I like Chinese

Visit apartment

Since we are moving people are coming to visit the apartment.

I had two appointments today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Well, the morning one didn't show up, didn't bother to call to cancel.

The afternoon one arrived late, and she took photos before first asking me. I didn't feel comfortable for her to take photos bcos she even took the bedroom, with all our personal belongings, but I'm not sure what harm it can make neither.

I don't understand this whole deal. There was a couple very interested, but the landlord refused to rent to them. Both of them will have internship in this city, they probably don't have fixed income yet. But, when we rent this apartment, both of us didn't have a job, and he trusted us enough to rent it to us. Does the evaluation criterias change?

Tiger prawn and vegetables

I don't post recipes much bcos I always follow people's recipes and cooking. After reading Jamy's posts in Seay's kopitiam, I realised that using oven to cook is a lot easier than the Asian type of cooking, where you need to be there all the times stirring or frying.

So here's the tiger prawn and vegetables I made yesterday. In France people buy the shrimps cooked, so I usually buy frozen tiger prawns, especially those raised in Malaysia. I bought two boxes of them and the cashier reminded me to get the third one for free. Cool people here.

Ingredients:
6 white mushroom - cut into pieces
1 zucchini - cut into slices
1 box of tiger prawn (around 14 inside) - remove the shells
some parsley for garnishing

seasoning:
2 tbsp of chicken oil (leaveover from roasted chicken)
1 tbsp of Texas BBQ power
1 tbsp of lemon pepper
1 tsp of white pepper powder

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius
2. Put the mushroom and the zucchini in the baking dish
3. Spread the seasoning into the baking dish
4. Bake it for 10 minutes
5. Add the tiger prawns and bake until the prawns turn colour
6. Spread the parsley on top

Our first cherry tomato is here!

Gardening is such a rewarding hobby.

Mission completed: Puzzle done

I took me 5 days to complete this 2000 pieces puzzle. I spent a glad times dealing with them.

Day 1: I didn't have the camera with me so no picture. Basically just getting the border sort out and get the obvious pieces together.

Day 2: Second day already get more than 50% done.


Day 3: Now the painful sky part.


Day 4: The sky with crowds are easy to sort, but the sky with coherent colour is the toughest part.


Day 5: A big satisfaction. We are planning to frame it and hung it in our bedroom.


I didn't expect to finish this so fast. I thought it will take over a month. But I guess I was really into it. I hope all of you have your own hobbies that you are passionate about.

Admin day

Today is an admin day for me bcos I was seeing 4 different type of government agencies.

1. ANPE - as an unemployed people have to have this kind of meeting with the officer talking about the future plan.

2. Tax office - this time is to submit tax return for my hubby.

3. Prefecture driver license - yah finally got my French driver license, didn't cost me anything. I'm so glad that I don't have to retake any driving test.



4. Prefecture foreign affairs - got an appointment to renew my resident card.

Have to say all of the civil servants have been very friendly and helpful. Didn't give me any pains. They were all smiling and nice, except that the wait in the prefecture is always killing.

Puzzle arrived

My puzzle arrived yesterday. Spent 11 hours enjoying it. One of the things that can get away from internet.

It's a raining day, bad lighting for doing puzzle. Well that's my luck.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

The worst tourists

There is a survey conducted by expedia UK asking opinions from the hotel industries in the whole Europe, and the result was that:

The best tourists:
1. The Japanese - due to their politeness and cleanliness
2. The Americans - pay good tips
3. The Swiss - quietness

The worst tourists:
1. The Indians
2. The FRENCH
3. The Chinese
5. The British

They didn't state why the French was chosen as one of the worst tourists, but I guess it's bcos they complaint all the times!! :-)

The painter

Our apartment complex is in the renovation mood so they will repaint all the doors and hallway.

The painter has made 3 appointments with me to paint the door. Yes he needs to do it 3 times to get it done.

The first day he came, he was 15 minutes earlier than the appointment time. I was sleeping so it pissed me a bit. I opened the door and politely said sorry it took me some times bcos I wasn't expecting him until the agreed time. He responded that oh it's almost time you know. Yeah, 15 minutes earlier for him is ok, but I was told that in the French culture it's rude to arrive earlier than expected.

This morning he came again, only 3 minutes earlier so it was acceptable. Then he told me I need to leave the door open for 3 hours before closing it.

And then he will come next week again.

I wonder why can't he just have it done in one day.

Second chance

I watched in the Chinese channel a movie that touched me so much.

Two elderies met in a park and they fell in love. Both of them have lost their spouse years ago and they were happy to found their second love.

However, the old lady's son was totally against it bcos in the Asian culture this is an issue of "losing face", how are they going to explain to all the relatives and neighbores about this shameful old lady loving an old guy, blah blah blah. So the son went to scold the old man and strongly against his mother to ever see him again.

But, the man was really in love with the old lady. He waited everyday in the park. This has impressed the old lady so they decided that if she can come meet him, she will call at 4.30pm, 3 rings and hang up and they man will come meet her.

On the second day, she rings, he never showed up. One week passed and the old lady was still trying. The old man's son came to tell her that his father was involved in an accident, now he's paralysed, but every day at 4.30pm he will wait for the rings and cry after.

The movie ended when the old lady come to visit the man with his favorate food. They both cry.

In terms of love the western culture is always more open minded. I have seen so many old couples in France living together after their spouses die, and their children will even meet together to celebrate Christmas. The society does not displease with what they are doing. Nobody is badmouthing about them. Love is not a shame afterall.

Work accident

There is another case here proving how inefficient the adminitrative is here.

I had a work accident in April, I thought it was not a bit deal so didn't do anything to it.

Until I saw my doctor, she advised me to report this work accident so that next time if I have any problem related to this accident, the CPAM (the French medical reimbursement) will be wiling to pay. So I called up my employer and she agreed to send me something.

That something never came, but I received a letter from an agency who deals with work accident, and she requested my livret de famille (family book) to proceed with this report. I sent it.

Today I received another letter from the same woman, asking me for another document: medical certificate.

Why can't she ask from the first letter? Just include everything she needs and I will give her everything at once. Does she have to verify that I'm really married to a French guy then only she can proceed to the next step?

I don't know what medical certificate she wants, as the doctor gave me some document but she told me to send them to CPAM, not to this agency.

Please wish me good luck!

Back to the tax return problem.

I went to the tax office yesterday, and she won't let me fill the 2005 tax bcos in my carte de séjour I entered France in Aug, thus not fulfilling the 183 days requirement of staying in France. In fact I came in Jun but as a tourist, so she asked me to prove it.

I came back this afternoon with my passport, but the woman was busy so I was handled by another woman, who happily accepted my form without any questions.

Now, the tax return is submitted, but who knows if they are going to give me pain again? I need this tax return badly. If I don't have it my bank will cancel the mortgage loan, and we will have to negotiate another one with higher interest rate and longer term of paying back. Yes we are talking about thousands of euros here.

I secretly counted my stay in France in 2005, and if I count the 4 days in January I was here for the Christmas holiday, it makes 183 days. Talking about luck.

Express your opinion

Walked in downtown Nantes and I saw this in Place de Royale.



It reminded me of this, took in Boston in 2003.


So far I have not seen this kind of thing in Malaysia, maybe I was just not sensitive enough. Yes the western world has a lot of freedom to express themselve, but one thing is they are selfish don't you think? They are using the public space to do what they want. Saw a report on TV that SNCF has to spend million a year to clean up those street drawing on the trains. During a party in US, my American friends were hitting George Bush's picture so hard that I thought he must have done something to this lady who was hitting him. In the freedom of expression I didn't know that we can ignore the respect to the public properties or a simple respect to the leader.

They are doing good

We grow chinese parsley, basilic, chili and some cherry tomatoes. They are all doing well. Can't wait to eat my first cherry tomato!!

Cocktail Scandinave

We discovered THE furniture shop we both love yesterday!!! It was in Rennes and it's like the Ikea style but all of the furnitures are made by wood and they are not expensive!! Tks M for bringing me there.

I started shopping for the bar chair but we will need to see how our apartment looks like after some small renovation.




Not bad to have a library like this. Besides it will match with some of our living room furniture.


Not bad at all to have bathtub like this.

La trocante

One thing that my husband is afraid of me is when I go to the second hand furniture shop. Yeah he knows I won't come home empty handed! I found a nice shop in Rennes that led to us buying our dining table. And yesterday we found us 4 chairs.



See they match totally with our table. Even our teddy bear said it was a good deal. Hey 49 euros for 4 wooden chairs, not bad at all, plus they look new!!! Go in any shops and you will get this one for 49 euros EACH, totally new. One thing my friend reminded me is that it's wood so people's asses can get hurt. Opps all these years I sit on wooden chairs in school my asses were all ok. hehe. Ok ok will buy some chair cushions.


We discovered these 2 bedside small table for 35 euros. Good deal I will say.


Our last bought was this baby.

The French have their own taste of old furniture, especially those with wood sculpture on it.

This table was sold for 200 euros, in damn good condition. Suitable to put inside a big house or a castle as it's expendable and it comes with 6 chairs.


Aghh I don't know why people like this but it was sold for like 300 euros eventhough it was old and broken somewhere.

Sexist remarks uttered in Parliament Malaysia

Please click on the diagram below to see the sexist remarks uttered in parliament Malaysia from 1995.

The latest comment created a controversy in Malaysia as during a debate in the parliament about the leaking ceiling in one of the buildings, one member of the parliaments responded that:"Where is the leak, the representative from Batu Gajah leaks every month too!" Since the representative he refers to is a woman, immediately it was interpreted as a sexist remark and insult.

I'm not sure whether this has/will happened in France or any other developed countries, but certainly the quality of the parlimental debate has to be improved. Notice that all of these comments were made by the Malays representatives? Is it bcos there are less seats hold by the other races or the Malay men are still insensitive enough towards women?




Taken from mybuddies.net

Please declare your zero income!

If not bcos of this incident I wouldn't have known that as a foreign student I'm obligated to fill the income tax despite the fact that I was not allowed to work so had zero income . Gosh! Why the school have never even thought of telling us and now this is giving me a bit mess.

I almost/could've/might be screwed up the whole mortgage application just bcos I didn't fill the 2005 income tax. The mortgage loan is even signed, but the banker "threaten" to cancel the whole thing if I can't provide him the avis d'impôt 2005. He could have told us 2 months ago that he will need this and it's mandatory. Now the contact is signed and he realised he has committed a professional mistake, he got scared and want to screw us up. I'm not sure if it's even legal that he can cancel a signed contract just like that, as in the contract he's supposed to have satisfied with all the documents provided.

So, I went to the tax office and was told that they can't handle my case bcos I was a foreign student in 2005 thus I'm not fiscally recognised by them. I sent an email to the tax office hoping someone else will give me different response but I got the same reply. Here was what I got:

En réponse à votre question, je vous confirme qu'étant étudiante étrangèreet n'ayant pas de revenus vous n'avez pas à souscrire de déclaration. Le service ne la prendrai d'ailleurs pas en compte. Je suis désolée mais dans votre situation, je ne peux accéder à votre demande. Vous n'êtes pas fiscalement reconnue et je ne suis pas habilitée à vous délivrer une attestation.

I gave up but my hubby continued his battle and he successfully got someone agreed to let me declare my zero income. I went to the place this morning to realise that the office was meant for "courses" and the yellow page has mistakenlly included a "tax services" to this address. This guy was very nice and after hearing my situation, he said that foreign students DO HAVE to declare their ZERO income and it will all be handle in Paris. He then sent me to another office for a more accurate advises.

I have finally arrived in the right office, and the receptionist said that I can fill the income tax but I will only get it in 3 months.

Lessons: Declare all your incomes eventhough it's zero, who knows in ten years you will still need to provide it to someone else. When you get a "no" from a French administrative, try another office and never give up until you get a "yes".

Conversation class

In our conversation class today, we discussed for like 30 minutes before the teacher can start doing what she wanted for the day.

It was all started bcos a new student comes from Turkey then everybody starts talking about Turkey should be in Europe and it then led to the sensitive topic: Islam. The conversation continued about how in Turkey woman is free to wear what they want.

The classmate from Iran then described about the situation in Iran. He said that the young Iranians these days are very modern and the government couldn't control them bcos they are using internet to communicate and have since discovered many things. I threw him two facts: Women in Iran need approval from their husband when they want to travel or move around; in the case of divorce, children will follow their father (the facts that I learnt from the book "Never without my daughter"). Another classmate through him the ultimate question: After exposing to occidental culture, what is your stand on this issue?

He started his long speech and we got to hear the history of Iran. He said 30 years ago Iran has a lot of discos and tourists, and it was due to some oil price issue that the Islamic fanatics took over the country and since then the status of the women changed. Conclusion, he blamed everything on the politic and he declared that Iran will never have the knowledge and intelligence to produce nuclear power so the whole world don't have to be afraid of them.

Sitting beside him, is my fellow American classmate. I couldn't help but wonder, should one day the US decides to invade Iran, would these two still be friend?

Two visits

This morning I had two visits for the apartment as we are moving out next month. The first was a couple and they didn't express much their thought about this apartment.

The second took some times to jot down some criterias, commenting that his wife will not like those ancient wallpapers and blue carpet. It seems that he will renovate the apartment. But, he's renting and he wants to renovate a rental apartment? Weird. Anyway, he left as soon as he realised that we are using electric for the stoves and he couldn't find any connections for gas. He said a gas stove is better for cooking.

What's the matter for these people? We had problem finding an apartment using electrical stove and have no choice to settle on buying one that is using gas. While these people finding electric unbearable.