Grenoble

2 weekends back, M and i decided to go Grenoble to take a look. It's a city in France, famous for the museums and bubble cable cars. Plus, it's off peak season too so the night in an Ibis budget hotel cost below 60 euros for the 3 of us! 👍

We drove there and started the trip with lunch along Quai Pierriere. There is a whole string of pizzerias and we were spoilt for choice!! We were so looking forward to taking the famous cable car up to the bastille. Unfortunately, it was closed 😭. We were super disappointed as E would have enjoyed himself so much. Oh well, guess that means we gotta go back! 😁 #excusestotravel

So we spent the afternoon in 2 museums - Resistance museum and Natural History museum. Then we went to see the market place at Halles Ste-Claire. By the afternoon, half the market was closed so we left in like 10 minutes. Then we went shopping and bought stuff for the home and clothes for E 😍. #postchristmassale

We saw online a recommendation for a restaurant called L'Ardoise and went there once it opened for dinner. It was fully booked but the man said if we could finish by 8.30 pm, he would give us a table! Yay!! Food from the set menu was so good and affordable, i was stuffed!!

We spent the night at the budget hotel and E was super happy when he saw the double decker bed. He's been telling us how he wants a double decker bed (because he saw that in Peppa pig 😒). He slept on the upper deck on his own the whole night!

The next day, we tried to drive up to the Bastille but we only got to the back of it. The view was amazing. E was happily snapping photos with my phone. We went to see the archaeological museum and i have to say it's very good!! I love museums that are well thought out- can be finished in an hour and yet still super informative.

Went back after lunch as it's a 2.5 hour drive back. M decided we will have KFC for dinner since we will be near one on our way back. I realised that i have not eaten KFC for 4 months!! 😮 I didn't even crave it! Actually when it is our of sight/smell, it is out of mind too!

Quai Pierriere

View from the top, near Bastille

Archaelogical museum

KFC!! 😋

Baking!!

Now that there's an oven at home, why don't i try my hand at baking?? I bought a cheap handheld mixer and i've been looking at Pinterest. Baking is fun and i really want to get an oven when i go home. Here's some of the stuff we made (i let E do some decorations and tasting 😝)

Cornflake crunchies that turned out more like cookies :(

Marble cake :)

Concluding remarks (for 2019)

Time really flies, it's almost 2020. M is having a long weekend so he only goes back to work on the 2nd of Jan. He has been asking me since last week if we should go to one of the ski places and take E tobogganing. I was not so keen since i've not done it before and i don't like crowded places. I had no real reason to say no otherwise. It was just me, introverted, lazy and liking stability (i.e. change-hater). Anyhow, i went without much hopes that i will be having fun. I was kinda telling myself that we should be able to leave after lunch since E needs to nap and all.

I was so wrong! We went to Mijoux, an hour's drive away. We found a slope where kids and adults were tobogganing and having fun. So we joined in with a cheap glider we got from the sports shop. It was fun! But only for one rider each time. The toboggans we had been looking at were expensive so we did not buy. However, M decided we should check the sports shop around Mijoux and we found it, for less than half the price of the ones we'd seen previously. So we got one and it was a good fun!! E is alot like me, it's hard to get him to try new activities. It took him awhile to enjoy tobogganing but i think he did in the end. 😅

As i looked back on all the shots today, and thought about what fun i'd missed if i hadn't agreed to go, it felt so familiar. I felt like this many times in 2019. It's been surreal. Moving to Geneva, finding a home here, getting our first car, travelling to places, staying at home to be a mom... 2019 was a year of many new experiences for M and i. Experiences which i would have not had if i were left alone to make them myself. On my own, i would have chosen to stay put. These experiences brought about alot of fear, anxiety and tears. However, they also inspired greater faith, prayer, bonding and many moments of joy and thankfulness.

We went to watch night service yesterday. Our pastor shared about "Certainties in an uncertain future". He likened life to driving a car. As the driver, we have to look forward to get to our destination. We cannot keep our eyes on the rear view mirror (i.e. live in the past- whether failures or glories). However, the rear view mirror is still important because in the rear view glance, we see 3 things. He used the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert, one of the stories that really resounded with many experiences i had in 2019. The rear view mirror glance showed:
1. DELIVERANCE (from the Egyptians), 2.GUIDANCE (through the desert), 3. NEVER A LACK (their clothes and shoes never wore out, they had manna and water).

Even though life holds uncertainties, my rear view mirror in the last 6 months showed me that God is always enough.