not sure I know as much characters)
- The Chinese government considers someone who knows less than 1200 Chinese characters as illiterate (YAHOO I'm not illiterate in the Chinese government's eyes)
- People who know more than 4000 characters are most likely working in the literature industry, eg reporters, writers (Gosh that means I won't be able to be a writer, it was my ambition during my childhood)
- People who know more than 5000 and above Chinese characters are usually expert in the language and they are rare in the society (how can someone be considered as an expert when he or she only knows less than 10% of the total Chinese characters?)

The author concluded that it is not uncommon for a Chinese to not know certain Chinese characters. He gave some example of some rarely used characters here and I know none of them!


This is considered one of the most complex character to write. 57 strokes and it took me close to one minute to finish writing it. It doesn't exist in most of the Chinese softwares. It means one kind of noddle in Shanxi.


It all makes sense to me now that every night I had to practice Chinese characters during my primary school years. There is no shortcut, you just need to learn them one by one and memorize them. I'm glad I learn it since I was little, one should not have problem learning to speak Mandarin when they are adult, but to master the writing part it will need a lot of effort and perseverance.

Cold outdoor, warm indoor

It is snowing outdoor.
窗外雪花纷飞


But we are overwhelmed with love.
室内亲情洋溢

11 months

Less than one month to go and she will be 1 year old! We are eager to celebrate the first Christmas with her.


New food introduced this month: pumpkin and caramel, surely she is a kid who doesn't refuse sweet stuffs. A headache for us though when feeding her in this chair...


She won't want to sit still and keep standing up and moving left right! She takes longer time to finish her meal now.


There is something about the washing machine that she loves: getting out the laundry and throwing them on the floor :-(


She is also curious what is inside the machine.


First thing in the morning when she walked into the living room: grabbed the bread on the table that her daddy claimed belongs to him.


To compensate daddy's lost, we went to get breakfast for him: a fresh out of oven pain au chocolat, sent directly to the bed by Aelig.


Having a walk outside in the cold weather. She could stand up by herself now without having to hold on to anything first in order to stand up.


Highlight of the month: she started walking 5 days before she turned 11 months! She was with her daddy and great-grandma when suddenly she was walking 11 steps. Even since then she keeps walking and doesn't crawl as much. How long will it take before this girl running around in the apartment and dressing her becomes impossible?

99 euros Paris Orly - Malaysia

In October 2009 Air Asia annouced that they got the landing rights in Paris. This is for real as they are selling the ticket online now for 99 euros one way from Paris Orly to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, or RM499 KL - Paris Orly. Good deal eh!

The trick is, you need to book between 22 Nov to 24 Nov and travel between 14 Feb to 10 Nov 2011. From what people told me, to grab the promotion, you need to be perseverance to try their website constantly during these 3 days.

Still, 200 euros round trip Paris-KL, is a steal.

Who is Yujin?

On the way to work yesterday I heard this on the radio:

Yujin needs to be proud of himself since in his country kids know how to make shoes at 4 years old. During the exchange, Nicolas won because he got 4 bags of potatoes and Yujin only got 2 Louis Vuitton bags.

The host kept going on about Yujin so I looked at hubby and had this conversation:

Me: Who is Yujin?
Him: The president of China.
Me: But his name is Hu Jintao!
Him: hmmmmm

I thought for a while, then I realize that it is very easy to make this type of mistake because:
1. The French do not pronounce H, so Hu becomes U.
2. Since the Chinese put their family name first followed by the given name, for the host Hujin = First name, Tao = Last name.

So the next time you see a French talks to a Chinese and the French says something about Yujin, don't be surprised to see a blank face on the Chinese. :-)

Strike, demonstration and fall

I always thought that strike means a group of people who decided to stop working for a short period of time and would demonstrate in front of their work place. Such was the case of my company a while back and some of my coworkers appeared in the front page of a local newspaper. However, that was it, there was not much buzz in the air since it didn't give much pain to people most of the people didn't even notice it.

In France, a successful strike means getting a lot of attentions especially from the media. People who work in service have edge advances in this because when they don't work, it directly affects the citizen. Example people who work in public transport system, garbage collectors, teachers... Nobody will notice or give a buzz if I go on strike since my action would not directly influence their life.


In this photo one of the high schools in Nantes was blocked for several days.


Some students were gathered outside of the school, I wonder where did the others go, they probably stayed home watching TV?


Garbage collectors were on strike, there were rubbish everywhere.


When the refineries were blocked many gas stations were running out of gas. When people got wind of one station that remained open, they rushed to fill some gas.


Something that I didn't expect: the park across our apartment complex was closed due to the social movement. I went there on Saturday morning as I wanted to show Aelig some fall colors.


Could only took some photos outside the park.


Now I remember why we fall in love with this apartment, we have the perfect view of the season changes directly from our living room.

I love fall, but it is a season full of strike and demonstrations.

Home visit by a doctor

Aelig is sick. She has running nose for quite some times and over the weekend, she threw out after each feeding and had fever over 39 Celsius degree. We waited a day and gave her some medicine, the fever was gone but came back several hours later. Unfortunately it happened during the weekend, our general physician only works on Saturday morning and Monday is holiday so we will have to wait until Tuesday.

But I didn't want to wait. As far as I know fever could be dangerous especially for baby. Her fever lasted more than 24 hours already so I think it was better to call a doctor. In France, during the weekend, we have to call the Emergency Unit in the hospital. Hubby hesitated but decided to call when her fever went over 39 Celsius. After describing all the symptoms, the hospital decided to send someone over within 2 hours.

The doctor arrived at around 10.15pm. He checked the chest and the back, looked at the ears and her throat. He announced that she has Laryngitis or some kind of throat problem which causes her to vomit after feeding. He prescribed us some medicines which we could get from a pharmacy (pharmacies here take turn to operate during Sunday and holidays). The visit lasted for around 10 minutes and only caused us 21.60 euros (which will be reimbursed later).

What a relief to hear that it was not a big problem. Even though I don't understand why in France they don't have 24 hours clinics like what we have in Malaysia, it is good enough to know that doctor could just come to your house when needed. Praise the French medical system and I wish one day, medical care becomes a right to everyone in the world in an accessible and affordable way.

Aelig @ 10th months

Since Aelig holds things pretty good now, we tried to let her hold her own bottle, and it worked out wonderfully. Now, bottle feeding time = parents having peace for at least 5 minutes.


She likes to play with herself in the mirror, we wonder if she knows who she sees in there.


New diet introduced to her from 9th to 10th months: sweet potatoes and the evil pain au chocolat, she absolutely loved it.


Meeting new friends. She starts to development some feelings: fear and jealousy! I forgot what Fabien was doing but when she sees that the other kid was moving towards her daddy she rushed to him at the same times. She knows how to climb up to our bed but has not mastered the skill to go down. She paused at the edge of the bed and called us to help her down.


We went to the forest to pick up some chestnuts. She was quiet all the way, I think she loved her bear sweater and felt good in it.


The highlight of the month: she could stand up without support now. At the beginning it was only for 5 seconds, now it could last for several minutes.


Our baby sitter requested to have shoes on her as she is learning how to walk now. On the other hand I read an article that suggested to let the baby bare foot while walking as this could give them extra sensitivity while stepping on the floor. So, we only let her have shoes on what it is cold.


The little angle is so active that she could turn into little monster sometimes. She started to venture into more corner in the apartment, her favorite being the recycling box where she could tear papers and then put them into her mouth.


Tonight I discovered that she was quietly sitting next to the bookshelf and took off some books and played with them. By playing I meant, tearing off my University class book.

Her happy hours mean our painful hours and we were reminded that the worst is still yet to come. We shall see.

Is silence always golden?

After more than 5 years in France, my perceptions for many things here have changed, mostly towards the positive side. One that hasn't is my opinion towards the strikers / protesters who use whatever methods they could to get heard and to achieve, sometimes, their personal interests. Egoism was the word I used when being interviewed on the TV and on newspaper during the CPE demonstration back in 2006.

Today, unfortunately, my view stays the same. For me, it is very simple, everybody in this country is entitled to go on strike, in the condition that they do let others live their everyday's life. The CPE demonstration had made the commute to my French classes extremely painful. Today, those who are not happy with the retirement reform are once again using methods that would annoy everyone in order to get attention. It has created huge inconveniences for those who are not on strike. I had to face the risk to not have enough gas to go to work, stuck in traffic because the protesters were distributing their brochures, rushed to office to find out that the meeting was delayed because the client got stuck in the traffic jam (due to strike).

My question, who granted these people the right to block schools, public transport system and refineries? Some even go further to destroy public properties. No, the French laws do not allow it's people to do it, but, over the years, it has been tolerated. Not every French agrees on these egoist teleological approaches, but they keep quiet.

This leads me to think, is silence always golden? Like the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", shouldn't those who do not agree on these selfish actions, stand out and express ourselves? I, actually tried to, but chicken out at the end:

- On the way to work, I passed by a high school. The entrance was blocked by chairs and tables; students were gathered outside the school. I told myself that they are wasting the tax payers money but I didn't dare to voice it. I intended to take photos but when I saw the huge group of young kids, I snapped and RUN AWAY. Since when high schoolers look and act like gangster?
- After 1 hour of driving I was 5 minutes away from my office. I got stuck for 20 minutes because the strikers were distributing handouts in one of the roundabout. They were trying to hand it to me but I didn't stop and didn't turn down my window and instead giving them a nasty face. That was all I dare to do, sadly. I almost shout at them but I hold my tongue.

Luckily I can still voice through blogging.

A moment of pause

A friend sent me a link to an online news site, which announced the lost of a friend we got to know during our day in Austin, Texas. She jumped out from the fourth floor of an hotel in Scotland during her business trip. It comes as a big shock to me as she looked always cheerful and happy when she was surrounded by people.

It is a moment of pause, to wonder, why a bright person like her would choose to end her life? She just got her MBA from London Business School, working with one of the world top management firms McKinsey = leading a promising career life. For personal development, she just got married and found her faith. She was also very close to her family members. She was an adventurer, had traveled to many countries in the world and have friends from different backgrounds and cultures.

All these, we could only see from the outside. We do not know what was her thought and what was she struggling from. There must be something bordering her that she couldn't overcome by herself. Human mine is hard to read.

Melanie, rest in peace, will keep your cheerful face in my memory.

I park under a chestnut tree

Nobody told me that I should avoid to park under a tree, or be more specific a chestnut tree. I found it out the hard way, after paying 160 euros to repair my car.


It is the chestnut season, almost every minute there is spiny burr falls and release the fruits inside.


Free chestnut and hazelnut on the floor.


Well, it becomes a problem when the leaves and fruits fall on the car and stuck between the windshield and car hood. It prevents water from evacuating effectively. Such had happened to my car and it caused some water caught under the front passenger seat. At the beginning I didn't pay much attention and the car started to stink. And I told myself, luckily it is under under warranty. But no, the garage told me that this could happens anytime so it would not be covered by the warranty. So, 160 euros down into the drain. :-(

A stupid mistake

Hubby celebrated his birthday this week so I was planning to buy him a present.
We both love Katie Melua, and coincidently I heard on the radio that she was realizing a new album. I was all excited, I ordered it online.

When he arrived home, I had Aelig holding the CD with both hands and brought her to hubby. We were all happy to listen to the new CD when hubby said: I think I bought you this album last time.

Ah, I didn't recognize the CD cover even though I was listening to the CD over and over again. What a stupid mistake? I just bought a gift to my husband, the same gift that I received several months ago. I'm speechless, I'm hopeless, I'm 无药可救.

Pissed.