home quiet home

Back in the cold, in the quiet, back to blogging and back to cooking for me! After a long, tiring journey, we've reached home safe and sound with our treasures from Singapore all intact, safe for a broken wheel on our brand new luggage due to (very) bad handling in Paris but lets not elaborate on that (menyakitkan hati aje).

We had 3 glorious weeks in Singapore, thanks to our dear family and friends. Good memories, wonderful moments, great times... thank all of you (you know who you are) for making our stay a truly memorable one. 3 weeks seem to whizz by so fast and in a blink of an eye, it's back to the airport to catch our flight back home.. what a miserable feeling that was. Well this is just but a temporary home for us.. we hope to be back in Singapore for good in the close future, insya'Allah.. we're crossing our fingers.

I'm already missing everybody especially my 2 darling nieces, with their chattiness and laughter.. how fast they've grown up! I'll sorely miss hearing them uttering 'Bik Julie' in their little voices.

After a long dread, I've finally unpacked and put everything away. Lets hope it won't be too long before we bring out the luggages again and head back to Singapore.. pour de bon!

what bleakness

It's only 4 pm and the light in our apartment is already on. It's grey, cold and wet outside.. depressing sight indeed. It has been raining every now and then, which is quite odd during winter. But that indicates that the temperature is not as low as it should be during this time of the year.. not that I'm complaining. Well it's still butt freezing to me. If it goes on like that, there won't be any white winter this year.

We're impatient to get off the layers and get defrosted in warm and humid Singapore.. counting down the days!

back online

I've been out of touch with the web world for a week and that left me handicapped for a while. Thanks to Mr Technician, our HP that died on us upon our return from my in-laws after the Christmas weekend, has been given a new lease of life and we're now contented :D

The new year came and gone and we welcomed 2007 with a clink of the champagne glass in the warmth of our living room.. no fireworks display or whatsoever here (not even in Paris apparently). Normally, we'd be over at my in-laws during Christmas right up till new year but that didn't happen this year since hubby has used up all of his vacation days for our trip to Singapore.

Here're some photos for you folks back in the warmth (click on it to pause):

cold, cold &.. still cold!

The dreaded winter clocks in officially today. This is my (our) least favourite season since we both abhor the cold. There's nothing really nice about winter except maybe for the snow, which makes things look pretty in this otherwise grey season. It's just too damn cold to be outside doing anything fun besides maybe skiing.. sure it's freezing all the same when you go skiing but skiing gear is quite different and since it's too cold, you kinda 'forget' it after a while. My first ski left me with 'dead' ears (total numbness), so if we ever plan to go skiing again, I'd be better equipped.

If my first winter here had me broke out in rashes due to my unaccustomed 'sensitive, delicate tropical skin', I'm more adapted to the climate here now... and of course I have my own survival kit close by all the time - my trusted lotion(s) and lip balm.. the key here is to constantly moisturize, moisturize and moisturize.. otherwise you'd be left all cracked up and dry as the desert.

I certainly do not recommend family and friends to come around here during this harsh season... unless you wanna have a go at ski (which is quite a feat to do) and wanna fulfill that childhood dream of touching/eating/playing with real snow. Not only will you have to spend extra money on winter clothes which you'd probably wear only once (or a few times) in your lifetime... plus, most of the attraction parks will be closed during this period of the year. Besides, daylight is much shorter during winter - sunrise is at around 8.30 am, while sunset is at around 5.00 pm - no fun... our lights are usually on by 4.30 pm.

So save your money and plan a trip around end spring/early summer, where it's neither too cold nor too hot... and you'll get to experience the country in its full glory.

vous parlez français? *

I've always been fascinated with the French language since my early 20s. I don't remember what sparked the interest initially but it has brought me to Alliance Française which then introduced me to the French culture.. and which in turn prompted my very first visit to Paris. Did all that finally bring me to my French man?.. maybe...

French is known to be the 'language of love' (or so that's what the French has been marketing their language as), aided by the fact that it is technically a "Romance" language - language that descended from Latin.

Personally, I do find the language attached with a romantic aura. And I'm not being bias here (well, maybe a little) but among the other European languages, I find that French is the most classiest sounding. Even cursing sounds a lot better in French.. I'm not proud to say this but I picked up all the bad words before the rest... you know, just so I'd know when I'm being bad-mouthed.. a precautionary measure you could say :)

I've made a huge leap in understanding the French language after 3 years being immersed in it although I can't boast (just yet) that I'm now able to utter rapid-fire French... well mine is more like 'survival' French. The recent event that had me landed in the hospital, put my competence in the language to the test and the outcome is that I could comfortably communicate with the doctors & co. But when hubby is around, I'd choose the easy way and take a backseat and let him do the talking instead.

I remember my very first visit to Paris, trying to find my way to the hotel.. it was opposite a bank and I stopped a passer-by for the direction of the bank. The conversation went something like this:

Me : Excuse me, do you know where Banque de France is?
Woman : blank look
Me : Banque de France?
Woman : still blank look
Me : ummm Banque de France? (wondering which part of those words she didn't understand) and then sputtering the name of the bank a few more times, trying to pronounce it as differently as I could
Woman : ohh.. Banque de France! (and then she pointed the way)

See, the difference between her Banque and my Banque was that I pronounced it as bang (as in abang).. and the way she pronounced it was more like bong=bonque. A little glitch in the pronounciation but I was finally understood.

Indeed, French words are not easy to pronounce. The greatest difficulty in pronouncing French is knowing which letters not to pronounce. And it takes a lot of nasal activity as well as the tip of the throat in order to deliver a decent sounding French. It would make pronouncing the French nasals easier if you were to have stuffy nose, rendering a 'sengau' effect.

The tv plays a huge part in making me understand the essence of everyday French and it's quite different from textbook French.. much like Bahasa Melayu and Melayu pasar. The tv has also make it possible for me to differentiate between French French and Canadian French as the latter has a much different nuance and lingo to it.

Approximately 40% of English vocabulary is of French origin. There are many words of French origin in English such as art, collage, competition, police, routine, table, and many others which have been and are being anglicized. They are now pronounced according to English rules of orthography, rather than French. There're also lots of French words or phrases being used by English speakers, such as à la carte, aide-de-camp, cliché, concierge, en route, fiancé(e)..

The most important word in the French language has to be "Bonjour". It's a customary greeting upon entering a store or restaurant or when approaching the person behind the till or counter. The French are incredibly polite on the surface - but this linguistic etiquette goes further than mere politeness. It implies so much more than that. The manner of your "Bonjour" determines the rest of your conversation with that person. Enter a bakery or a shop or restaurant of any kind, anywhere in France without a courteous "Bonjour" to the person at the till or counter, and your reception will be a frosty one. But try a bright and breezy "Bonjour" and the service becomes much friendlier.

Politeness and good manners remain essential to the French way of life and that's the thing I admire most in the French culture.


* you speak french?

julie's coiffure

The time has come for me to get into scissorhands mode. Hubby was starting to look like he's walking with a wilderness sprouting from his head and me no like. So our living room was temporarily transformed into an impromptu hair salon just now and I snipped and shaved my way into the bushy mass with deft manoeuvre of a professional.. steady lah.

Eversince we bought this hair clipping gadget, I've been the resident stylist for Monsieur and I've perfected my skill along the way. I actually enjoy cutting his hair, though not particularly the aftermath of cleaning up and seeing the annoying bits of cut hair that got lodged in the weaves of the clothes. So to minimize that eventuality, I've asked hubby to strip down to his bare essentials and since we don't have the kinda cape they use in the salons to wrap around you, I've improvised and used the less chic but very reliable trash bag.. it's an excellent way to avoid the cut hair from being scattered everywhere as the trash bag acts like a magnet and make the loose hair stick to it. Sure, hubby refused to be wrapped in a trash bag at first but men should know better than to argue with their wives, especially one with scissor and blade in her hands ;) Now, how many women get to claim that they've put their husbands in the trash bag?.. heh. Well that's the 'plus' you get for free service ;). So the Mister is satisfied and I don't have hair scattered all over the place - parfait!

our glorious third

He's my husband, my friend, my lover, my hero, my light, my joy, my strength,

my soul, my life, my everything.. deux=un, two hearts as one.

Thank you for sharing your life with me.

May we be so close throughout the years,

that when one cries, the other tastes tears.

Toi et moi, pour toujours.. je t'adore de tout mon coeur, mon chéri!