Diary of a cricket

Storms in life

2012-01-31T12:47:00.001+01:00

We have not had any snow so far but the weather is getting colder this week. This morning when I got out of the house, I could immediately feel the freezing cold, the frost that stayed on the top of the car roofs as well as on the very small piece of soil in front of my house made me trembled.

I have been feeling a bit disoriented for the last several weeks, to be exact since the beginning of the year. The bewilderment has pushed me a bit into being sulky. I look for reasons. Maybe that is due to a sleep deprived that I have had, no matter whether I go to bed late or early, I always find my mind awake in the middle of the night or early morning and it starts a life of it owns. It talks and I find myself talking to it for as long as I can until I doze off into a sleep full of strange dreams. Yeah, I am officially losing my mind! I am also experiencing a constant stress due to personal matters like many of us, once in while, when it comes to family and others but recently I feel like I can't no longer take it. It weighs heavily and I feel the need of having an extra shoulder to lean on for a while. Anyway, just another storm to agitate my soul, it will calm and it will pass.

I went to movie and saw "Shame" in the weekend. I am not sure whether I like it or hate it. It is a mixed feeling. I feel sorry for the main character who can't overcome his addiction, to be so lonely even though it seems that he has a successful career or at least that's what the director wants to give a portray of. Otherwise, the French movie, "Intouchable" is an amazing movie, I have not seen a good French movie for a long time, it is pleasant, it warms my heart and give a lot of hope to the future of humanity.

The Dragon

2012-01-25T12:42:00.001+01:00

So, the year of dragon is finally here. Some people have plans to get pregnant this year since they believe it is a good year to have a baby. I have been told that this year is a good year to get married :-), mind you, I did not even ask for the info. The truth is when you are Vietnamese, you should always expect the unexpected in the company of other Vietnamese, especially those who are older. I have got "I have many times wishing you to get married, so I hope this year you will get married" (&*%* #). The best comes from my mom " I hope my daughter will give me a little grand-child this year". What's about mom is wanting to get rid of me rather than wanting a grandchild hic hic hic. D*mn, maybe I am O.L.D (makes me shiver)

One of my friends comes back to Brussels for a visit during the holidays. It was good to see her and it also brought back a lot of memories. It is amazing to realize that many things have happened over the years but the attachment that we have with other people still does not change and I am glad. However, I want to write a separate post for this. Someone told me blogging is such a thing of the past, now, it is a time for Twitter/Facebook...etc, I have never been one who follows the trend, anyway. Writing has always been an effective way for me to let my thoughts flow free. An escape door to a different world.

To come back to my previous post, about friendship, in this one, I would like to mention that I have also made a new male friend. Now, if you are my friends, you would know that I strongly believe in destiny and therefore chance meetings have always been a big interest as I have had only good experiences (Knock wood). I met this new friend on the street, I am not a big fan of being stopped on the street but that day, I stopped (and although I had a little big of regret afterward, I am glad I did stop and followed by a drink some weeks later), turns out I have made a nice friend. Never lose faith or think that people try to get to know you for other purposes than just to make friends.

So, this year of Dragon hopefully will bring me new interesting friends, not that I have lost faith in finding them. Did I mention I am taking tango? it is a nice way to meet people and have fun. I guess I should always look for signs. Like this morning, someone sends me a quote by Abraham Lincoln " You are only as happy ad you make your mind to me".

With that, I wish everyone of us will be happy this year!

Friendship

2012-01-19T17:25:00.001+01:00

I have recently acquainted a new friend. You might have frown and thought 'so what?". I would have done so in the past. The truth is when I first arrived in Belgium and experienced the culture shock, new country, not speaking the language, dark and cold weather, you go home, you stay in instead of calling friends, meeting up to eat street foods...etc. I missed my friends in VN so much, I could still see the days I ran home from school and found a letter in the mailbox, I just closed the entrance, read the letter and re-read and re-read with my tears and wrote a reply immediately. I was lucky enough to find good friends in school here (with whom I still remain friends with and hard to imagine now what would it be to not know them in my life). I remember the night out, the cooking dinner, the getting drunk and hugging the toilet ;-), the being asked for a price ;-).

Anyway, I have always had this excitement whenever I meet a new person with whom I immediately feel so close with. You know, that feeling of connection as if you know that you will get along and be friends forever. I have to say that I have lost feeling a bit over the years. I become much more cautious when I meet someone new, especially when that person appears to be too 'good' or have too many similarities with me. Maybe it is because I am getting older? For whatever the reason is, I do not like this side of my older version :-).

To make the story short, I met this nice Vietnamese girl and although I really like her, I have this feeling like there is something insincere about her, so am unsure to be friend with her. When I want to become friends with someone, I really am a friend, I don't like being diplomatic, a friend is a friend for everything, not only for going out...Again, am I getting old? BTW, did I mention she is a fashion designer? :-) did I mention she quit her job as IT consultant, studied fashion and graduated when she was 32 years? Absolutely, my type of girls :-) and she is Vietnamese, that is like icing on a cake ;-).

In VN, when a male person that is a big older, you usually address that person as " brother XXX" or "Uncle XXX" ...etc but some Vietnamese males here do not like that, they want to be called " brother XXX" when they are 30 years older than I am. Of course, it does not matter the way you address the person since it is rather up to them to decide how much respect they want to have. I usually look at these them as potential 'guys who divorce their Vnese wives for younger Vnese women". Again, am I judgmental?

*** to be continued***

2012- The Dragon

2012-01-18T14:13:00.001+01:00

For some of you, talking about NY now might be a little too late but as you know my NY has not come and because I live in Belgium, I can celebrate NY twice :-). I can pretend the Western NY is not my NY, I am just dragged along celebrating, having fun and when the real NY comes, I celebrate it AGAIN.

Anyway, 2011 wasn't so bad but it was not an exceptional year, a year where you would tell you children "that year, the year 2011 was so exceptional because...". I spent my days staring out in 2011, let thoughts roams in my mind, one thought to another. I thought about where would be my next travel destinations, I thought of new friends I met in 2011, I thought of whether mom is still happy in Belgium, I thought of my haft sister who got married in Oct, I thought of a friend who gave birth to a baby boy, I thought of friends who got married, I thought of what I would like to do...etc. Most of the thinking that happens in my mind contributes to what I would like to live my life. I have those moments where I start doubting whether my life has a meaning. I mean we have a short life on this earth and it would be really nice if at the end of our days, we die knowing that our lives have been meaningful or worth it. I don't know. Am I talking crazy?

I have had problems with sleeping, I go to bed no matter at which hour, I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking. Too much excitements or wanting too much? So, I think 2012, the dragon year might turn out to have big changes for me. I might want to quit job move somewhere or I might take a really long break travelling to really recharge and come back with new ideas and experiences. I don't like that feeling of unbalanced when something is stuck and not in your power to make a leap forward. When I feel unhappy, my mind seems to 'marinate' thoughts in my mind and I let them soaked,absorbed and simmered at lower heat until they turn to the boiling point :-). That is where I need to get them out or I become a crazy person, I usually choose the former.

They say the year where your sign is held, that is you are a dragon in the year of dragon, most likely you will be unlucky (yeah, please bear with me, my superstitious mind is on). When I tell my friends who are dragon, they all chuck and mindfully think, scratch their head to try to remember of those years where it was their sign what had happened to them :-). My consolations probably would be the more you pay attention, you more you feel unlucky :-). Since maybe we are in Belgium, wouldn't it be more appropriate to focus on the astrology here? rather than the Chinese one? :-) Hmm.

I expect to do some travelling this year but I am still having problems looking for a destination. The problem is where do I want to be? in the sun, in the snow, in the sea? warm weather, cold weather? culture or shopping? I only know that the trip should not be long and I want to relax...What's about a local Spa? D*mn it, the indecisive Thao is in charge GRRRRHHHH.

Getting old fabulously :-)

2011-10-06T14:47:00.006+02:00

Yeah, so I have aged one more year. To be honest, there has been several moments this year and especially on my BD where I feel extremely old :-). for instance, when a young girl (may I say that she is 26 years) said " I will organise a party and invite you, there are also other older sisters there" *ok, I almost choked there* but well, I admit the intention was good, she did want me to feel old at her party :-). When my mom was in the company of a baby and turned to me " when are you going to have one of those?", she did make me feel like maybe I am running out of time or eggs soon :-) or when the same young girl suggested that I should get married and when i asked why, she answered " to have baby" ;-).

However, I felt great when I received phone calls from friends living on the different sides of the planet or when certain gentlemen sent me weird BD wishes such as these, the one of Bruce is a special one though because I am indeed a big fan of Bruce :-) and not to count the plenty of BD wishes from friends who I haven't seen/heard for years via facebook :-). They made me smile and laughed.

Apart from that, I still feel the same, still wonderful and fabulous :-). I was taken to a Selecto, a super tasty trendy resto in Rue du Flandre in downtown by a friend, that whole thing made me feel like a little girl again :-). Did I mention I loved their food? and that's not it. My usually celebrate my BD for two weeks hahaha

Blue bells in Hallebos

2011-04-18T20:16:00.002+02:00

Chaos

2011-04-13T13:27:00.003+02:00

It has been a few weeks since Japan's disaster. It is sad to see there are a lot of people losing their home or even family members. I have not seen any country which is organised like Japan and its people have so much self-respect. Only chaos and hardship, the true nature of man will reveal. When I read Shantaram book, I was both amazed by the courage and intelligence of some Indians at the same time, I was horrified by the violence in the country. Maybe this is why some people love it or hate it. It is so beautiful but so ugly, so messy and dirty. I guess only when you grew up in need, you will understand the need of some people. Like in VN, our generations have forgotten war, have forgotten that our parents were starved so we stop making efforts for our lives. That is really a pity. I am sad that some of us can live on being so cruel, abuse the trust of other people. It is like on the table of game, you have played your cards, they have played theirs but either you or the other made the rule. How frustrated that is. When will we wake up?

Challenges in life

2011-03-17T13:01:00.002+01:00

I would like to use this blog to share my reflection of the day and also to remember my grandma since today is my grandma's death anniversary. It has already been a year.

Recently, I have been exposed to many spiritual views of life, and to be honest, I wish that one day I could finally live my life more spiritually, I am working on that at least. One of my loved ones gave me a book called "Mission Success" of Og Madino. I am not usually a big fan on motivational book, I believe each of us has that self motivation or strenghths to get through obtacles in life. However, one thing I agree with Og is that life is a mission, and "every day is life in mininature". The truth is when we start asking questions of how much it worth our freedom, how much it worth our health, how much it worth our hands, feet or our minds, we surely start realising how much we have already got to get through problems. Maybe motivational books are not there to help us but to remind us how we should open my eyes, our souls to the game of life. If we fail to see, we will fail the game and our world will be filled more with greed, with hate, with jealousy that will drag us down.

I have canceled my trip to Turkey, something I was very much looking forward to. No need to tell you how much I disppointed, not because of the money I had spent in advance on flight and hotels but I was disappointed to not being able to see or to do the things I had planned. Even today i still can't hide my disappointment. This morning, I decide to go back to " I will forget yesterday, with all its trials and tribulations, aggravations and setbacks, angers and frustrations. The past is already a dream from which I can neither retrieve a single word nor erase any foolish deeds" to remind myself that I could do nothing to change my past.

Many times in life, we are challenged with difficulties or problems that we think that is beyond our reach. In fact, when one door is closed, there is surely another door opens for us. There are too many bigger problems. If we pray for our problems, aren't we selfish since the problem is too minor compare to for example what the people of Japan are facing right now. Sometimes, there seems to be no light in a dark tunnel, but if we still have that endurance that is given to us, we can continue walking until we see that light.

I have that anger that is within me and for a long time, I tried to suppress it, maybe I should start facing it. Why am I angry? because I want... Yes, what if I no longer 'want' ? that's the point, if I stop wanting, if I stop to desire, then I am freed from that anger of not getting it. So, today, I meditate on that thought, I pray that Buddha gives me the strength to accept and see things in their raw states. I pray on my forgiveness, for to forgive I will be relieved from pain. " I will not waste no even a precious second today in anger or hate or jealousy or selfishness. I know that the seeds I sow I will harvesh, because every action, good or bad is always followed by an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day".

I just like to spend this day thinking of my grandma and to pray that her soul is now with Buddha or that she has stepped into the next circle of the dharma wheel. I would like to nurture her love for us, her strength to protect our family.

I will live generously today.

Spring time

2011-03-04T12:52:00.002+01:00

Today we have beautiful weather, the sun is too bright that it hurts my eyes. Like the trees, people pour out on the street, take in the warmth and the natural light despite the big strike of the unions is all sectors. Their mood is also better, you see them smiling, very rare here because the weather is so often and depressed that people withdraw in themselves.

Spring is here and you can definitely feel it inside you and your surrounding. It is as if you are waking from a long sleep, a strong energy wave goes through your almost immobile body :-). Your body cells get thirsty for stuffs to do...In short, motivation is full in your mind and body. How great that feeling is! Yeah, you guess it right. I have plans and I am running against time :-). What I actually need is to slow down, take a break and start again :-).

A few weeks a go, I went to see Rundskop, a Flemish film which you can literally translated to the Beef's head. It was a harsh movie to watch, picked the wrong time to watch it, so all in all, not a very nice experience even though the movie was great. I had a chance to watch a couple of classic during Tet though like "Roman Holiday", "Casablanca", "General Patton", gosh how I love old movies! They are awesome in music, screen plays, beautiful and talented actresses and actors. How I love the way they express feeling, their kisses, everything was so passionated as if they want to seize the moment with their lover forever. Very romantic indeed.

Anyway, two of best friends are expecting their first babies this year and guess what I start feeling old knowing yougn babies are popping out everywhere :-), I have lost again one travel partner! Seems like you can't always go on living the life you want, of course, you can decide but there are still other factors...I am under a lot of pressure right now, " when do you start thinking of settling down? get married..." and I can feel this pressure having a deep impact on me at the moment. It's the age, I suppose :-). So, you folks can stop introducing, I can well manage my own love life and I am working on it among other things :-).

In the mean time, let me just have a nice drink, eat my gorgeous salad ang get tanned, Da*n IT! :-). At least that is not going to be my only sunny day, in a week, I will be enjoying the sun, the beach, and "cotton" field. It will be my first warmth holiday this year considering the equally enjoyable but freezing NY in January.

Abbreviations

2011-01-07T13:26:00.002+01:00

It is raining here today, the sort of rain that makes you want to stay longer in your PJs with a book and let your body stretch on a comfy couche. I am in no luck, at work and terribly bored.

One of my best friend is getting married in VN, it came so fast that it is impossible for me to arrange a trip for her wedding. Thanks to her great understanding, I am forgiven. It is also after a long time that she wrote me a paper letter and put it together with the wedding invitation. I have always had a thing for paper letter. For me, it is nostalgic, the memory can not fade even though the ink does. Nowadays, hard to find someone who write letters, even the people who use to write beautiful letters stop writing letters, they have settled for e-mails, and worse of all facebook. I am glad that I still have friends who write Xmas cards instead of sending me those electronic versions! So, I guess year 2011 will be the year where I will write letters and limit on emails even though it will take longer time to receive an answer. Wait a minute, I might need to write more in my diary instead if blogging, too? hmm

I finished reading a book about the love affairs between Frank Lloyde Wright and one of his clients a few weeks ago, it made me feel as if I should go on a journey in search for more 'vintage' love :-), where there is no email, only notes, telegrams, letters...The book reminds me how much one should do to stand by their choices, choices that go against all social conventions, choices that celebrate the love of beauty, of being different.

So, if I am not a facebook fan, I am definitely not someone who like chatting abbreviations either. In fact, I do not like using them at all. It gives confusion to people who are not used to the chatting or contantly in a forum discussion (exactly, someone like me). I mean c'mon, when someone writes ATM to you, it can mean many things, "automatic teller machine", 'another time maybe", 'at the money', 'across the miles', 'atmosphere', 'air traffic management', 'at the moment'..etc, it likes you have to use all your brain cells to understand what the other person wants to convey. And I thought the whole point of having languages to communicate smoothly and easily? So, not only people like typing instead of writing, they also prefer typing short! You are supposed to know abbreviations because it's "cool" and because you speak the language that not many people speak, the geek language.

Remember I mentioned perception management previously, I think it is perfect penetrated in fashion and culture, so even the style you select for your own image has been fabricated by a group of influential people. When you think you are going for unique, you are probably not at all unique :-0). Hence, the existence of the generation of chatting abbreviations ;-).

Anyway, other than that, I saw a documentary on South Korea and was amazed. I have been working with South Korean clients for a few months now and to be honest, I think they are very difficult and demanding to work with. However, after I saw the documentary, I understand them more, of why/how they behave or demand that way. They are such hard workers, it is like they were born to work, so they expect the same way of process when they give you business. I mean only people like that can improve continuously without destroying too much. I admire them and I find more pleasure in working with them now.

Until the next post, have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T13:47:00.003+01:00

With Foxy at New Year Eve

I hope you guys and gals had a great new year eve celebration. I am glad to find myself alive after the eve :-). It must have been a few years since I last got completely drunk and had a bad hangover, reminded me how young I still am hehehe.

People say when you get drunk, you should drink water, eat greasy foods or drink more! man, none of that really works, my personal cure would be to just throw up as if your stomach was about to fall out, too (yup, totally nasty).

Anyway, enough said. So, the new year is here and many of friends ask for resolutions, this year I won't share as when things are said, they sort of lose the magic and I therefore not succeed to realise my new year resolutions, not even one :-(.

2011 seems to be a year of changes though, at least for me, some serious, some not but that is a subject for later, it's only the start of the year after all. I am extremely happy for many reasons, one of which is still early but I hope I can update you more on that later on :-0). I promise I will write more this year since there will be a lot to talk about.

Till then, stay tune, darling friends!

Bye Bye 2010

2010-12-27T11:32:00.003+01:00

After a lot of snow and coldness, we actually had a very white Xmas this year, it is not so nice to nagivate around Brussels on foot as the melted snow has really made a mess :-), every where is muddy and wet. We do have a blue sky today though.

I spent a quiet Xmas, mom has cooked meals and done most of the daily chores in the house, so I told mom to take a break during Xmas, I would took care of meals, I missed cooking anyway. So, we had ostriche steak with wild mushroom sauce and chestnut puree as main dish and a small salad for Xmas, very seasonal. Mom does not drink wine though, that really is a pity, so uncle and I finished a very nice Cabernet Savignon bottle, just perfect for the mushroom and game dish.

On 25th, I made lovely couscous as we had a guest. I have made a new friend and well, I was quite amazed of how much this new friend knows about wild animal, his father runs a park in Kenya...yeah, yeah, you might get the picture, we made a deal that he would take me on a safari in Kenya and I would take him to VN, something to look forward to :-0). I still think about how amazing that is that some friends we have made on our journey to life so easily, you meet them and instantly, there is a connection (I am only talking friendship here), some people you meet them again and again and you can't still connect to them. Anyway, meeting this new friend reminds me of something very important that the last few weeks I have forgotten, that is people are meant to meet or things always happen for a reason, so we should not force anything.

I was an emotionally wreck the last two weeks, and I thought man, life is too short to be dragged along someone's journey and be unhappy about things that are not in my hands. That's it! I still have plenty of travels to make or contantly provided with chances to learn and experience new things. So, that is exactly what I hope to do for next year. Time to change, and "yes, I can" :-0)

Anyway, 2010 has been an interesting year for me. Grandma passed away but she was happy, her life was filled with a lot of great experiences, she was a strong lady and I would never forget about how tender and super she was. 2010 has been with happiness (although sometimes not easy :-)) because my mom is here, and of course the leaving and coming back of old and new friends, new fun and great experiences that I had in 2010. All in all, 2010 has been good.

I will write more next week. In the mean time, I wish you a Happy year 2011!

A wreck

2010-12-18T23:12:00.004+01:00

I don't know how to begin this post. I am just writing it because writing on paper diary does not seem to help. Too many thoughts. When I am sitting on the train, looking at the misty windows, out to the complete white scenes, the snow covered on the trees, on the fields, on the houses where the smoke coming out of their chimneys, I thought 'gosh, I have not seen anything anything that is so ordinary but so beautiful at the same time'. This is why even though there is time I despise winter because of the coldness, the lack of sunlights, I also love it somehow.

Things are not great at the moment. I am actually not feeling good at all. I have this constant feeling of stomach sickness, like a very tied knot. I have indeed used many ways and technics to loose the knot but nothing really helps. When the sun goes down, the light goes out, I am again alone with thoughts and tears. It hurts, it burns..and I am feeling helpless. Some wounds can never heal, I guess.

I was able to catch up with some friends earlier this week because the holidays are coming, some of them go away or go home. Holidays is the time where you can write cards to friends, family to tell them how much you love them, how much you are grateful to have them in your life, how great they are...so I was told as well. I am blessed, the good things your friends tell you are the things to keep you moving further in life.

I don't really get why some of us are afraid of getting old. I am feeling better and better when I age. No seriously, imagin how many things you could have avoid knowing them now? to me, the older I get, the older I feel more open to other person's experiences. Five years ago if someone share their work experiences, life experiences, children experiences...I would have said (to myself) "yeah, whatever :-)" but now I would find myself nodding, maybe I don't agree with everything but at least, I don't mind listening. That goes with books, some books I read a few years ago, I have different views about them now. I guess as you grow olders, you surely perceive life differently, maturely and yes, life experiences serve well.

Anyway, already end of the week, next week is Xmas and the week after, we are entering a new year. Time goes by so quickly and it can do so much to you. I hope next week will bring more joy.

Melancholy crisis

2010-11-21T20:04:00.002+01:00

I am a bit helpless at the moment. I feel trapped and there are moments, I feel like there is not enough air for me to breath. I love my mom and uncle definitely, and I would do everything, it is just difficult to share room. I feel guilty at the thought of moving out, having my own place because I know my mom is not in favour of that...I don't know, I am not very pleasant to be around at the moment because I feel like I am stuck. It likes they need to be with me all the time, and all the questions everytime I go out somewhere.

So, not feeling great at the moment. When I am away, I miss them but when I come back, everything happens around me annoy me and I want to go somewhere again. The only place that is still fun is probably at work, where I can forget a bit of the mundane and other troubles that life brings us.

Edinburgh

2010-11-16T20:21:00.004+01:00

I still have not found my most favourite city. So far, I love very much Dublin, Cambrigde. These city made me feel comfortable and good.

Anyway, I did enjoy Edinburgh, this city has great vibe, you can party, have different activities per your moods, small, easy access and beautiful. I just loved walking around the city, from Old to New Town, looking at people from cafe, walking in those great green parks or those scary cimeteries but not the least exciting. Well, I have to admit I have a weakness for those Scotmans and their kilts :-), really cute guys!, hard to not notice or look at them :-).

...and the whiskies, the pies, fish cakes, the haggies (not my favourite though)...yumyum

Grandparents at pagoda

2010-11-16T20:15:00.005+01:00

I have always wanted to bring my grandparents to the pagoda, so recently I organised that. With the busy life we lead here, "metro, boulot, dodo", I thought it would be nicer for my grandparents to be surrounded with the peaceful environment...

I am not good at remember dates, so it would be better for grandparents to be in the pagoda, every day they will hear prayers. I don't know it is hard to explain, of course, when you pass away, you are supposed to be in your next life, and therefore, there isn't a need to give foods but maybe we, those who still live, we are in pain that it is hard for us to let go, so we just try to hold on them the longer the better. The truth is my fear has always been that I will forget them but so far I still remember, I still talk about them to my mom, my uncles, my aunt, my sister...so much memories.

Autumn 2010

2010-10-25T12:32:00.002+02:00

The days are getting shorter, and after a few days staying sick in bed, I have fully recovered and been able to take a walk with my mom.

I brought mom to the small lake near where I live, we brought some old slices of bread to give the birds. My mom really likes that. She gives food and talks to them at the same time like a little girl :-0).

The weather in Belgium has become cooler and cooler every day, the wind and the rain just makes you feel like staying in for a warm cup of hot chocolate and a book. Despite that fact, many people go out, drinking beers, shouting at each other in bars because the music is too loud for us to hear others. In my cases, there has been a lot of my favourite Vnese sweets that mom prepares and tea. I guess winter is almost here. People start gathering inside, the evening is dark but now it is even darker. I am content with the solution to stay in ;-), the thought of having to put on clothes, raincoat discourages me. I did go out though but I was still happy to leave early for my home :-0), to find my usual ritual of reading a book, and listening to the rain hitting on the surface of my windows, hearing my own breathing, talking to my cats in bed or asking mom about her love lives :-).

I have just finished a book of David Baldacci, " The whole Truth", it is about perception management. The concept scares me. In this digital age, where you almost are unable to check whether something is true, everything happens on the internet or the info you read can be so easily manipulated. Maybe this is why I have become so undoubtful about everything. It is like you find yourself in a dilema whether you choose to belive or else you are left apart...I am especially sensitive in truth and honesty. I think it is the foundation of our goodness. Only when we try to hide the truth, we seek to hurt others.

"Love without trust is nothing"

30 years old something woman ;-)

2010-10-12T12:56:00.004+02:00

I celebrated my 32 birthday last week :-). Although there were a lot of friends, on the top of that, my mom is especially here this time, there was still a small note of loneliness.

Certainly adding a number to your age does not change a lot, in the end it is still a number and whether you look young, old, happy, unhappy, it is not because of your age but your mind. In the modern times, people seem to easily be unhappy. I went to see "Eat, pray, love" last weekend, I am a big fan of the book because I think it is intimate, in the way that the author (Elisabeth Gilbert) describes her quest for self and happiness but seeing the movie, I couldn't help but wander on the possibility that the story itself is depressing. We seem to never be satisfied with what we have, there is a job, there is love, there are friends and family but why sometimes we are unhappy? Why do we have to travel to places like India where the way people live would make us all overwhelmed to find peace? When I say the story is depressing, I am looking at everything around it, it is depressing because the we live in comfort but depressed with our lives, what's about other billions of people who live with garbages? and have no time to think about finding peace or fighting emptiness?

Something to think about, I guess. One of my friends told me that the midlife crisis has been moved to 30 years something for women instead of 40 years :-). Is this why I am feeling so confused at this stage of life? It is like you live but not really. Why is that? Then, the scary answer that haunts me maybe I need to get married and build a family :-). Some of us are good at it, others like me, not really. I wonder what hold me back? There have been proposals, good ones, mind you :-) so what is wrong with me? I am so frightened at the thought of having to be with someone and have a family. The truth is I was raised with the idea that men lie a lot, basically at any occasion that they find and well, I was lied to, a few times. So, I guess my fear is the betrayal in a relationship. That one almost turned me crazy!

Anyway, I still think 30 years something is a beautiful age for a woman. More mature in all types of relationship, when you look at everything, everyone around with a complete different view than when you were 20s. Let's see if I changed my mind when I get to 35 years. Well, at least for me, that's my scary age :-0)

The art of entertaining

2010-09-28T15:48:00.003+02:00

I remember when I first arrived in Belgium, I was very amazed with the way that people entertain. Of course, at first, I was quite annoyed at the fact that every time my uncle and his ex-wife had someone over for dinner, Tatie often made a fuss (sorry :-)) about the china, the silver cutlery, the table clothes, the candles, where to sit your guests...etc, and then you got to eat only one dish at the time :-). I thought of VN, every time we invite somebody, we put all the foods on the table, people site where they want, no fuss about the china and least of the cutlery as we use chopsticks :-).

As I live longer in Belgium and begin to understand that everything is like an art here, making food, drinking wines, so of course inviting people is also an art, an art to entertain your guests, I have become fond of this. Well, I am not really into china or cutlery but more about foods and drinks :-).

So, I have now taken a wine tasting course. I used to like world wines a lot, maybe because they taste good and cheaper than the French wines but to my surprises, after several wine lessons, I begin to really love French wines (yeah, the French really know how to make something an art :-)). I have been to Bordeaux, Champagnes and visit several vine yards or champagne houses, and every time, I fall in love with the region for the know how of the people. Everything from the tasting techniques (which is really cool) to how to distinguish the "au nez" and "en bouche". Of course, I know nothing of whether a wine taste like honey or caramel (every time the teacher says that a wine tastes like honey, I just frowned and said "really?, I can't detect the honey smell" :-) thinking maybe I should put my nose into the honey jar in the weekend to really know how honey smells :-). And yes, spitting out eight glasses of very good wines is easier than I thought it would be :-0), I who never refuse a glass of wine hehehe.

Anyway, last weekend I invited an older couple friends (they are 50s something, I know the husband through the chinese lessons in the past) for dinner to also introduce my mom. I was so excited thinking I would have a chance to show off what i had learnt about wines :-). Turned out the lady did not drink any drop of alcohol :-), and I had reserved different sort of wines. In the end, I had to settle for the happiness of being able to speak broken Flemish to her because she only speaks Flemish. That's another thing, I thought I learnt nothing with that language, it seems I just need more practice. Hmm, I really should read more in Flemish.

I hope this coming Sat, my favourite crowd will be luckier with some bottles I chose for them :-0)

A fool

2010-09-25T12:43:00.004+02:00

I am super pissed.

The thing is nowadays if you try to be understandable and nice to people, they think you are stupid. We live in a society where people just take everything for granted, if you step back one step, or give your hands, they want to step over you or try to take your whole arms.

People are so insincere, they can really lie right in your face and no blink in their eyes. How can they do that?

To make things easier and simple, some of us just need to make the choice of letting go so that everybody is happy. No more pain...

..."I bite my lip.
I buy what I'm told:
From the latest hit,
To the wisdom of old.
But I'm always alone.
And my heart is like ice.
And it's crowded and cold
In My Secret Life"

Bird's nest

2010-09-22T16:31:00.002+02:00

My mom arrived here. She is adjusting fine and even though she feels that the weather is a bit cold, she finds it is nice that the street is quieter, every dog that walks on the street is cute...I am glad that so far mom does not feel lonely when we are not home or around her.

While my mom is slowly adjusted, I, on the other hand, have some difficulties to have my mom around. Don't get me wrong, I love her and excited that she is finally here. The thing is I have been living on my own for a long time, I am used to all the space that I have...I used to hug mom or hold her until when I was 18 years old when I was in VN, now it is just a bit awkward to even give her a hug. What drives me nut is that she keeps on saying that she is too old to do anything (she is only 53 years!) and so is afraid of everything and worries about everything. She is also easy to get offended, so whenever i make my points, she is upset.

Maybe I am like a bird, when you grow up and leave the nest, it is difficult to go back? When has things changed? or when have I become more of the person who belongs to an individualism culture and not the collectism society in order words, I become selfish?

I don't want to hurt mom's feelings because I understand that it takes a long time to see the difference, to adapt to a new enviroment. I wish i could put myself in my mom's shoes to understand the way she perceives things. Mom has gone through my age but I have not obviously.

Anyway, things will probably get better, it has only been a week...

About Horses

2010-09-10T15:04:00.003+02:00

Yeah, as the title suggested my mind is in the wandering mode.

No, I am not sure if it is in that mode but at least I know it has been in ecstasy, not the joy ecstasy, I am afraid ;-(, my body was floating in the air with no soul but I feel constantly the intense pain, a kind of pain that is so real that can never be healed. Anyway, that is a subject for another day where the pain might go to sleep...

So, I was thinking about horses, it was because in Xinran's book, a horse suicided (yep, you heard me right) to save two ladies when it approched a cliff in the dark and only felt the danger when it came close...A friend laughed but well, I do think horses can actually sacrifice themselves for their masters. I saw many movies about this when i was younger, some legendary horses. All these great characters, wild, stubborn (ok, not so great), faithful, independent...

Did I say my Chinese astrology sign is a horse :-)?

yeah, silly post, I just wanted to write something to lessen my pain...

Just thoughts

2010-09-03T15:02:00.002+02:00

I finished reading "Nothing to Envy" book, it reminds me so much of Vn during the 80s. FYI, the book is about to North Koreans's lives. Maybe what I like from the book the most was the love between two young persons who finally have gone different ways.

I am now reading ' Sky Burial' of Xin Ran, a very good comtemporary chinese writer, she is the author of "The Good Women of China"...In this book, I enjoy the journey of a newly wife who went on journey to look for her lost husband in Tibet. Maybe the intensity of her love really moves me, I am not sure if we modern women would set a journey to an unknown land, where you don't speak the language, when there is a war and all other dangers that await for us.

Anyway, I should be happy at the moment because my mom will be in about two weeks or so, and I am but sometimes, my mood just sort of swings to the melancholy side for a few hours and I am unable to determine what and why :-). I guess not even that, it actually is an unsatistified and restless feeling.

My feelings are exactly like "Everybody knows" of Leonard Cohen ;-), it is like everything seems calm on the surface but it is like there is a largest storm within me. It is like I am lost and even if there is a clear direction for me to take, I don't want to take it. Can that be possible? I would like to find a deeper explanation of things. Maybe I really have to go on a spiritual journey like "Eat, Love, Pray" :-) or maybe the fact of fighting the zombification process that the society is forcing us. After all, we are living in a processed world. Everything is being processed, foods, pleasure, lifestyles...

I have always amazed on the way people meet, I find it is fascinating that I live in Belgium even though I was born in VN :-). Am I crazy thinking that? It's probably because I always believe in destiny, you meet some people because you have had an appointment since your previous lives. Is that a sign that because I believe in that, most of my very good friends I met them in the most strangest circumtances :-). I love that.

...still feeling restless

Good days...

2010-06-18T15:17:00.003+02:00

Two weeks ago, it was the birthday of Buddha, so I went to the temple to attend the teaching of monks there.

I always find how amazing the monks are to be able to teach us how to live in happiness in such simple words and examples. I really enjoy going to the temple in those rare occasions, every time I sit and chant with the monks and nuns, i feel so good. The feeling is not easy to describe, you feel so light, the burden of your life seems to be removed. I feel like I can really let go of all my weeknesses.

Last weekend and this coming one, I have been able to see many old friends. It has been a long time since I last saw some of them, and I really missed them. We all gave each other real big hugs as if you have been given more strength, like nothing really matter now or nothing can affect you when you are around them. I am blessed to have my friends. Friends you can share your worries, concerns, frustrations, happiness...etc, you can tell them everything without worrying that they might judge you.

Seeing my friends bring back a lot of memories. I realise even though we take pictures to capture the moment, the good moments never really go away. Years have passed and those images stay in my mind and they are still so vivid.

Every each person who has gone through your life always leave their traces, I find that extremely interesting and each time I think of them, I feel so alive.

Love, light and rainbow!

Sex and The City 2

2010-06-04T14:57:00.002+02:00

I was very much looking forward to seeing the second part of Sex and The City (I think most of girls are). I don't know whether I should like it or hate it :-). The movie was bit disappointing because it was a bit too long, and some jokes were a bit weird. But I still likes it because c'mon it's still the "sisterhood" as one might call it, no matter what, and the beautiful hats, shoes..etc. Moreover, it also shows things that all women worry about " lose the sparkles in a relationship", "love children but would be nice to not have them around sometimes", "menopause"...etc. It turns out maybe we should not worry about any of those silly things because things are meant to be, men would not worry about these things (certainly not the menopause, I guess ;-)).

Two of my friends are preparing their wedding and they have to take a premarriage course in a church. Of course, when you hear this, you probably think of a course where a priest explained to you what to do when you decide to have your wedding in a church. Apprently, this is wrong ;-). It is all about workshops where they teach you ways to learn things from your future spouses's past, why some of their actions might have been the result of their past. Interesting, isn't it?

Two weeks ago I had a very nice discussion with a friend, his parents still live together but they lead their own lives. Some of my colleagues also have similar experiences, my friend and m colleagues think that it would have been nicer if their parents divorce than continue to live together. To be honest, I have always think that i would not like to divorce if i was married and had children. I thought my friend thinks like that because now he is all grown up and he will have his family at some points in the near future. However, when you think about it, why try to keep the person who wants to leave? I would try to keep my husband if he also wants the same. Otherwise, I rather give my children a happy home than a home with unpleasant atmosphere. Another friend of mine is separating and man, has he got all the troubles! We do have some crazy persons out there and you only know that once you separate them :-).

Leaving a person that you share a home with for a long time is not easy because the 'living together' has become a habit and nobody likes changes, especially when it comes to the "unknown", I guess only those who go beyond knows the worse or the best ;-).

Love, Light and Rainbows

I am BACK! ;-)

2010-05-31T16:35:00.002+02:00

Sorry to updating a bit later, after holidays, you know how things are, a lot of work, so I only find reasonable time today to write something.

After three weeks of holidays, I was a bit sad to have to come back to Brussels. The journey back to Brussels was so long that at some points it would soon finish.

I had a great time staying in Bangkok. It is a crazy city. We stayed near to Khao San road, the backpacker quarter and well, I am glad we did because in the weekend's evenings, there were several Thai band played some awesome music in the warm weather. We also noticed some weird backpackers who behaved as if they were in paradise :-), drunk, stoned, acting crazy...I had plenty of foot massages :-), manicure and pedicure :-), I had fun talking to the masseuse because she knew some Vnese words, "Vietnamese and Thai look the same, the language is different", she said ;-).

No words can describe the pleasure I had when I shopped in Thailand, especially on the weekend market abit in the outskirt :-). Everywhere I went I bargained, mind you I had no idea of the price but I just liked to bargain because the shop keepers were very nice to talk to. I don't know if it was because of the chanting, praying sound that the temples in BK put on speakers out on the street, Thai people are so relaxed and it made everything around them looked relax, simple even with the political chaos in the country. FYI, I did not once see any red shirts on the streets, probably if I had seem them, I wouldn't be able to write these lines ;-).

Foods and drinks were plentiful and gorgeous, I especially enjoyed fish cakes and some other spicy hot dishes. However, I think the taste is sweet, they put sugar as codiments for you to put in soup..etc.

I also enjoyed my time at home. I was able to visit my grandparents's place where they were born and grew up. It is a silk producing village, my grandparents used to be silk weavers and to be honest, I am very proud of them because they brought this skill to the Saigon where the silk fabrics that they wove were well-known in the big shops in Saigon during the late 50-60s. Now, the main activity in the village is still weaving but they now weave cotton net for fishing or something. Everywhere you go, you hear the sound of the weaving machines. This reminded me of my childhood, we used to have four weaving machines at home (after my grandfather got out of prison, he wanted to rebuild what he had lost) and I had loved sleeping near to those or spent time with the people who worked at home then.

My mom also organised a trip out of Saigon, near to Mekong river, where I had tasted the most amazing, lost foods in the countryside. I will post some photos soon.

In the mean time, there were plenty of nice stuffs happening in Brussels, last weekend, we enjoyed the jazz marathon concerts and this coming weekend, there will be some very well-known chefs who will cook dishes and offer them at reasonable price as well as the horse show Euroferia!

As for me, I am dreaming to Dublin, my next city trip end of this month :-0)

BANGKOK count down ;-)

2010-04-27T11:32:00.002+02:00

Well, only a few hours left before I can sit comfortably in Bangkok sipping coconut juice or running the bloody Silom streets because of the red shirts ;-).

In any cases, possible dangers should not be taken lightly, it is always better to travel with an open mind but still keeping your guard, you never know. I guess that is the true meaning of travelling, it is not about being in the place, taking photos but for me, it has always been about meeting people, places that hold history, the foods-yep, that is important...

I am taking the slow train from Hanoi after Bangkok, first of all because I have to be in the village of my grandparents for a small ceremony and will travel down to Saigon from there. So, stay tune, will update with some fun travel stories here ;-)

I am so excited...

Valerie's concert in Moekroen

2010-04-03T19:04:00.003+02:00

A bit Latin melancholy, soft smoke voice, I was transferred to a new place, somewhere on a dessert, only this music and me...A great way to mourn. Thanks, P.

Balance

2010-04-02T16:15:00.002+02:00

Well, seems like today's word for me is balance.

I have recently lost my balance, I meant balance in mind, body, spirits. When you lose someone you love (I am not sure the work 'Lose" is a good one, maybe let just say when our loved one passed away), you definitely lose your balance, you have been detached, and for some reasons you feel as if your body wanders without your soul. The person you love goes on a journey without you. Your hope is you will see them again someday. I believe that.

My mind keeps playing the image of my grandma's face when she passed. She was smiling. I wonder was she smiling because something is indeed greater on the other world? was she smiling because she saw my grand father again? her friends maybe? or her mom? She called her mom when she had pains. If all these are true, death is a not a sad thing.

Other words for me today is to "choose carefully", seems like indeed this is what I need to do. Making choices has never been easy for me, sometimes I feel like I am just dragged along, unable to cut a string loose. This is what I should do though.

Well, I hope my trip home end of this month will empower my spiritual mind, I plan to spend a week or so in Bangkok to observe, to train my eyes to look for signs :-)

Sad day...

2010-03-29T08:57:00.001+02:00

It is as if the whole universe around me understands what it is like to say good bye to someone you love for a long while. Weather is gloomy, cold and the wind whistles so strong that I thought someone called my name.

My grandma passed away early this morning, 12 years after my grandpa. She had suffered a lot during her last days, so our family was prepared to let her go but I still feel pain. I wonder why it is that every time we are about to not see someone for a long time that we remember them the most.

I remember my grandma's skinny body, her loving smile and the way she told me how beautiful my name is when I asked her why she had chosen ' Thao' as my name. I remember the way she prepared meals for our family, the way she careful chose the ingredients in the market, the way she cooked my grandpa's favourite dishes and bought for us, my sister and I, our favourite desserts. I remember how she took care of my sister and I when were sick or when I was in the hospital. I remember how she told me that ' you are lucky to go to school, I couldn't go to school, education will make a man has respect for you' and then she patiently learnt how to read and write. I remember her courage to protect our home when grandpa was in prison. I remember her going to visit grandpa, always on time, always with the best foods in the house.

I cry and cry each time my mind brings back a memory of her to me but I will see her again, I hope to find my grandma's strength, courage and love in the next coming years of my life... until I will see her again.

Con thuong va mai mai nho ve ba.

Ninja Assassin

2010-03-17T15:13:00.003+01:00

Ok, so I can't help hiding my love for Kung Fu ;-) and martial arts. Then again which Asian does not like kung fu or Bruce Lee (I will paint him soon). I did not like watching boxing or anything but when it comes to kung fu, my eyes just get bigger ;-).

Recently came across Ninja Assassin movie and loved it, the guy who was Raizo in the movie is the Korean actor, Rain (weird)-I, of course watched him in many Korean comedies, thought he was gay ;-). Man, he completely changes in Ninja Assassin, and he acts good!

I love the fighting in the movie even though well, lots of blood and kinda violence but then again, it's NINJA. Reminded me of Kill Bill but this one is so much better!

Anyway, talking about a complete story now, many young children and teenagers are addicted to online games. I have always had a thing against computer games, I think teenagers and children are now exposed to this type of entertainment danger, they know nothing about the pleasure of walking bare feet, climbing trees...like we did. Parents are too "busy" to educate their children and to be honest that is not an excuse for not making time for your children. They compensate their time by spoiling their kids. I have witnessed some Vnese couples who raise their kids and I felt such a disappointment. I don't have kids so, I know I can't say Sh*t about how ones raise their children but serious people just stop educating their kids even in the smallest thing as being polite.

That program which says "Short training-Learn to become a useful person" that they are doing with the young Vnese addicted online gamers should have also been given to adults!

Spiritual Enlighten

2010-02-12T15:34:00.003+01:00

After seeing Avatar a few weeks ago and currently reading " Eat, Pray, Love" book, I feel I have been pretty open to my surroundings (speaking like a true guru ;-)). No seriously, I have had discussions with different persons from different background and the mutual understanding is strong when it comes to how to keep postive energy and calm in spirits.

You may think I have turned crazy or become those idiots who want to have a guru in everything. The true is the concept of guru was misused or because many people had bad experiences with it, it makes us become skeptical when the G-uru word is mentioned ;-). I now think that each of us possesses a set of energy that allows us to interact with everyone, everything around us. When something happens, it is like a sign that a universe sends to us. Is it a sign when I have a thought that I want to be a painter and suddenly whereever I go, I talk to someone who happens to be a painter themselves? It is definitely a sign. The fact that I have that thought, it means I am capable of making my dream come true. I just need to send that message out ;-).

It is a shame that we have grown to appreciate things less now. When it rains, we complain. When it is cold, we complain. When it is hot, we complain. It is as if nothing happens to make us happy. The thing is if we start our days by complaints, we will end up having a serie of bad events happens during the day. Law of attractions? probably is.

I am learning to meditate at the moment. I thought that meditating is about sitting quiet in one spot but you can do that while you walk, or do something else. It's about concentration in order to bring your spirit back to present. The present in all possible meanings, not only time related. My, how difficult that is. Everytime I try to focus, many thoughts just roam inside my head, things like train is late, I have to call this person or that person, I have to remind sister to buy this, or tell mom about this or that ;-). Slowly but surely I am getting there, I guess. I also try to eat less meat or almost none or at least no red meat. Your body certainly feel less tired and heavy and one more thing I always believe is my teeths will not grow longer (if you eat meat, your teeths will grow longer and sharper-this might be a more persuasive reason for people to stop eating meat than telling them that producing meat for their consumption is destroying the environment).

My grandma will pass away soon, I think. I pray that she can go because at the moment, it gives me pain when I know that she suffers.

By the way, you all know about my plan to open a snack for foods. Well, it is done. We opened it a few weeks ago ;-). At the moment, my sister is running it, I am there only evening after work, when I don't have to dutch lessons, and weekends. There are still a lot of work but we are all very excited about that.

More news and pictures of the snack coming when I have a bit more time ;-)

Meanwhile, Happy Tiger year!

ABBA The Show

2010-02-06T19:20:00.000+01:00

After the Clutch (http://www.pro-rock.com/)

stunning concert last year- yes, I did like the music even though I thought it was too loud and that I said I would not go to another one for some time :-). I do live very much the guitar sound, had a lots of fun watching people's movements in a rock concert :-).

Here comes to some of the greatest music of all time, the ABBA :-)

Prague

2010-01-07T11:37:00.005+01:00

Prague is such a beautiful and romantic city even in the blistering cold winter weather. I remember when I was young, when there was nothing else on TV except some very funny Russian cartoon or ballets (don't remember how many times I saw The Swan Lake on TV and how I hated it). From time to time to state spoiled us with some really good TV episodes made in CZ. I was a big fan of a science fiction CZ sitcom, which I can vaguely remember about a girl named Maika came from another planet who could fly. Man, how I loved that Tv serie. I and my sister used to ask my grandfather for permission to go to neighbour's house to watch it because we had no TV at our place.

I was able to see an opera play in the State Opera in Prague, that was a highlight of my trip I must say. I had never been to an opera before but my goodness, it was so impressive, emotional... no words can really describe the feeling that one can transform into their powerful voices. The play was called " La Boheme" of G. Puccini, so the setting was in France but they sang in Italian and you could understand because there is an English subtitles runing above the stade.

A very pleasant city trip...

Happy 2010!

2009-12-30T12:13:00.003+01:00

First of all, let me just wish everybody for a good year 2010 with plenty of love and happiness.

There is, of course, no need for me to say that 2009 went by very quickly as if it was only yesterday.

2010 will be a year where I have to do a couple of trips. My grandma is quite sick at the moment, she has gastric cancer and because of her age, there is nothing more the doctor can do to help. This piece of news came to me as a sad surprise, more as a melancholic shock, my grandma has always been very healthy, she exercises and does Yoga every single day. My mom and her follow a healthy diet. So nobody knows until she complains about a her stomach pain. I think living healthy nowadays is not about to live longer but to survive. No matter what you do due to pollution your metabolism just can't function properly. Aren't we contributing to our own destruction? seems to be a pointless question. In any cases, I hope my grandma does not suffer a lot and I will try to be able to see her as long as I can. In fact, after spending weeks on disgesting the news, I am happy that my grandma is surrounded by family and relatives who love her.

I have a few plans in 2010, which I wish I can start and continue by end of year. One of them is to create a new blog and to write in Vlaams ;-). The thing is that I have been following evening courses but without being able to practice it on a daily basis, it seems I study in vain. Therefore, I determine to take some actions and take the language that I like a bit more seriously. My Vlaams grammar is not so bad but my vocabulary is rather poor and since I like writing, I think it will be a way for me to improve the language.

Happy New Year!

Mina's one year BD

2009-11-15T16:25:00.003+01:00

Tartiflette ;-)

2009-11-08T22:03:00.004+01:00

Apparently the best cheese to make tartiflette with is the Reblochon, so I have asked one of my colleague who is French to bring reblochon cheese for me from France ;-). So here is the seasonal dish apart from the pumpkin soup for Halloween.

Coming up next....

In the mood for FOODS ;-)

2009-11-03T13:21:00.002+01:00

Last week I went to see "Julie and Julia", it was a lovely movie with my favourite actress, Meryl Streep. After the movie, I was so much in the mood for some serious cooking, so I took all my cookbook and read most of recipes ;-). No, not to worry! Of course, I did not only read them, I also plan to cook those dishes, too ;-). Hopefully I will be able to post some mouth watering dishes in the next couple of weeks ;-). I have been so lazy with that lately.

On the top of that, it also happened last week before the movie, I found out a very nice African restaurant while I was just walking down in the area of Saint Boniface to look for foods before going to the movie. They serve buffet on a Friday night and you can find your happiness in many fish dishes (btw, was prepared with dried fishes) and banana plataine.

I am now reading "The Prophecy", the same style of fiction like the Da Vinci code, so if you like Dan Brown's many series of mysterious and historical mixture stories, you will love this book, too. I love it, can's stop reading it!

People watching

2009-10-27T10:18:00.005+01:00

After the "Concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers", a new book "20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth" of Xiaolu Guo is out, this time the book gives a view on youth and modern China society, it's such a pleasure to read and you can easily finish within one day.

One of things I really love doing is to sit in a cafe with friends during the weekend and between conversations I can watch people ;-). Since I am commuting by train to work, from time to time, I can also watch people. Recently I have encountered a very funny young ticket controller, he usually comes to each wagon, and instead of the usual "Bonjour", he said "Coucou" ;-). The first time I heard that I couldn't help smiling and so do others on the train. He is cheerful and full of positive energy. Isn't that great? I mean how many of us come to work happy and show that we take pleasure in what we do?

One of the things I have made an observation is that I do not like teenagers coming on the train with their loud headphones, trousers fall underneath their butts, show their underwears, is this a sign of getting old, I wonder? ;-) Maybe but some of them are rude, and have no manners. I also wonder how I was when I was at their age? Did I behave like that, too? Even though I grow in a different country, I think family education is not much different. As parents, shouldn't they explain to their kids how to behave? Yes, teenagers are at an age to rebel to show that they have become adults, and they imitate the environment around them. It is probably easy for me to say when i do not have kids, but really when it is your own kids, then you have to be even tougher with them so that their future can be easier.

Anyway, that was just my own observation, I am so fed up with everything wrong in this world and small thing makes me upset ;-).

Time seems to fly fast recently. I am currently busy giving help in a preparation of a small wedding of my friends. The bride and groom will cook but they have asked me to cook two dishes for them, apparently I do have two signature dishes (high hope for my own brasserie later ;-))

France_Marseille, and the provence.

2009-10-18T11:33:00.004+02:00

Because I am a fan of "The count of Monte Cristo", the famous of book of Alexandre Dumas, I have alwasy wanted to visit Marseille and taken the boat to Chateau D'IF. One of my small dreams has become true ;-)

Budapest

2009-10-18T11:18:00.004+02:00

This city has a lot to offer, it has many sights to visit, beautiful architecture, and of course many thermal baths.

Hai sắc hoa Tigon_TTKH

2009-08-30T14:37:00.002+02:00

Một mùa Thu trước mỗi hoàng hôn
Nhặt cánh hoa rơi chẳng thấy buồn
Nhuộm ánh nắng tà qua mái tóc
Tôi chờ người đến với yêu đương.

Người ấy thường hay vuốt tóc tôi
Thở dài trong lúc thấy tôi vui
Bảo rằng" Hoa giống như tim vỡ,
Anh sợ tình ta cũng vỡ thôi"

Thuở ấy nào tôi đã hiểu gì
Cánh hoa tan tác của sinh ly
Cho nên cười đáp" Màu hoa trắng,
"Là chút lòng trong chẳng biến suy"

Ðâu biết lần đi một lỡ làng
Dưới trời gian khổ chết yêu đương
Người xa xăm quá tôi buồn lắm
Trong một này vui pháo nhuộm đường

Từ ấy thu rồi thu lại thu
Lòng tôi còn giá đến bao giờ
Chồng tôi vẫn biết tôi thương nhớ
Người ấy cho nên vẫn hững hờ

Tôi vẫn đi bên cạnh cuộc đời
Ái ân lạt lẽo của chồng tôi
Mà từng thu chết từng thu chết
Vẫn giấu trong tim bóng một người

Buồn quá hôm nay xem tiểu thuyết
Thấy ai cũng ví cánh hoa rơi
Nhưng hồng tựa trái tim tan vỡ
Và đỏ như màu máu thắm phai

Tôi nhớ lời người đã bảo tôi
Một mùa thu cũ rất xa xôi
Ðến nay tôi hiểu thì tôi đã
Làm lỡ tình duyên cũ mất rồi

Tôi sợ chiều thu nắng phớt mờ
Chiều thu hoa đỏ rụng chiều thu
Gió về lạnh lẽo chân mây vắng
Người ấy bên sông đứng ngóng đò

Nếu biết rằng tôi đã lấy chồng
Trời ơi ! người ấy có buồn không
Có thầm nghĩ đến loài hoa vỡ
Tựa trái tim phai tựa máu hồng?

(Tiểu thuyết số bảy 30/10/1937-TTKH)

Women at 30s something

2009-07-19T19:05:00.003+02:00

I could feel the changes since I start getting over 30s. No seriously, let's face it. The body starts accumulating subcutaneous fat, so we have to make double or triple to get rid of them without cutting off our favourite foods. Not to mention the skin seems to become more sensitive and requires more sun protection. Ok ok, enough of all the pessimistic attitudes, going over 30s actually makes us feel more assurance, project such confident, and because of that, we look even brighter, our skins is radiant. If there is greater about getting older is probably the mind become clearer with time.

With time, we begin to pay more attention to the books we read, the people we will make friends, the end purpose in life...For me, my life have gotten "richer" with age. Of course, there has been moments that I thought there was no end in the very dark tunnel but the light only appears on the other ends. It is also an age where you get smarter on finding the guy with whom you will share your life (yeah I know I have been a real relationship retard). Once you have been treated unfair, you learned your lessons, and in some cases, like mine, you thought you probably never healed. It's sad. Luckily, at some points, you realise there is not a one person makes for one, but there are several. People with whom you can easily talk to, find common understanding, share common interests, and it is just great.

If there is anything negative about getting older is probably the ability to forgive, and what is more difficult to forgive is that being lied to, and the liar pretends as if it is a normal thing to do, that makes me sick. How many times can you forgive? How many times people deserve a second chance?

Books and conversations

2009-07-18T11:34:00.004+02:00

I just finish reading a book called "Emergency Sex- True stories from a war zone". The book is about stoires of three different peacekeeper working for the UN that are put together. Three different people, different background, different purposes that they look for when they sign up for their missions but their common point has put them together and set them apart. However, the book is good because it has put stories of real people before politics.

I have always admired people who can do more for others. Normal people but with a grant heart. To be honest, with time, you become skeptical on all the NGOs, people who truly put their heart in helping other people are rare, it's like we are running out of heros. For instance, what NGO do in Africa is almost like using the unhappiness or bad luck of other people to advertise their actions and look for more funds. Yes, sounds pessimistic but most of the time that's how it works.

Anyway, I also read a book about clinical trials on alternative treatments such as acupunture, homeopathy, herbal therapy, bloodletting..etc. I have always been a fan of alternative treatments, especially since I start working for the company that I work right now, I am even more skeptical when it comes to doctors, and hopitals...etc. To my surprises, most of these treatments turn out to be nothing than a miracle placebo effects. I was very much into this book since it also gives a good history info on clinical trials, how it was firt started, for which purposes...It's just great.

Other than that, life passing by quickly with dinner with friends, do yoga, go to movies, work hard....

BBQ at work

2009-06-22T16:36:00.003+02:00

La Ducasse de Mons-Doudou 2009

2009-06-17T20:01:00.003+02:00

30.000 people coming to a small town of Belgium, too many got drunks, too many men trying to pull the hair from the dragon tail for luck...It all started on a quiet sunny morning but ended in the rain, and an old building collapsed ;-), but that didn't kill the fun!

2009-06-17T19:43:00.002+02:00

My ever deception in humananity-"Their Darkest Hours"

2009-06-16T21:16:00.007+02:00

I am reading a book on how people were tested in extreme environment, situations such as in war. Someone is nice in a normal environment can be pushed by external influences and forces to be real bad in order to survive. That's why there were many Jewish killed, many chinese women raped and one was eaten (yes, this is true, and only one story was told, imagine!) by Japanese soldiers...But what was worse that there were many betrayals happened in these extreme circumtances, friends sold friends, and nobody can trust nobody, let's not mention about asking for help.

We have tried to do better in some ways, I suppose to not let these horrible things happen again. However, it is in our nature that we are bad, and only under certain circumtances, we can really know ourselves and others. Certainly there are always decent human beings who despite whatever situations they are in, they will do the right things. If not, we wouldn't have any survivors in WWII. We indeed do not need religion to make war but hatred, selfishness, greed and the belief in superior race.

How can you trust if many times you have been betrayed? How will we behave in our darkest hours?

The forest's onion ;-)_Fools onion and Lily of the forest

2009-06-06T13:04:00.006+02:00

Reviews

2009-06-06T12:30:00.004+02:00

Good foods and good music, what's else does we look for in a stay-in evening with friends?

I was under the impression that May was a short month, maybe because there were two long weekends with a lot of activities. Now, am only at the beginning of June and it feels as if I have been bitten by sleepy mosquito or something, I can go to bed at 9pm when the day light is still laying out of my windows, the street lights are not even turned on yet, fall into deep sleep and waking up as if I haven't slept the last night ;-).

May was a month of many interesting meetings, new friends, old friends, each meeting left me a big smile on the face. May was a month of good readings, I have finished three books this month, which I took great pleasure in: "The white Tiger"-if you like the "Slum Dog Millionaire" movie, you would love this book, it gives a deeper insights of India's rich and poor; "The adventures of Sherlock Holmes", My favourite detective book, although I read this book of Conan Doyle in Vnese, reading in English gave greater pleasure, I admire the observation skill of Holmes and the friendship between him and Watson, I just hope the movie they are making will be as good; "The hobbit" made me dream of the land far far away....

May was also a month of good proposals at work, open new door to something grand. I can't wait.

Jun will be not as busy as May, I plan on some long read, have got Alexandre Dumas's great book on my hand-"The count of Monte Cristo", and I think I am going to enjoy the count's good revenges. I also have got some plans for Jun but that will come in later posts.

Friends' visit

2009-06-06T12:25:00.004+02:00

A weekend with full of bad luck adventure stories but not the least fun and interesting ;-)

Looking forward to catching up in VN next year

Stream of thoughts...

2009-05-11T13:22:00.002+02:00

Last Saturday was my grandpa's memorial, he has passed away for almost 10 years now. I forgot about it. I feel a little bit sad that I had forgotten about it and maybe little bit of guilt. I love my grandparents a lot, mostly because I and my sister spent all our childhood with them. In my mind, I still can see my grandpa carried me on his back, running around the house while my sister waited for her turn. I always remember what he taught me when I did something wrong (after punishment of course). My grandpa was tough and severe but at the same so much understanding and loving. I have wondered why a person's existance can be vanished as if he or she had never been existed even though I believe in the life beyond ours.

My grandma is a great woman. She is strong (considering the difficult time she went through when my grandparents lost everything and my grandpa was put into prison) and protective. She used to tell me "it was unfortunate for me that I could not go to school as a girl, but now you girls are lucky to have this chance, please take it seriously". I am very proud of her, she took lessons afterwards at the church near our place to learn how to read and write, then she read the famous book in Vnese literature, "Truyen Kieu" by Nguyen Du. I always find that cool ;-).

I have finished reading two very nice books recently, one calle "A long way gone-Memoirs of a boy soldier" by Ishmael Beah and another one "Remember me"? by my favourite author, Sophie Kinsela. Ishmael is a young writer (he is 28 years) but his way of telling stories is really beautiful and picturesque, it is happy and sad at the same time. In some parts, I thought I was living a part of his memory as if it was mine. I read and hear myself said "hey, that's what I did when I was young, too". Sophie Kinsela was of course the writer of women books, the author of the whole serie "Shopaholic" that recently the first one was made to big the screen. "Remember me?" was especially good because the main character fell in a accident and when she woke up she found out that it was 3 years after :-) but in reality, for other people, she was only in a coma for 5 days, she suffers amnesia ;-), fo course many things changes...etc. It's interesting to wake up one day and realise that you don't remember anything that occured 3 years in the past ;-).

I am looking forward to a friend's visit this weekend. Normally, it was planned last weekend but she couldn't find the flight ticket, so it will be this one. Of course, due to this change, I had to cancel my participation to a kajak trip ;-(, I really hope that we could organise it in Jun again. As the result of all this changing plans, I have become "the one who is difficult when it comes to scheduling" and the crown was passed to me. Damn it! I have to work on passing it to someone else! or maybe passing it back ;-)

The famous Meridian line in Greenwich

2009-05-05T21:25:00.001+02:00

London

2009-05-05T21:15:00.002+02:00

As mentioned earlier, we set out for London last weekend. Since it was a long weekend (1st of May is a bank holiday in Belgium), we left around 6pm after work and headed to Calais to get the ferry to Dover, and then drove all the way to Peterborough. We arrived at Peterborough quite late, had some dinner, went to bed. The next day, took a coach to London (about 2h).

London is such a nice city, a lot of parks, where you can sit or lay down enjoying the sun (luckily we had very good weather). With the weak pound, it does not seem to be as expensive as people describe earlier. Unfortunately, we did not spend a lot of time to shop ;-(, I would have loved to check out some shoes and dresses there. They look really nice behind the shops' windows. I think I have to have to London trip dedicated for shopping! London is of course big, plus there are plenty of things to see and to do, so two days and one night was really not enough. I would have loved to go to a comedy musical such as The Phantom of the Opera, that I liked so much...will be for next time I guess.

We, fortunately decided to go to Greenwich, which was very interesting. I wonder where were all those genius in our time go?

An invitation

2009-04-29T10:29:00.002+02:00

As I am a maniac when it comes to planning and time management, I really do not like last minute invitations of any sorts, I would rather stay home and spend a quiet time to read unless the invitation comes from good friends and my baby sister whom I don't often due to her working schedule.

When I was scratching my head yesterday trying to fight boredom, a friend texted me "caught some fishes, wanna come over for dinner?", I couldn't help but smiling at that text, such a sweet and original invitation for dinner, I thought. It reminded me of friendliness and gave me this very warmth feeling which I can't describe. The invitation is casual but when it comes for the very first time, it shows a willingness to want to be friends. Home is a place of privacy and no matter what, when people open their home for the very first time to welcome us for dinner, it is like part of their privacy is shared with us. I used to entertain and love having friends over more in the past even people whom I first meet. Over time, you learn that there are not many real friends in life, and those who stand by you when you need them are those you want to keep forever. It is sad to lose the faith, I will work on that in the next couple of months.

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague told me that it was strange to see how the people who live in Brussels entertain themselves as compare to Paris or London where there are more foreigners who go there and enjoy. My answer was that most of the people who live in Brussels are not Belgians, most of them are foreigners. When you are a foreigner living far away from your home, you always seek friends in the new place, it happens that Brussels is full of foreigners, so it brings the understanding between many foreigners closer. Moreover, after a couple of year living here, befriend with Belgians, the conclusion is that it is not easy to be invited to a Belgian's home. That does not mean Belgians are not nice and friendly people, it is just a culture thing, also the fact that this is their country, their home where their family and friends are here, they have no need to seek new friends ;-) like we do.

So, when my friend, who happens to be Belgian texted me this invitation, I really do appreciate because for me it is a very kind gesture even though maybe it has little meaning for him.

I am going to London for the coming long weekend, which starts tomorrow ;-) for the first time. Unlike the previous Milan trip, I am pretty much excited. I still remember many English lessons in the text book we had in VN, we had one about the River Thames after the first lessons when the character Mary and Peter say "Hello, how are you? what's your name?, how do you do?..." ;-). It was well describe the activities along the river, and I wished that I had been there.

Some dreams come true, I suppose ;-).

A pose ;-)

2009-04-18T20:01:00.001+02:00

Milan Architectures

2009-04-18T19:50:00.004+02:00

In Milano

2009-04-18T19:27:00.004+02:00

One of the very good point to be in Belgium is that you can be in another country in a couple of hours. It is very easy to just jump on a budget plane, after at least 2h you can already sip a summer drink in a nice terrace with the sun shines on your face.

So, Milano it was this time, left on Friday evening and back on Easter Monday evening. Milano? A lot of fashionable people walking around the city with their sun glasses. It is almost impossible to find someone not to wear them ;-), they wear them even when the sun is not around. The city is famous for shopping and it deserves all for that reputation. If you are in Duormo where all of the famous Italian designer shops and others are there. They even have a Armani bar and a Gucci Cafe which were super to check out. The architecture is of course very Meditarian style with the outside facade in yellow color with cute small balcony (reminded so much of the Romeo and Julliette movie). The most of all that I got to see the real "The last super" painting of Da Vinci. I have no words to describe my feeling now, only the sensation that my breath was taken away in front of such genius work. It is amazing how in the past there were so much great masters were born.

Anyway, it was nice to get a city trip escaping Brussels once in a while, seeing different city people. Italians are super out going, always ready to offer help even before you ask them, and of course there is no need to mention their readiness in engaging conversation with anybody. I have to say Italian as a langague is too sensual and sexy ;-).

Thai New Year & Muy Thai

2009-04-18T19:22:00.004+02:00

Indian dinner

2009-04-18T19:19:00.001+02:00

Cats

2009-03-27T16:30:00.005+01:00

Friday morning I woke up and saw Mika tried to pee but was unable to. Of course completely panic, we called the vet. Fortunately, she was about to leave to her clinic, so she asked us to bring Mika in.

He finally had his operation, we picked him up after work. I could not hold my tears when I saw him, there was blood everywhere, and I didn't dare to look at the wound. He is now getting better (I hope so), still looks very tired since he still has to take pain killers and antibiotics but he starts eating slowly (that's a good sign for a gourmand cat).

Yoda is very much curious with the plastic thing Mika is wearing to avoid him from leaking his wound ;-). He sits and stares at Mika from far distance with his very suspicious eyes every time Mika moves around.

Pictures coming up...

When things go wrong...

2009-03-16T13:05:00.003+01:00

We have had some sun during the last couple of weeks as spring slowly comes to our doors. Some of the plants on my little terrace burst with new flower buds as the temperature rises. It gives a pleasant feeling. On all that super optimistic notes, there is however a little sadness. My Mika is gonna have an operation. His health problems over the years have been mainly the sand that blocks his urine vessel and therefore results in greater pain when he pees. Recently the vet made a diagnosis that suggested that it would be better for him to have his penis cut in order to enlarge the vessel (literally speaking he will pee like a female cat) as compare to enter a tube and clean it every time he can't pee. Poor baby. Every time I look at his face, I couldn't help to feel sad and sorry for him, wouldn't be nice to lose a part of your body.

Anyway, it has turned into one of those rare moments that I start questioning my life and what I would have liked it to be. I notice that I have changed when it comes to different relations. I have become less demanding when it comes to friends, I rather accept them the way they are instead of expecting them to behave the way I behave towards them. With family? well, I am trying to be the person my grandparents, mom aunts, uncles would have liked me to be (admit that sometimes it is really hard). You would have asked why living up to the standards that other peole set? I suppose because most of the time these are the right standards/rules/traditions. You can change many things but not who you are. One of my friends has a Vietnamese friend who is dating an Indian guy. Indians rarely except a wedding of family member to a foreigner. So, the poor couple who live here and want to take the next logic step: getting married but the Indian guy's family seems to not willing to accept. Hmm, if it was me, I would rather tell the boyfriend to choose to be either modern-to go out with somebody who is not from the same culture and assume the choice or be traditional and marry someone from the same culture. Man, it's all about being assertive and show that "this is my choice, I know you are family, so either be part of it or let me live my life".

I remember when my uncle got married to his ex-wife, nobody in the family was awared until the later some of neighbour who met him here told our family that his wife was a foreigner ;-). Now I think about it, my grandparents are really cool, modern old folks. They are open-minded because they have so much love for their children. They would accept my mom got married when she finishes her highschool (when she should have got into university). Then again, it was time of war, many things did not go the way they wanted, otherwise my mom would have to enter university like they expected me to or that I was not allow to date even when I was already at the first year of university ;-). When I was 16 years, I rode my bike to a friend's house who lives near to us to chit chat with her about this guy that I liked ;-), and my grandfather got so upset when I got back after 10pm ;-) (I was supposed to be home before 9pm). From the first crush until the first love at 20 years, they were pretty much romantic and sweet ;-). I went to sleep thinking about them, the short conversation we had when we met on the way, my awkwardness when I saw them or the embarrassment when one of them said "wow, you are really tall" when I got off my bike as they followed me to school (me on my bicycle in the white Vietnamese long dress). I remember telling my mom that, she laughed real hard. I remember writing many love letters and keeping them under my bed until my mom found out ;-).

Love was much more innocent, beautiful and sweet. Love to me, in our modern lives has become more selfish, less assured, more doubts, hesitations where everyone thinks what best for them as opposed to what best for those they love. Have I lost faith in love? Maybe or am I just looking for a little bit more of romance? ;-)

One of those best moments...

2009-02-26T12:48:00.004+01:00

New post after some short postings from Vancouver ;-)

The days stay brighter and the temperature is also going up now that we are slowly entering spring, I even had the impression that I was late for work this morning. Spring, the season where new lives begin, flowers start to bloom, animals get out of their winter shefters, and the birds are much more excited, so they produce a much more optimistic songs.

Anyway, things have been good so far for me, was able to take some holidays, able to see my aunt who I had not seen for two years. Work is going well, healthwise is probably excellent. I have also been able to catch up with some good friends, always feel good to be in the right companies. Conversations could go from a very banal thing to some very exciting subject like foreign aids in VN.

One of my acquaintances (soon to be friend ;-) is working for an agency that haft sponsored by the Belgian government and is responsible for the development of third world countries. So, there are a few projects going on, something like infra-structure, and anti-corruption project in VN. The Belgian government is pouring money to help VN basically. So, I was asking what is catch behind for those so called "aid" because to be honest when a developed country talks about helping a developing country, it is most fo the time because the benefits that they can get out of it. Look at what US is doing to India, those pharmaceutical companies are polutting the life of Indian people. So, the answer was "this is a typical Vnese question, nothing, we just want to have good concious when we go to sleep". Sound nice, my friend, and I believe him because he is a kind, someone who has a good heart, and care for others (I think). However, I still explain my skepticism about this even though Belgium is a small country...I do think that if VN is truly being helped, I am sure the help is very much appreciated! We seem to work well when we are in present of foreigners, the true always hurts, sadly.

I am also reading the Selfish Capitalist, and apparently, English speaking countries are suffering from what is called Affluenza, a virus that causes emotional distress because we rather care for minor wealth instead of our own well-being. Here goes, it is said out loud! Be careful that we don't get it! the good news is that there are remedies, and we know it.

Leading an environmental friendly life? Look like many of us do care for our planet, and our generation seems to have many ideas to save the already harmed Earth. One young French couple cultivate the earth worms so that they can eat the household food wastages in an appartment they share with other singles (to save electricity and water). The idea seems appealing, so I have been looking for books to explain how to keep these worms and have them as pets! Those lazy cats only eat and sleep, at least the worms are every efficient ;-).

So much for ideas in my head, I also have been dreaming about far away places, where there are wild horses runnning free, where there are potatoes in all forms, where the people are smiling and happy after a day of hard work, where caring and sharing between people is a habit, where there is me, the wind, and the moon...

In Science World_Vancouver

2009-01-26T23:22:00.001+01:00

Chuc Mung Nam Moi ;-)

2009-01-26T23:05:00.003+01:00

The Ox year is here. (Re. picture with di Oanh va Trang)

Last Sat we went to a party in downtown Vancouver, there were about 600 Vnese there. I even met my neighbour in VN who moved to Vancouver 20 years ago. We had a lot of fun (and a lot of foods). The next day I even received my red envelop with lucky money, and wishes like "wishing you next year to find your love or finding a husband..." ;-) (yeah yeah, that's right, you got the picture ;-))

We continue eating during the next couple of days, too. Since the Vnese community is big here, most of the things we do during Tet were kept. Things like going to pagoda at mid night of the last day of the old year, making offers to the ancestors, and the gods, eating rice cakes...and it's even greater if we have a big family around us, then everybody meets, talk, and have fun. I miss that.

Anyway, at the end note, I would like to wish everyone a good Ox year, may the trouble of last year go away, but happiness and prosperity!

China town and Sun Yat Sen garden

2009-01-21T15:00:00.002+01:00

Gastown

2009-01-21T14:58:00.002+01:00

Small update from Vancouver

2009-01-19T15:36:00.003+01:00

After three years of none real travels, I have welcomed 2009 with my first trip to North America, destination Vancouver. As said, haven't been travelled for some time, I was strangly a bit nervous about the trip, felt a bit dizzy before getting my flight from Brussels to Amsterdam. However, after that things just got a bit better and I found my travel enjoyment quickly when I was on the plane from Amsterdam to Vancouver. I didn't know how much I missed the feeling lifted when a plane taking off, it was like your whole body (and I felt that even from my guts) was suddenly lifted in the air.

From the plane, I could see the beautiful Canadian rockies covered in snow. Vancouver is beautiful, it is still wild and green. On Saturday, I went to visit the Aquarium Vancouver, I was very much impressed, it is huge. There are more than 9000 types of fishes, sharks, sea otters, sealions...etc. The Aquarium locates in Stanley Park, a huge forest park that you can walk along the seaside or into the wild. Yesterday, went to see the suspended bridge that links the Capilano canyon, owned by George Mackey. The view is great and pretty romantic ;-). On the way back, we dropped by Gastown to see the steam clock that weighs about 2 tons.

Next post will be with my first snowboard adventures!

2009

2009-01-07T16:12:00.002+01:00

After several weeks of continuous heavy eating, we are suffering the blistering cold of winter. Brussels (or Belgium) has not been under this kind of cold air (it was -17 celcius yesterday) in a long time.

My train gets late almost every day at the moment, and there is no bus taking me from the station to the company, so I walk. It is much better to walk than waiting for a bus that probably won't come although at the time when I arrive to my company, I can no longer feel my toes ;-). Anyway, we have to admit that it is nice to finally have a normal winter.

On the other note, we are now in 2009, and as most of experts have forecasted, this year will be a difficult year because we are plunging into a deep financial crisis, recession. So, those of us who are having a job should be pleased, and be content to stick around until the situation gets better (don't expect it to be end of this year, it may last until end of 2010). If we manage to still have a job, it already means good. In those time, it will be better to plan some savings (yeah, always easy to say but always difficult to do ;-)).

Enough with the pessimistic view, let's talk about books, movies, foods,...;-). I am reading a book called "The Great Tranfomation" at the moment, it is about compassion and empathy work best in time like the one we are in now, the Axial time...it is not only about history but about how doing good and bad has led the world into where we are today. I also bought a couple of more books, going to Canada for two weeks, and I plan to read a lot during those vacation time apart from sightseeing and keeping myself being killed on the snowboard slope ;-).

Other than that, I also went to the Buddha Smile exhibition in Bozar, Brussels. It is an exposition on Korean Buddhism, the metal arts in Korea, and was very much impressed of Korean's precision in artworks.

On the art note, I wish everyone a Happy 2009!

A piece of thought

2008-12-26T15:14:00.003+01:00

A belated Merry Xmas to everyone!

I can't help telling myself that time goes fast. I can still remember what I did last year on Xmas Eve, and there I was again preparing foods, cleaning, decorating the Xmas tree, buying presents, non-stop eating from one house to another...yeah yeah the stressful task ;-), and it looks like this tendency will last until New Year day.

Here I am at work, being busy with chatting with collegues on internet (I know, what's the point? ;-)), browsing to read news, writing emails...but mind you, I did finish most of the boring work that I would prefer to let them the way they were done.

Anyway, Xmas is now gone, and we are preparing to welcome another year to come. 2008 has been an exciting year for me especially (everyone who knew what I have gone through, would know how I felt last year) and most of my close friends, one of them seems to find someone to love and be loved, one is getting married, one is gonna have another baby, three of them found jobs that they like, have moved, and will move, one had a baby, one is gonna buy an appartment...It is good to see one's friends' lives evolve in an optimistic pattern, and that they are happy. "Happiness is contagious", therefore I myself am feeling very happy. My friends say that we should make plans when we are happy, so I have "mentally" done a sort of "Insight my life" report, a list of places I want to visit and that I would prefer not to miss out during the next course of my life, things I want to pursue next year (and hopefully carry them to the finish line), and of course some serious thoughts of personal romantic life (yeah, that seems neccessary when you are a 30 years Vnese woman ;-)).

As the result of that, I have plenty of thoughts that are roaming inside my brain, life is full of surprises and it is even more wonderful when there are plenty options for us to choose, only whether we are capable of making the right choice. More to live, my friend!

Snow

2008-11-23T10:38:00.003+01:00

It snowed a lot in Brussels yesterday. Although winter is the most depressive season of the whole year as we see the sun less, and we leave work when it's pitch dark, but every year I wait for the first snow. I notice it usually comes later but this year it comes earlier than last year. I love the feeling walking under the snow, and just around the corner, there would be some musicians playing music, the smell of fresh coffee being poured out the coffee maker, the people sitting around wooden tables with their afternoon coffee/tea and cookies carrying what seems like a fun and interesting conversation or just simply taking a rest after their shoppings, the air that brushes my face is chill but pleasant. It gives a happy feeling. Anyway, we are now almost end of November and the end of year feasts keep on coming one after the other.

Beginning of this year for me was not great, but the other haft has been so far great. Projects that have not been able to carried out this year will hopefully be worked out next year-my own business for example?, and there will be a couple of travels to do, which of course, makes me quite happy.

In two weeks I guess, Brussels will start its annual Xmas market like many places in Europe, they offer almost every year the same thing but it's also an annual thing to meet with friends over hot wines, fat foods ;-) and look at the decoration in the Grand Place.

Talking about foods, recently I have been eating out quite often, and I came across a restaurant that is run by the whole family, mother, father, and two sons. Their philosophy is to offer slow food, a term that I have heard quite often lately. Slow foods, foods are cooked as they should be cooked, and the nice things about that resto is the warm, family atmosphere. People sit next to each other, looking at the other people dishes, smiling, talking about the economic crisis (should we?), what will happen next?, where the next trip will be? It's all so great! Or the African resto that runs by a big African mama (believe me you can put a glass on her butt and it will stand still, she knows it, and makes fun about it herself), I like her a lot. Her place is pretty small, what she offers is a dish per day, and the way she talks about how she makes a dish give us the envy to eat (although her chilly sauce could make your tongue completely numb) just before the dish is actually served with rice or plantain banana accompanied with a smoothie of ginger, orange, pineapple...

Why go to heaven when there are several ones on Earth? ;-)

Turkey day comes early ;-)

2008-11-16T19:45:00.004+01:00

Thanksgiving day chez Ben, and we were all as stuffed as the turkey itself ;-). I am very impressed, Ben can definitely cook and he does that really well! (of course, that with a certain lady's help ;-))

New kid on the block ;-)

2008-11-16T19:44:00.002+01:00

Welcome miss Mina Pauline!

Party foods

2008-11-16T19:42:00.001+01:00

Halloween foods ;-)

2008-11-16T19:37:00.003+01:00

Flemish rabit with beer and prune

Home made pop corn for the scary movie nite ;-)

News

2008-11-14T11:09:00.003+01:00

After two short city trips, I have started my full time job ;-), so things have been a little bit crazy because there are new things to learn, new colleagues, new place...Also, I have to adjust to a new time schedule: waking up at 6am on blistering mornings like those we have today, prepare lunch (since there is not many food options around the conpany, apart from the sandwishes), and then leave the house at 7am or so to catch a train....It has been two weeks like this so far, and I don't seem to see it as an issue because I quite like the new company.

Anyway, I have been looking around for tickets to visit my aunt in Vancouver, and there are some good deals, which I am quite happy. Thanks go to those who travel and provide me with good websites ;-). I will be visiting my aunt for two weeks in January, and if I have time, I might learn to snowboard for the first time in my 30 years of life ;-). In short, many things to get excited about ;-).

I also ordered and bought a couple of interesting books to keep me busy with the time I spend on the train 5 days a week. I am now reading a book entitled "The reluctant fundamentalist", which is super beautiful written, and informative.

What's else? Oh yeah, I will also have the first time, Turkey day (thankgivings), typical American holidays ;-), one of things you like to have friends from another country, background, culture is that you will get to know about their holidays and how they celebrate them. Like end of last month, the Diwali holidays of Indian, never heard of it until my friends and neighbours gave me some sweets, apparently it is like Xmas in India ;-). Well, all that will follow with plenty of end of year activities.

Oh Wo(man), I am gonna be beezee ;-)!

Amsterdam

2008-10-24T09:16:00.003+02:00

Since my sister had never been there, and we had never been somewhere together, we decided to spend a weekend in Amsterdam. It was a long time for me, too. For some reasons, the recently city trips, I enjoyed much more and had more fun.

We did a couple of museums visits like the Rijkmuseum (although we were quite disappointed not to see the diamond head) and saw the "Nightwatch" of Rembrant and "The Girl with the Pearl earing" of Vermeer, most of the collections there are really dark arts, a bit depressive otherwise. Afterwards, we went around, window shoppings, I have to say that the people in Amsterdam really make effort in dressing up. Here, in Belgium, sometimes, you go out and you see people wearing night gowns on the streets, I mean it is too casual that sometimes you forget to dress up when you go out, and I think it is always better to overdress than underdress. In the evening, my sister and I went to eat Indonesian rijstafel, and set to visit the sex museum. The sex museum? yeah, it is very informative, and of course, most of the men who visited pretending very focused ;-). We were a bit shocked in some parts but had a lot of fun.

The next day, I wanted to see Anne Frank Huis, how could I escape that? especially when I have heard so much about her diary (I am reading it at the moment). Also I want my sister to know these things. I am reading the Anne Frank's diary, and I think every one of us could eventually find some parts of our teenage years in it. The upset and frustation that parents don't understand us, the questions about sex, boys, girls, the opinions about the surrounding...etc. But I don't think we could think as deep as she was. Maybe because she was living in the war, had to hide, and the constant fear of being discovered, taken away to concentrations camps...It made us feel a bit sad, especially me, always being so sensitive about things happen around. How can we understand the dream of being free, running in daylight, playing with your friends if we can do that easily?

I and my baby sister decided to change the mood, so we went to Madame Taussaud, which is silly, but well, it is a fun thing to do. So, sister got a picture with Brad Pitt though she was complaining why there must be Angelina Jolie so close ;-), having pictures with the Dalai Lama, Robbie Williams, the new James Bond ;-). They looked very real those wax figures!

We ended our trip in China town, had a heavy cheap lunch there!

Well, today I decide to organise a party at my place, it has been a long time since all my friends last gather, catch up...I want to do that before starting my full time job, I can sense that I am going to be very busy, and that is very nice for a super nervous person like me!

In LOVE city ;-)

2008-10-15T09:15:00.005+02:00

Don't know how to start this new post but at least I have a tremendous motivation to write today ;-). I guess it is because I just came back from the city of light, Paris.

When I was in VN, I loved listening to Vanessa Paradis even though I couldn't understand any of the words she sang but French is such a beautiful language that none can resist, and I completely understand that French people are so proud of their language. Some of the old artists (poets, compositors, singers....) of Vietnam who studied in France also got most of their songs/poems written from the beauty of Paris. Recently, I read a romance that described its beauty, so of all reasons, I decided to visit Paris for four days!

Luckily, the weather was warm and sunny. I have been to Paris four times, but I really fall in love with it in this last visit. The air, the fast pace of the metropolitans, from the elegant quartier to the crowded, cheap, diry ones, Paris is packed with theaters and artists. I arrived in Monmartre on Friday morning, climbed the stairs to the top, sat down with the other toursists and listen to a street singers singing old songs in English, together with his cousin performing with a ball (whom he called the "Zidane of Senegal" ;-)). Afterwards, strolling slowly to the small streets at the bottom, looking at people selling stuffs, exchanging conversations, and went to a cafe, enjoying pancakes ;-). Then, came two bikers, they got off from the bikes, took off the protection hats, looking gorgeous with a big smile, looking at me (who was at the time looking serious at the map to figure out where to go next), then came forward asking "Mademoiselle, vous avez l'air perdue, vous allez ou?". It's so French that I accepted a drink from them later, and enjoyed our conversation in French ;-) (realised my French was pretty good ;-))

After that, I walked down to Moulin Rouge, going around, and then took the metro to go to the 13rd district where I can find my people ;-), and waited to meet up with friends. Yes, I can't escape going to Porte d'Italie where I can eat and talk Vietnamese as if I was in Vietnam, my minimum treat and cure from homesick! There you can be rude, even the French who live in that quartier are rude! It's a rule ;-). You make noise when you eat, talking and chewing, drinking cafe glace au lait a la vietnamien while eating a big bowl of PHO, I could not finish my PHO, btw. You can listen to Vietnamese on the street, reading the banners in Vietnamese...It's super cool!

Of course, the whole time I was there was mostly visiting one place to another, the last day I was even late to catch my bus because I spent time in a cafe ;-), obviously didn't want to go back. Everything is so great and beautiful in Paris, plenty of things to do and see, the public transportation is convenient, the draw back is that it's not so clean. but it is always like that when it come to big, crowded cities, I guess.

Happy Birthday to me! ;-)

2008-10-05T14:58:00.001+02:00

Well, now I am officially 30 years ;-)

Lazy fat boys ;-)

2008-09-30T14:53:00.000+02:00

Flower carpet and puppet theatre in Brussels

2008-09-29T14:44:00.000+02:00

Update

2008-09-28T13:30:00.004+02:00

I think I am in a transforming time ;-), I have been thinking about many options of what I am gonna do with my life because I can't live like this anymore. It is as if I am floating through time ;-). I guess I can say that I am adventurous in the sense that I continue being curious about everything around me, sometimes the smallest thing can catch my attention and stay in my brain for a long time. When things go slow and mundane, I get bored, so even though many night outs, many continuous activities can create a lot of exhaustion but it is still excited.

Anyway, this week has been one of these exhausted week, I can hardly stop to have a breath. My friends said it was because I had been under stress for such a long time that because my body had been fighting against that, now when almost everything is solved, time to pay back ;-). One of my friends even said that he doesn't understand why I always "have to", "My god, Thao, take some time and rest, you don't really have to..." ;-).

What did I do? Went to puppet theater, took the train to go hiking outside of Brussels, invited to a Japanese dinner where I was stuffed with foods ;-)...etc. Having said that I have a super good time, hanging out with Japanese gang. Reminded me how much I really like these people and their country.

Looking forward to the next weeks, but here comes some images!

Parents and children

2008-09-19T12:34:00.004+02:00

Waking up with the sun beams straight to your face is one of luxury that I have long forgotten. I remember when I was small, my grandfather used to wake me and my sister up very early, even in weekends when we had no school, he said that "girls should not sleep late because we can't harly finish anything if haft of the day is gone, and no husbands want to marry a girl who sleeps late", I don't know whether it is the first or the later reason that I have rarely been able to stay in bed until noon unless I am wasted and very lazy ;-). My grandfather doesn't know today we are allowed to sleep late for any reasons: go out late with friends, too many drinks, watched movies late, talking until late...but at least as an adult, we always have to manage dragging our lazy butts with our eyes haft closed haft opened, bumping our heads somewhere because it's still dark to prepare for work.

Not long ago I watched a movie with John Travolta (forget the name as usual), and it was about how babies think about the people they see, the surrounding when they are first born, and not able to talk. The open line was something like being in your mom's belly is the experience that we can't never undo, and your mom's belly is the only place you try to get out once but unable to get in for the rest of our lives. Recently when I visited one of my best friends in the hospital, I have been told about all the anecdotes about pregnancy (yeah, women like to talk about all things!), from how future father already decides to spend his life on hating his unknown and future 0 age's son in law ;-), from hearing the heart beats of unborn baby, very fast and constant, almost like a sound of a horse galloping through a field, to a terrible howling sound of other women in the delivering room (yeah, this last one makes me doubt whether I ever want to be pregnant).

Anyway, I won't continue talking about baby because it is still an unknown universe to me, big responsibilities and challenges ;-). A few months ago, when my mom talked about how much she was proud with me and my sister (okey, not like we have elected into big positions or won awards or else), it was more like how we have become as a human beings, I asked my mom if she ever had regrets of being pregnant with us at an age that she could have discovered other things instead of being stuck with us. She told me she had always been happy, and never regretted anything in her life. Wow, I guess that a mom's love, no love can compare to that. In VN, we have a saying, something like tears always drop downwards, just to explain that moms always give and sacrify everything to their children but children can't never give that much of a love back.

I guess I have been lucky to be born in an exceptional family. There are too much love, understanding and support from everybody, and the notion of what right and wrong is well-defined. If I was to be born again in the next life, I would really liked to be my mom's daughter.

A typical weekend..

2008-09-15T13:52:00.003+02:00

After an unrested weekend, I now find myself sitting, looking at the clear, blue sky outside the windows, wondering what my future would be like, having in hands a book entitled "The meaning of the 21 century" James Martin, thinking of the possiblities of travelling in the next couple of years ;-).

I mingled in the crowd in a flea market ;-) in Flagey on Sat to see if I could find anything interesting. In Belgium, every now and then, usually in summer when the weather is nice and warm (although rarely happens), each townhall organises a sort of market, festival like that one, where you can buy and sell stuffs that you no longer use or that you want to find some things which are still in good shape at cheaper price. Sometimes, you would really find your happiness in other people's junks. This market in Flagey had been interrupted for the last 5 years since they started to renovate the Flagey square until recently work there finished. Anyway, I did find some nice stuffs, but I was not able to stay long because soon the rain came, people started to pick their stuffs up, the market was soon empty as if it had never been there. This kind of vintage market is something I am going to miss a lot if I move away from Belgium. It is like hearing music playing on the street whereever you go, like the smell of waffles invading the subway, like the sudden rain on the sunny day...little things like those characterize much the country where you are in. Somehow it is poetic and beautiful imaginary sceneries. Maybe I am just one of those character in a romance written by someone ;-).

I also went to see my first puppet theater. It was my first time ever to be in a theater atmosphere in Belgium (okey, of course, puppet theater is much different from the real national theater) but still I could feel and understand the litterature and history behind the scenes, I could see how much work that the artists put into their character (and that also works with woods, they do have souls). I enjoyed it so much. You learned so much from this sort of play. And certainly, it is nice to catch up with friends after going to a show, drinking good beers, talking about the character, the regions, the history...

Lately, it seems like I have been busy with cultural events. I feel like I don't have time to stop and breath (mind you, I don't complain, on the contrary). So, a one day hiking trip into the nature was what I needed. So, we set up, took the train, five of us to Rivage, small village from Liege, did a 20km walk ;-), wandering to the field, looking at the cows, listening to the birds, the whistling sound of the wind, and sometimes the barking sound of dogs from far away houses.

And it seems like activities just keep on coming...

Oh! Happy days

2008-08-27T12:08:00.002+02:00

After several months of frustrations, stress, what I have been waiting has finally arrived. That is to say we should never give up (I almost did, but I would not in the future).

Yesterday I received the big news, which really made my day, and I still can't imagin how easy it became. Finally, I can plan on my big trips, of course, first need to work on the budget, but it won't be a big problem. I am so happy! My 30s BD will be a big one, and I hope I will celebrate in the place that I have been dreaming to be. The place I want to see before I die ;-).

Nothing could stop me now, I feel like I could move mountains, cross river, even that won't make me tired. And I am going to take my first swimming lesson next week, which of course open more doors to new discovery (the water world ;-)).

OMG, can I be happier? ;-). Anyone up for a big bear hug? anyone? anyone at all? ;-)

"Source Thermal d'Akitsu"

2008-08-18T16:18:00.002+02:00

If you have been the one who read my blog often, you would have noticed how much I complained and felt disappointed about the world we are living today. I just realised that not only me, not only now but through the "lettres" of Katherine Manfields (around 1918-), she also was disappointed about her world, about the period when she lived in. It is just incredible to see how precise her words were to describe people. I wish I could write like her. I don't know why but it is like I really know her through her letters. Again, the paper letters really have a big impact on people, not like emails eventhough I have always been careful on what I write in them (emails).

Somehow I become a bit poetic ;-). But that does not stop me from being sad when I saw millions of Ethiopians died of hunger, or children who have no foods to eat, and when I looked at their fragile bodies, I was sure that a breeze of wind could carry them far. Feeling these horrible sadness make you stronger, they have a power to make your problems small, and help you to stop complaining or arguing about silly things because somewhere else problems are bigger, and worse nobody cares!

Anyway, I feel much love in me today ;-), and if carrying a carton board around my neck with one of those "free hugs" written on it does not make me look ridiculous, I would definitely do it!. Yesterday, I went to see an old Japanese movie, "La source Thermale d'Akitsu", it was about a very melancholic love story. The movie was slow but it was cute and was made beautifully. I was happy when it finished because it was slow and sad. The girl died at the end, she killed her herself when she realised that she fell in love with the wrong guy, a guy who came to her for a few days, and then left her for years eventhough she was the one who saved his life...So much for love, I guess.

Nowadays, how many of girls and women fall for the wrong guys before they actually meet someone decent or worse of all, some of them never meet the right guy. One of my friends (and this coming from a guy who also looks for real love from a woman, and most men will surely agree ;-)) that "women are always attracted by the bad guys, if we treat them good, they do not show appreciation but if we show them we don't want them, they run after us". Well, something like that.

Why that is, I wonder.

Letters

2008-08-11T14:09:00.003+02:00

I think I could say that I am a fan of paper-letters. I guess at the digital age, we rarely find people who still use this old method of communicating. I still do from time to time.

I used to write paper letters more often because when I arrived in Belgium years ago, we still did not have internet at home, so I had to wait for almost a month to receive a reply from my friends or my mom from VN. I could recall clearly the feeling every time I came home from school to see a blue red stripes envelop, and on it there was several bamboo picture stamps ;-). I sat down next to the entrance door, tore it out and read my letter several times before dragging my slow, heavy feet, and my home sick heart up to the stairs to my room. I usually replied right away.

Now, my cousine who just joined Canada with my aunt, couldn't experience that. Everytime she chatted with my uncle, so with her, the experience of living far away from home is not the same thing, and of course less home sick, too.

I am reading a book in French (something I rarely do compare to the past), and it is a book of letters ;-) written in beautiful French. Letters from a wife to her husband and her friends. I love the beautiful phrases she described her surrounding, it is so romantic, sad, but at the same time so details and real. The emotion, her feelings are described in a way that you can not only feel her pain but her optimistism. The language she used to write to her husband, although it sounds very polite and distant, but it says all. Most books nowadays are written in such simple languages, easy to understand, sometimes there is even vulgarity, the language just loses its core. And that worths both for English and French.

"Ma chambre est bien chaude. J'ai un petit brin de feu, et les flammes dansent sur les buches sans se decider a les attaquer...Voici un train qui passe. Maintenant tout est de nouveau silencieux, a l'exception de ma montre." Katherine Mansfield

Isn't that beautiful? Now imagine you are listening to Edith Piaf's "La vie en rose" or "Je ne regret de rien" with something old you wrote on papers (diaries, letters...), memory comes back, and well "without memory we have no soul". Yes, I know this is my mid-life crisis ;-)

Brunch at Pain Quotidien

2008-07-29T01:16:00.001+02:00

About space cake ;-)

2008-07-29T00:41:00.002+02:00

I thought I would write something about my experience of "space cake" since it was quite special ;-).

Most of my close friends heard the funny story that I told them about "space cake", but well, here it goes again ;-). Before I visited Amsterdam for the first time, most of my friends had recommended me to try "space cake" ;-), the first time I heard about it, I thought I didn't get the name right, "space cake"?, and then found out that the name had spoken for itself-"cakes that sends you straight to space, stoned in other words", but my friends only explained what it was, but didn't tell me where to find them in Amsterdam ;-). So, destination Amsterdam ;-), me hunting for the famous local speciality cake ;-), after strolling on the streets of Amsterdam, I was happy to see a bakery on the way back to the train station, so I went straight in, and one of the ladies who were there for a "space cake" (thinking to bring it back to Brussels to share with my friends), I still can remember clearly that all of them were looking at me as if I was coming from an outerspace ;-), rolling their eyes, narrowing their eyebrowes, and told me very shortly "we don't have space cakes here!". I went out of the bakery shop, felt a bit confusing and disappointed ;-). Of course, later I know that it was made with drugs...

Anyway, I told this story to some of my friends who know me well, and every time it gives them a big laugh, but noone has tempted to bring back a piece for me until two weekends ago ;-). One of my friends went to Holland, and he brought back what he called a mysterious surprise ;-) (curiousity kills the cat-you might advise ;-), and of course, he didn't say that it was from Holland. My friends tricked me into eating it, and because they know me, and they told me that "I made it, try it, and let's me know so I can improve". Well, it tasted it dry and old ;-), but I was being polite, so I skipped the old part, I said "yeah, it tasted ok, but a bit dry". Only when I finish the cup cake look alike ;-), they said "Thao, you just had "space cake"".

The result was rather nasty. I didn't feel anything at first, and because we were in Gent for the Gent Fiest, we had only bad foods, and beers, I felt happier and happier (which was very good), but then they proposed to go on a ride (one of those that turns you upside down from very high above)...yeah, now you probably get the picture. I threw up twice that day, and stayed in the bed the whole next day, feeling so stoned and dizzy ;-). The only thing I remembered was that every time they asked me after the ride, I continued saying "No, not so good" whilst at the begining I said " I feel very happy" ;-).

Well, they promise that we will try again "sapce cake" without the ride part, but I really doubt that hehehehe

Yassa Chicken recipe_Chicken with lemon

2008-07-09T09:46:00.005+02:00

Since a super chef (and those of you who sent me emails to ask) dropped by and asked for its recipe, I decided to put the recipe on a separated post. The recipe was in French, so I hope my translation will help ;-). Here to all amateurs (but not least in quality cooking) chefs. Enjoy your cooking!

I have got the original recipe for 8 persons. So, it is up to you to divide the ingredients.

2 chickens about 1,5kg each
lime zest
1 glass of lime juice
10-12 medium onions
peanut oil
thym (3 branches)
bay leaves (about 2)
chilly confit
salt and pepper

Cut the chickens in order to obtain 7 pieces. Marinate the chickens in the lime juice for 2 hours, turn them from time to time to make sure that each of them is well absorbed.

Take the chicken pieces out, but keep the marinated sauce. Grill them on charcoal bbq, watch out so that they are not burned. During this time, slice the onions.

In a sauce pan that contains peanut oil, braise the oinions until they turn slightly golden, put salt and pepper according to your taste, add thym, bay leaves, the rest of the marinated sauce and the lime zest. Then, put the chicken pieces on the top of the oinions. On small fire, let it simmer without covering the pan for 15 mins.

Then serve the chicken yassa in an ovale dish (later with white rice or plantain bananas)

Translated from Les merveilles de La cuisine Africain

Poulet Yassa ;-)

2008-07-02T16:18:00.006+02:00

It is one of the famous African dish, lemon chicken, that I recently get my hands on.

It was easier to prepare and it went very well with rice, fried plantain bananas, and it is abso-ducking-lutely delicious if you serve that with a simple fresh tomatoes, cucumber, red sweet onion, balsamic vinaigrette salad ;-). All that with a glass of rose, the trendy wine that people now have the tendency to consume (although I only like its colour, not the taste). Connaisseurs do not drink rose, so said ;-) because their prices are actually expensive than what they actually are! (demand/supply theory works here)

Smakelijk eten, everyone!

Visit from Australia ;-)

2008-07-02T16:16:00.003+02:00

Cris and one of her lifetime love, Tristan ;-)

Couleur Cafe and Ommegang 2008

2008-07-02T14:33:00.004+02:00

I don't think I will go back to Couleur Cafe at least for the next couple of years. The ticket price has gotten ridiculously expensive, 39Eur (okey, if you got to see Jimmy Cliff, Zuccero..etc) but still, I think it is too much for what it really is, considering the global slow down of economy. Moreover, this year, most of the concerts were hip hop types (nothing against that, mind you) but several hours with the same tune, the same shouting (and not singing) just too much! Of course, I can't ignore some good bands like The Sahara Blues, whose music sent me straight to the Sahara with the nomads.

And the foods were nothing exceptional to mention here, apart from some Tibetan tents with real tibetans selling teas ;-), I can hardly remember how many cups of Tchad tea that I drank. One of my new friends told me that when you trek in the Himalaya, you drink Tchad a lot. It is a tea made with black tea, milk, and cardamon. It tastes good but if you drink a lot, it becomes quite heavy.

Anyway, we left Couleur cafe accompanied with Zuccero's sound of guitar and voice, feeling happy to spend a Sunday with music, meeting exotic people, having interesting conversation that enrich our knowledges...although slightly disappointed with most of the concerts.

Ommegang (omme: around; gang:to go), an old Dutch word that means "to go around"...well, that was what the commentor explained about the festival. Of course, I can guess since I have been taking Dutch classes (om: around, gang: the way) unless I have completely burnt out ;-). Anyway, this festival has been organised every year since 1971 to mark the event that Charles Quint and his successor-son, Philip visit Brussels. On that day, they also took the Virgin statue in Sablon and walk around with it (hence, the name). There are 1400 people (actors, actresses, history connaisseurs...)participate in this festival that last 3 days, wearing beautiful, and well made customs. There are also free concerts, but the most interesting is the knights fighting on horses ;-). Anyway, if you are in Brussels, go to see this today and tomorrow, very nice. If you have time, and are lucky enough (like myself ;-)), you will be able to learn many thing with the people who are interested in history, they will tell you lots of things about the Middle Age, and Renaissance period.

Enough said. Here are some pictures.

I am back! ;-)

2008-06-24T17:53:00.002+02:00

So much has happened since the last post, but mostly the good things, so I have nothing to complain ;-).

One of my really best friends is expecting a baby in November, and because how much difficult they have gone through to finally have their wish, I pray every day to my grandfather (apart from many other things I am praying to ask of him ;-)) that he protects the baby, even the mommy admits she becomes a bit paranoid now with the pregnancy ;-).

Soon it will be my dad's death rememberance, the truth is I didn't know it until recently I was chatting with my haft sister, I was asking about my dad, question like how he was with her, conclusion was that although I was not a big fan of my dad, she and my haft brother were. One of my friends advised me that I should not look for the past because sometimes it doesn't help much or even bring more trouble to the people of the present time. Maybe he is right, and since I have been trying to live without asking to many questions about the past, I am actually very happy.

I don't know whether because I am becoming 30 years old or else, I have changed even more during the course of the past months. Maybe when your life was in a mess in many ways, you would try to find yourself, your own ways...Although I have not succeeded the most part of this task, I am so happy of where I am now. I think about the concept of "friend" differently, I choose my friends carefully (in this aspect, I usually have no problems since until now I have mostly good friends) but I mean like the way I become a friend with a new person has changed, and the process takes longer or like in the past I would have anybody I find nice over to my place for a dinner but now it does not work that way. It might be a shame or that I will miss to know someone better, but for now it seems like it works at its best. When the "friend" concept changes, serious things like "boyfriend", "relationship" surely changes, too. A lot. I guess maybe during the 30 first years, I personally learnt much through falling down, and when you fall, you learn the best lesson of all. Anyway, it is like I have become the whole new person, become vigilant and build a protection net around me.

So much for all the changes. I also met with my friend who moved all the way to Australia and her baby after one year, another friend moved to Holland with the new job, and another one is getting married next year ;-). Seem like we all move to the next stage, become responsible-hopefully not boring and grumpy (yeah, no wiseness come without big responsibility), and me I am aiming for even a bigger change ;-), working on it at least, so wait and see!

More posts will come during the next months. Until then, stay tune, y'all! ;-)

Of everything and nothing

2008-04-01T11:27:00.003+02:00

Time for a real post ;-). The weatherman forecasted the weather would be cloudy, rainy...but the sky of Brussels, at the moment, seems to be at rest, one blue sky, the sun is shining through thin layers of white cloud that passes by from time to time. The temperature is quite pleasant, about 14 Celcius, not so cold, not so warm...

I have been occupied with some great activities. Two weeks ago, I went with my Chinese class for dinner, and learnt to make jiaozi with a chinese chef ;-). It was great because we got to practice our chinese, talked about many things else than the usual lesson. Everyone was very happy. It was the same week that my painting teacher, Quentin Smolders has a vernissage of his works. To be honest, I was very excited to see his works since he has ever worked in the workshop, and I found myself surprised when I finally saw his paintings. They were extremely beautiful and unsual. His works were a combination of unreality, cubism, and the use of colour was amazing. Other than scholar activities, I visited Liege, I mean a real sightseeing trip ;-). So, I did 500 steps climbing to the top of the Liegoise memorial statues, worked around the city. My sightseeing trip ended in the Hoegaarden village, about haft way between Brussels and Liege, where they make the famous white beer. Of course, no escape for a tour, the visit was interactive and informative, costed 6Eur with a free Hoegaarden beer and a Hoegaarden beer glass.

While I was busy with some normal, fun activities (and worried about my papers' problems), the world continues to be in turmoil. Problems happened in Tibet are those that remind me how lucky I am to live in Europe. Certainly, there are problems everywhere, but if we sit down and consider the seriousness of each problem, our problems are the least to be mentioned or whined about. Should we protest against the Chinese? Will our protest make a different? Why bother?If Tibet win their freedom, will they be able to manage themselves? Endless silly questions, in my opinions. For me, it is as simple, if we protest, things might change or might not, but if we don't, surely NOTHING will change! The naked and cruel truth is when you are a small, poor, unimportant country, nobody is gonna be on your side. While you need those big, moral Western countries for their support, they turn your back to you for they themselves don't want to lose a big part of their pie. China is a big country, big population, that means big pie, who don't want a part of it?

Yeah, China and Vietnam, like many my friends say, are developing, the economy is booming. Booming, my *ss! It is booming in an unbalance way, the rich gets richer, the poor falls to the bottom. Why do you think many chineses, vietnameses want to live in a foreign country or put their pride at stake for the sake of obtaining a work permit in Europe? Foreigners like us always face embarrassed situations but it is not at bad at our own governments treat us. That's the sadness of all. We have no country!

Greek nite ;-)

2008-03-29T16:41:00.003+01:00

New artworks

2008-03-29T16:17:00.002+01:00

Pailhe 2008

2008-03-29T15:45:00.002+01:00

We all know the effect of global warming on seasons, but it has been just weirder and weirder in Belgium. Last week we had the first heavy snow of the year, in fact since the start of this winter, we had not had much snow or even not at all in Brussels. The timing is also quite off because we are normally entering spring...Anyway, nobody complained about this, on the contrary, we all were quite happy.

So, despite the cold, the wet weather, we planned to go out of Brussels to find thick layers of snow ;-). With that super motivation and the love of snow ;-), we were blessed with a great weather, sunny and warm instead of what had been forecasted by the weatherman.

Here is a small summary of our journey. The next one is gonna be in Hainaut region.

Stories...

2008-02-21T23:15:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I finally found "Touching the Void" DVD, it was one of the movie that was not available on big screen a few years ago when it came out. Although, the movie relates to accident in climbing, mountaineering and companionship/partnership, I think it is more than that. Having read the book some time ago, but watching the movie was even more moving. Many mountaineer people probably focus on the fact that one cut the robe when your partner was hanging on the other end to save your own life, but me, when I read and watched the movie, I actually think how lucky the "unlucky" guy was for having to push himself through hardship, it is just amazing how his personality faced the challenge of nature, how he completed a more than "mission impossible", how he lived when he knew that he would die. I would have loved to be able to know how far I could go to fight for survival.

Another movie that made me think a lot recently was "The Kite runner". The book was super, and I was quite happy that Marc Foster didn't change the story. While watching it, I wondered how many stories like those or worse have actually been told? because in order to tell a story, you have to live it, and stay a live to tell it or at the very least your story is written down, so your children can tell it. But even if it is written down, and is told by your children, will it still be the same without much adding and taking away the parts that they don't want people know? Yeah, we don't often realise or remember how much stories matter or that they can change people's lives. It has been a long time since I read and saw a story about loyalty in friendship, in what is considered good, and the things we should not cowardly do.

People are too selfish and greedy nowadays to take these things into consideration when they make a decision. Greed kills our soul, the things we believe in should not harm another being.

And you, do you have a story to tell?

Happy Rat Year!

2008-02-11T19:23:00.000+01:00

After welcoming the western New Year, we Vnese again celebrated our Tet. Of course, in VN, the event was celebrated seriously and funnier. Family members gathered, many came back from foreign land to wish each other many best wishes, beautiful words. Tet is also an occasion to eat many tradition Tet dishes that during the year people might not have time to make them. Many dishes of Tet are made to last at least three days because during these three days, no shops will open, we will just eat and play cards. On the first day of the year, people will go to the pagode to pray for a good year to come, to thank for the stable year that past, to remember those who passed away.

Anyway, Tet for me was much more in the past than now. My family used to make tradition sticky rice cake called banh chung, a Northern tradition rectangular cake (the Southern version is rounded) that is filled with mung beans and marinated pork, then boiled for at least 10h. Because the measure of the cake is about 20x20cm, and each family make more than 10, we used to cook in a big container over night. The fun part of waiting for Tet is to stay awake to watch the banh chung. We often finish wrapping around 6h in the evening, then start boiling them shortly after. Everyone, mostly men gather, play guitar, singing, playing cards while the night sweeps in unnoticed with the slight chill air of spring. I used to not allowed to be around, must be bed ;-(. This year, some friends had an idea to make this cake ourselves instead of buying, so they set up to prepare ingredients for 10 cakes, and off we go. The result was quite satisfied, I will post picture soon. I also made thit kho, ca kho, dua muoi, gio lua, gio bo...yeah, nostalgy comes out of me ;-).

I also went to pagoda to pray and listen to monk's teaching. One of the nice thing to expect when going to the pagoda is to have a great monk teaches and explains symbols in Buddhism. This year we learn about maitreya (friendship, benevolent), Happy Buddha. In VN, we worship HIM as a big fat stomach buddha sitting with 5 or 6 children on his shoulder, knees...His statue is always made with a big smile. That smile symbolises for true happiness, a real smile. We have different type of smiles, every time we smile, people can read how we feel like, smile even when we are sad...His stomach is big (mind you, not because he is drinking too much beer or anything ;-)) because he wants to take all our sadness, worries, angers...to himself, so we can be happy, and smile like he does. That is to explain that we have to share problems with our peers, husbands, wives, friends, and we have to take time to think for ourselves instead of getting involved deeply in mundane things like 8h for work, 8h for sleep...even when we are tired, we should take care of our souls, release stress, worries...so that we can smile a real happy smile. The five children represents the 5 or 6 weaknesses that we human usually are lured into: money, power, sex...

Well, so much for Tet. I would like to wish everyone a good Earth Rat year. Apparently, I am a Earth Horse, but my element is fire ;-). Anyway, chuc mung nam moi!