13th June in Paris

In the past few month, I have been traveling a lot... a lot
My last trip was a basic shopping trip: Paris & Milan. Mostly Paris.
There is a place there that is a must-visit: Gallery Lafayette

I didn't say that it's a must visit because it is the greatest, the biggest and the most fancy department store in the whole Paris.
I say that because it seems like... all tourists are drawn to this place only. I was there on a fine afternoon and the dept store was flooded with human

People are queuing for a fancy bag, having a big-built 'bouncer' to let people in and out (when they already made purchase). People are queuing for a tax refund paper works, and more people queuing for getting the tax refund on the premise

It is very interesting to examine the behavior...
It is so easy to see which country prosper this year. Most of the people there are Mainland Chinese.
A lot of them. Unlike HK-nese or TW-nese, I am NOT against anything about Mainland Chinese shopping spree. They have the right to spend whatever theirs. Won't judge, I am glad for them.

But seriously, that place was super crowded, the department store should have done something about it. It's just not comfy anymore.

Retreated from the hustle and bustle of the busy and chic Paris, I end up sitting at the corner Gallery Lafayette's Gourmet department - enjoying my quiet Bday soba, with Mom.
There goes another year... Happy Bday myself :)

Verbal War

I just started my own project last month, my personal project in addition to my folk's established biz.

Making my own home furniture line. Still in progress, seriously I dunno if it will be successful or not.

But I really wanna give it a try.

One day, on an unavoidable occasion, my competitor came up to me...

         Comp: I heard you are starting your own line?

             Me: Yeah, just trying

         Comp: Who do you hire?

             Me: People from Java ---> this's a very mainstream answer!

         Comp: It will not work, trust me, you better stop it

                    You cannot beat the pro-s. Just stop it. You will lose money

             Me: Ugh, yeah, you are right. I just wanna finished what I started.

         Comp: Just don't start your own line. You won't survive. [he kept on repeating few times]

              Me: Thank you for your advice

I don't believe that my line will be completed flunk. It will work, I just dunno how smooth it is gonna be.
I need to stay low, no point picking a cat-fight with the dude. Even if I win this argument, the only thing that changed would be our sour biz relation. Don't wanna waste my breath.

As I said before, I just wanna test the water. If I can do it, why not.

The competitor, was trying to sink me every now and then, VERBALLY.

Here is what I wonder, I can see how upset he is when he asked me about the new line, he even complained why we rebuilt our shop (It was destroyed during earthquake, rebuilding is a common sense)

And I can see how satisfied he is when I said, “Yeah... maybe it won't work.”

The things is, everything is said verbally...

When he said things won't work, my product doesn't immediately gone to trash can

When I said, maybe it won't work.... It doesn't mean that the production immediately ceased

We had tonnes of similar conversations, where he asked me to just stop trying, step back and even... stop selling at all. He had bad business last year, he put the blame on me.

I was stuck for days with this dude. On each conversation, he deliberately, without shame, wanted me to suffer.

Again, all words coming from his mouth. Just random voices coming from his mouth.

Looking from another angle, I do realized how silly it is.

___

But then, I also realized, I might be in the same boat as him... in the case of jealousy and sensitivity.

I find it very annoying when I see b*tches showing themselves off on FB. Of course, I am not stupid enough to be bitter on FB. For example: When I see the B writing, "Look at my post-pregnancy body, oh so fat!" tagged in a super tight dress pic. It doesn't immediately changed me into a fat whale. Those writings won't change anyone's body. Why do I feel jealous and annoyed? WHY???!!!

I am totally aware of my feeling, I just can't help it.

When Cinderella failed to Charm

Haven't been writing for ages now.
Many things had happened, but I was trying to embrace it by just 'seeing' ... to see the emotion, the rising and falling of it.
Sometimes it is successful, sometimes it didn't
Sometimes I just go blank and vent out my negative emotion --> bad bad me!
Need a lot of practice... and a lot of support from my dear one

Maybe this writing won't help much in my practice. but I just wanna write down my opinion
Dear one won't be glad about this, I bet. Haha

In the past few days, I was totally annoyed by the fact, I am the only one annoyed of this particular situation.

CINDERELLA
Every girl grew up with a version of Cinderella, from the young age we were planted with this Cinderella software. Life is hard and cruel, and you wish for a luck - a fairy Godmother who arranges everything for you, to land a Prince Charming in front of you. And Price Charming happened to be a Prince owning a Kingdom, rich, nice, handsome etc... happened to be deeply in love with you. And you live happily ever after.

We all know that it is a fairytale. As much as I or the rest of the world wanted to have this exact story line, I choose to live on my own feet.
Well, at least I choose to "work it out" rather than waiting for a Prince.

So, I was in a situation where I am stuck. A scenario where I was supposed to be (one of) the fairy godmother - pathing a way for Ella to her Prince Charming.
Since Ella is so desperate, she managed to have troops of fairy godmothers doing the job. I refused to be part of this conspiracy.
Ella put her life into a bet:  her dignity,  family, career, and bank account on the gambling table. She landed herself into the Prince's Kingdom and waiting for Prince Charming to turn her into Princess
She was eye-ing on not just one Prince Charming, but 2 or maybe more. Well, all are Princes... so whichever she able to grabbed. Good enough.
She failed.
And became a miserable Cinderella... the story didn't end in "... and they lived happily ever after"

I am very much annoyed that, she openly announce her mission - looking for a (?) rich Prince Charming.
Openly. Meaning everybody knew it. Including the Princes. And the rest of the world.

Yet, people supported her.
Almost everybody supports her, all based on the ultimate excuse:
           "She just wanted a better life" 
           "What is wrong with pursuing her dream? Everyone have the right to have a better life"
           "Why is the Prince so cruel, Can't he see that Ella was desperate?"

We all want a sudden struck of luck. Even Kim Kardashian need to do something to be that famous and rich!
Let's be realistic!

Ok. Maybe I am not so annoyed. I pity her too.
I am just questioning the sanity of my surrounding.
No one actually see "selling soul for money" as a bad thing... it is acceptable. Selling oneself for wealth is totally acceptable & considered common practice now? WTF??!!!
Am I the only one swimming against the current?

OK... now back to my rising and falling.
May this fall and never rise again

another dive

me & Patrick. Yet to find Bob

Had my 2nd diving trip last week, wasn't entirely successful as I was really drained out from multiple traveling in the past week. I end up having 4 dives rather than planned 5 dives, as I was throwing up at the end of 4th dive. Not only that, I had numbness and cramps on my hands, chest & feet. Particularly on my hands, I couldn't even wipe myself from the puke. Yucks!!! 
Probably I shouldn't blame it all to my stamina, the weather wasn't very friendly too. That day, we were to have 2 simultaneous dive, we couldn't have the surface time on the boat since the boat was rocking badly, so I end up swimming in lagoon as a "resting" time. Did it without a snorkel for 1 hour, and then continue on 2nd dive. I survived the dives, but I guess it really soaked up my energy.

I asked a doctor about how serious my condition was, she said it is just "lack of salt". I realized that I didn't drink much water (as I refrained from peeing in the sea), thus leaving me dehydrated, electrolytes in my body can't move around much. Ok, next time... I am sorry Sea, need to pee on you 

my new gadgets!!!

Not all bad. This is the first time I put my dive computer on the test. She looks so cool!!!
Also, I was so lucky to see humpback whale passing when we were on the boat! So grand and beautiful. Hope to see more of them around.
And I also have my own camera this time. Not new at all, it's my old waterproof Lumix, and my dive-instructor happened to have a spare Lumix housing for me to test-on. It didn't fit well, my camera was older by 1 generation. But at least, it take some shots!!! The shots were totally OK when my instructor took it, but super blurry when I took it :(  I still need to improve stillness underwater.

Giant Clam taken with Lumix, not too bad, rite?

Here is what's happening at the resort during my visit. I didn't help, though. It was over before I started. Maybe next time. 

Certified!

Certified
Now I only need to find some time to get it into use :)

Bliss

Hippo & Dragon

Made this 2 plush when Nara was away. A hippo & a dragon.
The dragon was made with all scrap material. All batik. Even the spike on her tail are made from batik :)

Hippo was made with all new material, I love how the damask pattern sit perfectly. Who would have known such pattern fits for a hippo!!!

Catch of the Day

Personally, I don't like killing a creature, any creature

During the last dive trip, I saw some senior divers carry spears for their dives, they hunt for fishes

At first, I kinda feel awkward about, I don't think killing is right, yet they need to feed us all

To my surprise, they don't always come back with a catch. Once they just got a medium sized lobster, which hardly feed us all, another time empty handed, and another time got 2 fishes as in the pic. 

We talked about the fish hunting, the instructor mentioned that, some people opposed hunting/spearing fishes for food --> sounds  exactly like me

Yet, people easily buy kilograms of shrimp from fishermen without any guilt. He said, shrimps/prawns are not hunted, they are caught by net. Netting means it will trap and suffocate whatever comes to it. Anything that goes to the net will die, even if it is a turtle. Too many lives sacrificed just for one kind of creature that we desired. Things like tiny crabs, or tiny fishes that do not have economical value will be tossed back to the ocean. Dead. Useless.

He also mentioned about certain kind of fish that he would not eat, because those fishes are not speared, netted or caught by bait - it is by poisoning the fishes. For example, fishes that only eat corals, netting would be hard to be used on corals, yet fishing baits won't attract them; so, they just pour poison from surface and the poor poisoned fishes would float for easy harvest. I then realised, it is true that the certain kind of fish, he mention, really exists in the fish market. Who would have known it is by caught by poisoning (again, a lot other creatures would also died)

While, he said, spearing fish means they aimed for a certain kind of fish - of course, the one that palatable. One at a time, no mass killing or overfishing. And it also means not (directly) harming any other creature that is not the target. They only get 1 or 2 fishes that is enough for the day. Just like the picture.

And, in our dives, we saw a lot of grouper (see pic), all with different patterns and colours. He also mention not all grouper are palatable, some are so rubbery if cooked making it undesirable or impossible to consume. The red grouper in the pic is apparently very nice according to Mom. Aha! I never knew that. I know sometimes, some fishes are less nice. That's all.

It gives me a new perspective, I understand we do need to kill for food, it is very natural. 

But, we need to kill responsibly, not just killing whatever and leave them dead without serving any purpose. 

Me Dive!!!

I just couldn't help it. Need to show off my new experience. Hopefully, I can master it bits by bits :)
Always been fascinated by underwater world shown at NatGeo. Always wanted to see it myself. Now I did!!! Wohooo!!!
Swimming with turtles...
Touching puffer fish...
Saw a lot of tropical fishes that you can only see on TV

And all these beauties are just 30 mins from home. Can you believe it? I should have known sooner!!!

Here I share some of the pics :)

me, underwater :)

couldn't believe this heaven is just a step away from home

Standing on the other side - The Humanity Side

Adm. Tadashi Maeda 
This article was featured in printed version of KOMPAS, on 30th Sep 2014. 
The first time I read this article, I didn't think of much, except the part that Adm. Tadashi Maeda lived poorly that he packed the flight-meal. Is he that poor? I didn't read it carefully, when I want to re-read it, I realised the whole bunch of Dad's Kompas is already gone, maybe sold to flea market.

But then, I kept thinking more and more about it. This guy suddenly stuck in my mind. Had a hard time searching about him on the net. Check out this wiki link. Nothing. I also couldn't find the article anymore on the kompas.com . Until my brilliant friend, AD told me I should have called Kompas. Damn, they are good, all I need is mentioning the keyword, and voilà.... the article is sent to my inbox. How cool is that?

The reason why I was looking for this particular article, cause, I got me thinking, as why did Adm.TM choose to assist Indonesia, rather than sticking to the order of Japan Emperor. In other word, why did he choose to defend an-alien-race, rather than his own race?
His decision tickles me.
He didn't deny his identity as a Japanese, he actually went back, stayed, grew old and died in Japan.
He acted based on his own risky decision, as a military personnel - following superior order is a must, he didn't. Not following an order is a thing, but "betraying" one's own identity to protect/assist/defend an alien race is bigger thing. One need to have a strong principle to commit such decision.

Why Adm.TM is special, because apart from his personal preferences, he has no other attachment in this country. He didn't have an Indonesia wife, or anything. (Some other deserted Japanese soldiers choose to stay because of personal attachment). Adm.TM could just leave the country and forget whatever happened previously, it is never his personal responsibility anyway.

I am not sure if he ever regret it, I am pretty sure most Japanese do not agree his action. Worse part is that Indonesian don't even appreciate his "life-changing" contribution. What do we remember him for? Lending his house for Mr.Sukarno to type the Independence  speech? Is that all?
When I was looking up for his article, I couldn't find anything... nothing... all article on the net only mention about the Indonesian Independence Day, and Adm. TM is just a mere name mentioned once with no other significance.

Abraham Lincoln
Assassinated for erasing slavery, sounds like an honourable way to die. But it was not, for a lot of people who own slaves at that time. As a white man, as someone who grew up in poverty, if AL then grew up to be someone who utilise his wealth to become a snob and abusive person - it would be 'acceptable'; you know, taking a revenge of what he lacked before. But he didn't.
He died fighting for the freedom of the blacks - a race they once see as lower class. The price that he need to pay was dear. Living in fear, after several assassination attempts, he died -  for believing that human being, despite of their race, should be treated equally.
Some South people still have traces of hatred towards the black freedom, the discrimination is not 100% gone. Although AL died from what he always believe in, his sacrifice have changed a lot of lives, not just for the black, but for other coloured races.


Fatal Encounter
Watched this movie, thought it was a nice one, until I googled up. Damn!!! It is based on true story, true story of Prince Jeongjo. Go read up the synopsis, watch this video.
 I find it interesting, the royal eunuch - who really is an assassin: trained, castrated, and planted in the palace to serve the Prince, to one day kill the Prince; at one point, changed his mind, "betraying" his "Master". And at the end, the-once-was-assassin, after witnessing his prey's good nature, became the one who convinced the Prince that he, one day, be a good King. Historically, King Jeongjo was recognised in good manner.
The part about the King, the assassinations (apparently there were plenty), the palace intrigues, even the ironic death of King's father... all were written in the history. Not sure about "the royal-eunuch-turned-hero" part. But it is surely a touching plot.
Note: The video's subtitle might not be totally accurate, but you will get the idea :)

It is very natural that in society, we act differently to different races, not always because of discrimination. Sometimes just out of habit, we tend to gather with our own kind, being ignorant of others' well-being.  Maybe about another human being, another race, another social status or even another living creatures.
I still wonder about Adm Tadashi Maeda & Abraham Lincoln, how I adore their courage to stand for what they believe in. No matter what the consequences are.

But above all, I wanna point out is, that defending an unpopular principle - no matter how correct and noble it is, might not bring fame and fortune, it might even bring misery and death.
It is a personal choice, a choice to go against the current, against the flow, against the world - it is a choice to stand on the other side: The Humanity Side