Pimples and the spa owner.

My pimples are in full bloom.
And they operate in gangs and form little territories on their landscape, which will be my face.

I attended a meeting recently, where all the spa owners attended. I wondered if any would comment on my face.
One did. After the meeting was over and we engaged in small talk in the corridor, she leaned over to me and said, if you don't mind me saying, I think you're suffering from a breakout because of your hormones. All you need to do is drink lots of water, flavored with a little bit of lemon, to flush out toxics in your system, and eat chap chai pheng instead of fried stuff. You'll be alright very shortly. No need to do facials. And no coffee hor.

A friend remarked that she would be offended if someone talked to her like that. I wasn't offended, the spa owner did it in a very non-offensive, sharing, maternal manner. I thanked her, and then looked for water to drink after.

What kind of shoes do Singapore girls wear to work?

My two colleagues compared shoes they were wearing for the day, which they bought without consultation with each other, from different places. Sharp shiny patent blacks.
Me? I'm wearing prissy round tip classic pumps, one of which is peeping shyly at bottom of photo. I'm so demure by comparison.

I'm 80s woman in chains, hear me roar.

Galaries Lafayette. At night when no one is around. I was taking a night walk with a pair of Singapore designers. One of them mentioned that in his younger days, he might be in his early 50s now, he would traipse around town until 3 in the morning so no one would bother him when he's taking pictures of displays. Now he just admires window displays of stores near his hotel. With me and the designer, the much younger people. But, obviously we have less drive. We were perfectly content with no desire to wander too far. Very windy lah.

Window display of Galaries Lafayette at Boulevard Haussmann. Collaboration between the department store and Vogue to dress up windows.
But no French girl dresses like this. They dress in an extremely non fussy manner - they love their trench coats, scarves, Gerard Darel bags, ballet flats and skinny jeans. Hair can be artfully messy, like French farm girl.

Have a tea break at Printemps

Galaries Lafayette is for the tourists, Printemps is for locals.
Both are huge department stores spread over several buildings located across each other on Boulevard Haussman. Both choose to deny each other's existence. Both provide maps to tourists and both maps conveniently leave out their competitor (in place of competitor is an empty plot of land, how is that possible on prime shopping real estate??)

But I prefer Printemps, because of their cafe, located at the top floor of the store that comes with a gorgeous rose window ceiling.

The right orangey ball is not my fat finger, it's an orange floating ball at the cafe.

Bears in Paris

At the show, a chair made of teddy bears. The bears look so soulfully sad stuck onto a chair.

Bear ATTTTack! at Tsumori Chisato store in the Marais, completed with bloody claws and all. The glass window panel was also smashed to illustrate how dangerous bears can be, when they're not stuck onto a chair, and stuck in store.

Usual Paris suspects

I was expecting a normal yellow-brown tower. But I got a neon blue one that twinkles light at the start of every hour. Plus the EU was in town having a meeting, so that explains the stars.


The tower and the lonely moon. Looks like a quiet poetic scene but I was surrounded by gawking tourists and illegal immigrants selling mini neon souvenirs.


The seine at dusk.

French food..

If you're feeling wimpy, have the fish dish, said the cafe/bar romain owner.


If you're up to something delicious and literally rare, have our beef tartare, which we have been serving for the last 50 years.
It was good, but there was TOO MUCH of it. I thought the French believed in smaller servings. It was good though. Well marinated.

Or order the canard. I have a regular saying. You can't go wrong with chicken. In Paris, it's possible, so stick to the duck. Medium rare pls.

Befuddling Day

Me and the boss went to a government agency yesterday night for a dinner meeting. We were a little early so the host switched on the TV for us, and it seemed like a fake program was on, Lehman down, Merill got acquired. AIG in trouble...

I was a finance major at a US uni, and joining an i bank was like the nirvana job, anyone who could make it to Goldman, Lehman,
Merrill, ...you're the envy of your fellow classmates and are set for life. Now, the banks are falling like dominoes.

Perhaps that's why I'm doing OT, subconsciously, I'm insecure about my job so I'm out to prove that I can finish my work despite jet lagging. How now, brown cow? Should I start buying shares? Have they hit rock bottom?

J'aime beaucoup Paris!

I'm in the City of Lights! And when I practise my French on people here, they understand! But unfortunately I don't understand them when they speak. And they think I can understand because I initiated the conversation but I really don't, so I ended up nodding my head trying to look frenchly intelligent but it's just not happening! So to make the locals more comfortable, I speak English with a French accent.

The French (or Parisiens)are horribly misunderstood. All the people I met were very nice people. And not just the people who were trying to sell me things. And there are less dog crap on the streets too. Today I performed the ultimate service test -Wore flip flops to Galaries Lafayette and Printemps because it was raining and I didn't want to spoil my good shoes, and the service was still as good. Maybe the service staff just think I'm bohemian like Nicole Richie and I'm actually, secretly, very very heiress-rich.

Unfortunately, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm glad I went on this trip - what a great learning experience! More pics when I get back home.