I talk too much my mouth hurts

Space Invader Waffle Maker

The 1000th!!

This way

Point system. I bought the Paris map of Space Invaders :)

So many...

The weekend in Lyon was awesome, with cool Couchsurfing hosts and fellow travellers. I am seriously considering moving there !

The weekend was the start of some serious heat though, and I am dying, melting in my own pools of sweat in my room. I cannot go out. It's too tiring. Would love to be under the cool streams of the shower booth all day, if I could. Thankfully babysitting today got cancelled, thank goodness!!

Last night, I find it really difficult to fall asleep, couldn't even get in the covers of the bed, ..

Really not used to this kind of heat, I am a Chch girl.. I can only keep washing my hands every so often, and sipping cold water. Don't want to think about how much worse it'll be in Spain next month... Argh..

I knew that I needed to prioritise, but I also wanted to have it all. At first I thought them impossible, but when there's a will, there's a way. Even if it's a bit silly. I just lost some sleep over them, but at least I got to do all that I wanted to get down, for now. Not so certain about tonight though. I will be very very tired, that's for sure. But it's light again, and I must get ready for my weekend trip. I will have fun :) Bon weekend !

In Paris I do not own my own washing machine, so I have to go to the laundrette on my street to do my washing. Luckily it's close to my place, but the annoying thing about laundrettes is that you never know if the clothes actually come out clean or not. Sometimes I think they've just been spinning, spinning, and yes, in 'soapy' water, but the whites are not quite whites.. Maybe I should try changing detergents? Another thing is that they dryers never properly dry. It comes out hot, but as soon as the clothes hit colder air, they become moist again, so I end up having to air dry again in my room. Such a waste of money, especially when the prices for washing and drying seems to go up every two or such months. It started at a reasonable price at the beginning of the year, but since then has gone up twice. I hope it's just for the tourist season, and will go down again soon, or at least not go up any higher. Already I am finding myself making less and less trips, meaning I am wearing my clothes for longer periods before washing them, and getting an urge to go shopping so I have more clean clothes to rotate around in. Not helping that the Soldes period has started again, either. But shopping is something I cannot really afford right now, nor can I hand wash and air dry everything in my small studio. The dilemma...

The white door behind which lay the cream, green and golden vines of my childhood, where private concerts were held under the spot light, next to the green lady above the basket of white flowers, where I thought myself a princess.

The red door that opened to a living room with mirror for a wall; the red door that changed to green after we left.

The door to my parents' room against which I fell faint, dizzy, spinning; an inexplicable incident that I cannot forget.

The iron gates to our White House, opened and closed with each day; the way to our spacious 'holiday' house.

• Film
• Write
• Sleep
• Read
• Walk
• Eat
• Dream

Create v make, cause to exist; appoint to a new rank or position; Slang make an angry fuss. creation n. creative adj imaginative or inventive. creativity n creator n

Experience n direct personal participation; particular incident, feeling, etc. that a person has undergone; accumulated knowledge.

Let this ache pass soon, and
good luck to me tomorrow!!!!

I really need to get better at waiting...
Trying to be patient...

Went to Chartres to see the famous Cathedral today.

I dreamt of babies all night.

Of my Irvine cousin and her twin boys, of S and her soon-to-be baby, though she's not even pregnant, so I don't know why it was her. I was with Mum and we were cleaning out some clothes and we found a stack of baby clothes and accessories that we'd put aside, so I wanted to give them out.

Every time I pass a baby store I have to stop and look. It's amazing how tiny the clothes are, and how the babies can actually fit into them. They are so delicate...

One day, I'll have a few of my own, haha. One day...

I found this in my draft box, dated sometime in April.
Don't really know why I had been feeling this way, went and looked in my diary and there are no signs of emotional turmoil, lol...

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가슴앓이

I don't know where you are coming from.
I don't understand you.
When I first realised what you had done,
my heart dropped a bit.

Disbelief.
A wave of sadness.

I don't know.
I have never been in love before.
I don't even know whether I am hungry or not, so how can I know what this is?

It's almost a heartache..

I wish I knew where you were coming from.

I am a film student.
I watch beautiful love stories all the time and dream of such love stories for my own.

But I would rather a happy one than one that's full of uncertainties...

First of all,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY!!!!

It's my Mum's birthday today. Well, yesterday her time. I am sorry for not being to celebrate with her in person, but I am sure Papa did his best to make her night :)

Paris is suffering from the blue storm of wetness and so...
I spent the day in my room, again. To pass time, I made a little banner from magazine pages; finished reading the French book my boy M let me borrow because he liked reading it so much; finished reading a Spanish book I borrowed from the younger boy A; wrote emails to friends; finished the Rubik's cube, but since I just followed instructions on a website, it doesn't really count. Whoever wrote them up must be a genius. I wouldn't have gotten it in a million years! I will try to solve it on my own, soon. It's a lot of turning here and there 90 degrees and then once in a while in 180 degrees as well... There must be a mathematical pattern to it, I'm sure!!!

I have been listening to Regina Spektor all day. She is amazingly talented.

I hope the weather will be better tomorrow, I want to go on a day trip to Chartres, a medieval town an hour's train ride from Paris, famous for its Cathedral.

Bon weekend tout le monde :)

Cooking rice in a pot is so much harder than in a rice cooker... I hope I don't burn the pot even more today. But I wanted a change from pasta that I have been eating everyday..

Laptop is still clackering and splattering smoke/ash from time to time. Are you really dying??

Spent the night at cousin Y's hotel room close to the airport. It took me ages to get there, due to time taken on the train and then the transfer tram and waiting time for the right shuttle bus to come. We still talked a lot and had a lazy morning sleeping in. Unfortunately she is going back tonight and I had work this afternoon so we had to part early, but hopefully we will see each other soon!

Lots of babysitting this week. The plan to see the Space Invader exhibition for two weeks, but oh well. I will just have to wait a little longer. Seeing more friends, more Paris, etc, etc, et patati et patata, this week :)

I am cooking everyday these days. Had blueberry oatmeal pancake for brunch! - I'm also sleeping everyday, as well, going to bed late and getting up late...

The weather in Paris is still grey, hope the sky clears soon.
Flights to NZ are being cancelled due to the volcanic ash in Chile. Friends are being stranded and their travel plans changed. Hope it gets sorted out soon. Another Mother Earth activity in Christchurch, with several big aftershocks, one even reaching M6.0. Rang home this morning. Everything's ok, but the 6.0 was a long one, forcing Mum to hide out under the table for a bit. That has never happened to her before. Just stop already, please, Mother Nature.

Tonight I am going to see my flight hostess cousin for the first time in 14 years!!! ..Not sure how I'm going to get to her, the hotel she's staying in is a little out of the way, and she's arriving quite late tonight. Still, it will be very nice to finally see her and to catch up :)

Bonne semaine, tout le monde !

What though life conspire to cheat you,
Do not sorrow or complain.
Lie still on the day of pain,
And the day of joy will greet you.

Hearts live in the coming day.
There's an end to passing sorrow.
Suddenly all flies away,
And delight returns tomorrow.

-A. Pushkin.

I will have hopefully have visited this much of the world...


visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Still a long way to go if I want to cover most of these vast lands...

It's been a fairly gloomy last few days in Paris. Grey, drizzling...

Made myself pancakes with honey and Nutella for brunch, to cheer myself up. Dressed up to go out, but then saw the wetness outside, so changed back... only to find rays of sunlight starting to poke out through the clouds. Think I'll just stay at home.. Which is what I've been doing the last few days, actually, feeling rather claustrophobic..

But today I will actually read a book. Drinking Darjeeling tea I bought yesterday in loose tea leaves so I can finally use my tea plunger again. :)

Maybe I'll finally ring up D to see how she's doing, too, tonight.

Little quiet lazy happinesses..

Your moods can change according to what you put in your mouth, sometimes. Also by how much you eat. But here are some of the things that can make you happier..

Damn. Where have all my money gone?!
I don't have enough to see enough of France/Europe.
:( :( :(
Still, bought tickets to Lyon/Grenoble, Prague, Spain.
What about accommodation though?
Argh.

I'm off to Rennes this weekend, to celebrate P's 26th bday!!
Need to start packing... and to run some errands, as my American friends would say... :)

Things to pack:
Besides the obvious clothes (which will consist of dresses and shorts, mainly) and toiletries, bikinis just in case, new pair of open toe sandals I bought yesterday, and the new book I ordered online a few days ago that arrived just this morning. Very timely!

Argh, skin beginning to peel from the burnt arms. Not so pretty..

Bon weekend!!

I think it's time I let you go and that is hard to do because part of me will be in love with you for the rest of my life.


The hardest thing about growing up is that you have to do what is right for you even if it means breaking someone's heart. Including your own.


“If you really love something set it free. If it comes back it’s yours, if not it wasn’t meant to be.”

A déguster sur place ou à emporter !

Romans et nouvelles :
Vous trouverez tous ces livres en édition de poche – peu chère.
• Je voudrais que quelqu’un m’attende quelque part, Anna Gavalda (nouvelles) 
• Ensemble, c’est tout. Anna Gavalda (belle histoire de rencontres, d’amour et d’amitié ; un gros livre mais très facile à lire) actually, haven't read it, but have seen the film.
• Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas. Olivier Adam (livre émouvant , une jeune fille part en quête de son frère)
• L’homme aux cercles bleus, Pars vite et reviens tard. Fred Vargas ( très bons romans policiers)
• Cannibale. Didier Daeninckx (la Nouvelle-Calédonie entre colonisation et indépendance ; très bon roman, court)
• Désert, J-M-G Le Clézio (magnifique roman du prix Nobel de littérature 2009)
• L’attentat, Yasmina Khadra ( écrivain algérien francophone, la situation entre Israël et Palestine, roman dur mais passionnant)
• Pierre de patience, Atiq Rahimi (prix Goncourt 2008 ; livre rédigé en français ; roman bouleversant sur la vie d’une femme afghane)
• Stupeur et tremblements, Amélie Nothomb (l’expérience d’une jeune stagiaire au Japon )  (DVD-V LD07-640 )
• Kiffe kiffe demain, Faïza Guène ( une jeune fille raconte sa vie en banlieue dans un langage « jeune »)

Good to know that I will be able to find most of these in my home uni library. Was getting worried about having no time to read them all during my Parisian stay...

Bandes dessinées :
En dehors de Tintin et d’Astérix, il y a des très bonnes BD ! Je vous conseille des auteurs plutôt que des titres ; allez feuilleter leurs albums et faites votre choix.
• Jacques TARDI : tous les Adèle Blansec ainsi que les albums à partir des romans de Léo Mallet (101, rue de la gare, Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac…)
• Marjane SATRAPI : commencez par Persépolis puis continuez par Poulet aux pruneaux…
• Enki BILAL : La foire aux immortels, Partie de chasse…
• Philippe GELÜCK : Le Chat (plusieurs albums)…pour sourire
• Claire BRETECHER : Agrippine déconfite… de l’humour « tendance » et incisif
• PETILLON : L’affaire Corse… si vous ne comprenez toujours rien aux indépendantistes corses : plein d’humour


Films en DVD :
Quelques très bons films récents qui parlent de Paris ou de la France.
• Paris je t’aime : série de courts-métrages sur chacun des arrondissements de Paris. Carte blanche à des cinéastes souvent connus.
• Paris, Cédric Klapisch : grande fresque avec des personnages attachants. De Cédric Klapisch Vous connaissez peut-être Chacun cherche son chat, l’Auberge espagnole…
• Entre les murs, Laurent Cantet : une année entre les murs d’un collège, dans une classe de 4ème (Palme d’Or à Cannes 2008)
• L’esquive, Abdellatif Kechiche : la vie de jeunes de banlieue – avec le langage de la banlieue.
• Welcome, Philippe Lioret : Un jeune immigré clandestin kurde veut absolument traverser la Manche pour aller en Angleterre

"어떤 사람이 되고 싶습니까?"
"저는 그리운 사람이 되고 싶습니다."

"What kind of person would you like to be?"
"Someone who is missed."

I have always been for all kinds of experiences, the good and the bad, with a bring-it-all attitude. I kinda saw it all with a pen in hand ready, to be able to tick off on that been-there-done-that life list...

Of course, when a bad one comes your way, you are left wondering if you are able to get past it... regardless that it was you who started it all...

In the end, we will learn from our experiences, I know. It's all part of life, isn't it?!

Let's be happy, that it happened. For its memories. No regrets. :)

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unspoken words,
you'll never know

Ils se font la cour
:)