C'mon Ruben, let me down 

Almost there... 

With Irene, GOTG 

First indoor climbing experience

OMG, I LOVE IT!!!

It was a small club, there was not many people like in any other places, so we could climb as many times as we like. Besides, since it is small, you are able to make friends with other experience climbers, they have been climbing for years, and ONLY cool good looking guys ;-)).

Most of them are English speakers, working as consultants or developpers, travelled in places I have ever heard of (am so bad on this), friendly, helpful..In short, interesting people.

I thought I had to pay a fee to learn but when you are surrounding by experienced climber, you don't have to pay anything (btw, first day trial for free!), everybody gives you advices with their techniques (of course, I have to find mine). It looks easy, but it's not because you have to follow a route (same colour), and sometimes from one hold to the other, it is not easy, and the holds are in different forms, some big, some I can't hold at all! The colour is for the rating...I am at 4 plus, when I tried 5, I was too tired to get to the end...Next Monday I hope. Yes, Monday will be my climbing day.

I think it is more difficult to secure a partner than to climb. I did quite well on the first day, and had fun in the cave training ;-) (it was like a military training or something). Probably because the wall is not that high, it looks scary at first, but when you reached the ceiling, you go down, and come back again...I really had a lot of fun, I think I stayed in the gym for almost 3h without realising the time...Ian, a British guy I met at the gym called me "Spider Thao" and took pcitures when I climbed (I hope he will send them to me today ;-)). Ruben was encouraging "C'mon spider girl, you are doing great" when he was securing me ;-). I have to go to Leuven one of day to look for equipments for climbing, it is better to have your own things, anyway I have a 30% discount at their shop in Leuven, so why not? ;-)

This morning, I had difficulty in jogging, my arms and legs hurt a bit, so it took me 40min to do my usual jogging tour. I think I will change my route as of tomorrow because this morning some Maroccans harrassed me when I jogged (grrrr)

...And the audiences 

The supporters 

The joggers-survivors 

Durian 

Mika is on diet :-) 

fast and fresh 

"Can I have your pictures?" ;-)

I can't believe I sent a joke about Italian to Marzio! Sometimes, I really not think at all, the other day when I was in the elevator with Fox and another colleague (who doesn't have a lot of hair in the front), and we were talking about a girl's boyfriend, I said that guy is not good looking, and almost added "he is bold". Thank God I held my tongue just in time...

This morning, Marzio sent an e-mail "hope this is not a reputation that we Italians have abroad" ;-), I had to send him a "sorry" mail ;-). He told me that it is good that I consider him better than the Italian in the joke and then added "to be sure would you send me a picture of you". Well, what does that have to do with me sending him my pictures (which probably I won't because you never know, it can become one of his nasty revenge ;-)) although he said he would keep it safely on his computer, and will take care of it with much love hehehe.

Talking about a few months ago when he came to my place for sushi with his depressive face, trying to find a new girlfriend, and now he found a gorgeous girl (which most of his friends disapproved) Korean born but grew up in South Africa.

"DHL T-shirt, that's Ben" :-)

I went to Sofia's belly dancing performance, and it was good ( compare to the funk, modern jazz performances). I love the tap dance although I thought there was a missing motion, passion, and energy in those dancers...Something that a real dancer would have, something that you would have liked to convey to your audience, it's more than just dance...

If I were a dancer, i would give everything... Again talking is always easy, and me I have never been good in finishing something, that's my weakness. I will sign up for tap dance course for sure, love it!!

Saw Ben on the way to see Sofia's piece of art :-), with his DHL T-shirt and a number in the front, he was on the way to his starting point of the marathon. Then, on the way back, I saw him running, actually it was his T-shirt that I noticed first, quite funny, with that crowd, and he was really running, almost to the finishing point :-). Tried to find him at the end, but could'nt.

Star War rules!!! of course, again how could I not see them before?? Anyway, either late than never have seen.

Tomorrow climbing with Ruben. It was quite funny how I found out that he is a rock climber, should have asked...Have known him quite some time in Sony although we don't each other well enough, but has a good impressions on him, a nice Cuban chap, with a big smile all the time, and sometimes I had to come to him for some small Spanish translations when I was still doing the Marcom activities... again another communist bro :-). He is cool.

Doesn't have much support from mom on my opening of the cafe in Saigon, she is pessimistic, has always been :-) Guess she just needs to see how things can become, I trust my friend is doing a great job! We have always been good friends, me and him.

Well, I am feeling much better every day, maybe the pain is healing as l have no hope (what can happen, someone could have made it to happen long ago). After all, the outcome wasn't that bad, at least they are probably happy now, like that I feel easy to let go.

"I wouldn't know if it was chicken feet" :-)

Well, the movie was enjoyable, unpredictable, although a bit dark, and sad. It was funny that the owner of HK remembered me, she remembered I am from VN, and recommended their specialities, it likes she already knows what we like to eat. Ben took fried rice noodle with beef as main dish, and he loved it, he finished everything :-)

We went to have a beer before and after the movie, it was very nice, relaxing...Talked a bit about job and all on the way home. Ben is conducting a very healthy lifestyle apparently, he jogs every morning before work, no more late going out, drinking...he said it was kinda boring but he feels better, I said he was just getting old, "I know, am well awared of that" :-)

On Sunday, he is going to participate the Brussels 30km marathon, which I would like to (just for the certificate they give at the end though :) ), and he has a goal for himself, 30km in 1h30, but he is not sure he can make it because his knee is injured from basket ball...

We are planning to go see Star War III, probably on Sunday after his marathon.

Plans changed

Well, no Star War marathon tonite unless I am not tired.

Meeting with Ben for Chinese food (Hong Kong Delight in Bourse), then movie "Layer cake"

The trailer looks good!

Click here

Storewars ;-)

You definitely have to check this out!!! Warranty fun!!

Click here

"Sorry, it's too small, I can't see" ;-0)

Well, we had a nice Belgian nite yesterday. Fox managed to grab a table outside of Belga cafe for us, that was great. Trond joined at the same time as Sofia, we stayed in Belga for 2h or so, and then went to the Flagey frit kot to get Belgian fries. Trond suggested that we went to his place and had fries on the terrace instead (since we were not allowed to eat fries in belga).

So, we walked a his place, which is a bit further from the Flagey lakes, and had chip there. His place was nice, not so small, not so big, for one is perfect. We were talking about Sweden, Norway ;-), and then my naked neighbour ;-). Well, there is a couple who live on the other side of my terrace, and the guy walks around naked many times. The thing is there are alot of trees and all, but from my kitchen, I can still see him (wonder if he can see me? ;-)). If he has a great body, then that isn't a problem but the view isn't great! He is tall, tanned but has a big stomach..else I can't really see ;-). Sofia suggested that I should put a banner "I don't want to see your ugly naked body", but Fox came up with "Sorry, it's too small, I can't see" ;-) (well, maybe with this the guy can't get it, he probably thinks I refer to someone else's ;-)). Talking about spying on neighbour, Sofia owns a pair of binocular ;-) (you never know about your nice neighbours!!! ;-)))

We left Trond's place around 11pm, I transfered some CDs to my new audio player, and guess what this morning, I jogged from haft an hour around the Flagey lakes before preparing to work!! I think I am gonna follow my healthy schedule (don't know how long it will last though). I am gonna check out the climbing classes near my place, I plan to have a long trip at some stage, but with some rock climbing experiences, more adventurous stuffs ;-). I am checking out "1000 places to visit before you die" book...About book, reading the "A Clockwork Orange", it is so violent this book, but the language that the author used is very interesting, some sort of Russian apparently. I prefer "Catcher in the Rye" though. Those books make me feel a bit frustrated, very real but also upset, and motivated.

Sofia is gonna perform her belly dance this Sunday, so I am going to support her, plus I want to check out the Tap dance class in her academy or maybe belly dance? ;-)) tap dance is more artistic, I think. Anyway, looking forward.

Tonite, Star War marathon!!! How could I not see any of them before??

My new toy ;-)

Finally, I got my 20GB network WALKMAN with direct MP3 compability and 40h battery life!!! The design is very nice, slim, compare to the Mini Ipod, much better!!!

Well, the plan is to jog every morning before work, so I should be equipped ;-).

Here are the images. So cool!!

Click here

Happy hour 

Be Funk :-) 

At the Bank 

Don't they look good? :-) 

Little white lies...

Everybody lies in their daily life. Some are just lying because they don't want to hurt the person they love, some lie just for their own's sake. What if it becomes a habit? or because we have come up with too many lies that we can't go back to the truth? How many are willing to reveal even though the truth can be hurtful? How many are willing to live lie after lie?

It is easier for us to lie now as we have more means to communicate: emails, phone...I can always feel it when someone lies, it is easy to see that they don't feel comfortable (I love it when someone tries to explain about something that usually they don't really have to unless being asked!!! ;-). I never dig deeper if it is just a little white lie, maybe it is a mistake but I just not want to make the person in front of me feeling more uncomfortable than they already are (for lying).

People say when a person lies, they will just keep on lying. No doubt about that. However, we should also learn to forgive, and have faith in others. How can people stop lying if they come to confess to us and we turn them down? Don't forget that each of us might lie one in a while eventhough it is just unharmful lie. After all, it is better to live in trust than in dishonesty. I am glad that I was raised in the love of my grandparents and mom, they gave me so much love that a love from a father was not much needed. Then, there are my aunt, uncle...of course none of them are rather perfect, they also have their dark sides, and we are not a perfect family but when it comes to family, we love and support each other. My family believes in good will and faith, my sisters and I were encouraged most of the time in telling the truth.

I remembered when I was in early highschool, and found myself short-sighted. I didn't dare to tell my mom because first of all, I was afraid that grandfather would be mad, he used to tell me not to read when there was not enough light, and it was because I didn't want to wear glasses (glasses are for nerds-I thought;-)) So, my grades were going down because I couldn't see well. When I received the transcript, I cried so much thinking mom would not be happy, she worked hard...I usually wrote her a long letter telling her how sorry I was, left it on table near her bed together with the transcript, but still didn't say to her that I was short sighted, and what I needed was a pair of glasses ;-)). Of course, my mom figured out later that I couldn't see when I watched the Chinese TV serie " Journey to the West", and my grandfather didn't say anything but "why didn't you tell us earlier that you couldn't see?" and turned to my mom " go and buy her a good pair of glasses immediately, I don't want to see my niece to carry horrible thick glasses later"

It is difficult to gain trust again after we lie, but we must try to tell the truth. After all, if a person really loves you, they will have to forgive regardless how serious mistakes are because there will be so many things that they must go through together in life. If someone is unable to forgive, then they are not the right person but first, we have to let them see we are not perfect, we have weaknesses, and what we need is love rather than hours of whining ;-).

Talking is always easy. I know I would be upset, disappointed when someone lie but I will not lose faith in someone who comes to me : "look, I regret that I did that, I know I hurt you, I am so sorry but I insist that you help me to get through". It is sad that people give up so easy when they ask for support and help, after all if you show a bit of will, people might be there for you.

One should always remember "paper can never cover the fire"-sooner or later the truth is unwrapped no matter how good we cover it. So, it is better to be perceived as a honest, straight-forward person than a liar.

Anyway, ever feel like you are in party, surrounding by friends, good friends, people who loves and cares for you but still feel like something is missed? You are distracted by thoughts, and constantly, then you feel a need of talking to someone you care for? What if you go and try to reach for that person, and that certain person is there? will it be fate? What if you don't care what is right or wrong but your own happiness?

I am exhausted, have to get some rest. Bored at work today, home from the cinema, we saw " In Good company", it was a sweet comedy with Denis Quaid...I still need to watch the first two sequels of Star War :-)

...and sister 

One of my Vnese bro :-) 

Alexandra and Mika 

My babies_Mika and Yoda 

Mika loves Mint 

Blooming 

An ugly frog-"pourriez vous venir chez moi?"

I planned to stay home on Saturday to watch the Eurovision, and would join Katherine in Havana, but ended up hanging out with Sofia, Gorgia and Trond for the nite (after hundreds of text messages from different people, who has same interest but different want and need: jazz marathon but dance or listen to good jazz). Decided to go for good jazz: a sexy saxophone sound and good vocal, so we went to the Monk, but since Sofia and Gorgia didn't look at the date carefully, we waited for a live DJ (nothing special), and that was it. Although at the end we left quite late from PP in St Gery, not everyone satisfied with the nite. I was home again at 2am.

Trond dropped me and Sofia at the beginning at Rue de Hennin, me and Sofia walked home, and just when we arrived at my place and about to said good nite to each other, an African frog came to us "je peux vous demander quelque chose mais ne vous facher pas", "ok, qu'est ce que vous voulez?" I asked, having mind he might want to know the way around or something..."je voudrais demander si vous voulez vernir chez moi, j'habite tout pres ici" I looked at Sofia, then turned to him VERY POLITELY said "ca nous interest pas". But the frog still insisted "Je connais beaucoup des afraicaines mais je ne veux pas, je ne veux que votre couleurs-referred to me or Sofia- je peux vous payer" OMG, I lost my patience!!! (and Sofia didn't get the part when he said he would pay). I said to him very loud "cache toi parce que maintenant je suis vraiment fachez, ok?On va pas coucher avec toi meme si tu paie parce que nous ne sommes pas les prostitutes, compris?". I think my face was really red, I have never got that mad in my life and he was embarrased, so he said "ok, ne vous fachez pas.., merci", and left. Actually he lives just on the other side, gonna tell my uncle when I see him again!!! Sofia said we should have punched this guy and beaten him when I told her that he offered to pay us. Imagin- We didn't even dress up in skirt or anything sexy, we were in JEANS. Maybe I should move, don't know how many times I got this sort of things. Another time when I was on the way home from Sofia place on Ave Louise, there was a guy masturbating and showing his penis to me, I remembered I ran home, was so nervous that he followed me, and when I got home, my whole body was still shaking...Anyway, real perverts are quite dangerous!! They eat too much meat!!!

Sofia booked our tickets with Ryan Air for the midsummer party in Sweden. Yeah, I am going to Sweden for a couple of days in June. We will stay at Sofia's summer cottage in Figeholm where they will have midsummer feast, drinking schnapps, eating fresh potatoes, fishes, berries with whipped cream together with fishing activities on her boat. Maybe mushroom picking..;-) hmm Apparently, Sweden is also a source of many outdoor activities: snowboarding, white water rafting, hiking, rock climbing (areas are significiantly less crowded-something that attracts a growing number of international climbers) with magnificent mountain scenery...

I hope one day I will climb so I can enjoy the undisturned wilderness of some parts of the world. I would be lucky to be with someone who shares the same dream, exploring the world's nature in its wild forms, escaping the hassle of life to feel in other world even if it was just for a short time...Something like going throught the dessert with camels, trekking in Nepal, following horse's trace in Mongolia...I will definitely excert one of these wildest dream.

It's amazing how long me and Sofia have known each other, almost 6 years by now. We come from different background, having different characters, and although there was time we gett mad or disappointed at each other but at the end we always manage to talk things through. Probably that's how we keep our friendship going, we are not happy, we talk about it, and forget all about it.

How many of us do treasure a relationship?

Be Fun-BE FUNK

Well, it's the Brussels jazz marathon, and these cool guys play really good funk!! Their concert always attracts lot of people, and the bar is usually full (therefore not a lot of place to shake).

be-funk is a Belgium boyband (except Antonio is Italian), and although Yan, the singer is a bit heavy but he definitely has got excellent moves on stage, and very nice sexy voice!

We had so much fun, dancing like mad until 2am. Trond left after the concert because his parents are here, and today he has to take them for sightseeing. I stayed a bit later with the group, we haven't gone out in such a big group like we did yesterday, Sony people, Toyota, Coke...It was fun.

Check out the be-funk's cool website. They will eventually post pictures of yesterday, today, and Sunday's concerts (they do have "girl of the geek" award :-)))

Click here

Will you cheat on your bachelorette party? or a 3some ;-)

Me and Fox went to Yamato yesterday. I love this noodle soup place, they have so good ramen! I am always full after that eating there. There were not a lot of people yesterday, we didn't have to wait long, and there were still empty seats. (Fox is invited to go to a wedding with a gorgeous black girl (she wants him to go with him!!!)-she is damn beautiful, she should fill her name in for the Miss Belgian contest!!!)

Afterwards, it is a usual girl nite at Jeremy's place. Apparently Cris is going to church very often now (well, she wants to have her wedding in a church), and after several unsucessful attempts to bribe the priest ;-). So, we are now waiting for the big day, I can feel it is probably about time. She talks about it constantly, probably that is only that in her head now, she is also more quiet, sleepy... Why people can become quite boring when they plan on getting married, I wonder if I would be talking to my friends about me getting married constantly, or do not enjoy a girl night anymore..etc.

(We drank a lot wines, and smoked some cigars, eating a lot of chips, dried sausages, and although there was a movie we were planning to watch, we just keapt on talking-no good music, btw ;-((

At the same time, she doesn't feel like staying at his place alone because she is not working, so sometimes she cooks, doesn't want to project an image of a perfect wife ;-). Irene (the Spamish girl-party animal) broke the conversation by "will you cheat on your barchelorette party?", "No"-Cris said, "Why not?" I asked amusingly, Irene looked at me smiling, "because I can't not sleep with the guy I don't love, I will just flirt with him or dance a bit";-). "I would also flirt and dance, feel sexy...". Irene is maintaining a long distance realtionship with her Italian boyfriend, so one weekend she goes to Rome, another he comes to Brussels. She is going out very often, almost every day, seeing a lot of guys including her ex-boyfriend..and they are in "good relationship" as well. "So, how can you guys trust each other?" I asked, "well, I have done bad thing to him although I try not to now" Irene said. "My boyfriend was a virgin when I met him, and it is nice to date a virgin although you will be worried because they might want to try other women", Irene seriously said ;-)., It was funny when Irene told us that she bought a handcuff from a sex shop for her boyfriend, and when she passed the custom door, they asked her to open her handbag and asked what was it? ;-) (thank god, no dildo!!)

Then we talked about Marzio's new girlfriend, Korean girl but grew up in South Africa, apparently none of the girls like her. "She is fake, and probably she doesn't love him" Cris said, "I agree, I also think she is fake but I think she does want a relationship with him" Irene continued, "I think she is beautiful, I definitely need to let my hair grow longer again" I said. All of them laughed. Stephane is bisexual apparently ;-), "guess what, Marzio said he wouldn't mind to try a threesome with "two guys and one girl" scenario instead of "two girls and one guy", he could be gay" Irene said ;-). I nodded wisely "definitely" ;-))). "does Steven call you? he asked for your number, so I gave it" Irene asked, "yes, we went out for drink, but I don't think it will work, he is quite young" I smiled.

Carina came in. Carina is Russian, also very pretty, and she was wearing a low cut jean with a white top, blue pale leather jacket. "Looking good girl, where did you find that sexy low cut jeans, I can't find any that really looks good on me, and for the record I want to show my tatoo" I said. "In Russia of course, more expensive though, it is the most fashionable city (oh dear, who said that?), the clothes I find there, they come to Belgium f*cking months later" Carina loudly replied. "So, where are you working now Thao?", she asked, " Still in Sony, but with Web merchandising, more e-commerce", "yeah, It is big now, I am going to do master in IT in Boston university" Carina said. "you?" I asked, "I am working as an intern, not earning a lot money, doing projects on medical equipments with countries like China, Us...how they can sell within EU..etc, I want to write a book on international politics..." she went on and on, I didn't listen. You can feel it when someone is frustrated and insecure, and I have encountered with "Eastern European girls" symtoms-girls are beautiful, come from rich family, have strong characters, are over confident, party animals and want to get married (to stay in Europe or to have a family).

Anyway, Carina talked about her date with her ex-boyfriend's bestfriend (Ouch!!), and how she ended up with her ex because of his fight with a paranoid girlfriend of him in front of her house...Weird.

We plan to go to Greece in July for gorgeous Greek men, "what we need, girls are bikinies, and a lot of condoms! BTW, talking about that, I still have to empty my handbag because I still have some in there, actions in the car" Carina said. Hilarious.

She wanted to go out at 12pm, but I went home, and nobody felt like going out, she picked a fight with Irene because of that, "We always have to follow your f*cking idea, what you want.." Oops, time to get home.

I wonders if they are searching for love, is this how fabulous singles behave? it is nice to go out and meet with people, but hey how many of us really find a person where love chemistry produces instead of one night stand that will lead to "unhappy" sex. How many guys who really want to fall in love and not just look for a girl to go home with? Are they all desperate, hopeless people who don't beleive in true love? It is sad, I don't see myself hang out in bar for that, I want a man who loves me unconditionally, crazily, who makes me "can't wait to go home", to have breakfast with, take a walk with, share sadness and happiness with, go through difficult time....I thought I found one.

Everything needs its time. We were born with plans already made for us.

Irina's news "I met some Vietnamese people! And guess what the Program Officer for Vitnam (and PO has to always be international) is from Belgium, a Flemish guy... Really smart and active!!!
So your country really has smth to do with those Belgians :)"

Consolidation of a broken heart

Dealing with hypotension is much easier than dealing with your own broken heart.

One of the famous philosopher explains when we fall in love, we are unconciously looking for a "will to life"-meaning a reproduction of our genes. That is to explain why tall women can fall in love with short men, why we usually attract to people who have either physical features or character different from us. Anything that is ugly or imperfect can't persist and we want our next generation has a better heigh for instance. Therefore, when someone does not fall for us, it is because the features aren't matched, not it is because we are this or that...

This morning when my uncle told me one of his workers' daughter is diagnosed with diabetes when she was born (she is only two years old now), and he can't stop working because he won't have any money for her medical care. Last week the older daughter of the same person was burnt because she put her hand on the electricity cook. News are all over the internet that Kylie Minogle is dealing with breast cancer, lots of people are on her side. How many of us think of normal people with same problems? How many women are with cancer, do they all get the same attention. It is frustration, at least this famous person has money to get cured, what about the two years old child who might live her life with sickness....

When I look around me, there are many serious problems, my problems seem to be so small and unimportant. Why are we making our lives more complicated than it already is? It should be simple, so no more drama!

Steven took me to a bar called the MONK yesterday, it is a bit smoky but full of "alternative" flemish people, people with their liberal thinking, writers...etc. He said "because you like Flemish, so here we are". He was so keen on correcting me with Dutch words, then said "I thought you were Flemish when I heard you", it is a cute, sweet lie I think. We talked for hours, about everything and nothing. When I left, he suddenly asked "Are you sad?". I wondered if my thoughts, worries are displaying all over my face. I replied that I was just occupying. But still this morning, he sent me a text to ask if I am ok. It is nice to feel again that someone cares...

There is something funny when you go out with a guy who is younger than you because everything you want to do, they want to help and involved but at the same time want to make it clear "I know what I am doing"...Maybe they know, maybe they do not but it's kinda "irritated excitement".

Uncle is moving out end of June, he is going to live in his new place near the EU commission, and Sudhir already asked him if he could rent that floor, which means we will be neighbour.

Oh yeah, and today a job agent called me for a market research vacancy in Antwerpen as well ;-), future is bright.

Life is short, and we have to stay in the game because there are so many great things to come.

My LOVER is an Asian :-)

When I mentioned Pls St Gery, Steven also didn't know the name of the place because it's French :-). so, we agreed to meet in front of the Stock house, i laughed when his sms said " I will be reading my newspaper, and wearing a pink flower on my shirt". Steven is an easy going, funny, wild but very kind guy.

I saw him talking to a girl from far away when I arrived in front of La Bourse, when he saw me "here she is, my friend", and the girl turned out to be probably on medication, drug or alcoholic (she smelled alcohol). She turned to me, then looked at Steven "oh, so this is your friend, an Asian thing, so beautiful", she spoke very good English with American accent. Then, she said "My friend didn't come, we were supposed to meet at 6pm, and he didn't come, can I stay with you?", I said "of course you can stay with us". I think she hardly know anything, we spoke a bit, she was from Domican Republic, Steven was very attentive and caring, he asked where she lived, and if she still knew the way to get home or if we should bring her home.

She didn't want to go home, so I asked if there was anything she needed from me, she wanted a cigarrette. Unfortunately, this was the only thing we both didn't have, she said "you don't want to be with me, you just want to be with each other now, so I am gonna cross the street and be with my friend, I will smoke a joint with them". So, we kissed good bye, but she was just about to cross the street while all the cars were passing by. So, we dragged her, and told her that we would cross the street together because we would go to the other side of the Stock house anyway. On the way, she told me "You are so nice, I just love Asian people, my LOVER is an Asian" :-))) She hugged me, and Steven, then left when we were on the other side...

Steven said it is sad to see her like that because she was telling him that she had two moms, and her parents just moved from the US, she studied Arts...but is on medication for mental problems. It really broke my heart, she was such a sweet girl and didn't seem to be having any mental illness, maybe family affairs.

We went to Zebra for a tea like we both said :-), and Steven is such a cool, funny guy, I wonder if all Flemish are like that? :-), he had been in Australia, Malaysia, South America, Singapoor.... He is from Denderleeuw, and when I asked what are the highlights there, he laughed "to be honest with you, we are famous for animal treatment, we have a big factory there to do that".

He is a young guy with full of dreams, lots of compassion for live, and very upset about the world :-). He is studying to get his second diploma in jounalism, wanna become a field journalist, he definitely has an adventurer blood, "I am no rich kid, everything I do is everything I earn, I hate people complaining about having their kids crying., that's their choice, they want it, so stop complaining".

He said he hoped to see me again. I am finding myself going out with a cool student who is younger than me, and they said students are clever :-).

But I am missing someone else...

Anyway, I joined uncle and his friend at the Oriental restaurant called "Les Milles et Une Nuit", it has a stunning decoration.

We had red wines "Cuvee de desert", it is very fruity and subtil, very good wine actually. Couscous was on the menu, I took Couscous maison with was served with lamb, merguez, brochette. Not bad, especially the couscous smelled very fresh, and I had lots of chickpeas, love them :-)

After that, my uncle friend insisted that I tried the desserts (not into that, have to say) but since i was a little lady there, everyone paid attention to me :-), I tried a sort of crunchy amande paste that was served with ice-cream and strawberries, and menthe tea of course.

Just a note on my uncle old friend, uncle Hieu, he is older than my uncle, has been living here for very long, love Belgium, and criticizes Vn a lot, but his knowledge is very wide. When he was young, he did a lot of cool stuffs like living in South of France for two years without having a house, but just travelling along, he worked for a week, then travelled for 7 weeks :-), he still goes camping very year, I like him. He always have stories to tell. When we were talking about smoking sisha, he told me next time he sees me or he will give my uncle to give me a waterpipe from Tunisia, he has a Tunisian friend, so he will ask his friend to buy me one from Tunisia :-). It will be cool to have waterpipe sisha, and then gather friends to have a magic night :-).

It is nice to be in the company of interesting people, having good food, good drinks...What's else can one ask for?

Final destination

I am so tired today, don't know if it is because of this melancholy weather or because of the amount of beer that I consumed yesterday. If I remember correctly, I think I drank 3 white beers and two gueuzes. We had lots of fries and frikadel (???-sort of meatstick). Plus, there is a delay in mail delivery in Sony and some mails could have been corrupted. Therefore, this morning, I received mails that were sent to me on Wednesday..Nothing important, mostly from Coke and Toyota people for going out in some clubs.

It is exciting to know how many surprises that life can reserve for us. If we know that we will get married (then to whom), how many children, will we be rich? (in which sense?), how our lives turn out to be in the next two or three years, how one meets another...I suppose the life style/believes/expectations won't matter anymore. Like yesterday, I met Trond (norwegian) at Cafe Belga. It was funny when he asked "Do you work for Sony", "yes, how do you know? ", "because I am an observer, I saw you in the Sony cafetaria" ;-)).

Gonna have a Sony Six Sigma training (it's an old management tool that most organisation try to implement-a bit similar to ISO), apparently I will stay in Sony for another year... That's good news for me personally at the time being...

Belgian nite in Belga

I was almost dead on Tuesday nite when Sofia called me at 11.30pm from the train station. Luc lost his suitcase, and the key to their home was in it, so I told them to come to my place to stay over. The first floor was empty, so they stayed there. Apparently, their holiday was nice but very wet.

Anyway, tonite Ben has his basket ball nite, so he can't join us for the Belgian nite, which we will just eat lots of fries and drink lots of beers ;-)). BTW, potatoes are expensive in VN!!! It's amazing how many sauces Belgians have for fries: samurai, pili pili, provencal..etc. There are only two places in Brussels where you can enjoy good Belgian fries: the Flagey frit kot and Maison Antoine (now I am writing this, I forget the name of the place ;-)). The good thing about Belgian fries is that the fries are big but yet still crunchy! My mouth is already watering when I think of the fries with hot samurai sauce MMMM.

Steven, the flemish guy I met last Saturday smsed me this morning "Hi Thao, stupid me didn't ask for your number last Saturday. Anyway, wanna go for a tea tomorrow? Enjoy the sun! Steven the guy who gave the name of wangshae a whole new meaning!". Well, i didn't want to give out my gsm number, that's how the trouble usually begins.

But obviously someone else did that for me!! Anyway, that was a funny text I thought ;-), and ask me out for a tea ;-)). So, I agreed to meet him tomorrow for a tea, and when I asked where he told me he is flexible, so I can choose the place and the time. That's probably how "journalist to become" behaves, he is quite interesting, so it will probably be fun to see him. So, a date on Friday, then? ;-))

Another woman's shoes

They finally said good bye to each other. It wasn't easy even they both wanted to make it less painful and sad. She walked as fast as she could to get home. She let herself falling into her couch, she quietly stayed still for a while, her body trembled but she didn't feel cold, there was a sudden pain in her heart, and at last she bursted out into tears.

She knew that it was the only way she could probably make him happy. He is a boy who is lost in the middle a dark tunnel, but will she be the one who is capable to rescue him? Does he need her? She figured he has a woman who loves him, who plans to have a baby with him after their long travelling journey...there isn't a place for her, or if there is, it is a wrong seat.

She selfishly wished that there had been something wrong between them, but everything was perfect, she realised if this man who sat in front of her, who has been with two women for almost at the same time, and still couldn't decide who he wanted for his life, it is very clear that she wasn't the one he wanted.

He just didn't know that he had made his choice. So, she helped him because above all, she wants him to be happy. She also thought one day he would thank her for doing what she had to do, the day he found out that the woman he wanted was just next to him every day.

She is a girl who thirst for real love, who is searching for an unconditional love, who is ready to give all the love she has for a man she loves, who has widely opened the door to her soul. A girl who never stop dreaming, a girl who has decided to shut down all noises, but still listen to her heart.

What if love is not enough? She know she should not wear the other woman's shoes.

Matter of the heart

Many questions popped up in my head when I saw an e-mail from a friend of mine, she wasn't feeling comfortable when her boyfriend invited his ex (the one he broke up with he met her) on his birthday.

Although I think it is always good to remain a good relationship with the person who we once loved instead of hating each other for the rest of our lives. But sometimes, I can't help but wonder is it really friendship or is it because one still has feeling for the other? On a woman's point of view, the latter is true. It is a fact that women always try to decode/understand the signals that men send out, in reality there is no signal. Everything is very straightforward. Men want to keep the friendship because they really want to have a friendship, but women only keep the friendship because they still have feeling for their partners or potentially hoping that one day things will be ok again.

The problem is you can trust the man you love but how do you trust the other woman? ;-) . I can understand that it is frustrated for anyone who come after because there is always an ex, especially if on your boyfriend's BD, his ex made him his favourite cakes, and of course your boyfriend's friends start saying his ex is wonderful. That's probably putting me into a bad mood the whole day even I am not a jealous type of woman!! Men just don't get it, they won't see anything wrong with that sort of things but women, that is a negative signal!

When we were having lunch, a colleague of mine was complaining that there is a crazy woman who is bugging him...When I asked him how long has he been in the relationship, he told me that he had only a "one day relationship" with her :-) (he really meant one day), and now she doesn't stop calling him! I thought "poor woman"...It is sad that people are taking relationship so easy nowadays, there are so many lies, dishonesty..While men believe a little lie can save their women from heartache, for woman it is more serious. When I told my colleague "why don't you just tell her straight that you are not interested, and appreciate that she stops calling you?" He reponded (probably joking?) "I was waiting for you to call me the whole weekend but you didn't, only that crazy girl"... hmm, does this need to be decoding or is it pretty much straightforward? ;-)).

Anyway, knowing the person he is, probably he promised a lot to the poor woman who turned out to be a divorce one!

Chez Mama

Received a call from Cris in late morning yesterday asking if I was free to party in the evening. It is her birthday on Monday, but she is travelling to Budapest with Jeremie (on Coke's budget!!!!-Damn lucky), so she won't be here.

Anyhow, after Chinese class, I looked for Cris's BD present. When I arrived home, it was around 6pm something, it was raining, so I didn't feel like going out anymore, so did Mr Sui Wei. But then, Jeremie smsed said there would be a gay parade (which happened the whole day yesterday in center of Brussels-and I had no ideas!!!), and apparently the restaurant is kinda chic. So, that put me in the mood of dressing up. Decided to go for a short jean skirt, sexy open green top with black heel with traps, earings (H&M, cute, cheap, as the result, I have swollen earlopes today!!!), necklace, Mango jacket that I bought on sale last year.

Of course, Foxxy showed up very trendy as well, wearing all the "PRODUCT", Kenzo black shirt, I forgot the brand of his kinda suit jacket, adias limited edition city shoes..; We arrived at the restaurant, Italian food. Ordered two charcuterie dishes for the group, mostly Coca Cola people, and I tried out a pizza, I chose something less cheese and meat, but still I just can't love pizza!!!! For me, every time I go to an Italian restaurant, I always order pasta with any red sauce made from tomatoes, any other cream sauce is really out of the question. I just don't eat fatty stuffs, and with pizza, just never like it!!

I took a limon chello after meal, it is said that it's good for digestion, not bad! We decided to somewhere else, it was already 12.15pm. We arrived at a Brazillian bar (in the gay quartier of Brussels-near chez Mama) where other Coca Cola people are hanging out. It was a smoky bar with Brazillian music, there was a weirdo bothered me...This is typical Brussels, whenever I am in a bar, it feels like people are just there trying to get laid or somethin'. "Are you from China?", "NO, Vietnam", "Oh, I have been there, very nice, beautiful girls (?????), I was in Hanoi, "Cam on" , "OK" I said. Thank God, Stephane rescued me. We chatted a bit, I think he was flirting, so turned to Steven (my first impression was what a weirdo, but then he turned out to be very cool), Flemish from somewhere near Aals, journalist to become, so very interesting to talk to. He gave his number in case I want to have a drink, anytime he said.

The troop decided to go to Ancien Belgique after, so me and Fox decided to party our own way. We went to Chez Mama to see drag queens. Downstairs was fully packed, so we went upstairs, which was also nice to hang out. Fully safe for a girl at least, noone bothers anyone, everyone is into their own biznis :-). There was a gay couple, one guy looked rather old for me, they were making out the whole time, and a lesbian couple (or not?), whihc danced very sensually, Fox and I thought that was damn HOT!! There was one drag queen, she sang "Frozen" Madonna song, so skinny, I could never know whether she is a he from the back. Bien sur, Mama was great although her body is very masculine, but her performance remains the best. She has style, like a diva. Most of the song she chose were in French but very nice "...Et pourtant je ne sais pas comment l'aimer", putting her arms around her body...I was thinking about Ivan in L word, also a drag queen and his lovely song "If you wanna a lover, I'll do anthing you ask me to. If you wanna another kinda love, I'll wear a mask for you. If you wanna a partner, take me hands....If you wanna a boxer, I'll step into the ring for you. If you wanna a doctor, I will examine every inche of you...you know you can, I am your man"

When we decided to go downstairs to check if there were places, " Wait, I love you, you have beautiful eyes and mouth" -"Wait a minute, are you gay?" I asked the guy who rushed after me on the stairs :-).

We left Chez mama around 3am in the morning.

Sunny today, maybe I'll go to the Royal garden in Laeken later. I think I 'll dive into bed for a little nap again.

Kingdom of Heaven

Went to the preview of this movie (same director as Gladiator) yesterday, fortunately we already booked tickets in the morning otherwise, we wouldn't have any seats.

The movie was quite long (2h20mins), the costume is very nice, story was good, sometimes even quite heavy, it was about the war of Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem. Orlando Bloom was good but his face didn't give an impression of a warrior, not a tough and strong macho man ;-). I would prefer to have Brad Pitt instead because there might be a chance to see his b*tt again LOL.

The best would be Sean Connery but he is old now ;-((. I am waiting for Fox to give me the next season of L Word, a sexy TV serie all about lesbians, and is said to be the next Sex and the City only the difference is "Same sex, Different cities" (hmm, that's probably why Fox was so crazy about it?? ;-)). I like "Ivan", especially when "he" sang "I am your man" to Kit or when Kit tried to explain that it wouldn't work between them because she is straight, with "his" sexy voice, "he" said "How do you know I can't I give you what you want?", but "he" is not around anymore in the last season ;-((

Acc to Fox, it's a trend now some women want to be lesbians ;-)), of course not the normal lesbians (especially big muscle arms women, I remembered there was one time a girl liked me, and she told me how good she was in fixing electricity, plumbing...but she scared me because of her muscles and haircut) , the gorgeous/fabulous ones.

The gamblers?? 

The dance?? 

The show 

The entrance 

Black jack, roulette or wheel of adventure??...

...So, I survived the gamble enticement ;-). I bet the special Asian night in Namur Casino brought a lot of money for the Casino. One thing we have to remember that the Casino industry isn't there for people to win, if we go there and manage not to lose any money, it means we already win ;-).

We went first to meet our neighbour in Namur, their house has humidity because of the architecture of ours and theirs. The water pipe system is so old that it is not anymore effective. Anyway, we just had a look, discussed the agreement..etc. The house I bought needed to be rebuilt completely, but it has a big garden, and that's cool, I can reserve the ground floor with the garden for summer if we want to go there canoeing or something ;-)))

When we arrived at the casino, it is already 8.30pm almost 9pm, we had to sign up, apparently people like notaries, police, judges..etc are prohibited to gamble...I was starving, but we had to wait until 9pm for dinner, so I went inside the gambling room to have a look, plenty of young Asians, most of them are Chinese, it was as if they went crazy in front of the roulette table or black jack. Their faces look so serious and very much focused, there was one guy who even had a little notebook with him, I tried to look what he wrote in without success. The Casino organised an demonstration of how to play roulette, it is quite simple, just depend on how we place the plastic coin, but still it doesn't give enough confident for me to play ;-)). None of us was interested in playing. The food was good though, there was an assortment of VNese, Thai, Chinese, and Cambodian cuisine...A show was done by Philippino/ Philippina..nothing special, but still nice. Of course, they organised Karaoke as well in another room, and songs were also in Vnese, Thai, Cantonese, Mandarine, English, and French (hey, where is Dutch??)

We left around 12.30 after having the last beer, and I went to bed at 2am...But it was fun, the atmosphere was quite tempting for people to gamble, I have to say. There were several prize draw among which a trip to Thailand and another to China, I hope I will win one of thoses ;-)). We don't know yet, fingers crossed ;-)

First BBQ in 2005

We had excellent weather in the weekend, especially yesterday. So, I organised a bbq at my place. Didn't make anything complicated because I had to wake up at 4.30am to help aunty Vinh (the lady who organised the show for the VN New Year in Feb), she had a stand in the flea market/ brocante/braderie in front of VUB campus (next to Citibank), so I went there to help her display merchandises to sell. Money goes to scholarship fund for students in VN like it was from the New Year show. Anyway, stuffs were really scrap, in my opinions for selling, all the old clothes or shoes, anything, and still there are people buying them!!! In my surprises, she made a net profit of 186 Eur ;-) yesterday.

I went home after helping her displaying the stuffs around 10.20am, went to Place de Chatelain to have breakfast, then heading home to do my usual house work, then prepare foods for the bbq. I had too much meat, beers and alcohol that i felt sick. As the result, I am having a serious headache, and my brain isn't functioning very good.

My Chinese is improving, the teacher said I should be Chinese ;-)), well maybe that wasn't a compliment since VN was part of China thoudsand years ago ;-).