Meet Chicwick

"Chicwick" is the place in London where Cassy stays. Note: The word is pronounced without the "w" as mentioned by Cassy :P Mark suggested naming the teddy Chicwick, good suggestion, so here is Chicwick. I got him on the first day I was in London. Chicwick is the kinda bear I like, no frills, simple, chubby, huggable, soft, great eyes...It's kinda like a connection between us, I know I gotta bring this sweet little darling home with me :) It is now sitting on my bed near my pillow back home. Seeing the new furry possessions I have got myself for the trip, my mummy is threatening me with trips to Salvation Army with my soft toys again. No, Mummy! I am not gonna let another of my teddy suffer the same fate as Bobo again :P ...(Photograph above is taken by Mark in Cassy's room, also my bedroom during my stay in London)

London...

I like London the most. Hmm, it's not as quiet and calm as cities I have visited in Switzerland but also not as sophisticated as Paris. It's has kinda a rich and strong European flavour in it, or should I say a rich and strong English flavour in it. This can also be seen in the architecture of the houses and buildings. Ha, drinking English breakfast tea seemed more meaningful in London, well, it's really true! :P Oh yes, it felt kinda good to hear good and proper English being spoken everyday by the English and people around you, beautiful! Every word clearly pronounced and every sentence correctly phrased. People that we have met were generally friendly, pretty easy to strike conversations too. Derrick's aunt, Cassy, is a good example. She has been staying in London almost all her life and she shared with us with much pride that she loves London, could see the sparkle in her eyes. Good for her! We really appreciate her great hospitality and warmth during our stay at her place. She has prepared us fantastic meals and has taken so good care of all of us! Oh yes, have got a lovely white teddy bear from her at the end of our stay in London, sweet and lovely lady :) One wouldn't feel too homesick coz of food over in London too, we had delicious dim sum, roasted duck, lobster noodles and the supermarket has got a great variety of stuff, shopping is great here too, I guess alot more to discover over in London. Give this silly gal a month or more and I think I would take my own sweet time to discover London, stopping for tea and nice pastries occasionally, ha!... I remember Mark asking me at Heathrow airport if I was tired and if I do miss home...Yup, I do miss home and also felt that I needed some rest from this long trip but I think I also kinda gonna miss London. Hmm, I think and I hope I will be back there again...

Paris...Bonjour!

Fashion is an art in Paris, so is shopping. It was really a shopping paradise for Derrick and Billy! I have never seen them shop like that, ha :P Of course, before a shopping spree everyday, there's sightseeing for all. Hmm, if there is one word I would use to describe Paris, it would be "sophisticated" :P

Paris...Bon Appetit

Macarons at Laduree...Warning: Addiction to it is predicted

Best onion soup I have ever tried...lotsa onions, tasty, rich and bread has the right crisp. Every spoonful of it is luxurious!

Great mussels at Leon de Bruxelles! Finger-licking good!

Chestnut cake...not too sweet, taste of chestnut blended very well with the soft sponge cake

Lemon tart...great lemony taste but not too sour

One of the great things about travelling is probably the food. Cakes and pasteries have a way of tempting and enticing me, you just wanna savour every bit of it slowly, letting it tinkle and satisfy your taste buds. Like how my bro put it, Paris is an expressoland, indeed it is. There is a great variety of coffee and drinking coffee is kinda like drinking plain water, one would probably need to drink at least 6 to 8 cups of coffee daily, ha :P For a non-coffee drinker like me, I think I was kinda tempted to drink coffee when I was in Paris.

Acknowledgement: Photographs for Paris and London are taken and provided by Mark. Trust him to take great pictures, thank u! :)

Wandering in Zurich

Interesting piece of art at the train station

As we visited the last city in Switzerland, we seemed to be able to predict what we would probably be seeing. Yup, lotsa shops again but more as compared to Luzern and Bern. Ha, thot we were like the wanderers, walking and walking, sometimes a little aimlessly :P It is so easy to be in that relax and lazy mode in that kinda weather. Haha, silly gal made a boo boo here, bought online supersaver train tixs back to Basel but guess what, I saw the time wrongly on the e-tix and we missed the train back to Basel! Thank goodness, we managed to get tixs for the next train but at the regular price :P

Wish Bern was brighter

A cup of lovely hot chocolate managed to bring a smile on my face on a gloomy day when we sat down at a cafe for lunch :)

Not sure if it was the weather that day or the buidings in Bern, everything seemed dull, gloomy and gray. Managed to catch a glimpse of a bear, ha, the rest must be hibernating during winter. Made me feel like hibernating too :P This city didn't really fascinate me much that day, wish it's brighter...

The charm of Luzern

I stopped a few times to marvel at the fallen leaves on the ground.

Mark Twain described the Lion Monument as the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world. As I looked at it for a couple more minutes, yup, indeed it is.

A man was feeding swans with pieces of bread, it was so relaxing to watch them, they looked so beautiful, so full of elegance and poise in the river

Luzern...charming, beautiful, peaceful and calm. It was a lovely day. I thought we walked alot but I didn't feel tired at all.

Facades of life in Basel

Silly gal's fascination over a piece of carrot cake :P

Basel...a quiet, simple and organised city. Ha, you don't really hear people shouting or screaming. As for traffic, hmm, do I actually see cars?

Food Galore in Basel

Here comes hungry hungry hippo!

Day 3: Enjoying the homecooked meal!

Day 3: Noodles topped with satay sauce, sardine, stir fry french beans and leftover curry

Day 2: Chicken curry, fried rice and olive bread

Day 2: Chef Mark busy preparing his own version of fried rice

Day 1: Fried rice and onion omelette

Staying at my sis's place in Basel felt like going home, heh heh, I know I can create havoc and do anything I like, including taking over the whole kitchen. Well, I must say I loved cooking in my sis's kitchen those days that we were staying at her place. We cooked dinner at home everyday, exotic and interesting recipes I must say. Ahem, but I must confess that thanks to various boxes of curry and satay paste by Prima Deli, cooking was no sweat :P

Switzerland - Basel, Luzern, Bern & Zurich

People who have travelled to Switzerland seem awed by this country, it's like a must-visit kinda place in your lifetime. Heh, frankly speaking, if my sis wasn't not working and staying in Switzerland, I think I wouldn't even know when I would visit Switzerland. Travelling as I age seems to be just about experiencing and feeling, less the thrill and adventure. Switzerland seems to give me a peaceful kinda feeling, people are nice and mild, surrounding pretty serene...I could hardly hear much noise these few days that I was here. If you were to ask me to recall what I saw in Luzern, Bern and Zurich, I think I could summarise in a couple of words...clock towers, train stations, rivers, shops, shops and shops. Hmm, maybe we have been visiting those parts of the cities that's like the shopping areas and thus that kinda explained the shopping but I don't think we are those who shop intensively overseas :P Nevertheless, I was telling Mark, Europe is just kinda a different feel from other countries that I have visited. You know, it has just got that Europe 'feel', probably hard to express in words :P

The most wonderful part of these few days in Switzerland was not the places or cities that I have gone to, nah, not those at all. The most wonderful part of this trip to Switzerland was spending time cooking in my sis's kitchen and having the company of my sis and Mark, crazy fellas! We cooked dinner for all the days and had dinner together for most of the evenings, that's the most treasured part of the trip :) Didn't really get the chance to chat for long with my sis these few nights though, she looked tired after work everyday but glad to hear her laughter that evening. Haiz, forgotten to bring along Purple! If not, Pinkie could meet Purple. Anyway, I guess will be seeing my sis when I get back to Singapore. We only have one day before she's flying off to HK. Didi will be around too! Haiz, this gal! Always on the move! :P

PS: will upload a couple of pics when I get home! Till then, bear with my words :P

Crazy Fellas

Three crazy fellas, two on vacation and the other working so hard at work, but when they came together one evening after dinner...goodness, they could be so darn crazy! Oh well, but you know what, I think they have had a darn good time being crazy :P

Watch this!

Entertaining myself while on vacation...

Credits

Subject - Me

Video editing - M@rk

Switzerland - Random thoughts

Random thoughts...

Pre-trip...Know what, I can't believe I didn't have time to blog just before I left for Switzerland. What was I really busy with? Let's see, shopping for a few Christmas gifts and I am still not done!...hanging out with friends...checking out stuff which I may need for my trip...blar blar blar. I really disliked the packing part, especially when I need to pack for winter and knowing me, I am kinda like a last minute packer. Thank goodness, I managed to finish packing a few hours just before I was heading towards the airport. Anyway, guess what, I am in Basel, Switzerland right now, at my sis's place blogging away.

The flight...Oh boy, I was so glad the 13-hour flight to Switzerland was over, I have survived that! The last time I travelled really that far or even farther was to States. Goodness, I dun think I can handle that kinda of 24-hour flight anymore. The 13-hour flight was long enough for me.

My sis...XF was waiting at the basel train station for us. So happy to see her that I gave her a l..o..n..g BIG hug, miss her much! Well, also gave that hug on behalf on my bro :P Hmm, it has been quite some time since the three of us were together...

Life...a box of chocolates

In the movie "Forest Gump", Forest Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." I watched that movie a long time ago, wonder how many of us can remember that movie. Tom Hanks was Forest Gump, he was such a simple man. What he had said was such a simple statement and that was said while he was opening a box of chocolates if I can remember correctly. Somehow, couldn't help but feel that there's much meaning to this very simple statement. It could also be the different ways we interpret it I guess. Hmm, sometimes, life gives us the tests first before providing the lessons. Isn't that interesting? Life gives us lotsa surprises, it's probably like receiving a box of chocolates and not knowing how it's gonna taste inside or what flavour it's gonna be like. The bitterness in dark chocolate? The sweetness in white chocolate? The filling in the chocolate that oozes out when you take a bite on the piece of chocolate, what kinda flavour could it be? ...Whichever box of chocolates that we may get or receive in life, let every one of us be blessed with fortitude as we open our box of chocolates.

Takoyaki

Walked past Tsukiji Gindaco @ ION Orchard a few times and there's always a real long queue, but those were weekends. Well, being a person who doesn't like to queue, I simply refused to queue those times that I was there. Today, being a weekday and there was no long queue so I thought I should give it a try, wondering what's so amazing about these tako balls, so good that people don't mind waiting so long to buy them. Bought six pieces of takoyaki for $4.80. It's really piping hot when I ate them. Crispy on the outside and very soft in the inside, there was also a piece of chewy octopus in each tako. I thought the sauce was a little too salty for me. Eating those takoyaki made me think of winter in Japan...bringing much warmth and satisfaction in the cold :P