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...

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....