Colour Me Crazy

MIA?

2008-07-02T13:39:00.004+02:00

No, I haven't gone completely MIA, life just got a little hectic with 2 blogs and a (newborn) baby.
Who would have thought that something that weighs only 4kgs could dominate so much of our lives!

Anyway, you can still find me lurking around on http://wokandspoon.blogspot.com/ from time to time.

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-06T21:25:00.000+01:00

GONG XI FA CHAI to all out there!

1 more sleep!

2007-10-19T16:24:00.000+02:00

1 more sleep until we move into our new apartment!! Whoohoo! And 1 more sleep till the Rugby World Cup finals! Go Springboks!

Until then, like Antipo, I’ll be dressed in my finest tonight for the France-Argentina match. Though instead of Antipo's "maxi boyfriend" Chabal, I’ll be hoping to see my little lust-bunny Frédéric Michalak!

Bring it on!

2007-10-05T17:34:00.000+02:00

Moving to England has been a complete battle. I never imagined that it would be this difficult moving to a country where everyone spoke the same language as me!

But on the bright side, we only have 2 weeks left of living in a dirty B&B with non-existent water pressure before we can move into our apartment! I’m counting down the days!

Also, thanks everyone for all your words of support! There are worse red-tape crazy places to live than France!

Other than that, if you haven’t already been caught up by the Rugby World Cup fever, jump on the bandwagon quickly!

The match of the weekend is Australia vs England on Saturday the 6th!

No prizes for guessing who I’ll be supporting!

I miss France

2007-09-20T16:50:00.000+02:00

I never thought I’d ever hear myself say this but I miss France!

Everything almost seems easy in France compared to England! Yes, yes, I can hear all you French expats muttering that I’ve been drinking too many cups of tea without milk over here but let me give you one example that probably says it all for me.

Part of all this chagrin is me keeping my maiden name and not officially changing my surname to Hubs’ surname the very second I got married. I don’t have anything against changing my surname; I’m just too lazy to do all the paperwork.

In France, when I first arrived, the Hubs had a job but I didn’t. We went to the bank and wanted to open a joint account. The French bank lady said that she couldn’t put my maiden name on the joint account as I was married. It HAD to be Hubs’ surname. This was obviously a problem for me as all my ID has my maiden name on it.

French bank lady even told me that I should change my name immediately! She even got quite huffy about the whole situation. In the end, she compromised, and my surname on our joint account was “maidenname-marriedname”. I just got hyphenated but we had our joint account in less than 30 minutes.

Across La Manche, same situation. Hubs is employed, I’m not (I've been here 1 week!), and I still have my maiden name. So off we went to the bank.

English bank man says that firstly, I can’t have my maiden name on the joint account, it has to be my married name. And secondly, I don’t have a job so I can’t even put my first name on that joint account. In other words, no income, no account!

Hubs on the other hand, can open an account because he has a job. So Hubs explains that we’re married so his income is my income. English bank man says: no job, no name on account.

Then English bank man says that I really should change my maiden name to my married name. What the heck!

Oh, and then the English bank man tells us that when we come back in to open the joint account, we should allow at least 45 minutes per person. That’s 1.5 hours to open 1 bank account.

So anyone who’s tired of living in France because of all the red tape blah blah blah, don’t even think about moving across La Manche! The people are still talking a whole other language here!

Nomad forever

2007-09-14T14:48:00.000+02:00

Thanks everyone for their well wishes but I have to say, you’re all not wishing hard enough as this has definitely been a nightmare move! Almost comparable to the move to France…which for some reason seems like a breeze compared to this one (Hubs says that I have a short memory!).

I have lots of gory details to share but not enough ££ to pay for the time to share it all at the Internet café. We’re currently living out of our backpacks and in various B&Bs in the Surrey countryside, which is not as exotic as I would like it to be.

I also have to say that for some reason, I can’t understand about 60% of what people say to me! I keep having to ask people to repeat themselves. Over the phone, even repeating doesn’t help! Some of the times, I’m not even sure that people are speaking English to me.

I think I might need “British English as a foreign language” classes.

Selamat Hari Merdeka

2007-08-30T09:30:00.000+02:00

First of all, I’m a day early but Happy Merdeka day to all the Malaysians out there!

I’m a little too stressed out to blog properly at the moment as we’re in the middle of yet another move! This time to the UK! Well, theoretically to the UK as I’m still waiting for my visa and we’re due to leave in a couple of days!

So, instead of blabbing on about how stressed I am, here are photos from our recent (food-oriented) Malaysian holiday!

A couple of photos at dusk from Perhentian Besar.
Snacks from my childhood. The dried up wrinkly things are assamboi (sour-salty dried plum things) and pickled green mangoes.

More snacks from my childhood. I still don’t know what these little biscuit things are called but I used to eat them all the time when I was little. The colourful bits are hard sugar icing.

Food that I’m missing right now!
From left clockwise: satay and ketupat, sambal kangkong, wantan mee

From left clockwise: ice kacang, more satay and a satay stall.

And my favourites – the tropical fruits!

From left to right: rambutan, mangosteen and duku langsat.

Selamat Hari Merdeka and see you all in about 3 weeks when hopefully we'll be happy, merry and settled in the UK!

Le retour

2007-08-25T11:34:00.000+02:00

Would I rather be here ?

(Perhentian Besar, Malaysia)

or here?
(Frankfurt, Germany)

I think the answer is obvious!

T minus 20 hours

2007-08-04T16:41:00.001+02:00

We leave for Melbourne in precisely 20 hours and I haven’t even started packing yet! I definitely didn’t pick a good day to be completely hung over.

Take away 7 hours for a good night’s sleep, another 3 hours waiting at the airport, and another 2 hours of mad rushing around before we leave, that leaves only 8 hours to try to cram about 10 kgs worth of chocolate in our luggage.

So, I guess I better get started instead of playing on the Internet!

Enjoy the rest of summer everyone!

I come from a Land Downunder

2007-08-01T09:23:00.001+02:00

Sometimes you really have to admire Australians and their complete faith in other people liking them and wanting to accept them and make concessions for them no matter what. (Yes, we do think that everyone likes us!)

While waiting in the very very long queue early this morning at the Ausländer (foreigner) office in Frankfurt, a member of the staff went through the queue asking if anyone wanted to renew some kind of residence pass, and if they did, they could jump the queue. When all of a sudden, someone pops out of the very back of the queue saying “Australien”, and holding up his passport!

Nice try mate but get back in that queue! The rest of us have been here since 7am!

Still more Babel

2007-07-28T09:56:00.000+02:00

By now, you must all be sick of hearing about the language mishaps that happen around me so I promise, this will hopefully be the last of the series.

Last night’s after-German-class beers with the usual mélange of Korean, English, Brazilian and Québécois (and 1 Australian of course!) students resulted in the following conversations:

Conversation 1

Cute Little Korean Girl: You and dein Mann zusammen wie lange? (Translation: How long and you and your husband been together?)

Slightly Tipsy Australian (Me!): Sieben years (Translation: 7 years)

Cute Little Korean Girl: Ohhhhh. And verheiratet? (Translation: How long have you been married?)

Tipsy Australian: Vier years (Translation: 4 years)

Cute Little Korean Girl: Und before verheiratet? (Translation: How long were you together before you got married?)

Very Tipsy Australian: Drei Jahre (Translation: 3 years)

Cute Little Korean Girl: Ah so! So you make love for drei Jahre (Translation: ?????)

Very very Tipsy Australian and equally Tipsy English Girl: *Explodes in laughter* (Translation: hahahahahhahahaahah!)

Extremely Tipsy Australian explains that yes, she had been seeing her husband for 3 years before they got married but unfortunately each of their love-making sessions lasted less than 3 years. (Well, you get what I mean!)

Conversation 2

Cute Little Korean Girl: Wann bist du geboren? (Literal translation: When were you born? Beer translation: When’s your birthday?)

Tipsy English Girl: In September

Cute Little Korean Girl: Oh. You are a virgin then (Translation: ?????)

Very very Tipsy Australian and equally Tipsy English Girl: *Explodes in laughter* (Translation: hahahahahhahahaahah!)

Tipsy English Girl: Um…ok…if you say so.

Extremely Tipsy English Girl explains that she is a Virgo and most definitely not a virgin!

It’s funny how despite the language barriers, we all still manage to understand each other perfectly!

Boudin noir

2007-07-20T08:23:00.000+02:00

Seeing as I blatantly took advantage of the husband by posting his mini-English-stuff-ups, I thought that I should post a couple of my stuff-ups in French. The only problem is that neither of us could think of any good ones! See, I’m just not funny!

However, I do have one good one though.

For the first few years (yes, it always took a few years before we really managed to communicate properly!), Pépé used to call me his ‘petite boudin noir’ as a term of affection. Yep – ‘boudin noir’ as in black/blood sausage.

At first it was cute.

Then I thought, ‘what, he thinks I’m chubby’? ‘Boudin’ is sometimes used to describe chubby people.

Finally, one day, I asked him why he kept calling me his “petite boudin noir”. Sure it was sweet and everything, but really did he think I was that chubby?

And the truth came out.

In fact, what he was really saying was that I was his “petite bout d’amour” (little bit of love) and not his “petite boudin noir”!.

Well, it’s good to know that I don’t resemble a sausage!

On that note, have a good weekend everyone. I’m off to ~~sunny~~ La Rochelle for a super long extended weekend. Someone please turn the sun on for me!

Completely lost in translation

2007-07-18T08:04:00.000+02:00

When the husband and I first met, he spoke about 5 words of English and my French was at best very basic. However, we somehow managed to communicate, though many of his jokes in French were completely lost on me (and they still are occasionally, or at least I wish they were!). After a couple of years of living in Australia, he started to pick up English and I discovered that he could be funny in both English and French, though sometimes not intentionally!

During our first 2 years in Australia, Pépé watched a lot of TV and therefore picked up many little slogans and catch phrases. One of his favourite phrases in English was “shalom suckers”. Yes, you read correctly, “shalom suckers”.

I have to admit, I never really realised that he was actually saying “shalom” until about 2 years into our relationship and asked him why he was saying “shalom” (we’re Asian not Jewish!). He mentioned that he had heard it often on TV…then I realised. He actually meant “so long suckers”! But he misheard the “so long” and thought it was “shalom”!

Then there was “I raise my case”. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure why he was raising his case and not resting it! This one took me a couple of years to work out as well!

And then, last week, I came home and found him on the PC typing out an email to a friend who was doing him a favour.

And at the end of the email, he signed off with, “I own you big one”.

Hmm….Pépé owns his friend’s big one?????

A split second later, I said, “wait, don’t send the email!”! But it was too late; he had already hit the Send button. I wanted to know what he meant by owning his friend’s big one! Several explanations later, what he really wanted to say was “I owe you a big one” as in a big favour.

Pépé wasn’t too bothered though. His email was headed for a Spanish ex-colleague who probably wouldn’t understand the phrase anyway! Or at least wouldn’t mind him owning his big one ;-)

Ps.
To be fair, after 4 years in Australia and having had to work in English for the last few years, Pépé’s English is actually quite good now! (except for the rare cases where he owns his friend’s big one of course!)

Babel

2007-07-15T12:07:00.000+02:00

What happens when you bring a bunch of beginner German language students together in a bar on a nice summer’s evening?

Babel.

A whole bunch of people trying to communicate in any and every way possible, sometimes successfully and other times unsuccessfully!

Our after class drinks on Friday night consisted of 2 Koreans, 1 Chinese, 2 Japanese, all of whom spoke very little or no English at all, 2 Brazilians, 1 German, 1 English girl, a Romanian, Pépé and myself! Add to that the fact that all of us (except for the German naturally) spoke very very basic German.

Communication and conversations usually involve English, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, lots of hand signals and stick figure drawings! Trying to explain simple jokes can sometimes take 20 minutes…after which, the punch line is either no longer funny or even funnier depending on the hand signals used!

And what have we done to deserve this? Nothing. As far as I’m concerned, none of us has ever tried to build a tower in the past!

Anyway, Friday night however, after several weizenbiers, it seemed that the communication improved steeply! Conversation was flowing and laughs were a-plenty!

Or maybe that was just the weizenbier talking ;-)

Party time

2007-07-12T08:33:00.000+02:00

Over the weekend, there was a huge street festival in our quartier. While it started off slowly, it ended up being an enormous affair. Walking up and down the street, we noticed that apart from maybe 1 or 2 stands, every other stand was either a food stand or a drink stand! It was just beer, beer, apfelwein or more beer!!

Not that I had a problem with that ;-)

Anyway, this is what part of the street looked like just before the festivities began.

And after the festivities began!

This is an innocent looking apfelwein jug, just a little bit of street decoration…..

…that turns into a serious apfelwein stand!
To say that the Germans love a little tipple is a severe understatement!

Australian delicacy

2007-07-09T18:52:00.000+02:00

After a weekend of entertaining guests, I’m feeling a little lazy today so I’ve recycled this post....

There’s an Australian delicacy that’s quite rare over here in Europe (well, at least in France and Germany). However last Saturday, there was a stand full of these goodies just down the street from me.

I’m sure you’re all thinking…Australian delicacy…hmm..kangaroo burgers? Crocodile ham? Koala steaks? Wrong wrong and wrong.

I’m talking about the humble TIM TAM. Ok, you might say well, Tim Tams aren’t Australian anymore; they’re American as Arnott’s is now American owned. But that’s beside the point. Tim Tams were born in Australia as far as I’m concerned!

What are Tim Tams? It’s basically a synonym for a little “slice of heaven”! Well, ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. It’s basically a chocolate cream biscuit sandwich enrobed by yet more chocolate! In other words, it’s the ultimate comfort food!

Anyway, over the weekend, my in-laws were in town and coincidentally, there was a huge street festival in our neighbourhood, where that particular Tim Tam-filled stand was. So naturally, I had to share a part of Australian heritage with them.

So, how much would you pay for a packet of Tim Tams?

I paid 5 euros!!!!! But it was worth every centime!

Sophisticated

2007-07-04T20:41:00.001+02:00

I really need to clean out my bag.

It’s not a great look when I’m standing in a supermarket queue, pull out my purse and a tampon (regular sized and not a “super” sized one thank God!) falls to the ground!

It’s definitely not the most sophisticated thing that I could do.

J’ai vraiment besoin d’organiser le contenu de mon sac à main.

Ce n’est pas génial quand je suis dans une queue au supermarché et lors que je sors mon porte-monnaie de mon sac, un tampon (taille normal et pas une taille « super plus » heureusement!) tombe par terre.

Effectivement, ce n’est pas très sophistiqué de ma part.

I’ve been tagged!

2007-07-02T09:21:00.000+02:00

I’ve been tagged by Cirnelle from Storm in a teacup!

I’m usually a pretty lazy blogger and tend to let tags slip my mind. So I thought I’d better stick to blogger etiquette and do this one straight away before my forgetfulness takes over.

5 things found in your bag

1. 2 T-Com ADSL/Phone Bills
Grrrr. We’ve been to T-Com twice to register our bank details so that they can direct debit our bills from our account but noooo, we keep receiving bills to telling us that we haven’t paid! We’ve given them authorisation to take money from our account! You’d think that they didn’t want our money!

2. Wet wipes
For all those germs on the Metro (you know, from people who don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet! You know who you are!). Urggghhh.

3. Umbrella
The weather is bloody unpredictable over here at the moment. Can someone please fix the weather?

4. Purse
I need money, cards and other bits of paper that I probably don’t need.

5. Water bottle
I’m not a camel and don’t have a hump to store water unfortunately.

5 favourite things in your room

1. Husband
When he’s not at work or in front of the TV of course. ;-)

2. Girlie fashion magazines
I’m addicted.

3. Books
I can’t fall asleep if I don’t read in bed. Haruki Murakami’s La fin des temps is taking me forever to read.

4. My bedside lamp
I need light to be able to read in order to fall asleep!

5. The closet
I like having clothes to wear so that I don’t wander around nude (it’s not a pretty sight!) in the streets of Frankfurt!

5 things you've always wanted to do

Only 5??? I could list a whole lot more!

1. Live in the same city with my entire family (immediate and extended) and close friends
This will probably never happen as everyone is scattered across the globe!

2. Quit my IT career and move into something more fulfilling. I don’t hold any passion for the corporate life. Only problem…I’m too lazy. It’s just much easier to do something within my comfort zone!

3. Do more travelling in Africa
One day…

4. Time travel
No one said this meme had to be realistic. I’d love to visit the future to see my future great-great-great-great grand kids (or just whether there are any at all!), the technology (is it all flying cars as per the 5th Element) and yeah, whether the world exists at all or it just a burnt piece of crusty earth. Then I’d visit the past – I want to see Elvis alive…not just in the local 7-11!

5. Own the Murdochs & the Packers
I’d wipe the media clean of Paris Hilton. Enough already!

5 things you're currently into

1. Learning German.
The person who developed the rules for German had wwaaayyy too much time on his/her hands!

2. Speaking French
Don’t ask me why the husband and I speak French to each other. He’s perfectly capable of holding a serious conversation in English except that every time he opens his mouth in English, it’s to make a joke! We never have serious conversations in English.

3. Deciding if we’re going to move back to France, to the UK or to Australia
I’m not fond of making decisions!

4. Communication
Trying to communicate with the other students in my German class! Not everyone speaks English and we don’t know enough German to be able to have any decent discussions!

5. Cooking spicy food
I’m trying to toughen up the husband’s stomach for when we head to Malaysia later this year ;-)

5 people you want to tag

This is a hard one.
I don’t have that many blogger friends and most people have already been tagged. So, if the following people haven’t been tagged yet…you’re it (obligation free of course)!

1. IslandGirl from The New Pink
Because you’re my favourite person to tag! And I like your photos!

2. Matt
Just trying to make you write more!

3. Gina from Absolute Ginger
Your blog is addictive!

4. Mir from The Dim Sum Diaries
I’m addicted to your blog as well!

5. Anyone else who wants to do a meme! Please go ahead!

What the..?

2007-06-29T10:47:00.001+02:00

(Please excuse the poor quality image; I had to take a photo of the flyer as our scanner is in storage!)
(Veuillez excuser cette image de mauvaise qualité. J’ai pris une photo de la brochure car notre scanner est en garde-meubles)

Yesterday we received a flyer in our mailbox for a new Restaurant called “Bollywood”!

The flier reads “Indische & italienische Spezialitäten”.

What the heck?

Even in German, it’s pretty clear that the house specialty is “Indian & Italian” food! Now that combination seems a little odd to me. Will they be serving butter chicken pizzas? Or perhaps korma spaghetti with a little naan to soak up the sauce? Or maybe a madras lasagna?

I just can’t understand why the Indian and Italian combination. The 2 countries aren’t even close by. For example, if they specialised in Belgian-Dutch food, well, I could understand that, the 2 countries are next to each other and the food from both countries could possibly have influences from each other. There are many Thai-Chinese-Vietnamese type restaurants which sort of makes sense (even though the food they serve may be a little dodgy!) as these are countries from the same region.

Even if it was, say, Indian-German, I could understand. You know, Indian food in Germany is bound to have a little bit of a German influence. Or say, Indian-Italian in Italy where Indian food is influenced by the local Italian food. However, Indian-Italian in Germany is just plain bizarre.

I’m guessing that this is the result of an Indian-Italian couple that now live in Germany and couldn’t decide if they wanted to open an Italian restaurant or an Indian restaurant. So, hey – best of both worlds!

The menu looks pretty normal (well, for an Indian-Italian restaurant anyway), Indian food on one side and Italian food on the other. There are a couple of exceptions though: Tandoori pizza and a Bollywood pizza.

I’m a little worried about going there. They’ll probably have either really good Indian food and crappy Italian food or vice-versa. Or just really crappy food in general.

Still, it’s probably a good place to go if you’re with someone else and can’t decide what you want. You could have a pizza while he or she has a hearty madras curry! Or you could start off with samosas, and then have spaghetti carbonara as a main!

Oh, and I would have probably given more thought to naming the place as well. Bollywood definitely sounds more like an Indian restaurant and doesn’t quite reflect the true specialities of the restaurant. Instead of Bollywood, I’d have more of a fusion name such as Taj Roma or maybe Casa Bombay.

On the other hand, maybe it’s not such a bad idea (It’s still a freaky idea though)! After all, I’ve always wanted to eat chips (yes, they even have chips on the menu) with a fish vindaloo!

Ps.
Did I also forget to mention that there are hamburgers and cheeseburgers on the menu as well??

Hier nous avons reçu une brochure dans notre boîte à lettres pour un nouveau restaurant qui s’appelle “Bollywood”.

“Indische & italienische Spezialitäten” est marqué clairement sur la brochure.

Quoi ?

Même en allemand, il est évident que la spécialité du restaurant est la nourriture ‘Indienne-Italienne’ ! Cette combinaison me paraît un peu bizarre. Serviront-ils une pizza massala? Ou peut-être un spaghetti korma accompagné de quelques morceaux de naan ? Ou possiblement une lasagne madras ?

Je n’arrive pas à comprendre la combinaison de la nourriture Indienne et Italienne ! Ces 2 pays ne sont même pas proches géographiquement. Pas exemple, si la spécialité était la nourriture Belge-Néderlandaise, bon, je comprendrais car ces 2 pays sont côte à côte donc la nourriture de ces 2 pays peut avoir des influences de l’autre pays. Je comprends aussi qu’il y a beaucoup de restaurants Thaïs-Chinois-Vietnamiens car ces pays viennent de la même région (même si la nourriture de ces restos n’est pas toujours bonne!).

Je peux également comprendre le mélange entre la nourriture Indienne-Allemande. La nourriture Indienne en Allemagne pourrait avoir des influences allemandes. Et encore la nourriture Indienne-Italienne en Italie où la nourriture Indienne a des influences locales Italiennes. Par contre, Indien-Italien en Allemagne est un peu étrange.

Ceci est sans doute le résultat d’un couple Indien-Italien qui habite maintenant en Allemagne et qui n’arrive pas à se décider s’ils veulent un restaurant Italien ou Indien. En ouvrant un restaurant Indien-Italien, ils arrivent à avoir le meilleur des 2 mondes !

Le menu me semble plus ou moins normal (pour un resto Indien-Italien en tout cas), la nourriture Indienne d’un côté et Italienne de l’autre côté. Il y a quelques exceptions : une pizza Tandoori et une pizza Bollywood.

En revanche, cela ne me tente pas d’y aller. A mon avis, ils auront soit de très bons plats Indiens et de très mauvais plats Italiens ou vice-versa. Sinon, ils auront de la nourriture très mauvaise en générale.

En réfléchissant, cet endroit serait une très bonne idée si l’on est avec quelqu’un d’autre et n’arrive pas à se décider. Vous pouvez commander une pizza pendant que lui ou elle commande un curry au Madras. Autrement, vous pouvez commencer avec des samoussas et ensuite, avoir un Spaghetti Carbonara en plat principal.

De plus, il faut absolument retravailler le nom du restaurant. Bollywood me paraît plus Indien que Italien et ne présente pas les spécialités du restaurant. Au lieu de Bollywood, j’aurais utilisé un nom un peu plus ‘fusion’ tant que Le Taj Roma ou encore La Casa Bombay.

De toute façon, le resto Indien-Italien ne sera pas une si mauvais idée (toujours un peu bizarre !) car j’ai toujours voulu manger des frites (ils ont des frites aussi) avec un poisson vindaloo!

Ps.
Il y a aussi des hamburgers ET cheeseburgers dans le menu ! (pas très Indien ni Italien !)

Funny

2007-06-27T11:27:00.000+02:00

I found a couple of photos from our recent trip to Dublin.

If you had an expensive fancy shiny red car, would you go leaving it around so that it would get clamped?

I would have it locked up in my big huge garage (with all my other cars of course), at my fancy big huge house!

No life

2007-06-25T09:58:00.000+02:00

We watched roughly 4.5 hours of nail-biting, hold-my-breath-until-I-pass-out, extremely stressful yet additive Season 2 of Prison Break yesterday. Someone please remind me not to start watching the next season! I think I’ve just lost about 5 years of my lifespan due to stress. Even the absolutely scrumptious-drool-dripping-down-my-chin Wentworth Miller is just not worth it!

Also, why is it that these jail breakers have been on the run for 3 weeks now and their hair hasn’t grown a centimetre! I know Pépé’s hair starts going out of control after 2 weeks! And why doesn’t Lincoln Burrows ever shave? Enough with that 3-day growth already! Honestly, if you’re on the run from the law, the first thing you’d do is get a shave so that you look less like a con!

Anyway, other than that pondering the mysteries of Prison Break, I’ve got nothing really fascinating to report. Instead of going out and doing something interesting yesterday, we were holed up in our apartment glued to Prison Break. Only 1 more episode to go and we’re free! We can have our lives back again!

Anyway, till I get my life back again here are a couple of photos from last week’s Dragon Boat Festival in Frankfurt.

Weirdo magnet

2007-06-22T08:44:00.000+02:00

Pépé is convinced that I’m a weirdo magnet. In fact, he thinks that everyone who’s say, a little different, has some kind of weird attraction to me. In the Metro (or the U-bahn), in the street, anywhere really, I can somehow find myself seated or happily chatting away to some weird stranger. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! The problem is that I tend to ignore the golden rule of public transportation: don’t look others in the eyes and never ever smile! Smiling = an invitation to divulge one’s entire life story to me and I unfortunately smile a lot!

So yeah, this usually ends up with me having major discussions with perfect strangers on diverse subjects such as (oh and I never start the conversation!):
- Tunisian food (someone who saw my groceries)
- Asian food (someone else who was eyeing my groceries)
- Why he moved to Paris (who knows why he divulged this?)
- Tourist sites in Paris (understandable as there are loads of tourists in Paris)
- Marriage and my husband (was he trying to pick me up?)
- Advantages of wearing ballerina shoes in the Metro (someone who was wearing sandals)
- Why the younger generation no longer attends mass (one Sunday morning with an elderly lady)

I’ve even corrected a CV (in English of course!) for a financial controller between the Gare du Nord and Denfert-Rochereau Metro stops.

So anyway, now that we’re in Frankfurt, given that my German skills are limited to Ich verstehe nicht (I don’t understand) and Ich weisse nicht (I don’t know), I avoid smiling at just anyone. I’m not ready to have someone follow me home to discuss the advantages of wearing socks with sandals for 2 days, in a language that I don’t understand!

Why am I telling you all this? Well, you see, I run (well, walk very very fast) 3 times a week on the banks of the Main (I’m trying to lose that muffin top!) And each time, ~~I get the feeling that~~ the other joggers stare at me. At first I thought that it was maybe my underarm sweat patches…not to mention my under-boob sweat patches! Or maybe the lovely odour following me around (goes with the sweat patches). Or even possibly the pained expression on my face.

Anyway, yesterday, without even thinking about it, I flashed a great big smile (at least what I think was a smile as it’s a little difficult to smile when you can’t breathe!) at some guy who was staring at me…and I received 3 huge smiles in return (from him and the 2 others behind him!).

And bingo! I just realised why people were staring at me. It wasn’t my red round face glistening with sweat but the Germans were actually eagerly waiting for me to smile at them (people smile a lot here – it’s a bit weird!)!

Anyway, this means that every time I run, despite the lack of oxygen, I make an effort to smile at these German strangers. Hopefully they don’t try to take it any further and make conversation!

Mon mari est convaincu que je suis une ‘weirdo magnet’, c’est-à-dire, des gens un peu ‘différents’ voire ‘bizarres’ sont toujours attirés par moi. Dans le Métro (ou U-bahn), dans les rues, n’importe où en fait, j’arrive toujours à me trouver à côté un inconnu un peu différent. Ceci n’est pas toujours une mauvaise chose sauf que je ne suis jamais la règle d’or des transports en commun: ne pas regarder d’autres gens dans les yeux ni (surtout pas!) leur faire un sourire! Un sourire = invitation à me confesser toute votre vie, et cela m’est arrivé souvent!

Le résultat? J’ai déjà eu des discussions profondes avec des inconnus sur divers sujets, y compris les suivants (et ce n’est jamais moi qui commence la conversation!) :
- la nourriture Tunisienne (en voyant mes courses)
- la nourriture Asiatique (quelqu’un d’autre, en voyant mes courses)
- la raison pour laquelle cette personne a déménagé à Paris (sans raison)
- les sites touristiques à Paris (c’est normal – il y a beaucoup de touristes à Paris)
- le mariage et mon mari (quelqu’un qui a essayé de me draguer?)
- les avantages des ballerines dans le Métro (quelqu’un qui portait des sandales)
- les jeunes ne vont plus à l’église (un dimanche matin avec une vielle dame)

J’ai même déjà corrigé un CV en anglais pour un contrôleur de gestion entre la Gare du Nord et Denfert-Rochereau!

Alors maintenant à Frankfurt, car je ne parle guère allemand, j’évite de faire un sourire à n’importe qui. J’ai peur que un jour, je vais tomber sur quelqu’un qui va me suivre jusqu’à chez moi pour me parler des avantages de porter des chaussettes avec ses sandales pendant 2 jours, dans une langue que je ne comprends pas!

En fait, je vous raconte cela parce que je cours (um..marche très très vite) 3 fois par semaine sur les quais du Main (pour perdre mon muffin top!). Et chaque fois, ~~j’ai l’impression que~~ les autres gens me fixent! Au début, j’ai pensé que c’était peut-être les auréoles de sueur sous mes bras…et aussi sous ma poitrine! Ou peut-être l’odeur qui me suit (les auréoles de sueur vous savez?). Ou possiblement l’expression de douleur sur mon visage?

Finalement hier, sans y penser, j’ai fait un grand sourire (plus ou moins un sourire car c’est difficile de sourire quand on ne peut pas respirer!) à quelqu’un qui me fixait…et j’ai reçu 3 grands sourires (de lui et des 2 autres derrières!).

Et voila! Je savais pourquoi les gens me fixaient! Ce n’était pas mon visage rond, rouge et brillant de sueur mais en fait, les Allemands s’attendaient que je leur fasse un sourire (les gens sourient beaucoup ici!)!

Trop bizarre! En conséquence, chaque fois que je cours, malgré ma souffrance grâce au manque d’oxygène, je fais quand même un grand sourire aux Allemands inconnus. Tant pis s’ils essaient de me parler!

Têtes à claques revisited

2007-06-21T20:41:00.000+02:00

The latest super funny skit from Têtes à Claques is set in Paris.

This is really too funny!

http://www.tetesaclaques.tv/

NB:
“gosse” in French = kids
“gosse” in Québécois = balls…as in family jewels!

Muffin top me

2007-06-19T10:58:00.000+02:00

I think I’m going to have to accept it.

My metabolism just isn’t what it used to be. I put on my favourite pair of pantacourts (calf-length pants) this morning and to my horror, I had (all of a sudden of course!), developed a “muffin top”! And not just any muffin top, but a great happy, extremely sociable, jiggly muffin top that waves to everyone and anyone who passes by!

I have no idea how this happened but it seemed that it was an overnight thing! One day no muffin-top and the next, muffin-top! Surely is hasn’t been that long since I last put my pantacourts on? It was obviously my lucky night last night when the Muffin-top Fairy visited me!

Or maybe I should just be honest with myself and admit that yes that muffin top has been slowly growing and that sucking in my tummy just doesn’t make it go away anymore. :-(

I think my love of all things sweet and savoury, as well as too many Hoegaarden Citrons have created this monster!

Ps.
No, I’m not going to post a photo for you – it’s just not a pretty sight!

Britain’s Got Talent

2007-06-18T08:45:00.000+02:00

Yep, Britain definitely does have talent!
Mobile phone salesman (!) Paul Potts won the competition but who could resist another clip of little Conny Talbot whom I think everyone wants to adopt!

From behindthesecret on YouTube

Paul Potts and that amazing voice.

From myredroom on YouTube

Ten things you may not want to know about me

2007-06-15T10:28:00.000+02:00

I’ve been procrastinating about this tag from The Late Bloomer only because I’m struggling to come up with 10 things about me that are not too boring, bizarre (don’t want to put off any readers!) or just downright shameful to write about. After many sleepless nights, (ok, I didn’t really have any sleepless nights but it sounded more dramatic) I finally came up with the list!

1. When I was 8, I wanted to be a nun. Don’t laugh! I was very serious. There were nuns in my school in my little hometown of Klang (Malaysia) and they were lovely! I wanted to be just like them when I grew up!

Naturally I changed my mind…when I got into the animal phase that all little girls go through. I then wanted to be a vet.

2. I’m an only child but when I was little, I used to have imaginary brothers! All 7 of them! You know, like in the TV show (not the musical) 7 Brides for 7 Brothers ! I had to give them up when they started being a little too high maintenance!

I was also a real tom boy as a child and would climb trees and run around the neighbourhood with all my boy friends (not boyfriends! I was 7 or 8!). I grew out of it eventually but I can still out-skull* Pépé (not without consequences naturally!).

3. It pains me to say that I don’t have a single creative bone in my body but I really really wish I had. I love absolutely anything remotely pretty or crafty. I’ve basically attempted almost all crafty type activities at some point or other at my life.

I’ve knitted unfinished scarves, crocheted 1 finished scarf, made bracelets and necklaces which I never wear, sewed a skirt, which I do wear occasionally, painted pictures, sketched curtains (yes, curtains!), hand-made cards, hand-made little photo frames, Photoshopped invitations, and even hand-bound mini books!

Oh, and my greatest achievement, I’ve scrap-booked an entire photo-recipe album for a close friend’s hen night!

4. Naturally, loving the arts and crafts, I’m also a short course junkie! In addition to short courses for EACH and EVERY craft activity above, I’ve also done short courses in Spanish (all I remember now is how to order beer and ask if there is hot water!), Mandarin (I can write BIG and SMALL in Mandarin!) and Dutch (nothing. I remember absolutely nothing in Dutch). Oh, and I’ve also done photography, Illustrator, and cooking short courses!

I also used to love doing drama short courses. I found that it de-stressed me after a hard day’s work at the office! Pépé used to make fun of me and every time I’d get stressed or snappy, he’d tell me to “be a tree”!

5. Speaking of Pépé, I am 4 years older than him. I met him when I was 27 but he thought that I was 18! I didn’t really lie about my age…he just never asked me. Naturally, he impressed all his little friends by telling them my age!

6. I’m also a confirmed non-francophile. I never had an interest in France, French or anything remotely French. It was just another country on the other side of the world…until I met Pépé. It was also a complete accident that I even met Pépé.

It was back during my backpacking days. My working holiday visa for the UK had just run out but I wasn’t ready to head home so I planned to do a Spanish immersion course in Guatamala. However, my dad was completely against me going to Guatamala…you know, single young Asian female in a country with guerrillas! So I compromised and signed up for immersion French in Québec, which suited me as I was a bit of a Canadian-o-phile (Canadien men are hot!) at the time.

To cut a long story short, completely unplanned and on the rebound (bloody Canadien men! Not so hot afterall!), I met Pépé in Québec!

I’m still a non-francophile…though as I’m married to a French man, I don’t know if I still qualify ;-)

7. During my university years, I once worked at a hip but sleazy nightclub on King Street in Melbourne …for 1 night. I quit after the shift manager put his arm around me and said that he could see big things happening for me. I didn’t want to know how big! I then found a really fun job working as a waitress on big party boats that cruised the Melbourne Yarra River.

The only problem was that I get seasick (and carsick, bus-sick…basically any type of motion-sickness) extremely easily and once the boat that I was working on headed out to the bay on an extremely choppy day! The captain had to pull over and let me off!

It was also at this job that I met one of my closest friends Matt.

8. I love alternative rock and used to be try-hard alternative during my university days! I used to hang out with longhaired men, listened groups like the Soundgarden, Hüsker Dü, the Pixies and The Replacements, and wore a lot of black.

My musical tastes have somewhat expanded however, I still love the Pixies and prefer to write or study (when I last did my Masters) with Rammstein in the background…over and over again!

9. I’ve been lasiked! For years I used to walk around in a haze because I never realised that my eyesight was terrible. Then when I discovered, I moved onto heavy thick glasses that gave me headaches from the weight and contact lenses that dried up my eyes (especially from the smoke in those alternative type clubs that I used to hang out in!). Before I went on a 3-year working-holiday-backpacking trip overseas many years ago, I got lasiked. The procedure was pretty new but I jumped at the chance that it would save me from lugging all the contact lens solutions around with me. Plus, the freedom of waking up every morning with clear vision was too much to pass up.

The procedure was scary. I like being able to see (!) and the thought of someone hacking into my eyes …urghghghg. Being naturally cautious, I had 1 eye operated on first and then when that worked out well, 6 months later, I had the other done. I was extremely lucky as everything went smoothly and since then, I have never looked back!

10. I can’t sleep with the closet door open. If the closet’s in the bedroom, its door has to be closed! When I was in primary school and we were learning about World War 2, I once had a dream that an army of Nazis came out of my closet. Since then I have never left the closet door open when I’m in bed. Pépé thinks I’m crazy!

Phew, and there you have it – 10 things! I hope you haven’t run screaming the other way and madly clicking at your menu bar to get off my blog!

As with all tags, there’s no pressure to do them but I’d like to tag (and anyone else who wants to do this!):

Bee from A Malaysian in France
Island Girl from The New Pink
Catt from Does this Mean I'm a Grown-Up? (I’m still new to her blog!)
Kayatan from Seay’s Kopitiam (I’m not sure if you’ve already done this?)
Matt (is there anything that I don’t already know about you that I should know??)

*skull, to
verb:- to drink your drink in one go.

Step aside Julien!

2007-06-14T16:39:00.000+02:00

Forget Julien, King of Nouvelle Star. Check out this little cutie on Britain’s Got Talent.

Dublin

2007-06-12T08:18:00.000+02:00

Clockwise from top right:
Georgian doors in Dublin, Irish pub, postbox (even the postboxes are green!), people outside a pub, Christ Church Cathedral.

VO
One thing that never fails to amaze me about living in Europe is how close countries are! You can hop on a plane and in an hour, be in a totally different country with a completely different language and culture! Back in Australia, you hop on a plane and 1 hour later, you’re just in another city…though that can also mean totally different culture!

The other thing that I love about being in Europe…or at least Germany is the number of public holidays in May and the start of June! In May, almost every second weekend was a long 3 or 4-day weekend! Last weekend, we took advantage of our 4-day weekend and hopped over to Dublin!

Only a 2-hour flight, Dublin seems all at once, so far but yet, so near. Setting foot on Irish soil also reminded me of all the things that I missed about Anglophone culture, ie. the pubs! It was so refreshing to see people of all ages head for the pub for Friday after-work drinks. It wasn’t just seeing the people talking and laughing loudly (and also singing at one point!) in the pubs, but also spilling out of the pubs onto the footpath with pints in hand!

Dublin, despite being inundated with tourists and foreigners, still manages to keep that Irish charm. Service is friendly, taxi drivers always cheery (even at 5 in the morning!) and the Dubliners warm, helpful and always ready to have a chat! After 4 days, we were so ready to pick up and move over there!

Clockwise from top right:
Celtic cross at Glendalough, the Guiness lake (looks like a pint of Guiness on the side!), Upper Lake (Glendalough), view on the way to Glendalough, tower (Glendalough).

VF
Habitant en Europe, une chose qui m’impressionne toujours est la proximité des pays! On peut prendre un avion et en une heure, être dans un autre pays avec une culture (et une langue) complètement différente. En Australie, une heure dans l’avion et on n’est que dans une autre ville…pourtant cela peut aussi dire une autre culture!

L’autre chose que j’aime de l’Europe…ou au moins de l’Allemagne est le nombre de jours fériés en mai et au début de juin. En mai, presque chaque deuxième week-end est un week-end de 3 ou 4 jours! Le week-end dernier, nous avons bien profité de notre week-end de 4 jours en allant à Dublin!

Seulement 2 heures de Frankfurt, Dublin semble assez loin mais en même temps très proche. En mettant le pied sur le continent Irlandais, je me suis rappelé de toutes les bonnes choses anglophones qui me manquent (c’est-à-dire, les pubs!).

C’était rafraîchissant de voir des gens de tout âge au pub le vendredi soir après une semaine de travail. Les gens parlant et riant joyeusement (et aussi chantant à un moment donné!) n’étaient pas seulement dans les pubs mais aussi sur le trottoir à l’extérieur de pub, pints à la main!

Dublin, malgré l’inondation des touristes, arrive à garder son charme Irlandais. Le service clientèle est sympathique, les conducteurs de taxis toujours agréables (même à 5h du matin!), et les Dubliners chaleureux, prêts à rendre service et toujours ouverts à une discussion conviviale. Après seulement 4 jours, nous sommes presque prêts à emballer nos affaires et déménager dans ce pays vivant toute de suite!

A me rappeler / Note to self

2007-06-05T20:27:00.000+02:00

Il ne faut jamais appeler son mari une gonzesse et le défier à boire 3 0,5L weizenbiers (et 1 mojito!), et ensuite essayer de courir (ne me demandez pas pourquoi). Ceci fini généralement en spectacle où je trébuche et tombe au milieu de la route en entraînant mon mari…devant un bar plein de monde.

Do not ever call your husband a pussy and challenge him to drinking 3 0,5L weizenbiers (and 1 mojito!), then attempt to run (don’t ask). This usually results in me falling over and taking the husband with me…all in front of a crowded bar.

Favourite foods meme

2007-06-04T09:23:00.000+02:00

I was tagged by Seay’s Kopitiam a while back and have been procrastinating. Listing my favourite food here in my current place of abode, Germany, isn’t an easy task as I’m not a big fan of sausages and potatoes! And I don’t think that Beer necessarily falls into the “food” category. So as I was struggling to come up with just 1 favourite dish, I decided to list a few of my favourite foods from some of the places that I’ve lived in.

Favourite food from Paris:
Tendon (top left)
My favourite food from here isn’t French but Japanese! I love the tendon (tempura topped rice dish) from Kunitoraya in the heart of Paris. This little Japanese eatery serves up simple but tasty rice and noodle dishes in the midst of a city filled with croissants and confit de canard. The tempura here is perfectly light and crispy without a hint of oiliness and the rice, perfectly steamed firm grains of rice. YUM!

Favourite food from Frankfurt:
Thai red curry (top right)
Just 2 minutes from home, we have a fantastic Thai takeaway that so far, has the spiciest Thai curries in our neighbourhood. For roughly 5 EUR a curry (super cheap by European standards), this vegetarian red curry has everything a red curry should have – chillies and coconut milk, served with perfectly steamed rice!

Favourite food from Home (Malaysian):
Home-cooked char kuay teow (bottom left)
Living a long long way from Malaysia, char kuay teow (fried flat rice noodles) is hard to find here. This has to be my all-time favourite food. Judging from the entries by other bloggers, I’m not the only one that likes char kuay teow! Only problem, when you’re far from Malaysia, the only way of having char kuay teow is to make it yourself! So, I’ve included a photo of my home-cooked char kuay teow, and the perfect accompaniment to the dish: freshly cut chillies!

I’m supposed to tag 5 people but I’ll only tag 4 (I’d love to tag all the blogs that I read though!)! So if you’re interested in doing this meme, please go ahead! Don’t forget to let me know so I can check out drool over your favs as well!

Here are the instructions:

**Start Copy**
Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country?
Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it?
Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.
Tag Mode: You leave their blog, post link and add yours to the list below.

Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Montessorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
Leah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Hui Sia loves Crispy Duck Skin from China
Karen loves Pan Mee
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Giddy Tiger loves Dim Sum
CC loves Turkish Chicken on Rice
Criz Lai loves Sisters Char Koay Teow
Jamy loves a lot of stuff!
colourmecrazy loves tendon

**End Copy**

Here are the 4 bloggers that I'd like to tag :

islandgirl (so I can drool over her photos!)
thelatebloomer (who loves her comfort food!)
samdebretagne (I drool over her cakes!)
baguetteonmytable (is there more to life than biltong?)

A girl’s best friend

2007-05-30T10:04:00.000+02:00

Contrary to everyone’s belief, diamonds are not a girl’s best friend!

Everyone knows that a girl’s best friend is her trusty handbag (diamonds can’t produce that pack of wet wipes when you step in that dog poo!).

My handbag holds the solution to about 90% of any emergency situation that you could possibly encounter! Let’s see, on an average day, this is what you’ll find in my bag:

wet wipes
tissues
bandaids
purse (containing money, bank cards, carte de séjour, list of things to do)
tampons
1 mini sanitary pad (you never know when you might witness a car accident! This can be used to compress the wound and stop the bleeding…well…um…that’s what my mum-the-nurse tells me)

painkillers
diarrhoea tablets (you never know when you might need these!)
a bottle of water
2 pens
lip gloss (tinted)
lip balm (with sunscreen)
hand cream in a small container

chewing gum (for bad breath days)
sunglasses
2 hair ties
several paperclips
safety pins
a couple of hair clips
notebook/mini diary
a metro/u-bahn map
a book
an i-Pod

and on a rainy day, an umbrella as well.

It sounds like a lot but yes, it does fit in my bag, though opening my bag can be a health hazard. Picture a mini-explosion. You never know what will hit you in the eye as you unzip! And my bag does look like a stuffed hippo!

Anyway, browsing at one of my favourite shoe shops in Paris a few weeks ago resulted in me supersizing my everyday-carry-everything handbag.

Check out the before photo.

And the after photo!

I have to admit, it wasn’t so much the style but the size! Bigger is definitely better!

I now have more space than I know what to do with. Space for the water bottle that I always have with me, space for my sunglasses and case (if ever the sun comes back), space for a gossip magazine, space for a scarf…they all fit in comfortably instead of creating a mini-security scare every time I try to open my bag!

Ah, life is good.

Fokk me

2007-05-27T10:03:00.000+02:00

I had to hop over to Paris last Monday and managed to get a last minute Air France flight.

The aircraft however, wasn’t an Airbus (as Air France flights usually are) nor a Boeing, but a Fokker.

A Fokker 100 that is.

An excerpt of a phone call between myself and Pépé:

Me: I flew on a Fokker today. I’ve never heard of the Fokker.
Pépé: I have. Was it a big Fokker?
Me: Not really, more like a small and old Fokker.
Pépé: You know, those Fokkers have been around for a while now.

Why would you call a plane a Fokker?

The Unromantic Road

2007-05-20T16:38:00.000+02:00

May is a great month for long weekends. We had yet another 4-day weekend (Ascension) last weekend so we decided to see a bit more of Germany and headed down the extremely well-beaten tourist path, the Romantic Road.

The 2004 edition of the Lonely Planet Germany says that the Romantic Road in Bavaria “links some of the most picturesque towns and cities in Bavaria”. These picturesque towns include medieval Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl, Nordlingen and Harburg. Given my lust for medieval towns, naturally, this was a must-see for me!

Unfortunately, our first stop, the much hyped medieval Rothenburg was a bit of a disappointment. After Carcassonne and Cordes-sur-Ciel, Rothenburg’s overly restored and Disney-like facades just seemed a little “plastic” and somehow unauthentic.
We stayed in Dinkelsbühl, another restored-to-a-squeaky-clean-medieval town. Once again, the town didn’t really look medieval, just….German. Despite the long weekend, there weren’t many tourists around so visiting Dinkelsbühl’s majestic cathedral was extremely pleasant sans crowds.

While walking the streets of Dinkelsbühl, we spotted this house with a mini-me attached to it.
In Nordlingen, well, the most exciting thing about the town was that it’s apparently twinned with Wagga-Wagga in Australia! We didn’t actually take any photos of the town (!), except for this stork and its nest way on top of a restored-medieval house. This is the first time I’ve EVER seen a stork's nest!
Further down the road, we visited Harburg’s castle, which having being rebuilt, reconstructed and restored umpteen times since the original, it could hardly be called medieval!

As for the actual Romantische Straße itself, well, it didn’t leave me feeling very romantic. For most part, it was mostly flat farmland and petits patelins. There were some lovely views at the northern end, and I hear that it gets really pretty close to the southern end (we didn’t get that far) towards Füssen.

Icefest

2007-05-20T15:37:00.000+02:00

Germans like ice-cream. In fact, like is probably not a strong enough word. They love ice-cream! There are Eiscafés all over the place here. Eiscafés, usually have an unimpressive and unassuming exterior. It’s the interior and the menus completely dedicated to sundaes, ice-creams and sorbets of all types and flavours that are beyond impressive.

These places have everything from exotic and elaborate tropical fruit sundaes to rich and creamy milkshakes and smoothies. It’s a dairy-intolerant person’s (eg. Pépé) nightmare!

Just in 1 block of our local main street in Sachsenhausen, I can count about 3 Eiscafés! Anyway, the good weather has been an excuse for some dairy indulgence for me!

Wifey Part II

2007-05-16T14:08:00.000+02:00

You know what, given all the time that I have on my hands, I did actually Google “How to be a stay-at-home wife”.

The results were scary.

Have a look at this site. I’m not even sure if this is a real response to a real email.
Scary Link 1*

The author of the response liked having his wife at home where he knew that she was “safe”.

I don’t know which one was more frightening: the question or the response. Someone please tell me this is a joke.

And this is even scarier! There’s a whole guide out there!
Scary Link 2*

*Note: Both these links are not endorsed by the author of this blog. The author is damn sure that she does not share the same views as those expressed in these links.

Wifey

2007-05-15T18:37:00.000+02:00

There’s no way to put this delicately but…I’m bored. Bored stiff. Bored stiff in Frankfurt.

Anyone and everyone I know has been telling me how lucky I am being able to move to a different country, experience a different culture, learn a different language, see new things etc. etc., and I totally agree. I also agree that I’m lucky that I don’t have to face the 9 to 5 slog on a daily basis. However, I’ve realised that I can’t not work. I’m just simply not able to.

Not being able to work here (long story involving visas and contracts) is just about driving me crazy. Sure, Pépé and I left our highly stressed and super fast-paced lifestyle, not to mention the long long LONG work hours as cadres* (the 1 RTT* per month just wasn’t worth it) for seemingly laidback Frankfurt (well, it feels laidback compared to Paris), but going from overworked to not working at all just doesn’t sit well with me.

I feel like I should be doing something productive. Sure, learning German is productive, but I feel like I should be climbing some corporate ladder somewhere, sucking up to some ungrateful superior, taking coffee breaks when I’m not supposed to or even just whinging about having to go to work!

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of things that I can occupy myself with, for example, learning the articles for German nouns (they have 3 genders, 2 just wasn’t enough), but somehow it just feels like I’m idling the hours away. Maybe it’s my Asian upbringing where the constant climb the corporate ladder, climb the corporate ladder, get a career, get a career has been deeply engrained in my entire being, or maybe it’s just that I feel like a …wife. A stay-at-home wife.

After having played the “I am an independent woman, I make my own money, I can kiss arse and I can climb nice shiny corporate ladders as well as any man can” for nearly 10 years, I am now…a wife.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just not used to it.

So if you can excuse me now, I’m going to go Google “How to be a stay-at-home wife”.

* I’m not completely sure how to translate cadre, but in France, it refers to a category of employees, mostly white collar workers who have some kind of diploma to their name. Anyone out there with a better definition?
Anyway, when you’re a cadre, you work more than 35 hours per week but get compensated with 1 RTT (day off) per month.

** RTT = la réduction du temps de travail

Radio Quétaine

2007-05-11T09:17:00.000+02:00

quétaine adj. [Canada]

Définition :
De mauvais goût, artificiel, faux, clinquant, de peu de valeur.
Office québécois de la langue française
http://www.granddictionnaire.com/

For English-speakers, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_lexicon and search for quétaine.

So far, I still haven’t been able to find a decent radio station to listen to in Frankfurt. By decent, I mean something along the lines of Le Mouv in France, or TripleJ back in Australia or even 3RRR in Melbourne. You know, something with a bit of edge, and a little bit of variety.

Who knows, maybe I’m not looking in the right places but Germans, or at least the majority of the population in Frankfurt, seem to be stuck in the 70s and 80s (not the rocking 70s and 80s but the cheesy 70s and 80s)! I always believed that Germans were a hard-rocking nation…but unfortunately, so far, I’ve been disappointed.

Zapping though the various FM stations a couple of weeks ago (I’ve given up since then!) lead me to believe that:

a. No one here listens to the radio so the stations, manned by 50-something-year olds, just do as they please.

b. Germans just can’t get enough of the golden oldies!

Honestly, when was the last time that you listened to John Farnham’s You’re the Voice (this is an Australian thing) and Kylie and Jason's Especially for You on the radio?? I’m pretty sure that even Australian radio stations don’t play this anymore!

Oh sure, hearing these 2 gems over the radio every once in a while doesn’t really hurt, however when you hear them a few times over a couple of days...that’s pretty scary.

At the risk of shocking you even further, I won’t tell you that mullets are REALLY huge here!

Anyway, for those of you who aren’t familiar with John Farnham or Kylie and Jason, enjoy.

John Farnham video from Chaz2727 on YouTube

Kylie and Jason video from marc111 on YouTube

Pink nightmare

2007-05-09T17:52:00.000+02:00

I have sweat pouring down the sides of my face, my fingernails are torn and bitten to the nail bed and I’m in a mood that could sour the milk in every single cow on a Texan ranch! I’ve just spent the last 2 hours trying to bring our brand new WIFI internet connection to come to life.

While I’ve heard of lots of problems concerning T-Com (Deutsche Telekom), I have to say (TOUCH WOOD. I’m touching my wooden chair as I type) that so far, they’ve been pretty efficient. It has taken just under 2 weeks to get our phone and internet connection up and going. Connecting the internet in France took us about a month!

Despite a few teething problems (we had a problem with our phone line and within a day of lodging the issue, I was greeted by a young German T-Com employee this afternoon and the problem was fixed!) and an ugly PINK website, everything seemed A-OK…until it came to installing the internet connection.

Sure, I had a colourful, HOT PINK CD to help me along the process…only one problem…the CD wouldn’t run on my laptop as my operating system (lovely Windows Vista), was in French and not German! Phooey.

Establishing the connection isn’t really that difficult once you work out that the username given by T-Com is the number XXXXX, plus the number YYYYYYY and the number ZZZZZ added to “@something.com”. I’m sure it tells you somewhere in the manuals and the letters (printed on recycled paper, mind you. I was very impressed!), however, given that my German skills are nonexistent, it took me several hours of scouring expat forums on the internet to get this information.

Anyway, after long long hours of pulling at my hair and swearing to myself in every language that I could swear in, we have lift-off! I am now typing this little ditty over our brand new German T-Com internet connection. (and yes, I am still clutching my wooden chair)

Freaky

2007-05-08T08:47:00.000+02:00

Le Petit Prince in German.

Very very freaky.

And the winner is…

2007-05-07T07:46:00.000+02:00

M. Sarkozy.

No surprises there.

Criminal

2007-05-06T10:17:00.000+02:00

I stole something from a shop yesterday.
Well, not consciously!

In my entire life, I have NEVER ever consciously stolen anything (except for bandwidth!). No, not even when I was a kid, I never even sneaked any sweeties from the local store down the road.

Yesterday, after browsing through a fairly hip and trendy design-type store, on my way out, I picked up what I thought was a free magazine from a pile stacked up next to the exit, thinking that while I couldn’t understand German, it would be interesting to look at the photos.

2 hours later, sitting in a café drinking an iced coffee, I scanned through the magazine before noticing on the cover that its price was listed on the cover for various European countries. 2€ in Deutschland! That is, 2EUR in Germany! This means that I just cruised out of that shop, magazine in hand without paying for it! And no one stopped me. No one came up and said “Fraulein, you have to pay for that”. I just stole something!

I felt bad about it, and then started worrying that the CCTV cameras would now have me on tape (or even worse, on hard disk – you know, with the digital age and all) stealing that magazine. I could never go back to that shop! The German authorities probably had me on their most-wanted list, I could be deported! However, Pépé assured me that they had more important things on their hands than a short Asian girl pinching a 2EUR magazine.

The thing is, I thought it was free, given that the magazine was stacked up on the floor (not even in one of those magazine bins) right next to the exit door. Everyone knows that’s where you put free magazines!

If you don’t want people walking out with your magazines without paying for them, don’t put them near the exit!

So there you have it, that’s my dirty little secret. What’s yours?

Showdown

2007-05-04T18:54:00.000+02:00

Sure the presidential debate was important, but we all know, that the most important showdown on TV on Wednesday night was…Nouvelle Star!

Julien, you can light my fire anytime!

Video from Gouzou29 on YouTube

And my personal favourite – the Human Beatbox was on!

Video from tdrcau on YouTube

Video from Zarredarre on YouTube

The Expat Vote

2007-05-03T08:53:00.000+02:00

After last night’s big debate, the hot topic for today has to be Sarko vs. Ségo. While I didn’t get to watch the whole thing, given that I had a 7:30AM date with the German Foreigner’s Office (that’s a whole other story), I still caught a little bit of the showdown.

So who came out on top? In my un-Sciences-Po educated opinion (keep in mind that Pépé’s little toe has more political knowledge than me!), M. Sarkozy still came out looking a little shinier than Mme. Royal last night. Regardless, it would be interesting to see a female at the head of male-dominated France.

Given that most of the people stopping by here aren’t French, and therefore are not invited to the big election party this weekend, who do you think would make your expat life better in France? Who would you vote for if you were French?

Medieval mania

2007-05-02T12:42:00.001+02:00

Ever since I’ve been in Europe, I’ve been on a medieval frenzy visiting as many little medieval-type villages as I possibly can. And I’ve uncovered a goldmine here in Germany! Over the weekend, we headed to the Rhine Valley, stopping at a couple of restored burgs (castles) perched on hillsides and a teeny village sandwiched between hilly slopes and river.

First up, was Burg Rheinstein, one of the oldest Rhine castles.

The view from Burg Rheinstein.

Next up, Bacharach. I’m still not sure how to pronounce this, that is, I should use a hard ch or a soft ch. Should it be Ba-sha-rash? Or perhaps Ba-ka-rak? Or maybe a combination of the two, Ba-sha-rak or Ba-ka-rash?
Either way, it was Medieval!

And I had a great big giant cherry beer! So the medieval town looked even more Medieval after that.

We then climbed the hilly slopes behind Bacharach to Burg Stahleck. I’m not a viticulturist (is that a word?) but planting grape vines on an 80˚ slope seems like a whole lot of hard work to me!

Bacharach’s residents live in 2 time zones? It’s about 11h10 on the right side, and 3h on the left side.

I love rooftops.

Last stop, Burg Sooneck, where we had to don extra large floppy bedroom slippers over our shoes to visit the inside of the castle. They should have paid us the admission fee to clean their floors for them!

Shop till you drop

2007-05-01T09:19:00.000+02:00

Although I wouldn’t call myself a girly-girl, I do enjoy a good bout of window and non-window shopping from time to time. Sometimes it’s just an urge to buy something, regardless of whether I actually need anything. This pushes me to go on a huge day-long and sometimes aimless trek through shop after shop in search of something that grabs my eye. Other times, it’s because I actually ~~need~~ would like a new bag or a new dress, which results in yet another long but goal-oriented trek through shop after shop in search of that perfect bag or dress.

Pépé, on the other hand, only shops when he absolutely positively needs something such as a new pair of shoes because his one and only old pair of shoes is literally falling apart. Occasionally, both our needs coincide and we head out for a bout of team-shopping. Team-shopping from previous experience isn’t a good idea but for some reason, we keep forgetting and continue to commit the same crimes.

You see, I will browse through shop after shop until I find what I’m looking for. This sometimes can take a whole day of wandering through shops, picking up several items, trying on several items, not liking several items, heading to the next shop and repeating the process. Pépé tends to head into the first shop, finds something that more or less fits his purpose, purchases it and he’s done. When team-shopping, this just ends up in Pépé breathing louder and louder (on purpose of course) as the day goes on as I browse through rack after rack of brightly coloured garments, handing me any old dress (yellow makes me look sick!) and telling me to just buy something.

For me, it’s not just fulfilling the goal of purchasing, but also the process of getting to that goal (you know, it’s not the destination but the trip…). I like browsing through the racks and shelves, touching different textures and forms, seeing what one store charges for one item and finding it cheaper in another store (bonus!).

Sometimes, despite having a goal (ie. I’m actually looking for something specific), to the horror of Pépé, I come home empty-handed after a long day. However, I can be perfectly happy announcing that I haven’t spent a centime and have actually saved money by not spending! Pépé on the other hand, thinks that I’ve just wasted a whole day by trudging through shop after shop and not even buying anything!

Ich spreche nicht Deutsch

2007-04-27T22:07:00.000+02:00

No, unfortunately I don't speak German, and for some reason, I'm finding it impossible to remember any useful (or not) German phrases either. My vocabulary hasn’t really progressed past dankeshein and gutentag. I spend most of my time apologetically approaching strangers asking if they speak any English or even French. It's therefore a good thing for me that many Germans speak English. I don't ever remember French being this difficult to pick up!

I never thought I'd say this but it’s a total relief to speak French to Pépé when he gets home from work in the evenings. After signing my way through the day to get my message across, an airbus on full throttle couldn't have stopped me from blabbing away in French for 3 hours straight. Well, you know, when you have no TV or German bingo blaring in the background, you have enough material to whinge away for 3 hours.

One week later…

2007-04-26T17:05:00.001+02:00

And we’re still listening to German bingo echo out in the night! Not to mention the “wedding singer” type renditions of “Stand by me”, “Imagine” and “Knocking on heaven’s door” both before as well as after the bingo session. Having being rather warm lately, I suppose all doors and windows of the German bingo heaven were open last night, making it a rather late and sleepless night for us.

But the good news is that we will be moving into our very own furnished apartment in Frankfurt this weekend. Oh, for our very own bathroom again! It’s the simple pleasures in life isn’t it?

I’ll be looking forward to not having to scamper down the corridor dripping wet and wrapped in just a towel (there’s nowhere to hang anything else in the shared bathrooms of the pension). And no, it’s definitely not as sexy as it sounds given that I’m usually in a bad mood after the shower due to the minor soapy flood drowning my ankles as the water doesn’t drain away very well. Yes, I always have my rubber thongs (flip flops/slippers that is, not the g-string variety) on – who knows what you can catch in those shared bathrooms.

All we need now is internet connection so I don’t have to keep going to those smoke-filled phone/internet places where the keyboards hoard a mini-germ metropolis and conversations scream out in a multitude of languages. Cheap as they may be, all I can think of is what I can catch if I ever licked one of those keyboards…not that I’d have any reason to do that!

To Wiesbaden or not to Wiesbaden

2007-04-22T17:02:00.000+02:00

We’ve been flat hunting and so far our biggest decision is whether to live in Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. Do we want big city (ok, so Frankfurt really isn’t that big if you compare its 700 000 or so inhabitants to roughly 14 million in the Ile-de-France/Paris region) or little city life (Wiesbaden can’t really be called a “city”, it’s more like a town).

While Wiesbaden is lovely, it’s almost too clean and proper. Being the capital city of Hesse, I suppose, it looks like all capital cities do, that is, neat (in other words, BORING!). I never really thought of myself as being a citadine but I actually like the grittiness of cities and the hustle and bustle of traffic and people.

Regardless, Wiesbaden did have some lovely gardens.

Pretty gardens.
This one is a little too “Geneva” for me!

Snob

2007-04-20T16:23:00.000+02:00

Grâce à un séjour de 3 ans à Paris pendant presque trois ans, je crois malheureusement que je suis devenue un peu…Parisienne…voir un peu snob. Le kaléidoscope des couleurs vives et vivantes, mais en même temps tant bien assemblées, de la mode des Parisiennes ne se trouve pas ici dans ce coin perdu. Ce défilé journalier des tissues extraordinaires ainsi que des sacs à main, des accessoires et des chaussures parfaitement coordonnés par ces Parisiennes impeccablement coiffées et maquillées me manquent!

Dans cette petite ville allemande où je suis depuis 1,5 jours, la mode n’est pas du tout une priorité. Bien sur qu’il y a des nombreux de choses plus importantes dans la vie que la mode, néanmoins, un pantalon de jogging gris et bien usé porté sous un pull également en gris, excessivement large et sans forme, ne devrait pas se présenter dans les rues.

Je sais, vous étés en train de vous dire que je suis bien trop superficielle et même un peu trop snob mais la plupart de la mode ici, franchement, me fait mal aux yeux.

Oui, évidemment ceci n’est pas toujours le cas partout en Allemagne…j’espère. Certes, cela ne veut pas dire que je suis la reine de la mode et que je suis toujours habillée en Parisienne ni que je suis toujours bien coiffée et maquillée, pourtant, j’évite de sortir en jogging sauf si j’ai l’intention de faire du sport.

D’ailleurs, je comprends bien qu’on n’a pas toujours envie de passer deux heures devant le miroir avant de sortir, mais cette dame habillée en gris pigeon aurait pu adopter des chaussures de sport. De plus, elle n’était sûrement pas obligée de porter des talons hauts (peu importe quelle couleur) avec sa tenue grise.

First impressions

2007-04-19T12:12:00.001+02:00

After a rather uneventful struggle to get to our pension,where they changed our reservations from a "double" room with shower and toilet, to one without (I'll get to that in a second), we finally managed to take in our relatively bleak surroundings before sitting down to an ultra cheap(but decent) Chinese meal.

We're currently residing in a little town that seems to have been constructed around a major automobile manufacturer (where Pépé is now employed), let's call it dasAutomobile. I kid you not. The town IS dasAutomobile, or dasAutomobile is the town - however you prefer to look at it.

Funny how in such a little lost town, the Chinese food was decent...however, not a chopstick was in sight! Forks were the norm.

As for the fickle pension, it's cozy...and clean. However the "double"room meant not a room with a "double" bed but a room with 2 beds. Grampa-&-granny-separated-beds-style sleeping has been enforced upon us! And I suppose I shouldn´t mention the bar next door that has LOUD German bingo echoing around the neighbourhood in the evenings...or the guy in the room next to us who makes cups of coffee at 6AM in the mornings.

Needless to say, we are looking for alternative temporary accommodation.

Moving!

2007-04-17T21:49:00.000+02:00

It’s finally arrived. D-Day.

We’re leaving Paris tomorrow for equally sunny but significantly less romantic Frankfurt so it might be slightly quiet on the blog front for the next couple of weeks!

In the mean time, enjoy spring (or autumn) and see you on the other side!

Trafic perturbé

2007-04-15T17:15:00.001+02:00

In a sprawling city like Paris, it’s easy to get lost, and also to lose yourself in the mass population that lives here. It’s also easy to ignore the poverty and the extreme homeless population that lives anonymously behind the glitz and glamour that is Paris.

Taking the metro almost daily, we’re familiar with the trafic perturbé à cause du voyageur malade (disrupted traffic due to sick passenger) messages. For me, this message conjures up images of some old lady feeling a little faint on the metro. Last weekend however, we found out first hand what this message actually means.

We hopped onto the metro to see a man (judging from appearances, this man appeared to be homeless) slumped out on the floor of the metro of the carriage…slumped on the floor between the seats with food spilled around him. Slumped, not as in taking a nap but slumped in a way that you would never hope to be.

If you’ve ever been to Paris, you’d know that the metro is not one place that’d you’d like to be on the floor. Between the inches of bacteria, thick dust and sticky pollution, there’s only more bacteria, dust and sticky pollution.

Anyway, after making sure that he was still breathing, for the lack of knowing what to do, at the next stop, we jumped off and ran to the front of the metro to stop and warn the driver before he could take off again.

How long had he been lying there? There were other people in the carriage when we got on. How long had they been ignoring him? Did they just think that he would sleep it off?

The only thing that restores my faith in humanity is that when we ran to stop the metro driver, someone else ran with us.

Carcassonne

2007-04-12T10:57:00.000+02:00

2 weeks later and I still haven’t finished posting photos from our Carcassonne trip.

Carcassonne, a superbly preserved medieval city, is unfortunately overrun by tourists, both in the peak and off-peak season. Despite having planned our trip in the off-peak season, while pleasantly peaceful when night fell, Carcassonne’s tiny cobble stoned alleys were uncomfortably crammed with lively members of tour groups.

After all the build-up of Carcassonne (me and my medieval obsession), I was a little disappointed, especially after having been to “unpreserved and completely au-naturel” Cordes-sur-Ciel. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Carcassonne but it just seemed a little too…clean. It seemed like someone had gone through Carcassonne with a shiny-stick and put all the unwieldy cobblestones and bricks back into place. It almost reminded me of a reconstructed Disney village of sorts.

Despite this, I still loved looking at the cité from afar. We were lucky enough to find a little oasis of a hotel with a fantastic view from its terrace.

The other problem with visiting very touristy places is finding a decent place to eat. In a labyrinth of tiny alleyways and groups of slow-moving tourists browsing the expensive contents of shop windows, it can be hard to find a decent restaurant that doesn’t exploit the average client by serving mediocre food at elevated prices.

Browsing off the beaten-path (only slightly as there are no unbeaten paths in the cité!), we stumbled across the Adélaïde. With a respectably priced menu offering something other than cassoulet (it’s the region’s signature dish), orange walls (my favourite colour!), a charming, friendly (gasp!) and unnaturally efficient (gasp again!) waiter, and a deliciously decadent pear crumble, we ended up going back there twice during our stay.

So, if you’re ever in Carcassonne, fight the tourists and take in the sights then reward yourself with a delectably buttery pear crumble at the Adélaïde

Adélaïde
5 r Adélaïde de Toulouse, CARCASSONNE

On hold

2007-04-07T10:25:00.000+02:00

The immediate move back to Melbourne has been temporarily put on hold. We’re moving to Germany for at least the next 4 months. I feel like a teeny blade of grass swaying in the extremely violent wind.

I’ve been oscillating between extreme excitement at the prospect of discovering a whole new language (I literally can’t speak a word of German!) and culture (Germans scare me!), and pure fear (OMG, I’m going to be experiencing my first year in France all over again – only this time, I have no references to the culture ie. Pépé’s not German and can’t speak a word of German either!).

What happens when both parties can’t speak the language? The thing is, the whole time that I’ve been here, integrating into life in France has definitely been made easier by the fact that Pépé is French. Now I’m about to discover what life is really like for all those expats that move here without French partners.

Will I ever be able to get a job there without knowing any German? I’m a lousy housewife. I need to work. I’m bored when I’m not totally stressed out trying to multitask 500 things at the same time.

Anyway, I went out and bought a pocket handbook: Allemand pour Les Nuls (German for Dummies). Only, the book is in French. Is it possible to learn a third language from a second language? What does that do to my first language?

Either way, Allemand pour Les Nuls obviously didn’t see me coming when it was published. I’m beyond “dummy”. I should have gone for the Complete Idiot’s Guide instead, or maybe just the full-size German for Dummies.

I just don’t get German. Ok, I’m trying to learn a whole language from a bright yellow handbook the size of my wallet (I’m exaggerating a little, it’s not that small) in less than 3 hours. I need to be a little more patient.

Now that I’ve been living in French for a while and enjoying my new-found confidence in French, I’ve forgotten how “challenging” (a big bloody pain) it can be to learn a new language.

And the worst thing about moving to Germany for the next few months…I miss the rest of the Nouvelle Star season! (Yes, Pépé thinks that I need help as well)

Anyway, wish me bon courage!

I love Wednesday nights

2007-04-05T18:48:00.000+02:00

Ok, who didn’t just fall head-over-heels in lust with Julien from Nouvelle Star after his jazzed-up-way-out-there rendition of Madonna’s Like a Virgin last night? It was nice to see something different than the standard Mariah Carey wanna-be. Though, Pépé has been telling me that I have seriously weird taste in men…what does that say about Pépé himself?

Anyway, judge for yourself and check out the clip here.

I’m such an adolescent! Next thing you know, I’ll be sms-ing my vote in, together with the other 15-year old females out there!

Give me cobblestones

2007-04-03T10:27:00.000+02:00

In keeping with the whole medieval-fortified town, we chanced upon a little place called Cordes-sur-Ciel, perched on a little hill about 20 minutes from Albi.

It was nice to finally see a town that hadn’t been restored to a sparkling brilliance, you know, where the cobblestones are a little too regular and you can’t see any weeds growing in-between them, where the walls of buildings have been repainted and then repainted again, and where everything looks like a reconstruction of some medieval Disneyland.

This place actually had residents still living in its little uneven, weedy (lots of weeds between those cobblestones!) and narrow streets. Plus, as it was slightly off the beaten path, there were hardly any tourists (or tourist shops) around. I loved this place!

Cordes from a distance. A dark and narrow alleyway with a view of the valley below. Cobblestones and weeds! People actually live here.

Of little pleasures

2007-04-01T19:27:00.000+02:00

A special on train fares resulted in us impulse-buying tickets to Toulouse last week. We spent 4 days driving around between Toulouse and Carcassonne in great sunny weather.

The main aim of the trip was Carcassonne, listed as a Unesco World Heritage site! The main aim of the trip was Carcassonne, listed as a Unesco World Heritage site! I’m going through a slight (ok, major!) medieval-fortified-cobble-stoned-little-town-or-city obsession at the moment.

First stop was Albi, birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, home to the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum and obviously a popular stop on the itinerary of every Italian tourist this side of the Equator (for some reason there were hordes of Italian tourists there!). Albi was also embroiled (a long long time ago) in the nasty business of a crusade against the Cathars resulting in a bloody history for a relatively peaceful and picturesque town.

As for Toulouse-Lautrec, what can I say? The guy liked to hang out in Parisian brothels. (Check out his work here)

Here’s an interesting Toulouse-Lautrec fact for you – his parents were first cousins! Urghghhhh – not a nice thought.

We stayed in a lovely little hotel manned by a paranoid owner with the memory of a goldfish. He first of all didn’t have our reservations, even though we emailed a confirmation, and then forgot that he asked for a confirmation by email when we called to reserve. He then proceeded to tell us that their Internet connection had been on the blink since who-knows-when and he couldn’t check the hotel’s emails…so why did he ask for a confirmation by email in the first place?

Anyway, some pretty pictures…

This is where Toulouse-Lautrec used to live.

The other side of Albi - pretty huh? (I had to cut out the tall housing commission type buildings that were on the right of this scene.)

The Iron Lady

2007-03-24T10:37:00.000+01:00

We finally got our butts off our sofa and made it up the Eiffel Tower after 3 years of talking about it. While Pépé and I have both been up the Eiffel Tower separately in our previous lives, we have never been up together…until yesterday that is. “How romantic!” I hear you say? Not quite!

I never realised how tolerant visitors to Paris can be. Have you seen those queues for the Eiffel Tower during summer (and winter…all year round in fact!)?? They go for miles and miles (or kilometres and kilometres if you work in metric!).

As we were there during the week on an exceptionally cold evening, there was “hardly” anyone there, that is, the queue actually began within the barriers (there’s a maze of barriers just before the ticket office).

However, it still took us roughly 45 minutes just to buy tickets, another 20 minutes to get in the elevator to get to the 2nd floor and yet another 20-30 minutes to get to the 3rd floor (you have to change elevators at the 2nd floor to get to the 3rd floor ie. another queue!)! We were lucky. Usually, the queue goes for another 4-8 (depending on the time of year!) metres after the start of the barriers

Anyway, after over 1.5 hours of braving the winter cold and the hordes of American tourists (don’t get me wrong, I like Americans and have lots of American friends! And the USA…did I ever tell you that I spent 2 months driving across the USA and Canada way way back when I was still young and carefree? Loved it – though I did gain about 5 kgs from drinking too much root beer! Mmmm root beer…Oops, digressing…) and loud loud Italian teenagers (is it the school holidays over there??), we finally made it up and had our breath knocked out of us by the fabulous views (and the super cold wind).

We live behind the Tour Montparnasse (big tower in the background)

The lovely Seine

Trocadero with La Défense in the distance.

It was seriously worth it. Don’t let the over-6 719 200 (for 2006) tourists a year scare you.

Ps.
Here’s a couple of tips:
1. I once got there at 8:30AM (way back in ‘97) and there was absolutely no queue! Pépé reckons only super nerdy tourists (ie. me) do that!

2. If you don’t feel like waking up at 7AM, then bring a good book and/or your iPod, as you’re in for a wait!

Global warming

2007-03-21T15:58:00.000+01:00

The weather here has gone a little crazy lately.
We had (big lumps of) hail, snow, rain and sunshine all in the same day yesterday!

(The white stuff on the ground = nasty bits of icy hail)

Mistakes

2007-03-20T09:25:00.000+01:00

I knew it was a mistake packing away our winter coats (1st mistake) after last week’s fantastic weather. I’ve had to unpack 2 boxes just to get them out again. Not much fun.

Other than packing and repacking boxes, our weekend to La Rochelle and the surrounding area (Deux Sèvres) was rather ‘interesting’. We were at a surprise party (2nd mistake) for one of Pépé’s school friends that he hadn’t seen for over 10 years.

Before arriving, after having driven 4 hours in the morning, Pépé and I were exhausted and decided that we would just stay a couple of hours to say hello then head off. Unfortunately, upon arriving, we discovered that it was a sit-down affair (for 20 people!).

It was definitely an extremely interesting surprise party where the mother of the birthday boy wanted all the guests to hide upstairs and come down in pairs holding lit candles and singing happy birthday when the birthday boy walked in (about 2.5 hours after everyone got there!!).

Naturally, the birthday boy, upon seeing all these people that he didn’t know (the partners of long lost friends) and people that he sort of knew but couldn’t remember where from (the long lost friends), looked like he just wanted to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Needless to say, it all felt a little surreal.

Still, you had to give it to the mother for the effort that she put in!

Ps.
Here’s a photo of our favourite cat Caline (the inlaws’ cat).

Road trip

2007-03-16T22:45:00.000+01:00

We’re off to see the Wizard…the wonderful Wizard of Oz…

Ok, no, not really.

We’re heading to La Rochelle tomorrow. It’s a 4-5 hour drive with our car boot full of junk that we’re going to offload on the in-laws. What fun!

3 down, who-knows-how-many to go

2007-03-14T20:39:00.000+01:00

Ok, I’ve started packing boxes…very very slowly.
I even got a little sidetracked today by this little chocolate bunny (no thanks to our “good” friends from the UK!).

This is the before shot.

This is the after shot.

And it’s not even Easter!

Boxes packed: 3
Lord of the Rings watched (again) while packing: 1 (Return of the King)

What I have been doing instead of packing

2007-03-13T09:24:00.000+01:00

1. Procrastinating

2. Doing a Louvre nocturne (night) visit

3. Visiting the Sacre-Coeur (thanks to Ness for the photo - I was too lazy to take more photos of the basilica!)

4. Visiting Versailles

5. Eating too much

6. Drinking too much

7. Cruising down the Seine on the Bateaux Mouches

8. Shoe perving (love those red boots)
9. And last but not least, shopping at the Grands Magasins

Ok, I have an excuse; we’ve had friends over from London! Plus the weather has been fantastic! But the weekend’s over and it’s back to just plain old procrastination now.

Boxes packed: 0

It’s back

2007-03-07T18:43:00.000+01:00

To Pépé’s horror, Nouvelle Star (France’s version of American/Australian Idol) is back! Whoohoo. Given that it’s still the early stages, the episodes are full of horrendous examples of why some French people should never sing in English!

I love this show.

Idril Aldaríon

2007-03-06T18:19:00.000+01:00

Colourmecrazy’s elvish name is Idril Aldaríon.

What’s your elvish name?

It’s not that fast

2007-03-05T19:42:00.001+01:00

Living and working in Paris means that you get to know the metro system pretty well after a while. At first of course, you spend your time taking the long way around the tunnels and stairs to get to the line that you want. However, after a few months (I’m a slow learner), you start to catch on to a few little tips on how to get home quicker, or sleep in just that little bit longer, for example, whether you need to be at the front of the metro, the middle or the back end, or whether if you took this tunnel (despite the no entry sign), you would get to the exit 30 seconds faster than the legitimate route.

You also know that if you have to change to the number 4 at Montparnasse and you’re at Saint-Lazare, then while catching the number 13 will get you to Montparnasse just that little bit quicker than the 12, it’s a looonnngg walk between the 13 and the 4…unless of course, the 9km tapis roulant at Montparnasse is working (which it hardly ever seems to). The 9km tapis roulant is of course, the mythical super-fast “walkalator” (as in escalator, only flat).

This super-fast walkalator spends at least half the time en panne (moving at the rate of 0km, ie. not moving at all), the other half running in the opposite direction to the one that you’re going, and provides tremendous entertainment. People stumble, swear, and fall over constantly, unless of course, you’re Parisien, in which case, you would do a short lead-up run, cartwheel and jump, all in 2-inch heels of course. There’s also the constant drone of a dull dull recorded RATP- employed voice telling people to keep your feet flat on the floor, but no one seems to listen.

Anyway, I don’t really have a funny anecdote about my experiences on the super-fast walkalator except for watching people fall over all the time (and no, I’ve never fallen over because I listen to that dull dull voice that tells me to keep my feet flat on the ground), and we know that it’s not very funny when you’re the one doing the falling. I just wanted a good excuse to put up a photo that I took, after plucking up the courage and dodging the rush hour Parisiens to take my very own (slightly fuzzy) photo of the walkalator tunnel.

Besides, we all know that the 9km/h is just a myth. I’ve been on that thing and I’m positive that I’m definitely not going 3 times faster than the lost tourist on the 3km/h walkalator next to it. Still, there’s just something so Bladerunner about that tunnel.

I apologise

2007-02-28T17:28:00.001+01:00

For every time I’ve sworn, cursed and bitched at the cost of getting documents translated from English to French.

For every time I’ve wished that the butts of every single translator that I’ve used would grow to the size of an elephant’s.

I have just translated (for free!) a 45-slide PowerPoint presentation from French to English as a favour for a colleague. It was like pulling my fingernails out one by one. I now understand why document translations cost so much.

Life skills

2007-02-27T10:44:00.000+01:00

As we get closer to leaving Paris, I’ve been reflecting on the past couple of years and the experiences that I’ve had since moving here. I’ve definitely realised that Paris, France and life here have definitely had an impact on my personality and behaviour, for better or for worse.

Here are a few things about myself that I’ve improved from being in France, or to be more precise, from being in Paris.

Imagination
I’m able to completely imagine myself someplace else for hours while waiting in queues.
Patience
Pépé can tell you that I’m one of the most impatient people around. Waiting in queues has allowed me to develop the ability to be patient and remain calm in the most frustrating of situations (eg. the damn Préfecture).
Perseverance
If in doubt, or even if not in doubt, ask and ask again, then ask someone different. This is important when dealing with any form of French administration.
A ~~thick~~ thicker skin
I’m not fond of grumpy people that I don’t know and tend to go out of my way to avoid confrontation. Since I’ve been here however, confrontation seems to be a way of life and so, I now confront away and demand my right to be treated like a grumpy old Parisienne as well.
Language skills
It’s not so much learning to speak French as learning to be demanding and assertive in French.
Writing skills
I can now automatically write ‘decimals’ with a comma and not with a dot (this is especially important when writing cheques).
Reading skills
To avoid nasty surprises, never ever skip the little teeny weeny writing way way at the bottom of any paperwork that you sign.
Motor skills
For a tomboy who only ever wore heels on extremely special occasions, I can now walk 5 metro stops and run down cobble-stoned alleyways in 2inch heels without breaking a sweat (very useful when public transportation is on strike, late or disrupted, or when I’m just plain late for work).
Fashion skills
I’ve learnt to shop till I drop for hours on end (in 2 inch heels of course).
Charm
Sorry to say but being female and turning on the charm works very well in situations where miracles are needed eg. when dealing with French administration.
The ability to talk to strangers
I should probably stop doing this on the metro though.
The ability to smile
Sometimes, all you can do is smile and laugh at the situation that you’re in.

What skills have you improved lately?

Listless

2007-02-25T13:49:00.001+01:00

Some days I just get like this.

I have a million things to do but don’t know where to start.
If I could start, I probably wouldn’t even finish. (My half-finished knitting and various other art projects are proof of this.)
I could go for a walk and soak in the winter sun (whatever there is of it) but I’m just too lazy to put my shoes on.

I’ll probably end up feeling guilty and grumpy for wasting a perfectly good day.

Either way, I think I’ll just crawl back into bed with a good book (and a big bar of chocolate) and wait for tomorrow.

Ghost Rider

2007-02-24T10:56:00.000+01:00

After watching a very entertaining Ghost Rider at the movies yesterday, Pépé and I had the following conversation in English.

Pépé: That Nicolas Cage looked like he had been pushing lead!
Me: Huh?
Pépé: You know, Nicolas Cage looked like he had been pushing lead.
Me: ….????….Pushing lead???…(long silence)…..Ohhhhh, you mean pumping iron!

In French, pousser la fonte translates literally to ‘pushing cast iron’!

Who knows where he got the ‘lead’ from?

Queen of procrastinators

2007-02-21T10:20:00.000+01:00

It’s been 2 working days since I finished work. I should have at least sorted out part of our closet by now…or at least 1 drawer…but so far…zip, nada, nothing! And I have to say: I’m bored!

Sure, I have a ton load to do: get removal/shipping quotes, sort out our clothes, sort out paperwork, sort out a million things…but it’s just so much fun sitting and playing on the internet!

In the meantime, here’s a photo from an unexpectedly lovely area with a real village feel to it in the 13e arrondissement of Paris: La Butte aux Cailles.

Têtes à claques

2007-02-20T09:31:00.000+01:00

This has to be the funniest thing from Québec since….ever.
Check it out.
http://www.tetesaclaques.tv/

My favourites are the pilot episodes.

ps.
The site’s only in ~~French~~ Québécois.

Everyone needs a hug

2007-02-19T17:36:00.000+01:00

I came across this while reading The Age today. Captured on video in Sydney, this guy definitely brought a smile to my face.

Check out the Free Hugs Campaign.

(Music by the Sickpuppies)

Year of the Pig

2007-02-18T18:32:00.000+01:00

It’s times like this when I miss my totally neurotic, crazy, crazy Asian family back in Melbourne! If we were in Melbourne, we’d be madly having the usual multi-course dinner garnished with the usual harmless family gossip right now.

A Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year to all out there.

C’est la fin

2007-02-16T20:27:00.000+01:00

It was my last day at work today. I decided to leave work 1 month early so that I could start sorting out our stuff and most importantly, find a decent company to ship our stuff back to Australia. Plus, I figured, 1 month would give me enough time to enjoy the last part of our stay in Paris.

Having worked crazy hours (ie. Leaving at 7:30am and getting home at 8pm) for the past 2 years, this month would give me time to do all the things that I could never do outside the weekend, and without the usual Paris crowd crush.

For example, I could go shopping during the week without having the usual long Saturday queues for the changing rooms. I could do our grocery shopping without having to battle for space in the narrow aisles. I could visit museums and actually take my time instead of having to move along quickly because the family of 5 kids behind me were breathing down my neck...though I’m not so sure about that last one seeing as school holidays just started!

On the down side, I’m going to miss the camaraderie of my colleagues and generally, just being part of a team. Plus, I was never one to be a stay-at-home-house-wife. I can see myself enjoying the first day, and then slowly but surely, going crazy due to the lack of extreme work stress. I know, I complain a lot about being stressed out and never having enough time due to my work, but when I’m not totally stressed out, I’m bored.

Either way, this is only the beginning and despite all my complaining about work, I’m definitely going to miss it.

So, the mood for today: I want to stay in Paris!

Happy Valentine’s

2007-02-14T20:45:00.000+01:00

Yes, yes, it’s Valentine’s Day.

Sure, we all know it’s a huge commercial scheme to make us spend more money, but heck, it’s really sweet watching men of all ages and sizes plunder down the street, arms full of flowers. It just makes your heart melt.

Love is definitely in the air.

Ripped off

2007-02-12T21:20:00.001+01:00

Ok, I’m freakin’ pissed off. We just had to pay 500euros to replace a deadlock! (that’s like over $800AUD!)

Unbelievable! Our deadlock broke this morning and basically we couldn’t open it from the outside, meaning that we would have been locked out. So, we called some locksmith, who first of all, charged us 40euros (which they kindly “forgot” to mention over the phone) to come out to do the quote! So, even if we didn’t go with them, we would still have to pay the 40euros.

Arghghgghh! It’s enough to make me totally re-evaluate why we’re leaving Paris in the first place. Suddenly, I’m not that keen on staying anymore.

Mood for today: We’re getting out of here!

Stuffed

2007-02-11T19:01:00.000+01:00

I had a huge craving for sweet stuff today. With nothing resembling sugar in our kitchen, I ended up going to the local boulangerie (which is definitely way too close to home), and came home with a tartelette AND a chocolate éclair…which I scoffed down in about 2 minutes.

Here’s another reason why we should move back to Australia – we need to move before I gain 10 kgs every time I walk past the boulangerie.

More South Africa

2007-02-01T22:51:00.000+01:00

More photos of our recent trip.

Cheetahs spotting humans.

Giraffes in Kruger National Park.

Hippo taking a swim.

Not a very happy monkey.

Cape Town from Table Mountain.

Old fashioned

2007-01-31T21:49:00.000+01:00

On our way back from trip in South Africa, we made an impulse buy. We upgraded our non-digital Canon SLR to the new digital Canon 400D SLR. We’re now completely digital, from our little Sony quick shot snappy thing to our fancy SLR.

Since we only bought our digital SLR after the trip, a good part of our holiday photos are on film. 10 rolls of film to be precise. (Yes, in 3 weeks, we took 10 rolls of film – all 24 shots, filled a 500MB memory stick twice, and 2 128MB memory sticks)

Anyway, while it cost us a whopping 155 euros to develop 10 rolls of film, it still makes me a little sad to think that we’re abandoning a lifetime of eager apprehension and excitement of getting back packets of developed film, ripping apart the packets and flipping through the prints while laughing and giggling at the funny faces and bad hairdos in the photos.
Sure, we can do all that on computer now, you know, browse through the thumbnails of all our digital shots or even launch slide shows, but somehow that’s just not the same as having the actual photos in our hot little hands.

I remember back in my university days, taking a darkroom class and watching images in black and white prints slowly appearing while soaked in weird smelling solutions in shallow containers. Yet another pleasure that I’ll probably have to describe to my future children (if any!) in the past tense.

Well, despite our fancy new digital SLR buy, I think I’ll still be hanging on to all my film cameras for now…just for old times’ sakes.

Leaving

2007-01-30T21:55:00.001+01:00

Now that we’ve decided that we’re moving (ie. leaving France!)…the question is when? We’ve decided to aim for the end of March, though that seems pretty soon to me.

Anyway, I’ve started to put together a list of all the furniture that we need to either give away or sell before then and I’m getting all sentimental over crappy bits of Ikea furniture!

Each piece seems to have a memory attached to it. For example, the Ikea kitchen table that gave Pépé 2 huge blisters and several dents to his manhood as he struggled to put it together without a drill, the futon that welcomed several overseas visitors (both wanted and unwanted!), the underwear drawer that kept falling apart thus spilling its contents into the drawer below…the list goes on.

This move is going to be a tough one.

And it’s just the beginning.

Geek

2007-01-26T21:24:00.000+01:00

I have to say, Blogger is just fantastic!
I was able to change the look of my blog (I got bored with the old layout) in about 10 minutes flat! I was quite impressed.

Though, it’s probably not so impressive that I’m home on my couch on a Friday night playing with my blog.

So uncool.

I’m such a geek.

Office gossip

2007-01-25T20:45:00.001+01:00

I just found out that our office manager at work is about to move in with her new beau of about 5 months. And this is the new new beau, not the new ex-beau that she was recycling for a while last year!

I’m away 3 weeks and so much happens!

South Africa

2007-01-23T21:29:00.000+01:00

As promised, here are a few photos from the recent trip to SA.

A couple of “gentle” giants in Kruger National Park.

The Bo-Kaap in Cape Town.

View of Table Mountain from Signal Hill (still in Cape Town).

View from Table Mountain.

Penguins at Boulder’s Beach (I have a million photos of these cute little things!).

Bridesmaids and bride showing off their nail jobs.

The bridesmaids’ bouquets.

The sexy groom and absolutely gorgeous bride.

Another beautiful day in Sedgefield.

Post-holiday blues

2007-01-22T18:10:00.001+01:00

It’s hard coming back from a glorious 3 weeks in sun and surf to cold, gloomy wintry weather. But I suppose that I should look on the bright side and relish in the fact that we were lucky enough to have had a great 3 weeks full of fun, sun, friends and new experiences.

Here are some of the highlights:

An extremely poignant visit to Soweto and the Hector Peterson museum taking in South Africa’s disturbing and violent past.
Astonishment at the level of security of homes in Johannesburg. High walls, barbed wire, automatic gates and armed response signs are the norm here.
Spotting elephants, kudus, waterbuck, impalas, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, cheetahs, leopards, warthogs and many more other exotic animals in Kruger National Park.
Seafood in Cape Town’s Waterfront.
The sweeping views from Table Mountain in Cape Town.
Seeing the Bo-Kaap through the eyes of a local.
A sobering look at the other side of Cape Town, the Langa township in the Cape Flats.
An even more sobering visit to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was unjustly incarcerated for 27 years.
A relaxing 2 hours squeezed in between wedding chores at Camp’s Bay beach with the bride and groom.
The laidback Cape Town vibe in general.
Meeting the bride’s mum for the first time and having her say that she feels like she already knows me even though we had never met before. (The bride and I have been friends for over 10 years!).
Girlie bonding over a trial bridal hair and makeup session (not that the bride needed the makeup at all!).
More girlie bonding over a manicure session before the big day.
Being a bridesmaid for the first time in my life!
Having to have my “wedding hair” redone because the bride didn’t like my look – she thought that I looked a little bit unnatural! Hehe – brides are always difficult on the big day!
Watching two very good friends tie the knot on a gorgeous sunny day in Stellenbosch.
Overeating and over drinking at the fabulous wedding.
More overeating at the post-wedding picnic at Spier.
Sundowners every chance we got! (South Africans like to call watching the sunset with an alcoholic drink in hand a “sundowner”).
Taking a million photos of extremely cute penguins at Boulder’s Beach.
Strolling amongst breath-taking views at Cape Point.
A pleasant 5 hour drive down the Garden Route in the company of 3 very sexy men (that is, Pépé and 2 English friends), listening to the 1 Jimmy Cliff CD that we had over and over again.
More overeating at The Heads.
Wild drunken games of UNO with new and old friends at Sedgefield.
Learning to pronounce Knysna, that is, Nice-na rather than Kh-nis-na.
More beach time at Buffel’s Baai and Plett (Plettenburg Bay, or Baai in Afrikaans).
More overeating and over drinking.
But most of all, the highlight of the trip was definitely spending loads of idle fun-filled hours in the company of close friends.

Photos to come!

D-Day

2006-12-30T15:16:00.000+01:00

And we're off!
Off to South Africa for 3 weeks!
Just as well because I need a holiday!

Happy New Year to all out there!

Number 6

2006-12-29T19:22:00.001+01:00

There are some moments when I absolutely love Paris and want to live here forever. This morning, for example, when I took la ligne 6 (number 6 metro line) towards Bir Hakeim, I was ready to drop the whole moving to Melbourne idea once and for all.

The number 6 metro in the Charles de Gaulle Etoile direction runs overland for most part, instead of underground. On a cold winter’s morning like this morning, this meant that I was greeted by a misty view of the Eiffel Tower backlit by a red tinged sunrise.

It was enough to make a grown man cry.

Or make a grown woman never want to move back to Melbourne.

Missing Santas

2006-12-28T19:41:00.000+01:00

Driving in the Charentes during Christmas this year, we observed a severe lack of “climbing Santas”.

While Pépé thinks the Santas are super mauvais goût and extremely tacky, I absolutely love them! They definitely add colour to a gloomy winter’s day in some little grey French village, and besides, they’re just plain cute!

Anyway, for some reason, the Santas were in abundance last year, but sightings this year were rare. Luckily there were still enough around for me to get my fill.

Bonnes Fêtes

2006-12-25T12:09:00.000+01:00

Let the festivities begin!
Joyeux Noël to one and all!

Mad rush and pocket change

2006-12-22T09:24:00.000+01:00

It’s over!

The mad shopping rush is over…well, more or less. Just one more little gift to get and I’m really done. The shops were brimming full with short-tempered Parisians and window-shopping tourists yesterday! What the heck are the window-shopping tourists doing here at this time of the year? You don’t mess with the Parisian Last Minute Christmas Rush Crowd.

Anyway, next year I’m really going to do my Christmas shopping early (I say that every year).

But as a treat for making it through this period, Pépé and I went to see Stéphane Rousseau at the Bataclan. Having never been to the Bataclan, we were really surprised to hear the usher (after kindly showing us to our seats) lower her voice and discreetly inform us that the ushers there were only renumerated by the tips that they received!

In our awkward scramble for change, we both realised that we had none (kindly donated to the local clochard). The lovely usher, noticing our dilemma, kindly mentions that she was able to return change. Pépé then hands her a 5 euro note and asks for 2 euros change!

A not-so-quick mental minute later, I realise that we just handed over 3 euros (!!) to be ushered down a 7 metre walk to our seats! And I’m not even sure it was 7 metres - it was probably more like 5 metres! If I had known that I would have taken much longer to walk those 7 metres.

Anyway, the moral of the story for today, don’t leave Christmas shopping to the last minute and always have pocket change.

Ps.
Stéphane Rousseau was great!

Only 5 to go

2006-12-21T13:18:00.001+01:00

It’s crazy out in the shops but I have only 5 more presents to get!
May the force be with me!

Bored

2006-12-19T20:42:00.000+01:00

I’m just not cut out to be a housewife.

It’s been 2 working days since my last day at work and I’m officially bored. Sure, I should be embracing all this free time that I have, plus I have heaps of stuff to do, you know, tidy the place up, organise my closet, sort out 6 months worth of paperwork, get quotes from moving companies, Christmas shopping, finish various creative projects that I’ve started but never finished … and so on and so on. But with everyone I know at work, I have no one to chat to!

So I end up having conversations with the checkout lady at the local Monoprix, the person behind me in the queue at the post office, the concierge in our building…now I know why little old ladies who live alone talk to their cats.

Boot perving

2006-12-14T20:33:00.000+01:00

I love winter here.
Pépé thinks I’m absolutely nuts but there’s just something so Paree about Paris in winter, especially on a clear day. You know, the leafless trees, the crisp air that chills you right down to the roots of your hair, wisps of smoke from chimneys, people all rugged up in multi-colour scarves and coats….it’s just like something out of a soppy feel good B-grade Christmas movie that you’ve seen over and over again, that all TV channels pull out every Christmas! Anyway, the point is, I like winter.

And I also like winter because it means I can shop for boots!! I’ve been looking for brown boots since the start of winter and for some reason, shoe manufacturers only make boots for women with Giant tree-trunk calves! I can’t seem to find a pair that will fit me around the calves without making me look like I’m thumping around in Wellingtons!

In my hunt for the perfect pair of boots, I have realised that I’m not only a bag pervert but also a boot pervert. I just can’t stop myself from eyeing off other women’s boots!

Excited

2006-12-08T23:46:00.000+01:00

I’m so excited!

We’re going to the Strasbourg Christmas markets this year! For the last 2 years I’ve been harping on about wanting to go but we just never got our butts in gear to organise it.

The Christmas markets in Strasbourg are so huge that they even have their own website!
http://www.noel-strasbourg.com/flash.php

I have this image of a little fairytale city with lights strung up everywhere, streets lined with colourful little stalls, the whole scene brightly lit for Christmas. I can see us arm-in-arm wandering aimlessly down the empty wintry streets with fairy Christmas lights twinkling in the night, all bundled up in our warm coats and scarves, our footsteps echoing through the night. (the fairy thing is a big theme here – too many children’s books at too young an age I think!).

Anyway, this year, seeing as we’ve decided to leave France, we made a quick last minute booking. We didn’t realise how popular it is and everything has been booked out months in advance. Still, we were lucky and managed to find a dingy hotel in the rough vicinity of Strasbourg for the weekend before Christmas!

However, I have a feeling that instead of some magical fairy wonderland, it’s going to be more like us pushing and elbowing our way through crowds and crowds of people.
Now all we have to do is make sure we have our ~~warm coats and scarves~~ elbow guards ready, and count down the days!

To go or not to go?

2006-12-03T20:55:00.000+01:00

Would you prefer to live here?

Or here?

Ok, so we’re not exactly moving to the centre of Australia but I couldn’t find a decent photo of Melbourne!

Deep breathes

2006-11-24T22:39:00.000+01:00

After much deliberation, Pépé and I have decided to move back to Melbourne next year…for good…or at least for a few years. The recent trips to London have made us nostalgic for good old easy-going Australian culture.

Despite London being a big city, people there seemed to be genuinely friendly and open, as opposed to Paris. From the singing British Rail employee to the Eastender-watching hairdresser, everyone in London just seemed ‘friendly’, and I don’t mean over-enthusiastic-McDonalds-employee-friendly.

Yes, I know I’m describing Londoners as being ‘friendly’. My aunt from Kent would describe them as being rude…she hasn’t been to Paris. Not that everyone in Paris is rude…just not as … openly friendly.

Anyway, just thinking about moving at this stage makes me hyperventilate – there’s so much organising to be done before we even move a hair out of this country! We have tons of junk in our little 56m square apartment, including the 15 or so boxes of stuff that we shipped over from Australia in the first place, and adding to that all the things we’ve accumulated in the last 2 years. Phew.

Then there’s the whole ‘starting over thing’, having to re-ignite old friendships, make new friends, get a new job, new place to live, new life, new everything.

Not to mention, the ‘leaving thing’. I’m a sentimental fool so it will be hard leaving:

* our overheated but cosy apartment
* family
* good friends
* job (ok, this one wasn’t so hard to leave)
* the boulangerie down the street
* the “rhyming” waiter at the local Japanese takeaway (he only speaks in sentences that rhymes – I kid you not!)
* the cobbler who has long chats to me when I take my shoes to be re-heeled
* the Sephora around the corner (makeup heaven!)
* les Grands Magasins (shopping heaven!)
* the clochard that I regularly donate to outside Monoprix (local supermarket)
* super high speed and cheap cheap broadband
* having a beer at our local café/bar
* listening to lives of others through windows flung open on hot sultry summer evenings
* rugging up in winter
* the hop-skip-and-jump it takes to get to London,
* and Paris, yes I will miss Paris and all the grumpy people in it.

Hmmm, that list is a little longer than I’d like it to be.

Bag perving

2006-11-22T21:48:00.000+01:00

It’s only natural that since Paris is the fashion capital and whatnot, in general, the women here have remarkable taste in handbags. Everywhere I go, I just can’t stop staring at women with über-elegant handbags that are perfectly coordinated with their outfits. I especially love the slightly large floppy Gérald Darel-style handbags that every female here seems to have, and that Pépé describes as being ‘scrotum-like’ (which could explain why I like them so much!).

Where do these women get the time in the mornings to flawlessly match their bag to their shoes, jackets and God-help-me, belts? I barely have time in the mornings to make sure that my shoes match, let alone pick out a bag (from my extremely large collection of 3 practical work handbags), transfer the contents from one bag to another, and make it to work before the sun sets.

I spend most of my 1.5-hour trips to and from work admiring the form, texture and colour of many a bag. I feel like some dirty old man trying to look up skirts on public transport! I just can’t stop myself. Some woman whizzes past and I look up eagerly trying to catch a glimpse of the bag she’s carrying!

Paris has turned me into a handbag pervert.

I love London

2006-11-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

Question:
What do you get when you add together:
9 crazy English, South African and Australian women
3 bridesmaids (myself included!)
1 bride-to-be
Champagne
1 London hotspot
AND 2 very scrumptious “Butlers in the Buff”??

Answer:
A wild wild absolutely unforgettable hen night hot enough to warm up a wintry London Saturday night.
A massive hangover the day after.

Here’s the evidence!

Second thoughts

2006-11-10T08:45:00.000+01:00

The reason why I quit my extremely underpaid position at an unnamed information systems consulting company is not just due to the fact that the job is a nightmare, the crazy hours, and the fact that one of my bosses has multiple personalities, but more due to the fact that after long deliberation, Pépé and I have decided to move back to Australia next year.

However, while we’ve made the decision, we haven’t set a concrete date (too much commitment!) to leave.

So knowing this, today my nice (not the multiple personality) boss calls and offers me a pay rise to stay on a couple of months next year! And now I’m thinking…hmmm, maybe this job isn’t such a nightmare; maybe the hours aren’t that long and maybe the other boss doesn’t have as many personalities as I think….

Funny how money can make you change your mind about so many things, and all at once!

Police Bus

2006-11-06T21:05:00.000+01:00

I saw a police bus this evening. It looked like any other ordinary public transport bus except that it had lightly frosted windows, blue flashing lights on the top and POLICE written in big letters on the sides.

I have probably been living a very sheltered life but up till today, I had never seen a police bus before. It looked like a plain old bus dressed up in a police costume for Halloween!