Spicy Cabbage

Recently, start using Fox's gift from HK to make a couple of simple (and quick) Chinese dishes. Yesterday, I made Spicy Cabbage. Besides, the cabbage, I added a bit to carrot, and small pieces of chicken filet. The result was it was not only spicy but also almost burned my tongue ;-), a super delight though.

There are many dishes with vegetables, and seafood that can be easy made since I don't often eat meat, also I want to see if I can make those quickly ;-). Reason is I am thinking maybe some people will be able to get a chance on trying Thao's new cuisine on my BD's occasion heheheh. Well...that is only a plan.

I am reading Haruki Murakami's "Hard boiled Wonderland and The end of the World" at the moment, and once again I am blown away by his unsual fiction and philosophy. A great fantasy book for those who live in a fantasy world ;-). BTW, he is my favourite Japanese writer, the one who writes "Kafka on the shore" if you remember.

A part from spending free time in the kitchen this week and being fantasied by Murakami's Wonderland ;-), I am checking some books on Amazon of how to make candles ;-). Yep, want to make some scented candles as a new hobby, although I found some very good books on that, I have not ordered any, I plan to visit Waterstone this weekend to see if they have books on making candles...

A positive mid-life crisis? ;-)

Not so happy ;-)

How do you dream?

Finally, I bought the Brokeback Mountain DVD for the collection.

BTW, for those who have seen Gondry's movies, one of which is the "Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind", that was out a couple of years ago, starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey (I remember some friends and I were planning to see a comedy, so we thought a movie with Jim Carrey must be funny-yupe, did not read the review, so it came out as a surpirse for all of us, but it was nice), there is one coming soon called "The Science of Sleep", another super surreal, imaginative film...

I can't wait to see it..well, if you are into dreams, and let yourself wander among images, memories of your brain, you will like Gondry's movies. A life between dreams and reality otherwise some people would find themselves bored, sleepy when they watch.

Anyway, check the trailer out

Click here

Herresbach

Was in a small village next to Manderfeld, called Herresbach in the Ardenne at the border with Germany for the weekend.

It has been a long time since I remembered how dark a night was (after the time where VN has got some better technology to use water enery producing electricity otherwise before that once a week, we did not have electricity). I could not see a thing, not even the face of the person to whom we talk, only if they smile, you will probably see the shade of their teeth. Walking in the dark, on a long, empty, quiet road reminded me of all the ghost stories that I heard when I was young, something like "there was a young girl who died, because she died young, and had not lived a full life, her soul could not vanish, she could reincarnate into the next, so she stayed on the big bamboo tree, and every night, she appeared like a woman, asking for a lift, only the people who gave a lift, when they passed the bamboo, they would see a woman with very long hair, wearing a long white dress..."Brbrbr, even as I am writing this, it still gives me shivers. I was quite happy when there was from time to time, a flash light of a car passing by at the same time I was praying that it would not stop next to me, and inside there would be a man without the head ;-)).

But walking in the village during the night was great, the air was pure, there was only a "smell of countryside"-a mix of bullshit, hay, grass...and because it was so dark, that you could enjoy looking at the stars, then the sounds of bugs...a sort of silent that we don't have in big city.

The next two days, trekking from one village to another through the pine forest (took less than 2h to trek 12 km, taking into account 7kg of backpack, climbing small hills), there were many kinds of pines, even the one that we use to decorate for Xmas. The water was very clean, it was not hard like those in city with a lot of calcium. When you drink it, it tastes better than any of the brands for water that we find in the supermarket.

It was a healthy weekend.

A baby slug

Mushrooms

Apparently if you eat those, they will create a depressive mood, then a sort of hallucination, afterward you will fall into a deep sleep

Bilberry and blueberry

There were plenty of them, it was like a field of blueberry, sweet and juicy...

Jetli in Fearless

Went to see Jet li's movie last week, and me-like-it!

Okey, if you are not a fan of Kungfu, then it is nothing special, but last few years, Jet li appeared in some very bad Hollywood action movie, and Fearless is real Chinese, and I like him in roles like that.

I am almost certain that not many girls like Kungfu movies, especially last week when I went to the movie theater, and saw there were only guys ;-)). I like them Kungfu movie I was young, thanks to my mom probably, she used to take us to the big screen in VN to see actors and actresses in her generation. I am a fan of Bruce Lee, btw. Too sad that he died.

...."Everybody is Kungfu fighting..." ;-)

Maybe, it is not just the Kungfu thing, it is the whole China, Chinese, and exotic country phenomenon that I am dreaming of.

Vietnamese days in Belgium

On the occasion of celebrating VN's Independence day (2nd of September), the embassy of Vn in Belgium has organised (together with the cooperation of Flandre Occidental government-Gent) "Vietnamese days in Belgium" that has lasted for almost one month (the expo is now in Liege). During this time, there are many activities and expo to advertise VN as a travel destination.

Yesterday, they organised an evening traditional music and fashion show in St Michel theater, which for the first time quite organised. The event was for free, and there were around 600 people attended. Most of the artists were professional dancers that graduated from National Dance school and conservatory of VN. In short, it was very nice.

BTW, the girl who is the flyer is a Vnese girl from Gent, and to be honest, all the Vnese here wondered where the hell they found this rather ugly Vnese girl to put on the flyer (as if there were no other Vnese girls who are cute and pretty). I found out she lives in Gent, and apparently some Belgian guys in Gent chose her. When most of the Vnese male students saw the flyer, they went "OMG, where did they find this girl?, she does not look like Vnese", and they tried to convince each other that she is NOT Vnese. Oh well...

Fashion Show

The show was to show the different costumes of many ethnics in VN together with the famous "Ao dai". I actually was very impressed by the colour, which is vivid, warm... and the fabrics (silk) to produce such gracious various "ao dai". "Ao dai" certainly was created for the VNese girls, for most of all, it made the short girls look taller ;-), and although it is simple, but when you play with colour and fabric, it becomes very chic and elegant.

BTW, I like this pant very much.

Dancers...

Dance of Kinh ethnic in VN (most Vnese are Kinh) to celebrate spring, and dance that reflects the Cham statues in Central VN-My Son.

Minh's birth

"Three hours after the hard work of Mama Hao, here I am.

My name is Le Xuan Tuan Minh, my weight is 3110 g, am 48cm tall. I was born at 15.27 on 16 September 2006."

One day old ;-)

Minh's thoughts...."Who is that woman with this flashy thing that bothers my eyes?"

Mommy told me "She is Tatie Thao", "she took a comb to brush my hair, and told me that afterward I would look like a real man!!!"

Papa Tuan is very enthusiastic ;-)

Mama Hao with Minh

Udon with crab paste and tofu soup

Lats Saturday when we were in Antwerp, went to the Chinese supermarket there. It is much bigger than the one in Brussels, and has separate section of Korean and Japanese foods.

I bought a lot of packages of Udon noodle, Kimchee base to make kimchee (normally we don't need this kimchee but just bought it by curiousity) and Korean red pepper paste. Recently, feel like eating Korean foods...

The thing I do when I am stressed...

I know nothing about art, but I just love everything that associates with it, like the artists, a painting that I could guess what the artist wanted to convey, a piece of interesting sculpture, a pretty bouquet, a "beautiful" meal...These things are part of our daily life, and they present the period in the development of human.

When I have time (and of course when the weather is bad), I usually like to go to museums because just a couple of hours surrounding by beautiful (and sometimes hard to understand) will really make my naked eyes open to a different sort of beauty, and don't often take time to appreciate it.

If I could make my choice again, I would be a painter, and the major would be to paint nude live models (okey, I hope that they won't look like those that I post now ;-))

Cradle of Minh

His parents were stunned when they saw it. So, his mom decided that it would be next to her bed ;-).

A day in Antwerp

The original plan was to go there and have dimsum, but we ended up spending the whole day there, we got back to Brussels around mid-night.

Antwerp has so much to offer, especially in foods, lots of trendy places to eat, and the bars are so much nicer than Brussels. It's vivid at day and at night.

Houses in Antwerp ;-)

Chinese dimsum in Antwerpen

Of course, we ordered too much that at the end none could finish the fried sticky rice. Gosh, I miss HongKong, this helped ;-)

Belgium Mussels

They still a bit expensive, these "jumpo mussels since it is the beginning of their season, but they are super big and tasty.

MMM Yummy

The Vietnam we don't want

This http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5301086.stm is exactly what I meant earlier. Only the *ssholes get richer while millions of Vnese are crying out loud.

The last time I came back, there are plenty of new bars, restaurants, foreign investments in hotels, computing, insurance, banks... grow like mushrooms in Saigon (same goes for Hanoi). When you enter a bar, a glass of cognac costs even more expensive than a bar here, but there are guys go there almost every day to talk "biznis", and they drink only cognac or whisky. Going to a movie theater is a luxury entertainment, there are only foreigners who move to VN or travelling or rich Vnese go to see a movie, an average Vnese doesn't have money to go there. So, forget about travelling...

About safety? You can pay a guy a 100 Euro, and ask him to kill someone for you, that "biznis" will be taken care of, only the one who goes to jail won't be the one to whom you pay. You are basically very safe ;-).

So, my brothers, communism, my *ss! It is a network of mafia with cold blood, and they keep on sucking your blood, you children's blood, your grand-children blood, your grand-grand children blood...Can bullets kill ideas?

Mika's health check

I took Mika to an animal clinic for a check up. According to the vet, most male cat in his age starts to have problems with kidney. Mika stayed one night, so the vet could take his urine to examine. Mika indeed has stone (not really stone, they called it "calcul" in French, and apparently the structure looks like sand in kidney, and it could get stuck in the animal's penis, prevent them from urinating, cause infections, and the animal can die very quickly), so now he has to have medicine to melt the stone (it is still at the early stage otherwise they have to operate him), and his foods will only be ordered from the drug-store for the rest of his life. It is funny when the vet asked me if I wanted to put him on diet because he is f*t ;-), otherwise he is a very talkative, and friendly cat. I know Mika is special, sometimes when I talk, I think he understand everything I say (I wonder how he can communicate with the other cats since he basically speaks Vnese ;-))))

Anyway, there should be a sort of insurance since animal also needs to be taken care of, and the medical fee is as expensive as those for human. Talking about that, most of the people I talk to tell me Belgium is the country which has the best medical system, and I can tell this is very true. From the moment you came to the emergency service, there is a team of doctor and nurses take immediate care. When you stay in hospital, there are plenty of machines (btw, the machine that measures our heartbeat looks cool ;-)), and all sort of tubes (those sucks). But that is to explain how good you are well- taken care of here whereas in VN, the moment you enter the hospital, you have to spread money from nurses to doctor, so that your relatives can be treated. Of course, there are better hospitals now in VN, but how many Vnese can affort the cost of medical care in those new hospital with all sort of the equipment like here.

The same as getting pregnant here, the cost is hugh but if you have insurance, and the chance of having your child delivered safely in a natural way is considerably high. After giving birth, you stayed in either a two bed-room or a single bed, and is helped by the nurse. In VN, many women after giving birth have to stay in a room of five to six beds, sometimes in rural, there are two women plus their new born children in one bed. Yeah, that is the thing that many people don't see when they travel in poor countries.

Is it nice to live there? If it is getting better, why do you think there are still people who are happy to pay a lot of money to leave even if their lives might be worse?

Congratulations Negina-Jim

Today is VN's national day, and more important it is one of my very best friends' marriage, Negina. Thanks for the bouquet, Negi ;-)

Weddings always make you (or mostly to girls) feel a little bit emotional, especially when you look at the two people whom you are so sure that their love will last for they have reached the maturity to go through life together, and the union will only make them stronger. I got a bit emotional when I saw Jim (the groom)'s mom held his hands, she did not say much, but she made me feel somehow it was indeed special and important.

It was a small ceremony, they wanted to have only family and witnesses, yet it was memorable. Negina's dress is simple but at the same time very bridal, and she is a "wow-bride" ;-). They chose very nice places for lunch and dinner, we had a great time, it was like a family gathered for a special occasion.

There is nothing greater than looking at two people who are happy because they find each other for the rest of their lives.

Dinner at Belga Queen

Jim and the lobster ;-)

BTW, if you have never been to Belga Queen and is going there for the first time, don't forget to check out the toilet. It belongs to the dining experience of the place, and you will surely enjoy it ;-P. Everybody who walks out from there look happy ;-)

With the bride at "The Company Lunch"

Jim's mom and his uncle

The ones who said "yes" two years ago

So, they said "yes" ;-)