One in million? More like one in five hundred

One person in 500 suffers from Palmer Hyperhidrosis. I am, unluckily, that one person. Yes, it's sad. But so far no one has ever died from this "health problem". I have been "suffering" from it eversince I was in kindergarten. It has never really affected my life, but there are times when I wish that it can be healed without having to undergo a surgical procedure. Others can not see the symptoms, but they can actually feel it, especially when they make a skin contact in the palm area of a person who suffers from Palmer Hyperhidrosis. It is, of course, commonly known as, the sweaty-hands problem.

Aihhh.

And today, I have found a temporary "cure" for it, thanks to a traditional healing website. All I have to do is make myself a cup of tea, and then rub my hands with the wet teabag. At first I doubted that it will work, but since I have nothing to lose, I tried it out. And it works. But the effect lasts for only 20 minutes, so it's not really practical if I have an important function to attend where people usually have to shake hands a lot.


On ne change pas
On met juste les costumes d'autres sur soi
On ne change pas
Une veste ne cache qu'un peu de ce qu'on voit
On ne grandit pas
On pousse un peu, tout juste
Le temps d'un rêve, d'un songe
Et les toucher du doigt
Mais on n'oublie pas
L'enfant qui reste, presque nu
Les instants d'innocence
Quand on ne savait pas
Céline Dion - On ne change pas

Secara teorinya

In theory, this is my room

In theory this is my kitchen

In theory. In theory communism works. In theory these are the pictures of my room. In theory.

Now then, let's talk about achievements. Yesterday, I have finally finished my Sociology notes. And yesterday I have finally succeeded making to the Scholastic's Harry Potter Quiz's Top Scorers List. Muahahaha. I'm number 4 and 9.

I'm getting sick of this holiday. Next week will be the 7th week without classes (5 previous weeks of strike, with classes here and there). Plus those 2 inches of texts that I need to read, AND fully comprehend. Aihh.

das Leben es eine Reise

Selepas tensyen membaca nota Sosiologi dan Psikologi, aku pun membelek balik gambar-gambar dalam komputer aku ni. Sekali tertimbul pulak idea nak menghasilkan seketul karya seni. Ahaha. Nilah hasilnya. Berbaloi jugak aku kumpul gambar semua stesen keretapi yang aku pernah pergi. Tapi almaklumlah, stesen yang selalu pergi atau stesen besar(Paris, Lille,Lyon, Mulhouse) mestilah takde gambar, sebab everytime nak ambik gambar, mesti kata; alah, lain kalilah.


Satu lagi pencapaian yang membanggakan hari ni ialah, kejayaan memasak murtabak. Huh, sedap betul. Cuma yang slacknya takde kulit popiah. Terpaksalah aku masak atas roti biasa, buat style roti sardin. Mmmm.

Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

You can never be more pessimistic than that. That is a Murphy's Law. There are hundreds more of those kind of laws, all known as Murphy's Laws. Murphy's Laws do not have to be proved scientifically like other laws, but it's logical. The only thing is that Murphy's Laws only see the bad side of things. If you live your life according to Murphy's Laws, you can never be positive, but you always anticipate for problems that may occur. They are named as such, because it was 'established' by a high ranking officer in the US military in the 40's, whose name was Edward Murphy. The following are some of the laws under the Murphy's Laws list. You might find some of them stupid, but true and logical.

Basic Murphy's Laws
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong
If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something
In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right ... something is wrong.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you think.
If there is a 50/50 chance to get it right, there is a 90% chance that you will get it wrong.

Murphy's Laws on Relationship
All the good ones are taken.
If the person isn't taken, there's a reason. (A correction to the law stated above)
Money can't buy love, but it sure gets you a great bargaining position.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Friends come and go. Enemies gather

Murphy's Laws on Science and Technology
Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure. great discoveries are made by mistake.
Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
New systems generate new problems.
Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.
You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track
It is simple to make something complex, and complex to make it simple
A man with one watch is certain about time. A man with two watches isn't.

Murphy's Laws on Work
The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.
Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
No matter how much you do, you never do enough.

Murphy's Laws on Buses
If its raining, or cold or both the bus will be late
If you're running late the bus will be too
Waiting for a bus seems to be longer than the journey
The first bus from your route will always appear first in the opposite direction.
It seems like a long time you are waiting for the bus, so you pull out a cigarette and light it, then here comes the bus
If you will light the cigarette in order to hurry up the arrival of the bus, it will be late.
Buses take ages to arrive, but when they do they always arrive in sets of three

Other Murphy's Laws
A slice of buttered bread, when dropped, will always land butter-side down.
When you need an item that is in a heap, it will always be the one at the bottom.
The day you forget your umbrella, it pours with rain.



Here's something to think about;
There was this mathematician called Epidemenis who's from Crete. Epidemenis says that all people from Crete (in Greece, Europe) are liars. So is he telling the truth or not?

If he's telling the truth, this means that he is lying.
If he's lying, this means that he is telling the truth.

living a quiet life

I am currently having my Easter Break for two weeks. I have cancelled my plans to go to Toulouse and Blois since I've used that budget to go to Nice the other day. Furthermore I have tonnes and tonnes of texts to read for the up coming exams after the break. I have texts that are at least 2 inches thick to read for my Psychology, Sociology and Survey subjects. So I think staying quietly in Lille would be the best. After all I've been travelling each time there's a break eversince I came to Lille. I think I should give it a rest.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to glue my butt on this chair of mine, doing nothing else but reading. Monday, for example, I went to see a 3 movies in a row (which I promised myself I will not do ever again). Tuesday, I went to Gand (or Gent) in Belgium with Dhira, a JPA-student-from-La Rochelle-who-happens-to-be-Dzarul's-second-cousin. Gand is very nice. Nicer than Bruges actually. I was wrong to underestimate Gand by allowing only 3 hours between arriving and goingback. There are still parts of the city that we didn't go to, like the marina along the canal. Then later in the afternoon, I brought her shopping around Lille (the usual places: Vieux Lille, Nous Savons Tous, and Rue de Bethune). That evening the four of us (Dzarul, Dhirah, Ajak and Me) did the usual ritual that we always do whenever a visitor comes to Lille; makan KFC.


I still don't understand why does it seem that almost everyone in France knows the song 'Singing in the rain'. If you're with a French when it rains, and especially when he or she or you have an umbrella, there's a very high chance that he or she will sing that particular song. It just doesn't make any sense.



Hari ini, jalan ini pasti semakin berliku
kerana masa depan belum tentumenjanjikan syurga
bagi mereka yang lemah dan mudah kecewa -Perjuangan Belum Selesai

a noise at the end of a very long tunnel

Yayy!!! My university is no longer blocked! Classes have begun today, which is quite malasnya-nak-pergi since in two days, the two weeks Easter Break will start. I've nearly forgotten how hard was it to get up at 6 in the morning without being able to go back to sleep. Furthermore, after 6 weeks without any classes, we had our Taxation test straight away today. I don't know if got all correct. There was 4 sets of questions. Each person gets a different set, so my questions were not the same with the ones of the person beside me. After calculating the amount of tax that the family in my questions had to pay, I found out that they actually don't have to pay any taxes, the results were negative. Since the paper said that if the amount due is smaller than 0, then, the amount due is actually 0, since you can not credit your tax due to the following year. After the test, I asked the prof if it's normal to get 0, and he said that it is not surprising at all since half of the french households have never paid any tax. Hmmm.

I have to admit that the class that I'm in right now is one of the noisiest class that I've ever been into. There's no one single class (well, except for economics and law maybe), where one can do one's work quietly. There can never be a moment where you can only here the voice of the professor teaching in front. There will always be a murmuring sound all around like when you're in a park full of flowers with bees humming everywhere. I don't mind the noise actually, because if you're bored with what the prof is saying, you can always tune in to something else(there are about 5 channels available, ranging from private lives, to football, to stupid jokes, to weird things, and to politics), but it is quite annoying sometimes, especially when the prof is talking about something that is interesting or important or both.

My favourite presidential candidate for 2007, Ségolène Royal from the Socialist Party

Vivimi senza paura
Che sia una vita o che sia un'ora
Non lasciare libero o disperso
Questo mio spazio adesso aperto ti prego
Vivimi senza vergogna
Anche se hai tutto il mondo contro
Lascia l'apparenza e prendi il senso
E Ascolta quello che ho qui dentro

Biskut

Setelah bertungkus lumus selama berjam-jam, di dapur, akhirnya berjaya jugak buat chocolate chips. Muahaha.

Sedapnya hingga menggigit jari!

Yellow!

Best birthday gift ever!

CPE: Cherche Pigeons à Embaucher

Amaran: Hak Cipta artikel ini adalah terpelihara. Jangan cuba nak copy paste masuk mana-mana blog lain. Ini termasuklah blog Ada Apa Dengan France.

The french students have been on strike against the CPE for a few months now. Not only it affects the french students, because of the uncertainty of their future, but also to foreign students like me, because the strike against the CPE is risking the validity of the current school semester/year. Just what the hell is the CPE and why the hell are they against it?

What does CPE stands for?
CPE means Contrat Premier Embauche or Fisrt Employment Contract.

What are the other work contracts available in France?
Basically in France there are 2 type of work contracts. The CDI (Contrat Durée Indéterminée) and the CDD (Contrat Durée Déterminée). An employee with a CDI can stay in the company where he works for as long as he is needed. There's no time limit. An employee with a CDD can stay in the company where he works for the time stated in his contract. He can negotiate with his employer to continue working there, but he can only obtain a CDD from a company twice. After his second CDD, if he's still needed in the company, the company has to offer him a CDI.

Please note that part time jobs do not exist in France. During school holidays, students work with a CDD. The benefit of this system is that the students will get the same retirement benefits, unemployement benefits and health benefits, during their working period, just like any other workers

What is the CPE?
The CPE is a work contract designed for youth, under the age of 26. It is a form of CDD, with a trial period of 2 years. The only difference with the CDD is that the employee can be fired at any moment without any notice nor with any reason within this trial period. By loosing up the law, the CPE was created to encourage employers to hire more workers.

So what is wrong with the CPE?
The reason why the students are on strike against the CPE is that the CPE does not guarantee any certainty. The employees with a CPE will be under the stress that they will get fired when they go to work everyday. And furthermore, with the uncertainty of keeping the job, banks will not allow them to take up loan for their houses or cars. Plus, when they are fired, they will not get any compensation from the company, unlike workers with a CDD or a CDI.

Is that the only reason for the strike?
No. Along with the CPE, the government had introduced other reforms in the Labour Law. Firstly there's the CNE (Contrat Nouvelle Embauche), which is a form of CPE for the employees of SME or SMI, and applies to everyone, not only to the youths. Then the reforms concern the school children as well since students 15 years old and older are now allowed to work at night, and the compulsory schooling age had been reduced from 16 to 14. The last two were criticized since, it's not a progress but a regress of educational reforms, whereas the CNE and the CPE are a form of regression in labour reforms. Furthermore the two new contracts are the base for another form of contract that will be introduced in the future: Contrat Unique, which is a CPE and a CNE that applies to every worker in France.

What have the students done so far to oppose these reforms?
There have been strikes by the students and also by a joint-movement between the students and the labour unions. The students have also decided to block certain universities.

Does it work so far?
The law has been approved by the Conseil Constitutionnel (Constitutional Council - or the Supreme Court in the USA). This means that the law is not, in any way, against the constitution, and is legal. But the french president, Jacques Chirac, has given his opinion in this matter and said that he is with the Prime Minister, Dominique deVillepin, but he said that there will be some changes. The contract's trial period will be reduced, and the part where the employers can fire workers without reason will be modified. How and when, he did not say. Other politicians from other parties, and even some of the ruling party, UMP, are against the reforms in some ways.

What will the students do now?
Those who are die hard protesters, will continue the strike and the blockage. But now there are students who are against the reforms and at the same time against the blockage. These students are trying to unblock the universities, as they fear that this year/semester will not be valid, and even if it is valid, their degree will not be recognised.

When will the strike end?
No one knows. It can even be as long as the 1968 riot, that lasted until June.

What will be done to cover back all the school hours lost?
For final years students, they will have to finish their courses this year, or they will risk of repeating the year/semester. For non final year students, there are a few possibilities. The universities will either cancel the Easter Holidays, or keep the Easter Holidays but postpone the Summer Holidays by a few weeks, or stay to the original schedule and try to cover everything up next year, by having classes 8am to 8pm, Monday to Saturday.

What happened during the last general assembly attended by the writer?
It was this morning at 10. Due to the absence of 500 true blue protesters, who were blocking the buildings, there was no voting. The writer thinks that this is a double standard, since during all the other general assemblies, the vote was held eventhough the students who are against the blockage were absent. But the writer does not blame anyone since, the absence of the 500 protesters, were caused by their duty, and the absence of the anti-blockage students were caused by their ignorance. The next vote will be held monday at noon.

ich möchte ein Treiber F1 sein auch

Iklan baru Petronas. Memang best!

From Fishandchipsland to Friesland to Pizzaland

While the french students are busy striking, fighting for their future, I've been busy moving around. I've been stuck in my room for more than three weeks, it is only normal for me to want to get the hell out of my 9m² room.

22 March - Brugge (Bruges) Belgium

I went to Brugge with Toh since we both thought that we couldn't stand staring at the ceiling all day anymore. People have always told me to visit Brugge, be it my french friends, be it my seniors, be it my father.

Brugge is actually like Colmar, but with the northern version. If in Colmar you have cardboard-boxes looking houses, in Brugge you have houses that look like as if they were built with legos. If you can take a boat ride in Colmar, you can do it in Brugge as well. In short, if you like visiting Colmar, you'll like visiting Brugge. But beware. The Belgian time curse applies in Brugge as well (the curse is that the time passes really slowly in Belgium, that after staying two hours in Belgium, you wonder if it hasn't been two days anywhere else in the world).

If you happen to visit Brugge, I recommend you to try out the Belgian fries at the Grande Place. It's very delicious. For just 3€ you'll get a large cup of fries, with onions, mayonnaise, and the very tasty curry-ketchup.

Length of visit recommended: Maximum 3 hours

24- 26 March - London (Londres) United Kingdom

see previous post

31 March - Antwerpen (Anvers) Belgium

Antwerp is the second largest city in Belgium after Brussels, and is the capital of Belgian Flanders region. It is also famous for its diamond industry, and is the world diamond capital although they don't have any diamond mines in Belgium. Personally, I think Antwerpen is more interesting than Brussels itself. Eventhough the time curse still applies here, the effects are not that noticable. Plus, there are more shops here than Brussels.

Just outside the train station, there are rows and rows of jewellery stores. Each and everyone of them has signs that says discount up to 50%. I think that's the sight that every woman dream of seeing. There is also a diamond center where they show how a raw diamond is cut, polished, and inserted into a jewellery, for free. And of course, you can always buy them at the end of the visit. In the souvenir shop at the center, there are rows of boxes containing very small grains of diamonds. And don't be fooled with the tags next to them. 0,10 ct does not meant one tenth of a cent, but 0,10 carat. I can always imagine some idiot thought that it's the price and that he had just hit the jackpot by buying a diamond at an unbelievable low price, and end up paying hundreds of dollar for it.

Apart from the diamonds, other places of interest are just like any other cities in the north (Lille, Brussels and Brugges). The old city center is nice, and so is the Cathedral, and the Grande Place. I've always thought that Antwerpen is a seaside city, but it's actually not. But I enjoy walking along the canal just the same. I can always sit on a bench on the terrace next to the canal, and lose myself in thoughts.

Never eat fries in Antwerpen.

Length of visit recommended: Half a day

1 April Nice France

Today Toh, Awad and I went to Nice. Toh and I took the 5.59 morning train to Nice. Awad joined us in Valence. The train ride was 7h30m long. It was really a pain in the ass.

We arrived in Nice at around 1330. We stayed at the Comfort Hotel. The rooms are at hostel's prices, which is not expensive at all considering that it's an international hotel chain. It's just 10 minutes walk from the train station, and between the two, there's a KFC! But I think we've chosen the wrong time to visit Nice. The city center was all messed up with the tramway construction. The main square, Place Masséna, was closed, so taking a picture of the local building architecture, which resembles a lot to buildings in Muar, Kuala Lumpur and Penang (Nice was once under the English), was impossible. If you're planning to visit Nice, go after 2007.

The old city center was very much like cities in Italy, but slightly tidier. There's nothing much to visit actually in Nice, apart from the Promenade des Anglais beach. If you like history, and wish to see the Roman ruins, do not waste your money going to the Gallo Romain archaeological site which is 10 minutes bus ride from Nice. The ruins in Lyon are better, and it's in the city center. There are ruins of an old fortress on top of a hill near the beach. It's worth climbing, not for th ruins, but for the view of Nice from top.

Length of visit recommended: Half a day

2 April Monaco and Cannes France

In the morning we visited Monaco. Monaco is a very nice-small country. As soon as you arrive at the train station you can straight away see how rich this country is. First we went to Monaco Ville where the royal palace and the old city center is. If you ask me, the royal palace was not that great. It looks just like a colonial era building in Malaysia. The city centre was just like any other mediterranean city, narrow streets in between yellow colored buildings.

Then we went to the west side. There's a shopping complex where you need to take an elevator which is situated at the mouth of a shallow cave (it reminds me of Ali Baba's cave), in order to get in. Then there's the Louis II of the Monaco football club, and the tent of the world famous Monaco circus. Then we went to the centre of Monaco, where there's the starting line of the Monaco Grand Prix. Next we went to the Opera and the Casino in Monte Carlo. Monaco is a nice country. But it would be nicer if it's flatter.

At around 1300, we went to Cannes. There's nothing much to see actually in Cannes apart for the Convention center where the Film Festival is held. We climbed the seaside hill like the one in Nice to have an aerial view of Cannes. It was worth the climb. Then we went to the old port, and to the convention center. Next to the convention center there's a park with lines and lines of celebrities' handprints. But mind you, they only date from 1986 to 1994. What happened after that, I have no idea. And the celebrities are mostly never heard of, apart for a few like Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Whoopi Goldberg and others. And then there's of course the beach. Unlike the one in Nice, which is a pebble beach, in Cannes it's a sand beach. We stayed there for about an hour before heading back to Nice.

Length of visit recommended; Half a day for each, or if you like gambling, spend more time in Monaco

3 April Ventimiglia (Vintimille) Italy

Not worth going.

The only good thing I can say about this place is that you can sit on the terrace by the beach or on the beach without having the traffic noise like in Nice or Cannes. For crying out loud, it doesn't even have a tourist infromation center.

Should've gone to Grasse. The perfume capital of the world.

Length of visit recommended: Don't