Silent street

Yesterday morning when I stepped out of my building to go to class, there was complete silence - no one on the street, everything was still. For a moment I wondered whether it was Sunday and that I had somehow ended my weekend a little too early...but no, that wasn't the case.

Today is a public holiday in France, the 11th of November. When a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, we sometimes don't work on Monday or Friday either. But yesterday in INSA we had classes...while in a whole lot of other universities they had an extra day off.

Which explained the silent street... It was eerie, in a way. Almost like everyone had just disappeared off the surface of the earth. (and I didn't even meet anyone coming down from my room on the 7th floor)

(You see, usually on a weekday there would be lots of people walking this way and that, cars moving along the street, everyone going about their working day.)

Feet off the ground

I have two arms but fingers none.
I have two feet but cannot run.
I carry well but I have found
I carry best with my feet OFF the ground.

What am I?

Answer below.











ANSWER: A wheelbarrow

Raya gathering in Tours

We just had a week's holiday, and I made a trip to Tours for their Hari Raya gathering. It was on Thursday, so I left Lyon on Wednesday. I was supposed to meet up with Gailene at the train station (she was coming from Grenoble and was changing trains in Lyon to get to Tours) So I went to the tram stop near my place, and while waiting for the next tram to arrive, I suddenly saw a familiar face!

[here is where I should put a photo of that face, but unfortunately I don't have one :P ]

It was Aidan, who's just come to Lyon (he's in IUT) from Colmar under the Petronas programme. Turned out that he had just decided last-minute to go to Tours as well. So the three of us (Aidan, Gailene and I) ended up on the same train to Tours. It was a looong, tiring, 5-hour trip!

When we arrived in Tours, it was almost 6pm. So we went to the hotel where we were staying for the night (Gailene and I were sharing a room with Shobana and Sia Ven) There we bumped into several other Malaysians.

Shobana and Sia Ven, the ex-Tourangelles (they stayed in Tours before) went off to meet their respective friends that night. So Gailene and I went sightseeing on our own, with a map that we got from one of the juniors. I had been to Tours twice before but it was a long time ago...while Gailene had never been there. So we just walked all around the town centre.

So here are photos of the town at night!



I took the 2nd photo because the first one had that motorcyclist on it; I wonder why the lighting's so different!

the train station

After walking around (and not knowing where else to go) we decided to go back to the hotel because it was getting cold. We watched TV to pass the time...and stumbled upon a gem of a movie (it was a telefilm, actually) called Oh, boy! (it's French). It was about 3 orphans who had to stay with either their adult half-brother, who was pretty immature, or their married half-sister, who actually only wanted to adopt the youngest child. We didn't see the beginning, but it was really funny and dramatic at the same time. There were so many twists to the plot, we really needed quite some time to understand the relationship between the characters. (the telefilm is based on a book of the same name by Marie-Aude Murail)

The next day, we went to the IUT in Tours for the gathering. We mostly stuck to the people we already knew, which was a pity but pretty much inevitable.

"opening ceremony"

Gailene on the left, Firdaus on the right

Sia Ven, me, Hsin Shen, Firdaus

with the four juniors from INSA de Toulouse
from left: Kuaci, Daniel, Wili, Yong Chang
(yeah I know they're taller than me but they're my juniors okay? :P )

And I have to post this: in two shop windows, we saw this Christmas setup!

I want the panda! It's so big, it can be a sofa!
(I can't remember what shop it was...Galeries Lafayette maybe?)

Merry Christmas!

Okay, it might be too late in Malaysia but it's still the 31st of October where I am!

Now you might ask, what's Merry Christmas got to do with it being the 31st of October?

Well, you see, I just learned this from Eduard.
31 oct = 25 dec

Get it? Get it?

Well, if you have studied number bases you should be able to get it (like every Malaysian who's done the Science stream in Form 4/Form 5 and everyone else who was in my class after SPM) To put it in words, 31 in base 8 (octal) is 25 in base 10 (decimal). Get it now? ;)

Sorry if you think this joke is lame, but I love it!!

A story

This is a funny story that my mother shared with me (a long time ago!)

A man climbed up to the 10th storey of a building , left a suicide letter and jumped.

But when his body reached the 9th floor, a bullet came through a window and killed him.
(he was not even able to kill himself!)

But actually, there was a safety net secured on the 8th floor, it was prepared for the workers to do maintenance work on the outer wall the next day. So basically, he would not have been successful in his attempt to kill himself.

As for the 9th floor, there was an old couple quarrelling, and the husband took out a gun and shot at his wife, but missed and the bullet flew out the window and killed the man who was falling from the 10th floor at that moment.

(so you see, instead of killing A, you killed B. Now it would be a murder case)

But the old couple told the police that their gun was never loaded and the neighbours also proved that the old couple always quarrelled and the old man always threatened the wife with the gun, but never really wanted to kill her.

(so, the gun was accidentally loaded, now, a murder case becomes an accident)

A neighbour opposite the road said he saw the couple's son load the gun. The son gambled, and his mother refused to give him any more money. He hated his mother and knew that his father had a habit of threatening his mother, so he secretly loaded the gun hoping that his father would kill his mother for him.

(so, the person who loaded the gun knew how dangerous it was, even if he didn't pull the trigger himself, he was still considered a murderer. So now the case changed back to a murder case, this ungrateful son killed the man)

But there is a dramatic twist in the end - The dead man was actually the old couple's son.

Because the son needed the money desperately and the news of the death of his mother never arrived, he had no choice but to jump from the building where his parents lived. But instead he was killed by the gun which he loaded himself. At the end he murdered himself.

(so, you see , the case changed from suicide to murder, then to accident, back to murder again, at last it went back to suicide.)

TCL blunder

I saw this in the bus today.

Notice anything wrong?

When we take the bus, we're supposed to get in through the front door, and then get out through one of the doors in the back (just any door other than the front door) The green signs are to tell passengers to move to the back, so that those coming in would have space to do so. However, on the bigger sign, the arrows are pointing in the wrong direction...they're supposed to point to the back of the bus, like on the smaller sign underneath.

Well, it's actually just a simple error of putting the sign on the wrong side of the bus...but still, they could have paid more attention to what they were doing!

Note: TCL is the public transport company in Lyon

Decisions, decisions...

I just went for my first interview for an internship today. It went pretty well...and the company is asking me to let them know in a few weeks whether I'm interested. Sounds good, huh? Here comes the problem: The place is an hour and a half away by bus (and metro and bus) ( -_-') So I don't know whether I want it...I like the sujet...it's about a voice recognition system, there's programming...but then I'll be spending 3 hours a day just going and coming back from work. *sigh* It's not a nice way to spend 1/8 of the day...

So in the meantime I shall ask around for more internships...anywhere more than an hour away doesn't even have to be considered any more...

Argh, why must it be this complicated?

A solution: buy a car ( -_-')

Vienna - Day 5: Schonbrunn Castle

My flight back to Lyon was at 8:25pm, so I had time to visit a final tourist destination before leaving Vienna: Schonbrunn Castle. Eduard went with me (so I had a photographer ;P )

The castle grounds are really big. We went in at one end, where there was a garden:

from another angle

the back of the castle

from the castle (a 180º turn from the previous photo)

See the tiny thing at the end of the path, right in the middle of the photo? This is what it looks like close up:

the waterfall

a small garden enclosure just beside the castle (the castle is just on the right, in the uncaptured angle)

from outside the main gates

After walking around the castle (we didn't go in, it was expensive and there were too many people) we went up the little hill behind the waterfall.

from behind the waterfall; it was Eduard's idea! :D

Gloriette, on top of the hill
(you can see it in the background of the 4th photo)

Somewhere in one of the gardens, I saw a squirrel ^_^

Cute!!

After walking around the vast castle grounds, we were hungry, so we went looking for lunch. We settled on a little fast-food shop and both ordered the famous Wiener Schnitzel.


This is Eduard's, it looks nicer because it has fries with it, whereas I opted for one without fries. It was just as well, because the meat (veal) was a very big piece! Neither of us cleaned off our plates...

I think it's a little like the chicken chop in Malaysia, without the gravy ;)

While looking for food, we saw this in a shop window, and I simply had to take a photo:

looks so real and so yummy...

In the afternoon I went again to the university to pass time...some of the others were there, using the internet or conducting interviews ;) I left nice and early to go back to my hostel, get my stuff and leave for the airport (I definitely didn't want to be late again!)

By the way, I only got my public transport ticket checked once throughout my whole stay in Vienna. It was on my way to the train station (Wien Mitte) to go to the airport. There was this guy sitting opposite me, and suddenly, at a stop, he asked me for my ticket. He didn’t look very official though…I wonder whether he was a real ticket checker (I can’t say “collector”, can I? Since he didn't take the ticket...)

And come to think of it, I only used my passport to identify myself for my flights during this trip, there was no immigration check. I guess France is "good friends" with Austria? :P

One thing I liked about this trip was the flight. AirFrance has discounts for travelers under 25 years of age, which was why I bought my tickets on their site instead of a low-cost airline. (I can't remember whether it was cheaper but it was definitely more value for money) This time the flight was operated by the Austrian airline company. Even for a short flight (about 2 hours), they served a warm meal (a small portion, of course) which I found very welcome :) So what can I say? I recommend Austrian airlines! :P

So that was my Sunday, and the next day term started for my 4th year in INSA.

Other Vienna posts:
Vienna - Day 1: Panic attack
Vienna - Day 2: City sights
Vienna - Day 3: Bratislava trip
Vienna - Day 4: Minesweeper Championship

Boyzone's back!

I was just listening to Mix.fm today when I heard the DJ say that the next song was a new one from Boyzone. The song's called Love You Anyway.



You can watch a more complete version of the video here (embedding is disabled)

I like it! :D

Edit:

Check out this video of So Good! I've never seen it before... I guess it was "before my time"...



You can see how much they've changed in more than ten years...

Original recipe...not!

I tried out a new recipe today. It was a variation of a recipe I found online. I found it pretty good so I shall share it here (a simplified version, because the actual recipe was too complicated :P )

What you need is pork (or some other meat, I think veal might work fine as well), shallots, olive oil and honey. (and salt and pepper). Slice up the shallots and stir-fry with the meat. Then add some olive oil, fry some more, add salt and pepper, then add honey and brown it until it's just nice, the way you like it. This is what I got in the end:

believe me, it tastes better than it looks, I'm not that good with presentation :P

Of course, it is nothing like the original recipe I found...

And while I'm at posting photos of food, here's another dish I made the other day. It looked pretty nice so I took a photo.

stir-fried chicken with capsicum

And...something I didn't cook: chunky peanut butter :D

See? Lots of lovely peanut pieces !

It was brought from Malaysia...here we can only find the creamy kind, and I don't like that. Nuts are to be crunched ;)