Bye bye nono...

I was secretly happy that the month may is coming to an end

and nothing unlucky had happened 

except that i caught a cold

and the bad news had to arrive, nono left us...

Is strange how im usually awake after 9am these days

and on last thursday i accidently set alarm at 7am.

Maybe is fate or nono sent me a telepathy,

my sister updated me that nono was vsick in the hospital

and awhile later we chose to put him to sleep as he was suffering.

It was so sudden.

Despite i suspected that nono is sick because he lost a lot of weight

when i saw him in February

or i always told husband that nono is old and will leave soon,

i never expected it to be so sudden.

Nono has been with us for 13 years.

He is sort of my first official pet,

minus the tortises, fishes or hamsters i "killed"

I remembered that we went to shop for a dog with my family

we never thought to choose a maltese

and what caught my eyes was in the group of malteses,

he was sitting there and dragging himself with his front paws,

probably because he has an itchy butt

but it was enough for us to choose him to bring home..

He was so cute.

He was definitely more active than the normal maltese

Constantly playing chase,

peeing in wrong place and hide in his "prison" whenever we wanted to scold him,

scaring me by barking non-stop at a dark corner when i was home alone with him,

Or "dragging" me when i bring him for walks...

After my dad's stroke,

he will always laid beside my dad's chair

keeping my dad accompanied and enjoying the tummy rubs...

nono also has to endured the bad haircuts that i gave him at times...

I think i became much closer to nono after my dad's death

I forgot the reason why i was sleeping in the living room for awhile,

and nono became my sleeping companion every night

at times, i was so scared that i may accidently crash him while sleeping

that i will wake him up in wee hours to check if he is alive

or laugh at him when he is dreaming...

I rmemebered that once we went for a holiday and placed him at the pe hotel

the pet hotel called us as nono was not eating or drinking 

and wanted us to bring him home

Luckily PT was around and told us how happy nono was happy to see him

Nono ate and drank so much when he went home

Such a cowardy dog but always first to help us check when a cockroach enters our home...

During my depression,

he will be the one licking my tears

and do nothing beside me to give me some comfort..

I rmemebered once I was about to take my pills to suicide

and found that he was drinking out of my glass of water

I gave up the thought that night because it was like him telling me not to do it

Sadly, years on i shifted with my sister

while nono continued to stay with my brother

So my time with nono reduced except when i went over to my brother's home

luckily, the kids loved to have nono around...

and i believed he must love all the attention from everyone...

Before i came to paris, i stayed at my brother's home

and had more time with nono

but i was always so busy with work

and nono was older and less active

but he still do come over and sit by my feet while i worked at nights...

Since i relocated,

we can only visit nono once a year when we visit my brother's home

husband always remarked how nono seems to recognise me

even though he has not seen me for awhile

and at times slept beside me when i fell asleep on sofa watching boring CNY tv shows...

It is so strange to know that i will never see him again

for my next trip back to Singapore

how i will miss his loving personality and peculair smelly smell

but im sure he will be in heaven with my dad and babies

and someday, we will meet again.

Goodbye my friend...

Weekend trip - Chartres

I just realised that husband and i never went on a weekend trip in France
He either take leaves from work
or we will go somewhere during the long weekend public holidays
Or it will be a day trip
but never just for a night
I guess the main reason is because husband dont drive
and its definitely cheaper if we can just drive to visit places around
I hope he will be motived to start practice his driving
and have the confidence to drive soon...

After staying at home for the longest time,
I decided that I needed a short trip to get my mind off what has happened
Probably it was not a good time to travel 
as physically i was still recovering from the abortion
That was a day where i went to a neighbourhood nearby
walked and explored for about 2hours plus
but end up feeling unwell for the rest of the day and next few days...
at least i managed to moved and got some fresh air...

In consideration for our pockets,
my physical condition
and what interests us - I like unique cities and husband likes nature,
I accidently stumbled to find a small town near paris to go for the weekend.
So, we booked a hotel and the train tickets on Thursday for a short overnight trip on Saturday.
Chartres was a 2 hours train ride from Paris.

Since it was supposed to be spring and i wanted to dress up
I was very underdressed for the trip
because of a sudden cold wave that sweeped across France
it definitel felt like winter than spring.
Despite the cold, we still managed to visit most of what we planned

We arrived at about 10am
checked in our hotel and went to the town Saturday's market
Sadly, there wasnt much food or goodies that interest us
we bought the local speciality - Ginger bread man in chocolate
All the supposed local specialities were not easy to find as we hoped for
Husband also bought the sugar coated chocolates
We mainly found those at the bakeries.

Maison Picassiette
Basically someone decided to redecorate his home with glass pieces that he collected
and it became an attraction of the city
However, it was really out of the city center
that we took a long walk about 30-40 mins frim the city
It was bigger than we expected
and i think i was too tired and cold to admire the house
but husband was enjoying himself

We then took the long walk back to the city
went for lunch at a bistro and explored alittle
before heading back to hotel for the needed rest

Since it was a small city
we had some difficulty to search for dinner
husband read online that restuarants are normally booked a week in advance
and we were surprised that many restuarants hung the sign "fully booked" on their doors at 5pm
In the end, we didnt want to spend too much for an expensive restuarant
and went to my first indian restuarant in France!
I was really shocked that the curries arent spicy at all
it felt like curries for babies
although it still taste good.
While it was empty when we went in
it bgun to fill up thereafter...

Night lights
The main highlight of the trip will be the night lights
apparently chartres is famous for night lights from april to september
Since the night was cold 
we decided to take the touristy train for the city tour
and the lights were definitely better than we expected
we thought it will just be lights decorating the city
but didnt expect that lights will be shone on the buildings
and some even had animinations!
It definitely worth it for us to stay a night

The next day we had a late check out
went to a burger restuarant for lunch and it was time for the train.
It definitely was a good trip away from the routine
but i think i walked too much when im supposed to rest
hmmm maybe thats why im being tortured by backache now...
brrrrr....