My Very Own Self
"Sugar and spice and everything nice, My Dearly Beloved and then Some
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|  || Friday, September 29, 2006 || Day 25 - The KeyToday, at precisely 0335 Singapore time, I turn 21!! Ha ha! Happy Birthday to ME!!! =) Going up to Paris this weekend! Oh happy day~ Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Sunday, September 24, 2006 || Day 19 - Rencontre des GourmandesPoitevin Food Festival today!! The traditional French kind of Food Festival, which means food is displayed and dégustation (i.e. sampling of food) open to all. Today's was a showcase of Poitou-Charentes (the région I'm in) produce. Naturally, I went. Oh how I love food!! Mummm. Ok will show pictures since I'm to lazy to post. The stores and their owners:  [From left to right - Row 1: Man selling Goulibeur, an excellent brand of Broyé, a butter crumble biscuit, a Poitou-Charentes specialty, Man selling artisanal bread, Woman selling wine - I had some, quite good; Row 2: Oyster couple!, Another wine couple, Oil sellers; Row 3: Fruit and fruit juice man, Meat-spread pair and Salt man]A bit on the oyster couple: Sampled an oyster. Oh my - it was delicious and sweet. Definitely doing oysters here more. AND I am not a oyster person as you all know. Oh oh meat-speads were also good: sampled the duck rillettes (basically duck meat in flake form and seasoned... Mmmmmmm) and duck pâté (duck in paste form). Absolutely brilliant when spead on good bread. Oh food! My buys:  [From left to right - Row 1: Michel Cluizel chocolate (from Paris though), Les Dames de l'Angélique liquer (to add to champagne, food and to use as medicine for stomach aches!), Goulibeur broyé; Row 2: Wine jam (which I got cause it was cute and so French!, Me in a rather unflattering victory pose, Olive oil (very good oil too - so yellow it's tinged with green); A big Goulibeur (which I didn't buy but had to show a picture of), Les Dames de l'Angélique cookbook (a free gift from one of the Liquermen, Escagots à la Bourguignon (Snails with garlic, butter and herbs... mmmmm)] Some nice photos:   [Me and one of the Order of the Liquer, whom I suppose is the leader. Cause he gave me a copy of the recipebook for free and, when I looked through the book, was in it!! WWII veteran who was stationed in Singapore. The gift was in rememberance.] Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Saturday, September 23, 2006 || Day 18 - BordeauxThe thing I love about France is its vastness. France is huge. So many places to visit and each with its own distinctive character. Having done La Rochelle and the sea, next up was Bordeaux and its vineyards. Of course, there are many other wine-producing regions in France like Nantes, for instance, but it had to be Bordeaux cause it sounds so appealingly touristy. So that is why we chose Bordeaux. I rather enjoyed Bordeaux. Didn't love it like I loved La Rochelle, but a place which combines sea and good food is really quite hard to beat. I just have this thing for the sea. I can spend ages and ages just looking at the sea. In my last life I must have been a fish. Back to Bordeaux. Bordeaux is a beautiful town. Not pretty like La Rochelle but beautiful. Bordeaux has a formal beauty about it. It's good to look at but not at all lovable, at least not to me. Bordeaux owns too proud a beauty; it boasts, it is insolent, it is haughty. Humble soul that I am, Bordeaux does not endear itself to me. Some pictures of Bordeaux:  [From left to right - Row 1: Place de la Bourse, Église Notre-Dame, A Bordeaux-nian street; Row 2: Another Bordeaux-nian street, Me and the Monument aux Girondins, Trees at the Esplanade des Quinconces; Row 3: Notre Dame again, Me at the Esplanade des Quinconces, One more street]Still, everyone has a redeeming point. Bordeaux's is its vineyards!! *glug glug* We visited Château Saint-Ahon.  [From left to right - Row 1: Sign to the Château, the Château itself, Me among the grape trees; Row 2: Our guide, Me among the grape trees again, Shumin and I among the wine barrels; Row 3: Grapes on their vines, a Family of wine bottles, Me pretending to pluck grapes]Oh I do love the wide open and row after row of green! The warm sun on your head and the cool breeze on your skin. And purple fruit on emerald leaves! Oh why see the town when there are vineyards! Anyway, my favourite part, let me share the food of the day.  [From left to right - Row 1: The Palmier, Boudin et 2 pommes (Blood sausage and 2 apples), Oeuf à la coquette (egg in container, not quite sure about the name); Row 2: Fruit fondue and Apple crumble, Paul's paper bag, Beef-vegetable stew and potatoes; Row 3: 4 main course cassolets, Gratin aux courgettes (cucumber gratin), Canele]From Paul's, an excellent baking chain, I had a palmier, a delighful buttery croissant-like biscuit - heaven in a biscuit - and a canele, a honey-kueh kind of thing, often written about on food blogs. Didn't get the fuss!! But then I'm not that fond of honey. For lunch-dinner, which we ate late at the Cassolet Café (recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook which serves only cassolets, that is food cooked in a shallow plate like container), I chose the taster menu, which allowed me to choose 5 mini-cassolets. I had - as starter : Oeuf à la coquette (egg in a coquette, a cup container, with a tomato paste beneath the egg, don't quote me on the name). This was decent. - as main courses : Boudin et 2 pommes (Blood sausage with 2 apples: pomme [normal apple] and pomme de terre [potatoes! Named apple of the earth in French]). Not my cup of tea. Apple was too sweet and sausage tasted... different; Beef-and-vegetable stew with potatoes (can't remember the French name). Delicious!; Gratin aux courgettes (cucumber gratin i.e. cucumbers covered by cream and cheese and baked). Excellent! Must get gratins more often. - as dessert : Apple crumble (shared with Shumin who decided to get Fruit Fondue since she didn't want to order two of the same thing) All in all a decent meal. Not André's but decent. And so, in a lot of food, was ended the day at Bordeaux. I was happy. Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Monday, September 18, 2006 || Day 13 - La Rochelle!Went to La Rochelle today. As you probably did not know, La Rochelle is a little seaside town on the western coast of France, located in the same région of Poitou-Charantes as my little town, Poitiers. As the weather would have it, the day dawned rather cloudy and the photos generally took on a greyish tone. Happily though, there is Picasa.  [From left to right - First row: boats at La Rochelle, me on a park bench, La Rochelle buildings; Second row: Old towers, Lumpy at the train station, nice old woman who sold peanuts-in-sugar; Third row: nice man Lumpy posed with, distant view of the town, The ”Tchou-Tchou” whom brought us to the Minimes Beach]I could wax lyrical about the quaintness and general adorability of this darling little seaside place, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking instead. A picture after all, says a thousand words. And try as I may, I could never in phrases totally capture the charm of this lovely town. The gentle murmur of the sea, the fresh landward breeze, the hum of the seaside crowd, the cheerful boats berthed by shore, the warm caress of the friendly sun (which decided to turn up after all!), the tranquility of ancient towers standing vanguard, the beauty of the sky joining up with the sea... I don’t do La Rochelle justice! Nor do the pictures really... each may well say a thousand words, but so many more do they miss out! Still, that’s the best I can do so too bad for you. But I strongly urge you to go there for yourselves one day. On to a topic I can talk about: Food. At Shumin’s insistence, on authority of the Lonely Planet guidebook, we went to André’s, a seafood restaurant so good it took over 17!! We ordered the seafood platter which was highly recommended - consisting of mussels, prawns, 2 fish (who remembers what sort), squid and little... Norwegian/Normandy (?) lobsters and butter rice.  [From left to right - First Row: me outside an interestingly named resturant, my plate at André’s, oyster-sheller at André’s; Second row: me at André’s - what lovely decor!, THE seafood platter, me and the seafood platter; Third row: me outside André’s with the seafood men, Lumpy and the nuts-in-sugar we bought, the nuts stand and a pot of boiling sugar]OOOOOOHH! The prawns were sweet and succulent, the squid was vividly fresh and the fish was strangely decent. Granted, the little lobsters were... well little and unspectacular but the mussels... Oh the mussels... flavour like never before. Every bite was an explosion of flavour... a seafoodish sort of saltiness mingled with sweet and fresh and juicy. This was taste itself! Every mouthful was so good I had to gasp then sigh in contentment and disbelief and then be left breathless. I ended the meal smiling. €26 it cost me but worth every penny (or, if you must be particular, centime). Oh I would go back, just for the mussels themselves. [Must try oysters too next... if mussels alone can produce such an effect...]. For dessert (which was also our starter since we reached La Rochelle early and André’s hadn’t opened yet and we were greedy), we bought sugared peanuts - delicious crunchy nuts coated in caramelised sugar - happiness in a mouthful. They were good. We finished them all (well at least Shumin and I gobbled them down greedily, then she decided to watch her weight so I polished them off). I love La Rochelle! *** Oh and in case you were wondering, this is Shumin and a very apt photo of her:  In case you are one of my really hopeless and uncaring friends, she’s the one on exchange in France with me!
Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Thursday, September 14, 2006 || Day 9 - Setting up house and certain worriesMother would not approve. So I went shopping for houseware today. Just a nice comforter set which would match the blue tone of my room and some crockery. In the end I ended up stocking up for winter, spring then the summer to come, but that is another tale for another time and so I will not elaborate. Anyway, as those of you with any sense of common knowledge would know, France is a large country. Hence people like a one-stop place for everything so they won’t have to travel around the world and back. Ergo the supermarkets in France, rather hyper marchés, are huge affairs (think Carrefour). Purposefully, I steadily trotted to the bedding section of Géant (my hypermarket of choice). Lo and behold!! A comforter set with 2 pillowcases included for only €22!! And 100% cotton! Which was decently good-looking and of a blue that matched my room (which by the way has blue curtains and a grey-blue carpet)!! What joy! Hitherto I had been fretting because I thought I would have to buy another comforter set I had seen at Auchan (yet another hypermarket). It was a soothing blue but thoroughly boyish and had a cartoon dog as its pattern. The worst thing was that that it had only one cartoon pillowcase with the set and I was worrying about how to match my other pillow (since I have 2 pillows you see, having a Queen-sized bed). A plain blue or white would have completely been out of place beside an insipid cartoon dog! Happily this problem was solved for me. Thus rejoicing, I went on to procure my crockery. Naturally, as a poor student, it was my intention to pick out the cheapest crockery possible, just any old cup, bowl and plate. But then! But then! I saw these:  Aren’t they pretty!! So quaint and cheery and old-fashioned! Of course it was rather extravagant to pick up the two for around €3.50 each when I could have got a whole crockery set, extra cup and plate included for under €3. But then I had seen them and the damage was done. I could not, I simply could not have bought the other set (which consisted of a rather ugly duck or a very hideous cow). Had I bought the other set, I would have regretted it daily. Every single time I used the duck or cow cup or bowl I would have thought of the Kelloggs children and their bright gaiety. They would have consistently haunted me. And I simply could not bear the thought of living out the next 10 months, especially in the dreary winter months, in wretched regret. Hence I decided that I would buy them and go without a meal as penance. And I will perform my penance... eventually.[Note: cup was picked up later. €3.75 at Auchan. Ha ha, now I have a matching set... now to find a Kelloggs plate...] Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Tuesday, September 12, 2006 || Day 7 - Home.What a gorgeous Monday afternoon. Moved into my room today. Spent the afternoon vaccuming and cleaning. In true Bree van der Kamp style, I vaccumed thoroughly and twice-wiped each surface clean! I feel so domestic. Speaking of domesticity, I brought along a domestic guidebook "How to Run Your Home Without Help". Very fitting. It teaches you how to sew (darn, patch and make over household linens! With quaint diagrams included.), clean stubborn stains (to get rid of inkstains, use a solution of oxalic acid or a solution of permanganate of potash and hydrogen peroxide! To make the solutions, dissolve the crystals...) and entertain with enjoyment ('the right kind of menu is half the battle... learn to make good tea and put a good amount of filling in your sandwiches'). I love a good book! Anyway, no pictures of my room yet. It's messy at the moment and starkly ill-furnished. When I have finished with improvements I will show you pictures. In the meantime, have a look at the garden.  Oh in case you were wondering, permanganate of potash and hydrogen peroxide works cause the permanganate reduces the peroxide to give oxygen! Which presumably and somehow will remove the inkstain. I need to brush up on my chemistry. Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Saturday, September 09, 2006 || Day 4 - A roof above my head!!Today I finally got lodging. Been sleeping at a hotel for the past two nights. Something cropped up with the school admin. Oh the French!! But my house (or should I say room) won't be free for me till next Monday. It's a Thursday today so that's... 3 days more. Hang in there! Temporarily living in another studio until then. Along Rue Maréchal Foch. Shockingly, my new and (thankfully) temporary abode has a cave attached to it. TA-DA!!    Not quite the cozy place one could call home. Still... till Monday. I look forward to setting up home. I plan to decorate, furnish and keep house in a way that Bree van der Kamp would approve. Those of you who don't know who she is go look. As my role model she will crop up often in my references. Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Wednesday, September 06, 2006 || Day 2 - Paris, then PoitiersFor those among my friends who have not been paying attention, I am going to France for exchange. And no, I am not going to the Sorbonne. I am going to the University of Poitiers (more accurately, Université de Poitiers) which is in Poitiers, 2 hours from Paris by train. Anyhow, after a long flight, we safely reached Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport.  Sadly, we missed the first train to Poitiers and had to wait 5 hours for the next. But, as the adage goes, good things come to those who wait. They did. Poitiers is a lovely town. Picturesqueness, beauty, history and religion all in one. Oh in case I haven't told you, my little town of Poitiers is also known as 'the town with 100 bell towers' with some of oldest churches on the Continent.    I think I shall like it here. Amitiés, Lumpy et Zihua. || Tuesday, September 05, 2006 || Day 0 - SQ 334I should have started my blog long ago, but I was too wretchedly lazy, so this is a retrospective post: Going to France today. SQ 334, night flight. Singapore Airlines like a good Singaporean should. I fly at 1140 (??) pm (can't remember when). To those of you who offered to come see me off, thanks and I love you too. To those of you who didn't, shame on you! Anyway, let me introduce you someone:  This is Lumpy!  This is Lumpy in my room. I love my room. I love the books in my room. *sigh* Lumpy, whose full name is Heffridge Trumpler Bumpet Heffalump IV will be accompanying me to France. On cold, lonely winter nights, Lumpy will be my only friend. And on bright, sunny happy days when I'm travelling France and beyond, when I have no one to take photos for me, Lumpy will be my delegate and represent me in all my pictures. I love Lumpy and you should too. Alright. I'm rambling. Till the next post. |