My Very Own Self
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|  || Thursday, December 21, 2006 || Day 107: En VacancesIt is quiet in the house. The British girls and my Dutch neighbours have left. Only Spanish neighbours remain. But the one who lives on my floor is usually quiet, whenever he is not mumbling while studying in his room, or singing in the shower. The Spanish girls upstairs make a bit of noise now and then though. They like bursting out into carol, which is good, cause it’s coming to Christmas. So I have been slightly sick for the past few days. Caught the Dutch girl’s cold. All cleared up now happily. The trick is to take fruits everyday. Anyhow, it was nice to receive these when I was ill:   Thanks Wei Xuan! And ditto to the Ungallant One.So I’m off today! Off! London for Christmas, Paris for New Year’s and Venice for fun! To see old friends, visit old places and fulfil old dreams. Won't have family around but I bring along something more important that they have given me: their money! In the meanwhile, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!! P.S. Wei Xuan, if you're reading this, go try and read the Chalet School book I gave you. The second book in the omnibus Jo of the Chalet School is delightfully Christmas-sy! Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. Days 79 - 83: Sin's visit Sin came visiting on Thursday. It's so nice to have guests over. Very Chalet School and Anne of Green Gables style. Guest over. Sadly I did not have a spare room to put her up it, though we did share my nice queen-sized bed. Can I tell you all that I like a big bed. It's so luxurious to sleep in. Not that it really matters. Sin tells me that I sleep abnormally still-y. Apparently I don't move at all. I think that is good. It shows a good sense of self-control even in slumber. And everybody can definitely do with a good sense of self-control. Anyway, dinner at Restaurant Magenta. We had 3 pizzas and ice cream and a good time gossiping. Gossiping is fun. Wrong but fun. The girl who does not gossip once a while must be an unbearable prude. Then school the next morning, and Sin joined us in the school canteen for lunch. Lunch was not fantastic but the whole point of this paragraph is to show this photo of us 3 in the canteen. Cause I like how I look in it:  Then Sin and I went shopping and wandering. Went to the KID's section in Zara. The KID's section. The clothes there could actually fit us. Either I have turned amazingly slender, or European kids need to eat less. Oh can I show you the picture of a skirt I tried on? I though it was cute, but then I'd already bought 3 others before so I figured a 4th would be overboard. I like my strong sense of thrift.  Then we went to Notre-Dame, the most famous church in Poitiers. Sin's camera screen which had been spoilt for a while miraculously became well again once we left the Church. Now what does that tell you all? Then tea at a quaint tea palour. No idea that there were such quaint tea-shops near my place. I had a 1800 blend I believe. Excellent tea: lovely, rounded taste of tannin that was not overpowering coupled with the delicate fragrance of jasmine and good brown cube sugar. For dinner Sin Yee cooked. I think Sin Yee will make a perfect wife one day. She doesn't look bad, is quite smart, loves children AND cooks SUPERBLY. Any of my guy friends who may be interested may ask me for her number. Out of chicken, onions, cornstarch, sesame oil and soya sauce she made a dish which was delightful. The chicken was so tender. It was like eating silk. Oh then La Rochelle the next day. Perfume museum, André's (again!) and general wandering around. I'm very into this walkabout thing. It makes me feel like a normad. By the way, I have discovered oysters. I believe I fall into the oyster camp. There's something about the rich and creamy taste of the oyster.    [Golliwog perfum bottles, the Old Town of La Rochelle and a crab in my mussel!!] Then I believe we went home and slacked about and watched Princess Hours. Good show that one. Old-fashioned plot, but still satisfying. Plus the show's a visual delight. Lovely clothes, lovely colours, lovely settings. Koreans are like the Japanese I think - good at packaging. To sum up: Sin come again!!! Ha ha. Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Saturday, December 02, 2006 || Fri, 3rd Nov – Sun, 5th NovDays 59 – 61: Hamburg Lay Boon and Derek left for Nice, William was going to Geneva and Jonathan and Qiuwei had left for Vienna the day before. Thus left all alone, I made my way to Hamburg. My Dawn-ie met me at the station. There was a certain surrealism to it. There was I smiling at the sight of Dawn-ie from the top of double-decker bus I took and then walking towards her, as though it had only been yesterday that we had had dinner together with the rest and parted our ways; this was just a normal re-meeting of friends, only with a much more picturesque backdrop and half the world away from home. Anyhow, Dawn Chan lives in a lovely little neighbourhood!! And has an amazingly stylish apartment!! That girl certainly can decorate!    Too freezing cold for much adventure so we had dinner at an Italian restaurant just outside Dawn’s place. Goodness the food was delicious!! Then, being wild and deplorable, we met Nick at the Reeperbahn, which is the red-light district of Hamburg he often frequents. (Well ok fine. He goes to the pure-drinking and clubbing clubs nearby, but that sentence had just so much more ooommph to it). Drank the first bottle of beer I ever had in my life. Don’t get what the fuss is about.    [Random scenes. The middle picture is a men-only lane. Ah! To peek beyond the gates!]  Day 2: Hamburg’s lovely city square and a museum. Watched swans, ducks and geese at the lake, kept thinking foie gras every time I saw a goose! I really need to have some soon. Bought a nice tin of spice biscuits in a pretty cookies-and-chocolate shop, had an excellent Chinese lunch in a foodcourt (yes a foodcourt!). Visited an antique centre (lovely!) then got brought around the city and lake by Nick while Dawn continued with the museums (we had bought a special offer ticket to all the museums you see and to do me justice the first museum was rather boring and so I just had to run away from the others and Dawn was always there more cultured of us two). Kept dropping my gloves while going round the city. In the end had to be taught a very clever way of keeping them safe by Nick: “Keep them in your coat pocket!!”, he said when I had dropped them for the umpteenth time. Simple and nifty idea. Worked whenever I remembered.  [Various places in Hamburg whose names I cannot remember. But, Essen and Trinken is Hamburg's only food court; while the right bottom-most photo is Raffles Hotel. As a good Singaporean and half-blood Rafflesian, I thought I should mention it]Ended the day going to another museum to look for Dawn but couldn’t find her (this museum now was really lovely but alas we spent more time looking for Dawn than at the paintings!). Went back to the same Italian restaurant, just this time with Nick. Once again it is a testament to globalisation that I should be in Germany, having come from France eating dinner at an Italian restaurant with my fellow Singaporean friend. This time my pasta was a bit on the salty side, but still satisfyingly good. Day 3: Dawn had to go to church, so poor Nick was left with the tragic task of bringing me to the Fischmarket. Anyone who’s travelled with me will know that I take an inordinate amount of pictures and spend the longest time looking at various things. Put me in a place with food and pretty little darling things and well… good luck to you! May I add that the day was again biting cold and rainy!  The Fischmarket was adorable.    Had RAW marinated meat on bread. Wasn’t bad at all. A certain person I shared it with thought it tasted raw. Oh and that certain someone later caught a cold from the cold. Boys nowadays… such wusses! (but... sweet, kind and sick wusses).  Then the rest of the afternoon with my Dawn-ie, idly walking around, talking, no aim in particular… then soon… it was home.  Epilogue Hamburg is a pretty little city. It is not beautiful, it is not great, just pretty. But what is mere prettiness in the whole of Europe? Hamburg is also a quaint little city. But how can ‘quaintness’ hope to compete with the sparkling splendour of History? Yet my days in Hamburg are days to remember, for the most fundamental and simple of all reasons to remember any place by, that single yet precious word: companionship. Dear Dawn-ie and Nick, thank you for being such wonderful hosts.  Bleargh I am terrible at sentimental stuff. Anyway, just so none of you will slip and fall of shock upon meeting me in London:  |