Posts Tagged "Daily Life"

The power of suggestion

Posted by vienna on Sep 22, 2009 in People and Places, This and That | 3 comments

I don’t believe in horoscopes, palm reading, and all sorts of ways to predict the future but once in a while I would read my horoscope just for amusement. Sometimes, specially when my horoscope says something good, I would like to believe it. For example, when it says something about acquiring money (hahaha), I’d try to think about how and when will I get the money, where or whom will I get the money from, etc.  My brain will immediately evoke things then put two and two together to fulfill the prediction.  That is what they call the power of suggestion.

Last Friday, we dined in a Chinese restaurant with our good friend, Eugene. He is also a colleague of my husband. We meet at least once a week to dine or have a drink somewhere. Last Friday, we decided to eat in a Chinese restaurant to break the monotony of our “pizza nights”. Right after the meal, we were given fortune cookies. It was my first time! Imagine after living three years in China and after having eaten several times in countless REAL Chinese restaurants, I just receive my first fortune cookie in Austria! I think the “fortune cookie thing” is a Western thing disguised as an Asian thing.

So anyway, let me amuse myself and let’s go back to our fortune cookies. After I’ve eaten mine, I was reminded of Eggnog (not the alcoholic drink but the Philippine cookie). The fortune cookie I got tasted exactly like that (I like that cookie very much).  Then there was a small piece of paper where the fortune is and the one I got says “Someone is speaking well of you.” Hmmm… my brain suggested that this “someone” could be my boss who is definitely selling me good to parents of prospective pupils. My husband got “Your success will be improved each year.” He just got a promotion last July (also one last year) so it could mean that the fortune is late or it could also mean that he’ll be promoted again next year (whew!). Then Eugene got “A firm friendship will prove the foundation on your success in life.” He is good friends with my husband and if my husband gets promoted each year, it could also be good for him (hahaha).  I was not only able to see what will happen but I was also able to fit their fortunes together (*wink).

Back home some people believe that when a person gets a fortune and tells it to another person, the fortune will not happen. It’s like a counter-fortune if you let another soul know about it and that’s exactly what I just did.

Quick Fix

Posted by vienna on Mar 3, 2009 in Home and Family | 2 comments

***Entry written sometime in December:

Both of us have been busy all throughout the week so nobody went to buy groceries. Normally, that is my job but because my class is coming to an end and there are some important papers to prepare and exams to think about, Marcus didn’t complain when he couldn’t find anything in the fridge worth eating.

For two days, food came in from home delivery services of various restaurants but on Sunday, we realized that we have spent so much on home deliveries and tips therefore we decided to just cook our own food. Marcus volunteered to go buy some stuff but decided against it later that day. He was feeling lazy. I didn’t insist on him going out because I myself was also feeling lazy that day but before we even thought of succumbing to ordering another pizza, I decided to look in the kitchen for anything and there I found pasta. We were out of tomato sauce but I was lucky to find that quick carbonara fix I didn’t know we still have.

And that saved us from our lazy selves.

I am done for the day

Posted by vienna on Feb 27, 2009 in Home and Family | 7 comments

So I am now taking a break… that means I have this short time to publish a short entry.

*piles of boxes in our guestroom, dining room, and living room

The picture shows how far I am with the packing and I am pleased because I think I was able to catch up with my packing schedule today. That means, I can have a relaxing weekend.

I was also able to book and have our flights confirmed (finally!).

I will be leaving on the 6th of March and that means no blogging until I am back. After our trip, we’ll go back to Shanghai and fly from here to Austria.

Five boxes down, twenty-five more to go

Posted by vienna on Feb 26, 2009 in Home and Family | 1 comment

I planned to pack at least three boxes a day so today I should have nine boxes done already because I started two days ago but obviously I am four boxes behind.

Aside from packing, there are other things I have to do like book our flights (for our last tropical holiday for this year) and hotels, buy some more cheap stuff here so we don’t have to buy the same stuff in Europe for 10 times the (China) price. I also have to worry about the receipts and invoices showing that we spend all the “8K Euro moving money”. I don’t exactly know how they call that but that’s what I call it. This money is given to expats for their house/moving expenses but at the end of the year/contract, expats should be able to show evidence that they spend this money on their house expenses otherwise they will have to pay taxes for this money.

So anyway…. I am swamped!

That upcoming tropical holiday better be good.

There is One Thing

Posted by vienna on Nov 17, 2008 in People and Places, This and That | 0 comments

I was just talking about cultural differences between me and my husband in my other blog when I finally thought of something.

So anyway, we do have minor difficulties sometimes and most of them are pretty common to married couples but there is one particular thing that I think is unique to couples in an intercultural marriage and that is the problem on what food to eat. To date, most of our petty quarrels are about food. You see, I am an Asian. Three days without eating rice makes me feel like I am going to die soon and my husband feels the same if he can’t have potatoes or bread (good ones). When I can, I prepare two sets of meals (Asian and Western) but most of the time, I can’t. Now that I am attending a German class that runs every day from 1:00-5:30 pm, I don’t have the luxury of time to prepare two sets of meals so I can just prepare either Western or Asian. To make the matter worse, my husband is very choosy when it comes to food. So sometimes when I prepare Asian food and he doesn’t like it, he won’t complain but he won’t touch it either. Instead, he will find other things to eat. Sometimes, he’ll settle for chips and mini salamis for dinner! First I’d feel sad because he won’t eat what I cooked then afterwards I’d feel guilty because he doesn’t have a decent dinner when he comes home from a whole day of work.

Other than this particular cultural difference, I cannot think of anything else that gives us problems.