Somewhere in Egypt

Somewhere in Egypt...
... is my brother, his girlfriend and a friend of theirs. The boat they were supposed to take at Alexandria yesterday never arrived. Now they are driving back to the red sea to cross either to Israel or Jordania. Even if this means he will have to drive all the way back via Turkey and across Europe, once they will be out of Egypt we will breathe.
... are the families of our Egyptian colleagues and friends based in Belgium. Like them we keep following the news hoping for a peaceful solution.
... are our colleagues from our Cairo office and their families.
... a things are changing, hopefully.

Nothing

This week-end I am doing nothing. Nothing at all and I'm very proud of it :)

The world's coolest nationalities

I came across another interesting ranking. This time CNN ranked the 12 coolest countries in the world.
While I'm not really clear about the selection criteria, top 3 is not a surprise:
1) Brazilians
2) Singaporeans
3) Jamaicans
First European country comes in 6 position with Spain.
But the most surprising was Belgium in position 11!

Yep, you read that right: Belgians. You might ask yourself why? Have a look at why CNN placed Belgium in their top 12 coolest countries.

"OK, so it's small, damp and has a grim rep as a haven for European Union bureaucrats and sex offenders. But a nation that has made art forms of beer, chocolate and, yes, finch warbling can't be all bad.

In the past three years, Belgium has been hit by a political crisis that has left it without a government for months on end. In most countries, that would trigger anarchy, looting and offshore piracy. Belgians, however, have nonchalantly been getting on with it."

While many countries are these days fighting for democracy, Belgium is demonstrating that a country may not need a government after all. Scary.

Impressions of Paris

Bridges over the river Seine in the Quartier Latin

Notre-Dame and its gargoyles

Tour Eiffel

Sleeping in the bus

Note: one of those was taken at 6:30am. I let you find out which one.

A day in Paris

After this very early start of the day, I took Wolfram to Saint-Germain-des-Pres for breakfast in one of the cafes. We enjoyed a typical French breakfast with croissant and baguette. Yummy.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the Quartier Latin, Chatelet and le Marais.
The objective was to combine our 2 separate passions: photography for one and shopping for the other. I let you guess who likes what. With the right balance we walked from one site to the other, stopping now and then in a shop or a cafe.
It was a cold day, sometimes rainy, so not so many pictures could be taken. This means we need another weekend in Paris during the Spring, when the sun is shining.
Shopping was disappointing. I couldn't find anything fitting me and my trousers situation is still very critical. Conclusion I need a trip to the US to buy trousers that are long enough.
Walking the streets of Paris and chatting in cafes were probably the best of the day... at least until we arrived at Anahuacalli with its legendary margaritas.

Monet 2010

Monet 2010 -
I have been waiting for it for months now.
I dragged everybody out of bed around 5am this morning to catch a bus shortly after 6am to be at the exhibition at 7am. It was early and cold but totally worth it :)

This exhibition was one of the largest with the most famous paintings from Monet. Despite the crowd (believe it or not 7748 people visited the exhibition that night) I got to see all my favorites and even see some for the first time.
Painting people was not Monet's best but when it came to landscape and reproducing the light and shadows he was really really good. Depending how far you stand from the picture and your angle, the paintings look different; almost like it was living art.
One could believe he was obsessed when painting his series or simply a perfectionist trying to reach perfection and perfectly reproduce the morning light on the London parliament or the cathedral in Rouen.

I wish I could have one at home. I would spend hours looking at it. But first I need to win the lottery big time :)

3 reasons not to fly with Easyjet

1- They are always late
Each time I flew with them my flight was delayed, especially flights at the end of the day. They accumulate delay throughout the day and the poor evening passengers can only be patient.
As a consequence I arrived at my sister's 10min after Wolfram who left 1h30 later and had a longer train duration trip :(
2- No space
Seats are very narrow. My knees are touching the seat in front of me; and I'm not the tallest person on this planet.
3- 1 bag only
Easyjet has a very strict policy for your carry on. You are entitled only 1 bag carry on. I had 2: my backpack with laptop and camera in and my purse. I was asked to put one in the other. Even if I could put all the content of the purse in the backpack, I couldn't put the purse itself in given its shape and non flexible material. Quid? The lady kindly suggested: "next time, take a bigger carry on bag"
Funny enough, apparently too many people had too big carry on and we were asked to volunteer to check in our carry on... for free. So not only do you do them a favour by checking in my carry on, but on top you would have to pay for it!
Next time I'll take another airline.

Geneva Time Exhibition

Geneva Time Exhibition is a the annual fair that gathers independent watchmakers. As you can imagine, in Geneva, watch making is a serious business and this is the largest fair host in Geneva.
As a consequence the whole world is travelling to Switzerland.
Of course this is the week my Geneva colleagues picked to have a workshop and with all the hotels in Geneva fully booked, we had to take the closest available one: Hotel Porte de Geneve, in Gaillard, in France.
40min to get to the office this morning, 35min to get back from the restaurant tonight vs. 20min announced on their website. I've never been a big fan of travelling to Geneva, and this hotel exile is not helping.
Only positive point of this trip, tomorrow, I will stay at Monika's and we'll have a whole evening to catch up :)

PS: in case you ever plan a trip to Geneva, keep in mind this exhibition and simply avoid coming the same week. Unless you have 4000 euros to spend on a suite in a luxury palace.

Belgium will always surprise me

This week-end we had planned to go to the car salon in Brussels. With my Micra gone, it is time to look for a new car and conveniently the car salon started this Saturday.
Base plan was to be there when the doors open at 10am this morning. This never happened as in the meantime we found out that the salon this year is for vans, recreational vehicles, sport cars and motorcycles.
Sadly the car salon in Brussels is not one of the major ones like Paris or Frankfurt and as a consequence they rotate: one year normal cars, the other year vans and co.
I cannot tell how disappointed I am. I really thought that in one day we would manage to get an overview of all the cars and come out of the salon with the 2-4 models we would consider.
What can I say, it's Belgium...

Saturday we stopped at a Toyota City to check out the Rav4, which turned out not so convincing. The Avensis was a better fit but somehow I don't see myself driving a station wagon. We're not there yet.
Audi was a dream was the outside, scary from the inside. So many buttons everywhere, so 1980s in their interior design, it's actually hard to believe they can make such beautiful cars from the outside and completely miss it when it comes to the inside. Thus no Audi.
BMW was so so. The X1 is still in the pool but soooooooo expensive. Still cannot believe that some of the BMW series 3, don't have cup holders for the driver. So much money for a car, and not the basics (yes, cup holders are very important to me).
Conclusion: it's not going to be easy to find our dream car and I will enjoy my chauffeur for longer :)

A new world record for Belgium?

Time is passing and Belgium still doesn't have a government. If Belgium doesn't get one by March 30th, they will beat the record from Iraq (289 days without a government).
Hard to believe that a developed country can stay without a government for 9 months!
It's getting so bad that Benoit Poelvoorde, famous Belgian actor, started a campaign asking men to stop shaving until Belgium gets a government. Talking about being desperate.

Red-eye flight

I was supposed to fly back to Belgium yesterday at 4pm. Unfortunately my flight was cancelled and Alitalia put me on the next one, at 4am :(
After work I went back to the hotel, worked a bit more, went swimming, had very late dinner, worked some more, watched a movie, took a taxi around 2am, and was in the plane by 3:40am.
Given my incapacity to sleep in planes (and the snoring of some men around me), I watched a movie, read a bit, was in Rome by 6:30am, waited in the lounge until my next flight, was at work by 11:40am, completely exhausted.
My eyes were not so red but my whole body was tired lacking sleep. Afternoon was tough and lines were dancing a bit on the screen.
By 10pm I was in bed sleeping deeply.
Next time, when I get re-booked, maybe I should try to ask for a later flight. If any way I have to come back one day later, might as well be within working hours.

Preparing already next year's calendar

Last Christmas, my parents made a calendar with pictures of their children, nieces and nephews. Big success! It's still in the living-room at my cousins' in Rayak.
This year, lacking creativity, Joy and I made a calendar for Teta with pictures of us (I know so original). She loves it and so did Samira. Therefore I had one more printed for them. Something tells me it will replace the one from last year in their living-room.
While chatting with my cousins we came to the conclusion that this should be our new Christmas tradition: every year a calendar with our best pictures.
Consequence we used the week-end to generate some pictures that could potentially be in the calendar next year.

PS: in case you didn't know yet, Rana loves being photographed; Ramzi and I less :)

When power is missing

When is the last time you didn't have electricity at home? Have you ever noticed how much everything we do or own relies on electricity: phone, computer, fridge, oven, TV, even toothbrush! and many more


But what happens when there is no electricity?


In Lebanon there are frequent power cuts during the day and people live knowing power may be cut. Some have generators to supply power when main power is down. If not or if you cannot afford the fuel for the generator, you have to adapt yourself.
Examples of what could happen to you when the power goes missing:
- finding yourself in the dark while trying clothes in a shop. Go get dressed in the dark!
- not drying your hair after a shower because no electricity for the hair drier.
- finding yourself in a dark huddle room with only the light from the screens from the laptops. And by the way, do your conference calls from a cell phone, otherwise you might get disconnected.
- black out in a night club: no power, no light, no music :(
Like my cousin said, it's every day a surprise or an adventure depending where you are and what you were doing when the power was cut.

Despite all the power cuts, Beirut and Zahle had plenty of Christmas decoration. The illuminations are on when there is power; you are just not sure when.

Intercontinental Phoenicia

Previous trips I stayed at the Radisson Blu in Beirut. This time I joined my colleague at the Intercontinental Phoenicia.
WOW!
Red carpet on the stairs when you enter and nobody uses them because they prefer to take the escalator... lazy people!
Marble everywhere.
Luxury shops.
Everywhere you look there is food which by the way is excellent.
Impeccable service nearly as good as Asia.
Indoor swimming pool looking like in Phoenician time, which I made sure to heavily use (especially to eliminate the food I enjoyed so much)
Breakfast is a must as you get to sit facing the Mediterranean sea. Not to mention eating mangoes and strawberries in January is always quite a treat, combined with knefe, it's just paradise.

I've been in many hotels over the past 3 years and clearly this one goes into my top 3, together with the Peninsula in Manila.

Lunch at Raymond Restaurant

By the old railway station of Rayak, there is a building that doesn't look like much and says "Raymond Restaurant".
Once again it's one of those places you would never enter based on the look, but totally worth it when it comes to food.
Rana told me the place has been there since forever. Apparently our fathers were going there (Dad, is this true?). Original Raymond has retired since long but the new team is faithful to the original cooking.

(yes I was tired and Ramzi wanted to eat vs. taking more pictures. Rana looks perfect as always)

Truth be told, it's the best chicken liver I ever had. Still dreaming of it...
And Rana enjoyed the chicken with garlic and lemon, plenty of garlic, a lot of garlic, enough garlic to scare vampires away :)

Could you please switch off the light?

I was asked during the flight from Rome to Beirut tonight whether I could switch off the light.
Sounding like a total bitch I answered: "sorry I need the light". I can't read my book without light and no, in case you don't know yet, I don't sleep in aircraft.



Not my better self, I admit, but my laptop was dead and I really wanted to find out what was happening in the book.


And anyway with 3 babies on board crying preferably one after the other, good luck sleeping.

It's a painful process

It's not a pleasant thing to do to "get rid" of one's car.

The expert sent his report and immediately asked me to provide all the documents including signing an authorization to sell the wreck. It's not a car anymore, now it's a wreck. It's going so fast I'm not sure I fully realize it's happening. They even gave me my license plates back.
In parallel nothing much is happening insurance wise. While the expert has been so eager to communicate with me he hasn't with the insurance company :(
Obviously I want to get the money asap not because I want to buy a new car already but because I need to bring this to a closure.
"Wait Monday" they said. If no news on Monday I'll have to take it to the next level: chasing them up :)

Let's see. Until then tonight I'm flying to Beirut for a weekend with my cousins. That's something very positive to look forward to.

Bamboo did the ultimate sacrifice

Bamboo, for those who don't know, is my car.
My Nissan Micra which I bought in Italy with my first salaries, and patiently paid for 5 long years.
My very first car which cost me a fortune to insure first in Italy then in Belgium.
It's with Bamboo that I spent the longest hours behind a truck on the way to Perugia in the Italian mountains.
Each move or trip to Ikea Bamboo demonstrated her flexibility and incredible capacity. Many Billy's fit in this car.
From Italy to Belgium Bamboo took a truck and nicely rested while being driven to the cold wet North Europe.
I hated this car when all the electrical problems happened and I had to stand on the road blocking traffic at rush hours getting insulted. Back then I was ready to get rid of it.
While I was in China, Bamboo faithfully waited in the garage in Belgium, for me to come back.
Every year we would drive back home, to Brittany, 9 long hours during which I was very proud that I had picked the strongest engine (we used to speed big time in Italy but in France with all the radars we slowed down a bit).
This year however she never made it across the border. I lost control on ice and we completed a 360 before hitting the highway fence. Today the expert passed by the garage and declared Bamboo a total loss.
Damages are in the range of 8000 euros, rear axe is bended, my car is not worth so much money anymore. Therefore he made the call. This is it.
I've been asked to provide all original documents, second key, sign papers, get all my belongings and basically acknowledge the fact that Bamboo is not coming home.
I was prepared for lengthy repair but not for a death sentence.
Tomorrow I will have to start the negotiation with the insurance on how much money they will give me.
Next week I will have to start about a new car.
But now I just feel sad my Bamboo is abandoned and will end up in spare parts somewhere. And I know it's just a car but it was my very first car and there are lots of memories attached to it.

Nice surprise in the mailbox

Sehr schon :)

Disneyland 2011

To start the year (and maybe a bit because we didn't have a free weekend in December) we went for 2 days in Disneyland, embracing the tradition of going to Disneyland around Christmas time. Like last year I managed to get a great deal on Vente-Privee so we could spend 2 days/1 night at a reasonable cost. This year I targeted New York hotel but it didn't work out so faithful to our Californian vacation we stayed at Sequoia Lodge, inspired by the lodges in the national parks in the US.


We left home a bit after 7am (yes one more time I kicked wolfram out of bed at an impossible early hour on a Sunday ) and drove to Disneyland Paris. This year we knew the system so we left the luggage in the car, checked in to get the park tickets, learned that we can get 2 extra hours of the park the next morning between 8am and 10am and booked breakfast at 7:30am in consequence, walked to the parks and were ready for the first attraction at 11am.


This year I had fully anticipated the cold weather with the following:
- my new bearpaw boots and knee height socks to keep my feet and leg warm
- Damart under tshirt under flees sweater for the upper body
- Scarf and hat for neck and head
- and my new pair of gloves (thanks Christa and Christian) ensuring my fingers would not get cold.


This year we tried new attractions in the Studios:

- Animagique where you learn  how Disney creates its icons. So so to be fair.
- Stitch Live! where you are looking for Stitch. This one was surprisingly good. After Animagique we expected the worse and were positively surprised. The animator did a really good job and the way they integrate the audience in the show and on the screen is worth a visit.
- Studio Tram Tour, another studio tour, this one shorter and worse than the one in Universal Studios. I guess Studio Tour is not our thing.
- Toy Story Mission Parachute: nice parachute drop but I would advise you to make sure your shoes are well attached to your feet.
- Disney's Stars 'n' Cars show with a parade and a show where Mickey is a director of a movie and all the stars pop up. Lot's of singing and dancing. A pure Disney show :)

This year, Wolfram brought his brand new camera and was experimenting with it. See on his blog all the pictures and videos! As a consequence I decided to travel light without camera. The only one where I had an active role was the one from the Hollywood Tower Hotel shot at some point when they dropped us. The fact that my hair are almost vertical gives you an idea of the speed of the drop.

This year we had the photo and its frame delivered at the hotel. Concept is simple: you buy in the shops from the park, any time, whatever you bought is delivered at your hotel where you pick it up. Convenient isn't it? Another nice way to keep you shopping.

This year we did the Classics of course, sometimes even twice: Peter Pan (Wolfram's favorite), Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a small world (my favourite), Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor and Buzz Lightyear.

This year again Wolfram did the hard core roller coaster alone while I was enjoying a less shaking attraction (that's how I trained to improve my score at Buzz's), shopping or resting in a warm place.

This year Captain EO is back. Created in 1986 and for the first time in Europe, a 3D show produced by George Lucas, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Michael Jackson himself! It was shot in the 1980s with basic 3D and sadly it shows when compared to what is done today (especially the hair cuts) but it's always nice to hear Michael Jackson.

This year we rushed back after the electrical parade to hit the swimming pool, open until 10pm. Unfortunately it didn't turn out the way we wanted. The place was packed with people (apparently after a full day outside in the cold everybody wants to be in a warm swimming pool), the jacuzzi was so full it was almost impossible to get a slot, the water of the swimming pool was very cold (probably because it's the same that goes to the outdoor pool) I thought I would never get in. The worse was the changing room: too small for the number of adults and children in it, and clearly disgusting given people were walking with their shoes in it and it didn't look like anyone was cleaning it regularly. Big disappointment as usually Disney is a master at keeping everything neat and clean.  

This year we watched the illumination of the Christmas tree. Even after Christmas it is a magical moment.

This year again, for 2 days, we were kids enjoying Fantasyland and escaping the cold reality that tomorrow... it's back to work :(

Quote of the day

"Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital"

Aaron Levenstein

More food

Yes, more food. We barely recovered from Christmas that's it's already New Year's Eve, i.e. another big dinner (and lunch the following day).
This year we had my parents, my aunt and uncle with us and I wanted to make a great dinner for all of us. After weeks of compiling magazines of recipes and careful selection, the menus were the following:

New Year's Eve

*

Amuse-Bouches a l'ananas et au jambon

*

Tartare de saumon

*

Roti de boeuf et mini croquettes

*

Salade & Plateau de fromages

*

Omelette Norvegienne

*

Writing it in French makes it sound more sophisticated, so I was told.

The amuse-bouches were very easy to make and something I should repeat as it was very good. So was the tartare but to be fair this one was more work as someone has to cut in small pieces the salmon and the avocado. But above all the peeling of grapefruits is not an easy exercise.

The beef was closely monitored as I had never cooked such a piece of beef and I didn't want to overcook it.

Desert was the most complex part. I prepared in the morning the biscuit and ice cream part and put it into the freezer. Right before serving a prepared the egg white, applied it on top and placed the whole thing in the oven for the meringue to bake. The challenge is to put ice cream under the grill and get it out still cold...

New Year's Day

*

Foie gras sur pain d'epices

*

Chapon Forestier

*

Mousse au chocolat

*

For today I decided to bet everything on a bird, namely a capon (a castrated rooster). I stuffed the beast with boudin and cooked it in the oven for 2 hours. Thanks to the precious help of Wolfram, we watered the bird every 20 minutes (did I ever mention how high the oven is and that I can't reach the top of a chicken when it's in?) so it would not burn. Once cooked, I had to dig up the boudin from inside the beast. It was challenging to squeeze everything in. Getting everything out was even more greasy fun :) I mixed the boudin with bacon and girolles (a variety of mushrooms) and served the stuffing on brioche (a bun).

In parallel we toasted the pain d'epices I baked a couple of weeks ago and sliced the foie gras prepared by my dad. This combination, together with Montbazillac wine, is simply divine.

Desert was a simple mousse au chocolat. I assumed we would be stuffed after the first 2 courses, and I was right.

For pictures, please refer to Wolfram. Past 48 hours I focused on cooking and let the pictures taking to him. After all he is the expert.