London - Day 1

Despite only 2hrs+ train away, we didnt visited london till now!
It worked out well that i managed to buy the train tickets at sale (78€ each)
and to travel for husband's birthday weekend..
Although with the brexit, pounds is supposed to be lower,
we still tried not to spend too much for this trip.

Our train was 1015am and we arrived london at 1130am
as london is 1 hour slower than Paris.
After arrival at st pancras station,
we managed to find a money changer, a store selling oyster card (transport card)
and achieve my objective to eat Macdonald wherever i travel, haha.
Our hotel was 3 subway stations away and we checked in once we arrived..
Although the hotel is situated in the business district area,
means nothing will be open for the weekend,
and nothing touristy around it,
our room was wonderful as it was big with a kitchenette! 

We then went to visit the famous 221B baker's street
but didnt went into the sherlock holmes's museum
because there was a long queue and tickets were at 15pounds!
We did visited the museum's shop but everything is overpriced 
that i stopped the husband from even buying a 5pounds magnet, haha

Initially i wanted to had time to roam around the famous shopping district
as I booked a groupon hi-tea session at 3pm
and the hotel was located around bond street
but we eneded up just in time for the hi-tea, so no shopping...
Husband was very impressed by the hi-tea and it was his first hi-tea!
Well, we did tried once in paris using groupon,
but it was just a piece of cake with tea rather than the formal english afternoon tea..

We were so full and tried our best to finish what we had
Unexpectedly, the hotel suprised husband with a slice of cake for his birthday,
Husband was glad and suprised but i think we felt so full!
oh ya, i was the one to write in the reservation comment 
that it was to celebrate husband's birthday
but I thought they didnt mind as:
- I often wrote is birthday / anniversary.. but most bookings did nothing
- It was like 1 hour after we arrived before the cake came

So, after the very full afternoon tea, we started our tourist long walk
with the map i printed from http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/things-to-see-near-buckingham-palace/
Im so glad for walks like this,
i need to plan like a crazy woman
and we need not spend for tours or visits.

I was so tired by 7+pm that i had to persuade husband to return to hotel
we stop by a supermarket near hotel
did my favorite travel habit : buy and taste things i cant find in paris
We ended up buying a big microwave dinner back to hotel at 9pm
when we still had afternoon tea swimming in our stomachs
but at least we are sure that the microwave works well..
We then watch matrix 2 on tv and went to bed...

Oh, the hotel lobby has a 24hours free hot drinks counter
and i lost count of the number of hot chocolates that we took
i can foresee my weight increasing again...

Summer home improvement - 2

being unemployed and constantly watching french tv programmes 
about people searching for homes
lead to more improvements at home!
The interesting thing is i found a website - ikea hacks
where people changed ikea items
so i copied some ideas
but im definitely not as handy as most of them..

first, i bought a ikea photo frames holder at 5€
and installed it above the bathroom sink
instead of cluttering the sink
the holder now supports all the stuffs
and it looks good!

Next, I don't know is it a french or angmo thing,
husband loves the idea of a curiousity cabinet to display things in our Small living room!
Our living room is so small that i wasnt sure of the need add more stuffs to it
and such cabinets can really look messy and clutter of nonsense,
which doesnt please the OCD in me...
Most of such cabinets are really big wooden ones 
That are expensive and we dont have the space...

Although our living room is small,
we are lucky to have high ceilings,
and it is important to ultise high ceilings to lengthen the room
- some gurus in home improvements wrote that.
So why not?

we thought to shift the bookshelf from the bedroom
which currently acts as a divider for the bed and sewing corner.
after we unload everything and shifted the bookshelf to the living,
i felt it didnt match the living room.
To make things worse,
without the divider in our bedroom,
the bedroom seems smaller! 
And we needed for new ideas to buy a divider again...
so in the end, we decided to shift the bookshelf back and load evcerything again, haha

While i spend hours to search for the perfect cabinet to buy online,

looking through ikea hacks for ideas

and we even went to the flea market to search..

Its really too expensive or takes up too much space...

At least we managed to find an old iron and old medicine glass containers from the flea market,

so it wasn't a wasted trip

especially when i love to visit flea markets!

In the end, while browsing through ikea hacks,

i saw some storage ideas and decided to buy 2 metal shelves at 10€ each,

which i think if 1 day we dont use them in the living room,

we can store stuff in our terrace or in the cave..

I tried my best to arrange things well to prevent messiness

and for now, i think it looks nice.

We definitely still can buy some cool stuff to display 

or longer stuff to use the tall walls,

but for now, they look great and surprisingly doesnt make the room smaller.

I also cleared out the stuff from the kitch storage shelves

and suddenly i have so much storage place in the kitchen 

that i wondered along with husband why i felt there was a lack of storage place 

I guess there are still plenty to do

since is our apprtment and not a rented place,

but i think we need to be creative to spend less money on stuff...

Here i come, ikea hacks...

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

My first visit to osteopath

I have a very backache after the abortion
initially i thought is due to the lack of confinement
so i started drinking dom 
then i thought is maybe due to my work with the stroller and the girls' school bags
when it didnt go away after a month,
i thought i may have sprained my back
or the hip didnt adjust well after the pregnancy.
The backache was so bad that i would wake up in the night,
i cant stay in a position for too long,
I cant walk for too long
and i even started walking strangely.
I felt like im an old woman...

While i was fearing that the backpain may be permanent,
a friend of ours, who is currently pregnant, introduced us to her osteopath
who is also a midwife,
she seems to be the perfect person for me to go to
in case the backpain was really due to the pregnancy.

Basically osteopath is the mix of physiotherapy and chinese sinseh
The thing is i didnt knew i had to removed my pants for the treatment
and wore my ugly panties for the session, oops
Since i sort of rushed to the session, i was sweaty too
definitely she must be thinking how gross i was.

After i told her about my symptoms
she did an examination on me
and told me that my legs are of uneven length
which may be the main reason for my backache
I was super shocked that my legs are uneven
but she said it is due to 1 side of my back's muscle contracted
and i will be back to normal after a session and exercise to do at home

Apart from the stretching, some cracking and moving my limbs,
the session also included some head massage
I did felt like a mini massage session and enjoyed it
After the session, i was walking normally!
And i felt my backpain reduced and was super happy
The same night, my whole body felt so achy and pain
that it felt like i did some 1000x back exercises
and it was painful to even fall asleep...
The next day, my body felt like i ran a marathon
i was feeling so tired that i took a day off from work to rest..

It has been almost a week since the visit
My back has definitely improved and pain is reduced
Im still amazed how suddenly i developed uneven legs
for now, I hope to be pain-free real soon...

Therapeutic house chores

I think i inherited some OCD genes from my mum
Although im not as extreme as she is
I do have my steps and procedures to follow
with regards to house chores and cleaning
which i think becomes more obvious in our new apartment.

And i will become upset when husband didnt do it my way, opps
I remembered when i was suffering from my lungs infections
I had to force myself to look away when husband was hanging the laundry
because it was not my way, haha
Yes, lying and feeling all weak and still worry about the laundry....

I always find laundry hanging very therapeutic
it just takes my mind off
while im choosing the type of hangers to use,
the way to hang or seeing everything done

The other therapeutic chore for me is washing the dishes
we are probably the rare few in paris that doesnt have a dish washer machine
we dont have the space for it and i truly like washing dishes..
From a full sink of dirty dishes
to all cleaned and tucked away
What a sense of satisfaction!

My latest therapeutic chore is ironing!
I cant remember the last time i ironed something
And husband normally just wore shirts unironed for work
I guess my mum's method to hang dry the shirts helped them to look less crumbled
Recentlt husband decided to invest in new shirts
i had to iron the new shirts to remove the packing lines
and i got hooked, I ironed all his existing shirts and polo tees!

Im not sure whether ill find all these chores therapeutic when im working full time or have a kid
but for now im a dedicated or crazy housewife...