beloved bel

Wow - where has the time gone?  5 amazing years in London and loving every minute of it.  Trust me, there are still days when I wake up and I have this warm fuzzy feeling on the inside of me - the realisation of living and working in this cosmopolitan city, a privilege I don't take for granted, and I thank God for this wonderful opportunity. And it's also that feeling knowing that I would not be here forever that makes me cherish each day and each season when it comes.  I would tell myself it might be my last summer here in London - I guess it's what they say, to live each day as if it is your last - yup so make the best of it Bel! :) Last year I organised a "Happy 4 years" brunch with my girl friends, asking everyone to wear either red, blue or white.  Turns out, almost all of us turned up wearing navy blue and white striped tops, it was hilarious.  This year is slightly different.  I spent my 5th anniversary finalizing my wedding details out in the English c

"Of Dragons and Dungeons" - this is the name given for the last town (or village?) we visited in this Easter trip.  Dinan in Brittany is like a place which time has stood still.  Very still.  Initially I booked a hotel room here such that we would have spent 2 nights here and 2 nights in Pontorson, but K said since these two places are only a 45min drive away, it won't make too much of a difference.  We were pleasantly surprised by what we saw when we arrived. View of greater Dinan A typical street in Dinan We only had about 4h in this town and we loved seeing all the old French medieval architecture - houses with timbers, beams and all.  I felt like we were on a movie set or something and a dragon would be coming out anytime spewing some fireballs... K loved this place.  Boy he was excited because for him, it was like his childhood storybooks come alive.  He hurried me along to see the different sights on our map, and surprisingly asked me to tak

Saint Malo and Cancale are two seaside towns opposite the UK separated by the English Channel.  If we were to have taken the ferry from Portsmouth, we would have arrived in busy port Saint Malo.  It is said that even though it is a port, do not overlook this beautiful fortified seaside town.  25min further along the coast is Cancale, another seaside town famous for their oysters. We drove to Saint Malo in the late morning and arrived before 11am.  The beauty caught us by surprised and in fact walking around the fortified walls reminded me of the walls in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  It was cold btw... Saint Malo Saint Malo By the fortified walls Look at these super high cakes!  The strawberry one looks gooood. Another creperie in Saint Malo A massive dog Outside the local restaurant where we had lunch We decided that today would be "seafood day" and for lunch K suggested driving further on from Saint Malo to get more authentic and mor

Did I already mention this was supposed to be a relaxed trip?  I call it the "pre wedding-moon".  Since nowadays there is honeymoon and "babymoon", why not have a "pre wedding-moon"?  It works, no? On the second day, we woke up at 9am and had our french breakfast slowly... followed by more snoozing after breakfast.  We suspect Tomoko must be thinking "oh my, what a lazy couple..." Woke up to a layer of ice on our car which we needed to scrap off Finally at 1130am we set off for Rennes , the capital of Brittany.  It's about an hour's drive away and we we reached an hour later, ready for some lunch.  We stopped by a creperie and had a savoury crepe each before starting our own walking tour.  Tour guide?  Mr K himself hehe- my personal driver and personal tour guide even though the man hasn't been to Rennes himself.  Lucky Bel I know ;) It was freezing btw... we couldn't believe it was only 3deg and we ended up walking aro