p a p e r d o l l

Weekend in Poitiers was lovely. It’s an itty-bitty town! There’s a good balance of the modern/trendy and the old/quaint -very cute indeed. Thursday night, pizza and catching up with Shumin and Zihua. Then the first night of sharing a queen-sized bed with Zihua. Not only does Zihua have a queen-sized bed, which is, of course, twice the size of my own single (princess-sized ha) bed, she also has a room quadruple the size of my room. Not exaggerating -Zihua agrees. My room is small and her room is big. Although I do like my room, especially now that I have all my papers organized and everything else too. I cannot believe the amount of notes I’ve taken during my lectures and tutorials, but they are all neat now and ready for revision. Love neatness.

Alright back to the weekend in Zihua’s and Shumin’s company. I had lunch with them at their university’s restaurant on Friday, and then walked around town. Cooked a big dinner for the girls. Seafood fried rice, this amazing savoury onion and chicken dish ( yes I’m blowing my own trumpet, but it’s really good (and here I go again\:)) and fried mushrooms. For dessert, I had bought from the Starbucks near my school this mi-cuit chocolat (literally half-cooked chocolate) because it’s yummy and the girls do not have a Starbucks in their town (nor a MacDonald’s; the town’s that small). It was all very good. And we were snacking on old-fashioned macaroons Shumin bought from town while waiting for dinner to be ready(:

Saturday, Zihua and I spent the day at La Rochelle, a nearby seaside town, where it was rainy and windy in the morning (calmed down as we approached noon) and there were marathon runners preparing for the annual marathon which was taking place the very next day. We visited a museum of perfume bottles, which was above a perfume shop. All so pretty! After that, a seafood lunch at Andres. I had raw oysters for the first time. Three different kinds. I have decided that I don’t like oysters, period. And then cooked lobsters, mussels, prawns, fish. Yumyum. Afterwards, mad-hatter shopping in the many little shops full of please-buy-me things, before taking the train back to Poitiers.

Sunday was designated Studyday. All three went to church in the morning, (Shumin then left for a lunch engagement), had lunch, I fell asleep after lunch and Zihua was surfing the net tsk tsk… but we really pulled up our socks and did substantial work after dinner till late. (NO shops are open in Poitiers on Sundays, by the way. Only the food places are.)

Monday morning, it was breakfast with the girls at a local popular cafe and then I was off back to Paris. It’s work work work for the next few weeks! Was too for the past couple. I’m liking the working. It’s enjoyable after all the play I’ve been having. Big presentation, big essay, big test all coming up soon. And then it’ll be Christmas vacation from officially 23rd December to 7th January, but I’m starting mine earlier and ending it earlier too. Earlier because I’m flying off to Venice on 20th December, then straight from Venice to London where I’ll spend Christmas and New Year with various friends. EXCITED! I’m coming back on the 3rd/4th January to focus on final preparations for my final examinations which I have from the 9th (date confirmed for first paper) to the 27th (or earlier, depending on when my last final is, which I won’t know the date of till I-don’t-know-when). All planned out -work and play.

I know everyone’s in the thick of examination preparations, so bonne chance (good luck) and bon courage (go forth with courage (or something akin to that))!

Ireland was great. Down time. I love Shu’s apartment. Her apartment mates need to be cleaner in the kitchen, but I love the apartment. We’d make good apartment mates, she and I. But that is not the point. The point is that we had a nice weekend together. So this is what happened.

Day 1: Travelled 8 hours. Train-Coach-Plane-Coach-Cab-Cab. Butt-numbing. Rewarded with good company and brown bread and seafood chowder and fish and chips and rhubarb pie and mint mocha and hot shower.

Day 2: Walked. Tour of Shu’s university. Ate (Amazing Homemade New York Style Orange Cheesecake and some digestive tea that was as yummy as tea can be). Shopped (Necklace, lingerie). Ate (More seafood chowder). Shopped (Keychain with charms to prevent myself from losing my very lose-able key, silk scarf). Ate (Romantic Dinner for Two. Hello my hot date!). Booked tickets online to watch Last Kiss Sunday night.

Day 3: Ate (Shu made me a cup of Lyon tea and a hotdog bun, the darling that she is.) Shopping hmm. Market (Pesto, sundried tomatoes, fresh fish, lemons, garlic, parsley, apple tarts, banana bread, hummus). Supermarket (Beef, chicken breast, guacamole, vanilla ice-cream). An afternoon of cooking with MTV on TV. Man can we make a feast. Dinner Party! For ten. Good food+nice people=fun time.

Day 4: Slept in. Oh man the luxury of sleeping in. Brunch of banana bread -we finished a whole damn loaf. More shopping! Miss Selfridge, I LOVE. The projector in the cinema showing Last Kiss was spoilt! Like seriously. We ended up watching Borat. Did not enjoy. We both thought it was bad. Bad bad bad. Then we had dinner at Macdonald’s. Good. Like always.

Day 5: More travelling. Cab-Coach-Plane-Coach-Train. Skipped class. Too late and would need to rush for it and carrying luggage all the way up the Sorbonne stairs was not something I wanted to do. (Excuses excuses.)

Then it was unpacking. Then it was Tuesday and Joanne and Jilyn and Eng Kheng all arrived. And it’s been quite a week. Classes and going out and walking a lot. Don’t want to wax lyrical about the places I’ve already gone and the things I’ve already eaten and written about before. You’ve read all about them. Was great to show them what I’d come to love about Paris and in Paris. And the company was very very lovely. Familiar friends. Comfortable friends. Certain things we did this week that I’d not done before: 1\ crepes at a creperie near school. 2\walking at night from Musee d’Orsay along the River Seine to Pont d’Alexandre. 3\ visited the little shops in Abbesses, near Montmartre. 4\Cemetery Pere-Lachaise which was gorgeous, especially with the leaves all turning into interesting shades of red, orange and yellow. We visited the graves of Chopin, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. It’s a big beautiful cemetery. Eng Kheng left Sunday, Jilyn yesterday, Joanne today. I think/hope that they had a nice time here(:

Today, I flopped on my bed after my 8-6 day in school and after a hot dinner. And indulged in the finale of season two of Grey’s Anatomy. Boy did I cry. And yes I know I’m rather behind. All in good time. Speaking of time, I need to start spending way more time on schoolwork.

I have photos to put up. A number in other people’s cameras. So… soon. And why was there scary singing in response to the last post!

Oh man I almost forgot. I had dinner at the Ambassador’s Residence Saturday evening. Annual dinner for Singaporean students in France. I didn’t know how much I really missed the food until that evening. We had Bee Hoon, Glutinous Rice with Chinese Mushrooms and Fat (they were fat) Prawns, Beef Rendang, Curry Chicken, Roast Duck, Pork Legs (the only thing I didn’t touch) and Dried Beancurd and Eggs in Thick Gravy, Vegetables sauteed with Garlic. Dessert was Sago Gula Melaka. (And every word is capitalised because that dinner was Delicious.) And there was a free flow of wine and juice and sparkling water and still water. I had a fun evening meeting people I’d already sort of known and also new people. I have to mention the food again. IT WAS YUMMY. I had three helpings. Hell everyone had three helpings. And then we all slumped in our chairs and bemoaned how we couldn’t eat anymore even though we really really wanted to.

I am in IRELAND! It’s been a busy fortnight -filled with activities.

School and school stuff and wandering around in Paris where the leaves are changing colours and falling. Very nice.

Then Shu arrived with a friend in tow last Thursday. Picked them up, headed back to my place for them to dump their stuff, headed out again. Was evening by that time. Spent most of it in St. Michel, where we walked around, had dinner at Restaurant Notre Dame, poked our heads into Shakespeare and Co.. Then another friend of theirs arrived and we all took a romantic (ha) walk along the Seine and to the Basilique Notre Dame. We headed back to Shakespeare and Co., where the guy who worked there knew that Singapore had a population of 4 million!

The next day, Shu and I had an amazing brunch at Le Pain Quotidien. For me, grilled courgettes on tuna on olive pate on bread. For her, fresh tomatoes on chicken on guacamole on bread. And then I had a bombe au chocolat. Yes you thought right -a chocolate bomb! As well as a rich hot chocolate. All very very good. And it was a beautiful fall day, so we sat outside and had little fat birds for company. Then the craziness i.e. shopping began. Holy crap. I won’t go into detail. Too exhausting. To end the day, we met the two boys (Shu’s friends and by then, well mine as well, I guess) again for an evening picnic at the Eiffel, armed with supermarket purchases of baguette, smoked chicken ham and kiri cheese. And madeleines and chocolate cookies. It was quite a day. And you’d think we’d be pooped by then, but no! We went clubbing, Shu and I. Yes clubbing! Mad. We were stark raving mad. With a guy in tow of course -my ever dependable friend, ZY. It was all fun. Tiring yes, but fun yes too.

The next day, Zihua arrived. Headed to Cafe Fusion for lunch, which was very good. Zihua’s recommendation of course, the lovable foodie that she is. I had a chicken curry crumble with coconut shreds, and rice. It was great. And then a mango ginger passionfruit crumble for dessert. The other two had rather creative plates has well. And this place had the best balsamic vinegar I’d ever tasted. We couldn’t get enough of that and the olive oil and the bread. Stuffed, to be sure. Then it was on to the Rose Bakery for tea. After a decent amount of walking of course. After this, I left the two to go for more shopping (!) and headed home to prepare for a presentation I had to give on Tuesday. On the way home, I had to walk from the metro train station to the RER train station, and did so at Musee d’Orsay. And I just had to walk along the Seine, it was so gorgeous. The sky, the colourful leaves, the water, the feel of the day -calm. Had to pull away to go home for work though, and also two loads of laundry and a visit with a residence mate who was sick\:

Third day, brunch back at Le Pain Quotidien. We were seated before a scary queue started forming, which was good. And off to Salon du Chocolat we went. For this, we also went in before a scary queue formed. Lucky girls we were. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. We all got a bit sick from sampling too much. Zihua wanted to stay on though, the brave soul. Shu and I went in search of a roast chicken, but to no avail. We decided then to cook up a storm and boy did we do that. Rather proud of ourselves. Zihua enjoyed the the dinner we made, and that’s quite a compliment coming from a food snob like her. And we had for dessert the Haagen-Dazs Coconut Macaroon ice-cream. Go and try NOW if you haven’t already. It is really something.

The following day, it was time for Shu to leave. And I had to go to the hospital in the next town to pay the bill for the time I went there for a consultation (when I was sick, remember that?), so that was my morning. And Gemma had kindly allowed both Shu and Zihua to stay in her room, since she was away in London for the weekend. So I washed the bedding on both the beds as well. And then class. And then more work for the presentation for the next day. Zihua left sometime in the evening to go on to Germany, since she’s on her break now from school. My presentation went well, so I’m happy about that(: By the way, it was for my English Literature class, so it was in English, so it wasn’t that daunting. The French do have a very particular formula for their presentations though, and there are no presentation aids to be used i.e. no powerpoint! Can you imagine! Just talk talk talking.

Wednesday was All Saints’ Day, so it was a national holiday. I went in search for a winter coat. Found one after many hours. A practical United Colours of Benetton black water-proof, wind-proof, hood-attached, 50%down-50%feather padding cold-proof wondercoat. Love it. And it’s been keeping me warm and toasty in cold cold Ireland.

Which brings me to the fact that I’M IN IRELAND NOW! For the weekend! Staying with darling Shu. I love where she’s staying. Galway’s very charming. We had a good evening of food last night after I arrived. A windy 4 degrees celcius. And today’s just more food and shopping in adorable little shops. Tomorrow, we are hosting a dinner party for some of her friends, two of whom I’ve already met in Paris when they were on their visit last week. A sit-down dinner party for 10. It’ll be fun! We’ve completely cleaned the kitchen and are shopping tomorrow for food before cooking. And dolling up of course. We’ve got it all planned out.

I’ll be uploading my Paris in October pictures when I’m back Monday evening. There are many good ones and I’m excited about putting them up for all of you to see. For now, I’ll bid you farewell from the land of supergood seafood chowder. And brown bread.