short trip in barcelona

Since I was away for holiday with in laws
last Oct when sis was in Geneva
we didnt get to meet up.
sis is here in Barcelona for the week
so I got her to extend her trip for extra day
and I went to meet her


on Thursday night after work
I went to the airport for my flight
its been so long that I took a flight alone
that I forgot how boring to take a plane alone
all went quickly since is within europe
and there was no custom check.
while I was nuaing and waiting to board
suddenly the gate changed
and it was a crazy crowd to move to new gate
the boarding was delayed too
we finally took off at 2100
instead of 2045


the last time I came barcelona
was for my prewedding trip with Aven
so I totally forgot how to get to city center
lucky sis hotel provided the clear info
we arrived slight late at 2240
and while I was panicking about long queues at customs
and finding the bus
I got out of the airport within 10mins
again, my peabrain forgot there is no customs
and I was seated in front rows


bus was just outside the terminal
so I got my ticket and off we go for the 30min bus ride
despite map provided by hotel and my own googlenap research,
a 3min walk from bus terminal to hotel
managed to become 20min walk
with my zero map reading skills and no wifi
thankfully Barcelona is a night city
and I had not much fear walking around lost.


after I finally arrived the hotel
so phone was off
so I had to ask the reception to call the room
and we finally met!
it was nearly midnight and we went to a nearby place for taps and sangaria
chatted till 3+ and felt asleep.


the next day was pretty much shopping at zara
shopping at Zara
and shopping at Zara..
there was so many Zara store
that you throw a stone and can hit a Zara store
it was truly a shopping trip!

as usual with my navigation skills
and no wifi
we managed to constant get lost..haha
we had paella for lunch
and did zero sightseeing
I think more than half the time
is me blabbing about my life in france
my poor sis must be full of my negativity..

crazily 2 women can spend a full day shopping
and finally tabo burger king for dinner and rest in the room
it was st patricks day
and the streets were full of excited youngsters
and sis fell asleep at 2200..
and I watched YouTube till 200.
must be old age, no energy go party.

the last day went pretty quick
with breakfast at hotel, check out
and taking the transfer car to airport
which we forgot that we are in different terminals
and need say bye much earlier than excited...

short, tiring but happy trip
can't wait to be back in sg for more time with everyone...

Home improvements 2017

It has been 1.5 years since we shifted
Apart from constantly shifting our current furniture
every few months because im trying to find the 'correct' style for the home
we finally decided it is time
we can buy new furniture...
well i think it was me deciding more than husband..
haha

The first to change was the wardrobe
it started when we went to ikea
to look for new sofas
and noticed how our current wardrobe looks like for hobbits
because its so low (1.8m)
compared to all the proper wardrobes on display (2.0+m)
So we decided a taller wardrobe will increase storage place
and make use of our high celining (3m)
We order something with all the accersories from IKEA
and unexpectedly spenr 12hours (!!!)
dismantling the old wardrobe
and fixing the new one...
I never knew ikea can take so long
or we are just bad?

The mirror cupbord used to be the height of our old wardrobe.
At least now we dont feel like our wardrobe is for hobbits
but feel totally like we are hobbits compared to the new wardrobe.

Back to the original story,

why we went ikea..

Apart from i want eat at ikea and buiy random things

we wanted to check out the sofas.

The problem of our 2 seater sofa was it's too short

well, when we first arrive in this apartment,

we noticed that the living room is not in a regular shape,

so the previous owner managed to put a tiny sofa in a corner

that seems to add more space for the room.

We spent so much time searching for the perfect sofa 

that could fit into that tiny corner 

and we finally did with a 1.50m sofa..

Problem is after a while,

i start to feel the sofa is too short.

Its fine for 2 person seated

but i cant even lie fully solo.

After complaining for 1 year,

i think is time to reshuffle the room 

and get a longer sofa!

Husband hesitated on buying sofa online

since he felt the previous one was exp and uncomfy

and also he is unsure how a bigger sofa will be in ouir living room.

Long story short,

i saw online a longer sofa online

i liked the simple look and 'transformer' style

and persuaded him to buy it 

for him, the sofa is cheaper than our previous,

so it may be more uncomy

and he feels that we dont need the transformer style etcs

well, he is constantly the procastinator....

And guess who is the happy one with the new sofa?

The old sofa has been transfered to the bed room zen corner

and suddenly i feel we are quite ready to invite people to come

or any one from Singapore want to come sleepover???

Fuck you 2016!

Every year end, I will normally go back to the resolutions
that i set the year before
and summarize whether I achieved them or what happened
Then set new ones for the new year.
2016 was such a bad year
that i think is best to summarise by the bad stuff.

1) lost the kids
After trying for nearly a year,
i finally got pregnant
yet, the pregnancy has to be terminated
and they were twins...
till today, still unsuccessul to be pregnant again

2) Nono left
It happened in few weeks after the miscarriage
so, it makes the second time i lost a family member
in such a short period of time

3) Started work in a toxic office with horrible bosses
I thought i have survived worse work environment in Singapore
but i just met the champion
Underpaid, abusive bosses and toxic office
I can't think of any worse.
Oh 1 year contract,
i cant take my yearly CNy holidays to Singapore

Yes, maybe there are some happy moments that happened
but i really want to say fuck you 2016!
Im so glad not to see you again...

Visiting Lourve..

Despite being in france for nearly 3 years,
Im kinda ashamed to admit that i havent been to the lourve.
Yes, i went numerous time to the iconic glass triangle
but never into the museum.

First, because im not a big museum fan
I find museums so big here
that im feel so overwhelm by all the artworks in 2hours
hmmm, maybe i should go same museum 5 times 
and try not to see everything in a day.

Secondly, the famous mon lisa
If you ever google mona lisa in lourve
its often the scary crowded, full of people room
with the tiny mona lisa painting
Im not interested to squeeze with everyone to see her!

Anyway husband received free tickets to lourve

so we took 1 saturday to go

Sadly, i was really tired that week,

hell, im tired verey week since my colleague went holiday

and my boss dumped all her work onto me..

But husband still managed to drag me there

for at least 2.5hours, haha

We were surprised that there was no queue to enter

and no big crowds at mona lisa

that we could even went in front to take photos

Being superficial art lovers

we went to look at the famous artworks

and finally to the eyptian area 

which i think is quite nice

but im thinking all the mummies must be sad to be far from egypt

i bet the afterlife they were promised to

definitely doesnt include being in Paris.

Okay! 1 tick on the must do check list...

33th Birthday..

The weekend before my birthday
we took a short trip to Lille
Basically it was a shopping trip
because theres nothing much to do except shopping
and husband didnt know what to get me as a gift
so we decided to just buy anything i saw
Good news for him is that i didnt really found much things to buy
I dont know is it because i was in the no-mood mode
because the kids were supposed to be my birthday present
but it was nice to get out of normal routine.

We did visit some churchs
but it was mainly just roaming around
and the only nice thing i remembered
was this 2nd hand books place located in a courtyard
and this is where i found my coolest birthday gift
A newspaper published on the same date of my birthday
but 100years older than me!!

The rest was eating and walking around
i think im so glad that husband bought his new hiking shoes
at least he didnt complained about all the shopping!
This year winter seems to be here early
So, it was chilly with rain 
that during 1 evening, i learnt my scarf to husband
and he ended up looking like a strange woman..haha

I forgot when is the last time i spend my actual birthday alone
or went to work during my birthday.
Anyway, husband had a work function in the evening
and i didnt want to take any day off
so, it was simply a normal day spent.
Except that husband woke me up early
made a special birthday breakfast for me
gave me all the presents we got from our trip
and the famous konmarie tidying book
which my friends sent me an exact copy a few days late!
Make me wonder is it a sign to ask me to clean my home more often...

Since i dont really love my colleagues
I was glad that my birthday went un-noticed till almost it was time to go
The evening was peaceful with me eating my favorite instant noodles
and husband managed to come home before midnight
to force me to eat my birthday cake...

I guess this has not been a great year
but nevertheless, i survived it...

First family trip

Since my family is full of kids,
we often went on family trips or outings together.
So, it came as a big surprise to me when i knew
that husband's last family trip was many years ago
and they probably didnt travel as a family for 10years!
Anyway, I suggested that we should do a family trip
and I proposed that we can go centerparc,
which is resort style place in the forest
where they used to spend christmas there
when they were kids.
To my surprise, after exploring the options of trips,
the in laws think that centerparc is a great idea!
So, all was booked and we were to go for 4 days at the end of october...

I didnt bring my camera because my mil is a big fan to take pictures
so i left the 'honor' for her to do so
and i dont have any photos to add to this blog.
I googled to give an idea of centerparc:

The biggest attraction is the indoor poor

which comes with a few water rides (Free)

while the other activites, eg bowling, golf...

are payable and quite expensive.

Since we went on a long weekend here in France,

I think we were prepared for the crowd.

However, is my first time to a public pool here,

i was totally shocked by the amount of people in the pool!

They had a counter outside the ppol entrance

and i think at 1 moment it shown 800+?!

Frankly, i do not remember much of the holiday,

except it was swimming pool every single day.

I think I got overdose of the pool

especially when im not really a water-person

and when its super crowded.

but it seems swimming pools are not so many as in Sg,

the family really wanted to make full use of the pool.

The rest of the holidays were spent in the cottage,

where the in laws brought lots of food to cook our meals,

having long conversations

and playing some boardgames.

It did felt a little like christmas where we spend time at in law's home

but i think is still nice to be out together as a family.

Probably im not a big fan of centerparc for now,

but it will be nice when we have more kids in the family..

Hmm, i guess its time to use my power of persuasion

to start thinking about family trip 2017??

5 lessons that my dad taught me...

Although you left us for 10 years,
you are often still in my thoughts...

5)Never be ashamed of your job
Maybe i was too young,
I never heard you once complained about being a hawker.
Even when you fried kway tiao stall didnt do well,
you tried to add fried hookien mee into your menu,
in the end, you ended up joing mum's yong tau foo,
yet, i never heard you say that maybe hawker is not for you
and tried to change your career.

I admit that i was immature 
and never was proud that my parents were hawkers.
I remembered that i was hurt deeply once,
my ex boyf laughed at how my allowance was all in $2 notes
and i felt like i couldnt defend you 
because i was not proud of your job.
End up, his friend scolded him
and indirectly reminded me that,
you are making a decent income,
you are not doing bad things to feed the family,
why should i be ashamed of your job?

4)Never lose your humor
Despite not being the best joker,
or ever good at telling jokes.
I lost count of the times that you repeated old jokes,
or told us jokes that you heard,
that ended up being unfunny after your interpretations.
Yet, in the last few months of your life,
i recalled sitting on your hospital bed,
trying to crack you up with silly jokes or acts,
and you never failed to laugh
or gave me a smile when you couldnt.
How many of us can be like you,
not losing our sense of humor
in face of pending death?

3) Be proud of your child
Being low educated and manual labors,
i guess you never had high hopes 
about how each of us will be successful in life.
You always told the same story 
how you saw really smart people who went crazy
in the mental hospitals,
that you would never force us to study.
Yet, all of your children managed to be university graduates.
And i always remember the pride you have on your face,
telling others how all your children are university graduates.
If you can see us now,
im sure you must be so proud that we are doing well in life...

2) Love your child unconditionally
After you left,
i always had the same image in mind,
it somehow became an anchor in my heart,
that whenever im feeling lost or simply tired of the world.
I remembered clearly how you used to cycle me after school
we went by the same garden to go back to the stall,
the garden was full of jackfruit trees
and i always told you that they were beehives
because i was young that i cant remembered the name of it.
Each time without fail, 
you always told me gently the correct chinese name for them.
Never once, you judge me for not remembering the name
or gave up at telling me repeatedly.
It was such a simple act of non-judgemental love,
that often reminds me that i should not worried whether im good enough 
because i deserved to be love as who i am.

1) Never never never give up...
I never known someone as brave as you.
You survived your first cancer,
even when it required a major surgery to remove your foodpipe,
with the risk that you may never eat normally again,
you managed to do so and lived a normal life.

In about a year, you got stroke that had you paralysed on the right side,
at your age and state of the stroke, 
no one had high hopes of your recovery,
yet, you worked hard at therapy,
created an umbrella cane because you didnt like having a real cane,
became mobile and independent in such a short period of time.
You never liked or let mum to hold you to show your independence,
but never once complained when i do so.

Life seems unfair to strike you with cancer again.
Even though we didnt dare to tell you the truth early,
you seemed to know and still tried your best to fight it.
I remembered the nights that you were in so much pain
and mistook me as a nurse begging me for more morphine,
but times when pain was berable,
you are back to your cheerful self to 'entertain' many who came to visit.
And in my heart,
i always felt that you left us so fast
within 3 months of the official diagnosis,
because you cant bear to see us 'tortured' by your sickness.
Your bravery is something I wish i have...

Its the month of november,
apart from being appreciative that you and mum gave me life
its also the birthday month of the 3 of us.
Till the day we meet again,
i will hold these lessons close to my heart....