Let's talk recycling!

In France, everyone recycles. And everyone should - for our future generation. As it is global warming is causing havoc on earth - winters are exceptionally cold with lots of snow this year and where it is tropical the heat and humidity is scorching! All this is caused by pollution and by not recycling we are contributing to the destruction of mother earth. I don’t know everything about recycling and I certainly cannot do everything, but I try to do my part. Even when I was in Malaysia, I made sure that my maid put aside glass and plastic items separately for recycling. No matter how little we do, small things do add up and they CAN make a difference.
I am not trying to be an expert on living green - I’m not sure I want to become a vegan and ride my bicycle everywhere, wearing clothes made out of hemp, and relying on solar powered lights and heating.  I have not changed all my lightbulbs to energy saving ones but here are a couple things that I do for recycling:

I drink tap water instead of buying all those plastic water bottles
I recycle vegetable bags from the grocer to bag and freeze my meats in the freezer.
I use reusable bags when I go to the grocery, market and even when I am shopping. "pas de poche, SVP" is my mantra...
I use reusable children’s plates/bowls/cups instead of paper/plastic
I try to take short showers and turn the water off when I am brushing my teeth
I turn off the lights when I am not in the room and the heater when we go off for the day
I donate clothes and toys to the Secours Populaire
I recycle my cans, paper, glass and plastic
I recycle day old bread by feeding it to the birds
I use old cartons/ cardboard for Lucas' art paper
I wash only full loads in the washing machine - in cold water
Whenever possible, we try not to use the car and walk instead or take public transport
I use biodegradable plastic bags for the garbage
I bring my used batteries to the shopping mall for recycling
I close all the shutters to conserve heat in the apartment by 6 pm every night
I boil only as much water as needed


The only biggie for me now is Lucas' disposable diaper - did you know that a disposable diaper takes 500 years to decompose?  We are trying to potty train Lucas now and while he tells us when he wants to "pee" or "kaka" he refuses to sit on the potty... so for now most days he goes without the diaper when he is at home. And YES, accidents do happen, and the cleaning up sucks but is a small price to pay for mother nature.

A poem for Lucas

I stumbled upon this beautiful poem and just had to share it :

I Wanted You More

I wanted to be rich

But I wanted you more.

So every time I paid the doctor's bill

I lightly stroked the tiny bulge

That was my priceless treasure -You.

I wanted to live a life of passion

But I wanted you more.

And since you came to me

I've felt a love I've never known,

Flowing out of me

To you.

I wanted to see the world

But I wanted you more.

So I set aside my traveling

And discovered a world
Right outside my door,

Through your eyes.

I wanted to be carefree

But I wanted you more.

And now I spend my days

Looking at clouds and chasing butterflies

And losing myself

In your laughter.

I wanted so many things

And I got them all,

Because I wanted you.

~ Barbara Nicks

My little copycat

Citroen has a slew of new adverts on TV, all featuring Sebastien Loeb saying " I LOEB (while pointing at himself) gagne (winning).
Lucas started imitating the advert; he improvises and says I LOEB MAMA! and points to himself. Sometimes he says I LOEB BooBoo, and he also says I LOEB PAPA.

Nothing compares to hearing your child tell you he loves you - its music to my ears and is like a ray of sunshine peeking from behind the clouds! Especially when it comes with a big hug :)

CNY Reunion dinner

It is an important tradition for chinese all over the world to have the family get together for a feast the night before the Lunar New Year.

As we are far from my family and friends this year I decided to make steamboat for my MIL and her partner, Roger. I'd shipped over a steamboat contraption and have yet to try it.

This year the Lunar New Year also coincides with Valentine's Day so its a double celebration for us. I asked for red tulips instead of the predictable red rose; and got some beautiful tulips from Fred.

I'd started on the soup for the steamboat early so by the time dinner came around the soup was already nice and tasty. My MIL turned up without Roger who was not feeling well as he'd started his radiation therapy for his cancer. This is my MIL's first chinese steamboat, and I'd set the table with new blue and white chinese cutleries (from China, naturally) and chopsticks.

For the steamboat, I added tiger prawns, unpeeled straw mushroom, sliced chinese mushroom, pork, chicken, tofu, chinese cabbage, mussels, crabstick, calamari and fish. After we finished eating we added egg noodles into the soup. Lucas was on his best behavior last night. He loved the soup. He drank a lot of my soup which was liberally laced with chilli.

We have a lot of food leftover which we will have today. Fred said we should have invited a few other friends and I had to remind him that our table only sits 4. When we move to Auch mid year we will have a big reunion dinner there to usher in the year of the Rabbit instead.

I found rambutans and pinepple in a can and we had that for dessert. After that (so typical french) we had yoghurt and coffee.

Lucas was happy as he was allowed to stay up til 9 p.m and he slept throughout the night (thanks to the antihistamine the doctor gave for his cold) waking up only at 8 this morning!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

I am waiting to see which of my friends will send me some long yok and pork floss for Chinese New Year...

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

Missing all the CNY goodies, family and friends in Malaysia.
Missing going to buy CNY decorations in Chinatown.
Missing pomelo bath on CNY day.
Missing the kuaci from TMC.
Missing reunion dinner.
Missing numerous loh sang with friends.
Missing mandarin oranges.
Missing giving ang pows.
Missing the empty streets of KL during the CNY holidays.
Missing the gambling sessions where I always lose my hard earned money.
Missing get togethers at friends' homes.

CNY is making me homesick...

Winter is here!

Winter has finally arrived at Tarbes. Today is one of the coldest days this year in Tarbes - at least to me, it is.
When I left for my french class yesterday it was -4 degrees with strong wind chill. It was snowing tiny little granules of snow - perfectly formed little round balls that were so beautiful to look at. Needless to say I was frozen by the time I walked into my class. My Russian classmates were laughing at the thunderous expression on my face when I walked in - they know this is my first French winter and like to tease me about the cold.

Thursday afternoons are my time off from Lucas for a couple of hours, so after dropping Lucas at the creche, I went to the Asian Grocer in town to see if they had some CNY stuff. The owners are Laotian Chinese but are not big on CNY. However I was delighted to find fresh tofu (I asked where its from, and got a weird look back and a curt "France") and ham choy (pickled vegetables). The tofu was a bit expensive - I paid 3,50 euro and the ham choy (from Thailand) was 2 euro.
I also bought honey pomelo from LIDL for 1,49 euro which I thought was a steal until I opened the pomelo today and found that it was rotten inside. What a huge disappointment! I am going to go exchange it for another one tonight.

If I thought yesterday was cold, today was farking cold (pardon my french... hehehehhehehe).  And according to the meteo, its going to get even colder this weekend so the CNY steamboat was a great idea after all!

I hope that Roger will be able to make it for dinner tomorrow night. His cancer has come back with a vengence and has spread to his brain. He is getting forgetful and has recently twice, lost his house keys and once he got locked out with a pot of pasta boiling on the stove last week. He is still upbeat and optimistic and is adamant that no one treats him like an invalid. He has not let his sister or his daughter know about his condition and wants to keep it that way. In a lot of ways we are also his family as he is the only paternal grandfather Lucas has ever known, and we see him a lot more than his daughter or sister.

Roni's Top 10 Chinese New Year treats

1) Bee Cheng Hiang's long yok (barbeque pork slice), chinese sausage and pork floss
2) Mom's pineapple tarts
3) TMC black watermelon seeds - totally addictive, buy an extra pack cos 1 is not gonna be enough!
4) Chinatown's salmon yee sang
5) Ah Yat restaurant pau yi (abalone)
6) Braised chinese mushroom with brocolli, pacific clams and fatt choy
7) Shredded turnip with shrimp and sotong and pork wrapped in lettuce
8) Nin gao with coconut or with yam & sweet potato slices
9) Mandarin oranges
10) Chye boi - my grandma used to make the BEST!!!!