I am moving, (cyberly of course) to

little adventures @ http://petiteadventure.blogspot.com

See you there!

Got home last week from a two weeks holiday with my in-laws. Being with Philippe I realize one thing - how little I knew about nature. Not the type of nature that calls you to the toilets but about plants and flowers and our surroundings. I can name no more than 5 flowers as we take walks in the forest, while Philippe knows each and every single flower to trees to weeds there are. As we walk in the forest, he can name me almost every single plant there is. I on the other hand, can tell you where to get the good bargains on clothes or when the next sale will be on. I have never really been an outdoor or a sporty person. Although I tried desperately to believe that I was, but the only kind of sport or exercise that I ever got into was done in a gym, a salsa club or endless walking during the Singapore sales and muscle building while carrying shopping bags. And I realized that while I was living and working in Singapore, I lived in such a material world. A world that consist of working to earn money so I can go shopping. Well, there is not much to do in a tiny country like Singapore apart of shopping.

I am grateful as Phil has allowed me to see the beauty of nature through his eyes. He points out the way the trees changes through different season from autumn to winter, from winter to spring. He shows me how the trees changes color through the seasons and points out the birds that are migrating and crosses countries to avoid winter. Its not something new to me living in a country with four seasons as I spent 8 years in Australia, it is just that I never did take the time to notice these things. The only seasons I did take notice was the new clothes in the display windows or the different decorations during Christmas or Easter at shopping centers.

I thank Philippe for sharing his world with me. The sad part is that some things that are so beautiful are right in front of our eyes but we never see it and is taken for granted. The same applies for the people around us.

It’s been a long time since I felt so comfortable and connected to people – strangers to be exact. Did not have to say much yet I understood what I had to do with just a few simple gestures. I went salsa dancing this afternoon. And boy did I have fun, almost felt guilty for having so much fun without Philippe. Phil was such a sweetie, he stayed home to clean the house and prepare for the holidays. Tomorrow we are headed to Brest (Its BREST, not BreAst) - a two weeks break next to the sea. And I am bringing along almost everything I own in our apartment. I finally understood why I was never made to go “camping” or “backpacking” or “rough it out” holidays. I have too many things to lug along with me from my 4 x hair products, to body lotions, day face cream, night face cream, facial wash, eye cream, hand cream, face mask, contact lenses solution…(and the list continues but I think you get the idea). You see camping will be hard without fresh water to clean my lenses and backpacking will break my back with all stuff I have to carry.

Going to bed now, too tired from dancing this afternoon.

Its One in the morning and I just finished watching 3 episodes of Sex & the City. Yes, in French, guessing each time when I am unfamiliar with some words – which can get quite tricky when it comes to topics relating to sex, so I am left to my imagination……

Tonight, we are having a belated Surprise Birthday Party for Philippe. I know it’s a surprise but Philippe rarely reads our blog, so I am safe. Its funny how things change or a person change when they get married, the sacrifices you are willing to make when you love someone or how you are willing to embarrass yourself. For Philippe’s little party, I have decided to sing “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion. I sound far from her and am not sure how the idea of singing it ever got into my head. Its too late to chicken out now when Phil’s best friend has been practicing with his guitar. I will try to break a leg or maybe break some glasses with my singing.

Daddy and my brother leaving Paris have left a huge gap in our one bedroom apartment. Everything seems so spacey and there is so much place to move around without the mattresses and pillows lying in the living room. Daddy left learning to eat Rockford cheese (French cheese with green mushrooms on them – not quite the proper explanation but you get the idea) and drinking hard liquor neat. While he left Philippe wearing “Sarong” to sleep each night. My French husband has learned to wear the Sarong from my Daddy. After 10 months, I just realized how different our cultures are. I did see it in the past, but the process of realization took a big longer to register. There is no right or wrong in one’s culture, just the different ways in doing things. I have not really gotten the hang into things yet, naturally falling back into my habits. I remember once during a dinner we were invited to, the host was explaining about the piece of meat being served, where it was bought, how it was cut, marinated, served, cooked, and the choice of wine to be served with it. All that time, I was thinking if it was possible with a plate of “chow kuey teow” – if it was possible to discuss that you bought the kuey teow from the neighbour hood’s wet market, or the Jaya Jusco that sold the cheapest oyster sauce, or if to drink it with coke or diet coke. And I laughed at myself for such a silly thought. I know we Chinese have our fine cuisines which I am not too accustomed to. And at times, I think the French 6 course meal ranging from Aperitif, Entree, Main, Cheese, Dessert and Coffee and the right culinary to use are all too complicated and long for me. Not knowing how to differentiate good from bad wine or appreciate cheese, makes me feel like an elephant in a glass shop. Maybe the simplicity that I grew up in naturally prefers the mamak stalls and hawker centers which I miss so dearly now. I realize that I am a simple girl with simple values. It does not take much to keep me happy.

Going to bed thinking of Malaysian food....Zzzzz

Philippe and Wai Yin 9th of July 2005 American Church of Paris

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Sitting here for the past 10 minutes and wondering how I did write my entry for the wedding. Hmm… I wished Phil had agreed to my initial idea of me carrying the video camera down the aisle so I can record the whole event and let people have an idea of what it feels like being a bride. He unfortunately did not buy my idea of letting the hairdressers hide the video camera in my hair or nicely camouflaging it into my bouquet. I am trying to find the words to describe the day, which was somewhat magical for me. Despite our very little preparation, the day turned out perfect.

My much needed bride’s maid managed to find her way to our apartment. We distressed the Chinese way – eating!

At 3 pm, we arrive the American Church of Paris. My mother-in-law had a hard time tracking me down as I run wildly up and down the aisle, into the toilets, trying to avoid getting into my gown too early. It was not an attempt to run-away, but I knew that as soon I got into the 6 kg gown, I did have very little freedom to roam around and stick my nose into things that were happening. At 3.30, after some fussing and pulling, my gown was on me.

Before I knew it, Daddy was walking me down the aisle. To my surprise, despite having no rehearsal, I was very calm during the ceremony. My mind went blank as I stood at the alter, not able to remember what we were suppose to do or say. Words cannot describe the wedding, picture will…..

Wedding Day!! To my surprise I am less stress than I was yesterday. Very calm, hair is all curly - afraid to turn my head in case one strain falls out of place, collected my pretty white flowers. my 6 six kg gown will be delivered by my in-laws, its awfully big so I have to get changed in the church..oh.. its going to be a lovely day lovely day. The only thing that is lost in Paris at the moment is my bride's maid. She sms saying she lost her way. Welcome to PARIS!... ah..bride is going to get ready now.......

It’s the day before the wedding and here I am updating my blog. I think I just need to write, feeling so many different kinds of emotions today and need an avenue to get things out of my system. One thing I am feeling is that I am missing my Mummy a lot, missing very much her presence, missing her humor and most of all missing the much needed support from her.

Phil and I have taken a very relax approach to the wedding, deciding on things as and when we needed to. We don’t fully know what is going to happen during the wedding ceremony as we decided not to have a rehearsal. It will be a first cut, no rehearsal wedding, where we will have to figure out the hiccups along the way. I think it will be more “exciting” than a well rehearsed one. Let’s hope I don’t live to regret my decision.

Looking forward to the moment yet feeling stress with the little preparation. I have been giving so much to taking care of people around me the past few days that today, today I just need some time to myself. Sometime to take a depth breath and relax.

It’s my DAY tomorrow and I am going to ENJOY every single moment of it!!!! – that’s me trying to push some positive thinking into my brains….

Psss… hello,.. is anyone out there? Anyone missed me? Wow… its been a month since I last posted something on the blog. I feel so guilty. Its takes me a while to write things as I have a slow processor (brains). I am back to real world after a weeks break with Philippe. It was a much needed break for the both of us. Life sometimes fills you up with too many things that you start to take the person closest to you for granted. Well, that’s what happened to me anyways. Woke up this morning, feeling lonely for the first time in a long time as he went to work hours ago. It felt strange, having to prepare my own tea and breakfast again, and our tiny one bedroom apartment seems so much bigger without his presence.

We went to Amsterdam. Ah… Amsterdam?
So did you visit any museum? err… no,
Did you sit on the tram? Nope,
Any tourist sites? Err.. if you consider the red light district and eating Asian food touristy, ok..we did then. The red light district was an eye opener for someone like me, who came from a rather conservative country and up bringing. My tour guide explained that the “girls”, yes I would rather call them that as to me prostitutes sounds rather degrading although I do respect them to a certain extend for their service to our society. Back to the explanation from my tour guide which happens to be Philippe. The girls in Amsterdam are considered to be lucky as they don’t have to stand in the streets during the cold winter months. They “do their business” and “negotiations” behind glass door, which is somewhat safer as they are able to ignore unwelcome customers. The whole atmosphere feels like buying a pet in a pet shop, in full view for the customers who wished to purchase them, like fishes swimming in an aquarium. I felt somewhat sad for them, as some of them were very pretty and attractive and could perhaps do better in their life. In Amsterdam, prostitution is taken as an occupation and tax is paid on their income. As Philippe explained, my mind wondered “hmm….. how does the tax officers calculate their income? Do they have someone sit and count the number of customers? Or they go, ah..fat girl ok, maybe less income, or oh…that ones has got pretty breast, ah…must tax her more?…” I remember driving around Geylang (Singapore’s red light district) with some friends and feeling unsafe even being in the car. You can hardly see anything as the “shops’ are covered with a big wall in front of the front entrance. Surprisingly in Amsterdam, where drugs are legalized the city is rather calm. Very calm, unlike Paris where you can often find people drunk and behaving unsightly, Amsterdam is the total opposite.

Hmm.. I better write about something else, or it will sound as if we spent our entire time in the Red light district. In fact we had to walk pass it every day as most of the Asian shops were situated there. It seems that the Chinese community is blooming in Amsterdam. If ever I feel home sick, I know where to go to search for Asian food – there was even a Malaysian restaurant. We passed it on the first day and spend two hours the second day searching for the restaurant. When we finally found it, we were so happy until I carefully studied the menu. A plate of “Nasi Lemak” which will cost no more than RM3 in Malaysia was Euro 13.50. For Philippe it may seem like normal prices for a main meal, but for me. I will not be able to sallow knowing that I could eat 10 plates back home. Yes. Yes.. I know it does not hold the same value, but old habits are hard to change.

Aiks,, just saw the time, French classes this afternoon – gotta go prepare.

Weekend passes by to fast for me. We went to Provinc, a small mideval town about 100kms from our apartment, watched Starwars, Philippe cooked lunch…yadda yadda yaddda….in short we had a nice weekend. The thing about not blogging at the end of the day is that the thrill of writing certain incidents are mysteriously gone.

After French class, I hopped onto the Metro and found a young male classmate of mine. We had briefly exchanged a few conversations in class as he was new. He looked so innocent in his spiky hair, big eyes, denim jacket and his little school bag. When he told me his age, which was “20”, I jokingly called him “little baby”. Soon I was to find out that he was no little baby. He is Vietnamese and spoke little English, so we conversed in French.

Being the little busy body I am, or we shall call it “caring” in this instance, I decided to explore the mind of a young student living in France. I am soon to find out that there are just some things not worth knowing. Note that the following conversation happened in French….

“So do you have lots of Friends here?”
“No not much”
“What do you do for entertainment?”
“Go to disco”
“Oh so you must know a lot of people here then?”
“Not really, usually I just meet girls and ask them to ‘coucher’ with me”
Speechless with my eyes wide open wondering if I had heard what I heard as I was not expecting this from little baby. Oohhh.. he looks so innocent and at this stage I felt like puling his ears and saying ‘Bad boy! Bad boy’. I tried to hide my ‘shocking expression’ obviously he saw it and explained further
“You know, to ‘dormi’ with me”

Oh dear, I thought I had trouble hearing. He later went on explaining that sleeping together was like having a meal together. Oh! My mind went blank - ok, in that case I will not be having any meals with you, thank you very much. Having recovered from the shock and telling myself that everyone is different and we should not criticized them, I continued, trying to mimic Larry King in his interviews
“Is it something common for the French? As coming from Asian, I understand that we are a bit more conservative?”
He replied yes and explained that it was a very normal phenomena with Parisian.
Not all I hope. I then continued to explain that “Sex should be something sacred, and should be with the one you love”.. at this point, I could feel the age and cultural gap and felt like an “old aunty” giving a lecture. I realized that I was not getting much further with his “free love” concept and was relief when his stop came. I think he was too. He went off and I was left to ponder over he had just said. Being married now, I now understood the bound and commitment to another person. It is true that in France it is normal to co-habitat and have children without getting married. Something we don’t see often in Asia…. ah..next time I know not to ask too many questions if I am not ready for the response.

It’s our 6 months anniversary and we started the day with waking up at 6 in the morning. It was not an early celebration but a rush to the Malaysian Embassy to get our marriage certified as today is the final day to get it done. It turns out that we need to have a “marriage” ceremony in front of a Malaysian official. So until I sign the paper, in Malaysian law I am still considered “single” (hmm.. evil thoughs - Oppss… I love you Philippe!!!!) Anyways, this makes it a total of four wedding ceremonies – Just to clarify, I am still marrying the same person.
Ok, lets see if my maths are still in working order. Paris wedding on the 9th of July, and we are at the last week of May. That leaves us with less than 6 weeks to a wedding. Over and over again, I get friends reminding me about the wedding. It seems that they are more excited that I am. Philippe says “What do you mean? You are not excited about marrying me for four times?” We have been planning to plan the wedding.
Philippe has learned to say in Chinese “Yin Tah Pei Hou Chou” which means – “Yin’s farts are very smelly”. I was not expecting that from him as he asked me how to say smelly first and then farts and somehow he managed to fuse the words together into a meaningful sentence.