Paris in August

Each July/August, part of the quay is closed to make way for Paris Plage (Paris beach). We went for a walk along the quay and was surprised that there was not many people on a weekend. It was pleasant walking along the banks of the Seine. The Paris Plage had lots of actitives and they were free of charge. The sun benches were all taken up. There were tai ji classes, massages, gym machines, water sprinklers etc....

After exiting from the quay, we walked along rue Saint Honoré and saw a Barbie foot in a boutique. It was so cool.

I'm sure any guy who is a baby foot fan will go crazy over it.

Compiegne

We went visiting Compiegne for the first time last saturday. Compiegne is about an hour's drive north of Paris. I know of this city only because Jessie's parents-in-law live there. Other than that, I know nothing else.

The highway roads were classified 'black' on saturday as it was the day of the "grand depart de vacances". Everyone was heading south for their summer vacation. Going up north, the highway road was smooth flowing and we mostly saw dutch and german cars heading home after their vacation in France.

Upon arriving in Compiegne, we easily found a public parking lot. The town was quiet. It was definitely not a vacation destination in August. Most shops were closed. There was an open market and we bought 2 artichokes. Seb and I loved to visit fresh food market. After lunch, we walked up to the castle and visited the castle's park. The castle looked well maintained but I only noticed a tour bus. As for the castle's park, it was calm. There was hardly anyone.
As in any outing, a little shopping for me obliged. As it was the post-sale season, Okaidi was having extra promotion. Buy an item and the second item was at 2€ and the third article at 1€. I got 3 sets of summer clothes for my boy. At Petit Bateaux, I bought lots of body suits. For the moment, I have enough clothes for my boy until the end of the year.
As usual, baby A slept throughout the trip except during his feed. I guess I will visit Compiegne again. We saw a museum of figurines and were sure that Angel would be interested to visit it. We will come with him when he visits us again.

Angel's visit

Angel had been in france several times this year due to work. We met up again in july as his schedule permitted. I invited him over to our place for lunch and cooked him a simple meal with tomatoes and mozarella as entrée and lor bak(braised meat) as main dish. After lunch, we visited the Cité Université and Parc Montsouris. I always wanted to visit this area of Paris. Cité Université was basically a big hostel for foreign students studying in Paris. There were many different buildings with an international theme. There were the Japan house, the Canada house, Brazil house, India house etc...
As for Parc Montsouris, it was crowded as with any park in Paris on a sunday. There were playgrounds and amusement rides for children. There was also little pony rides available. We had a pleasant time strolling in the park.

We met up Angel again a few days later for a falafel dinner at rue des Rosiers in the third district of Paris. It rained heavily during the evening. Still, we had a good time. Angel was kind enough to help me bring back 2 tins of milk powder. My boy and I will be in Singapore soon and I appreciate Angel's gesture to help lighten my luggage bag.

Singapore day goodies bag

Sam gave me a goodie bag from the recent Singapore day event held in London. Thanks a lot Sam. As I wrote earlier, I missed out on the event as it was near my delivery date.

Look, there's a lot of "I love Sg" stuff. There's a cloth bag, a t-shirt, a CD of swing, an eraser, a pin, a picnic mat, a black diary and a paper ball that I used to play. Most of all, I like the "Chope" wet-tissue pack. It is so Singaporean.

Sam's second visit

It had been a year since Sam's visit. This year, he came again during Bastille Day. We met up for lunch on 14 July and for tea, we stopped by La Durée. It seems that we are keeping up with tradition.

This time round, Sam brought along his friend Ian who was visiting him from Australia. We had a delightful time chatting and Ian took some beautiful photos of baby A.

The next day, history repeated itself when Sam missed his flight. This time round, there were problems on a few train lines including RER B which goes to the airport. I myself was affected on the way home after work. Due to the hot summer, there was bush fire along the rail line. Sam was stuck at Gare du Nord and the taxi queue was way too long. He came over to our place for the night. I actually remembered teasing him just the day before "Hey, don't miss your flight this time round, ok?" Guess Paris loves him too much.

Full time working mom

I am back at work this week. My friends in Facebook thought that was fast. Indeed, it is fast. Well, in France, maternity leave is 16 weeks. 6 weeks pre-natal followed by 10 weeks post-natal. A preggie can choose to go on leave just 3 weeks before the estimated delivery date. I was given 2 weeks sick leave before the start of my 6 weeks pre-natal leave. Baby A arrived 2 weeks earlier. Hence I start work when he is 13 weeks old.
I do enjoy my job and I have great colleagues. So it is not too difficult to leave baby A at home. At the moment, Seb is taking care of baby A. He took 4 weeks of leave with the 11 days paternity leave included. He is enjoying his time with his "mini me". After which, I will be on 7 weeks leave. It is very kind of my company to allow this exception. I still have 3 weeks of unused leave from last year. This year, I still have 6 weeks of leave. I am taking this opportunity to spend 3 weeks in Singapore. I am looking forward to this trip on SQ A380. I just hope that baby A will take it easy on his maiden flight.
By late September, baby A will join the child care center nearby our place. We are very fortunate to have a place there as the waiting list is very long. However, it closes by 6.15pm which is really early. Seb and I will have to organise our working hours. He will drop baby A at the child care center and I will go pick him up after work.
So far, we are doing fine with our new family addition. He is a good boy and we really enjoy his presence though we wish we could sleep more.

We went Champagne to buy champagne

Reims is the city in Champagne and is accessible from Paris in 45mins by TGV. Since we would like to visit the countryside, we decided to drive over. For the first part of the day, we visited the uptown of Reims.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims is famous as the place where kings were traditionally crowned. While having lunch, Seb called up some Champagne Houses to check if we could visit the cellar. We made an appointment with the champagne house, Ployez-Jacquemart.

During the hour guided visit of the cellar that was 25 meters underground, we learnt the process of making champagne. In the cool cellar, there were tens of thousands of champagne bottles waiting to be appreciated. I was carrying baby A on the baby carrier and he must be the youngest person to ever visit the cellar. After the visit, we were invited to drink some champagne. I bought half a dozen of bottles as I am doing a "pot de naissance" at my office.

The countryside of Champagne was very green. There was vineyards everywhere. As it was spring, the grapes were still small.

If you are planning to visit champagne but has no car, there is always tour bus leaving from Reims to bring you on the champagne winegrowers route. Just check out this site. http://www.reims-tourism.com/

Plane crashes

Recently, France was hit by two sad aviation news.

About a month ago, an Air France plane flying from Brazil to France fell into Atlantic Ocean. The 200 plus people on board all perished. It seems that the speed sensors for the Airbus 330 was at fault during the stormy weather. Air France had since then replaced all the speed sensors of this airbus. A brother of an acquaintance we knew was among the passengers. Though we do not know the person, we felt sorry for the man's family.

And when we were sending my mom off at CDG airport last tuesday, there was a crowd forming at the information counter. Airport officials were present too. Seb was already guessing that there was another crash. In the car on the way home, we heard from the radio that a plane heading to the Comoros Islands had crashed into the sea. Only one teenager girl had survived. There is a huge comoros community in France and the people are upset. The Yemenia Airbus 310 is banned from France as it fails in the routine maintenance checks. What happened was that the passengers boarded on a Yemenia Airbus A330-200 from France and at the Yemen airport, they were transferred to the Airbus 310 heading for Comoro. I bumped into the guardian of our residence today and during our greetings, he shared with me that his younger brother was on that fateful flight. He left behind his wife and a 18 month old baby. I felt so sad for him. He added that since 8 years, the Comoro people has constantly requested the authority to do something about this "avion poubelle" (rubbish plane). Originally from Comoro, he had took this plane once to visit his family. He prayed very hard during the flight from Yemen to Comoro as the state of the plane made him scared. Now, he travels only with Air France to go Comoro.

In France, a black list of airline companies exist. Usually these blacklisted companies offer low-cost flights. As people travels more frequently, it is hard to resist to such offers.

And as usual, as I dwell into these tragedies, my husband has a way of breaking the ambiance. He mentioned that these losses are just a tiny fraction of the number of road victims in France each year. Well, he is right. Good thing that news casters only sensationalize plane crashes. If they do that on road accidents too, I had to throw the television away to avoid being depressive.

The red windmill

Who has not heard of Moulin Rouge in Paris? Knowing that mom will enjoy such show, I got us 2 tickets for an evening of fun and entertainment.

Each evening, there are two shows available. The first at 9pm and the second at 11pm. Dinner is available as an option for the first show. Since mom is not into french food and I don't eat foie gras, we just went for the show. At the table, each person is given half a bottle of champagne.

We reached there early and was seated in the middle of the hall. Though we did not have a close up view, we did have an unblocked view of the whole stage.

The 1hour and 45minutes show was entertaining. Beside dancing and singing, there were also other stage performers like jugglers, acrobats, voice dubbing comedian ... There was not a dull moment.

There was a mixture of topless and non-topless dancers. Not all the doriss girls were well endowed. Some had rather small breasts. But one thing for sure, the ladies all had flat tummy. What an envie!

The beautiful costumes made all dancers looked elegant. There were so many costumes and there were so many actions going on that we had no time to admire all the costumes. Though the ticket did not come cheap, we find the evening enjoyable and think it was worth every penny.

The garden at Giverny

After seeing Claude Monet's master pieces at Museum d'Orsay, I had wanted to visit his garden at Giverny. Beside being an impressionist artist, Claude Monet was also a vivid gardener. He had made le jardin de Giverny his subject in some paintings.

With the good weather last wednesday, I drove up to Giverny with my mom and baby A to visit Monet's garden. The garden has two parts. One in the house compound and the other one across the road. The first one is full of flowers while the other one has willow trees, bamboo trees and other green plants surrounding a pond and a little stream.

Mom and I enjoyed the lovely garden. We did not visit the interior of Monet's house as there were stairs and not stroller friendly. Baby A slept throughout the visit except during feeding time. I guess the only thing he saw was the big shady tree where we were resting.

The staff at the garden were friendly. I saw many tourists from England, America, Japan and China. We easily spent more than two hours in the garden though it was not very big. I guess the best time to visit the garden is now though it is open from march to november.

Chateau Chambord

Since mom is here, she has not done much sight seeing. Of course, her aim this time round is to take care of her grandson. And having been here 4 times, she has seen the major attractions of Paris. Still, I felt bad for not bringing her around and decided to visit Chateau Chambord togather.

We left early on saturday and after almost 2 hours drive (with a feeding stop for baby A), we arrived just in time for lunch at the domaine. Seb carried the baby in the baby carrier as a pushchair was not convenient with all the stairs in the castle. The entrance fees was 9,50€.

The chateau is famous for its double-helix staircase right in the middle of the hall. It also has lots of huge fireplaces. It is the biggest chateau in the Loire valley (there are many along the river Loire). Mom got all excited when she saw swifts/swallows flying around. She was wondering if there were lots of bird nests around. My mom!

After visiting the chateau, we wanted very much to visit the next pretty chateau, Chateau Chenonceau. However, after stopping along the way to feed baby A, we decided to head back home. It would take us 3 hours to drive back home and it was getting late.

As usual, baby A slept throughout the trip except during feeding time. I came to realise that each time we go out, he would sleep. Mom will be here for another 2 weeks and we are going to make the best out of her remaining stay to visit other things. Stay tune to my blog for more updates.

On Bumwear and Sock Ons

I will have to keep this post short. Being a new mom is more than a full time job. I hardly have time to myself despite having my mom around. But as the weeks pass, I am better organised and can squeeze some minutes to consecrate to my blog.


Baby A is growing well. I asked mom to bring some washable diapers and recently started to use these diapers on baby A. I ordered these diapers from Bumwear. It looks bulky and I waited until baby achieved 4kg before trying on him. I only use it on him during the day and when the weather is warm. It is not possible to put a body suit over the bumwear diaper during cold days. These diapers are a long term investments as they can last until baby A is toilet trained. I remembered when I asked Seb what color he preferred, he told me to get 10 of the same color - white. Huh? I got 10 of them in different colors. It would be so boring to only have one color.

In the photo above, baby A is wearing a Bumwear and also Sock Ons. Sock Ons is the little thing that helps to keep baby A's socks on. He is not able to kick out his socks thanks to my neighbour who ordered it from UK.

There are so many innovative baby products out there. So far, I am satisfied with my purchases. I am trying to be reasonable. Tomorrow, we will have to shop for a new pram. The hand-me-down pram is 9 year old and showing signs of wear and tear. Maybe my next post will be on the pram. If you are expecting subjects apart from baby stuff, at the moment, I have nothing else to offer you. I do hope very much to write a post about travels and vacations soon. But that is in my KIV tray......

A lovely card about Votre petit garçon

Baby A has been receiving lovely gifts and cards. I just love the text of this particular Hallmark card given by Seb's god-parents. I find it really meaningful and heart-warming. Here it is in french. Sorry, I have no time to translate it into english.

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En le comblant d'amour et en lui offrant ce qu'il faut pour s'épanouir,

les parents donnent à leur enfant des racines solides et des ailes pour s'envoler.

Comme il est mignon! A peine vient-il de faire son entrée chez vous que vous étes déjà complètement fous.

Et chaque fois que vous le tenez au creux de vos bras, vous sentez votre coeur s'emplir d'une douce chaleur.

Il ne le sait pas encore, mais il a une chance inouïe, car il a des parents en or...

Par l'amour qu'il recevra de vous, il apprendra l'importance des ses racines et, par la confiance que vous lui donnerez, il apprendra à voler de ses propres ailes, non pas pour s'éloigner de vous, mais pour s'élancer vers une vie heureuse et belle.

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9 months are finally over

Today is my estimated delivery date. However, baby A decided to arrive early. He was borned 11 days earlier and weighed a mighty 3.340kg at 50cm. He is really the average size french baby but with regards to my petite frame, he is considered big for me. I did have a difficult time pushing him out. My mid-wife was telling me that my bed rest was too long and I should have given birth earlier. Well, I will know better next time.

I left the clinic on saturday and just nice, my mom arrived at 7am on this day. She is a great help to us. It's been a week since we are home. Baby A is growing well. As with all new borns, he lost 10% of his weight within the first few days. Now he is steady gaining weight and is at 3.150kg. He drinks well and sleeps well during the day. At night, it is more difficult putting him to bed.

Bao Bei is accepting baby A quite alright. She tends to tip-toe around him. In the above pic, Bao Bei was just watching over baby A. As new parents, we are tired due to the lack of sleep. For me, I feel like "la vache qui rit" (the laughing cow), just feeding and feeding.

Easter and prawn mee

It was Easter. Usually, we would spend the long weekend (monday is a holiday) at Seb's parents place watching our nephews searching for eggs in the garden. This year however, we just spent our weekend at home.

Since baby is due in 3 weeks time, I decided to cook prawn mee. Conforming to the confinement practise, I can't eat prawns after giving birth for at least a month. And I love prawns. This was the first time I made prawn noodles. I used the Prima Taste package and found the soup to be too sweet for my taste. I doubt I will cook this again. I prefer the Prima mee-siam.

After dinner, I was craving for chocolate. Once said, my neighbour knocked on our door and gave us an easter egg. It was lovely. Seb and I did not wait long to break up this lovely rooster egg.

I wish everyone a happy easter.

Balcony updates

Spring is here and my balcony looked so bare. The flower boxes were empty and waiting to be filled with flowers. I just could not resist the temptation. On Sunday, Seb and I went to Truffaut to get some flowers.

I had never seen Truffaut so crowded before. Everyone was buying plants and flowers and the queue for the cashiers snaked almost all the way to the end of the shop. I got geraniums for the row of flower boxes. As April can still have cold nights, I chose geraniums that were in buds and not blooming yet. They should last the whole summer until mid-autumn.

My pot of wilted Azalee looked so depressing. Last winter was too cold and I did not cover it in time.
This time round, I replaced the pot with Cineraire. There were many different varieties of colors available. We chose this color to go with the pot.

Seb helped me with the heavy tasks while I planted the flowers. It felt good to be out on the balcony with the sunny weather.

These two days, it had been rainy. The flowers are adjusting well to their new environments.

I do hope to enjoy dining at the balcony before baby arrives and me being confined indoors during the confinement period.

Toxoplasmosis

Since discovering that I was pregnant, I had to do blood test each month to check if I was infected with toxoplasmosis during these 9 months. Most countries (including Singapore) do not make these blood test complusory but in France, pregnant women who have never contracted this disease are routinely screened for toxoplasmosis. This disease can be fatal for the unborn baby if the mother gets it during pregnancy.

Most Asian women are not immuned to this disease as we do not have the culture of eating raw meat or semi-cooked meat. Also, we hardly eat salads. Food wise is not a problem for me as I make sure that all meat are well done and that I avoid salads. Fruits have to be washed and peeled.

Cat's faeces can also contain the disease (for a few weeks) if the cat had been in contact with infected birds/mice (through hunting). Seb and I are very cautious on this point. Poor Bao Bei has not been to Chartres since many months as we do not want her to go into my in-laws' garden. Seb has been cleaning her litter box every morning. When Seb was away on work trips, I would clean Bao Bei's litter box with gloves. I wash my hands every time I carress her. She still sleeps with us every night at our feet. This is a habit since she was a kitten so it was not possible to keep her out of our bedroom.

Gardening is also a big NO as soil can contain this disease. Though we doubt that the little pots on our balcony contain the parasite, I just avoid gardening totally. During winter, it was still bearable. But now that spring is here and I am at home, I am dying to go Truffaut to buy flowers for my bare balcony. If baby is here in May, I won't have time to do planting.

Each month, we waited with suspense on the blood test result and so far so good. I am still toxoplasmosis negative. Thank God! Once baby is here, I will start to eat more half-cooked meat and salads. I do hope to get this disease and be immuned to it.

Missing cats in airports

Since staying at home, I had been watching 30 millions d'amis, a TV programme about animals.

Today, one of the reports was on missing cats in airports. I never thought of travelling with Bao Bei on a plane but apparently, there were people who checked in their cats on a plane. Some never see their cats again.

Some cats managed to escape from their cages because the cages were damaged during transportation from the baggage check-in to the plane. Others escaped because the airport workers opened the cage to caress the animals. This was constated by 2 owners when they found the cages opened and everything else was intact.

These domestic cats became stray cats trapped in the runway of the airport. They had to find their own food and avoid being run over by planes or other airport vehicles.

A woman was travelling from France to Africa and upon arrival, was told that her cat had disappeared. After 48 hours, the airline company told her that the chance of finding her cat was slim. She was compensated 20€ per kg for her lost cat. The airline company considered the cat as a lost baggage! How sad isn't it?

An association for cats put up traps in the airport landing field hoping to catch some of these escaped cats. And this lady's cat was found in one of the traps after a year. This was a miracle case.

Another woman was travelling from France to Reunion with her cat. Her cat escaped at the french airport. The cat was reportedly seen by the airport personnels but no one could catch the cat. CDG is a big airport with many runways and hectares and hectares of fields. In September, foxes were introduced into the airport fields to get rid of the growing number of rabbits. After that, there was no more sign of her cat. She assumed that her cat had been a victim of the foxes.

There were many other such stories and the worst is that the airline companies do nothing to improve the situation. When contacted by reporters on the number of lost animals, the airline companies were not able to answer as they treated lost animals as lost baggages.

Here I am sitting and typing while watching Bao Bei plays by herself. Yeah, she throws up her mouse in the air and then jumps up to catch it or chases after it. Self-entertaining and really funny. I can't imagine losing my silly cat at the airport.

Oh, her birthday is coming soon. She will turn 5 on April's day.

Bed rest for the next 2 weeks

I am told to have complete bed rest for the next two weeks. Baby boy is ready to meet the world but he is still small at 2kg400g. We will try to keep him warm and grow fatter in me.
So in the meanwhile, I will blog less. Will just relax and read books, watch TV and look at the lovely coming spring by the windows.

Singapore Day 2009

I received an email a month ago inviting me to go for the Singapore Day 2009 which will be held in London. For once, it is going to be so near, only 2h20mins by Eurostar. I was all excited until I saw the date. 25 April. . . . . That is a week before my estimated delivery date. Doh! I would have to give it a miss.

The worst was, I dreamt about chwee kueh just a few days prior to receiving this email and there it was, a plate of chwee kueh staring at me. What kind of a joke is this. Anyway, my carving for chwee kueh is over. I do have to be careful with my weight gain.

If you do go for this event, enjoy yourself! Doubt anyone can tah-bao any food for me.....

Home bound (Almost)

I am home bound until baby arrives. My last checkup at the gynaecologist showed that the baby was in the head-first position. That was a very good news and I do hope that he will not change position. However, my gynae advised me to stop work and to rest and lead a tranquille life until the arrival of baby.

I am given 2 weeks of medicial leave which will be followed by 6 weeks of pre-natal maternity leave. I do have the freedom to go out but bed rest is prescribed an hour in the morning and in the afternoon.

I told Seb yesterday that I will do a timetable for the next 8 weeks. He thought I was crazy. He told me to just spend the days at ease without having to follow a planning. But I can't. I need to organise my life even during leisure. I have a list of things to do but will of course rest and rest. I will also try to write more often. Everyone told me to enjoy this time before our bundle of joy arrives. :)

Generosity of friends and passers

I have been receiving new and hand-me-down baby clothes and stuff from my friends in Singapore. It is heart warming that people go all their way out to have these items passed to me. Each package I collected required some logistics and planning.

Helios’s M from Herbiesphere is actually a friend of Claire. I have been following this blog for a long time before we realised that we had met once when I was invited by Claire to an outing with her friends. Helio’s M passed some baby stuff to Claire and Claire split the stuff into two packages. One, she passed to my friend Angel who was in Paris for work. The other, she passed it to a work friend of hers who was in Paris for leisure. I met up with her work friend at Gare du Nord when he was arrived from London to Paris by train. Of course, he was someone I never met before. It was really kind of him to do us a favour.

Next up was a package from my dear friend Moo Han. She recommended me to read the book “Supernatural Childbirth” and kindly sent a copy to me. At the same time, she added some baby clothes. Seb went to the post office to collect the registered package for me. It was a sweet surprise.

And most recently, I went to collect a package from a work colleague of Shirley who was in Paris for a seminar. Shirley, who is at the moment in a baking craze, prepared some baby clothes for me. You can find her bakes in Jellio & Jubilee.

I find Singaporeans strangers extremely helpful being passers.

Well, my blessing does not just end here. Sharon from Sound Bites, whom I know thru’ our common friend Mike, has somethings for me too. I am not aware of the details but it seems that her dad who is visiting her in Beijing will help pass the stuff to Mike when he returns to Singapore. And just nice, Mike plans to come Europe for a tour.

My sister-in-law had given us lots of baby clothes and stuff too. It is really amazing how kind and generous humans are; especially mothers. Thank you kind hearts and I really appreciate these gifts.

Bao Bei and illegal cats in Singapore HDB flats

Last Thursday, when I was not working, I decided to organise some random photos we had. While I was hard at work pasting the photos into the various photo albums, Bao Bei just popped up onto the dinning table and basked in the sunlight.

Jeudi dernièr, comme je ne travaillais pas, j'ai décidé d'organiser les photos. Pendant que j'étais en train de coller des photos dans les albums, Bao Bei a sauté sur la table à manger et s'est prélassée au soleil.

She looked so happy and contented to find some warmth in this cold winter.

Elle avait l'air si heureuse et contente d’avoir trouvé de la chaleur cet hiver.

The next day, I read in the singapore news that cats are illegal in HDB flats. I do have friends who kept cats in their HDB homes. This law is rather relaxed. Still, I find the reason given to be irrelevant.

Le lendemain, j'ai lu dans le journal de Singapour que les chats sont interdits dans les appartements publique. J'ai des amis qui ont des chats chez eux. Cette loi est assez souple. Quand même, je trouve que la raison donné est faible.

Extract from the news:

While Singapore's cat lovers want the "cat ban" lifted, as it was for small dogs three decades ago, authorities say it is necessary to avoid cat-related spats between neighbours.

"Our principal consideration is to preserve a pleasant living environment and good neighbourly relations," Singapore's HDB told Reuters in an emailed statement.

"We need to strike a balance between pet lovers and those who are more sensitive to the disturbances caused by animals."

HDB's website says banning cats, not dogs, is justified, as "they are nomadic in nature and are difficult to be confined".

In Paris, I know of many people who have cats in their appartments and I never hear of neighbours having disputes with cats over here. Actually, I did hear of neighbours here and in Singapore complaining about their neighbours' noisy dogs. Some untrained dogs can bark all day when the owners are out at work. They have to be taken out for walks and peep and shit in the public areas. No offence to dog owners. I love dogs as well. But the reasons given by the authorities on the ban of cats are just too lame.

A Paris, je connais beaucoup de gens qui ont de chats dans leurs appartements et je n'ai jamais entendu de problème entre les voisins à cause des chats. En fait, j'ai entendu des voisins ici et à Singapour qui se plaignent de chiens. Il y a des chiens qui aboient quand les maitres ne sont pas là. Il faut sortir les chiens pour qu'ils fassent leurs besoins dans un lieu public. J'aime les chiens. Mais les raisons données par Singapour sur l'interdiction de chats ne me convainquent pas.

Massive strike

Today is France's black thursday. There are massive strikes in the public sectors. Public transports are greatly reduced. Air controllers are on strike leading to 30% of flights cancelled. Seb left yesterday evening for Italy as he had a meeting today. He was afraid that he could not leave for Italy this morning. I do hope that his return flight tonight takes off as scheduled.

As for me, I took a day off to avoid the traffic jam. My colleague had to take a day off to take care of her toddler as the child care center will be closed. The staff are not on strike but most of them come to work by public transport and would have difficulty getting to work in time and getting home after work.

Teachers are on strike too. Schools are closed and parents have to find alternative child care for the day. Judges are on strike too. I have a registered letter to collect from the post but I decided not to go anywhere today cos La Poste is on strike too!

I am not greatly affected by the strike except that I used up my last day off and had to wait until end of Feb to accumulate new ones. I felt that it is good that people can protest. Unlike in singapore where even two people who manifested were rounded up by the police. Maybe one day when I am greatly affected by the strikes would I change my mind.

Happy Chinese New Year

I wish all who celebrate this day a happy chinese new year. May the year of the ox brings you health and prosperity.
I brought some snacks to work today and everyone loves it. Yeah, I work on this really important day. This year, we did not celebrate chinese new year. It is due to the fact that I am having back ache and both of us are feeling tired. Seb is down with a cold. Over the weekend, we had a friend over for lunch and I cooked lor-bak (braised meat). She liked it. Cool. I put in mushrooms, pork belly, hard-boiled eggs and fried beancurd. I learnt this dish when I was in uni from a guy friend. I don't remember his name but I remember very well this cooking lesson he gave me.
On Sunday, Seb's father came and helped us paint the baby's room. Guess no one would do that on a chinese new year's eve. I fried noodles and made my favorite mustard veggie with roasted meat soup. And my father-in-law liked it. A few months ago, I made this soup and gave some to my neighbour. She loved it so much that she asked for the recipe. I gave her the ingredients recently and she made it for her mom. This morning, she told me that her mom loved the soup too. Maybe I should go start a chinese mustard soup shop.
After reading about friends and family having steamboat, I think I will do an impromptu steamboat tonight. This will be considered as my way of celebrating chinese new year!

PS: photo of steamboat.

Yammy rice

I asked mom to buy me a bottle of yam rice paste the last time she came. It has been so long since I last had yam rice. Mom used to cook yam rice but I prefer those selling at some braised duck rice stalls in Singapore.

Last sunday, Seb and I went to Chinatown to do grocery shopping. As chinese new year is around the corner, the 13th district was full of asians. The traffic was messy with cars and humans all congesting along one street. I tried my best to grab the essentials and for the first time, I took a yam. I always thought it was difficult to clean yam but I was wrong. It was pretty easy. Below are the ingredients for the yam rice. Of course the rice was missing in the picture. There were the yam, some chinese mushrooms, dried shrimps and the yam paste.

And this is the end product. Though it did not look yummy, Seb liked it. And so did I. This is one easy one-pot meal. I only used up half the bottle of paste. I wonder if I could easily find yam in the supermarket here. If not, what can I use to subsitute the yam?

Snow in Paris

Two tuesdays ago, it snowed almost the whole day in Paris. After that, the temperature stayed below zero degree for a week. As a result of this, Paris was covered in white except on the roads where car pollution quickly melted the snow.

The pavements were slippery and I was extra careful when walking around with Nicole. We walked a lot during the four days she was here and I was really tired out each night. Still, I had a good time with her. We went shopping as it was and stil is the winter sales and I bought some baby clothes.

We took a stroll in the Jardin de Luxembourg. It was the first time I saw the garden covered in snow. How lovely. At the fountain nearby the Eligse Saint Sulpice, some kids were having fun "skating" on the frozen water.

We stopped by Coolin's for hot chocolate instead of beer this time before heading to les Galeries nationales du Grand Palais for the exposition of "Picasso et les Maîtres". I liked it. Picasso was really talented though I did not like all his works. This temporary exposition ends soon and I highly recommend it even if you are not into Picasso. Buy the tickets in advance as the ticket queue for actual day visit is long.

Musical saw

I am in my Korean cuisine phase and Seb is in his Jazz music phase. What better way to spend a friday evening with our friends than having a Korean dinner at Bibimbap with a mini Jazz concert.

Nicole was visiting me from Munich and had never had Korean food. Her friend Liz came along and the last time I saw Liz was 2 years ago. We had a good dinner and each of us ordered a bibimbap set. The Jazz music was alright. Sometimes, it got a bit too loud for us to talk.

We all discovered a new musical instrument for the first time. It was the musical saw. It produced a surreal sound and the musician was able to play music on the saw using what looked like a violin bow. It was pretty amazing. I enjoyed the evening and I would say the same for the rest of my company. Food wise, Seb prefers L'Arbre de Sel. I shall continue my quest for good korean food.

Manual torture

Yesterday we brought our car for servicing. Actually, I made a dent on the car 2 months ago when I accidentally hit on the kerb. The damage done was minimal but Seb insisted that we had it repaired. So, while the car was being repaired, we got a replacement car from the garage for the moment.
Boy, the replacement car was a small manual gear car and I am really rusty in driving such a car. It was scary and funny at the same time when I tried to put on the first gear and get the car moving. Since Seb's office was along the way, I had to drive him to work and then parked the car in my office parking. That is always a breeze with our automatic gear car.
When I left work to fetch Seb in the evening, I was mostly on gear 1 and 2. Good thing our offices were nearby but by the time I reached his office and he took over the wheels, I was having tummy ache. I guess I freaked out our unborn baby. Seb was telling baby that this is typical of mom's driving and he would understand when he is born. The car jerked too much from my 7 mins of driving especially at each changing of gear. Also, I was laughing so hard to myself in the car cos I felt as though I was brought back to my teenage days driving a daytona arcade game. This morning when I took over the wheels from Seb to come to office, I felt that I drove better than yesterday.
Still, both of us are so used to automatic car that we hope to have our car back soon.

Goodbye 2008

Today is the last day of 2008 and the office is really calm. Just a quick note to wish everyone a good year 2009 ahead.

Year 2008 has been good to us. Despite all the uncertainity of the financial world, we are not yet affected. Indeed, business is slower in almost all sectors. But Seb and I are blessed with good health and a new family member is in the making. That's what counts most.

For year 2009, there are many talks in the media that it will be a tough year. A french investor in New York had committed sucide due to the Madoff affair. That is such a shame. Even if one is bankrupt, it is not the end of the world. There are many people who are living in real poverty. Even if year ahead is tough, I pray that everyone will be able to brave through it.

Boxing day

Seb and I spent a good Christmas with Seb's family in Chartres. This year, I had to abstain myself from eating smoked salmon, oysters and unpasterised cheese. Things which I always look forward to feasting during this year end festival. Seb did not even drink any wine as he had to drive us home after the Christmas lunch. That was difficult for him as he saw the good wine passing under his nose.

Today, both of us did not work. Seb's office is closed and his company imposed a day off for everyone. As for my office, today is considered a holiday for us. So though I did not work, I did not have to take a day off like Seb.

We went Paris for a walk. I had prawn dumplings noodle soup at Mirama in Saint Michel. Mirama serves the best dumplings and roasted duck in Paris. Even Angel's colleague who had been to Paris a few times for work agreed with me when we first met a few weeks ago.

After that, we went Carrefour for grocery shopping. At Carrefour, I took the queue reserved for pregnant ladies and handicaps. This was the second time I did that. Most of the time, I joined the normal queue as the priority queue was often just as long as the normal ones. And on both occasions, I heard remarks from people behind me commenting that I was abusing the queue. I had to justify myself by replying that I was more than 3 months pregnant. With my little bump hidden under my winter coat, no one could tell I am 5 months pregnant. At church, without my coat, I was talking to someone new and she thought I was a student in Paris. I guess I should take that as a compliment. Anyway, I just had my monthly check up and baby is doing fine, weighing 550g. That is the most important thing.

Black rice vinegar and confinement

Angel was here on work trip recently and upon my mom's request, he helped me brought two bottles of black rice vinegar. Seb and I met up with him and his colleagues and we had a good dinner togather.

What is so special about this particular black rice vinegar? Well, Mom insisted that this is the only brand that I must eat during my confinement period. No other brand in Paris Chinatown will do. During the confinement period, it is necessary to eat lots of pig's trotters cooked in vinegar. I am not sure of the taste of this dish but since mom is such a good cook, I am sure I will enjoy it.

So what is confinement? This is something I explained to Seb long ago and recently explained to my mom-in-law and friends. It was never easy explaining and each time, I got bewildered eyes looking at me. Basically, confinement is something Singaporean women practiced for a month right after giving birth. Common practices include: No touching of water, no contact with wind, no heavy works, rest, rest and more rest.

I found two links that explained confinement really well. Mom will be my confinement lady; taking care of me. Since this will be her first time, I will negotiate with her to have showers every day!
http://www.babycenter.com.sg/pregnancy/asian-postnatal-practices/confinement-practices/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Asian-Post-natal-Practice-of-the-Confinement-Month

Danger zone

Some explosives were found in Printemps shopping store this morning. The terroists group who planted these explosives in a few toilets sent out a warning note to the news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse). Apparently, these explosives did not have a timer. But the group warned that if their request for the withdrawal of French troops in Afghanistan was not met, there won't be a warning note the next time.

Seb sent me an email and pointed out the news to me. He told me not to visit big departmental shops from now on. I often shop in the Haussman area and would use the toilets at Printemps when nature calls. Small boutiques along the streets do not have toilet facilities. I was even thinking of going there this Sat to do our last minute Christmas shopping. I have yet to choose my present from Seb. These days, we can never be too sure of anything.

Good thing there is Vente Privée (a private sales website). It offers great bargains on well-known brands and I have been buying things from them. So far, I had bought books, cocottes from Staub, baby clothes from Absorba and Petit Bateau. For the moment, I will take my husband's advise and let my fingers do the shopping for me instead. Just hope that my wallet will not explode!

Christmas is coming again

I was not keen to get a Christmas tree this year. But when I saw a friend put up photos of her Christmas tree on her facebook, I was tempted to get one. So on sunday morning, we went to Truffaut and got a Christmas tree. It is about 1.1m. This is how it looks after being decorated. I am tired of the decoration and will definitely change them next year. The balls should retire as this would be their 4th annual appearance.

Je ne voulais pas un sapin de noël cette année. Mais quand j’ai vu sur Facebook les photos d’un sapin qu’une copine a acheté, j’ai craqué. Donc, dimanche matin, nous avons allés chez Truffaut afin de chercher un sapin. Il est environ 1.1m. J’ai décidé de changer la décoration l’année prochaine. Les balles sont utilisées depuis quatre ans et c’est l’heure de leur retraites.

On Sunday afternoon, we had Seb's family over for lunch to celebrate Seb's birthday. Our living room was really too small for 10 people after adding in the Christmas tree. But everyone managed to find their place. For entrée, I served vegetarian samosa and Wu-Xiang (bean curd skin pork rolls) that my mom made for me. I had already made a couple of my friends tried mom's wu-xiang and it was always well received. For main dish, it was baked stuffed female duck from Picard. Side dishes were potatoes wedges and buttered french beans. Cheese and cake followed. Everyone was satisfied with lunch and I had to give credit to Picard as it provides fresh, quality frozen food.

Dimanche après midi, nous avons invités la famille pour déjeuner afin de fêter l’anniversaire de Seb. Avec le sapin, notre salon est trop petit pour dix personnes. Heureusement, chacun a pu trouver sa place. Pour l’entrée, il y avait du samossas végétarien et wu-xiang (un sort de nem) fait par ma mère. Tout le monde aime ce que ma mère a fait. J’ai servi une canette farci de chez Picard comme plat principal. Il est accompagné avec des haricots verts et des potatoes. Ensuite, il y avait des fromages et le gâteau. On a bien mangé et je dois avouer que les produits chez Picard sont frais et bon.

As Christmas is round the corner, we have to move our butts this weekend to do Christmas shopping. As usual, it will be another stop at FNAC for books, CDs and games. December is always the month where I have to crack my head to get two gifts for Seb. For his birthday, it was an electrical Italian café maker from Bodum. For Christmas, I subscribed a year's supply of Hi-Fi magazines for him. I may just add in a CD too.

Bientôt, c’est noël. On doit bouger ce weekend et faire notre course de noël. Comme d’hab, on va aller chez FNAC pour les livres, CDs et jouets. Décembre est toujours le mois où je casse ma tête pour trouver les cadeaux de Seb. Pour son anniversaire, c’était un cafetière italienne électrique de chez Bodum. Pour noël, c’est un abonnement d’un magazine Hi-Fi. Peut-être, je vais ajouter un CD en plus.

My virgin vote

I voted for the first time in my life. As I am still a Singaporean, I do not have rights to vote in presidential or general elections. But since I am working in France, I do have the right to vote for the election of the council of Prud'Hommes. If I am not wrong, Prud'Hommes is sort of a tribunal court dealing with complains and conflicts between the employers and employees. The union party elected will represent the employees.

Since a month and a half ago, we received our electoral card and also pamplets of each participating union party.

In Singapore, I never got to vote since there was never opposition contesting for my estate. The last time I was able to vote, I was living in France and the nearest poll center was in London.

It felt good to cast my vote though I am not sure how it would affect my work life.

Time for shopping

I need new clothes. No, I am not being vain here. My tops no longer fit me. Suddenly, it seems that my tummy has swell up and most of my tops do not completely cover my tummy. I am now 4.5 months pregnant. Today, I have to constantly pull my blouse to make sure my tummy does not show.

Tomorrow, it will be shopping spree time. Yipee! I will be reasonable.

It's been 6 years

We were invited to spend the weekend with our friends in Jura, south-east of France. A couple is celebrating their 10 years wedding anniversary and Seb and I are celebrating our 6 years of marriage. However, I backed out at the last minute after visiting my gynaecologist on thursday. She felt that travelling 400 km on friday and another 400 km back on sunday by car is too much for a pregnant woman. Well, there will be another chance to visit the mountains of Jura.

Nous avons été inviter à passer le weekend avec des amis dans le Jura, est de la France. Un couple fête ses 10 ans d'anniversaire de mariage. Seb et moi, nous avons fêté nos 6 ans de mariage. Néanmoins, j'ai décliné l'invitation à la dernier minute après la visite chez mon gynécologue. Elle m'a déconseillé de faire un trajet de 800km aller-retour en trois jours. Bon, il y aura toujours une autre fois pour visiter les montagnes de Jura.

So yesterday marked the 6th anniversary of our "I do"s and "I will"s. Seb did the housework in the morning and even cleaned the fridge. After lunch, we went out for a walk in Paris. We walked around the Montparnasse area as I remembered that there was a street with a few baby shops near Le Bon Marché. It was a cold day but the sun was out. When we stopped for our Korean dinner, I was really tired out from the few hours of walking. We enjoyed our day and our simple and delicious dinner at Arbe de sel. Seb even bought 2 baby clothes for me. Looking at them just bring a smile to my face.

Donc, hier était notre 6ème année ensemble comme mari et femme. Seb a fait le ménage le matin et a même nettoyé le frigo. Après déjeuner, on s'est promené dans Paris. On a marché dans le quartier de Montparnasse car je me souvennais avoir vu quelque boutiques pour les bébés à coté du Bon Marché. Il faisait froid mais il y avait du soleil. Quand on s'est arrêté pour notre diner Coréen, j'étais vraiment fatigué à cause des heures de marche. On a beaucoup apprécié cette journée et le simple et délicieux diner chez l'Arbe de Sel. Seb m'a acheté deux bodies de bébé. Je souris chaque fois je les regarde.

Today, it was even colder in Paris. While we were at the St Denis market, it snowed lightly. I am glad that I did not go Jura this weekend. With the cold weather, I am sure I would be tired out and would not be able to enjoy the trip.

Aujourd'hui, il fait 6 dégrées à Paris. Il a neigé quand on a été au marché de Saint Denis. Je suis comme même contente de ne pas être aller dans le Jura. Avec ces temps, je suis sûre que j'aurais été fatigué et que je ne me serais pas amusé.

Petrol prices drop

Our car drinks petrol. Last year when we first got our car, the price of petrol was at 1.299€/L. Since then, the price continued to increase until it hit 1.5€/L in May. That was really expensive but we only used our car mainly over the weekend.
Recently, we are seeing a new phenomenal. The price of petrol starts to drop. The last time I fed our car, the price was 1.17€/L. I heard over the radio that the price would continue to drop.
Now that I am pregnant, I drive to work. Public transport in the morning is always jam packed. I prefer to travel in comfort and in a less stressful surrounding. The journey to work by car or public transport takes about the same time. I am glad that petrol is cheaper. However, the petroleum companies are deciding to decrease oil supply in order to increase the demand and thus increasing the price. These companies never make a loss. They just want to sustain their profits. For the moment, I will just benefit a little from the economy downturn.
Let's see if the price will drop below 1€/L as mentioned in the radio.

Singapore curry

Today is Armistice 1918 and it is a public holiday in France. It is celebrated at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month where World War I was concluded.

Aujourd'hui, on fête l'Armistice 1918 en France. Vers onze heures, le onzième jours du onzième mois, la première guerre mondiale s'est terminée.

Seb and I did not work yesterday as Seb's company was closed and imposed an off day on everyone. I took a day off as well and we went Chartres to visit my in-laws. Since we had been out the last three days, we decided to just stay at home and rest.

Seb et moi, nous n'avons pas travaillé hier car la société de Seb était fermé et elle a imposé une journée de RTT pour tout le monde. J'ai prise une journée de RTT également et nous sommes allés à Chartres pour rendre visite à ma belle famille. Comme nous sommes sorties tous le weekend et hier, nous avons decidé de rester chez nous aujourd'hui.

I decided to cook chicken curry. I had two packs of curry pre-mix and chose to use Prima's first as it only required chicken and potatoes. There was coconut milk powder in the package.

J'ai voulu faire un curry de poulet. J'ai deux types de pates de curry et j'ai decidé d'utiliser celui de Prima car il a juste besoin de poulet et de patates. Il y a de la poudre de lait du coco dans la boite.

The result was pretty good. It looked good. I like the color and it tasted good. As I still had a piece of frozen roti prata, I fried it to go with the curry chicken as lunch. Yummy! There is still plenty for dinner.
Je suis satisfaite du résultat. Le curry donne une jolie coleur et il est bon. Comme j'avais encore un roti prata, je l'ai mangé avec le curry pour déjeuner. C'était délicieux. Il en reste encore beaucoup pour diner.

Pays-Basque

When my family was here in late Sept, we spent four days in the Pays-Basque region. This area is in the south-west of France near the border of Spain. We stayed at a bed and breakfast nearby Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The place we stayed was lovely. It was a typical house of this area. However, I find the service mininal and the host was not as friendly as the ones in Dordogne.

We spent a day walking around Saint-Jean-de-Luz. In the picture below, the building on the right is the famous "Joanoenea" house. The future queen of Louis XIII, Anne d'Autriche stayed there before her wedding ceremony in 1660.

We also visited nearby cities like Biarritz and Bayonne.

On one of the mornings, everyone except me went up la Rhune by the little train. I was not feeling well that morning. Everyone loved the mountain top view. There were eagles soaring in the sky, sheeps gazing and the view of the sea and mountains surrounding was beautiful. That was the feedback I got. I do hope to have a chance to do it one day.

Since we were so near the border of Spain, we drove over to San Sebastian. There were many bars selling tapas. While waiting for lunch, we went into one of these bars. The waiter gave us a plate and we just filled it up with whatever we want. After that, we ordered our drinks and based on the contents in our plates, we paid before standing around and trying out what we picked. It was interesting and the atmosphere was relaxing.

We were blessed with good weather as it did not rain. We drove around the region and visited other villages and even a gorge. I tried to make my family try the local delights but on most evenings, we had chinese thanks to my GPS. It was able to suggest restuarants near where we were. Based on the name of the restaurant, we were able to second guess that it was an Asian restaurant. And it was always BINGO!

Craving for Yong Tou Foo

I dreamt of eating Yong Tou Foo two days ago. It made me really want to just make a trip to Singapore to satisfy my craving. However, we had no plan to go back Singapore for the moment.

When I told Seb about my dream, he said "Why go back Singapore just for that? Yong Tou Foo is just soup with veggies." Sigh. He just did not get it. This is my comfort food and the fish paste in the veggies makes this dish so unique.

When Seb was in Boston last week, he had a great dinner at an authentic Malaysia restaurant. And they serve Yong Tou Foo. Was that why I had my dream of Yong Tou Foo?

Next week I will be going Helsinki for three days. I will try to convince David to dine with me at the Panda Restaurant opposite our client's place. I had been to Helsinki so many times but never try this Chinese restaurant. I doubt they serve Yong Tou Foo but maybe there would be other comfort food.

Since Singapore is too far, Seb promised to go Chinatown with me this sat to get some Chinese vegetables. He is extra accommodating to me at this moment. He has not much of a choice. A pregnant woman's wish is the husband's command.

Il y a deux jours j'ai rêvé que j'étais en train de manger un Yong Tou Foo. Ensuite, j'ai vraiment eu envie de faire un aller-reour à Singapour afin de satisfaire cette envie. Néanmoins, on n'a pas prévu de visiter Singapour pour le moment.

Quand j'ai parlé à Seb de mon rêve, il a repondu "Pourquoi aller à Singapour juste pour ça? Yong Tou Foo est juste une bol de soupe avec des légumes." Zut. Il n'avait rien compris. C'est un aliment me réconfortant et la pâte de poisson dans les légumes fait toute la différence.

Seb était à Boston la semaine dernier et il a bien mangé chez un restaurant Malaisie. En plus, il y avait le Yong Tou Foo. Ce n'est pas par hasard que j'ai rêvé de ça.

La semaine prochaine, je vais aller à Helsinki pendant trois jours. Je vais convaincre David de diner avec moi chez Panda qui est en face de notre client. Je suis allée à Helsinki plusieurs fois mais je n'ai jamais essayé ce restaurant asiatique. Je ne crois pas qu'il serve du Yong Tou Foo mais peut-être y aura t-il autres aliments réconfortant.

Comme Singapour est trop loin, Seb a promis d'aller à Chinatown avec moi samedi pour acheter les légumes chinoise. Il est beaucoup plus accommodant envers moi. Il n'a pas de choix. Le souhaite d'une femme enceinte est un ordre pour son mari.

Bias news

Go to this link. (http://www.asiaone.com/specials/foreignspouse/)
It says four in ten Singaporeans marry foreigners.
The images only show asian women with ang moh men.
And if you read the various articles proposed, most interviews were on local women with ang moh husbands.

Yet when you read the article, it mentions that out of the 8086 Singaporeans who married a non-citizen, 6200 were men and 1886 were women.

Aren't these images and interviews mis-representing the facts?
This gives the wrong idea that singapore girls prefer to marry ang moh while in actual fact, local men marry more foreigners than local women. Three times more!

PS: Ang moh is singlish for Caucasians.

Felt like in Singapore

My family came and left. Put them togather in a room and right away, I felt I was transported back to Singapore. Auntie Lily made me pineapple tarts and in the morning, while watching the chinese program on TV, there was this surreal Chinese New Year atmosphere.

Mom made ‘Wu-Xiang’ in Singapore and steamed them. She then froze them and brought them over. My freezer was full of them but in two weeks time, we had already finished more than half of them. They were yummy. She also made some chilli sauces for me and my friend Sandra.

While my family was here, I was pampered with home cooked Nasi lemak, Bak Kut Teh, Lontong curry, authentic fried mee hoon, gluntinous rice with dried shrimps, mushrooms and peanuts, Otah (yeah, Auntie Lily brought them over) among mom’s other signature dishes. They brought so much food stuff that Seb could not recognise our kitchen. Auntie Lily even showed me how to make a pandan cake with pandan leaves from her balcony.

Other than just spending time in the kitchen cooking, I brought mom and gang to visit the usual tourist sites in Paris. We spent four days in Pays-Basque, South-west of France and we had good weather. It was chilling but there was sun. The scenery was great with the mountains and seas within view.

When we came back from Pays-Basque, it turned cold in Paris. We spent most of our time playing bowling on the WII game. Mom and Auntie Lily were really expert. Auntie Lily scored more than 180 points though she had never played real bowling.

It was great having them over. We were amazed that my grand-uncle aged 73 was able to walk as much as we did. My sister had Roquefort and liked it.

Mom will visit again next year. Till then, I miss the three dishes and one soup she prepared for dinner.

A late summer vacation

Since the fire in the Eurotunnel on 11 September, the Eurostar trains had been greatly affected. On the Eurostar website, passengers are advised not to travel to London if possible for this month. Delays are expected since only one out of the two tunnels is in operation.

I had to cancel our London day trip. There is no point getting stuck at Gare du Nord and arriving in London just for a few hours. Now, I am brain storming on what to do for this day's activity. Brussels, chateaux de la Loire, miniature France, Reims in Champagne........

Tonight, we will go pick up my family at the airport and my vacation of two weeks start from there. So, in two weeks time.......

Suite à l'incident survenu la semaine dernière dans le Tunnel sous la Manche, Eurostar effectue un service limité. Sur le site d'Eurostar, les voyageurs sont conseillés de ne pas aller à Londres si possible ce mois ci. Des retards sont prévus car seulement un tunnel sur deux est ouvert.

J’ai du annuler notre visite à Londres. Ca ne vaut pas le coup de rester coincer à Gare du Nord et d’arriver à Londres uniquement pour quelque heures de visite. Maintenant, je me demande quoi faire ce jour là. Aller à Bruxelles, visiter les châteaux de la Loire, France miniature ou bien Reims en Champagne..... A voir.

Ce soir, on va à l’aéroport et mes vacances de deux semaines commence à partir de là. Alors, à dans deux semaines…

Home alone

I have been on the quiet side these days as I am just not inspired to write. I know that there are a few people out there who will pop by sometimes. Here's a little update for you.
Seb is away in Germany for two weeks and I will have my husband only for the weekend. I am enjoying my time alone for the moment because in two weeks time, our home will be overcrowded. My mom and sister are coming, along with my grand-uncle and my auntie Lily; mom's best friend. That's quite an entourage, isn't it?

Mom had been to France alone twice and I asked her to come with someone this time. Auntie Lily agreed to come along. Then my grand-uncle decided to come along too. And at the last minute, my dear sister joined in. Good thing we have two spare rooms so all the ladies shall squeeze in one room and my grand-uncle in the other.

They will be here for two weeks and I have already planned our trip. Yeah, I am taking two weeks of leave to spend time with them. Though France itself is very big and two weeks is not enough to visit everything here, my visitors would like to taste England. So we will be doing a day trip to London. Gare du Nord is just a station away from my place. With the new Eurostar station in London, it takes only 2hours 20mins to get there.

We will also spend 4 days in the south-west of France. We will travel by train, rent a 7 seater car and stay in bed-and-breakfast. I hope my visitors will enjoy Pays-Basque. I shall be able to write something about Pays-Basque in October. In the meanwhile, I doubt I will write much again.

Oh yeah, Mamamia is out in the cinema tomorrow. I am going to watch it with Anca. Her husband is also on business trip this week and none of our husbands wants to watch it. So we shall have a great ladies' nite.