A wonderful reunion

Seb and I were invited to a wedding last saturday. This was my first time attending a wedding in France and boy was I excited. The bride was my great friend, Anca and the civil marriage took place at the city hall of Asnieres. The couple had a small guest list and we were able to interact easily with everyone. It was really an international event. There were people from Marocco, England, Czech Republic, Germany and of course many Romanians. Children who did not speak a common language were able to play with each other. That was amazing.

Seb et moi étions invités à un mariage samedi dernier. C'était la première fois que j'assistais à un mariage en france et j'étais tellement excité. La mariée étais mon amie Anca et le mariage civile s'est déroulé à la mairie d'Asnières. Le couple avait une petite liste d'invités et nous avons pu communiquer facilement avec toute le monde. C'était une événement international. Il y avait des invités en provenance du Maroc, d'Angleterre, de République Tchèque, d'Allemagne et bien sûr, de Roumanie. Même les enfants qui ne parlaient pas la même langue jouaient ensemble. Inside the city hall, the couple took their vows in a magnificent hall. The whole event with saying 'Oui' and exchanging of rings took about 15 minutes. Our next destination was Malesherbes about 100km from Asnières.

Dans la mairie, le couple ont prononcés leurs voeux dans une salle magnifique. La cérémonie a durée 15 minutes. Notre destination suivante fut Malesherbes situé à environ 100km d'Asnières.In accordance to French tradition, the wine of honnour was next in the programme. We drank champagne until it was time for dinner. Dinner started around 8.30pm and was accompanied with speeches, games and dancing. Everything spoken had to be translated from french to english and romanian.

Selon la tradition française, la suite du programme consiste à assister au vin d'honneur. Nous avons bu du champagne jusqu'au dinner. Le dinner commença vers 20h30 and fut accompagner de discours, de jeux et de danse. Tout les discours durent être traduis en français, anglais et roumain.
At midnight, the wedding cake was brought out. We ate and drank too much. Luckily, upon Anca's advise, we had booked in advance a hotel nearby. Anca told us that in Romania, people would be dancing until 6am. The romanian gang was dancing their traditional dance and I even joined in. We left the wedding place at around 3am.

A minuit, la pièce montée a été apporté. Nous avons trop bu et trop mangé. Heureusement, suite au conseil d'Anca, nous avions réservé une chambre d'hôtel proche. Anca nous a dit qu'en Roumanie, les gens dansent jusqu'à 6 heures du matin. Le gang de roumain dansa leur danse traditionnelle et je les rejoignis. Nous avons quitté la salle vers 3 heures du matin.
The following day, we were invited for brunch.

Le lendemain, nous avons été invité au "brunch".

Normally, in a french wedding, people could be invited to different events. Usually, there are a larger number of people invited to the ceremony. After that, some are invited for the wine of honour (vin d’honneur). And after that, only close friends and family are further invited for the dinner.

Normalement, pendant un mariage français, les gens peuvent être invités à des évènements différents. Traditionnellement, beaucoup de gens sont invités à la cérémonie. Ensuite, certains sont invités au vin d'honneur. Puis, seul les amis proches et la famille sont invités pour le diner.

I really enjoyed myself and I wish Anca and Régis happiness in their journey togather as a married couple.

J'ai vraiment apprécié ce moment et je souhaite à Anca et Régis, plein de bonheur dans leur voyage de vie de couple.

Thanks to Seb for the translation in Franch. I was too lazy to make an effort.
Merci à Seb pour la traduction. Je suis trop fainéante.

Sam's visit

Sam came visiting last week for several days. I showed him around Paris and we walked alot. We also ate a lot. Like my other friends, he is into pastry and we tried different macarons. He tried lots of different flavours like rose, lavendar, strawberry with balsamic vinegar among others.

Sam m’a rendu visite pendant quelques jours. Je lui ai montré Paris et nous avons beaucoup marché. Nous avons beaucoup mangé également. Comme mes amies, il aime les pâtisseries et nous avons essayé les macarons. Sam a essayé macarons en rose, lavande, fraise balsamique . . . .

During his stay, we visited Chartes. While Seb was doing grocery shopping with his grandmother, I made Sam discover the uptown of Chartres. After that, the four of us had a good lunch togather. Sam took a lot of photos of Chartres. Though I visit Chartres so often, I realised I had not taken many photos there. So, it was good that Sam downloaded his photos on my computer.

Pendant son séjour, nous avons visité Chartres. Pendant que Seb faisait les course avec sa grand-mère, j’ai montré à Sam la centre ville de Chartres. Ensuite, nous avons pris un bon déjeuner. Sam a pris beaucoup de photos de Chartres. Malgré mes nombreuses visites, je n’ai jamais vraiment pris des photos de Chartres. Je suis contente que Sam ait copié ses photos sur mon ordinateur.

On Sunday, we went up Montmarte at night and spotted many fireworks set off in the various suburbs of Paris. It was National Day eve. The fireworks were really far away but at a moment, we saw 5 fireworks across our panoramic view.

Le dimanche soir, nous sommes allés à Montmarte et nous avons vu plusieurs feux d’artifices dans les banlieues de Paris. C’était la veille du 14 Juillet. Les feux d’artifices étaient loins et en un moment, nous avons vu 5 feux d’artifices grâce à cette vue panoramique.

On National Day itself, we went to Champ Mars to see the fireworks. Since last year, there had been a rock concert at Champ Mars before the fireworks started. The last time I came for the fireworks was a few years ago. This time, we were met with tight security. There were a lot of people and we did not had a good view of the fireworks. Still, it was always nice to see fireworks light up Eiffel Tower.

Le jour de la fête nationale, nous sommes allés aux Champs Mars le soir. Depuis l’an dernier, il y a un concert de rock aux Champs Mars avant le commencement du feu d’artifices. Il y a quelques années que je n'était pas allée voir le feu d’artifices. Cette fois ci, il y avait beaucoup de contrôle de sécurité. Il y avait beaucoup de monde et nous n’avons pas eu une belle vue. Néanmoins, c’est toujours quelque choses de voir le feu d’artifices à coté le Tour Eiffel.

On Wednesday, I met up Sam during my lunch time and baded him farewell before he headed to the airport. But alas, he missed his flight by 5 mins. His luggage was already checked in. It was at the security control that held him up. So, he stayed another night and cooked Seb and I a sumptuous dinner.

Mercredi, j’ai déjeuné avec Sam pendant ma pause déjeuner et on s'est dit au revoir avant qu'il parte pour l’aéroport. Mais il a manqué son avion de 5 mins. Sa valise était déjà enregistrée. C’était le contrôle de sécurité qui l'a ralenti. Donc, il est resté encore une nuit et il a préparé un dîner superbe pour Seb et moi.

Sam will be in London for the next 2 years. We are sure that we would have a chance to meet up again soon. After all, he had only visited Paris and France offers so many gastronomy opportunities for him.

Sam est à Londres pour les prochains deux ans. Je suis sûre que nous nous verrons bientôt. Il a visité seulement Paris et la France offre tellement d'opportunités gastronomiques.

Note: Photos courtesy of Sam.

Random reads

I read an article about an interview given by Lee Kuan Yew on the Middle East Times.

One of the questions was : "So how do you see the future of capitalism?" Mr Lee replied : "As chairman of the equivalent of our Sovereign Wealth Fund, we examine and decide where to invest our money, in equities or bonds or what have you. Our fund managers are paid five times what I get. Why? Because they have had good track records in growing our fund and we know what they could command in the private sector. They are dealing with billions of dollars every day and must be compensated accordingly. "

He also added; "So here we also stay with the losers, make sure they have enough to live on, with healthcare, equal education opportunities for their children whose parents can no longer afford it. It's very important they not feel abandoned. So we have workfare and ingenuous ways to keep them working as we don't want layabouts doing nothing. We also subsidize homes which they would not be able to buy. A society can only survive if there is a sense of equity and fair play."

After this article, I read another article about sovereign wealth funds. Temasek was heavily referenced.

Extracted from the article "Barclays is expected to add two new sovereign wealth funds to its existing duo of China Development Bank and Singapore's Temasek, which came on board last July to help the British bank raise its - unsuccessful - bid for ABN Amro. That is in addition to its negotiations with Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, which is expected to invest around £500m as part of a new business relationship with Barclays.

Yet both have already lost more than half their investment, paying 720p a share for their combined 5 per cent stake compared with last week's price of around 320p.

It is not Temasek's only loss: last December, it paid $4.4bn (£2.2bn) for a stake in US banking giant Merrill Lynch; last week, that holding was worth just $3.4bn. "

Are you thinking what I am thinking? Fund managers paid five times more than Mr Lee Kuan Yew while they were losing billions of Singaporean's hard earn money?

As for the subsidize homes, that is another interesting point. I remembered I read a while ago about this subject. However, I could not find back the article. I did however found a similar opinion in Dairy of a Singaporean Mind.

Below is just an extraction:
Understanding the Market in Market Subsidy

Have you ever wondered what will HDB flats costs if the PAP did not change the rules and allow CPF to be used to pay for them? Have you ever wondered what they will cost if only 12 year housing loans are allowed instead of 25 yr loans?

Since the HDB supplies 70-80% of property market, it is a virtual monopoly. Given that HDB is part of the govt, it also has control of the property market in terms of policy. So Singaporeans are subsidised against a market that is created by the HDB and govt.

Note: If you are interested to read more, click on the hyperlinks. Happy reading.

Samaria National Park

When we were in Crete, Seb and I went on a day trip to the national park of Samaria. The gorge of Samaria is situated in the National park of Samaria, in the White Mountains in West Crete.

Pendant notre vacances en Crête, Seb et moi avons fait une excursion au national parc de Samaria. La Gorge de Samaria est situé dans le parc, parmi les montagnes blancs en Crête de l'ouest.

The trekking from the starting point of the National Park down to the end was about 13km. We had to walk an extra 3km to reach the sea at Agia Roumeli. Over there,we would take a boat to have a view of the white mountains from the sea.

La randonnée compte 13km. Il faut marcher encore 3km pour arriver sur la mer dans le village Agia Roumeli. Là bas, nous avons pris un bateau afin d'avoir la vue de la mer sur les montagnes blanches.

The entry to the park cost 5€ and it started at an altitude of 1250m. For the first few kilometers, it was steep slopes all the way down. As I was not prepared for this trip, I did not have adequate shoes. My knees were killing me after a few hours of walk.

L'entrée du parc coûte 5€ et la marche commence à une altitude du 1250m. Pendant les premiers kilomètres, il n'y avait que des pentes abruptes. Comme je n'étais pas préparé pour cette randonnée, je n'avais pas les chaussures adéquate. Mes genoux m'ont tués après quelque heures de marche.

This walk is greatly discourage for elderly people and people with health problems. On our first kilometer, we saw an elderly man sitting on the ground panting for air. His companion was trying to help him. I had seen donkeys at the park entry. I assumed that these donkeys would be used to carry people in difficulties out of the park.

Samaria n'est pas une promenade facile. Elle est fortement déconseillée aux personnes âgées et aux personnes avec des problèmes de santé. Pendant notre premier kilomètre, nous avons vu une personne âgée par terre et il avait des difficultés pour respirer. Son compagnon essayait de l'aider. J'ai vu des ânes à l'entrée du parc et j'ai pensé que ces ânes transportent les gens en difficulté hors du parc.

There are many resting points in the parc. As a natural park, there are no vendors. However, there are fresh water points and we could always refill our bottles from the fresh cooling spring water.

Il y a beaucoup d'endroits pour faire une pause dans le parc. Il n'y a pas de vendeur mais il y a toujours une source d'eau potable. Nous avons rempli nos bouteilles avec de l'eau fraiche.

At the base of the mountains, part of the valley was narrow. We felt so small walking between the mountains. The view was beautiful.

Dans la gorge, il y a des parties qui sont très étroites. Nous nous sentions petits entre les montagnes. La vue était magnifique.

There were a few small streams to cross. The villages around drink from this source. So we were told not to touch the water.

Il y avait des ruisseaux à traverser. L'eau potable est utilisée par les villages aux alentours. Donc, il est interdit de toucher l'eau.

At the end of the trail is the sea. We set off at 8am and reached the seaside around 2.30pm. We were really hot and sweaty. Most of us changed into our swimwear and went into the sea for a cool dip.

A la fin de la randonnée, nous sommes arrivés à la mer. Nous avons commencé à 8h et nous sommes arrivés vers 14h30. Nous avions très chaud. La plupart des gens ont mis leurs maillots de bain et ont profité de la mer.

We took the boat at 3.30pm and rode along the southern coast until a few villages away where our bus was waiting for us to bring us back to the hotel. It was a great excursion and I have no regrets doing it though Seb and I had muscles aches the next day.

Nous avons pris le bateau vers 15h30 et nous sommes remontés de la côte sud jusqu'à un village plus loin. Nous avons ensuite pris le car pour l'hôtel. C'était une formidable excursion et je l'ai beaucoup aimé malgré les courbatures le lendemain.