HFMD

HFMD, quid?
HFMD stands for Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease, which is caused by a virus (so I read).
Bottom line is that 18 kids died already this year of this disease :(
Apparently the epidemic is getting worse. Luckily I'm too old to catch it in principle as it touches mainly children, however I do understand my colleagues becoming more and more stressed about this. I hope their children won't get it.
The full article.

Tibet's day of facts

"Only facts can make the world realize the central government's contribution to the emancipation of Tibetan serfs and the development of human rights"
China Daily

More necklaces :)

On Friday I took Monika to the Pearl market to buy some pearls (obviously).
On Sunday I took her to the Silk market to design some jewelry.
Of course I couldn't resist so here are pictures of the latest addition to my collection.
Next step: buy a bigger box to store them...
PS: the long grey one is named "the creation" and was designed by Monika :)

It's ok to cry...

... it releases the toxins.
That's what the Chinese therapist told me today when I cried out of pain.

Sales at the Pearl market

Saving energy

China participated in the Earth Hour organized to save energy. Although I haven't seen much difference in the streets, Somerset did switch off the outdoor light of the building for the evening and many of my colleagues fully switch off the light at their place for 1 hour. Nice to see that China is becoming concerned by the environment as well.

PS: Earth Hour is an international event organised by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), and held on the last Saturday of March each year, which asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

Does it remind you of something?

Starbucks, maybe?

Today Monika and I went to the pearl market. From the street I saw a "Starbucks" and was already taking a note in my little head that there was now a Starbucks at the Pearl market. Until we got closer and I realized, like many things in China, it was a fake.
Believe it or not they copied everything even the mugs and cups... We were not brave enough to try the coffee though.

KTV

Tonight we went to KTV. Quid? KTV is a karaoke place. Like Chinese we rented a private room for the whole group, grabbed food from the buffet (not the best at all but you don't come for the food obviously), ordered drinks and tried to figure out how to use the equipment (all in Chinese of course). Luckily for us Aaron and Kevin joined us later and are perfectly fluent in Chinese which helped a lot.
It was big fun as we could all sing along on the songs. Only the very good singers insisted on singing their song alone with the microphone, the rest of us were very happy to have our voice lost in the mass :)
It was hilarious to hear / sing songs while watching Chinese version of the videos. For copyright reason they have made new videos of the songs and honestly they are far from being the best videos. On top very often the same video is used for several songs.
For sure something to repeat as after 3 hours we were a bit disappointed to have to stop (well maybe next time we won't go on a weekday...)

Sanya - The pictures

As promised here are the pictures from 4 days of tropical beach experience in Sanya. Enjoy!
The Yalong Bay Beach
The Hotel
The Garden
Dalonghai
Watching people on the beach

Back in Beijing

I'm waking up after a too short night. The flight back was delayed so we arrived at Somerset only at 00:30 :(
While I'm getting ready for work I still see the beach. I already miss it! At least when I see my tan in the mirror I can remember how it was and escape a little the cold of Beijing.

Beach 3rd day

It may sound repetitive but indeed we started the day with a long breakfast with tons of fresh fruits. Honestly how could we skip it? Apparently today is the day "wear the same T-shirt" as we've seen many couples where the 2 would wear the same T-shirts. Hilarious!
Today we did not go to the beach right away. This time we went to explore the swimming pool first. The hotel has a crazy swimming pool for kids and a more simple one for adults where we could swim. A bit of exercise after 2 days of laziness is not bad.
Once the sun was out (it was cloudy again today and it took longer for the sun to pop out of the clouds) we headed for the beach. On the way we made a stop by the hammocks for a little rest, nicely bouncing and watching the sky through the palm trees. Life is hard :)
The rest of the day was pretty similar to the other ones, i.e. we enjoyed the beach alternating between tanning, swimming, watching people. We become very found of watching people and imagining their stories: where they are from, what they do in their lives, what the drama of the day is, etc. For example: there was this middle aged man with a young girl and we couldn't decide whether they were a couple or not, or this Russian man surrounded by Chinese girls although he is married, the women selling necklaces and bracelets on the beach through the day arguing so loud everybody can follow the discussion 25m away (at least if you speak Chinese)... Obviously we find ways to keep ourselves busy on the beach.
Once the sun was going down we went for a long walk along the beach, this time in the other directions. That was really nice to walk with your feet in the water and watch all the Chinese people who finally made it to the beach. Apparently 5-6pm is the peak time for them. By looking at the other hotels and their beaches we are now convinced that we picked the best hotel (well actually the travel agent did). Should you come to Sanya, Mangrove Tree resort is the place to stay.
Tonight we decided to stay at the hotek for dinner after the not so successful previous ones. We were in the mood for Thai so we had Thai. Fair enough it was Thai Chinese but food was good and location was great (except for the mosquitoes). Who wouldn't want to have dinner on a terrace?
To finish the day we had a drink at the hotel bar facing the sea. What a great day!
PS: I promise I'll post the pictures soon.

While I'm on the beach

My cat is learning to climb trees and chasing pigeons. Look at her! I'm so proud
(even if I was told the way down was not that straight forward).
Thanks Mum and Dad for capturing that moment :)

Dadonghai bay

The objective was clear: finding a swimming suit for Lamia. The location was yet to be defined. We asked the concierge where we could find a shopping area bigger than the one in Crown Plaza. 2 options: Dadonghai Bay 20min taxi or Sanya Bay 30min taxi. We decided for Dadonghai Bay.
Swimming suit chapter:
We entered the department store and searched for swimming suit. Now in principle buying a swimming suit is easy: go to the shop, select one, pay. However I’ve already mentioned how challenging / impossible it is for me to buy clothes in China as they are always to short / small. Same story with swimming suit. They are clearly not designed for tall women with breast as all swimming suits were small and their bras are “push-ups”. On top their style is not the best and they very often have 3 parts: a top, a bottom and a mini skirt. I have to say that it was hilarious to try those swimming suits, especially the one clearly not fitting. I really looked ridiculous. Luckily (if I may say so), the shop-assistant found one model that was ok both style and size.
Swimming suit problem solved.
Russian chapter:
They are a lot of Russians visiting Sanya, and they mostly stay in Dadonghai Bay. Therefore the whole area is invaded of middle class Russian tourists to the point that many things are written both in Chinese and Cyrillic’s and that when you do not look Asian they assume you’re Russian and then talk to you in Russian. Want to know more about the Russian connection, read here.
Honestly we did not like the atmosphere at all and were looking forward to getting back in Yalong bay, with the Chinese tourists.
Funny to think that I spent 2 week-ends out of Beijing in China: Harbin and Sanya, both of them highly frequented by Russians. Seems like I’m following them.
Beach chapter:
After dinner we went to check the sea in Dadonghai bay. For sure we picked the right bay as there are concrete buildings all the way around the beach in Dadonghai which makes it not so attractive. Clearly Yalong bay is more wild and beautiful.

Beach, 2nd day…

Today we woke up a bit earlier to enjoy the beach a bit longer. Sunset is around 6pm which means the sun goes down as of 4:30pm. Therefore the earlier you get to the beach the more sun you get.
Breakfast was fantastic again. I love starting the day with a long breakfast on a terrace facing the sea eating tons of fresh fruits. That’s life!
Apparently on Sunday more Chinese people were free from their tour and ended up on the beach. What’s interesting about Chinese people is that they try to get their skin whiter. While European and American women spend a fortune in tanning creams, Asian women do the same on whitening ones. Thus going to the beach they like but they do not want to get tanned. What shall they do? First they visit the beach early in the morning and later in the day, i.e. they avoid 11am-3pm time frame. Second they spend most of their time under an umbrella, either the big ones provided or small ones that they carry around to protect themselves from the sun. Third they wear swimming suits that covers as much as possible and on top add a light fabric to make sure their skin stays away from the sun. Very interesting to watch Chinese people on the beach :)
Sadly today the weather was cloudier especially in the afternoon. The good thing about it was that there were big waves to play with. Reminded me of vacation in Brittany, the water a bit warmer though. While I was playing and jumping around, a big wave came and suddenly I felt that my bathing suit was loose. I don’t how but the wave managed to break the “attach” of the top of my swimming suit. I tried my best to keep it in place and walked back to Monika who saved me by making a nod. Conclusion: I have to buy a new bathing suit tonight!!!
PS: again photos will come later...

Balcony shower and Crown Plaza shopping area

After the long walk on the beach we went back to the room to change. I had the chance to try the shower on the balcony. It was really nice to take a shower outside. Note that if you have a room on the sea side you have a bathtub on the balcony (good to know for next time). Taking a shower outside really achieved to convince me I was on vacation.
We then walked to the Crown Plaza which has a shopping area where we wanted to explore the shops and have dinner. As much as it is handy to have a shopping “mall” near by the hotel, this one really is not great. Most shops are luxury shops so not so interesting. We were looking for local products; maybe buy some souvenirs, etc. Still there was a supermarket where everything is overpriced of course but we could buy some bottles of water and local biscuits (the surprise is in the box, can’t wait to try).
Now where to have dinner? That turned out to not to be that easy given that the selection of restaurants was really not appealing. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant and ordered fried noodles with mango juice. I can sadly say that the mango juice was the highlight of the dinner. Conclusion, tomorrow we need to go somewhere else. Luckily for us there was an ice-cream place so we could have good ice-creams as dessert, which compensated totally for the bad dinner. By the way they claim that all the ice-creams are made with fruits produced on the island using imported Italian ice-cream machines. We’re skeptical about that claim, what about you?

I love the beach

After a quite generous breakfast outside facing the sea where we ate as much as we can, we gathered our things and went to the beach. Wow, that’s a nice beach and a very empty one as well. We immediately found 2 beach long chairs and settled down. While Monika was enjoying the late morning sun I went for a swim. Water was a bit fresh but once you’re in it’s perfect. Water is very clean and transparent (so you can see fish swimming around with you).
Unlike the beaches in Italy where vendors are bugging you every 10minutes, here it’s pretty quiet except for a woman or 2 trying to sell you pearl necklaces.
What was interesting is that until 4pm there was almost no one on the beach, mostly non Chinese tourists. So where were the Chinese people? Maybe at a conference, maybe visiting, we don’t know. But as of 4pm they all came down to the beach: the quiet restful beach became animated with kids running around, men playing volleyball and women chatting or swimming. A whole new beach experience.
At sunset we went for a walk on the beach. Yalong beach is said to be 7km long so tonight we headed towards the shortest walk. This was lovely to walk on the sand with your feet nicely wet by the waves. Unfortunately between us and the sun there are hills / mountains so we could not see the full sunset but the colors in the sky were already amazing
PS: pictures will follow of course, as soon as I get a chance to process them, so hang on :)

8am - waking up

Objective of the day. Get up early, have breakfast, hit the beach and spend the day there...

PS: a bit cloudy at 8am, getting better 45min later :)

First palm trees

It’s 2am, we’ve landed in Sanya. Temperature 24C. We can see the 1st palm trees already right outside the airport. Immediately they put you in a vacation mood. Even better we can see the stars in the sky. May sound stupid but in Beijing with the pollution you don’t get to see them often.
1 hour drive later we reached the hotel: Mangrove Tree Resort. Given the time we were the last guests to check in :) The room is really nice with all the comfort of a 4 star hotel. Now is time to go to bed as in a few hours, it will be beach time !!!!!!!!

And we missed the plane :(

Friday afternoon, 2:30pm I left the office, dashed into a taxi and reached Somerset at 3pm sharp. 3:05pm we were in another taxi getting to the airport. We arrived at Terminal 2 25minutes later, just 10 minutes before the check-in would close. Border line but feasible. Except we couldn’t find our flight CA1345 on the screens. We asked at the information desk and the lady there told us the flight leaves from terminal 3!!! Desperation reached us. We asked if they could call the counter in terminal 3 and tell them we’re coming. No. We repeated the question and the only answer we could get was “go to terminal 3”. We had to beg to get a phone number so we could call ourselves. Of course they didn’t have the phone number of the office of Air China at the airport, only the general one. So I called while we tried to get into a taxi to change terminal. China being China most taxi drivers refused to take us and the only one willing asked for 50RMB (i.e. the same price as for coming from the city center). We 1st said no but quickly realized we would not get any other taxi. At this point I’m screaming over the phone as the lady on the other side who’s supposed to speak English can not even understand the flight number and keeps putting me on hold. 10min later we’re in the taxi and the driver is acting weird. Each time I raise my voice on the phone or gesture to him to speed up he slows down and wants to take us back to terminal 2. Grrr we’ll never make it. Finally the lady on the phone said she could not help (I’m not sure I believed she could anymore at this point) and told me to call the office at the airport. So I did, and spent another 10min on hold until I can get an operator who did not speak any English of course except “just a moment”. We reached terminal 3 at 15h50, paid only 20RMB the taxi as he refused to take the rest of the money (another mystery), ran into the terminal, didn’t find our flight on the screens (reminds you of something?), asked the information desk, it’s terminal… no J area :). We ran there and of course were too late. Even begging the manager on duty of Air China did not get us in. The system was locked, no way to emit a boarding pass anymore.
And there it goes our dream of beach and sun… We called the travel agent in Sanya and asked if she could do something like book us on a later flight. This was followed by 5min of stress and anxiety: will there be another ticket and at what price?
The travel agent called us back with good news. We can take a flight at 9:30pm for the same price. Yeah! We’re back on.
And guess what, the flight leaves from terminal 1 (which we will double check, because last time the travel agent was wrong). Just a few hours to kill in the airport.

Who can claim having been in all the terminals of an airport in half a day?

PS: And even worse, there is no internet in the Starbucks of the airport :( so what are we going to do for the next 5 hours? Actually only 3 because we’ll be at terminal 1 at least 2 hours before the flight, just in case we have to change terminal again.

Going to work

Sanya here we come!

One of the things Monika and I wanted to do while she is in China is a long week-end at the beach. We spent the whole evening yesterday searching for our beach. With a systematic approach we eliminated the countries requiring a visa and the places where the weather was bad (rainy season is coming). We sadly also had to eliminate Bali, as too expensive. After 1 hour of intense trip planning we had to admit that going to Malaysia is a full day trip which means 2 days trip for 2 days at the beach :(
Therefore we settled on Sanya, in Hainan island, in the south of China, famous for its tropical beaches.
Tomorrow, 4:20pm we will take off for 4 days of sun, beach and relaxation. I love Asia!

Monika has arrived!!!!!!!!!!

Spring brought me my first visitor. Monika has arrived today. The 2 girls re-united (finally) for 10 days of visits, shopping, chatting and fun!
PS: I surely made quite an impression at the airport with my sign while waiting for her. Some drivers (men of course) still have not recovered from seeing it :)

Dr Lan - The next morning

He had said that I might feel some pain in the following hours. Had I known it would be so bad I might have not gone. This morning I don't know if I'm happy the night is over because I finally fell asleep 2 hours ago or because I get to start the day which comes as a welcome distraction.
At least I had the chance to catch up on my reading and call Europe. Good that there is something positive about almost a night of insomnia in the end :)

Dr Lan

Today I had an appointment with Dr Lan. He was recommended to me by several colleagues. Apparently he made miracles with some who wanted to stop smoking, loose weight, fix a knee / back, etc. Having nothing to loose I decided to give Dr Lan a try. It turned out his office had moved and is now located 5min away from where I live, isn't that a great coincidence.

So I went there and explain my history of pain and treatments. It was quite weird though to explain all of that lying down instead of sitting on a chair. This was followed by a examination and Dr Lan smiling at me all the time. He kept on saying "I know, I understand"... Sure but what? After that he had 2 of his students massaging / applying pressure on my back and knee (apparently some stiff muscles there as well) which was for a change painful. I believe my resistance to pain has considerably grew up over the last year. Once the "treatment" was done, we sat down for a debrief.

Here is his conclusion. My hips are sligthly misplaced creating an unbalance which creates the back pain. The plan to fix it "craniosacral therapy". At this point I said yes, having no clue what he was talking about. Dad, can you help us to understand what kind of therapy this is?

Bottom line is that he wants to see me once a week for 2 months. 1 hour of treatment each time. In the meantime, I can walk, swim, bike moderately and jog but not run (cannot really understand the difference there), cannot lift anything heavier than 5kg (that's gonna be fun) nor cross my legs (believe it or not this recreate unbalance, which we do not want). No more sitting on a sofa, only chair with good support for my back.

Will this work? Let's see. Let's give a chance to Chinese traditional medecine :)

Tibet in 50 years

Here is a slideshow from China Daily showing the changes in Tibet in the last 50 years.

The rainmaker

If you recall I mentioned it rained on Feb 12. It was 1 day of rain, just one. I recently found out that that rain was actually planned. Thanks to a process call "Cloud seeding" you can generate rain on demand.
The largest cloud seeding system in the world is in China (what a surprise) which is used to increase the amount of rain over several arid regions, including Beijing, by firing silver iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired. For example, China used cloud seeding in Beijing just before the 2008 Olympic Games in order to clear the air of pollution.
Now I wonder, if this works in China, why can't we do it in other arid regions? and by the way, what are the consequences / impact of such process on the environment?
If you want to know more I found this interesting article from Scientific American debating whether cloud seeding works on nort.

Anneau 1

In case you wonder that's how Chinese people translated "ring 1" from English into French (for the non French, it should have been "sonnerie 1"). Last night while picking up our shirts at Yashow, Alice needed to buy cell phones for her sister. Somehow in the middle of the bargain I heard myself say "how much if we take 3" (you always get a better price if you buy more than one).
So I got home with a new cell phone and a notice in Chinese. Despite the phone was set up to French it did not help getting around. As very often in China the translation is very approximate. I believe the Chinese was translated to English in some online translation tool which was then translated in French with the same tool. And there you go, the weirdest French ever. The good thing is that I keep on smiling each time I look at the menu, trying to figure out what it should be :)
For the French speaking people here are some examples (I let you guess what they mean):
- telephoner l'organisation
- les methodes d'entree
- texte de saluation
- appel abrege
- appeler l'exposition de temps
- appeler le rappel de temps
- bien (instead of OK)
- arriere (instead of back)
and it goes on and on :)

To do list for the next 4 months

Here it comes, my wish list for the next 4 months:

- finish visiting the Summer Palace

- Beijing's zoo

- Beijing opera

- Xi'an and the Terracotta army

- Shanghai

- Tianjin

- Hong Kong & Macao

- Sanya

- Guangxi, having a cruise on the Li river

- Tibet (if it re-opens)

- Japan

- Cambodia

- Vietnam

- Malaysia (and Bali if I win the lottery)

- Get more jewellery from the pearl market

- Explore Beijing with my bike

- Do some hiking in the countryside around Beijing

- Get as many tailor made clothes I can afford (already started on this one :) )

Let me tell you, visitors, that you will have to accommodate some of it during your visit.

PS: let me know if you think I forgot something :)

Good bye Dave

Tonight was the last night of Dave in Beijing. He has been here for 1 year and his assignment has come to the end :(
We all met at Tim's after work for one last round of all you can eat tex mex and all you can drink margarita altogether. What a great evening it was! Dave told us all about his craziest and best memories of China. Dave, we'll miss you!
Dave leaving made me realize that my time over here is limited, actually the count down has started. In a little less than 4 months I will be the one leaving.
So I've made a list of all the things I want to do / see before I leave Asia and I'm going to start working on it right now!

In your purse - Archaeology of the American handbag

If you know me, even just a bit, you know I'm very much into purse. I have quite a collection at home and usually acquire 2-3 new ones each years. Despite the appearance that is not the reason why I bought this book. Part of my job is to do consumer research i.e. understand what people need, what they do with our products and what unmet needs they have. So naturally I was interested in reading a book about a massive consumer research work that has been carried out in the US to understand what's behind a woman's purse. The book is written in a such a nice and friendly way that anyone can read it, however I believe women will resonate more with its content than men. Now gentlemen if you're curious to know what is in this bag (and the list is long) we women carry over everywhere and why we do that, here is a book with some clues for you.
It was especially interesting to see how the Maslow's pyramid of needs can be applied to a woman's purse; from the basic "it carries everything I need" to "I feel like I can handle everything" to "I am the best woman that I can be".

Sunny Sunday

Today I decided to take it easy. After a long night of well deserved sleep (let's face it I don't recover as fast as before after spending the night out partying), I grabbed the bicycle and went for a ride through the city. After all with the sunny weather we had today it would have been a pity to stay inside. And that was a very good idea. The temperature was just right, the roads were reasonably busy, and only nearly died 5 times. It's absolutely crazy the way people drive over here. Only one rule applies: there are no rules, you go no matter what and who cares if there are bicycles on the way... Beside that little detail it was really nice to be outside. Spring is definitely coming. Soon we be able to enjoy terraces again :)
I have seen that there are guides to explore Beijing by bicycle. Maybe I'll take a look and try a tour next week-end.

Who moved my cheese?

No I haven't started eating cheese. This is the title of a famous book on how to deal with changes. I had seen this story in a presentation a while ago and last time I was browsing for books I picked this one up to read the full story. The concept of this book is simple. It shows you the different ways of dealing with changes, in that case someone moved the cheese. With a very simple and efficient story the author teaches you how to anticipate changes, to adapt to it, to be ready for it and even to enjoy.
If you have 1 hour free, take this time to read the book. It's worth reading.

Trivia from the papers

Prawo Jazdy managed to get 50 different traffic offences. The mystery was that he was claiming a different address each time and the offences happened all over the country. Now guess what. Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for "driving license". Policemen just misread the name of the driver for the "driving license" :)
Read the full article here.

Smash-up Derby

Tonight Aaron and I went to Centro (the nightclub from the Sangri-La) to see Smah-up Derby. This group created the first mash-up club in the US and is now travelling the globe exporting the style. Now what is that style. It's simple. You take 2-3 songs and you blend them together, i.e. you combine them in one song. As you can imagine it requires some skills because you cannot just play the different songs one after the other but rather find a way to combine pieces of them together.
I had never heard this before and it turned out fantastic, especially in a club because you get the best parts of the songs to dance on :) What a great night!

Flash of genius

That's the name of the movie I started to watch tonight at the gym. Flash of genius is the story of the college professor who invented the intermittent wipers and how he fought with the automobile industry which of course stole his idea. I would have never considered watching this movie if it wasn't for my sister who happens to work in that category. Joy, a movie you must see :)

Nirvana fitness

Apparently since February we have free access to the Nirvana gym next to the office. That's part of the well-being program deployed on site. So tonight I went with Aaron to try it out. The gym is located in a building 5 minutes walk from the office, on the 4th floor (I do find it weird to put a gym in the middle of an office building, but that's China).
The good things about this gym are:
- it's right next door to the office
- it has classes so I can renew with body combat or kick boxing lessons (nothing better to get read of the stress) or simply enjoy a pilates or yoga session to relax
- the running mat is equipped with a DVD player (1st time I see that) so you can bring your own movie and watch it while you exercise. That could be a very good way for me to get some exercise and watch all those DVDs I've bought.
On the other hand I have to manage logistics i.e. carrying over my gym clothes and shoes which a bit more complex when you take the subway than when you just drop the bag in your car. And after tonight I will shower home even if it means taking the subway for 45min all sweaty. Let's face it the locker room was not the best I have ever seen. After the exercise I went to have a shower. 1st by looking at the other women (by the way all of them walking around fully naked like it does not matter and even chatting...) that I had to get a pair of plastic slippers before going to the shower. So I grabbed my towel and shampoo and walked over there. My 1st impression was not great, my 2nd was worse. So I found a shower that was free and pulled the curtain until I discovered that no matter what it would never close the shower given the curtain was too narrow... When I looked at the floor I understood the need of slippers as I would not recommend to walk bare foot in there. Conclusion, next time I'll shower home.

Vegetarian restaurant

Today to celebrate Joanna's award and Conan's promotion the whole section went out for lunch. The team chose the vegetarian restaurant next to the office. I had never been to a vegetarian restaurant being a meat fan, but I was willing to give it a try. I was expected vegetables of all kind and there were. What I was not expecting was how creative Chinese are with tofu (it's made of coagulating soya milk in case you don't know). More than half of the dishes were made with tofu: boiled, fried, in slice, in cube, in sauce, everything you can think of. The interesting thing is that they can serve you a fish made out of tofu that actually tastes like fish or the famous sichuan spicy chicken with tofu cubes tasting like chicken. Incredible I'm telling you. Still I don't really understand the concept of eating vegetarian if you eat dishes that tastes like meat.

Batibouw

Batibouw is a yearly event in Belgium around the house. It's celebrating its 50 years this year. Batibouw is a combination of "Batir" in French and "Bouwen" in Dutch. That name is a nice example of reconciliation between Flemish and French parts of Belgium. Belgian people are famous for having a "brick in their stomach". And let's face it all Belgian people are trying to buy their own house as soon as possible and spend incredible time on building and renovating it. Until they sell it, buy a new one and start all over again.
Now you could wonder why choosing a turtle as symbol. My best guess is that a turtle carries its house on its back. Despite searching the internet I haven't more on the topic despite it was selected in 1967 and used to be blue.

The most beautiful dresses from the Oscar ceremony

Ladies, for you to dream :)