Ticket to paradise

Alice is invited to a wedding in Malaysia in July and was looking for a "+1". It was hard but I offered to sacrifice myself and join her for 10 days vacation in Malaysia also known as paradise on earth. Since we've booked the tickets last week, I can't help thinking about it especially with the rainy cold weather of the past few days. Can't wait to be in Kuala Lumpur and Borneo!
Now let me buy the Lonely Planet so I can start dreaming :)

Round 2 vs. the marks on the tiles

After an unsuccessful attempt last week-end, this time I decided to give it a try with a strong cleaning product and scrubbing. I just don't feel comfortable using acid on the tiles, at least not yet.
So here I am armed with a spray bottle, a bucket and a scrubbing sponge. I scrubbed the tiles from the aisle, kitchen and dinning room, one by one, mark by mark. 20 sqm kneeling down scrubbing with Wolfram was coming after to rinse... what a lovely activity to do in couple :)
While we were not really sure at first, by the next morning we could see a difference. The tiles we've scrubbed are for sure cleaner. Sadly, not perfectly clean as some of the marks have penetrated in the tiles and I could not remove them, even with all my scrubbing power.
I don't believe we will never get the tiles as clean as they should be, but at least they will look better and the biggest marks will be gone.
Still the rest of the living room and the first floor to do. In case you have nothing planed in the coming week-ends, we could use some scrubbing power.

Granted

Today I received an email informing me that my patent was granted. OK, not my patent that I filed all by myself, but the one I contributed to back then when I was working in Italy.
Soon I will receive a plaque to put on my wall.
After all, this week is not that bad.

It's one of those days

or even weeks where everything seems to go wrong. One bad news after the other one at work :(
I'm looking forward for tomorrow to put this week behind me.

Cook & Book

Today after swimming I met Alice and Cathy for lunch at Cook & Book.
I had never been there and was looking forward to discover another place in Brussels where you can brunch on Sundays.
This place is simply amazing. It's a combination of a book shop and a restaurant. Tables are spread around the book shop and you can have food or a drink while sitting in the middle of the travel section for example.
There are 2 blocks (A and B) each of them with different book sections and a restaurant. We ended up in the English books section as we hadn't booked a table so we couldn't choose where to sit. It was absolutely great to have lunch and chat between girls in between book shelves. Of course we talked girls topics but this time we also discussed books, inspired by the place.
A new place in Brussels to try out.
PS: needless to say that I bought books on the way out. I finally bought "il cucchiaio d’argento", the bible of Italian cuisine. Now no recipe of any Italian dish will be a mystery to me. Just need to figure out how to make them :)
To spice up our everyday cooking I also bought one more book of Wok recipes. Of course Asian inspired.
I'm looking forward to try out all those new recipes.

C'est pas gagne

Today, big motivation, I stopped by Brico to get some solvent to remove the marks of paint on the tiles. Every Friday, our cleaning lady is complaining about...no pressure.
I bought my old friend acetone and armed with it I started. I did not go very far because most of our marks are not paint but coating :( For which solvents can't do much.
I removed a few marks here and there but it seems I will have to bring another old friend: HCl, chlorhydric acid.

Finally

Finally I managed to drag Wolfram to another trip to Ikea this time to deal with our shoes situation, namely lots of shoes no space where to put them. Spring arriving the need was getting urgent to have easy access to all the shoes.
We proudly bought another Pax combination to suit our needs. Once again Wolfram's car demonstrated its capacity to act as a van and transport 2.4m long cartons.
Last night, we assembled the frame and tonight while someone was driving to Germany I completed our master-piece.

4! drawers for the shoes, 1 hanging space for coats and jackets and even one spare shelf. 2.36m high is very high. So high I need a ladder to reach the top shelf :)

Being done with the assembling I started the best part of it: placing all my shoes in it. Note: drawer #2 is Wolfram's in case you wonder why I had such big shoes.

It's not the dressing room from Sex in the city (still dreaming about it) but it's one step in that direction.

Still a pending question... where will I put the pairs of shoes I've seen in magazines and I'm planning to buy?

Unbelievable

You probably already know about Wolfram driving on a pin and his flat tire.
What you don't know is that he doesn't have a spare tire! I actually didn't know you could buy a car without a spare tire or at least the donut one. What do you do if you get a flat tire without any replacement then?
Apparently if you drive a Mercedes, you are above the rest of us. Changing the tire yourself, no way. You simply call the assistance which will take care of it.
Ah... those Mercedes owners... they just simply can't do like everybody else, even when it comes to a flat tire :)

Alice in wonderland

What best way of spending your Monday night than going to the cinema to watch Alice in wonderland, in 3D of course.
Take Tim Burton and his favourite actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, a crazy story and you get his version of Alice in wonderland. Tim Burton has the talent to create unique fantastic universes where the most improbable characters will evolve. For sure once you start the movie you will take off for a new world where the craziest things can happen.
I have to confess I recognized all the characters in the story: Alice, the rabbit with the clock, the smoking caterpillar, the twins, the mad hatter, the red queen, etc. but I can't remember what the story was about. It's been soooooo long since I read Alice in wonderland that I can't remember the story at all. Shame on me, I guess...
This means I have no idea how much the movie was faithful to the book and it's probably for the best. It was a good trip in a world where animals can speak, people can shrink or get taller just by drinking a potion or eating a cake, where the head of the red queen is bigger than a fish ball, and many more.
Another good Tim Burton's movie. If you like his style, don't miss Alice.

Volume

Today Cristina asked me whether I had lost weigh. Sadly I had to admit this was not the case. Despite 3 weeks of heavy exercising and diet, the needle didn't move on the scale :(
She looked at me and said: "for sure, you've lost volume"
Seems all those efforts are paying off after all. It does feel good to think that I've lost volume, at least I've lost something :)

Aie aie aie

Yesterday I did my first session of shape boxing on the Wii. This Wii "game / sport training" was advised to me by Aurelie as really good. It was indeed good training and not so high impact like the Tae Bo class we attend on Wednesdays. Here just moving back and forth on your feet and punch. Easy. Does get you to sweat but not over the edge.
This morning however, when I woke up, I discovered my body was aching all over. Seems those exercises where not that low impact after all.

Back to normal

After weeks and week-ends dedicated to the move and the apartment, this afternoon came as bliss for me. I met Stefanie in Ghent for lunch and an afternoon of shopping. It was really nice to spend an afternoon chatting and shopping designer clothes vs. another trip to Ikea. We explored the spring-summer collection, bought a few things and concluded it will be hard to find shoes we like this summer. You probably don't care but I feel like myself again when my main concern of the day is what shoes / clothes to buy.
PS: this brings back the unsolved problem of the storage of my shoes in the new apartment. All my shoes are still waiting in a big box :(

Raclette what else

What can you eat when you go to the Alps?.... Raclette of course.
Team dinner was organized at La Caleche. The decoration in the restaurant was really impressive: a collection of items you would find in a traditional kitchen or house.
I understood the raclette was very good but when you don't eat cheese like me, it's not the best place to go. The moment you enter there is this smell of cheese, so disgusting for me, so appealing for raclette lovers.
In case you are in Chamonix and need a place to eat a good raclette, La Caleche is where you should go.

Chamonix

Today and tomorrow we have an off-site team event in Chamonix. Reason we are in the French Alps is because most of the team is based in Geneva therefore the Alps are just next door and it's so much better to be in the mountains vs. in the office.
Last night the Brussels team flew over and this morning we took a bus to reach the hotel Labrador (yes like the dog).
I'm struggling how this hotel managed to get 3 stars, especially because the rooms were not so nice and the spa was literally only a jacuzzi. Must be the view. I have to say it's quite worth the trip to stand there at the bottom of the valley facing the mountains under the sunlight.





My only regret is that we spent most of the time indoor. I would have loved to take the cabin (or lift) all the way up and make pictures. I guess that will be for some other time.
The only time we spent outdoor was for some team building games. Same old games, doesn't matter if you do them on grass or snow, but it was fun and for sure achieved its goal of getting us a stronger team. At least sub-team, because our only objective was to beat the other sub-teams, competitive as we all are :)




Note that the restaurant next to the hotel, la Cabane de Praz, on the other hand is worth a visit. Food was very good, so good, it was hard to get back to meetings afterwards.

It's Spring

And what do you do for Spring?
You buy tulips to bring back flowers in the house
You start moving furniture. Now that we have the reached the operational level in the apartment we are ready for the next level: optimization. We started by moving the shelves with the DVDs from one side of the living room to the other one and readjusting the Chinese corner. Looks much better, no doubt about.
Now what's next?

There is really an application for everything on the iPhone

March 1st, 1st day of spring in Central Europe, 1st day of my diet. I've been trying to avoid it but seems I can't anymore. No matter how much I exercise, the needle on Wii balance board hasn't moved a bit :(
So there we go, I grabbed my "Le regime pour les paresseuses" a book about diet and the first thing you have to do is write down all you eat to assess how many calories you take in every day. Something told me that starting this a week where I would be on business trip was not the smartest, but one has to start eventually.
For convenience I was taking note on my iPhone, because I always have it with me, and compiling them. Until yesterday when Wolfram basically explained to me how stupid I was because for sure there must be an application on the iPhone to track your food intake and diet.
Of course he was right. Not one application but easily a dozen of them. I picked the one from Spark People, with the highest ranking and there we go. I can see instantly how many calories I had so far during the day (and more scary how few I have left until the night). As we are in a society of tables and charts, I can review many reports on my progress (hopefully), how I am balancing between intake and exercise, what did I eat that really was a lot of calories (maybe to be avoided in the future), etc.

Fingers crossed diet will work, but at least I have a cool application to track my progress.

Nothing is worse than being sick on a business trip

Last night the whole team joined the regional team for a celebration at the Hard Rock Cafe in Bucharest. We had a great time, the traditional Hard Rock Cafe food, cocktails and Karaoke. I have to say it's always impressive when you see how good some of our colleagues are at singing.
Everything was really good until 4am. I woke up because I was sick, really sick, so sick that I spend the next 8 hours going back an forth between the bed and the bathroom. It was bad, really bad and nothing is worse when this happens on a business trip because:
- you're in a hotel room,i.e. not home, alone and know very well that by noon you need to free up the room
- you feel guilty because you're missing some of the meetings / research for which you were sent
- you will have to take at least 1 taxi with a driver driving in a way that will make you even more sick
- and worse of the worse, you need to get on an aircraft for a few hours. By far the worse thing to do when you don't feel good.
- and again another taxi before you finally get home, collapse on your bed.
I went through all those steps, thinking I would die at some point around 9am. I still don't know how I managed to make it home but I did. And you know what, I'm so happy I'm home so I can rest and recover. Well at least the next trip on Tuesday :)

Martisor

When we arrived in Romania, we were told that it was Spring. Seems no matter what on March 1st Spring is coming to Romania. And indeed, it was sunny and 10C.
Even nicer, it is tradition for all the girls to receive a Martisor: a small amulet consisting of a jewel (or symbolizing a flower, an animal, etc.) tied to a red and white string.
Look at the one I received!

Upgrade

Tonight when I arrived at the Marriott in Bucharest after the long day of travelling from Warsaw and then through out the Romania country side, the man at the reception asked whether I would be interested in being upgraded to the Executive floor. I wonder why he bothered asking the question. Would anyone refuse to be upgraded?
It got even better when I arrived at my room to find it was actually a suite.
A suite on the Executive floor, no wonder it's my preferred hotel in Bucharest :)

N0ow imagine the scene. I called for room service to get some dinner and when the waiter arrived I told him to put the food on the table. He looked at me puzzled and asked "which one?" Indeed in a suite you have more than one table where you can choose to eat. I love it!

Slobozia

Slobozia is the town in Romania we went to yesterday for our research. Why there? We wanted to see people out of Bucharest. And boy, we did go far. It's only 120km from Bucharest but it took us 2 hours to get there because there was traffic and despite we used one of the 2 highways in Romania, the highway doesn't go all the way there. Anyone interested in 1 hour drive on a bumpy road?
Not much to see over there. It feels like a town in the middle of rural Romania.
Still one curiosity in Slobozia: a gypsy got rich, very rich, so rich that he didn't know what to do with his money. As he was a big fan of Dallas (the TV show) he built a replica of the South Fork ranch. On top, as he still had money to spend, he added a mini Eiffel Tower (54m high).

What is there to see in Warsaw?

Several people from the team this week had never been to Warsaw. Of course they wanted to visit the city (well at least have a look at the key highlights).
So we asked the local team: " what is there to see in Warsaw?"
And the answer was..."not much"
City was bombed during world war 2, so not much of the original city is left.
There is the Palace of Culture and Science, which is hard to miss as it stands out in the skyline of the city. Not to mention when you stay at the Marriott, you're basically sleeping in front of it. Polish people don't like this palace very much as it represents the former domination of Russia on their country. Somehow I can understand their feeling.
There is the historical center and I learned that it's all new. It was destroyed during the WW2 and rebuilt afterwards based on pictures. It looks like an old historical center but it is not. Reminded me of Main Street in Disneyland :) not sure Polish people would like this comparison.
Conclusion don't plan to spend a week visiting Warsaw, 1 day is enough :)

The Polish Olympic team

After a quite hectic start of the day, I had a pretty quiet flight and landed in Warsaw in time. But not alone. The Olympic Polish team arrived at the same time from Canada and the whole airport was full of journalists and fans.
I found out that Poland won 6 medals in total, including 1 gold one. Not bad :)
PS: somewhere at the back end of this picture there is the Polish team on a stage. I know it's hard to see.

It was close but I made it

6:10am I'm ready. Suitcase is closed, shoes and coat on, taxi not there yet but should be any minute.
6:15am Taxi should be there but no signs of it :(
6:18am I'm calling the taxi company. Man agrees with me it's not normal as the car should be there. They're always 5min early.
6:20am Level of stress: high. I'm waiting for taxi company to call back. If the guy is nearby we can still make it without too much rush.
6:22am Flat tire!!! They need to change it , car won't be there before 10min !!! Not good, not good at all. Level of stress: very very high.
6:23am I'm rushing back home to get my car keys (no I usually don't travel with them)
6:25am I'm starting the car and flying over the garage slope.
6:26am I'm now on the road driving like it was Monaco Grand Prix. Really hoping I will not cross the path of the police or I'm doomed. Only 15min left to reach the airport and park the car. Tight but feasible. Just need to forget a few limits.
6:43am I'm entering the VIP parking. No way I could take the usual one. I need a parking where I just drop the car and someone will find a slot for me.
6:45am Car dropped. I'm running in the hallway to reach the Check-in counter. In case you wonder, no LOT does not offer the option to Check-in on line. That would have been too easy.
6:50am I'm at the counter just when they were about to close the flight. I made it !!!! Now like the lady suggested I'm going to sit for a few minutes and breathe because all this stress and running triggered some asthma and right now I'm scaring even myself. But I made it!!!