swan valley

began with a breakfast run to yelo, a charming cafe on along the coast. i've never had such yummy wraps. my chicken wrap with banana chutney was insane...

and after we filled our bellies, it was off to the swan valley for some wine.

at this vineyard, A$2.50 was all it took to have a full tasting of over 10 different wines. 

and after savouring the gorgeous wines (well, more misses than hits but what can one expect for A$2.50?!) we went on to support local farms by stocking up on freshly plucked strawberries, more wine (this time with complementing cheese), chocolate from the margaret river chocolate factory and local ice cream. we ate our way through the valley, then again, quite embarrassingly, we seem to eat our way through everywhere.

and after a little too much free wine, we started to take flying photos over the vineyard. do note that A is too tall to fit the camera frame.

A brought us on a scenic drive around the swan river in the city and we passed the governor's boatshed that is the most popular wedding photo spot. takes a bit of imagination, doesn't it.

A went to work in the evening and simon fetched us from casa mcfaull and brought us to grill'd. grill'd serves the best burgers ever, and believe it if you will, they are healthy. healthy burger sounds a bit oxymoronic until you take a bite of these babies and i suddenly understood why they're promoted to be 95% fat free. well, the patty at least. it felt like i was eating good quality steak, albeit in ground form. in fact, i even deconstructed my burger and ate it layer by layer so as to enjoy each aroma and sensation individually. the avocado and bun made a nice avocado sandwich, the veggie tasted like a salad and the patty like high-grade beef. mhmm :) did attract strange looks though but i maintain that my mouth and hands are too tiny for the monsters they served up. so there!

and we rolled out of grill'd and into helvetica, a bar named after the font. one of the nicest bars i've been into, crowded but not packed on a saturday night and with a great selection of whiskey for the whiskey fans out there.

as if helvetica wasn't enough, we'd a toss up between going to green's (?) for cake or the wembley to see A. of course we picked A over dessert and swung by to watch the bar pro at work. was fun to go, 'hi A, i'd like a sweet cocktail please.' and watch the cogs in his mind turn as he went to work concocting something special. i'd 'the A special' and if i tell you what went into it, i'd have to kill you. but i felt special all right :) and my +1 had some export quality tiger from the tap which left us swearing never to have tiger back home. not like he drinks tiger, anyway.

the drama pre-down under

so true to form, as i get to the check-in counter at changi airport, the clerk hits a speed bump.

turns out our travel agent was right. and i am indeed an overstayer and illegal immigrant.

the immigration muppet who let me out of australia almost 10 years ago failed to update the system. while i'd gotten an exit stamp, it was not reflected in the records and i became a statistic, one of the millions who entered the country and never left.

no amount of explanation would get me through, despite having a passport circa 2007 that was almost filled with stamps. i was faulted for not having a photocopy of my old passport. um, how'd i have known i was a immigration law flouting alien??? it was really quite ridiculous.

thankfully, i managed to talk my way through to the australian customs officer and over the phone we located my brother in their system who had entered and left australia the same time as i had, and with that piece of the puzzle solved, they must have retroactively registered my exit. some 10 years later, no less!

so much drama, so little time.

it didn't help that we got to the airport mere minutes before the check-in closed. most definitely not for the faint hearted!

will have daily posts on perth every morning for the next four days. stay tuned :)

saturday night

later on saturday night after the glorious joyride, we went to mustafa in a vain attempt to re-inject some semblance of normalcy into the already surreal day. much as i wish that cheese and champagne at sunset was an everyday occurrence, it is not. also, we did think it would be funny to end the day with an adventure of a very different kind. so we scored curbside seats at sakunthala's and blew a pretty penny on prata. we people-watched, immersed in the cacophony of sound that is little india. after we'd licked our greasy fingers clean, we hopped over to mustafa in search of a shower brush. of course, we instead left laden with a year's supply of toiletries and other odds and ends. nothing like a spot of midnight shopping at its thronging best!

island ahoy

a dear family friend had his boat in singapore and very graciously brought us for a spin! it was great to see his lovely crew again, after getting to know them over a weekend in phuket earlier this year. for facebook friends, that dream weekend is captured in the album same same but decadent.

thrills and spills!

the little red martini glass marks the spot - this is where we stopped for drinks. incidentally, sipping champagne on the deck of a beautiful boat definitely takes 'doing drinks' to a whole new level...

cheese and champagne for us land weary travellors

cheese has got to be one of my favourite food groups. and it's even tastier when someone spreads my crackers for me :)

and all is right with the world.

after the most luxurious time out, we were hit with inexplicable prata cravings! at this point i thank god that i'm as happy eating cheese and sipping champagne while anchored off lazarus island, as i am tearing into roadside prata near mustafa. of course no prata expedition would be complete without a foray into the indian ikea, but that's a post for another time.

hope you'd a wonderful weekend!

not your regular saturday morning

after all, it's not every day that one gets to recreate this.

go team!

gotta love the attention to detail, and how nabil managed to acquire a van in 24h.

just how bad ass is that?!

(and after the five of them vrooomed off, i had the rest of the saturday to myself. teehee!)

metaphors

apparently, an ultra marathon in the gobi will be a piece of cake compared to going out with me for three years. 

(photo credits to googleimage)

port dickson

8-9 august 2010

or 'PD' as it is affectionately referred to.

had 2 weddings to attend this national day long weekend and was initially semi-bummed to be 'grounded'. however, we did manage to reach some compromise and zoomed up the causeway to explore the peninsular right after the 2nd wedding. love how we decided to go at 2am that morning, grabbed our passports, packed for a night and went to the wedding.

heavy traffic and insanely long queue at the m'sian immigration aside, it was a crazy fun 24h!

the resort lounge had the cheek to charge RM11 for a single espresso.

and in no time it was time to head home, and once back in singapore, it was off to club street for tea.

happy birthday singapore!

and we discovered the best margaritas and nachos at jerry's (92 club street). always nice to chance upon a good restaurant, especially one so close to potentially future home. potentially future home happens to be a stone's throw from work (boo) which may be a good thing, or bad. but for now, and the next few months, it's operation hedonism all the way.

(almost) annual pilgrimage to HK

was in HK in the beginning of 2006 and because it was a social visit, we stayed in what was, to me, the fanciest hotel ever. met with friends, wine and dined and it was a very comfortable trip.

returned in the middle of 2007 with 15 college friends. this time, the planner sourced us an apartment in hai fong mansion, off nathan road and just opposite tsim sha tsui station. we squeezed into 4 rooms in this misnomer of a building that was anything but a mansion. we'd the dubious honour of sharing a floor with massage parlours, syed baba worship centre, kumon, a karaoke bar and music school. remember sleeping like sardines, sharing a single bed with a girlfriend for 5 nights. shudder. but this particular trip to HK was special to me for two reasons. on our last night, as we sat by victoria harbour looking across the bay, i saw the hotel i stayed at the previous year and i felt a sense of pride surge within me, because i was back in HK on my terms and at my own expense, having ceased to receive parental support soon after high school. i'd brought myself to HK on hard-earned tuition money and the satisfaction was priceless. also, while i'd just 'roughed out' 5 days in less than luxurious conditions, looking across the water, i knew that one day i'd be back at the first hotel, on my own. the second reason is a little more personal, because while i was in my tiny room at hai fong mansion, i sprung awake one night certain that something was amiss and 30 seconds later, my mobile rang. and all it took was one X life-altering phone call and we've not looked back since :)

in summer 2008, we went to HKwith our favourite couple to celebrate his birthday, approximately a year after that significant phone call. this trip was different again, although i did get to revisit some of the haunts i liked from the previous year. this was especially special because we'd just gotten home after 10weeks together in europe. we travelled highlands and iceland (from london to belgium to scotland, drove around the whole of iceland), back to leuven, the it was off on a sand and sea leg (nice, monte carlo, cannes, road trip around corsica, toulon, avignon, marseille, lyon before heading to morocco - casablanca and marrakech). after that we met up with my folks for a mediterranean cruise (athens, kusadasi, ephesus, santorini, sarande, split, venice). he went back to leuven for exams and i solo-tripped to dublin and then amsterdam. when he was done with exams, we flew to prague then his parents came over and we met them in athens (our second time in a month!) and sailed to mykonos, revisited santorini in a more leisurely fashion then explored crete. surprisingly, after 10 weeks of non-stop travel (which concluded his year away), we weren't vacationed out and still made it to HK! being the sentimental sap i am, HK a year on and with him was a poignant reminder of how good the year had been.

skip 2009 and i was back in HK mid-2010, back at the first (fancy) hotel. sadly, it wasn't as fancy this time as i remembered it. semi-concerned that i've grown increasingly discerning (he says spoilt) but it was good to be back in my old stomping ground yet at a different stage all together :)

day 37

monday 14 june 2010 salon-de-provence

mama M took a sick day to bring us to the next town :) it was semi-ironic because she's a senior nurse in the school health department and she went to see a doctor with a headache to be excused from work. then J drove like the wind and got us to st remy in record time for our lunch reservation at la place (the square). mama M is a bona fide foodie who takes food very seriously and a professional chef friend of hers had recommended this little gem tucked away in the countryside, near the road the revolutionaries marched. the food did not disappoint! constantly amazed how the french can take something as simple as fresh fish and safron and whip it into a magical creation.

and the desserts were so good i wish i'd three servings, one of each! i'd chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream,

J had mango sorbet with rice in cream

and mama M had raspeberry macarons that looked too pretty to eat!

after lunch we ambled over to "the box", a disused stone quarry that has been converted into an indoor theatre. this year's exhibition was on australia and with projectors and clever lighting, the light show transported us to the aboriginal dream time.

day 32

wednesday 9 june valencia to madrid

took the bus and almost missed it because some silly american (taking the same bus) was waiting at the wrong bay and insisted that was where we should be waiting. and i was silly enough to believe him.

thank god for divine interventions, and quick reflexes.

also, quite amazingly, i got a single at my hostel for the price of an 8-bedder (!) for the 3 nights i stayed there (!!!) i'd booked myself into a 8-bedder female dorm but was somehow "upgraded" to a female quad. and, rather miraculously, the bed i was assigned to in the quad was in a separate section from the other 3! so while i'd to go to the 'main' room to access the en suite bathroom, i enjoyed complete privacy thanks to a wall and door in between my section of the room and theirs!

day 30

monday 7 june 2010 valencia

because we were so wiped out the day before, J and his incredible hospitality had to wait till valencia day 2. we arranged to meet for lunch near the hostel and J brought us to this cute curbside cafe where we'd all the local delicacies we'd space for. one of the drawbacks of being well fed is that i've not enjoyed the sensation of a brand new taste in awhile. you know that feeling, like when you try something for the very first time and it's like nothing you've ever had before. the best thing i can think of is my first taste of uni (sea urchin).  it's become a bit of a personal quest for me to experience a new taste at every opportunity, which has been harder than anticipated. at lunch with J, however, i tried tomato jam for the first time. the consistency was familiar, after all, who hasn't had preserve of some sort or other before. but tomato, sweet as it may be off the vine, gave the dish a whole new element. combined with some local goat cheese and i was in gastronomical heaven. good stuff! and a great sensory memory.

after lunch, J invited us back to his terrace for coffee and, um, we accidentally stayed for 12hours, only leaving at 3am. such was his legendary hospitality, and the lure of his housemate, C's fanstastic cooking. 

meet lao! J has the cutest sharpei :)

coffee turned into dinner as C insisted that we stayed for a home-cooked meal. we whiled the afternoon away soaking up the summer sun on the terrace and i was very proud of Y, my crabby patty friend, for being at her amiable best ;) C is an excellent chef and we made believe it was restaurant night, all fancy schmancy on their terrace. this was by far one of my best days this summer - just sitting on the terrace, hanging loose with Y and our new friends. nobody had anything more pressing to do, which was very much part of the pleasure. Y and i were done with exams, C was on holiday and anticipating going to lisboa on erasmus, and J was enjoying his last few weeks in valencia before moving to mumbai alone and indefinitely. pretty awesome, huh.

and after dinner, the gents had some friends over and we got to meet even more friendly locals. really interesting characters and such fun to get to know. when we reluctantly left at 3, their dentist friend offered to walk us back but we were too macho to accept his chivalrous offer. bad idea.

and ladies and gents, i present the only lowlight my entire holiday. 

as Y and i were walking back at 3am, a burly man passed us and called out, "japan japan?". we ignored him. he tried again, "korea korea?" and we looked away. "china china?" this time we picked up speed and hurried towards the hostel. the man then took a left and was soon out of sight. whew, we sighed in relief.

suddenly, out of one of the side streets, we saw an oddly shaped shadow. as we got closer, we saw that said man had dropped his pants and was PLAYING WITH HIMSELF. this time, no amount of flasher 101 so deliberately indoctrinated in us over years of being in an all girls' school* could prepare us for an actual flasher. too scared to run (you know how you're not supposed to run away from a mad dog because he'll chase...) we walked as fast as we could and none too soon, arrived unscathed but shaken at our hostel.

thankfully he was a harmless perv with an asian fetish (or so we inferred) but that was definitely too close for comfort. 

and i still say today was one of the best the whole trip, flashing incident notwithstanding. that's just how much we enjoyed J and C's company and hospitality, they even made up for the loco local.

*whack it with a brolly / laugh and exclaim, 'so small!' / take photo and lodge police report

day 28

saturday 5 june 2010 barcelona

i climbed a mountain!

Day 3
Montjuic (1 metro ticket gets you to the metro and the adjacent funicular to montjuic) not to be confused with the cable car up to the castle €9. if you save € and walk up instead, it's only 15min and gradual incline.

Nice views from castle. Worth a visit.

well, not quite. but you get the drift. and when i reached the top, this is what i saw! i couldn't believe my eyes. it's no secret that i'm a big crystal cruise fan, and have been blessed to have gone on a baltic cruise in summer '06 (just before starting freshman year) and a mediterranean cruise in summer '08 (half-way through college). so technically, the timing would've been perfect for a summer 2010 graduation cruise but noooo, the parentals chose to go on a riverboat up the seine instead :( ok, really shouldn't complain. the seine cruise was awesome in its own right. but being the big fat softie i am, i sat on my little perch and watched the ship the entire afternoon, thinking about happy memories spent on board her perfectly polished decks. have countless memories of time with my family, and subsequently time with my family and with him on the crystal serenity that it was nice walking down memory lane at this particular juncture of being done with school. plus my friends were on board (also most coincidentally) and i was waiting for them to wave at me. haha. the things we do!

after some much-needed decompressing and me-time down-time on montjuic, i met up with some high school friends who happened to be passing through barca. like i said, so much for solo trippin'. being the text fanatic that i am, i'd sent out a mass text updating my nearest and dearest of my whereabouts and little did i know that Y would overlap with me in barca! along with S and 2 of their friends. again, the big softie in me was mega nostalgic because the first ever trip i did without 'adults' was with Y, S and some of our high school friends when we were fresh out of high school and applying to college. we took the overnight train to KL and it was such an adventure. we later met up in bangkok the night of the new years eve bomb blasts (new year '07) and saw the new year in together, after making sure we'd all our limbs with us. 7 months later, we went to phuket with more high school friends. so to meet up with Y and S in barca on my grad trip, unplanned as it was, felt as if we'd gone full circle. from clueless 18year olds, to slightly savvier 23year olds. i'm done with college, they'll be doctors next year. gee :)

oh yes so we crossed the bridge for some tapas then had the best sangria back at their hostel bar :)

day 27

friday 4 june 2010 barcelona

day 2

spent the morning at la sagrada familia. go early (before 11am) to avoid queuing for over an hour. i went at 10am and the queue was as long as my iberico sandwich (about 15min, but that's because i'm a slow eater).

After lunch, walk up Carrer de verdi towards parc guell. before that Lunch at plaza de grace (shadiest) plaza del sel and pl de la revolucio de Septembre

Walk up Verdi all the way until you see escalators on the right. Ride them to parc guell! Spend the afternoon wandering around parc guell.

i'd never have made it up without the magical escalators that just appeared out of nowhere and whisked me away. it was surreal! there i was huffing and puffing up the hill, cursing and swearing at the sun and my own poor choice of footwear (havis, way to go.) when suddenly, i saw 6 flights of escalators on my right. i thought it was a mirage! but i rode them, and at the very top i was gently placed on level with the parc entrance. who'd have guessed!

spent the afternoon wandering around parc guell and am very proud that i walked all the way there and back to the hostel. no public transport for me!

view from the rooftop bar of the majestic hotel

following up on the previous day's chance meeting, the very lovely L family invited me to join them in satiating their local food craving. they've gotta be mind-readers or something because by this time i was pushing 4 weeks without home food and about to implode in self-deprivation. had the best nasi goreng ever at the mandarin oriental along passeig de gracia. was initially debating between ordering pad thai (upon learning the chef was thai) and nasi goreng but went with the later and was well-rewarded for that leap of faith.

the rice came in a keropok boat so big it must've been on crack!

day 25

wednesday 2 june 2010 skavsta to barcelona girona

hit the ground running bright and early on wednesday. took the 7am flight out of skavsta and was in central barca by lunch time. had a 5pm tea date with someone C (swedish friend) had very kindly set me up with so i familiarised myself with my hostel (mixed 8 bedder - initially shudder-inducing by not quite after i got used to it) and eased myself into the idea of solo trippin', for it was the first time i'd planned to be alone for such a long stretch. true, did 4 days in berlin all by myself (yay me!) last november but i helped house-sit a friend's empty apartment. this time, i was alone in a hostel. haha it's such a big deal for my sheltered psyche but yes, young girls travel by themselves all the time and i'm not really all that special, except in my head and to myself :) made friends with gustalvo the brazilian dude working at the hostel and went in search of food with my trusty map once i'd left my backpack all padlocked under my bed. see? paranoia knows no bounds.

tea date went swimmingly, and before i knew it it was time for dinner. most unfortunately, i'm a self-confessed glutton who lives from meal to meal and after dinner i briefly flirted with the idea of joining the hostel bunch on a pub crawl, but my aching bones weren't up for the trauma. although i did, very bravely if i may add, head out to buy some water from a nightshop 3 blocks away. past midnight. brave or stupid, i don't know. but i was staying on the main street and stuck to the big roads, kept my wits about me etc. still, cheap thrill if nothing else :)

hola from barca

(feeding the birds outside the notre dam in paris)

it's been a whirlwind (almost) 3 weeks and every day has been a brand new adventure. not so ambitious as to attempt to recount the trip from day 0, but in a nutshell...

paris 1: boulangerie breakfast with family B in their beautiful penthouse, followed by tour of isle st louis and cites, concluding with steak tartare lunch at my favourite brasserie and berthillion glace for dessert. can't ask for more!

seine cruise: lovely time cruising the seine on the barge, good food, great company. apart from the normandy beaches, which were so very sad, the rest of the trip was all culture and scenery. a highlight was monet's gardens in giverny. it felt like stepping right into one of his masterpieces.

paris 2: tea avec mon petit amis at fauchon, followed in quick succession by the absolute yummiest seafood platter (it was like a regular platter on crack - oh so gigantic!) at la lorraine, courtesy of family B.

tuscany: dream week roadtrippin' and winding through the vineyards big and small. fell in love with brunello wine in montalcino and ate so much fresh, home-made pasta that i don't think i can stomach anything else now. completely spoilt my palate, which is such a bad thing to happen so early on. stayed in agriturismos and one of them even had an infinity pool facing the rolling tuscan hills. talk about unforgetable! we also ended up buying 18kg of wine, olive oil (OHSOFRESH it left a subtle spicy aftertaste) and honey. which also meant that we'd to buy check-in allowance, but it was more than worth it when we saw monsieur et madame B relish the vin.

paris 3: 3 days in paris as family B's guests. good mix of my paris rituals (like breakfast at laduree, more steak tartare) and new parisien adventures courtesy of my resourceful and ever-hungry copain. he brought me to chartier and it fast became a favourite. gotta love belle epoch at its casual best.

stockholm: crazy week of nonstop catching up and revisiting my old haunts. felt surreal to be back in my stomping ground, and to have it all green! it was as if i'd blinked and suddenly it was summer. when i was back in stockholm, it felt like i'd never returned home, and the 6 months i'd spent away did not happen. everything was as i'd remembered, just sorely missing a few of the usual suspects, namely the three musketeers from down under, and mi bellas from italy. had the privilege of staying with the perfect hostesses, A (3 nights), A-san (1 night) and J.Mak (2 nights). nothing like girly h2hs just before the zz monster attacks. was so so good to hang out with them again. and then there was the inevitable goodbye, but i've J.Mak's southern french hospitality to look forward to in a week so that goodbye is still on hold.

barca: so far so good! even though i was planning on being in barca alone, a familly friend hooked me up with his abogado friend in barca, whom i met for tea and am pleased to rely on as a 'responsible adult' while i'm here. coincidentally, two of my high school girlfriends will be in barca tomorrow and we're planning to meet up. i'm a big softie at heart and having gone on my first ever friends-only trip with them (overnight train to KL right after A levels) in january 2006, and then again to bangkok in tandem with the bomb blasts (new years 2007) and another time to phuket in july 2007, to meet them on the great grad trip is going full circle. how far we have come and it's nice to have dear old friends to share the celebration with.

and speaking of celebration, while in stockholm i received a text notifying me that i have, indeed, completed my degree. plus not too shabbily at that, bragbrag, so it's great to finish on a high note, despite it taking me 7 semesters to figure out what works. this 8th semester has been my best (even better than exchange grades!) and i am very very happy. shout out to the kind seniors who sent their fantabulous notes my way. much appreciated!
so there's a not-so-short summary and maybe i'll post more later.

oh! one thing i forgot to add is that i bumped into the lovely L family in zara this morning (of all places! what are the chances? there are SO MANY in barca!) and they have invited me to join them for dinner. yay! grown up food will be a welcomed change. and who ever said i'd get lonely on my own here :)

baby steps

i spent the night sleeping at the bus stop outside cityterminalen (main bus terminal) last november. was taking the first flight out of skavsta (airport for budget air carrier) and so planned to take the first bus out of stockholm (to skavsta). wrongly assumed that cityterminalen would remain open through the night so i took the last train into the city, only to find myself locked out and without a place to go till my 0430h bus. way to go! so i sought refuge at maccas until it, too, closed at 0100h and then huddled at the bus stop trying to keep warm and stay awake till it was time to board the bus. needless to say, it was one of my more memorable nights to date and a pertinent reminder of how blessed i am - to be homeless by choice and not by circumstance.

believe me, i'd tried almost everything to get indoors but there was no where to go. all the hotels in the vicinity were accessed by keycard only. fair enough i suppose, why would they want vagrants in their lobby? later learnt of the all-night kebab shop a few blocks away but having witnessed gang fights with crowbars at medborgaplatsen* in broad daylight, i wasn't about to wander around at night.

so the whole point to this is that i have a 7am flight out of skavsta this summer. however, i counted my pennies and booked myself into the skavsta hotel instead. yes, it's not going to be cold, yes, having survived a night at the bus stop it wasn't half bad, yes, i much rather eat than sleep my SEK505 but i told myself never again. money is meant to be spent, and earned back, anyway.

yay to progress!

*whoever said stockholm is a safe city lied. where i was staying, there were drug-induced fights and convicts hiding in the neighbouring forest. an acquaintance's smoke break at night was once rudely interrupted by a bloodied, battered man begging for help. patrol cars and dogs fanning out across the residence were a common sight. dead bodies in the lake, and we even had a ho killing her pimp in the very next block. not to mention the 'harmless' nonsense like blood poured into the washing machines at night. all true.

p/s oh i feel my love-hate relationship bubbling to the surface now.

hobo no more

and in further procrastination style, i've spent the morning booking my accommodation in barca and madrid! somewhat comforted that they've both got very high ratings and in madrid i even have a 4 bed en suite female dorm for S$40/night. how awesome is that. hopefully that means i'll never be in a situation where i'll be involuntarily privy to certain horizontal activity. fingers crossed! (edit: sorry, silly me forgot that girls are perfectly capable of getting on without boys. sigh. back to the drawing board!)

although my greatest fear of waking up without kidneys goes unassuaged. 4 years since i started staying in hostels and i'm still paranoid about not leaving with bodily integrity. hence in barca i decided on a 8 bed mixed dorm instead of a 4 bed because chances of being stuck with 7 strange men are lower than the probability of being stuck with 3 strange men. or so i pray.

i'm really too big a chicken to be travelling on my own. so much for the bravado of solo trippin' and doing my own thing this summer. relieved that it looks like my oldest, dearest friend (two decades and counting!) is going to join me in valencia and we're going to check ourselves into a lovely little boutique hotel (hello red i hope you're not reading this because i did tell you hostel) or a charming b&b. please hurry and book your flight already! i can't wait to book accommodation. it'll be our first holiday together without our respective parentals, who incidentally gave us the same name because they're unimaginative, mandarin-averse anglophiles who conjured our misnomers out of their misplaced belief that all girls should be dainty and graceful. snort.

packing is procrastination

have the first of my 3 sit-in finals tomorrow and in protest i decided to pack for the great graduation trip. am in a wee packing pickle because the grad trip involves three differing segments, and possibly in decreasing level of luxury. oops. should really have organised it the other way round and worked myself up to the good stuff but the timing didn't allow.

so i begin with a week long cruise down the seine with the parentals on a glorified river barge. apparently if (they'd) paid a little more, (we) wouldn't have to row. but i do so hope it's just my father's macabre sense of humour. and this food cruise promises to be luxurious, potential boatwoman threat aside. we're going up the seine from paris to les andelys, rouen, normandy, caudebec (monfleur), vernon (giverny) then back to paris. as the barge docks at each port, the chef and his entourage are supposed to descend on the village and buy fresh local produce that will become breakfast, lunch and dinner. am drooling just thinking about it! the only part i'm not too happy about is that we double back and disembark in paris too. i hate doubling-back. the lack of displacement unsettles me. anyhoos, once back in paris, we meet up with him and have two days all together before the parental go home and we continue to tuscany and the amalfi coast for part 2.

thankfully we enjoy a higher standard of living compared to previous holidays - in fact, am incredibly blessed that we've levelled up every holiday, in tandem with his career. whilst not as upmarket as parent-standard, it's still not too shabby. we end with two days in paris and then he goes home (sense the trend? my constant abandonment. first by parents, then by him. sigh.)

and after he's gone, i proceed with part 3 on my own. this is when reality bites and i've to rough it out on my backpacking budget. am still uncertain where i'll be staying in stocks - living on the edge, eh. from stocks it's on to spain (barca, valencia, madrid) where i also don't know where i'll be staying (eek!) save for valencia where i'll be a house guest. so...

back to the packing dilemma! i don't know what to wear! will probably bring my blue brick for the seine cruise with my backpack inside it. and send the brick and nice clothes home with the parents because i'm limited to 6kg of hand carry on the rest of my time intra-europe. growl. and to choose appropriate attire for all three parts. am tempted to spend the next 5 weeks languishing in boho skirts and flip flops. mhmm :) can't wait to break out the floppy hats, oversized sunnies and scarves. alternatively i just might throw the towel (that i've to carry bleh) and succumb to sloth, instead attempting to pull off dishevelled backpacker distress-chic. unwashed tshrit? check. faded, torn, unwashed jeans? check. dusty sandals? check.