Happy New Year wishes

This is the most interesting New Year wish I got this year..So, I wish you guys the same hehehe

"It is time to say good bye to the year 2008 and welcome new 2009. I hope you did well and there was nothing left behind to be sorry for"

Ahaks...insaf tak?? I never receive such new year wish like this before hahahaha...

Happy New Year!

Notre Dame

When I read or heard the word Notre Dame, I always imagine the plot in novel or cartoon The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The novel was written by Victor Hugo in 1800s with original title Notre Dame de Paris..I guess most of us know about Notre Dame from this cartoon instead of the real Notre Dame hehehe...probably on me...

Here are summary of the story, which I copied somewhere :-)

The story begins during the Renaissance in 1482, the day of the Festival of Fools in Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, is introduced by his crowning as Pope of Fools.

Esméralda, a beautiful 16-year-old gypsy with a kind and generous heart, captures the hearts of many men but especially Quasimodo’s adopted father, Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to get her. Quasimodo is caught and whipped and ordered to be tied down in the heat. Esméralda seeing his thirst, offers him water. It saves her, for she captures the heart of the hunchback.

She is later accused of the murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo killed in jealousy, and is sentenced to death by hanging. Quasimodo saves her by bringing her to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. Frollo rallies the truands (criminals of Paris) to charge the cathedral. The king, seeing the chaos, vetoes the law of sanctuary and commands his troops to take her out and kill her. When Quasimodo sees the truands, he assumes they are there to hurt Esméralda, so he drives them off. Frollo betrays Esméralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is hanged. Quasimodo pushes him from Notre-Dame to his death. He then goes to Esméralda’s grave, lies next to her corpse and eventually dies of starvation. Two years later, excavationists find the skeletons of Esmeralda and Quasimodo locked in an embrace.

For me Victor Hugo did lots of study before he wrote that novel..Same like Dan Brown in Da Vinci code-exactly what you can found out yourself hehehe...ok, here are several pictures during my visit..More pictures in my facebook. To get into Notre Dame is free and the Q was very fast although long Q. To go to Notre Dame tower, I paid 7.50 euro and I queue for more than 1 hour in chilly weather hehehe...also, expect the worst, the staircase was really steep and narrow. Only 1 way...Not suitable for old fella or kids..

me-Notre Dame background

you can take boat tour to get to Notre Dame..me?? org kemut naik metro la :-))














Long Q to go inside notre dame



















inside notre dame..erk..I went there on Saturday so I can't post what was happening inside..In case might offended somebody..



















Quasimodo worked here-he was blind, deaf and ugly...hmmm...



















Stairs to go to bell the bell...oh yea, this was the place where he kept Esmeralda...very steep staircase..






































View from notre dame tower














Along the road to Notre Dame














View from Notre Dame tower

Antara dua darjat...

Sy terpanggil untuk menulis rasa hati tentang bencana alam di Malaysia sejak akhir-akhir ini. Mula-mula kita dikejutkan dengan tanah runtuh yang mengorbankan 2 kanak-kanak. Seminggu kemudian kita dikejutkan lagi apabila 14 buah banglo musnah sama sekali di Bt Antarabangsa. Tak cukup dengan itu, beribu-ribu mangsa banjir di seluruh Malaysia ditempatkan di pusat-pusat pemindahan banjir..Ini tidak termasuk kemalangan bas baru-baru ni yang mengorbankan 10 orang di Johor..

Dalam semua kejadian yang disebutkan di sini, yang manakah mendapat liputan luas?? Yang mana ditawarkan dengan pakej-pakej menarik? Yang manakah yang paling banyak dibantu?? Jawapannya cukup mudah, mangsa tanah runtuh Bt Antarabangsa..Walaupun kesannya memang buruk, tetapi jika nak dibandingkan harta benda dengan nyawa mungkin tak terjawab. Pak menteri sibuk mengunjungi dan membuat kenyataan akhbar berkenaan kejadian tersebut hinggakan Ali Rustam yang di luar kawasan turut membuat kenyataan. Mungkinkah kerana pemilihan UMNO tidak lama lagi, atau pun kurangnya keyakinan untuk memenangi pilihanraya kecil di Terengganu??? Mungkin hanya spekulasi sy...:-)

Berbalik kepada kisah antara dua darjat..Saya tidak pernah terbaca kerajaan bercadang membayar pampasan kepada mangsa di Hulu Kelang...Yang membuatkan sy tertanya-tanya macammana kerajaan boleh terfikir untuk membayar pampasan untuk pemilik rumah tersebut. Tidak cukupkah kalau pemaju, jurutera, dan mereka yang terlibat dalam membina dan menyelia kawasan tersebut diminta bertanggungjawab?? Kenapa mesti wang keringat pembayar cukai digunakan?? Tidak cukupkah tawaran bank e.g. Maybank untuk membantu mangsa secara memberi pinjaman dengan pelbagai keutamaan?? Tak cukupkah kerajaan campuran Barisan Rakyat yang memberikan 50% potongan hotel untuk mangsa???

Dalam banyak-banyak tawaran tersebut, saya tidak pernah terbaca pihak bank atau pun pihak kerajaan membuat tawaran sedemikian untuk mangsa-mangsa bencana alam lain cotohnya mangsa-mangsa banjir. Tidak pernah terfikirkan mereka ini, RM1000 untuk warga kampung sangat besar ertinya untuk membina semula kehidupan..Tidak pernah kita terfikirkah jumlah RM1000 tidak membawa erti yang besar untuk pemilik Bt Antarabangsa ini...? Jawapannya, mangsa-mangsa bencana alam di kampung akan digula-gulakan dengan wang saku manakala mangsa2 Bt Antarabangsa akan diberi pampasan berlipat ganda...Pada saya, kalau mampu membeli rumah di kawasan mewah, tak mungkin mereka tidak mampu untuk membina kehidupan baru tanpa bantuan...hmmm....

Saya masih ingat ketika ribut di kampung saya sendiri, selepas beberapa hari (bukan serta merta) penduduk kampung telah digula-gulakan dengan wang pampasan RM700. Walaubagaimanapun jumlah tersebut sama rata samada hilang 2 keping atap zink atau pun rumah runtuh. Itulah adilnya kerajaan Perak dahulu. Tak cukup dengan itu, wang sumbangan untuk mangsa turut disalahgunakan oleh pihak-pihak tertentu untuk memeriahkan majlis penyerahan cek sumbangan..lawak yang saya akan ingat sampai bila-bila..

Kesimpulan dari tulisan antara dua darjat, kalau kita di atas, walaubagaimana burukpun nasib kita pasti ada yang membantu. Kalau kita di bawah, dah jatuh tu bersedialah untuk dipijak..:-D..menyakitkan tetapi inilah realiti...


p/s: huiyoooo...kagum tak dengan kebolehan sy menggunakan BM tanpa proof read???

Journey towards 'carte de sejour'

When I first arrived in France, I did not have slight idea what the hell was carte de sejour. As far as I was concerned, we provided everything to the company to do necessary arrangement for our stay here. Before I came here, I had terrible experience with visa, somehow I managed to get it almost 1 month later than my colleagues. .

When I arrived here, we were told we needed endorsement from Prefecture for our stay here. Actually carte de sejour is a card almost like work permit so that we don't have to carry our passport around. Prefecture is almost like Bukit Aman Police who controlled everything including immigration. As experienced by many people (try google immigration in France, ANAEM, prefecture, work permit in France), the Prefecture was nothing but full of bureaucracy...The first day we went to 1 of the Prefecture, we were sent to other branch-Cite. When we went to the Cite branch, we were told for carte de sejour application, we needed to go to another Branch in Gaite. In the Gaite branch, after we queue for almost 3 hours, we were told we needed to bring some documents hahaha...I felt like Bangla or Indon queue in front of immigration office...

In our next trip to Prefecture office, we queue for 5 hours before we were told we needed to supply some documents, and do medical check up in ANAEM. The thing I hate the most at Prefecture was the office was full of 'colourful' people..Most of them were not professional...Imagine, queue in Malaysia surrounded by African, Nigerian, Indon, Bangladeshi and other immigrants hehehe...I just thought, well I could be easily infected by any disease soon..hmmm...how stressful the condition...... Oh ye, since we were guinea pigs, nobody really knew what to do. Then, after days of waiting, finally ANAEM asked us to do medical check up. The medical check up was ok, not that scary compared to at prefecture..

Once we got ANAEM clearance, we were told we must supply birth certificate in French...Any of you bring birth certificate everywhere??? Not me though. The last time I used my birth certificate was in primary school. Thanks to my friend that helped me to scan and later courier my birth certificate to Paris. I did the translation from Malay to French in Malaysian Embassy.

Yeah...I also thought everything was over when I had all documents. When I went to the Prefecture again, I was so surprised to see how they hired 'robot' instead of human beings..hahaha..How brainless French is..My passport stated my full name with binti. In my original bith certificate that was issued in 1977, it only stated my first name and my father's name was stated in Name of father. The robot at the Prefecture refused to accept me the 'daughter of Abdul Razak' is similar person with me 'binti Abdul Razak'...see...told you French are stupid...End up, I went to Malaysia embassy and they issued me with a letter saying that me in Birth cert and in the passport is similar person..hahahaha...I felt so stupid even to ask for such letter, but what choice did I have???

Today, we went again..Thank God, we were served by a very helpful person. Although I was asked to get new pictures, she was very helpful..And finally Prefecture accepted my application but the real card willonly be ready in the next 2 months...Still not over, we were told until we get the real carte de sejour, we were not allowed to leave France...hahaha...helloooo...I'm not that 'religious' to stay in France during Christmas break...

Next few days, we will go again to other Prefecture office to ask for multi entry visa...I hope journey towards carte de sejour will not repeating itself in journey towards multi entry visa hahaha...

yeah...how difficult life is over here..I thank God, finally I accomplished a difficult chapter of my life..also, I appreciate those who help me this far-jasa mu dikenang...

Facebook fever

why I barely post anything in a week or two?? hehehe...Since, I came here I started my facebook using my full name. So, if you have facebook, you are welcome to add me. In fact upload lots of photos and activities in my facebook coz facebook is simpler than this blog..or is it just my excuse??? I just try to save some time....

Surprisingly using facebook, I met lots of long loss friends-could be more than 10 years I think...Out of no where, I came to know I have lots of friends in Europe and UK..hehehe...makin panjang la langkah....

This week is another hectic week per se..Had meeting with our sponsor, had breakfast meeting with Dato' CEO, chase USM for medical insurance, went twice to Malaysian embassy to translate my birth certificate and the most important thing tomorrow I have to go again to prefacture for work permit...Seriously I need a luck for this. The last time I went there, I waited for 5 hours before I was told nothing can be done...I really hope things will be much smoother this time....

Colourful life...

Life (work wise) becomes too depressed since 2 weeks ago. I don't know why but all us us feel the same..I think not because of the work load but more on the working environment. I simply don't like people keep checking on me-what I've done, what I'm doing, what I'm going to do..hellooo, give us some credit, we are academician with high integrity. We know exactly what we are doing and how serious the mission is. Hmm, don't know what to say anymore, but somebody already 'burst' last week. I hope they learn their lesson not to fool around with us.

Life wise, yeah...I'm so happy. Yesterday I went to Indian supermarket at La Chapelle. So good, I found lots of my favorite stuff e.g. rendang flavour Indomie instant noodle..The first time I had it was in Invercargill NZ few years ago..I don't think we can find it in Malaysia though. Also, I manage to get soy source-kicap manis made in Indonesia. Besides kicap Kipas udang, I can live well with kicap manis Indonesian.. I thought I have to go to London to get kicap hahahaha....I can cook my favourite 'masak kicap' after this. Also, I found anchovies (ikan bilis)..I don't think I should talk about the price, I just say 1 to 1 in RM-meaning that those we can get RM3 in Malaysia expect to pat 3 euro (~RM15) here...:-)..

I will go again to that supermarket to get more stuff later e.g. Lingam chilli source...


































My friend Tulip provoked me with her RM 1 nasi lemak. End up, I cooked nasi lemak for myself on Sunday hehehe..We in fact compared the nasi lemak RM1 in Malaysia, with nasi lemak in Qatar RM48, and home cooked nasi lemak Paris in facebook hahahaha...Economy wise, I think nasi lemak Paris should get the credit..I put some effort to cook it, but both Tulip and Aris just 'tunjuk' their nasi lemak..hahaha...no offend Tulip if you read my post hahahaha..

nasi lemak with sambal, telur goyang and ayam goreng masala..A bit of herbs are important to keep ourselves warm during winter..















This week, I've been busy planning my Christmas and New Year holiday. For now, I've booked return ticket to London to celebrate boxing day hahahaha...Still thinking if I should go to Brussel and Amsterdam during New Year..Or else, I can visit my friend in Germany and later go to Luxemburg..still thinking about budget...Anyway, I don't plan to become rich so I don't have to worry..hehehe...



**It's freezing cold out there-snowing...

Space flight participant

I never hide my feeling on how much I never supported the space flight participant. In fact, I posted about the payment he received in this blog ages ago. When Harakah came out with the article about his charge RM8k/hour, I was not surprised at all.

It is so unbelievable if MOSTI find out later he is not guilty...I wrote about his charge in August, and the matter was asked in Parliament just last month (October/November). MOSTI only requested the proof 2 weeks ago..Unless I have some power, then only I could be influenced by media. I'm afraid in Bolehland there is no way we can get fair justice. He is the UMNO's 'mascot' so read my lip-he is NOT guilty even after proven guilty...lots of things can be swept under the carpet...

Shopping spree

It's long weekend this week-Saturday to Tuesday. In the first place I thought I should go
somewhere out of Paris. Since I did not plan properly, by the time I checked the train ticket was so expensive..So I decided not to..

What did I do? Finally managed to get my belated birthday present from Lafayette gallery. On my birthday this year, I stranded in front of Prefacture (immigration) here-something to do about my working permit. I felt like Bangla or Indon-such a long Q. We waited for 5 hours for nothing..Back to the story, I spent more than 3 hours in Lafayette gallery. So many things to see and yet are so expensive...jamu mata je la...window shopping. After that, I walked to Champs Elysees for another window shopping session. I went inside LV boutique this time but I did not buy anything. For me, like Zaidah said, "LV is so Siti Norhaliza"..I will try to convince myself at least to get an LV handbag before I go back hahaha...not now..Also, I went to several shops, but I was not in my shopping spree mood anymore...

A friend of mine showed me a blog about factory outlet here..yeah La Valee Village. The place is outside the city or 1 stop away from Disneyland Paris. Last week I studied about the place since I never took any train outside Paris city..I simply could not resist the temptation hahaha...Yesterday, even though the weather was not so good I went there..First challenge was to buy a ticket from a counter. I showed the guy a map..:-) easy huh...the stop called Val d' Europe, which is zone 5 from Paris city.

RAR A4: only take the train if the light is on..or else we'll definitely go elsewhere




























La Vallee Village




























As a 'shopperholic', I really enjoy the place..La Valee Village has more than 75 international brand shops/boutique e.g. Salvatore Feragamo, Nike, Dunhill, Polo Ralph Laurent, Lancel, etc...Price wise I would say at least 30% cheaper than buy it in Paris city..When I went there, in fact there was sale in Nike shop, the third thing I bought was charged 1 euro only. I settled with 1 jacket and 2 jumpers with saving 29 euro for the 3rd jumper. Also, I bought myself a nice Ralph laurent sweat shirt. waa...I don't remember the
price but I know there's no way I can afford it in malaysia or NZ hahaha...that's the whole story about my shopping spree week...Took me several weeks to write about it hehehe...

Sabar..

Bila sebut perkataan 'sabar' tu sendiri terasa macam meredakan tekanan darah. :-) mungkin gak untuk diri sendiri boleh digunapakai. Dalam masa seminggu lepas, kesabaran seakan-akan teruji. Terasa macam the whole world goes agains me..(lama tu je la kot blh guna Malay, then I found myself lost of the right words to say..)..I was a bit disstressed since last week, work wise. I did lots and lots of mistakes. As I always said, always learn from every single mistake. I was blamed for all those mistakes, so what?? Things happened, nothing I can do about it so why should I bother about it in the first place??

I did convince myself, it was part of life, part of learning process. Make mistake and learn from it. I in fact I said to 'the person', "hello, I'm not going to repeat the same mistake 10 times. If I do that again, I'll drink PpIX"..oh yeap, PpIX is a dye, if you have it in your body and expose yourself to light or sun, then your skin colour will change-almost like vampire hehehe...I don't take panadol or sleeping pills...

Berkat kesabaran (passionate), the result was amazing or much better than I expected. Most of important thing, allow ourselves to make some mistake so that when we have problem in the future we know how to deal with it..We cannot solve everything by reading..There are so many things that we can only learn by experience.

Life is to short to restrain ouselves from doing this and that...as long as we know where to stop..

Maid in Putrajaya get Datukship??

What could be more ridiculous than awarded datukship to Shah Rukh Khan?...now, somebody else also got Dato'...I still wonder, what was her contribution to the nation? She can't even wake her husband up from such a deep sleep...sigh...Malaysia Boleh!

not in a good writing mood

this week is just not a good week to practice my 5-10 minutes free writing here...just being busy so many unnecessary things..catch me on my facebook la...

Thinking

What are the criteria to be a good researcher, graduate student, PhD candidate, PhD holder etc..??? These are something we always fail to recognize, or even sometimes fail to become one. .The main criteria to become one of those are we should be able to think, generate new idea, recognize research risk, layout the idea nicely, and the most important thing is capability to make a wise decision.

Sometimes, I simply do not blame anybody of failing to become one of those. If we somehow do not have kind of environment that support creative thinking and free flow of idea there is no way we can nurture research thinking. By end of the day, we will only produce research technician who do everything by SOP or manual-without thinking. I would say we actually producing robots that do everything that we program..

In research, we need to allow ourselves to make mistakes. Then, we learn from our mistakes to improve our outcomes. If we are too afraid to make mistakes, we surely will make more mistakes or serious mistakes beyond our imagination. Give ourselves enough space to think, arrange idea, and also don't afraid to try!

Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence
"Flexibility and adaptability do not happen just by reacting fast to new information. They arise from mental and emotional balance, the lack of attachment to specific outcomes, and putting care for self and others as a prime operating principle. Flexible attitudes build flexible physiology. Flexible physiology means more resilience in times of challenge or strain. Staying open—emotionally—insures internal flexibility".

More pictures around Paris

Here are more pictures around Paris. Some of the places might not interest many people but people who read Da Vinci Code definitely love to see them :-D..hehehe...e.g. I went to Madeleine just because this church was mentioned in DVC...Anyway, that was not the only church I ever been. I just love to see arts inside out-that's all.

I've been to Galerie Lafayette, but it was closed on Sunday. Might try next weekend although I'm very sure I can't afford to shop there :-D..

Gare St Lazarre was another place mentioned in DVC..


Part of Galleries Lafayette














Madeleine














Gare St Lazarre














Place de la Concorde














Opera house

Du Louvre museum-monalisa's house

Like other people, the main reason I visited Du Louvre museum is to see Monalisa portrait. Today is the first Sunday of the month so free for all, or else I would have to pay 9 euro :-) I arrived there quite early so the queue was not too bad. This museum is full of arts thingy including paintings, sculptures, crowns, etc..Name it from medieval to 1990s. To date, they have Pablo Picasso exhibition, so I have seen his work from sketch to real paintings. My personal view, most of the arts during that time was based on human anatomy. No wonder most of them end up being excellent scientists. Oh well, naked is part of art, so expect to see lots of naked sculptures or painting in this museum or Paris in general :-) . I took lots of pictures but there's no way I can upload all..

Here are some pictures:




























Crowd to see Monalisa




























Monalisa




























Coronation Crown of Louis XV














Venus de Milo















































Pablo Picaso exhibition
























































The winged Victory of Samothrace

Square Louis Michel

This is another tourist attraction close to Anvers metro station. Hmm..quite a good place to get cheap souvenirs as well.

Update..

I just got internet connection at my apt this evening. Well, not really mine though, actually I kind of share with my neighbor-using his wireless account. Somehow, my old landlord just simply don't know how to get re-connection to landline, internet and cable TV. Thank God at least he arranged something for me so that I can do my usual business at home :-) If you know what I mean...

Life here getting harder each day. Work wise, so many things to learn and easily make mistake during lab work. A simple mistake sometimes very annoying-no turning back but to repeat all over again. Nextweek I have to work with mice serum yarghhhh...I'm a material researcher, I never thought one day I have to touch those kind of things. I hate the smell..I simply hate touching living cells...hehehe...

Weather here getting colder each day. Few days ago, the temperature was about 3C from morning to evening...not even winter yet! My surviving rate getting better but I found it's hard to leave here compared to English speaking country. Although I managed to do grocerries shopping, mostly using sign language..hahaha..To buy canned food in supermarket also not that easy, I simply find it difficult to read the ingredients. How do I know/remember all terms in French??Surprisingly, lots of food contains beef or pork flavour including pasta source. Really have to be careful before buying food. To date, I remember quite a few French words in order to help me during shopping.

Wet weather this weekend. I wish I can visit museums tomorrow because of free entrance every first Sunday of the month. Not that I'm into free ride or something but I already paid almost 3 months allowances to the landlord and the agent. We are still waiting for the company to review our allowances and reimburse some settlement allowances, which God knows how long we have to wait..For me the current allowance is enough for me to live comfortably here (not JPA rate).

Champs Elysees

This street is famous among tourist, and locals (for window shopping-including myself) :-)The street is full of designer boutiques, just name it! Most restaurant or even side walk stalls sell food at incredibly expensive price...Champs Elysees is also suitable if we like to walk. As for myself I walked from 1 end to another end, which is from Arc du Triomphe to the Royal Museum DuLouvre-but a long walk! I would say nearly 1 hour..hehehe...either we love sightseeing or simply stingy to take metro, then we can walk. When I passed through this street, I chose to walk since I need to know my direction. I was not good at taking metro at that time. If I'm going again in the future, I will take a metro...aha..I may have to go again during Christmas sale hehehe...I would like to see any discount in LV boutique..

The street facing Arc du Triomphe














Some shops














LV boutique














Sape punya lamborghini ni parking situ..hehehe...














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