Ok, honestly, I speaketh no francais whatsoever and only have a vague idea of what my post's title means but it basically captures the essence of this post. I haven't been in the mood to blog of late as there were really no materials of interest to talk about. Well, ok, there are a few but I was plain lazy to construct sentences and post about 'em. And one of the things that happened in the past 2 weeks involves me eating crow pie (not to be taken literally, it's a figure of speech) and I'll get to that right after I blog about this piece of exciting news! Anyways, I have been inspired again and it all happened yesterday.
In my new year's resolution I had mentioned that 2009 is a "bag buying"-free year with one small caveat.....if I make a trip to Paris, France, I will allow a small Louis Vuitton purchase. Well it's looking mighty possible I'll be an owner of an LV piece come November. Yesterday, I was having a long-distance call with my eldest sis and she was talking about one of the airlines having super cheap tix flying to the UK. As she was checking the airline site out while we are having this conversation, she starts getting all frenzied and says she just saw return tix to London for USD500 and that was where the ball got rolling. I immediately told her to book the tickets cos the offer was simply too good to refuse. To make a long story short, my sis, the 'rents, my mum's sis and I are all confirmed for a 10-day European extravaganza this November and I am super psyched! We'll be flying into London and then taking the Eurostar to gay Paree for a 3-day stay. I'll get to stroll along the Champs Elysee, get up close and personal with "Madonna On The Rocks" as well as the "Mona Lisa", take an elevator ride to the top of ze Eiffel Tower and perhaps a trip to the famous windmill of Moulin Rouge. Next on our tentative itinerary is a 4 hour train ride to Geneva where we will gallivant around, take in the Swiss sights before taking another 20 minutes long train ride to Lausanne for more scenic Swiss sightseeing.
After our 2-day sojourn in the country of the Swiss Alps, we will make our way back to England for the remains of the trip before our flight back to the homeland. Our remaining time will be spent taking jaunts down memory lane, mainly a trip to visit Lancaster, the town where I grew up (69, Portland Street, here I come!!), a short stop at Bicester Village (for some outlet mall retail therapy) and my sis and I have plans to take in a West End show. I love that I'll be able to say I've watched shows on Broadway (if there's ever a chance to catch "Xanadu" at the Helen Hayes theatre, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE AND GO. I got to sit 10 metres away from Whoopi Goldberg who was doing a Katie Holmes- OK, Whoopi's appearance in "Xanadu" was waaaaay before Katie Holmes' broadway run but Mrs. Tom Cruise's appearance in "All My Sons" was soooo talked about that I've decided to name the appearance of famous celluloid stars in theatre as doing a "Katie Holmes") AND at West End. Call me a braggart cos part of me is but mainly I'm so excited and just wanna talk about my good fortune (completely with God's blessing and all) thus far. I have not been back to England in eons. Most of the memories I have are fuzzy at best. I can't wait to eat proper fish and chips, you know, the ones that come served in bits of paper, and smother those chips in vinegar, none of this tartar sauce nonsense. My Mulberry will also have an oppurtunity to visit the land she originates from (ok, getting of the crazy-talk train now).
Like I mentioned, this is the rough draft, so to speak, of our forthcoming trip. Once the tickets were safely purchased, my sis immediately started mapping out a tentative schedule. We did toy with the idea of taking in Barcelona or Rome but the train ride to both those cities would have taken about 10 hours so we ditched that idea and decided to go Switzerland instead. We also wondered if a trip to Euro Disney would make its way into the plans but considering that the combined age of both she and I would equal that of our mum's and we will be travelling with 3 more "mature-in-age" individuals, we thought we'll forgo the theme park this time. Gives room for a return visit in the future, when there's a chance of bringing the nephew and 2 nieces so we don't look like total kids. This trip will be more of a cultural and fashion experience. I'm already thinking of wardrobe choices. It'll be autumn when we go and considering the European weather has a tendency to be bitingly chilly but not full on winter garb as yet, I can take my coveted camel brown Calvin Klein leather jacket out of hibernation and also finally have a reason to wear the knee high boots I bought on sale for, get this, FIVE FRICKIN DOLLARS in Atlantic City during my holiday there last Summer. I have so few reasons to be decked out in cool fall/winter clothes that I'll make any excuse to wear clothes I've bought that is geared towards cooler climates. I was just saying I needed to go on holiday to a place where I can actually make use of those boots and the oppurtunity presented itself magnificently. Now, some people might say that the the 5 dollars I paid for those boots does not justify the total cost of the whole trip in itself but who cares! I'll use any excuse to be able to rock those knee-highs. Ooh, I wonder if the weather is cool enough for me to wear my pink goose-feather puffy jacket without looking like, to put it simply, a goose?
Of course, not everything is going to be easy, namely, money to burn on the trip will need to be saved. I just recovered from my bi-coastal trip last summer and have the end-of-March Bangkok trip as well as the May company trip (which still remains a mystery destination at this point as persons in charge are annoyingly remaining schtum on the plans and location) upcoming and those will require some moolah. I also have to set aside some money every month to pay off my insurance, my Mulberry (till the month of June) and my lil HP 2133 netbook, which I'm currently using to type out this post (till May) (of course it's on an interest-free payment plan, why pay in full when you can stretch out the payments over a couple of months?). I have a major family gathering back home in September that will put a dent in my salary for that month. Which leads me to admit that there's an enormous possibility that I won't achieve 2 of my stated NY resolutions, the 10K savings and the 10K balance on my study loan. I'll most likely get close but it won't reach my target. I feel a little bit sad and disappointed about admitting defeat on those 2 items in the second month of the year but I have to be realistic and after taking into consideration the events in the past coupla weeks as well as numerous projected personal budget calculations, it became more and more glaringly obvious that I was not going to make those targets. But as long as I still make the effort I'll be contented. The contra is that I get to have life-enriching experiences instead.
All in all, up to this point in the year and not counting trips back to my home country as well as the to-and-fro into the country I'm currently working in, I already have or made firm plans to add an additional 6 different immigration stamps in total this year. Beat that old passport! If I can recollect correctly, my old passport bore stamps from 8 different countries in the span of 5 years. I'll be able to come close to that record only a year after my new passport was issued. This is completely, to quote Barney Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother", AWESOME! I guess if 2008 was the year of bags for me then I'll have to name 2009 the year of travel!
In my new year's resolution I had mentioned that 2009 is a "bag buying"-free year with one small caveat.....if I make a trip to Paris, France, I will allow a small Louis Vuitton purchase. Well it's looking mighty possible I'll be an owner of an LV piece come November. Yesterday, I was having a long-distance call with my eldest sis and she was talking about one of the airlines having super cheap tix flying to the UK. As she was checking the airline site out while we are having this conversation, she starts getting all frenzied and says she just saw return tix to London for USD500 and that was where the ball got rolling. I immediately told her to book the tickets cos the offer was simply too good to refuse. To make a long story short, my sis, the 'rents, my mum's sis and I are all confirmed for a 10-day European extravaganza this November and I am super psyched! We'll be flying into London and then taking the Eurostar to gay Paree for a 3-day stay. I'll get to stroll along the Champs Elysee, get up close and personal with "Madonna On The Rocks" as well as the "Mona Lisa", take an elevator ride to the top of ze Eiffel Tower and perhaps a trip to the famous windmill of Moulin Rouge. Next on our tentative itinerary is a 4 hour train ride to Geneva where we will gallivant around, take in the Swiss sights before taking another 20 minutes long train ride to Lausanne for more scenic Swiss sightseeing.
After our 2-day sojourn in the country of the Swiss Alps, we will make our way back to England for the remains of the trip before our flight back to the homeland. Our remaining time will be spent taking jaunts down memory lane, mainly a trip to visit Lancaster, the town where I grew up (69, Portland Street, here I come!!), a short stop at Bicester Village (for some outlet mall retail therapy) and my sis and I have plans to take in a West End show. I love that I'll be able to say I've watched shows on Broadway (if there's ever a chance to catch "Xanadu" at the Helen Hayes theatre, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE AND GO. I got to sit 10 metres away from Whoopi Goldberg who was doing a Katie Holmes- OK, Whoopi's appearance in "Xanadu" was waaaaay before Katie Holmes' broadway run but Mrs. Tom Cruise's appearance in "All My Sons" was soooo talked about that I've decided to name the appearance of famous celluloid stars in theatre as doing a "Katie Holmes") AND at West End. Call me a braggart cos part of me is but mainly I'm so excited and just wanna talk about my good fortune (completely with God's blessing and all) thus far. I have not been back to England in eons. Most of the memories I have are fuzzy at best. I can't wait to eat proper fish and chips, you know, the ones that come served in bits of paper, and smother those chips in vinegar, none of this tartar sauce nonsense. My Mulberry will also have an oppurtunity to visit the land she originates from (ok, getting of the crazy-talk train now).
Like I mentioned, this is the rough draft, so to speak, of our forthcoming trip. Once the tickets were safely purchased, my sis immediately started mapping out a tentative schedule. We did toy with the idea of taking in Barcelona or Rome but the train ride to both those cities would have taken about 10 hours so we ditched that idea and decided to go Switzerland instead. We also wondered if a trip to Euro Disney would make its way into the plans but considering that the combined age of both she and I would equal that of our mum's and we will be travelling with 3 more "mature-in-age" individuals, we thought we'll forgo the theme park this time. Gives room for a return visit in the future, when there's a chance of bringing the nephew and 2 nieces so we don't look like total kids. This trip will be more of a cultural and fashion experience. I'm already thinking of wardrobe choices. It'll be autumn when we go and considering the European weather has a tendency to be bitingly chilly but not full on winter garb as yet, I can take my coveted camel brown Calvin Klein leather jacket out of hibernation and also finally have a reason to wear the knee high boots I bought on sale for, get this, FIVE FRICKIN DOLLARS in Atlantic City during my holiday there last Summer. I have so few reasons to be decked out in cool fall/winter clothes that I'll make any excuse to wear clothes I've bought that is geared towards cooler climates. I was just saying I needed to go on holiday to a place where I can actually make use of those boots and the oppurtunity presented itself magnificently. Now, some people might say that the the 5 dollars I paid for those boots does not justify the total cost of the whole trip in itself but who cares! I'll use any excuse to be able to rock those knee-highs. Ooh, I wonder if the weather is cool enough for me to wear my pink goose-feather puffy jacket without looking like, to put it simply, a goose?
Of course, not everything is going to be easy, namely, money to burn on the trip will need to be saved. I just recovered from my bi-coastal trip last summer and have the end-of-March Bangkok trip as well as the May company trip (which still remains a mystery destination at this point as persons in charge are annoyingly remaining schtum on the plans and location) upcoming and those will require some moolah. I also have to set aside some money every month to pay off my insurance, my Mulberry (till the month of June) and my lil HP 2133 netbook, which I'm currently using to type out this post (till May) (of course it's on an interest-free payment plan, why pay in full when you can stretch out the payments over a couple of months?). I have a major family gathering back home in September that will put a dent in my salary for that month. Which leads me to admit that there's an enormous possibility that I won't achieve 2 of my stated NY resolutions, the 10K savings and the 10K balance on my study loan. I'll most likely get close but it won't reach my target. I feel a little bit sad and disappointed about admitting defeat on those 2 items in the second month of the year but I have to be realistic and after taking into consideration the events in the past coupla weeks as well as numerous projected personal budget calculations, it became more and more glaringly obvious that I was not going to make those targets. But as long as I still make the effort I'll be contented. The contra is that I get to have life-enriching experiences instead.
All in all, up to this point in the year and not counting trips back to my home country as well as the to-and-fro into the country I'm currently working in, I already have or made firm plans to add an additional 6 different immigration stamps in total this year. Beat that old passport! If I can recollect correctly, my old passport bore stamps from 8 different countries in the span of 5 years. I'll be able to come close to that record only a year after my new passport was issued. This is completely, to quote Barney Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother", AWESOME! I guess if 2008 was the year of bags for me then I'll have to name 2009 the year of travel!
