I am back!

Am alive and kicking in another part of the world now. Took a half year break from blogging mainly because of the intense preparations needed for our relocation from Singapore to Shanghai. Documents, permits, licenses, movers, pet travel, housing and what not. It was overwhelming but it's all worth it.

Another reason is our 3-week long vacation in Europe just before the move. I must also say the fact that I printed my blog into a 250-page book somehow felt like an end to a life episode. Well, time to overcome inertia again and start on my new book. Gotta do my blog justice and fill up this half year gap with whatever I can remember of it!

*flipping through 6 months worth of photos*

Lets start with a simple one - Batam (12-15 Jan 2013) with my lovely ladies who bought me this trip for my birthday. The group tour included visits to the Chocolate House, Polo outlet, local snack shop and a temple, lunch at Golden Prawn 555, a massage and some shopping at a local mall. It's funny how Rena snapped up lots of ___ at the supermarket and even brought a huge bag for it (inside joke)! Can't remember the name of our hotel but it was rather grand by Batam standard. Went home with food poisoning but still enjoyed our 1st mini getaway :)

Aix-en-Provence/Cassis (12-13April11)

Okay I really shouldn't procrastinate anymore especially since I've returned from my South of France trip for almost 3 weeks, and that my Barcelona's story is awaiting. Doesn't help that I've just started my French intensive course at Langue Onze. Classes take place everyday from 9am-1pm ; it is indeed intense! I was attending private lessons at this school with Anne until we stopped in February as she had to start work. I decided on this torturous activity only because, as most of you should know by now, I'm heading back to Singapore for good in 2 months' time. And so this would be my last chance to learn the beautiful language in the country I've come to love. I can't even express how badly I'll miss this place......

Anyway, back to the trip. We drove to Aix in the evening and went straight to the famous Cours Mirabeau. Everyone in France has been telling me that Aix-en-Provence is really beautiful but I thought it didn't look as extraordinary as I'd expected. Perhaps it was because we didn't have enough time to fully explore the area. Nonetheless, we still appreciated the clean streets, the neat buildings, and the narrow streets (deeper in) with charming lil' shops. Made an impromptu decision to dine at a place which then turned out to be one of the best tapas bar we've ever been to. Crowded even on a Tuesday night. We had to wait about half an hour for a table. Worth every single minute of it. Oh and that's also one thing that surprised us - for such a small town the night (dining) scene was really vibrant!

Name: Tapas Café

Location: 6 Place des Augustins, 13100 Aix-en-Provence

Expenditure: 45€ incl. wine

Took a friend's recommendation and drove to a small town called Cassis. Even before reaching our destination, the anticipation that built up during the scenic drive there was incredible. I took so many pictures and all of them look so good I had a hard time reducing to just 8. I LOVE THIS PLACE. We were also lucky that weather that day was PERFECT. No doubt judging from the colors of the photos. We took the Route des Crêtes which runs along the cliffs and up the mountains. When you go higher up, there are several points where you can park your car, get out, and soak in the landscape that surrounds you. We also saw a few campervans stationed there and their owners enjoying picnics. Quel bonheur! The town center of Cassis is supposed to be an excellent place to have a coffee and relax but it wasn't easy to find a parking lot so we let it pass. We then returned to Marseille via the highway instead of the scenic route.

Back from SG

Apologies for being MIA (missing-in-action) for a whole month. Didn't expect my year-end holiday back home to be so packed & hurried (felt somewhat like those organized tours haha). No doubt it was fun catching up with friends & families after being away for 8 mths but stressful nonetheless! Any free time we had were quickly taken up by lunch, dinner, coffee and drinks appointments. In between, we also went for 2 short trips in Malacca/Kl and Bali, took a 5-day 9am-5pm accounting course, met up with our contractor (also our friend) umpteen times regarding S' new house, and shopped for all the Singapore goodies to be brought back to Paris. So you can see we hardly had any time to ourselves..but I must say we accomplished quite a lot in that short period of time!

Now that we're back to our little cozy apartment, we can finally relax and return to our slower-paced lifestyle. Ended the year 2010 with a 3-star lunch, an All-Star basketball game, and a crazy countdown party at a friend's place! What a night that was. ;) Hope you had a good one too?

Okay, gotta devote myself to complete all the backdated posts before the new 2011 adventures start taking place. Cheers :)

Short return in Dec

This is what I do NOT like about the snow. Just a while back I was still feeling contented about my rain-boots purchase and now I'm hunting for Uggs winter boots! The frozen hands-feet-ears thing just kills me. Only after reading this article do I realize why our central heating has been so cranky. It goes off during the day (even if it's -0℃) and then turns on again in the evening. I was at the verge of complaining to the agent for being so stingy! I guess they don't have a choice too. Anyway, it doesn't bother me so much now that I'm heading back to Singapore in 3 days. Whoohoo! Ok, maybe not that happy either. Heard that it's been raining mad back home. Tsk. What's wrong with the weather these days....?

Traveled to Vienna a week back but as everyone knows packing can be such a b***h, so I don't think I'll be able to post that up so soon. Ah well, it's really not easy keeping a blog but I'm trying my best :)

All you friends back in sg, I can't wait to see you! À bientot (see you soon)!

Lady Gaga concert

A couple of days back we went to Lady Gaga's concert (The Monster Ball Tour 2010) & it was A-MAZ-ING. 2.5 hours of powerpacked performance..whoohoo! Overnight, we became fans of Lady Gaga. Hahaha. We both concluded that she is out of this world. Crazy thing was that we got the tickets through sheer chance & luck. Just a few days before the concert (we didn't even know about it), S was surfing for rugby tickets & out of nowhere, she chanced upon this. Luck on our side, there were about 50 tix remaining (at the official price) which S grabbed at without hesitation. So tada, she came home that day with her sweet surprise: "Guess what, we're going to see Lady Gaga this Sat"!!

Cat 1 tix at 95€ each & we were seated quite close to the stage, albeit on the right side. We were a bit shocked to see the 17000-strong arena (Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy) fully packed. Never knew Parisians were so happening!

The opening:

Love the props...

and her exaggerated costumes.

The finale. None other than...Bad Romance.

Presenting Lady Gaga and her exotic gay-men dancers:

I cannot tell you enough how superb the atmosphere was. Everyone was dancing; even little kids. Will prob post some videos on fb to give you a little glimpse. Couldn't capture the song choruses though, too busy dancing!!! ;)

Moving to Paris

It's confirmed. I'll be flying off on the 6th of April (just 9 days away!) at 11.40pm. Excited but nervous because of the pile of administrative work we gotta settle when we're there. Like housing, car, visas, french school etc. Have to settle in soon as we're expecting our first visitors in June! (No, in fact, there's already one arriving in April) Hmm..

Next time I'm back, it'd be to escape the winter and to attend Ruth's wedding, meaning December! Hopefully by then my knowledge of France, or at least Paris, would have increased many notches. But before that happens, any recommendations of places to visit/food to eat in and around France will be very much appreciated :)