My new blog: For those who came here for the cake pop class, I've created a new blog with updates on classes and photos over at guiri in the kitchen



Saturday, September 30, 2006

Dernier Jour à Chambéry

My last night in Chambéry is spent updating my beloved blog. Won't write much now..... am a little ivre after several glasses of wine during dinner. Plus, I have to wake up at 4:30am tomorrow morning. But I had a great time joking around with Misaki, Ryo, Asuka, Chern Hwei and Leticia.


Will update the rest of the happenings when I am back in Malaysia i.e Manicure session with Asuka and the Graduation Ceremony at Academie de Savoie.

Malaysia, akhirnya ku kembali padamu.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Where's the Toilet Seat???

"Non!!! C'est pas possible! C'est pas possible au Japon!" That was Asuka, half crying, half screaming, when she came out from one of the toilets in one of the bars in Chambery. She was practically traumatised because there wasn't any toilet seat. It so happens that there was a guy using the toilet next door and he was so shocked to find her screaming in the toilet (poor guy). I found that extremely amusing. Our french friends thought it was rather amusing as well, because Asuka really demonstrated a super duper reaction. Thanks to Asuka, I enriched my French vocabulary with a new word i.e. cuvette, which means toilet seat. Asuka also borrowed my camera so that she could take a picture of the toilet bowl and update it into her blog.

On another completely unrelated story: I have been quite distracted lately, not being able to concentrate on anything at all. YES! I am finally going home! On one hand, I am glad to be back with my family and my darling again, back to my 'normal' life. On the other hand, this is the end of my vacations!!! Time to look for a job again. Of course, one of the main things that I should be more concerned about is how am I gonna pack everything again and make sure its within 30kg?? I had to courier a box of 7kg several days back to relieve some weight of my luggage. Am keeping my fingers crossed everything will be alright......

Anyway, just a summary of stuff that I should have updated earlier:

1. Went to Foire de Savoie with Misaki, Marie & Mira. All of us had a free entry and a free rose each because it was "Women's Day"

2. Went picnic near the waterfalls near Jacob Bellecombette with Asuka, Marie, Mira, Gaby and along with some French friends of Asuka. Guess what they bought for picnic? 2 bottles of red wine and 2 loafs of baguette (in Malaysia we just call it the French Loaf). Very French.


3. Everytime I mention that Chern Hwei is my copain from Malaysia, they conclude immediately that he's my boyfriend. That's the problem with French language, the word copain can both mean boyfriend and just a friend who is a boy. Bof! Told this to Pascaline today, and she suggested that the next time its probably best that I say "un de mes copains" rather than just mon copain.


4. Last weekend I made Prawn mee again and invited several friends over, then I had Momo over for dinner while he was in Chambery, and I cooked nasi lemak with sambal udang, then this evening I made nasi lemak with sambal terung & minced pork for mes amis français. Tomorrow there'll be another fete, and I still haven't decided what to cook yet. Tough decisions....*sigh*

Friday, September 15, 2006

Vous Parlez Très Bien Français

Woooohh.....kudos to Alliance Française Kuala Lumpur! And felicitations to Laure-Anne and Joshua too. Today Nathalie, one of the professeurs at IFALPES commented that both Chern Hwei and myself speak very good french (ehem...), and asked if we had taken a French course before while we were in Malaysia. I explained that we were both in the same class at Alliance Française in Kuala Lumpur. And she was like.....'Ahhh...now I understand....they have very good methods for teaching the French language.' Most of the people are quite surprised that we were able to handle the language quite well *cough* *cough*, as they have always had this impression that Asians have problems learning a European language.

Well, there you go.....MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!

Monday, September 11, 2006

A Forgotten Gesture

While doing a randonée to the Croix de la Croche today, I recalled something that I should have mentioned in my blog, sometime in April this year when I set foot again in Europe. I really don't know what triggered it. Nothing of real importance, just of a small gesture from a nice couple I met at the bed and breakfast in London, where I needed to stay overnight to take the early morning flight to Seville. We arrived Heathrow and were picked up at the same time, and that evening, since I was all alone, they invited me to have dinner with them (and they paid for it as well, of course).

Unfortunately I can't remember their names anymore, but still, I wanted to be reminded of them; of the nice people that I came across during my days of travel. Cheers.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Rendez-vous at Annecy

The weather has really been very kind to me today. I was not too sure if I would be able to made it to Annecy if it had rained, but the sun was shining all day. I had sent an e-mail to Mohammed earlier today to inform him of my arrival, and he was really kind to wait for me at the train station. Unfortunately the train was late (....biasalar, bukan kali pertama) and he had to wait blindly (he didn't have a phone) without knowing if I would arrive or not :P

We took a walk around the vieil Annecy, had 3 scoops of ice cream each (it was supposed to be the best in town), then walked by the lake. He also took me to see his place of stay, and we enjoyed a nice glass of wine just outside his studio, which was really neat as it was surrounded by greenery, and also the owner of the house was a nice retired man. Lucky for him!

Anyway, I did not manage to have dinner with Mohammed as the last train leaves at 8:19pm. We had a cup of coffee closeby to the station, then it was time to say goodbye. Anyway, he said he would be back to Chambéry again soon, and since he wanted to try some of Malaysian delicacies I have offered to cook him a HOT & SPICY Malaysian food. Ngiak ngiak ngiak.....

Photo time!

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Never Ending Staircases

Coincidently while chatting with students from IFALPES last Thursday evening at the Cardinals, Ralf said that he was planning to go to Grenoble on Saturday. I couldn't have been happier and asked if he would mind that I tag along. I just didn't really like the idea of climbing up to La Bastille alone. Of course he didn't mind and we decided to meet at the train station at 9am in the morning.

Just a day before, I realised that the train would leave at 8:53am, while the next one available after that would be at 10:30am. I had no way of contacting Ralf as he did not have a mobile phone, and just had to keep my fingers crossed that he would arrive early. Luckily for me, he did arrive 5 minutes before, and we got our tickets just in time. Then he told me Kirsten was also coming along, and she didn't know about the train time table neither. With a stroke of luck, there was a minor delay with the train, and Kirsten got to the station just on time to buy the ticket and board the train....phewwww!

I guess we were really lucky throughout the whole day, with the sky being a little cloudy and greyish but it did not rain at all. We walked all the way up to the Bastille, of course with me whining again as usual (...I can be a real pain in the ass sometimes :P) We took approximately 45-50 minutes to reach the top....well, no one actually took note of the time, but it was written on the signs, time required to get to the top from the starting point. Coming down of course, was less stressful, as we took a diff route and there were much lesser stairs.

After that we had a really good lunch in a Chinese restaurant, before continuing to explore around the town centre. And finally, we had some coffee before heading back to Chambéry.

As usual, here it is, the link to the the to Grenoble album.

And by the way, here's the link to photos taken in Chambéry...just realised that I have never put up the link for this before....oops!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Ma Petite Copine

Ma chère Sarah
Qui est venue à Chambéry
Elle m'a amenée du chocolat
spécialement pour moi, le Cadbury

On s'est connues il y a un an
Ça a commencé à Seville, et ensuite à Madrid
On s'est rejointes aussi à Barcelone
Et puis ici, dans cette jolie ville

On a mangé de la fondue au fromage
De vin savoyard on l'a fait accompagner
Le lendemain, on a fait de la marche
La graisse superflue qu'on voulait bruler

Sitôt qu'ell est arrivee, elle m'a laissée
Dans un clin d'œil elle est repartie
Mais moi, j'attends la prochaine année
Qu'il y aura un rendez-vous en Malaisie ;)