Wednesday, December 29, 2004
It has been awhile since my last post... - I am going to have to stop using that line as my opening sentence for all my posts!! Let me quickly run through the highlights up to Christmas, and then I will post about our Paris trip.
Sunday 12th December
I met up with Hema for lunch at Notting Hill Gate. She is having a nice long holiday in the UK/Europe before she starts work in Sydney. It was nice seeing her again, she's always so Happy :-) After lunch we went to Camden town markets with her, and met up with her brother and her friend who is currently working in Scotland! It was a fun day and it definately got me out of the house. I am getting so lazy these days!!
Tuesday 14th December
Met up with Hema again to see a show after work!! Finally we got to see the end of Les Miserables! It didn't seem to be as good this time around - I am not sure whether it was due to the fact that we were experiencing a sense of de ja vu, or whether the singers this time weren't as good. But it was nice to see the ending. Scott said he would've been happy to not see the ending because he had good memories of the show (from the first sitting) even though it wasn't of the entire show.
Wednesday 22nd December
This was one of the best days I have had in London so far - aside from the fact that I had an awful morning at work!! I had the afternoon off as the start of my holidays until the new year (hooray), and we had bought tickets earlier to see Josh Groban at the Hammersmith Apollo!!
For those of you who don't know...I LOVE JOSH GROBAN!! He is an classically trained opera-style singer, who sings pop style songs. It is a unique fusion of beautifully strong vocals with a funky beat. He has also sung on a couple of Soundtracks - Ally McBeal, Troy, The Polar Express and others. [Why do I feel like I'm writing an ad for him?] I have to thank my dad for making me listen to him, because I think he is amazing...the male equivalent to Charlotte Church I suppose, only he looks like Ben Lee.
Anyway, we met up with Hiroko (who arrived back in London to catch her flight home the following day) and took her to the josh concert. I don't think scott or Hiroko appreciated it half as much as I did, but his voice is so amazing!! I would loved to have seen him live again, except he only had one UK show (his first outside of the US)...I hope he gets to Sydney sometime in the future (preferably when I am there). Absolutely awesome!!
After the show we headed back to Paddington (where Hiroko was staying) and had some Lebanese food for tea. It was nice, but not as nice as the places on Cleveland St!
All in all a great night (even if I turned out to be the only one that loved it!)
Christmas in Paris
We arrived in Paris at about 11pm on Friday evening (the 24th) and since Europeans celebrate Christmas at midnight on the 24th we were very lucky that my great uncle and aunt were hosting a lovely Christmas meal for us (in addition to picking us up and letting us stay at their place). The were very sweet people and we had a great time because of that.
They took us to their place in Paris (in the 17th Arrondissement which is apparently the rich area)which is inside a school. We had a quick tour of the lycee (school/college for approximately 2000 students between the ages of 10 - 23) including the gymnasium which was designed and built by eiffel himself. The gym was quite metallic and apparently has been used by several famous designers for their fashion shows. It was a very interesting place...
The couple - Colette and An - made us a 3 course meal for Reveillon (the meal that the french have at midnight christmas eve to celebrate christmas) including hor d'ourves with escargots(snails), pate fois-gras (duck liver pate) and bacon covered dates. The main meal was roasted guinea fowl with celery mash, green beans and fried potato/bread balls. The desert was of course the traditional Bouche De Noel (log cake).
Christmas day was a non event since it was celebrated the night before. We walked around paris and suprisingly there were quite a few stores open. Scott & I rode the ferris wheel that was erected in the Place de la Concorde for the festive season. It was really quite beautiful...Unfortunately for us the museums were closed.
The following day we returned to the Invalides museum which was open this time around. The museum contained lots of war relics and was similar to our War memorial in Canberra, only on a smaller scale. The highlight was seeing Napoleon's tomb and other members of his dead family.
For lunch I finally got to meet my great aunt marguerite who I had heard lots about but had never met. She was really sweet and very tiny - like a typical old vietnamese woman. Colette made a lovely meal of cous cous and vegetable soup and we ate whilst my great uncle tried to convince us that we were eating cous cous because that is what jesus ate. I had to hide my amusement because he was dead serious!!
That evening we went for a walk through the Parc Monceau near their place. It was very lovely and lots of parents and children were running about having a fabulous time. My great aunt and uncle were trying to convince us that it was their back yard :-) We walked onto the Champs Elysee and had a nice time window shopping along with the thousands of other people walking up and down the street. At night it is awesome with the lights of the stores, the cars and right down the end - the ferris wheel.
The following day Scott and I wandered around the Opera house which had an amazing interior that reflected the old style facade. A short walk around the corner took us to the large department stores all lit up for Christmas. There were nice memories of David Jones and Grace Bros as we looked in the windows and saw the moving display of Childrens toys. It was amazing how many tourists and locals there were trying to grab a bargain at The Gallerie Lafayette and Printemps...we couldn't seem to find any bargains! However, we did buy a traditional apple pastie with an interesting twist. The guy that sold us the danish told us there was a little gift so we needed to be careful...I of course had no idea what he was talking about and assumed that inside the paper bag he had added a present...unbeknownst to either Scott or Myself, there was a little ceramic figurine baked inside the pie. Very bizarre.
It was also another day for meeting new relatives. I met my dad's cousin Anna at her apartment near the Eiffel Tower. It was an amazing apartment, not to mention her husband collects wines and opened a lovely 1989 bottle of port. It was very nice :-) My relatives are all very sweet, and I am really suprised that they have been so generous considering we have never previously met.
In the evening Colette and An drove us around to see Paris by night. It was a really nice tour of the city and I saw a lot more than I had previously. We went past 'Place Vendome' where the Ritz was lit up beautifully. We also drove past Montparnasse which is quickly becoming an area which I would like to go back to explore some more. It seems like the trendy end of town with the cinemas and the clubs, restaurants and bars...I'm sure there will be another trip to Paris somewhere down the line. We also saw the Galleries Lafayette lit up with Christmas lights.
In the evening we had Pho for dinner! Thank goodness since I was starting to feel deprived of real Vietnamese food.
The next day was our final day in Paris. As Colette and An had to head back to Cabourg (Normandy) we had the day to ourselves before getting back to the UK. We left their place in the morning and headed straight for a laundromat (since our washing machine is broken at home and we were heading to Amsterdam for New Years) and spent about an hour washing and drying. After which we carried all our gear and caught the metro to Bastille. It was the first time we had seen the area with the opera house, monument and shops and it was very novel. There was a fresh food market as well which made for interesting watching.
Overall, the trip was a fabulous way to spend Christmas - with my family (even if I hadn't met half of them before). Paris is the same as we remembered, with some new places still to explore and the metro stations still smelling really bad! We are now looking forward to Amsterdam...we will be heading off tomorrow morning!!
Have a Happy New Year everyone!
Sunday 12th December
I met up with Hema for lunch at Notting Hill Gate. She is having a nice long holiday in the UK/Europe before she starts work in Sydney. It was nice seeing her again, she's always so Happy :-) After lunch we went to Camden town markets with her, and met up with her brother and her friend who is currently working in Scotland! It was a fun day and it definately got me out of the house. I am getting so lazy these days!!
Tuesday 14th December
Met up with Hema again to see a show after work!! Finally we got to see the end of Les Miserables! It didn't seem to be as good this time around - I am not sure whether it was due to the fact that we were experiencing a sense of de ja vu, or whether the singers this time weren't as good. But it was nice to see the ending. Scott said he would've been happy to not see the ending because he had good memories of the show (from the first sitting) even though it wasn't of the entire show.
Wednesday 22nd December
This was one of the best days I have had in London so far - aside from the fact that I had an awful morning at work!! I had the afternoon off as the start of my holidays until the new year (hooray), and we had bought tickets earlier to see Josh Groban at the Hammersmith Apollo!!
For those of you who don't know...I LOVE JOSH GROBAN!! He is an classically trained opera-style singer, who sings pop style songs. It is a unique fusion of beautifully strong vocals with a funky beat. He has also sung on a couple of Soundtracks - Ally McBeal, Troy, The Polar Express and others. [Why do I feel like I'm writing an ad for him?] I have to thank my dad for making me listen to him, because I think he is amazing...the male equivalent to Charlotte Church I suppose, only he looks like Ben Lee.
Anyway, we met up with Hiroko (who arrived back in London to catch her flight home the following day) and took her to the josh concert. I don't think scott or Hiroko appreciated it half as much as I did, but his voice is so amazing!! I would loved to have seen him live again, except he only had one UK show (his first outside of the US)...I hope he gets to Sydney sometime in the future (preferably when I am there). Absolutely awesome!!
After the show we headed back to Paddington (where Hiroko was staying) and had some Lebanese food for tea. It was nice, but not as nice as the places on Cleveland St!
All in all a great night (even if I turned out to be the only one that loved it!)
Christmas in Paris
We arrived in Paris at about 11pm on Friday evening (the 24th) and since Europeans celebrate Christmas at midnight on the 24th we were very lucky that my great uncle and aunt were hosting a lovely Christmas meal for us (in addition to picking us up and letting us stay at their place). The were very sweet people and we had a great time because of that.
They took us to their place in Paris (in the 17th Arrondissement which is apparently the rich area)which is inside a school. We had a quick tour of the lycee (school/college for approximately 2000 students between the ages of 10 - 23) including the gymnasium which was designed and built by eiffel himself. The gym was quite metallic and apparently has been used by several famous designers for their fashion shows. It was a very interesting place...
The couple - Colette and An - made us a 3 course meal for Reveillon (the meal that the french have at midnight christmas eve to celebrate christmas) including hor d'ourves with escargots(snails), pate fois-gras (duck liver pate) and bacon covered dates. The main meal was roasted guinea fowl with celery mash, green beans and fried potato/bread balls. The desert was of course the traditional Bouche De Noel (log cake).
Christmas day was a non event since it was celebrated the night before. We walked around paris and suprisingly there were quite a few stores open. Scott & I rode the ferris wheel that was erected in the Place de la Concorde for the festive season. It was really quite beautiful...Unfortunately for us the museums were closed.
The following day we returned to the Invalides museum which was open this time around. The museum contained lots of war relics and was similar to our War memorial in Canberra, only on a smaller scale. The highlight was seeing Napoleon's tomb and other members of his dead family.
For lunch I finally got to meet my great aunt marguerite who I had heard lots about but had never met. She was really sweet and very tiny - like a typical old vietnamese woman. Colette made a lovely meal of cous cous and vegetable soup and we ate whilst my great uncle tried to convince us that we were eating cous cous because that is what jesus ate. I had to hide my amusement because he was dead serious!!
That evening we went for a walk through the Parc Monceau near their place. It was very lovely and lots of parents and children were running about having a fabulous time. My great aunt and uncle were trying to convince us that it was their back yard :-) We walked onto the Champs Elysee and had a nice time window shopping along with the thousands of other people walking up and down the street. At night it is awesome with the lights of the stores, the cars and right down the end - the ferris wheel.
The following day Scott and I wandered around the Opera house which had an amazing interior that reflected the old style facade. A short walk around the corner took us to the large department stores all lit up for Christmas. There were nice memories of David Jones and Grace Bros as we looked in the windows and saw the moving display of Childrens toys. It was amazing how many tourists and locals there were trying to grab a bargain at The Gallerie Lafayette and Printemps...we couldn't seem to find any bargains! However, we did buy a traditional apple pastie with an interesting twist. The guy that sold us the danish told us there was a little gift so we needed to be careful...I of course had no idea what he was talking about and assumed that inside the paper bag he had added a present...unbeknownst to either Scott or Myself, there was a little ceramic figurine baked inside the pie. Very bizarre.
It was also another day for meeting new relatives. I met my dad's cousin Anna at her apartment near the Eiffel Tower. It was an amazing apartment, not to mention her husband collects wines and opened a lovely 1989 bottle of port. It was very nice :-) My relatives are all very sweet, and I am really suprised that they have been so generous considering we have never previously met.
In the evening Colette and An drove us around to see Paris by night. It was a really nice tour of the city and I saw a lot more than I had previously. We went past 'Place Vendome' where the Ritz was lit up beautifully. We also drove past Montparnasse which is quickly becoming an area which I would like to go back to explore some more. It seems like the trendy end of town with the cinemas and the clubs, restaurants and bars...I'm sure there will be another trip to Paris somewhere down the line. We also saw the Galleries Lafayette lit up with Christmas lights.
In the evening we had Pho for dinner! Thank goodness since I was starting to feel deprived of real Vietnamese food.
The next day was our final day in Paris. As Colette and An had to head back to Cabourg (Normandy) we had the day to ourselves before getting back to the UK. We left their place in the morning and headed straight for a laundromat (since our washing machine is broken at home and we were heading to Amsterdam for New Years) and spent about an hour washing and drying. After which we carried all our gear and caught the metro to Bastille. It was the first time we had seen the area with the opera house, monument and shops and it was very novel. There was a fresh food market as well which made for interesting watching.
Overall, the trip was a fabulous way to spend Christmas - with my family (even if I hadn't met half of them before). Paris is the same as we remembered, with some new places still to explore and the metro stations still smelling really bad! We are now looking forward to Amsterdam...we will be heading off tomorrow morning!!
Have a Happy New Year everyone!
