:updates:

Dah lama tak blog eh.. nothing interesting to write lah. So what's up over here?.. nothing much. Hubby had a 4-day weekend and we drove over to my in-laws. We took the highway for the first time to drive there and back... we can afford to go on the highway for hours now, with the 307 but not with the previous old car. And with the speed limit at 130km/h, I was a happy girl since I don't have much patience on the road. So it was a much pleasant, smoother ride for me and it took us about 2 hrs 45 mins to reach our destination as opposed to 4 hrs. The total amount paid for the toll back and forth was 35€.. a tad high but hey, money can always be earned but you can't turn back lost time. I think from now on, we're gonna take the highway to my in-laws, instead of traversing through villages after villages and enduring the much longer and tiring journey.

We have the 307 for what, 3 weeks now and already we had 2 wheel covers stolen and a minor accident just yesterday when a blind guy (he has to be blind) bumped into our car while reversing out of his lot. The accident was totally his fault, so he pays for the damage and hubby had recently replaced the 2 wheel covers for 65€. Well it's never safe to let your car sleeps outside on the roads here cause when night falls, anything could happen to it. If it's not completely gone, you can either have it scratched, rims stolen, wiper stolen, tyres punctured or stolen. Hubby had his car stolen twice previously and the second time round, the cops found it burnt - nice huh. The only way to ensure your car's safety here is to lock it up in a garage.

Well besides that, the weather has been on the yo-yo lately.. shifting from strong sun to storm to hail to heavy downpour and back to sun. We had slight hail yesterday, the size of small marbles.. we're good as long as it doesn't get any bigger than that.

Summer clocks in officially tomorrow and if the temperature stays below 30°C, we'll have a pleasant summer.

and then we're 3...

In due time, Insya'Allah. Yes, we're pregnant! :D I'm 2 months along (plus a bit more) and we had our first ultrasound a couple of days back and everything seems fine, Alhamdulillah. Saw our tiny baby and listened to the heartbeat and it was such an incredible feeling. It's still hard to believe that there's a tiny, living, growing person inside me.. simply amazing. The pregnancy has been going smoothly for me so far and we pray that it'll continue that way all through. I'm still taking my daily post-stroke medication but instead of taking it orally, I'm now taking it through injections. So hubby is playing nurse and does the poking twice a day everyday and it will go on throughout the pregnancy. Nobody likes being poked at but I guess I've gotten used to it though it does hurt sometimes but I don't mind at all.. it's a small sacrifice for something wonderful.

Here's a peek at our tiny baby:

front, back & the minuscule feet

notre nouvelle voiture

After weeks of contemplating on whether we should get a new car... well, we finally did. The previous long weekend we had, was spent finding a car and then settling papers and stuff once we've found it. Hubby put up our 15-yr old Volkswagen Golf for sales on the net and we got a buyer from Paris. We managed to squeeze 900€ out of the valueless car, which is a whole lot better than nothing.

So we've switched from the red Golf to a second hand Peugeot 307 - more recent (a 2002 make), with better functions and more importantly, it comes with an air-con system (yeayy!) for a more pleasant drive during the coming hot summer. Not all cars here come equipped with air-conditioner (the same goes to commercial stores), seeing that it's only hot 3 months out of 12.

I don't mind doing long drives, now that we have a much safer, more comfortable car. We have a 3-day weekend coming up next and it would be a good time to take our new car for a spin, if the weather permits and remain sunny like today (spring weather is so unpredictable!).


notre nouvelle voiture = our new car

holidays abound

Yesterday was the end of the first of many long weekends this month. May is the month that has the most public holidays - there's a holiday almost every week. And when the public holidays fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, it is commonplace to take the day off on Monday or Friday as well; known as "faire le pont" (making a bridge). And hubby's company is one of those that give their employees this privilege (lucky him).

So since we had a four-day weekend, we drove east to my in-laws for a visit and mainly to deliver them their new set of computer to replace the archaic one they had before. It's a collective present from the children for their birthdays. Hubby also installed the newly acquired cable channel for them. Now they can immerse themselves in the hundreds of channels made available to them.

On Sunday, we went to my paternal grandma-in-law's place to celebrate her belated birthday with 12 other people. She turned 95 and still very sane and able. Here're some pictures:

spring-ling

Ah, il fait beau! - literally, 'it makes beautiful'.. meaning to say, it's a fine weather.

On a fine spring day like this, you really wanna 'air' yourself outside, have a stroll by the riverbank or in the park, scooping on strawberry granita on the sidewalk terrace, have a picnic, golek-golek on the grass... the weather is perfect for these activities. It's really sunny and cool at the same time.

This is the season when the rituals of winter - nursing a kettle of tea, bundling in layers of scratchy wool, staying cooped up in the warmth of the home - make way for the rites of spring.

I love this period of the year when it's sunny but not scorching hot, when you get to listen to birds tweeting upon opening the windows, when everything comes back to life. We have longer days, warmer temperature, livelier streets decorated with bouquet of fresh flowers, happier, sprightly people.

Spring air gives me a particular sense of clarity and if you breathe in hard enough, you could almost smell that new bud sprouting from the tree branch. J'adore!

greek chick

It all started in a Parisian Greek restaurant. Hubby had a love affair with a Greek goddess.. er, sandwich, he'd eaten there and wanted me to replicate it at home. Sure. So I searched the net for the recipe. Didn't know what to look for exactly but found a fairly easy Greek chicken recipe instead. Tried my hand at it.. can't say it's the exact replica of the Paris's version but it was good nonetheless. I made ciabatta sandwich out of the chicken. It was quite a hassle to eat it, so I improvise the second time I cooked the chicken, and made it into a salad instead. And it has become a cult dish for hubby since. He likes it so much that he said, and I quote, "I can even eat it for breakfast" (haral kami).

sandwich vs salad

All you need here is skinless chicken legs marinated in lemon juice, herbes de provence (mixture of rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano), olive oil and minced garlic. Leave it to marinate for an hour or so and it's ready to be pan-fried. Once the chicken has cooked through, shred it, put it back in the pan and pour the rest of the marinade and let it sizzle. I like to add some chilli flakes at this stage to give it an added kick. Remove the pan from the heat, cool it down a little before mixing it with the salad, cherry tomatoes and cut-up ciabatta which I made into croutons. Give it a good mix, drizzle a little more olive oil if it's too dry, sprinkle some salt and it's good to go. Bon appétit!

before & after

cinematic experience

We dropped by the cinema today to check on the movie 300. I told myself that I must watch this movie after Boboy mentioned it to me and then checking out the movie site. But unfortunately, they only show it in version française and that really sucks. Well I guessed it as much but was hoping by miracle that they might show this kinda movie in its original version. Pas de chance! That's what you get in French cinemas. All foreign films are French-dubbed here.. and I hate that. I like my movies in their original version, wherever they come from, and with the appropriate subtitles. But if you're in Paris though, you have the choice to watch an American-produced movie either in version française or version originale. But since we're not in Paris, we'll just have to wait for the movie to be out on DVD :(

So what is it about this movie? It's an epic and I like epic movies like 300 even if it comes with lots of gory fights. It appeals to me firstly because of its visual feast - the different era, the costumes, the artistic direction, the whole setting. This movie reminds me of the game The Prince of Persia (which we both like and have played repeatedly).

I love those movies that are set in the 18th century or older. Movies like Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Elizabeth, Dangerous Liaisons, Marie Antoinette, Gone With The Wind.. just to name a few. I'm completely mesmerized by movies of this genre. Once again, its the visual feast (don't you just love those extravagant, intricately-designed dresses back then?) and of course they usually come with a good storyline. Watching these movies will propel you to another world altogether. How life seems so much simpler back then. Oooh.. talking about this makes me long for a good one right now.

I'm not one to watch those mindless 'fighting movies' especially if Jean-Claude Van Damme is in it. Another movie peeve for me has to be the Western cowboy kinds.. I'll do a double pass on that. Oh, I've also passed up on horror movies. Just as well, cause hubby's not into it either. I did watch movies like The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Ring, etc., before I went cold turkey on them. Most of the scary scenes would stay fresh in my mind for a long time after watching such movies. So why scare myself shit when I can just not watch it altogether.

I love going to the cinemas but I don't do that here due the reasons cited above. The only time I went to a cinema here was years back and that was to watch a French comedy. My (and hubby's) best cinematic experience had to be the one in Golden Village Gold Class.. very class indeed.. our thanks again to Boboy and Yati for that! (biasa-biasakan lah buat mende macam tu, eh ;)