Paris 4th – 7th May’ 07

We arrived at the Paris De Gaulle Airport in the morning, 7am. After roughly 11 hours in the 747, I felt rather free when I was landed. In my eyes, I saw a man started busy collecting fliers, maps, and train routes at the tourist information counter in the airport. (Key learning: those are free, collect as many as you can, you would use them anyway) Yes, that was HIM, my 2-month Europe trip partner.

The first place we headed was the Paris most famous cathedral, Notre Dame. She was so beautiful and stunning, quiet and peace, we had a quick round walk inside the cathedral with our big backpacks and daypacks, accidentally knocked some of the tourists, several times but luckily did not banged on the sacred displays, candles and statues. Before we left the doorsteps, a message ‘Peace on Earth’ and two signatures were created by us on the big book there; we have been there, huh? Then, we sat on a bench under a big tree, outside the huge cathedral for a rest, had some photos taken, and also cereal bars eaten, the feelings were so relax and blissful, HE looked at me and said, ‘xiao qing, we are in Paris!’. I could see nothing but just a word ‘happy’ written all over HIS face. My happiness was doubled at that time.

After that, it was time for us to search for a place to settle down our stuffs and accommodate us the night. There we came to a hostel but yet named it as hotel by the owner at the signboard (the room was just okay, a real ar ar okay and the stairway to the room was older than my grandmom, I guessed). However, we decided to take it without any second thoughts as the backpacks were killing our backs after walking for so long.
$: Hotel Rochechouart, double room (attached toilet and bathroom), 40€ per night.

Next, we visited the second must-see cathedral which was built at the top hill, the highest point in Paris, the Sacre- Coeur. On the way up, we walked pass many road side restaurants and souvenir stalls. There were many tourists sitting at the steps right outside the cathedral, enjoying the sun. We sat there as well just to have fun following the whites, to enjoy the scenery and to take photos. But for just merely 10mins, we had moved ourselves to a shaded place; it was too hot for us, Malaysians!

With the 3-day train tickets (8.60€/ticket) purchased, we were allowed to travel up north and down south in Paris as many times as we liked. By looking at it was still early after coming down from Sacre-Coeur cathedral, we made up our mind to have the icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower as our next destination for the evening. The real Eiffel Tower was far taller than the one I saw in Shenzhen’s Windows of the World. In order to save money, we chose to climb up (taking lift is another alternative) to the second floor (668 steps), the highest stage where we were allowed to climb up to, and to take lift (no other options) from there to the top. The nearly-700-step was so tiring, luckily I had my muscles exercised (jogging and gym) before the trip, I thought to myself. The view of Paris city from the second floor (not fully fenced) and the top (fully fenced) was breathtaking and great, the city structure was well aligned and symmetry, like it was planned ahead before it was actually built. We did not stay long there at the top as it was so windy and the wind was chilling.

We had an early sleep that night due to jet lack I guessed. The ‘hotel’ bed was so soft and lumpy. When I was on the bed alone, HE nearly could not see me. The lousy bed needed 2 people to sleep on it at the same time to balance up the uneven parts. I was in my sleeping bag that night due to the yellowish on bed sheet.

Our day started with brunches (I had a Panini of salmon and cheese and HE had a pitabread stuffed with chicken and veggie) at the roadside stalls on our way to the Jardin Du Luxembourg. Jardin means garden in French; Du Luxembourg is a big and beautiful garden in the city. The trees all lined up neatly at the sides of the boulevard and bowed to us (as wind blew) as we walked in to the big pool with a small fountain in the centre. There were some chairs nearby the pool where we could sit down to take a good look at the garden, to enjoy the wind and fresh air, and also to feed the birds that were around us. It was amazing to notice that the birds were so friendly to come so near to us for food, human seemed harmless to them.

We spend the rest of our afternoon by walking around Paris, along the river.

We met our first couch surfer friend, Fabien Lajoye, in the evening. He brought us to try the French snack, Crepes. Crepes is like what we have in Malaysia, Apom, a think layer of pancake (flour) that folded up with anything you like, from fruits (banana, strawberries), poultry (ham) to dairy products (cheese and chocolate). It was yummy. Next, he took us to meet up some of his friends (French, Mexican, but mostly American) for dinner. We had Mexican food at a small restaurant named La Luna, we enjoyed it very much, not only the food but also the times spent with them. After dinner, we all went party at the American-Latin pub nearby; the place was so crowded and noisy. I watched how the girls danced and also followed them with some stupid moves. Overall it was okay! We went back at about 3am by walking (no more trains), and wondered if we could wake up early for tomorrow’s plan.

Clock stroked 8am, we woke up reluctantly. It was the first Sunday of the month where the entries to the famous museum in Paris, Musee Du Louvre, were free. We managed to get to the place at 10.30am; it was already a very long (500m) queue (opened at 9am). The largest (there were three of them) see-through pyramid outside the museum was so elegant; the place was used to film the movie, the Da Vincci Code, starring by Tom Hanks before. We were in the museum after about 30minutes wait (faster than we could imagine high efficiency, we claimed!). The museum was huge, 3 storey and consisted of many zones. Although I am not an artistic person but some of the large paintings and sculptures did wow me. I was a bit sleepy along the visit, due to late sleep last night and also the art piece did not really impress me. However, the chance to have a glance at the original Mona Lisa Portrait was satisfying enough.

Afterward, we headed to Arc De Triomphe the arc honours those general that fought for France during Napoleonic wars, their names were carved inside and top of the arc. We continued with a walk at the Champs Elysees, which is connected to the arc, the avenue where all the branded shop lots located, including the 5-storey LV (Louis Vuitton) boutique. Besides shops, there were many restaurants too, all looked full, guessed it was Sunday!

We bought Kebab (served with fries) as our dinner, and had it while walking around the city and back to our host's couch. After showers, we packed our bags, had some chats with Fabien and also passed him a small token we brought from our hometown, then zzzz ...

On the very next morning, we bid goodbye to Paris and our lovely host, Fabien (we were gonna miss him, we thought, well, we do really miss him and think of him from time to time now) and headed to our next planned destination.

My Mood

What determines your mood today, tomorrow?

Work satisfaction? Health condition? Financial situation? Or your appearance?
For me, my 50% mood of the day is determined by HIM, he has the authorization to control the half of me everyday. He will make my day with just a call to tell me how happy he is today, it might sound silly, I know but it’s true, just like the famous quote in the fairy tales, ‘I’m happy if you’re happy’… Lol! I’m more pleased if his boss appreciates him than my boss praises me, and of course I feel more miserable if his works encounter difficulties or blocks than my works face that. So, please be happy for me, my MAN.

Hampton Court Palace Maze

1. Try to memorize the Maze map hardly




2. Arr... lost is the Maze




3. Luckily I have HIM, we made it to the centre

5th June

Is it typo? 5th of June? Special occasion? Nope... What is 5th June then, you may ask... I leave you to find out.

It all started when I was asked to accompany a friend (Eveline) to visit the weekend’s art work stalls in Queensbays Mall during one of my breaktimes when I was working there. If I could remember and if I’m not mistaken, it was last year September. Eveline was so in love with her boyfriend to have a thought of making something special for him. As we walked, we came to a knitting stall where we stopped and when we created trouble to ourselves. The stall owner, a couple (Kelly, the teacher and her husband) welcomed us with warm smiles and tried to introduce and promote us the beauty of knitting art. They also showed us some samples of Kelly’s work piece (knitted top, baby shoes, and bag) that hung at the small stall. As I flipped through the pages with all the knitting design samples in a magazine that placed nicely on the table, I saw one man sleeveless vest, which had caught my attention. Yes, my muscular man will look nice on this, so I thought. And the next thing I know, I found myself back at the stall with money. I decided to make one for HIM. I admit I am a choosy person, especially to choose something for my loved ones. I had difficulty in choosing the materials and colors, wool or cotton? Grey or light brown? By looking at Malaysia’s weather and to make sure that he would wear it, I went for cotton in material wise. But for color, thanks for Eveline’s fast decision, she chose grey, so I picked the other one, light brown. We were not going to choose the same color as we have chose the same design; it was a No Way, definitely!

The starting part was so tough. I made several mistakes between the lines which I had to re-start the whole line. I started to lose patient, not even a day. Besides, you would never want to see the way I hold the two knitting sticks when I am knitting. The less-than-2gms tool seemed like kilograms when they were at my hands. The weird style I did with the sticks and also the full-of-mistakes 3cm bottom lines told all, I was a really typical beginner at that time. I learned the first pattern, K1P1 (up and down) for the vest bottom. It took me a month to complete the just 5cm K1PI. What could I do? Each time I make mistakes, I could only meet Kelly during weekends. If you don’t know, I’m actually working plus staying in Kulim during weekdays. Next, it came to the most boring part, the same knitting pattern, K1 and P1 alternately in lines (considered, pattern-less for me) for 38cm length, to make the back side piece of the vest. For your information, I need to knit the front side and the back side separately in two pieces and join them into one afterwards. With that 38cm practice, I actually got my knitting skill speed up but got my interests lowered at the same time. Then, it was mid of October, I did not manage to make it on time, HIS birthday was a few days away, ‘luckily he did not know about this, so I will make it as Valentine’s Day present then’. I said to myself. I should not be so ambitious that time to think that I could finish the vest in 2 months, although Kelly claimed that those experienced can. You know what, since then, it was kept in a nice paper bag, placed stagnantly on my room closet… for months.

When I almost forgot about it, Eveline called me up suddenly to ask me about the progress of my knitting. She was at her second piece already. I was so ashamed that time. She told me that the second piece was with some knit pattern, more interesting. This has then become the motivation for me to take out the full-of-spider-web paper bag again, thanks to Esther’s (a close friend of mine and Eveline) negative comments which were actually positive encouragements to me also. I continued to knit upwards to the arm holes, back neck and to finally finish my first piece.
I made it (50% only), I was so happy, I bet Esther would not look down at me anymore… but then again, my ECD (Intel acronyms: expected complete date) was being pushed out to June, our anniversary month; Feb was too soon to arrive. I committed to myself to surely get the done in four months time, else, the next special day to give present would be HIS birthday, in October (which was initially my plan, but was in 2007).

The second piece started with the K1PI again, I made no mistakes at all that time and actually got praise from Kelly when I showed her. It was significant difference under comparison with the first piece. After that, a new tool, mini bumpy stick was needed to make the two cables pattern at the front side. Yes, Eveline was right; it was really satisfying and interesting to see the cables structured up 1cm by 1cm as I knitted. Besides, it was nice to touch on the uneven (3D) cables part. Weeks passed, uncountable times I visited Kelly for helps and advices, I made up to the V-neck part finally. This was when the remembrance played in, the knit times changed each row as it went upwards and with cables in at the same time. I accidentally skipped the cables a few times where I have to see Kelly cruelly un-knitted off the whole line, the effort I did, one by one, back to the beginning. I could not help it or ignore it as the mistake would make the vest look weird to have a line in the middle without cables. So...

June came, I had the two piece of my hard work at my hand, thought that was going to be very easy to combine them up, buffered myself for one week to do that. I was wrong, it was so complicated, and the combination at different sides has different ways. Furthermore, I could not approach Kelly as HE came back in the weekend; it was supposed to be a secret. I tried so hard to find time, even I had an hour, I would drive to Bayan Baru, just to put the two pieces together. I worked OT almost every other night, and I managed to finish it on the night before our anniversary day.

Then, I passed to him tomorrow…. the 5th June!

And if you still do not what is 5th June...

Take a look at below

This is 5th June... Hope HE likes it!