Memories of Montmartre, Paris

Thought I’d start sharing selected accounts of my European trip in May.

The day before we (hubby and I) did the standard Paris thing – Eiffel Tower, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe. There wasn’t an actual itinerary for the second day – get to Montmartre and we’ll see what that leads us to.

We got to Montmartre by metro. Tip: if you are going to use the public transport more than 8 times (or 4 times each if you’re with a partner), it’s cheaper to get a carnet of 10 tickets (11.60 Euros) than a single ticket (1.60E).

Once there, we browsed through the shops selling souvenirs and then continued in the direction of the Sacre Couer Basilica. Along the way, we paused to take in the view of Paris from the hill. Ah, how blessed to be able to do this. Sat down to do a bit of people watching. There were a couple of guys hawking goods near the foot of the basilica. Some guys were forcibly tying friendship bands on tourists’ wrists and then demanding money afterwards. Here’s another tip: if you’re visiting a place, it helps to learn about the type of scams prevalent in that area.

After that we continued exploring the little alleys of Montmartre. I thought I’d have the feeling of stepping into set of one of my all-time favorite movies, Amélie(Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain starring Audrey Tatou), but no — this was real life so the scenes unfolding before us were not color-processed towards the warm tones characteristic of the movie. Ha ha. The area is very pleasant and charming nevertheless. We just need to walk one block away from the main tourist track to find ourselves completely alone.

We chanced upon a grocery store called Au Marche de la Butte that looked remarkably familiar.

It was the store from Amelie (where Lucien and his evil boss, Collignon, worked). The real owner’s name is Ali and he has become a mini celebrity because of the movie. One of his shop windows was covered with newspaper clippings mentioning his store. Apart from that, the store front looked exactly as I remembered it from the movie. The Two Windmill Cafe (Café des 2 Moulins) looked totally different though. It has been painted pink all over. There was a garden gnome sitting on the counter.

Nap and Kittens on a Vacuum Cleaner Made My Day

I kept seeing little floating stars from about 10 am today. This aura is usually an indicator of an imminent migraine attack. By afternoon I felt like a headache is coming so I took a nap . I woke up an hour later feeling better. Thank God!

Although my day started with a little pain, it ended with a smile – I watched this video of a bunch of kittens on a Roomba vacuum cleaner about 18 times today. Now I know the exact reason why I need to get a Roomba!

I hope your day is full of smiles!

Sensory Candy Land

I’m gonna be blogging everyday this month! I’ve lost the momentum to blog following my month-long European trip in May so I’ve also signed up with NaBloPoMo, where you pledge to blog everyday for a month based on a suggested theme. September’s theme is “Beautiful”.

I love Septembers. It’s the start of the rainy season here. I have mentioned a couple of times  here about my love for rainy days. The day gets cooler, the colors of the leaves get more saturated and there’s a thick, fresh smell of evaporating grass perfume. Wait, did I just say grass perfume?

I see the world as a candy store of magical sensory experiences. Smells to be smelled, interesting textures to be caressed, poked and squeeze. The world is indeed a beautiful place.

One of my favorite sounds is the gentle clicking of Ricola breath mint boxes when you open/close them. I could go on an on opening and closing them. When I walk into a bookstore, it’s not just words and pictures that invites to be explored. Paper is one of my greatest weakness. The multitude of textures, the different smells when you browse through the pages, the feeling a certain tone of off-white gives me.

I had an interesting experience at the bookstore the other day. A book was inviting me into its pages (creamy and pockmarked with miniscule pits). Through experience, I can tell how a certain type of paper is going to smell like (No, no I don’t spend all my time smelling pages of books, I have a lot of common paper samples as a graphic designer) but this one was a mystery. So I decided to do the necessary — I drew my nose closer to the book and took a deep whiff somewhere between pages 100 and 165. The smell was a delicious combination of vanilla and grass perfume. I didn’t notice that someone was beside me until I closed the book, let out a very tiny, “mmmh” and smiled to myself. After getting giving me a derisive stare and unapproving sneer, the stranger walked away slightly disgusted. I looked at the rest of the folks in the bookstore. They were either grabbing something purposefully or reading the first few pages or blurbs at the back covers. I strolled to the kids section and was met with a boisterous littly boy negotiating with his mum about how he really wanted a book because some of pages are bouncy. A girl was seated on the floor touching a drawing of a colorful fairy, totally entranced.

Somewhere along the road to adulthood we lose this sense of wonder and delight in seeing normal things in a novel way. I’m glad I didn’t lose that gift because there’s just so much beauty all around just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. Why don’t you join in the fun some time?

PS: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie is coming out soon (I just love that title). Pancake rain sounds good in small doses.

Wish Granted: A Cramp-Free Period

I have a *girl* announcement to make.

My periods are now cramp-free. :) Let me say that again – I HAVE CRAMP-FREE PERIODS. On my last two cycles, I didn’t suffer the debilitating stomach cramps I’ve associated with my monthly flow for the past 20 years or so. Yay!

I really, really never thought that this day would come. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s like discovering something for the first time or finding out that there’s a better way to do something you’ve been doing your entire life. “This is how it should feel? Life doesn’t need to come to a screeching halt every month? Fantastic!”

I went out about town meeting customers the other day and  was on my feet, during my heaviest flow day for 5 hours. Ha! What liberation! Just months before, I would be doing my routine of  sitting on the chair the whole day crying the pain away.

How did it happen? Well, it started with me trying to find a vitamin supplement that comes in soft gel capsule form for my mum (she has difficulties swallowing large hard tablet ones).  I ended up buying the only one that fit the criteria (it’s called Vykmin). I bought the bigger box because I thought I’d give them try too. (I’ve been on and off various supplements for a while now.) After about 3 weeks of taking them, I had my period. Amazingly it was without any cramping. It was so unbelievable that I didn’t tell anyone about it, in case it was a fluke.  So I continued and lo and behold! no cramps again this month!

I have not made any drastic changes to my diet or lifestyle. I drink the same amount of water as before. I had no increase or decrease in physical activity or stress levels. Unless the government has been tinkering with the water supply here, the only difference I could think of in the past two months is the red and black gel capsules I’ve been taking daily.  Have I, despite my attempts at eating copious and varied amounts of fruit, vegetable (and milk, among other things), been lacking in the vitamins and minerals department all along?

Whatever it is, I am very, very thankful this wish came true. I’ve spent so much time away from school and work due to the pain and so much money at the doctors and pharmacists to try to fix it. I feel for you girls who are still suffering as I once did. I hope that this post would give you some hope in finding your own cure.

PS: Although I am without cramps now, I am not without pain. I have major headaches 2-3 days before the onset of period. I’ve never had this before, at least not with this intensity. The headaches were very, very painful and even after 3 rounds of Panadols Extra, the pain would still be there. I can’t sleep properly because I’d be dreaming of having my head drill throughout the night.  One of the nights, I had a dream of a soldier bashing my head repeatedly because I coloured the battle scene wrongly (pink and green leaves?), it was kinda funny. LOL

Easily Amused

My cat is sleeping on the bed, oblivious to the thunderstorm brewing outside. His curled up position makes him look like a baby seal, so chubby and cute. But I bet baby seals don’t whine as much as he does (he whines about 179 times a day).

The coffee on my desk is 5 hours old and tastes like what a 5-hour-old coffee should taste like – bitter, with resentment for a glory lost.

I have a handful of pistachio shells on a piece of recycled paper. I wondered what they could be reused for. Googling for an answer, I found “helmets for snails“. LOL :)

PS: Busy week for me, yay for weekends!

See You Later

Absent
Hey all. I’ve just crawled out of my week-long semi-comatose state. I was down with a particularly bad cold. Had fever 4 days straight. I was convinced I had the flu but no, just the common cold, insisted the doc. In my drug-induced stupor, I kept trying to console myself that some good will come out of this and whaddaya know! Having spent my days mostly in deep slumber and awake in the wee hours of the night, my body has somewhat adjusted to Central European time! Yup, I will be leaving for my European adventure in a few days’ time. I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging on the road so if there are no updates here next month, do pardon me!

Present
While lying sick in bed the other day, it dawned on me how we tend to really be in the present during extremes in our lives — in mirth or gloom, when we’re experience great pain or pleasure or during moments when we were this close to death. The other parts — those that make the bulk of our lives — we merely go through the motions, only to be referred to when current times are bad: “those were the days”, “I wish things were back to normal”, etc. Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to live my life positively in the present and I have to say that it has helped tremendously in the way I see and live my life. I genuinely believe that living with a positive mindset coupled with affirmative action has helped me achieved a lot of my goals — one of which is this very trip I’m taking. :)

Tomorrow is May Day for many of you folks, so enjoy the long weekend!