A nice spring day at Auvers-sur-oise

A few sundays ago, we went to Auvers-sur-oise where Van Gogh left his prints there. Like this plaque showing that he had lived and died in this house on 29 July 1890.

Auvers-sur-oise is a nice city with plenty to offer for art lovers looking for impressionist paintings. It even has a castle.

While visiting, we saw this giant dog. Many people stopped to take pictures of it. A search on internet shows that it was a great dane. And it seems that Scooby Doo was a great dane. Interesting.

The dog was patiently waiting for its owner and it was not long before she came and took him away. Baby A could use this great dane as a pony. He looked at it but with not much interest.

One can easily spend half a day in this city. There is a train station so it is easy to get here from Paris. We went to visit Isle Adam after Auvers-sur-oise. It was a chic and quaint town and we had a nice lunch there before heading home.

3 times in Munich over 3 weeks

This is written to myself for future reference:
I write so much lesser over here because I have been very busy. Even the journals I kept for baby A and his younger sibling had not been updated recently.
Well, I was away in Munich every week for 3 consecutively weeks. The first week for a day, the second week for 2 days and the third week for 3 days. Work obliged but they were good trips. In one of them, I even got to meet up with Nicole for a nice catch up. We will see each other again in end June for her birthday bash in Munich.
I guess I would allow myself another worktrip in first week of June if necessary. After that, I would be too big to move easily. Already, my back was starting to hurt.
For the next few weeks, I would still remain somewhat offline here. Because Tim and gf are coming to visit. I already put up a nice itinerary for them and sincerely hope that they will enjoy their time here.
Ending: Baby A weighed 10.15kg and measured 74cm as of last thurs. Really an average boy in perfect health. Here, he was looking out at the balcony with his friend Evan.

AOM

I sponsored a girl in Thailand since 3 years. I joined this sponsorship program created by a french humanitaire organisation. I came to know this organisation through a church concert.

Each month, I donated a sum for the schooling of my girl. In school, she would have lunch and stationery provided. She would learn to read and write. My girl's name was Aom. Her parents lived in a slum nearby Bangkok. She had a younger brother and a younger sister. Her father was an odd job worker and her mum sold noodles.

Other than donating money, I also communicated with her. We would write to each other. As Aom was about 6 years old when I started to sponsor her, it was the center's staff who often wrote on her behalf. Aom did drew pictures for me and I sent her postcards and stickers.

Once she drew my son after knowing that I had a boy. It was so sweet of her.

Recently, I received a call from the organiser in France. She informed me that Aom had moved. I knew in the previous 2 letters that her parents had divorced. It was difficult for Aom's mother to take care of her 3 children alone thus, she decided to move to North Thailand to be with her family. I was surprised to get this call and even shed tears. I lost contact with my girl forever as we had no idea where she moved to. I thought I could sponsor her until she graduated and maybe even visit her a day. After all, Bangkok is not that far from Singapore.

I decided to take up a new girl. This time, a girl from Philippines was proposed to me. I do hope that I can visit her one day. And that she will benefit from this program.

I hope I made a difference in Aom's life for the past 3 years.

Falafel

Each time I had overseas visitors, I would bring them to rue des Rosiers if time permits. There, we would grab a falafel and so far, none of my visitors were disappointed.

Last week, Diana and Bey came visiting after extending their Europe tour. It was great having them as mom cooked lots and we all enjoyed her food. It was always easier to cook for several people than just a few. Seb even made a rabbit stew that truly impressed Diana.

On Sunday, the places opened in Paris were limited and our favourite hunt was Marais. The streets around rue des Rosiers were mainly occupied by the Jews during the WWII period. Here, you could still see Jews in their traditional costumes. And just along this street, there were a few Jewish eateries.

The queue for a take away falafel was always long. For 5€, we had a pita bread filled with salad, fried eggplant, humus and chickpeas balls. It was overflowing with ingredients. Even my mother enjoyed it with the free helping of chilli sauce.

If you have the chance, visit this street before it lost its charms forever to the hippy boutiques pushing up like mushrooms.

Egg Hunt

Easter was Baby A's first egg hunt at his grandparents'. As Baby A was not walking yet, it was his dad who carried him around. And as Baby A had no idea what to look for, it was his dad searching for the eggs.
There was a tricky one perched high up and even Baby A's cousins did not see it. So of course, it was picked up by Baby A's helper, his dad.

The kids were told that they had to divide their loots equally even if one found more than the others. Baby A had his share and since he was not eating chocolate, we gave some back to his cousins. I still had a basket of them in my living room.

Baby A however did chew off a little of the red aluminium package of a chocolate egg. We had to force it out and he was very upset by it. Granny appeased him by giving him just a tiny little bit of chocolate. Let's see if next year, our boy can hunt the eggs on his own and eat them in moderation.

Coming soon in Oct

Today, he is 9cm tall and weighs 110grams.
We are waiting excitedly to see him in Oct.

Green Garden and Melati

Almost each time we go Chinatown for grocery, we would have lunch at Green Garden. Green Garden serves chinese vegetarian food and we always enjoy the food there. We usually order the stir-fried aubergines with basilic.
The last time we were there, which was the first time for my mom, she bought some frozen mock chicken drumsticks.

A week later, she cooked them with the real ones. Are you able to tell which are for Seb and which are for us, the meat eaters? Seb enjoyed them alot though my mom and I found the mock chicken drumsticks tasting more like mutton than chicken.

Speaking of food, I was recently in London for work and was introduced to a Malaysian restuarant in Soho area. The place was called Melati and it served mock meat dishes as well. I had satay as starters followed by laksa. The satay were really good. If I do get to go there again, I would try the roti canai and nasi lemak.

Blog wise, I am on the slow side as work and baby A are keeping me busy. Tomorrow, we are heading to Chartres for Easter egg picking in the garden. Baby A is not walking yet nor does he eat chocolate, but well, I hope he will have fun being with his older cousins in the search for eggs.

Mamie Gateaux

A few Saturdays ago, we went for a walk around the quartier of Bon Marché in the 6th district. For tea, we chanced upon a tea saloon by the name of Mamie Gateaux. Mamie = Granny; Gateaux = Cakes. The interior was designed in an old school style.
It was very quaint. For beverages, my mom and I had tea while Seb had coffee. I ordered a chestnut cake and Seb had a pain perdu (lost bread). The drinks and food were great. The ambience was cozy and the waitresses were nice. We were served by a japanese lady and only after surfing to blog about this did I realise that she was the lady boss.
Here is a post I found in french with pictures.
So if you do happen to be around this area, do not give this place a miss. The address is 66 Rue du Cherche-Midi 75006 Paris.

And if you are into good food, after tea, spend the next few hours cruising the aisles of La Grand Epiciere (The big groceries) nearby. As the name says, there are food from all over the world. It is impossible to leave this place without buying something to try.

Keukenhof (18 March to 16 May)

I got excited this morning as I remembered that spring is coming soon. Each year, I realised that I missed Keukenhof only after seeing friends putting up photos of this event in their Facebook accounts. I wanted to go last year but was heavily pregnant at that time.

So, I started surfing for Keukenhof once I reached office and even contacted a friend who is living in NL now. This time round, I am not going to give it a miss. My mother is with us, and I am sure she will enjoy the flower garden as much as me.

The said friend gave me lots of useful info. It is feasible to do a day trip to Keukenhof from Paris. And that is what I plan to do. She suggested going around mid April as most flowers will be fully bloomed.

We decided to go around the last week of April. We shall take Thalys from Gare du Nord and get to Schiphol. That is a 3 hours train ride. And from Schiphol, there is a bus down to Keukenhof.

I am writing in advance in case anyone out there is interested to visit this spectacular place.

Now, I would really need to read up how to use our new Canon EOS 500D so as to take nice photos to show in my upcoming post about Keukenhof. Stay tune for more info on my visit.

Prague Day 2 & 3

On our second day at Prague, we decided to visit the Museum of Antonín Dvořák. I love his Symphony No.9, “From the New World” and am interested to know more about his life. Actually, Dvorak had never stayed in this house. This small building housed his works including manuscripts of sheet music and correspondence. It also guided us through the life of Dvorak.The house itself was also a masterpiece displaying beautiful drawings and paintings on the walls and ceilings. After our short visit, we headed down to Charles Bridge and crossed the Vtlava River. Part of the bridge was closed for works and there were many artists and painters selling their creations.

At the other side, we reached the Lesser Quarter side. We visited this charming and calm part of Prague and settled for lunch here. We saw this watermill that was turning and along the fence, there were many padlocks. There was no explanation around so we had no idea if there was any special meaning to that. Nevertheless, it was intriguing.

After lunch, we continued walking up towards the Prague Castle. The Prague Castle contained a cluster of buildings and the castle ground was huge. We visited the St. George Basilica , St. Vitus Cathedral (pic below), Old Royal Palace and the Golden Lane. I was least impressed with the golden lane as it was a short lane and I felt that it did not live up to the nice critics I heard.

By the time we made our way down to the Lesser Quarter, it was almost dinner time. We remembered seeing an Indian vegetarian eatery and decided to try that out. It was served by a very zen Czech and Seb enjoyed the dinner. During our dinner, we overheard a conversation between the owner and his english speaking friend. At one point, the owner said "Michael Jackson is very fine now." Er... MJ was dead. We were quite sure that this guy was high on drugs or something.

After a whole day of walking, we decided to take the tram back to the Old Town. However, lousy us took the wrong side and ended back at the Prague Castle top. We changed tram and returned back to the bottom of the Castle. From there, we decided to continue our walk slowly. As we turned a corner, we saw a sight-seeing boat anchored and walked over to check on the next departure time. It was perfect timing as the boat was about to leave. We spent the next freezing cold hour along the river and taking in the night scenes.By then, I was exhausted and we took the tram to reach the other side of the river. We alighted at a shopping mall and bought a bottle of wine. From there, we just walked back to our hotel. It was a really long walking day.

The next day, we packed our bags and checked out. We left our bags at the reception area and started our last day at a leisure pace. Seb would like to check out CD shops and I would like a massage for my tired body after so much walking. We checked out the busy street at Wenceslas Square. We found a Thai massage parlour and there was a slot available for me. Seb had an hour to check out the CD shops he eyed along the way. After an hour of good and cheap (compared to France) massage, I found Seb waiting for me at the entrance. He found his Jazz CDs. The two happy people continued the last discovery of Prague, the Jewish Quarter.

Above is a statue of the famous author Franz Kafka. At the last hour, we stopped by a supermarket and bought some local delights for friends and families. We then headed back to the hotel to get our bags and walked back to the train station to catch the bus back to the airport.

It was a lovely short getaway and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. We would have missed many interesting details had it not been for the guide book.

Very bad idea

When Singapore was building casinos at Sentosa, a lot of people thought it was a bad idea. Now, this had been confirmed. Only vices and no merits!
Less than a week since the casinos were opened, the news reported a theft commited by a gambler who lost all his money. Then, there were other casino-linked offences.
I wonder how many Singaporean families will be broken due to these casinos. Yes, I know what I am talking about. I know so many uncles and aunties, including family members who loved to gamble and sometimes beyond reasoning. They not only got themselves into troubles but dragged their families along. Very sad.

Prague Day 1

Seb and I went to Prague last Nov to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. We booked a 3 days 2 nights trip with Lastminute.com. Upon arrival at the airport, Seb withdrew some local cash, the Czech crown from an ATM. After that, we took the public bus which cost 2.50€ per person to our hotel, Esplanade.

I booked a deluxe double room and it was actually the only room with balcony. The room was spacious and nicely decorated. We were not disappointed. After dropping our bags, we headed out to town.

Our hotel was located at Washingtonova road. At the end of the road, we turned right and reached the main street of the New Town district. There were shops and hotels and hot dog stands.

We took in sights of the busy street and continued our way until we reached the Old Town district. There were many beautiful buildings in Prague. Each façade has its own characteristics; be it drawings, paintings or statues.

I like the building below and after taking the photo, I realised that Hard Rock Cafe was the ground floor boutique.
Prague is known as the city of a thousand bells. That was true. We even found a bell stuck in the corner of a building. This was at the Old Town Square. The Tyn Church towers looked impressive. We tried to find the entrance to the church. After passing a row of restaurants and walking into the inner court of the building did we see the entrance of the church. It was weird to have the entrance of such a big church hidden by a building.

As we continued our walk, we came upon the Powder Tower. This was one of the 13 entrances to the Old Town. Now, the old walls were no longer around, this tower really stood out.

Just beside the Powder Tower stood the Municipal House. It was the most spectacular Art Nouveau building in Prague. In the evening, Seb and I attended a concert performing the works of Dvorak, my favourite composer. The principal concert hall, Smetana Hall, was famous for its grandiose glass dome and its elegance.
That summed up our first day at Prague. We walked a lot around the New Town and Old Town.

NICOLE

Nicole came and left. Last year, she promised to come see Baby A and she kept her promise. It was so sweet of her. We could tell that Baby A enjoyed her company. We spent a few relaxing and quiet days togather. Given the fact that I do not have much leave left, I took 2 off days to be with her.
We did our traditional stop at Coolins after visiting the photos exhibition along Jardin de Luxembourg. It was cold but unlike last year, the park was not covered with snow. There were always interesting photographic exhibition along the fence and this time round, the theme was on the Mekong river.

At Coolins, Baby A had his milk feed. His first drink in a pub!

In the evenings, we walked down memory lanes and looked at old photos. Gosh. I have known Nicole since my french class days and that was several years ago. Amazing how our friendship keeps going strong. I promise Nicole that we will visit her in Munich. I have no idea when that will be but I do want to fulfill this promise within the next two years. I do miss Munich and when Baby A can walk, it will be great to make him discover this nice city.

2010 Quality of Life Index

So, which country tops the quality of life index calculated by International Living.

Yes, it's the country I am living in now.

It seems to me that the scores were calculated fairly. Obviously, I am not so glad that Singapore did not score so well.

That is an extra good reason for my mom to come over here and stay with us. I am so looking forward to Baby A being taken care by his grandmother soon.

Child sick leave

A new year begins; which means I have 3 new days of child sick leave.
In my company, every parent is entitled to 3 days of child sick leave regardless of the number of children in the family. These 3 days are on top of the 6 weeks of paid leave.
But not every company is that good. For Seb, his child sick leave is considered as an urgent paid leave.
During the first winter, babies get sick so easily and in just Nov and Dec, I used up my 3 days allocated in year 2009.
And yesterday, just the beginning of the new year, I consumed a day of child sick leave. I truly hope that I do not have to consume the rest of the two days for a long time to come.

Baby A is fine. Just coughing and having runny nose like me.

Free pairs of glasses and free foot treatment

The title is a little misleading. There is no such thing as free lunches. I pay taxes (a lot indeed by Singaporean's standard) and my company pays my private health insurance. So it is natural that I do not have to pay certain health related services and goods.

Coming from a country where we have to pay out of our own pockets for a pair of glasses and also medical bills, I am still not used to this social system. Furthermore, my glasses cost me about 750€ and my medical treatment was in Singapore.

As mentioned about 3 years back when I made my first pair of glasses in France, I did not have to pay a single cent. OK. Maybe 3€ max. This was because I have good company health insurance. When I changed job, the coverage on glasses was even better. I could spend up to 1000€ on eyewear (frame + glasses). As usual, I think the optical shops here charge autrocious price for glasses. It is really to the limit of what I call "abusing". The optical shop I went to was kind enough to throw in a pair of glasses for free.

And back to my accident in Singapore, I incurred a total of about 200€ in medical bills. The travel insurance guy told me to claim back my bills from social security and my mutuelle first. Then would he cover the rest of the amount. Usually, social security only accepts medical claims
from the European Union countries. As I had an accident while visiting my home country, SS accepted my claims and gave me half the money back. A week later, my mutuelle gave me the other half. How cool.

No wonder my mutuelle is increasing its price and SS is having a big hole in its pocket. But well, c'est la France et vive la France!

Diapers bin

If you ask Seb what is the essential baby stuff that he could not live without, he will tell you this: the 'used diaper' bin. I do not know about you but when my neighbour told me that this is one thing we should have on top of the babycook, I was skeptical. Seb however insisted we get it, just like me insisting on the babycook.

I was convinced about the usefulness of the used diaper bin when we run out of recharge (the scented plastic bag). We had to find plastic bags to store the used diapers and they stinked in the rubbish bin. Unlike the old appartments in Singapore, there is no rubbish chute in our appartment. We had to put out our rubbish bags in a common rubbish collection area in the residence and I tend to throw my rubbish once every few days.

The used diaper bin is very easy to use and can store many diapers without leaking the smell. Just open the cover, push the used diaper into the bin, turn the grey ring to isolate the diaper in the plastic and close the bin. It makes diaper changing a step easier and faster.

Once the bin is fulled, throw away the string of sausage look alike diaper bags. There is no bad smell. To better understand the concept, check out the Sangenic website. For me, this bin is a bonus. However, Seb finds diaper changing a lot easier with it. So of course, I am more than happy to have it.

Strike and Snow

It is the usual period of strike.
RER A, the regional train most used by Parisiens with almost 1 million of passagers each day has been on strike since 8 days. During peak hours, there are only 1 train out of 2 and for off-peak hours, no train at all.
I am only slightly affected since I come to work by car and I leave home really early to start work at 8am.

Last week, there was a day where I took 1h45mins to reach office due to an accident. Horrible. Seb and I work not far from each other. When I left home in a hurry and kissed my son goodbye, Seb was preparing the milk bottle. While I was on the road, he fed the baby, dressed him up and brought him to the child care center; came back home to get his scooter and zoomed off. After an hour and half in the car stuck in traffic, Seb zoomed pass me on his scooter and even waved at me. That is the advantage of having a scooter in Paris!

This morning, I left earlier for work as other train lines are going on strike and snow is expected. I came to office at a record timing of 30mins. Cool. Usually, it takes me 45mins. Along the way, it snows. It is still snowing. Maybe we will have a white christmas this year. Yipee!

PS: a post done in a hurry for my own memory sake.

Babycook

Baby A is increasing his intake of solids nowadays. I try to make home cooked food for him as often as I can. During the weekends, I prepare his purée and fruit compte with Babycook. It is real easy. Just cut up the vegetables or fruits and put them in the steaming basket. Pour water into the appliant. Turn the knob to steaming mode. Once the food is cooked, just pour the contents in the steaming basket into the blender and turn on the knob to the mixer mode. Voila!

Babycook really ease our lives. It is highly recommended by my neighbour and colleagues. Well, I do admit that it is really handy though at first, I was deterred by its cost. When I cooked porridge, I put the porridge into the Babycook and mix it up.

So far, Baby A enjoys what I make for him and is not fussy. Today, I added in 2 teaspoons of fish in his porridge with carrots. He finished them up. Tomorrow, I will make him try chicken with sweet peas and carrots.

One crazy, scary week

Baby A was at his grandparents' 2 weekends ago while Seb and I went on a long weekend to Prague. I was looking so much to this vacation and indeed, it was great.

On tues, when I drove to Chartres to pick up baby A at noon, he was starting to have fever. Baby A's grandma and I decided that he should see a doctor in Chartres right away. The pediatrician advised us to go to the hospital as baby A was having a fever of 39.9°C. He was coughing, having diffculty breathing and was suspected to have H1N1. By the time we were attended to at the emergency room for children, it was already late afternoon. Blood test was taken and baby A was admitted to the baby ward. Seb rushed home after work, packed some clothes and took the train to Chartres. We had to bring down baby A's temperature and also to stablise his breathing.

Baby A stayed a total of 5 nights in the hospital and was discharged on sunday. Seb and I took turns to stay overnight as only one parent was allowed. During the day, we were both at our son's side. Each day, we held hope that he would be discharged.On Wed night, I was asked if I could share the room with another baby who was also suspected of having H1N1. The children ward was over crowded and the hospital could not afford to give each patient a room though in the ideal situation, this should be the case. I accepted as there was really no other choice though I heard other parents insisting on not sharing rooms.

The test result came only on thurs for baby A and he did not have H1N1. He had virus infection to his lungs and it triggered an asthma attack. However, the 4 month old baby who shared his room was tested positive with H1N1. When her fever subsided on Friday, she was discharged. This time round, I insisted that I won't allow my baby to share the room. The head doctor of the children ward was apologetic.

Since admission, all patients who were suspected to have H1N1 were given Tamiflu. This included babies though no lab test had been done for babies under a year old. A 5 weeks old baby in the ward was given Tamiflu too.

Baby A and I are staying at home this week since we had been exposed to a H1N1 carrier. Seb and I are on Tamiflu as well as a preventive measure. The thing is, no doctor can be certain that Tamiflu works or that it prevents us from getting H1N1. And all doctors have different views about the vacination.

The 4 month old girl was alright though she got H1N1. In another case, this was not so. On Saturday, the doctors were trying hard to rescue a kid. Seb and I saw the actions as the emergency room in the ward was in front of baby A's room. We read today in the newspaper that the kid, aged 6 died from H1N1 plus another virus. She came to the hospital on thurs and was told to go home after consultation. Her condition worsen on friday and was rushed to hospital.

This whole affair drained out all our engergy. It scared me too. I am confused. Baby A is determined as asthmatic. With this complication, we were strongly advised to vacine him. But did he already had H1N1 during his stay at the hospital?

For this week, I am bring baby A to a session of respiratory kinesiotherapy each day. I do hope that he will fully recover soon. Winter is just beginning and I pray hard that my son will be well.

I need another vacation but I have no more leave and I don't think I can leave baby A behind. Not that I think my in-laws did not do a good job. Baby A falling sick had nothing to do with them. They took great care of baby A and they love him.

Given a quiet moment, I will look at the photos of Prague and write a little post about it. That will maybe lift up my spirit.