Safety at Home

Our pre-toddler has been overly active lately, exploring every corner of our house and paying a lot of attention to details. Part of her observation prowess is to taste what she has in her hands. Even the smallest stuff could go to her little mouth, and I assure you, once it's inside, you will never get it back. Vacuum cleaning has then become part of our daily life.

Since she started crawling, safety has become our biggest concern. Cabinets, doors, drawers, electrical plugs, medicines.. name it. Almost everything inside our house has become kid-friendly.

Then she became more adventurous. She finally discovered the stairs. She then went up and down our two-step stair separating the living room from the rest of the house.

Yesterday, we went to a baby store to buy a barrier. I told Frenchguy that Louna will not take long to discover the other stair. And true enough, the picture above shows the dangerous reality. So there and then, Frenchguy started to install the newly bought security gadget. Well, Louna was actually cooperative enough, she even helped her Papa do the works. It's just funny to see her busy like that, equally conscious of her safety, unconsciously.

Go papa, I'll hold it. Don't worry.

Philippine Economic Growth

I was reading L'Expansion magazine, January 2006 edition (I know, the news must be too old) and was glued on an article about economic growth on several countries. I then searched Asia, then Philippines. The forecasted growth for 2006 was 4.4% compared to 1.8% in France. Not bad. But me thinks we could do better than that if not for this:

Aux Philippines, l'instabilité politique et la corruption
n'incitent guère les investisseurs à s'installer.

Translation: In the Philippines, political instability and corruption don't incite investors anymore to put up their business there.

Our present political situation, if not changed will push the Philippines to poverty. No more investors, no more tourists, no more jobs to our fellow Filipinos.

FYI, the first in the list in East Asia is China, followed by Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Cambodia. Naunahan na tayo...

Journées Européennes de Patrimoine - The Details

The week has been overly hectic. I was thrice in Paris: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As you see, the schedule is far from being well organized. I'm just glad it's Saturday today.

Ok, let me recount to you our adventure in Paris last weekend, during the Journées Européennes de Patrimoine.

It started out with a hectic Saturday. After a busy day doing domestic chores, we decided to hit the road for Paris that same night. The 300 km (3 hours drive!) that separates us from the capital deemed to be too tiring (we arrived at past midnight). Louna, who was quite disturb by the sudden change of routine had a hard time catching her sleep. Well, actually, she wanted to play. And since my bro-in-law's flat is not kid friendly, we decided to put her with us on bed before she electrifies herself. Bad move. She then started to put her tiny fingers in every hole on our face. Imagine.

She woke up at 8am the next day, Sunday. I gave her her bottle 30 minutes later then continued sleeping till 11am. Had a quick brunch with Frenchguy then finally went out after midday. Cool family hehe.

We arrived at Palais de l'Elysée and was quite discourage to know that we have to queue up for 4 hours till we get to say Hi to President Chirac. A kind man told us that with Louna, we could probably get inside directly, without the 4-hour long wait! We looked at each other, then, TING! After 20 minutes, we were inside. Heaven! The XVIIIth-century monument is superbly decorated! Well, it's Paris' Malacañang, no wonder.

Next stop was at the Hotel de Marigny were Presidents or Representatives of other countries stay during their visits to France. There was where Ate Gloria slept on her stop in Paris, cool!

Next stop was at the Interior Minister's (Nicolas Sarkozy's) Office at the Hotel de Beauvau.

We were actually enjoying the quick pace of our visit, all because of Louna. After these 3 monuments, we headed off to Hotel de Matignon, the Prime Minister's (Dominique de Villepin's) office. But like Cinderella's midnight curse, the magic of the stroller suddenly disappeared, we were not allowed to get inside directly. The heck. Do they realize how hard it is for a 10-month-old cutie lil girl to stay outside and wait for hours? We then decided not to visit it and stay instead in a park somewhere so Louna could continue with her activities the night before - exploring where she could put her fingers.

PS: Sorry for posting no pictures. I forgot our cam at home when we visited so we used our mobile phone, but then, I forgot the cable at the office. So still no pix. Alzheimer?

Journées Européennes du Patrimoine

What the heck does that mean? It means that all public monuments in the whole of Europe will open their doors to everybody. Name it - hospitals, universities, museums, churches, libraries, public offices (even the equivalent of Malacañang!) - well, just everything. And it's gonna be this weekend!

Since my Tita will be arriving this Monday and wishes to experience the Burgundy wine cellar visits with dégustation included before proceeding on the European group tour (which means that we have to meet her at the airport and bring her with us back to Dijon!), we hence decided to spend our weekend at the capital. We could then visit some Authorized-Personnel-Only and No ID-No Entry kind of monuments and meet some long lost friends.

I'm digging into this site for some interesting monuments to visit but the list is just too long. I'm sure it will be impromptu visits, as usual. I have Palais de L'Elysée on my must-see list... it's Paris' Malacañang, who knows, I might come face-to-face with Jacques Chirac.

Photo courtesy of Palais de L'Elysée official site.

9/11 atbp

I came home early that afternoon and systematically switched on the television. My language professor adviced me to watch the tube even if I don't understand anything. She said that my ears would eventually get used to the accent. It's the gateway to understanding the language.

A movie preview has been playing, the Independence Day or Terminator kind of film. I was searching for Harrison Ford or Arnold Schwarzenegger or why not Will Smith, but I saw nobody. Some exclamations from other unknown actors was amusing me, somebody just shouted 'holy f***** christ' (of course this wasn't dubbed), quite fun, I should watch this film.

After minutes of the same movie trailer, I started to zap.. TF1.. France 2.. France 3.. Arte.. M6.. the same movie preview on all channels, at an almost synchronized sequence. I guess, even if you don't understand the language, you will understand something. I just couldn't believe it was happening.

... that was 5 years ago, 2 and a half weeks after my arrival here in France.


On the lighter side..

Since her 6th month, she could sit down on her own but we had to plant her for a start. She could jump up and down but would stay in the same place for hours. Last week, at 9 months and 3 weeks old, we saw her helping herself to sitting position. We then saw her sitting on her bed playing with her toys after each siesta. Last Friday, I told frenchguy that Louna would probably start to crawl the week after. Surprise. She crawled the next day, Saturday, at 10 months and 1 day old. See her live at Ma Crèche Privée.

Busy Me

My Microsoft Outlook calendar for September is nearing its supersaturated point. If you're familiar with Outlook, then imagine it filled with lively colors: blue for travel, green for personal appointments, pink for important matters, brown for preparation required and transparent to say I'm in situ but not available. Frenchguy and I opted for color-coding to better organize our schedules for obvious reasons - Louna.

This week would be spent in situ. Pink and Transparent.

This weekend was supposed to be spent at Fos-sur-Mer, south of France. So it must be green. My bro, a seafarer, was supposed to join his ship there this weekend but last minute changes now heads us somewhere in Germany. Me who was already planning an EB with Haze and the kids and why not other pinay bloggers around the area. Next time, maybe.

Half of next week will be spent enhancing my influencial behaviour at the capital - Paris. Who knows, I might be able to convince you to buy a book written by a fellow blogger. That's blue and transparent.

The week after promises a colorful week, a mix of green, blue and transparent - a very tropical mix, don't ya think? Tropical? Hmmm. My Tita will be on a Europe tour and will spend 3 days in Paris. So what do you expect? A day off to meet her there to play tourist guide. Hmmm, I'm thinking how much share I'll take from the official tourist guide. 50? 100%?

The next week after is blue and transparent, but I assure you, it will be lively. I'll be 3 days in Barcelona to attend a showroom/conference - we call it technology watch, to be official. But yes, that would be blue. The night life - that would be lively!

PS: I just had an unexpected salary increase. All I did this year was to give birth and be on maternity leave. Is it to motivate me to put more color on my calendar? But on the other hand, giving birth is a tough job ;). Agree with me? I probably deserve it after all haha.

Proud Parents

It was frenchguy's birthday yesterday and Louna was quite excited over something. Hmmm, she seems to like bubbly liquors, don't ya think?

So what's the link with the title? Well, well, our little princess just tried her first ever ride. I don't want to double-blog about it and be charged as an over-excited Mom, so let me just invite you to Ma Crèche Privée. Share the fun with me.