Coming home

Sandcastle on Paris Plage.
What precocious child created this?

Dear readers, I hope that you have not given up on me, as it's been a while since I last posted. The lovely Chris and I are now back in Singapore, in our new apartment and we are re-united with Lola, who was recently released from her 10 day prison sentence (aka quarantine).  Having loved the freedom of France and being able to run around off the leash, the spell of confinement in mandatory quarantine was a bit of a shock to the system.  She didn't eat for the first 24 hours, and if you've spent any time with Lola, you will know that that is a most unusual occurrence!  I must say that the quarantine facility was amazing.  She had her own room with outside space, her own toys and her bed, and we were able to visit every day.  The staff were really kind and she did seem to adapt, but it was a huge relief and joy to have her back with us.  


Life has been slightly strange since we got back.  We began with a couple of pieces of bad luck, including Chris's wallet being stolen on our very first night in Singapore. He left it in the back of a taxi and we never saw it again.  Then I put my back out, which meant that we couldn't head off to Batam in Indonesia for a pre-Christmas weekend with friends.  As these things tend to come in threes were were not surprised when the car got sick, and needed treatment to the tune of 2,500 dollars!  All in the first week back.


That said, we are loving being back in warm weather, but we do miss the space and quiet of France.  We have filled the French void to some degree by our latest addiction - to the French TV series Spiral - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_(TV_series).  This was a Christmas present which we rather naughtily opened in advance and it just blew us away.  We watched the first four episodes in a single sitting and have only been able to ration our activity because of having opened another Christmas gift - The Killing - which is a Scandivegian police series (set in Denmark) of equal merit, which we have also been watching in 4 episode chunks.  A part of me would like to stay up and watch through to the end of both series, however long it takes, but life does have an annoying tendency to require rather more of one than sitting in pyjamas watching DVDs.

Les Baux de Provence:
brilliant sunshine in the middle of November

We were most definitely not in pyjamas on December 16th, which was the night we hosted a pre-Christmas party, with the theme of "Fashion".  I was channeling Anna Wintour, complete with sunglasses and new haircut and thought I looked pretty good, but some of our guests looked amazing, in particular the lovely Ann Marie and the equally lovely Megan. Chris had devised a fiendish fashion- based quiz, which provided an equal measure of furrowed brows and gales of laughter.  Food and drinks were equally fashionable - chocolate martinis and peach bellinis to wash down mini lamb burgers and salmon fish cakes, crostini with tapenade and mozzarella, duck confit and cherry jam, foie gras and onion marmalade and teeny tiny pots of chocolate mousse.  Yummy!  Sadly, I managed to forget to take any photos, so I am unable to share any images of the evening with you, so here are some photos of our last couple of weeks in France instead.

Just before we came back to Singapore we took a trip to Provence, which was utterly magical.  

Sunset in the Camargue

We stayed at La Cabro d'Or in Les Baux, a little town which has very fond memories for us.  If you are ever in the neighbourhood, don't pass Les Baux by.