We travelled to Pandora and spent a few hours on the planet. Well, it looked like it and the inhabitants were all blue and able to jump very high. There even was an ikran, the biggest of all : Toruk.

We must thank the Cirque du Soleil for this great show based on James Cameron's film Avatar. To be honest, my wife and I went at least 5 times to the movies to watch it when it was released. We really like the world with its characters, animals, language and way of life. And we are impatient to watch the sequels which should start coming in 2021.  

 Today, I was invited to receive my french citizenship booklet at the prefecture de Beauvais/France, with all the relevant official papers.
It was a touching moment - as this is one episode in my life I have atteined through free will.
The funniest part actually was that we all had to sing the french national hymn. And to our surprise, we almost all knew the text  

 in a real small plane. I have to admit, that I know the Boeing or Airbus planes pretty well, as I did travel quite a lot for my job in the past (even now, I happen to take a plane from time to time). But this was the first official flight in a small Robin 400 airplane.
My little one wanted to come with me - so there she was.
The flight duration lasted around 30 minutes, but it felt nice to be in such a small plane again. Last time I flew with such a plane was in my youth (around 17Years old), and I still remember how it was back then. Small, agitated, but exiting and nice.
All in all a very day. 

 so - it is this time of the year again, when some little things need fixing. My car - Toyota Avensis T25 2006 - had its first repair (Injectors). It took the official car repair shop practically 3 weeks to figure out why I had so many cases when the engine went in fail-safe mode. They changed the Electric-Valve, the Rail and because it still went into fail-safe mode, finally the Injectors.
Of course they wanted me to pay for all of the parts, even though it was only the Injectors that were broken. Hence - I refused to pay for the Rail and the Electric Valve. After quite some negotiation, they accepted my reasons:
I don't pay for anything that is not necessary. The Rail and the Electric Valve are not broken, put them back in.

In the end it seemed to complicated apparently to change the electric valve - and they left it in, but put back the old rail. My car now flies again.

On the other hand - my better half told me that when using my car, she barely sees at night. I had that checked by the official car repair-shop from Toyota, and they acknowledged that these needed to be replaced, for 1320,- Euro *lol*
I thanked them and told them that I won't pay that sum for something, that apparently is a known construction flaw of the Xenon headlights of that model. It is a very known problem in Germany, however Toyota seems to handle this differently in France - the country where people are tagged second class citizen and they don't have to be "service" friendly.
I had expected Toyota to at least participate for the headlight parts, or at least send me new reflectors and lenses. They didn't.

Looking for alternatives I noticed that some folks had replaced the entire head-light units of their same cars with H7/H1 models. That's what I did. Ordered a bunch of headlights (for my car), and I finally found the time to replace these. Took me 3 hours for both sides (and I did not even take the original parts from Toyota - they were almost as expensive as the Xenon parts). So - for 200 euro incl. H7 bulbs (I could use all the other old ones from the Xenon lights) + 3 hours hands-on, I can now see at night again.  

 Amazing what little bit of sunny weather can do.

Up to now, the weather (since last autumn) was not really cold, but really wet. And because I'm a Sunny Weather Only Biker, I didn't feel like taking the bike out for a ride. This time though, 15C outside, and sun where ever you looked. I had to take my beast out - and while on the road I noticed that I was not the only one having had that idea!
Hopefully the weather will stay that way for a while.  

 So - as we got married, and the first vacation could not really be qualified as Honeymoon (3 kids ...), we had decided to go to the Gamescon in Cologne by bike
We enjoyed a great dinner next to a flowing river in Germany, had an unreasonable number of mojitos and made friend with our very warm hostess in Belgium
Having chosen the right Hotel on the trip in, and a nice B&B on the way back, we can formally announce that we have had a very nice Honeymoon.
One day walking through the Gamescon provides to be quite heavy for old guys like us. We had however seen quite some new games that may become our own once they come out, and lots of Cosplayers.

The total trip length was around 1000Km and we did it in 3 days actually driving. All in all - the trip was nice and smooth, except in Belgium where drivers are really nuts (for lack of a better word). As an advice, always avoid any short distance to any Belgium driver (this is also valid for car drivers) 'cause they don't know what they do. I really don't know who issues them their driving licenses !

 

 We said yes to each other July 17th 2015 at precisely 3 p.m. in front of our closest friends and family. It was a small but lively wedding full of laughter, children (9 among 25 guests) and champagne !!!! The catering was perfect and the weather surprisingly warm and sunny.

Our friends and families spoiled us thinking hard about personal gifts. One drew two beautiful female warriors who already adorn our bedroom wall ; another one devised a photo album browsing through our life ; one had wine glasses engraved with a Japanese kanji symbolizing our relationship ... it was thoughtful and moving.

The party which had started Thursday evening lasted until Sunday morning when we all packed and went on holiday. But that will be the topic of another post :) 

 After having the Biker license, it is logical to get a Bike. after some time looking for a bike, I realized that getting a decent Kawasaki vulcan would be outside my budget if not for chance. I then decided to also look for other bikes. And, really by chance, I heard from friends that someone wanted to sell one, a BMW R1150RT.
So - we decided to check this bike out, and in the end, we actually decided to go for it. And today, I got that Bike !!!
The one I got is from 2001 and has quite some Km on it - but is nevertheless in an excellent condition. The plan is to do some Week-End cruising with my wife, and we'll eventually stay a night out if we appreciate the place.

Maybe in the future, I'll still get a chopper !  

 it is done... well, really ? almost I would say. The problem with this, is that despite the fact that I actually live here, whatever needs to be done, needs the extra "attention".
It actually is really exhausting to do any paperwork in France. Not only, you need to gather the right information on what you will need, but you need to chase every little bit of it. So - as advise, in case you need to register a car you imported within your move to France, don't call the different offices to know which papers/documents you'll need. You'll spend hours talking to different people as no one really knows exactly what you need. And every bit of information you get won't be enough, cause the time you stand in front of the official who is supposed to do it, he will tell you that a certain paper is missing.
So - back to start. However, when back, you'll need to make sure you talk to that same person. If not, you'll need again another paper/document you'll chase for a week etc.

In the beginning, I really thought that the people where stupid. But in fact, they are not. It is just that they have so many things to take into account to do every tiny official work, that they don't have time for anything else.

This also explains the issues I had to get a social Security number. If you use your Google Brain Extension, you'll notice that it won't help you a bit.
There is so much information out there about everything, outdated, out of context etc. that chances of successfully finding anything valid are almost non existing. Hence - take a day off, go to the office, and ask them yourself what you need to do about it. And they'll tell you, that you have to be there personally. They tell you: Officially it is written nowhere, however everyone does it. Nice answer huh ?
And - asking them, why it is so complicated in doing anything official in France, the best answer I got was: Well, see it as a challenge for those newcomers.

Anyway, all I can say, is that after 40 Days in France, I am exhausted only by handling the paper-stuff !  

 My godchild recently sent me a quote she has read on the internet, which I must sadly confirm by lived experience:

Smart people suffer lots of stress because of stupid people all around them, ignorant bosses, one-size-fits-all standards, idiotic legislation from influential, elite blowhards, excessive politics and a greater emphasis on non-intellectual priorities in an environment of corruption, lies and unfair promotions.

When you then compare the things our leaders are doing with us - this leads to actually one only fatal conclusion: Humanity is doomed. It's just a matter of time, not an if or a maybe.
Especially, if you link all the different information together, as this article on gulli (-> English Google Translation).
When reading this - and some other interesting article about the intelligence decline of our humanity, the few smart ones remaining really start to struggle as to what they are still doing here.
Looking at our politicians screwing up the planet, sooooo stupid following the money without even thinking by themselves - I really wonder if there is a reason to try to save humanity after all.