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.