I need to start learning French

Had the pleasure (or misfortune) of being part of a discussion between two chief developers, a developer and a passionate project manager regarding issues around a new development. I was the only non-French speaking person in the discussion - my french never went beyond counting to ten and saying 'Oui' or 'Non' or maybe throw in a 'Je voudrais' - and my French colleagues were kind enough to entertain me. Our discussion went like this:

Chief developer A: So we are gathered here for ..
Chief developer B: Developer C, you look like you lost 20kilos, what happen?
Developer C: I lost a couple of pounds, not kilos. (in French) It is all becos of this joker sitting beside me (he was pointing to me)
*Laughs all around* I was acting blur. True, I was testing the development done by him, but no way I was pushing him that hard. Anyway he looked pretty good when he's slimmer.
Chief developer B: So whats the problem? (he was referring to the issues)
Project Manager D: Well, this is the list of reviews we have from the client (begins to go through the list of issues)
Chief developer B: attente, attente .. What are these problems? Why are we speaking in Engrish now?
Project Manager D: Because *my_name* can speaks only English, so ...
Chief developer B: I see, so you are the problem (pointing at me) ...
All: Hahahaha ...

They were nice enough to do the whole discussion in English, breaking once in a while to French when talking about something really technical, but giving excuses before they do so.

I guess it is about time I start picking up some French phrases. Will try to write one post in French ... hmmm...

Liberty on Wheels

On my way to work, spotted something new on the streets of Passy, Paris. Nope, it was not an automatic dog-poo clean-up machine. I still occasionally get ambushed by a pile of dog-poo when I am not paying attention to where my feet is landing.


It is the new communal bike program which was launched early this week. Aptly named as Velib', a play of words 'Velo' (bike) and 'liberte' (liberty), there are approximately 10,600 of these grey-ish looking bikes installed at 750 docking stations each situated 300m apart.
Parisians' response to these bikes were pretty healthy, judging by the number of people I saw riding these bikes on my way to work. I am really eager to try one of these out this week - the handsome looking self-service docking machines apparently spew out instructions in eight different languages - all that I need is supposedly a bank card.

Tour de France, here I come ... check out the lovely basket at the front of the Velib', doesn't it look gorgeous?