Île de Ré

After the month of may holidays
and no holidays in june,
Finally the long weekend of bastille day is here!
since 14 july is a public holiday
husband and i joined his friends
for a long weekend trip at île de ré!
i guess it pushes us to go since:
- friend is driving
- both of us are not working on 13th
- friend has a family house there
so, friday evening we left paris
and arrived at 3am after 6hours of drive!

Île de ré is a island in south of france
connected to the main land by a long bridge
is quite funny that husband and i watched a movie
Based in île de ré before this trip!
im happy to visit a new city
especially one that is like a small town
and definitely looking forward to my first road trip
with husband's friends

Basically the trip is about:
-cycling around the island
-preparing meals 
-beaches
-suntaning
-lazing around the house garden
-attending bastille day celebrationa
-Stargazing
-the boys diy-ing a table

We were lucky to avoid the traffic jams back to paris
it was definitely a nice relaxing weekend
and we came back with a nice tan
(and mosquitoes bites)

First gynae visit

Compared to dentist visit, I think gynae visit is scarier by 2000x
After dragging for the longest time,
- waiting for my social security to be approved
- finding courage
- searching for english speaking gynae
- Finding more courage
i finally went for my gynae visit!

I think my last visit was few years back for pap smear
I told husband that I really need to find someone who speaks english
because the last thing I want to struggle with is French
while being naked and in a very vulnerable state.
Lucky that i live in Paris that English gynae is quite accessible
however, most of english gynaes are private and charge a higher rate
types of doctors in france:
- Type 1) Public: fully subsidised by the state (Fees set by state)
- Type 2) Conventional : Partial subsidised
- Type 3) Non subsidised
Sadly, most english gynaes are type 2/3 and located in the expensive neighbourhoods

Our family doctor recommended me to go for a type 1 hospital with english gynae
sadly, the earliest appointment is in September
So, i decided to just google and chose 1 English gynae of type 2
Made the call and appointment was in a week!

I started researching about gynae visit in france
and is quite scary of all the stories that i read online
- gynae who lost the case file
- gynae who overcharged crazily
- to strip totally naked for the check up (no growns etcs)
- to strip in front of the gynae
- being persuaded to have a baby
etcs etcs etcs...
Well, sounds like my fear of gynae visit will be worsen by the cultural differences!

Anyway, my main concerns will be:
- pap smear
- my irregular (non exisitent) period
- any possible checks / tests for fertility

Surprisingly, there was a receptionist in the clinic
i announced my arrival and sat at the waiting area
The doctor was on time and i was in her office at the scheduled time
despite being declared online as an english gynae, she informed me that she speaks a little english
So, we sat at her desk for about 15mins
To go through medical history and my reasons for coming
She was a nice old lady about 50+
but speaks more than i answered
Doc: are you trying for a baby? How long have you been trying? 6months?1 year? 2 years?
after, she asked me to go the tiny room (feels like an attached toilet) for the check

As expected, there is no special room to strip
So, i was to strip totally at the desk area and put my clothes on the chair i was sitting
The crazy thing is there is a huge window with a thin curtain (I can see the opposite building) 
Well, i guess i try to remind myself this is France
and being naked is  nothing

What i do like about the check was that she match each movement with a statement
so, i know exactly what she was doing and kinda make it less embarassing than in a silence room
Such as when she used her fingers to check me
And the tiny details to warm up the the opener (i call it the duck mouth)
closer to the body temperature before using it
The crazy thing is at first try, she say she cant find my cervix?!
I guess there must be still some difference between asians and french women
Anyway, it was completed in like 5mins
and i get to be naked with my legs closed, haha
She proceeded to check my breast  
Explaining her each actions again
while i was a little paiseh that my armpits were wet with sweat, opps
Then i was asked to dress up
and i rushed back to the desk to dress myself up

She then informed me that she will refer me to a infertility clinic to do a scan
The dreadful full-bladder-dont-pee scan
just to ensure that my ovaries are fine
and if there is any follow up, i can do at the clinic (Type 1)
I was quite surprised that she is refering me to a clinic instead of asking me to follow up with her
as she said that it will be much cheaper to do all the scans and follow ups at the clinic

Then came the surprise,
she passed me an envelope that constains my pap smear cells
and asked me to include a euro20 cheque and mailed it to the lab?!
The results will be mailed back to the gynae and me
Since i didnt carry any cheque book, i brought it home and mailed it the next day
Husband was equally shocked that i was to mail the cells
Like, what if i forgot to mail it till a week later?
or the weather is so hot that the cells wont be affected?
I can imagine the amount of cells in the postal system

Finally, was the scary moment of billing
Since is a type 2, i was worried that the bill will be more than euro150
After the subsidy, the bill came up to euro75
It is unsure whether our insurance will be covering more
but at least its not a crazy amont
Phew

Then i was ushered out of the office
and another lady went in after me..
And i realised the whole visit took only 30mins but felt like eternity..

The bad news is i wanted some medicines to let me have my period now
my last period was months ago and i have been suffering from PMS without it
Then i had a "lecture" on how she is not going to prescribe me any medicine
because i am trying for a baby and how i should let my body have it naturally etcs
The good news is physically i seems to be good in the check up

Oh, im prescribed with folic acid for 1 year
i went to the pharmacy to buy it with the prescription
and realised that the folic acid is fully subsidised by the state and our insurance
Well, free folic acid for the year!

Trying to be less lazy..

Its finally July!!
I was so counting down to the end of June
because its the school summer holidays till September
which means im not working since the kids are away!!
woohoo!!
as much as i love having a job and income
the end of june was so hard to bear with the hot sun 
when i need to be outdoor for the hottest time of the day to fetch the kids
and the kids become cranky with their need for holidays too..
At least, it marks the end of my contract!
I cant believe i survive a year of babysitting
even when im complaining like theres no tomorrow..

27 June 2015
At the end of june also means gaypride is here!
I used to love to be at Pinkdot in Singapore every year
although its more fun and grand here,
i still miss Pink dot.
I guess it really matters more to have friends than the event itself
As the husband was sick, we didnt spend much time at the gaypride this year
to me, is not really enjoying myself in the event
but to show support to the cause!
And im glad husband is a supporter too,
at least if my future child is LGBT, i guess husband wont want to kill him/her..
haha

If you noticed the LEESSANG cap

Yes, im so crazy that i bought the cap online

it is my cap because im still so crazy about running man! 

haha

With love from Singapore
I didnt know that my friend left a gift for me
before she left Paris
and its this beautiful zara clutch that i saw with her while shopping!
I have been looking for a clutch and its crazily expensive here
especially for those that i like
I missed those cheap bags shops in Singapore
Thank you so much my dear!

The other great news is my sister is coming to geneva for her meeting again!

Its really nice that my sister works in a swiss company

that there is always the probablity for her to come here

Well, this year will be her solo trip and i dont think she can extend her stay much

I think Im just so looking forward to meet up with her!!

And of course, i can start my sg supplies orders again...haha

However, she will probably be here at the week when we are shifting

Now im really hoping that we can shift before she arrive 

but... sigh is summer holidays...

Appartment

We finally signed the papers at the bank for the mortage loan!

According to the consultant, all should be fine for the final approval..

The supposed timeline was to:

10 August - Get the final approval from bank

11-24 August -  10 days cool-off period

27 August - last inspection of appartment

28 August - final sales contract and collect keys

29 August - shift house (End of rental lease)

Now, we are hoping that we can get the final approval earlier than 10 August

as we will be away to visit grandparents-in-laws for 7-15 august, my sister will be here 24-28/30 August,

owner will shift out around 10ish august, and 29 august is my mother-in-law birthday

that we really want to be able to shift earlier than 29 August!

Although we secretly suspect the notary gave the date of 28 August as he is going for summer holiday..

Anyway, our hopeful timeline:

3 August - Get final bank approval

4-17 August - 10 days cool-off period

20 August - last inspection of appartment

21 August  -  final sales contract and collect keys

22 August - shift house

29 August - End of rental lease

Well, keeping our fingers and toes crossed!

Heatwave

This year, we had a really hot spring that i predicted a hot summer

but i definitely didnt not expect a heat wave

Summer is generally endurable where day temperature average about 28degrees

and night temperature average about 19 degrees

Paris is not so well equiped with air conditioning as Singapore

28 degrees can feel like Singapore minus the humidity

Sadly, this week there is the heatwave

where during the day, it can go up to 36 degrees

and night is around 29 degrees!

Our little fan seems to be blowing hot air at me

and do nothing to cool down the appartment

Especially when the day is so long...

Im never a fan of cold food

Singapore has trained me well to be able to eat steamboat in hot weather

and i love to have hot food for meals

however, the heatwave won and i give in to make cool meals :(

Husband is happy since he likes cold food

and i tried to make cha soba without soba..haha

I pretended is a fusion...

I dont know is it the heatwave or im just lazy during holidays

I dont find the energy to pack for the shift

I dont feel that I rest well at night

I dont want to do anything except lying down with the windows shutter close

Oh, i have the stupid heat rash again

The heatwave is supposed to end in 2 days

I desparately need the weather to be cooler

or I may go out of control and impulsively buy a portable air conditioner

because is summer sales...

Summer sales

Although I told myself no buying because we are shifting

and to save money

Heatwave forced me to hide in coller shopping mall and lured me to shop

Well, i wanted to shop 

The summer / winter sales here are probably the best times to buy things

It seems that any shops will be at least 30% off

but i think i did apply some restraints in my shopping

Summer sales is ending on 4 August, so i really need to cover my eyes till the end

And last, 

I just want to show off this Adidas top that i bought

Yes, is totally not worth the price even after the discounts

but i couldnt control the adidas fan in me...

Busy June

Did'nt update for awhile as it has been really a busy month

compared to May, which was full of public holidays

June was just back to work and daily routines :(

However, June is also the beginning of summer with hot weather

and plenty of activities

Firstly, Xiaoting, came from Singapore to visit

so I get to do all the touristy stuff again

But I think Im getting better in moving around and surviving in French

Its always nice to have people coming to bring me some Singaporean food supplies!

And definitely the needed Singlish therapy..haha

*Unintentionally* I also managed to link up husband's friend with her 

and they seemed to hit off well :)

We were supposed to go to a medival festival with husband's colleague

and i prepared the simplest costumes to be medival peasants

but at the end, we didnt go and end up visiting in-laws

and definitely it was a wiser choice to catch up with in-laws

after their 2 weeks holidays in Peru

We were supposed to go for the Singapore street food festival

because i was craving for laksa

but since xiaoting brought me laksa premix, the craving was settled at home

and looking at the menu for the festival,

there were only Satay (i dont like), hainanese chicken rice (I can make at home),

chendol (i can do without it),

 mee goreng (they used spagetti instead of yellow noodles),

Okay im not a fan of mee goreng but there are plenty of yellow noodles 

in the asian supermarkets here that i think the festival is really not putting in effort

by claiming they cant find yellow noodles here

and lastly, the food is prepared by students

so, I am definitely not keen to go for it

Well, I know that it was the opportunity to maybe meet Singaporeans

or people who are crazy about Singapore

but I guess the lazy genes in us were stronger

Husband say we were voted to compete in the "laziest couple competition"

but we were too lazy to go, haha

i think we are really lazy and prefer to stay home

such a perfect match! haha

Last year, i blogged about the music festival that take place every year on 21 June

which is the start of summer and longest day of the year

Being lazy, we didnt go for it this year

I blamed our new game for it

because we ended up playing the game the whole night 

till 8am on 21 june

So, maybe we are not so lazy

but just game nerds??

I guess we will try be less lazy and go for the gaypride this Saturday

and the movie festivals soon...

The best news is..

Summer sales starts this week and  school holidays starts end of this week!

Finally, good news about our home!

We had another appointment with our bank
for another mortage stimulation
since husband's sister and friend had really low interest rate about 2%
We really hope our bank will change their initial quotation of 2.8%
Sadly, the appointment didnt went well
The bank require us to pay the notaire fees (means all our cash)
and can only offer us the same rate of 2.8%
as if is not bad enough, the bank will increase its interest 0.2% more the next day
since our appointment was on the last day of May
while we are really unhappy at the rate
at least it means we can still go ahead to buy the appartment

Yesterday, we went to the notaire office and sign our initial sales agreement
so, we have 7 days to cancel the purchase with no penalty
and to transfer 8% (12k) to the notaire as deposit
we wanted to shift by the last week of august
since owner is shifting around 10 august
and i really want to do this during the summer holidays
but the notaire is unsure whether we can get our mortage by then
as normally is 3months notice 
especially the bank needs about 2 months to process
and nobody works during the summer holidays
so, we are keeping our fingers cross

Today is our second meeting with another bank 
We really hoped that the bank will be able to give us a better rate
since the first stimulation was 2.2% (if we put in zero cash)
and 2.05% (if we pay 10%)
But after the visit with our bank,
we are just praying that this bank can give us a good rate of 2.5%

And surprisingly, this bank gave us a really good rate!
With zero cash, the rate is 1.95%!
if we pay the 10%; it will be 1.85%!
Definitely, we are keen to not pay cash and keep it for moving expenses
and is already much better than what we expected!
The bank inform us that there will be no problem to get the confirmation 
and we might be able to shift in 3rd week of august!

Its definitely a good news after all the worrying and uncertainty
Finally, we will have our own home soon!
Hmm, since we have cash on hand, i can plan for our sg trip for 2016
double-yay!

Some overdue photos

Husband made a lemon tart
Looks good but im not a fan of cream...

Thanks to parents-in-law..

We had a (similar to tapas style) lunch at the 1k resturants

So, we are getting our home?

After the insane decision to offer the owner at the advertised price
we went through 2 days of hell
because the owner did not accept our offer?!
by right the owner has to accept our offer
since we were the first to offer it at the advertised price
but then the owner inform us that they promised to let the first visiters to lake an offer
so, we needed to wait for the first visiters to make their 2nd visit and offer
while we are panicking that we may lose their home and to threaten them with legal actions
thankfully, our offer was still accepted, phew...

We made a 2nd visit last saturday
and glad that we still love the appartment and will go ahead with the purchase
the problem now is that we need to give our current landlord 3months notice
and hope that we will be able to shift out in 3 months
With the summer holidays coming, most people are going on vocation
so, it is really hard to get appointments with the banks to settle our mortage
and trying to sign the initial sales contract asap to start the 3months notice
the good news is the owner is agreeable to shift out less than 3 months,
so we still may be able to shift out in 3months

the bad news is money
after contribution from my father in law and our savings, 
we have just enough cash for the notaire fees (about 8%)
however, i managed to convince husband to take the full mortage and nortaire fees from bank
because i dont want to be at 0 cash
but to do this, will result in higher interest rate for the mortage
which, i think is still a fair deal compared to be at 0

but we just received the email from the owner
requesting for 10% deposit by the time we sign the initial sales contract
the 10% will be kept in the notaire account
and can be used to paid for the notaire fees after completion of sales
The good part of doing this, means we need not include the nortaire fees in our mortage loan
and can get a better interest rates
but the down part is we dont have enough cash to give 10%
we maybe ask father in law for a loan which will help us to achieve the 10%
but i have no idea where to find money for shifting and furnitures etcs...
I think to be able to do everything perfectly, we are 5k short

Now i understand why buying a home is more to be in debt than to be happy..
Sigh