I become.

Revamped my blog design a little since I got bored of the last. The last was a cath kidston wallpaper ( i love sweet backgrounds). The blog title was quoted from Derek Walcott's "I read, I travel, I become".

Talking about reading...

I adore reading so I am looking at getting a Kindle Paperwhite since it has the new backlit. I think it would cost USD139 for a set. Though I really wanted to get one, I faced problems with:
i) getting a set because they don't send kindles internationally, at least not for SG and DXB.
ii) you need to get a kindle account tagged onto a UK/US permanent address to download amazon ebook contents.
How troublesome, but it'll be a good tool to get. *heaves a big sigh*

Still in the midst of editing photos for Switzerland and I came across one that is worth blogging.

Swans and mallard (water) ducks!
So prettyyyyyyyy.
Every other day I pass by Lake Zurich/Lucerne, I looked forward to these beautiful white swans. Look at how the one in the center of this picture folds its wings in, looking like those napkins you see on hotel tables when you attend a wedding dinner! ;D

*  *  *

Have been doing a few work trips before I went on vacation. I hardly took pictures because I had little time to do so, so here's a few I took.

Manchester ;

In my cableknit jumper and loafers. I love jumpers 'cos there're so easy to put on.

Chinese food buffet for 4.90pounds.
There have tons of dishes so that made us really happy!
Mini's from HK and Xiaojun's from China so chinese people who saw chinese food = delighted!

We went shopping after and of course, we did Primark. Primark's amazinggggggg for basic tees ( you could get one for 3pounds or so) and if they have sale, 5 pounds for off-season dresses! Shoes are 6 pounds and up for flats and I saw fluffy winter boots for 5 pounds. They're pretty decent quality so don't judge the item for its price :p

Looking forward to head to London tomorrow to do some more primark-ing!

I tried to do a Paris work trip before my actual vacation so that I can have a feel of what it is like.

A local friend told Krist and I that we have to go to Montmartre's Sacre Coeur so we went there before catching the Eiffel. It was my first time in Paris but I've heard so much about it (to be really careful) so I was holding onto my bag and Krist so much!

We went into Sacre Coeur and it was a beautiful basilica, no pictures were allowed in its interior but both of us spent some minutes sitting in silence, enjoying that very moment of peace before we headed out again.

On its beautiful green patch of grass ;)

We took a lot of pictures mainly because Krist's a huge fan of taking pictures (ie. camwhore) and he adores Paris. He knows I'm not quite a big fan of its environment but I loved its ancient sights, such as this one:

Arc de Triomphe near Champs Elysees. We took this picture while in the middle of the traffic. X_X


We didn't really have time for Champs Elysees and since I knew I was coming back, we gave it a miss and went to Eiffel instead.

Indeed Eiffel is a bronze figure during the day.
 
A horse carriage!

More pictures at 7pm;

 

and as dusk falls, the eiffel lit up ;)

and the most exciting part of it is when it starts "glistering", if I could put it this way. Here's a short video on it for your viewing pleasure:

byebye for now!

A summary on my 11D Swiss/Paris

Hello all! 

I have taken a long break from blogging because I had been busy planning my Swiss-Paris trip (which I already have taken flight to do and it was a really awesome experience). Being me, I'm really bad with directions but I was glad my parents were spontaneous to go free n easy with me. 

Doing a free n easy trip is great because you get to spend a lot of time to do what you needed to do and I guess I was also led to believe that I've saved a bit on travel expenses by taking chance on my discounted tickets (which is quite a bummer to use).

Switzerland has been more than amazing - my first snow experience and the beautiful views that I couldn't have brought home with me by pictures, but these pictures I've captured could bring me some good memories in future when I look at them.

I had one too many sausages in Switzerland really, oh yes, and Snitzels.
We visited 2 beautiful mountain/alps - Mt Pilatus and Jungfraujoch top of Europe which the latter was a pity because we met with very bad weather and a -4 degrees when we were up there so we couldn't walk out since it was snowing heavily.  People were reallyyyyy nice n helpful, like seriously, they spoke perfect English I couldn't help but be impressed, and Swiss is beautiful and well-maintained (ie. clean) so it's like a european Japan for me. No tourists scamming stuff, but of course, I would say there's a good price to pay - Swiss is a VERY expensive city to visit and stay in. My hotels cost a good SGD400-500 a night for a 3-4 star but it's all good for what we saw.

Paris is more of an adventure. I couldn't register the whole paris metro mapping thing so going everything was me bringing up the map and looking at it though I only stayed 8 mins from Eiffel. 
Met many nice people in France who helped us with our luggages, sometimes with directions. Paris is one place with really beautiful and old sights but a real pity - I'm afraid I still do not like Paris as much as a city - and I'm not sure why they kept targeting dad (or they might think Chinese looking Dads carry more cash but truth is cash is with mom & me :p)
 I would like to write these down if you wanna visit Paris:

- Rode on the metro going from sacre couer (line 2- Anvers) and it was crowded as usual. 2 female teens were trying to pickpocket from mom and dad. Unzipped my mom's backpack for the easier to reach compartment (of course she had nothing in the front pocket since her wallet's deeply buried in the main compartment), and one of the girls had her hand reached into my dad's jeans (pocket). Dad was alert so nothing was pickpocketed. Shame on these girls.
Be very careful on the way to Sacre Couer and back. Montmartre has these people trying to tie a friendship band around your wrist and ask euros from you. Just be very careful around that area.

- We stayed on Rue Cler (i love that area - bustling with good restaurants and pubs at night), on the mainstreet but there were always some punks trying to ask for cigarettes. Well, Dad got tired one day and refused to give him anymore of those sticks, and he tried to act punk. Went away after he saw us going back into the hotel.

- While we were at Tuileries' Rue Saint Honore shopping for mom's bag, a woman picked up a gold ring and asked dad if he dropped it. Dad said no so the woman asked if he wanted it. He grew suspicious so he tried saying why not, and woman asked him for euros (well we all know the story). So Dad refused and she then asked him for a bottle of coke which Dad also refused. Dad walked away to look for us to tell us what had happened. I would believe if Dad brought out his wallet to buy her the coke she wanted, she would have snatched and ran. The gold ring could be just an item she picked up from somewhere, or stolen from.

- At Paris airport waiting for our flight, we sat down to have lunch at Mac's which is the only restaurant I could find open on a Sunday at Terminal 2C. Dad got approached to buy a guy a meal at Macdonld's but that man only spoke french, so Dad couldn't understand him and shook his head to tell them he didn't know what he was saying. Dad only knew what happened when another man in suit bought that guy a meal in Mac's. Dad later saw that same guy (who asked for the meal) when dad went out to smoke because that guy was smoking too. Hmmm..

Other tips to Paris:
If you can, avoid taking the line from CDG airport to town especially in the night. If you're 2 or more people, just take a taxi though I know it cost a lot (my cab from rue cler to airport cost 55 euros for 3). I've heard a lot of people whom I've met in Paris/heard gone to Paris got robbed/pickpocketed on RER B train. The train and train stations are not luggage or wheelchair friendly anyway, lots of stairs that annoyed me much.

For bags- I highly recommend Galleries Lafayette (most brands are there but i doubt they're very well stocked for the amount of tourists you see in there) and Rue Saint Honore (Mulberry, Balenciaga, Miumiu are there). I don't do LV but if you like it - I think the 4 levels store in Champs Elysees will be the highlight because they have really good customer service.

Up to here, when I think about Balenciaga, I wished I had bought the classic city but I stopped myself. Oh well, might get it next time!

Other than that, I'll prepare a pictorial entry next, and hope you enjoyed this wordy one! Ending with one of my sentimental notes I posted on FB:
因为去了巴黎，没有太多的自动扶梯，所以我们走了很多的路和梯，才发现父母老了。。
走楼梯也慢了。。我曾经很依赖的父母渐渐因时间而老了。。眼花了，脚和手也不再那么灵活了。
而急性子和坏脾气的我能为他们做些什么？这是我现在应该想的、不要等到像奶奶那时一样，太迟了、后悔了、 没有第二次机会了。daddy mummy 我爱你！❤

No regrets about this trip - because I managed to let my parents see Europe with my own efforts :)

JS is in TW doing his solo trip - and I'm left to sleep alone in my room in Dubai. Boo :-(