6.5.08

6.5.08
Today, breakfast was cereal,scrambled egg and bacon with baguette.
We are heading to Versailles, the royal chateau for half day then the rest of the time (of nearly 2 hours in Paris) and followed by going back to camp ground and then depart for our first excursions (Dining in a french restaurant).

Below is excerpt from my diary:
"Versaille was quite disappointing for me. I think it's to do with the overall crowds. It looked like a huge bus station with so many tour buses and thousands of tourists. Again, lots of street hawkers with the effiel tower key rings and scarves with 'paris' written all over it.

We decided not to enter the palace due to the long queue. I checked out the bookshop and only limited literatures are in English so I left."

We did a quick scan of the garden and snapped some pics. Weather was pretty hot, so we were lazy to walk further into the symetrically pruned gardens.

We then went to explore the town of Versaille and bought our lunch from this lovely patiserrie shop. I nearly want every single cake in the shop. But we bought ourselves custard tarts and something more practical for lunch.

Following Versailles, we drove into the city of Paris again. It was really only for 2 hours and to enable us to do what we have not covered in the previous days. We decided to buy some treats from the Paul shop. We bought some macaroons and pastries and etc..

So we walked from Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the D'orsay Quay. D'orsay Quay is where we will get picked up again. On our way to pick up point, I saw a model posing on the middle of Avenue des Champs -Élysées doing a photoshoot. The photographer had a huge SLR camera and kept pointing to her and instruct her. The stylists were standing next to the photographer and the model was at least 6 ft tall and she was in heels.

We nearly ran out of time going to the pick up point. I felt like I was on amazing race. I really don't want to miss the pick up time. FYI, the coach will wait for 10mins max and if you don't get in the coach on time, the tour manager will assume that you have your own plans and you will figure out your own transportation to get back to the camp site.

Back on the campsite, we prepared to go out on our first excursion.In a contiki tour, there are extra excursions that one get to choose to sign up. The first excursion was dining at french restaurant. Below were our dinner. Entre was escargot and fish terraine. For main, I had cod with cream sauce while Jake had orange duck. We were entertained by the man in accordion too. The toilet left much to be desired.

After dinner, it was the next excursion to see cabaret show. Me and Jake did not sign up for this and decided to check out Statue of Liberty by using the metro/subway.

We were dropped off at the Moulin Rouge area. See inset in the sampler below.

Photo sampler showing a french florist shop, their cinema with the billboard in french, typical french balcony on their building and the Moulin Rouge area.


Above were the metro that we use. We were a little apprehensive given that everything's in French and it was very quiet and uncrowded, compared to London tube. We didn't get to Statute of Liberty as one of us had tummy bug. We were half way there and turned back to Moulin Rouge area.

That ends our night.

4.5.08-5.5.08

Below is my long overdue travelogue of my Euro trip. Originally, I meant to update prior to the anniversay and then it's on the anniversary and now post anniversary.
I dedicate this travelogue to A. Hopefully you find the photos captivating enough to visit some of the countries.
We had a few options to choose with regards to our Euro trip. Earlier on, we have narrowed it down to using guided tour to avoid too much plannings and worry about connecting rails or flights, accommodation etc etc . Then it was to narrow down what tours to join. Cut long story short, we were down to Tralfagar vs Contiki after reading other people's travelogue and also speaking to somebody I know who joined many years ago. Tralfagar group stays in hotel while Contiki stays in a mixture of accommodation.
Finally the decision factors lie on:
-Most countries visited
-Duration of the trip (We wanted the longest possible tour given our time frame)
-Most value for money

Tralfagar did not meet the first and second factor. So we chose Contiki in the end.
4.5.08
Our tour departed real early in the morning from London to Dover. We stayed in Royal National Hotel (nearest tube is Russell Sq) which is like the 'hq' for Contiki in London.

We were gathered by 6am and started to get our bags weighed.( we were allowed 20kg)
Our tour members were made up of 50% aussies, 30% canadians, 18% NZers, 1% Americans,1% Korean. Our tour manager is Kiralee from Aussie and our coach driver is Attila from Hungary.
First destination was to get to Dover to board on ferry to France. In Paris, we stayed approximately 20mins (10km) away from the city. The area is called Joinville Le Pont.

We were greeted by the camp rep with escargot and french champagne. Below is our accomodation, basic and small but clean. One unit has two rooms with one ensuite.

5.4.08
Free day in Paris. We decided to forgo dinner at camp ground and optimise the time we had in Paris.
Our coach stopped us at a few spots (namely the Les Invalides, Eiffel tower )and we get dropped off at Avenue des Champs-Élysées .We were provided with a map with places of interests.
The places I want to tick off my list to visit were:
LV Shop :P
Arc de Triumpe
Place De La Concorde:Obélisque de Luxor
Cathedrale de Notre Dame
Musée du Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris (Sacred Heart Cathedral)
There're so much to do and see in Paris, to me, everything about Paris fascinates me. The fashion, the language, the architecture.. hehehe..to start with, it isn't even my favourite country but it is easy to fall in love with this city.

Walking along Avenue des Champs-Élysées and saw these sculptures. Below are just random pictures I took while we walk on Avenue des Champs-Élysées .

Above are the Place de la Concorde. It is famous for the Eygptian Obelisk. Below is again photo sampler I took on the way to Lourve Museum. More pics of Musee Lourve. Again, there were throngs of tourists and we decided not to queue to see the famous Mona Lisa.

Photo collage of around Paris. Below is my random sampler.

Cafe bistros aplenty in Paris, and we were told, the seats outside are double the price as it also serves for people watching. The rental bicycle in the city. The pigeons by the Notre dame. The hotel near Notre Dame (typical french architecture with the little balcony), trees on the street and finally the narrow thoroughway at the Musee Lourve .

Below are the places on our checklist.

On Republic Avenue, it was filled with chain shop type stores. Bata being one of them. heeheh I can't help but take pic of me inside Bata store. Had lunch nearby (had suzette crepe)
On the way to Notre Dame, we passed by this flower market. There were all sorts knick-knacks and I also saw orchids kept in glasshouse.

Cathedral of Notre Dame is littered with tourists and also pigeons. Tourist have to watch out for gypsies. They would ask for monies or pick pockets.

After Notre Dame, we proceed to walk to Eiffel Tower. We past by Musee d'Orsay that house the famous Monet and Renoir paintings amongst the ones that I know of. The museum had closed by the time we got there. We then past by obviously some government building as they were waiting for VIPS to come out. We decided to nose around together with some other people and wait to see if we could catch a glimpse of the VIPS but after like 15 -20mins, the VIPS still had not come out of the building. We are obviously no papparazzi material , so we continue our walks to the Eiffel Tower.

The must go place for us, the Eiffel Tower. Again I wasn't comfortable at the Eiffel ground because there're lots of street hawkers trying to force you to buy cheesy 'eiffel related souvenirs'.

Note: There are 2 levels of lifts to get to the Eiffel Tower. The queues are long and we are advised to buy our level 1 and 2 tickets from the ground levels.

That ends Day 2 for us.

N's 2nd haircut

N's hair is getting long so we decided to give him a trim. This time, we commissioned his uncle Jo to cut trim the hair. We did this all in the backyard with modified bib and pegs. Not bad for a DIY job eh?

What's growing in my garden

I have been killing lots of plants in the last 2 years, thanks to me neglecting them.
This year, when anything blooms I felt really excited as it felt so rewarding watching the plants grow despite me giving them very little care.
The chilli plant this year has fruited, and for the first time, my succulent bloom a brocolli looking flower.
The lemon grass has also successfully survived in the veggie bed.
Lastly, my one and only blooming cymbidium orchid. (this year it gave out two spikes).
What's growing in your garden?

Quinoa, Rice, Pumpkin and carrot porridge

Here's my attempt to cook healthy, wholesome food for N.
I used organic quinoa (pronoucned as 'keen-wa'), organic pumpkin and carrot and cook them together in lots of chicken stock.

Splish Splash

March '09

Taken at South Bank, Brisbane.

N the parrot

Pic taken at Southbank.


N's like a parrot now. He would copy whatever we say. Below took place last nite.

Me: Dear (to Jake), take him (N) to shower.

N: Dear, Dear..

Me: !?!?!?!?!

What do you do in your swimming tog?

Obviously to go swimming in.
N managed to do several other things besides going swimming in his tog. He helped me weed, then checked out my plant, checked out the fish, and played with the moth.

Slide

N loves playing on the slide.

Around London - Buckingham palace

Determined to finish my travelogue before the anniversary of my Europe travels.
Above is collage of us visiting the Buckingham palace. We used the trusted tubes and walked through Hyde Park to get to Buckingham Palace. There were deck chairs available for hire in Hyde Parks and tulips were abundant when we were there.
We were probably 1 hour early and the Buckingham square starts to get filled up by tourists when the marching is about to start.Coincidentally during our visit, the Malaysian orchestra armies had some sort of 'exchange' happening. So they were also in the palace compound playing songs with the British counterarts. There were also official visits from some officials and they came in horse carriage. All in all, it was pretty entertaining. I finally get to see the famous palace guards.

Ahoy!

We got this blow up pirate ship for N. It came with a treasure chest and cannon balls. It took us nearly 2 hours to pump it up with ur small pump. N loves it..the ship now sits in the backyard. N goes there probably once a week when the weather is very warm.

Overdue photos

These pics are taken on CNY eve and first day. On the first day of CNY, we let N wore the traditional costume and went to the mall. We let N check out the outside of the cinema. He loved it.

Puzzle

random

N is 15 months and 3 days. On Tuesday he had his immunisation jabs. One on his leg and one on the arm. He is 78.4 cm and 10.04kg.

On Sunday, he ran about barefoot indoors and stepped on a grain of rice. He goes...hooh hooh (Exhaling/blowing) at his foot and took the rice and show me.

Our conversation of the day:

Me: How does papa sleep?

N: korrr korrrr korrrr

He can say kai (means open) push(, catch (kek) , pup (for puppy) or gou(for dog). He can say baaa (for sheep) and kaa kaaa kaaa for duck. Sometimes he would say kaa kaa kaaa in a very forceful way as if to emphasis something (I don't think that means duck in that context). Otherwise, he would speak in his banguage.

He received a puzzle from auntie pinkcocoa during christmas. On Monday he succesfully 'nailed' cow into its designated space.

He could stack a few beaker to make a small tower. He gets impatient and push them all on the floor.

He loves noodle. Especially long ones so he could feed himself.

He can stack his stacker rings now (not in the right order though). When he first put in each ring, he would make this sound as if to show his accomplishment.

Lantern Festival 09

It is now almost ritual for us to go to the lantern festival held in Albert Park in the city. This year Jake's excuse is that N has never been so we have to show him Albert park and the lantern.

Saturday turns out to be a great day..sunshine and hot! we went out early for lunch and then proceeded to Albert park. the event officially started at 5 30pm but we wanted to avoid the crowd and let N ran around the park so we went 3 hours earlier. Each year they would add up new lanterns into their collection but we still see many of the older ones floating around.
I think N liked the sheeps and sheep dog the best. He kept wanting to go back to the sheeps and sheep dog and touch them.

Auckland from the eyes of pinkcocoa

Okay this photo doesn't have anything to do with the title but this is our brunch prior to showing pinkcocoa auckland city.
The usual fare we had was the chicken feet (or Phoenix feet), beef tripes (Ngau tou and Ngau pak yip), pork ribs, wu kok, egg tart and some dessert type dish, such as that yau chap kou (the violet and cream jelly), and some lo mai chi (Mango and durian flavours). There's also the mochi with ice cream (the middle pic).

We basically just walked up Queen Street towards Downtown. Checked out the DFS and then went up Vulcan lane turning into High Street. I think, Pinkcocoa having come from Sydney won't find the shopping here that nice anyways:P HEHEHEH

we also showed her beachhaven. many yachts are being moored there and it overlooks the cityscape of Auckland. then it was to Mt den the dormant volcano in Auckland City. there's also fa lu gung advocates there, practising their 'qi gong'. Did i tell you I also saw fa lung gung advocates in Munich? it seems to be their standard procedure to meditate with a radio playing in the background.

Where is your...

Me: Where is your nose?

N: Grabs my nose.

Me: Where is your ear?

N: Touches my ear.

Me: Where is your eye?

N: Poke my eye with his fingers. *OUCH!

N and his big toys

N has been to the orchid meeting with me twice. The last one he went was for the Christmas do. he was shy for about 1 minute, then he sets out to play with the trolley. As you can see, the trolley is meant to carry the chairs which are stacked real high.

He pushed it around and entertained himself for a long time. He also used the mooncake tin as his cymbal. the afternoon past quickly.
maybe he can learn how to plant orchid soon. hehe.

oh oh...

N was playing hide and seek with me outdoor.
Next thing, he ran and gave me one of his sandals and said OH OH ..(his sandal has somehow came off) and he wants me to put it on for him.

Bean Bag

Some overdue pics..Jake bought this bean bag for N from one of his work trip across the tasman.
After we filled it up, we let N sat on it. He was very apprehensive to the point he cried :P
hehe. Now he would slam himself onto the beanbag.

Teppanyaki Dinner

my SIL treated us to a japanese steakhouse the other day. She also invited her friend who has a toddler daughter.
We had the crayfish and steak set. hehe. The accompaniment dish were salad, miso soup, green tea and rice.
Our teppanyaki chef came and cooked us the side fish first, which is the prawns, zuchinnis, onion and mushrooms. then he cooked the beef and finally the crayfish.
N was a little tired so he stayed in his stroller all the time (we had to take him out for a few strolls) before he fell asleep.
That's Helen in the pic. She is very cute and switches between Mandarin and English when she speaks. She also tries to 'sayang' N. Kids are so cute.

Finally..at Gisborne

After Tolaga Bay jetty, we drove and arrived in the Gisborne township. We drove to the James Cook statue and chill out a bit. N wants to touch everything again, and me and Pinkcocoa accompany him in his sensory adventure while jake is just resting after the long drive.
We then hunt around for dinner and decided to go to the Works.

Pinkcocoa had seafood chowder, while I had the abalone and foccasia bread(came in the form of soup) while Jake had the mixed seafood entre. We also ordered a salad. I was a little disappointed with the salad (it was greek whereas I was expecting more rockets and mesclun).

We left Gisborne at about 8pm and start driving back to Mary and Barrys after that.

Tolaga Bay Jetty

The tolaga bay jetty is 660m long. it boasts to be the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. However, i think the record has been beaten by another jetty in Western Australia according to my google result.

it was very windy at the jetty. I saw people diving into the waters and I imagine it must be freezing cold. There was sea cave too ..We went during high tide so we couldn't explore much apart from just walking on the jetty itself. It took us a while to walk the whole jetty as N was determined he wanted to walk by himself. As usual, he doesn't always walk in a straight line. he prefers to stop and touch the jetty and what not.