Honfleur

Two sundays ago, we visited Honfleur with my brother and my sister-in-law. It was my second visit. My first visit was more than ten years ago. Seb and I could not remember how it looked like though we both enjoyed our trip then.

So it was good to come again to this lovely town. We had crepes for lunch and then walked around the town.

 

The children took rides on the merry-go-round and they had fun in the playgound at the park. We walked along the seaside too.

 

Here are some photos taken at Honfleur. 

 

3months to lose 2kg

It took him three months to lose two kilos. There is twenty more to go. Thirty more months. Let's see the final results in Oct 2016.

The pirate theme birthday party

The big day arrived. Yesterday, we celebrated A1's 5th birthday with his friends. My brother the balloon master arrived from Singapore the day before. He made wonderful balloons for the children.

A1 had a parrot perched on his shoulder. He also had a sword and a belt to keep his sword.

 Thank God for the fine weather. We had the party in the garden. For the decorations, we had red and black balloons with pirate flags banner.

Food wise, I made a chocolate cake with the number 5 mould. My sister in law decorated it beautifully. I also made pirate cookies. We decorated bananas to look like pirates. There was tomatoes and comté with pirate sails. Pop corns on pirate cupcake stand and lots of sweets. I found pirate theme candles and put five on the cake.

 

I made pirate hats out of black felt. Here is the site where I got the idea. It was simple and the children loved their hats.

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2012/01/a-felt-pirate-hat.html

 

The dozen of children arrived at 3pm and we had many games to keep them entertained. There were "walk the plank"; sticking the eye patch on the parrot; 123 Soleil; mini treasure hunt; throwing a bean bag from a distance into a circle drawn on the ground; drawing on the floor with chalks among other games. Still each game did not take long and we were running out of ideas at times.

 

For prizes, we had pirate coins, mini puzzles, sharks, eye patches, erasers, telescopes, pirate rings. Most of the prizes were brought from Singapore.

 

My brother made more balloons swords and the kids had fun running and fighting in the garden. The only peaceful moment was when they were all seated and eating the cake.

 

 

A1 was a lucky boy. His friends brought him nice presents. Mostly Playmobil.

At 6pm, the parents came to bring their tired children home. The 3 hours was long for us. Though we were 7 adults, it was still tiring for us. Seb was the MC of that day. My brother made balloons and played with the kids. My sister in law and I did the logistics. My friend Denise helped to take photos. My friend Anca helped out and mostly showed the kids where the toilet was and even helped three children with their big business.

It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Made my efforts worthwhile.

 For A2's birthday, we had decided to keep it shorter. 2.5hours is max. We would welcome all help we could gather. Just hoping the weather would be as fine come September.

Mega slide

It had been a while since I searched on LeBonCoin for a second hand slide. The boys find the slide they had too small.

The search was over when I finally found the one within my budget and not too far away for pick up.

After we ensembled the pieces, the boys were happily playing with it. They put the small slide beside the big one and used it as a bridge.

On Wed, when my neighbour's children came over, they had fun with the slide too.

 

When I have the time, I will put up the small slide for sale on LeBonCoin.

 

Speaking of which, I sold the boys' Bebe Confort Axsis car seats within two days after putting up the announce on LeBonCoin. Such items do sell like hot cakes. LeBonCoin is free and very useful.

Vive LeBonCoin.

Birthday invitation cards

A1 is turning five in April. For the first time, he is inviting his friends from school to his birthday. As A1 and A2 are in the same class, they are both invited each time to a classmate's birthday party. They attended one just two weeks ago. In another two weeks time, they have another birthday party to go to. Lucky boys.

I asked A1 who he wanted to invite and what theme he wanted. After much suggestions from me, he decided to have a pirate theme. He gave me 8 names and I included my neighbour's children and a friend's son. Seb and I togather with my brother and his wife should be able to manage a dozen of young children.

I wanted to send out the invitation cards fast as the date was set on the Saturday right after school holiday. As I did not have time to go shop for pirate theme invitation cards, I searched on internet and made my own cards.

They were simple to make. I chose the text in french from internet and pasted them in a Word document. I printed out the invitations and rubbed hot tea bag over the papers to give them a browned look. I then crumpled them and let them dried. Once they were dried up, I burnt the edges of the paper with a candle. It was tedious work and I burnt half of a paper away. As a precaution, I did the burning over the sink. The end product had a treasure map kinda feel. (The flash from the camera lightened up the paper a lot). I rolled them up and tied them with stripes of red cloth. That was it.

I wrote the names on the ribbon and was surprised that A1 could recognise his friends' names. This morning, A1 brought them to school to give out to his friends. I hope most could make it to his party.

Next up is looking for ideas for the party to be a success. Internet helps a lot. I just found a site on making pirate hats out of black felt. I shall go to the fabric shop this weekend and get some felt. The challenge is to make a dozen of pirate hats in a month's time.

Blessing in disguise

Yesterday, Seb left at 5am to catch a plane to Italy. As it was a monday and I had to go to work in La Defense, the boys' grandparents came at 6.15am to take care of them and to bring them to school.

Yesterday was also the day where the french government applied a new measure to combat the seemingly unhealthy air pollution in Paris and its surrounding. Only cars with odd number car plates were allowed to circulate into Paris and its neighbouring areas. Over the weekend, public transport in Paris was free. While I applauded the free public transport gesture, the one on alternate days circulation for cars was just not feasible. Many people lived very far from Paris in small towns where there was no public transport to connect them to their offices in Paris. They were also people living in Paris who needed to drive to their offices outside of Paris.

I would have no issue going to work on monday as my car had an odd number car plate. But alas, when I started my car at 6.25am, it won't start. The battery was flat. A1 played in my car on friday. I had driven to do grocery shopping earlier on before picking up the boys. On Sat morning, I realised that the signal light was on and quickly unlocked the car and switched off the indicator light. Over the weekend, we used Seb's car and I did not check if the signal light had used up the battery.

The grandparents tried to help me start the car. We could not jumpstart the car as we did not have any cables for that. As it was very early in the morning, I waited until 8am to call for help. I had no choice but to work from home. I felt bad that my in-laws came over for nothing having to wake up so early.

I called the VW service center where I serviced the car. I was surprised to learn that as I had used a VW service center, I was entitled to free assistance within 24months from the last reviewing of the car. I called up the VW assistance center and in an hour's time, a service man came. He took a portable battery and cables from his car and jumpstarted my car. We then let the engine  run for 15mins. I was told to drive for 10mins to charge up the battery further. I explained to the service man that with my car plate number, I would have gone to work in Paris if not for the flat battery. He told me that there were blockages on the main roads to Paris along the highway and it was a mess entering Paris. As usual, the french did not care about this rule and even number car plates vehicles tried to enter and had to be turned back by the traffic police. There were reluctant drivers trying to convince the police and creating jams.

So it was a blessing in disguise that the car did not start. Still, I learnt my lessons. No more letting the boys play in the car without my supervision even for a few minutes. And always go to the VW service center for car reviewing. It came in handy this time.

The decree for alternate days driving was called off. The pollution level had returned to a normal level. Furthermore, I think the authorities had realised the mess they created yesterday and the unhappiness of the drivers affected. As for me, I will go to office on thurs. Seb will be back tomorrow. If the decree continues, I will use Seb's car on thurs as his has an even number car plate. Or to avoid the mess on the road, I can also drive to Rambouillet train station and take the trains to La Defense. Just that, it would take me 1.5hours to come home instead of the usual hour.

To end off, I went to fetch the boys from school yesterday on FOOT!

First sunday of March

Last sunday was the last day of school holiday. Usually, the boys did not have chinese lesson during school holiday but that sunday was an exception. We were expecting heavy traffic to Paris in the afternoon from the holiday makers returning back to the capital. So we decided to go to Paris in the morning.

 

The night before, I suggested to Seb that we could visit a museum. There are a few free museums. As the boys are young with short attention span, I do not want to spend money visiting museum. So Seb had no choice but to check on internet. On the website of the musem of Louvre, we noted that it was free on the first sunday of the month from Nov to March. I was thrilled. And that sealed it. We visited le Louvre.

 

On Sunday, we parked the car near the chinese school and took the Metro to Pyramid station. The boys were excited with the train ride. We had Japanese at rue Sainte Anne and the boys ate well. They drank miso soup with the tiny tofu cubes and seaweed and all. They ate gyoza (饺子) and fried noodles.

 

We then strolled to Louvre. We passed security and decided to visit the Egyptian collection. Each time I came to le Louvre, I visited the same painting collections as my visitors wanted to see Mona Lisa.

The Egyptian  collection was amazing. Anyway, all collections in the Louvre are Amazing.

 

After about an hour, the boys had enough of mummies. We left and headed to the Jardin des Tuileries. I was surprised to see fake branded products on sale openly.

There was a playground in the garden and the boys had fun. There was this big, high structure for older kids. That did not deter the boys from climbing up the structure. At 3pm, we walked back to the Metro station and headed back to Chinatown for the boys' chinese lesson. It was a fruitful day.

It has been a week since the weather is sunny. The cold winter days are over soon. Vive le soleil.

Home alone week

I was home alone last Sunday to Thurs. Sunday morning, Seb flew to San Francisco for work and I dropped the boys at their grandparents' place for a week's stay. They were spending their second week of school holidays bonding with their papi et 奶奶 (grandmother).

 

This was the first time I was alone in the house and I did not sleep well the first night. I missed my family. The subsequent nights were better. I had a good bonding time with Handsome since I walked him every evening in the forest.

 

When Seb returned, he brought me the usual stuff that I ordered like Resees chocolates, Froot Loops for the boys (very unhealthy but once in a blue moon, it is okay) and peanut butter. On top of that, he brought me some meat stuff he found in SF's Chinatown. One of the biggest Chinatown outside of China. He also bought 2 sets of Chinese DVDs for the boys.

I had not yet tried the Satay beef jerky. Seb had been asking me to open it and try and I think I will do it soon.

 

As for himself, he ordered a bag from Rickshaw when he knew he was going to SF. He was very happy with his bag. It fitted into his strict criterias for a working bag. I hope his search for his Right bag is over. We do have quite a few laptop bags hanging around. Check out this video to see how his made in San Francisco bag is done. http://vimeo.com/24337459 We noticed that there were only chinese in the making of the bags.

We had wanted to go out on dates during the absence of the boys. But with Seb's last min working trip, we were left with Thurs and Friday before getting the boys. Furthermore, Seb was tired. We only had a simple dinner at a Chinese after doing grocery shopping togather on Thurs night.  

On Friday night, I made some pineapple tarts using a recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover blog combined with a recipe for Thermomix. As it was an experiment trying to blend in the two recipes, it took me a long time to get these tarts done. I gave some to my mother in law the next day when we went to get the boys.

 

The boys were happy to see us. And they liked my pineapple tarts. A1 just ate the toppings though.

 

School starts tomorrow. 6 more weeks before the next school holidays.

Playmobil Fun Park

On Saturday, it was another rainy day. So we decided to visit the Playmobil Fun Park since it was indoors. I read from Tripadvisor that it was best to go in the morning to avoid the weekend crowd.

The indoor park is 2000m² big with all kinds of Playmobil toys. It was paradise for the boys. The entrance fees cost 2.50€ per person. That was pretty reasonable. And of course, to trap our wallets, to exit, everyone had to pass through the Playmobil boutique. We did tell the boys that we were here to play and not to buy anything.

 

Girls were mainly playing with princess castles and doll houses while boys had more choices.

There were ships of all kinds. Cargo ships with containers and ports. Pirate ships with treasure islands. Police boats and leisure boats. There were lots of fire engines.

There were fortress with knights and horses. There were animals and dinosaurs; cowboys and red indians. And many others. There were thousands of Playmobil figurines.

 There was also a snack bar that sold nuggets with fries. The usual stuff in a play house.
Indeed, there was not many people in the morning so there was no lack of toys for the children. There was also an organised game to save the wild life.

After staying for two hours, we left for lunch. A1 said he wanted to eat a sandwich so we had Subway. It was the first time we bought the boys sandwiches and they ate well.

 Seb would prefer to bring the boys to Woupi where they could spend their energy running, jumping and sliding away until they were dead tired. Still, this place is a good alternative. We would come back again. Maybe on another rainy day.

 

Beautiful feburary afternoon

This year's winter is mild. It did not snow at all unlike last year.

It rained heavily this morning so we visited the Playmobil FunPark. I will post about that later.

 

 In the afternoon, Seb brought A2 to catch a movie after his nap. A1 did not want to go. So we went outdoor. He cycled while I walked the dog. As it was sunny and the temperature was around 10degrees, I decided to let him paint in the garden.

 

I cleaned up the garden while he was painting. Then I took some photos of this lovely afternoon.

Chinese New Year lunch

The Chinese New Year lunch with the family took place today. It was postponed from last week as we were sick then.

 

Seb's family always look forward to the starter which is the Yu Sheng. I brought back a set when I was in Singapore recently. We had fun tossing and mixing the ingredients. A1 only ate the salmon.

 

 

For main, I prepared beef rendang, made Wu Xiang (minced meat and prawns wrapped in beancurd skin), fried potato cubes and hotdog in tomato sauce and stir fried vegatables with sea cucumber. Of course, there was steamed white rice to go with the dishes.

 

My mother-in-law could not take the spicy beef rendang. My nephews love the potato in ketchup sauce. Titi who is participating in the school trip to China this week was disappointed that the lunch was postponed. He was telling his brother he would miss this dish.  

 

 My brother-in-law was the last to try the sea cucumber. We explained to him that the sea cucumber was not a vegetable but a sea creature living on the seabed. We added that it looked like a fat caterpillar. That was enough for him to rush to the rubbish bin and spat out.

 

The cheese plate was passed around after. We then attacked my home made lemon meringue tart with champagne. Lastly, we served coffee with chocolates. We ate well and I was glad everyone enjoyed the food.

My visitors brought us flowers as is often the tradition in France when invited. Seb got me a bouquet of flowers yesterday. There is never too many flowers in a house.

Air France promotion

A few weeks ago, a friend told me that Air France was having a promotion. However, it was for the travel period of April to June. My mother is coming during the summer holidays which starts in July. I doubted there would be a promotion during the summer holiday so was prepared to pay the normal air fare for her trip here. 

Good news came yesterday when my sister-in-law told me that Air France had a promotion. I checked out the website without much hope. I entered the dates and was delighted to see that the flight would cost one thousand Singapore dollars. That was almost half the price of a normal ticket. I quickly booked the tickets for my mother. Thank God. Furthermore, she had a 200€ Air France voucher which made the air fare even cheaper. Now that the ticket is settled, I am looking forward to her coming to take care of the boys during the school holidays. 

As for the Air France voucher, the story goes way back to last year. My mother's flight from Singapore to Paris last April was delayed a total of 28 hours. She was supposed to arrive on a Saturday morning. On Sunday, we were having a birthday lunch for A1 and was counting on her to cook us a sumptous meal. However, at the airport, all the passengers were kept waiting for many hours. She arrived at 9pm at the airport for her flight at 11pm. She was told that the flight had a technical problem and would take off at 1am. She waited at the airport and finally at 3am, the flight was cancelled. She was offered a night's stay in a hotel or a taxi to bring her home. She chose to go home as she had frozen food in her luggage bag. She needed to pack them back in the freezer. Yes, my mother brings me frozen Singapore goodies. She slept only at 5am and the next evening, finally took off at a delayed timing again. When she arrived in France, it was already Sunday morning. We reached my house at 10am and she started to prepare chicken rice and the lunch. Her lugguage bag was opened in my kitchen as she had more food stuff than clothes in it. That is my super mother.
   
I wrote to Air France requesting for an indemnity for the delay and the stress my mother went through. Imagine travelling alone at a senior age and having to play the waiting game. She had to go around seeking information on when the plane would take off and kept waiting at the boarding gate area; finally to be told to get back the luggage bag and return home. It was an exhausting episode. That was how she received the 200€ Air France voucher valid for a year as a compensation.
   
My mother had her fair share of air travel experiences. She visited me often alone and had taken different airlines sometimes transitting in other countries. She had her luggage bag lost once with two artichokes in them. It went to Australia and was returned to her the next day. When the roof collapsed at one of the terminals in CDG airport, all planes arrived at another terminal and the baggage carousel was loaded with suitcases from several flights. My mother could not find her luggage bag as there were many tall people blocking her. She exited without her bag and told Seb to go help her find her bag. Amazingly, Seb was allowed to go into the airport baggage area with my mother and helped her retrieved her bag.

I hope for her coming trip, it would be smooth sailing.    

To end, a little promotion for Air France. This Air France offer is very attractive. So do check out Air France's website if you want to visit Europe anytime now.

What's cooking

I have been trying out new things in the kitchen recently. No photos here as the end results were not photogenic. Taste wise, they were pretty decent. They had all been eaten up. That's proof alright.

I went to Nasi Lemak Lover blog and tried out her Homemade Chinese Pork Jerky (Bak Kwa) 肉干. It came out too dark and too sweet. Still, A1 loved it and finished the pieces. Seb was surprised that I could make it and that it was just minced pork.

I also used my Thermomix and made pineapple tarts from scratch. With the thermomix, it was really easy to make the pineapple jam. As I do not have a cookie cutter, I made square shaped pineapple tarts. The tart base was pretty plain. It went well though with the pineapple jam topping. However, A1 just ate the jam and left the square tarts on the table. I shall improve on the tart.

Other than testing these Chinese New Year goodies, I achieved a new skill. A1's new sweater's zipper was broken. I bought a new zipper; took out the spoilt zipper and sewed up the new zipper on his sweater. I am happy with the result. I can change zipper on kids' sweater. I was telling Seb that if we were in Singapore, I could have it amended cheaply. In France, cheap means to DIY.

I have climb up a new level of being a traditional mother. Yeah!

Change of car

Living in the countryside, we need two cars as public transport is limited. When Seb found a new job, we knew that his company car would have to go. I was growing fond of the BMW 118. It gives a sporty feel and is so easy to drive compare to our family car, the Touran. Don't get me wrong. The Touran is a great family car. It is popular in France as it is value for money. Just that as any family car, it feels like a heavy cow on the road.

In BMW, the cruise control system is easier to use than Volkswagon's. On the highway, Seb was adjusting the speed mainly with his hands and not his legs. The downside of the series 1 was that it was smaller and Seb had less room when the kids were sitting behind him.

In France, for sales related jobs, it is common to get a company car or a car allowance. Initially, Seb was offered a car allowance. We started to look for a second car. A BMW was off our budget. We looked at different options. Like selling our 4 years old Touran and getting two new/second hand cars. But in the end, we decided to keep the family car. It is a 7 seater and proves useful when we have friends and family visiting. For the second car, I looked up on Fiat 500, Peugeot 207 or 208 cc and other similar small cars. I crossed out Fiat 500 when I realised that it did not have a true automatic gear box. Sorry, I can't handle anything else than auto gear. The Peugeot convertible was also off. There was no room space for the boys behind. Seb tried to show me other convertibles with bigger backseats space. Still, I prefer the look of the Peugeot's. I shall wait until the boys grow up and leave home before getting one. In the end, Seb picked up two second hand cars and test drived them. A Toyota RAV4 and a Volvo xc60. He was enchanted by the Volvo xc60 and made an offer to the seller. On the day he did it, he received an email from his future employer asking if he would prefer a company car to a car allowance. He immediately took up the offer of a company car. Sorry to the xc60. We did our maths and though having a company car results in "an advantage by nature" which is taxable, we do not have to worry about other expenses like car insurances, car servicing and even gas.

On his first day of work, I drove him to his office. To our great delight, he came home with a BMW. For Seb, he was happy to find all the familiar buttons and functions in the car. He has more room space as it is a series 5 touring. The boys were excited over the panorama glass roof. For me, I am happy but less excited when behind the wheel. I often associate estate cars as being driven by old fashion owners. This car is too big for me. I can't gauge the size of it and often slow down when passing cars along narrow countryside roads. Also, it is easy to go over the speed limit because even when driving at 100km/h, one feels as though the car is going at 60km/h. It is powerful and silent. For the moment, I only use this car to make short errands. For long journey like going to office on monday, I get behind the wheel of heavy cow, the Touran.

I want to thank God. Throughout the search for the second car, we had been praying to God for the best arrangement. He had answered our prayers in ways we did not expected.

The year of the horse is here

Last friday was chinese new year. While some houses still had their exterior Christmas decorations, I put up two red laterns that I bought in Singapore. Now, the whole village will know where my kids and I live.

 On Thursday, we invited a couple friends and their daughter who is A1's classmate for reunion dinner. Too bad Tika could not make it. Only Fred and Jean joined us. Fred mentioned before that he tried steamboat once in a chinese restuarant and liked it very much. We had a simple steamboat dinner and chatted away until way past the bedtime for the children.

Amazingly, the boys slept at 11pm and woke up by 7.30am. They have an early bio clock. Even sleeping late would not make them wake up much later as usual.

 

I had wanted to write earlier to wish everyone a good chinese new year. Alas, I was sick again. On Chinese new year day itself, I had stomach flu. The second time this year. For someone who works from home and has mininum contact with the outside world, I was disappointed to be bed bound over the weekend. I missed out a concert and it was Seb who brought the boys to the kids' concert. We also postponed a lunch gathering at Anca's place to celebrate her birthday.

 

I sincerely pray for good health for everyone including myself.