Berlin

Seb and I visited Berlin during the recent school holidays while the boys were with their grandparents.

We spent 4 wonderful days walking around this dynamic city. We walked a lot and came across the major landmarks. We visited 3 museums and watched the movie "Crazy rich asians" that I happened to chance upon. And of course, I did some shopping at the nearby Mall of Berlin.

Our stay at Marriott Berlin was perfect. Thanks to Seb's frequent overseas work trips, he accumulated enough reward points and got us a superior room for less than 100€ for the 3 nights. This room gave us excess to the executive lounge. I did not know such lounge exists. For my work trips, I had been to the Air France business lounge at the airport. The hotel's executive lounge was similar. Cozy, private and always replenish with drinks and light snacks. We could even have simple meals there.

From our hotel, we could see the Singapore embassy. I was surprised to see the Singapore flag flying!

We visited East Side Gallery. The 1.3km of the reminding Berlin wall was creatively painted and it was an open art gallery. There were many interesting paintings and thought provoking texts.

I saw these Eastern Germany manufactured cars, the Trabant. They used to be the cars driven in the Eastern Bloc. Now they are used mainly as tourist attractions.

Before the Berlin Wall was built, it was divided into four zones: US, British, French and Russian. We visited this street to see Charlie's Checkpoint. There was a checkpoint and a sighboard. Nearby was the Charlie's Checkpoint museum.

Seb and I were amused to see tourists posing with fake American soldiers for a small fee.

As for museums, we visited the German Historical museum, the Pergamon museum and the Topography of Terror.

The museum island housed many museums and the Pergamon museum is one amazing museum. It contains antiquity from ancient middle east and Isalmic arts. 

The impressive reconstructions of massive archaeological structures – the Pergamon Altar, Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Mshatta Facade – have made the Pergamonmuseum famous throughout the world.

The German Historical museum gave a comprehensive history of Germany since the days of lords and kings. After two hours in there and before reaching the WW1 section, we left. There were many conflicts in europe. In between the numerous conflicts were the 100 years war between 1337 to 1453 and the 30 years war between 1618 and 1648. These information was heavy on the heart. Still, it was a museum full of well preserved items on display.

On our last day, we walked around our district at Potsdamer Platz and arrived at Topography of Terror.  This site was once the Gestapo and SS headquarters. The buildings were demolished after the war. Germans tried to get on with their lives and erased the painful past.

This recent museum detailed the raising of Hilter and how the Nazis came into power resulting into World War 2. How the Jews were persecuted. Homosexuals, gypsies, political opponents were not spared too. 

After the walls collapsed, new buildings were built in these no man zones. Berlin feels young and vibrant. It shows even in its food. Many restaurants have vegan options. It was easy for Seb to find something suitable for him.

Seb organised this trip and after 16 years of marriage (yes, this is our wedding anniversary trip), he is starting to know my travel style. He brought me to a Sunday open market and an indoor Saturday food market. I bought 2 second hand english books and a book about the Berlin wall.

Berlin is an educational trip. Germany has such a dark past. I hope this dark history will never repeat itself though the current political situations around the world seems to be heading towards this path.

Back to Nissan

After having the DS3 for about three years, I decided to change car. I realised that for a small car, the DS3 was consuming too much fuel. The BMW motor (yes, BMW and Citroen exchanged parts) was running on an average 8L of petrol per 100km. That is worse than the VW Touran. Furthermore, petrol prices are on the increase. 

Seb and I discussed and decided that we shall go full electric. We did think of having a hybrid car but on high speed, it still consumes petrol. 

With me working from home, my routine is to go to my La Defense office on Mondays and Paris on Saturdays for the boys' chinese lesson. The rest of the days are ferrying the boys to the next town for their activities. Any medium size electric car can do 200km easily and Paris back and fro from our place is about 130km. 

Seb advised me not to buy an electric car but to lease it. As the batteries of electric cars are evolving constantly , being more and more powerful, the electric car we procured would be obsolete in the years to come.

We do not have much choice in France. We tried Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf, and took a 37 months lease with the Nissan Leaf. We are back to Nissan, my first love. Yeah! (Our first car was a Nissan Note). 

This car has lots of cool features. It has lane departure warning, distance control while on cruise control, ePedal,  back passenger seat belts warning etc...

It was a breeze to drive this car. It was bigger than the DS3 though I still prefer the compact size of the DS3. I have never driven an electric car but it is just as powerful as any other car. It is silent and takes off once the pedal is stepped on. 

For charging the car, we installed a box. It takes about 7 hours to fully charge an empty battery at 6kW. A fully charged battery would cost about 5€ of electricity. The car tracks the estimated time needed to charge and the car regenerates energy when it slows down. So the indicated kilometers is an estimation. So far, we have never reach 0%. The min we had left was 25% of battery.

In the village, there are two charging boxes in the public parking outside the school. It is free to charge there and I have applied for the charging card. There is a Zoe in the village but so far when I charged the car there, the charging boxes were available.

A new school term has started and chinese lesson in Paris will begin soon. Another postive point of having an electric car in Paris, public parking is free; that is if there is an empty one available. :)

Medivale festival in Dourdan

Last weekend was the yearly medivale festival in Dourdan. We visited the castle in the late afternoon on Saturday while Seb went to Dourdan swimming pool.

This was the third time we attended this festival. We decided to stay within the castle during our short visit. The boys spent time playing with some wooden games like the bar skittle bowling, puck game etc. They were rewarded with sweets if they scored well. We spent a long time there.

There was performance in the castle ground. Sword fighting. Archery sessions were held at the moat.

For the first time, we visited the museum in the castle. It was a small one and had interesting information on the local history.

While we were queueing for ice cream and fries, Seb called me to say he would pick us up after his swim. We headed to our meeting point and that ended our short visit of the festival. I hope to visit next year on a sunday afternoon to catch the knights battle.

Strawberries a plenty

I bought two strawberry plants last year from the organic farm and one of them have reproduced giving lots of daughter plants. It was growing a few long runners last september and I put the new baby plants in smaller pots just around it. I left them out and they survived winter. I spotted white flowers and am waiting now for strawberries.

The other plant was planted in my vegetable plot and it is doing well too. It has grown much bigger and there are flowers too.

Hoping these plants will give many strawberries in the next few months. 

Book: La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert

My bookworm friend recommended me this book and I had it as my christmas gift from my sister-in-law. I read the original version in French and while writing this post, I realised that there is a version in English. The title is The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.

This novel though is more than 800 pages, is easy to read. The many twisting plots make reading unstoppable. Each time, when I started to read the book in bed, I knew that I would sleep only in the early hours of the night. 

I really enjoyed reading the book. Once the book is finished, I find it remarkable of the author to come up with such ideas. I won't write about the story here. Go read it. It is highly entertaining.

Home made laundry detergent

I made my first bottle of laundry detergent. It was really easy and I had already washed 4 loads of clothes with this detergent. The clothes were cleaned and I am satisfied with my product.

It is really easy to make the detergent. 

Heat up 1L of water.

Mix in 50 gram of grated savon de Marseille (at least 70% pure without glycerin).

Add in 3 spoons of sodium bicarbonate and 30 drops of essential oil.

I chose tea tree oil as it smells good and is antiseptic and antibacterial.

Mix the mixture well and when it has cool down, pour the detergent into a bottle.

The mixture hardens slightly once it has cooled down and I have to give the bottle a good shake to pour out the detergent at each use. Other than that, I have no complains about this chemical free and cheap detergent.

I no longer have to buy detergent. Anyone up for the game to try it?

Book: Bakhita by Véronique Olmi

Last year I mentioned that I gave this book as a gift to my retired doctor. I also mentioned that I wanted to read it. A few months back, I borrowed this book from the village library and read the 400++ pages in a fortnight.

This book by Véronique Olmi is based on the life story of Bakhita who was kidnapped at the age of 7 and became a slave. In a twist of events, she ended up in Italy and became a religious sister when she gained freedom.

The book was in 3 parts (if I remembered correctly). The first part on her stolen childhood was very painful to read. The enormous sufferings she went through was unimaginable. No normal person, least a child can survive this. Her thoughts and longing of home was heart breaking to read. 

When she arrived in Italy, things seems to work out better for her. However she was a foreigner in a white people's land. I could empathize with her thoughts. Not being able to express herself in Italian, not being used to the culture, not having family and worst, not remembering her own name; the name given by her parents. 

I do not think this book is available in English. But if you are interested in Bakhita, you can read about her on Wikipedia. It does give a good description of her life. This book touched me a lot. If you read French, take the challenge to read this book. It is not easy to read, I cried. But it is so worth it in the end.

Train strike calendar

This is massive. This is messy. This is the calendar of the train strike from April to June. Two days strike followed by three days work. And the cycle continues like this. 

It looks like my work calendar when I was working at the Seagate factory during one school vacation. The shift of 12 hours was three days work, two days rest, followed by two days work and then three days rest.

Not only SNCF is protesting, unions from other big companies are joining. Seb had to fly for his work on tuesday the 3rd and was informed through a SMS 24 hours before that AirFrance cancelled the flight. The message was sent on Easter Monday at 6am and Seb woke up quickly to book his ticket with EasyJet. 

Since I work from home and only go office once a week, this period should not been too difficult for me. However, it would be such a pain for workers taking public transport to work. I hope the unions and the government manage to settle their differences real soon.

DIY Box pouches

My new sewing craze at the moment is box pouch. I bought some fabrics and zips from Singapore. The zips are cheaper in Singapore. 

I had made 5 so far and am still not satisfy with the results though to others, the pouches look lovely and presentable.

I saw this scooter fabric in Singapore and it was love at first sight. I have made 2 pouches with it.

For this pouch, I used left over fabric from the tote bag I made a few years back. It is meant for a Japanese friend. I gave it to her today and she was surprised that I sew.

I will continue to make pouches at the meantime as I would like to improve on it. Hope to make the perfect one soon.

Food in Kuala Lumpur

In Kuala Lumpur, we visited Lot 10 Hutong Food court for lunch on our first day. It is situated in Bukit Bintang along the streets of shopping malls.

Apparently,  all the best street food stalls are clustered in this food court. One can't miss it with all the sign boards just outside the food court. We had a good lunch and it was hard to choose what to eat.

For dinner one evening, we walked over to Jalan Alor where there was a street long of open air restaurants.  Most of the eateries offered the same dishes. There were also stalls selling fruits and durians.

We settled at one table and ordered satays and noodles and tofu stew and rice etc... From our table, we could see all the actions in the kitchen.

After dinner, my mum bought some local fruits. A1 loves dragonfruit so we bought two. The fruit seller made us try the small apples. They were very crunchy and sweet. Mum bought some too.

Another evening, my mum and I went to Jalan Alor after dinner and had durians. 

We bought fruits again at Chinatown. We all love mango and these mangoes were very good.

Like Singapore, it is so easy to get fresh fruits.

A1 first school trip for a week

A1 went on a volcano study trip with his classmates. They spent five days in Auvergne and came back this evening. We were happy to see him. It was the first time he was away alone.

Though he missed us, he enjoyed himself. The group stayed in a big house and A1 slept with 4 other friends in a big bedroom. They hiked each day and visited Vulcania on Wednesday. They usually did picnic during lunch time and in the evening, had their dinners at a nearby restaurant. He told me breakfast was buffet style and one morning, he had 3 yogurts. He enjoyed mealtimes and ate everything.

He mentioned the hikes were tiring and it was cold in the morning. Indeed, it was the start of spring but the temperature was low for the season. They visitied Puy de Dôme, Puy de la vache and Lac Pavin among others.

A1 had 20€ as pocket money and he spent half on the Saint Nectaire cheese. He must have stopped by this village. He also bought 2 notebooks with pens for himself and his brother. With not much left, he gave 2€ to a friend who was short of cash. I was touched by his gesture.

The cheese was a good idea. Each time we go on holiday, I would buy food as gifts for family and friends. A1 takes after me. Tika loves Saint Nectaire but her daughter bought her a bracelet and a pen for herself. I told her I shall pass her a chunk of the cheese. :)

A1 and A2 were happy to see each other. They hugged once A1 alighted from the coach. 5 days not seeing my boy, I felt he had grown taller. His recital of his trip came with confident and self-assurance. He definitely has grown in these 5 days without us.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We spent 4 days in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia during our recent trip to Singapore.  We got around by taxi or with Grab. Grab is Uber's number one competitor in South-east Asia.  We stayed in the Bukit Bintang area and usually a 5 mins Grab ride cost us 5Ringgit (1€). Considering we were 3 adults with 2 children, it was cheaper to squeeze into a car than taking the bus or the MRT. We did take taxis a few times and it cost us thrice the price of a Grab ride.

For most Singaporeans, KL is a weekend getaway place for shopping, food and massages. Since my family and I travelled from far away, I decided to add in touristy stuff with a visit to the National Museum, the aquarium (cos it was cheaper than in Singapore and France) and going to the KL Tower to have a bird eye's view of this city.

The last time I visited KL was more than 15 years ago when I attended a friend's wedding. KL had changed a lot with so many sky scrapers. There was still construction going on just beside the Petronas Towers. Does this city need all these office space?

We shopped at the Central Market for souvenirs. I chose this market as it had air-condition. Seb waited for us at a cafe after half an hour and the boys stayed with him to write post cards. My mum and I continued to the second storey of the market.

There were shops selling local products be it food, craft or clothes. I bought a few batik sarongs as they were really beautiful. I intend to make them into bags or pouches. My mum bought mango chewy candies and durian chocolates. To each his/her interest.

After posting the postcards just outside the Central Market, we took a taxi to the Petronas Tower.

Petronas Towers are the tallest twin towers in the world. The boys were excited to see them. We had lunch at Suria KLCC, the shopping center at the foot of the towers.

After lunch on our way to the aquarium, we came upon a lion dance blessing a shop front. As it was still the first 10 days of Chinese New Year, I was glad that my boys could see this loud performance.

Lion and dragon dance is part of Chinese New Year. So is the big head doll (大头娃娃) though it is often left out.

Aquaria KLCC was just a short 5 mins walk from the towers. As we went on a week day, it was not crowdy.

The boys had a chance to touch small sharks.

This aquarium was as good as the ones in France and from my old memory, that of Singapore's.

We managed to watch sharks feeding. These sharks were fed twice a week and we saw different species of sharks. Other fishes like eels and rays and even a big turtle tried to snatch food.

On another day, we visited the National Museum. The museum is divided into four sections. Starting from the prehistoric age where traces of early men were found in caves, the bronze and iron ages, the colonisation period until the present day with the advance development in the country.

The museum was not big and could be done in an hour and a half. We headed to KL Tower in the afternoon to take in the view of KL. We could see the top of the Petronas Towers. This was where I got the big picture of how developed this city is.

One evening, we visited Chinatown. I thought spending a cool evening there would be nice. It was disappointing as Chinatown only sells fake luxury goods. Touters kept asking Seb if he wanted bags, watches, clothes etc. Seb told me never to bring him to another Chinatown. The one in Bangkok last year was too hot and dusty. This one was full of touters. Oops. The only good thing out of this trip was that the boys bought metal miniature airplanes and were happy. I bought 2 KL t-shirts for them and mum bought local fruits.

On our last day, we hung out at Suria KLCC as Seb wanted to shop for ear phones. Below photo is a Chinese new year theme set up in the shopping mall. It was very well done.

We enjoyed this short getaway. We stayed at a service appartment and the boys enjoyed the pool. The place was beside a train track and from our 10th floor, A2 would look down eagerly for passing trains.

Things in Malaysia is very affordable though I didn't do much shopping. How is it possible? , my friends would ask. The proof: We went by AirAsia with no check in luggages and came back with the same hand carry bags.

KL feels safe and people are friendly. I would like to visit this country again in our next visit to Singapore. Maybe Penang or Ipoh.