- Home
- Picasa Pics test
- Pics ’09
- CES 2008
- Thia's 3rd Birthday
- New house Again – Feb 08
- Unboxing Mac Book Air
- Def Leppard – Apr 08
- Macworld – Jan 08
- Camp Freddy @ The Roxy – Week 1 – May 08
- Camp Freddy @ The Roxy – Week 5 – May 08
- Camp Freddy @ The Roxy – Week 2 – May 08
- Camp Freddy @ The Roxy – Week 3 – May 08
- Iron Maiden – May 08
- Jeff, Ben Harper and The Nightwatchman
- Nine Inch Nails @ Forum – Sep 08
- Acoustic Camp Freddy in Malibu – Oct 08
- Welcome Sophia – Nov 08
- Metallica @ the Forum – Dec 08
- Dodgers NLCS Game 1 – Oct 09
- JPL TweetUp – Jan 09
- Thia's First Halloween – Nov 07
- Disneyland with Mum – Oct 07
- Mum in LA – Oct 07
- LA Invasion – Sep 07
- Our move to Toluca Lake – Sep 07
- New House in Toluca Lake – Aug 07
- Our house in Montrose – Jul 07
- Thia’s First Day at School – Jun 07
- Saturday in Santa Monica – Feb 07
- Montrose: Our new home in California – Feb 07
- Office – Feb 07
- Thia Is 2 – Feb 07
- First Home in California – Feb 07
- Office Leaving Do – Jan 07
- Pics Archives
- Trip to Santa Barabara, San Luis Obispo and Hearst Castle – Dec 07
- Xmas Day – Dec 07
- Getting ready for Christmas – Dec 07
- Leaving Drinks – Jan 07
- Goodbye Little Flat – Jan 07
- Temporary Housing In London – Jan 07
- Packing Our Flat – Jan 07
- Tenacious D – Dec 06
- Good Bye Tour Recap – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Last Day – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Day 5-6-7-8 – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Day 4 – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Day 3 – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Day 2 – Dec 06
- France Good Bye Tour Day 1 – Dec 06
- Tokyo – Sep 06
- Seattle – Aug 06
- Cocker Band Reunion – Aug 06
- Vacations in Uzes – Jul 06
- Kate & Alexis – Wedding – Jul 06
- England vs. Portugal at the Frog – Jun 06
- Foo Fighters in Hyde Park – Jun 06
- Germany ’06 France vs. Switzerland – Jun 06
- Germany ’06 France vs. Switzerland (B&W) – Jun 06
- Caro & Momo – Jun 06
- About Me!
Thia’s last day as a preschooler
Jul 9th
It might have been a little bit over 3 years ago, but it seems to me that it was only yesterday that Thia got up in that sunny summer morning and got ready to go to preschool (called pre-K here) for the first time. We were then barely getting used to live on this side of the pond and still trying to ind our marks.
3 moves and only one school later, Thia is attending today her last day as a pre-schooler. She graduated a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed some summer camps activities. Her plan for the day is a school safari, sharing donuts with friends and offering flowers to her teacher.
Next steps: Her first real break, the real kindergarden, next to our new house shall welcome her on August 12th…
Over these three years, she made so many new friends, who in their turns helped us make new friends (their parents), she learned to count, spell, write and a million other fun things.
Thanks to Mr Johnny, Ms. Peggy, Ms. Rocky, Ms. Tati, Ms. Yolanda, Ms. Candy, Ms. Waffa at Joyce’s Toluca Lake Pre-School and Ms. Kim at Kinder Care Learning Center as well as all of the ones I don’t remember the names right now…
Loulou is next, and believe me dear teachers, that will be another level of fun!
Visiting Europe – Part 2: Los Angeles – London – Lille – Langres within 36 hours
Mar 30th
Part 2 - November 23rd – 2:00pm – November 25 – 8:00pm.
This is it. We are on our way to the airport and from there, on our way to London. The weather in Los Angeles is great and we already know that we might not see the sunshine for a couple of days, maybe even weeks but who cares: We are on our way to renew our visa and see our families while over there. We still have Thia’s passport issue to get resolved but we now have a plan: As soon as we land in London, we rush to my little brother Jef’s place, his cleaner will be waiting there for us and so we can drop some of our bags, get his car keys, got to the Disney office, put Thia in a photo booth in the Hammersmith shopping center and get a Disney lawyer to certify the pictures. From there, easy, we drive to Dover and hop on the Shuttle, go to France and have dinner with my big brother Serge at his place.
Well, that WAS the plan! We did follow it by the letter, sadly not all of the parts fell into places. Actually, none did! This trip’s curse was now in full effect!
So here we are, in lovely Acton town, at the bottom of a council block, with all our bags, 2 over tired kids (Sophia didn’t sleep through the flight), in the rain, with Thia complaining about how cold the place is… Our driver dropped us there (after much complaint about the amount of bags and car seats) and disappeared. Then the long list of setbacks started:
- Jef’s cleaner wasn’t there. Her brother, however, who “doesn’t live far, will be with you momentarily to open the door”, is. Momentarily? More like 15 minutes in the rain…
- Sarah couldn’t find Jef’s car parked somewhere in one of the 10 car parks around the various buildings. Add 20 minutes of fun in the rain…
- Traffic in London really sucks but we made it to Hammersmith. At this point, we are already 30 minutes late on our tight schedule to catch the shuttle in time.
- While I am finding a lawyer at Disney and saying hello to everybody, Sarah rushes downstairs and tries to get Thia in a photo booth, while catching up with Alex, one of Sarah’s best friends. Well, the only one working that day had a broken seat, so Thia’s pictures are a fail for her new passport. Option B is to use the pictures prepped for her Visa application and get them signed by the lawyer. Issue there? Thia will now HAVE to attend the Visa interview as well. At this point, we couldn’t care less as the Visa interview seems so far away.
- Finally, we are ready to leave. It is dark outside. It is rush hour. We’re stuck in traffic. We have no chance to make it to the shuttle in time.
- GPS in Jef’s car had a new “Recompute route due to congestion”. While it did sound great at first, after 4 route changes, we did end up driving on a tiny 2 lanes road, half the size of our street in Burbank, going towards the South West, while our real destination is South East. We reset the bloody GPS and ended up driving back towards London before finally going in the direction of Dover!
- At this point, rain is now heavy and driving is difficult. Sarah is tired. The girls are hungry. The mood in the tiny car is fabulous!
- Finally, the shuttle! We’re only a couple of hours late but make it to the next shuttle towards France at the time we were meant to sit down around a table and share dinner with the family
The shuttle trip itself is fab. The girls have the time get out of their seats and Thia enjoys being in a car, in a train, in a tunnel, under the ocean, all of it at the same time!
Finally, France! It is so late! We are exhausted, hungry and only 40 miles away from our goal for the day. The GPS doesn’t sent us off piste this time, but the rain has now turned into a storm. Finally, around 10:00pm, we made it to Serge, who had patiently waited for us before eating a fantastic “Boeuf Bourguignon”. All the girls finally passed out and went to sleep, I stayed behind for an hour or so, fighting jet lag and catching up with my big bro.
The night is short. We get up, re-pack our 5 suitcases (we totally invaded Serge and Sylvie’s living room and Kitchen) and have a copious breakfast made of French delicacies. Loulou then simply decides that she has adopted her uncle Serge and she refuses to be anywhere else than on his knees. I have so far never seen her be that close to anyone…
And here ends our 10 hours bubble of peace in Armentieres. Time to hit the road once more.
Armentieres – Langres is a fairly simple drive. 300 miles of freeway from one end to the other. Easy! Well, easy when the weather is fine, but believe or not, from the second we started the engine of the car, the sky opened and a storm followed us during each step of the trip. Visibility is close to null, exhaustion is at max level. A fantastic trip! Finally, after 6 hours (and not the usual 3 1/2), we made it to Langres, almost right in time to go for an early dinner before everybody passes out.
Even Loulou is shattered and cannot resist sleeping while at the restaurant. But we made it. We are in Langres, with my parents, for a whole 2 1/2 days of peace and relaxation, as long as we can forget for a couple of minutes about the Damocles sword above our head that is Thia’s new passport issue…
Goodbye and Good Riddance DirecTV!
Mar 24th
I know, once again I am running months behind updating this blog, but work, travels, our imminent move and my two little devil girls have once more taken most of my time.
So, instead of waiting and thinking of posting one day, I should simply beat the iron whilst it’s hot…
I have been a fervent DirecTV subscriber for well over 2 years (almost since we moved to the US) and a beta tester of most of their “cutting edge” services for almost as long. As you know, we are about to move to our brand new house and have decided to change provider and switch to AT&T U-Verse as their service is almost pre-plumbed in our house, so I have decided to try U-Verse and leave DirecTV.
First, I can’t cancel my subscription online. They can take my money online, they can charge me online, I can upgrade my services but such a basic service, nope, please call us. No worries, I have plenty of time on my hands (not!).
The charming operator at first kindly offers me to match U-Verse price and is willing to give me a $20 a month discount for up to 12 months. Tempting, but no thank you, I have spent weeks reviewing my options, discussed it with both my colleagues from DirecTV and U-Verse and I have made up my mind. By next week, I want my service discontinued.
Seeing that I wasn’t taking the bait, the tone changed. “Well Sir, I have to review your account and your receivers and you will have to send them back to us”. Fair game except that I have purchased two of my 3 receivers at Best Buy. “But Sir, even if you purchased these receivers, you didn’t really purchase them. You bought them at a discount at Best Buy and leased them with us since…”. You mean like AT&T does subsidize iPhone and lock you into a 2 years contract? Bollocks to that!!!
Well, it doesn’t make sense but hey, do I really care? I was hoping I could sell the ones I bought on eBay but I won’t make a profit here. No big deal.
Actually, yes big deal! The lovely lady on the phone then explains to me that I bought my last HD Receiver less than 2 year ago and that there was a 2 years commitment attached to the device. A what? So…
- This is the first time I’ve heard of this, really. I would have remembered that definitely!
- You now turn the $20 discount per month into a $20 per month early termination fee for the next 7 months? ($140)
So basically, you first try to lure me into staying with you, then seeing that you can’t keep me, you spit in my face… I’ve known prostitute with more class than you DirecTV!
One thing that wasn’t specified to me is the state in which the Set Top Boxes have to reach DirecTV… I am wondering if any of my friends (@cruftbox, hint! hint!) would like to go for a shooting range session this weekend?!
Best in all of this is that at the end of the call, the lady in the phone declared that she was hoping I would change my mind and come back to DirecTV in the future… Really? Do you see that middle finger of mine? No? Look closer!
I then went on giving her my honest point of view and if anyone that works at DirecTV is reading this, I want to remind you that the calls can be recorded to training purposes so ENJOY!
Visiting Europe – Part 1
Dec 22nd
Last months, the family and I embarked in a 2 1/2 weeks long trip to Europe, our old home, to mainly renew our visas and spend some time with our family as close as possible to Christmas. We are now back in Burbank, SoCal and are legit for another 3 years at least but boy, was this trip a roller coaster! We’ve been back for 2 weeks and we are still recovering from both physical and emotional fatigue incurred during the trip.
I’ll try to share some of the highlights here over the next couple of weeks and will share how anything that could have gone wrong actually did go wrong…
Part 1 - November 22 – 8:00AM
It is Sunday morning, the sun is shinning and I am checking for the 100th time that our stack of paperwork for our visa interview in London is in order and that I have all documents together in one large bag. Last read of the check list provided by our immigration attorney from Disney and I realize that our passports all have to be valid for at least the duration of the visa. Quick check on mine. I’m good. Sarah. She’s good. Thia: Arg… Kids can only get passports that last for 5 years and she is now 4 1/2… Her French passport will expire sometime next year which means that she will be unable to have a visa embossed into it. Quick check on the British one. Same! This is a major roadblock and at that point, I even fear that we might have to cancel our whole trip!
One of the major issue for us for this trip is that following what we will call a misunderstanding between parties, Disney decided to not provide for the renewal of either Sarah or Alethia’s visa and we had to book them on airmiles which usually result in non-transferrable, non-exchangeable tickets. This fact could just have meant totally rebooking flights for the girls, rebooking visa interviews at the US Embassy, meaning potentially hitting the Xmas shutdown period and even worse, potentially ending up out of status (means illegal… not fun!).
An initial call to the French consulate resulted in a “Sorry Sir, zis iz no emergency, pleeze contact us tomorrow from 9:00am to 5:00pm”. Yup, none of us were either stuck in jail or victim of a natural disaster, I get it, but all I wanted was to know how fast I could get a new passport for Thia.
Sarah however remembered that somewhere in the UK system, there existed a way to get a passport renewed within a week, a day or even several hours. To good to be true! Sarah finds the phone number of the UK Passport office and we call them. After an hour of talking to both the passport office, Sarah’s mum and changing plans, we have an interview booked for next Friday (Nov 27th) in the Durham passport office at 11:00am which means that we should be good for our Monday morning visa interview in London. Only issue… we need to get some pictures of Thia certified by a lawyer as well as parts of the visa application form, as Thia will not be able to attend in person. And if anything would go wrong, we still had the Saturday to find another plan B (We had so many plans B during this whole trip).
Life can now resume. Things are a bit more complicated than planned but we still hope that everything we go smoothly and same as when we moved from London to Los Angeles, we might cut things awfully fine but we shall be OK in the end. We can now go back to our day and continue packing…
Burgers Face Off!
Oct 2nd
Every 4 to 6 weeks, my team hosts a technologists’ lunch at work. We used to call these lunches “Lunch 2.0″, but sign of the times, these are now known as “Brown Bag 2.0″, implying that each one of us has to bring some form of food to the table.
I have over the last 2-3 “brown bags” introduced some form of face-off between 2 similar types of food that the American Grand Cuisine has to offer and have so far covered the likes of Papa Johns vs. Domino’s Pizza (I’ll post it here as soon as I can locate the deck again) and KFC Grilled Chicken vs. El Pollo Loco…So last month, I decided to indulge myself to a premium burger face off. I have recently discovered the fantastic Portobello Mushroom Six Dollars burger at Carl’s Jr and have recently heard tons of commercials for the new McDonalds Swiss and Mushroom Angus 1/3 pounder burger, so I asked myself: “How does the McDonalds premium burger taste compared to the Carl’s Jr one?”. I have to admit that since we moved to the US, I have been almost exclusively eating fast food from either In’n Out burgers or Carl’s Jr. I tried twice to go back to good old McDonalds but the taste and the quality of what I got served here put me off it!
And so it begins, both contenders have entered the ring. On the left hand side, dressed in black, yellow and red, wearing its famous star , the Six Dollar Portobello Mushroom Burger [SDPMB] from Carls Jr. On the right hand side, dressed in white and brown, wearing its famous golden arches, the Angus Third Pounder Mushroom and Swiss Burger [ATPMS].
Robes are down and we discover both contenders “au naturel”. First immediate impression: Carls Jr SDPMB comes with salad, tomatoes and onions where McDonalds’ ATPMS harbors the bare minimum trimmings, as described in its name. Bread, burger, Swiss Cheese and Mushrooms… First impression: Carls Jr 1 – McDonalds 0
Getting closer and more personal, Carls Jr burger looks better, healthier (as if!!). The bread looks fresher, the salad adds to the color and the mushroom sauce is oozing off the bun. First bite: First. the mushrooms taste and the creamy sauce that comes with it. I still don’t know what this sauce is made of but it got me all addicted to it! Then the patty. Tender, grilled. and finally, the greens parts adding some freshness to the whole experience! I am in heaven! Probably the best burger I have ever eaten!
Turning now to the McDonalds contestant…. Sadly, we reach here Disappointment Central: the bread is soggy. The cheese feels like plastic. I know I didn’t eat the burger at the restaurant but drove 1/3 mile back home, took a couple of pictures before I started tasting, but there was no excuse for the cheese to feel like it had been mixed with savory chewing gum. Mushrooms are blend and honestly, the meat tastes greasy. I even had to force myself to eat 1/2 of the whole burger before trashing it and going back to my Carls Jr burger. Carls Jr 2 – McDonalds 0.
Or actually, switching to Judo, I would call for Ippon! (An ippon literally means “one point” and wins the match). Game Over! I tried… I really tried and I was almost hoping that McDonalds would have managed to come up with a good, quality burger, the same way you always want the poor little weak kid to end up being the strong hero in the end a girl flick! Well, no! They failed me miserably, once again and are now relegated to the lowest possible rank: Food I’d eat while drunk in London, after having failed finding a Kebab shop!





























