Making noodle with Si Fu

My dad was making noodles and this time he has a student. They communicated with hand gestures. Or the Si Fu would pass messages to my mother, and my mother would rush to get someone for translation. A fun and harmony process.

My parents showing the student the size of the noodles that they prefer.

Under the guidance he started cutting.

Noodles in process.

The fruit of hard work.

Making more since we have to feed so many people.

We got fried noodle for lunch and loh mee for dinner.

Hubby also made ravioli for my family.

Our dessert : tropical fruits. My BIL bought us some durians.

Hubby made us some choux patisserie. We stuffed it with durian, and apparently it was yummy. Copy right reserved please hehe.

Food Trip

We have been only here for 4 days and my family has already pampered us with so many scrumptious Malaysian foods. My mother has been making some of my favorite foods, just say that my stomach would never has chance to get emptied. Just to name a few of them : bah kut teh (herbal pork soup), sticky rice dumpling, pohpia (wrap with jicama), satay, roti canai, chai kueh, curry chicken, Indian rojak mee, different kind of soups, vegetables and fruits.

Homemade chai kueh

Homemade curry chicken

Roti Canai

Satay

Durian

Lah-lah (small clam)

Pandan chicken

Homemade meal

As I said they love the raclette cheese, they have been baking them to go with different food.

Even a simple bake cheese is good.

I think I'm going to gain a lot of weight by the end of my stay.

Arrived in Malaysia

We have arrived safely in Malaysia.
We are welcomed by my families and also, the haze.
Indonesia is burning their forest again, and this time Singapore got their share, the pollution level is at a dangerous level in several areas.

Anyway, back to the trip.

It was a long trip. We left home around 5am French time (11am Malaysian time), and arrived the next day around 3am French time (9am Malaysian time). A total of 20 hours' trip using all mean of transport : car, bus, tramway, train, plane, car. Aelig kept repeating : car, bus, tramway 3 times (including the transit in the airport), plane. And she asked to go on a boat.

At the immigration, one officer told us to go through the non-EU line so we could stay as a family. We met another officer and we wanted to switch to the EU line but he said that since I'm a non-EU citizen I would need to use the non-EU line in order to get a stamp on my passport. While queuing, we met another officer who got us passing through the long queue since we were traveling with a young kid. That was nice!

With Aelig growing up, it is easier to travel with her. She slept quietly on her seat instead of stretching her legs and moving on us. No more diaper, no more milk powder, no more pacifier. She watched "A life of bug" over and over again, and required the headphone at all times. As for me, I watched three movies : Caught in The Web (Chinese), I Love Hong Kong 2013 (Cantonese) and Miracle in Cell 7 (Korean). I did sleep but couldn't sleep as well as before. I remember I used to sleep through the whole trip from LA to KUL 18 hours straight. Hubby was all happy to be in the double decker Air Bus 380. It has big screen with better quality, he was excited to eat some Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendang, and drink some Tiger Beer!

Touched down in KLIA.

So what was in our luggages?

Crazy Asian ladies loving their LV and Long Champ bags.

Hubby wishes to dive. We are heading to an Island soon but the weather forecast predicting thunderstorm throughout our stay, thing is not looking good.

And, raclette cheeses, my family is addicted to them...

Training in Paris : Food and gathering

Early this week I was having training in Paris. I took the opportunity to arrive a day earlier to meet with friends and try out some Asian food.

A friend brought me to try out the Dim Sum in Chinatown last time but it was fully booked on a Sunday afternoon. I really wanted to try it since we don't have Dim Sum in Nantes. The food was authentic, I loved their Cheong fun. Here is their address:
Restaurant chinois Chinatown Olympiades
44 avenue d'ivry
75013 Paris
Tel : 01 45 84 72 21

 Unfortunately we had some sound pollution as a group of Vietnamese were dancing and singing Karaoke, on a Sunday afternoon.

 In the evening I met with my classmates who are now working in Paris. It was nice to catch up with them.

The food was ok. The service was bad. I asked a waiter to take a photo of us and he said he was busy and would come back later but he never did. And, they only accept one restaurant ticket per person. I was a bit surprised as I didn't know that restaurants could limit the use of restaurant ticket as payment.

I know I know I'm going to Malaysia soon. Friends discouraged me to try out Malaysian food in Paris. Well, I don't go to Paris often and we don't have Malaysian restaurant in Nantes. So, I figured I would just try it out for once. I went with my coworker and she loved it. Well, the satay was probably reheated but the sauce was quite tasty.

And, I finally got to eat Nasi Lemak in France. The shrimp sambal was excellent. Under the nice ambiance I slowly introduce the Malaysian culture, language, and cuisine to my coworker. Here is the restaurant:
Legenda de Malaisie
46, rue de Trévise, 75009 - Paris – France
Tél. : +33 (0)1 47 70 87 07Fax : +33 (0)1 40 22 00 41

The training was carried out in La Defense, an area with many headquarters of international companies. We dined out with the trainer once, and felt that 23€ a meal was too expense with the quality of food provided. We decided to venture into other restaurants in the big shopping mall. They have a huge variety to choose from. I got sushi and Chinese for lunch. The service was fast and efficient. That compensated the lousy weather with grumpy sky.

Three days of metro, training, dodo, we had had enough of it and was so eager to go home. Yes home sweet home.

Getting ready for the big trip home

We are ready for our annual big trip to Malaysia.

Guess what are inside this bag. There are mostly hubby's gear.

And this one? None of the items here belongs to me. Checked the Airlines and discovered that each of us can check in 30kg. Hope all of them would arrive safely in Malaysia.

So what about mother's day?

One Friday evening while picking up Aelig, we came home with a container with three paper flowers and a piece of paper printed with a poem. Well, obviously the school made some art work with the kids for the mother's day. She was repeating some phases with gestures, I realized later that it was the poem:

Devine ce que j'ai caché
(Guess what I'm hiding?)
Un bisou pour la joue
(A kiss for the cheek)
Un baiser pour ton nez
(A kiss for your nose)
Plein de fleurs
(Plenty of flowers)
Pour ton coeur!
(For your heart!)

It was sweet to see her repeating it over and over again for me. As for the paper flowers, she presented them to me, but claimed that it remained hers!

Question: Do you keep these art works at home? At 3 years old she is accumulating tons, I wonder how many I need to collect over her schooling years.

GE 13 : Observing from France

Almost two weeks after the polling day, the elections are still a heated topic in Malaysia. Ten of thousands of Malaysians are attending rallies held by the opposition protesting the election results. Well, the ruling party won, even though the electoral process was fraudulent with many alleged irregularities.

The polling started at 8am in Malaysia (2am in France). I couldn't sleep so I woke up around 1.30am to follow updates on Facebook. Friends posted photos showing long queues in varies polling centers.

My fellow Malaysians were queuing in the rain waiting to cast their votes. An historically 80% turned out responding to calls from varies parties / groups to vote for a change.

Past 8am, photos with blue finger started to flood into my Facebook page. Photo above shows proud Malaysians showing off their blue finger indicate that they have voted.

Photo above shows a candidate advocating in 4 different languages, to appeal to the diverse demographics in Malaysia.

What struck me the most were photos and videos showing angry people blocking the suspected phantom voters from voting, especially those with foreign faces. Rumors circulated that the government handed out ID to foreigner workers and sent them to varies polling centers to vote for them. The opposition parties were calling the people to "catch the ghosts" resulting in electorates monitoring around. Thats appalling if it is true.

Around 7am the result showed that the ruling party has retained the majority and would continue its mandate after 56 years in office. This ended the hope for many who wished to see an implementation of a two-party system. It was a nervous yet exciting day, I have never so "political awaken" before. I was not disappointed at the results, but a deep saddest hovering around due to the credibility of the whole election process. Suddenly, I felt a great envy towards hubby, as it seems that his country carries an electoral system in which people can trust. Anyway, we should not lost hope. French women were granted the right to vote in 1946, only eleven years before the Malaysians. So, let's continue fighting for a clean and creditable electoral system. Malaysia Boleh!

A daddy version of bed time story

Aelig could be very harsh to her father, she refuses to do certain things with him, for example, having him during the bed time story.

To change this habit and enable daddy to share more bonding time with her, I asked hubby to pick one of her favorite stories, written in Mandarin with pictures.

It started well. She slowly calmed down and stopped protesting the present of her daddy in the room. She was actually curious how daddy was going to tell the story in French.

It was not an easy task but he did it. The book was printed from right to left so I had to correct him when he turned the pages.

Here is daddy's version of the story:
The little cat is hungry but he couldn't find his cheese. He realized two mice stole it so he scold them badly. With an empty stomach, he played with butterflies. Once he saw his mother, he asked if she could give him some food as he was still hungry. His mother gave him some eggs. After eating, he played with a turtle and a bat. (Aelig protested when he said "chauve souris" (bat), direct translation = "bald mouse", she said the bat is not a mouse). While he was sleeping two mice came to visit him. They had good time playing together. The second day after waking up, he realized all his eggs were stolen. (Finally he realized it was not eggs but Chinese bun so he switched to "bao" (Chinese bun in Hokkien)). The "bao" reappeared  and he managed to catch the mice. He can finally enjoyed the moon and stars.

The real story:
The little cat likes to chase butterflies in the garden. He has never seen a mouse in his life. One day, he asked his mother how does a mouse look like. His mother told him : " The mouse has shape mouth, round ears and long tail...". She got cut off as he said he knows what a mouse look like now. One night his mother has to go out so she asked him to guard the Chinese buns. While guarding, he confused a turtle and a bat as mouse. He was so tired until he felt sleeping. He got awaken by a weird sound and finally met the real mice. However, the mice convinced him that they were good mice, and were invited by his mother to help him. He believed them and played with them. He even treated them to a dinner. The mice encouraged him to take a nap which he gladly obliged. The second morning, he discovered that all the buns were gone! His mother arrived just in time to console him and told him that all the mice are bad. The little cat was determined to catch the mice. He prepared some buns and hid behind his bed. The two mice came and he caught them without struggle. After this episode, he finally knew what a mouse look like and has since become the bravest guardian.

Ok daddy's version was quite different from the real story but they had a good laugh, that was the most important.

GE 13 : Voted in Paris on 28 Apr 2013

Despite the expensive train tickets, I decided to go to vote in Paris. There were several pull factors, mainly because it will be the first time I could exercise my right voting outside of Malaysia. Equally important was that the candidate in my State constituency is a capable man. I have to vote for him.

I arrived in Paris before 10am. It was a sunny day with cloudy sky. The Embassy was located in a peaceful neighborhood close to the University of Dauphine. Some Bersih volunteers were interviewing some electorates who just casted their votes. I was greeted with the warmest welcome from the Embassy employees. While waiting for my friend, I watched the voting process displayed on a TV. I chatted a bit with one of the employees, and was told that I couldn't take any photo during the whole process. Ok, as a first time voter, I didn't know much. I was quite anxious as the postal voting process is quite different from the one at home.

Once my friend arrived, we put our cellphone and camera into a plastic bag, then went upstairs to the polling room. I handed over my ID card, the first staff read my name, the second one handed me an envelope (Sampul Keutamaan). Inside the envelope I saw two smaller envelopes (Envelope B): The pink one contained a form and an Envelope A with the state ballot inside; the white one contained another form and another Envelope A with the parliamentary ballot inside. I was instructed to make sure that the serial number on the form matched the serial number on Envelope B and the ballot in Envelope A for both State and Parliamentary seats. It went nonchalantly for the State ballot (two candidates) but everyone was laughing (there were three staffs supervising the process) as I took out the second ballot as it was a long piece of ballot with 6 candidates! After checking, both me and the witness signed the forms. I then proceeded to a small booth to choose my candidates. I took out the ballot, put a cross beside the candidate, put the ballot back into Envelope A, put both Envelope A and the form into Envelope B, then sealed it. Repeated for both ballots. Final step, put both envelopes into a postal bag. The voting process was then ended.

When we stepped outside the Embassy, we were greeted with Bersih volunteers who cheerfully congratulated us. They then asked us to write a message that we wanted to share with other Malaysians, and with all these photos they have made a video.

Once casted my vote, we went to Chinatown to meet a friend. We wanted to try Dim Sum in one of the restaurants there but it was full! Despite on a Sunday, the whole area was convivial with restaurants patrons and shoppers. We ended up eating roasted pork and duck which were delicious as well. Next we went to a bubble tea shop. All in all we chatted 6 hours non-stop!

Back home, I was still suspicious with the postal voting process, especially the part how it ensured the privacy of my voting decision. In both forms it stated my ID number with the serial number. The Election Commission explained in their website that once the ballots arrived in Malaysia, they will open the Envelope B, then check if the serial number in this Envelope B matched with the one on the ballot inside Envelope A. If yes, they will put the form a side, and the Envelope A will be put on other side together with all other ballots, and be sent to the constituency for counting. Still, it means that if they want to trace my vote, they can just check the serial number on the form. I don't really trust the process but I wanted to give it a try. Every vote counts!

3 year 4 month

 Some highlights of the month:

1. Pacifier-weaning
She has been pacifiers free for three weeks.
We know we need to do this, but we kept procrastinating it.

She had two pacifiers, one green and one blue. She usually puts the green one in her mouth, and the blue one in her hand. We let her have them when she sleeps. Sometimes she asks for it when she is frustrated, tired or uncomfortable. They helped her calm down.

One day she lost the green one. The blue one was at the school. Each day she forgot to bring back the blue one so she slept without any for three nights. She had hard time falling asleep though. The fourth day she brought back the blue, she was proud as she remembered to bring it back. But, we were cruel, we hid it. Since then, goodbye to pacifiers.

Then one night she begged me with a sad and serious voice :"Maman, I have lost the green and the blue pacifier. Can you please find them for me? Can you go to aunt's house to look for them?" I almost surrendered to her plead. I kindly explained that the pacifiers wouldn't fly themselves to her aunt's house in Malaysia. They should be in the apartment. But, since she is a big girl, she doesn't need them anymore. She was not convinced but she has no choice. In my heart, I feel that I have taken away her two best friends that have gone through up and down in her small world. I'm not convinced that pacifier would harm her teeth. I agree that esthetically it doesn't look nice when a kid has pacifier in her/his mouth, but why bragging around a stuffed animal wherever a kid goes is accepted or even encouraged at school?

2. The first dental visit

In France very kid has a health book. It recommends the first dental visit at age 3. I have heard that kids are afraid of dentist, so I tried to prepare her mentally. After eating chocolate, I would tell her that some chocolates were glued to her teeth, if she doesn't brush her teeth, the ants or insects would come dig a hole. And we need to go see a dentist to let him / her catch the ants and insects. She agreed to go see a dentist.

The day came, we went as a family. I went first to show her how it works. I asked if she wanted to go after me but she said papa should go first. Then it was her turn, she did it without fear. She was very happy to hear that all were fine with her teeth.

Here is where I found skeptical about the pacifier's harm on teeth. The dentist looked at them, and concluded that she must be sucking her thumb while sleeping. Well, he was wrong, we told him about pacifiers. He said it must be the pacifiers who started to make her teeth parting away from each other. Ok, that was not his first diagnosis. I feel that every dentist will tell you different things, there is just no concrete evidence on this.

3. Language development

The school starts teaching the kids recognizing alphabets and words. Sometimes she would point at some alphabets on a billboard and scream with excitement. So hubby decided to teach her ABCD. She doesn't have much patient though. However, she prefers alphabet to Chinese characters, I think she can sense that learning ABC is much more easier than learning  大小. On the other hand since French's pronunciation on ABCD is different than the English one, she feels confused when watching Dora or when I accidentally pronounce an alphabet in English (eg French pronounces i as e). She would say, no maman, you are wrong!

4. Trip to library

The Town Hall built a new library so we decided to pay it a visit. This was the third time she went to a library so she knew she could choose the books she likes and bring them home. She chose quite some and I borrowed the DVD "Chicken Run" for her. She complained when we returned some book to the library but she finally accepted that they were not hers. One day we went for grocery shopping and was passing by the books alley. She went to pick up a bunch of Dora books and said we would bring them home. I told her here is not library, we need to pay! Eventually I let her buy one book, she was so excited to see Dora and boots in a book!

5. School carnival

Her school organized a yearly carnival where kids were invited to disguise in whatever they wanted. I asked my mother in laws to pass me one costume and guessed what? She passed me a costume from my BIL, disguising as a Chinese, with a Chinese coolie hat (斗笠) tailing with plait. When we arrive in school, her eyes almost popped out seeing her teachers dressing as a crown and a witch. Some kids came to see her and I told them that she is a Chinese. "I know", said the two boys. Suddenly I felt very stupid, even without the costume she looks like a Chinese. I have heard several times kids telling their parents that I'm the mother of the Chinese girl in the class. What was I thinking? Next time I will dress her up as a Malay or an Indian.

6. Enjoying holidays with grandparents
It's school holidays again so we sent her to her grandparents. Previously, when we had to leave without her, she would cry and protest. This time around, she waved goodbye to us with a smile! Hubby said this is just the beginning, the day would come when she would cry when we go picking her up!

She is so blessed, she gets to climb apple tree, goes to the beach / zoo / library / bicycling, plays hide and seek in the garden. Not to mention that the weather has been pleasant these days.

Enjoy your holidays my girl, I hope to bring you camping again since you loved it so much during our trip to Noirmoutier.

Learning French is a continuous process

Learning French is a continuous process. I hear words that I don't understand everyday. Sometimes I finished by getting the meaning, sometimes I just let it go. Here is an expression that I have heard several times and finally understand what it means.

Le mouton à cinq pattes = The lamb with five legs.
My team has been looking for someone who has a special skill on a specific domain. We have been looking for this five-legged lamb without success. It means someone with a very special skills that is hard to find or non-existent.

I was finishing a report and I needed to describe to my boss the pie chart I prepared. I realized that I didn't know the French word for pie chart, so I turned to my coworker, showed him my monitor and asked him what was the word in French. He replied : "Camembert". Camembert is one kind of cheese in France. I felt so confused, why was he telling me a cheese when I was asking him about a chart? He laughed, explained that pie chart = camembert in French.
Ok now I know.
And it makes sense.
In English it is called pie chart, pie is one kind of foods.
In Mandarin it is called a biscuit chart, one kind of foods as well.
The French loves cheese, and cheese is also a kind of foods.

 I'm enjoying the learning process.

Camping in Noirmoutier

The winter seems to last forever that I have forgotten how nice to be outdoor on a sunny day in Spring. Last weekend, the weather forecast showed a promising Sunday. We decided to head South joining my in laws in Noirmoitier. We left under a gloomy sky, arrived under a shower, dined in the tiny caravan. I considered ourself lucky as it didn't rain during the night. Woke up to the windy but blue blue sky.

Aelig discovering camping and sleeping inside a tent.

She was excited to ride on a bike as well.

It was a very pleasant experience. Riding while enjoying the sceneries, the villages, the people, the houses and the coast. I have to consider myself a newbie in bicycle as I just discovered that I need to change gear on a bike. Never done that as the bicycles I rode on had only one speed.

Noirmoutier is famous for its production on salt. We passed by hectare and hectare of salt evaporation ponds. We also got some scrumptious oysters.

 

Ok, they have hectares of potatoes too. I don't know why their potatoes are so famous. I paid 8€ a kilo one day just for the sake of trying, but didn't find them better compared to the ordinary one. Overall a good place for a weekend outing / camping.

Voting date in Malaysia and in Paris

Most of you must have known, that the election date in Malaysia is schedule on the 5th of May.

As for the postal application, EC has made an announcement in their website:
http://www.spr.gov.my/webspr/PDF/Kenyataan_Media_Undi_Pos_Luar_Negara.pdf

Postal voters will be able to vote in their respective Embassy / Consulate on 28th April 2013. Voters can check if their application is being approved on this website starting from 19th April 2013:
www.spr.gov.my

Just check the train ticket, it is going to cost me 156€. The announcement is made too late, I could only know if I can vote the earliest on 19th April. I don't think there will be any promotion on train since it will be during school holidays.

So should I go should I not?

Finally the parliment is dissolved

Photo source here

The PM has finally dissolved the parliment.
The Malaysia 2013 general election will be held within 60 days.
I sent in my application last Saturday to be a postal voter, and I got a message from the Election Commission that it is being processed.

Figures crossed that it will be approved on time.

French tolerance 1 : The traveling people

After living several years in France, I have started to accept a lot of things. I share, approve, and sometimes agree with what is happening in this country. However, there are times I got so angry and frustrated with certain situations. When discussed with some friends here, all I get as an answer was simply "c'est comme ça" (it's like that).

One day while having our weekly meeting, a coworker announced that some new neighbors just moved into our neighborhood. Looking out the window, we saw a group of camping cars squatting around office buildings. My coworkers explained to me that these are called "traveling people". Usually the government provides some lands for them to settle down but some of them prefer to move around and "invade" certain areas. It has been 3 weeks, and they are still there.

What struck me was that they use the fire hydrant for water supply. The pipe connecting to it was leaking non stop. All these are paid by, the taxes payers?

It is a choice to live in a camping car and move around. But, does it mean they don't have to respect laws compare to the ordinary citizens? I kept asking everyone why they tolerate these. If I squat there I would commit a crime of "trespassing", but these people, they could just use the private properties like their owns. "It is complicated", everyone was telling me.

Well, it is hard for me to understand too. The French complain, demonstrate, strike for many things. And for this, their lips are sealed.

Malaysia 2013 general election: can I vote from France?

The Malaysia 2013 general election is just around the corner, because the 12^th parliament will be dissolved automatically on 28 April 2013, and elections must be held within 60 days.

I have asked the Embassy twice if I could vote. But each time they told me that only students, civil servants + their families are eligible to vote. However, it seems that this year they have changed the rule. WM, another Malaysian I met in Nantes, sent me a link with the information. I have filled the Borang 1B and sent it to the Election Commission of Malaysia. So, let's see if I can really vote from France.

You need to fulfill these requirements in order to apply to vote from overseas:
a) Malaysian citizen
b) Registered voter: check your status here
c) Live overseas except in Singapore, South of Thailand, Brunet and Kalimantan Indonesia.
c) Have been back to Malaysia for no less than 30 days within 5 years before the current parliament dissolved.

The medias have been predicting on days the Prime Ministry would dissolve the parliament, it could be today, tomorrow next week or next month. This is one of the particularity of Malaysian election systems, we could only guess, it is the Prime Ministry would decide. As far as I know the French always have their elections around the same times.

Ok, can't wait to vote for the first time in my life!

3.3 year old

She makes me speechless.
Example:
During gatherings we usually have some wine / alcohol, and for the kids we serve fruit juices.
Sometimes Aelig wants to taste our drink, so we have to tell her that alcoholic drinks are for adults.
Me: "When you grow as tall as papa, you can drink alcohol".
Her:"Ok."
One day hubby put her on his shoulder.
Her:"Look maman, I'm so tall."
Me:" Oh yes you have grown so tall!"
Her:"I can drink alcohol now, can I?"
Me."..." speechless.

She likes to catch me making mistakes.
Example:
I was reading to her a bed time story.
We turned to a page with a photo of a giraffe trying to read a book.
Me:"Look,  the kangaroo is reading.."
Before I got a chance to finish, she cut me.
Her:"Maman, you did a mistake, it was a giraffe!"
Me:"Oh sorry, you are right, it was a giraffe."
Her:"Oh maman."
She was very proud of herself whenever she caught me making a mistake.

Everything is consisted of a father, mother and a baby / babies.
Examples:
She collected a bunch of stones.
Her: "Maman, the one big is the papa, this is the maman, and all these are their babies."
She saw some butterflies in a book.
And each time I read that book, she has to interrupt me to show the father, mother and baby butterflies.
She picked some flowers.
The big one is a father, the medium one is a mother, the small one is their baby.

She is a lady (this is a comment from hubby).
Examples:
We went to a charity fundraising run organized by the school.
While waiting for the run to start, she was playing alone. A male classmate approached her and wanted to play with her. She looked at him, decided to ignore him.
We went to a restaurant.
While seated, a boy her age drew a French flag and asked his mother to give it to Aelig.
She liked him, so she went over to make friend with him.
But, most of the time, she just sat there, and the boy kept coming over to pass her some color pencils.
Before he left, he invited Aelig to his birthday party.

I started teaching her some characters in Mandarin.
It is very handy as these words appear in most of her books.
大 = big
小 = small
一 = one
二 = two
三 = three

Ops, sorry for the language

We were having our weekly internal meeting.

A coworker was telling his issues with his client, with some French slangs that I was not familiar with. I understood that he was angry / unsatisfied, but did not understand the descriptions he used. Then, at one point, he must had split out something that was not so acceptable, as another coworker turned his head, looked at me and said: "sorry for the language".

"Don't worry, I didn't understand those words anyway, so no damage caused here." I jokingly told him.
"We will explain to you later".
Well, usually during the internal meeting, I would jot down words that I don't understand and ask someone later. Little by little I collect the slangs, but never used them, as some of them are not appropriate when used by a woman.

After the meeting, we walked to lunch. So I asked what was the word said just now that made him so uncomfortable.
Coworker A:"It was..." he hesitated..."Well, B will explain to you". He didn't know how to explain it.
Coworker B: "He just wanted to say that the situation sucked."
Me:"Ok, just tell me the sentence, I will ask my husband later".
Both of them yelled "no" simultaneously.
Ok, that got me very curious. I forced them to tell me the word, one of them finally spelled it to me.

At home.
Me:" LG, what does quequette mean in French"?
Hubby:"What???" His eyes almost popped out.
Me:"Something pronounce like quequette."
Hubby:"It means penis."
Ok, I still don't know what was the sentence used though.
Me:"But there is another word with the same meaning, which one is worst?"
Hubby:"The other one".
I wrote about this word in another post.

So you see you really need to understand the informal French /slang/street language in order to truly understand a French conversation. Language schools teach you the formal French, but I hear people using slangs in day to day conversations. I used to find these horrible, as how can people spell out these kind of words during a formal meeting. But gradually I accept them and actually find them funny and "lively". Some descriptions can really crack you up.

Some examples I have in mind:
Une maison = A house in French but a lot of times people use "une baraque"
Une voiture = A car in French but some people use "une caisse" or "une bagnole"

One day while having lunch with my coworkers, someone ended his talking with a conclusion "c'est un torchon". Torchon = Tea towel in French. I looked at him and asked what he meant. He said tea towel is usually dirty, so he wanted to say that the situation was a mess. Ok, I was not convinced, as I immediately thought of the tea towel in my in laws house: nicely ironed, folded and stored. I couldn't associate it with a mess.

It is fun learning these words actually!
If you want to learn more of these slangs, go here.

A playdate

During the weekday, sometimes it would be very painful to get Aelig to go to school.

She doesn't want to dress nor comb her hair.
She wants mummy to send her instead of daddy.
She wants to be held instead of walking alone.
She wails, tries to slow down the process, refuses to put on the shoes herself.

This morning, she was super motivated, she obeyed everything we asked her to.
She jumped into the bathtub and sang happily to all her animals.
She finished her milk in no time.
She dressed willingfully.
She tidied up her toys.
She even went to pick up her coat and scarf so that we could move our asses quicker.

And what made her being so motivated?
We were going to her friend's house for a playdate.

I'm seeing already how she would behave when she's going to see her boyfriend.

Air ticket and Kermasse

With Aelig going to school, organizing a trip to Malaysia is becoming more and more complicated.

I got the approval pretty easily, and my company allows me to pre-use my annual leaves.
It took hubby a longer time to get a go from his work, and since he couldn't pre-use his leaves, we have to leave in Juin. In France annual leaves go from 1 Juin to 31 May the year after.
Another constraint, hubby doesn't want Aelig to miss school for too long, so we have to go in July.
The best time to go was in August, as Aelig would be on summer holiday, we could celebrate Hari Raya in Malaysia, the baby sitter is on holidays.
But, starting from 1 Aug, prices go double or triple.
By taking in all these considerations, I almost booked the ticket from last week of Jun to first three weeks of July, until I popped up the million dollar question.

"When is the Kermasse?"
I actually don't know what is a Kermasse, but my MIL and hubby had discussed about the fact that Aelig would miss her first Kermasse and it seems that it was a big deal. Turns out, it is just an end of school year party. I didn't grow up having it so I didn't really think it is important. But hubby said it is a memorable moment for Aelig and we shouldn't miss it. So, we have to leave on the last day of Juin and everything changed.

1. We have to pay 250€ more
2. We have to let go of direct flight and take the one with a stopover and traveling time increases 5 hours each way.
3. We have to leave on Sunday and arrive in Malaysia on Monday when everyone works. It is less convenient for my family to pick us up.
4. There is no early train on Sunday to go to the airport. They have it from Monday to Saturday except Sunday. That means we couldn't take the earliest flight but have to take the one that depart in the afternoon.
5. This one is for me: I have to let go of Malaysia Airlines who propose yummy hometown in flight food.

Frankly, does anyone one really remember what was going on during a Kermasse when he or she was 3?

François Hollande errrrhé

I might have said it in one of my posts, that being a politician in France is not easy, as you are constantly being humiliated / criticized/ caricatured.

Being the French president, François Hollande is the easy target. For example, whenever he appears in Les Guignols on Canal Plus, they would portrait him as someone who is afraid of his girlfriend, someone who hides himself during the cat flight between his girlfriend and ex-girlfriend. And, he would finish his speech / interview with a "errrrhé", in a funny way. You can see one of the episodes on Youtube here. The "errrrhé" expression comes at the 20th second.

 Photo source

Aelig watches Les Guignols with us from time to time. Sometimes I would tell her who's who on the program. This evening we saw François Hollande on the news. Here was our conversation:

Me: Look, this is François Hollande, your president.
Aelig: Ohhhh, François Hollande, errrrhé (imitating Hollande's tone).
Me and hubby looked at each other and started laughing.
She was elated to see us laughing, so she repeated it again.
Aelig: François Hollande, errrrhé (then laugh hysterically).
We simply couldn't stop laughing and giggling.

The Chinese don't pay ransom

Just want to jot down what I saw on a TV program last week.

It was a debate program discussing about the kidnapping of French citizenship in Mali.

One of the guest had this comment:
"Why do they kidnap French? Because French people pay huge ransom (either by the government or private sector).

"You don't see them kidnapping Chinese (and we do not lack Chinese), because Chinese people don't pay".

Just found this comment interesting and hilarious. In fact I have not heard of terrorists kidnapping Chinese. My opinion, beside what the guest thought, another reason is that Chinese government does not have as high profile as The French government in Mali or in general in Africa. Is like if you want to have high attention of the world, it is better to kidnap a celebrity (in this case French) than a nobody (in this case Chinese).

She's back

We got Aelig back as the school restarts next Monday.

She is happy to be home, was so excited that she ended up going to bed at 11pm. Last two weeks she was sleeping from 8pm to 9pm in her grandparents' place.

Anyway, just want to share a conversation we had this evening:

Me: Aelig, let's go get a bath.
Her: Not, I got a bath already.
Me: No you are not, you are all dirty now.
Her: No I don't want to take a bath.
Me: Ok, I'm filling the bathtub now, you come when it is filled.
Her: I don't want to speak anymore.

The sacrosanct weekends

Case 1
We were driving home without our daughter, so we thought of eating out.
Problem: It was a Sunday evening, most restaurants were closed
Result: KFC fried chicken for me and Subway sandwich for hubby, ironically in this gastronomic heaven.

Case 2
We got two gift cards from Christmas for 2.5 hours of massage + spa session.
Action: Called the massage center for an appointment on a Saturday when our daughter was not with us
Result: Plan abandoned as the massage center closes on Weekends. We would have to leave at 4pm on a weekday as it closes at 7pm. Or take a half day off.

Ok I admit that I should have known that most restaurants in Nantes do not open on Sunday, but why fast food chains are exempted from this then? There were tons of teenagers there...

And, a massage center that does not operate on Saturday, I wonder how they survive.