The Case of Mr T..Gotcha!

First thing first, the mission FAILED even before it can start. We planned to get up at 6:30am to get there at 7am so that we could get to action but we couldn't get out of bed! Okay, let's put this into context now. You see, we have been "terrorised" by this person every morning at 7a.m. in the morning. Let's call him Mr T. Mr T. would be lurking somewhere in the West Coast Park and shouting his lungs out as if in regular contractions like some daily clockwork lung power exercises. For a few days, we tolerated. But it went on for months! And we just want back our sleep!

We had enough. For a week in June, we didn't hear Mr T. making his routine shouts. He must have been on a holiday cos when he came back, his lungs were stronger! The noise was as if it were just next to our apartment!So we rehearsed the day before how we are going to approach him. I pretended to be him, and TS planned three different scenarios to approach him. Before that we made some generalisations about Mr T. What kind of person is Mr T.?

1. Mr T. is definitely not a young chap
2. Mr T. is a ex-commando or some instructor
3. Mr T. has powerful lungs

TS further made 2 hypothesis. The result predicted, "He would never be caught" Why? First, those who want him to be caught are those who are still sleeping and cannot get up early enough to nab him. Second, those who are up early enough would probably feel there is no need to stop him because they have already woke up. And we fall into the first category of such people.

Why didn't I think of that? But I made some observations, every time I look out the window, I would see this lean, tan-looking old man (shirtless and very athletic-built) jogging along the road. I was thinking, "wow, this man is really something, I admire his spirit". But today I was wrong, dead wrong. IT WAS HIM, jogging and shouting away.

Mission (im)Possible

We have a mission tomorrow morning at 7a.m. I wish I do not have to resort to this. This is insane...who wants to get up at 7 in the morning on a SUNDAY? This reason alone is enough for me to make sure I get this done by tomorrow...

Will keep you posted on what this mission is about.

ART in a different light

Everyone is born with a gift, and it is a challenge for us in life to identify it. For children, I do think that each child has a special gift. If we identify it early, it can possibly mean lighting a pathway for success. If we do not, it is talent wasted. I can make Tobey learn music, go for music lessons and practice. But I know nor matter how hard I try, he is not going to be the next Joshua Bell. It is all about innate potential. He does not have it...for music at least. Instead, through the years, we have come to sense about what he can and should do. ART.

He doesn't paint, or sketch. He loves pencilling. It is something that he cannot stop doing. Today, we had some experts' advice at the Singapore Toys and Comic Convention. He brought along his sketchbook and showed to world renowned animation artists such as Gary Eskine. They had very positive things to say about Tobey's artwork. It is beyond his age. One of them mentioned that he has techniques that would bring him through in this industry. Like how he understands how characters come in different directions and overlaps each other in the third picture, the dragon comes across and the bat coming from the front and overlapping each other. It is something to do with art direction. The aerial view drawing of the car took me by surprise too. And his use of creativity to transform cute creatures to monsters. It is amazing. I am glad now I can appreciate what he is doing. It is all in his mind. We know where to go from here today...

Musing about France

TS says, "Paris is not a city for you, I don't think you will like it if you stay here". "Why? Quite nice what" I quipped. But as usual, the mean mean guy already has an answer to his planned question.

"Because you are reminded that you are short everywhere"

Now, that's a lame joke, but I hope you can see what I mean from these pictures. And of course, it became the joke of the whole trip during more than 20 train trips that we took, I was constantly reminded, "Let's go that way, sortie".

Obviously this guy is your Singaporean "kopi-chiam-lo-ti-guy" (hokkien slang for bread dipped in coffee, a Singaporean way of having bread and coffee) and I can forgive him for his ignorance of the French lingo. But I had my revenge. Notice where the arrow points to in the picture.

On a side note, you can also see how at home tourists in Paris can be. The Lourve Museum does not have a dress code as you can see, despite housing the world's most valuable art pieces. This tourist was wearing those thin fabric slippers from his hotel...he can survive the Museum's marbled floors, but I am not sure how he is going to fare on Paris' cobbled sidewalks. Some painful foot reflexology rocks for him.

We saved Mona Lisa for the last stop for suspense's sake, since it is considered the most famous art work in history. I am no art buff, so I cannot appreciate it, except that I can tell, it is really one art work that defines great artists, looking at the richness of the colours in skin texture in defining softness and depth of the person, (especially through her eyes and smile) as if she is looking and smiling right at you. You can see how hugely popular the Mona Lisa is, from the pictures...

My Man, My Muse

 

This post is dedicated to my man. Thanks for being my muse, and obliging to this photograhy wana-babe's requests, "wait, stop there, don't move, inspirational shot". Thanks for being there and believing in us...and do continue to be my muse for life.

P.S. I know you are reading this, don't kill me for putting this up!

Where Heaven Meets Earth

Etretat, Normandy...One of the most beautiful places on earth. This place is set in a quiet little town but once you hit the boardwalk and look around you, you will be literally stunned by what you see. Picture can paint a thousand words but standing there to feel the openness at this French coastline is beyond words can say. We walked right up to the top and there is a huge golf course right up there. Notice the lady in the picture on the far right of the picture? We really gave it to her...she had to do some acrobatic balancing to get to that tip, the path only last than 2 feet wide at plunging height of at least 200 metres.

Our fairytale stay in france

Staying one night in Chateau Tesnieres is like a fairytale dream, especially for a city gal like me who hardly see any wider bigger space than the Istana in Singapore. Wish we had stayed here like for a week but that would probably cost me a fortune more than both our tickets to France. The chateau was built in the early 19th century and the count and countess of Tesnieres used to lived there. It has been restored, under the hands of John and Siebreu who really looked into details while keeping the tradition and beauty of the place. The journey to look for this chateau was not easy being in the obscure countryside but that is what makes it lovely isn't it? It is near to a medieval town called Vitre but the town is comparably small and could be easily missed unlike big cities like Paris or Rennes.

When we reached, there was an elderly couple living there too (For 3 days) and they were seen sitting below a tree just reading and relaxing. Being Singaporeans, I find it really hard to wind down and just do nothing. We walked around the whole place and explored the place. Hosts John and Siebreu made a point to be around but "not around", if you know what I mean and respected our private quiet time. There are only 5 rooms available for stay. The one we chose is on the second floor. And of course, the horror buster like TS didn't hesitate to imagine if this place has any "special history". He was extremely uncomfortable that the doors to our room are unlockable and repeated this question twice to Siebreu haha!

We "almost" had the whole place to ourselves, with the company of 3 white peacocks, 2 dogs and a cat. The peacock made its prescene known quite obviously, haha, even throughout the night at regular hours! But it is perfectly ok, i love the atmosphere. TS said the white peacock is the princess who lived there and has since been under some spell. So what about the other two? Her guards, he said. Wild imagination indeed.

Paris in ten days

The Mont St Michael

 

The Mont St Michael sits on an island all itself. Kind of errie looking as we approach the medieval castle built on a mont in the middle of no where! At certain times of the year, water will gush in at the speed of galloping horses and tourists are said to have drowned by the force of the waves. But when we went, it was low tide so we are surrounded by sand bars and meandering streams. We don't dare to walk onto the sand because TS mentioned that people have fallen into quick sands but we did see groups of adventurous people walking through the sand. The place is hauntingly mesmerising. I cannot believe how people lived there centuries ago. But it has a really dark and turbulent history, as we walked and found out at the castle itself. This place has been said to be the second most must-visit place in France after of course, the Eiffel. But because it is out of nowhere, it is kind of hard to access it. We are also kind of mad to be driving around and around to reach it, come to think of it...

Goodbye Paris...

We are back! It was a very tiring trip but well worth it, we felt like we really stepped back in time in history. I think the eiffel tower was one of the biggest highlight of all. But second to that would be hard to choose...would it be the lourve museum, the mont st michael, the chateau or the versailles? But one thing is for sure, we miss our kaya bread, kopi and meehoon so much that we hit the hawker centre the moment we are back and attacked on some good old hawker fare. Seriously, we are kind of tired of eating bread, baguettes and french loaf everyday...but we can see the French were serious about their bread. They carry their loaf everywhere they go, it is not unusual seeing them tuck some loafs in their haversacks in the metro and eating on the go.

Ready for Paris

We are ready to go...My sarong kebaya "SIA Girl" Hello Kitty says, "Can you bring me along?" Sorry, if Tobey is not going, it won't be fair to bring you along. Flight leaves at 4pm today. I am at home, suppose to work half day today but worked up feeling quite unwell (I got to get better!). I have like ulcers at the side of my mouth, which I bit on it twice and aggravated the situation, one on my tongue and another in my throat (which I think has gone away)! I think I am feeling really heaty these days, have been downing myself with fruit juices and what nots. But I ended up with a bad headache and slight fever from all these ulceration. Gross stuff aside, I am going to see a doc later before going. TS says I have to make sure my immune system is okay, so that we can take in all the sights in Paris.

From Paris, we are also going Normandy, Brittany and Versailles. Decided to skip Loire Valley as it is really super expensive (touristy hyped). Of course, we are missing all the beautiful chateaus but nevermind, we have made up for that by staying one night at a Chateau in Brittany. Disneyland Paris, we are still thinking about it...

This trip is going to cost a bomb, but well...life is short right? And what's more wonderful than going Paris with your loved one? More about the trip soon!

P.S: Thanks Dawn for the Kitty!

Renewing faith

When we walked into St Thereas's Church, we were really impressed by its quaintness and charm. It is really unlike many other catholic churches we have been to. We are attending masses here and signed up for the RCIA to renew my faith...that's Ryan doing a spiderman stunt.