Les Deux City Farmers

Kissed by the Wind

2009-07-03T16:48:00.000+02:00

Have you ever put your head out of the car window with your cheeks kissed by the wind? It's such an incredible sensation. It brings you right back to childhood. To the old toyota. Your grandfather's in front of the wheel. You stuck your head right out of the window with a devil-may-care attitude. Come what may. You hecked it and started to stand and wave your arms around, breaking into a kind of rain dance. The wind blew stronger and stronger over you with the acceleration of the car. You felt like a free spirit. All your worries were thrown to the wind and blown far, far away. You looked upon the sky and saw a moving cloud. It looked so ornate, like those incredible swirly waves that goddesses and Monkey God ride on. You heard the buzz in your ears. The olfactory effect shuts out the world. You soared high into the sky with the buzz, the swirly clouds, the intangible wind. You closed your eyes. You were flying. Up, up, into the clear blue sky....

Journey of Self Discovery

2009-03-02T03:20:00.004+01:00

Hello pple! As far as you guys know, I've embarked on my journey of self discovery in the land where supposedly dreams come true, where anyone can become anybody and where everyone can sue anyone till the cows come home. Yesh, I'm in America. Hard to believe ya. Everyone needs a timeout from life and I need one right at this moment. (Not the chocolate alright?)

So far, no great discovery of late. Sigh, this is supposed to be another one of those emo post and yet it started like that again. Guess I just can't help it. The only thing I've discovered so far is that I LOVE taking sunday afternoon naps, wrapped in my comforter, warm and cosy while the raindrops pitter patter onto the window panes. I haven't done that for soooo long. I remember I used to take naps like that in the afternoon in Singapore and woke up completely refreshed and happy. It's nice to relive it yet again. Oh, I just woke up from a completely energising nap after a heavy brunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I have no idea how many pounds I'd gain on my one month sejour here. Probably a lot.

Enjoying the freedom from a lot of things. The ability to just roam around the city like a happy lark and not think of incredibly boring things like finding a job and securing the next high pay and good benefits. Went to Yosemite National Park for a weekend getaway and just got back yesterday. It's really tranquil and serene. Lush evergreen trees in a white landscape with stars abundant, twinkling merrily in the deep night sky. The guide at evergreen lodge near Yosemite National Park really inspired me in a sense. He's following his heart and doing what he really likes and hopping around the state, doing guiding tours in nature with the deep, lush forest as his office. How many of us actually have the good fortune to work in something that we love? I miss eating s'mores by the fireplace in the recreational room, listening to r & b music from the satellite radio in our spacious wooden lodge and drinking cocktail in the lodge bar, just being on full holiday mode, without a care in the world.

I have 4 more days left in SF before I head down to New York, then Boston. San Francisco is a nice place to live in I guess. She has a relaxed and happy vibe. The big houses in Pacific Heights overlooking the bay are incredibly lovely and majestic! Limousines and big cars lie the roads in the area. Looking at the lovely houses makes me wonder what kind of people live there and whether they are happy. Having such a beautiful landscape each time they awake and look out their windows. But guess it's the people who live in them, which makes it homely and warm and not the imposing exterior no matter how much it could take your breath away.

I roamed around several places that I read about in novels and it's incredibly amazing to find what you read come to life. Settings in novels concretised in front of my eyes. North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Fisherman's Wharf, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights. They are no longer just words in the novel. They became distinctive districts in real life, each with their own character and vibe. It's amazing how many novels can be set in SF and how I can finally imagine the place come live at last.

In 4 days, I'd be leaving this hippie place for the city that never sleeps. I guess I'll miss it in a missing-a-good-friend kinda way. But you know me. Sometimes I miss people and things even before I've parted with them. That's me. Strange but true. Sentimental and always holding on to things that slip away.

That's enough emo-ing for one entry. I'm a lone ranger in the great scheme of things....would I ever find what I seek?

Miao Can Cook!

2009-02-08T02:54:00.002+01:00

I've cooked up a storm for 12 people today! What a feat! Singaporean fare! It includes roti prata,miso soup, 2 types of curry (lamb and beef),rice, kimchi dumplings, har gao, mapo tofu, baby kailan with mushrooms, sesame dumplings for dessert and kiba did the chocolate fountain to end the dinner. What a feat! Sorry I just have to repeat that. But how very tired I am...

HAPPY NIU YEAR, PULL UR EAR!

2009-01-26T14:33:00.003+01:00

Happy Niu Year everybody!!! I guess all of you are having a blast right now and stuffing your faces with pineapple tarts ya? I'm with you guys and I'm quite sad being left all alone on the other side of the globe. Sob sob. I know, can't cry during New Year. I'm kind of happy though seeing that my cousin posted some pics of the extended family celebrating CNY eve together. Even though physically I'm not there, I miss you guys and my heart is left there and basking in the festivities as much as you guys are. Ok, this is so emo... I should quit emo-ing.

Had the nicest birthday celebration that I could ever asked for! Kiba planned a surprise party for me on Saturday night and to think that I suspected nothing. Some background info : usually I could read Kiba like a book and he could never really spring a surprise on me, except this time! A million kisses for my sweetie who went through all this trouble organising it and many thanks for those who drove down to Normandy. You guys really warm my heart. Bisous bisous!

Apparently it went like this. Siti came over on Thursday and got told of the plan that night while I was in the shower. She was a neat distraction alright. The weekend proceeded as per normal as we return to Normandy every weekend. Kiba wanted to go to the chinese restaurant in Normandy and told me that he had a craving for chinese food for the past 2 weeks. I even chided him for wanting to bring Siti to eat chinese food in France instead of authentic french cuisine.

I was told that it would just be the 4 of us who were going for the dinner. Me, Siti, Kiba and Greg. Colette was sick unfortunately and thus she could not join us for the meal. Upon reaching the restaurant, we were told that it was full house that night and there were no more available tables. Oh my god. This can't really happen on my brithday, can it? At this juncture, I spotted Greg from the corner of my eye, already seated at the table and I heaved a huge sigh of relief! Phew! We had a table after all.

I must have been a bit blur cuz it took me a moment to register that there were other people at the table as well. Hm.. the faces look rather familiar... Oh. My. God. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! These are actually my friends! "What are you guys doing here?!" I had asked, completely astounded! Hahahaha, I really appreciate the fact that they took time off to drive down from Paris to celebrate for me! You guys are such a sweet lot. And u too, kiba kun! =)

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful hubby and wonderful friends like that. Really really touched. Thank you for making my 26th bdae such a joyous one. The nine of us played Balderdash till the wee hours of the morning, 3am+ and it was quite hilarious indeed.

Thank you one and all! Hontoni arigatou gozaimashita!

Pre CNY Blues

2009-01-22T13:17:00.002+01:00

This is the first year that I won't be spending CNY in Singapore and I'm already feeling the blues...

I'm always a big fan of Chinese New Year. I love the festivities! The whole ambience being ri ri nao nao and how everyone's scrambling for the New Year cookies! How my aunts will go around offering me more and more love letters, bak kwa, kueh bolu, sweets, chocolates! The new clothes, the feeling of a beginning of a new season, the gambling, the ang pows, the sounds of drums of the dragon dance troupes all day long! The glorious glorious food as we tuck in together with so many other people of the extended family! I LOVEEEEE Chinese New Year!!!!

Yet here i am.... in cold damp Paris. Wet roads, chilly winds, grey skies. It's so depressing that I can't breathe. The cookies at the small chinese super market look suspicious and totally unlike the ones that I eat back home.

This won't be the last year that I'll miss CNY I know for sure. Sad. As I see CNY decorations in pictures of people's houses, I'm sad that I won't be there to decorate my parents' house in SG. The lack of the festive ambience, the knowledge that I'd be working on the first and second day of CNY, in a world so far removed from SG, in an office filled with french people, with no one understanding the true meaning of CNY, others thinking that it's just bank holidays for the asian countries make me want to book the first flight back and bask in the New Year festivities, celebrating joyously with the rest of my family...

What a day

2009-01-15T16:05:00.000+01:00

What a day.

Yesterday evening, I received another "slap" in my face since arriving in France.

It was at the freaking Etam outlet at the shopping centre "Italie 2" where I was looking at this cashmere pullover that caught my fancy. It's not often that cashmere is available to folks like me and since there was a 50 pct discount on the item, I seriously wanted to look for a colour that I like.

To my right was this young sales assistant, probably around 19-20, who was pulling out the miscellaneous items that shoppers hanged any-o-how over the rack in front of her. Thus I approched her:
"Bonsoir"
"Oui?" She replied friendly enough while continuing to toss out the mismatched items on an available trolley.
"Ou se trouve le rayon qui a des pulls comme ça?"
"I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH" she snapped while flashing me her hand as a "stop" gesture or something. "Tout est là!"
"Ok... tout est là..." I repeated shocked beyond words.

Wah. What a freaking bitch.

The 3rd time I'm gonna get this in my face, I'm gonna give the person a tight warm slap right across his/her freaking face.

It's always when you don't master a language, you find yourself at a loss to give out the right rebuttal. Kiba said that it'd be funny to say "Moi non plus" i.e. (Me neither)

Well, at least I'm not the one arranging and re-arranging messy clothes everytime someone misplaced them. Pathetic little bitch.

Such a bad aftertaste in the mouth. Yucks.

On a happier note, Kiba brought me to a restaurant specialising in raclette and tartiflette. They are both very cheesy and potato-ey dishes which can give us carbo overload and nice spare tyres around our already-not-so-hard tummies. Initially I thought we'd share the tartiflette as I could not expect myself to finish it. However, Kiba had an equally huge serving of raclette and I was left on my own! Woe is me. I can still sense the reblochon cheese bubbling in my stomach. *Burp*

Went to watch "Les Femmes sont Folles" ("The Women are Crazy") and it has to be the worst theatre play that I have ever seen in the history of theatre in France. The three actresses gave me a feeling that they were trying too hard and the comedy ended up crass and not funny at all. The set looks cheap and thrown together and characters were all too one dimensional. The jokes are very colloquial and I had difficulty catching them. That's perhaps one of the reasons why I don't find it funny. It's such a huge contrast to "Le Clan des Divorcés" which was the most wonderful play I've watched in France. Such dichotomy. All the actresses slipped into their characters effortlessly like a glove and it was outright bursts of laughter from the start to the end of the play. Haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. Highly recommended if you understand French and are in Paris at the moment.

Looking forward to watching "Grease" next week. It's adapted and is now the french version with an all french cast. I'm in my theatre phase right now. Life is too short to let it waste away, which brings me back to the dilemma of me and my contract with the bank. I'm currently wasting in front of my comp screen, rooted to a desk and a telephone that rings but brings no good tidings.

I need a massive change in my life. I wanna go travel. I wanna do something else. I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ha.......

Snow

2009-01-05T17:20:00.001+01:00

It hasn't snowed so much in Paris till today. It's kinda romantic to be walking along tree lined boulevards with the snow falling gently on a quiet Monday morning. My snow boots have been put to good use. =) Now's time to trudge back home in those trusty boots again!

New Year Countdown 08

2009-01-04T00:37:00.002+01:00

Was at a loss how to spend the New Year countdown. Think I’m really overaged for countdowns but a little part of me just wanted to mix with the happy New Year crowd to usher in the New Year. Thus came the unfortunate decision to go down to Sacre Cœur at Montmarte and the Champs Elysées. It must have been one of the suckiest, blandest new year countdown of my life. Although you know how they say that it’s not the place where you are in, but rather the people with whom you are with that counts. But however true that is, the place plays an important role as well. Frankly, the Parisian countdown of 2008 is just blah. Nondescript. Of course that’s for someone gian ben like me who would not fork out 500 euros per pax for a romantic dinner along the Seine River and a private chauffeur to drive you around in a limousine for a soirée privée around Paris. Evidently, if you are like Paris Hilton with all the money to splurge, you could go to Lido and enjoy a joyous evening with free champagne, hot sizzling Brazillian babes dancing in front of you, complete with foie gras and escargots or any of the top exclusive clubs for their private parties. Alas alas. Tong ren bu tong ming. No money = sucky new year ? Yeah, I guess that seems to be a sad fact of life.

I was looking forward to see fireworks and that explains the hike up Sacre Cœur. The ludicrous English websites REALLY need updating as Paris hasn’t had fireworks for her New Year countdown for the last few years ! It’s evil to raise people’s hopes and bulldoze them all over. There is no fireworks in Paris at all ! If you are talking about the sirens of the police, the ambulances or the fire engines to have some « light », sure you have them. Which country celebrates New Year without fireworks ?! Which one, which one eh ?

I know they hike up prices during this kind of occasion. That’s THE commercial gimmick that is set up to do us consumers in. I thought the Christmas menu was bad enough but for St Sylvestre (the 31st Dec is St Sylvestre in France), the menu is hiked up four to five folds ! « Pitié » One might say. Why couldn’t we enjoy a nice, gourmet meal for a reasonable price ? Why must we be left bleeding dry just because we would like to eat slightly better fare ? Around the Sacred Cœur area, the cheapest bowl of onion soup costs 6.50€ ! Most of the St Sylvestre menu are 150€ and above. We did find others that are cheaper but what’s the point. I would not bend my principles and play into the hands of the evil restaurateurs and commerçants ! Anyway, as Kiba says, I’m never hungry. Haha. Thus I left the poor guy famished for the most part as I marched around looking purposefully for the hot wine stands I never found.

It is written on those misleading not-updated-for-a-million-years-website, that there would be stands selling champagne and hot wine that are as cheap as water. Yeah. Like real there were. I kept my eyes peeled, zooming in on any semblance of a wine stand to no avail ! There were no wine stands at all ! Alas alas. Why do they want to cheat my feelings ? My feeling plunged as the night wore on.

Utterly disappointed with Sacre Cœur, I decided to change venue and make our way to the Champs Elysées. Kiba nudged me asking if I want some crêpes or waffles and I shook my head. Poor him ! He wanted to share them with me and yet I let him starve. I’m already blogged down by a full stomach of disappointment, how could I stomach anything else ?

On the metro on the way to Champs Elysées, there were the youngsters who were already tipsy at 9pm. Of course too much alcohol is not good. There were a few people here and there wielding their own bottles of champagne and red wine, swaying precariously with their wine glasses in hand. There was this young lad, too drunk for his own good who tried to hit on the girl standing beside me. « Here, for you !» he cooed, extending his arm reaching out to hand the rose to the girl. With a « Non, merci.» the girl rejected him curtly before turning back to her friend. Ho la ! At this point, a splash of champagne towards the girl’s front, with the rest of it dripping over her bag and shoes. The french girl yelled and stormed out of the metro soon after with the prankster giving chase. Sigh, was this for real ? People ! Give me a break.

Had to squeeze with the huge horde of people at Charles de Gaulle Etoile station and it really was a nightmare. Note to self : Never go out for countdowns EVER !
Finally made my way out onto the grand boulevard on the Champs Elysées and saw the beautiful, twinkling, bluish-white lights that were hung on the trees. It’s funny how barren trees could look beautiful like that. But was there any New Year atmosphere ? Apart from the fact that there were many, many, MANY people, the sad truth is, no. Zilch. Nada. It just feels like any typical December evenings since the lights were put up. Beautiful ? Yes. Joyous ? Atmospheric ? Not really.

My hot wine radar went into action, scanning, scanning and always scanning. I just need one glass to lift my spirits. But then, tidak ada. Zen zen nai ! Rien ! Zero. Kiba tapped the shoulder of a nearby gendarme asking if he knew there would be any hot wine or champagne stands. He gave a smirk saying he’d be very surprised indeed if there were, as alcohol was prohibited on the Champs that night. What…………. ?!

The end of the evening saw the two of us hunching, shoulders down with disappointment (mine more exactly as Kiba doesn’t drink) as we made our way home. Great. Simply great. What a great way to end 2008 eh ?

Post note : But Kiba made it alright again ! He made HOT WINE specially for me as you can see from the entry below ! My baby is the best !

HOT WINE

2009-01-03T20:45:00.001+01:00

YAY! KIBA made hot wine for me!!! Yippeee!! I love my big, costaud munchkin to bits! muaaaaaaaaackz!

Hello 2009

2009-01-03T17:45:00.003+01:00

Here's to a lovely 2009 ahead. May this lovely year bring all the love and happiness that one can enjoy to infinity and beyond. May all the unhappy things rest in the past and all good souls move on.

A big thank you to the blogskin community providing such lovely creations for all to partake in the sharing. May the talents of the designers shine.

In 2009, I have only one simple resolution.

And that is....

To be happy.

The Top 10 Things I did in 2008

2008-12-30T15:05:00.001+01:00

2008 is going to flash past in the blink of an eye. Time and tide really waits for no man. I wonder what 2009 will hold.

Here are the top 10 memorable things I did in 2008. How about you?

10) 2nd Camping trip in Europe. Amsterdam Bos.

9) Gorging on the juiciest, plumpest strawberries from the garden.

8) Drank 1.2+++ litres of sangria in Barcelona.

7) First experience in a 9-bed hostel in Amsterdam. Convivial and fun! No bed bugs!

6) Discovered chouchen! The best honey based liquor in the world!

5) Ran the Nike Human Race with the rest of the world. First 10K race of my life.

4) Went Batam for a traditional Indonesian massage, jetskiing and parasailing. They are all my firsts!

3) Ate the most delicious baby ribeye steak (in my life) in Amsterdam

2) Ate the most delicious baby lamb (in my life) in Madrid.

1) Married my hubby traditionally! There's no more turning back!

I did do pretty much for 2008. Wonder what 2009 will bring eh? Happy end of year people and stay happy and healthy! Have a blast for the coming year!

HAPPY BOXING DAY

2008-12-26T14:50:00.001+01:00

Happy Boxing Day everyone! How's the Xmas sales treating you? i'm waiting for the French Winter Sale 2009 which starts from the 7 Jan. Really looking to buy more winter suited clothes as I'm turning into a giant ice cube due to the chilly weather. Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Ca caille. As the french says over here, it pigeons! haha

Had a wonderful scrumptious xmas entrée on xmas eve. Escargots with garlic butter! Kiba and I had a serving of 12 yummy french snails each. It's heavenly! I love garlic butter! Whoever invented this must be the greatest culinary chef of all time.

The xmas log cake (bûche) on xmas day is totally yummilicious! Flaked with praliné and filled with chocolate mousse, each mouthful brings you higher and higher to heaven. The log cake is dotted with mini xmas trees, a mini reindeer, a mini santa and a mini edible house. So so pretty. It's so pretty to look at and it took us a moment to admire the xmas bûche before eating it.

We managed to stay at the table from one till eight during xmas day. Another feat. Who's game to join us for next year's xmas lunch?

I'm so cold. I'll be out looking for a polar bear to hug!

A Spark of Boredom

2008-12-17T17:04:00.000+01:00

It's a merry little christmas
Down in the department 75
I've got to come back to work the very next day
As busy as a bee in the hive

Took a trip to Boulevard Haussemann
To get a little Xmas feel
But alas the whole place was full of deepavali lights
It makes Xmas feel unreal

Took a little trip to Truffaut
To buy my little tree
Only to see closed doors everywhere
Oh woe is me

My little poem of Noël
Which doesn't seem to rhyme
Everything will be better
Once I have some good ole rum

So do give me a little rum o please
With chouchen from Brittany
If you don't even grant me that
My xmas will be o so blimey

This must be one of the suckiest xmas poem
That your eyes have to bear
But thanks for reading it all the way through
Have a merry Xmas there!

Headaches

2008-12-08T17:05:00.003+01:00

Plagued with a headache yesterday afternoon which lasted thru the night. It's only this morning when the helluva insistent throbbing went away and I had some forty winks. Clung on to my pillow for dear life as I refused to budge from my warm little nest of quilt. Back to the office, back to monotony. In the chilly, cold air of a Parisian December, how my old bones rattle and go "ooh" and "ahhh" to the cold winds.

I need pockets. A jacket with pockets is very welcomed indeed. I need to cut two holes in my lovely jacket to put my hands through to shield them from the cold. These hands of mine, dry as orange peel, subject themselves to the harsh weather conditions and yet the owner does nothing.

Wandering through restless thoughts of her own, wrestling with one's feelings of frustration, annoyance, tedium.

Tedium.

Sigh.

2 more weeks

2008-10-20T16:24:00.001+02:00

Yay! In a little less than 2 weeks, I'd be on the plane bringing lots of goodies back to SG. Any cheese, LV orders?

Let the countdown begin!

妙妙生病了..

2008-09-25T15:39:00.003+02:00

The endless coughing and sneezing, the chills, the blocked and stuffy nose and the general grogginess... it's familiar, no? The darn flu bug has attacked and even with miao's massive defence, I was struck down.

It's so terrible to be sick. Sob sob. I feel so lethargic and couldn't concentrate and enjoy anything. It's the time of the year when Summer says its last goodbyes and Autumn comes to take its place. The leaves are slowly turning yellow bit by bit and the air is becoming more and more chilly as the days pass.

Was supposed to go for a massage this Satuday but I don't think the masseuse will be mighty pleased. It all started with the packet of 98 cts doritos tomato flavoured chips! Darn those chips! Tonsilitis befall me each time I put something delicious (read: heaty) in my mouth. This poor tonsil of mine.. sob sob..

死马当活马医。。。。

我再也不吃 Doritos 了!

Someone that I can grow old with...

2008-09-18T11:06:00.003+02:00

4 years. What do you think of such a length of time? I'd say it's not too long. Neither is it considered as insignificant. That's the length of time Kiba and I are together. It's quite a significant feat for me to achieve, as I think he's the one and only person in the world who can put up with every single shit that I throw at him. At times, he dodges them. Other times, he picks them up and throws them back at me. That's fun isn't it? It's been a helluva ride. I'm enjoying the ups and downs of this see-saw ride of a relationship.

I'm the type of person who never saw myself as being married. Marriage for me is something that will perhaps happen very late in my life or never happen to me at all. To think that I ROMed at the tender age of 23. "Life is really a box of chocolates" à la Forrest Gump. Who will ever expect me to be one of the first to tie the knot? Whoever the higher being up there who brought Kiba to Singapore to meet me, I thank you with my heart. He is such a dear, dear best friend, confidante, lover, hubby. What would I have done if I haven't met him? How would my life turn out then?

Yesterday, we celebrated our four years of petty squabbles, angry fights, PMS-sy tantrums, cold wars, time aparts, whispered sweet nothings, firm hand-holdings, warm hugs and loving kisses. I've said to him before we started going out together that this would not last more than 5 days, knowing my fiery temper, non-existent threshold of tolerance, arrogance, obstinacy, self righteousness and the list goes on.....

Thank you to the guy who holds my hand even when I'm so difficult and not letting it go. I have finally found someone that I can grow old with...the unique piece of chocolate in the box that tugs at my heartstrings which I will never let go..

November...

2008-09-10T14:41:00.002+02:00

When will November ever come?

It's the time of the year when I look forward to eating my bak chor mee, kway chap (YESSSSSSS!), rojak, popiah, stingray with lotsa belachan, milo dinosaur, giant mugs of sugarcane, fried sotong, lala, gonggong...*slurp slurp*

As an OL, I look forward to two great and beautiful things when I come to work. Lunch and knocking off. Wow.. life is simply great. YESSSSS!

Was surfing SG Brides and saw that everyone's so excited about their wedding gowns and looking pretty. In comparison, I'm so slack and lazy. Guess it is indeed right to say that there are no ugly girls, just lazy girls.

Yawn yawn. Another 2 hrs and 16 mins to go.

Yippee-ya-yo-yeeeeeeeeee!

Getting old..

2008-09-04T16:52:00.002+02:00

CJ: Hey u look ren lao zhu huang already... why don't you put in a bit of effort for your wedding?

Me: -_-

(Went home to complain to Kiba)

Me: Hey.. CJ says I don't have the glow and I look haggard...

Kiba: You don't look haggard, you just look tired..

Me: -_-!!!!!

Weird Invitation

2008-09-03T11:02:00.004+02:00

I was walking home yesterday as this black guy with plaits in his hair approached me saying he's new in the neighbourhood. As it was drizzling, I offered to share my umbrella with him and upon walking a few metres he stopped abruptly, saying that we had reached his doorstep and insisted that I come in for tea.

Me: <Trying to find an excuse to continue walking> J'ai encore des choses à faire à la maison. (I still have things to do at home)

Him:<very insistent> Viens! Je vous monterai mon apartement. Allez! (Come! I'll show u my apartment)

Me: <Firmer and more assertive> Non, la prochaine fois peut-être. (No, maybe next time)

Him: <hurt and insisting somemore>Pourquoi?! Venez! On se fait les amis..

I raised my hand showing my ring and he thought:

Him: Quoi? Vous avez quatre enfants? (What? You have four children?)

Me: <Pointing to my ring> La prochaine fois, j'emmene mon mari avec moi chez toi (The next time I'll bring my husband along to your house)

He became more subdued as he came to know that I'm married but insisted to know my name and where I stay.

This is really freaky. We can never know if people are just trying to be friendly or they have something up their sleeve. However, one should never force others despite their will. In France, if you do not talk to people who come over to talk to you or those hooligans who disturb you, they'll disturb you even more. Thus I always maintain a cordial facade and reply when talked to.

I admit that it's quite sad to always be on guard and think the worst of people. However in this society of ours, it really pays to be safe. Who in their right mind will enter an apartment with a stranger upon invitation? (race not taken into consideration)

Well, of course as a friend said, if it's Tony Leung, an invitation will not even be necessary as we'll just welcome ourselves into his house! =p

I think I better be on guard on my way home next time.

Pictures!

2008-09-02T16:06:00.015+02:00

Hello! Much awaited pics! Decided to post tak glam shots as well! =p

Reaching!

collapsed

I huff and puff and huff and puff

Yeah!

as we crossed bows with our reward

Yesh! Kiba was there to support!

Queuing for the concert

Self explanatory

The trackers which nobody returned

Waiting in anticipation for the concert

The percussionist of Kelly Rowland

Kelly Rowland live

She's great! Yeah!

The Nike+ Human Race 310808

2008-09-01T11:07:00.007+02:00

The Nike+ Human Race was yesterday and it was great fun! It was my first run after so long and I'm really glad to have accepted CY's invitation to join her to run in Paris! How lovely to receive the red band with Paris engraved on it. =D Bois de Boulogne is beautiful indeed. That's the place for the race and it's like a huge woods/park beside the Longchamp Race Course in the north-west of Paris.

The number of people attending the race in Paris is disappointing indeed. It's only around 5000+. Slightly over half of the intended target of 10 000 runners. However, the spirit was high and the ambience great as everyone cheered and roared while surging towards the starting line. The whole race course was covered in a sea of red with the arch red gatewall which marked both the start and finish line. Kiba was down to support and clothed in red as well. A real rah-rah supporter.

There was a bit of a drizzle at the start line but it went away once the race began. People were waving and doing the peace signs at the cameras whereas others were making monkey faces and scrambling along with others to keep up. Supporters lined the two lines along the path, clapping and cheering. You have to be there to feel the atmosphere. All fired up and so much gusto! Just being at the start line, starting to run is worth the 30 euros that I've paid.

The beginning of the run was pretty smooth as the breathing was controlled and regulated. All in the comfort zone. Nothing too demanding. However, it was at the 2km mark that I started to find the run incredibly long since it's only 1/5 done. My feet could keep shuffling forward but I need to find things to distract myself as I began to feel bored. The tree lined paths of the course is beautiful and the park is indeed a nice place to hold the event.

We didn't see any markers till the 4km point and were cheered thinking that we have covered much ground already. As we went along, there were mascots and a band cheering us and special thanks to the gorilla/scottish mascot (I can't really remember if it's the gorilla or the scottish who cheered me, think it's the latter) who encouraged me in times of need. I need to thank CY especially too! Boy, she's really fit! Many a time, I've asked her to go ahead and get a good ranking while I'd make my way slowly to the end but she refused to go ahead. *Shake head shake head* I do feel bad in slowing her down. But hey, thanks girl for all the encouragement! The fun will not be the same without you around and thanks for the invitation ya!

I've never sprinted so hard towards the finishing line before. When I see the big red gateway, I just felt that it must have been a dream that I've almost finished the 10K already! =D 10k may not be a lot to many people out there, but to me, it's my first 10K race and I haven't trained for it so I'm quite happy with my timing of 1hr 13 mins 48 secs. Of course it's nothing compared to the fastest french guy and girl who clocked abt 34+ mins and 39 mins 13 secs respectively. The girl is Belgian and it's her first 10K race! Absolutely impressive.

Thanks CY once again and Kiba for coming down to support!

The concert started at 5.30pm but was quite dead as many people did not know the artistes - Uffie and Cassius. However, the crowd went into hysterics when Kelly Rowland (of Destiny Child's fame) came up on scene. Hers was the last segment she's really enigmatic! A star is really a star. The magnetic attraction. How she commanded the stage and her beautiful strong voice! Her dancers were excellent, so were her DJs and percussionist! It was really hyped and I'm glad I'm able to witness her sing live! =) All in all, a great first in the city of Paris! Yeah! =D

C'est vraiment la honte!

2008-08-29T12:20:00.004+02:00

So yesterday, I put on this pair of jeans that I saw hanging from a chair and hummed happily to work. Lalalalalala.

Reached the black pearly gates of the office and happened to look down -_-

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Patches of caked mud.

How did it get there?!

Nike+ run

2008-08-22T11:28:00.006+02:00

Signed up for the Nike+ run next Sunday and I haven't even been jogging for... what.. 1 year? Sigh.^o^ how do I survive the 10K? I shall crawl my way to the finishing line. The goodie bag better be good! hehz

Assomption

2008-08-15T12:00:00.005+02:00

Blogging live from the office on this particular day. Heh. One has to bring bread and butter back for the household. My manager, Ms N woke up at 6.30am this morning to bake two cakes! That's so admirable! Had my dose of caffeine and chocolate cake and if only everyday could be like that.

So many years of education, so many tests and exams and so much money and heartache spent during all these years, how could I still not know what I want? Am I contented with the status-quo? Am I living life the way I want? Am I appreciating the beauty of Paris every single day or am I just bound to this office job, feeling weary of doing nothing much, clocking down in and day out to achieve financial security.

Granted, many people do not love their jobs. I am somehow ok with mine. Where do I find the courage to do what I want. I know what I want to do. I just don't know what I want to do after that. We have to be responsible. We can't all be spoilt brats and run off pursuing our dreams can we? However, life is too short to wait. Why wait? I am in the wrong country. Don't get me wrong, I love France. The beauty, the cuisine, the magnificent architecture, theatre, culture etc. We should be contented with what we have?

This is a fine post by alex the girl and hope it inspires you as much as it inspires me. Extracted from www.alexthegirl.com:

"Please go out there and do. Live. Don’t be the same as yesterday. Don’t live vicariously online. Don’t use language that has no meaning or talk ideas you don’t really live. Don’t hide. Don’t copy others or live their ideas or life. Don’t fear doing your thing. Don’t fear doing. Instead of reading a decorating magazine, paint that room. Instead of thinking of baking, do up a cake. Run, walk, bike. Put that self help book down and pick up yourself....

Do. I can’t stress that one enough. Take action on your life. Make the change. No more sulking, waiting, thinking, reading, talking about. It’s time. You’re ready."

Scumbags of the Earth

2008-08-13T11:48:00.004+02:00

I am so, so angry. Scumbags are everywhere. Littered all around. They are devoid of integrity and honesty. They are slimey, disgusting, slouchy reptiles that grin dumbly in your face and sneak an attack behind your back. Scumbags of the Earth, listen hard, I now announce war.

Office politics is disgusting and it exists in every nook and cranny of this vast world of ours. I have the "honour" to deal with some of these scums of the earth. They are stupid scums so they do not pose that much of a threat as yet. Stupid scums are pathetic. They should rot in their own mould and disappear from the face of this beautiful world.

We always want to believe in the good of every person. Human beings are born good, aren't they? Sad to say, the evil ones litter the streets of everyman.

Why do I need to be so full of angst. They are so not worth it.

Farewell scums of the world, and as I say it here and now - c'est fini , la gentilesse.

London in 2008

2008-08-08T14:59:00.002+02:00

Caught “We will rock you” and the actress was simply amazing! Her vocals were so strong. Mama Mia was sold out sadly and guess we were missing out on ABBA tunes. Queen’s were not bad as replacements though. The spectacle was nice enough though sad to say, the guy playing the main lead was not there and thus replaced by his understudy. The understudy lacked the stage presence and charisma to pull it off. The saving grace was the female lead though she as well, was an understudy. For her though, she rose to the occasion and did an excellent job. English theatre has never failed to disappoint me and we had a great night out. (Guess we have to understand that it’s August and everyone is on their summer holidays)

It’s been 2 years since I’ve last been back and things are pretty much the same. Went back to Four Seasons for the oily fatty bom bom roast duck! God! That was heaven! It’s been close to 6 months since I ate a roast duck, Chinese style. Yumyum! JS ate too fast and had indigestion. Talking about indigestion and eating, regardless if it’s too much, too fast, too frequent, we have been on an eating spree ever since JS touched down. Raclette, croque monsieur, French crêpes, cheese, entrecôtes, you name it, we ate it. JS is very well initialized in the French gastronomic scene indeed. We are going to Chez Robert at the Pot de Fer tonight. A very quirky restaurant covered with diners’ graffiti and memos. The entrees are excellent and the menu consists of traditional French food. The bavette d’échalots (beef with shallots) can be award winning. The ambience is cozy and nice.

We went to the National History Museum at South Kensington. It’s surreal that we are walking through the same places as Ben Stiller when he filmed “Night at the Museum”. The National History Museum is great and really interesting. We saw the replicas of Triceratops and the smaller version of the T-Rex. There was also a simulation of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 which killed many. It was a sad moment in history. That National History Museum is a nice place to go back to. Most importantly, entrance is free for the general exhibits.

Bond Street is JS’s favourite haunt though the prices are amazing. After earning in euros, the pounds seem less crushing but it’s crushing all the same. Things in Top Shop and Selfridge aren’t exactly cheap even when there’s a bit of a sale going on. Anyway, everyone knows that the clothes at the discount racks are all rotten or imperfect items. Amsterdam is a much better place to shop.

Did last minute crazy shopping at Harrods and M & S. Bought lots of yummy food, including my beloved Bendicks mint. Scaling the Eiffel Tower tonight and we are prepared to squeeze with the crowd. Typing this from the office again. Heehee.

Till then, next entry will be on the “Sungei Buloh of Europe”. Stay tuned! Cheers and have an excellent weekend. =)

Hola!

2008-07-24T14:45:00.003+02:00

Hey ho!
Miao is back! =) Spain's trip was indeed wondrous and lotsa fun! I missed sipping coffee in all the various cafe in both Barcelona and Madrid. Coffee is really cheap there. 1+ euros. You can't really get good coffee at that price in Paris.

Heading up to Amsterdam from Monday to Wed and London the following week. Heh. Gonna go stay in a wooden chalet in a dutch forest! Cool! Also booked a hostel right in the heart of Amsterdam with 9 beds!!! Imagine that! As what Ms JJ says, it's gonna be blast of an adventure. I can just feel it in my veins. =)

Lalalala. Just one more day and it's the weekend! Can't wait for it to come!

Adios amigos!

Good Friday

2008-03-21T11:56:00.003+01:00

Good Friday. Very "good" indeed. *Pitter patter pitter patter* Rain striking roof. Shucks. It's drizzling. When I got out the door, it was POURING. Cue: Panic. I don't have an umbrella with me because my umbrella was bent out of shape and I left it broken in the office. There are strong winds here. And by strong, I mean the really, REALLY strong kind. What do I do? Brave the rain in my not waterproof coat? I have no choice do I?

I was shivering and pulling the brown velvet hood over my head to keep the wind from blowing it away. Rain pelting down. Ci gu de han feng once again. No, please. No pneumonia on a GOOD Friday. Yeah, what was I doing? I'm walking to the station to the RER to work. Along came a nasty driver. *Slosh* All wet from waist down. I had enough grace not to show my middle finger. It was like in a film, so cinematic, but definitely didn't below to the comedy genre.

Reached office in water logged socks in water logged shoes. Jeans all wet, cold and clammed to the skin. Wet hair dripping. Jacket damp.*Brrrrrr*

What a very very good GOOD FRIDAY this is. -_-

Roman Holiday

2008-01-13T12:02:00.000+01:00

Rome- the historical city of love. The beautiful Foro Romano (Roman Forum), the breathtaking coloseum, the Pantheon, the vibrant and colourful piazzas all around the city, each with their magnificent fountains and beautiful sculptures. Three words to describe this voyage - Roma, Ti Amo.

Flying over the Mont Blanc

The mediterranean coast

The super friendly pilot couldn't stop explaining the sights and sounds that we saw along the way and how it was a lovely day to fly. I was wedged in the middle between an Italian guy who was dozing next to the window (What a waste!) and Kiba and thus asked very nicely if I could change seats with the Italian. He agreed and ho and behold! I had all the wondrous sights under my eyes!

Approaching Italy. Reminiscent of the French countryside

Once we touched down at the Fiumicino airport (Aeroporto Leonardo Da Vinci), we got ourselves the ROMA PASS, which includes free transportation regardless of the metro or buses in Rome itself and 2 free entries and other subsidized entries to a list of mainly museums and a few places of interest). Since Roman transportation is quite cheap - 1€ for the buses and MRTs per trip, it was a bit steep to pay 20 euros for a ROMA Pass per person.However, since it was our first time there, it's better to get this pass for easy access around the city rather than be troubled to pay tickets each time. However, since Rome is actually very walkable, I'll advise you guys to forgo the Roman pass and just get around like the locals.After all, do like the Romans do.

Roma Trastevere! Our first station in Rome. We need to do a transfer to take another suburban line to our destination. Since all the hotels in downtown Rome were fully booked, we had to find a hotel in the suburbs.

Initially, the scenery along the way was quite depressing. Along the way from the airport to the suburbs, Italy is actually very underdeveloped with unruly forests and the like.It reminded me of the villages of Indonesia or the under developed parts of Bangkok. I had no impression that I was in Rome at all.

Just look at the houses in the background, doesn't look very Roman eh?

Yay! Finally reached the hotel! It looks better than expected!

We had reached the hotel at 1.15pm and had to wait till 2pm to get our rooms. Sigh. We left our house at 7am that particular morning and our flight was scheduled at 8.50am. Since I had miss my fight in Amsterdam, Kiba no longer had any faith in me and insisted that we woke up earlier. The traffic jam in Paris is totally not surprising even though it was a Saturday. If only les embouteillages stop forever and ever. We decided to answer nature's call since it was a longgg morning without any washrooms.

Guess what does this signify?

Wrong! It doesn't mean women's washroom! Haha! It should be a conference room or multipurpose room by the name of nana. Since sala could be salle in french, meaning room. Haha, it'd be very salah to think otherwise! Heehee

My Kiba loves to pose by stairways. Oozing charm eh?

Can't resist taking a picture with the xmas tree =)

Les amoureux

Pasar pagi looks the same everywhere. Not a lot of interesting stuff though

The metro station Cornelia- the nearest to our hotel, about 2km away

The metro in Rome. Doesn't it remind you of the NEL in Singapore? This is one of the new trains though. Very clean. At least cleaner than the metros in Paris

Ok!*Clapping of hands together!* Are you all ready?

Presenting to you.....

Kiba and the coloseum!

Lovers in Roma

Latin inscriptions that I can't read

Look at the scenery! Gorgeous! I wanna live in Roma! I will start to call Rome by its Italian name Roma, cuz it's definitely more romantic

Me doing n'importe quoi! haha

L'arc de triomph displaced?

Heehee

I like this picture, it has a very gothic feel to it

Roman knights gossiping! Heehee, they must be so bored

Maintenance work done at site

Look at the wall erected to support the structure

The glory of the old. Makes us feel so insignificant indeed

Simply happy to be walking the streets of Roma

Egytian Mummy in Roma? We gave him a coin cuz that's what lovers do in Rome. Delirious with love

Say cheese! =)

Heehee, we are cold and Kiba is hungry

Yay! I'm happy to be here

Guess what's a bibite?

Kiba posing by the ruins

The ruins are unrestored and it adds to the charm of the city whereas others might find it a bit messy, I like it!

Dusk is falling

Thou light shinest bright

A horse carriage in the ancient city. Tempted to go on a ride around the city but I deemed it too touristy.heh. However you guys do give it a try ok as it's so incredibly romantic. Romantism à ROMA!

Oops, a fallen column

Miscellaneous ruins

Oops, got to go for lunch, shall come back and update some more! Bye!

Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-09T16:27:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year pull your ear! haha, bet you must have missed my funny posts. Don't lie! Admit it!

I bet this year will be a blast! Although I'll be turning a quarter of a century old. Sob sob! So far, life has indeed been good to me and I'd like to start off 2008 by thanking my family and my hubby. Without my family, I won't be here. Without my hubby, I won't be here either! Haha! Ok, I'm talking nonsense but this is what a Wednesday does to u! I hate Wednesdays! The weekend has just been left behind and the next weekend is so far away. Come hither le vendredi, thou art le best! But to be serious, I'd like to thank kiba for his patience and his love. He's one of the most patient guys on Earth and only god (or not even) knows how much poopoo he has to put up with /gets from me. Haha.

Towards the end of 2007, I suddenly started to roam out a bit! Went Amsterdam to visit sam on the 14-16 of Dec and Rome from 29-31. Those were incredible trips and indeed enriching indeed. Truly appreciate the meaning of da kai yan jie! I will try to sit down and blog out my trips properly. Don't worry, it won't be a liu2 shui3 zhang4 like the London post. =)

I can't really feel the impact of a new year yet as being a traditionalist, I need to celebrate Chinese New Year to truly feel that a new year has started. Looking forward to my homecoming on the 6th Feb and it will be one month of sweet vacation! =) Hongkong is in the itinery as well! Yoohoo!

I'm reading a novel called "Misfortune" set in the 19th century by Wesley Stace which is incredibly sad and thought provoking.A baby boy was found among a heap of rubbish and brought up as a girl due to the adoptive dad's obsession with his sister's death when she fell off a tree at the age of 5. The adoptive mum who was an avid librarian and fan of Mary Day -the lunatic female poet, wanted to test the theory of nature vs nurture as both the mother and Day believes that human beings are born both masculine and feminine. Of course, this leads up to a climax of disaster and sadness as things took an abrupt change during the kid's adolescent years. I'm still in the midst of the book but will update with regards to the ending.

Will go and do some proper work for now and stop slacking. Till we meet again.

Yay!

2007-10-16T17:21:00.000+02:00

I'm gonna have a mystery guest! Guess who??

So happy!!!

So tired today. Woke up at 6, reached work past 10! C'est hallucinant ça! (It's amazing)

Kena stuck at the autoroute (expressway) A86 for a long while. Kiba dropped me at one of the RER stations in the South of Paris and being blur, I missed the train while it was just in front of me.

I asked, "Est-ce que ce train va à St Michel Notre Dame?"
A man within replied "Oui".

Cue: door closed on me. =~(

Pressed the door open button several times to no avail.

Sad.

A bleak morning with the famed embouteillage (traffic jam) de Paris.

I'm back

2007-10-04T14:14:00.000+02:00

Hello hello,

I've disappeared for a long while. Lost the conscientiousness to blog but then again, I'm not really that conscientious a person. Perhaps a million years ago, you'll find that in the remarks field of my report book. But well, I'm back!

We will be moving into our new pad in the Paris on Monday!! Yay!!!! No more excruciating train rides. No more waking up at 6 in the morning. No more grouchiness and morning blues! Monday blues will always be had. Haha. Yesh, I clock 7h48 a day! Feel like boxing me, anyone? I can start between 8h30 to 9h30 and leave between 5/6pm respectively! Heehee.8h30 to 5. Beat that!

Back to to the new pad!! I'm so excited! It's really a place that's really my own! In which I can decorate, design, and use up all my creative juices! So happy! Heehee! It's been a long ride. Been looking for it for the past 2 plus months and God has answered our prayers! This is really a place we feel really comfortable in. All woody and nice with a mini mezzanine! Dreeeeeaaaam, dream dream dream.....

Talking about dreams, I've been dreaming a lot in French lately. No wonder, I'm totally wiped out when I woke up. That's totally incredible. Or as the french will say, "C'est hallucinant ça!"

News news:
Will be participating in a new theatre spectacle and this time, urs truly will have some lines at long last!! Heehee! Not much but well, it's a break thru' for me! However, the persona is too flamboyant, fun loving and too "put-it-out-there-for-all" which is a far cry from my own personality. Yeah. I'm shy. Please tell me what I'm gonna do?

Will like to participate in the coming dance rehearsals as well but since the Tin Man from the "Wizard of Orcs" dances better than me, I wonder what the theatre prof will say. But well, I'll just "put-it-out-there-for-all" and yi lao yong yi! Life is too short for regrets, so let's do it! (Need to combat my laziness and shyness all at one go!)

As for French News, (erm, I've not been following up too much wrt Sarkozy) just that apparently he promised more than he could offer. It's incredible how much the working lot contribute in taxes to cover the BIG BLACK HOLE of the national debt. I feel like crying when I look at the pay slip... 3% in SG vs 45% in the land of cheese??!! Hm.... but the tax system here is really really complicated. Many many variables to take into account. But well, let's not forget about the perks as well. Health and dental care are almost free. Cuz now to cover the BIG BLACK HOLE, we are reimbursed all but 1€ per visit. 1€ may not be much. But there are 60 million people in France. So if the govt holds back the 1€, they save 60m€ considering everyone went to the doc's or the dentist's once.

Lalalalala. I am so tired. I am typing this from work. What does it all add up to?

Adios one and all!

May we meet again!

P/S: Did I tell you that I discovered the freshest and bestest sashimi in France! Heeheehee!

P/P/S: Also discovered a very nice Korean bibimbab place!

P/P/P/S: I am a greedy girl but heckz! To eat is to be happy and I am very happy indeed!

MIAM MIAM!

OISHII yo!

Not losing sight of what you really want

2007-08-17T22:40:00.000+02:00

Hey ho! How's everyone? Hope you are all doing great! Greedy little me is suffering from indigestion from TOO MUCH BREAD! Yeah, it's possible in France to have an overdose of pain. (bread in French)Funny how les pains are causing pain in my stomach now. What a weird name of bread isn't it? Moderation moderation. Perhaps the French dude/babe who came up with the French word for bread had indigestion and stomach pains for eating too much bread too! Haha! How apt!

Work has been pretty smooth and is still pretty smooth. The French workplace is..... right, you've guessed it! Slack. Nothing compared to SG. In fact, even a slacker like me find it slack. But don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. Life is pretty good now. Just crossing my fingers and hoping things go well. The moolah is coming in. How good it is to feel like a useful person again. Although the work I am doing is just helping rich people with their accounts and helping them get richer.. not exactly a great contribution to the society. Haha. Never thought I'm the working in the bank kind. 9-5 job in the office. Nothing challenging. Nothing stimulating. Just following a little flowing stream and see where it's going to lead me.

Having a good balance of Paris and Normandy in my life is a pretty good thing. Being able to live in Europe, feasting my eyes on the grandeur of the architecture in Paris the vast meadows of green with pretty flowers of many, many colours and coniferous trees that I only read about in geography or science textbooks in school is a big big blessing indeed.

True, we win some, we lose some. My family and my friends are still in Singapore. To the world, I am just one person. But to one person, I am the world. And the reverse is true and applies to that person. Thus, I am happy and contented.

We tend to lose sight of our happiness and blessings when we are in too much of a comfort zone. We take things for granted and lose our temper over nothing. We have high expectations of those we love and yet we end up hurting them the most due to these expectations.

Life is just life. At the end of it all, it's not about how much you have achieved, how much money you have earned or how much glory, status or estate that you have gained. The most important thing is to treasure the ones you love and the ones who love you.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Je t'aime mon chou. =p

Mum's-in-law 56th Bdae bash

2007-07-29T02:47:00.002+02:00

After tons of calvados cocktails, rosé and lychee martinis, all I want to do is to sleep. Tried to escape from the noise cuz there's a crazy DJ downstairs churning techno yet the floor beneath my feet is vibrating with the tempo. Argh! Somebody! Help! I am too old for techno parties. I just want to sleep, sleep, sleep.....

Bon Anniversaire Maman!

Tired............................................................=o

Yatta!

2007-07-26T13:32:00.000+02:00

I start work on Monday. =)

Must learn how to say "NO"!

2007-07-22T16:42:00.000+02:00

I was walking along the Champs Elysées the other day when an old man approached me outside the entrance of Monoprix. Here's the gist of the conversation translated from French.

OM (Old Man): Do you have a moment?

Me: Ya?

OM: I am an artist and am currently looking for subjects for my work as I will have an exhibition in Italy at the end of this year. I find your face interesting as I'm doing a kind of experiment on painting different faces across nationalities to exhibit the sensibilities of the human nature. Would you like to assist me in my project?

Me: (Not wanting to come across as rude) Oh ok.

OM: Will you have time this evening to be the subject of my painting?

Me: (Totally not so sure and feel like walking off) No, I'm sorry but I can't make it this evening. (Why am I even entertaining him?)

OM: Tell you what, let's exchange our contacts. (Hands me his name card) I'm from the company Artemis (which is shown by the logo of the namecard) and I am Claude Joncour. (Handwritten in pen)

Me: Erm... are you famous in France?

OM: Of course, I am famous.

Me: Can I give you my email address instead?

OM: Nono! I don't go online. I'll need your handphone number.

Me: (Really don't know how to reject and walk off, thus stupidly hand over my number) Here.

OM: It's a pleasure to chat with you and I'll call you soon.

Me: (Stunned!) Am I being hit on by an old French man??!!

Thus I went back at night and googled the name. There's a Claude Joncour doing sculpting and designs on skateboards but there's no such Claude Joncour who paints. Furthermore, I found nothing with regards to his exhibitions in Italy. Felt grossed out! Sigh. I mean this is Paris. The arty-farty city where things like being approached by real artist might happen. I won't mind being the subject of a real painter! But face it, what the old man said to me is just a load of crap! I should have known better. I had huge shades on. Which part of the face did he actually manage to see to deem it interesting. x_x

........................................................................

Next day

Handphone rang and I picked it up

OM: Hello there. It's me Claude. Since the exhibition is drawing up real close and I need time to paint, shall we meet this afternoon to discuss further?

Me: Mr Joncour, I think I've changed my mind after all. I'm not so sure I want to do it.

OM: (Surprised) But why not? I thought we agreed?

Me: (Squeezing my brain juices out) Oh, my husband wasn't so keen when I told him about it.

OM: Oh! Don't worry about that. Why don't we meet at a café and discuss more about the project? You can tell me about your reservations and we will take it from there.

Me: (Very frank and straightforward)Sorry, but I don't think so. Well, I thought you told me you are famous? I went on the internet and couldn't find any information on you. You do not have any information at all on the net? (Felt almost stupid for asking)

OM: (Stunned silence) No. I do not have information on the internet.

Me: Well, I guess it doesn't work then. I'm sorry. Have a good day and bye. (I hung up)

Is that just gross or what? Fancy being hit on by an imposter. Can't stand it when he thinks I'm as gullible as some China girls. (No offence to China girls as some of them are even deemed smart, it's just the stigma) I won't know how to check on the internet to verify my safety? Sigh. But I guess I'm naive to think that he might be a real painter. Who knows? Human beings are suspicious by nature. There won't be a second time.

I must learn to say no. Back off old pépés!

The Mayor's wedding

2007-07-17T13:57:00.000+02:00

As MY said, I've really been attending lots of weddings. Was invited to the Mayor's vin d'honneur which is a cocktail reception kind of thing in the French context. Was looking forward to some champagne but sadly, there were only a few wines like rosé, poirée and cidre, namely pink wine, alcohol with the pear base and cider. You'd think as a mayor, he could do better. There were tonnes of people and well, it was the Mayor, everyone had to give face and turned up yah...

It was a real village wedding - mariage à la Normand and since we belong to the majority of the villagers who went just to "show our faces" so to speak,(Oh he has family too.. that explains the number of people) we totally dressed down and it must have been the only time that all of us were this casual ever...

Just look at what we were wearing!

Relaxed...Hee

Yeah..casual..the way to go! Never mind the lame gesture..

A real chariot lies in waiting!

There's actually a theme with regards to the chariot. It alludes to the hugely popular Belgian comic strip Asterix and Obelisk and the men which you will see later are the followers. Written on the front of the chariot is "Grand Chef du Village" meaning the big chief of the village.

Getting out of the church among the crowd. Can you spot the bride and groom?

Apparently the church has been disused for a while as the village commitee has announced it to be too dangerous due to reparation work not being done. However, IF you are the mayor... I guess you can just open it for use during YOUR wedding...

Managed to elbow their way out to the forefront and posed for pictures

Seated and waiting for the action to begin

I'd smile like that too if I were on top.... erh.. but not with the same groom pls.... ö

Do not be deceived by the big smile cuz this woman did not even turn her head around to address us even once while we were congratulating the mayor...

The chariot rest abandoned by the sidelines as everyone ate and drank..

Disclaimer: This is mainly to illustrate a wedding in Normandy. The enthusiasm or the lack of portrays the relationship between me and the Mayor. All those tedious administrative stuff I had to face... erm.. no kudos to him. Neither help nor support nor facilitation to make things easier came from him. Nevertheless I wish him bliss.

Peace. (I hate people signing off with peace. So lame. But I used to be lame once too.)

Disney Village!

2007-07-12T15:43:00.001+02:00

Hola! Everyone! How's everything? Due to Ms CJ's request of updating, I shall quit being lazy and show you guys some pretty nice photos!

Any resemblance to SG? The neighbourhood I'd be staying in for this period of time

Tada! A special treat to Disney village for movie and dinner!

Kiba decided to be real sweet and took me out for a movie and dinner together with his best friend to Disney Village. Disney Village is the stretch of restaurants, bars, pubs, Disney stores, IMAX theatre, cinema just beside the parks of Disneyland. As it happens, we are staying only 20 mins away by car! Yoohoo! An incredibly clean and beautiful place for a night's out. His best friend bought the unlimited pass to Disneyland so we had free parking! We couldn't enter the park though but well, who can be as crazy as us as to go to Disney Village just to watch a movie! It's well worth it and you'll see me back pretty often! Clean, nice crowd, all the holiday makers in a totally relaxed mood. Lalala.Wow! I am so tempted to rent an apartment here just because of the proximity! I haven't been to Disneyland though I've been here for almost a year. However, plans have been made that we will surely go in August!

Upon walking in, we saw this,

Little girl totally fascinated by the moving toys"

Kiba and Olivier

WOW! Wide eyed with happiness!

Yeah, try not to forget that yours truly had never been to any Disneylands or any Disney Villages for that matter! I'm pretty impressed! Lots of colours everywhere!
Don't you think we are pretty cool to go to a cinema like that rather than the stuffy and claustrophobic ones in Paris! Yoohoo! And look at that huge transformers poster! Gonna book our tickets early and I can't believe that it'd only be opening so late in France due to the translation and all!
And yes, Kiba is a HUGE fan! It makes him go weak in the knees! Give him transformers, he'd be a little kid all over again. (But he's kinda like a little kid everyday already)

More images to wow you!

Planet Hollywood

You really can't find a place cleaner than Disneyland in Paris!

Look at that provocative girl! Yeah, she did fall! Haha!

Ahhh! Kids go crazy here!

We really wanted to go into the Disney store but as it was nine and we were starving, not mentioning the movie starts at 11.10pm and we did not want to rush... in a nutshell, we didn't go. But well, there's always August! Yoohoo!

Look at the hungry crowd!

A restaurant which doesn't appeal to me

After much deliberation, decided on Billy Bob's for the Mexican
buffet!

This is what greeted us as we walked in

People were dancing spontaneously and spinning round and round. Such a great dining atmosphere. The restaurant has three storeys. The first floor is the dance floor and seats for the drinkers. The first two storeys are also for people who choose the restaurant menu. The second floor also consists of the bar and the third floor is of course the glorious haven of the buffet goers!

Olivier looking very happy

The lovely view from our table

We wanted to sit by the window but the table was still messy from its previous occupants. Nevertheless, we disregarded the dirty serviettes and plates and just went right there and sat down. Later we were scolded by a (Arabic, Mexican?) PMSsy waitress that we were not supposed to sit when it was still messy and couldn't we wait for her to clean it up. As it happened, she was scolded by the manager. Bwahaha. Serves her right. Service was incredibly horrible (what could we expect from someone so snappish?)The English at the other table who came later were served before us and water took incredibly long to come. She even had a problem with the guys ordering expresso and coffee. Bad. Service BAD BAD BAD. That aside, ambience is good.

Different ways of coping with boredom while waiting for our food:

Olivier fiddling with his camera

Kiba smiling sweetly. Or is it forcedly?

Super duper fake smile plastered on face to mask impatience

People wolfing down their food made us hungry

The drinks list

Entrées - Curry gruyère, long beans, olives, tomatoes, paté, charcuterie, artichauts, mexican meat slices... Tortilla chips with guacamo, salsa and cheddar!

To eat is to be HAPPY

The buffet stand

I didn't take a lot of photos of the buffet food since presentation was just average and they looked kind of messy. Food includes yummy sausages, farjitas, bbq ribs! Very carnivorous.. sigh. The diets of the two guys had shot through the sky, rebound and flowed down the drain.

Kiba: Let's do the fusion dance from Dragonball!

FuuuuuUUuuuuuuSsssssssionnnnnn!

To the dessert stand!

Who wants cheese?

Hmmmm.. would I be able to finish everything?

Yummy blackforest cake with lots and lots of whipped cream! What did I say about the table being messy?

Gummies and sweets! The pink gummies are very popular in France!They are called fraises tagada from the brand Haribo!

Brownies

Don't really know what this is. Strawberry or raspberry mousse cake perhaps?

Kiba's plate -(Front left) Walnut cake, lumpy chocolate truffle, lemon tart, blackforest with lots of whipped cream, goat cheese and cream puff which tastes like donut

Yeah, my KIBA can really eat.

I had a slice of chocolate truffle and another slice of blackforest and K.Oed.

After eating, full and boh liao, decided to snap a pic of the place mat

Kiba is drunk from cake overdose

Huh? Haven't finished eating?

Ganbatte Kiba-kun!

Yay! Finally! Congratulations!

Ending a meal with coffee is like the thing to do in France or anywhere else for that matter.

Kiba's coffee

Olivier's expresso

I don't drink much coffee, so there..

After which, we rushed nextdoor for the much awaited...

It was rather disappointing. Overly hyped and I always have a very high erwartungshorizon (level of expectation). Too bad I guess. Heh. A pretty good night nonetheless.

With that, I leave you to Mr Potter. Don't have too high hopes and you won't be disappointed.

Till we meet again....

Angelique's n Mikaël's wedding

2007-06-28T16:28:00.000+02:00

Angelique's wedding!

2007-06-24T05:42:00.000+02:00

Just came back from Angelique's wedding reception and dinner and totally exhausted! We danced till 5+ am. I have such a high tolerance for booze that their effect is lost on me. Just sleepy. A quick shower and off to bed! Oh yah! I danced with the cook! Imagine that! Haha. However, best dance partner goes to my hubby of course! Muackz! More updates later!
p/s: the strawberry cake is absolutely delicious!

The earth revolves round the sun, the moon revolves round the Earth, I revolve round the same spot

2007-06-15T19:14:00.000+02:00

As you guys should have known by now, two very unfortunate incidents took place on Wednesday.

1) I failed my code. No excuse. Stress, nerves, anxiety. One word - bullshit. Throw them out the window.

2) Got the small envelope.

Dad, pls don't kill me. I've tried. Or I think I did. Haha.(Ku xiao) It's karma.

A lot of shitty things happened that made me rethink my character, my relationship with other people and the way I deal with things.

I am so enveloped in my comfort zone.. in this bubble.. de guo qie guo...

Zhe zhong tui fei de ri zi... he shi cai hui jie shu ne?

The day when I was Murphy's best friend

2007-06-07T19:54:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone. I had an absolutely eventful day yesterday! Yes, the 6 of June 2007. 06/06/07. Wondering if that has anything to do with the day when I crossed paths with Murphy, otherwise known as the day when everything went wrong.

Aim: 8.45am on 06/06/07 at LV's office in Kenzo building for an interview.

The chain of events:

05/06/07 (The day before)
8pm : Too late. Missed train. Needed to take the first train at 5.50am the next day. Screamed, cursed, fussed. Defeated and shut up.

12 midnight: I burnt a hole in my favourite interview blouse. -_-

06/06/07 (The Day of the GREAT interview)
4.40am: "Sleeping Child" rang out from my handphone. Remain comatose in bed.

5am: Dragged myself out of bed. Totally exhausted.

5.25am: Brushed teeth, washed face in a blur...tick tock tick tock

5.30am: Left house. Kiba drove at 160km/h. Record breaking of 8 mins to train station in L'Aigle. Journey of otherwise 15-20 mins.

5.50am: Boarded the first train. Sought the toilet out with my makeup kit in tow. Hands flew to work. Moisturiser slapped, make up applied, perfume sprayed. Got out of toilet made up.

6.30am: Dropped at Dreux and changed train. Nauseous with anxiety. Hands cold, grabbed Kiba's.

7.40am: Reached Montparnasse.

8.10am: Reached neighbourhood where the interview would take place.

8.15am: Kept pulling on my coat with my itchy hands and front button of coat flew off, hit the bar counter of MacDonalds and dropped on floor with a loud "PING". Flabbergasted! Changed shoes to killer heels.

8.40am: Reached Kenzo building. Took off coat, said bye bye to Kiba, exchanged ID for security pass, scanned pass and lumped together with the rest of the other candidates by the lift lobby.

Prissy looking girls with expensive bags sashayed past and went up in the lifts.

9am: Receptionist received call from the higher-ups. All were told to go to the 4th floor. All squeezed into the lift save for 2 who took the next.

From 9 onwards: Video of LV showed. Powerpoint - info about LV. In English! Yay! Otherwise, whole interview conducted in French...

-Presentation of oneself in front of the five recruiters and the rest of the candidates. Managed some laughs from the audience.

-Role play of a sales associate trapped in a tricky situation with a Japanese tourist.

-Individual interview.

12.20pm: My individual interview finished.

Conclusion: Totally nervous. Talked too fast. I put the machine gun to shame.

Totally tired. Gabra until siao.

Overall self given grade: B

Results: In 8 days time counting from yesterday, 7 from today...

Big package = contract

Small and thin mail = reject

All shall lie in God's hands. Pray for me and wish me luck people! I need it!

Exchange program with LV Tokyo for 3 months is one of the advantages if selected.

LV Tokyo!!! Wait for me!!!

The phone rang but I screwed it..=<

2007-05-31T13:39:00.001+02:00

Had the most horrible of days since I'm here in France. You would think by having such a bad day, people would cut me some slack and let me breathe. No! I have become such a pushover, a carpet, a dirty used rag that others use to stamp all over me! I am going crazy! I am having panic attacks!!

The phone did ring! But why? Why the heavens did I screw it up? It's this phonecall for the course that I want to take but I did not expect the call at all. Not at all! I have a dreadful morning! Oh I want is to beat the hell out of a sandbag though I know my fist will just swell into the size of a rice dumpling! Why did she had to bloody call me when I'm so agitated and pissed! Perhaps my french is not there yet! Perhaps it will never be there!

The conversation went as follows:

Lady: Hello, may I speak to Madame Wadoux please?

Me: (I never know if it is a telemarketeer or whoever it may be? Plus it doesn't help that there are two Madame Wadouxs in this household and usually I'm not the one they are looking for! Why the hell must the call come through via my residential phone? All business related calls should go to my handphone so I will be prepared! Why? Why? Why?!) Yes, speaking.

Lady: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah formation blah blah blah.....

Me: (What the f**k!! I didn't catch a single thing beside the fact that she must be the lady that I corresponded with with regards to the course I wanted to take in September)Sorry, I don't understand. (I am too agitated, too lost, too shocked to remember to ask her to repeat herself, which I will kick myself for later. You will see)

Lady:(Surprised tone) Oh you don't speak much French do you?

Me: Yeah. (Kicking myself from every angle! Why the hell did I say that?)

Lady: Okay, bye then! (She hanged up)

Then came the ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Oh no!!!! What have I done? Oh no Oh no Oh no!!!!!!!!

I didn't think when I speak. I was too angry with what happened this morning. I was too angry with France. I was too angry with certain French. Do I honestly think she'd switch to English when I said I don't understand? I was and am a bloody fool!

Flashback to this morning.

I took the scooter and travelled half an hour as per normal to my driving lesson. There at the doorstep was another girl. Lady boss was whispering conspiratorily with her as words like "we'll have to ask her about it, don't we?" came into earshot.

Lady boss: (Plastered on her sweetest smile) Hey, (Almost affectionately) this girl here is going to pass her driving exam later. She would like to drive a bit for practice. Would you mind letting her have your slot?

Me: (Yes I mind! I f**king mind! Why does this happen to me EVERYTIME? Someone is always either passing their practical exams or practising for their practical exam during my slot? Why why why why why? Where is the professionalism? Where is the good organisation? ASSHOLEs! BITCHES!) Okay.. (Coward, Carpet, Pushover!! I AM SO CANNOT MAKE IT THAT I HATE MYSELF SOMETIMES!)

Lady boss: Quick say thank you to her! She's so nice! (To me)You can practise your code in the meantime in the other room. (To her) You will drive until 11 ok?

Naive me thought that I will be able to drive at least for half an hour from 11-11.30 so just resignedly went into the theory room. This is my last hour of practice and that bitch didn't even let me take the full test practice. She took a lesson dvd and make me work on it with only 10 questions at the end of it! This is totally cheating my money! I am not a moron! For my last theory lesson, I don't even get a full test practise! I have to give up my test for other sad puppy eyes looking girl to practise an hour before her exam. F**k! Am I really such a pushover???

Sad puppy eyes looking girl: Oh thank you! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I smiled weakly!

Truth to be told, I hope she'd fail. Come on. Who the hell marched in unannounced on other people's slots and teii3(sweet talk) their way through to a last minute practice session. It's a conspiracy! True, I could have said no. I could have been assertive. But I know the lady boss will give me shit during my one hour of driving. I am so sick tired of these racist bitches. She seems nice to everyone except me. What sets me apart from the others is my race and nationality. If she has a problem with that, she is just a white racist creep, which she is! Why am I always being taken advantaged of? Why am I struggling? Is it because I am lazy? Is it because I am underachieving? WHy why why?

I really wanted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. But why did I force myself to go to sleep in the cinema last night? Why did I force my eyes to close when I was not sleepy? The truth is this! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING HOLLYWOOD MOVIES IN FRENCH! LISTENING TO CHOW YUN FATT SPEAKING IN ENGLISH IS BAD ENOUGH! Can you imagine how excruciatingly it is to listen to it in French? Plus it is a difficult enough to follow show in English, how can I follow in French? Watching movies is supposed to be a form of relaxation, not a French lesson! I am going to puke! Plus L'Aiglon is the worst cinema in the entire world where the guy working there switched off the film before we could see the scene after the credits! Imbecile! Help! I am so sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick SICK of it all here! Sick of getting rejections in my face! Sick of getting people hanging up on me just because I couldn't catch their French fast enough and they couldn't speak English! Come on! English is even more spoken than French! Why am I subjecting myself to all these! Screw them all LOSERS!

Dreary weather where I tend to get philosophic

2007-05-28T15:21:00.000+02:00

The days have been and still are dreary. When is the sun ever going to come up again? I don't like bleak days filled with grey clouds. Sad. Wet. Cold. The wind goes "Whoosh" and seems like my friends had taken the sun with them. Rhuematic weather. Sigh.

Finally triumph over the irritating flu bug and am now feeling much better. Yet the weather does not suit my mood. I cannot go out and play. No more jogging, tennis, nor long walks in the meadows. No more scootering around as my scooter lies forlornly under its cover. *Brrrr* It almost feels like bleak old London. Almost, but not quite.

Am at the receiving, (read: waiting) end of things yet again. The endless wait that seems to stretch forever. I would love to think that things are looking up and the winds of fortune have changed. Alas. Fortune vs laziness. Who will win in this match to death?

To wait. That's an absolutely horrible thing to do and one of the things I simply dislike. Waiting to see how my life will turn out and which route to take. Waiting for all the pieces to fall into place. Waiting for the phone to ring bearing good news. Why do I always find myself on the receiving end of things. Remembered a workshop during sec school. Leaders make things happen. Losers wait for things to happen. Perhaps I am a loser in this aspect. But whoever says a loser can't fan3 pai4 wei2 sheng4? (Overturn the loss into triumph) Well, perhaps a lazy one will take even longer.

Please may the phone ring and the emails come in. To a better tomorrow, better weather, better week. *Chintz*

Les Amis en France!

2007-05-26T16:48:00.000+02:00

Happy Days

2007-05-26T15:22:00.000+02:00

Been down with flu for the past couple of days and it's really exhausting. I have already pre-empt it by taking lots of vitamin C and the much appreciated Coryzalia but apparently the virus is stronger than me. Hate to be down like a fly but yet what can we do? Luckily am feeling much better and like a human again.

This has been an amazing week as I had my first visitors from good ole Singapore!! Miss Xw and entourage dropped by on Sunday and we had a lot of fun. I don't know about them but I certainly did. The poor babes and dude looked tired from their military styled itinery as they climbed up into my little haven.

Complaints include the miniscule shower with the sticky curtains and wearing shoes in the house. Haha. What to do. The Europeans love to wear shoes in the house and woe is me! Thinking how many times must I sweep the floor a day to keep it clean?! Simple. I just don't. Haha. Well, I don't exactly live in the Dustbowl either. I try to vacuum and sweep at regular intervals. How regular? Don't ask. Haha. Bought wines and liquor for them and they do not even drink much! Hmmph! Haha. But hopefully they had a good time and a good sleep at my humble abode.

Crashed with them in Paris and had fun touring around. Think of buggy rentals in the Chateau de Versailles and driving round a 10-15km/h. Ornate gold decorations and all the luxe in the castle. The grandeur of the Opera and good ole wine and dine in Paris. I had a blast. Singaporean hospitality. J's parents are really nice! So warm and they remind me of my own parents. Parents are universal and it's really, really heartwarming to feel a bit like home over here. Thanks to J's dad's secret recipe, I managed to get a taste of home.

Would be a long wait before another of my SG friend flies over. Singaporean hospitality. One of its own.

Homecoming part 5 - We r going to the Zoo zoo zoo..

2007-05-18T12:26:00.000+02:00

Tennis, Toboggan and Prison Break!

2007-05-13T18:03:00.000+02:00

Salut tout le monde!

I've gone MIA yet again! Latest news! The baby goose had really gone MIA! Sob sob! The other one had been crushed by its mother! It's a tragedy with regards to the geese family!

I've been and still am keeping up a healthy regime of tennis, swimming and The Toboggan! The Toboggan is the tall and huge slide 5 storeys high! Imagine swishing all the way down being carried by the flow of water!Reminiscient of Fantasy Island! Bwahaha. I am so healthy now that I can't believe myself! Muscle ache is my good friend! But today I've experienced some abrasions on my butt on the Toboggan when there weren't any the first time round! Hope my butt had not grown bigger! Yeah, this post sounds bimbotic due to the fact of me reading Bridget Jones' diary in French. Yeah. Tried to read Albert Camus' "L'etranger" in French too and my bookmark is still lying in the middle of the book. Ah.. French sweet French. Watched Spiderman 3 last night in the cinema in French. Yeah, French again. What can one do when one's in France right?

Heard from my bro that yesterday was my grandpa's birthday! If Ah Gong is online, happy birthday to u!!! But I know Ah Gong will not come online one so attention to all cousins, bro of mine, kindly pass the message to Ah Gong and help me wish him a very happy birthday! Too late to call now! A postcard is on the way but sssshhh don't tell him! It's gonna be a surprise!

Boohoo! I'm going to miss all the family celebrations! Birthdays and all! Sob sob! I don't want! I don't want! I want to eat Ah Gong's birthday cake! I want to eat the buffet! Even though it's normal stuff like curry and all but hey, you can't get it here!!!!!!!!! Here = spaghetti, tagliatelles, fresh cream, cheese, ham and sausages, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread.........brrrrrrreeeaadddd.....

On the TV watching front, Prison Break is DA BOMB!! Fast paced and cool but it kinda gets draggy and tiring at the 2nd half of the 2nd season! Wentworth Miller's character is so smart! Although everyone is swooning over him and thinking of getting attached to him, I rest zen. I'm not weird or what ok. He's probably gay and I still root for Tony Leung anytime! Yeah! I like mature men who do gardening! Bwahahaha. For the female cast, the character Veronica Donovan is kinda irritating and I guess that's why the script writers killed her off. Doctor Sara Tancredi is quite pretty but after a while it's lost on me too. All the convicts have a sad story and though it can be a little cliched, it's still heart wrenching all the same. Sob sob. My heart goes out to Patovchik? (don't exactly know the correct spelling but it's that mental guy who jumped off because of the stupid Agent Mahone!) Bellick is just so annoying that I feel like boxing him! Thanks Claudie and your boy Christophe for being so kind as to provide me with the DVDs!!! Thanks a million!! Deeply appreciated by a Prison Break fan! You'd be pleased to know that I've finished it already!!

Okay! Got to run! Have a good week everyone and happy mothers' day to all mothers!

Homecoming part 4 -Citifolkers & St Nicks Girls

2007-04-28T14:46:00.000+02:00

Hey ho! Due to ah ming's request via YY.. I present..

The citifolkers once again!

The three tired girls gek chio but came out wrong

Yay!! Eating supper in the middle of the night is a very happy thing!

A normal photo at last! So ah ming! Satisfied or not?

********

The St Nicks Girls!

Me thinks ms cindy and me look very nice here

Yummy porridge buffet in Suntec!

Jo looking very happy!

Me and Sam. Jo said I had BED hair! Argh!

Pretty Nat

Back to SN for unit day with SNNP!

St Nicks girl's artwork - cool

3 little kittens from Sec 4 Squad 1999. Yeah, the rest nvr show face esp that Aedes. Noticed that urs truly look very just-rolled-out-of-bed

Us with our then CI

U know why we r smiling so sweetly? Cuz don't need to polish boots liao! Yay!

Fight!

Let's get some shelter under the hut

Kids at heart! We will nvr grow up!

Me and LR at "Jie Mei Tong Xin Qiao" (Sisters' Bridge)

HH who is one yr our senior

SN is so beautiful isn't it? Love SNNP with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind ....I LOVE SN!

Random votes Brussels?

2007-04-26T16:19:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! How have you all been? Over at my side, been driving cross countries to Belgium for work. I'm neither the driver nor the worker. I'm the one who makes noise in the car to prevent the driver from falling asleep. I'm getting used to the long drives here and can't wait to pass my driving test and speed along the motorway at 140km/h. That's 10 km more than the speed limit by the way. But who cares? Must live life the fast and furious way, provided we don't get caught by the gendarmes of course!

Since I'm not exactly the kind of person to really organise my thoughts, this shall be a stream of consciousness typed randomly on a leisure Thursday afternoon. I am no tai-tai by the way. With yet another rejection letter from Kelly Services slammed in my face just now when I opened Gmail, citing my particulars do not really correspond to what they are looking for, I am crushed, once again. But no worries. What won't kill me will make me stronger. I feel like the orange you crushed on the traditional orange juicer. Sucked of all juice and left the pulp. Pulp. Sob. Fight.

Haha. On a happier note, the recent buzz was that of the French Elections. It's very refreshing to see how stimulating and exciting the elections here is. To start off, there are 12 candidates running for president and such a thing will, WILL, NEVER be heard off on our sunny island, set in the sea. The top four contenders are Nicholas Sarkozy which is extremely rightist, Segolène Royal, a socialist who wants to be the first female president of France, François Bayrou, a centrist who tries to reconcile the extremity of the two mentioned above and Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is your traditional hard talking extreme right wing guy who people vote for in the first rounds because they were in awe and later back off because too much awe turns into fear. Of course, results of the 22nd April elections have shown Sarkozy and Royal to be the top runners and who will face off in the second round in 6th May. Sarkozy reminds me of a certain German dictator who wants a pure aryan race. He is the hard politician with a mixed background who wanted a France made up of only French and who legislates strong immigration laws to bar foreigners. Pandering to the nationalistic spirit and fear of the people by telling them how foreigners will come in to steal their jobs and feed on their social welfare and weakening national identity if France were to be cosmopolitan, he went all out to even declare to open a ministry just for immigrations if he were to be elected. Descending from a Hungarian father and a Greek-French mother, doesn't he bear a striking resemblance to someone whom we all know? It's hard to understand why we study history when the masses don't learn from it. If he were already President, France will definitely had gone to war with Iraq as this politician is proud of the friendship with America and will do everything to maintain it.

Royal on the other hand, as a woman, is already fighting a tough battle right from the start. First, we know how conservative and closed up the French can be (not with regards to sex of course) but I'm talking with regards to the way of thinking. France may not be ready to accept a female president as yet. If Royal were to be elected, a new page will turn in the history of France as this will be the first time ever that a woman is contending for the role of President and appears as the second runner-up. She cited that the French revolution is a key force of change for France and she is the best icon to represent change since the days of the revolution. The general sentiment is that people do not buy her theory. With its archaic system and administration, France can be likened to an old woman in a rocking chair with her many cats in her well furnished house. Change will not come easy in a system so archaic and many people depending and looking forward to social welfare at all times of the day. In a country with people against globalisation, 35 hours work week, long summer/ winter vacations, many many and I mean MANY religious, public and bank holidays, change will not be something that one person can bring about. They can say anything they want because they are rallying for people to support them. One person cannot drag the old woman out of the chair, ask her to do sports, to use the internet, abandon her cats and her beautiful house and step out into the world. The woman is too old and too contented and comfortable in her comfort zone. The sad thing is, there are so many candidates, 12 in all, yet none show any promise. Sigh. Politics. Everyone wants change but not enough to risk losing their benefits. With perpectually high unemployment, never below 8% and ever increasing national debt, France need somone REALLY strong to pull her out of this predicament. However, guess we will have to wait for the next Presidential election or even the next, next for a star to be borned and people with mindsets that are open enough to accept changes. Yeah, if Sarkozy is elected, I'm on the line. (No immigrants, remember?) Cool, I'm being embroiled in the complexities of the French administration and will go down in history someday. =) *wry smile*

Villagers here have traditionally voted for Le-Pen but the winds seem to have changed to Sarkozy"

So the process is pretty simple. You go into the city hall (Mairie), show your electoral card, take a blue envelope from the city councillor, select several names (so that you can still have your privacy as it's pretty obvious if you just choose one), bring it with you to the curtained off area, place the piece of paper with the candidate's name you want into the blue envelope, leave it unsealed, dump the rest into the bin, pass the blue envelope back to the city councillor and sign against your name. Of course, what you have just seen is a very small town hall as our village only has 200 inhabitants. I went in to nose around and was the one to remark that there are no more pieces of papers with Sarkozy's name on it on the table. Sigh, shouldn't have done that right? Heh, then no one would have known and would not have placed another stack on the table.

Yeah, we brought the dogs for a swim after voting and look at how much fun they were having!

Kiba remarked that this is a very scary looking bunny and with a second look, I concede that it's true. Er.. kinda send a chill down your spine, doesn't it? Anyway the bunny is eaten and the wrapper thrown away. Happy ending. *smile*

A Belgian Sunshine

Went to Brussels and decided to do a bit of sightseeing. It's a city of crazy traffic, noise pollution and graffiti. Cars cut lanes like nobody's business, vroom and zigzag all over the place! The sirens of ambulances, fire engines and police cars ring out every fifteen minutes. It seems that somewhere out there in Brussels, people are always having accidents, a building is always on fire somewhere, or a crime is always in progress. If not, I really wonder why the sirens never stop ringing. Graffiti seems to be a trademark as walls are scrawled with big, ugly, wriggly letters. There are tall modern office buildings and old majestic structures. It's a cross between the modern and the classic and it's as cosmopolitan as can be. Asians with long black hair and yellow skin,blacks with afro hair,whites with skin translucent in the sun intermingle in the city landscape. English, Chinese and Arabic signs frame the shops. Buildings and skyscrapers tower all over.

They call it a quay but it just looks like a very normal canal to me. Industrial buildings and offices lined both sides of the quay with men and women in suits walking purposefully - not in picture

Tada! Very touristic in my nike cap, totally a misfit in the area, but do you think i care?

The other side of the quay

Look at how busy the street is even in the middle of the day!

Kiba remarked that this looks like a computer generated image. If you look closely, it really looks like, doesn't it? I must be a genius at photography. Heehee

They seem to have these bronze structures everywhere

Say "CHEESE"

A huge park before a national monument

Majestically awesome!

Look how smart my Kiba is even without a tie!

The Royal Museum of the Army and Military History

Look at the cannons! Reminds me of Fort Siloso

The side profile of the museum with murals on the wall

The two bros

The monument of Schuman - a general who fought in the war. This area is named after him - Schuman Place

Guess what is opposite such a beautiful park/ historial site?

Can't tell the difference? Look closer.

Tadah! A building in the midst of demolishing with rubbish and debris spilling out the side.Gross.

Talk about discordant chords

Kiba thinks the architecture is really ugly. I absolutely agree.It looks so complex.

My favourite structure of all time - girl riding deer. Simply artistic!

Offices

Exclusive residential area. Seen the letters V-I-P yet? Don't pray pray

Artistic structure of man walking off beam. Very striking resemblance to Schuman. Wanted hold my hand out to support the foot but thought better of it

A Belgian train station and its surroundings

Trams and buses, all in yellow

What the heck! Yeah, don't put your fist in your mouth, traffic jams are common as day

A tram in close view - how very yellow!

We drove down to Lille in northern France to see Kiba's cousin, Claudie and had dinner with her and her bf.It's not always easy to meet up with family and friends here as the area is so sparse. They are such nice people!

Claudie and Kiba playing with Bongo -the Akita inu of Claudie

Bongo says "Bonjour tout le monde!

= o

2007-04-18T10:51:00.000+02:00

French Teacher: Miao, do you fish in China?

Miao: ........

Easter

2007-04-10T11:10:00.000+02:00

Look at the Easter Rabbits in gold! Yum!

Cute bunny chocolates

Here's one pretty one!

I've got two!

Wow! Humongous egg!

A french "eggy" commercial

Little eggs with liqour

Ahhhhhh... mon chéri... cherry liqour...Hmmmmmmm

*******

France - the country of decadence. Why do I say so? We practically feast on chocolates throughout the year. Christmas is a period with showers of chocolates! Then, it extends into the New Year, where chocolates can be found anywhere and everywhere. Shortly after comes Easter, and we find chocolates in the shape of bunnies and eggs. In a period of 3 months plus, there are three major festivals for gorging on chocolates nonstop. That is an average of one festival per month! Ah! The indulgence in the chocolatey sin!

I'm pleasantly surprised to see how foreigners celebrate Easter. In Singapore, it's just a typical commercialised holiday where Kinder earns a lot of money with lots of Kinder Surprise displayed on shelves of NTUC or Cold Storage. Over here, probably because Europe is a Catholic country, I more or less feel the true meaning of Easter and understand more about the story of the Easter Rabbit.

The Easter Rabbit was originally a hare. We do not know why the name changes from hare to rabbit but I guess that rabbit catches on much faster. I would say the origin of Easter started in Germany where the Easter Rabbit is associated with the Easter eggs to celebrate the arrival of Spring. German children build nests out of leaves, moss and grass and place them in their garden. They believe that during the night of Easter, the rabbit will fill their home made nests with multi-coloured eggs. These children will exchange presents wrapped up like Easter eggs on the day itself.

There is also the custom of the Easter Tree in Germany. People pierce the easter eggs at both ends and blow the white and yolks from one hole out the other. The shell is then decorated in different colours and hung on trees.

In Holland and France, children go from door to door to ask for Easter Eggs. This is similar to the tradition of Halloween's trick or treat. However nowadays, French children only go to the houses of relatives to ask for Easter Eggs. No one knocks on the doors of strangers anymore.

The Orthodox Russians have their eggs blessed in church and cook them for their Easter breakfast.

There are many different legends and myths about Easter. Some people believe that the Easter Eggs have magical powers. Planted at the foot of grape vines, easter eggs have the power to enable the vines to grow more rapidly. Others believe that if the egg is to be buried for a hundred years, the yolk will turn into a diamond.

Some people will wear new clothes for Easter just like how we Chinese wear new clothes for Chinese New Year to bring luck. However, the truth of the matter is, people are just fed up with their old winter clothes and cannot wait to shed them for spring wear! This is just an excuse for revamping wardrobes! Haha. Lively spring colours replace that of the dull winter and some people believe wearing new clothes on Easter itself will bring luck all year round.

Another tradition that I will very much like to participate is to taste the hot cross buns of Good Friday! It is an English tradition and sad to say, hot cross buns are only available in England. Sob. Ok, maybe we can find them in certain parts of France but definitely not Normandy. Double sob. Remember the nursery song we sang in kindergarten "Hot cross buns"? It's funny how we can sing about something which we had absolutely no idea how it tastes like. It is a brioche which is a sweet bun which is only available during this time of the year. A cross is marked on the top of the bun and last time, people believe that eating hot cross buns will keep them in good health for the whole year.

In certain parts of England, people dance on the streets on Easter Sunday. They are the "Morris dancers" who dress themselves in white shirts, black pants, huge red belts, straw hats with streamers hanging down the rim. When they dance, the streamers fly in the wind, same goes for the red and green ribbons tied around their knees. They must be a pretty cool sight to behold indeed.

In Scandinavian countries like Finland and Sweden, children celebrate Easter in their own particular fashison. They draw witches on pieces of paper and write their wishes on them. Then they dress up as witches and go around distributing their home made cards to their friends. Firecrackers are set off all throughout the street as the children go around their card distribution, to scare away devils or other bad beings.

Interesting eh? All these traditions. All this knowledge is courtesy of the handout given to me during French class. So this is how colourful Easter can actually be. Happy Easter one and all!

Prelude to Part 3

2007-04-05T17:42:00.000+02:00

Look at this!

We are having a feast!

Homecoming Part 3: Waraku and River Hong Bao

2007-04-05T16:23:00.000+02:00

Two happy girls at Waraku Jap Restaurant (plus a guy too)

My delicious seafood Kaminabe! (Paper steamboat) Yummy! Fresh Sashimi! Slurp!

Look at the giant prawn....

Jing's sushi and udon set! Value for money!

Cheeky look! So proud of her Jap set!

Greg taking a pic of his curry udon as a souvenir

Dazzling smiles after a satisfying lunch

Greg begins to bowl, that's not going to hit baybeah..

My turn! I'm going to strike the pin!

Jing's "Stretching-calf" bowling move

Look at the strikers!

Cai shen ye! (God of Fortune!) How big he is! Hope we will wang wang (prosper) from now on!

Look at the posing drummers in front of this interesting float!

Act cute! haha. But the nazha is really kinda funny.

Guess who? Bian lian! Bian bian bian! (The art of changing face)

Jing: Hao shiok ah! (This feels good!) Miao: Hao ku ah! (Extremely Bitter!)

The interesting Tree of Fortune. We have to throw a coin to hit the lucky charms on the tree, like good health and big wealth! Go Jing!

Are we transported back to ancient China? Hong Lou Meng? (The Red Chamber)

Miss Piggies!

Mr Dog!

And that ends the entry of the happy River HongBao walk! Don't you wish you were there?

A Wonderful Achievement

2007-04-05T12:54:00.002+02:00

***********

A Wonderful Achievement for Miss Miao

Yesterday, I did an amazing thing. I set myself on a business trip to Paris. Armed with resumés and the like, I put on my bravest front and decided that it's time to cut it out. To stop being a slacker and to stop being so tui fei (so lazy to the extent of being worthless). So I armed myself with a black turle-neck top, well pressed blue-black trousers and high boots and a white jacket. Trying to come across as imposing as the Parisians and the white to neutralise the effect.

I don't see myself as a sua ku (mountain tortoise), but I'm more used to exchange my IC for a security pass at the security counter on the ground floor of offices rather than imposing HUGE COLONIAL GATES with security buttons, push-to-talk, intercom and the like. I stood outside the grand gates of the offices, not knowing which button to push. I felt like an idiot. So easily intimidated, how to rough it out in the Parisian world?

I just followed my instinct and chose one button and it turned out to be the correct one. I heard the lock click and luckily I did not have to speak to anyway. The gate opens out to a big hall way and a courtyard as several offices are housed in here. I took the escalator, followed directions, greeted women in the lift and arrived at the office.

The girl at the reception was totally the stereotyped of a young Parisian woman, heavily made-up and looked like she's ready to refile her nails anytime. I asked to speak to this woman that I've been trying to reach for ages, via the phone, emails, voicemails but to no avail. Thus I explained that since I'm in Paris, I decided to come in person to speak with her. It happened that she was on vacation and she had just gotten back so she had her afternoon booked with many interviews and files to go through. That's the reason the underling told me that she's totally unable to meet me. She said I can go back on Friday. My heart dropped. I didn't spend 30€ on train tickets to Paris and back for nothing. So I asked if I could come back later then. She said a firm no and it must be Friday. I was totally disgusted as I knew she was in the office. But as it is, I went during lunch hour, it was around 1.30pm and for Parisians, lunch hour is strictly lunch hour and nothing else will be entertained. Totally depressed and sad, I walked out. At least I had an interview on Friday. Yet, I really am so disgusted and every cell in me is screaming "DON'T MEET THAT BIATCH!"

Then I realised that I had nothing more to lose. Thus, I went to seek out Kelly Services to drop my CV with them. A young woman came out to meet me and upon knowing my purpose, she told me that I can't do this.

YW: You must go to the website and fill in the particulars and post your CV there. We don't accept hard copy CVs.

Me: That's what I did several months back but I received no replies whatsoever.

YW: Really? No one replied to you?

Me: There was a woman who replied to my CV but last time my French wasn't really up to the standard. But since, I'm already here, could you just take my particulars and sign me up?

She thought for a moment then she went to the back of the office to make some calls. Coming back she asked me if I have my CV with me and she went through a little interview with me. She asked me to send the particulars of my ex-manager so that she could call to verify and told me that she'd get back to me once she received any matching job offers.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief! At least something done! Something concrete! I really wished she could get back to me sooner before Friday so I do not need to meet that biatch that I mentioned.

Sigh. Paris is beautiful. Yet, it's heartlessly cold. When you are a jobseeker with doors closing all around you and businesslike people rejecting to meet with you. It's grim and sad, when you are a lone traveller, with no friends in that city, no one to meet for lunch. It's painful, when you are in boots, doing topography with french maps and french signs, walking around in circles. It's hard on the stomach, when you know you have not much money and you don't want to splurge because there is no cause for enjoying yourself at restaurants when you haven't had a job.

Going to Paris makes me alive because of the jostling in the metro and the crowd at Galerie La Fayette. The smiles of the PRCs in front of Louis Vuitton, the happiness of Japanese tourists milling around the perfume shelves and the English tourists crowding around postcards stands. Yet, among all this people, I guess I am the least happy. I am not a happy tourist. I have a purpose in Paris. That is to work. Worse, that is to find work. But jostling with the crowd makes me appreciate the quietness and tranquility of the countryside again. However, at this moment, I am not happy. Much as people say how happiness is a state of mind and you allow yourself to be happy and all and how we should always count our blessings etc. I am counting my blessings each and every day. Yet I am not happy. It's going to take a long while before I will be happy again.

Homecoming Part 2

2007-04-02T10:59:00.000+02:00

Chinese New Year visiting... my bro and my cousins

My parents, aunts and Greg

The three sisters

Cousin Julie on phone with bf

Finally off the phone and me popping into the pic

Homecoming Part 1

2007-03-31T09:34:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, how dare Miss Ah Ying say that I'm lor sor... bish! Haha! Well, haven't blogged about my trip back to Singapore so here it goes. I can say it was really Singapore Revisited! Haha. Wonder how it will change in a year's time. Heard about the tearing down of the National Stadium and the construction of the world's first Sports City. Greatly amused by the toilet seat concept. First we had a phallic symbol for the esplanade, next we are going to have a toilet seat. How cool!

This brings us back to the story of homecoming kicking off with the Sri Lanka Airport.

Nuts anyone?

Of course, how could we miss out tea in Sri Lanka. Although they are outrageously expensive.Let's go to Relaks Inn to relax, shall we?

The two storeys of the airport

Tribal masks depicting Sri Lanka

Duty-free as can be seen in every airport, everything is in USD though, products more expensive than other duty-free

The café that we spent all the transit time in.. altogether 11 hours drinking, stoning, playing cards in this "Plantation" cafe. 3 hours for the trip to Singapore and 8 hours for the return trip, weren't we just great?

Posing with the friendly sari-clad waitresses

Leaving Sri Lanka for Singapore

I hate the new blogger, does anyone know how can I change back to the old one? Till then, have a good day everyone. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my dinner later. Menu will be lamb bourgignonne, chocolate mousse and tequila! Haha. Adieu.

Falling hailstones!

2007-03-19T19:25:00.000+01:00

Ah!!! Been having spring like weather for the past week and now it's snow and hailstones! I don't know if I'm lucky to have the chance to be rained on by hailstones or what? But one thing that I have to concede is that it was really really painful! Hailstones everywhere with nowhere to run! My first hailstone experience! One word - COLD.

Had my third driving lesson today and it was horrible, terrible and ________!(fill in the blank with a negative verb that ends with -ble yourself). My usual driving instructor Mdm LeCoq was not there today and so it was the guy. He refused to give me the pedals as usual and I had to drive a car that I had absolutely no control over, except the steering wheel! I should have passed my driving test in Singapore. *Repeat one thousand times to self*

Motivation fluctuating and I know that I should not and must not and cannot be experiencing that.

A list of short term goals!

1) Master the darn french highway code
2) Pass theory
3) Pass practical
4) Get a job in Paris
5) Get a car. (Freezing my butt off scooting around) OK, this can be listed under Long Term Goals, but whatever it is, must get my license!

I MUST ACCOMPLISH ALL THESE! THERE IS NO QUESTION OF NOT ACCOMPLISHING!

French lessons have come to a standstill. There is a limit as to how much french vocabulary one can squeeze into one's brain until one feels like puking. I know that is not an excuse.

What do I want in life? What do I want to work as? What do I want to do with my life? I am 24. Is that considered young or old? I don't know. Time is passing me by and there is no way I can hold on to it.

Once again, an old time quote

"If there is no wind, row."

Back in France

2007-03-13T10:33:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone, I've gone missing since I went back to SG eh? It's just been a mad rush, flurry of activities, meeting up with people, acting as a tour guide for my brother-in-law and I wonder how much time I actually had to spend with my family. Guilt, guilt and more guilt. One month is not enough. That is clearly an understatement. Note to self: The next time I go back, I'm gonna stay more rooted in the house, lounging in front of taiwanese variety shows and make my presence felt. One month passed just like that. At the end of it all lies nostalgia, jetlag and guilt. I am a very guilty person and it's been a lot of internal struggle for me to be here. On one side is family. On the other is my hubby. In search of a better life and self betterment, I need to strive for the best as clearly, the best is yet to be.

It was a crazy packing last day's morning as we had spent the last night at St James. Downing tequila shots, pops, vodka orange, cranberry and whisky dry. (Yucks for the last one) The last day of partying before coming back to tranquil old France. Had a lot of fun for a non partying kind of girl and had even seen very forward girls, coming over to invite Greg over to do a lapdance for their friend who was going to get married to a French last Saturday. A sporting, non-English speaking Greg was a good sport and went ahead. Alas, no pics as urs truly was too comfortable to move over and take pics of scandalous liaisons. =)

The 23 hours of flight (inclusive of 8 hours transiting in Sri Lanka) was arduous! If I had a choice, no more Sri Lanka! To be fair, the menu selection is great and the flight is still rather comfortable (minus the @~@### kids who cried non stop on the plane!) But that, the airline has nothing to do with it. Oh yes, also minus the fact that the staff at the check-in counter refused to let me check in since I had no return ticket and no proof that I am holding a temporary resident card in France. Was held up for a full half an hour, as the staff left the post to look for the supervisor, phone calls exchanged, supervisor coming back and telling me that it's not possible to let me board without any proof etc etc. It doesn't help that my resident card is lost in the French post and the temporary one is lying in the file in my drawer in Normandy. But being so used to such crisis (after being trained in Charles de Gaulle), I just looked her in the eye and asked nonchalantly so what did she expect me to do. I had nothing to show no matter what she might say. Finally, managed to produce hubby's credit card and matched against Greg's credit card and she's satisfied that both surnames are the same and decided to check me in complete with apologies and SOP of "sorry for the delay but you must understand our situation". Other than that, things are fine really. Just that the sodding laptop is really heavy and of course I'm too proud to let anyone help me with it.

I must be the worst packer in the world! Forgot so many things! Dad later scolded me on the phone that since I was no where to be found the night before takeoff, we cannot pack the foodstuff together! Belacan and Ribena are still lying in the fridge. My lip balm and strawberry
lotion lying somewhere but not in my luggage. Sob sob. Forgot many many things and my dark soya sauce that I wanted to make braised duck with! Ah...I forgot what I have forgotten but it's many many things! Oh yesh, the chicken rice mix, was in too much of a rush to buy it. I have one last line of hope though. And that is hopefully Mademoiselle xiuwen, if u r reading this, can you help me bring some over? hahaha, if you agree, that would be excellent! =) A million thanks in advance!

The 8 hours of transit was pretty well spent. I asked Greg to take out his poker cards and I began to teach him "diao hong yu". Haha, at that juncture, two other French, a father and son, came over to join us and I began to teach all three how to play "dai dee"! Hahahaha. Dai dee proves to be effective and we played that for a long while. After that, the French taught me a French game called "Belotte" and it's kinda like "Bridge" but more complicated. They are from Lille and as we all know, Northern French are very warm and nice. Cards for six hours and we collapsed for the last two hours cuz we were so drained. The darn waiter at the Sri Lanka airport cafe was a real bastard though and he was the one who ruined the Sri Lankan experience.

Firstly, he did not want to accept Singapore dollars on his own initiative as that jerk knows that USD and euros have greater power. However, he has absolutely no right to do that as the airport accepts Singapore dollars in their cafes as we had paid in Singapore dollars previously. Our drinks came up to 4 USD (stated in menu) and upon our insistence to pay in Sin dollars he asked us to pay 7 Sin dollars and that's what we did. Then he said that the airport doesn't accept Sin coins and we must pay 8 sin dollars then. That is the greatest piece of bullshit I have ever heard. Singapore has stopped manufacturing one dollar bills and i explained that to the dork and all he did was to repeat himself. I refused to pay 8 dollars because the conversion from 4 USD to sin dollars is only about 6.6 sin and why should I let him earn the extras. At that point I still had a 5 euro bill and I asked him how much it would be if I paid in euros then. That creep has the audacity to tell me that it would be 4 euros. Did he really think I was dumb or what? I was really pissed off and decided to asked the dad who came to join us for the card games to help us pay in USD first and that I'd pay him back in euros. Such dishonesty. It's staff like that that affects the reputation of the airport. However, the duty free in Sri Lanka is the most expensive duty free that I have ever come across and everything is in USD and not Sri Lanka rupees. Cleaners stretched out their hands and asked me blatantly for money when I used the toilets. With such a ripping off culture, I would say that the airport will not be ranked any higher in my list of airports anytime soon.

Had a bit of gastric on the flight since I wasn't willing to spend money to eat at THAT airport. But everything worked out well in the end when I saw hubby's face at the opposite side of the glass doors. (minus the fact that our cartons were the last to arrive) Minus the fact that there was a traffic jam in Paris and it took us 3 to 4 hours to drive back home when usually it's 2.5 hours. So after eliminating everything, I'm back in sweet old France, which causes my lips to crack, me to freeze and skin to dry. I'm happy. I really am. =)

Showers of lightbulb fragments...

2007-01-30T18:17:00.000+01:00

Sunshine after the snow! A beautiful view of the snow capped village

How tranquil..

The road outside my house, lovely for taking long walks

Pretty pink shades in the sky...

***********************

Note: This entry has nothing to do with the pretty pictures above. NC16.
It was a terrifying morning. My worst fear came true. I always have the fear of microwave exploding or washing machine turning with my hand inside and today one of these fears was realised. I was brushing my teeth as per normal and washing my face when a strand of my wet hair touched the lightbulb gently and "BOM!" Shatters of glass rained all over me as I took cover! Shit! I hate to sweep glass fragments and they were all over the sink, the carpet and the floor. Luckily I escaped unscathed but for the first 3 minutes, my fingers were trembling. The power of a strand of miao's hair! This can be my "shi kai". I'm sure my "ban kai" will cause bigger things to explode. (Go watch Bleach and you will understand) Nevertheless, hope it won't happen again! I want showers of blessings and not lightbulb fragments. Perhaps I must go and do more good deeds.

This is going to be a good week as there are lots of things to do. Going to the mayor's office tomorrow to see if my residence card has arrived. *Keeping fingers tightly crossed" Really wish that I can have it before I leave for Singapore. Yeah people, I would be back next thurday! Yay! Time flies doesn't it? One full month of hainanese chicken rice, mee siam, mee rebus, satay, chomp chomp/east coast chicken wings, geylang frog's legs porridge, nasi lemak, my aunt's curry with bamboo shoots, carrot cake, hokkien mee, bak chor mee, ramen, korean food, bib bim bab, tomyam maggi mee and this list is inexhaustible. I shan't go on as I do not wish to type into infinity and beyond. I am hungry already just thinking of all these food! Food glorious food! Jo once said that "To eat is to be happy." I can't agree more. I shall go and be happy now! Adios peeps!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2007-01-26T15:24:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to Me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeeeeee, happy birthday to me! Yesh, my birthday was yesterday and for those of you who have forgotten..ah hem *clear throat, pull up sleeve* haha.. just kidding la! For those who remembered, thanks! I'm so touched that you remembered even when I'm in a foreign land! At least I'm not forgotten.. *sob sob*

Yay! 18 forever! Yoohoo!

Happy Birthday to Me! Little Pyramids of chocolate mousse! Simply moussilicious!

Blowing out the candle! Yeah, someone has to support the candle from falling! Haha!

Presents from my little Kiba!

Fluffy socks! Warms my cold feet up instantly! Goodness! My feet always feel like subzero deg

English for lazy girls! Haha, I need the french translations actually!

Leg warmers! I really need it!

His and Hers Keychains

What's this?

It's a hairbrush I sorely need! Broke my comb into half!

My gourmette! (A silver bracelet with my name and birthdate engraved)

I have the sweetest hubby in the world. He drove in the snow all the way back for one night to celebrate my bdae and drove back to campus at 6+am this morning. Thank you for taking all my nonsense and I feel greatly loved. Je t'aime vachement caca kun! Heehee!

Snow!

2007-01-26T12:15:00.000+01:00

Indoor pic #1: All is calm and white

Indoor pic #2 : The horses grazing on hay.. awfully cold out there

Indoor pic #3: In front of the house

Beautiful eh?

Look at the snow accumulated on the cars!

The xmas tree planted outdoors

The remains of the garden and the village shrouded in snow...

The Faraway Tree

Kiba's pearl in his palm - Houpette

Nosferatu eating.... snow? =)

The first snow flakes fell at 12.30am on 24 Jan 07 and I was the first to witness it as everyone was asleep. Heard the pitter pattering on the roof tiles and thought it was going to rain again. But hey, those white flakes outside the windows are nothing like rain! "It's snowing!" I had thought to myself! I hurriedly ran and switched on the spot light outside the house! The white flakes swirling all around, covering the grass with a pure whiteness! I was so excited! My first heavy snow fall! So romantic! Such a rush of feeling came over me. Yet, I was alone. In the quietness of the night, as the snow fell, I was the only one seeing the earth shrouded with the first touches of the white magic. Reminded me of this sad poem that I had come across in secondary school..

江雪

千山鸟飞绝

万境人踪灭

孤舟簑笠翁

独钓寒江雪

Thanks to the kind peeps out there, this poem is finally corrected. My chinese is going down the drain... sobz

In the meantime, I'm down with flu and sneezing my nose away.. coughing my throat out! Give me my health back, s'il vous plaît! =)

Cold and tragic weekend

2007-01-23T12:11:00.000+01:00

It's freezing up here! I slept through the night shivering while a storm brewed outdoors! Too lazy and too alone to get up in the dark, I just froze curled up like a prawn, never thinking of getting the sleeping bag as an extra protection. Alas! The result = full blown flu with a blocked nose and a nasty head. 12 degree celsius in NJ shorts and a t-shirt. I am incredible.

That aside, there was sad news with regards the the state of the world, albeit a smaller world in west france. A welsh couple whom I know at my French course had a sad story to relate. On the Sunday that had just passed, the couple saw flames at their neighbour's house. The door was barred and Jean-Louis, the neighbour, was inside the house, clutching frantically to his rifle. He was in a highly emotional state and it was a horrifying sight. Since the Welsh couple couldn't speak much French, they rushed to their neighbours' for help. The neighbour came out, armed with a rifle as well. Jean-Louis at this point came out of the house and threatened people not to go close. He was then shot in his stomach by the neighbour. The firemen came and while waiting for instructions from their superiors, did nothing but watched the houses burn down before they took further action. The Welsh couple called the ambulance. It came, one hour later. Luckily the Welsh man knew first aid and did all he could to sustain the life of Jean-Louis. The gendarmes came and looked around for the gun man, while Jean-Louis was writhing in pain with his gunshot wound clutching tightly to the fingers of the Welsh man. He is now recuperating in intensive care.

Apparently, Jean-Louis tried to burn down his own house with himself in it. His wife was taken ill to a state that she could no longer stay with him and needs to be warded. Out of depression, he withdrew all his money from the bank and it was said that he burned them together with the house and himself. The rifle was to deter anyone from coming to his aid. Sadly, he was shot by a French neighbour which the Welsh couple went to ask for help. No neighbours came out to see the commotion. No one cared. It was the Welsh couple alone who stepped out to help and it was highly traumatising for them. Although they have seen a lot of thing in their lives since they are now in their retirement years, it was still nauseating and they felt a little sick. It was a sad weekend and it was really tragic. The state of the world, the state of affairs and the state of depression of the guy.

People do things with various intentions and with the state of the world and people undergoing depression, it is no wonder more psychologists are needed to counsel and lead people to see the light.I realised how safe Singapore is and how right it is to ban guns and such armoury. We use arms for self defence and not to attack. If you have a weapon which you use it to injure others in the name of self defence, where can we actually draw the line. Jean-Louis in this case, would not possibly pull the trigger as he just wanted to be left alone to die. The neighbour, regardless of anything, just fired the shot in the name of salvaging the situation. Who's wrong and who's right, I will leave you to judge for yourself.

However, the most important thing to live in France is to stay healthy. Granted, some doctors are really nice and are specialists in their area of study, but if it takes one hour for an ambulance to arrive, well, we better don't count on it too much. Likewise for everyone, health is the most important thing. Without it, how are we going to enjoy the world?

pIcTuReS!!

2007-01-20T13:32:00.000+01:00

Big BooPiEs!! Heh.. no need for silicon! Any orders

This comes with a red porte-jarretelle

The village's"Galette de Roi" session

She looks bored....

I was hungry, so tucked in first =)

The little King

Yummilicious cider! Must taste the "Brut" one ok?

A very cute little french girl!

The little feve...

HaPpY dAyS fILLed wItH aDvEnTuReS!

2007-01-16T22:15:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!! It's been a long time yet again! How's everyone doing? The snow is not here yet! When is it going to snow? I don't like global warming! It is delaying the seasons! Everything is being shifted further and further back! Arghhh! I'm sure it's going to snow in February when I'm going to Singapore! Arghh! Please snow for me please! For a snow-deprived girl who has been living on the equator for all these years, please heavens, give me a romantic snowy new year before I leave for Singapore please? Okay, this may seem overly dramatic, but I've never exactly seen any city shrouded in a lot, a lot, a lot of snow before. The brief encounter in 2004 doesn't count! Will hold on to my hope and hopefully the snow will fall soon! I remembered when I was 15, a penpal from Long Island sent me a bottle of snow via airmail. Of course, when it reached me, all that remained was yellow water. Yeah. How sad. Impurities and all reduced pure white snow to such a state - Yellow water. Yet, it's the thought that counts after all. Do I really have no fate with snow? Maybe will migrate to Antarctica or Finland just to see the snowy world! Just kidding!

Lots of things to update and I guess I will do them one by one. Let's see, the beginning of the year has been a flurry of activities. After the New Year Celebrations, we have the "Galette de roi", literally translated as the pie of the king! This festival takes place on the first Sunday of the new year or the 6th of January whichever comes first. The galette is a crusty pie with sweet stuffing, such as apple stuffing or other flavours like "frangipan" as they call it in French. I wonder if it's made from frangipani flowers? In fact, it's almost like a game. Hidden in the galette, is a little porcelain doll or figurine which we call "La Feve". The figurine can be anything from animals, ornaments or even the hottest character of the season like Harry Potter or Arthur from "Arthur and the Minimoys" The pie would then be cut into pieces and the youngest child of the family will crawl under the table and designate which piece to be given out to who. Each of us will then tuck in into the delicious pie and if you feel something goes "clack" between your teeth, hurray! You are the lucky one to be the King or Queen! You will then be crowned and you can pick your favourite person to be your King to share the glory with you. Everyone will make a commotion and other kiddos will be disappointed that they did not get the little figurine in the pie. Hahaha! It is really a very interesting festival and I got crowned for the first session this year. Yes, we have more than one galette session. The first is usually with your family and the village will also organise a "Galette de Roi" session which comes with free flow cider, rosé and red wine. Yeah, it's free and of course almost the entire village turned up. See, Singaporeans are not the only kiasu ones! Haha. Will pose pictures of the "Galette de Roi" later! Interesting isn't it? France and her traditions!

Well, enough about Galettes and it's time to tell you about miao's adventures in the dark french forest! Yeah! I rode through a dark, dark forest all alone one night and it was a true test of courage! Hahaha. Puts all the solo walks and solo nights during my NPCC days to shame. Mind you, I'm the first person to admit that I'm totally, absolutely scared of the dark. However, since it's the new year and we should always venture on exciting things, I decided to outdo myself and raise the barrier! Hey, I didn't do it for fun k! I had to pass through the forest if I need to get to my tutee's place! Just that usually, there's someone available to drive me! But that day, I muster all my courage to brave the journey myself with Black Beauty! That's my scooter's name of course! And guess what?! I made it! LOL! Imagine the countryside roads with no street lamps and me riding at 30km/h because I could hardly see 3m ahead of me! Luckily my night vision is great thanks to all the carrots that I've been eating and still eating and I could make out the road from the silhouette of trees! Goodness, the light of a scooter is nothing compared to that of a car. Furthermore, absent minded me didn't even use the strong headlights! Forgot as the switch was on the left of the handlebars. I only noticed the switch on the right! Haha, but it makes me seem all the more incredible! But it was awfully cold and I was scared shitless in fact! I was praying the whole time not to bum into a wild boar, not to be eaten by a fox, not to crash a rabbit nor to run over a deer as animals cross that road all the time! It took me a good hour to get home! Nothing ever comes close to the sense of achievement at the end of the journey! Light, warmth, hot spaghetti and hubby's bear hug! It was awfully cold as the wind seems to be like daggers, piercing right through my bones! It's really what we called "刺骨的寒风"! Yet the blissfulness felt at the end of the long journey is totally worth it! We must suffer a bit to realise the sweet joy of life or else we will end up taking life's events for granted! Talking about the forest, I saw a baby wild boar the other day when bro-in-law drove me to tuition! So cute, it was so small and pinkish as reflected from the headlights. It scampered across the road on its short legs and the legs really moved very fast! Hahaha! When I related the incident to Cindy, she laughed and said "yumyum.. suckling pig!" Funny, that was what I thought of too when I saw the wild boar! Haha! We are so warped! Ain't it weird that when we see pig, we think pork! Hahaha. The human race can be so savage at times eh?

Oh yah, been riding the scooter a lot these days. The feeling is like "Gone with the Wind", speeding down the road. Haha. "Speeding" down in fact because I have to run the scooter in for the first 500km. That means for the first 500km, I cannot ride more than 80 percent of the scooter's speed so as to prolong the engine life. Since Black Beauty is below 50cc that means I cannot ride more than 45km! Haha. Well, just another 300km to go since I covered 200km already! Her maximum speed is actually 80km/h but I think it's good enough for me! After all, we don't need a licence to ride that! Heh! However, I do feel like a snail on the road as all the big, menacing vehicles raced past me. In fact, a stupid lorry horned me today. I was following mum-in-law's car to make a right turning and the lorry turned at the same time. The lorry was on the outer lane and has no right to make a right turn and yet he horned me?!!! What kind of stupid logic is that? Mum-in-law said it was probably the car behind me that horned the lorry as the car driver couldn't turn with the lorry obstructing. Bro-in-law said I should show my finger to whoever horned at me! Haha. That would be rather funny though. My thick gloved middle finger! LOL! The french here showed it a lot I must say! In fact, in France, it's better not to horn anyone or else you will get shit. But goody-two-shoes me didn't show any finger at all but just rather pissed to be horned at. Sigh. Little me on little Black Beauty, facing off with a lorry and a car. Now you know why I always have the buddhist chain my grandmother gave me round my neck. I need lots of protection against French lorries! :)

Now that hubby has started his course in Caen, I'm alone upstairs during weekdays! That explains the scooter and the animes! Haha! It frees up a lot of time for me to do whatever I want and it's strange that when we have so much free time on our hands, we don't really know what to do with it. Yes, I still give tuition, feed the horses, wadding in mud and all and it's all really so nostalgic! My grandmother used to have a farm in Ponggol and I used to wear pretty little yellow boots to wad in mud and chicken poo poo and when I outgrew them, I had pretty little blue ones. Now my pair of boots is boring old black boots and no longer have cute cartoons on them. Furthermore, it is the low kind and sometimes *bit lip and scream* muddy water gets into them! Mum-in-law is gonna look for some tall green ones for me to walk freely in all that mud! It's really like quicksand you know? Once you are stuck, it takes a hell of an effort to get up of that muddy mess! Reminds me of OBS when our canoes are stuck in mud and my watch and me sank thigh deep into the mud! My instructor remarked that I was like GI Jane, the feminine version of GI Joe! Totally not funny! It was the worst camp of my life, that OBS. I was covered with nasty looking mosquito/sandflies bites and was sent home one day earlier as the instructor feared it was chicken pox! Crap! I already had chicken pox before but they were just a bunch of scaredy cats! Went through such a shitty camp and did not even receive the certificate personally! Sigh. It was a sad camp. I had to have an injection to counter all the bites and my GP did it at my butt (like injecting babies) as the volume to inject is too much and my thin arms are unable to support it. Don't worry, the area injected is just a little below the waist area, haha she did not see anything and I did not feel anything! Talking about injections, I had to be vaccinated again! According to FRENCH rules, (audible sigh) whatever injections I had taken in Singapore doesn't really count and I have to be vaccinated here, since there are probably more cows here and diseases that we have not much risk to in SG. I am one who is totally against injections and I do not understand anything. Worse still, my health booklet is in Singapore and the GP here told me that even if I have my health booklet, it doesn't change matters. I need to be revaccinated to reawaken the vaccines. Guess, I can't escape that then. =_=!

Been watching "Bleach" (Yeah yeah, I know I am slow and I only reached episode 70 only) and realised that everyone inside is so "Kakkoi" (cool!) I like the "BANKAI" feat and I think Ichigo is quite cool! I like Yachiru! She is soooo cute! I like the 8th squad captain, the frivolous one who's always flirting in a floral samurai robe and also Ukitake! I think Kuukaku is very cool too! Other animes watched are "Yami to boshi to hon to tabi bito" about how Adam created many worlds and kept them divided in books (meaning each book is a different world by itself" to protect his creation from the fighting Gods and how subsequently eve, her sister, ririsu and yami are born to take care of the great library of books consisting of all the worlds! It's quite nice after you watch the entire series but after watching, I can only conclude that the producer is a pervert who advocates incest and lesbianism! Totally disturbing notions! Haha. Japanese anime can be sooooo perverted at times but I must say "yami" is one of the most perverse ever!

I've also watched the Japanese series"one litre of tears" which opened the dam of my tear ducts. It's based on a true life account of a 15 year old girl, Aya, who suffered from Spinocerebellar Atrophy". She was a star basketballer who had just entered a prestigious high school and yet being inflicted with this disease, she would gradually lose her motor senses. She could not gauge distance, would stumble and fall directly on her face and lose control of her speech and end up wheel chair bound and lastly paralysed! It is such a moving story! Realised how much we really take our abilities for granted and never really acknowlege them. Like how we can walk without thinking and just taking everyday for granted. I think we should all really sit back and realise how wonderful our bodies are made and appreciate what we can do each and everyday by doing something new and exciting each and every day!

The long awaited "Du Zhe" has finally arrived! All the inspirational articles are so endearing. Things are better expressed and savoured in Chinese I think! Shall leave u a little gem of a cookie ----- 没有人拒绝微笑... :)

5 hrs meals to usher in the new year

2007-01-03T18:55:00.000+01:00

A champagne to begin the meal

Cheers to all things good in the coming year! Three girls with very different styles, holding rosé in their hands, with the same sweet smile!

Tadah! I'm the party girl with the big red nose!

Guess who? Robin? Robin who?

Loading ammunition! I can't blow the balls through the tube, might as well throw right from the packet la!

I duck, I duck, I duck duck duck!

See no evil, mon chien! I will protect you with my life! You, who hurt my dog, shall die!

Fireworks shooting in the proximity! Didn't know friars also play with fireworks eh? =P

Fsssssh Fsssss Fsssss the sizzling goes

Simply amazing!

Cheers to 2007!

I'll let the pictures do the talking. Happy New Year one and all! May 2007 keep you in good health, pockets full, mind sane and safe and sound no matter the time of the day. Keep smiling! Before the shitty stuff gets you, you GO and GET them first!

*GROSSE MERDE à TOUS!
(BIG SHIT TO EVERYONE)

*french expression meaning good luck!

Eat, drink and be MeRRY!

2006-12-17T12:13:00.000+01:00

Hi Dudes and Dudettes, it's been some time yet again. Days are getting awfully wet and rainy here with frost and fog all around. Where is my "sunny island, set in the sea"? Heh, but there's nothing better to warm this rainy season up with a LONGGGG french dinner yet again. This time, I'm no longer floating in outer space. 5 months in France did something for me after all! And you may ask, who's that xiao shuai ge up there? That's the son of my theatre teacher Alex! You may not see it in this pic, but he's really blonde blonde! So without further ado, let me introduce you one of the most important element in French culture - LONG dinners.

Little éliot is the first little guest to arrive!

Santa is trying to steal my star!

élise and the xmas tree! (Urs truly decorated it!) Not a bad job considering that I had to decorate the tree in record time just before the guests arrived! With the decorations up, it does seem a bit more christmassy after all! We have to elevate the tree due to the naughty dogs in the house. If not, all the beautiful decorations hanging from the tree would probably be ripped down in no time!

Taking a shot by the xmas tree before the dinner starts. Not to be a whiny cannot make it youth of the female species, but somehow I look fat. Too much xmas candies and chocolates with liquor in them. Don't know why but my face seems to reflect that of the moon around the xmas season. Well, life is short, eat now and heck!

Let's start with the aperitif! Yesh, in Singapore, this is exactly what our mothers warn us not to do! No snacks before meal times! In France, it is the exact opposite. French dinners start with aperitif! The french eat potato chips, titbits and little pieces of sausages to "start their engine". Wine, cocktails and special aperitif beverages are served to all. There would be a good selection and guests take their pick. Hosts are particularly generous with regards to liquor and you really can drink whatever you want and how much you want. However, aperitif is usually one glass of wine, cocktail or special aperitif beverage. After our stomach is warmed up, we proceed.

The chef's carving the ham. Guess what it's for?

Just look at the size of this ham would you!

Everyone's plates are empty, waiting for the raclette session to start.Raclette is a french traditional dish which consists of potatoes, ham, bacon and cheese. We each have cute little spades to ourselves where we deposit the cheese to melt. We then place the little spade between the two hot plates to melt the cheese. Ham or bacon can be placed on the upper hot plate to be grilled. Potatoes are served to each and everyone and you peel and mash them on your plate. By this time, the cheese would have metled, ham/bacon grilled, and you place the bacon with your potatoes and pour the cheese over! Yum yum! Sizzling hot yellow lava will then pour over your mash potatoes and grilled bacon and you may thus start your meal. Salad is often served on the side. It's a very interesting and fun dining experience and kind of fuss free too. Except.. that.. it's kinda fattening eh.. considering that it's potatoes and ham, bacon and cheese.

Ham and Cheese Platter

Then comes the dessert. Charlotte au chocolate! My favourite! Three desserts for 11 people. (inclusive of two kids) No, that is not a lot for french people. It's normal.

Apple Pie

Chocolate cake from Alex

Nothing beats a good bottle of champagne to finish the meal, courtesy of Marie

Bon appetit à tous!

Helsinki Complaints Choir

2006-12-12T15:47:00.001+01:00

Saw this on my's blog and it's really interesting! Very funny! So I "kop" to share with you guys! Thanks MY!

Jouyeux noëL!

2006-12-08T17:22:00.000+01:00

The wonders of Xmas

Champagne hamper, anyone?

Chocolate balls to hang on the xmas tree

Lalala, joy to the world, the lord has come! There are so many goodies out there and so many yummy chocolates that one can't help but be amazed! I especially like those chocolates with liquor in them, yummy! Starting to feel the joyous mood because I'm feeling much better and ready to embrace the joyous season! Going to buy a Xmas tree and decorations! I want the mistletoe! heh. So many presents to buy for everyone and yet so little time. Poverty of ideas too! Where is my xmas muse? In other news, the full dress rehearsal for the Xmas Pageant is tonight and tomorrow will be the real deal! Lalalala. 'tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la!"

Me and black beauty

2006-12-03T12:40:00.001+01:00

Life is a road I wanna keep going

Black Beauty and a life changing experience

2006-12-02T17:36:00.000+01:00

This is the name for my scooter - Black Beauty. She is sleek and sophisticated and I decided to call it a SHE as she is my very first and very own scooter. Kiba has presented me with this very welcomed present as my xmas gift. I was ecstatic when I received the present. Now I can roam wherever I want and enjoy the freedom.

However, having rode the scooter for a while, I realised that riding in towns is really no joking matter. It requires a high level of concentration and you never know if the vehicle in front of you will stop suddenly. Human reaction time is also a major factor. I realised that I should never ride when I am not concentrating or when I am too tired or sleepy. Negligence. One really pays a high price for it.

Something happened recently which makes me change with regards to my perpectives on life and attitude towards people. Life is so short. Anything could happen to anyone. Human life is so fragile really. It can be threatened so easily. I've grown up a lot over the past year. 2006 is a year that I will always remember. The year when I am 23. The year I got married. The year I move to France and the year I encounter this incident. It really jolts me awake and makes me understand how one should live life to the fullest and have no reserves. Do not be shy. Go out and make new friends. Do not be cold, warm up to people. We always know of the saying "Live everyday as if it's the last day of your life", but how many people actually heed the saying. Why do we let mundanity gets us down? Why do we take everything for granted. Why do we always complain and not treasure what we have? Something, once gone or damaged, will never be the same again. Why do we let the good times slip away from us as we worry about the nonsensical things happening around us? The thing is, there is not enough time to worry about all this. Dance if you have always wanted to dance, even if you are not a good dancer. Laugh as you have never laugh before. Don't be a pessimist as things can only get better.

As 2006 draws to a close, I want to recount my blessings again and again. I thank god that I am alive and healthy. I thank my husband for being there for me always. I thank my family for being so supportive towards my decision and I thank my parents-in-law for being so endearing as my new guardians. I thank all my friends who have listened to me, supported me and always being there for me when I needed them. I thank my newly made friends in France for being so kind and nice. Thank you everyone. I love you all. As for my dearest husband, Kiba, Je T'aime.

Yay!!! Hurray for KIBA!

2006-11-24T19:06:00.000+01:00

I received my first xmas present for 2006!!!! Guess what it is?

暖暖 - 梁静茹 , Nuan Nuan - Fish Leong

2006-11-24T16:12:00.001+01:00

Dance of a Dream Trailer

2006-11-24T15:58:00.001+01:00

Theatre rehearsals and Tango classes

2006-11-24T15:03:00.000+01:00

This is the season of theatre yet again. There is going to be a theatre performance on the 9th December in the village of Mesnil Berard and yours truly had a part to play! Yay! This is my first performance in France and I am really looking forward to it. I am playing the part of a magician's assistant, you know the woman which appears and disappears and things like that! Heh. Happy to say that no French is required in this part and yet it is the facial expressions that are crucial. Will have to train my face muscles and be as expressive as possible!

Lalala. Rehearsals are also underway for the Soirée Cabaret on the 24th February. It's so sad that I will not be here for that one. Choosing between celebrating Chinese New Year with my family and being in France a few days earlier for the production is not exactly a choice. I can never bring myself to leave Sg on the third day of CNY. CNY is my favourite festival as I love all the New Year goodies and all the ang pow collecting! Luckily my wedding banquet has not taken place yet so I can still hope to collect ang pows for the next two years! yay! My family usually celebrate Chinese New Year with big family gatherings and lots of dinners at different relatives' place. Thus, I really really really cannot give up the goodies, the food and the gambling much as I wanted to be here for the Soirée Cabaret. Sigh. Sometimes, we just cannot have the best of both worlds eh?

Kiba is rehearsing for his Tango sequence with Isabelle during this period and my god! They were really magnificent! No one would have guessed that they have never done Tango before! It's so cool! So chic! The music and the steps. Ooh la la! This brings to mind the movie "Dance of a Dream" starring Andy Lau, Sandra Ng and Anita Mui. Really really like that movie. The theatre teacher Alex is a pro! She dances just from memory and choreographs the steps for all kinds of dances! Some people just have the dancing genes in them! Theatre is a joyous celebration of the human spirit. I'm so glad I did not give it up.

There will also be a big production in June 2007. Lalalala. Really need to brush up my French by then. It's really just a matter of motivation really. Courage courage!

I am currently reading the book "Dracula". Bram Stoker is a genius too! It is taking me awfully long to read these days. Motivation, motivation. I should keep on motivating myself lest I sink into the melody of oblivion :) Cheers to one and all and theatre rules!

La Course de Vincennes

2006-11-23T13:44:00.000+01:00

Hippodrome de Vincennes (Yesh! I was there!)

Hi everyone. Back again after a long drought of non blogging. It has been awfully cold and still is. Clad in jacket, jeans down to socks in the house! Sigh. Problems with the french administration is just cascading down my shoulders and sometimes I just feel like calling for a half time. A small city state has its own benefits after all. At least Singapore is efficient.

Went to one of the biggest race course in France and that is the Hippodrome de Vincennes. Vincennes is the city beside Paris and yes, there you go, civilisation all over again! Yay! It's not that I don't like the countryside, but the town girl in me, loves to see some big shops and busy streets once in a while. It may sound perverse but town is action! Countryside is inaction.

Being invited to this course by one of the best horse trainers in France is indeed a huge privilege. Early in the morning at 8.30am, Kiba drove me to the Haras (a horse training farm) as I would be going on a big covered truck with the jockey, trainer and the two horses involved in the race. I can't even begin to describe how huge this truck was. You shall see for yourself. It was a fun 2+ hours ride to Vincennes as I was immersed in French gossips and chatters. I tried to study the French highway code but once I opened the book, my eyelids just felt heavy automatically. You have absolutely no idea how boring the French highway code is. Of course, it doesn't help a single bit that it's in French of course!

We reached the Hippodrome de Vincennes and with the trainer and jockey, I was allowed to go into the forbidden-to-public areas such as the horses' boxes where they rest before and after the race. I also got to see the warm up and cool down track, the shower boxes and all the preparations behind the scenes to get horses geared up for the races. Never have I expected myself to be involved in the French punting arena. It was truly a day in the life of a horse trainer's helper! It was immense fun and I would love to do it again!

The small track for doing warm ups and cool downs

This was also the first time I betted on a horse. I spent ten euros, putting a five on placements and another five for winning. The odds were 1-18 and if I did win, it would have been a jolly present indeed. The races were so exciting and without further ado, let me show you some snapshots! I was a crazy girl that day! Snapping all the way!The jockey, Aurelien, gets ready for the race, with trainer, Marie close behind

The jockey, Aurelien, gets ready for the race, with trainer, Marie close behind

The stables shown in the photo are called boxes by the French. They are where the horses rest before and after a race and each horse has their own box. They are really celebrities you know.

The French horse races are divided into three categories in fact. As you can see, last Saturday's race was a trotting race with a sulky. A sulky is the blue structure as seen above. It consists of a seat and two wheels and it is extremely light. It is tied to the horse and the jockey has maintain the reins all the time and it requires a lot of forearm muscles. Accidents do happen when jockeys are thrown off the sulkys when they do not have enough strength to maintain the reins. It is incredibly exciting and of course, the jockeys have to train everyday. The horse pulls the sulky with the jockey on it and it's required to jog. Once, it starts to gallop, it will be disqualified immediately. The other two categories are horse back riding with the horse trotting and horse back riding with the horse galloping. Usually the races will be of one category for that day. As for last Saturday, there were 9 trot races with sulkys. It is pronounced as seeyouukees by the way.

Aurelien with the horse, Pocket Money, back from warm up in the big track

Races up close!

Magnificent steeds

The betting centre

The punters

The scale of justice! nah, this is to take the jockey's weight for horseback riding

Members only, was refused entry, but snapped away!

Marabourbon taking a bath after the race

All covered and warm

Me with horse trainer Marie

Blogger Beta is driving me crazy. More troublesome and more bullshit. Please remember not to upgrade. Yup, that's my premature ending of the entry. A nice and memorable day. Sigh. I need the happy pill and Blogger is soo not helping!

Cold, blustery and muddy day

2006-11-11T16:22:00.000+01:00

Bonjour tout le monde! (Hi everyone)

Typing with a sore palm since I took a flying dip outside the house onto the mud just now. Don't ask me how I did that! I have absolutely no idea. It's been so long since I fell in such a splendid manner that it's almost hard to believe that I am actually a clumsy person. Haven't updated for a while 'cuz ran out of things to say? Haha, well, the fault lies with the lazy atoms in my body that are preventing me from doing anything constructive. Actually blogging is also not very constructive, but then again.

Heh. The weather is kinda perpetually at 6°C now and I'm practically freezing my butt off. I miss the warmth of SG (minus the humidity that's for sure) Kinda fun to just walk around town wrapped in many layers, topped off with scarf and trench coat though. Heehee. The kind of thing which I could never do in SG unless I want to incubate some chicken eggs. Heh. Love the trench coat that i bought. From what I can see, this entry is just going to be a free flow of random thoughts with nothing to its end. Sometimes, do you have the idea that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about? Well, I do. And that's the kind of thing I'm talking about now.

Took my virgin drive through the windy roads of the French countryside in the dark of the night. Well, I was kind of naughty actually. I have no license. As yet. Well, well, not as if the French gendarmes are the hardworking sort anyway. It is really fun to drive in the night as the surroundings are really different since everything is cloaked in the dark. Nearly bought Kiba's side mirror (i.e. crashed it against the wall of a house) Heh. Yours truly is still trying to figure her way out on the right hand drive. Well, thanks for asking, none of us was injured. We were miraculously alive and in one piece upon reaching home. Though a kerb was mounted, wooden gates nearly crashed and the occurance of some yelling and shouting and subtle redirection of the steering , nothing much really happened. :) Oh, of course, I forgot to mention that I almost drive through a house. Well, the key word here is almost. Hah. Don't worry, I'm just kidding.

Weighed the walnuts that we picked up the other day and it was a whooping 58 kilograms! Ooh la la! We are going to be rich! heh. Picking walnuts is a backbreaking job to say the least, not to mention that i did it in my very tight Ms Selfridge jeans! Ooh la la! I am a farmer. Period. But a pretty farmer in selfridge nonetheless! haha!

The chimney is being pulled down today and mess is everywhere! Mess! I hate this word. Don't you think that the very sight of m-e-s-s put together makes one very frustrated. Yeah, there's a whole lot of mess upstairs and I pray to God that I won't be the one doing the clean up. Please please! Really suffering from a lack of sleep these days and yet I am not the caffeine kind. Sigh. Give me some sleep and I will be a new girl!

It's been cold, cold, cold. Hope the new chimney goes up soon and the mess be no more. The chimney guy seems efficient. Me. No. Like. Mess.

Been putting up little adverts everywhere for giving tuition. Hopefully will receive some calls soon. As of now, I have only one tutee but things can only improve! One must look on the bright side. Oh, did I mention that I killed my chances of a bank job in Paris? I think I can go and jump off the hill! Ms miao, where has your confidence gone? I become a coward each time the phone rings. I am so accustomed to say "hello" into the receiver and not "bonjour". Nobody tells me that this is not going to be easy. I did not expect this to be easy too but neither did I know that it is so difficult. Alas, what could not kill me can only make me stronger! Lalalala. Stepping stones out of stumbing blocks and the whole deal! Aja! Aja! Aja Girl! Fighting! Ok. I think I watched too much korean serials. Miya ne.

Lalalalalala. Heard the xmas lights are up on Orchard Road. Are they nicer this year? Or do they suck even more? Not really holding onto high hopes. Won't be able to see them anyway. This is kind of weird. Remember how I always bitch about those lights. Somehow this year, I kinda miss those lights. Just a little. No matter how ugly they are. Centrepoint always have one of the most beautiful decorations. Tangs will have those luxurious looking yellow lights that glitter like gold. Ahhhhh... I miss Singapore. Give me a bowl of bak chor mee anytime!

Halloween 2006

2006-10-31T12:38:00.000+01:00

At home with my power fingernails! zi luo cha! hahaha

Pretty witchy

Maman le vampire

The transvestite witch Ingrid! hiakz hiakz

Adam's family?

Cute witch at the party

the vampish-devilish couple

orange juice anyone?

Greg:I'm gonna kill her....Jess:Bring it on Don't mess with me, I have flashing horns and a knife.. hiakz hiakz I am so pretty

Vampire + Johnny Depp + Sassy girl

Witches dancing (but not around the cauldron).. notice a pumpkin in the corner?

The spider woman strikes her pose

best dressed contest

Last three standing - the phamtom, the vampire and the witch Ingrid (transvestite) haha

Witch Ingrid won the contest! A free bottle of champagne!

OoooooooOOooooo happy halloween OooooOOoooooooo

La Forêt de Brocéliande

2006-10-22T12:32:00.000+02:00

A much belated entry for the Brocéliande Forest. This is a huge huge huge forest in western France. Kiba and I decided to do a little hiking since we were in the region. The girl in the guide office told us that hikers generally need more than a day to trek through the whole forest even by car. The best plan will be to drive to a specific site, get off the car and hike around the area before hopping onto the car, driving off to the next site and hike again. Of course, you can choose to do all these by foot but not much ground would be covered then. The best way would be to rent a kind of chalet in the forest and take several days, walking and enjoying the beautiful forest. Since we had only one day at our disposal, we had to do the best we can!

The Brocéliande forest is the forest affiliated with the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. King Arthur is brought up by the Wizard Merlin and all this took place in this forest itself! There is even a castle in the forest! Apart from that, there is a golden tree, the fairies' mirror and the Barenton fountain where the wizard Merlin first saw and fell in love withthe fairy Vivian. There is also the valley of no return and other magical names as such. Just being in the forest gives you a magical feeling. It's funny as when I visited the first site, I just took it as a beautiful place geographically with no idea of the magic since I did not read the guidebook and david did not tell me the legends behind it. Sigh. Thus he was amazed that I can remain unmoved by being in the magic. Haha. Fact is, how would I know there is magic when I am not told about the legends! After all, I know nothing about King Arthur before I visited this forest!

L'arbe D'or (The golden tree)

Our first checkpoint is Le Val Sans Retour (The Valley of No Return). We decided to make it a kind of scavenger hunt but not scavenging anything in particular in fact. Heh. The golden tree is a symbol of the fragility and the richness of the eternal forest. It has become the new guardian of The Valley of No Return. (Yup, kind of like the Ent in the Lord of the Rings!) However, I'm sure the tree is gold plated by human beings as I could see the plated gold peeling off. Heh. However, it's still very nice isn't it?

Le Val Sans Retour (The Valley of No Return)

This is the Valley of No Return and the lake is Le Miroir aux Fees (The Fairies' Mirror). The scenery is really beautiful from such a great height but somehow I couldn't help thining that it will be much better if the lake is cleaner and clearer! heh. Later on when I showed these photos to mum-in-law, she said that it's not so true as both me and david returned after all! Funny! The subtle lameness of this family. =P

I'm on the top of the world looking, down on creation and the only explanation I can find...

I'm flying!!!!

I believe I can fly, I believe I can take you to the skies...

The beautiful forest with a group of people listening attentively to a storyteller

Le Fontaine de Barenton (The Barenton Fountain)

The story teller is amazing. Here we had arrived at the second checkpoint which is Le Fontaine de Barenton (The Barenton Fountain) and the story teller was in the midst of telling the story about the black knight and continued with the love story of the Wizard Merlin and the Fairy Vivian. The story goes as such. Apparently, Vivian was born a mortal. She was told by a fortune teller that she would marry the best and most powerful man on earth but she was not allowed to leave the forest ever for the prophecy to come true. Thus Vivian stayed in the forest all her life waiting to marry this powerful man. This man was of course Merlin. Being a powerful wizard, Merlin was able to foresee the furture and it is at this fountain of Barenton that the two came to meet. Of course, they fell in love and they got married and lived happily ever after.

Or not. The happily ever after lasted, but only for a while. Merlin taught Vivian magic with no reserves and as a result, she became more and more powerful. It was thanks to Merlin, that she was able to become a fairy with magical powers. They loved each other but alas, Vivian was soon discontented. As Merlin was part of King Arthur's court and kind of surrogate father, he always fought alongside King Arthur and assisted him in the battles. Of course he'd be gone for days on ends and returned home triumphant after each battle. The possessive Vivian became jealous and wanted to keep Merlin by her side. One day, she asked Merlin if he knew of any magical powers which can keep someone by one's side. Since Merlin had the gift of prophecy, he knew what Vivian was going to do. However, out of pure love, he still taught the skill to Vivian. Vivian mastered the skill and executed the magic, imprisoning Merlin in nine circles of air so as to keep him by her side. And that would be where he was imprisoned till the day he died. However, word has it that Merlin never died but was always entrapped within these nine circles of air. The story teller went on to say that if we felt a gentle breeze on our cheeks, it might be Merlin, softly caressing our cheeks in sadness. Upon hearing these, the women in the group starts giggling nervously and I bet their spines must be tinkling with excitement, nervousness or fear. As for me, I felt shivers down my spine and I felt awfully sad for the wizard Merlin. Why did he allow it to happen when he knew that he would be imprisoned? How could Vivian do this to him when she loved him? Sigh sigh. A sad tale indeed. When you see bubbles in the fountain of Barenton, make a wish and it is said that it will come true. I was lucky to see bubbles and I can't help dropping a coin in the fountain for good luck. :) Don't know, but I always feel it's romantic to put coins in fountains. :)

Kiba in the clearing of The Barenton Fountain

As it was getting late, we decided to visit one last check point and it was supposedly the world's biggest tree. Standing at 20m high with a circumference of 9.65m, Kiba was interested to check it out. Thus, we hiked back to the car and drove to the site of the tree.

The 1000 year old "biggest" tree

As you can see, we were both disappointed as it certainly did not look like the biggest tree in the world to me. Kiba was disppointed too. However, apparently it helped to shelter the French during the war as the tree trunk is hollow and the soliders were able to hide in the trunk. There is a hole in the tree and one can look through it to see that it is in fact hollow.

The tree with the same story telling group that we met earlier

It was kind of embarrassing as we met the same people again. They were the ones we met at the Barenton Fountain. It would be really funny if they thought we were following them.

As it was getting late and we still had a long journey home, we have no choice but to leave the beautiful Brocéliande forest. However, we will certainly go back there and explore the rest of the checkpoints that we did not have time for. After all, I have yet to see the castle! This trip had also aroused my interest in the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table and I would certainly read up on it. Till then.

Halloween's party this coming weekend and more pictures peeps! Good day!

Rennes and entrepreneurial expo

2006-10-11T00:35:00.000+02:00

Carousel in Rennes (Western France -Brittany)

Ah! Clock tower! Must take picture!

Spot the difference

Obviously sleepy, obviously oversmiling, obviously neutral

French shoppers

Les Jolies Fleurs

Take a break, have a hot steaming crêpe! =P

A very gypsy-looking shop

Beautiful cathedral

Cute, colourful restaurants

Cool motif on wall eh?

Entrepreneurial expo

next comes the Brocéliande Forest...

Making Jam

2006-10-10T11:48:00.000+02:00

Glorious red berries

Freshly washed and dried jam bottles

This is a basin of raspberries mixed with warm water

Poured into the traditional jam making sieve

The master in action

Freshly sieved

Sieving a second time

Only use sugar meant for jam making

Who says anything about dieting? Haha it's 850g of sugar for every kg of fruits. Total weight of fruits is 2.8kg! Do your maths and see how much sugar we used!

Pour the already sieved mixture back into the basin and put on stove. Bring it to a boil and continue stirring for 7 minutes at boiling point until it becomes congelated.

Doesn't this mixture look like a magical door of some magical cave especially in Period Dramas?

Don't forget to remove the foam!

Can't wait! Must taste! Yum yum!

Animated kiba seems ... scary?! Haha!

Chef pouring the mixture into bottles

Wiping the rims of the bottles dry

Next, close the lids and overturn the jars to allow them to be airtight for a few minutes. Turn them right side up again and leave to stand for one day. Your jam is ready! Have fun!

Christelle's and Yann's wedding!

2006-10-02T18:39:00.000+02:00

These newly weds are joined by holy matrimony on the 23rd September 2006. Presenting the lovely Christelle and her hubby Yann Montbobier.

This was my first French wedding since I've arrived in France. Christelle is the daughter of my mum's-in-law best friend. She is almost like her daughter too. Friendly and charming, I warmed up to her instantly. The wedding began at church where an all French service was held. Hearing our "Our Father" in French was something very interesting indeed.

A chaotic scene as rice were being thrown, photographs taken as the couple walked out of church

The scene which took place outside the church was a noisy, albeit festive ones. Firecrackers were thrown all over the place as they explodes everywhere. Car honkings were as loud as thunder. It must have been thousands of decibels! Shouts and cries of congratulations and beaming French men and women made that a very pretty picture indeed.

Adjourning to the function room to have drinks and aperitifs

Christelle, Greg and his godmother, Michelle (mum's-in-law best friend)

Christelle with the two mums :)

The Wadouxs!

Greg acting cool outside the function room

Kiba and me looking very happy with my bottle of champagne

Pure bliss

Adjourning to another function room for the night festivities

Seating Plan (We belonged to the family of beavers, with a bunch of youngsters)

The Real Party begins!

Dancing amidst the crowd

Magic show!

A French Tradition where a guest need to unroll the stocking of the bride with his teeth!

Look at the marvellous display! Yes! They r edible!The windmill in place of the typical tiered wedding cake!

Managed to catch the lovely Christelle for a picture!

The function room was transformed into a discotheque at 3.15am!

Little boy lost? (Michelle's grandson- so cute isn't he?)

Total Time spent on Celebrations: 15+++ HOURS

Amazing isn't it?