the quirky, interesting, funny & not-so-funny - part 1

most of us should really do this.


street directory of St paul de vence. yes, the whole place only has this no. of shops!

this again illustrated to me that im just not cut out to appreciate modern art.

CY Twombly, anyone?

stand-alone boutiques in south france is quite rare. instead, they have such shops with an array of brands.

interesting straw dispensers in Mac. rotate and a new straw will pop out.

weird looking trolley in avignon's carrefour. but surprisingly easy to push around.

this is everywhere! you cant get it in convenience stores?

you can find love anywhere! :)

antibes - rabbit & chicken stew on sale. nope, im not kidding.


parking space is atrocious in nice! look at how kian neng managed to squeeze into this lot!

he did 4-5 times before managing to park!

see, how close! its amazing he managed to drive out too. ha.

and the front? equally close to the next car lor.

the silly guy still grinning happily for his achievement! ha.

no talking on TGV train, pls.

St paul de vence!

again, st paul de vence is never in my itinerary in the 1st place.
mr kian neng insisted that its too much of a pretty place to miss.
who am i to argue with someone who pop over to south of france during the weekend almost on a weekly basis?
so off we go!

and wow, its a longggg journey there lor. despite only being ard 15km from nice?
at 1st, we tried to enter the address in the GPS system but cannot find!
so maddening.
then we made the wrong assumption, st paul de VENCE mah. must be in vence right?
the truth is de = of. and the name just meant that this place is near vence and not in it.
in fact its only 3km away from vence.
so how can we get so lost!?

BECAUSE......

they are of opposite directions lor!

so we kept on circling ard vence and cant find st paul de vence!
thanks to a kind hearted local who pointed us to the right direction then we found this signpost.
finally, we are off to the right direction.

you see, st paul de vence is a small fortified medieval village up on a mountain.
SO, there is only ONE road to it. missed the sign, you can go circling forever.
pui.

by the time we reached, its almost an hr+ liao. gosh.
but the place is totally worth the maddening drive!
very very picturesque place.
it reminded me alot of mykonos+ santorini, the greek islands we've been to.
small winding cobbled roads choked full of touristy shops. hehe.
but i like. :)
oh, and the view from the top is really nice. i can see the mountain terrain of the region.
super nice!

thanks again to kian neng! if not, hubbi and me would have missed this gem during this trip.

the weekend is here again!

told hubbi that i just want to stay at home and rot for this weekend cos just feel so tired from the trip still.
but itchy backside me still must go somewhere lah.
in the end, we decided to get some "projects" done.
dropped by ikea to get frames for.......

1) Gustav Klimt's "the kiss" which i got from madrid!
i took a liking for this painting when i 1st saw it in austria last year but no chance to get it.
so when i saw it again this time round, i grabbed it! much to hubbi's dismay.
for he feels that we are making the house a cluttered one with so many frames.
aiyah.
but he also agreed that the end product looks very good! :)
see its gorgeous even when it's just leaning against the wall!



2) for baby's studio shots taken like 5 mths back!
boy, do i really know how to procastinate!
its really fun working on these. with me choosing the photos, the husband arranging and setting the frame up and yz walking around disturbing us.
but even yz smiles when he sees his own photos on the wall.
hehe.
we put up the landscape ones in our living room.


the potrait ones still sitting miserably on the bay bench in study room.
got to find a spot for it soon!


but the best part of the weekend is still to spend time with the lil' pumpkin.
he is really becoming a terror. is this the start of the terrible twos?
or did my parents super spoilt him when we were away?
but at least he is still scared of me and will listen to me.
still, its tiring to keep chasing n shouting lor.

he seems to have grown taller but weight stagnant leh.

sigh. like thinner liao.

baby, eat more ok. mummy likes a chubbier you!

nice is actually quite nice! (pun intended)

i was not really looking forward to nice as the attractions stated in the guidebook doesnt really appeal to me.
i guess i was spoilt by those cities which i've previously visited in europe like paris, rome, prague etc which boost much more "popular" sights.
but surprisingly, i did enjoyed my stay in nice! :)

maybe because of the good hospitality we enjoyed at our hotel star.
maybe because ive such a good host in kian neng. yes! the good sport actually drove 2 hours from where he is based in italy to spend time with us!
and he speaks french. and he drove us around. and he knows where are the fun places to be.
though i must say our itinerary is a really hectic one. heh.

1st stop: cours saleya aka the flowers market of nice
smaller than what i thought and not too interesting as i expected. but a very touristy spot no less as its flanked with restaurants on both sides.
"tabao-ed" lunch to be eaten at the bay of angels.
lunch was socca and francis, both local delights of nice. socca is made of chickpea flour and olive oil mainly and tasted mostly like our carrot cake.
francis is like our yong tau fu. lol. with fillings on top of tomato, brinjal etc.

ah long holding socca

this is where we had our lunch. wonderful view and sea breeze.
i really like this part of nice.
and the interesting part is that there is 3 shades of blue at this bay!


can u see the 3 shades?

next stop: russian cathedral
apparantly, russia has some presence in nice due to history and they built this cathedral here for its people.
feel like im in a mini st petersburg! :)

onwards to hotel negresco.

this was never on my itinerary. but this kian neng was gushing so much abt this belle epoque style hotel.

it was mentioned in the guide that the owner is a true art lover and she has collected alot of art pieces ranging from the medieval times to modern art.

all these pieces adorned the lobby of the hotel but its not accessible to the public. aka u cant just walk in and jalan jalan lah. only for the hotel guests to appreciate.

but at minimum 290 euros per night, abit hard for commoners like us leh.

so smartie kian neng suggested us to have a cocktail at its bar and from the bar, entered the lobby to have a good look.

ha cheapo us!

but its really a nice experience. the hotel bar reeks of lavish charm and the cocktail is really delicious!

but the highlight is really the lobby. all the art pieces are really good. cant take photos in there though.

i think this hotel got to be heavily insured for all the priceless pieces inside!

ah long and me

cant remember the name of the cocktail. got ginger taste one.

so its sweet n spicy at the same time

though we stayed in nice for 2 nights, half the day we were out of it.

heh. cos cote d'azur for so many other nice places.

still, we had one of our most interesting meals here.

thanks to kian neng again for bringing us to this restaurant - flo.

its recommended in the michelin guide!

the venue was formally a theatre, how interesting.

so the kitchen is now on the stage where we can see the cooks shuffling around, busy with their work.

the kitchen on the stage

a super tired us at the end of the day. dinner was late at almost 10pm!

french pple really like to take long late dinners. *yawn*

noted something interesting. the french seldom order the desserts at the start.

few times we ordered our desserts choices together with the mains, and the waiters were going,"no, no, you can do that later after your mains." and we were like, "umm, but we are decided already!". ha

and they refused to serve us the desserts until ALL our mains are done with.

really, dinner is a delicate ritual over there. unlike efficient singapore, where desserts can even come before appetiser. heh.

oh! and i got to try escargots! cooked snails to be eaten with some lemony sauce and mayo.

i ate soo much till the husband said no. cos seafood and shell fish may make me asthmatic at times.

the escargots just for me! and kian neng's sexy shoulder in the background.

nice is a good place to base in for one's tour ard the region.

though some areas are a little seedy to me. but lotsa good food outlets and hotels here.

the best welcome ever.

the hardest part of this trip for me was not:
-tahan-ing long haul flights x2 = 26hours in all,
-sleeping overnight on a train. totally not comfy even when we had our own beds and cabin,
-the cold weather. im a tropical person. gimme 5 degrees + blasting wind is really a bitch, or
-carrying our backpack on us for the day-trip @ aix-en-provence cos the small place doesnt have luggage locker at their train station! my poor aching shoulders & back!

its being apart from my baby. :(
calling home twice a day did ease my missing.
but towards the end of the trip, i was actually not enjoying as much as i should.
for the heart not there liao mah.
hmm, i think yz is going to follow me for our next trip for certain.

anyway, once i've touched down sg in the evening, made a beeline for my mum's place to see him.
my silly mum has been singing alot of “世上只有妈妈好" to him so he will remember me. lol.
so when he saw me, he immediately hugged me tightly while chanting, "妈妈好,妈妈好"!
so sad and happy at the same time.
baby, mummy will bring you with me where-ever i go next time liao!

now, im just really glad to be back with my baby!

loots of the trip!

i used to think it's hard to shop in europe given its strong currency.
but as i grow up and travel around more, i realised you can shop in almost all places.
the key is to buy their local brands.
yes, it may not be cheap per se. but it definitely beats getting these things in sg.
and so, with this in mind, i sourced out all the european brands to shop for this trip.
hiaks.

and so my humble loots (its really humble for ayu bought 30+ pieces of clothings from her last trip! :P) for the trip:
- 1 dress and 1 top from MNG
- 3 tops, 1 skirt from zara
- 1 top & 2 tights from H&M
- 2 tops from pull & bear
- 2 tops from local spanish brands
- handcream from L'occitane (how cliche!? heh)
- guide for prado museum
- posters for the house
- chocolates from brussels
- and many other small sourvenirs etc

but nothing beats shopping at champs elysees!
i wanted to get a LV wallet but the husband wont stop alternating between nagging and giving me his shocked face. bleh.
but so much cheaper than sg! how not to buy!?
so i decided to get a wristlet for my mummy dearest. sorta reward her for always helping us to take care of baby when we are away.
copycat hubbi decided to get something for the mother-in-law too and we settled for a coin pouch cum card holder thingy for her.
so happy to buy these even though not for me. heh.

and of cos! one of the highlights of the trip is my 2.55!
*wee*
isnt it a beauty!
but i think i cant get any more bags for a long time.
the husband bites! :(


cant wait to use it soon! :)

barcelona police scam

it was on our 2nd day in barcelona and we were on our way to the last stop of the gaudi tour - the unfinished la sagrada familia cathedral.
it was ard late noon and we were snaking our way through a sub-urban part of the eixampler area.
there was this guy who approached us suddenly and asked if we were tourists (on hindsight, this is rather a suspicious question) and wanted our help to get to a place.

being kind as usual (may not pay at times), we looked at his map and told him that the place he wanted to go is 3 metro stops away and he can go there by taking a metro at the nearest station which is at la sagrada anyway.
on hindsight2, how can someone be SO LOST? 3 metro stops from where you want to go?!

anyway out of the blue, 2 guys came out and flashed us what seemed to be badges and claimed that they are policemen and they wanted to check our passports.

ah long quickly pulled me aside and i was feeling pretty shocked at the turn of events.
heard horror stories of tourists being held up by local police due to mis-understandings and so my thinking was to co-operate and get out of the place asap.
the "policemen" said its the "tourist" that they are worried about cos there are cases of swindles exchanging fake currencies with tourists.
on hindsight3, why would cops (in plain-clothes somemore) be so bo liao to check random tourists for such fraud cases?

anyway, we showed them our passports (which thankfully they didnt take away) and after that they demanded to see our wallet..!
luckily i've the habit of putting my money all over the place, in my wallet, pocket, bag etc.
so when he opened my wallet i've equivalent of ard S$60 in euros nia. i sworn i saw a teeny bit of disgust on his face when he saw the amount of money i had.
then its ah long's turn, the "policeman" actually took his money out and COUNTED. siao anot. but since ah long's money is all over the place too, he had only ard S$200 in euros.

they passed the money back to him and i was getting suspicious and so i asked can we go now?
and they indicated ok and we quickly walked away from the bizarre incident.
and the weird thing is the "tourist" also immediately turned and walked off in another direction when he should be heading the same way as us if he was supposed to go to the metro station as he said earlier on!

this thing left a bad taste in my mouth and im seriously feeling barcelona aint as safe as what i thought.
and hubbi and me kept going back and forth during the trip wondering how true the whole thing is.
back home, hubbi did his research and confirmed the whole thing is just a scam!
below is what he found on the internet posted by another american tourist:
"Barcelona Passport Control
One Sunday morning my wife and I were walking on a virtually deserted main street from the hotel named 987. We were about six blocks from the Gaudi Sagrada Familia Cathedral. A tall English speaking man approached us from behind with a folded map in his hands and started asking us for direction help. We told him we couldn't help him, but he persisted in trying to talk to us (which served the purpose of slowing us down completely). At this point, two men in suits came from the direction we were walking. They very fast flashed their wallets with some sort of "ID" that said, in English "Passport Control" and said they were the police. They said they had been following the man who was standing behind us (strange? following him from the opposite direction). One of the suits stood next to my wife, the other one talked to me. He wanted to see our passports and to know if we had done any business with the guy with the map. We always carry only photocopies of our passports which I showed him in the pouch around my neck (dumb). At this stage, the con was in full swing. I was hooked. Now, he wanted to see my money because he said a lot of tourists have been scammed by making change for crooks who pass off large counterfeit bills in exchange for good, smaller bills. I let him look at my money which comprised ten US $20 bills on the bottom and about 50 in Euro on the top. He looked at all the money and handed it back to me. He said to be careful. He and the other suit took off in the direction we had come from. The guy with the map disappeared into thin air. As I watched them hurry down the street both of them were on their cell phones. After we recovered for a minute I checked my money. I had the Euros. The US twenties were gone. Then, I thought back. Just before we crossed a certain street and were approached by the guy with the map, I remembered a man sitting alone illegally parked in a black four door car at the curb. He was talking on a cell phone. My guess is the four were in cahoots via cell phone. What to do in the future: Walk fast. Don't stop for anyone. If any supposed "police" approach you, demand to have them accompany you back to your hotel and to call the police station to send out a marked police car. Or, just yell "thieves" "crooks" "robbers" and take off. If they were real police, you can bet they would have had a marked police car and they could have called for back up help. Come on, the real police don't have time to randomly stop perhaps tourists on the sidewalk. In many countries picking pockets is considered a "victim-less crime". It's the matter of the have's and the have nots. You know which group you are in. You are supposed to have a passport on you in a foreign country --- but a colored photo copy will work just fine. I am thinking my copies saved me from losing two U.S. passports. I complained to the hotel desk. They would not call the police. They said we would have to walk the two miles to the station to make a complaint. A month ago we stayed near Las Ramblas in a very nice hotel. We talked to the people at the desk. Believe it or not, they said that DAILY a tourist staying in their hotel gets his/her pocket picked out on the street. Moral: Use Rick's waist belt with all your money. Forget you are an American. Morph into an alert tourist. Don't trust anyone on the street. We go to Barcelona a lot to start Royal Caribbean cruises. We've been there six times. We'll be there again. But, we'll walk fast.
Robert D. Brooks
Detroit, MI USA 03/21/2009"

the above happened just 2 days after us and in the same area too!
eeks!

im only glad that the husband and me came out of this mad episode unscathed.
really, it pays to be more cautious when overseas.

trAvel

my travel wanderlust acting up again!
as the husband said, im actually in love with the planning part only!
LOL. not true lah, the execution part is very nice too!

ANYWAY, i feel like researching on hokaiddo now.
haha. though i totally have no inkling when i will/can go.
the husband will shout "cold murder!" if i run the idea by him.
but a trip there in july with tyz and seeing the lavender and muching on all the great food seems like a GREAT idea, ya?!

but hor, i want my next trip to include my mum too.
and japan is not cheap AND i treated her to tokyo and surrounding areas before liao.
*headache*

seems like macau is a more feasible idea.
cos i love gambling and never been there before.
but knowing mummy, she wanted to go shanghai for the longest time.
but hubbi and me have been there before leh.
and im not too comfy with bringing baby to china.
hmm. so many questions.
and as the husband always said, i think too much over nothing.
bah!

this morning when hubbi and i were making our way to the mrt station, he suddenly turned to me and said he's getting excited about our upcoming trip this friday.
i wanted to exclaim "me too!" in response but realised my heart not in the right place.
then it struck me.
im gonna miss my little baby for the next 2 weeks when im not by his side. :(

my 1st trip away from him was in mar'08 when he was ard 5m old.
was away in japan with my mum - the only one im assured to take care of yz.
hence, some part of the trip was spent fretting away if he was being properly taken care my way in my absence.
but not too bad. i was still ok as his diet is mainly milk feeds and the routine of a 5m old is pretty fixed.

then came a longer trip @ east europe with the husband in jun'08.
the 2 weeks were quite hard for us, more for me than him.
but bcos yz was in the good hands of my mum, i was still at ease.
and of cos the daily 2x calls back made things easier too.
the sights and hubbi's company distracted me a good deal as well. heh.
when we were back, yz has mastered the art of sitting without support as well as learning to crawl at 7m+.
though im sad to miss out all these 1sts but i guess this is one unavoidable side effect of maintaining time for meself and couplehood.

the next 2 trips to cambodia and genting at end 08 are peanuts.
cos short trips they are, and short period away from yz is fine for me.

but this time round seems to be different.
yz has grown and developed alot since then.
his gross & fine motor skills improve by leaps and bounds.
and his character has slowly reveal itself.
and his emotional intelligence and grasp of words are so much more advance compared to last year.
and of cos, his extra clinginess to me nowadays doesnt make going away easy. :(

i really hope i can enjoy the trip and that he will be guai guai under my mummy's care.

p/s: brought him to parkway parade with mummy yesterday and he got fascinated with this crocodile (eeks, my worst nightmare) print on a pumpkin patch top. so i taught him how to pronounce. and at night before sleeping, he s still chanting away "kall-ko-dah"! LOL.

visit to T3... finally!

the ng family finally made their way to T3!
have been wanting to visit T3 for the longest time to see the mickey mouse display.
but now no more liao. @_@
but still, that didnt stop us from having a good time!

yz absolutely enjoyed running here and there.
and we managed to catch a plane jetting off! cool.
by the time we left at 7pm, yz just knocked out on the way home.
hehe.

photos!-

hubbi + me kissing a seemingly unwilling baby

happy baby posing for the camera

caught running mid-way. i love this shot!

dancing in the "moonlight"!

勇智 never fail to make me smile!

1) on monday morning, when i was done dressing up for work, yz came near me and hugged my legs. then, he touched my skirt and said "美美". :)

2) on tuesday morning, he woke up earlier than me. he climbed up our platform bed and proceeded to lie beside me. after awhile, he poked me in the eye (still closed) and said "眼睛".
haha so funny.

3) sunday evening, he started chanting something akin to pao ne ne. and he chanted non-stop while walking over to the kitchen and pointing to something agitatedly.
took me a good 5 mins before i knew he MEANT 泡 neng neng (milk milk). ha.

4) he'll always walk to me with a book in his hands and asked me to 坐坐， once im seated he'll conveniently sit on my lap and thrust me the book and command me to 读！
if i reject him by brushing him off, he'll forcefully thrust the book in my face/head and hurting me of cos. this notti boy.

5) wed evening, went home to a slightly teary yz. according to mother-in-law, yz insisted only on 1 story book and the book must be open to the page with a dog. any attempt to keep the book, he'll cried out in frustration. so funny.
really dont know wat the little one is thinking.

6) yz has this story book on spot the dog. i normally referred the dog as just the dog to avoid confusion. but recently i just followed the book and said "spot the dog" alot.
and then, he started calling out loud "spot the dog" too! LOL.

baby and his first balugu.

technically, its not yz's 1st bruise.
but its his 1st knock on the head!!!!

what happened:
lazy sunday morning when the husband just stepped out to get our breakfast.
sticky yz was following me everywhere i went around the house doing some light household chores.
i opened the door to study room (normally all doors of rooms were closed so he cant go in) to get something and the little one was inside in a flash.
when i ve got my stuff, i called out to yz to get out.
in his haste to get out (maybe cos he thought i will just close the door with him inside), he sorta ran towards me but somehow he ran a bit sideways and *BAM* he knocked the side of his forehead on the edge of the study table.. (the table's height is just around his height too.)
he fell back and sat on the floor, stunned from the impact and started wailing.
i immediately scooped him up and saw a mark on the impact site.
almost like a mini dent but not so serious. before long there was this huge swelling.
and i started crying cos i felt so guilty.

i should not have "chased" him out of the room.
and as my mum always chided me, im not so careful with taking care of yz.
and upon closer look, there seems to be a tiny speck of red.
a really bad bruise no doubt. :(
and yz cried the more he saw me crying.
wanted to call hb but saw that he didnt bring his hp.
wanted to rush yz to he clinic downstairs but didnt want hb to return home and wondering where were we.
and in the midst of chaos n crying, a stunned hb came home to find his wife sobbing and carrying yz.

after finding out what happened, cool and collected hubbi quickly assess the bump and concluded it should be just a nasty bruise and nothing else.
he took over yz (who has stopped crying and indicating pappy to play with him already) and asked me to take my brekkie first.

it has been a week plus since this incident and my worry only finally ebbed few days back.
when i can see that the bruise has almost gone away altogether and yz is still his lovely playful active self.

really must be more prudent in taking care of him.
now that he is in this "i like to run though im not very good at walking either" stage!

10 more days to go before the trip!
not feeling much excitment yet.
maybe due to mth-end closing now.
*yawn*

weather going haywire too.
too much rain for a feburary.
weekend was not exactly satisfying with a trip to the in-laws side and a short stint in orchard.
more like stuck in the rain.
*yawn*