By some standards, Angelica should have started to babble a long time ago. But, I was not worried for she understood very well what we meant when we asked her to clap her hands, to wave good-bye, or even to give her plush dog a pat. Moreover, she regularly made some grunting noise. Today, I got the proof that I was right not to worry. She started babbling non-stop this afternoon. I know I’m biased, but the babbling was more pleasant to my ears than Céline Dion singing 
Baby Babble
October 13, 2009
4 Comments | 
Angelica, Babies, Bébés, Perso | 
Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Overprotective? Me? No way!
September 23, 2009If you had told me 10 months ago that I would become an overprotective father, I would have replied that you were out of your mind. I never thought I would become so overprotective, but I have. I guess one doesn’t really know what it is like to be father until one becomes one. Is it because I have a daughter and not a son? Hard to tell, but what I can say is that Angelica has completely changed my life. Life takes on a whole new meaning after her birth. All of a sudden, it’s not about me anymore, but about her. For example, the night before my last two exams, she woke up and cried twice. The next day, I went to my exams very very tired and had a tough time concentrating, but surprisingly, I was not angry at all. I guess this is what people call father’s love, isn’t it?
2 Comments | Angelica, Babies, Bébés, Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Pressure Cooker TV
August 16, 2009I was watching an episode of Pressure Cooker TV today and was surprised to see that sometimes the contestants were asked to prepare a dish to go with a particular wine. If the judges thought that the dish did not complement the wine well, they would lose points. I was surprised because, except in the case of Champagne, dishes are usually not prepared to complement a particular wine, but rather a particular wine is chosen to complement a particular dish. Moreover, it is not the job of the Chef to recommend a particular wine, but rather that of the wine waiter. If this was not the case, why should a restaurant hire a wine waiter then?
6 Comments | Cooking, Cuisine, Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Requin – Shark
August 2, 2009
Pour ceux d’entre vous qui ne le savent pas, je suis un plongeur certifié CMAS. Si j’étais encore à Maurice, je serais probablement devenu moniteur de plongée . Cette vidéo a été enregistrée à “La fosse aux requins à Maurice. Je voulais y faire une plongée au moins une fois dans ma vie mais mon épouse (petite amie à cette époque) ne voulait pas 
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For those of you who do not know I am a CMAS certified diver. If I was still in Mauritius, I would have probably become a diving instructor Anyway, this video was shot at “La fosse aux requins” in Mauritius. I wanted to dive there at least once in my life, but my wife (then girlfriend) did not want me too
10 Comments | Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Labour Market
July 11, 2009Recently, I heard someone saying how suprising it was for society to value Michael Jackson more than nurses who require a lot of training. I found this funny because one of the articles in my Philosophy textbook talks about the same exact example.
According to the textbook this is because the labour market is ruled by the laws of demand and supply. The labour market does not value the moral value of a job. It only finds the price where demand for a particular job is equal to supply of the same job. I think this is the best explanation to why society values Michael Jackson more than nurses.
I’ll try to explain what this means. In the case of Michael Jackson, there was and will always be only one Michael Jackson with his talent. Even if he is not alive anymore, there will never be someone like him. This is true whether we like the guy or not. In Economics terms, because he was the only one on earth who possessed something a lot of people wanted, the demand for his talent was very high whereas the supply for his talent was very low. This created an upward pressure on the price for his talent. This is why he got paid so much or the ticket price for one of his concerts was relatively high.
Now, in the case of nurses, it’s a different situation. Although Canada could use more nurses, the demand for nurses are not high enough compared to the supply of nurses to create an upward pressure on the price of nurses. How many nurses hospitals can hire depend on their budget, at least in Canada. Therefore, the price of nurses won’t be very high. The price of nurses has nothing to do with the moral value of a nurse. If less and less people enter the nursing field and more and more people leave it, then the price of nurses, too, will rise. This will be because the demand for nurses will be higher than supply of nurses.
In short, the market for jobs, like any market, is very impersonal. It does not care whether the job required years and years of training. All it cares about is how much demand for and how much supply of job exist.
10 Comments | Economics, Economie | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Angelica in the Jumperoo
July 6, 2009
It was Angelica’s first time in a Jumperoo. At first, she did not know what to do. But, once she got the hang of it, nothing could stop her, except when she would activate the sound and light. Her parents were very happy to see her bouncing up and down.
17 Comments | Angelica, Babies, Bébés, Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Les soucis d’un père
June 5, 2009On dit souvent que sa vie change complèment lorsqu’on devient père ou mère. Je peux vous dire que c’est tout à fait vrai. On se fait du souci facilement. Chaque matin je me réveille vers 04h00 pour étudier avant de me rendre au boulot. Ce matin, j’ai reçu un SMS de mon épouse me mettant au courant des huits cas suspects de fièvre dengue à Maurice. Par conséquent, je n’ai pas pu étudier du tout. J’ai passé plus de deux heures à me faire du souci pour ma petite princesse. Je sais que la situation ne va pas s’améliorer avant qu’elle soit de retour au Canada le week-end prochain. Que Dieu me vienne en aide!
7 Comments | Babies, Bébés, Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Cooking
June 3, 2009Since I’ve been back from vacation I have not cooked a single meal at home. I have been either eating out (Vietnamese cuisine) or eating microwave dinner. It’s very hard to find the motivation to cook for only one person. However, yesterday was different. Yesterday I wanted to treat myself with a nice homemade meal. So, I cooked myself a nice “salmi de boeuf” which I enjoyed with a glass of wine. Since my wife was not here, I could make the dish as hot as I wanted I should have made more. It’s one of those dishes that are even better the next day. Oh well.
I wonder what I’ll cook next…
5 Comments | Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
Angelica and her flower
June 1, 2009
Angelica
Can you tell how much I miss her? It’s hard to believe that she was born 5 weeks early and weighing only 1.615 kg. A little less than two weeks more to wait before I can hold her in my arms again.
It’s amazing how much a baby can change one’s life. I used to iron my clothes and even startch them from time to time. Nowadays, I buy wrinkle-resistant trousers and shirts so that I don’t have to iron them. I also used to dream about buying a Ford Mustang GT . I don’t anymore. My next vehicle is probably going to be a minivan. It does not matter though for the joy she brings to me is priceless.
7 Comments | Angelica, Babies, Bébés, Perso | Permalink
Posted by Patrick Ng
