US$75 KrisShop inflight voucher

On our trip to Singapore back in Feb, we took the new plane from Boeing 777-300 ER with Singapore Airlines. Once aboard, we could see and feel that this plane was new. The carpet was shiny and the seats were inviting. Instead of the dull purple in other SQ planes, this one was in calm and cosy shades of cream and beige.

There were many enhanced features that delighted me. I will just highlight a few. The video console is located just underneath the screen instead of being by the side of the armrest. The screen is bigger and there is a reading light underneath it. The intensity of the reading light can be adjusted and it lights just enough for you to read without disturbing your neighbours. As for the foldable table, there is a slide that reveals a vanity mirror. After meal or deep sleep, just take a look at the mirror to make sure that you are presentable.

The KrisWorld entertainment was to provide the usual movie-on demand and games. There were some online learning provided as well. I usually could not sleep in planes, even for long overnight flights. I started to watch one or two movies. I watched 'Singapore Dreaming'. I love it and encourage you to watch it. As we were reaching Singapore, I played with the online learning. I tried to learn Dutch, French and Spanish. Then, I saw that there was online learning for Excel. I tried that. While loading the content, my screen went blank. It hung and stayed like this for 10 minutes. I checked around and the screens of others were functionning.

I called for help and the air steward tried to reset my machine but without avail. He explained to me that this KrisWorld entertainment system was recently upgraded and there was a technician on board the plane during this trial run period. He assured me that we were not testers as the system had been well tested. I told him that I was able to reproduce the bug (that's part of my job) and showed how I managed to do that on Seb's system. Obviously, Seb was not too happy that I blocked his screen. Fortunately, the technician managed to reset Seb's system but not mine.

Before landing, the air steward came to me and offered me a US$75 KrisShop inflight voucher. He apologised for the inconvenience caused. I was surprised as I did not expect this kind gesture. Of course, I happily accepted it. As I did not have enough time to decide on what to buy, I used it on my return trip from Brisbane to Singapore. I must say, US$75 can't buy much for the things they sell at KrisShop.

I did not want to put this up earlier as I wanted to be fair to the system. To give it time to be fixed so that readers will not be able to profit the situation upon reading this.

While I was writing this, Seb was on his way to the airport to catch the flight to Boston for a week's training. He just called me from CDG airport. He is heading home now. I will write this later as to why he is not taking his flight today. So come back soon to read.

Soups

Big vegetables roasted meat soup. Yummy! I made a big pot for the second time on saturday. And I managed to finish all of it by sunday night.

Lotus root soup. Yummy! I made a pot for the first time on monday. And I managed to finish it as tuesday dinner.

I am sure most of singaporeans know about lotus root soup. In a pot of water, put in pork ribs, sliced cleaned lotus roots and dry red dates. After 30 mins of cooking, the soup is ready.

As for big vegetable (translation from Hokkien) also known as bitter vegetable, it goes so well with roasted meat, tamarind juice, sliced ginger, whole garlics, dried chillis and tomatoes. All in a pot of water and the soup will be ready in 30 mins time.

The last strain of winter is still here and it is really cold this week. So soups really warm me up.

MAO The Unknown Story

A few months ago, I read Jung Chang's book, the Wild Swans and was aroused by China's history during the reign of Mao Tse-tung. Recently, when I was in Singapore, I came across another book written by Jung Chang. It is titled MAO The Unknown Story. I had only reach one tenth of the book and am totally disgusted by Mao. I had seen documentary about chinese praising him as a great leader. But this is really not true at all.

I could not continue reading. I think I need a few days to cool myself down before I pick up this book again. It was reported that he caused the death of 70 million people in his 27 years of ruling China. I shall stop here. :(

Moreton Island

During our time in Australia, we went for the rustic, good old camping at Moreton Island. We joined the Blue Planet Tour for a two days one night Moreton Action Safari.

As Moreton Island has no concrete road, only 4WD cars are allowed on this island. At 7am, we waited at the Brisbane City train station to be picked up by the four wheel drive. Each 4WD could take up to 8 passengers.

We headed for the ferry terminal and took the miCat for the one hour ride to Moreton Island. Upon reaching the island, the ferry embarked directly on the beach. We sat in our 4WD and began our fun; being transported from the ferry directly onto the beach.

The beach on this part of the island was calm.

Our first stop was our camp site. As Blue Planet Tour organised regular trips, it had its own permanent camp site where tents were already set up. We chose the cleanest and driest tent and after that headed to the beer shop to get our drinks for the evening.

Right after our cold chicken sandwich lunch, we went to the only resort on the island for a snokelling trip. Wet suits, masks, snokels and fins were provided and we snokelled around the wrecks. We spotted some colorful fishes and lovely corals though I must admit that this was no Great Barrier Reef.

We drove around the island and as it had rained the day before, Melissa, our guide, could not stop commenting that the drive was smooth as the sand was compact and the 4WD did not bump too much.

We reached our next destination. The sand desert. Moreton Island is the third largest sand island. Her eldest sisters are Fraser Island and Stradbroke Island who are just nearby.

We tried out sand tobogganing and it was really not as easy as it looked. I tried once and ate sand. For the next 3 days, when I scratched my head, I found sand particles between my finger nails.

We used a plank and we rubbed wax from candle on one side to make it smoother and faster. After that we lied flat on the plank and held up the front of the plank with our hands. We had to lift up our elbows as high as possible in order to protect our face from the sand.

Tim and Seb tried out a few times. And once Tim even went really really far. Do you see the tiny speck in the left image? That was our Singapore Rocket Tim.

When we went down, we obviously had to come up. The climbing up part deterred most of us from going down.

It was really tiring to walk up the sand hill. Still, we had much fun at this desert.















For the rest of the evening, we went for a swim in the sea, tried to watch the sunset (but there were too many flies at the beach), had a good BBQ dinner and drank and chatted around the campfire.

The oldest couple was from England. The man was a retired fireman and it was cool to have them with us. There were many young people. A few from Germany, a few from Korea and the others from the rest of the world.

The next day, we visited the other side of the island where the waves were big and strong. We visited the oldest lighthouse in Queensland. We had lunch along the 33km long beach. We swam in the sea. We watched surfers surfing in the waves. We went inland and swam in the Blue Lagoon where the fresh water was supposed to be 7 times purer than Brisbane water.

Soon, it was time to leave this natural, undistubed island. Moreton Island, you will be missed.

Glasshouse Mountains Eco-Lodge

We spent a night at the Glasshouse Mountains Eco-Lodge and boy, were we excited to share about this little piece of heaven to everyone.

I found this place by internet and as part of our Sunshine Coast trip, I planned to spend a night at the Glasshouse Mountains and another night at Noosa Heads.

The Glasshouse Mountains Eco-Lodge is located at Barrs Road right beside Mt. Tibrogargan. Living up to its name, everything here is eco-friendly. The water here is collected from rain water and is fit for drinking. There is a coffee plantation (left photo shows some coffee beans) and fruit trees grow in the orchard in front of our room. Everything is recycled as mush as possible, even food scraps.

Once we had checked in, we started to explore the region of Glasshouse Mountains. We drove up to Montville, the Baroon Lake and also Mary Cairncross park where we had a magificent view of the glasshouse mountains.

Before heading back, we went to an alcohol drive-thru' shop and got a bottle of white wine. There were two lanes. A browse lane and an express lane. It was funny to us.

Over our glass of chilled wine and with the view of Mt. Tibrogargan, we chatted with Paul. He showed us his perserved chillies which were harvested from his chilli plants and even offered us some chilli sauce to go with dinner. Tim and I agreed that it tasted like chicken rice chilli.

Paul also showed us how to play with the aborignal instrument, the didjeridu. It looked easy but it was really difficult even to make an audible sound. It is amazing how one can make music with it. All of us had a go with it.

That's Seb concentrating hard to make a sound.

For dinner, we cooked in the train wagon that was converted to be a kitchen and dinning area. It was really a great concept and we appreciated the cleaniness of this place and the various recycle bins available.

After a good night rest, we walked along the 3.3 km trail starting from the foot of Mt. Tibrogargan. There were a few lookout points where we could see the other nearby Glasshouse Mountains.

We even spotted a big spider web with the owner at home. The only peace disturbance were the mosquitoes. Apply insect repellants and wear light color clothes. That helps to reduce the bites.

After our morning walk, we packed up and had to sadly leave this green place. Our next stop was the beach. We promised to stay longer here the next time we visit Brisbane. Also, we will definately promote this place to friends who will be visiting Brisbane.

This place is calm and tranquille and so relaxing. There are several relaxing corners and each of us found our niche. It is really a great corner to forget about all the stress of city living.

Brisbane

Seb and I are in Brisbane visiting Tim. It is hot and dry here. We had spent two days in Gold Coast, two days in Brisbane city and tomorrow, we will spent two days in Sunshine Coast.

Yesterday, on our way back from O'Reilly's, I drove to Sunnybank Hills, Grandchester Street. This is the place where I stayed when I was staying at Queensland University of Technology nine years ago. The estate looked the same. The trees were taller. As I was just walking outside the gate, I saw the old lady of house unit 23. She recongised me and opened the gate for me. She was Jo's neighbour as Jo stayed at unit 24. She invited us for tea and we had a good chat. We looked at old photos and chatted about old times while eating the home made cookies. Visiting Brisbane did not bring me much memory until I came to Sunnybank Hills. I stayed in a big estate where there are over 90 houses. I was at unit 2, Jo was at unit 24, Claire was at unit 27 and Moohan and Rachel were at unit 30+. Thinking back to my life nine years ago, I did spent such a great time here in Brisbane. These people that I met then are still the most cherished friends.

It is 8 pm and I am starting to feel sleepy. Due to the 9 hours difference with Paris, we really had a problem trying to sleep. On the first night, we slept at 9pm and Seb woke up at midnight. As the days went by, we adjusted better. We will be here for another week of sun, beach and fun. It is great to have a tan while back home in France, it is winter time and we can show off our tan. ;)

Thank God

At times when I was down and felt discouraged, it was so difficult to find words to thank God. As the new year starts, I reflected on my stay these three and a half years in France. Then I realised how much God has blessed me. I could never imagine my current situation three years back.

In the first few months, love sustained me and kept me in hope. Yet somehow, there were periods of real low as I was not working, not speaking french, not belonging to any social circle. Now, love still sustains me. Seb and I are very much in love. We even agreed that we love each other more than when we just got married. I work, integrate well into the French society, speak french and enjoy the leisure lifestyle in France.

My close friends will know the struggles I faced during the periods of uncertainity. Seb and I arrived in France both looking for a job. I took 6 months to find one and Seb much later. Being without a job means that we cannot have big projects planned. It was agonising for me. But God is good.

I thank God that Seb and I love each other and support each other during tough times.
I thank God for providing both of us good health.
I thank God for giving us stable jobs.
I thank God that economy is picking up.
I thank God that we have the means to go on vacations.
I thank God for our appartment which will be ready in June.
I thank God that I have a pet cat, Bao Bei (I always wanted a cat but my mom did not allow).
I thank God that I join a badminton club.
I thank God that we have enough friends to spend time with.
I thank God for my in-laws who treat me really well.
I thank God that I appreciate the french cuisine.
I thank God that I pick up knitting.
There are many other things to thank God for. I have learnt to set my priorities right.
Learning to live at peace with oneself and being contented with whatever God provides at this moment.
Amen.

Circus time

Seb and I received tickets to go to the circus. My friend went to watch it, loved it so much that she bought the tickets as Christmas presents for us.

Phenix circus presented the Jublié by the stars of the Moscou circus.

It was the first time in my living memory to go watch a circus. We arrived early in Parc Boulogne and there was an enormous top set up. We went into the reception area and there were vendors selling souvenirs of Russian masks, Russian dolls, Russian paintings, Russian brooches etc. There was a stall selling popcorns and candies for kids and a stall selling coffee and hot chocolate. When the time was near, we went to our seats and waited for the start of the show. The inside of the top was bigger than I thought and was surprising warm for a make shift tent considering that it was winter.

A Russian music started to play and at first I thought it was playing from a recorder. As I followed the eyes of the rest of the audiences, I saw that there was a stage set up just above the entrance of the ring and there were live musicians playing. A violinist was playing on her electric violin in the crowd. She was full of energy and walked and ran and shaked while playing music at the same time. She brought up a warm rapport as everyone clapped and our eyes followed her around the whole place. When the Russian music ended, the first performance began. It was a muscled man doing balancing acts mid-air with a metal globe. At one point, he was hanging in a contorted position with just his wrist holding his whole weight. The wrist was inverted in such a position that it was amazing how much strength and control he had. He had a V shaped body and Seb was totally in awe of this performance.

We continued to watch performances by clowns, jugglers, dangerous act on a solo trapeze etc. Each time, the music was played live and the co-ordination of the music and the act was perfect. Throughout the show, a man dressed in elastics frog costume showed up with silly acts. At the end of the show, he appeared this time with his female frog partner. He was a contortionist. He sat on a big turntable (rotating platform, such as a lazy Susan) and put his hands on a stand attached to the ground. As the music built up the suspense, his partner started to slowly rotate the turntable. Slowly, his lower body turned 15 degrees perpendicular to his upper body, then 45 degrees, then 60 degrees, then 90 degrees and she continued to turn the turntable until the contortionist could see his own butt when he looked down. That was a 180 degrees twist. It was scary to watch. How was it possible for anyone to be so flexible? He was really amazing.

But the highlight for me was the horse performance. The horses were just running round the ring and it was the riders who did the tricks. I find the horses magnificent and the co-ordination of animal and man impressive. At the end of the show, there were vendors selling balloons of horses. We did thoroughly enjoy ourselves. Thank you Anca for the tickets.

Happy New Year 2007

Year 2007 is finally here. It will be a better year for us this year. Each year is getting better and better. This year, we will be visiting my brother in Brisbane. We will be buying a kitchen and flooring for our new apartment which is due in June.

Resolutions? I do not usually make them. If I did, I forgot about them in no time. But while I was in the train last year, I had a relevation. I gave up my seat to a lady. I did a good deed. She thanked me. I felt good.

I made a resolution to do a good deed each day. It can be any small gesture. The deed is counted when the stranger says "Merci"; even if it is "Non, merci". The fact is that the person acknowledges that a deed is offered/done and he appreciates it. It can be the simple geste of giving up my seat to someone in need. This is rare as I often stand in crowded trains. It can be giving spare change or saying "Bonjour" to the one legged old man along the street whom I passed almost every morning to work. It can be helping out with Salvation Army in giving food to the needy. It can be serving in church as an usher. In this world of misery, I feel a need to justify my existance to myself. I justify to families and friends by being kind to them. I would like to warm up this cold society by being nicer to any random person. Is this resolution too noble to be true? I have no idea if I can really do it each day. I will try my best. I know that I need this to clear up my trouble thoughts each time I see people in need in the news.

To change to a lighter tone, I promised to write about the gifts I received for christmas.
1. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. I read his other two books all in french and each book brought tears
2. A beautiful vase
3. A white blouse with a knitted black veste to match
4. 4 Cd Simply Français on french music
5. Badminton racket
6. A beautiful framed up of A to Z cross-sitched by my sister-in-law

Well, well, we are done with 2006 now. I hope 2007 will be a better year for everyone.

Grey Paris

The sky is grey and not a single sun ray manages to peep through the thick cloud. It is like the sun is turning its face away from this place and we are enveloped in a blanket of marshmallow. The whole Paris is grey. Without looking at the clock on the computer, I have no sense of time. From the moment I woke up until now in office and I’m knocking off in an hour's time, the sky remains unchanged. It is as though everything is in a standstill. Other than 4 of us in the office and some slow traffic along the road just outside the window, I can imagine myself in the plot of Stephen King’s The Langoliers. It is kinda eerie.

I can hardly wait to leave office and be at home to light up my Christmas tree. That will make my day a little brighter and warmer.

Year end festive season

We wish you a merry christmas,
We wish you a merry christmas,
We wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year.

Seb and I are in Chartres to spend our Christmas with our family. The images on the left are what I took today in the uptown of Chartres and in my parents-in-law's place. It is colder here than in Paris and there is a constant fire dancing in the fireplace. The big pumpkin on the garden table is still shining orange since October. There were birds feeding from the bird seeds that we supplied.
In the streets, vendors were selling their fresh oysters from number 0 to number 5 (size of oysters), smoked salmons and foie gras; the essential food for christmas. People were doing their last min shopping for gifts. The most crowded shops were perfume shops and bookstores. I was glad that we had already done our shopping so it was a stroll in the uptown for me today while Seb went swimming. The festive atmosphere was high and bright. There was even a mini carnival with marching band, clowns and pretty little girls on ponies. Everybody was in high spirits.

Tomorrow is christmas eve. We will roast some chestnuts over the fireplace after dinner like what we did today. Life is so peaceful here. It is so pleasant. We are away from the stress of Paris. Je vais profiter de mes journées ici.

I will write again after I receive my christmas gifts. Do click on the image to enlarge it for a better viewing.

Winter 2006

Winter is here. Technically speaking, winter starts on 21 December but it has been rainy and cold in Paris.

In my balcony, I replaced my summer flowers with winter ones (left and right). I have no idea what is their name. I am a novice in gardening and I do not bother to get to know the names of my plants. I do know that the one in the middle is a bruyère and it flowers in winter as you can see. Still, I must say that the greens are growing well under my loving care.

As Christmas is around the corner, we spent last Saturday and today looking for gifts. It was really easy for the kids as a quick stop at Toys 'R Us completed their wishes. For the other half of the family, we went to FNAC to get books and BD (french comic books).

There were so many people at Opera area that while crossing the road from Galleries Lafayette Maison to Printemps, Seb commented that it was like at Orchard Road. That was so true. I was not even able to appreciate the windows displays that Galleries Lafayette and Printemps put up each year for children with toys animations.

I have forgotten how winter is like. This is my fourth winter in France and yet each time, I have to relearn about the cold and get use to it. And with the train strike still going on, we have to walk 15 minutes in the cold to reach the nearest Metro station. I hope that the strike ends soon. I am glad that there is Christmas to warm up winter.

Afternote: the flowers are cyclamen.

Strike strike strike

Yesterday, SNCF went on strike. I depend on SNCF train to bring me from Becon to Saint Lazare. From Saint Lazare, I will take the Metro train to my work place. As notice was given a day in advance, I made arrangement with my manager to come pick me up. All was beautiful. The return home trip was a little bit unpleasant as I had to take the Metro line 3 until the end and walked 15 mins in the cold back to Becon. Still it was not as bad as 3 weeks ago when there was a similar strike and I had to walk in the rain and cold. With strong wind, umbrellas are not of much use here.

This morning, the radio announced that things were more or less back in normal. 3 out of 4 trains were in operations. My foot! I reached Becon train station at 8.15am. There was a train at Quai A at 8.18am. Following that, two trains were cancelled. And the next one would be at 8.53am. At Becon, I had a choice of taking the direct train that stopped at Saint Lazare or a train that stopped at 3 stations before reaching Saint Lazare. For the direct train at Quai C, two trains were cancelled and things were no better than at Quai A. I managed to squeeze my way up on the train of 8.18am. We were really packed sardines. Once reaching Saint Lazare, there were a lot of people. Just imagine the narrow streets in Chinatown on the eve of Chinese New Year. You really had to be patient and take one step forward at a time. But in this case, everyone was just in a hurry to get to their offices.

I would say that SNCF strike is not as bad as a Metro strike. If the Metro goes on strike, it would be impossible for me to reach office. We little people depend on the public transport. Buy a car and drive to work? With traffic jams everywhere, this is not a good solution as well. Car is meant for weekend getaways. Not for driving in Paris.

I can only hope that tomorrow, everything will be beautiful. Smooth journey, I pray.

Anime craze

I may have never mentionned this in my blog but Seb and I are consistent anime viewers. Seb follows more anime than me. For me, I am just following on Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin.

Naruto was a ninja boy in training. In the beginning, the story line was more interesting as one of Naruto's classmate, Sasuke, had been abducted by the bad guys to be trained to be evil. But now, the story is slower and we are at episode 211. Each episode now is on Naruto's training in the ninja school and the assignments he has to do with his teammates. I am just waiting for the final showdown when Sasuke will return to face Naruto.

As for Kenshin, he was a super swordman turned vagabond. He got to know some friends along the way and some times, his past came back and haunt him. It is interesting as the story line followed the period of the Meiji era in Japan.

Of the few anime I had completed, the most impressive one is Elfen Lied with beautiful music. It is short, bloody and full of body pieces. I also liked Fullmetal Alchemist. The Japanese have such great talent and imagination in coming up with the scenarios and story lines. And at the end of each story, there is always something to reflect on and to learn. It is always simple, humane and meaningful.

Visitors from India

Vincent and Lobke came and visited us for 5 days. Vincent was in Paris to apply for his India visa. We enjoyed their presence at home.

I did a steamboat for them on Tuesday night and they totally adored the idea of cooking vegetables in a pot of soup while dining. They told us about their stay in India and their activites. Laurent came and joined us for the first night on Monday and he showed us photos of India which he took when he was there in July. We really would like to visit it one day since we will have great local guides.

Vincent is french and Lobke is belgian. They met in India. They love India so much that they make it their home. Like Seb, they are vegetarians. Lobke loved my green beans soup. I made it once in 2003 and she still remembered that. I tried to make red beans soup this time as the weather is cooler and red beans are more heaty than green beans. However, I was not able to find pandan leaves this time. It is not always available in Chinatown. I guess this time it was not as good. Pandan leaves do make the difference.

Now, they are back in Belgium. In a week's time, they will be flying back to India. It may be another year before we will meet them again.

Wrapping for X'mas

Each year near the Christmas period, charities will organise gift wrapping services outside boutiques. I signed up to help out Salvation Army to offer my service with the boutique "Modern Man" at Saint Lazare.

Yesterday, I was alone at the counter from 10 am to 1pm. There were a lot of shoppers and they bought things from the shop. However, these people were shopping for themselves. In the end, I only wrapped about seven gifts. As Christmas is still a month away, people usually start shopping next month. I did enjoyed myself as the gifts were easy to wrap. They came in rectangluar boxes. I remembered that last year, I was helping out Red Cross with the similar service at a computer shop. It was really difficult to wrap up a big printer box or those irregular packages like MP3 player.

There is always a money box at the counter. People will give coins for the gift wrapping service. I had seen men donating as much as 10€. I had also seen women who did not buy anything from the shop asking for the wrappers and ribbons; without donating.

Next Saturday, I will be at Saint Lazare again from 10 am to 1 pm. I hope that there will be more shoppers. Wrapping 3 gifts per hour is kinda boring.

Metro line 13 and knitting

I often had so much thoughts on my mind in the morning rush hour. Walking from the train station at St Lazare to Metro line 13. Walking from Metro line 13 to my office in the cold.

Yet when I am sitting in front of the computer, my mind is a blank. What should I write? The trivials in my mind?

So what's up in my head? Well that depends on the surroundings that distract me.
Well, for one, I hate line 13. It is the worst line in Paris. Every morning, lots and lots of people use this line and often there are problems with the metro trains. They are often late and too crowded. Line 13 runs from the south of Paris to the north. In the north, there are more poor neighbourhoods and a few office areas. This means that a lot of the people have no private transport and the only way to get into Paris is by line 13. In the morning, we are packed like sardines in the old trains which have poor ventilation and no automatic door. People are short-tempered and agressive. Each one pushing to get up the train.

The transport minister mentioned that all Metro lines are running well. But obviously, he has a chauffeur-driven car. Metro line 1 was given a big budget to upgrade the lines. Line 1 runs through the central of Paris. The trains are new with automatic doors. The stations are generally clean and the trains are efficient. Any tourist visting Paris will most likely have taken line 1.

For me, I take line 13 almost every day to go to work and it is really stressful at times. Reaching office late with half my energy gone in getting my way into the train, it is really not pleasant.

That is just part of my life in Paris. I hate the underground.

On the brighter side, I took up knitting. I have never done that before. I always like to do jig-saw puzzles. However, Seb is not keen to frame up my puzzles so I usually left my completed puzzles on the coffee table until Bao Bei destroyed them accidentally. She usually lied on the coffee table and sometimes while playing, slipped off from the table bringing part of the puzzle down with her.

In order to do something more productive, I decided to try knitting. I went to Printemps and took up a lesson with the boutique Phildar. After 2 lessons, I am starting on a scarf. It is really easy. I just need to keep repeating the same gesture until I get a really long scarf enough to roll around my neck twice. As usual, I have to watch out for Bao Bei. She loves to play with the thread.

It is weekend soon. And november is here. I realised that I wrote so little these days. I will try to write more. Even trivials. It was really pleasant to hear friends commenting that they regularly read my blog when I was in Singapore.

September vacation

Seb and I went visiting Nicole in Munich in Septembre. We took the night train at Gare de l'Est and the journey took us more than 10hours. This was not the first time that I took an overnight train but it was the first time in a sleeper train. It was of course not easy to sleep as the beds were small and the train was moving and sometimes stopping abruptly at small train stations.

Once we reached Munich, Nicole was there welcoming us. It was so good to meet her after so many months. We took the metro to her place. And interesting in Munich, there was no barrier or gate for entering the metro station. It was based on a trust system. There was a machine for validating the tickets but just no gate.

Our tireness was pushed away after a good coffee at her place. After a quick shower, we started our Munich walk. As she lived near the English Garden, we started with it. The park was really big. There was a big lake and home to different species of ducks. There was a beer garden and we drank beer and ate roasted chicken while listening to the Bavarian brass band playing in the chinese pagoda nearby. The atmosphere was really festive. And it was a working day. People were really cool and you could see families and friends chatting over beer. As we walked around the English Garden, Nicole pointed out to us the nudist lawn. Here, there were naked bodies suntanning. The nudist lawn was separated by just a small stream. There were however one or two naked people lying in the non-nudist lawn just along the path we walked.

We continued our walk in the heart of Munich. We visited the Theatinerkirche church, Viktualienmark; where there was a brass band playing, Hofbräuhaus brasserie; where there was another brass band playing and the City Hall (see pic on left). We also visited the various monuments and historic buildings in Munich like the Olympiapark constructed for the 1972 Olympics, the site for the coming Oktoberfest. It was a pleasant city with colorful buildings. The interior of the churches were white and clean and well maintained. A big contrast to the cathedrales of France.

I drank beer at almost all meals. One breakfast I took weisswurst (the white sausage) that should be eaten with Suesser Senf (a sweet, grainy mustard) and brezel with a beer. That was impressive.

After spending two days in Munich, we took the train to Salzburg which was about 2 hours from Munich. We crossed the border and arrived in Austria. Salzburg, birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart. There was Mozart written everywhere in this little town. We spent our day walking along the small streets with their famous metal shop signs hanging outside shops.

For lunch, we tried the famous apple strudels as dessert. After that, we walked up to the fortess Honensalzburg. It was big and like a mini-village. The view from the fortess was beautiful with the surrounding Alps.

At the end of the day, we took the train and stopped mid-way of Munich at Lake Chiemsee. We stayed at Nicole's summer apartment for the night.


Lake Chiemsee was huge and had 2 islands on it. We took the boat for visiting the 2 islands. The first island called Herrenchiemsee had a castle modelled after Versailles built by King Luwig II. He revered the French Sun-King and created with this castle, a monument to absolute monarchy.

The second island Frauenchiemsee housed some beautiful houses and a convert. There were plentiful of blooming gardens. We had a fish sandwich there. The fish was caught from the lake.

In the evening, we continued our journey back to Munich. On the last day of our stay in Munich, we walked along the river Isar and visited the outskirt of Munich the baroque palace Nymphenburg SchloB. We spent a great 5 days of vacation and it was really kind of Nicole to be our guide. Munich is really a nice city to live in. The people are sociable and the life style is cool. The streets are well planned and big with large pavements for walkers. It is not at all a boring city. We will definately be back there to visit the Bavarian region one day.

You are mighty

Want to make yourself feel good today?
Try this website. http://sohcool.youaremighty.com/
Replace sohcool with your name and check it out.

Thanks to Tim for this wonderful, uplifting self-motivational site.
I hope you guys out there won't get too self-centered after viewing it.
As my colleague puts it rightly, he will view it every morning to make his day.

It was fun

The BBQ was a success. Thank you for coming.
It was a great way for me to catch up though I must apologise for not spending more time than I should with each of you.

As usual, food was excessive and we had to ta-bao (bring back) them. People have not changed much though their kids have grown up a lot.

This trip in Singapore is really a relaxing time for me. It is a pity that the sun is hiding behind the haze.

I received positive feedback about my blog. A few people were telling me that I stopped writing from 18 August. :) I will try to write more often even on trivals. At the moment, I will continue to 'rot' in Singapore and write more when I am back in France.

Next up, watch out for my Munich's trip entry.