Feet...

[Note: If you don't want to hear about my feet, read no further than the first paragraph! ;) ]

I got this tip about caring for your feet. It seems that if you soak your feet in a mixture of equal amounts of milk and warm water, it will leave your feet nice and soft. (thanks to the lactose in the milk)

Usually I don't bother with this kind of things, but lately the soles of my feet have been feeling quite...hard? It must be from too much walking during the last holidays...or maybe all the badminton I've been doing this semester. Especially on the balls of my feet, between the big toe and the rest...I've got a layer of skin that is oh-so-hard! So I tried it. But it didn't quite work...and I don't know whether it's because it just doesn't work, or because I didn't leave my feet soaking long enough. So if anyone knows anything about this, or has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them! :P

Hehe, not quite a post you'd expect, huh?

Impossible!

This is so... I don't know.

There is this group on Facebook for Malaysians in France. Today I went to the page...and found my namesake.


What are the chances? That out of only 95 members, two have the same name? A Chinese name, mind you...it ain't that easy! Even out of all the Malaysians who have come to France, I wouldn't have thought I could find someone sharing my name...seems that I underestimated its popularity :P

By the way, I believe this is the first time I've found someone sharing my name with the exact same spelling...there were two friends and one newscaster who share a variation of it, but that was as close as it got!

Now an even bigger coincidence would be actually to meet someone with my name.

Do you know of anyone else sharing your name? (for those with not-so-common names, of course)

Frost

The temperature is below zero here. This morning it was at about -6ºC, and later at about -4ºC (and I had to go out to the supermarket!) But it refuses to snow (and take some of the cold away). Instead thos morning I saw frost on the roofs, on the cars, on the grass...

It's COLD! Do snow or get warmer!

I bet Mother Nature won't listen to whiners... :P

But at least the sun is out, unlike last week...

Food culture gap

C'est intéressant de comparer ces deux avis sur les fruits de mer...

Une amie chinoise m'a dit une fois que les Français ne savaient pas manger (ou cuisiner, je sais plus) les fruits de mer puisqu'ils les mangent qu'avec de la mayonnaise, et que c'était un gâchis.

Par contre l'avis d'un ami français, c'est que les fruits de mer n'ont pas de gout, sauf si on les mange avec de la mayonnaise.

Hmm...ce serait pour ça qu'on les mange avec de la mayonnaise?

Je serais plutôt d'accord avec mon amie chinoise...par exemple le crabe cuisiné au piment (chilli crabs) est trop bon, mais j'ai du mal à croire qu'on trouve ce plat en France! :P


The gist: A Chinese (from China) friend said that the French "waste" their seafood by eating them with mayonnaise (only), while a French friend said that seafood was tasteless unless it was eaten with mayonnaise! Interesting... ;)

Me? MPK?

Surprisingly I came pretty close to being MPK today.

Yesterday we (the INSA GE 4th year students) left Lyon for a two-day sport and innovation activity.

But I'm not going to write much about what we did (unless I get some good photos). We went to a kind of inn (rented by Thales, the company assigned to "sponsor" our batch) in the Vercors, about 2 and a half hours away from Lyon.

Upon arriving, I saw the playground outside and thought that it looked familiar...like the one at the inn we went to two years ago for an ASINSA weekend. Then Fabien (the only other ex-ASINSA who was there) suddenly said that he believed it was the exact same place we were at... and turns out that was so! What a coincidence...does that mean that there aren't that many places near Lyon capable of lodging so many people? :P

In fact I didn't think it was the same place at first...because we went in through another door that I hadn't used at all the first time I was there. But nothing had changed...every room was as I remembered it (not taking into account my memory lapses, of course :P )

the view from my room (no. 25) window taken this morning

We took our meals in the dining room, where we were served full-course meals (appetizer, main dish, cheese and dessert). This is where MPK comes in.

For today's lunch, the dish was chicken with (don't ask me why) a crayfish (something resembling a prawn, but from freshwater) There were seven of us at the table, and everyone - read: EVERYONE - passed me their crayfish. Only one actually considered eating hers, but then she decided against it because it would be too difficult with a knife and a fork. So I ate seven crayfish. Wow, that suddenly seems a lot :P

I even took Julie's dessert (cubed fruits) when she didn't want it. But I wasn't a "real" MPK because I hardly touched the appetizer (it was beetroot...and I hate beetroot) and I didn't take much of the cheese either.

Oh and by the way, the information about crayfish comes from those who were at my table...they were the ones who told me what it was (in French) and I got the translation from my dictionary.

sunset taken from the bus on the way back to Lyon

A little explanation:
MPK is Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan (Kuantan city council), and the garbage collectors wear uniforms with MPK written on it. At home, we used to call my father our MPK because he was always finishing food for us :P

The invasion of Athens

...by 13 noisy Malaysians.
(Really, we were noisy...be it while taking the metro or while walking in the streets...it was hard to communicate between 13 people without shouting a bit)

See? We practically took up a whole escalator.

First let me introduce you to everyone.

in Athens, at the Acropolis
front row, from left: Hsin Shen, Priya, Pei Xin, Shobana, me, Sia Ven, Adrian, Jun Hui
back row, from left: Mah, Kai Lun, Alvin, Goh, and last but not least Alex our tour guide and photographer!

in Santorini, at Ia (caldera view)

Our number dwindled to nine on the last day, with the other four staying at Pireaus, a town slightly out of Athens.

the last day back in Athens, at the temple of Olympian Zeus

the six of us who arrived first in Santorini

the girls

Thanks to Alex and Kai Lun for the group photos; I have absolutely none of my own!

I miss the sun

I hate waking up to a dull sky. It makes me feel like going back to sleep. And for the last few days, every morning the sky has been grey, without the slightest hint of yellow, orange or red...of warmth.

Yesterday the sky was cloudy all day. According to the weather forecast, today was supposed to be sunny...but the morning doesn't look promising.

Come out, sun!!

Something hiding under your bed and little creatures

People are hired to get rid of me.
I’m often hiding under your bed.
In time I’ll always return you see.
Bite me and you’re surely dead.
What am I?



We are little creatures; all of us have different features.
One of us in glass is set; one of us you’ll find in jet.
Another you may see in tin and the fourth is boxed within.
If the fifth you should pursue it can never fly from you.



Answers below.










Answers: Dust, and the vowels.

Cuteness overload

Some people accused me of cuteness overload. I shall give you cuteness overload.

I just washed my indoor winter socks (these darlings were oh-so-useful two days ago when I came back to a room that hadn't been heated for ten days)


Bye-bye for now!
(the title of this post is "cuteness overload", after all...)

So maybe I'm a prude

Sometimes I just don't understand people.

What's wrong with a girl wanting to share a room with other girls? Isn't it normal?

Instead some people whine "Why? Why?", while some others demand "Why leh? Why leh?" Aw shucks, isn't the reason obvious? What's all the fuss?

So maybe you are oh-so-modern. Maybe you are going by when in Rome, do as the Romans do. But that isn't always necessary. Do as they do, by all means if it pleases you, but what if it doesn't? If it does not please you and it is by no means necessary, you'd be a fool to do it.

Or maybe it pleases you but what pleases you does not have to please me.

Like playing follow the leader? Well, I don't.




Not that the guys didn't treat me well. They were great companions on the trip.

I was not running away, I was going towards.




To those who understood, who accepted my barging into their company without the relentless questioning, thank you.




So am I a prude? I don't think so. But maybe some people do.

So be it.