I'm soooooooooooo tired

Last night our neighbours had some people over. No idea how many but they were noisy. It was ok as long as we were up and playing the Wii with Alice. It became less nice when we decided to go to bed and the noise was still there.
Of course we debated whether we should go knock on their door. Obviously we don't want to pass for those neighbours who always complain about the noise. So we tried to sleep. Again and again and again. Their noise was louder than the rain on the Velux despite it was heavy rain.
At 5:30am where Wolfram got fed up with it and told them to stop making noise.
At 6am they stopped and we finally fell asleep.

Something tells me we will have a long nap this afternoon.

PS: don't know why but I feel like getting a wood board and a hammer, and make noise for 30 minutes so they can't sleep as well this morning. I believe it's called revenge. Grrrrr!

Experimental cooking

Tonight we had Alice over for dinner and I decided to try the mix of spice I bought in Cairo.
I improvised a marinade with the spice mix where I've put the chicken for several hours. I then cooked it in the pan with almonds and pine nuts. Served it with rice.
And it was very good!
I was a bit stressed because it was total improvisation but luckily it turned out to be very good.
I'll note down the recipe for future re-application.

A new tartine

As you know we're big fan of Le Pain Quotidien. Each month they have the "Tartine of the month" which is a special seasonal tartine.
This month they came up with a very good one: guacamole, roasted chicken and tomatoes. Super simple and super good as usual.
Inspiration for home-made one :)

I had forgotten

Now that we have TV and access to at least a hundred channels (not necessary all worth it, but we have them) I was watching a movie the other night and there it came: advertisement. Every 20-30min there is a break.
I had forgotten what it is to watch a movie with advertisement break killing the momentum...
Maybe next time I just put a DVD in :)

The 24 Laziest Countries

Today Yahoo had an interesting article on its home page, about the laziest countries in the world. Of course I had to take a look and what did I find...
#1 USA (no big surprise there)
#2 Canada
#3 is Belgium!!!
I'm speechless :)
See the full survey here.

NB: France is #8 and Germany #9

Expedit

1 Expedit
2 Expedit
3 Expedit
4 Expedit
5 Expedit
6 Expedit
How many Expedit shelves from Ikea one can have in a single house?
Well since yesterday we have 6! Small one, medium one, large one, I believe we have all the sizes and nearly all the colors :)

Traffic in Moscow

Traffic in Moscow is bad, really bad. When there is no or limited traffic it will take you 30min to get to the office, that becomes 1:30 to 3 hours when there is traffic.
Can you imagine some people spend everyday 2-3 hours in the morning and the same going back home? That's half of your day in the traffic. I could not.
Each evening this week it took us at least 2 hours to get back to the hotel and honestly by the time you get there you're exhausted. It doesn't matter that we were several in the car and could continue our discussion so it's not a complete waste of time. It's just exhausting.
I will now think twice when I complain about traffic in Brussels. Because really, I'm not sure we can call it traffic compare to Moscow (or Beijing).

Plov

Last night to celebrate the end of our research the local team took us to an Oriental restaurant. By Oriental you should understand the Oriental part of Russia.
We had Plov, a traditional rice dish from Uzbekistan and some bbq meat. While we were all curious about the Plov because the description in the menu was pretty basic "rice with meat".
It turned out to be very good (also very long to prepare but worth waiting). It's quite interesting to see the variety of traditional dishes in Russia ranging from Slavic, to Muslim to Asian. After all it is a very big country.

The good old days of working in a factory

Russia, in the seventies

Honey, this one is fo you

Legend: Starbuck's coffee

What a coincidence!

Today in the office in Moscow, we spent the whole day in Moscow and Kiev rooms. Later I walked to a small huddle room to do some more work and guess what!
All the huddle rooms have names of cities and in the middle of Paris, Moscow, Vienna, New York, Riga, London and many more, the room I picked was "Brest", my home town!
What are the odds I ask you?
PS: in case you don't know, there are 2 Brest: one in France and one in Belarus.

Podolsk

Podolsk is a city (or a town according to Russian standards with only 180 000 inhabitants) in the South of Moscow. That's where we went to visit people. For the first time, I've stepped out of Moscow and could experience the life out of Moscow, the "simple life" like people from Moscow calls it. In case you wonder, I did walk 10min with the lady I was visiting to go grocery shopping, back and forth. Not that easy when the ground is covered in snow and temperature is -13C.



It looks very much like a communist town, with building blocks everywhere, some being 1km long (very impressive), large streets connecting them, former industrial town in the communist time.


Somehow, the signs of "modernity" and "capitalism" are limited, or not as obvious as in Moscow. But they do have McDonald's :)




Doesn't look like a place with entertainment, more like a place where people would live while working in Moscow.
Interestingly, there were many Datcha villages. Datchas are secondary housing where people living in the cities would go on vacation. Some are very small (less than 20 m2) and some are very big and fancy (I was told some have even swimming pool), but that's not the rule. Most of the time they look like log cabin.

From B to A

This morning I left home very early ahead of my flight to ensure I would not miss it. It snowed again and we know by now the chaos that snow creates on Belgian roads.
Way to early of course I enjoyed a venti hot chocolate at Starbuck's before boarding.
My gate was gate B94, in terminal B. I proceeded through all the checks and ended up in a bus. Bus which drove me to terminal A, where I climbed the stairs to access the plane from the terminal.
I wonder id it would not have been more efficient to have the plane at terminal B or tell us to go to terminal A... sometimes Belgian logic is a mystery to me.

What could you do on Valentine's day?

Have a dinner in a nice restaurant?
Go to a Spa?
Take a cooking class together?
Prepare a candlelight dinner?
Write a poem?
Go for a romantic picnic?
(you know all the classics)

This year we did none of the above. We assembled our new wardrobe.

It all started by an obvious fact: we need more hanging space. I had 2 wardrobes, Wolfram 1, so there was no way all of our things that needed to hang would fit in only one. We did try but after 1 month there was no way to deny the fact that we needed more hanging space.

So there we go, it's Saturday and together with half of Belgium, we went to Ikea. Note we could have waited Sunday, because this year Ikea is opened on Valentine's day. Apparently on top of all of the obvious things to do for Valentine's, a trip to Ikea is also an option.
Direction the wardrobe area with a stop by the desk area. Wolfram was looking for one and we spent some quality time exploring the possibilities. With one lead option for the desk in our pocket, the next step turned out a bit more complex. We had dimensions, we had a need, we needed a solution. Pax was the obvious because that's the series where you can design your own wardrobe, according to your needs and wishes. More drawers, more hanging space, more shelves, sliding doors or traditional ones... you name it. There is even an online tool for you to try different options.
Our design on paper we went to the desk so a very nice lady could put everything in the computer and make sure we haven't forgotten anything (like the hinges for the doors...). She kindly printed out the list so we could pick up everything in the warehouse. And it was quite some boxes actually. So many, so heavy, so long that Wolfram's car looked very small all of a sudden.

We had to leave the trunk door open as the boxes were not fitting in the car (between you an me, a Mercedes coupe is a very nice car but not the most flexible one when it comes to transport Ikea boxes... but you could argue that when you buy such a car, you have a different agenda :)).

First things first (well after unloading the car which was quite some effort given some of the boxes weigh more than 40kg), we assembled the desk. Pretty simple and quickly done. A nice "starter"

The big piece was still waiting for us. But before we could get our hands on it, we had to empty the current wardrobe (piling up everything on the bed) and disassemble it.
This done, we started by the frames, then the doors, then the shelves and drawers.
We did realize that we could re-use the shelf boards from my former wardrobe (standardization is sometimes good) which means we can bring back the new ones and save (a bit of) money.




Each time I have to build Ikea furniture I'm always grateful to my uncle who got me an electrical screw driver. This way I can screw (or unscrew) anything without an effort. Clearly this is one of these inventions really making a difference in one's life.
After may hours of work, here comes our new wardrobe.

Guess what. Once we've put all the clothes in, we realize one thing: we still need more hanging space... this time for the coats :) but that's gonna be another episode.

PS: I did get to wake up and find beautiful flowers and I baked an heart-shape chocolate cake for my Valentine ;)

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's Chinese New Year and to celebrate all those who spent some time in Beijing gathered last night for a dinner. Susan had found a Chinese restaurant (whose chef used to work at the Chinese embassy) offering a dinner with some shows.
The 8 of us met at Cite du Dragon for Chinese food, a bit of acrobats and traditional dancing, the lion and of course remembering all the good (and bad) adventures of when we lived in Beijing.
Lot's of memories and good friends for a very nice Chinese New Year celebration!
Only the fireworks were missing.
PS: this year is the year of the Tiger.

It's a very cold winter

As you may know it's been snowing on a regular basis in Belgium since roughly mid December. In the past 2 months we've rarely had temperatures above 2C and this lead to using the heating quite significantly. I knew the gas bill would be bad this year because of the cold but I didn't expect that I had to pay 200 euros when I closed the gas in my former apartment. Between September and end of January, I used 415 cubic meter of gas! And the winter is not over yet :(

Coach potatoe

This morning I exercise on the Wii board. Lately I've started a new exercise: parallel stretch. As you can see you simply need to hold your body parallel to the ground for a certain amount of time. Entry level: 30 seconds.
It's no big news I have zero strength in my arms and my abs are "work in progress". Therefore this exercise a pretty tough on me but I do my best to hold the position.
After one week training I had finally reached the "casual athlete" status and was very proud of my progress. Apparently it was not meant to last as after 1 week without practising, I'm back to "coach potato" :(

Promotions

I've found out this week that both Amalia and Andy, who worked for me in China, will be promoted. I'm so happy for them as they really deserved their promotion.
I have to confess I feel proud of their success.
It's also a nice feeling as a manager to know that you can drive people to success.

I love being Gold

I found out during this trip that I reached the "gold" status on my Air France frequent flyer card.
This means:
- express check-in with a dedicated counter
- faster security check as I get to use the Business access
- access to the lounge
- even more miles when I travel
and this for every flight, even when I fly economy.
I love it!

Abou El Sid

Last night I went for dinner to Abou El Sid. It's a restaurant who serves Egyptian food like if it was at home. No 5-star chef there, women are in charge in the kitchen, cooking for you as if you were visiting their home.
The place is really nice. Decoration is worth seeing and the food is simply excellent. All the traditional Egyptian dishes are there.
To the surprise of the waiter, I ordered a large selection of dishes, simply to have a try at as many of them. And I had a very good dinner followed by a nice walk on the riverside.

PS: this restaurant is mostly frequented by tourists. Obviously Egyptian stay home for "home type cooking".

Cairo it’s the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile...

… and it’s also


Dusty roads without sidewalk for pedestrian

Trash everywhere – Pollution is unbearable in the air, on the ground, everywhere.

Extreme poverty right at the footstep of fancy buildings or malls.

Step #4: the Nile

I decided to walk along the Nile riverside from the Museum to the hotel. Roughly 2 km walk and I probably inhaled enough 10 years of pollution in that 30min walk. But again it’s not every day I can walk by the Nile.

Step #3: the museum of Egyptian art

I don’t know what to think of the museum. Reason is that museum is getting moved to a new building close to the pyramids and apparently half the country is busy with the inventory (or so claimed my colleagues). Therefore it feels more like visiting a warehouse where tons of sarcophagi, millions of amulets and zillions of other objects are piled up in cabinets too small for them, with poor light. I’m sure the cabinets are the original ones, you could see the glass being hand-made thus irregular and the typed (yes with a typing machine) cards explaining what you see (“gold bracelet”… this much I could have guessed by myself). To be fair, the move being right around the corner, it’s unfair to judge the museum but really it felt like visiting the warehouse of a museum, you know that are where they store all their acquisition until they find space to show them.
I did see most of the key highlights and of course the mummies. Strangely the scientific in me was admiring the work done with the mummification while the human (I guess) in me was wondering if it’s right to expose those dead kings and therefore break their eternal peace.

Step #2: Mosque of Al-Azhar

Leaving behind the Sphinx and the pyramids I took a taxi to my next stop: the Mosque of Al-Azhar in the old Cairo.
I was not so impressed by this Mosque. Clearly the one in Istanbul are a category above but as every religious monument, it seems like a serene atmosphere is owning the place. Therefore in the chaos of the city it was a very peaceful visit.
Gate of the Barbers, entrance of the Mosque

Inside the mosque




With my spirituality taken care of I crossed the street to enter Khan al-Khalili, Cairo’s main souq. Tons of small shops selling souvenirs, spices and local handicraft. Of course they all try to get your attention (‘I’ve got all you need”, “Lady, the most beautiful here”, and so on). Nothing really caught my eyes and beside spices (bah, oui, les epices du Caire comme dirait Benabar :)) I didn’t buy anything. Simply spent 1 hour wandering in the small crowded colored streets.

PS: if you know a good recipe with Saffran, please share. I’ve got 100g of it to be creative with :)

Step #1: and the Sphinx

I nearly forgot. Downhill from the pyramids lies the Sphinx.
This one was a bigger disappointment. It is really small (blame Obelix for giving me the wrong scale). I was expecting this giant imposing Sphinx only to find a somewhat big Sphinx. What can I say when reality meets fiction, it does not always match. See the pictures here.
Never the less, a group of tourists from Sri Lanka wanted absolutely to take a picture with me (like in the days in China) and in exchange they offered to take pictures of me with the Sphinx. Not always the best shot (more like the typical tourist one) and not always the best eye either, but was really funny. Laugh with me :)

Step #1: The Giza pyramids

Before leaving I bought a small travel guide, just so I know a minimum what there is to see and do in Cairo. Out of their top 10 for Cairo and the Nile, 3 are located in Cairo and naturally I decided to shoot for those ones.
#1 – The Giza pyramids
After a 30min drive in taxi I arrived at the pyramids.
First impression: I thought they were bigger. Not that they are small but somehow I was expected really big. I mean they are big and it’s quite impressive to think that such edifices have been built at a time where there were no engine to help you, only man power.
I bought the tickets, one to get on the site and one to get inside the great pyramid or pyramid of Khufu (by the way, 160 Egyptian Pound, roughly 21 euros, that’s not a bargain to visit the pyramids but maybe it’s my one in a lifetime chance so let’s do it!).
The moment I entered the site, it started. They are men selling souvenirs, camel rides, guide every 2 meters. Of course as a woman walking there alone I was an easy target. Still it becomes quickly annoying, especially when they don’t let go.
This aside, those pyramids do look amazing. I can’t help thinking of the hundreds of thousands (or maybe even million) of slaves that worked to bring them up.
As I was early the sun was only on one side of the great pyramid. I quickly walked to the sunny side and started taking pictures. Frustration came right away: so many people around, no way to get a picture without tourists on it (yeah, someone had some influence on me… can’t help hearing this little voice “is this a good picture?”). Anyhow I took some trying to minimalize the number of people on it.
I have to say that with the sun shining directly at it, the great pyramid looks amazing. So many rocks, so high. Would have been even higher if the top layer was still there. Over history the outer layer disappeared (or some of its stones were re-used somewhere else as I over-heard from one of the guides walking the site).
I spent about 2 hours walking the site and taking pictures of the 3 pyramids, trying to realize that this was not a dream. Have a look here. PS: if you don't fancy pyramids, pass your way :)

Getting inside the great pyramid.
I climbed the steps to get to the entrance of the pyramid. Didn’t mention I had a camera in my back pack so I didn’t have to leave it at the entrance (which is the rule reminding me of a certain grotte we visited in Lebanon) and went in. Gee it’s humid and warm and narrow and steep. Apparently they were not planning to go back and forth in the pyramid. You get your time entry ticket, they drag you all the way up in your sarcophagi and leave you there for eternity. After an almost impossible climbing where you have to stay half bended as the ceiling is very low, I made it ! only to find an empty sarcophagi in an empty room. Obviously some people have been there before and took it all (or maybe it’s at the museum). I spent a couple of minutes up there catching my breath and started the way down.

Now I can say it, I’ve seen the pyramids (at least 3 of them) and I’ve even been inside one!!!

Cairo Express

I woke up early this morning (too early for a Sunday) with one objective in mind: see as much as possible of Cairo in one day.
It's 8:30am. I'm leaving the hotel. First stop: the pyramides.

It's cold, isn't it?

Took roughly 30min to get through customs and luggage.
Took easily 1 hour to cross the city from the airport to the hotel. Even at 10pm traffic is crazy and we spent most of the drive at 30km/h. I guess I should be happy we were not fully stopped.
This long drive was followed by the longest check-in ever but in their defense, the credit card machine couldn't get a network and they did walk me to my room. Apparently I have a view on the Nile. Will let you know tomorrow when there is light, because now, it's all black over there.

The quote of the day is for sure the following:
man at the airport "it's cold tonight, isn't it?"
me "euh, well, not really. it's a bit chilly but not cold"
him "it IS cold. it's one of the coldest winter in Cairo"
me "really?"
Just for your info, temperature outside at 10pm was 13C... a bit chilly but by far warmer than the 5C in Belgium. I guess everything is relative. I removed my wool sweater when the all run for one.

Isn't that the coolest visa form

Look at this visa form when you enter Egypt! So much better than the standard purely administrative document.
Almost feels like Nefertiti herself is welcoming you :)

Guess where I’m flying to

A little bit more than a month ago I spent 2 days in Beirut for recruitment. This created the opportunity for a short but amazing visit to my family in Lebanon.
Today I’m flying again to Middle East for recruitment. This time to Cairo!
Yes, I’m finally going to see pyramids. Apparently to most of my colleagues it is quite surprising that I haven’t been to Egypt before. Didn’t know Egypt was part of those places that everybody visited. Well except me and millions of others.
I decided to fly one day earlier so I can spend my Sunday visiting. I’m so excited about seeing the pyramids.

A message from old friend

"Hi Lamia,
How are you doing recently? Hope everything is going well with you.
Just miss you, nothing important, and I would like to share with you some thing you would like to know, although you have gone back to BIC, I still could hear a lot of good feed back from other people, not only with in our group but also from other team member - this reminds me the happy time I had with you and I really feel proud that I have worked with you. I wish to meet you again some day in BJ or if possible in BIC, or in France, haha, who knows what will happen tom…
Good luck and all the best wishes"

Message I received today from one of my colleagues in Beijing... Reading it I realize even more how much I miss the team over there.

What do you eat when you go to the UK?

Fish and chips?
Toasts and marmalade?
Some weird Scottish specialities?
none of the above. You go for curry simply because after India, the UK is the best place to have good curry.
On the first night we went for traditional curry and last night for new wave curry (just more creative and actually a better discovery) at Rasa.

This is it

Les Petits Riens passed by today and picked up everything I wanted to donate (minus a few things the lady who will rent the apartment wanted to keep).
All the documents are signed and I got all my money back from my deposit!!!
I gave back all the keys.

This is it. I no longer live rue Jean Paquot. After more than 4 years it's a bit weird to close the door one last time and walk away from the place I used to live in and all the memories.

Life goes on, a new life is starting in Meise!