D-day has come!!

I am leaving tomorrow morning, has to take the train to Amsterdam airport, and then from there fly to HK, my first destination, where I will meet our dear friend Fox ;-)

I will try to keep you all updated for the good food that I will eat, the nice people that I will meet, and language difficulties that I will encounter in mainland China (hopefully not). But I am sure I will do fine, we are communist brothers/sisters after all ;-)

Long live holidays!!!! ....I am so excited, and I can't hide it....(singing)

Biz dinner

Business dinners are always fab. I am not talking about the usual company's dinners or parties, which are also nice when they organize team building games, and have fun with your colleagues, building what is called "thee network" for your own career growth...etc.

Business dinners are of course a bit more formal because you dine with your supplier (they pay, of course!!), but the nicest thing is that you see people from outside your company, so there are more things to talk about, not neccessary about business relation, can be about how good the restaurant is, what is new in Brussels, shopping experiences, travelling, husbands, wives...etc ;-)

And when you work for a multinational company, there are more opportunities to have business dinners. Of course, your suppliers will be polite enough to let you choose the restaurant (they don't know Brussels!!), and then come the fancy fine French cuisine ;-). We went to a French artisanal restaurant yesterday, very impressive. Bon Bon is just a tiny restaurant, you will be reached with a doorman, who will park the car for you. When you enter inside, the restaurant is small, not so many people but full of chef cooks or his assiatants, you see them in those big white hats-it already gives you the impression of how much effort they are into the food. We dined in a private atmosphere, music gives you the Sex and the City feeling ;-), nice jazz, wines are hmm. There is no menu, it is an artisanal resto, so they make everything themselves, breads..etc, and the food will be what they get from the market on the same day. The mise en bouche was gorgeous. We had fishes cooked with boiled vegetables, pesto sauce... for both starter and main dishes, but they just complement each other perfectly... (not that if we had fish for starter, then we should have meat for main dish and vice versa), then of course because dessert, who wants cheeses?? ;-) I have to say that I am not a fan of cheese, but I love trying everything, so, we have blue cheese (Blue Gent-OMG, very strong taste), hard cheese, camembert, goat cheese (yuk), and one type of soft cheese which I thought tasted like soap (sorry for my limited taste for cheese). Dessert comes with amande paste covered with a thin layer of hard black chocolate, amande cream (taste was pretty mild) served together with chocolate sorbet (mmmmm), drink was a killer, It tasted like Pineau, or some sort of Cider wine, sweet but strong to cut the taste of bitter taste of pure black chocolate. Then comes the coffee and tea with small cookies, ended with Cuban cigars..;-)

It's all an art, it's not about having a lot of foods on your dish, the way your food is served, the way the chef cook put his soul into making a dish, not about to eat good only but also what goes with what...If I ever open a restaurant, I would like to be an artist first! Because it will not be about making money, but appreciation!

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About Viet nam

Would like to post some links on news of Vietnam and all. Trying to find out a good link for Vietnamese dishes recipies...Eventually, I think I will post my own recipies, much better apparently ;-))

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Hmmm

Amazing how the world turns today

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Art Museum in Brussels

I am not so fond of visiting museums, but since last year, I started liking them somehow. Probably, because museums give you a feeling of apprecicating what is beautiful and the price you would pay for that beauty. They maybe also remind you of the artist's life, of how important their artwork become. It can also be because I always dream of being an artist, I like the freedom they have in working, the creativity, the romanticism, and the reality of life. All museums i have visited until now have a bright, large hall with big, beautiful paintings, sculptures, the floor is shining with marble stones, and quite a lot of Japanese visitors!. Japanese are probably keen on seeing museums than the Europeans themselves, it is maybe because, the art is different from what we had in Asia, and I think the Japaneses are fond of learning new things in other corner of the world, and appreciate beauty.

Yesterday, we went to visit the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, I hadn't been so fond of the idea at the begining, but found it was very good idea at the end. First of all, the weather was so bad that the idea of having a walk in the park is just not a turn on(it likes a curse, when we were at "le Pain Quotidien" for breakfast, weather was windy but sunny, we went out, it started raining, snowing, and it freezed our *ss), so finding a warm place to stay in, and at the same time, enjoying the beauty of things seemed like the best idea one could come up with (Thanks, Jeremie!!). Second of all, when you are visting museums in a group, it is more fun (at least it was for me). We can make fun of artworks that we can't understand why they are worth to be hold in a frame, pretend that we understand something or know the artist ;-)

We really laughed hard when Irina told us that she told the lady at the ticket counter that she was student and got her ticket, but Christian also said that to the lady, and of course she would asked for the student card ;-). The old student was probably embarrased ;-)), was a misunderstanding, was it? ;-).

The museum holds a large number of artworks of Belgian artists (of course), most of them are Flemish, btw. We saw work of Delvaux, Magritte...etc..There was one painting whose artwork was really not worth the frame, it lookes like you were on the phone, using the pencil drawing lines (so said all of us) or a kid when you give him/her a pencil, they will probably produce something similar. We are just naked eyes, and just can't understand it, but it does look very simple!!!

The museum closes at 1pm until 2pm for lunch, hmm. So, We decided to take a coffee to warm up without success. The museums cafetaria is packed, we went to the Old England house, the musical instruments museum, it is also packed. So, we waited for haft an hour for the tram to get home, and had coffee in the Illy coffe shop at the corner of Avenue Louise.

I went to Waterstone to buy some books for the trip, ended with a few of them among which there is the Orange Clock of Anthony Burgess, it is quite similar to the Catcher in the Rye, and about the revolt of youth...and a book of a Japanese writer, whose books has been translated into English in recent years. Forget his names...

New Year celebration

Well, the event was quite successful, everybody really enjoyed all the performances and the food (I hope). Sofia even told me to be proud of my country as it is very rich, meaning in term of culture, values, customs..etc. I am glad that I met co Vinh (aunt Vinh-you do not call people that are older than you with their names in VN, it is considered to be very impolite and rude), the organizer of the event. She is an example of a nationalist, an example of someone who loves her country in every form and have brotherhood. There is no political intervention.

The show began with a dragon dance, everybody enjoyed it, although the place was quite small, so the dancers made a small incedent, and the table of the prize draw fell together with all the prizes on the floor :-)

The event continues with some performances of little Vietnamese kids, they are so cute!!!! :-), and then musical instruments, Vietvodao (Vietnamese kungfu), very nice...

Food was lots of sticky rice, soup, rice with roasted duck...Was strange taste for my friends, but I think they like it.

We went to the sisha bar afterward but it was completely full, so we ended it Cafe Central having a drink, then the nite ended.

Thai restaurant 

Girls 

Lcuky money 

Come to Mama 

Stoned Luc 

Stoned Fox 

Sisha bar 

Hoa Nghiem pagoda_Brussels

Well, if any of you is interested in Buddhism, there are two pagodas in Brussels, but this Hoa Nghiem pagoda is very nice, I have to say.

The pagoda is situated in Port d'Andaerlect, not in a very nice quartier of Brussels, but don't be disappointed because of its geographical orientation. Besides, the worse the place is, the more it needs to purify...(I am not saying that part of Brussels is poor but because the record of violences or attacks that happened there, it is quite dark, not lot of street lights, so easy for victims to be attacked). It was the first time I went to the pagoda here in Brussels, the entrance was like any other houses here in Brussels, you will find in the first room, a small glass closet where they put different buddha statues (which probably were brought from Vietnam) to sell there. For the info, when you would like to have buddha to wordship at home, you can't just buy one of those statue, bring him/her (yes, Kuan Yuen was a man Buddha in China, but for us, Kuan Yuen is a woman, and there are many female Buddha). On a note aside, the reason there are normally no female Buddha is because women were supposed to be the dirty piece of human race, (considering nowadays most men take 1 shower/week, smell and tend to forget to wipe their *ss, get skidmark), I think it's because women have periods every month, and it is considered to dirt the place of wordshipping-of course this is again a rule from our ancestors, don't think Buddha ever said that. If you know to Laos, some temples do not allow women to enter.

Also I think because Vietnam culture scores quite high on feminine (Feminity vs masculinity in culture), so I suppose we would like to have some softness in Buddhism, and also as mentioned in previous blog, Vietnamese Buddhism is an integration of three religions, so here you see the effect of Taos (the balance of Yin and Yang) ;-)...Well, there must be reason for everything, no?BTW, do you know in cooking, Yin is white meats such as poultry, duck/lamb are neutre but beef is very Yang...etc.

To come back to what I would like to say earlier, it is not enough to buy a statue of Buddha, and wordship with incenses. It depends on which Buddha, like the Earth Buddha, you have to put him on the floor instead of the highest part of the house as oppose to Kuan Yuen or others, because he is from the Earth, and he usually is "your home Buddha" who supervises your way of living or your way of treating people, to protect you..etc. Also, talking about the place where to put your statue of Buddha, we will have to see how feng shui is important in building a house in Asia (or at least in South East Asia)..kitchen should not be in front of bathroom and WC (if I begin to explain on this, I will never be able to finish this blog) or your bedroom should not have anything with glass, or your house shouldn't be built on West because you are fire elements (not sure about this). In short, your Buddha should be kept in the pagoda for some time to call the Buddha's spirit (I guess) because when you buy the statue, it is a simple piece of earth or whatever it is made from. The rest is the same as for God, have to be wordship in purify place...etc

After you pass through this first room, you can either access to the kitchen or the main wordship palace upstairs. Btw, the vegetarian food is excellent, I tried, and much better than what you can buy from shops, especially different sort of rice cakes that are covered with banana leaves mmmmmmm. So, me and others went upstairs to wordship, then we went downstairs to have a small soup made with noodles, chinese mushroom, and tofu, rice cakes, spring rolls..Then, around 22.30, we went upstairs again, it's time to pray or sing with the monks ans nuns. I couldn't stop giggling because of the wording in the bible ;-), for me it is like a booklet with very long phrases that have no meaning...very funny, nobody can actually understand what these phrases say. There are different versions and types of bibles, but I have never prayed with this one before (not that I have been praying or singing from a bible often, but I did sometimes before when I was still in VN). Inside the wordship palace, I could see lots of familiar Buddhas, very serious, although it was a bit weird that they played Chinese songs instead of the bell and bass drums...only that I felt a bit disappointed. At the end, we received lucky money and a fruit that is supposed to bring happiness (from Buddhas) from the nuns.

We had firecrackers, and then lion and dragon dances to fight evil spirits, to begin a new year with prosperity, a good start for the 2005.

I wish you all happiness and joy!!

Happy Rooster Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! Fyi, this year is already 4703 in the Lunar calendar.

BTW, this year is not good for marriages, for those who plan for this of course :-). I am going to the pagoda tonite, found a big one in Brussels, and they serve vegetarian food!!!!!!

Ok, for those of you who come to the event on Saturday, I will see you then, for others, well, see you next year :-)))

The Grudge ;-)

For anyone who has not checked the American version yet (Japanese version-"Yu-on, The Grudge"), pls do not delay ;-). It was very scary, they used better music and pictures to make the movie very spooky!!

This weekend went so fast, it seems like I didn't have time to accomplish what I would like to. Anyway, one more weekend and I am gone ;-). For the moment, I am kinda having a writer's block ;-), so it will be quiet here for some time.

Condolence on the death of Sofia's grandma

Yeah, got the bad news from Sofia this morning, her grandma passed away on Tuesday evening, I thought of mine. It's tough to live away from family especially when these things happen.

At least I know her grandma passed away peacefully, we say when a person lived healthy and passed away without much suffering (illness, vegetable life...), it's because they have done lots of good deeds. I hope this will give Sofia a bit of consolation.

I didn't cry much on the day my grandpa passed away, I don't know where my tears have gone, maybe it was because I was not there to see him, but I was wondering whether I would meet him when I die...My mom said he was unconciously asking whether I came home when he was in his bed, I cried every time I thought about this.

This bad news has put me in a sad mood...

marriages of convenience

Check this out http://migratemate.com/ ;-)

Buddhism

Buddhism is about not doing evil, but cultivating good and purifying one's mind.

"Do not look at the faults of what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done or not done. " Buddha

Of course, Buddha also quoted that we should end hatred with love..., but I particular like the quote above, don't know why, probably because it's not easy to achieve while the later is easier...I guess it's because the Vietnamese people have been living in harmony, so we just try to avoid conflict or fight as much as we can. Taking the Vietnam war, for instance, compare to any other wars, it is quite recent, and if you have visited the War Museum in Saigon, you would have been deeply touched by how the orange agent did to many Vietnameses...However, when you start discussing about that with local people, it was a bad dream for us, but it's now gone. Nobody talks about it with hatred (not it's because we won the war-considering the number of Vietnameses who died in that war, whether they belonged to South army or North) .

Although when being asked of what religion I am, I always say I am buddhist, but I am like the rest of the majority of Vietnameses belongs to Tam Giao religion ("three religions"), which is a mixed of Taoism, Confucism, and Buddhism. Confucism is about to balance relationship hierarchy, Husband to Wife, Parents to childrens, elder brothers/sisters to younger brothers/sisters, Emperor to objects, and relationship among friends. It has introduced into the society as a political system that remains until now, it limits the people in these five relationships. If you are students in Vietnam, the teacher is your second father. We have to respect everyone who is older than us, and we do not call uncle with their names, we always have to add "uncle", "sister"...including our uncles' friends. In the past, a peasant had little to say because of his relationship towards the emperor...Buddhism, therefore, brings in the form of brotherhood, where everyone becomes equal instead of the world ruled by certain persons. Taoism is about balancing our inner spirits, when they are balanced, we find perfect happiness. Thus, it is a religious that based heavily on meditation, Taoist suggests we work with our problems, obtacles instead of fighting against them at every turn. We should listen to the world around us in order to understand the inner harmonies of the universe, and since the Tao (natural force that flow through every living object including the whole universe) surrounds us, we must listen to it to find our happiness. We have to mater the circumtances, find balance of the opposits instead of working against them.

In conclusion, the Vietnamese Buddhism is an integration of these three traditions. It is about the social order using Confucism, peace, brotherhood, and the calmness of our mind through meditation and contemplation. It is a combination of Pure land and Zen.

Death penalty-what are your opinions?

I guess it is difficult for us to know whether we should against it or go for it. It is hard because nobody naturally has the right to decide whether or not to take a person's life away. Moreover, death penalty remains the cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. There are facts and evidents that people have been wrongfully convicted for the crime they did not commit as well.

It is even more difficult because for me, I believe no living species should be taken life away, not a tree, not an ant, whatsoever. But this is not about religion or our believe, it's the law that we are talking about here. Sadly, we, human beings can not live in harmony, or in peace so badly that we set up a government and law system to keep every body behave in a frame, which is supposed to be correct, right, and fair. I suppose we are in form of wild animals that are trained to become pets.

How can we prevent violence in our society? What should we do with a criminal like Dutroux? He practically disturbed other fellows in an society. When a serial killers keep on taking other people's lives? or when a criminal keeps on kidnapping young girls, raped and killed them?Should we do as Sofia's comment to cut his "balls" and eat 'em like cheese ;-) (excuse my language) Is this fair? If we say, we should bear their lives, then we are not putting ourselves in the shoes of the victim and their families. We can't imagin how ruin the victim's life will become, and this will affect the whole family...Of course, killing the criminal will not undo the thing they did (I wish) but they do deserve the toughest pusnishment. In buddhism, we do not allow killing but we believe people deserve what they have done.

I am not completely in favour of the death penalty even though Vietnam is one of the country which still keep it. And for your info, a person with 15 gr of heroin is already sitting in prison waiting for his death penalty, this is wrong, even though heroin can ruin a lot lives, but I am not in favour for the death sentence because I think the person who buy drugs have the choice of saying so to it while victim of murder or else do not want another person takes their life away.

So, I think I would go for the death penalty but it really depends on case by case, and hope it is taken with lots of consideration before giving it to someone. I do not agree that a person should be killed but I believe everything should be fairly treated even if death penalty is neccessary needed.

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destrous community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. " Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

Xuan At Dau-Nouvel an Vietnamien-Vietnamees Nieuwjaarsfeest!

Rooster year! 2005

The event is with dinner (Self-service buffet), live show, and dancing night!

Starts at 19h on 12-02-2005

Price is 20E

Address: Salle/Zaal Cadol
Rue Fr. Delcoignestraat 25
1081 Koekelberg
Metro Simonis, behind Ste Anne church