Short trip - Amiens

Since it was bastille day (France's Nation day) on 14 July,
husband like most french will take day off to have a long weekend.
Last year, we were with friends at il-de-re,
this year we have no plans at all!
And all the last minute trains, flights and hotels were really expensive...
While we were thinking to do nothing for the long weekend,
i managed to find cheap return train tickets to Amiens for 50€/2persons,
which is north in france and about 1.5hrs train from Paris.
There seems to be not much things to do, but i think is a good getway,
so i booked a night at a cheap hotel 
and brough husband for the surprise trip!

Despite being summer,
the weather was cold and gloomy.
It was quite funny that we saw someone put a shawl on 1 statue of the fountain
near to our station,
well, people here are nice even to statues..haha

We wanted to grab mcdonalds breakfast

but it was only opened at 7am while our train was at 725am

So we ended up buying starbucks for our train breakfast

instead of trusting that the mcdonalds would open on time and make us what we want.

And we arrived at Amiens at about 9am!

Being in the north, it was slightly colder than paris,

but we still survived well through the trip...

As it was a public holiday and it was a small town,

I was worried that most shops etcs would be closed.

For example, we had to checked into our hotel before 12pm 

because the staff would leave by 1pm.

Well, its a good news for us to be able to have a room once we arrived.

After we let our luggages in the room,

we went off to explore the town.

The first thing we saw was the river of the town

and the rows of restuarants along the river,

quite similar to clark quay in Singapore.

But it was too early for lunch, 

so we decided to return for lunch/ dinner...

There was a statue of the pee pee boy in the river too,

but no one seems to pay attention to it,

i guess the famous one is in brussels.

Thereafter, we visited was the famous cathédrale, 

Which was an UNESCO monument,

I think i had visited too many cathédrales in france,

that im starting to think that they all look alike...

We then went to search and tasted the speciality of the town - Macarons!

However it is different from the normal macarons,

the texture felt more like a biscuit and tasted strongly of almonds,

Im not a big fan of almond taste

but husband was happy with it.

After walking around, we ended up at mcdonalds for early lunch!

We then went to the Muséum of Jules Verne,

who was famous for his books such as 80days around the world,

Unfortunately, we arrived at 12pm and the place was closing at 1230pm for lunch.

Since husband is a big sci-fic fan,

we didnt want to rush through our visit,

we decided to return after 2pm instead.

We took a long walk to the next attraction,

which was a river floating gardens that can be part explored by foot

and the main attraction was a river boat ride.

The interesting point was the gardens were all private and maintained by their owners!

Its nice to know that these owners help to contribute to a tourists attractions in their town...

We arrived near to 1pm

but like the musesum, the river tour was closed for lunch!

A friendly advise for people visiting small towns in france,

it is quite well known that shops, attractions etcs are closed during lunchtime,

nice life ya?

We explored a little on foot but most gardens cant be accessed,

it started to rain and we almost wanted to return to the hotel,

luckily the rain stopped and we went to get tickets for the riverboat tour...

The tickets were at 7€/person for a 45minute boat ride.

Its great that we could choose an english or french guide, so tourists-friendly...

It was nice to be in the small boat, passing through the small river

and visiting the gardens..

we felt more like in the tropical forest river ride, 

which felt totally different from the town...

After the boat ride,

we walked around a little more but i was getting tire.

We went back to the museum of  Jules vernes,

which was the home of the author and tons of things to read about his life...

but didnt spent a long time there as i was really tired.

Husband suggested that we return to hotel to rest,

knowing us, we would definitely nap longer than planned,

so i suggested that we go for a drink instead.

We managed to find a nice place near the townhall,

which had live music and old people dancing

as part of the bastille day celebration.

I felt recharged after the rest and husband proposed that we go to the funfair

that was coming to an end in the same weeked.

We used to live near the funfair in Paris

but didnt planned to visit it this year as we shifted.

The funfair was big but we didnt took any rides.

We ended up spending (cheated) a lot of the games and machines,

and didnt won what we wanted

But it was nice to visit a funfair and grab the usal funfair treats...

We then went to the quai for dinner

but the restuarants right beside the river were really crowded!

We went to a restaurant opposite instead..

Despite the slow and bad service of the waiter,

the food was much better than expected!

And we managed to waste enough time till the evening lights show at the cathédrale.

The show was supposed to start at 1030pm depending on the time of sunset

but we waited till about close to 11pm for the show to start,

The weather was so cold that we were struggling to survive the show brrrrr...

Maybe its because we caught a great light show throughout the town at Chartres,

we were not really amazed by the show and left before it finished.

We were both tired and almost KO immediately at hotel

but saw the news about the attack at NICE

and spent some time watching the news before we dozed off...

The next day, we didnt had much planned and ended up leaving the hotel at about 11am.

We went to the quai for lunch

and i ended drunk on sangria that i blamed drinking on empty stomach and strong sun.

After lunch, we wanted to go to the nearby park,

i felt really unwell and ended up we rested on a small area (like a promenade walk beside the river),

under a tree near the river,

that i managed to fell asleep and even snored! haha

After the rest I felt much better,

we went back to the town to buy the macarons and famous "beaten" cake

and were nicely on time for our train back to Paris.

It was a short trip but something different from our daily life,

husband is motivated to start practice driving again so that we can visit more of france!

Summer home improvement - 1

Finally summer is here after the super rainy-flooding period,
however this summer is kinda having a mood swing,
sometimes it will be really sunny and hot like in Singapore,
sometimes it will be rainy and cold like autumn...
Since its our first summer in the new home,
we try our best to use often our little terrace..

First of all,
i finally bought a lying chair for the husband and a big umbrella,
and it gave a more "holiday" feeling to our terrace.
I can totally understand how if you live once in a home with terrace/garden/balcony,
your future homes will need to have the same,
is truly nice to have a little outdoor area for home!

Secondly, 
Husband started his new "hobby" to gardening,
he is kind of forced to save the plants we have.
Well, i like to water plants and admire them,
but when it comes to dealing with soil with bugs in them, 
i am definitely not interested.
I dont know is it the dust from car or the bakery chimney above us,
our terrace'q floor gets dirty really fast,
so i bought a watering pipes to easily water plants and clean floor
woah, sound like we have a big garden huh...
anyway, roses left by the previous owner are growing very fine...

Summer is usually the time people take holidays 

and the time to repair or improve their home.

For me, im just itchy backside and wanted to change things at home,

there are plenty of things i can fix eg peeling paint...

but im just interested to decorate the home aka spending money.

Since husband bought me a new sewing maching,

we decided to bring out an old study table that i hid in our storage cave,

to put in our geek corner to be my sewing corner,

and we had the crazy idea to refinish the wooden table

that is supposedly older than husband and with scribbles from young sisters in law.

We do not have the professional sanding tools,

so it was quite a painful experience to sand the table with sand paper,

but i think husband is very proud of  the final product!

i admit, husband did more than me for the table..haha

We still have an old wooden dining table,

but i dont think we will refinish it soon...

Maybe i watching too many house selling tv programme,

or im crazy, or im bored, 

but Im trying to do or find something to occupy the upper walls of our small living room

I feel there are enough stuff on the floor 

that kinda lacks tall or long stuff to bring lengthen the room vision.

okay, i dont know the right way to say it.

I love industrial home design but husband felt its too cold and lack homely feel,

now i dont know what is our living room design concept,

and i just want to buy or do things to change...

arrgh...

My first attempt was i saw these table mates having 50% off

and i have an old long frame in the storage cave,
so i decided to cut the mats and pretend they are old tiles in a frame!
it looks good, but didnt really fit into the living room
and ends up in the bedroom...

I guess there will be more home improvements coming soon!!!

Officially unemployed

I was to blog earlier but i was too nua
Finally ,i finished my babysitting contract!
which means i managed to survive 2 years of my first job in france
despite numerous thoughts to give up,
it still ended which the family leaving france.
I dont really love my job,
but its still some kind of satisfaction to complete it.
It feels a little strange to stop seeing the girls fromp now on
and is back to square 1 to think what to do in my life next...

The first thing that happened was 
i gave up growing my white hair.
i think i feel shitty to constantly see my white haits and decided to dye my hair!
So bye bye to obvious white hair...

First i bleached it, thinking that i have not dyed my hair for so long,
it should be easy to get it into a light blonde...
but nope, it became a brown-gold tone...
i should stopped dyeing at this stage because white hair was less obvious 
and my hair was still in great condition

But after a week, i was bored and wanted something more obvious

and bleached my hair again

which turned out really orange gold ah-lian color

that my toning shampoo and conditioner dont really help

and hair condition not looking great...

so itchy hands went to dye my hair red

which turned out to be really red!

i kinda like the red although i know it will fade really fast

and yet makes its hard to dye over..

and my hair is in shitty condition now..

but i think i will keep my hairs away from my hair for a while