Home!

I am happy to be home. Home is where I want to be. I suppose that at the end of the day, the objective merits of food and environment matter little. Home is an emotional judgment.

Milo (the drink) tastes better than "chocolat chaud" (i.e., hot chocolate). If I wanted to die of cholesterol poisoning, hokkien mee seems a better proposition than foie gras. At this present moment, the children are hungering for a plate of economy rice with unceremonious servings of rice, meat and vegetables. And for right now, kaya toast with soft boiled eggs and teh si sounds a whole lot more appetizing than croissants with "les oeufs à la coque" (i.e., soft boiled eggs in the shell). Oh yes... we definitely started missing home at around Day 10 of our 21 day trip.

What's even better is that the roads don't ice over when it rains and there is NO snow. I have no need to listen to weather forecasts in Singapore because it has little impact on my daily decisions. In France, knowing the exact temperature of the early morning the next day was important in order for us to predict whether it was safe to drive out somewhere or stay back and chill out at the cottage around the fire. It's a good thing that French weather forecasts are amazingly accurate and precise ... even their 5 day projections. For 5 days before we left our cottage in the Loire et Cher, we were tracking the weather reports for fear of being snowed in. It was a bit like waiting to hear your 'A' level results. STRESS!!

And am I dreaming or is it really that our roads are bigger and parking lots are wider? French village roads have such narrow lanes that when the oncoming cars pass you, you can feel a gust of wind push at your car. I am not used to that and everytime it happens my heart tries to leap out of my mouth.

Yes... it definitely is good to be home where people speak Singlish and English with a particular accent. It was good to walk into the foodcourt and feel the ambience of a place with colourful food photos, people in shorts and t-shirts, bright lights and loud talking. It's nice to be back in my own country where good manners and good living are differently defined.

I did blog regularly whilst we were away but there was no access to internet. I'll upload one blogpost a day that I wrote during the trip in the next few days.