A battle worth fighting for!

Just about 5 mins before boarding the plane to go to Sicily, Italy and we're still not checked in yet!!!

No, it's not because we were late... on contrary we were 2 hours ahead and we were very excited to go to a different country and to FLY for a change.

We've got our passports, tickets.. luggage are all in the size and weight requirement.. shouldn't have any problem..

We were ready to go.

Unfortunately, we did have a little-big issue.. not his.. MINE

Yes.. here I'm holding in my hands.. the cause of our little-big problem. (nope, I don't look happy there)

Can you imagine going to the check-in counter and happy as can be to have them to say to you.. "Sorry you can't fly. He can go but you can't" HUH?! WHAT?! and WHY?! So they explained that I can't leave this country without my carte de sejour (like the green IC) cos in my passport, I've got a visa that is expired. Well, I have a receipt to show that my carte is in process but that won't do. GREAT.. WHAT NOW?!

They are being fussy cos it's in the airline company rules.

So Johan made lots of calls to immigration offices and all those concerning my carte to see if they can send a fax saying that it's OK for me to fly.. ZERO help.. ALL very negative and the hope of flying was almost gone.. Johan was on the phone for as long over an hour trying to work out something. (poor him)

Then we tried to negotiate with the employees of the airline. Finally, using a different strategy and solution... without concerning my carte de sejour.. Using the case that I am LEGAL to fly to Italy and that I have an arrival stamp from Paris that should allow me to visit other European countries withing the 3 months since my arrival. What a battle.

Eventually they bought our strategy and we managed to fly to Sicily. OUF.. what a relief! I would be really sad. Would have done other things but that would be a waste of air ticket (non-refundable) Then we would have missed the wonderful people we met and the other beautiful sites of Sicily.

Sicily is an island down South of Italy. It's an island full of life, histories, beautiful scenery and monuments. It's an island rich in its natural resources. It has a wonderful climate and fertile land.. It is also well located in the world for 'business' and it was a good stopover for travellers. Due to all these qualities, this island was invaded by so many cultures, people from many different parts of this world and all the different empires.(to name a few, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normandy and of course there were lots more)

Some of the places and sites can be dated back to the 3rd century before JC! Can you imagine that.. Above and below are photos of the Greek temples. Below is one of the many lovely days that we went to swim, snorkeling and just sun bathing. Enjoying the sun cos in France, the summer was too shy. Summer just stayed down South of Europe while the rest of is stayed COLD. Not a pleasant feeling to be cold. So here we are sunny and WARM.. aaahhhhhh... Another good reason why we came to Sicily... FFFFFOOOOODDDDD Italian Food! Yummy yummy in the tummy. Their main dish PASTA!!!! Always PASTA.. ALL SORTS of Pasta.. not just spaghetti bolognaise.. so much variety here and all sorts of sauce and things you can mix the pasta with..
OF COURSE PIZZA is another famous Italian signature food! TOO MUCH variety.. You won't be able to make up your mind which pizza topping you want to eat. So DELICIOUS!!!!
These two lovely people that you see with us above are two very lovely friends (Tiziana and Sergio) whom we visited in Sicily.. If it's not for them, we won't be visiting this beautiful island! They have been really wonderful to share their "world" with us. To host us in their lovely apartment and to bring us around.
Here is their family who so openly invited us to their home to share dinner with them. NOW here we have the best of the best Italian food.. MAMA's COOKING!!!

It was VERY good and VERY delicious. We ate really well in Sicily. Fortunately with all the walking, visit and swimming.. we managed not to put on weight.

So there you go... it was worth "battling" to go to Sicily.. don't you think??

To see more photos of us in Sicily... click on this link http://lesaventuresdeyoyo.spaces.live.com/

Back from Sicily

Did you miss us? The Italian Mafia kidnapped us for a couple of days! and I experienced the Medieval torture in a Greek city (head down for hours) ! No lah we were busy trying to cultivate ourselves and learn more about all these Greeks God and Goddess! That's why we have been away from the blog for a while!

We just got back from our trip to Sicily and soon, we will tell you more about our Honey Moon!

See you soon on the blog for our Sicilian adventures...

Medieval festival

Remaking of the lifestyle from the medieval time in Cremieu. A town which is about 20 mins drive from home. Some of the buildings and forts date back to the 12th Century. Very well maintained, preserved and restored.













One of the main entrance where the people then used to enter in and out of their village.



People of all ages were dressed up for this day to relive this particular time. They had a procession around the village. The people were dressed up as nobles, normal villagers, peasants, villains and some as character from the "fairy tales".

Musicians, food stalls, farm animals, stages to put do a little sketch, games... it was really animated.

There were lots of people who came to participate and others were just enjoying the view and atmosphere.

Look we found a elf!

Not as small as what we imagined but he sure looks like one from the "Lord of the rings" movie.

and so I thought maybe if I kissed this fella he'll turn into prince charming but then the kiss has to be done by an unmarried lady..




Hey look Johan has grown taller! It must be all the dairy products in France... :) Cheese, yogurt.. all the things you get here at a lower price compared to Brunei's market.

The little man is adorable ya? Anyone interested?




One of the many games played during those times..like a game of checkers but human size.



The farmer and his animals. He has this wonderful farm dog that will keep the sheep and geese in a group. The animals also had their little parade going on.

OFF WITH HER HEAD!!!!

Yikes.. not something I would like to experience.

So there you go.. the punishment of doing something out of the law.

So whatever you do.. be careful and be wise.. :)

Flo is another year older!

Just to share the special day with family and friends... from different parts of this world..







Here is my family in France who has celebrated this day with me. Maman Foray prepared a wonderful dinner. MERCI MAMAN FORAY!!!

For Dinner :

We had steamed prawns, fresh salmon and foie gras for the appetizers... Yum

Then we had Salad and green beans as part of the main course followed by Escargots (SNAILS) hhhmmmmmm...... how appetizing... ;P accompanied with white wine and red wine.

Fromage (Cheese), Yogurt and lastly CAKE and CAFE of course.





My present. It is a sort of sweet delicacy in this part of the region. Coussins de Lyon. (Lyon's Cushion) I don't really know how to explain what it taste like..

It's sweet... DUH...
It's with the base of Almond paste and Chocolate. Something like that. Taste yummy.









Another Pressie....

A card and EURO.. CASH! I might buy a new pair of shoe with this money.. Boots for the cold weather.. :) Puss in Boots.

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE WISHED ME! :) It's no secret now that I've turned 28!!! yes.. 2 more years before 3 0 ... how about that??? I can't believe it either..

When I was in the teens.. I thought WOW i still have a long way to catch up to them but NOPE that's not TRUE.... AGE.. YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM IT!!!! IT CREEPS up on you slowly.. year after year and BAM! before you know it... another year has passed by.

Ah it is also the parents-in-law's Wedding Anniversary!!! yup! 32 years they've been together.

A double celebration. :)

Faithful Dublo

What will we do without this faithful little van?!

Everyone, we would like to introduce you Dublo. It's a very good and reliable car/van. This is our main source of transport for the past few months we've been here. It actually belongs to Gilbert (Johan's dad) but since we've been here... hmmmmm, we sort of borrowed the car on a long term basis... Thanks to Gilbert we are able to visit so many places in France.

This is what we do.. We charge the car to the maximum...

2 bicycles (a compulsory item), a bag of clothes for the amount of time we will be away, shoes for all occasions.. food and cooking utensils.. a little gas cylinder, our fold up mattresses and sleeping bags and pillows.. books to read.

Getting ready to sleep...

'What did we do with all our things?'

Well, we chain the 2 bicycles next to the van, we put all the rest of the bags, shoes and whatsoever in the driver's and passenger's seat. Then we lay out the mattresses and VOILA a place for us to sleep!!! MAGIC!

This man has a very important role... He's the one who does ALL the driving. I could try to drive in France but I'm not confident enough to drive on the opposite side of the road and I don't have my driving licence so..... not a good idea since the police are hard workers here.. They do a check up very often..

Johan is holding a very important book, it's a book on "all" the roads in France.. I had to learn how to "read" this book. It was obviously complicated in the beginning but eventually got the hang of it and became the CO-PILOT.. hahahha.. so now, I'm forced to stay awake as I have to see which road we need to take for the next destination.

Another important thing to travel within France is a CREDIT CARD... paying for the highway tolls and petrol.. yikes... those are pretty high expenses here.

So, there you go.. that's how we travel from one end of France to the other.

Sequel of our Tour de France

After our history class at Montsegur castle, we drove more to the west direction to hit HOURS, a little village near Pau in the middle of the sheep and cows, where we went to meet up with my ex-students and their lovely parents in their restored farm!





On the program, lot of activities despite of the cold and rainy weather: cycling in the nearby countryside, mushroom harvest, dinner by the chimney, table football with the kids, few homework, trekking in the mountain and an escapade in the nearby Pays Basque to smell the Atlantic ocean . One big mission for us, FINISH ALL THE FOOD as the family were leaving to go to Angola in Africa(with Sandrine au fourneau, no problem to finish the food as she is one of the best CHEF in France;))

Birthday of a "KL KILLER"

Today, we would like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our international friend Mr WARNECK Olivier.

Anyone interested to give this young, tall, handsome and rich gentleman (this is from Flo) a memorable birthday gift....

If you want to know more about our friend, visit his blog http://zitoun-international.blogspot.com/ , contact him personally!!!

To Oliv, our best friend with lots of love

The Tour of South of France

Sorry Sorry Sorry to keep you waiting for some news. We must admit that our blog has not been updated for a while BUT we have a good excuse as we were updating our lives with our old friends...


At first, we went down to Perpignan, the Southeast French town, few kms away from Spain, to see one of my oldest friends, Mr Sebastien Garnier. He is a friend from Middle school. First parties, firsts drinking session, first holidays between teenagers, first girls, first motorbike, first cigarettes, first fighting...a lot of memories! He is now living a beautiful nest in the south, near the Mediterranean sea where he is managing 3 shops (selling dishwashers fridges, oven, TV and so on...)!









On the same week-end, another friend from our teenage years join us. This one is much more quiet, less wild but always ready for "crazy" adventures as once we travel Italy hitchhiking/backpacking or cycling's expeditions in the Alps doing wild camping and much more...His name is Benjamin....He is the tallest of all of us....













I show my friends the way. I am proud to be the first among them to be married. As you can see, we all grow up and now and we all have a serious relationship. 3 wonderful girls for 3 sex symbols...

The highlight of our stay there was the Canyoning. This barbarian name means, going down the canyons by jumping 5 to 10m in a 10degrees's water, sliding some waterfalls, swimming in small rivers, climbing few walls....Well, it's been a cool afternoon...

We also visited CADAQUES, it's a pleasant little town in Spain, the hometown of the artist and painter Salador DALI! There we had one of the traditional Spainish dish: PAELLA:

Cadaques port on the left and Dali house on the right!

On the way to Perpignan, we stopped at Montpellier, south of France too to meet Bruno's parents and to Bruno's nest (our friend from Brunei who became my housemate for 1 year and a friend for life. He is now a Dive instructor in Indonesia near Bali)! We had a wonderful dinner on the terrace with France and Elvio followed by a lovely night in Bruno's garconniere! We were happy to met his parents and see his house where I am sure a lot of ladies got trapped in it....n'est-ce pas Bruno?

After one week at my friend's place in Perpignan, we move on to Toulouse to see our friend from Brunei, Xav, the engineer. He host us in his little apartment and made us visit the town. He treat us in a nice resto as a wedding gift (yes we are still receiving wedding gift!) and the day after, we cycles along the CANAL du MIDI. This canal link the 2 French seas Atlantic ocean on west coast to Mediterranean sea on the East coast. A hard work done in the 15th century to avoid the ships to go around France, Spain and Portugal (well, let me know if you want more details cos a lot of you will be bored if I tell too much too much about it). A perfect place to cycle along the water, under the shade of big trees and no car allowed!!!




Photos: On the main square of Toulouse, by the river Garonne at sunset. Along the canal du Midi with our bikes....Flo loved it there!








After Toulouse, we went to discover a interesting historical place. In the 12 and 13th centuries, a religion were taking place. The Cathars faith, was a religion close to Buddhism in some ways. All the material things are bad, only spiritual is good! Suddenly, the pop decided that this religion was BAD ans ask King of France to eliminate it. In 50 years, all the Cathars were assassinated except in MONTSEGUR, the last cathars were hiding in their last castle, on the top of the mountain in the Pyrenees, near Spain. It took 11 months for the French army to take the fortress. At the end, as all the cathars refuse to convert, they all went down to the BBQ and more than 200 people were burnt alive for not being christians!!! It was the END of the Cathars religion!
As you can see, we had to fight against a very bad weather, and a very strong wind that was flying us away! A very interesting trip in the middle of nowhere that brought us back to the 13th century.


To be continue very soon.... as always, you can see some more photos on our album http://lesaventuresdeyoyo.spaces.live.com/