feu d'artifice - fireworks

Yesteday was the "feu d'artifice d'espagnol" - spanish fireworks. it was a fantastic fireworks performance complete with spanish music. the sky lighted up in sync the rhyme of the music. lasting only 20minutes, the display was nonetheless breathtaking. i tried my best to take pictures of the fireworks but most were marred by the large amount of smoke present. And partly because i was so dumbstucked by the well choreographed display that i forgot to pressed the button. here's some of the more decent photos.










dun you think there too much smoke. =(

if any of you realise this is the first series of night shots i took in Vichy. plainly because sunset at 9-10pm. wonder how National Day fireworks would look like in Singapore.

Terror Of The Night

Everything seemed right.
The mood was light
And the stars were bright.
It seemed to be a peaceful night.

I tucked myself comfy into bed;
soon my awareness began to fade.
Dreamland filled my drowsy head
I thought I was flirting with lady marmalade.

Lying on my bed sleeping,
I was unaware of the danger lurking.
The fearsome beast had been sneaking;
My fate was sealed and nearing.

The mood became somber and grey,
As the beast closed in on the defenseless prey.
Under the silhouette somewhat of a dog,
The unsuspecting prey was sleeping dead as a log.

Howling into the silent night,
It pounced on the prey with all its might.
Being attacking with merciless precision,
I woke up in midst of frantic confusion.

I opened my eyes and froze in fear,
Praying for my life which I held dear.
The features were sharp under the clear moonlight,
I was looking into the eyes of the terror of the night.

“Stop. Behave. Go.”, I commanded while wiping the saliva off my face. The dog jumped off the bed obediently and looked at me earnestly. I was sleepy and was in no mood to play games, so i grabbed the dog and locked it in the kitchen.

bad doggy.
The dog and I had better times together...

p.s. pardon me if it is not well written, i am still reeling in fear from the vicious attack.

optimism

recently, a lot of things happened to a friend of mine. im not sure how he is taking bouts of good news and bad news. im not sure if im the most appropriate person to preach about optimism. cos i have lived all my live thinking im a pessimist.

i would have hated being alone in France. i would have hated being out of my comfort zone. i would have hated the struggle of a third foreign language.

but thanks to jac and co. who bought me a book, i am enjoying myself here. recently i have been able to turn all the bad vibes into positive energy. i just concentrate on the good things that are happening to me and enjoy the present. im an optimist.

u can do it too.

le petit vichy

as of habit, i went for a walk in the neighbourhood. my mexican friend has left as well so this time im walking alone. looking at the pictures, i wonder if the sky is more blue in France?


this is not some historical momument, nor is it some castle. neither is it a is is just someone's house in my neighbourhood. how cool is that to stay in one of those. look at how beautiful the garden is. doesn't it look like some castles from fairy tales?
haha sorry more photos of churches. i have this thing for churches. they mesmerised me. i cant keep my eyes off them. compare this with Singapore's St Andrew's Cathedral.
Eglise des Malades. magistic isnt it.
ominous clouds.

eglise Saint Blaise.

aa, twl and piggy please take a look at this wall. this is what they do to naughty children here. u better behave.

when shit happens

when i opened my eyes, i saw that the sky was clear blue. i made a promise to enjoy myself thoroughly on this beautiful day. Today was the first day the sun's out after a wet spell. the past few days had been plagued by a series of overcast sky.

but as usual, my exciting life is full of unanticipated twist. i ignored the fact that i had to climb 2 flights of stairs just to use the toilet. on my way, i thought to myself,"the whole family has gone to paris and everyone else has left for school. i have the whole house to myself. HAHAHAHA." my joy was shortlived when i stepped into the toilet.

the toilet bowl was choked and the whole toilet was urgh... im no stranger to such situations. but i would really hate the culprit. calmly, i looked for something to unchoke the toilet bowl.

10minutes passed...

the search was futile and im gg to be late for school if i dun do anything. damn. contrary to my earlier sentiments, now i really wish tt the host famiy is around. unfortunately, the rest of the students sharing the toilets are females. i guess it wont be very responsible of me to just leave it to them to find a solution. eventually, the problem would still be handed back to me. so i marched back to the toilet and did whatever i have to do to unchoke the toilet. I used my hand to... dun ask.

i became a believer of Murphy's Law -

"whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong." shit happens literally.

where is this place

see this photo below. any idea where is this place? for a start this place is not in France. cos i dun think coconut trees grows in France.

i stumbled upon this place when i was on one of my urban escapes. but when i did, the feeling was simply exhilirating. to think i had almost missed it as i was too bent on killing those blood sucking mosquitoes. the grandeur of the mansion caused my heart to skipped a beat.

but indisputably, Ching you have probably caused my heart to skip more beats when you gave me that water bottle. kudos to u queen of heart stopping suprises.

i had vey much wanted to climb over the walls to see the inside of the mansion. so i started looking around for a low wall. the seach wasn't difficult. i could feel the anticipation growing inside me as i fantasised about what i can find inside the house. im on an ADVENTURE. but to my dismal, when i propped my head over the wall, i saw a signboard...

"this place is under camera suveillence."

damn.

so any idea where is this place? think singapore. ;-)

happy birthday to you.

eliza

my very spontaneous roommate eliza has returned to germany. she left this morning when were were all having lessons. thus, sparing us the teary melodramatic farewell. her antics i guess some of you have already known, nonetheless she will be missed.

bon voyage.

the game

have you ever had such an experience where after you had crossed all hurdles you run straight into an invisible wall?

it happened like this... we just had dinner. nobody has got any plans for the night. so one bright german girl suggested earnestly that we should all play a game after dinner. all in the name of 'family' bonding she said. everyone readily agreed as nobody wants to be seen as an antisocial housemate. we thought finding a game that everyone knows would be a problem, but it wasn't. we thought that language would be a problem as not everyone can speak french fluently. but eventually it turned out that it wasn't a problem either.

so after dinner, we gather eagerly around the dining table to play a game that everyone knows. it doesn't matter whether you come from japan, singapore, germany,mexico, brazil or russia. cos name of the game is - Monopoly. the streets are different but the idea is the same.

Voila! we have decided upon a game. just when we are about to start on the game, the bright german girl exclaimed,"the board is in Dutch. the chance cards and the community chest cards are in german. the title deeds are in french.the french title deeds dun tally with the dutch board."

and so our night ended abruptly.


"usually the problems that you anticipated aren't really problems, its those that you can't anticipate that will become real problems."

City of Love

Im so in the mood for love these days, everyday is like valentine's day in france. with beautiful romantic sunsets like these who wont fall into the mood?

notice the sunrays?
i like the following photo a lot. love is so blissful. too bad i cant sneak up closer to them to take a better photo.

and what a suprise when i reached home...

damn that is indeed one sneaky chipmunk.

random pics. vichy.

"let me be your eyes." i going give a different definition to that phase. i shall be your eyes, let you see the world through my amateur photography. vichy is a small city so dont expect too much. i do the walking and you enjoy the photos.


above - some assembly grounds for the french. those things you see on the ceiling, they are not lights. they are frosted windows.

above - a house with a beautiful garden.
Eglise Jeanne D'Arc.
France has their own Big Walk too. hahaha "Le Grand Marché" loosely and inaccuately tanslate into "The Big Walk".

Eglise Saint Blaise.

i apologise if more pictures of churches turns up. cos i have this tendency to go hunting for NorteDame, eglises and cathedrales whenever i am in France.

i have known some of them for many years. i have been putting in effort to meet up with them ever so often. i think of them whenever i see something that they might need. between us, we prob have shared hundreds of stories. but when they stand before me i felt like as if i do not really know them. there seems to be a wall between us. nonetheless, i still think of us as friends.

"boundaries not only keeps people out, it keeps in as well."

a historical moment in a historical momument

my landload is a music professeur and my landlady is a wedding planner. they are a really nice couple. so earnestly trying to make my stay here comfortable. sharing the house with this french family are a german, a brazilian, a russian, a japanese, an indian, a mexican and a singaporean. wow. you must be thinking that they must have a really big house. that is an understatement.
here is it.

see how many rounds this staircase turns? hope it gives you and idea how big the house is.
voila. my big, cool and comfortable room. this photo is taken at 8pm but see how bright the sky is. even though its summer, my room is constantly cool. in fact, the stone walls help to keep the room so cool that i have to wear a jacket in my own room. leeching did you spot the thing that i want you to see? look carefully.

let me narrow the seach for you. spot it?

a little bit of history about the mansion that i am staying in. it's a histoical momument in vichy and it is already more than 100 years old. some random shots around the house.

my 'family' in vichy

yesterday, we went for our first 'family' outing - to watch horse racing. whenever we come together, we end up talking in every other language other than french. so purpose defeating huh. we pooled out money and betted on a horse but so unfortunately that horse turns out to be the last in its race. maybe the horse needs you to do a prep talk chelvam.





sayo is japanese, hector is mexican, me , elisa is geman, jacques is french. we are waiting for a boat to cross the river. over here in vichy, taxi is not the prefered mode of transport .

finally familiar faces form nus.
the diverse nationality in Cavilam.
i need a camera with a faster shutter speed. and a better night mode.

a peek into my house in vichy

the door bell buzzed.

and i went out of my room to answer the door. when i opened the door, i froze. standing outside the door was my german roommate. it was painfully cold and the wind was biting. but there she was standing outside the house drenched and in a bikini...

what is she doing out there in the streets and in a bikini at 6pm? what is wrong with her?

at dinner, she explained herself. so its is because she wished to go for a swim and there's a swimming pool 2 streets away from our house. so she decided to run across 2 streets in public in just her bikini to the swimming pool.

damn. blonds have so much more fun.

hobby

some people ask me what do i do when im free.

i design. i draw. i cut. i don't use glue.
need i say more?

random pics

sometimes i think that people have to take some time out of their busy schedule to just walk around the neighbourhood. trust me it's full of small surprises. this is what happened when i walked around my neighnourhood with a camera. ..



i have no idea if i was on Singapore land or Malaysian Land when i took these pictures...



lovely. but there's still room for impovement.