Cruise dining!

I remember that I promised you a post about my trip to Paris. Here goes...I actually went there for a dinner with a JPA official, it was a kind of exclusive invitation for a small group of students.

We went onto a bateau parisien!! For cruise dining (I bet I'll never get to go on it again, it's so expensive...unless if I end up working for JPA in Paris of course. lol)

So...let's start with some sights from the boat.

just a bridge in the distance

some prettily lighted up building (I've no idea what it is)

prettily lighted bridge

Er, what was this building already? (I really don't know Paris... :P )
Okay, I checked (just for you!) It's l'institut de France. Don't ask me more. :P

and this is l'Assemblée Nationale (the National Assembly)

Eiffel tower in the background
We started the cruise just beside the Eiffel tower (but on the river, of course ;P ), and here we were coming back towards the starting point.

We had two round tables for 20 people. Actually round tables are kinda rare in France. I think it's because each person has their own plate, and it's not like there's anything to put in the middle of the table, unlike Asian meals where we have the shared food in the middle. Ours were probably the only round tables in the boat...all the others were square tables lined up (as you will be able to see in a later photo)

Our two tables.
My place was just opposite where I was taking the photo, at the near table.

So you see, we weren't quite able to just get up and take photos whenever we wanted. Some of my photos were taken from my seat (I could just lean back a bit and snap a photo towards the front of the boat), but then it would include some empty seats or tables as well. Later, before dessert, we went outside to the side of the boat and there's where we snapped some other nicer photos (no glass in between!)

Now, I'm sure you want to know what we ate. Here's a collage of all the dishes I have pictures of (some of them from a friend). In short, the three on the top are desserts, the bottom-right one and the two on the middle-left are appetizers, and the rest are main dishes except for the three bowls on the middle-right, which are the side dishes for the main course. The bottom-centre dish is actually only fish, my friend added the 3 blobs of veggies for the photo ;) (and by the way, the fish was supposed to come with a sauce...except that it had alcohol in it and so the Muslims asked for the dish without sauce.

(click to enlarge)

The menu was in English...I don't know whether it was because they requested it. Probably...otherwise there'd be only foreigners on the boat :P

There was music while we were dining...there was a stage at the back of the boat (which we couldn't see from our tables) The singer and the violinist walked around the boat, stopping at a few places to perform (so that everyone could at least see them for a while, I guess)

A photographer even came along to take photos of us, as a group at the table, individually or in groups of twos or threes. Then they developed the photos and asked us if we wanted to buy them, for 20€ each. What a rip-off! I could take the photo myself... Of course, they mounted it on a cardboard souvenir thingy. We each got to choose one since JPA paid for it ^_^ (they negotiated a group price)

We took a group photo at the end of the meal, just before leaving.

There were two cameras...I hate it when there's more than one camera! You never know where to look -_-

Before that, I had taken photos with two of my juniors:

with Patrick, and En. Faris (our new attaché in Paris) joining in at the back :P

with Yong Chang

Then there are the pics taken by Anati:

There, the tables in the boat...

and a pic from outside ^_^

And not forgetting the Eiffel tower.

with As and Ummu (from left); Anati was the photographer

These were taken just outside the boat.

Actually I reached Paris in the morning...and met up with some people before going for the dinner.

I met up with Firdaus first, and we walked around a bit...and took a photo in front of Notre-Dame.


Then we met up with Faeez and Asilda. This was on Place Georges Pompidou.


And Asilda introduced me to a lovely cupcake shop in Paris, called Berko (you can see the bag in the pic!) I didn't dare to take out my camera in the shop, so I took these pics using my phone.



If you want to know more about these cupcakes (like where to find them :P ) or just see better pictures, head over to backpackers-zone ;)

Well, that's all for this trip!

I want a koala!

Like, this one. I love squishable.com. I came across it by accident (an ad on a website, actually) They also have such creative descriptions for their animals! Like for this koala:

Spotting a koala in the wild is highly dangerous. The sheer, supernatural power of cute can turn an adult into a smiling, cooing lump of giggle. For days, all they'll be able to do is grin and say is "Awwwwww..." Then, while their attention is occupied, a kangaroo will steal their lunch.

Don't let this happen to you! Before going into the wild, build up you cute resistance with this little Eco Koala. He's just as irresistible, but without the danger of hungry kangaroos. Slowly inoculate yourself to his freakish adorability by hugging in the comfort of your own home. Awwww......

Oh, and they're made of soy. Yep, soy. The outside is soy bean fiber, and the inside is 100% Kapok, a sustainable rain forest crop. No kidding.

13 inches of dangerously cute koala, outside soybean fiber, inside Kapok. Ages 3 and up

And check out these bunnies in a carrot. I certainly know what I'd do if I were a millionaire. :P

By the way, squishable.com is a dangerous site. I shall stop looking at it now. :P

Poor Mickey...

I discovered this website some time ago. Every day Mick posts something, like in a diary. Sometimes it's pretty creative ^_^ Like today, I'm guessing W is Walt.

Lessening eye-strain

I always wondered why Blogger has some of their templates so narrow. There is so much empty space on either side of the actual blog page, and that makes the words rather small too. But I don't know how to make my own template, so I have to use one of theirs.

And then there are some blogs I read which have really tiny font. I have known for some time that pressing Ctrl and scrolling the mouse wheel simultaneously enlarges or diminishes the font size on a page. But I don't often think of doing that.

Then some months ago my mother told me about TidyRead, an application which extracts the text from a page to make it a "text-only" page, with font sizes you can choose from. I now have it installed on my bookmarks toolbar, and I click on it any time I get tired of straining my eyes to read a text. (actually, I have come to use it for almost every text I read)

But there is something I don't quite like about TidyRead...when it extracts the text, you don't see any of the sidebar or stuff like that. So when I'm on a friend's blog, using TidyRead will make me miss any changes on the blog below the topmost view (the first part of the blog, that we see when we go to the page) And also, sometimes when a post begins with lots of photos, TidyRead can't recognize that it's an article, so it can't extract.

So one day I thought of doing Ctrl+scroll. It worked pretty well...font as large as TidyRead, with all the stuff "on the side"! And I got a pleasant surprise the next time I visited the same page - the font returned automatically to the size I chose the last time. Which means I don't have to think of it all the time!

Though this method isn't without its drawbacks... For some pages (I don't know why exactly), enlarging the text means that you have to scroll sideways (as well as up and down) to read it. That doesn't happen for most texts, though...I guess it depends on how the word wrap works. (or whether there is word wrap, maybe)

So there you go, two ways to lessen the strain on your eyes if you read a lot on the Internet. Take your pick!

My sent box

My INSA webmail sent box, as of now:


11 out of the 12 last e-mails are for internships. I have an interview coming up next week, and a laboratory in Vietnam that would like to accept me.

Did you hear that? Vietnam!! What do you think? Should I go? Hmm...

Anyway JPA doesn't allow us to go outside of France for any part of our studies...so if I want to go I'll have to ask them whether it's possible. Not sure yet whether it's worth the hassle...

Reading list, part 3

Here are part 1 and part 2. I wanted to post this earlier, but each time I wanted to post it, I had several other posts along the way, and so I decided to keep it for another time. But when I didn't have anything to post...I ended up not thinking of it.

So here's the list:

1. Stuart : A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters
2. Marley & Me - John Grogan
3. Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
4. Killer Dreams - Iris Johansen
5. Cat among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie
6. The Last Prophecy - Jon Land
7. Blinded - Stephen White
8. Criminal Minds: Jump Cut - Max Allan Collins
9. The Jester - James Patterson & Andrew Gross
10. The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho
11. The Big Four - Agatha Christie
12. The Television Detectives' Omnibus (collection of stories)
13. Perfectly Criminal (collection of stories)
14. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
15-19. Harry Potter 2-6
20. Hickory Dickory Dock - Agatha Christie
21. Twelve Red Herrings - Jeffrey Archer
22. A Quiver Full of Arrows - Jeffrey Archer
23. A Twist in the Tale - Jeffrey Archer
24. The Mystery of the Hidden House - Enid Blyton

Kakak marah kerana sayang

I nag because I care. If I stop, it means that I have given up on you.

Isn't that what the pantun's all about?

Mon lait vient d'Angoulême

Just noticed that my milk comes from Angoulême (I buy the cheapest kind, and recently it's changed)


Okay, maybe it's not exactly Angoulême...it's just that region. :P

Meet Pickles

It is weird how I always seem to get ideas for blogging when I'm outside, and therefore not in front of my computer. And by the time I get back, I've forgotten what it was.

I think I had an idea for a post title earlier...but it has slipped my mind. So you have to bear with the current one, which I thought of at home.

Anyway...this is a photo post. I'm only blogging because I have photos to show you (which should be a good thing, right? :P )

First up. Check out the huge dog! I saw it while walking back from the market this morning...unfortunately, while trying to snap a photo discreetly, I didn't notice the person walking in front of the dog :/ So you can only see its tail. Really, it was more like a shaggy bear than a dog...


Yesterday we went to a Japanese restaurant...actually I had already posted a couple of pictures from there.

I didn't take photos of all the dishes, just a few "notable" ones:

This is a chicken salad (with sesame, the menu said).


The sauce actually tasted a bit like rojak or satay sauce...there was very little chicken, under that sauce are the "normal" salad leaves...well, normal for France anyway.

The main dish was the crêpe-pancake (okonomiyaki), but I didn't take a photo of it since I had already done so the last time. (and on the outside, it looks exactly the same whichever filling you choose)

For dessert, I tried their green tea cake, which was pretty good, though nothing exceptional. (a little pandan-like, actually)


I like how they serve the dessert with some ice-cream ^_^

And Mah took an assortment of desserts, which is actually three desserts. It's double the price of a normal dessert, so I guess it's not bad if there are three of you and only one orders dessert to share. On the other hand, you can't choose which desserts you want.


After eating, I went to Part Dieu...and to the Yves Rocher shop there. I browsed around a bit, and came across this:


Malaysian coconut cream. I have seen coconut-scented products there for some time now, but I don't know whether they only put the scent or whether it was real coconut extract...I guess this one is real, at any rate. Also, it seemed to be the only product in this kind of jar.

And that's where I got Pickles. :)


He's cuter in real life. Really.

(And if you wanna know why I call him Pickles, I'll give you two hints: He's a hedgehog. And he's green.)

Windows automatic updates

Just wanted to share this rather useful tip: Kill The "Do You Want to Restart Now" Nag

Basically it's:

1. Go to Start --> Run
2. Type net stop "automatic updates" then Enter.

For a more complete "tutorial", you can go to the original article linked above ;)

How to eat a cookie

Well, I'm not done with the Cookie Monster. Here's an interview with him, it's hilarious! :D



And there is one with Elmo too!



So cute!! I love Elmo ♥

I want some cookies too

It is Sesame Street's 40th anniversary!

I didn't know that until I went to the Google website in INSA (at home I never type google.com, I always use the search bar and go straight to the result page), and who should greet me but the Cookie Monster ^_^


But surprisingly, when I went to google.com (in France, typing "google.com" redirects you automatically to google.fr, with a link to go to google.com...silly, right? If I wanted .fr I'd have said - or typed, in this case :P - so), there was no Cookie Monster, just the normal colourful "Google".

Paris lights

I know I haven't been updating very much, and it's because I've been lazy. :P I still am, actually...so I shall just give you a little "taste" of my short trip to Paris (I'd say that it was 23 hours in Paris this time ;P ) Besides, I have an excuse for not posting a complete account yet...I'm still waiting (hoping, more like it) for some more photos.

This should please those Paris-lovers... (or even non-Paris-lovers...what's not to like about pretty lights?)

(and I must say that I was well-positioned to take this photo...)

And this second photo is perhaps blemished by an orange thing in the corner...but just consider that a hint about what's to come ;)


Till I receive my photos...