涟 is my new nickname

涟

lian (2)

As you know, I am Lotus. A flower that is associated with the Goddess of Mercy, a very useful plant that can be used almost entirely. It has stood me well all these years, if giving me a little of a burden which I have assumed quite willingly before.

But I am now entering a phase in my life that is lacking in the water element and I need to change my name in order to create some balance in my fate.

For a short while I will therefore be known as 涟 - ripples. Say it aloud, associate it with me.

Leaving Modena

The movers were here!

The packing took longer than the movers themselves expected. Thankfully we decided to leave Modena later than we were supposed to, as such we didn't miss our overnight train to Stuttgart.

At one stage during the move I was actually very nervous as the truck was already full, very full - and we still had a whole floor of stuff to load. Some of the movers drove the full truck back to Rome - leaving another 3 movers behind to stay another night in order to load a smaller truck that wasn't supposed to be packed full.

Packing material : each of those white rolls is worth 100 euros

This second truck was packed so full the movers had to abandon their packing material (very costly stuff - they were quite upset actually). The final count was 364 boxes or more than 70 cubic metres. That took a good 3 months to arrive in Shanghai.

We were fortunate that the French Bs offered to look after our children during the move as well as accommodate us after our beds had been dismantled. CB even cooked dinner and threw us a farewell party with the German Bs - so that we could drink a few more good bottles of wine together before we left. We really miss those occasions...

In fact, I was telling myself that in the past 15 or more years I have left behind so many friends because of my nomadic lifestyle - first my kakis in Singapore and then friends I have made in France, USA, Spain, Germany and now Italy...Of course I wasn't always the one who left first, but the result is still the same - though with email and Skype nowadays the separation is not as painful/final as it would have been in the past.

A last lunch with friends at Da Pasticcino

On our last day, LS, KF, CS and Mu invited us to lunch at Il Ristorante Da Pasticcino - a fitting farewell to very good Modenese pasta and meat for us. It was very kind and lovely of this group of crazy, wonderful girls whom I've had the honour of spending time with and I would like to thank them once again for this lovely gesture.

My favourite fresh pasta with porcini

The Chateaubriand was excellent

That evening, we took a train from Bologna to Stuttgart via Munich. It was a 6-seater cabin and we were 5 fiesty passengers who dashed into it - where a poor lone German guy was sleeping. He had to endure our incessant chatting as we tried to settle down, not to forget smell our feet as we climbed into our beds (above his). But the rest of the night went quite well and we did manage to catch a few winks before pulling into Munich.

It was lovely being in Germany again after all this while and we had a quick breakfast at the train station before catching another train to Stuttgart - and to the start of a 2-week wait for the visas that would allow us to fly into China to begin our new lives in Shanghai.

House in Shanghai : Part 2

1st floor corridor

I must say that it was easier than I imagined having the ayi around. I did my own housework for 6 weeks and finally decided to hire help when I started having dizzy spells about a week ago. The house is too big and I have so many other things to do - like blog and/or explore Shanghai.

One of the girls working at the service centre introduced JL to me. She currently has a friend working in the compound. Compared to most of the other ayis working here, she's young, very petite and pretty. I took to her almost immediately for who wants an old and ugly cleaning lady when one could have eye candy on a daily basis?

For she wouldn't work for the initial 3 mornings a week that I wanted her for. Over here, most of my neighbours have full-time help at least 5 days a week, some even have live-in ayis. But I only wanted someone to clean, no need to cook or look after the children. And my kids and Hub will pick up after themselves - no question of them getting used to having someone serve them hand and foot.

View of living room from above

We in our compound are expected to pay double the average hourly wage for ayis in Shanghai. They wouldn't work for less and they want to work a minimum of 5 mornings/afternoons a week - unless you manage to find another family or 2 to share them with. And they also expect you to pay them a 13th month bonus during the Chinese New Year.

I agreed to all her terms because I can understand her situation and I have in any case talked with enough people to know what to expect. Besides, they usually come from poorer towns or villages in China with the hope of creating better lives for themselves - so if I can afford it I do not see any reason to make things difficult for them. With JL, I have also offered to help her teenage daughter with her English - as an additional bonus. Hopefully the girl will have a better life than her parents.

Master bedroom

I found out that they live in a small rented flat that is dark and humid, no larger than my bedroom, for about a thousand yuan monthly. They have bought a place of their own in their hometown since real estate prices in Shanghai are too high even for us. I have therefore also offered to let her shower at my place during the very hot and humid months since they share a bathroom and kitchen with other families in their building. I was reminded of one of my late grandaunts in those days when Singapore was still an underdeveloped country. She lived in a tiny rented room in a horribly dark and dirty shophouse and shared a kitchen and toilet with who-knows-how-many other tenants and I can still see the place in my mind more than 30 years down the road. It had certainly marked me as a child.

I will however stop there as so many other expats and even local Chinese friends have warned me not to be too nice with the workers or I would bring trouble to myself. I may have Chinese origins, but I am not Chinese and as such the way they think or behave is quite alien to me. There is no smoke without fire, so I will heed the warnings and try to keep a distance between my helpers and myself. My Ukrainian helper in Italy walked all over me as Hub liked to remind me.

The Teenager's room

The house has 5 bedrooms and a small study room. 3 of them have walk-in closets. There is no basement in the house so we do lack storage space. Since our driver keeps the car with him, the garage is empty and we use it to store our bikes, golf clubs (no more membership at the club for the whole family = all golf bags at home!), boxes etc. It is very similar to our house when we were living in the USA - meaning that the construction leaves just as much to be desired.

Babinou's room

The compound from what I heard was built in 3 months. Pre-fab wooden houses in 8 styles. The walls are mostly empty and Hub has proven it by knocking a hole in one of them as he tried to hang up a picture. Everything is electric because of the fire hazard and I now have a fabulous big wok - and no gas for fire.

Babinette's room

There are cameras everywhere in the compound and men on bikes and scooters patrol all day and night. You cannot enter without a pass and when you have one, the guard salutes you as this place belongs to the Chinese government. I leave my door open most of the time because you really feel safe here.

View of our small terrace

What a change from Italy I must admit.

My House in Shanghai - Ground Floor

The house : the Ferrari is mine and the scooter's my ayi's

I have mentioned before that I live near Jin Qiao, the expat part of it, of course. For just down the river on the other side you actually have locals and migrant workers living in a pretty busy part of the same neighbourhood - though I am sure that prices are not the same there. I am going to check it out when I have a moment, because I just love bustling streets where people actually hang out - though of course living in them may be another thing altogether now that I am becoming more antiseptic. I have incidentally become a total addict to Dettol.

Entrance : Kimi's helmet on cupboard from Kava Kava (bag is ayi's)

Roads are wide and clean in Jin Qiao, we have Carrefour, a number of international restaurants, Food Republic, Bread Talk, trees and laowais everywhere. I am a member of an organic spa owned by a Malaysian and I shop every week at Pines - a small supermarket specialising in imported foodstuff. Taking a taxi to Jin Qiao from my house can be a pain though - because it is not far away enough and many taxi drivers hate the hassle of getting into our compound only to earn a few yuan from us. And boy can they grumble.

Guest room

My compound is probably the only one in Shanghai that is green and has birds singing all day long in the trees and bushes. Houses are very big in Shanghai, but they tend to be very close to one another. When you have lived in the middle of an enormous field like we had for 4 years in Italy, you get claustrophobic at the thought of seeing your neighbour pick his nose in the morning. And I did have a large trampoline to set up outside my house - so we jumped at the sight of our current compound and signed the contract without even visiting the inside of the house. There are no fences around the houses here, we share the green spaces.

Ground floor corridor

Entrance : Gansu old altar table, vintage wooden lunchbox

We freaked out when we saw the curtains. The previous tenants were very rich Chinese and we obviously do not share the same taste in home furnishing. Since we have this clause in our contract saying that we would accept all the existing curtains in the house, they didn't want to hear about what we thought of their curtains. Then we found out when our 52-inch plasma arrived from Italy - that they wouldn't allow us to hang it up on the wall. Because even though you pay 60000 rmb per month for the house, it is made out of wood and most of the walls are actually empty. Panique a bord as this means No space for the home cinema and we had to go on another round of furniture hunting...

Dining room

Other than that I love this house. It is quite cozy and has (6) toilets that actually flush - though they do get blocked from time to time as it's Chinese plumbing after all. Only in China have you bins next to the WC for the toilet paper - which honestly is gross if you do more than pee. Anyway, the good thing about my compound is that you have an army of guys ready to turn up the minute you call - to unblock your toilets.

Family room : already a lazy bum in it

Study room : the side curtains will be removed later as just had Roman blinds installed

Because I live in a state-owned facility. I share the comfort and the privilege with the top brass of the Chinese Communist Party - though I'm always second compared to them. And not being white I am probably more 3rd class than 2nd - how often have I been mistaken for an ayi here. They wouldn't let me enter my own house sometimes.

The open kitchen : new bar stools from Kava Kava

We have a few restaurants in our compound (very good Indian cuisine, quite decent Thai and Moroccan, 5* Chinese, haven't tried the Italian bistro) and a 5* clubhouse with bowling, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, badminton, squash and ping pong courts, olympic-sized pool, spa, gym, KTV, tea house etc. There is also an enormous landscaped garden and lake out there - much appreciated after the hustle and bustle of a megacity like Shanghai. The only thing that is missing is an outdoor pool - but you can't have everything. Besides, there are lots of mosquitoes here.

The salon : our own Poltrona Frau Vanity Fair armchairs, wooden furniture salvaged from junk shop, sofa borrowed from the compound

The house is not totally ready yet (if it ever will be) as I am running out of steam after a month of non-stop unpacking. So this is a first glimpse (the 2nd is here), just pretend you didn't see the mess.

Osteria Francescana Revisited and the Umberto Panini Museum

Aged balsamic vinegar from Hombre

Less than 2 months ago, Hub brought us to the Osteria Francescana in Modena for my birthday. Believe it or not, we were back in the restaurant last night, this time with a couple who are notables of the city and who kindly offered us a memorable and very interesting evening out.

We were late turning up at Hombre - an organic farm that produces very good Parmesan cheese in Modena. We had no idea what we were doing there, having followed a car in front of us all the way from a factory in Formigine. When you do things like that in the cold and the dark, it felt a little like in the movies e.g. illegal, exciting and dangerous. Except that the Alfa Romeo in front was driven by an old man who looked nothing at all like James Bond.

At the Hombre farm, we were greeted by another old man and his big dog. He walked us to a warehouse, opened the door and turned on the lights. And we saw an amazing collection of vintage Maseratis and a few other cars, and also an amazing collection of old motocycles.

An example of a Panini sticker collection

That was the Panini Museum and our old guide was Umberto Panini himself. As the evening progressed, we would learn more about this amazing man who was a meccanic, inventor and former owner of the Panini Group that is famous worldwide for its collectible stickers, cards, figurines, books etc. How many of us have been coerced into buying packets and packets of stickers during say the World Cup so that our sons could stick them on some book or exchange them with their friends during their breaks?

The car collection in the museum has an interesting story behind it. To make it brief, the Maserati Museum wasn't included in the sale of Maserati to the Fiat Group and the cars in it were about to end up being sold in the UK when Umberto Panini decided at the last minute to buy it and save the Maseratis from leaving Modena and Italy. Many of them were lovingly restored and so they now sit in this specially-built museum just next to the organic Parmesan cheese factory owned by the Paninis.

We were supposed to be given a private tour of the factory too but turned up late because Hub had a meeting and the factory was closed when we arrived. But Umberto kindly offered us a generous slice of his famous cheese and also a bottle of the family's aged (25 year-old) balsamic vinegar!

Turned out that our host and Umberto Panini are old friends, in fact, the former is passionate about photography and publishes his own photo books. A number of them would include the latter hammering barrels of cheese to test its maturity etc. Modena is a small world and they all know each other, from Montezemolo to Pavarotti, Panini and of course our host.

We then had dinner at the Francescana and this time we ordered a la carte as our host and his wife preferred to eat Modenese food even when we were in one of the best restaurants in the world. I had duck liver to start followed by a scampi pasta and a lobster in Riesling mousse. The food was excellent as usual, though I was so busy trying to listen to our hosts and make conversation in Italian that I couldn't remember having any particular sensations about the dishes.

We were given a summary of Umberto Panini's life and adventures (our host is obviously not only a friend but also a fan), discussed balsamic vinegar making, had a quick run-down of Modena and Ferrara's history and spent quite a bit of time exchanging pet stories (not that I have ever had a pet - but thank God my parents and my siblings have a few). It was a surprisingly informative and interesting evening and we were the very last to leave the restaurant (after the Chef himself) so much we have enjoyed each other's company.

I feel very lucky. Just a few weeks from leaving Modena, I have finally been offered a bottle of the traditional balsamic vinegar and by such an important person himself. I am now ready to leave, and to do so with fond memories of this city. Of its notables and its cuisine. But of course also of my wonderful friends who though not particularly illustrous (nor harbouring barrels of the precious vinegar), are notables of the city that is my heart and whose kindness I will bring with me and hope to fall back on as I face a new city, country and life ahead of me.

Hombre srl
Via Corletto sud 320
41100 Modena
Tel : +39 059 510 660
hombre@hombre.it

My First Time in China

View from our hotel room on the 38th floor

I must have mentioned before that I have Chinese origins. Though for a very long time my passport said that we couldn't go to China, People's Republic of. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 2 decades - but I have somehow stayed behind and have never cultivated much of an interest in the country. In other words, China wasn't one of my dream travel destinations.

It doesn't mean that I am not interested in my roots. On the contrary, I was the only one in my generation to have written to our cousins in the south when I was still a teenager, and I am keen to visit our ancestral village in the near future. It's just that I'm hotter about Ayer's Rock than the Great Wall of China. And I want Tibet to be free.

We flew to Shanghai last Sunday. On Air France, business class, with foie gras and Fauchon teabags. They had a Chinese interpreter on board, who kept asking me if I wouldn't want a Chinese newspaper. I can read French probably 5 times faster than I can manage Chinese. Told her to check me out again when I'd have gone for torturous refresher Chinese lessons in the near future.

Hairy crabs in Carrefour Jinqiao

How do I feel about finally landing on the Mainland? Cheated, if I had to only use one word to describe it. I mean, what happened to the bicycles and Mao suits? Have I turned up too late? Or is Shanghai just not really China?

There was a chauffer-driven car waiting for us, we were whisked off to our 5-star hotel in Pudong driving on new, modern highways, passing by tall, modern, shiny-new buildings and stopping occasionally to allow fashionable Shanghai residents to cross the roads on their way to work. I felt robbed of an "authentic" China experience; I knew that I have turned up too late.

But I appreciate the rather clean toilets in the few places I've been to. Now I remember why I wasn't hot about China : I was afraid of the unsanitary conditions of their sanitaries. I had just been waiting for them to clean up their bathrooms.

Festive lights in Huaihai Lu, Shanghai

Hub was there to collect his new working computer/email and check out the people who will be working for him soon; We were there to visit 7 schools in 3 days and hopefully also a few houses. The schedule was tight and I was suffering from lack of sleep. And half the time also from indigestion as the restaurants there were very good and we were eating more than we should have.

A house that we may wish to rent

Just in Pudong itself, we could choose from more than 7 International Schools and each one was bigger and more beautiful than the last one. The facilities could include anything from 350-seat amphitheatres to indoor pools, roof-top gyms and a school orchestra/band. In the Middle/High Schools, most have individual lockers, wireless environments and require their students to have their own Macbooks. To think that I still have nightmares of the wobbly overhead ceiling fan in my Primary school classroom, and when I was in Junior College, half the classroom would be flooded each time it rained.

After the 1st 4 schools (and all have at least 2 campuses each), we cancelled the remaining 3 schools to visit and signed the 3 kids up with 2 different schools. The school holidays will be different and both schools are at least 40 minutes apart from each other - but we felt that since the children are so different they deserve to be placed in different schools that will meet their different needs.

The Babies will go to an International School with a Hong Kong/UK-curriculum that offers co-language teaching. The school is known for its good IB results and strong emphasis on Chinese, offering the children compulsory violin lessons, for example, that are said to help fine-tune their hearing making it easier for them to learn Mandarin.

The Teenager will go to a small American International School that offers the IB Diploma. The school campus is new, built for 1000 students and currently only having 220. The facilities are therefore very good (e.g. indoor pool, black box theatre...) and most textbooks are available as e-books (they all have their own Macbooks) meaning lighter school bags. He's 3-4 years away from the IB Diploma exams so we really want to make sure that he would be happy and comfortable in his next school.

The Teenager's new school

We visited a number of houses (about 350-600 m2 each) in a few compounds but couldn't fix on one since there would always be something that we didn't like about the place e.g. the house itself, its garden (or lack of), its clubhouse, location, heating system, kitchen etc. But the relocation agent now seems to have quite a good idea of what we like, so we'll return in January and continue our search. We would stay in a hotel for a few months while waiting for our shipment to arrive from Italy - just as well since I would prefer to explore the city instead of spend my arrival unpacking.

View of Tomson Golf from a house we visited - house was too big and had too much marble for our taste

There is a Peking duck restaurant in the hotel so we dined there one evening. Excellent duck but bad service. In fact bad service is generally everywhere since from what I could see, the Shanghainese are often loud, sour-faced and rude. But as long as the food is good...

Peking Duck

We have been introduced by a family friend to the French GM and President of 2 other MNCs in the same sector and they brought us out to dinner : the former to a lovely Szechuanese restaurant and the latter to New Chinese cuisine (a Tung Lok group restaurant) both in the French Concession. Our relocation agent was impressed with the fact that we've been to these restaurants - since you usually do not know about them until you've been around for a while. He himself also brought us out to lunch on 3 occasions and they were mainly Cantonese restaurants since I've been telling him how much I prefer Cantonese cuisine. I think that just trying to discover all the good restaurants in Shanghai will take us a few years so we're happy to start soon.

Flying above the clouds

Our first impressions of the city are therefore largely positive (except for its traffic and horrible drivers, not to mention the ugly and very expensive golf course). We know that we can eat out when we want to, find domestic help easily, find some of our favourite food products (but the imports will be very expensive) and there will be lots to do and visit to keep us busy for a while. So I think I can say that I'm looking forward to our coming move to Shanghai - see you there in a few weeks!

Osteria Francescana, Modena

Osteria Francescana

I celebrated my birthday two days ago. It seemed like yesterday when I was a grouchy sour-faced little fat girl and what do you have now? A grouchy evil-faced 38 year-old fat woman. Some things just do not change, do they?

I have probably lived more than half of my life now (if I were lucky). And I do not have much to show for it (except the flab). Certes, I have a loving and successful Hub, 3 beautiful if crazy/lazy kids and my parents are still around to quarrel with each other (actually, for that I am most grateful). My siblings are doing well and I have finished school a long time ago with no visible side effects.

My hair if thinning is still growing (in length and spilt ends), my nails are kept very short so they have less chance to break and I still have most of my teeth. Yesterday Bollywood Beauty arrived at the house exclaiming that I looked Chinese. As far as I know, I am d'origine chinoise so go figure that out.

Me in the year I turned 38

I managed to sell the the-camera-is-my-birthday-present story to Hub and at the same time convince him to celebrate his new career and my birthday at Osteria Francescana. The Francescana is a 2-Star Michelin restaurant in Modena and ranks 6th best in the world on this year's list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.

Told Hub that we couldn't possibly leave Modena without giving the Francescana a try. As things would have it, the Chef-Owner Massimo Bottura is also the brother of CB's landlord, not that it got us any special advantages - at all.

Amuse-bouche - "Sea Sponge" on Seafood Gelée

The service was good (though still a bit hesitant for a 2-star). They always make sure to accompany you to the washroom, prepare your seat for you when you return, fill up your glasses, describe every course in detail etc. The dining room is small and intimate, though when you have a big group of talkative Italians next to you, you get to dine with a lot of noise.

Raw Dentice with Grated Parmesan Cheese

The walls are covered in contemporary art and the entrance has shelves filled with cookery books and wine reviews. You can see that Bottura enjoys Ducasse (his former mentor), Adrià, Blumenthal, Keller and Japanese chefs among others.

Lightly Cooked Mackerel in a Tangy Aromatic Broth

As usual, I was given a menu with no prices which irritated me no end. Hub told me that the dishes all go for about 35 to 45 euros each. There were 3 set menus available, going for 90, 130 or 160 euros per person. If you want to be served wine by the glass for the whole meal, it'll be 80 euros per person. Bottles go for anything between 50 and a few thousand euros each.

Hub loved this Oyster and Clam Risotto with Caviar

Our favourite dish - perfectly cooked Lobster with Pasta in Seafood Sauce

We chose the most expensive menu, telling Bottura what we liked and didn't, leaving him to express himself as he saw fit. Then Hub chose a bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet 2005 which was absolutely lovely and we each had a glass of Brunello to finish.

Very Lightly Cooked Seafood Skewer

We've enjoyed the dinner though it wasn't the best that we've eaten. It was Modena/Italy meets Molecular Cooking. Bottura is an artist (best Chef in Italy?) who made his food both a feast for the palette and the eye. Everything had been cooked to perfection, marrying both local and exotic ingredients lovingly. The portions were small, but we felt really full by the time we were done.

Roast Suckling Pig with Balsamic Vinegar

Our only complaint was the price of the tiny glass of Brunello that we've been served. For 20 euros each you would expect to have a bit more than what we had. The establishment makes no concessions from the reviews that we've read, so it wasn't a total surprise. Still, surely for long-term survival they'd have to be a little less business-minded than that.

Foie Gras "Ice Cream" with Balsamic Vinegar Filling

Sweet Potato Soufflé with Vanilla Cream and Truffles

Our total bill came up to nearly 500 euros. An interesting experience, but certainly not something to be repeated too often for solvency's sake. My heart broke a little as we paid up, but we were happy to have given it a try. A restaurant like that is in a class of its own, but for the price I think that it can still improve. And Happy Birthday to me.

Osteria Francescana

via Stelle, 22

Modena, Italy

Tel : 059 210118

www.osteriafrancescana.it

Meet Te-Te-Te

Meet Te-Te-Te

The air con guys came this morning and were greeted by one of the rats before I could get ready (I was still sleeping) and get out of the house to greet them. This is to tell you that our resident rats seem to be still alive and well.

It's almost the end of Summer and we finally got our new air con - kind of pointless, if you ask me. In the meantime I've bought 2 fans and we've slept with the windows open (so that I could hear the rats and night traffic and sleep badly) for 2 months. And tomorrow morning we leave for our 2-week vacation in the South of France, starting with SIL's house in Toulouse and moving on to a few days of canoeing and visiting caves in the Dordogne and finally to a week in a holiday club at Bormes-les-Mimosas. So who's going to enjoy this air con?

I was repairing the tear in Baby Girl's new soft toy Mammut (yes, from our trip to Gardaland - again - on Tuesday) and decided to do the same for my pillow Te-Te-Te. I've been meaning to do this for more than 2 decades, but somehow never found the time. I know, that's a lousy excuse, but Te-Te-Te will know that I love it very much nonetheless - for we've been together for more than 3 decades. Can you beat that?

It was my 2nd pillow. The first my little sister tore it when we were fighting. Mum got someone to sew me another one and it was white with snoopy all over it. I couldn't sleep without Te-Te-Te and brought it with me whenever we travelled.

Wherever possible, I never wash(ed) it. Except when my little sister peed on it or when my mum really insisted (cane in hand). Freak out as much as you want, but that's the way it is. I love its smell and feel and detergent is the most horrible thing ever invented for a pillow. It was also a useful weapon to use against the siblings. They would run away or whinge whenever they saw my pillow.

A small part inside the cover is still blue

But alas, Te-Te-Te aged like everyone else. It turned grey and the cotton in it somehow disappeared. Holes appeared here and there - but I refused to throw it away. If I remember correctly, my sis or some friend of my mum's sewed me a cover for it. It was blue.

I've always meant to put new coton in Te-Te-Te, but wasn't sure if it could withstand the operation in its fragile condition. Now even the bright blue of the cover has faded, but it's still my favourite pillow in the world. I used to spend time counting the black dots appearing in the cloth, or scratch off shiny black bits. But somehow it's now ageless...

Can you see the faded snoopy?

Te-Te-Te shares the bed with me and Hub. Hub's pretty cool about it, I don't think that he even noticed it. For a few years the Teenager borrowed it from me (he likes it too), but lately I've taken it back because he wasn't showing it enough respect.

Funny enough, my kids have never had a thing for their own personal pillows, cloth or soft toys. Are they not normal or was I abnormal?

See you all in a fortnight.

Enneagram Short Test Type One Personality

Enneagram

I have sat for IQ and EQ tests and have so far obtained above-average results. And this evening, while reading a few blogs, I came across this Enneagram Personality Test. Have never heard of it before. Since the short one is gratos, I took it. It wasn't easy choosing between only 2 answers, sometimes I'm not that black and white, I could easily be both or none at all.

Anyway, I have most answers (8) corresponding to a Type One personality. And next closest (7) to a Type Five personality. If you know me, do you think that this personality fits me?

Type 1 : 8

Type 2 : 5

Type 3 : 2

Type 4 : 1

Type 5 : 7

Type 6 : 4

Type 7 : 2

Type 8 : 6
Type 9 : 1

Type One in brief :

The Reformer

The principled, idealistic type. Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards, but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience. At their Best: wise, discerning, realistic, and noble. Can be morally heroic.

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective

Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced

Enneagram One with a Nine-Wing: "The Idealist"

Enneagram One with a Two-Wing: "The Advocate"

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

Examples: Mahatma Gandhi, Hilary Clinton, Al Gore, John Paul II, Elliot Spitzer , Sandra Day O'Connor, John Bradshaw, Bill Moyers, Martha Stewart, Ralph Nader, Katherine Hepburn, Harrison Ford, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, George Harrison, Celene Dion, Joan Baez, George Bernard Shaw, Noam Chomsky, Michael Dukakis, Margaret Thatcher, Rudolph Guliani, Jerry Brown, Jane Curtin, Gene Siskel, William F. Buckley, Kenneth Starr, The "Church Lady" (Saturday Night Live), and "Mr. Spock" (Star Trek).

Type One Overview

We have named personality type One The Reformer because Ones have a “sense of mission” that leads them to want to improve the world in various ways, using whatever degree of influence they have. They strive to overcome adversity—particularly moral adversity—so that the human spirit can shine through and make a difference. They strive after “higher values,” even at the cost of great personal sacrifice.

History is full of Ones who have left comfortable lives to do something extraordinary because they felt that something higher was calling them. During the Second World War, Raoul Wallenburg left a comfortable middle-class life to work for the protection of thousands of European Jews from invading Nazis. In India, Gandhi left behind his wife and family and life as a successful lawyer to become an itinerant advocate of Indian independence and non-violent social changes. Joan of Arc left her village in France to restore the throne to the Dauphin and to expel the English from the country. The idealism of each of these Ones has inspired millions.

Ones are people of practical action—they wish to be useful in the best sense of the word. On some level of consciousness, they feel that they “have a mission” to fulfill in life, if only to try their best to reduce the disorder they see in their environment.

Although Ones have a strong sense of purpose, they also typically feel that they have to justify their actions to themselves, and often to others as well. This orientation causes Ones to spend a lot of time thinking about the consequences of their actions, as well as about how to keep from acting contrary to their convictions. Because of this, Ones often persuade themselves that they are “head” types, rationalists who proceed only on logic and objective truth. But, the real picture is somewhat different: Ones are actually activists who are searching for an acceptable rationale for what they feel they must do. They are people of instinct and passion who use convictions and judgments to control and direct themselves and their actions.

In the effort to stay true to their principles, Ones resist being affected by their instinctual drives, consciously not giving in to them or expressing them too freely. The result is a personality type that has problems with repression, resistance, and aggression. They are usually seen by others as highly self-controlled, even rigid, although this is not how Ones experience themselves. It seems to them that they are sitting on a cauldron of passions and desires, and they had better “keep the lid on” lest they and everyone else around them regret it.

Ones believe that being strict with themselves (and eventually becoming “perfect”) will justify them in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. But by attempting to create their own brand of perfection, they often create their own personal hell. Instead of agreeing with the statement in Genesis that God saw what He had created, “and it was good,” Ones intensely feel that “It wasn’t—there obviously have been some mistakes here!” This orientation makes it difficult for them to trust their inner guidance—indeed, to trust life—so Ones come to rely heavily on their superego, a learned voice from their childhood, to guide them toward “the greater good” which they so passionately seek. When Ones have gotten completely entranced in their personality, there is little distinction between them and this severe, unforgiving voice. Separating from it and seeing its genuine strengths and limitations is what growth for Ones is about.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 99-100)