From the Drag Queen to the 7 dwarfs

Wow, it's been a long time again.

Quite an eventful two weeks actually, but let me start with Friday night last week...
Ting decided to take me out, and treat me for dinner and a show. When she told me it was in Orchard Towers I started to wonder if it was not one of Tinker's stupid jokes. For the folk who don't know, Orchard Towers is the place where prostitutes, lady-boys and the crowd that goes with them, hang around... The show is a stand up comedy by a humorist called Kumar.
Kumar is an Indian man's name, and I was expecting the usual Indian guy with his funny accent, well I was wrong. Kumar is a beautiful, tall, slim, with big eyes, long silk hair and cute expression; lady.... boy, man actually. Because he hasn't worked much on his voice and when you hear him, there is no mistake, at all.

I'm not going to tell you about the show, I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it is very funny. He gets people on stage to do funny stuff and his stories are very colourful. By the way, don't take your children under 18 (21 for Singaporeans). So we had a really good time, and the dinner that was served before the show was very good (mexican food!).

Saturday, instead of doing house work, we decided to go out. And as we didn't want to shop, we did the second best thing in Singapore: trekking!
We departed for Mount Faber by MRT and from there there is a 9 km walk. We didn't finish it of course as we were expected for dinner for Ting's dad's birthday, I'll get to that after.
Nothing really special happened during the walk. We saw HUGE spiders on their web, tried to take photos but it's not very clear. Here is one of them.

And we went across a special bridge called "The waves". It's nice, apart from the splinters in my fingers resulting of my taking a picture on the floor. As we speak I still have these splinters, they're hard to take out of my hard Yeti's skin.

We finished the 4.5km in a cute little park and took a bus home.
Then dinner with the Tinker's family. Very good seafood place in east coast called Hawaï Beach or something. All the courses were delicious, with the prawn in XO sauce winning an award from Ting, she ate the whole dish almost by herself, barely leaving the heads to the rest of the table.

We went home not too late after this and were in bed early. Which is a good thing as at 8:30 the Sunday morning some loud music started at our block, and then this girl talking extremely loudly in a microphone... And as I was pestering and covering my head with the pillow she announced: "Everyone come to the Block Party at block 204!!!" I knew my Sunday morning sleep was lost and that the music wouldn't stop. So Ting and I went down to have a look. They had installed a stage and chairs and games for the kids and this weird Malay guy was singing Chinese songs in a joyful way. The show had started...

I took a few pictures of the Malay guy, of the games and the rest of the show (a puppeteer who had no idea how to speak to children was quite funny). You will find all the pictures in our Picasa link in the links. As I appeared in this Asian crowd I couldn't go unnoticed. As Ting puts it, I stick out like a sore thumb... So the lady host spoke to me. "Where are you from? You live here?"... Try to be discreet and the whole world sees you. I have to admit I quite like it.
The party lasted until the lottery was finished, at about 1pm. No one would have stayed any longer anyway, when you have something to win the Chinese will participate, once it's over no one is interested. We had one ticket, number 0148, which of course wasn't picked. The host had said she'd buy the ticket back from me if I didn't win, I'm still waiting for the money. Our afternoon following this seemed very quiet, plus I was really tired being deprived from my beauty, sorry Yeti sleep... Until my good old brother called me at 23:30 Singapore time to chat on webcam with my parents... I was pleased to see them mind, just a little sleepy.

That was our week-end. And back to work on Monday (yeah, you have to work as well in Singapore...)

Then Wednesday 3rd, we took Ting's little sis to see a pantomine, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. I'm saying we took Ting's sister cause I don't want to admit that I really wanted to go myself. I remember when my grandmother took us once in Scotland, it was Jack and the Beanstalk. I remember having a great time.
And in Singapore the traditions were respected. It was hilarious. Everyone, not only the children, were laughing. And the crowd was participating as well: "Don't eat the apple!! It's poisonous!! It's got Melamine inside!". And very critical toward Singapore's government and lifestyle (the dwarfs were not small, they were just ugly which is why they couldn't stay in the Kingdom, when you come here you'll know what I'm talking about). So each age group in the audience could take their own little favourite moments. Really a good time... hahaha.

I think that's about it for last week. Singapore is nice and cool at the moment (yeah, 25-27° only), it's rather nice. But it's raining quite a lot.
As we were Christmas shopping last night, I didn't see the effects of the financial crisis. Everyone was carrying quite a lot of bags (me too...), but it's true that the sales seem to have started already, which is a first before Christmas I think. I guess the shops haven't been selling as much during the past months as they usually do. But shhh, according to the government everything is fine and no recession in coming. Singapore is still as powerful as ever, but still can't grow it's own water!

Take care till next time. I've got some announcement to make concerning the wedding.

Week-end is coming!!

Hi All,

I haven't posted all week, but it's just because we're quite busy. Everything is fine. We enjoyed time with Ting's sister this week as her parents are away in Malaysia. We took her to see Chihuahua last night. Not my favourite film, but the youngest of us enjoyed it I think, and that's what matters right?

Nothing much planned this week-end. Just lazing and booking the hotel for the wedding. We finally came to an arrangement that suits us. But we have to fill the room up so don't fail on us on the 15/08/2009! I know the invitations are not sent yet, but it doesn't mean we're cancelling. We're just disorganised.

That's all folks!

Week-end in Melaka!

You might have seen the pics on Picasa, (if not you can have a look: follow the link on the right), so I guess it's time to tell you about our week-end in Melaka.

As a back ground for our French readers, Melaka is a city about 240 Km north of Singapore. So it's in Malaysia, on the west coast.

We followed this route by bus to reach.


View Larger Map

The bus was really nice. Not one of these old kind with wooden seats you see in American movies, but the business class kind, with large seats and personal LCD screen, unfortunately nothing was shown on them... It took about 3 hours to reach.

When we arrived we were surprised to see that the city was tiny. It used to be the biggest merchant harbour of south east Asia, but that was before Singapore came out of swamps. Now it's just a little touristic town with destroyed monuments and so many food places you couldn't try them all if you stayed a year.

Our hotel was quite nice, the Equatorial it's called. Four swimming pools (I counted only one) a comfortable room with a quite nice view as you can see:


As soon as we reached we went on to discover the town.

As we walked out of the hotel we were called by the trishaw owners. These bikes with a little carriage all decorated nicely with flowers during the day, and at nights they manage to light up the whole city. Although Ting's Dad had advised we took a stroll with one of them, we never got round to it. All the tourist on them seemed to have good fun, mixed with fear as cars were whisking by at rather high speeds.

We walked up to the monument of Melaka, it's called "A famoso". It used to be a huge wall that was supposed to protect from foreign intruders... When you see what's left of it you wonder who would be kept out with that


Then up the stairs to St Paul's cathedral. It's got no roof, no doors, nothing inside. Oh yeah, the open grave of St Francis. So we went down the hill again.

At the bottom of the hill we found the Sultan's Palace.
We paid to go in, only to discover that it was a replica of the real palace that was destroyed I can't remember when. Inside was quite interesting, the birth of the city of Melaka: a guy fleeing from Indonesia, then Singapore because he had killed some other guy fell asleep under a tree (a Melaka tree) when he woke up, he saw one of his dogs get beat by a white mouse deer, and he thought "This is a sign, I'll build a city here". Melaka was born. Many ancient costumes were shown in the museum, and who were the first merchant to arrive and so on (I can't remember the exact order, Thais, Chinese, Arabs I guess they were last since they brought Islam), what I remember it that the Portuguese colonised first and built A Famoso, then the Dutch who built the church, and finally the English, they just hung around for a while.

As we left the Palace we walked towards the Dutch district which is all red, and has a wind mill. Quite a view in the middle of Asia.


Ting was insisting that we see the Peranakan Museum. Her grand mother is born in that culture which is the mix between Chinese and Malay. To reach the museum we had to walk through Jonker street,where all the shops are. We got caught in the shops like bees in a bottle full of jam and ended up buying, not one, not two, but four magnets! And we also ate the speciality of Melaka some chicken with rice balls.

It's quite good, but really tastes like chicken rice, except that the rice is in a ball shape.

After all this we finally reached the museum which had closed five minutes before. Ting was quite upset and we were both rather tired so we decided to relax in the hotel until dinner time.


As we were in an old Portuguese colony, I thought it would be nice to have Portuguese food that night. To go to the Portuguese quarter a taxi was the best way. No meters in taxis in Melaka, you have to bargain, and we managed to get our own chauffeur who waited for us until our dinner was over. Our ride wasn't a limousine, and I feared for a while that he might invite himself to our table, but all went fine.

We reached the Portuguese quarter and I had never seen a Portuguese restaurant look so much like a Chinese hawker. Little stalls, and tables outside. Plenty people watching football. I thought for a while I was back in Singapore... But no, a fat lady came up and asked if we wanted Portuguese food and as we timidly nodded she brought us over to the sea side on a nice table right next the the stereo playing some country music.

The food was delicious, really. So much that we didn't think of taking a picture before we started, that's what Ting left of the baked fish with chili (it sounds like a Chinese recipe?).


As delicious as it was, I didn't feel the Portuguese tangle in it... We still enjoyed ourselves having a romantic dinner by the sea, the waves were probably swooshing on the shore in a delicate sandy noise, but we never got the hear them as Johnny Cash was walking the line in our ears.

That day had been long enough (we woke up at 6.15 as the bus was leaving at 7.30) so we went to bed.

The next day had one objective to it: Peranakan Museum. Well Ting pulled me out of bed and dragged me there really. I wasn't disappointed. No photos could be taken, but we saw a staircase entirely built with zero nails! We walked up and it held!
I would like to say more about it, we did have a guide to explain the objects and rooms, but we also had a school visiting at the same time. No need to say that 13-15 year old kids are more interested in some foolishness than listening to a guide. But I recommend that place, even in these conditions it was nice to see.

We had little time left after this as our bus was leaving at 4.00 sharp so we hurried back to the hotel. We were late of course but the bus had waited for us.

Melaka is a nice little town. I wouldn't spend a whole week there but it has lots of character and a history to it which is very uncommon. Ting and I both keep nice memories of this week end, Malays are very welcoming and always smiling. I would recommend it to anyone who needs to spend two or three days in a quiet place very accessible from Singapore.

La vie en 16/9e…

Un petit post en Français pour les moins anglophones d’entre vous… Je ne peux malheureusement pas faire de traduction automatique du site pour que tout le monde puisse comprendre, va falloir se mettre à l'anglais les gars!

La vie en 16/9e je disais. Pourquoi 16/9e ? Car les Asiatiques avec leurs yeux bridés voient dans ce format. Moi aussi car le riz commence à me durcir l’intestin.

Non, la vie ici ce n’est pas pareil. Ce n’est pas pire, ce n’est pas beaucoup mieux qu’à Paris si ce n’est que le climat est horrible pour certaines personnes et un véritable bonheur pour moi qui ai une répulsion pour le froid. D’ailleurs en ce moment même je grelotte un peu car le clim’ est trop basse et que la température intérieure (une vingtaine de degré) est trop froide. A noter que dehors il doit faire dans les 25-29°, en France selon la météo il fait 10 à Paris à 15h.

Pour le reste je vis presque comme je vivais à Paname, mais en couple, adieu belle vie de célibataire qui peut laisser ses chaussettes sales traîner par terre et ce pendant des semaines (voire des mois).
N’ayant pas encore pu faire l’acquisition d’un engin motorisé à deux roues, je prends les transports en commun. Ces derniers n’ont d’ailleurs rien de commun avec la France. On pourrait dîner à même le sol et question ponctualité pas plus de cinq minutes d’attente pour un métro, un toutes les deux minutes aux heures de pointes. Les grèves n’existent pas, ce n’est pas un droit ici, pas plus que les manifestations, bien que je sente le peuple Singapourien en mal de rébellion, mais la politique n'est pas le sujet de cet article et Big Brother nous guette, attention la censure.

Les Singapouriens ont deux gros défauts. Ils ne savent ni marcher vite, ni marcher droit. Parcourir vingt mètres dans un couloir de métro sans s’énerver relève de l’exploit. Car on tombe toujours derrière le type qui change de direction dès qu’on cherche à le doubler, et quand enfin on suit une personne qui marche à une allure convenable elle s’arrête pile pour aucune raison apparente. Quand je dis qu’ils marchent lentement, je veux dire vraiment la vitesse de l’escargot. L’autre jour dans un centre commercial je ralentissais mon pas pour attendre Tinker, et malgré ma vitesse réduite je parvenais tout de même à doubler des gens ! On pourrait penser que c’est à cause du climat, or un centre commercial est climatisé façon frigo donc un peu sport aide à se réchauffer souvent. Non, je crois qu’il s’agit d’une déformation culturelle. Un singapourien pressé ne va pas plus vite : il hèle un taxi. Dans les premiers temps, quand je marchais aux cotés de ma douce, après trois minutes dix mètres nous séparaient, certes elle a de petites jambes, mais un pas aussi réduit tient presque du miracle. Je me demande d’ailleurs comment font-ils pour ne pas tomber entre deux pas, un équilibre exemplaire !
Cette allure réduite n’a pas que des inconvénients. Elle apprend la patience. Elle empêche de trop suer lorsqu’on marche dehors. Mais surtout elle montre bien le flegme Singapourien. Je n’ai jamais vu une personne d’ici s’énerver pour quoi que ce soit, ou très rarement. Les gens sont disciplinés et attendent quand il faut attendre. Marchent quand il faut marcher, et votent quand il faut voter (ce qui n'arrive jamais. Ah zut, j'avais dit pas de politique).
A noter que le Singapourien conduit comme il marche, c'en est scandaleux!

J'ai aussi eu la grande, l'énorme chance de vivre des réunions de familles (deux à ce jour, pour fêter le premier mois de bébés, ça se fait ici).
Comme en France: on doit y être poli et dire bonjour à Mamie, c'est les seuls points communs.
J'ai été très surpris de trouver la télé allumée au cours de toutes ces réunions. Et beaucoup de gens en arrivant disent à peine bonjour et vont s'assoir devant un programme en Chinois. Ils ne se lèvent que pour aller se goinfrer au buffet, puis retournent s'assoir.
Je n'ai vu que des buffets. J'ai le sentiment que cela vient de la taille des familles. Jusqu'au milieu des années 70 la plupart des familles avaient au moins dix enfants, ces enfants sont aujourd'hui nos parents et tous les cousins qui vont avec. Donc pour nourrir tout ce monde des buffets sont organisés sur le palier.


J'exagère évidemment en disant que les gens se posent devant la télé et ne font rien d'autre. Ils accueillent tous les visiteurs avec beaucoup de chaleur. Et je me suis senti très vite chez moi en compagnie de la famille de Ting.
Comme partout les enfants sont toujours aimés, ici la photo de Eamon


et là c'est le fils de la cousine de Ting, Marcus


La nourriture est toujours excellente, et en abondance. Ainsi que la boisson, mais non alcoolisé. La tradition n'est pas à l'alcoolémie, et à part quelques bières parfois, on ne boit pas en famille. Ceci n'empêche nullement aux gens de passer des bons moment. Est-ce que ma culture européenne de la boisson me rend incapable de m'amuser sans boire? Parfois je me le demande puisque la réflexion m'est venue.

Une autre chose d'assez remarquable je trouve, on peut venir et repartir quand on veut de ces réunions. Les gens viennent, mangent, discutent un peu, regardent la télé puis partent. On est pas obligé d'arriver au début, ni d'attendre la fin pour partir. Et dire que je me faisais toujours tirer les oreilles quand je quittais la table trop tôt lors de ces déjeuner familiaux interminables de mon enfance. Je dois bien admettre que je préfère la tradition d'un repas autour d'une table, mais à Rome on fait comme les romains...

Je pense tout de même indispensable de bien préciser qu'au fond ils s'aiment, s'aident et trouvent toujours du temps pour se retrouver dans cette famille, et que ceci est par dessus tout le plus important...

Little India in Singapore

It's funny how I've lived here all my live, and I thought I have exeprienced all the four main dominant cultures here in Singapore - Chinese, Indian, Malay, Eurasian - but Saturday night made me realise how wrong I was.

I can't say for all Singaporeans, but for most of us, being in a multi racial country means you get to taste food from all cultures.Which is great for us because we love to eat! It's not difficult being able to tell a Singaporean Chinese from the others. There was this joke about a Singaporean being in a restaurant.

"Sir, what would you like for your dessert?" Asks the waiter as he clears the unfinished plate from the main course.

The Singaporean touches his bulging tummy, and replies as he shakes his head, "Oh no no, I am too full."

"But this is part of your dinner set meal, Sir." The waiter reminds.

"OF COURSE! Bring it in!" Retorts the Singaporean.

Singaporeans.. well, we love our food. That's why it's called the Food Paradise here.

Joke aside, tasting a culture doesn't mean living the culture. And I had the priviledge to do that just Saturday night. Deepavali, the Indian Festive, like Chinese New Year for the Chinese, or Christmas for the French and English, if I could strike such a comparison, falls on the coming Monday. Since it's the Festival of Lights, it wasn't surprising that they had lit up the whole of Little India for this occasion.

One main thing I took away from all this: The Indians are such great craftsmen! Here are some pictures from the walk through Little India.













This is a typical sweet shop. A variety of cakes, and pastries are given to friends and relatives on Deepavali who come to visit. It's very similar to Chinese New Year actually. Julien tried Gulab Jamun here. It gave him stomach discomforts after. Not because it was bad or anything. It was just.... too sweet.














These shoes were all hand made. Unfortunately they came only in kid's size. The beads here were hand sewn individually.














These flower garlands are made by tying the flowers together with cord. I wonder how many flowers are used to make just one, and how long it might take too.














Julien pouting for the camera. What a night.















We came across this lamp shop there and they had the most amazing creations! Julien had picked me up and slung me across his shoulders slauntering away while I was still haggering with the stall owner for a discount.















A beautiful hand crafted side table or bed table. Just one of the many beautiful things we saw at the furniture shop. There was another item that was so intelligently made in my opinion. The shop owner showed us these stacks of what looked like wood crafted plate holders. I had thought to myself I would never pay that kind of amount for just wood that you put your plates of food on. Then he yanked at some part of that flat wood and that 2D plate like looking thing became a 3D fruit basket!!! Unfortunately, we were too amazed to remember to take a picture of that item.




















Julien was more interested in the "other" furniture.














When or if you come to Singapore, do make time to visit an Indian temple. It is a work of art! These statues are carefully and painstakingly hand carved from stone. After which, they would be individually painted. That's why it usually takes a few years to build one temple like that. Each statue represents a deity that they worship. And yes, there are MANY.

We decided to take a short break before we headed to Mustafa Centre - a 24 hour mall that sells anything and everything that you can think of. I kid you not. It's so huge we got lost a couple of times.

That's it for now. Salut!

They found my ancestor!!

Thanks to Michel for finding this article on AFP. La version française est disponible plus bas.

Japanese team finds 'yeti footprints' in Nepal
Mon Oct 20, 8:58 am ET
AFP/HO – An undated handout picture from Yeti Project Japan, received on October 20, 2008, shows what is alleged …


KATHMANDU (AFP) – A team of Japanese adventurers say they have discovered footprints they believe were made by the legendary yeti said to roam the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet.
"The footprints were about 20 centimetres (eight inches) long and looked like a human's," Yoshiteru Takahashi, the leader of the Yeti Project Japan, told AFP in Kathmandu on Monday.
Takahashi was speaking after he returned with his seven-member team from their third attempt to track down the half-man-half-ape, tales of which have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.
Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV -- a 7,661-metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of yetis in the past -- the team failed in their prime objective of capturing one on film.
But Takahashi said the footprints were proof enough.
"Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognise bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard prints and it was none of those," he said.
"We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the local tell make us sure that it is not imaginary," he added.
Photographs of the prints have been posted on the expedition's website, www.everest.co.jp/yeti2008/.

The team had set out nine motion-sensitive cameras in an area where Takahashi saw what he thought was a yeti during a previous expedition in 2003.
"It was about 200 metres away in silhouette. It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimetres tall," said Takahashi.
Despite their lack of success this time, the team plans to continue the quest.
"We will come back as soon as we can, and we will keep coming back until we get the yeti on film," said Takahashi.

If you find any information about Tinkerbell being spotted please let us know!

Des Japonais affirment avoir trouvé des empreintes du yéti dans l'Himalaya
2008-10-21 09:03:07
KATMANDOU (AFP)
© AFP
Une équipe d'aventuriers japonais a affirmé lundi avoir découvert des empreintes de pas attribuées au mythique yéti qui rôderait dans les montagnes de l'Himalaya entre le Népal et le Tibet.
"Les empreintes mesuraient environ 20 centimètres de long et ressemblaient à celles d'un être humain", a déclaré à l'AFP à Katmandou Yoshiteru Takahashi, chef du Programme Yéti du Japon.
M. Takahashi était de retour avec ses sept comparses de leur troisième mission longue de 42 jours sur le Dhaulagiri IV (7.661 mètres d'altitude) à la recherche de la légendaire créature. Ils n'ont cependant pas réussi à filmer le yéti, ce qui était normalement leur objectif.
"Nous nous rendons dans l'Himalaya depuis des années et nous sommes capables de reconnaître des empreintes d'ours, de daim, de loup ou de léopard des neiges et ce que nous avons vu n'était rien de toute cela", a assuré le Japonais.
Cette bête, mi-homme, mi-singe, excite depuis des décennies l'imaginaire d'aventuriers étrangers, surtout occidentaux: en décembre dernier une équipe de télévision américaine était aussi redescendue des pentes de l'Everest, entre le Népal et le Tibet, en annonçant avoir trouvé des traces de pas du yéti.
"Nous restons convaincus qu'il existe. Grâce aux empreintes et aux histoires que les habitants nous racontent, nous sommes sûrs que ce n'est pas de l'imagination", a insisté M. Takahashi.
L'alpiniste Reinhold Messner, qui a gravi à de nombreuses reprises des sommets de l'Himalaya et a cru en 1986 avoir aperçu la bête, a conclu en 1998 dans son livre "Ma quête du yéti" que l'animal n'existait que dans l'imagination des gens qui le confondent avec l'ours brun de l'Himalaya.

Si vous trouvez des infos sur la Fée Clochette ayant été aperçue, faites suivre!

Welcome to the Ch'tis

Slow week end for us. Ting is not feeling very well and the medication she is taking is making her kind of stoned... She didn't take it on Sunday thankfully

We went to the cinema Friday night to see the best film of the century, I'm not kidding. The title is "Welcome to the sticks".
It did the most entries of all films ever in France. It's produced by this French humorist called Danny Boon. Oh, and the title in French is "Bienvenue chez les ch'tis".
I was surprised to see that the cinema wasn't completely empty, and no, not only French people. I was even more surprised that people (Ting and Rachel her sister) had fun. They were laughing for some of the jokes. Of course the subtitles couldn't render the accent at all, and when they spoke about "les meubles sh'est les shiens" "Les chiens?!!", "Non, les shiens, pas les kiens"... The subtitles were on about something about fish and the offish and fishcats.... I was too busy laughing to really read it all. And only 3 of us in the theatre were laughing... At least it showed these Singaporeans that French can make good films, and not necessarily full of naked women (that's why most teenagers see French films in Singapore: because you usually get to see at least some tits... But the really good scenes are always censored). They even censored some of the scenes in the ch'tis.

That was for Friday night.

Saturday we went to the Mandarin Oriental, the hotel which is going to hold our wedding! I put some pictures in Picassa. This one is the main room, called the "Garden Suite".



Then dinner at a Brazilian restaurant called "Carnivore" in Chijmes. Free flow of meet all night long. I thought my belly was going to explode when I left the table. I was feeling sick all night after. On Ting's side, she was better off because her jaw started hurting quite soon preventing her from over eating. She carried me home...

As for today, the Singaporeans already know it rained all day long... So Ting and I stayed home did some house work. While Ting was ironing I was hoovering and cleaning the bathroom, really a fun day... But as my beloved was saying in her last post, if you enjoy doing your chores, they're not chores anymore, and I did almost enjoy myself as I was sweeping all the dust from the floor. Seriously, I can't wait to get a maid...

Women Can Enjoy Ironing

Hi Everyone!!

I know, I know, I am a little late on posting my first blog. But better late than never.

I'm actually on medical leave today. I have been falling sick on and off ever since we moved here. So today's one of those days again, and I thought why not contribute to the post.

Moving is... not difficult, but neither is it easy. It took us a total of about a month to really settle in and get our furniture where we want them to be. It's finally a place we can proudly call home, for now, and we love it!!! It does look very different from how it was initially. Many changes we had to go through as well. For me personally, I had to get adjusted to being more independent. We did our own washing and ironing, and I never knew ironing could be this back breaking! I will confess that I have never had to really do my own ironing for the longest time, since we had a maid back home. The only ironing I really did was way back in school during Home Economics Class, where they taught girls how to cook, sew, iron, and do the housework. (For our French readers, yes, this curricular does exist in school as a subject. )

So, having said that, believe it or not, the first time I ironed Julien's shirt, I made a bad choice of selecting his Spark Taylor shirt first. For many who don't know about his Spark Taylor shirts, they crease too easily and I heard even the professionals whom he sends his shirts to be ironed told him that this particular make of shirts are a challenge. I didn't know, and therefore I took 30mins to iron just that one shirt.

I have since improved. grin.

Thinking back on this reminds me of how sweet Julien was one weekend to offer to help me iron some t-shirts (after I had finished ironing the work shirts of course), and through just watching him, I learnt that you can choose to have fun with something as simple as ironing by just enjoying the process. This is what I mean... Enjoy!

The steamboat

Last Sunday we had lunch in the Beaulieu House, we were thinking of having our wedding there... But changed our minds. Not that the food is bad, but it's on the other side of the world in Singapore kilometres.


You must be wondering how good the steamboat was...


It was good. Here's a picture of what it is:






For the French it's close to a "fondue bourguignonne", but without oil and less meat but seafood instead. I think they call it "fondue chinoise" in France, how original! Then again "bateau à vapeur" sounds kind of weird.


The restaurant is in the North of Singapore, in a area called called "Sembawang". It's like Lille or Dunkerque except it's only 20 mins away from the centre, but the beach and the water are dirty just like the north of France if it were 30° all year round there... See how beautiful it is...





On the other side you see Malaysia... with the police making sure no Malysian is swimming illegally to Singapore.

Sunday afternoon fishing a catching crabs for a good meal, or a restaurant...

... or enjoying the view

That was our wonderful Sunday afternoon in Singapore. We went home after to watch the Grand Prix which I'm sure you all followed with great attention and had a good view of Singapore skyline... People here are very proud of it, and all the news papers all week were full of it, and of the financial crisis. No wars, no poverty, no violence though... as if there was nothing appart from money around the world; or is there?

INFORMATION BOARD

I added a link to my picasa album so can view all the picures...

To the right there ->

I'm off for a steamboat now... (it's food, not a boat ride).

Grand Prix...

Yup, this week end is the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore. 1st one ever by night, you should see the lighting they put up.. But wait, I've got pictures!!!

Track seen during the day, obviously the lighting is not that impressive, but the cars are.

I don't have any pictures by night, all I can say is that I drove on the track (about 200 metres of it) at night, and I really took myself for a pilot for a while... Until a police man told me to slow down and to follow the other cars...

That was on the track, in daytime, so is all the following pics.

Lazing at home...

Guess what? We're both sick today, and we stayed home doing nothing at all, it's nice to do that once in a while.
Tomorrow is back to work though, probably no post then.

Since I have time, I'm attaching the pictures of the "treck' we did the other day. It's not really a treck but more a walk in the jungle, not many wild things here.


That's a strange encounter right at the start of the walk... They're nice to see but get agressive if you stay too long.

This was the chief of the bunch, he had the longest tail.

Yes it's a leaf!!!!

The suspended bridge in the middle of the jungle, singapore being the safest place on earth, that bridge could have held the passage of elephants, so nothing too impressive really.

That's a wood pecker. It was about 5 metres away from us minding his own business... But when we started taking pictures he thought he should find an other tree.

I can't load anymore pics. Maybe next time.

Like Tony Hawk

That is a 360° picture of the Yetinker's nest to give you a little idea of what it's like.

More pictures to come?

Hi

OK, here it is... The Yetinker's blog.
Why Yetinker you must be wondering, well it's the contractions of two nicknames: Tinkerbell and The Yeti.

I'll try to put pictures, and keep some news regularly, my other half might too, if she manages to log in.