Hi, Sorry I havent written much lately,
I'm feeling a bit of conviction from not being completly honest with you.....
I havent written because
I've been consumed with this new guy that I'm seeing.
Sorry I didn't say it sooner.

I feel strange, not sad.
But people rub it in.

Blogger was down for the longest time.
Anyway, here are the pictures of our creation:

Good Food Week.

Met up with Hsin Ee last Tuesday.
Currently working in Frankfurt,
I thought she might desire some chinese food,
So we went to Bayswater Four Seasons.
But alas, the queue was too long,
So we ended up doing duckrice takeaways,
And munching & catching up in her suite.

Man, it has been three years,
Since the last time I met her on the Hainan YEP trip.
And so much has happened in between,
It is difficult to grasp everything,
As time slips through our fingers.

DD threw a house warming sushi party on Saturday.
XY & I crashed over on Friday,
Planning to watch Original Sin DVD,
But passed it for singing mega-nostalgic ballads,
Ranging from 1980s to late 90s songs,
While being accompanied by the guitar.
Then I realised how many thousand lyrics I can recall.
Then I realised how everything changes.

Stayed up till 6ish in the morning,
Headed to Billingsgate market in the cold morning.
Amidst the hundreds of boxes of fresh seafood,
We bought a huge slab of raw salmon for £8.

Woke up to a rainy afternoon,
Rushed to Vidal Sassoon Academy for a haircut.
Yes, before anyone starts begging me to cut my hair.
Returned home to help with the sushi-making.
The result : Slurp.
Burp.

Pictures will be up soon.

Avignon Part III

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond
Les beaux messieurs font comm' çà
Et puis encore comm' çà

After church with An,
We went to do all the touristy stuff,
Like visiting the superhuge Palais des Papes,
This park atop some giant limestones,
Where we had our sumptous picnic:
Rosé wine, tomatoes, baguette, chicken...
And this time I made sure,
That the tomatoes sat safely in the haversack!
The last place was the famous Pont D'Avignon,
Where people used to dance below the bridge (not sur le!),
And where people used to get washed away.
We nearly caught a beautiful sunset down Le Rhône,
In shades of pink and orange.
But we had to go,
Cos Claire to pick us up for dinner.

Claire house was very interesting,
With a mezzanine in almost every room.
There was even a guest room,
With an open shower!
Her parents were,
For lack of better words,
Very fatherly & motherly.
The taste of the wonderful food still lingers -
Huge sliced Provence tomatoes with basil,
Egg & aubergine bake,
Sausage blanches,
Homemade thin crust apple pie,
Lots & lots of cheese.
Slurp.

We woke up the next day at 6ish in the morning,
Cos I needed to catch the 730am train to Nîmes.
While we were drinking Milo,
And An was packing her bag for school,
It felt like we were back in those primary school days,
Where us morning session kids had to wake up so early,
Drink Milo and go to school!

Journey to London was a smooth one,
So it was back at the desk for me on Monday 1pm.
Urghs.
Post-travel blues.

Avignon Part II

On a gray Saturday,
Atypical of Provence weather,
An & I set out for Pont du Gard,
Armed with a baguette,
And a small box of yummy sundried tomatoes.

Unfortunately,
An dropped her digital camera,
On the bus to le Pont,
And there was no way,
To contact the bus company.
I dropped the box of tomatoes,
While in the gardens at le Pont.
Lastly,
It rained after we saw the grande pont.
And after we walked the 1 km route out,
To the bus stand,
We realised the next bus is 3 hours later.

Headed back to the carpark of Pont du Gard,
And with her fluent French,
An saved the day,
By speaking the the driver of a tour bus,
And the lady tour guide.
The bus wasn't going to pass any civilisation,
So the guide said we should go with them to the hotel,
Then she will drop us back at Avignon.
Yay, adventure!
An overheard her telling the people,
'We are going to give these Japanese a ride.'
Urm, ok!

We got back to Avignon in time for dinner,
And met up Claire & her friend Arnold,
To hang out at this Irish Bar near Rue de Republic.
It was all very weird at first,
Considering I only met Claire in February,
For the very first time in our lives.
But because she was so friendly and smiley,
We all had a great time.

Claire: So have you had the real French food?
Jack: Ya! Uh, baguette... quiche...
Claire: *laughs* Ok I'll cook for you tomorrow evening.

:D

The adventure started last Friday,
From the moment the Stansted Express,
Stopped at the god-forsaken Chingford.
When I got down the train,
I remembered this phrase:
Gou bu la shi, niao bu shen dan.
Places where the dogs don't poo,
And the birds don't lay eggs.
Where the hell is Chingford?!

Everyone had to take a replacement shuttle,
So the 45-minutes express ride,
Turned into a painful 1.5 hour journey.
British Rail is that reliable.

By the time the bus got to Stansted,
I was just doing my 400 metre sprint,
Towards the check-in counter.
Turns out that RyanAir is equally efficient,
So I didn't miss the flight.

RyanAir Counter girl:
'This is your boarding pass,
Please go to Gate 42 at 2.20pm.'
Me: -looks at watch which says 14:30-
'You mean now?'
Girl: 'Yes, 2.20.'
Sure.

Announcements (verbatim) on the flight to Nîmes:

"Smoking is strictly prohibited on this flight -
Anyone found smoking would be asked to leave."

"Thank you for flying with RyanAir.
Please visit us at WWW.RYANAIR.COM
TO ENJOY MORE SAVINGS ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHTS!!!"
(Yes, he shouted - just in case we didn't hear it?!)

Arrived at the tiny Nîmes aeropot,
Took the shuttle bus to the town centre,
Struggled with communicating in 2 languages,
And finally got my train ticket from Nîmes to Avignon.
Sent a text to inform An I am on my way,
Only to discover it cost me an appalling S$3.

After a whole series of announcements in French,
To which Je ne comprends pas,
I figured the train was delayed.

And when I finally got to Avignon Centre,
It was just great to see the familiar smiling face.

(To be continued)

The weekend at Avignon with An,
Filled to the brim with laughter. :D

Quod me nutruit,
Me destruit.



What nurtures me,
Destroys me.
That's why it is dangerous to love.

Assume there is this person,
Whom everyone thinks is super nice,
But you have heard about some incidents,
From his/her victims,
About something he/she has done,
Which is not so nice.
So how?

I know I can't save the world,
And I know I don't have to,
But I am still disturbed.

Last weekend was another crazy one,
Fuelled by parties & friends,
And of course, alot of alcohol.

Thursday was capoeira Nicky's send off,
At some pub along Portobello Road.
Nicky's going for her world tour,
Which will last at least a year.

Matt from work was leaving for good,
So there was a leaving aperitif at 1730 on Friday,
Which kicked off another night of partying.
After the usual drinks at the pub after work,
Elaine met me for dinner,
And headed off to The Gardening Club at Covent Garden,
For Ivy's birthday party.
It was a very comfortable clubbing session,
Thanks to all the familiar people around,
And the small cosy corner we occupied.

With very little sleep the next day,
And spending the day moving stuff from Jia's,
It was time for Jackson's housewarming party!
His flat looked like an add on to the house,
But it's got character.
Met the same chunk of people again,
Plus his housemates' friends,
Who were all really sociable.
There were these 2 English girls,
Who spent 6 months in Vietnam teaching English.
Wow, I'd like to do some of those stuff man.

By the end of the night,
(More like the morning at 5am)
The party of 20 consumed:
4 mini-bottles of Johnny Walker,
1/5 bottle of Jamaican Rum,
1 bottle of Malibu,
14 bottles of red/white wine,
20 bottles of beer.
They thought it was alot.
I think it could have gone further,
But alas, some were already drunk.

Some of us crashed at Jackson's,
And met Ivy, Bianca & Roderick again on Sunday,
For a very hearty meal of tim sum.

Burp.
Indulgence weekends!

So I followed Angela's advice,
To relax a little,
Give the finances abit of leeway,
Enjoy without worrying...
Ended up bursting my budget for September.

And it was not because of last week's
Four continuous evenings of drinking:

Thursday
Alanna's goodbye drinks at Blend,
courtesy of KPF.

Friday
Clarissa's goodbye party,
First at AA's freshies party,
Then at Point101.

Saturday
Dinner with Singaporeans,
Followed by drinks at JD Weatherspoon.

Sunday
Capoeira party at Su Ling's,
Along with her wonderful Asian cooking.

This afternoon,
I was greeted by a pack of bah-hoo,
Disguised as clothing,
Sent all the way from Singapore,
By a bree-lee-ant YT.

An email in my Inbox,
Carried the news of winning TNT Top Tip,
Plus a Lonely Planet of my choice.

What a wonderful way,
To start the week!

After reading this article,
I feel so much more assured about my taste.
Well done, my babes!
;P