All of this for only 0.89€

Monster lettuce!! We had to eat like siao for the next few days.

Paris in winter

This is the warmest winter in the last 20 years or so. Usually at the end of Feb, which is about the time we got back this round, it is really cold (sometimes it snows). But we took some shots and you can see the difference. It feels more like early spring already. And spring doesn't start till late March.

Luxembourg Gardens
Our favourite thinking, chatting, walking place.

Blossoms in Luxembourg Gardens
A lot of the flowers are blooming already.


Pigeons at River Seine
Kar Wai actually stood and waited for this shot.

Jodie

Buying music from iTunes

Jo had a good experience buying music from iTunes, painless and easy. But we were surprised that it wasn't MP3, it was M4P. It's no good right? Does it mean only iPod and iTunes can play it?

Wes

Things I learnt

My 1.5year Razer mouse was a bit wonky coz it won't work after a cold reboot, i had to unplug & replug and lived with it. I casually mentioned it on the hardwarezone.com gameaxis subforum and got emailed by a forumer who turns out to be someone who works at Razer.

I said bye bye to the mouse and airmailed it to HK for $$6.10

and got a new Razor mouse hand delivered to my house courtesy of Razer Singapore!! Razer roxx! I mentioned this to a IT retailer friend and he said that Razer would rather replace a mouse than to lose reputation coz of complaints on the forums. woohoo! people power!

Threw away white wedding shoes. Got pee smell while walking in paris one day and wouldn't come off. So bye bye old shoes... and got me a pair of adidas $25 last-season shoes.


SIA has the cheapest airfare to Singapore from Paris. The new screens on the planes are HUGEMONGOUS, it even has USB ports. But we were assigned to the last window row in economy and the seats couldn't recline fully. Last window row on the new planes are a big NO-NO.

We had to walk past the business class seats to reach the door.

A cheap UPS like APC is better than nothing, the power in the house flickered a few times one day and this baby saved the PC from shutdown or worse, power surges to fry the components.

Wes

Worst case scenario

Today, I woke up and felt courage. No, I don't think it was anything I ate, or anything too spiritual. Rather, I think it's because it dawned on me that I had survived another worst case scenario.

My greatest fear in coming to Paris was not how things would work out here. Rather, it was how far away I was going to be from my family, our families. Should anything happen, it would take us forever to get back. And so I prayed, please keep everyone well.

And of course, worst case scenario happened. I am not talking about how it eventually turned out. I am talking about receiving that dreadful news at 1am in the middle of the night and realizing I am too far to see, to feel, to think straight. That is the worst case scenario.

The thing about worst case scenarios, I suppose, is that they come from one's greatest fears. And regardless of how we are taught to confront our fears or sometimes run from them, some things are not in our control. I cannot decide when the realization of this fear should knock at my door and when it does, it is not in my power either to wish it away. So when my greatest fear appeared at my doorstep, worst case scenario stood right next to him.

And today, I realized that it's over. The much dreaded visit had come and gone. And I had survived it, not without my share of injuries, but still, I survived it.

So what has changed?

I am not sure I can put it in words. I won't call it faith because the moment I do, I risk pointing that faith toward the mortal me, instead of the omnipotent God. So the closest word I can think of, is courage.

Ha...while typing this post, I got an email telling me it's time to renew our visas. Another round of massive administration. Now, I know why courage came.

Jo