Fiuggi

Fiuggi was last week-end destination. Spring in a thermal station with cherry blossom. I went with my friends from Dragona. As always a good learning experience, step by step I'll get there, no worries :). It was nice except the rain on Saturday afternoon and the traffic to get out of Rome.

Agrandir le plan

I even got fresh ideas for the next time someone asks me at an interview "What would your friends say about you?" radiosa, gioiosa, spontanea e speciale, really??! -the comment is not from me but I liked it, of course ;) - On the opposite my colleague calls me grumpy-little-one (actually because I don't smile when she is passing by. I try to be focused, she doesn't want to understand that...). I'm not all days in high spirits but yes, I am giving thanks to my God for what he has given me. One of my favorite passage lately is Psalm 40.

- Cherry blossom & 2/3 of Stefano's face -

- Fiuggi old town -

- Thermal parc -

Psalm 40 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.¹

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

³ He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

⁴Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

⁵ Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no-one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

⁶Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

⁷ Then I said, Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll.

⁸ I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.

⁹I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD.

¹⁰ I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.

¹¹Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me.

¹² For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails withinme.

¹³Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.

¹⁴ May all who seek to take mylifebe put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

¹⁵ May those who say to me, Aha! Aha! be appalled at their own shame.

¹⁶ But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, The LORD be exalted!

¹⁷Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay

Cricket

Parco Traiano (colosseo), Rome on a Sunday afternoon. Cricket playing, at least I guess its cricket... My first cricket match ever was 10 years ago in Bath. Then my brother learnt the basic rules but to be honest I never tried :) shame on me, I agree... but the life goes on even without knowing the rules of cricket.

Cherries

The challenge was "Could you please find me bottled cherries?"
Mission impossible???
We are in Rome. March 2010. deadline in 5 days.

I first checked the local supermarkets. Nothing... italians don't eat conserved fruits. You can maybe find fruit salad, ananas or pears (not even peaches - NdA pour faire des pêches au thon :( . What about cherries?

I was more thinking about germans or nothern european countries. But it was not quite that... A rumanian friend told me that I should try the polish shop. So I asked my colleague if she could drop me off in Acilia (a suburb of Rome, 45 mins away from home, but don't worry I know the area as it is were is my church). I finally found a small busy shop held by two indians/bengalis (?) selling exoctic food and eastern european products... among all these shambles I could even get 3 jars of cherries in two varieties!


MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Aperitivo Romano

L'Aperitivo is an italian tradition. It is a pre-dinner drink with appetizers I like it very much and it also becomes a tradition among group of friends. As foreigner you will probably make of the aperitivo your dinner... In Milano we used to gather every Tuesday night for aperitivo. It was the best mean to build and keep the CEMS spirit alive. In Rome, we also have such a tradition on Thursday nights. Unfortunately good aperitivi in Rome are harder to find. After some trials our two favorite places are

FrEnI FrIzIoNi in trastevere
via del politeama 4 (piazza trilussa, trastevere) Roma
(+) buffet made of original salads, fruits, vegetables. price of 6 to 8 eur, for the drink + illimited buffet. in summer many people just sit on the wall of piazza trilussa.
(-) not really suitable in winter as there is not much sitting available inside. analcolic cocktails are random and nothing exceptional.

- The salad buffet -

- The barman, nice guy! artist in the art of vegetables sculpting. He asked for the portrait :) -

- Freni Frizioni -

DoppiO ZerO next to Ostiense/Piramide
via ostiense 68
(+) more pizza/pasta oriented. also dessert available. chic atmosphere. good choice of analcolics :)
(-) need to queue. (even tough we were lucky when we went there)

Missing france?

Les 3 choses qui me manquent de la France:

1. la culture, les expositions et événements gratuits, et surtout les livres (ça n'aura jamais le même goût de lire dans une langue étrangère)
2. la cuisine, les ingrédients et les choix des hypermarchés (jusqu'à maintenant je n'ai jamais trouvé une telle diversité dans un autre pays)
   
3. les villages fleuris, l'atlantique, les campings municipaux :)

et les 3 choses que je déteste:
euh non, il ne vaut mieux pas que je vous les dise...

===
I was just saying that the 3 things I miss most about France are:

1. culture, cultural events and above all books
2. cuisine, ingredients and the hypermarkets for their amazing offer where you can chose between 10 different types of compotes (just as an example)
3. countryside in general (the decorated villages, the atlantic ocean, the camping places...)
   

and that I'm not gonna tell you, what I dislike most (it wouldn't be fair...)

Lyon

I travelled to Lyon for a week-end end of February. It is the 3rd biggest city in France. It was and still is a commercial crossroads. It was my first time there and in that part of France. It had a really nice time there. What did I do? mmh, nothing special, hanging up with friends, walking and cycling around, meeting new people, studying the Bible, chatting and blablabla... :)

Rome was tasting different when I came back and still is. Actually it's strange but travelling might change the way you perceive or live your daily life. Usually when I come back from the Netherlands, I feel home when I'm waiting a cancelled train on the platform of Fiumicino :D listening to italians having so much to say on the phone... And maybe it made me realize that I still have lots of common points with the people having the same passport than me.

I hope you will enjoy a few pictures from Lyon,

- Lyon from la Fourvière (top of the hill) -
It was on the week-end on the Xynthia storm, mammamia what a wind!!!! I could hardly take any pictures...

- Old town and La Fourvière on top -

- Le Rhône ou la Saône, bouh! I don't remember -

- L'Hôtel de Ville. Was featuring a red cross pictures exhibition on one century of wars around the world. Interesting. -

Pour les novices

moi je vote pour la supply chain!

L'impossible glossaire

[ 23/03/10 ]

« Tambouille » de mots. Ce terme imagé est celui d'un expert - irrité -du secteur : on mélange tout à toutes les sauces, dit-il, même si le mot « logistique », qui couvre en théorie toute la gestion des flux de marchandises, y compris les transports, devrait être fédérateur. Or « logistique » comme « prestation logistique » est souvent employé en France dans un sens étroit de gestion d'entrepôts. Les organisateurs de la SITL n'ont pas osé retirer de leur acronyme le T de « transport » au profit du L de « logistique » tant la question fait toujours débat. Idem pour l'expression « supply chain » ou « supply chain management » qui devrait englober tous les maillons d'un flux de marchandises, mais reste souvent utilisé dans l'Hexagone pour les seuls systèmes d'informations nécessaires au pilotage de la chaîne. Ainsi, les mots du secteur varient selon les marchés, les métiers, les langues, les périodes, les entreprises… Personne ne connaît plus les ingrédients précis - car fluctuants -qui composent la formule d'un « intégrateur logistique », d'un « organisateur de transports », d'un « prestataire logistique », d'un « 3PL », d'un « freight forwarder » (ou « forwarder »), d'un « NVOCC », d'un « opérateur logistique », d'une « logistique contractuelle »… Il y a autant de recettes que d'utilisateurs. Pas un consultant, pas un service marketing qui ne veuille clarifier le brouet en apportant son grain de sel pour réécrire, avec un air de chef, sa définition, en l'assaisonnant de néologismes, d'anglicismes, d'additifs surdosés. Il n'y a pas deux glossaires, sauf ceux qui copient les autres, pour apporter les mêmes définitions des mêmes mots. On s'accorde à peu près seulement sur quelques termes offrant une assise juridique (mais qui varient d'une législation à une autre) comme « commissionnaire de transports » qui, en droit français, est tenu à une obligation de résultats, ou « transitaire » qui a une obligation de moyens ; ou sur quelques termes de base reconnus (« chargeurs », « messagerie », « expressiste »…). Pour le reste, le salmigondis est tel que même des experts, qui croient s'entendre entre eux, mélangent les casseroles. La bouillie enjolive parfois le menu de mauvais cuisiniers ! Il est temps que des organismes du secteur en France (l'Aslog, l'AUTF, TLF ou l'Afilog par exemple) ou, mieux, à l'international, s'entendent pour créer une commission terminologique permettant de faire le tri, de retrouver les vraies recettes des choux et des carottes et de redonner un zeste de transparence à la profession.

O. N., Les Echos

Birthday 25th

I love this picture... they are all so focused. Choosing THE best cake! However I must admit that they were really nice and tasty :)

I want the same for my birthday :D

21.marzo

les couleurs de mon week-end:

Premières fraises-chantilly 2010,
Bowling virtuel (sur wii),
Anniversaire 25 ans et vidéo du même 18 ans plus tôt,
Lecture sous le duvet,
Quiétude du samedi,
Marathon+ berlusconi+ anti-B= caribinieri+ esercizio+ guardia della finanza+ polizia dello stato,
Bulles de savon sur via del corso,
Néhémie chapitre 4,
Yeux brillants,
Shampoing à la banane,
Grève de skype - fb - emails,
...

Aujourd'hui...

un bus poussif, un départ pour Haïti, une date de baptême (le 23mai à confirmer), l'annonce d'une relation, la banane de 21h20, la potentielle découverte de l'endroit secret où l'on peut trouver des cerises en bocaux à Rome, des pleurs d'oignons douloureux ... and I am an

Happy Girl! =D

ma daiiiii

A famous italian gesture, by an italian and a belgian...

Al mare

Sunday afternoon at the port of Rome (Fiumicino). Sunny, nice, ended with an ice cream at the "borghetto dei pescatori"... I chose ricotta&pear, croccantini al miele + zabaione :q

Non ce n'est pas une promesse de mariage...

Didier (N+2) m'appelle dans son bureau.

- Vous souhaitez me voir?
- Non, vous parler. Vous pouvez même vous asseoir.
(je prends place)
- Votre contrat se termine bien à la fin du mois?
- Oui
- Quand avez vous commencé?
- le 5 octobre
- Voulez-vous rester?
- Oui
- Vous êtes bien sûre?
- Oui
- Combien de temps?
- le maximum, c'est-à-dire 5 mois
- Voulez vous prendre des vacances?
- Non, je n'avais pas prévu d'en prendre maintenant (en fait je suis stupide parce que j'aurai peut-être dû dire oui)
- Alors ce sera 25% - 75%
- Oui, je sais
- Mais alors pourquoi est-ce que vous m'avez laissé parler?
- Parce que je suis polie... :)
- Bien, alors je lance les procédures. (sous-entendu le contrat)
- Merci (et sourire :D)

Hunger Bytes

The World Food Programme is organizing a short video competition to spread the world about the hunger issue. Winner videos are really good! have a look...

the official competition website
http://www.wfp.org/hungerbytes

original article
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/youtube-drew-barrymore-select-2010.html

WINNING VIDEO


UNDER18 WINNER

Vuil and Glass

Vuil & Glass is a modern choreography by Conny Janssen with 8 cellist playing Philip Glass live. A fascinating 90 minutes for a really good performance of 4 couples of dancers accompanied by 8 cellists. If you have the chance to see it live, go! I loved it... the democratic choice was a wise one.

In the Rotterdam version, the stage was set up differently, there was no conductor and some sequences were slightly different than the ones presented in that video. Maybe because one dancer was injured.

Rotterdamse Schouwburg

When I went back in Holland a few weeks ago, we decided to do something special on saturday night. After several rounds of democratic negotiation we chose Rotterdam, the Schouwburg, modern dans and live cellists. It was really good!

- the entrance hall -

- the backstage -

- the graffiti café-

Festa della DonnA 2010

The 8th of March is the International Women's Day. You can be in favor, neutral or against it... You can celebrate or ignore it... You are a man or a woman and on that day, in Italy you should better be a woman! Apparently this day is more recognized in countries where there is less gender equality. On the other hand, I can still not position the role of italian women on a scale. It's something I don't fully understand. Anyway, good news for you if you travel in Italy around Women's Day is that the entrance to public museums will be free for you!! And that's pretty cool, two years ago I visited the UFFIZI in Florence for free, this year I went to the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale (http://www.museorientale.beniculturali.it). Then the second tradition for the 8th of March is Mimosa. You shall better not be allergic! I woke up on Tuesday with mimosa on my door :) it just doesn't last long... At the canteen they even prepared special yellow dishes. And last funny anecdote for women's day is that it was a cold day. I arrive in the office and the chief was kissing every lady. However before our cheeks touch, the air charges up and I give him an electric discharge!

-my mimosa-

My day started with a kiwi. And then was made of 5 indians in black suit wearing the same tie (!), 800 Bill of Lading too much, 2x2 euros WFP coins, light brown soft sugar (mmmh de la vergeoise blonde), tropical rain and some work!

My week-end

My week-end in Lyon was made of special moments that are hard to word.

Wind&dust, velob', blue siesta, an old spanish storyteller, unexpected wiedersehen, lutte anti-ibuprofen, quiches^3, my father is called "Monsieur Grenouille", fruits collection... just to name a few...