www.ehow.com

I've just found out this website. www.ehow.com is giving advice on how to do just about everything. Here are a few examples, of course related to China:
- How to survive a crocodile attack (might be handy when you know that a crocodile escape from a restaurant in China and climbed the stairs above reaching the 4 floor...)
- How to Use Morse Code to Signal for Help
- How to Use Fireworks Safely (especially useful for Chinese new year)
- How to “fashionably” Travel Light (for those of us travelling a lot)
- How to Use a Chinese Toilet (somehow it seems people need instructions to use toilets)
- How to Distinguish Between Chinese Regional Cuisines (this one is very useful as once you get to China you have to choose your restaurant based on the region and not just "Chinese food").

Koerperwelten

This afternoon Wolfram and I went to see an exhibition in Brussels (believe it or not it was the 1st time since I moved to Belgium). Koerperwelten is an exhibition of human bodies that have been plasticized so that you can see their anatomy. Bones, muscles, ligaments, organs, etc. everything was there displayed for you to see. It was quite fascinating to see all the inside details of a body. Somehow it reminded me of my Biology classes (quite some time ago I have to admit) and revived my scientific curiosity. The beauty about the process they used to preserve the bodies is that it makes them look like some kind of plastic and thus you forget very fast that the body you're watching is actually real and that someone donated his body.

Valkyrie

Tonight we went to see the latest movie with Tom Cruise: Valkyrie. I had not heard of it but when you're a fan of Tom, you just go. The movie is about the plot from some officers in Germany during world war 2 to kill Hitler and take control over the country. To be honnest as much as I assumed there must have been some resistance to the Nazis in Germany, I knew nothing about it. As you can imagine in France they teach you about the French resistance and not so much about the German one.
The movie was quite ok for a war movie, obviously not my favourite type of movies. Still quite interesting to find out about the Valkyrie operation and makes you want to read more about it. And a memorable quote: " it's a military operation. It won't got as planned". I'm not sure the army would agree with that :)

Yes it's ok to raise prices

Yesterday I was reading an article in Fortune magazine raising the question whether or not it's ok to increase prices in times of economical crises like these days.

The chore idea is a 2 axis model: Axis 1 is how differentiated the consumer considers the product or service, ranging from a commodity to utterly unique; Axis 2 is how strongly the consumer feels a need for the product or service, from considering it a must-have to seeing it as totally discretionary. The scary question now is where does the product you work on fall? In the top left corner where brands matter and your consumers will stay faithful or in the bottom left corner where any brand would do...

Want to know more, read here.

Luxembourg

I'm sure Luxembourg is a great place to visit in the summer. Because in the winter, it's not the most exciting place to go to. 1st of all there is not much to do and most of what there is to do is outdoor (unless you want to visit the museum of Luxembourg city history). 2nd of all many sites are closed in the winter.
One of the highlights is the grand palais ducal. This palace is so big that we managed to miss it twice. On top it is not a stand alone building; it's stuck between 2 other buildings and is not outstanding style so that could be why we missed it.
I do believe that we did not give Luxembourg its best chance by going there in the winter, but what can I say, we needed plates and it was surely a better place to stay than Mettlach itself.
Believe it or not, we were glad to be back in Belgium.

I need a gas station, now!!!!!!!

On the way back from Mettlach to Luxembourg, I realized I did not have much gas left. Based on the car computer, 100 km or so... Gas is cheaper in Luxembourg than in the rest of Europe so the idea was to pass the border and stop at the 1st gas station. Except that gas station was not coming. The light switched on; only 80 km autonomy left. Stress is coming up even if technically I still have enough gas to cross the whole Luxembourg or so (it's a very small country). We kept on going our eyes as much on the count down as on the side of the road hoping to see a gas station. And that gas station was not coming up. For the 1st time, I got the following message "faites le plein des que possible" ("get gas as soon as possible"). That's what happens when you only have 50km autonomy left. At this point I'm driving only 80 km/h; that's the slowest I've ever driven on a highway but I could only think about reducing consumption. We drove for another 15min, each minute being more stressful than the previous until finally they was a sign: a gas station in 1000m! I've never been so happy to see a gas station.
I still cannot believe that between the border and the suburds of Luxembourg city there was not a signle gas station.

Villeroy & Boch outlet shop

So Wolfram wanted to buy new dishes to replace the Ikea ones he had for years
(and I was fully supporting that idea). He found out that there was a Villeroy & Boch outlet shop in Mettlach, in Germany and a factory shop in Luxembourg. Therefore on Saturday we had planned to go there.

Anyone who knows me knows that plates and dishes are to be taken seriously. It's a family heritage. We all like nice plates and have a tendency to buy a lot of them. After all different occasions or meals deserve different plates. I grew up with the "old Amsterdam" collection of Villeroy & Boch so naturally when I started to buy dishes I considered V&B and found one collection I like: Twist Alea. During my PhD, I bought my first pieces (it was called the starting set) and ever since I have been building up my service, plate by plate, bowl by bowl, cup by cup (because those things are quite expensive in the end). Of course every opportunity to add some more pieces on sale is welcome.

So Saturday morning we hit the road. Well, 1st we checked the pressure of the tires of my car given it had been standing still for 2 months. And that turned out to be a good idea. After 2.5 hour drive we arrived in Mettlach which I believe is only known because of the ceramic factory (let's face it, you need a good reason to get there). In this town, there are 3 V&B outlet shops: the main one, the Christmas on and the Vivo one (modern and younger style). The main one turned out to be fantastic. All the collections were there including mine! Half an hour later I was getting out of the store with 4 round plates, 6 square plates, 18 wine glasses (6 for white wine, 6 for Bordeaux and 6 for Bourgogne). You may ask why so many glasses. The answer is simple: they break, especially when you wash them, so it's good to have spare ones. I believe I am now fully equipped. All I need to do is come back live in Belgium and invite friend and family over :)

My case being sorted out, we focused on Wolfram's. That was a bigger challenge because he had to 1st choose a collection and he wanted white porcelaine. He ended up taking plates from Dune Lines and bowls from Flow. It's a very nice mix and match and I think we can be proud of the choice.

After spending some hundreds of euros in dishes, we had a quick lunch at the coffee place in the outlet where I had the heavier sandwich ever. It was just bread with salad, some sauce and a Schnitzel. I never finished it... Stomach and trunk full we headed towards Luxembourg.

It's good to be home

I'm home!
2 months I haven't been home and it feels good. It does not matter that I am dead tired after the trip (after all I've been up 25 hours now), that the house is cold because the heater was off, that the fridge is empty; I'm home!
And now I will go sleep in my bed :). I will figure out the rest tomorrow.

Feeling like one of the human in Wall-E

Today I was flying back to Belgium. I don't know why but I some point of time I felt like being one of the human characters in Wall-E. In this movie, humans are living in a space shuttle and due to the absence of gravity they do not walk but spend their days sitting on some sort of flying chairs. Everything they need is brought to them by robots. Actually everything that has to be taken care of is being done by robots. Humans are just their to enjoy and relax. This impression is probably coming from the fact that I spend 10 hours sitting in a plane where all I have to do is watch movies, read or sleep (or work) and when I need something all I just push a button to get someone to come and take care of it.

Slumdog millionaire

Slumdog millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who managed to be selected for “Who wants to be a millionaire” and is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. While the game is at the heart of this movie, the movie is more about Jamal’s life and how he grew up as a slumdog boy. Quite an interesting picture of the India of today and of course, like every good Bollywood movie, there is a love story :) but no dancing nor singing. After all it’s a serious movie and some of the scenes in the slum and the streets where familiar to me (and not only the one where they do the laundry).
PS: the movie has been nominated to the Oscars in 10 different categories. Let's hope they will win some.
PS2: let's hope as well this movie will help improve the lives of those who are leaving in a slum today.

It snowed in Beijing

and I missed it. While I was enjoying summer in the Philippines, winter came back to Beijing. It snowed on Tuesday and today when I came back I discovered a white Beijing. From the plane it really looked fantastic and here is the view from my balcony.

Sari Sari stores

Did you know that there are around 600 000 sari sari stores in the Philippines? If you fancy a change of life, just rent a room, go to a supermarket and buy big quantities and sell them in your store at the price you fancy. It is as simple as that!

Be aware of the weird animals from the streets

In the past 3 days I have been walking quite a lot in the "streets" from the Barangays in Manila. I had the opportunity to meet some strange animals. We've met huge cockroaches (and I still haven't recovered from their size), many cats (and their logical counterparts: rats), but the fanciest ones were the roosters. Every 2 households or so owns ones and I can get tell you it makes the streets very animated as of course they sing at any time of the day:)

The positive power of sun

Lately work has been close to insane. We're all working crazy hours, including week-ends and opportunities of distraction are becoming slim. Even during my weekly massage I do not manage to disconnect (I know it's bad). I arrived in Manila Sunday night and have been doing both the consumer research plus the office work, which means even longer days. Today I realized that even if I work as much (if not more) than in Beijing, I feel better. Why is that? The answer is simple: the SUN. Being in a warm and sunny place makes you feel better and helps go through the workload. I feel boosted with positive energy, fully reloaded and ready for new challenges :) I still have 1 day before I go back to Beijing (and Belgium :)) so I will gather as much as I can of this positive sunny energy to ease the return to the cold.

I love Manila

I thought you'd like to see the swimming pool I'll be swimming into this week.
PS: it's a great place to relax your back from a long flight.

Hello Kitty hospital

Tonight while flying to Manila I saw something that attracted my attention on the screen. It looked like a hospital but it was completely decorated with Hello Kitty. I thought this must be some kind of a joke, but still searched the Internet to make sure. Guess what! It does exist! A Hello-Kitty themed maternity and pediatric hospital opened in Taiwan. See by yourself (and do check all the pictures)

I still can't believe it, but it's real... Any feeling like delivering her baby surrounded by Hello Kitty?

How to entertain a girl

This afternoon having nothing special to do and feeling like I deserved a little treat (after all I've been working hard for the last 2 weeks :)), Alice and I went to the silk market to pay a visit to one of our favourite stand: the one where we make jewelry.

We did not have anything specific in mind so we tried different design and combination based on the beads that were there. The challenge in China is that we have almost completely opposite taste / styles. When it comes to beauty, clothes, fashion, jewelry, perfume etc. what we like or find attractive they usually dislike. And being French, I guess we're even more picky :)

3 hours later, I had 5 necklaces and matching earrings, and Alice 4.

PS: and to make all the girls jealous, the whole of it costs less than 30 euros...

150

Today I officially own more than 150 DVDs. DVDs being so cheap in China each trip to the DVD shop brings 10-20 new DVDs to my collection. I'm not only buying the latest movies (it's easier to buy the DVD than find a movie theater with English version) but also catch up on all those movies I considered watching but never did.
Now I still have one problem to solve. Given I watch at most 2 movies a week these days given work is crazy, it will take me months (even years) to watch all the ones I bought. Unless, I start working less...
PS: Of course, this number does not include all the TV series :)

Valentine's surprise

This morning I had the deligthful surprise to receive a link via sms. That was the link to my Valentine's gift. Someone has been super creative and knows how to score with a girl :). He not only wrote a poem to me, but recorded a video of him reading it and posted it on a website!
I have to say it's by far the best Valentine's gift I ever received!
So my sweet Valentine, THANK you so much!

It's raining!

It's raining today!
The reason why I'm so enthusiastic about it is because it has not rained in Beijing since 4 months or so. And somehow for the girl who grew up in Brittany like me it has been too long without rain. Hard to believe I know.
So today I was happy to walk into the drizzle reminding of "crachin breton" :)

Some more fireworks and fire

Last night was the Lantern festival, in other words the last day of the Spring festival / Chinese New Year celebration. It was also the last day to do fireworks and firecrackers in the streets. Therefore as of 7pm or so, the city became a giant firecrackers field. Everywhere you would go all you could hear was the cracking sound. Despite it was night, the sky was grey due to all the fireworks happening. For info, as it was the last day, there were special offers (buy 1 get 1 free, 50% off etc.) so people bought a lot.
Luckily it stopped at midnight so I could get some sleep.
Unluckily, an hotel was entirely burnt down and a firefighter died in the process. Given how many fireworks there were through the entire Spring festival and that people just blow them right on their doorstep, it's almost surprising that there were not more than 1 fire.

20 million

That's the number of migrant workers who returned from Chinese New Year vacation and found themselves jobless. Their employment simply disappeared due to the financial crisis.
I cannot help finding this scary. Imagine you go on vacation and come back, you're job is gone!
Read more about it here.

Sunday pampering

Today Alice and I decided to have a pampering Sunday. We started the day with manicure and pedicure. Once we had our nails looking perfect we went straight to Bodhi to have a massage. Today we picked the aromatherapy massage, the one where they use perfumed oil. No doubt about the result: you will feel relaxed.
After the whole afternoon taking care of ourselves, we went for a quick dinner at Biteapita. Now we're fed, rested, relaxed and ready to start a new week.

Lena

This week I finally called Lena to make an appointment. Lena is a tailor. She came today with her husband. I've grown quite frustrated of the shopping in Asia as clothes are always too small / short. So following the advice from many foreigners I decided to get tailor made clothes. Lena came with samples of fabric and catalogues of models. Basically you either give them some clothes you already have and ask them to copy. Just pick a fabric and there you go. So I ordered 6 pairs of my favourite trousers (half in wool/cashmere and half in wool/polyester, each of different fabric). On top you can also choose a model or give them a picture and they will make it. Thus 1 skirt on top.
I really liked the experience. They come to your place and you get to choose your new wardrobe in your living-room. Isn't that cool? And Lena has experience with German, French, American, Australian people. So she knows already what style you will prefer. When I told her I was French she removed some catalogues saying not stylish enough for me. And she was right!
On top, it's not that expensive in the end. Based on the fabric type a pair of trousers costs 40-50 euros, skirt was 40. I challenge you to find trousers perfectly fitting you in the shop with good quality fabric for that price.
Depending on what you order and how urgent it is it takes 1 to 2 weeks to get your clothes back. Next Saturday I'll do the fitting and I'll have my new trousers ready for Belgium!
I already asked for my visitors. Lena said if you're not too tired after your flight, we can meet on the 1st day you're in Beijing, do the fitting 3-4 days later and have your new suits / trousers / shirts / dresses ready 2 days later. Anyone interested?
I do need to do 1 thing now. Look at more catalogues / magazines and find a few dresses I want to get made! I've seen such beautiful silk fabric I cannot resist. Of course I will get as well a typical Chinese style one :)

Purple Haze

Yesterday we all went for dinner at 1001 nights. It's THE Middle Eastern restaurant in Beijing with Middle East food and belly dancing. Let's face eat it was for sure not the best food ever (can you believe they manage to screw up kafta?) and the belly dancing was far for being impressive. But as they say it's all about the company. So the food may not have been as good as expected, but we certainly had a great time, the 14 of us :)
Tonight, after a long day which was the last one of a long and busy week, I kind of invited myself to a dinner between 2 couples going to Purple Haze. It's a Thai restaurant, an excellent one even. That dinner was more than welcome. All of us needed that break, the amazing food and the mojitos.
Now that it has been 4 months that I am in China I can say that Thai is my favourite Asian food, followed by Indian. Chinese food only comes 3rd (my Chinese teacher will be sad to hear that).
PS: Visitors, Purple Haze will definitely be a stop :)

#234

That's the number of the girl from Bodhi I know try to always have for my Chinese massage. Not only she is good but she understand what's wrong with my back and really help. And each session is different so I'm always surprised.
In China they have in general a lot of people working in restaurants, spa, shops, beauty salon, anywhere. So many that you sometimes wonder how it can be profitable (cheap salary most likely). Employees have numbers. So when you find one that gives you good service and you want to ask to have that person again, they give you their number. Despite asking many times we never managed to get a name. They go by their number. I can't help finding this very impersonal. I would like people to remember me by my name and not my number. But that's China, so one has to go with numbers.

Gilmore girls

Last week Alice and I made another trip to the DVD shop to get some movies. On top of a bunch of movies, we bought the integral of the Gilmore Girls. I started watching season 1 during the break and now get on to season 2. It is really nice to get back into the world of the Gilmore girls (especially on that big screen). Guys you can pass as it is a series for girls.
PS: Joy, you we should be watching it together.

Last day in Bangkok

Today I started the day by swimming, just enough to give me good conscience as beside walking and swimming a bit I haven’t exercise during my stay. Being energized afterwards I checked out and started my last round of visits. I took the skyline to the closest station from Wat Benjamabophit. This temple is known as the marble temple and is the last major temple built in central Bangkok. What's really unique about this temple is the stained-glass windows.
I then walked to another temple, Wat Suthat, which is considered as one of Thailand's six principal temples. And guess what? Another big Buddha inside :) I think I have seen enough Buddhas for some time now.
The video
While I was resting in the courtyard of the temple some man approach me. Usually they are guides and try to sell their service. As for the other ones I said no even before he could speak. Then he said “no guide” and started to talk to me in Thai (of course) and make some gestures with his hand as I didn’t understand what he was saying. After a few explicit ones I understood he wanted to sleep with me! Chocked as I was (if only he would have been handsome) I said no and asked him to leave. He stayed there, next to me on the bench. Desperate I stood up and left. I ended up running in the temple and hide in there hopping he would not wait for me outside. Fortunately for me when I made my way out 10min later he was already trying another girl (poor one). I would have never believed they would do that in a temple area, after all it’s a sacred place, in principle, isn’t?

I walked back to the Siam square for dinner. Today I walked 8 km or so. Given the temperature (30C at least) I’m quite proud of myself. As I said that’s my favorite way to discover a city.
I am now sitting at the airport preparing my blog and all the pictures / videos that I will upload tomorrow. I feel a bit sad that my vacation is over and don’t really look forward to spending the night in the plane before a full week of work. That’s going to be a hell of a Monday morning, I feel it (my flight is at 1:20 am, arriving at 6:50am in Beijing). But all in all I’m glad I seized this opportunity to come to Bangkok. There are still a lot of things and places to visit in Bangkok and Thailand and for sure I will come back, for a longer stay this time. And as I said, nothing better than a few days of summer in the middle of winter. I feel re-energized and ready to conquer the world! It’s amazing the power of the sun on your moral.