Souvent pour s'amuser: September 2006

24 September 2006

Malaysia and Singapore pictures clean-up

I cleaned up and reposted the Malaysia and Singapore pictures from this summer. Before that I had to correct a few small bugs in my RealSimpleBlog custom control, which is now in version V0.2.2. It's a work in progress, which eventually will allow the user to place a blog-like content on any webpage he wants. Most existing systems nowadays are fullblown blog applications, and are more difficult to integrate smoothly in existing websites.

The pictures page display the pictures interpersed with the corresponding blog entries. For me, it's a kind of journal, and reading older entries reminds me of the good times we had back then. For you, it's a possibility to get information about the places we visited, and also to get to know us better.

Enjoy your visit!

09 September 2006

Books: La nuit nous a surpris (The Unwanted)

Last week, I finished a very difficult and disturbing book: La nuit nous a surpris (French translation of The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen). I read it in french because I found it in the FNAC in Mulhouse, France. I usually prefer to read in original version (when I understand the language), but in that case it was OK, because the style was less important than the facts.

The book talks about the early life of a Vietnamese boy during the very last days of the fall of Saigon, and then the arrival of the communists. It's a very difficult time for the boy and his family, because before the fall, they had lived according to high standards, and were considered as capitalists. Additionally, and probably most importantly, the boy and his brothers are both mixed, of american father.

The story is very hard on the reader. It was especially interesting for me because we have been to Hanoi before, and I must admit to have felt some admiration for the way the North Vietnamese fought for their freedom from the French first, and then the Americans. Reading an account "from the other side" shed a new light on that period, and reminded me that nothing is ever as simple as it appears.

Kien Nguyen
La nuit nous a surpris
Original title: The Unwanted
Edition 10/18
ISBN 2-264-03935-3

03 September 2006

Sunny walk from Stäfa to Pfannenstiel

Hard to believe that August came and went, as the weather here was really awful during that month. Granted, since we were in the office most of the time anyway, it doesn't really matter, but still, I feel like something is missing this year. We missed the terribly hot temperatures in July because we were in Malaysia (where these hot temperature are just normal), and came back to find rain and cold. Oh well. Now we can hope for a sunny autumn, which can be very beautiful in Switzerland.

Alise had her second week in Kindergarten, and everything is well. The only hard times are when we go and pick her up on Thursdays and Fridays, and she sees kids going form the Kindergarten to the daycare. That's when she tells us that she would like to go to the daycare instead of back home... but thankfully it doesn't last, and we always find something nice to do together. I take that as a good sign that we managed to create a good atmosphere for the kids in the Muusliburg...

On Friday, the 1st of September, I picked Alise up after the Kindergarten and we went to enjoy the (finally) sunny weather, on a 2.5 hours walk from Stäfa Mühliholzli (which is located on the very north of Stäfa, on the hills) to Pfannenstiel (in Meilen). It's a very nice region to live in, with hundreds of marked walking paths all over forests, countryside, amongst farms and hilly landscapes, and with an amazing view on the Alps, the lake of Zurich, and by clear weather the Pilatus and the Rigi in the state of Lucerne.

In Männedorf, view on the lake of Zurich, the Rigi and the Pilatus

I had prepared the walk on Swissgeo and used my GPS to find my way (which wouldn't have been totally necessary, because they are very well marked, but it was a good training for other times). The trek was great, and the girls had a lot of fun. On the way, we had picnic (dried meat, cheese and fruits) on a bank with a plunging view on the lake. We could also see many farm animals, horses, cows, hens... Laeticia also enjoyed a 45 minutes nap in the pram.

In Vorderer Pfannenstiel, we had an ice cream in the restaurant, and then took the bus down to Meilen, and from there the train back home. The map and the GPS data can be found here.

Running in the woods

Asterix and Obelix carved in a tree trunk