ifantabulous

Lil 9th May 2008

You know, Anne is a wonderful and most considerate host. A native from Nantes, and knowing that I was arriving, she took the initiatives to get transport schedule from the airport to the train station (we met up there as she was arriving from Paris on the train), planned for our short afternoon in Nantes, organised for stayover at her parent’s (along with a lovely dinner), and looked up for something that we can do in that tight couple of hours.

Voila, she found out about Les Machines de l’Ile (The Machines of the Isle of Nantes) and suggested that we gave that a go. Of course! It was such a cool and unusual idea that I didn’t even hesitate for a second. We were going to ride the giant mechanical elephant!

We arrived just as a ride was leaving the warehouse, so we got tickets for the next ride instead. While waiting, we strolled alongside the mechanical creation that was inspired by the visions of Jules Verne and Leonard da Vinci. It was most impressive, on how elegantly this ginormous animal was built using timber, and it moved with the dynamics as if a real animal would, flexing its body, trunk and legs in sync. The elephant even made the right noises and sprayed water through its trunk!

The elephant didn’t move all that quickly, just at about 250 meter per hour. Even then, on that warm sunny late afternoon, it was nice to be a little higher atop of everything, where we get some cooling breeze while enjoying the view all around at a vantage point. We were also climbing up to the top, then down to the “stomach” to get to the side balconies, and back up again. It was a little like child play.

We also chit chatted during the duration of the “journey”. General catching up of news, and also talking about some new events that are happening in our lives (and our friends’). Not forgetting, we were also planning the rest of the trip, just to get some idea of what will be taking place throughout the weekend, particularly after we leave for La Baule.

This definitely geared up for a great weekend ahead. Awesome!

• Travel , Friends
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Lil 8th May 2008

I’m heading to Nantes and La Baule for the weekend, in celebration of Anne’s birthday! This is actually the third part of the full celebration, of which the first was a dinner on the actual day and the second was a picnic the very same weekend, both events took place in Paris. It is great to be invited, and to a region that I’ve not visited before too. What’s handy is Ryanair flies straight to Nantes so I don’t have to fly elsewhere and then try to find my way there by train.

I finally figured out why aubergines are also known as eggplants. I found some über cute Thai aubergines at the Chinese supermarket a couple of weeks back, and they do look like eggs. White and oval and just the right size. Nothing like the long purple ones for sure.

Is there a more effective way of combating spams? They are getting on my nerves, that they’re getting smarter and getting through the filters nowadays. My college email is spammed even more than my spamcatcher email, which is rather ridiculous. It could easily be anything over 50 spams per day. What’s annoying is, I subscribe to some list groups related to my work, and occasionally these get categorised as spam for reason unknown. Whether I like it or not, I have to check my spambox to make sure I’m not losing any proper mails. Gaaaaah!

Last week, as payback for keeping me until 5.30am a couple of Sundays ago (I had exactly 2 hours sleep that day before getting up to get in to lab), proofreading and editing a mechatronics engineering final year project report, Andy took me (and his SO) to Aya for some sushi bonanza. To be exact, we went on this thing they call “55″ which effectively allows you to eat as much as you like from the conveyor belt (except those on platinum plates) within 55 minutes for a fixed price of €31, and the price also includes a drink and a miso soup. The glutton that we were, we polished off some 60 plates of them and given an average plate from the conveyor is about €3 to €4, we definitely squeezed all the value out of what Andy paid. And then some. Of course, we were also so full that it was near impossible to budge after that…

I have just realised I haven’t write any book review for ages by this stage. Over a year! Shocking really, this transgression. Mind, not that I haven’t been doing any reading for leisure. In fact, I’d estimate between this period of time, I would have gone through some 20-30 books. Usually in spurts of several books within a short couple of weeks, then nothing for a couple of months and back to several in one go again. Now, if only I can remember what I’ve read, maybe I’ll do a summary write up the way I’m doing movie write up. Maybe.

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Lil 7th May 2008

My latest Jazz discovery, I absolutely love the sound of Malia and her latest album - Young Bones. She has this wonderfully smoky yet soulful voice that I’m a tad surprised that she hasn’t make it real big yet, especially considering this is actually her third album. I do wonder what happened between now and her debut. Could this be a case where her success is confined to just a small demographical audience, namely in France? (Well, I found her through Deezer, and as you know by now it is a predominantly French online music player.)

I don’t really have a lot of time to check her out over the internet as yet, given how crazy things have been in and around my life right now. Such a ride of rollercoaster, which perhaps also goes quite a long way why I would be drawn to Malia, as her songs soothes my mind as I work, playing in the background.

So as usual, I’ve chosen a song to share with everyone. This time I shall go with Mr Candy, which is my favourite from this album, although I also like Plus Je T’Embrasse and Rainbows very much.

I walked away from my old way
With wounds to heal I left that old world
I’ve tried so hard to be
A girl that was not me

You changed my world so I’d love you
Although I’m pleased I’d like to kill you
Fate must have a plan
Now I’ve got my man, my man

Then I made you, you like candy
You could have sold me anything
Like a devil you had me in a spin

When I made you, you look so dandy
I will give you everything
Like a devil you had me in a spin

I taught myself into a new way
Whatever the price I’d have to pay
Fate must have a plan
Now I’ve got my man, my man

Then I made you, you like candy
You could have sold me anything
Like a devil you had me in a spin

When I made you, you look so dandy
I will give you everything
Like a devil you had me in a spin

I taught myself into a new way
Whatever the price I’d have to pay
Fate must have a plan
Now I’ve got my man, my man


Ps: does the lyrics make sense? That’s what I managed to catch from the song, which could be right or wrong… hmm…

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Lil 5th May 2008

Gramps are here for nearly a week now, and believe it or not, they’ve still yet to totally adjust their time lag! Not surprising really, as they went to bed at 8pm or so, then got up before 6am!

I was back in Wexford over the weekend at my aunt’s to spend some time with them, which was really nice. We didn’t do much, but spent quite a lot of time chatting at home, particularly in the kitchen where my aunt and I would also be cooking at the same time. We even made some homemade potato flour noodles, which I’ve been missing for quite some time. That’s the benefit I guess, of living close enough to my aunt. Had there been some food that I’m missing, I could probably get them by putting through a request to her.

One of the afternoons, we decided to go out and basked in the sunshine, while taking some photos. A tad bright perhaps, considering we took them right in the middle of afternoon. Well, that was possibly the only time when grandma felt the chill less. She’s still trying to get use to the chill, even if for us (long time residents) this is perfect t-shirt weather.

And oooo so what do you think of my aunt’s new ride? Sweet, isn’t it? This new Fiat 500 is possibly the cutest car I’ve come across in quite some time, and it’s absolutely perfect for a female driver. Compact enough to zip around cities easily yet practical for long distance journeys because it’s really quite comfortable. Well, at least for the two front passengers. You kinda know, even by eye, this is not meant to be a family car.

I’ll be catching up with gramps again in a couple of weeks, and in the mean time my aunts and my uncles are supposed to organise some holiday time with them. They’ve asked me to help with the planning but it’s quite frustrating that they still can’t seem to make up their mind on where to go and when to go. There’s talk on going to New York, Paris and Barcelona, but by this rate that they’re going, they may end up going nowhere.

(Personally, I think they should bring gramps to South of France or Tuscany, but that’s me and my opinion. I’m quite biased to these two countries as you’re well aware.)

In the mean time, gramps should really get themselves adjusted in term of sleeping time, or else it’s going to be hard for them to be travelling to other destinations.

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Lil 2nd May 2008

Before I launch into today’s blog entry, I want to say a big Happy Birthday to Dave! It’s a pity that you’re thousands of miles away from here, and that we here couldn’t celebrate this big day with you. I’m meeting Kevin and Simon for lunch later today, so we are sure to give a toast for you! You are missed. And send my love to Miriam too, ok?

Updated : Greetings from Kevin and Simon

Athena tagged me last weekend for this meme but since the title mentioned something about Friday, I reckon that means the day I’m actually supposed to continue this meme. So here goes…

DO YOU PREFER…

1. To watch or to participate?
I’m a person of action and I need to have something to do, therefore I am more of a participant than an observer. However, of late, wishing to have more time just to unwind, I probably would happily watch from the sideline and not take on more than I can handle at the moment. There’s doing things, and there’s overdoing things. I must learn to balance them out.

2. Malls, catalogue shopping or the Internet?
Urggh I am not the shopping sort of person. Even my guy friends made fun of the lack of this supposed feminine trait. I never do catalogue shopping but would purchase from the internet regularly, especially for books and CDs. Otherwise, I go for shopping trips, say, 3-5 times maximum per year?

3. A bath of a shower?
A bath! Especially when I go home to my aunt’s in the countryside. It’s a jacuzzi bath, ’nuff said. Unfortunately I don’t time luxury for pampering bath like this very often…

4. To talk to people by telephone, in person or by e-mail?
Of course in person, followed by telephone, not forgetting gtalk and then e-mail as last resort. Mind you I can really chat for hours at end (no surprises here for those of you who knows me)… not quite sure if that’s a good thing or not…

5. Typing or writing?
I don’t have a particular preference in this but typing is a lot quicker for me nowadays than writing. Still, I like writing because it’s just that bit more personal. Until you try to come up with some 40 different postcard messages and you’re at loss of what to say. That may pose a little problem, but not so much once you put the thinking cap and reflects on your interaction with the intended recipients. Every one of them.


And now, here goes the tagging part. Who do I imagine would continue this?

1. Atuk Z (hopefully before he heads for his holidays - ok, properly linked to the meme post)
2. Bijoe (well, this got to wait until she returns from her holidays)
3. Anilde (perhaps after her exams)
4. Jemima (when you get a chance dear)
5. Precious Pearl (is there bank holiday in UK this weekend?)

Toodles everyone, as I’m heading back to Wexford to spend some quality time with my gramps. They arrived a couple of days ago for 6 weeks holiday, completely exhausted from the long journey but hopefully they’ve recovered somewhat from the jetlag and all, so we can figure on stuff to do together at weekends whenever possible.

Have a fabulous weekend.

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