The wonderful design of Carrefour

Familiar? It should be. It's the Carrefour logo. But do you know what it represents? It's not just two shapes...it's a C in a diamond!

I found out about this through a Facebook group...but the group is only open to those in the France network, and since I don't want to join country networks (they're too big, so it's kinda pointless) I can't join the group.

Did you know about the logo? And if you did, how did you find out? Let me know in the comments...

I love puns!

And these are great! (from the Star)

1. I wondered why the cricket ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

2. Police were called to a day-care centre where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

3. Did you hear about the man whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.

4. The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.

5. To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

6. When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

7. A thief who stole a calendar got 12 months.

8. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet concrete. He became a hardened criminal.

9. Thieves who steal flowers from a garden could be charged with stalking.

10. We’ll never run out of maths teachers because they always multiply.

11. The professor discovered that her theory about earthquakes was on shaky ground.

12. The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

13. If you take a laptop computer for a run, you could jog your memory.

14. A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.

Impossible pairs

I admit it, I stole the title :P You can check out the article here.

There are some things we just forget...for example, The word “collision” is defined as an accident involving two or more moving objects, usually vehicles.
So we can't say “Six teenagers were seriously injured in a horrific smash last night, when their car collided with a huge gum tree on Quakers Road in Marayong in Sydney’s far west.” I've heard that before, but I had forgotten it...

And did you know that the correct expressions are either centre ON, or CIRCLE/REVOLVE around? (and not centre around)

The best one is this: “The audience’s response to the superstar tenor’s performance was so thunderous, their applause literally brought the house down.”
(Ouch!) Now this one I didn't forget; literally is a dangerous word and musn't be used unless if you really know how to! If you don't know what it means, you'd better look it up, 'cos that sentence pretty much describes a(n impossible) catastrophe!

*gasp* Remus Lupin!

Italian archaeologists believe they have found the cave where, according to legend, a wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome.
[...]
Experts say they are "reasonably certain" it is the long-lost place of worship sacred to ancient Romans and known as Lupercale, from the Latin word for wolf.

From The Star.

(I'm talking about Harry Potter, for those who don't read it...)

Cold!

Okay, I was going to write this quickly on Thursday, but I forgot.

It snowed on Thursday. Only a little, but it was snow. And we had our class photo taken that day...outside!

And today it was -2°C when I went out at 10.30am! Thankfully the sun was out, so it didn’t feel that cold.

Smart...

Spiral staircases in medieval castles ran clockwise so that
attacking knights climbing the stairs couldn't use their
right hands -their sword hands- while the defending knights
coming down could.

I've also heard that the origin of driving on the left side of the road came from right-handed swordsmen; they could then use their right hand to shake hands with friends or fight with enemies they come across.

Is it a "culture" thing?

Note: This post is half rant, half musing.

I don’t get it. When I see someone I know, I look at them and either smile or wave, depending on how well I know them. It’s just a “politeness” thing, something to say hey, I know you. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never talked before, if we’re in the same class, that’s enough! Is it a Malaysian thing? In Malaysia there was only one person who acted like I didn’t exist (just looked through me like I wasn’t there) and frankly, I didn’t think much of that person (the term stuck-up comes to mind) But in France, I find it very very weird. Some people do say hi and all, but some just act like they’ve never seen me before. The weirdest yet is this: there’s this guy who’s in an activity group with me, and during that activity he comes up (he actually takes the time to walk over to us) to say hi, but whenever I see him anywhere else, he acts like we’re complete strangers. (lately he does acknowledge me sometimes) There are really a whole lot of people who are in my class (or lectures) who always act that way. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but if I see someone who’s always in the same lecture hall as I am, I would at least acknowledge him/her. Even if I see someone from INSA when I’m outside INSA, I would acknowledge them!

As a result, I don't acknowledge much people any more, seeing as no one else seems to... the other day I almost didn't acknowledge a guy who's doing sport with me (he was just behind me as we were going out of my department building to go to the tennis courts, and I caught a glimpse of him while going through the door) But then something clicked in my mind: hey it's not like I've known him very long (we'd just started classes a few weeks earlier), ignoring him would be getting off on a wrong footing, and it would be doing exactly what I'm condemning! So I did turn around and wait a bit for him...and I'm glad I did. 'Cos he's in my class and pretty close to another friend of mine, and that means I see him quite often. And if I had ignored him...I think I'd feel pretty awkward...

[Edit: I just thought of something...if I hadn't turned around...would he have caught up with me? If I had been behind instead of in front of him, would I have caught up with him? Or would I have felt "safe" ignoring him, since he wouldn't even know? I wonder...]

And a few days ago there was a little incident...I didn't really have time to muse over it 'cos I've been a little busy, but now it's given me something to think about! I was going to my department in INSA when I saw a friend of mine (who was in my class last year, but is now in a different department) waiting outside a lecture hall just beside my department. I usually pass quite far from the lecture hall, but when I saw him there, I decided to go over and say hi, since we hardly see each other now. He seemed surprised that I had walked up to the lecture hall, 'cos I didn't have class there, so I told him that I had walked over after seeing him there. And his reply? "Oh, that's nice." (c'est gentil) Thinking it over, I feel that it's a pity...it probably means that he wouldn't have done that himself. Whereas to me, I feel that it's the most natural thing in the world...when you see a friend and you have a little time, you walk over to say hi! I wonder whether it's a French mentality...anyone like to tell me what they'd have done in my place?

Seats in a train

I had almost forgotten about this photo.


I was in the train (to Grenoble), so to not attract attention, I took this photo with my phone. See the rounded seat with a table? We don't see that often...the last time I saw a TER (regional train) with seats like this was when we went to Limoges from Angoulême. I still remember those blue seats...we were busy posing like anything 'cos we were the only ones in the train!

So I decided to go digging out the old photos:

posing about in the train :P

the guys without cameras (I'm surprised I still remember that after all this time) and the other girls
(I haven't seen those biscuits for a looong time! Where can we find them?)

Ah...the good old memories...:P

Vous savez lire le japonais?

J'ai pris cette photo l'année dernière, je crois (certains pourraient reconnaître le bâtiment du 1er cycle)...mais c'était avec mon téléphone portable qui avait pas (et qui n'a toujours pas) de câble pour transférer des photos à mon ordinateur... Donc maintenant j'ai souscrit à i-mode pour pouvoir envoyer cette photo par mail! (ingénieux, non? lol)

Bubbles in Grenoble

(no, it doesn't, and is not supposed to rhyme)

I went to Grenoble yesterday. It's an hour and a half from Lyon by train, so I decided not to spend the night there. Gailene met me at the train station, and we just went walking around in the morning. After lunch (Pei Xin joined us for the meal) we took the bubble cars up to Bastille (not the one in Paris) where we could see the view of Grenoble. Unfortunately it was a little misty, so the photos didn't come out very clear. (understandably, since the view wasn't very clear! :P) But all in all, it was still really nice.

walking along the riverside (Isère)

Bastille seen from below (the trees are so colourful at this time of the year!)

a pretty interesting window display at a music shop

a fountain in town

going up to Bastille (half an hour's wait in the queue! The bubble-car trip itself was pretty quick); you can see the cracks on the "walls" of the bubble

view from Bastille (the river, Isère and the particle accelerator - the circular thingy, see it?)

bubble car, a little closer up (up-close and personal! :P) when we were about to go down

had a bubble to ourselves, because less people take the bubbles down (we can walk as well) But what's this? The (automatic) doors aren't completely closed!

Gailene and me, in our little bubble

And I found something in Grenoble. A 1€ lottery...and I won a Manaphy! Now if you're wondering what that is, just take a look at this:
I was hoping for a Pikachu (of course) but the Manaphy's pretty cute as well... The thing is, I didn't know what Pokemon it was, so I had to search on the internet to find out. (the last Pokemon is Buizel)

Okay, the "lottery" was one of those plastic egg machines, and the pokemon are actually handphone danglys (or is it danglies? looks weird though) There was a Hello Kitty machine as well, but each egg cost 2€, and that was rather expensive...if it had been 1€, I would have tried my luck as well. :P

Now I have to look for a place to put my Manaphy...