The Chak Wars Trilogy

JSTDT - Happy Teachers' Day

2009-09-22T20:28:00.002+08:00

Now with Jaina schooling and all, I realised that I should put in more effort in preparing Jaina to show adequate appreciation for her teachers. As an educator myself, I feel that appreciation should be a daily thing but definitely and especially on Teachers' Day!!

So concerned mum here bought 3 flowers for Jaina's main teachers and planned to dedicate 1 hour that night to prepare Jaina on how she should present the flowers the next day.

So we all sat down on the bed and I took a flower and told Jaina that we will role-play to practise what to say.

Mummy: Ok, pretend that you're Teacher Lilian and I'm you. This is what I will say when I give Teacher Lilian the flower. "Happy Teachers' Day, Teacher Lilian".

Jaina: Thank you! (She really got into her role.)

Mummy (laughs): Now, Mummy is going to be Teacher Lilian and you will be you. What are you to say?

Jaina: Happy Teachers' Day, Teacher Lilian.

Mummy: Clever girl!!

Jaina: You didn't say "Thank you"!

Mummy: Right...Thank You. Ok, now we practise for 小云老师 ok? So you are now 小云老师 and I am you again. I'll say "小云老师，教师节快乐！"

Jaina: Thank you!

Mummy: Er, I don't think 小云老师 will say "Thank you" right?

Jaina (laughs): 谢谢.

Mummy: CLEVER!! So now I'm 小云老师 and you are you. What would you say?

Jaina: 小云老师...er...

Mummy (encouragingly): Yes...? Good...

Jaina: NAH!!

Both Shawn and I burst out laughing!! Jaina laughed too because she knew she did a boo-boo...

I supposed "nah" is a word in the universal language. Oh well, at least the words "小云老师" are said pretty clear.

JSTDT - A True Cinderella

2009-07-08T17:38:00.004+08:00

Jaina was introduced to the world of dolls by my MIL. She enjoyed dressing them up, stripping them down and repeating the cycle over and over again.

I must admit my MIL tried her best by NOT buying Jaina Barbie dolls, she just bought some Disney princess dolls instead. Oh well, I can't win all my battles.

Anyway, I bought her Disney Cinderella doll some change of clothes and she was happily changing clothes when my MIL suddenly asked,"Jaina, where is Cinderella's other shoe?"

Jaina replied (quite quickly actually),"It's like that one. Cinderella also lost her shoe. Just like the story book."

My MIL cannot control, bursted out laughing!

It's all about your expectations...

2009-06-02T11:55:00.002+08:00

Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon and my husband very nicely asked last night how I would like if he planned our anniversary this time round.

I am (of course!!) pleasantly surprised by this sweet thought!! So I said 'YES PLEASE' (ah-bu-dan) and sweetly told him that I am so happy that he offered!!

As the evening went on, I couldn't contain my excitement and asked him what does he have in mind for that special day of our lives!! He just cheekily smiled. I begged him to tell me a little of the plan and he only relented after a while.

He said enthusiastically,"I am thinking... How about flowers and a nice dinner at Al Forno's?"

To this, if I have not known my hubby like I do, I would have thrown a fit!!

But because I have known him for ten years before marrying him for another six, I looked at him and raised one eyebrow, "Wow!!! Great plan leh..."

I couldn't stop snickering after that for some strange reason. I am not disappointed...really. I guess it's all about managing my expectations. For me, the fact that he thought of flowers was very sweet already. :P

So to make my anniversary more exciting, I offered that I will plan the programme from lunch to evening and his job will be from dinner onwards. Somehow I have a feeling that it'll be nice dinner and maybe a movie after that. :P

What can I say about my angels?

2009-04-12T19:40:00.004+08:00

If you feel that I have been really biased as I have not blogged about my little-r princess as much, it's factually accurate but nothing to do with how much I love my two princesses.

You see... Princess Jaina is a fiesty little girl...she has the ability to let us experience a large range of colours - all in a single day! 'How so?' you may ask... well she talks non-stop, saying things that make us laugh till our smiles shine like the yellow of day, and then at times she makes us so angry we'd hold our breath till we're blue in the face! And there are also times that she melts our red hearts by the very sweet things she'd say, quite out of the blue (no pun intended)!! Other days, our black faces tell friends that Jaina has about another half hour to say sorry or WWIII will be on her arse!

On the other hand, Shannon is quite the opposite (at least for now). She is really quite quite a wonderful babe! She sleeps around 9pm and has slept thru' since she was about 3 months old. She'll wake about 8 plus in the morning but she doesn't make noise or cry. She'll VERY contentedly play in her cot by herself! She has flipped over just a couple of weeks ago and at 5 months, she'll wake up and flip over, and play with whatever she can find in her bed until one of the useless parent wakes up (usually me) and pick her up. And honestly, when she sees you, the bright smile she gives you will just rob your heart away.

Shannon is going thru a rough patch lately as she is teething and usually after her bottle, she will play for a while before wanting to nap again. Previously, she will just sleep on her own. Now with the terrible gums, she cries quite a bit more. But then again, this is not because she is naughtly, she is just cranky about her teeth! Just imagine you have a whole row of wisdom tooth just pushing their way out, I'd bet you'd do MORE than just cry lor!

I was asking Darth Blinky if we can handle another angel and we are currently undecided on it. While both my princesses are modern day miracles of God working in our lives, I am not sure if I can handle more... :P

JSTDT - Disney On Ice

2009-03-19T10:14:00.002+08:00

Jaina has this thing about the Disney's princesses stories so it is a rite of passage for all parents of young children to bring them to the show when the Disney troupe is in town. To think I used to laugh at people who would attend silly shows like these...

Oh well, so as a kiasu parent, I bought my tickets very early and has prepped my little princess on the show. We have read her the Disney fairy tales and she would make use read and read the same stories over and over again... At times, I wonder why we buy so many books when she always asked for the same ones anyway...

Just last week, Jaina was going to start on one of her whines when I decided to distract her with a conversation on the Disney show.

Mummy: (with forced enthusiasm) Where are we going next Mon?

Jaina: (paused as she thought about it) where mummy?

Mummy: (shoulders slumped) The Disney show!! Remember?

Jaina: No which one.

Mummy: The Disney princess show?

Jaina: No which one.

Mummy: The Disney show with the princesses skating one?

Jaina: No which one!

Mummy: (raising voice) The Disney princess on ice show! The one with skating lah!

Jaina: (louder too) No which one!!

Mummy: (shouting already) THE DISNEY PRINCESSES ON ICE SHOW!!! THE ONE WE SAW ON TV ONE!!!

Jaina: (shouting back too) NO WHICH ONE!!!!!!!!

And suddenly it hit me!!!!!! I suddenly understood...

Mummy: Right... No witch one...

Jaina: No witch one. Only got princess.

With that, Jaina settled back down calmly on her car seat and started muttering to herself about the show...

JSTDT – Well Travelled

2009-03-03T14:22:00.002+08:00

You know how as parents, you preach good things to your children in the form of half-truths so that they will believe you?

So anyway, Jaina was fussing in the car and I wanted to distract her. So I noticed an old man pushing a hugh pile of carton boxes across the road and pointed it out to Jaina. I told her that the old man was having a hard time pushing the cart because he didn’t eat enough vegetables.

Jaina didn’t looked very convinced so I pushed my theory some more. I said that if Jaina had eaten more veges than she will be strong enough to do many things. Like how Jaina had helped pushed her Tai-ma’s wheelchair the other time we were on vacation.

Jaina was thoughtful and soon launched into her own world of rationale.

Jaina: Jaina eat ALL (which is a lie) her vegetables so Jaina has the strength to push Tai-ma.

Mummy: Yes dear, that’s why you need to eat all your vegetables.

Jaina (on auto mode already): Jaina eat vegetable so Jaina can push Tai-ma to many place…

Mummy: Uh huh…

Jaina: …to Malaysia… to Batam…

Mummy at this point gave Daddy a side-glance. Feeling very impressed that Jaina can list countries.

Jaina: (pause) … Malaysia… Bedok… Malaysia…

Mummy bursted out laughing as I realised she ran out of places!!! But not bad lah, for a 3 year old, she is indeed well travelled. Malaysia, Batam and not forgetting Bedok!! Perhaps this is because I’ve often told her that Bedok is very far away.

JSTDT - IKEA

2009-02-16T13:41:00.002+08:00

Ever since Jaina discovered that she doesn't HAVE to do shopping with mummy at Ikea, instead she can go to the Play Room for a hour, she LOVES going to Ikea.

Well, there are two things I have concluded after this incident.

1) Jaina can't read much, unless you call identifying ONLY the letters 'A' and 'B' and 'C' reading lah. But she is great at making connections, a valued Habit of Mind that is taught in many schools.

2) Ikea has wonderful branding. Right down to the colour and font so much so that even Jaina can tell the building is Ikea from a mile away.

So we were driving towards the Ikea building that day and she excitedly pointed out it's Ikea!

Jaina: Mummy! See!! IKEA!!!

Mummy: Wow! (Clearly impressed that Jaina could point out Ikea from so far away) Yah, that's Ikea!

Jaina: I want to go Ikea!!

Mummy: Er...not today darling.

Jaina: Why?

Mummy (wanting to distract her so as to not answer the Qn directly): So how do you spell Ikea?

Jaina: Huh?

Mummy: Mmmm...what letters do you see at the top? It spells Ikea?

Jaina: *silence*

Mummy: How does Ikea sound like? What is the first letter? IKEA...(pronouncing it loudly and slowly for her)

Jaina: First letter?

Mummy: YES!! What's the first letter? (pronounce IKEA loudly and slowly again)

Jaina: E!!

Mummy: Huh?

Then I burst out laughing when I got her logic...

I guess it's not THAT wrong to spell what you hear...

JSTDT - Short Hair

2009-02-11T21:39:00.002+08:00

Most may not realise but Jaina's hair has NEVER been cut since her first month's celebration. Thus, to Jaina, her hair is very much her pride and joy. She is extremely fond of her long hair.

We talk about our hair often, especially since I've cut my hair rather short. Just today, we were talking about hair (again).

Jaina: Mummy, my hair is very long you know?

Mummy: Yes, my love...

Jaina: Your hair is very short!

Mummy: Yes yes...

Jaina: Shannon's hair is also very short.

Mummy: That's right.

Jaina declared: Shannon is a boy now.

Mummy: Huh? Why?

Jaina: When Shannon has long hair like me, Shannon will be a girl!

I wonder what does Jaina think of me sometimes...very worrying indeed. :P

JSTDT - Sky-bridge

2009-02-09T15:21:00.003+08:00

Jaina's school has a wonderful playground at One-North and the teachers bring them to play there often. As the playground is not next to the childcare block, the teachers will bring the children over using the Sky-bridges to cross the blocks.

Jaina was educating me about the sky-bridges when I picked her up from school one evening.

Jaina (pointing to the sky-bridges): You know what that is?

Mummy (playing along): What is that dear?

Jaina: Sky-Bridge!!

Mummy: Oh? Wow!!

Jaina: You know why we use sky-bridge?

Mummy: No. Why do you use the sky-bridge?

Jaina: Then the cars won't bang the other cars!

Mummy rolled eyes and sniggered...

The world according to a child is really cute lah...

JSTDT - Watermelons

2009-02-04T23:25:00.002+08:00

Some of you have heard that Jaina get a bout of Bronchitis (again) but this time round, things are better as she doesn't need to be hospitalised. Just meds and use the nebuliser.

Sunday dinner was at my mom's place and she bought watermelon as dessert. That is one of Jaina's favourite fruits. So natually she asked for one, kbut nowing watermelon will be too cooling for her, I said no.

Not one to forget things, Jaina asked me again in the car (on the way home).

Jaina: Why Jaina cannot eat the watermelon?

Mummy: Because Jaina is coughing.

Jaina: Why?

Mummy: Because watermelon is too cooling, if you eat it, you'll coughing even more.

Jaina: (quiet and thoughtful for a while) "Then we warm the watermelon first, can?"

Mummy : (Speechless....again)

JSTDT - More Mandarin PLS!!

2009-01-14T18:18:00.002+08:00

Another incident that is a CLEAR indicator that my money is thrown into the wind when it came to the amount of Mandarin Jaina has picked up.

Jaina wanted to choose her own book for bedtime reading and she went to her bookshelf to find one. Petals had very sweetly bought for Jaina a couple of Chinese storybooks a while back and those books too were in that bookshelf.

Jaina found a book she liked and pulled it out, out dropped one of the Chinese books and it landed face up on the floor. Jaina laughed and loudly exclaimed:"Mummy, one "你好吗" book drop on the floor!"

I don't know to laugh or to cry. Laugh as Jaina is really at times the funniest comic artist in the world, cry because all my GOOD money is wasted...WASTED!!

JSTDT - Mandarin pls!!

2009-01-14T18:06:00.004+08:00

Jaina has started school for a couple of months now and part of the reason I've started her on school this early in her life is because of wanting her to pick up some MANDARIN!!

You see, my mum is a very established Chinese teacher whose daughter has failed in her role to BREED Mandarin in Jaina's speech. Thus, I pay other people good money to do that. :P

To check how well my money is spent, I was talking to Jaina about her school, hoping to ask what chinese words she has already learnt.

Me: Jaina, does 小云老师 says "小朋友，你好吗"？

Jaina: *silence*

Me: (not giving up) I'm sure 小云老师 greets everyone "小朋友，你好吗?" right?

Jaina: *silence*

Me: (still pressing on) You know? Like "你好吗?" (me repeating) "你好吗?"

Suddenly Jaina cried,"Not so many words! Only one word "你好吗?"!

Mummy stunned into silence...then burst out laughing....

Chak Yun Leng Shannon Angela

2009-01-05T00:40:00.003+08:00

So our little-r princess is baptised!! Her full name is also a mouthful (like her jie jie's) and she may blame us later on in life as she shades the little bubbles that appear on forms for multiple choice questions. :P

Turned out that there is no saint Shannon (like there is also no saint Jaina, maybe there are no saints in the Starwars world) but Father Arro did help us find out the meaning of Shannon. He pulled out this old book and when he located the name 'Shannon', he laughed out loud. For a moment I thought 'siao liao', now we have to rename her liao. Father showed us what he was laughing about and as it turned out, the meaning of 'Shannon' is 'old wise one'. Hee...kinda funny to call someone so young as 'old wise one'. :)

Shannon (like Jaina) slept through the ENTIRE ceremony and only woke up at the end of it. She didn't even wake when Father Arro poured water over her head! This 'heavy-sleeper' gene definitely runs deep with the Chaks. :P

JSTDT - Coffee, Tea or Me?

2008-12-12T11:52:00.002+08:00

While having breakfast with 2 of our close friends, Jaina was getting restless as she had finished her meal but mummy and daddy wants to SLOWLY enjoy theirs. So good friend W tried to entertain Jaina by teaching Jaina how to say something cute.

W taught Jaina to recite the following to us and her husband S and we all played along.

Jaina: Mummy, do you want coffee, tea or me?

Mummy: Oh! Definitely YOU!!

Jaina (grins): Daddy?

Daddy: Of course YOU!!

W: Ask Uncle S "What about you?"

Jaina: Uncle S, do you want tea or me?

S: Eh? What about coffee?

Jaina: No more coffee already.

All of us burst out laughing!

JSTDT - Magic Word

2008-12-04T13:45:00.002+08:00

This happened just last night as we were trying to help Jaina change into her PJs. As usual, Jaina was being difficult and not wanting to get changed so mummy turned off the TV and told her to get changed first.

The threat proved to be useful as Jaina got changed relatively quickly and promptly said, "Mummy, turn on the TV."

Mummy of course replied, "I didn't hear the magic word."

Jaina, trying to push her luck, said, "Turn on the TV."

Mummy persisted, "No magic word, no TV."

Jaina was thoughtful and dragged time, saying, "er...."

Refused to give in, mummy asked, "Well? What's the magic word?"

Jaina finally said, "Hocus Pocus!"

Daddy and mummy stared at each other!! Then daddy sniggered behind Jaina's back while mummy tried to keep a straight face. Mummy had to say, "Nope, wrong magic word. No TV."

Jaina no choice but said 'Per - lease!' very unwilling.

TV was turned back on but mummy was shaking head with daddy still sniggering...

Jaina Says The Darnest Things (JSTDT - T3 Posters)

2008-12-01T16:45:00.004+08:00

Last night we went to the airport terminal 3 to send my aunt back as she came for my sis' wedding.

For those who have walked along the corridor from the foodcourt to the carpark on level B2, you would notice the stretch of advertisement posters (in the form of shopping bags) on the wall. Jaina being a very observant and chatty girl, wanted to talk about them. The following is our exchange.

Jaina: Mummy, do you know why the bags are on the wall?

Wanting to encourage thinking and speech, mummy decides to not slam question.

Mummy: Hmm, why ARE the bags on the wall?

Jaina: Because (saying it importantly), they use glue.

Mummy: (suppressing laughter while daddy laughs away) I see...

Jaina continues walking without breaking a beat...

How not to love my girl?

Our Little-r Princess

2008-12-01T16:14:00.005+08:00

This is terrible. For Jaina being our first born, we were naturally more excited about keeping this blog for her. Now that we have Shannon, it is terrible that we have been more slack about upkeeping this blog for Shannon too.

For those who have no idea yet, I popped 30 Oct 2008 another beautiful little-r princess. Why God gave us 2 beautiful girls tho we do not deserve them, I have no idea but remain deeply grateful.

I had a C-section done this time and it is against my preference but as my gynae says,"The baby is estimated to be rather big and considering you have had a procedure done just last Jan, it's not a good idea to try pushing and pushing and then may have to go for emergency C-section." Oh well, if the doc has no confidence, who am I to say otherwise yah?

So off to the theatre I go!! I must admit that I was feeling ok all the way up to the point where they put me in the push-bed and starting pushing me to the theatre. Either it's the watching of corridors light pass you by as they wheel you along, or the rough pushing of the bed that tiggered my motion sickness button, I started to feel sick...sick in the stomach sick. Of course by the time they reach the theatre level, Shawn had to remain outside and I was wheeled in to the many many people dressed in various colourful scrubs.

Something that I don't like but I understand it necessary is the constant questions. Mainly about my full name and what I am getting myself into. I guess they just want to make sure that they are NOT cutting up the wrong person!! And so after answering the 2nd question way too many times, I tried giving variation of the truth. I am telling you that not all medical staff have a sense of humour. What's their problem? I am the one being cut up lor!!

Truth be told, the medical staff are all very professional and very attentive. They talked to me after they have cleared me the top 2 favourite questions and we chatted a little while waiting for my gynae to come by. I was told to breathe deeply and the next thing I know, I was being wheeled back to room and I gathered I must have delivered (based on logic) as they no give me see my baby!!!

Recovering from the drugs is the worst part!! I was feeling sick and yet had to resist the urge to throw up as that might cause my wound to tear if I puke too hard. No way I'm going back to be stitch up if I can help it. My vision (even with glasses) was blurry and my head seemed to be screwed on wrong, a little too topsy-turvy. Considering I fasted from 2pm that same day, I was hungry but no mood to eat as I know I would have thrown out everything!! I hate that feeling. :(

The next morning, I felt tons better and could see my little-r princess clearer and just felt very blessed to survive it all!!

Day 13 (last day) - Sainte Chapelle

2007-12-16T07:20:00.000+08:00

Today is our last day in Paris...damn...just when I'm starting to feel Parisien...

We wanted to go to Jardins Luxembourge but since we had made plans to meet Iceman and Weichin at Point Zero (at Notre Dame) to go Starwars toys hunting, we figured we'd try going to Sainte Chapelle again. After all, to choose visiting either garden or church, the choice was clear lor.

So we started the day at a lazy 11 plus and had a very good French lunch at this place called Chez Clement. Shawn had their roast duck slice and I had their roast meats combo. Very yummy indeed. Dessert was home-made Creme Brulee for me and crepe for Darth Binky. My creme brulee was SO DAMN BLOODY good that I wanted to order 10 take-aways immediately lor!! I almost past out with the first mouthful. Darth Binky's crepe had so much liquor in it that he was a happy bunny. Now we know why some French look so happy after their meal. :P

Sainte Chapelle was a nice small church. It has 2 levels - top for the royal family and the lower level for the servers. The top level also had simple decoration but the stained-glass was amazing. There were 17 full length panels of stained-glass, each panel for a major book in the Bible. Very detailed designs, very effort indeed...

The big Starwars toy hunt turned out to be rather profitable for Darth Binky as he found two 12" figures that he wanted and with the tax rebate of 12%, he made quite a saving on those two toys.

Iceman wanted to bring us to this Chinese place for dinner. But before you think Iceman was crazy to bring 2 Singaporeans to eat Chinese food in France, the Chinese food is from Wenzhou, China and he had yet to find such cuisine in Singapore himself. So dinner's speciality was this claypot dish with sliced beef, cabbage and tofu cooked in chilli oil. It was really good, especially with the cold outside, the claypot was just the dish to put a little 'hot' back into our bodies. :)

With the end of dinner, it also marked the end of our wonderful trip in Paris. It had been an amazing 14 days here, but it was too long to be away from Jaina - miss her loads. So going back home is bittersweet, going home to Jaina is wonderful but I have work from the moment I touch down in Singapore so that sucks big time.

Oh well, I can't win them all. Au voir Paris. Till we meet again. And yes to Petals, we have to return to Paris sometime again. Let's take a trip here together, shall we?

Day 12 - Sacre Coeur & Moulin Rouge

2007-12-16T06:24:00.001+08:00

I plotted and waited till Darth Binky was feeling much better to brave a trip UP the hills...to see Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Church.

We were warned by our host that there would be locals who would position themselves at the foot of Sacre Coeur and attempt to sell you their friendship bands. They would always start by saying that there is no obligation to buy, just have a look as they weave it around your wrist. Once they try a dead knot, you would have to buy it - at whatever price they quote you. At that kind of situation, you can't refuse for 2 reasons, one as it's already on your wrist, and two as there are many more of them than there are 'you'.

With that knowledge in mind, as we approached the foot of the hill, true enough, there were many local men just standing there, approaching tourists to "try" their ware. I walked quickly and dodged one of them by walking behind this other couple. :P So in a way, we "escaped" them.

Sacre Coeur was really quite a sight, beautiful white church on top of the hill. When we entered the church, the nuns were in the middle of their noon time Office Devotion prayers. One of the nuns leading the prayer had this incredible voice - like an angel lor! The acoustics of the church was also really quite amazing... Hair can stand when the nuns start singing man...

We paid 5 euros to climb to the top of the dome and our guidebook says that at the top of the dome, that will be the 2nd tallest viewing point other than Eiffel Tower. So we climbed and climbed...man, some parts of the stairwell was SO narrow, if you were claustrophobic, you would die as it was narrow, quite dark and bloody cold.

FINALLY, we reached the top and the view was indeed great. Pity it was a rather cloudy day so we couldn't really see very far. We stayed up there for quite a while, after 10 mins or so, then we realised we were the only ones up there. We wondered why there was no one with us as there were always many tourists at good viewing points and we started our nonsense reasonings. After we joked for about 5 mins, there was STILL no one, we started to raise eyebrows at each other and decided we SHOULD go down. Chickens right? Hee...

We left Sacre Coeur and had lunch. Darth Binky had Confit de Canard (Preserved Duck) and me, Beef Stew. The France really make their duck well and my beef stew was good, let's just say that they must have used one whole bottle of red wine for each plate of beef stew they served. Lovebell's liquor content in her beef stew is NO FIGHT compared to these French ones.

We walked past the Artist Square where the artists would draw your profile for about 80 euros. We didn't get one, 2 reasons - no wall space to hang and no money! Ha!

Montmartre (Mount of Martyr) area is famous for another landmark other than Sacre Coeur, and it's the now very famous Moulin Rouge. The walk along their red light district was most interesting. Hugh photos of very naked women advertise their business and the French are really not shy about showing their wares. No stars, no stickers, no smiley faces to cover the important bits - it's "show and tell" in the adult world. We did think of dining at the Moulin Rouge but the cost of dinner & show was a little heavy - 100 euros per pax. That's S$400 blinking dollars!! So poor us (literally) had to pass on that. :(

Last part of the day, I wanted to catch the view of Eiffel Tower at sundown as the tower will light up and at every hour, on the hour, the whole structure will go up in sparkles!! More accurately, 20 000 bulbs will light up the whole Eiffel Tower!! The sight was AMAZING!! It was worth standing in the blinking cold (minus 1 degrees C) and wind and just stare at the tower for that 10 mins... The highlight (no pun intended) of my day...

Day 11 - La Madeleine, Opera National de Paris Garnier & Arc de Triomphe

2007-12-14T13:44:00.000+08:00

Since Darth Binky was feeling much better, I arranged a jam-packed day of activities!! We hit the Metro after breakfast but still got to La Madeleine quite late in the morning. Hee...it's not that it's far, we left the house late (again).

La Madeleine is a church dedicated to Mary Magdelene. Tho it started construction in 1764, it was not consecrated till nearly a hundred years later. It's a lovely BIG church and when we got there, lunch time mass just started so we didn't want to tour the church too much while a mass was going on. :P

We walked down Blvd de la Madeleine and got to the Opera National de Paris Garnier. Pretty pretty opera house but much of it was under construction so there was much hoarding and canvas covering a few main sides of the building. This is the opera house that inspired Paul Leroux's Phantom of the Opera!! Like in the musical, you can see that the Grand Staircase is really quite a close copy of the actually one in the opera house. The opera house comes with a real lake that is underneath the building too, just like in the musical. But of course I only read about it in my trusty guidebook, they didn't allow entry to many places.

Then it was shopping time!! Window shopping that is, at Galleries Lafayette. It's nothing like the small building at the edge of Orchard Road like most of us remember. Here in Paris, it's really quite the main shopping area and they carry many high-end labels. The main building has 7 floors and there's a separate building for Men's and another building for Home stuff... Crazy right? Hee...

After window shopping, then came REAL shopping!! At LV no less, my sis asked me to help get her a bag and so I walked in confidently as I KNOW I am not just window shopping (again). Hahaaa... Darth Binky is real sweet, he said he'll get me something (not too big lah) from LV. So I browsed around and eyed their classic checker-patterned wallet. It's 192 blinking, freaking, turtle-monkey euros lor!!!! That's easily S400 for a small wallet you know!!! I don't even carry a quarter that amount at any one time. On good days, I only have S$50 in my wallet and loads of faith in my heart when I go out!! :) But I digress... so I thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and then asked the lady attending to me to get my sister's bag so as to buy more time for me to think and think and think and think and think and think and think and think somemore about buying the wallet. I'm psycho...how?

So in the end, I only got my sister's bag at 420 euros!!!!!! And me nothing as I couldn't buy something SO expensive and then not treat it like gold lor! If I bought both, then I'll need to buy an additional SQ seat just for the LV wallet and bag on my way home. :P

We next headed for the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top to catch a pretty view of the city that we are leaving behind. :( There were again super many steps and once up there, as they say, the view's worth it lah. :) It was really quite cool to see all the roads converging at the roundabout circling the Arc de Triomphe as the area is called Charles de Gaulle - Etoile. Etoile means "star" and the 12 roads with the Arc as centre really looks like a 12-spook star, seen from above. :)

As I walked home carrying only my sister's purchase, I can't help feeling like a loser... All the way to Paris and nothing big and swanky for myself. Loser... :(

Day 10 - La Defense

2007-12-14T05:44:00.000+08:00

As poor Darth Binky was still under the Paris weather, I thought we would take it easier lah. Do you know that the Metro and bus and RER folks were supposed to be out on strike on Wed and Thurs??!!!?!? Anyway, the strike was called off on Tues!! Iceman was telling us that this is the first time a strike had been called off!! I think it was the many 2 euros coins that I had dropped in the many churches. God decided not to punish these 2 poor sods (as it is, we are not going to finish covering Paris!!)

So the Metro was running fine, the weather was actually not too bad but hubby not too good so we rested at home in the morning, cooked lunch, then we went to La Defense which is a business district and a hugh shopping mall. I was actually quite pleased that Darth Binky wanted to go out (even in his cannot-make it state) then I realised why - La Defense shopping mall has a Toys R Us.

Anyways, I was happy to be going out.

Once there, there was a outdoor area with stalls selling all sorts of things. Goods from all over the world were sold there - things from PRC, Thailand, Russia, Africa, Germany, USA, Australia. The whole area of this "Christmas Market" was quite large, by the time we finished walking around, we used about 2 hours.

Then we went inside the shopping mall and I bought this lovely winter coat from Zara. It was on sale and still I ended up S$200 poorer... :P

Darth Binky got excited as it was Toys R Us time and we bee-lined for the Starwars section. He looked and looked but decided that there was nothing much to buy. The toys sold were either bought already or not worth buying it. Darth Binky left Toys R Us a broken man, he thought he was going to find many many goodies like we did when we were in Australia.

Last stop was to Auchan supermarket to grab some food for cooking and it's really like Giant or Carrefore in Singapore, one level of food stuff and another level of everything-else stuff. :) When Darth Binky saw the level of everything else, his whole spirit lit up again, Auchan will have a toy section too!! So we zoomed in to find the toy section but still, the selection was poorer than Toys R Us. Once again, Darth Binky was not a happy boy...

It was either the cold weather, the fact that Darth Binky was originally sick or the lack of good selection of Starwars toys, Darth Binky looked terrible and we headed home after Auchan...

My poor baby...

Day 9 - Palace & Gardens of Versailles

2007-12-12T18:21:00.001+08:00

This is the famous palace just outside the city of Paris where King Louis XIV (known as the Sun King) built as he wanted something lavish and LAVISH it is!!! Sad to say, when it came to time of his grandson, King Louis XVI, the revolution rioted and King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette were captured and later dragged out to this area called Concorde to be guillotined.

When you see the palace and the gardens , you can understand why the people of France then were so angry with them. There was a story about Marie-Antoinette being told the plight of the

people of the kingdom hungry with

out bread, she retorted,"Then let them eat cake."

In the big Big BIG gardens of Versailles, there is this smaller (compared to the Chateau but it's still at least 10 times my 5-room flat lor) palace called the Grand Trianon. It was built because King Louise XIV wanted somewhere to escape the rigour of court life and to enjoy the company of his mistress, Madame de Maintenon.

Somewhere down the gardens, there's a Petit Trianon Palace. It's called Petit (small) but it's not the idea of small like you and I know it. My house, oui, it's small but the Petit Trianon is still about 4 times my flat lor. :P It was given to Marie-Antoinette by King Louis XVI in these terms: "Since you love flowers, I am offering you a bouquet, it is the Petit Trianon". Win lor...like this chase girls, how to lose?

We walked the gardens first when there was still sun and still it was blinkingly cold. The weather forecasted a high of 5 degree C and low of 1 degree C. We had our hot sandwiches sitting on a bench by the Grand Canal with our 2 hot drinks and that cost us about S$30 just like that. I am eating myself broke in Paris!!!!!!! At that moment, I craved for Henderson Mee Pok dry with big bowl of soup... sigh... my Singapore stomach is revolting...

We walked back (a very Very VERY long walk by the way, in the cold no less) to the Chateau to view the rooms. The grandeur and lavishness is really breath-taking. EVERY corner of all the rooms decorated with something - it could be a painting, carvings, gold plated something, fabric, something lah... very decadent indeed...

Darth Binky by the end of trip wanted to sit down (bad sign, which meant he was sick again) and so we "mounted our high horses and trotted down" the main entrance of Versailles and waved goodbye. Farewell to too-much-decoration and lavishness...

Day 8 - Notre Dame

2007-12-11T15:20:00.000+08:00

My poor Darth Binky was sick... he was coughing and had a bad cold. We were indeed taking turns to try the pharmacies in this country boy. :P Anyway, my poor brave sick Darth Binky decided to sleep in for a while and hoped that he'll be able to sleep the sickness off.

At about noon, he was feeling better and off to Ile de la Cite we go!!! On this small island, it boasts 2 beautiful churches, the Sainte Chapelle and the Notre-Dame. We decided to go see the Sainte Chapelle first but upon reaching the entrance, there was this queue. This was queer as there is usually no queues for churches one, museues maybe but not churches, there aren't that many devoted Catholics around lah. So I made Darth Binky read the sign to find out what's the big idea man. It turned out that there was some sort of filming inside and the church would be opened again after 2.15pm.

So we figured that we might as well turn the 20 min wait into a nice stop at the cafe for their famous French onion soup. Those who know Darth Binky should now be raising your eyebrow at the idea of Darth Binky and onion right? No lah, he's already sick, would I do this to him? Hee... So I had the onion soup and he had fish soup. Trust me, the french soup is indeed their speciality... :)

After the meal, the queue looked drastically shorter and so we paid 22 euros for our 2 soups and 2 hot drinks and left for Sainte Chapelle again. :) There, we realised that the queue only LOOKED shorter because the queue has gone around THE OTHER END!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we decided that we will just go to Notre-Dame instead.

I only just realised that the name Notre-Dame means Our Lady in English!! Cool...didn't know that...heh. Notre-Dame church was nice but it lacked that holy-serene-feel to it as there were SO MANY people walking around. The other churches I felt were nicer in this aspect. We took the stairs to the top of the bell tower and there were 525 steps! We didn't know there were so many steps but it's kinda a trip of no return as the stair-well was so narrow, you can only go one direction!! I panted like a horse when I got up there but couldn't draw deep breathes as the air was blinkingly cold lor! The view was very worth it tho... :)

North of Paris - Honfleur

2007-12-11T14:23:00.000+08:00

So everyone i know who has been to France will tell me to check out the south of France, and so when my host in France, Weichin, wanted our passport particulars, I naturally assumed that we are going out of France, to the South more likely.

By the title, you'll know this to be untrue. We found out upon arrival to France that we are indeed travelling but it's to the North. Weichin explained that her hubby, Iceman, would rather travel to a new part of France and so NORTH we went!!!!

We took a train out of Paris and two hours later, we arrived in Deauville (not Honfleur yet) and then boarded a bus. Half hour later, we took our first steps in HONFLEUR!! I must say it's a beautiful place, quaint fishing village with probably about 7 streets of shops to walk around. I guess walking will be more pleasuable if the rain would stop coming!

Any-O, we arrived cold and hungry and we surveyed all the menus that were displayed outside the many restaurants and we picked one with a nice set meal offer. 29.90 euros for a starter, a main meal, a dessert and coffee. The only drawback was that this restaurant was empty - hope the food's gonna be nice.

So we entered this small restaurant of many tables and plonked ourselves at a nice corner. Hungry Iceman ordered a bowl of mussels and a plate of escargots to share(even before our individual starters)!! Yummy!!!!!!!!!! The food turned out to be great!!! I have very seldom eaten till the point that I can't eat anymore, but that was that day. My starter of home-made soupe de poisson (fish) and main course of saute scallops knocked me out boy. I couldn't stuff all my dessert in - it was chilled sliced pear on double scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with hot chocolate. I was dying by the end of the meal but a happy dying woman... ;)

After all that food, we walked out of the restaurant and realised that the whole of France was fund-raising for the wheel-chaired bound folks, the event called Telethon. It was quite amazing as the whole of France was participating. Honfleur had their own celebration and one of them was this flying-fox station where you zip over the harbour to the other side. I couldn't resist the opportunity, nevermind I'm stuffed with food, nevermind it's in winter and if I fall into the water, I'm likely to die, nevermind I have never done flying-fox before in my life... and so I gave my donation of 10 euros and in exchange, they gave a 4 mini sausages, 2 empty ballons and a good pat on the back.

It was damn damn cold up there on the platform and when I was released, my pulleys were kinda stuck. Damn I thought again, it had to be me lor, all the hundreds of people zipping down no problem but it had to be me. So the nice official pulled me in and pushed, one big push as I zipped over the harbour so fast that I thought now I really die, I'm going to knock over the other official who catches all those who zipped over. Heng that official very experienced and caught me legs so I don't bashed into the at-least-500-years-old rock walk. The Telethon that day raised over 50 million euros (we watched the charity show mah). After that highlight of my life, I figured I'll take things slow and just do normal walking around the town.

We walked into this super old church called St Catherine and the top of the church looked like they overturned 2 big long boats and used that for roofs. :) They had these nice candles to light for your own devotions at the different parts of the church but we wanted to buy them for our church-mates back home in Singapore. So I counted that Darth Binkyand I have to buy about 12 candles at 2 euros each. As we put in our monies and counted out the candles, we realised then that we got no plastic bags, this is not a shopping mall lor. So we overturned our hats and carted the many candles back to our hotel room before people think we are candle thieves, no receipt for our purchase, remember? :)

The next day was Sunday, and we had our Sunday mass in St Catherine. I dozed off during the homily as it was in French and to say the least, I wasn't really following... hee... After mass, we checked out of our hotel and also got ready to leave Honfleur. But we couldn't leave Honfleur without wacking another big meal of mussels again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Weekend in Normandy

2007-12-11T14:22:00.000+08:00

For the weekend we went to Honfleur on the coast of Normandy. Very beautiful place. I tell you the French have so much to be action about it's ridiculous. :) It seems that everywhere you turn there's a medieval church or building or something. And the churches are so beautiful! Also when the churches have relics they aren't small little 1cm by 1cm pieces of cloth. They have entire femurs! Wah Lau!

We stayed at a hotel called Le Dauphin (The Dolphin) which is situated in the centre of the town of Honfleur right next to a beautiful [and I know I'm being gay using beautiful so many times :)] church, Saint Catherine. Pictures didn't do it justice.

The first day we splurged on a seafood lunch that took us 3 hours to finish. :) Very sinful. Very good. heh heh.

The cold seafood starter looked like a meal unto itself. There some slight drama when I discovered a LIVE baby crab in one of my clams. The seafood was very fresh indeed.

Since there were 4 of us we managed to sample the different dishes on the set menu. No one wanted the tripe. [shiver] We had lamb, scallops and solefish between the 4 of us. Mmmm. :) Thats the Singaporean in me. Always the foodie.

On the second day we went for mass at St. Catherine's. Didn't understand

a single word but the comforting thing about Catholic mass is that

you can still follow the order of mass regardless of the language. :)

After that it was off to Deauville to catch the train back to Paris. :)