A stroll in the Botanic Gardens

For our last day in Singapore we went for a stroll in the Botanic Gardens of Singapore. Well, first we waited for the heavy rain to stop and then made our way there.

This park is quite big, i.e. it takes at least one hour to cross it from one side to the other. It’s divided in different areas each with a different theme and, cherry on the cake, there is an orchid garden.

Swan lake, with real mute swans from Amsterdam (I didn’t know such birds existed, but apparently they do).

 Some of the plants and flowers that can be seen nearby the Swan lake.

I could spend hours taking pictures of the nature. It reminded me of Mulu Park in Borneo, somehow. Probably because of the type of plants they have.

Ginger garden

The Palm Valley with at the back the Shaw Foundation Symphony stage where concerts are held apparently every month and anyone can come, sit on the grass with a picnic listening to the music.

Note: unlike the park, the National Orchid Garden is not for free. We therefore postponed our visit but something tells me we will visit it… with the right lenses, flash, etc. :)

90 000 tons

90 000 tons that's the quantity of white asparagus that will be eaten this spring (over a two-month period) in  Germany!
Seems Germans are big fans of the white asparagus.

THE pool of Marina Bay Sands and the Chocolate Bar

Some time ago Christa had picked up an advertisement about the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. This hotel is a luxury palace famous for its unique architecture (it looks like a boat has landed up there) and its swimming pool.   The uniqueness of this pool, on top of being the highest outdoor swimming pool, is that once you are in it, thanks to the infinity edge, it looks like you are right on top of the city.

Sadly the pool can only be accessed by guests of the hotel and this luxury haven is clearly over budget. Net we can dream about the pool or be creative.

Over dinner with Vinay he mentioned to us a way to see the pool without staying at the hotel. Of course we were all ears. Up there, there is a place called the Chocolate Bar. Provided you have a reservation for the Chocolate Bar (or any of the other bars up there), you can access the roof top floor and therefore see the swimming pool.

Vinay was kind enough to make a reservation for us and to mention to get there a bit earlier to have time for pictures. We followed his advice and arrived 30min before our reservation. We were granted access to the 57^th floor right away, spent almost no time in one of the fastest elevators of the world, and soon enough we were in front of it.

The pictures I saw before were impressive; being there is even more incredible. It made me want to spend the money on the room to have access to this pool. I would love to sit at the edge like these people are doing. I guess I just need to win the lottery.

Now the pool was only the beginning if our time on the top of the Marina Bay Sands. After the amazing view, amazing chocolate pastries, cakes, sweets, mousse, sauce, etc. were waiting for us. For a flat rate of S$38, you have a choice of hot beverage (coffee, tea and of course hot cocoa) and access to the all you can eat buffet. If you love chocolate, this buffet is really close to taking you to heaven. They have prepared more than 30 different bites based on chocolate.

Our first rounds:

My favorites of the day: macaroon mint/chocolate nice combination of fresh and sweet, and white chocolate pistachio financier. Simply divine!

All of this while sitting on the terrace facing the harbor with a view on the many boats queuing.

N.B.: in case we would go there again: no dinner or really something super light, otherwise, half way through the buffet, stomach gets full and that’s a pity because there more amazing things coming up.

Little India & Arab Street

Like every big city in this world, there are neighbourhoods like Chinatown or Little India in Singapore.
Today we decided to practise our brand new MRT expertise to reach Little India, and take a little trip to India.
And feeling like in India it felt: it was noisy, it was crowded, it was messy. Such a contrast with the Singapore we've seen so far. It was somehow re-assuring to see a bit of chaos as sometimes it can feel surreal that a city has managed to have everything under control. But the fact that in Singapore (almost every where) everything is nice and tidy, is clearly one of the reasons it's so appealing.
We walked the streets of Little India but apart from the low rise colored houses, nothing special caught my attention.

Something tells me I need to come back with someone who knows the shops and restaurants and get a guided tour. I'm sure there must be excellent place for Indian food, the only question is where.

Once done with Little India, we walked to Arab Street, known for its Middle East influence. The only thing worth mentioning is that this is the street to buy carpets, as pretty much every other shop is selling some. In case it ever gets cold in Singapore.

I then suggested to Wolfram to walk back to the hotel. Merely 4km. As much as I enjoyed walking through the city and get to discover more of it, it was painful with the heat. Next time I come up with such an idea I should plan for earlier or later in the day.

I'm very proud of Wolfram who painfully powered thru despite nearly losing all the water in his body. Luckily this was easily fixed by a jump in the swimming pool once back at the hotel.

A global family

This morning before we left I sent an email to the rest of the family wishing them a nice Sunday. It was around 10am in Singapore. Almost immediately my brother answered wishing us all a nice Sunday, before they went to bed. It was 10pm in Toronto. A few hours later, Europe woke up and Joy wished us a good Sunday from Paris. If that's not a global family, I don't know what it is. We're nicely spread over three continents this weekend and all thinking about each other!

Random shots

Simply because they caught my attention :)

Marina Bay Sands

Imagine a boat on top of three buildings, almost like it "landed" there.
Imagine one of the most beautiful swimming pool in the world.
Welcome to Marina Bay Sands.
We were told it's an S$8b resort and apparently it's full almost all year long.

We started by the Merlion park, which is opposite the water to the "boat".
"The Merlion, is Singapore’s tourism icon, is a creature with a lion’s head and the body of a fish. The "Singa" or lion represents the animal that a Sumatran prince saw which resembled a lion, and the fish is a tribute to Singapore's history as "Temasek", the ancient sea town."

Honestly, it's just a statue/fountain. Nothing special about it but given it's the symbol of Singapore, the site is crowded and everybody wants to have a picture with it in the background.

What's really worth the trip is on the other side of the water: the hotel and its boat up there.

Look at this!
Where did the architect get this idea? and even more importantly, how many engineers were needed to make sure this crazy idea holds.
I'm not sure I want to know how it feels to stand there on top of the void.

We stayed there for a while, trying to find the right way to capture this monster. In the meantime the sun came down, slowly and we enjoyed the reflection of the sunset on the building.

At some point of time, something changed in the background behind the hotel. The cloud became bigger, darker and thunderstorm started. We were in the first row and could see the lightning striking. I tried but didn't manage to get a picture of the lightning. I guess I was not patient enough to hold the camera ready to shoot for 5-10min until lightning would strike... assuming that I would have been fast enough to capture it.
I'm happy though that the thunderstorm kindly stayed behind the Marina Bay and never reached us, i.e. we stayed dry.

At 8pm, out of nowhere a light show started around the hotel. With the rest of the crowd we watched the lights and laser. The show was nice but not a reason to wait for it. If you happen to be around, stay for it. If not, it's not a big loss.

A trip to Carrefour

This whole trip is about understanding the lifestyle in Singapore and whether we could live there. Thus after the city, the housing, the shopping and the transportation, this trip would not have been complete without a little visit to Carrefour.
Yes, Carrefour, the supermarket like in France (and many other countries).

Christophe, who's living in Singapore for 9 months now, kindly offered to take us there. Not only because being French he anticipated some of the products I might need or miss, but also because it's cheaper than the local chain Cold Storage which is the shop for expats (i.e. more expensive).

We patiently browsed through the aisles checking the products available and their prices. We noted down the prices of the majority of products we tend to buy regularly. It's actually a very unusual collection of products as one can find products from almost every country on this planet. The difference is price. If you buy local it's cheaper. If you buy imported it's more expensive. The further away it comes the more expensive. Very logical.

After careful accounting the outcome was that more or less we would spend the same on grocery shopping as we do today. We will have to make some adjustments as some products are simply not there (Cote d'Or chocolate is one and I'm already planning to fill up my suitcase with as much as I can) or products are new to us therefore the opportunity to experience (e.g. some tropical fruits).

There is no company shop in Singapore center which means we will have to pay full price for our cleaning products. There again whether we buy the local brand or the one imported from the US, it's up to us to choose to pay simple or double for laundry detergent. That's probably the biggest hit in our grocery budget.

We also inquire about delivery. In a world without car, I don't see Wolfram carrying all the bags in the bus. It's quite simple: just spend 150S$ and delivery is for free in a given time period, on your doorstep, no limit in quantity (so we can order 100 bottles of Diet Coke). If total amount is less than 150S$, it will cost 8S$ for the delivery. Once again, manageable.

Re-assured. We shall survive.
But again finding food is not difficult in Singapore. It's basically everywhere. What is difficult, is to decide what to eat. Like they say: "too much choice, kills the choice".

Swimming under the rain

This morning it was raining.
Despite the rain I decided to go swimming. After all, wet for wet I might as well get the exercise I need to eliminate the ice cream from yesterday.
As I was swimming the rain got harder which was a funny feeling on my head. Still temperature is warm so no issues to keep on swimming.
Until someone came and asked me to step out. With the thunderstorm, they were worried I could get hit by lighting. While I understand the concern, I was a bit annoyed to have to interrupt my swim. Especially because I was in the water for already 20min.
The most surprising part is when the lady apologized for the inconvenience. It's not like she can control the weather...

Welcome to Singapore!

Over our stay in Singapore, on top of the relocation people, we've also been welcome by our future colleagues.
Ben, who's been in Singapore for five weeks now in extended business trip, took us on Thursday night to Nuoc, a Vietnamese restaurant on the roof top of Orchard Central. The food was good, however service was extremely slow, which is very unusual for Asia. The big wow was to sit there, outside, with a view on Orchard road. I can imagine spending more time up there.
Vinay, who relocated from Kobe, Japan, to Singapore eight months ago, took us to Dempsey Hill. The former British barracks have been converted into shops and restaurants. On Friday night the area was packed with people and luxury cars. Given how much it costs to buy a standard car, I can't imagine how much a Audi A8 or a Ferrari would cost over here. It's even more crazy as the speed limit is 90km/h. What's the point of getting a Ferrari if you can't really drive it? It's called show off. Singapore has the highest concentration of millionaires in Asia, and they spend their money, obviously. Vinay took us to Margarita's, a Mexican restaurant, where we enjoyed some very good Quesadillas and Fajitas (with shrimps). Vinay gave us plenty of advice regarding places to go for dinner or drinks. And he claims to have only explored 5% of what's out there!
Both of them shared with us their experience of moving to Singapore. So far we've heard almost only good things. The few negatives, like the size of apartments, are compensating by huge positive, like having a pool. Clearly they wouldn't go anywhere else.

With all this great food available it will be hard to stay fit, which the "Living in Singapore" guide mentioned as well. Clearly we will have to make the best used of the pool and gym facility to balance the food intake.
Thus a quote that will become legendary from Wolfram:

"Tomorrow I need to go running...

... at least 10min"

Public transportation

Buying a car in Singapore is hugely expensive, not to say insanely expensive. As a consequence we will not have a car when we move there. Part of today was dedicated to understanding and experiencing public transportation. Singapore public transportation are claimed to be very efficient and that might be true once you have figured out the rules of the game.

 First challenge (and probably biggest challenge) there is not really an overview map of the whole system. One can easily find the map of the MRT (read subway), but not of the bus lines. Lena gave us a little book with all the bus lines where each line is described in a table format, but that's not very helpful when you don't know where things are. Actually to travel very efficiently in Singapore you need to be online so you can acces the different Apps that exist and will help taking you from A to B. Much more advanced that what we are used to.

There are at least three Apps one should have:
- gothere.sg which will tell you how to get from A to B, in any mean if transportation. 
- mytransport.sg which will tell you where the bus is so you can timely step out of the house and don't waste time waiting.
- smrt which allows you to order a taxi directly from the App. It's locating you via tha phone GPS and taxi will know where to come. All of that in one touch.

 On top of the Apps, you need a EZ-Link card that you charge with money. Every ride will be deducted as you travel. The further you go, the more you pay. The more you travel, the more you pay. Net it feels indeed that there is a very well thought through system in place. It will take probably a few weeks or months until we fully masterize it. Assuming it's possible :)

Tough choice

The more I visited apartments in Singapore, the more obvious it became. There is not enough space for the cats.
My heart is already breaking just by the idea of leaving them behind. But my brain is telling me that realistically the type of apartment we would have is not made for our two cats. It won't be an option to keep the windows closed and high rise condos can have up to 30 flours.
I'm going to park this for the moment, but moving to Singapore might come at the price of losing the cats.

Sometimes life sucks :(

Orientation Day 2

Today was our pre house hunting trip. The idea was for us to get a feel of the type of housing available and give guidance to the real estate agent on what we want. This way, when we come back, we only visit places that meet our criteria.

There is one major learning today: apartments in Singapore are small!

I knew it would be smaller than what we are used to in Belgium or other European countries, more in line with what you get in Paris, but it's even smaller than that. So small that it makes you think how to smartly use the space. All my past habits from when I was a student will be needed again.

The conclusion from today is simple: we need to downsize! (BIG time).

Since we are in Meise we have had the luxury of space. Our apartment is big, one could even argue we do not need all this space, and therefore we've expanded to cover the space.
If we bring everything to Singapore, it will either not fit into a two-bedroom apartment or will cost us a fortune as we will need three or more bedrooms.
Our super king size bed would not fit in most of the bedrooms we've seen. By super king size, I mean a 1.8m by 2m bed, which as you can imagine is big enough to fit a whole army of Asian people.
Our dining table might be a challenge as well as most living rooms were quite small as well.
Basically, everything is smaller, and often not smartly designed. Some buildings are looking great from the outside, but once inside, curved walls are not practical and waste a lot of space.

Dishwasher is often not provided... seems most people don't eat enough at home to need a dishwasher or have a maid who does the dishes.
All condos have swimming pool, gym, BBQ pit, tennis court etc. However the size and quality is not equal. There are many types of pools: lap pool, kids pool, waddling pool, decorative pool, etc.

Net, after the day touring apartments, we saw three we could imagine live in, assuming we leave half of the furniture behind. Now the agent knows what we like, our budget and our constraints, like the super king size bed :) Let's see what magic they can work out.

Orientation day 1

Today we met Lena at 10am for the first day of orientation. In case you wonder what this is about, it's not sightseeing. It's about showing us the city, the different neighborhoods, the shops, the schools, etc. anything one may need to know to help deciding/confirming that one can live happy in Singapore.
Thus we received several practical guides to help us navigate in our first days/weeks in Singapore. We visited supermarkets, local markets, metro station, food courts, pharmacy, butchers, parks, etc. Objective was for us to assess what is available and the price range.

What I learnt today, randomly:
- Everything is imported in Singapore therefore potentially expensive.
- Chocolate: clearly something to bring in my suitcase. So far I didn't find any Cote d'Or :(
- Nutella is expensive (count 5 Euros for the big jar) i.e. I'll have to eat less of it which cannot hurt ensuring I still fit in my wedding dress come December.
- Forget about wine, it's hugely expensive (cheapest is around 25SGD, and there is not upper limit)
- Weather is nice and warm. Even if cloudy it's still warm and pleasant. I love the feeling of heat wrapping me.
- Entering a building means getting a temperature chock. It's freezing cold for a few seconds. Apparently it takes up to one year to get used to it.
- Fruits and vegetables are at comparable prices with Europe, just not always the same: more papayas, pineapples, etc.
- The MRT stations (subway) in residential areas are quite far away from the condos. Let's see tomorrow whether we can find something nice (and meeting our 3000 criteria) within walking distance of the MRT. We haven't tried the bus yet, but for sure something to explore as we won't have a car.
- Singapore is very green. Singapore is a big city but with so many green areas everywhere, it doesn't feel like a urban jungle.
- Paul (bakery) is present in Singapore with bread and pastries just like in France. Expensive as usual but surprisingly not so expensive compare to the Swiss or German bakeries. I know where to go in case of craving for a pain au chocolat (only 2.2SGD = 1.4 Euros).
- There is at least one Chinese restaurant that serves beans like at South Beauty (sorry, Joy, but no South Beauty in Singapore. Will do my best to find some equivalent).
- I love starting my day with a swim and finishing it with a massage. While getting a massage every day might be expensive, swimming every morning is realistic as most condos have swimming pools.

Let's see what day 2 of orientation will bring.

Could I sit next to my husband?

Despite we booked the tickets together, we ended up being separated in the plane. Not only different rows but also opposite sides of the aircraft. Note: it was a small aircraft with only 5 rows of Business class.

It took a lot of good will and patience from quite some people until the stewardess in charge could figure out a way to get together: the parents and children, the two friends and us.
All this time I couldn't help wondering why they didn't do this domino game at the gate instead of waiting for people to be inside the aircraft.

The most important is that we managed to be next to each other. Although it didn't make much difference in the end as Wolfram slept most of the time and when he was awake he was chatting with his other neighbour or playing sudoku.

10 Miles in....

2 hours 10 minutes and 58 seconds!

I was lucky enough to find the newspaper in the lounge at the airport and immediately checked our results.

Not bad given we didn't really train for it.
I think we deserve some rest and maybe massage.

10 miles of Antwerpen

In a crazy moment earlier this year, Alice and I decided to walk the 10 miles of Antwerpen, as a training for the 20K of Brussels.
With all the madness of the elections, we could have enjoyed a relaxing afternoon, but no. Kindly dropped by Wolfram near the starting line (we were running late with the long queues to vote), we were ready at 3:30pm to face our destiny, again.

Once again, we asked ourselves why we are doing this.
Once again, we suffered towards the end but try to keep the smile.
Once again, it felt good when we cross the finish line.
One deception, most of the race was on highways or in tunnels. We expected a nicer walk through the city but got tunnels, long tunnels, very long tunnels.

Note: for the first time, I have blisters. I knew my shoes were about to die. I think this was their last race. There are only so many kilometers one can do with a pair of shoes.

Results: tomorrow. My phone died at km 13, so no idea how long it took us. Our bet: 2h10-15. Let's see tomorrow.

French elections

Challenge #1 get there, traffic was insane with 30 000 people coming.

Challenge #2 find a parking, none of the parking area were open. I guess they didn't want to pay for it.

Challenge #3 get inside the building. Seems participation won't be a problem this year, with so many people queuing to vote.

Challenge #4 find where to go once inside. So many people, 22 desks, a maze.

Challenge #5 choose for whom to vote. Good thing is that with all the queuing there was plenty of time to think.

After a bit more than one hour, I can proudly say "A vote!"

THE dress

Today Joy, Alice and Aurelie joined me for another round of wedding dresses search. We went back to the very first shop I went to a month ago or so, and to the one from last week.
Objective was clear: get the blessing from everyone on THE dress.
In the first shop I tried some more models, and learnt that V shape collar looks very good on me and that the simpler the dress the better. But no one cried nor did I felt the spark in my stomach.
After another lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (it's becoming a routine in this search of wedding dress), I tried again the dress from last week, the one that made Alice cry, and the one that I've been thinking about for the whole week. I tried a couple of other dresses just to be sure, but the jury was very clear. This is THE one.
And from my side, it is true that once it the one, you know it, you feel it.

Dress is ordered.
Measures have been taken.
Veil has been selected.
Jacket to put on top of the dress as well, because after all in December it will be very cold.
In a month from now, I will have the first fitting. Can't wait.

... and quite some money has been spent already....

PS: there will be no picture of the dress, obviously. Only the selected few present at the fitting will know what it looks like.

Thank you, Mom

 

Now you can cry with me :)

What happened to spring?

5-8C, it feels like winter and it rains like in winter.
I have to say I look forward to the warm weather of Singapore.

PC refresh

This week at work we are invited to bring our laptop for a "refresher".
The process was quite smooth and fast. I'm not sure I will notice a big difference in my laptop performance, but I really like the fact that I received a detailed log of what happened to my computer.
I liked even more receiving a SMS informing that my computer is ready for pick-up.

5 days to go before the elections

On Sunday, it's the first round for the presidential elections in France. 5 days to go and still no notification received.
People are getting stressed, so stressed it's on the welcome page of the consulate.
Notifications are on their way, via post, normal post, paper post, slow post...
Let's hope they will arrive on time or the candidates will be missing a lot of votes.

Puzzle!

Some time ago, when I was on sick leave and kept me busy with puzzles, Wolfram surprised me with a new puzzle and a puzzle mat to go with it.
This weekend, after Wolfram carefully ironed the mat to remove all the wrinkles, I could start using it. The advantages are obvious:
- white background so it's easier to see the pieces
- once rolled the puzzle is protected from the cats at night i.e. hours/days of work are not wasted
- once rolled the dinning table is not high jacked for days/weeks while I'm busy with the puzzle i.e. we can have dinner

I was skeptical whether the puzzle would hold when rolled but after the first trial last night, it seems to work.
A good quality puzzle with pieces that stay together when connected does help as well.
Let's see how it goes with more pieces.

One week

It's been one week and still no difference in how it feels.
I guess people were right: we were as good as married already before we made it official :)

Fred

Last weekend, when we stayed at La Butte, the paintings on the walls caught our attention. The waiter told us the name of the artist: Fred.
After a bit or research (there are a lot of Freds out there), I finally found the website of the artist:
Les toiles de Fred

It's a pity we didn't get the chance to pass by the shop in Landerneau. I would be curious to see the rest of the collection (and maybe dream of buying one... assuming they are affordable).

Next time.

Use your legs!

Today I had the second class of the Ecole du dos. The session was with the "ergotherapeute", namely the girl in charge of teaching you how to stand, sit, carry things, etc. in other words how to minimize the impact of everyday tasks on your back.
My key take out of this class is the following: by using more my legs I can reduce the effort on my back.
We spent one and a half hour practising how to carry heavy or light loads, how to stand for long time for example when brushing teeth... I think I knew at 80% of those positions so only learn a bit today. Now whether I use all the positions all the time is another story.

The frustrating part for me was that the "'ergotherapeute" insisted on checking everyone of use individually which means for each position, I had to wait for the other 11 people in the group to try it (and sometimes repeat it until correct). It's a pity she didn't leverage the three assistants there to help manage better the group. We could have been done in one hour if we didn't have to wait for everyone.

Next time I want to get the milk from the fridge, I'll have to remember to use my legs to go down vs. folding myself in two.

 PS: of course the combination of the driving and the exercises killed my back. I spent most of the night trying to fall asleep. They told us it would create pain short term (to help long term), but honestly I could have happily done without the extra pain.

L'Ecole du dos - First class

We rushed back from Brittany so I could join the first class of the Ecole du dos today at 4pm.
After 5 hours in the car this morning and unpacking I was not in the best shape to attend a 2h-class.
Luckily for me, it's school vacation which means I could go swimming during the couple of  hours of free time I had left today.
I arrived at the hospital a bit before 4pm and had to wait while they were setting up the room. The "classroom" was the break room from the staff, temporarily set up with 12 chairs and a screen. I find it interesting that they started by apologizing for the crappy chairs and giving us permission to change chair or stand up if we felt uncomfortable. After all we were there to make our back better. I wondered, why not getting decent chairs?
We started with a round of introduction: name, occupation, cause of pain and for how long, expectation from the cursus. I felt young in this group of 50+ people, which is always good. I felt different when I realized that unlike the majority, despite the pain, I keep working. Easily two thirds of the group is on long term sick leave. I felt unique when after 20min sitting I stood up for the rest of the lesson.
Once done with the introduction, we had a lesson on the anatomy of the back. Interesting indeed but nothing new if you have done any biology class in your life, which apparently was not the case for most people, to my surprise. I did suggest to the physiotherapist giving the lesson to tap into the videos available on Internet to show how vertebrae and discs move around. Much easier than words and still pictures from an anatomy book.
After one hour, we had a break so we could move to the exercise room. In the meantime we were also shown the fitness room with the usual machines (a first for some of the students). That's where we will come after the "theory" to strengthen our muscles and general condition. When the physiotherapist mentioned we will start by 30min biking for cardio, some people got scared, someone said he cannot sit on a bike anymore, someone got concerned about her knee prosthesis, and I was wondering whether I could use the treadmill or the cross trainer to burn more calories (I'll ask when we get there). My first question was whether there are showers in the building, because if I train in cardio, I will need a shower afterwards.
The second half of the class was some "easy" exercises, mainly stretching which to be honest I was happy to do. Although, I would have loved for someone to tell me to bring fitness outfit. Stretching in jeans is not always easy. Lucky enough I was not working today. It would have been problematic for me to do those exercises in pants or skirt.
This said, overall my first impression is quite positive. People were friendly. There were 4 physiotherapists in the room when we were exercising, i.e. one for three students which is plenty enough to make sure we do things the right way. Let's see how Thursday goes.

Happy Easter!

In my family we traditionally paint eggs for Easter. This year we did not manage to find the time, too busy preparing something else, but my aunt and uncle did. They made one special for me: with my name and the German flag colors.
Makes me feel special.

How does it feel?

How does it feel to be married the day after?
... same as before.
So far it's not so different apart that now I am called "Madame" and I have to wait for my "husband".

Let's see on day 2.

Dinner at La Butte

My parents had selected a restaurant for the dinner to celebrate: La Butte in Plouider. If you don't know where that is, don't worry, me neither but after tonight's dinner, I won't forget.
They also surprised us with a little plant (see on the picture below). This plant "naturally" grew in the shape of an heart and the label says "Lamia et Wolfram. 7 avril 2012". A little token for us to remember. That's very sweet.

Menu

Some finger foods (asparagus cream, tomato cream cheese crumble, and scallops)

Scallops in the Shell and Ginger flavour (specialty of the restaurant).

Wild sea Bass

Some cheese emulsion with salad - I wouldn't know as I had something else... 100% chocolate :)

Plougastel strawberries with sorbet

The food was simply ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!

There are not enough words to describe how good this dinner was. Everything I ate was really really really excellent. I can say that I never had scallops nor sea bass as good as I had them tonight. The flavours were simply divine. How does the chef do that? and how does he cook the scallops with them still attached to the shell?

This is for sure a dinner I will not forget.

MERCI, Papa et Maman for inviting us to such a place. 

Champagne at home

We had a couple of hours to kill between the ceremony and the dinner. We went back home for a glass (or two) of Champagne. My mother had ordered for the occasion my favourite: Veuve Clicquot Rose. This is indeed a very special moment that deserves a special Champagne.

We used some of the time to open the cards we received from Germany and were surprised by two speeches. Both Wolfram's father and Alex read the speech they had prepared. Another very emotional moment.
And cherry on the cake, we received two stars, well more exactly they have been named after us.

THANK YOU EVERYBODY for making this moment/day very special.

The pictures after the ceremony

As per the tradition... with parents, witnesses, friends...

We did learn a couple of things to keep in mind for December: have people look at the same camera altogether and ideally with their eyes open. And maybe consider listening to your brand new husband when he points out to a camera... or not :)



The civil marriage

Dressed like kings and queens,  we drove to the town hall of my home town. To be more accurate, we gathered everybody, dispatched people in three cars and finally left the house.

While most of us walked straight to the door, someone took a bit of time to think. After all we were early.

Once everybody was ready, we entered the room via the front door. The officer of social affairs who would do the ceremony welcomed us. The 11 that we were didn't have to fight for a chair, given there were enough chairs for 50 people. The officer did look a bit surprised when I told her that everybody was there. But again, this is "just" the civil marriage.
As we were early, we had to wait 4pm, just in case someone else would show up (again its a public ceremony and anyone can pop in). At 4pm sharp the officer started, with us and the two witnesses in front of her.

A few weeks back my dad had wrote to the mayor explaining his daughter was getting married in his town hall with a German man. He asked whether it would be possible for him to say a few words in German. Unfortunately the mayor was on vacation today but promised be would find someone who could do so.
Not only did he find someone who could speak a bit of German, but the officer today had translated the whole ceremony in German, except for the text of law. From what I heard I think she did a pretty good job despite the complexity of the language. This came as a very good surprise. I was hoping for a few words and we had a full bilingual ceremony. I have to say I feel very proud of my home town. Clearly this made it easier for the German part of the crowd to follow, including my husband to be.

The more the officer was reading the texts, the more emotions were overwhelming me and all I could think of was "don't cry" combined with "why didn't I bring tissues with me!".
In a way I'm glad there was the German translation as the German parts were small breaks during which I could control my emotions, or at least try.
Eventually we got to the part when we both said "Oui" (yes).
We signed all the documents, received copies of our marriage certificate and our family booklet (with place for up to 10 kids!). Our witnesses signed as well.
Signatures occurred under flashing cameras, like if we were movie stars.

We also received gifts from the town: a plate from Henriot (well-known china maker from Brittany) with our names at the back. Totally unexpected and really nice gift, at least to the Brittany girl.
We also got a pair of pens, funny enough one is designed to fit in the shirt pocket of the husband and the other one in the purse of the wife. Talking about cliches.

That's it, a bit more than 15min ceremony.

We are officially married.

PS: Yann kindly recorded the ceremony with my camera. Video will be shared with those close to our hearts who couldn't be there today as soon as it is edited. Ask my husband :)

It finally hit me

It finally hit me... I'm getting married
Until last night I had no particular stress or excitement regarding the civil marriage. For me it was just going to the town hall, sign the document and leave. The big day will be in December with the church, the reception, all the guests and, obviously, THE dress.
With everybody arriving to Brittany it suddenly became very real. I'm getting married, officially, legally.
Of course I had a nightmare during the night.
In France doors of the town hall have to stay open in case someone wants to object. After all the ceremony is open to the public. In my nightmare someone was objecting. Ridiculous but probably me watching too much Shrek. Hopefully no one will object today. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Until then, it's time for hairdresser.

The house if full

Monday: 2 people in the house, my parents
Tuesday: 4 people in the house, with us on top
Friday: 8 people in the house, with Wolfram's parents and Joy and Yann on top
Saturday: we'll be 11 around the table with Alex, Silke and Fabian joining us.
Sunday: we'll be 16 with my aunts and cousins coming over for Easter lunch.
Believe it or not, but there are enough chairs in the house for everyone. We'll just have to keep each other warm by sitting (very) closely to each other at the table.

Let the fight for the bathroom start!

A bit of culture

Tonight during dinner my dad mentioned the story behind the local strawberries: fraises de Plougastel. Curious I searched the Internet to know more about Amede-Francois Frezier. This man brought back from Chile the local strawberry species and introduced to France and Plougastel the "white strawberry". Dear Officer Frezier, I thank you for bringing back those very first strawberries to France and Brittany. Without you we wouldn't have the best strawberries in the world right next door. You can read more here.

Mine, Mine, Mine

Yummy crab...

A little trip to Roscoff

With one day without anything planned, we decided to do a little trip to Roscoff, on the coast, mostly known for the ferry boat to the UK.
Roscoff is a nice place to visit when you have a couple of hours to spend. It's enjoyable to walk the streets of the old town and discover the church Notre-Dame de Croas-Batz.

On the four walls of the church ships have been sculpted, evoking the prosperity of maritime trade, so I read.

Of course, I couldn't miss my favourite motive: a gargoyle!

Tide was low which means we could walk on the sand/rocks and get to see the town from there.

While Wolfram was looking for a crab to take a picture of it, I focused on the rocks.

Some pictures from the harbour, low tide:

And flowers growing between the rocks: