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. 

Montreux again!

My parents and sis came 2 weeks ago. We planned a short 4 day stay in Montreux as we heard a lot about the Christmas markets there. Here was our itinery.

Day 1: Chateau Chillon (on the weekends in the month of Dec, the chateau has people dressed up in old times and performances around the castle, an oldern canteen with mulled wine etc, a small petting zoo, on top of the usual castle visit)
Day 2: Took a train to Gruyeres to see the famous cheese factory and then to the Cailler chocolate factory (the choco factory is amazing!!! We had so much choco samples and it was so delicious, the whole factory visit about the history of chocolate etc was so delightful!)
Day 3: Montreux Christmas markets (this was ok, but not as fun as Colmar, we finished walking all 170 stalls in 2 hours. Good thing it was near the lake, so it was nice. There are child friendly activities and a nice performance of flying Santa across the lake.)
Day 4: Train to Rochers De Naye (we did this so E cld see Mr Santa- turns out he's a heavy smoker with bad breath 😫. I quickly took the picture and left. E got to see some snow and we had a mini snowball fight too, that was fun!)

Some pics... (Rochers De Naye, then Montreux from far)

First snow!

2 weeks ago, we finally had our first snowfall. Think it only lasted about an hour and then it stopped and never happened again. 😒 We were so excited for that hour though. E had just fallen asleep and then we got a text from our SG friend about the snow- we dashed out in our pajamas and kept snapping pictures. Haha true singaporeans 😆. M kept asking if we could wake E up to catch the first snowfall and i was like "NO WAY!!!"

Now its back to rain rain rain... 😔 disappointed coz my parents are here and we can't go out much.

Christmas markets weekend...

We went to Annecy again one afternoon when M's sister was visiting with us- Christmas in winter is really different!! Finally, i'm seeing and feeling what the Ang-moh christmas movies try to show us. They really can celebrate it - specialized Christmas-ware, real trees, lights... It's crazy. Anyways, we were there only a few hours and M decided it was not enough for the first christmas overseas, so we took off last weekend to Colmar, Strasbourg and BERN. My conclusion: the French can celebrate it better than the Swiss.

Colmar is beautiful. We spent a whole day at the Christmas markets and we did not even finish it. We had our first "vin chaude" (hot wine) and we ate churros!!! I went nuts with the crafts on sale and bought a few things for our tree. There were kiddy rides too so E was happy, he got to sit the train and i accompanied him on our first horse ride (fake horse 😄). However, M and I really struggled to carry E around 😰. He pooped after an early dinner so that was the signal to go back...

I put a pic of the hotel room here, can you believe it?? The bathroom and the bedroom are combined. Maybe they ran out of money to finish the wall. Hahaha...

The next day we went to Strasbourg. It was not as nice as Colmar but we did enjoy the food and crafts. The last day we were supposed to go back to Geneva and it was a 4 hour plus drive so we broke it up and stopped by Bern. We only saw one Christmas market but it was kinda sad. Expensive and no crafts. However, we bought our Christmas tree on the way home! M insists on having a real one as it's our first Christmas overseas... zzz... It is beautiful but our friend did not realise how much water it guzzles 😭, not to mention the falling leaves i have to sweep EACH DAY.

It's a little bare still but we will spruce it up... Now we have to start planning its funeral and burial...

E's first masterpiece

Here’s E’s first artwork!! I’m gonna keep it forever (hahaha probably won’t happen). We went for term review with his school teacher recently and she asked for feedback. I told her that i notice he doesn't seem to like doing artwork as i see other kids bringing paintings home but not E. The next day, she brought me into the classroom and showed me some stuff he made 😆... 

He's growing so fast... He even can request for his favourite food now- he kept asking me if i cooked chicken macaroni and if i could do it, so i made that for lunch for him today. He even reminded before he left the house to cook for him. 😏 

Treasuring the changing seasons, falling leaves... 💗