22nd December 2005 – Thursday
London London London. Took Eurostar to London to spend a whole day there. London is really different from Paris. The roads…the fashion....the people.
A little Paris fashion info for you: The “theme” colours for fashion in Paris is black, dark brown, black and….(yep you got it) dark brown.
London is really different. They have pink….yellow….black….blue….etc.
Oh! Another thing, Londoners wear sneakers (for both hes and shes) while Parisians wear boots. Funny how fashion changes as you cross the English Channel.
I was overwhelmed by emotion as I travelled along the streets of London. London feels home. They have arrows on the roads, fences everywhere along the streets, pavements made out of stones….and of course, drivers are on the left. Just like home. Ah.
We had dinner at Chinatown in Soho and oh boy was it delicious! Soon, we had to leave “home” so we took a cab to the station. (Even this cab, London cab – what we Singaporeans call it, exists in Singapore. How can I not say London IS Singapore dressed in a disguise of artistic and olden buildings?)
21st December 2005 – Wednesday
Dragged our HEAVY bags to the hotel to meet Rox’s family. Thinking back, I guess we are the SUPERGIRLS! It’s amazing how the both of us manage the bag and luggage (Bag for me, luggage for her) up and down the stairs of the Metro. Then again, Supergirls are supposed to accomplish everything.
Bunked in with Rox’s sis and her. After settling our breakfast at the hotel lobby, we took the Metro down to our school and hostel. We then went to Galeries Lafayette (Opera’s) and Chatelet because Rox’s mom wanna get some souvenirs. As Rox’s sis and mom were getting really exhausted from all the walking, we decided to get back to the hotel early.
20th December 2005 – Tuesday
HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY NIXON!
Rox and I had a lazy Tuesday. Her parents were said to arrive yesterday but it’s a false alarm, they said it was supposed to be today. We were gonna meet them at the hotel in Saint Lazare at 9am but we woke up late. We quickly got ready our stuff, almost ready to leave when Rox called her parents to inform them that we would be slightly late. But it’s screwed, they are actually gonna arrive TOMORROW instead. Her father had the dates mixed up. It’s not gonna be the 19th or the 20th. Eventually, Rox and I just chilled at home basically.
What did I do?
1. Took a short nap till lunch.
2. Read half of “Windows On The World”.
3. Had Travis, Coldplay, Keane, Razorlight, Christina Aguilera and Guang Liang on ITunes’ repeat.
4. Blogging. (Though it’d be really outdated by the time I put this into the blog itself.)
What am I gonna do later?
1. International Advertising’s project.
2. Read the other half of “Windows On The World.”
3. Put Death Cab for Cutie, Muse, Guang Liang, Ou De Yang, Louise Attaque, La Grande Sophie on ITunes repeat.
4. Sleep and get ready for the REAL arrival of the Queen Rox’s Daddy & Mommy.
19th December 2005 – Monday
Since we didn’t have any plan for today, we stayed home the whole day to get started on International Advertising’s project – Celebrity Endorsement. Read many articles, tried to get a grasp on them and tried to summarise it.
Watched Rox’s “Phantom Of The Opera” DVD.
Bernie’s film ratings: 2.5/5
Bernie’s film extras rating: 3.5/5 (Basically, they were more entertaining.)
18th December 2005 – Sunday
Went to McDonald’s at Charles de Gaulle Etoile with Rox to use the Wi-Fi. Chatted with Francis on Skype and chatted to Valerie on MSN. Waited for my family to log onto MSN but I guess they weren’t home. We left at 4pm to Elysee Montmarte (Metro: Anvers) to attend the “I Love Life Live” gig. Though everything was in French, it was still a very cool gig.
Acts:
Louise Attaque
La Grande Sophie
….and a few names more (Memory fails me tonight.)
17th December 2005 – Saturday
Took the RER A to Val D’Europe (Zone 5) with Rox. I bought Rox a bottle of hair moisturiser for her Christmas present. She got me a United Colors of Benetton’s handbag in return. She said that it’d make me more feminine. LOL. She finally bought her coat from Bershka for €79.90.
It’s been a long time since I’ve added anything to my blog. Just had many other stuff to do whenever I get to access the internet. Now, I’m just typing my entry into Word in my room and add it into my blog when I am online.
Why don’t we go back all the way to the riots issue since I can’t remember what happened before that…..alright…you might have already know this. I heard from Eunice’s friend that the Paris riots took up the first 5 pages of the Straits Times. Woah! Imagine that! We don’t even get that much coverage here. Mr Boo called us on the 6th day of the riots. Yeah yeah, don’t you think that’s really sloooowww? Guess what’s worse, he called up Valen’s mom on the 9th day to tell her that we were alright. And her mom was so surprised that he even called her at such a late time. Oh heck. We are living in the 18th district in the north of Paris city. Don’t get this confused with Paris. Paris city is like the core and main part of Paris. The other parts of Paris are considered other zones. I think there’re 8 zones altogether. Paris is really big, bigger than Singapore I bet. I’m always in zone 1 and 2 which are considered the centre of Paris. Anyways, we didn’t know how the riot situation is but we read that the 19th district was affected and we became worried that it would spread to ours. Strange enough, a few days later, the 17th was affected. Obviously, 18th was skipped.
Some week ago, Eunice, Valen, Rox and I went to Val D’Europe which is in Zone 5. Took the RER (a good-looking train) for 45 mins to reach there. When the train left Paris city, the whole landscape changed. There were more trees, more space and lesser buildings. While we sat in the train and I noticed that it was really cool inside.
Me: Hey! This train is air-conditioned!
Everyone: (Didn’t wonder much) Hmmm….
After 5 minutes….
Eunice: Ber ber, it’s not the air-condition, it’s the air outside!
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Silly me! I had forgotten that the air outside was cold!
We visited this enormous shopping mall and the shopping village. Didn’t manage to find anything worth my money except for a blouse. When we were about to leave, I had my eye on this white coat that was really gorgeous. It was kinda costly so I didn’t get it. Rox and I were getting tired from all the walking (The mall was really huge I tell ya) so all of us left the whole place at around 8.
3 weeks ago, I went to visit the John Lennon:Unfinished Music exhibition. It didn’t occur to me this……everything was in French!! But the videos and audios that they showed were in English...so that wasn’t too bad at all.
2 weeks ago, it snowed. Woke up thinking that it was raining and when Xuelin looked out of the window…
“Bernita, it’s not raining, it’s snowing!”
I quickly got up and took a look. The roofs across us were white and all the cars parked below were covered with snow. How exciting! Rox and I went to Belleville (that’s where Tang Ren Jie – Chinatown, is) and bought some vegetables to cook on Sunday.
A few days ago, Anne brought Rox and I to the hostel that we are going to move in, in January. It’s somewhere in Saint Michel, the 2nd richest area in Paris. However, the hostel rates aren’t expensive, so this is quite a good deal. It’s a hostel for girls and there’s this really cosy and nice library in the top floor. And the view? AMAZING! You could see Paris from the top floor as well as the Eiffel Tower with a full view. BUT BUT BUT, we have to share a common toilet in the hostel. This really sucks! Everything seems perfect…with people cleaning your room, a spacious room, a nice library to do work, 2 desks in the room…..and this common toilet has to come into the picture! Aww! But there’s not much choice anyway, we need to settle our accommodation quickly so we have to settle for this hostel and most hostels are booked for the winter already.
2 days ago, Eunice, Valen, Rox and I went to watch In Her Shoes at Montparnasse. The movie’s not too bad. Toni Colette and Cameron Diaz were awesome.
Alright, let’s get to yesterday’s happenings! Rox and I went to Bercy to buy tickets to London. We realised that the address that we took from the website is the main office of Eurostar and not the place to book tickets. So in the end, we took a train down to Gare Du Nord station to buy the tix directly. This station is where people depart to London, Germany etc… We bought 5 tickets (for Rox’s family and me), 145 euros each. As there’re no London -> Paris tix (2nd class) left, we had to get the 1st class ones. Woo….
So we are going to London 2nd Class and back in 1st Class. Wonder how the train’s gonna be…comfy? Nice-smelling? Spacious? Haha!
After that, we took the train down to Chatelet to buy some Xmas presents and look for a coat for myself. Didn’t manage to see any coats I like but I bought a cute *it’s a secret* for Aunty HJ. Something really interesting happened in the train on our way to Chatelet. This train is unlike the typical Metro kind and this train has no driver. It’s just like our NEL train. Rox and I sat right in the front as the front part was half glass and you could the train tracks and tunnel. It’s like the Skytrain in Changi Airport. Not long after, 3 Australians sat across us cos they wanted to watch the tunnel as well. (Note: Behaviour of Sua Ku tourists.) Rox and I were talking and (I swear we didn’t eavesdropped on purpose!) the Aussies said (somewhere in the sentence) Singapore! I quickly gave Rox a look and I said, “You heard it right? Did they say what I think they said?” and she nodded. So, (I can bravely say I’m 100% eavesdropping now), I tried to listen in their conversation and they were comparing this train to the NEL’s. They said something about Singapore’s train having no driver and it being automatic. Haha!
Later in the day, we went to Opera to shop around for my coat. Again, I can’t find anything worth my money so when I was about to give up and head back home, a Mango coat caught my eye. Haha! And it was within my budget and had all the designs that I’m looking for – a hood and tight sleeves.
Woah, what a long entry this is. I’ll try to keep more entries coming in!
