My damaged car

Today I returned the rental car from the assistance and afterwards dropped at the garage to check the status on mine. The workshop is closed until Jan 3rd so nothing happened but at least I could show the car to Wolfram and take some pictures.
The damaged side (guess where the fence is):

From the back:

The other side, not a scratch!

Once again, standing in front of my damaged car, I realized how lucky I was. Lucky I was not driving too fast and lucky I didn't hit another car.

Walking the streets of the center of Brussels

While my uncle has been to Belgium in the past, it is the first time for my aunt. Therefore, we kicked off their stay in Belgium by Brussels and its center, namely:
- the palace which as you can see the king doesn't remove the snow and ice either in front of his porch... no comment

- Monts des Arts and the Museum of Musical Instruments. I discovered today a spot where you can sit and listen to music via your cell phone. Amazing, just need good weather.

- typical Belgian food: croquettes, carbonade and stoemp with Belgian beer naturally
- Grand place and its Christmas tree

- Manneken pis... no picture there. I was disappointed to see him naked and not in his Christmas outfit.

10 long hours

10 hours. It took us 10 hours to drive from Brittany to Belgium. That's 1 hour more than normal.
The first third was easy with nice and almost sunny weather in Brittany.
The second third was harder as we had to drive through fog. It was one of those fogs where you don't see anything. You know the exit is coming but you can't see it, until really the last 20m. We nearly missed one if it wasn't for the GPS insisting on us taking the exit.
The third third was the hardest as we were tired of driving 100-110km/h max, tired of the fog and once in Belgium the conditions of the roads were far from being ideal: the third lane was only partially cleaned from the snow and the emergency lane was somewhere under more snow. Not to mention I was super stressed the whole Belgian part of the trip, especially each time we were passing under a bridge, and even more on the A7 at km 71.
The two positive notes of this trip were that I had company in the car: my mum first, then my dad, then my aunt which made the trip much more pleasant; and Mokka only pooped once... just before the Belgian border. This story will become a legend when my aunt goes back to Lebanon and tell people she had to have an emergency stop to change a cat :)
Note for myself: I really need to look into those diapers for animals.

Vigilance Meteo

While the picture looks ok on the French side of our trip, half green half yellow, i.e. everything should go smooth;

on the other side of the border, it's all orange. I find it amazing how the whole country without any exception is considered at risk. At least the sea side should be in better shape, but what do I know.

We'll leave soon.
Wish us luck for the long drive (and keep your fingers crossed Mokka will not poop in her box this time).

Post accident paperwork

I called the garage to inform them my car was coming. 1 hour later they told me the car arrived.
I made the declaration at my insurance company via email (I'm so glad she didn't ask for a fax or a registered letter).
Garage will estimate the damage and the insurance company will send an expert to have a look.
Now, I all I can do is wait for the outcome of the expert's visit hoping it will be soon and not too bad.
Patience...

Iceberg cake

I tried this new recipe today. It's a chocolate and nut cake, that's for inside. For the outside, the idea was to cut stars of different sizes and pile them up. Quickly we understood that cutting stars with only a knife was challenging, especially for the biggest ones.
We gave it our best shot but sadly it does not look like the picture at all. It does remind me of a iceberg game though. Seems the ice is melting :)

Cake tastes good, just doesn't look good. Next year we'll cut easier shapes (like a triangle maybe) or we'll get star cutting tools.

Merry Christmas!

We're ready

Christmas Eve or a full day of preparation

It's not Christmas Eve without:
- me and my aunt baking biscuits while listening to Christmas music. This year I had baked some already in Belgium and they made it safe and sound as well (only the snowmen lost their head but I believe this is because their neck is a weak point). But still we wanted to make some more, because we never have enough biscuits, do we?
- me and my mum spending lots of time in the kitchen. Tradition for many years now is that I make a koulibiac for Christmas Eve. This year however, given we were 14 adults and 2 children, we decided for a Tourte de Dinde Forestiere, and made 3 of them. It's a big pie with turkey and foie gras flambe au cognac. Yummy it was.

 In parallel to the cooking, Joy and my aunt were decorating the tree, which looks pretty good given it fell once fully decorated and the women in the house brought it back up.

A7 km 71

That's where it happened, on the highway A7, km 71. I had left the house for about one and a half hour. We had one emergency stop after Mokka pooped in her box. Roads were not really snow free but at least the right lane was clean. Still I was driving 90 km/h as I didn't want to risk anything. I was actually thinking that at this speed it will take me 2 days to get home and told the cats to be quiet as I needed to focus on the driving.


I was holding the wheel going straight, happy that we were at the first milestone of the trip, when the highway split between going to Paris and going to Lille.

Suddenly the car started to shift to the side, I tried to get the control back but that didn't work. Right then I knew it was a lost cause and that I was going to hit something and there was nothing I could do about except wait. This scene lasted maybe 1-2 seconds but it's amazing how much thinking happened. Then the car hit the fence of the highway. The car did a complete 360 degree rotation, hitting the fence on its left side.

Then it stopped. I was shaking all over trying to figure out whether I was ok, not injured, same for the cats. In shock, I was.

A very nice man, who saw the whole scene stopped to check on me. I'm very grateful he was there as while my whole body and mind was in shock, he opened the door of the car, asked me whether I was injured, asked for the triangle to signal my car, told me to put the yellow jacket, then to call the assistance. He's also the one who reminded me to put my coat on as it was freezing. Once assistance confirmed they were sending someone he left. I don't know who he was, but a VERY BIG THANK YOU to this stranger who stopped.

I texted Wolfram so he would know. Shortly after the assistance call me back as they were already looking at getting me a replacement car. I called home to let my parents know what happened. I'm so happy I have a mobile phone so I could take care of everything without having to walk to an assistance phone on the highway.

A bit later the police arrived. First question they asked was whether I was drunk. And I answered "it's only 11am" meaning no I haven't been drinking. Still it's standard procedure so I had to blow in the ethylometer. We filled some paperwork as I damaged the fence so my insurance will have to take care of that. They also showed me the ice on the road, right under the bridge "see the shiny part: that's ice" with a very big smile. Don't ask me why but I was the only one who slid on it. Bad luck I guess.

Assistance arrived 20min after I called, that's very fast as I was already wondering how I will survive 1 hour outside behind the fence (maybe with the sleeping bag). The pulled the car on their truck and drove me to their center. It's a busy day for them so they will bring my car to the garage tomorrow or Monday.

In the meantime insurance called me back with the address of an Europcar dealer where I could pick up my replacement car. One of the assistance men drove me to Europcar and helped me pick up the car, a Mercedes Class A. We drove back to their center, he helped transfer everything from my broken Micra to the rental car and the cats from their office. While I was going after the replacement car, the 2 secretaries over there kept an eye on Mokka and Muffin, scared like hell at the very back of their box.

Around 1pm, we were back on the road, driving extremely carefully and the slowest ever. 12 hours after we left home, after snow, accident, changing car, traffic jam, more snow, rain and Mokka pooping one more time... we arrived at my parents. Exhausted, but happy to be with my family.

I am grateful that nobody was hurt. I'm not injured, cats are fine, we've all been terrorized but not injured. Luckily I didn't hit any other car as that would have been really bad. I'll have to get the whole left side of the car changed as right now you can see the mark of the fence all the way from the front to the back, roughly mid height of the doors. But like everybody else kept repeating: no one was injured that's the most important, it's only metal sheet and plastic.

I keep wondering what I did wrong what I should have done differently to keep control of the car... sadly I have no answer. Maybe next time we take the train.

Transumance

Today I'm driving home for xmas. All I need, in theory, is a medium size suitcase. It's winter so sweaters and boots take space.
But the car ends up pretty full because of:
-  2 boxes of products for my mum
-  2 huge bags full of cakes, biscuits, chocolate and some of the xmas basket food and drinks
- 1 sleeping bag just in case I get stuck on the highway because of the snow
- 1 camera/laptop bag
- and 2 cat boxes!!!
That's it, the Micra is going to be pretty full and once again, les Demenageurs Bretons hit the road.

PS: despite having the car full, I can't help thinking I'm forgetting something. But what?

Snow impressions

Snapshots from the roads... one has to keep herself busy when stuck in traffic :)

4 days only!!!!

 

I already received the magic SMS telling me my new passport is ready.
Only 4 days, unbelievable!



Christmas check list

Christmas tree – done

Decorating the house – done
Pain d’epices – done
Biscuits – 80% done
Christmas shopping – done
Buy chocolate – done
Christmas packing – pending
Pack and drive home – Dec 23rd

... getting there, getting there...

The parking lot this morning when I arrived

Couldn't see the lines, so I just parked parallel to another car. That's the best I could do given the snow and ice.

Online shopping and delegation

This year I was not very well organized and I found myself 2 weeks before Christmas with no gift at all in my hands, in Izmir :)

Luckily for me there is online shopping, and especially Amazon. Half of my gifts this year have been ordered on internet (some while Wolfram was recovering, but don’t tell him). No rushing, no stress, no queuing, from my computer, I simply pick and choose what I want to order and cherry on the cake, I get it delivered straight where it has to go. Only one little worry: will everything arrive on time? Next year maybe I should avoid ordering the last gifts 4 days before Christmas.
The other half will be bought by someone else who kindly offered to pick it up for me. A big THANK you to my sister and mother on this one.

I will, still, pack them myself which should keep me busy on the 24th.

Morning snow

Rear view:

 Front view:

PS: that's my poor frozen car, sad because she is not used to sleeping outside but given the garage slope that was the only to ensure she could drive on the icy roads.

When technology works

When technology works one can change his train ticket in 5min over the phone, receive a SMS with the new seat # and catch the train that is leaving in only 10min. Before, one would have queued for 15-20min, change ticket but miss the train and thus take the next one.


When technology works, one can get his passport renewed at the consulate in 10 days (so they claim) because all info, pictures, prints, etc. are sent electronically vs. in paper before. Before that it would have taken 3 months (that’s how long it took to renew my ID 2 years ago). And when the passport is ready, they send a SMS, obviously much faster than a letter.

I love technology, when it works :)

Anahuacalli

Finally, after hearing about it for many years, and seeing my parents going there when they come to Paris, tonight Joy and Yann took me to Anahuacalli, their favorite Mexican restaurant. Following the recommendation from my Dad we ordered a “Jarra de Margarita”, i.e. 1.25L of Margarita to start with and accompany our meal. We started with an assortment of starters to discover it all and after I ordered another mix, but this time of different meat. Absolutely delicious and… I can’t believe it took so long to finally get me to this place. It's also amazing how they manage to add Tequila in almost all of the deserts :)

In case you are in Paris and in the mood for Mexican food, this is the place (note that it is not a Tex Mex place, it’s real Mexican cuisine… reminding me of what I ate a couple of times at Luis’ place).

Christmas tree 2010

We proudly present our 2010 Christmas tree.

Alive, with perfect sight without contacts or glasses, smiling and enjoying dinner

What else could we want?

Izmir

This morning we woke up, and walked to Starbuck’s for breakfast. Yes, this means Wolfram can see, actually pretty well and we tested his sight reading all the signs. I am relieved I have to confess and happy.


We then went to the clinic for a check. Everything was fine and he can see 100%. Apparently his sight will improve in the coming days/weeks. Good to know.

With the medical part of the trip sorted, it was time for a bit of tourism. Unfortunately for us there is not much to see in Izmir and the weather was pretty bad: windy, cloudy, and even snowy at some point. As much as it was good for Wolfram’s eyes, it was a disaster for my hands. I really need better gloves. We did walk to the highlight of the city, the clock tower, to find that it was much smaller than expected. Nevertheless I insisted on taking a picture as THE souvenir of Izmir (this and the Starbuck’s mug and brand new eyes for Wolfram).

Walking the streets of Izmir and the Bazaar would have been much better if it wasn’t so cold. Like many Mediterranean cities, Izmir is designed to spend time outside and therefore when the weather is bad, there is not much to do. Next time I guess.


To end the day we walked to Altin Kapi for traditional Turkish food. Excellent dinner to conclude our stay in Izmir.

7 Germans and 20 Danish(men)

This Laser Travel trip is indeed very well organized. At 9am taxis picked the whole group from the hotel, namely 7 Germans and a few partners, friends or parents. At the clinic we were immediately welcomed by Serap, the contact in Izmir, who spoke perfect German, at least to my foreigner’s ears. She explained in details what the program of the morning and of the day would be.


Morning was dedicated to all the examinations required to make sure everything is ok to have the surgery in the afternoon. We chatted, read, played, etc. on and off in-between each examination.
Pupil dilation was of course big fun which we tried to capture on picture.

Look at these incredibly big pupils! Reminds me of something… ah, yeah, Muffin’s at night.

Once all the examinations where done and Wolfram had a talk with the doctor to confirm everything is ok and which Laser technique he would undertake, the whole group left the clinic for a quick lunch in a small place nearby. Believe it or not, in another waiting room were 20 Danish men which meant they had to rush the 7 Germans out early afternoon.
Everybody in the group looked pretty relax, but it could be as well the effect of the nicotine as most people were smokers and managed to smoke up to 5 cigarettes over 1 hour lunch. I felt like I was the only one stressed and with a huge nod in the stomach.


Back at the clinic we waited until it was Wolfram’s turn to go seeing the others go one after the other one. If that’s not a way to build up stress…
1 hour later Wolfram left and I was left alone in the waiting room, crossing my fingers everything would be fine. I was very worried, especially because he was border line because of his high myopia. And because every surgery has risk, even minor one.

30min later or maybe less he was back, face covered in Betadine wearing protective goggles over his red eyes and smiling!

He sat there for 15min resting.

We then took a taxi back to the hotel where Wolfram was supposed to rest, ideally sleep. When we arrived last night I wondered why people would choose Karaca hotel given everything is dark in it. It’s like they forgot that light brings positive energy. Today I understood why. After surgery the eyes are extremely sensitive to light and the dark rooms and hallways were helping.

It was 3pm and started a long afternoon in the dark. With no lights at all in the room, I experienced the importance of memory to replace sight. I also highly appreciated the computer and phone screens, as they kept me busy at least once Wolfram fell asleep.

Around 7pm Wolfram woke up, feeling better and hungry! Carefully we switched on the lights in the room, one by one until he could handle all of them. We joined the group for dinner at the hotel restaurant. It felt like a dinner with stars, with all those people wearing sunglasses indoor :)

I then took the opportunity to read Die Weisse Rose to Wolfram, in my best German (note to myself: Easy Reading books level A were easy, level B is a whole different story).

Organized trip

I find it weird that the first organized trip I take since I left school is a medical trip. Everything is organized for us so we don’t need to worry about anything. Hotel was booked, taxi was waiting for us at the airport with a brochure explaining what will happen in the coming 2 days. The whole procedure is detailed, step by step, so you know what they will do to you (and I guess not panic when you can’t see at some point). On top, they also recommend you a few places to go for food at lunch and dinner, as well as what to do on day 2, once you are done with the medical part of your stay. Impressive I have to say.

Now let’s see how it goes tomorrow at the clinic.

I love Bretzels

On the way to Izmir, we had a connection in Munich. The plan was to have dinner there given we would arrive late in Izmir. I had only one request for this stopover in Southern Germany: Bretzel!

 And Wolfram delivered, founding the Airbrau place where we could enjoy some traditional German dishes altogether with Bretzels.

Provocative thinking on how productive people are in the office

Take the time to watch this TED video by Jason Fried, Special to CNN.

Why the office is the worst place to work

I can bet it will make you think how efficient you are in the office.
N.B.:Thanks Marianne for sharing.

Bonne Saint Nicolas!

Time for some chocolate and speculos, miam!

11am concert on Sunday morning

Every other Sunday a concert is organized at the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels. Each time I tried to book tickets it was either sold out or one of the Sundays they don't have concert. This time I arranged it early enough to secure ourselves 2 tickets for today's concert.
After an early start because we wanted to do our sports before the concert (I was the first one in the swimming pool this morning at 8:30am!), we arrived at the museum to pick up our tickets.
The least we can say is that their organization can be improved. No tickets but an envelope on which a lady wrote the section (green), the row (2) and the seat numbers (5&6). At 10:45am we could access the concert hall only to find out a mess. We did locate the green section, but seats 5&6 were on row 1, and 2 old ladies were comfortably seated at 4 and 5 :( we asked the girl in charge of helping finding seats to help but she bluntly told us to just sit wherever we wanted. Useless. I walked back outside and ask the lady at the desk to help and she told me that indeed it was row 1 and not row 2. But what about the 2 ladies at seats 4 and 5? Well... let's move us to 12 and 13, just behind. Perfect.
Finally sited, we saw the rudest old lady ever. It turned out that seats 3 and 7 were empty (thanks to the bad planning of the lady at the entrance). A couple arrived and asked whether ladies at seat 4 would move so they could sit together. Believe it or not, she refused. I've never seen this and honestly one seat left or right is the same at the front raw in this small concert hall (150 seats roughly). The poor couple sat apart for the whole concert. Sometimes I wonder in which world we live.
Past the chaotic seating organization, music started.
I don't know much about classical music (despite my mum trying hard to educate us) and all I can say is that it was some Chopin, with piano and double bass first, then a quatuor and piano. See the program here.
The pianist, Roberte Mamou, was quite good, apparently famous, but to me lacking emotions when she was playing. It was like she was on automatic mode. The double bass player, on the other hand, was really into it.
2nd half the pianist was joined by a quatuor. I was a bit puzzled when I saw 5 men arriving. The little Latin I remember told me that a quatuor is made of four people. Maybe it means here 4 instruments, as indeed there were 2 violins. I preferred this part to the first one, mostly because the pieces played were more complex and lively, well that's how they sounded to me :)
Around 12:30, concert is over and you're ready for lunch. Despite the fact that we were clearly younger than the majority of the audience, I find it a good idea to entertain your Sundays, especially during cold winter.

PS: note for those who've never been to a concert of classical music, one does not applaud in between the pieces, only when the set is over: "Indiscriminate applause is widely considered a violation of classical music concert etiquette: Applause is discouraged between movements, reserved instead for the end of the entire work". Something to keep in mind to avoid yourself some embarrassment.

Bearpaws

With the snow lasting and a cold winter ahead of me, today I bought myself a pair of warm boots, a pair of Bearpaw. For those living in cold climate you will have surely seen a lot of women wearing them. 

They are big and looking bulku BUT they are super comfotable (it's like wearing slippers) and super warm. I wore them when we went to pick up the Christmas tree, in the snow and my feet were nice and warm. I cannot say as much of my fingers. Do Bearpaw make gloves by any chance?

First steps in the snow

This morning we opened the window on the balcony and let the cats go out and experience the snow.
While Muffin went straight out, Mokka was more cautious. But eventually both of them were out, paws in the snow.

Mokka made a few steps in the snow then decided it was too cold and walked back in, or actually it was more sliding than walking as wet paws do slide on tiles.
Muffin on the other hand was enjoying himself experiencing the cold, the depth, the instability of the snow.

 If it wasn't for us getting cold, he would have spent the morning playing in the snow.

PS: Thx Wolfram for the photos.

Letters from Father Christmas

Surprising book from J.R.R. Tolkien (miles away from the Lord of the Ring).
What it is:
"Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R.Tolkien's children. Inside would be a letter in strange spidery handwriting and a beautiful coloured drawing or some sketches. The letters were from Father Christmas. They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole"

It is truly delighting to read the stories from the North Pole told by Father Christmas and the North Polar Bear, his assistant. Even for the grown up :)
Not to mention the drawings sent with them to illustrate the stories.

Gate was frozen

This morning I flew back from Barcelona to find -7C in Brussels, and snow everywhere. What I had not anticipated was the message from the pilot once we arrived at the gate:

"Gate is frozen. We have to wait for de-icing."

And so we waited 15min until the gate was de-frozen and we could access the terminal.

Days like today I really wonder why I don't live in a place where it's warm all year long.

Sometimes it's all in the presentation

For example, this is a tartare of tomatoes with shrimps and guacamole. Simple but once presented like below, it becomes another story.

I need to learn those tricks :)

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia is the icon of Barcelona. For those who have no idea, it's a church designed by Gaudi. And the least you can say about it is that it has a unique and surprising style. Construction started in 1882 and still is work in progress. It seems the plan now is to have it completed by 2026, celebrating 100 year after Gaudi's death. Let's see if they can make it.
Sadly by the time I arrived there, it was dark and closed. In winter time the church closes at 6pm (something to keep in mind). All I could do was stand in front of it and take a few pictures, just to say "I was there".

It's been a while I haven't said this, but that church is not like anything else I've seen so far.

This church is indeed unique in its style and at night some of the sculptures were scary. I guess the effect of light on the sharp angles.

Note for myself: plan a city trip to Barcelona, preferably in a warmer season, to have the chance to see the rest of the church and the inside.

Different timing

I arrived late afternoon yesterday in Barcelona. I still can’t believe it was so last minute I couldn’t arrange to stay at least 1 day to visit the city. Well, next time.

I may not have seen much of the city but I for sure experienced the different lifestyle of people in Spain when it comes to eating.

Last night, around 7:30pm Brent and I entered a restaurant. Brent woke up at 4am that day and was tired and hungry. What you need to know is that people in Spain have dinner later… more towards 9:30-10pm. This means that at 7:30pm, you cannot have dinner because the chef is not there yet! Waiter offered us olives and a few chips until the kitchen was open. I’m not a big fan of olives and I’m on a diet so I patiently waited for food to come around 8:30pm, and it was really good, so worth waiting.
Brent is American and told me that in Cincinnati, by 9pm restaurants are empty. So by the time Americans are going home after their dinner, while north Europeans are in their main course, Spanish will only get started :)

Today in the office, lunch was at 2pm. I was expecting a late lunch like in Italy around 12:30-1pm but once again that was too early. On top Spanish usually eat a lot at lunch as it is the main meal of the day. Food once again was great, especially the “croquetas de jamon”. Now I understand how they manage to make it all the way until a dinner at 10pm. If you have lunch at 2pm, at 7pm you are for sure not hungry… yet.

Tonight, I will try to explore a bit the center between work and dinner. Hopefully this will get me on Spanish schedule.

Just like that

Today I was having a meeting with one of my new colleagues from the US who happened to be in Belgium. It's always good to meet face to face when we have the opportunity.
Half way through the meeting he told me he was going to visit our plant in Barcelona and talk to team there. I'm not exactly sure how but he suggested I join, and my new boss agreed to it, as I would have to go there as part of my onboarding at some point. So why not now, i.e. tomorrow?
Maybe because I try to have a life? but that was not strong enough vs. the great opportunity to start my onboarding with a visit in the plant.
Thus I'm packing again for a 2-day trip.
And I was looking forward for a week without travel, my only week without travel this month. I guess it will have to wait next year.

Brrr

First snow arrived last night... and it looks like it's going to last!

What excuse can I use to stay inside where it's warm?

Americans don't like roundabouts

Here is one those jewels you find now and then in the news.

According to the New York Times, Americans don't like roundabouts.
"Traffic is going in circles. Armed with mounting data showing that roundabouts are safer, cheaper to maintain and friendlier to the environment, transportation experts around the country are persuading communities to replace traditional intersections with them. There’s just one problem: Americans don’t know how to navigate them."

There are only 2000 roundabouts in the US. Given the size of the country that's nothing. I'm pretty sure Brittany has more than that on its own.

This article is hilarious, especially when experts explain very seriously that people are different, thus driving is different, thus roundabouts can work in some places (like Europe) and not in others (like the US). Given how different people's driving habits are within Europe, how come we all manage to handle a roundabout? Even UK drivers demonstrated it works the other way around.


Read full article here.

Embracing each other's traditions

Today is the first Advent Sunday. In Germany this is quite important and based on my understanding, families gather around an Advent wreath (Adventskranz for the Germans) to read stories or even sing carols. It's usually made of some evergreen branches and holds 4 candles, each of them to be lit on one of the Advent Sundays.
Given it's a German tradition, you don't find Advent wreath in Belgium and last time we were in Germany it was too early.
Today, I tried to be creative and presented to Wolfram our self-made "Advent wreath". Fair enough it doesn't have the evergreen branches and doesn't look like the traditional German one, but at least the 4 candles are there. And I've baked some cakes and Madeleine to make it a bit more festive.

Happy first Advent Sunday to everybody!

PS: for next year, I will buy in advance, i.e. this year, some (plastic or fabric) evergreen to be equipped.
PS2: this also means only 4 weeks to go before Christmas and I don't have a single gift :(
PS3: this also means that next week-end we will buy the Christmas tree, decorate the house and start baking Christmas biscuits!

Do you want some pudding?

Towards the end of an excellent dinner at SIX, a well known restaurant in Newcastle, which happened to be located on the sixth and top floor of one of the buildings in Gateshead giving you an amazing view on the river Tyne and the bridges of Newcastle, the waiter asked us whether we wanted some pudding. Surprised I asked if we could get the desert menu hopping to find something else on it than pudding.
I made the whole table laugh because, in the UK, pudding refers to desert in general. For me pudding was a typical English cake, like the traditional Christmas pudding.
After clarification of the meaning of pudding, my colleagues went for Sticky Toffee Pudding and I, safely, for a brownie. I may not have expended my desert menu that night but at least I expended my vocabulary :)

It's snowing in Newcastle

Consequences:
- Aircraft circled around the city 10 times last night and we landed with 1 hour delay.
- Taxi could not drive up the slope to the hotel so we had to walk down the hill in 5cm snow
- Technical center might be closed tomorrow which is not good for our meeting plans
- Flight tomorrow will very likely be delayed given the mess it is in the airport today - wish me luck
- Newcastle looks lovely covered with snow :)

7am

It's never too early or too late to see paintings from Monet. This year in Paris there is a huge exhibition gathering almost all the paintings from Monet. It's sold out, at least for booking. One can always get in line in front of the museum, queue in the cold and hope for a ticket.
Given the success of the exhibition the museum decided to open at night the last week-end. Most paintings are a loan from museums around the world and they could not expand the duration of the exhibition.
I've been wanting to see this exhibition but so far things didn't work out. Until this morning.
I've booked tickets for the night opening. Actually more for the morning as the tickets left were between 1am and 7am. I decided to go for 7am, thinking we'll have breakfast afterwards and it's probably easier to handle than the exhibition in the middle of the night (yeah, yeah, I'm not getting younger).
I'm very excited and can't wait January to see all my favourite paintings (last time was many many years ago in Chicago).

PS: for those who are not as lucky as us, you can visit the website of the exhibition, and take the Journey with your loudspeakers on.

Mein Onkel Franz or the first book I read in German

While we were in Germany a couple of weeks ago I bought some books in German from the Easy Readers collection. These are books for foreigners who are learning a language with easy vocabulary and difficult words explained on each page. I had read books from that collection when I was learning Italian and found them a great way to learn a language. Believe it or not it is more interesting to read a full story than a grammar book.

While the story of my uncle Franz is not very exciting I quite enjoyed the reading experience and I'm very proud to have managed reading a full book, even a easy reading one, in German and understood what it was about.
I'm ready for the next one!
PS: a BIG THANK you to Wolfram who sat there patiently listening to my broken German, explaining a few words here and there.

It can only get better

I started the day by bumping my head against the ceiling (recall we have a slope roof) when getting out of bed. No idea why this morning it happened. Must have been tired.
Later on, half way through work Wolfram realized he had forgotten his laptop at home. He never takes it home, but the one time he does he forgets it in the entrance. We turned around. Luckily we live next to work.
1 min from work, trip #2, we realized we had taken the wrong car. I'm not insured on Wolfram's car and I need to go to the physiotherapist tonight. What were we thinking? Obviously not much, if not, not at all.

2 obvious conclusions:
- we need MORE sleep
- it can only get better. Honestly what else can happen after such a start of the day.

Finally

Finally this morning I could pick up my laptop. It is fixed in the sense that I can use it and the screen is showing more than the cursor I had last week-end. However it has become EXTREMELY slow in the process.
I guess next time I will have to specify: "Please fix the issue but don't create a new one at the same time".

It is true that with experience one becomes wiser :)

Highly frustrating

This morning I brought my laptop to the IT desk for repair. It was 8:30am and that's how my day started. 20min later I left the desk with a loan laptop. 10min later I was back at the desk as the loan laptop was not set to connect to the network!!!! Given all I can do with a loan laptop is check emails on the webmail acces I wonder what they thought I would do with it. Play games? Watch a DVD?
Around 11am a technician call me to let me know that the hard drive was dead :( they will try to rescue as many data as possible but it will take at least until tomorrow afternoon.
So here I am, desperate and pretty useless as all I can do is join meetings and do emails.
Did I mention the loan laptop has the old office installed and I cannot open most of the attachments!
Highly highly frustrating I'm telling you!

Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen is a traditional German biscuit baked for Christmas, somewhat resembling soft gingerbread with sugar icing or chocolate icing.
It's one of those things you get to see and eat only around Christmas time.
Last time we were in Germany we tried to buy some but the shop in Ludwigsburg closes at 2pm on Saturdays (why would they close the shop on Saturday afternoon remains a mystery).
This time we were in Stuttgart on a week day. No way we couldn't buy our Lebkuchen.
Wolfram found the shop and gave me a tour of all the varieties of Lebkuchen. As a consequence I bought all of them: with sugar icing, with chocolate icing, the best ones and some mid-tier ones also very good and the latest news, with marzipan. I can't wait to be home for Christmas and eat them.
PS: the marzipan one we tried the evening right after and seriously it tastes extremely good. We should have bought more!

Stuttgart, finally!

Finally after several trips to Germany and Wolfram's hometown (Remseck, less than 20km away) I got to visit Stuttgart. Crazy enough so far we never had the time to get to the city for a tour, joggling with shopping and family obligations. But this time Wolfram promised to take me to Stuttgart and hold to his promise.
Wolfram and his parents warned me over and over again that there is nothing special in Stuttgart.
This said according to my brand new Germany travel guide, there are things to see. For example the Schlossplatz (i.e. the castle square), the Schlossgarten (i.e. the garden of the castle), the Altes Schloss (i.e. the old castle), etc. In other words a lot of things evolving around castles :)
Truth be told indeed there is nothing astonishing to see or visit in Stuttgart but it seems to be a nice place to live. Like Evan said about LA, it's not a place to visit but a great place to live, I have the feeling it's the same about Stuttgart.
The whole center is pedestrian and I really enjoyed walking the streets, quickly taking a look at the historical highlights with my very own guide. Despite what he claims, Wolfram has a lot to say about Stuttgart, not always about History with a capital H but about the stories of when he was a kid growing in Stuttgart.
For sure I need to come back in warmer weather to enjoy the gardens maybe even have picnic there.
No pictures unfortunately because by the time we reached the center it was getting dark and I don't have the right lens to take great pictures at dusk. For sure I have to come back in sunny weather ;)

Not good, not looking good at all

Tonight the weekend is starting. Tomorrow is a national holiday in Belgium and our company decided to close also on Friday. This means a 4-day weekend!!!
But before enjoying this time away from work I wanted to finish a couple of things. One can't truly enjoy himself without having full peace of mind. At least that's my case.
Once home I switched on my laptop and... Nothing. Well not exactly nothing: it's a black screen with a white cursor on the top left corner. Blinking, like it's waiting for something.
Waiting indeed but not starting my computer :(
We tried all our tricks. We asked google for help. I even called IT sending a message in a bottle but nothing could be done.
For sure this weekend I won't work a thing as I have to wait for IT to open on Monday morning. For sure the cursor will keep blinking, waiting until some IT expert will provide the right answer.
For sure I will enjoy myself this weekend with the best excuse in the world: my laptop is dead.
For sure I've never been so happy to have my iPhone and be able to post this entry :)

Cut the rope

or a new additive game in the house.
Wolfram is already a lost cause and at level 4.
I'm slightly behind (someone had to cook :) ) but will catch up.

What is it about?

"A mysterious package has arrived, and the creature inside has only one request…CANDY! Help get the candy to Om Nom, the adorable monster, in this highly innovative and addictive puzzle game. Combining outstanding physics, devilishly tricky levels, and bright colorful visuals, Cut the Rope is one of the most original and fun-filled games on the App Store."

See it by yourself the trailer here.