Travels travels

This month, Seb is travelling alot more than usual. He usually goes Belgium for a day by speed train. Last week, he was in Luxembourg for a day. Yesterday, he was in Belgium and today, he had left for Turkey for three days. Next week, he is going to London for three days and I will be heading to Finland for three days too for my first work trip.

Some couples do not mind being away from each other for a short period of time. But Seb and I really enjoy each other's company in the evening watching TV, being in the same room doing our own reading, eating dinner etc. Basically, we need to see each other and hear each other's voice daily. Being on business trip does make us miss each other dearly. But I can do without it. Still, I am excited for my coming trip as I have never been to Finland. And being able to travel for my new job so soon is a positive thing.

Now, we need to organise the care of Bao Bei. She would be alone for two days. I do hope my kind boss will be able to pass by our place to feed her and check that she is well.

For this weekend, we will head to Chartres for a good rest. I will go pick up Seb at the airport on Friday night on the way to Chartres. He had been waking up at 5 am for his travels and I would want to nurse my cold before attacking the next week.

Weather update

These two weeks, it had been rainy in Paris and the temperature had dropped drastically.
In this summer season, the rightful temperature should be 10 degrees more.
Due to this unexpected cold season, most of my colleagues were down with cold and flu.
I was not spared too. Yesterday, I was having a cold and had to search for my winter pull and pyjamas.
In our apartement,we had central heating and it had been switched off for summer.
Thankfully, from this friday onwards, the weather seems to be better.
Today, it was 19 degrees. By this saturday, we should be enjoying 29 degrees.
I can't wait for this weekend.

The other side of the Causeway

I read this article this morning and this is not the first time I read on such cases. In Malaysia, once you are born to Muslim parents, you are forever a Muslim and you cannot marry a non-Muslim.

Last year, I read about this Chinese man who was brought up by muslim parents. When he was born, the hospital made a mistake and two babies were swapped. His real Chinese parents had the baby of the muslim couple. Now, the two men were staying with their real parents. However, the chinese man had difficulty in coverting his religion.

Same case for a muslim woman who was converted christian. She could not change her religion on her identity card.

Makes one think that depending on which side of the causeway you are born, religion freedom can have a great impact (positive, negative) in your life.


PS: For non-Singporeans and non-Malaysians, the causeway is a bridge that joins Singapore and Malaysia.

SOLDES

It's the sales month here in France. Normally, shops are closed on sunday in France. But for the first sunday of sales, some shops were opened. I had the opportunity to go window shopping along rue de Rivoli yesterday after church with Seb.

When I first arrived in Paris, I found it weird not being able to do shopping on Sundays. Even those big departmental stores like Printemps, BHV and Galleries Lafayette are closed. If they can have their way, these shops will want to be opened on Sunday. It is the French law that forbids shops to be opened on Sunday. The labour union fights for the welfare of the working people. It does not want workers to be exploited to work on weekends. Furthermore, small shops will lose out to big departmental stores who have more resources to stay open on Sunday. Traditionally, Sunday is a time for family lunch and a walk in the park.

Since a while ago, the law has been laxed. Now, shops are given a few occasions to stay open on Sunday. Usually, shops opened on Sunday during the sales period and the christmas season. Now, do not be despaired if you are an Asian tourist on a 'Visit 6 europeans countries' 15 days tour and arrived on a Sunday for your one-day Paris tour. I just read in the papers today that Louis Vuitton (yes, your favorite luxury goods) will be opened on Sundays now. In order for a shop to be opened on Sundays as well, it must have a 'cultural character'. And the 1900 sq meters LV shop along avenue des Champs-Elysées has achieved that by creating an art space on the eigth floor. Still, please be reminded that each tourist can only buy two articles. ;)

Alernatively, check out LV's website for the ultimate online shopping therapy.

Note: if you are living in a western country and wonder why I emphasise on shops opening on Sunday, do visit Asia where shops are opened daily from 10am to 10pm; and in Singapore, where MacDonalds never close.

Late parenthood

There is this trend in developed countries where first time parents are getting older. We read so often that people have kids later. In our parents' generation, people have their first kids between their early-twenties and mid-twenties. Now, people are first time parents around their early-thirties to mid-thirties. That is a ten years gap compared to the generation before.

Today, we are in the information age. School life has extended resulting in later entry into the working society. We start 'adult life' later compared to our parents. We are information overloaded. We are constantly filled with information and are lured to try out every new things. The possibilities are indefinite. Except some of us do not try hard enough to love unconditionally. By the time we 'settle' down, we have most likely reached the big '3'.

The GG (generation gap) will widen between parents and kids. Now, it is still common to see four generations in a family. Great-grandmother at 80 years old, grandmother at 55 years old, mother at 30 years old and child at 5 years old.

In the next generation, it will be rare to have four generations under a roof. Grandmother at 75 years old, mother at 40 years old and child at 5 years old. Of course, I was just quotating two extreme examples above. In the first case,all ladies gave birth at age of 25 and in the second case, at age of 35.

So, what is my point? I can elaborate on this issue and the consequences. I can close this entry in a different direction. But what I just want to point out is this:- Children in the next generation will have to cope with loss of their parents at an earlier age than the children of this generation.

It is never easy to lose a parent. No matter at what age. But if we are older and have our own children, maybe it would ease the pain a little.

PS: if you catch no ball (Singlish speaking), don't bother. this entry was written at 1 am in the morning while I was suffering from insomnia. this entry is caffeine driven.

Update on my balcony

I bought a small chilli plant two months ago and it has grown more than twice its size. There are chillis growing out. I am so happy. Soon I hope, I will have big juicy red chillis to go with my meals.
Don't the chillis look as though they are wearing skirts? Click on the photo to see it better.

For the other plants at the balcony, they are growing well too. My lavender plant is growing in all directions.

Gardening really makes me feel zen.

Of put, strike price, collar and leg

I changed job and I changed domain totally. I used to work for an ERP software. Now, I work for a financial software.

From terms like permanent inventory, linear depreciation method, recurring entries, balance sheet, back order, invoice statistics, etc ...., I am now faced with terms like swap, FOREX, PV(present value), put option, strike price, collar and legs. Legs are deals of a contract.

Welcome to the financial world.
After a week of absorbing all the information and creating SQL scripts, I am so looking forward to the weekend. The best news is that my boss had a little meeting with me earlier on and he was pleased with my performance of this week. How encouraging of him. Let's see if I can continue to maintain this level of concentration for next week. I am exhausted.

I will go watch the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End tonight. Seb had a long week too. We both just want to relax and wait for Chow Yun-Fat with his "Welcome to Singapore."

Let's talk about price again.

3 weeks ago, our kitchen window broke. It was a Sunday and we were out at church followed by furniture shopping. Along the way home, Seb and I noticed that there were fallen tree branches along the road. The wind was very strong on that day.

Upon reaching home, the first thing I saw was broken glasses on the kitchen floor. The kitchen window was not firmly closed that morning and with the strong wind, it smashed and broke. While I was cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, Seb went downstairs to pick up the broken pieces. Our kitchen faced the narrow backyard and there was rarely anyone there. So no one was hurt.

On this occasion, our neighbour's window was broken too. She told Seb that she would call up a repair man to check on the price. The man came and quoted 550€ for each window. That was really expensive as we only needed to change the piece of glass. This contact was taken from a pamplet in the letter box. Warning: Never call the guys listed in those junk mails.

Finally, our kind neighbour contacted her insurance and they sent a repair man to fix the windows. Our insurance did not have any contact with such services. The cost was 163.22€. We will send the bill to our home insurance and hope that the insurance covers the full bill.

See the before and after repair. Over here, there are really no control of prices for these kinds of repairs. Sian.

Eyeglasses

I can't live without my eyeglasses. The current eyeglasses I have was made in Singapore more than 3 years ago. So, recently I went to make a pair of eyeglasses.

In France, eyewear is super expensive. I made a no-brand ordinary eyeglasses and that cost me 530€ in total due to the high degree of my glasses. A "free" pair of sunglasses was thrown in to make the offer looked sweeter. Still, my current pair cost me 80€ and it was of very good quality. I paid for the new eyeglasses and will be getting a full refund back from my company's insurance.

In France, most companies provide their employees with an insurance. It is called the "mutuelle". For a small fee which is deducted from the pay, the "mutuelle" covers the outstanding medical bills when the social security does not pay the totality of the bill. A good "mutuelle" usually pays in full the outstanding medical bills.

In my previous company, I had a good mutuelle. The mutuelle covered 200€ for the frame and 400€ for a pair of glasses. Without the mutuelle, it meant that I would have to pay the eyeglasses out of my own pocket.

And on my first day of job, I discovered something better. In my current company, I have a better mutuelle. I do not know all the details yet but the mutuelle covers up to 400€ for the frame and 600€ for a pair of glasses.

I would never imagine buying a 1000€ eyeglasses. In one week's time, when I collect my new eyeglasses, I will be the owner of a pair of SG$1000 eyeglasses that most probably cost SG$160 if made in Singapore.

When I first arrived in France, I was often shocked by the prices here. I am slowly getting used to the standard of living here. I guess if I live here longer, I would not even bat an eyelid at such atrocious prices. Let time tells. . . .

Christmas came early

Today is my last day with Exact Software. In accordance to tradition here,I did my pot de départ (farewell party) with everyone in office. I brought champagne and tibits.

In return, I was pampered with gifts. It was like christmas except that I was the only one getting the presents.

I got a lovely pot of plants. A big red heart shape cushion to remind me of Exact's corporate colour. Some scented perfume bottles and pot pourri. And to remind me of the pizza lunch we had so often in the office, I received a pizza cutter. It was so sweet of my colleagues and boss. I guess they really appreciated me and it made leaving a little bit harder.

Tomorrow, I will embark on a new journey. One that avoids the metro line 13. Yipee! And for encouraging me, Seb bought me some flowers and a nice card. I hope I can sleep well tonight.

Counting down to the end of the month

I am finally counting down to my last work day with Exact. This is my first job in France and I have been working here since 3 years and 3 months. The longest period I ever stayed in a job. My new job starts on 1 June and I am slowly feeling the anxiety of having to know a new company, new colleagues, new boss and new environment.
I will definitely miss this company. I had learnt a great deal about french society, french culture, french people, french humour and french working style.
One thing I will not miss though is Metro Line 13. Au revoir la ligne 13!

Lovely pineapple entrée

We celebrated my mom-in-law’s birthday last weekend. As the weather was fine, we had lunch at the terrace.
Lunch was catered and as entrée, we had this lovely pineapple, crab and avocado salad. It was nicely presented and the portion was big. After this, I was no longer hungry for the rest to come.

Château d'Amboise

There are many castles dotting along the banks of the river Loire. I had already visited a few like Chambord, Chenonceau and Chaumont over the years. Last Friday, Seb and I decided to visit Château d'Amboise.

This royal castle was an important place for French kings from mid-15th to mid-16th centuries. On the terraces, we could see the Loire valley below. It was a first where Italian tastes were introduced into the Loire Valley.

I find the entrance fee expensive at 8.50€. The castle used to be bigger but a huge portion was demolished when Louis-Philippe received it.

The photo on the left is the bedchamber of Louis Philippe with Empire-style furnitures. Coincidentally, this is the "in" color for this season and I do like it. However, I doubt Seb allows wall-paper of this color on our new walls.

The whole visit took us about an hour.

In the Saint Hubert Chapel on the castle's ground lied Leonardo da Vinci. He was invited to stay at Amboise by François I. The king was a great patron of Renaissance arts. Da Vinci died in 1519 in the Manor of Cloux (Close Lucé) and was interred, according to his wishes, at the château.

After the castle visit, we drove down to Mont-Louis where we visited the wine yards and wine producers. Mont-Louis produces wine on a small scale. My father-in-law used to get his supplies of Mont-Louis wine from one of these producers. However, the wine yard was passed on to the son and the standard of the wine dropped. We were armed with a mission to buy from different producers each a bottle of 2005 white sec (dry) wine in order to find the right wine to his taste. We only managed to get three different bottles since most of them were closed.

In the evening, the family of 5 became wine tasters and finished the three bottles. Verdict: None pleased the family.

For the next blog, I will try to find old photos of the other castles that I have been to. I find them more impressive than this one.

Brittany

Seb and I spent 4 days in Brittany last week. Tuesday was a holiday so we took leave on Monday to enjoy a long weekend.

Our family has a summer house there and we tried to go to Ploumoguer at least once a year. Usually, we try to arrive before Saturday so that we can visit the saturday market in Saint Renan. It is really peaceful here and there are more farm animals than humans.

When I first stayed in the house in Ploumoguer, I did not dare to go to the toilet at night. The house faced the village church. On the first floor, we were on the same level as the cetemery. Walking to the toilet required passing through the windows looking out to these tombs. But now, I am used to the sight. The cemetery is always well kept and tidy.

Beginning from 7am in the morning, the church bells will ring. It tells the time with a 30 mins interval. That needs a bit of getting used to. In the old days, this must have been really helpful for the villagers.

During this trip, we visited Morlaix and Roscoff. They are two towns that are about 60km from Brest and we always try to visit new places when we are in Ploumoguer.

The photo on the left was taken at Morlaix.

As we were returning from Roscoff, we passed by a beach and there were a lot of activites going on. Kite surfing, kite boarding, kite landboarding , kite buggying, horse riding. This small town is pretty lively with kids.

Brittany is known for its pig farms, potatoes fields, califlower fields and artichokes fields. I love to eat artichoke. So I was really happy when I saw artichokes fields for the first time.

And this is how an artichoke looks like when it is cooked and ready to eat.

Before leaving, we dropped by Le Conquet to enjoy the view of this pretty town. We tried to spot Seb's father boat to let him know that his little boat was safe at port.

In France, there are three public holidays in May alone. The next one is on the 17 May which is on a thursday. We took leave on friday and this time we will spend 4 days in Chartres. It feels good to have such short holiday trips; especially when the weather is fine at this moment.

Please take Note

We are finally the proud owner of a new car. It is the Nissan Note. We planned to have a car around this time and had been changing our minds over which car to take. This car is our weekend car. As I wrote before in this blog, there is no point driving in Paris. Taking public transport is faster than driving provided there is no strike.

There are too many choices even in the category we wanted. Seb wanted the Roomster from Skoda but I really did not like the shape. I liked Honda Jazz but in the end, we took Note for its compact size and spacious interior.

We have an automatic gear as I am not used to driving on the right side of the road. I don't think that this car is available in Singapore.

Our real road test was last weekend when we drove all the way to Bretagny for a long weekend. That's a total of 1200++km there and back. I was glad cos' this is the first time I drove long distance in France. Seb and I shared driving.
Verdict: Stable car even at 130 km/h but the motor is a bit noisy. Loud music helps to overcome this.

Some cool features included:
- wipers start automatically when it detects rain;
- lights start automatically when the car is in a tunnel or when it is dark.

The rest of the features are pretty much the same as the others. One good thing, there is no beep while reversing. I just can't stand it in my mom's car which is a Nissan too. Each time I tried to park, I felt as though the car was going to explode with its increasing urgent 'beep' as the car neared the wall.

Le poisson bar

On Labour day, Anne-Sophie invited us for lunch. She is the queen of tarts. She makes great tarts and though I am not a tart person, I do look forward to lunch at Anne-Sophie's. I love her tarts.

The sun was shining and we had lunch in the garden. We did a lot of catching up as we had not met since a couple of months. On top of the good food and company, I had an incentive. Anne-Sophie's parents just returned from Normandy and her dad caught some fish that morning. She asked if I would like to bring one back as dinner.

So, I took one. It was a bar. I have no idea what is the name in English. Maybe someone can advise me on that. I had to remove the scales and the innards and boy was that hard work.

As I had no oven, I could only steam the fish. I had to chop off the head and the tail so that it could fit my plate and steaming pot.

I put in some slices ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Also some dried chillis and crepes. Basically, I put in anything available in my kitchen.

After 15 minutes of steaming, dinner was ready. It was tasty and thinking back, the disgusting task of cleaning the fish was worth it.

Mom, if you read this, tell me if they sell this fish in Singapore.

ps: got the name of the fish. It is a sea brass.

Headlines: They make you think what they want you to believe

Two reports with about the same information but presented in slightly different ways.
Even the headlines aim at different directions.

So I gathered that employment and unemployment rise at the same time. *scratch head* Can someone please explain to me if I understand that correctly? ;)

Singapore's Unemployment Rate Rises
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/29/ap3666144.html

Employment rises by 48,000 in January-March quarter: MOM
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/273326/1/.html

French presidential election

The title is a trick. French presidential election is indeed tomorrow. However, I am not writing anything about it. After my last blog, I started to search about Singapore politics. I invite you to check out two banned in Singapore movies about two people in Singapore. It is really interesting what we can find nowadays with these Google video and YouTube thingy.

Singapore Rebel (26 mins): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8057768553173785296

Zahari's 17 Years (49 mins): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2022589417781119779&hl=en-GB

Before ending, let me test you with a simple question. Who is the longest serving political prisoner after Nelson Mandela? No idea? Click here to find out the answer.

If you give peanuts, you get monkeys.

Read that Singapore government is going to have a big pay increment.










So, do they deserve it?

Extracts from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/05/singapore.salaries.reut/index.html
Finland, for instance, beat Singapore in the WEF and Transparency International polls -- as second-most competitive and most corruption-free country -- but its Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen earns about a sixth of Lee's estimated salary.

But Lee Kuan Yew -- modern Singapore's first prime minister, who is still the leading voice in his son's cabinet -- will have none of it.
"The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government," Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday, adding that it is "absurd" for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warned that Singapore would suffer it the government could not pay competitive salaries.
"Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries," he said.

600€ cash

Let me pick up where I left off from my last entry. So while I was writing on Saturday, Seb was at the airport waiting for his flight to Boston.

At 10.30am, he left for the airport and I started to do housework. After an hour and a half, he called and said that the plane was overbooked and he and his colleagues were encouraged to fly off a day later. As compensation, they were each given two options; 600€ cash or 800€ Air France voucher valid for a year. Well, he took the first option and while waiting for his return, my mind was going through the list of things that we could buy with this windfall. In the end, we decided to replace our digital camera that recently broke down. In the afternoon, we went on a shopping spree. It was great for me as I have my husband for an extra day and got a free digital camera among other things.

What a day to end off March 2007, isn't it?