Palace of Versailles

Chateau means palace in French. The Versailles have been one of the "must-see" attractions that we have ticked. Frankly speaking, I didnt do much research into the history of France and really knew nothing much except Napolean, French Revolution, LV. Going to the Palace of Versailles would really be an eye-opener for us into the history of the French.
We made our police report on our way to the train station and it took us more than 3hrs to complete the translation and reporting. Rushed to Versailles around noon time and it was a short walk from the train station. The RER trains were better than the normal Metro trains - cleaner and spacious. We bought a package (which included the garden) and it was ex. However, the palace was beautiful and there were exhibits to view as well. The palace is like a museum too and the life of a king and queen could be appreciated when one walks through the palace. The King and the Queen have their own chambers. I was usually interested in their study room/library. I wanted to have a study room in my future house. A place where I could do work or reading. Study room should be separated from living or masterbed room - just like work from life. Or else it would not be balanced.

The garden was not very far from the palace but it was also huge.  I collected back my tripod from the baggage centre and I happily set up my tripod to take couple photos. After I took one, one female security guard came forward and warned me not to use tripod on the ground.  Though there were no notices, I obeyed while my dear felt annoyed at her attitude. Frankly, she sounded aggressive but I have no idea why I didnt piss off. Maybe I was happy that I managed to catch a shot with my wife.
There was a very big pond further down in the garden. Tourists would do boating in the pond and there were ducks waiting for food in the pond too. We sat by the pond for a while until the boating crew came over to advise us to sit elsewhere due to the boating activities.  He was relatively more friendly.

The garden is installed with speakers hidden behind "walls" of greenery. We spotted on the map and there was a place in the garden that sold macarons. Dear mentioned before that macarons originated from France and hence I decided to buy at least one legendary macaron for her to feast. We walked according to the map but we could not find the shop. Instead, we bumped into an ice cream outlet. As usual, I would want to try the ice cream and so we chose ice cream instead of macaron. I wonder how the macaron really tastes in France but whenever we passed by one outlet in Paris, we would "KIV" due to the "higher price tag".  No matter the price, if you like it and if I can afford it, we can dote ourselves at times.
(Afternote - I dun break my promises to my dear dear.  I got a box of 4 macarons at the Airport during my Sept trip and I personally carried it back and delivered to her at T3.)
 

浪漫 Paris

Since young, many people have been saying that Paris is a very romantic place to visit, and proposing at the top of the Paris tower is one of the dreams many ladies desire. Having read and heard so many romantic things said about Paris, we definitely included it in our honeymoon itinerary.  The mere excitement of taking the Eurostar from London to Paris was already amazing already as the train travelled across the English Channel. We looked meticulously at the scenary outsides the train windows to look out for french signages to see that we have indeed arrived in Paris.
Our first encounter in Paris wasnt wonderful, and actually disturbing. Didnt want to elaborate further but we were too helpful and we got pickpocketed right under our nose. The experience was disturbing that we decided to "act stupid" and not to bother with any queries/questions posed by people we met on the street. That's to play safe.
We went to take a look at the legendary Paris Tower at late afternoon and we saw a huge crowd still queuing to get to the tower. It was rainy season in Paris and we were easily wet - the feel was uncomfortable. We decided to queue another day. The first day of Paris wasnt fun, thus not even romantic to say.

The view on top of the tower was nice. Paris is made up of many many short buildings and hardly see any skyscrapers as compared to our hometown. We purposely planned to queue in such a timing that we could probably catch the sunset plus night view. We did see some sunset rays but we were still waiting to see the lights. No lights even after 9plus as the daytime in Paris was really longer. Dear was disappointed why we could not stay till midnight and why we needed to go off around 10pm. This was one regret and I decided to bring her to Effel Tower again next time when we stayed in more convenient place (and safe place). We descended steadily and walked towards the Metro, and we suddenly spotted many people looking towards the direction of the Tower. Amazing as the Tower was lighted up like twinkle little stars in blue for almost a few minutes. It was nice though we could feel the tension of the need to get back to our hostel (the route where we were pickpockted).

It was a safe trip back to our guesthouse. I could feel the disappointment. I didnt like to disappoint her especially we travelled all the way to Paris. I decided to find other route to reach our guesthouse since we were still staying for another night. With the new route, we would rest our mind when we got back to our guesthouse later than usual. We didnt go shop for LV or branded goods but we did walk along the famous "branded goods" street. I wanted to buy a LV for her but I really dunno which one to buy. I didnt want to follow one of the Pastors' experience of buying a very expensive bag for his wife yet his wife disliked it and now it became a story to share during the marriage counselling course. Play safe especially the LV bag not cheap.  We did get a LV purse - a small one - and I was happy to see dear buy. Dunno why.
I supposed to buy her a LV bag on my next trip to Paris in Sept. Bought her a Longchamp which she complained that it was small and "weird weird". I really stressed when I went into such shops and I was like a blur sotong, dunno what to do. But I will buy if I know which one she likes...

Punting @ Cambridge

Cambridge - the word was very familiar to me in my O and A levels. It is interesting to note that all our exam papers were marked by cambridge teachers and we get our certificates from Cambridge without knowing how Cambridge look like. Choosing between Oxford and Cambridge for our one day excursion - of cos I prefer my school certificate as compared to the dictionary I used.

Cambridge is not only about the university. I used to think that it is so. It is in fact a town, bigger than my neighbourhood or neighbourhoods. One thing that also caught our attention was punt and punting. Chauffeur standing on the edge of a small canoe and paddle - interesting sports.
I definitely will "malu" myself as this seems tougher than the one I tried in Japan. Different concept and I didnt want to waste money. Also the weather not good and it was raining, so better dun risk it especially it was indeed our honeymoon period.  Watching people punting was also fun especially when you saw people screaming and shouting as they were about to knock onto others' punts or the concrete walls.  Punting is also a very competitive sports among the colleges. During our visit to Eton, and subsequently in Berlin, "punting" sports was really competitive and no wonder it was still popular among the locals.  Must be more adventurious next time especially when I dun need to bring my big camera along with the lens. Cant let them soak in water together with me and my wife.

博物馆篇 British Museum

好大的博物馆 This was our initial assessment of the British Museum. There were several floors of the museum and it was impossible to look at ALL the descriptions of ALL the exhibits.
My dear loves museums. We spent almost half a day (can be longer) at the Hong Kong Museum and I was prepared to spend one full day at the museums in Europe. There were really many exhibits. I am a person who have a relatively short span of concentration. For me, the conquering of Museum was to zoom in straight to the things I want to see (Actually, I am not good in arts and museum stuff so I just stick to the guidebook). 
The entry to British Museum is FOC. We have a tired night and we thought we could just relax and roam around in the museum.  Walking in the British Museum was like trekking actually. You have to climb stairs to different sections and the entire place was huge. As usually the lazy me, I ran out of concentration and told my dear that we could not possibly read all the descriptions of all the exhibits. She was really a meticulous person when it came to viewing the exhibits. Actually, I love to see her serious look and concentration when she views the exhibits. For me, I would just wait besides her and wait for her to tell me the story of each exhibit.
I always make an effort to visit the museums of the local country. It gives u a good understanding of the local country and customs and it will help u take good and meaningful photos. So, it is not true if you have the impression that I dun like to go museum. So, museum "hiking" will always be part of the itinerary for next Europe trip and trips.  It is "out of the path" for the usual travellers.

Joy of a Student

Actually, other than exams and tests, school life was quite enjoyable for me. This time, I decided to visit Cambridge and also check out any old schools worth visiting. On our way to Windsor Castle in London, we read about Eton school - one of the prestigious schools that are very expensive to get in and study. There used to be a tradition that the school only allowed a max of 70 students - hence top top students could study here and many of them were very successful in their lives.
Interesting place to be. We visited the oldest classroom and interesting to know that students (top students) were allowed to carved their names on columns. The tables and chairs were old and the classroom was now used for singing lessons.
My dear has a dream of studying in a boarding school. Though her dream is partially fulfilled by her bro, I did hope that the visits to Eton and other London colleges could fill up the other gaps. 

Visiting the schools also made me recall
my "Skooling" days. Morning took schoolbus, or buses to school, lessons, PE etc, recess, then lessons and afternoon got SCLP or extra lessons. I did not participate actively in sports/ECA and guessed I would not be "top students" in Eton's context. I also rem the lunch at the canteen - it costed about 1.20++ and I used to like to lunch there.
Being in secondary made me become more independent and started to grow to be more mature (hopefully). I wondered how the Eton schoolboys feel but I did think that we had some common stuff. Both Eton and my school were pure boys school - so bullying, "no distraction during classes" should be common. Boys were more active and sweat should be part of the scent in the classrooms. Competition would also be stiff just like my SAP school. 

On responsibilities, I used to eye for committee work in my class. In fact, I volunteered my services as a Treasurer. I didnt want to be the Chairman, Secretary of the class as I thought it was easier to be the Treasurer. I also didnt want to be the Vice-Chairman, Vice-Sec etc as the ECA point was only 1 point while all the main appointment holder was 2 points. Hmm... didnt know that i was already so particular in school days.

I could not recall any sad or unhappy moments in secondary school days and I believe those were my favourite school days. We even camped overnight in school on the last day of our school before we went to JC subsequently.  I went back at times to my secondary school but it had already changed much. Even our classrooms were no longer the same. I guess I do miss the good skool days. The joy of buying new textbooks, the joy of eating lunch in school, the joy of studying instead of working...

让耳朵去听歌 (二)

Its a long time since updating the last blog. Many lovely things to update, just need some time to rem and put it down in blog.
Starting with London - We wanted to see palace, or I wanted to see palaces and castles when in Europe. Not all places are FOC. Sometimes, we went pass a monument or place of interest without entering. We chanced upon Westminster Abbey and thought there were requirements to queue and then buy tickets. Not cheap, so we decided to walk around and see if there were any FOC museums to see.
Walking through the alleys and chanced upon a garden show. It was a surprise to find a nice and big garden and we sat on the green field enjoying the smell of the grass and listening to the orchestra. It was nice. I saw that there were some private apartments besides the garden. I like the feel of having a garden behind the house, of cos not with a big big crowd. Sitting on the field and having picnic is one of my fav getaways.
London is different from where we live. The culture of afternoon tea and enjoying music under the hot sun is definitely not everyone's cup of tea here. I like the mood of just relaxing the mind and if possible, even resting on the field and just simply smell the green grass and listen to the surrounding. Many times, we are too busy with our lives and we may forget how simple we can appreciate life. If the weather is the same as in London, I think Botanic Garden will be a great place to find similar joy.
I like resting our bums on the field. Best deal was after we have taken some rest, we managed to enter an interesting museum from the side door of the garden and were given a brief history of the royalties.  Till now, we still could not figure out if it was part of the Abbey.