The Eiffel Tower

 

On our first trip to Paris on our honeymoon over four years ago we eyed the long line ups for the Eiffel tower. It was tempting to queue with the masses but instead we satisfied ourselves with strolling around the base like most visitors do.

Joel's parents bought special tickets to have a small group tour on this trip which allowed us to jump the queues and enjoy the tower with almost no waiting at all. We went this morning and were rewarded with a clear beautiful day for the experience. I thought I'd chicken out at the second level but I made it all the way to the top. The views were incredible and above all the feeling of being in this iconic place is hard to describe. So many history lectures came to life in my imagination. I really had no idea I would be this swept away by a monument but there you go. That's the beauty of travel.

Tomorrow is our last full day before we leave for London. It's one we have chosen to fill with domestic tasks... Stocking up on toiletries and buying hardware. You'd think we lived on an island or something.

Christmas in Paris: the 24th

We expected the 24th to be a day of shops closed for the season and shelves bare of breads and pastries. We started the day with a walk down to a bakery we found that has the most marvellous crossants. They were very busy and there were certainly many special orders lined up but we were surprised at the surplus of bread they had for the day. As we walked the city the rest of the afternoon we saw an over abundance of food at bakeries everywhere and hardly anyone out shopping. Shops were staying open late but it was clear that there was going to be a lot of food to waste this year. We mused that the financial climate in France right now may have taken a toll on consumer spending. Floral shops were packed to the gills with arrangements that looked as if they had over-ordered many times what they needed and the christmas tree vendor still had almost full stock of trees left by 3pm on Christmas eve...

We spent the early evening taking a river boat down the Seine on a special champagne tasting cruise. It was truly the most gloriously touristy thing, we began under the Eifel tower and cruised past Notre Dame and the Louvre while our guide walked around with bottles of bubbly answering our questions about champagne production.

After the boat tour we cabbed back to our apartment and began heating all the part of our Christmas dinner. It was a great feast and a very memorable Christmas.

Christmas in Paris: the preparations

We spent our second day, Dec 23rd, out walking the streets of the city trying to gather all the ingredients for our Christmas dinner on the 24th. Not all things made it to the 24th... here are some of the places we went and things we consumed.

First there were Macarons from the Laudree patisserie. We had all the most unusual flavours we could find. I really liked the gingerbread flavour.

Quatrehomme is a magnificent cheese shop. We filled a bag with an impressive spread of cheese for our feast. Not sure what its official name is but we especially enjoyed a truffle cheese which the shop makes just for the season.

Rue Cler, the famous gastro corridor was our stop for lunch but it was also where we found street vendors selling roast potatoes, roast chickens and all the sides. We picked up a quiche here for me and I fought off the cold with a hot chocolate thick enough to pass for fondue.

We couldn't have a proper Parisian Christmas feast without a visit to Lenotre... Our purchases here included a pyramid made of dinner rolls in every variety they make and a Buchedenoel which you can see in all its glory below.

Landing in Paris

Paris, a set on Flickr.

We landed in Paris yesterday at 6am and are now staying at an apartment Joel's parents are renting. This places is like a movie set, frecos painted in the hallways, Victorian furniture, chandeilers over the beds, windows opening out onto views of historic buildings.

We spent our first day out walking and shooting a few pictures on the iphone. I have started an album on flickr which we'll keep adding to as the week progresses.

A year in the rearview mirror

It's December in Singapore. Something I know only because my iphone tells me so. It's 33 degrees Celsius outside and all the greenery is extra bright due to the intermittent rains of the monsoon season. I thought it might be a good time to reflect on the past year and maybe bring family and friends up to date on the highlights (and low points) of the year.

The other side of Super Elite

As a Canadian having an Aeroplan card is very much a staple in one's wallet. We have one National airline left which has filed for bankruptcy protection enough times to put an American bank to shame. Air Canada is a little like United (except that it is a very small fleet) known for bitter flight staff and an underwhelming version of business class on domestic flights. As years have worn on, the levels of rewards from their frequent flyers program have been shaved away so it's harder and harder to actually redeem anything. That said there are categories, "Prestige", "Elite" and then there's "Super Elite." To get these you need to fly a lot all in one year. Over the past few years of frequent travel we've mused about what happens to people when they reach Super Elite since you pretty much need about 6 round the world trips. Our curiosity was finally satisfied when a package came in the mail yesterday welcoming Joel to "Super Elite." Aren't you dying to know what this welcome package looks like?

Care to join us?

A lot of our friends especially in the US have contacted us lately to ask us about a job opportunity in Singapore they are considering. They want to know what the job market is like and what they should ask for in a salary and if we like it here. I don't know about every job area, for instance I don't know anyone in oil and gas or mining here. What I do know is a bit about the finance, media and entertainment and software end of things. So this is my attempt to share some observations about the job market I've made over the past year while networking and chatting with expats in these fields.

Bintan Islands Indonesia

Bintan Islands Indonesia, a set on Flickr.

We just got home from spending a weekend on Bintan for the Tour de Bintan stage race and the "go get some sun" part of the Doctor's orders for me. As my fellow Singapore residents already know, this island is not a cultural hot spot, nor is it the most amazing place to hit up a resort but it is a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore and an opportunity to escape the city noise for a weekend.

We actually happened upon a great spot this trip. We stayed at Bintan Lagoon Resort which is a 700 acre golf resort set back from the water so the beach is quite peaceful with just one beach side restaurant visible from the shore. Given that it's a huge piece of land there's no light pollution at night and we loved just being able to walk around and see stars. It's very quiet and there are no other resorts on this stretch of coast. The cost of this place cuts down on the large families and groups of partiers so most other guests are couples who would prefer to play cards and read in a lounger than scream and listen to loud pop music. Overall the service was quite decent, our room was pretty nice and as clean as things get in this part of the world. Food at the buffet was better than other resort buffets we've seen, a-la-carte was better and the beach bar/restaurant was on par with a Singaporean tapas bar. Not excellent but we weren't suffering a bit. 

Definitely not the opera

That's no concert hall. Nope, it's the walk-in clinic I finally dragged my sorry butt into last night.

Since we left Vancouver in 2007 I've only been sick when I've traveled back to colder climates. I dodged the cold bug for three years in California but spent all of my trips back to Canada sick as a dog. I made it to a year in Singapore, again sick as hell both times I went back North, but always healthy here. So this is it, my first full on flat on my black with a real doozy illness in the tropics. And silly me, I waited 10 days to seek any medical care due to phobias of antibiotic-pushing doctors.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Tonight we went to see the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy with pianist Guiseppe Andaloro. The program was the Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 in C minor and then Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor.  It's been ages since I've sat and listened to a concert and this was certainly a treat for the ears. The Esplanade Concert Hall is quite an amazing space too. I took a couple of wobbly pictures with my iphone. The one above is of the lighting over the stage. There's a huge wooden spiral sculpture suspended there.

Student in a suitcase

I'm in my second to last semester of my bachelor of fine arts [BFA] in graphic design. Today I'm looking back over the last four years of my strange and wonderful time as an adult student back in the halls of a university and also all the really crazy arrangements I've made to fit schooling into our nomadic life.

Monsoon is the other season

Usually I am quite a vocal hater of rain. The cold whipping diagonal kind that spurts and gusts and makes the idea of an umbrella laughable. In other words the Pacific Northwest from September to May. All kidding aside, that late fall cold rain with the darkness is really something left coasters like to complain about and why shouldn't we? It's god awful. Singapore actually gets more rainfall than Vancouver (shock and awe I know). Rain here is that tropical gush of water with a few customary claps of thunder. It falls straight down (and at a rate that makes it bounce as high as your face) but then it ends. So yes... it rains here but it's different. Until Monsoon.

Top things we miss

Vancouver, BC

1. Solly's Bagels and cinnamon buns

2 Great coffee shops for cozy winter gatherings with friends (and macbook huddles)

3 As many skating rinks as Starbucks locations

4 Long Summer nights (even though they were cold) those long pink sunsets were amazing

5 The weird and wonderful Commercial Drive and our little organic food haunts along there

6 Main St boutiques with local designers and Vintage clothing stores. Gravity Pope. Nuff said.

Our Bali trip album on flickr

Bali - Sept 2011, a set on Flickr.

I'm getting our pictures up today from the iphone and our camera. What a great weekend!

Mozaic and tales from the back of a scooter

Our first day in Bali we took off down an unpaved 'road' through the rice fields. Joel navigated like a pro handling all the potholes like he was cruising on his mountain bike and sometimes giving me fair warning before diving down a particularly bruising embankment.