parlez vous francais?

This evening, I resumed with attending French lessons after a 4-year break. 4 years??? Has it been that long?? I didn't realised it until I registered for the class earlier this month. I have been told that the previous time I attended a french lesson at the school was in 2001

Anyway, it was good to resume with French lessons. I am not very good at it, hence the reason for resuming. Or so I thought. Despite being nervous, thinking that my French grammar would go horribly wrong when speaking in class, it seemed like I may have made a bit of impression when I responded in French to the professor with my name and that it has been a long time since I last attended french lessons. I have to thank my French friends for that - pushing French down my throat by speaking French to me until I get completely clueless with what they have said and caved by continuing the conversation in English.

I think the point of resuming the lessons is to overcome my fear of making mistakes in speaking the language. It is not easy. English is not my mother tongue. I started learning English grammar in primary school and it took me 10 years (or more) to master the grammar and it is still not good, let alone perfect. It may take me 20 years to master the French language. It is going to a long journey but I will persevere. Like the saying goes, "It is not about the destination, it is the journey. Besides, this reminds me of Colin Firth in that movie, Love Actually, where he learnt how to speak Portuguese and was struggling to express his feelings to a girl that he fell in love with. That should be an inspiration and motivation.

I'll end with my favourite french phrase : la souris es en dessous la table.
I say this phrase a lot, so if you can figure it out, put it in the comments.

Good luck to me with my French lessons.

new sensation...

I have been following this new reality show called "Rock Star INXS" on and off over the last few weeks but after last week, I had to follow it every week now and it is all because of this one performer/contestant called Mig Ayesa. Man, not only is he hot (based on my taste, I think some of my readers out there will probably disagree with my statement.) but he is a great performer too. He first caught my attention when he performed The Kink's All Day and All Of The Night few weeks ago. And I thought, "Man, this guy is good!" and then on, I made a point to watch this program every Wednesday night

Two nights ago, he sang Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way" and I was captivated. Even the judges (comprised of INXS (off course) and Dave Navaroe) were captivated and when Mig was voted in the top 3 when the results were announced, Dave requested for an encore of his performance. Again, I was captivated and it seems I was not the only one. I checked out his blog, and he received hundreds of comments from all over the world about this performance... good ones, off course. I think the whole of Asia Pacific is rooting for him. Why? He is of Filipino roots but was born in Australia. So, go figure why we are rooting for him.

I am rooting for him to go all the way in this competition. There are 7 contestestants left before INXS will find their new lead singer and I am already excited and nervous because I want Mig to win!

for the love of shoes...

Aaahh, the love of a woman for her shoes. Nothing can stop her from buying shoes to match every outfit in her wardrobe.

I am one of those women. To date, I have never purchased more than 3 shoes at one time. But over the weekend, I broke the record - I bought 8 pair of shoes at one go. You will probably be falling off your seat when you read this. It is like I am competing with the likes of the late Imelda Marcos and Princess Di.

Well, it was not like I splurged all my my hard earned money on expensive shoes. These were on sale. The prices were marked down from SGD70 to just a mere SGD9. Who in the right frame of mind would not grab the good deal??? In fact, I don't think I broke the record in terms of the number of pairs I bought. A family who was in the shop at the same time with me bought like 20 pairs.

I spread the word around about this awesome deal. Noridah bought 4 pairs on Saturday. Two of my colleagues bought 5 pairs this afternoon. Even my mom wanted in but alas, she could not find a pair that she liked. Better luck next time mom.

On the above left are the 8 pairs which I now proudly owned. The blue wedges being my favourite. I can't wait to put each of them on.

shanghai surprise....

I was in Shanghai last week for work. I traveled to Shanghai before 3 years ago, also for work but it was so short, I could not see much of the city.

Much has changed in Shanghai since 3 years ago. The airport was new. The hotel where I stayed and the area around the office are quite posh – with modern tall buildings and luxury good boutiques in most of the shopping malls. Every 500 metres, there is a Starbucks outlet. When did all these transformations happened? I was in awe. The city is just so modern.

Except for the language (taxi drivers don’t speak English; signs are mostly in Mandarin and the English names are completely different – so getting around was a bit of a problem for yours truly) and the bad traffic, I didn’t feel like I left the Lion City. When I wandered around, it feels like I am in Singapore but when I started talking to the locals, it felt like I was in Hong Kong.

I actually planned to stay the weekend and check out the city – I heard the nightlife is up there with Hong Kong now. However, before leaving the office on Friday evening, I was informed by a colleague that they were expecting a typhoon to hit the city that week and expected to last throughout the weekend.

It was clear on Friday night when I strolled around the city but the next morning, it was gloomy with some rain. Maybe the typhoon was really coming. I made a decision to change my flight and get my butt back home in order to escape the typhoon. No point staying in the hotel in a foreign city when I could be on my way home and spend the weekend in Singapore where no typhoon or other weather calamities can be expected.

However, when I arrived at the airport that Saturday afternoon at 1pm, the typhoon already hit the city – there was no typhoon when I left the hotel. Most flights were delayed or cancelled because there was absolutely no way a plane could take off in such strong winds. I ended up being stuck at the airport for 12 hours – I was beginning to feel like Tom Hanks from that movie ‘The Terminal’. I think I may have used all the public toilets, ate in all the restaurants and went into almost every duty free shops in the airport. I bought a few magazines to keep myself occupied from a limited selection of English publications. I played games on my palm.

I guess the blessing in disguise for being stuck in the airport for 12 hours was when the airline made a decision to put all the passengers up at a hotel for the night. Little did I expect that they were going to put us up at the Westin! Yours truly got herself a junior suite with king size bed. Slept like a baby that night (or morning rather since we didn’t get to the hotel till 1am Sunday morning).

The following morning, we were pampered with a good breakfast before being whisked off to the airport later that morning. However, we didn’t take off till 5pm due to logistics issue. Since the day before, it was a logistical nightmare for the airline but I understand it was not easy making travel and accommodation arrangements for a few hundred people in such short notice. I began to see ugly Singaporeans at the airport, complaining that the airline could not fix a time for departure, etc, etc, blah, blah and a couple commented that the assistant manager of the airline didn’t know how to do his job. I am sure the assistant manager was doing his best. I felt like turning to that Singaporean and tell him, “If you think you can do a better job, why don’t you just take over? It would surely speed things up for all of us”. It just upsets me when I hear people complaining about things when they don’t even know what is happening in the background. Oh well, we’ll see these sort of people everywhere. This world would be a perfect place if no one complains.

So there! Spent pretty much of my weekend in Shanghai airport. Shanghai – an eye opener for a woman from a small city where natural calamities almost never happens and a challenge where language is concerned. I didn’t see much again this time around but I am sure I will make my way back there again to check out the city proper. Perhaps make my way to the capital, Beijing as well - much to see there; The Great Wall, The Forbidden City and Tianamen Square to name a few.

tis the season...

... for football!

"It was just 12 weeks ago when the curtain closed for the Premiership last season… " the commentator said into the first few minutes of the LIVE telecast of Aston Villa versus Bolton Wanderers. JUST? JUST 12 weeks? Good God! Maybe he went through a time warp or something because it was a miserable 12 weeks for me without watching any competitive football matches. Plus, there wasn’t any major international competition this summer like the World Cup or the European Championship. Man! I was cut dry the last 12 weeks! There are other football matches on the tele but they are just not the same as following a league week in and week out for 9 months.

However, I am happy that the first day of the new season has begun today. English Premiership League matches, European Champions League, UEFA Cup, World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies. And what more, at next summer will the World Cup Finals in Germany.

The season has already started on the right note for Manchester United, beating Everton at Goodison Park 2-0. Here’s to an exciting season!!