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!