Spring Brought Me…

To places I’ve never been, I’ve never seen, I’ve never expected myself to.

This season of Spring is usually the representative of rejuvenation, renewal and regrowth. Cherry blossoms bloom and wild flowers find their ways parachuting in the air, finally landing on a random plot of grass. They added colours to the healthy green grass, a brand new perspective of vibrant colours compared to the snow white of the previous Winter season.

They say Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it. I nod my head in agreement with that. But this Spring, the thin skin of grass has another layer of wild flowers, yellow and white atop of it.

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This was a view I couldn’t stop gasping for breath at, it was such a breathtaking view. It reminded me of the quote “Send me things in the mail. Wherever you go, I don’t care where you go, just send me something in the mail from where you are.” It was a postcard right before my eyes. So far it has only been the postcards featuring Switzerland’s natural beauty that had me fully believe that they are possibly not photoshopped.
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When I went down the slope to have my photo taken, I felt so small in this world for a moment. But I wanted to still be remembered by someone.
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Looking at where I’ve been this Spring, taking a short train ride and ending up in the Bernese Oberland, climbing up and strutting down in this small steep country and all I see are large brown hotels and houses built the cuckoo clock style.

It’s probably the same view I’m snapping photos of, however, they might turn out different because of the lighting, focus, angle. It’s the same old things – Snow-capped mountains, green grass, blue skies with white clouds so near to me. But these same old things are what kept me falling in love again and all over again with.

This place called Switzerland, where I’ve spent nearly one and a half years, calling it my another home.

How are you enjoying this Spring, wherever you are? :)

Ticino We Went

Ticino
Lugano • Melide • Mendrisio • Bellinzona20130419-080214.jpgI’d like to know about some of the things that they teach down there, like building a lake. If I ever wanted to build a lake, I’d like to know how to do it.

20130419-080222.jpgTo peep at the world; to see the stir

20130419-080237.jpgA mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe.

20130419-080745.jpgWhen you’re young you think that you’re going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.

20130419-080253.jpgNothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.

Hello Snow!

I was kindly asked to do a guest post by my dear friend Jolene for her blog NEWINDECEMBER which just turned 2 years old! She wanted me to share about my experiences in Lausanne and probably a bit about Christmas. Well, there would be a lot of posts to mention about all these thus I decided to narrow it down to the topic: Snow for this post!

I’ve been in Lausanne, Switzerland for one and a half years already, time really flew past too quickly. I’m now experiencing my second winter of my life, as a Singaporean who experiences the four seasons of hot, very hot, humid and rain. My first experience with snow was just a year ago when I first entered Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland as a direct entry student but at that time, I did not manage to play with snow that much as I expected myself to since I was busy studying! But now that I am getting used to the curriculum, winter time means snow is play and play is snow!

Right now in December, the entire Switzerland becomes fluffy white because… snow is here! I was asked a question by my French professor last week “So.. as a Singaporean, how are you liking snow?” Initially I thought it was a rather weird and abrupt question to ask though relevant since I do not experience winter in Singapore. But again I gave it a second thought, indeed.. I asked myself if I liked snow…

AND THE ANSWER IS YES!!!!!!!! I LOVE SNOW!!!!

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Do you feel the happiness in me as I attempt to do my snow angel? ;)

Snow can be troublesome.. imagine all that slush and wetness by the roadsides. Snow can bring about danger to cars on the roads which is really a worrying issue especially when the school is on a higher altitude than Lausanne.

But snow has brought so so so much magic and happiness in my life. 

  • I love playing snow ball fights!

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Although I’m always the one aimed at and my snowballs pretty much fail to hit my friends as I plan for them to.

  • I feel so happy for children and their families who enjoy their sledging rides on snowy slopes!

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  • I still enjoy taking the beautiful scenery of Switzerland even though snow is just white.

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And most importantly, when there’s snow.. it also means Christmas is here and Christmas markets are definitely happening! Time for some Christmas shopping~

One of the nearest Christmas Markets we have from Lausanne is Montreux’s Noel which is a stretch of stalls along Geneva Lake. You have snowglobes, bookmarks, candies 

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and definitely not missing out on food: Crepes, Churros, Raclette, Saucisse de Veau… the list goes on anyway. I basically settle my dinners at the Christmas markets :)

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And with that.. I hope the readers of NEWINDECEMBER and MADEOFBALLOONS will get the chance to see snow one day (if you have not) and continue to appreciate snow in some way or another!

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Christmas in 15 days’ time and here’s an early greeting to all:

♥ MERRY CHRISTMAS, LOVELIES! ♥

Glad we met, S

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和你在外,我能自在做我自己。朋友,你我都很幸福,能到老遠的歐洲瑞士實現願望,完成夢想,終於能在這兒深造。讓我們一起共同達到目標,順利畢業,讓家人以我們為傲!加油吧!

We’ve Finally Reached St Gallen

Road trip to St Gallen, just because we wanted to visit the Abbey of St. Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage site! Instead of taking the supposedly 3 hours to reach St Gallen from Lausanne, it ended up being nearly 4 hours plus due to an accident we witnessed (flying car) and chain car accidents on the highway that led to traffic jam (feel like eating kaya toast now).

I always find road trips fun, but I never fail to end up falling asleep in the car (I’m never the one to drive, though I’d really love to – just because I’ve yet to get my driving license). But snacking and singing along to english/ french/ cantonese/ malay songs on the journey kept me pretty much awake.







I actually find it a pity that I unfortunately do not know the stories behind Christianity and Catholicism well, because especially in the Europe region and Switzerland, where we often visit the churches and cathedrals, I find myself clueless at who they are, what the pictures depict and etc. More often, the descriptions (if there are) are in Latin.

I’d say I roughly know the history behind each church/ cathedral I visit or that I take initiative to find out through wikipedia, possibly that could be sufficient. But thinking about how I take photos of the intricate details of the tourist attractions/ heritage sites.. I wonder what am I taking those photos for? It is definitely to remember that such a beautiful heritage site existed and that I visited it. But.. I don’t know the stories behind them :(

It’s not that I do not bother finding out, but I’d say this really has to be a passion or interest to begin with. I definitely do not mind knowing more about a country, city and its attractions which would well consist of its rich culture and history but to go in depth, to perhaps a religion that I am not familiar with – No matter how much I read about it (not that I read alot), I still find myself unable to absorb that well. If I could give myself a reason for that, it’d be because I’m not often immersed in that environment which allows me to ‘practise’ what I know and share with others that easily. Knowing that I’ve read it before, but unable to lock those details well in the mind, I might as well not share with others these incomplete fragmented stories.

It’s okay =) I know my interests may lie elsewhere, I could be the one sharing about other topics whereas others will share about such with me. Like I first mentioned upon my admission to this school, it’s this school that taught me things I never knew but others do and allowed me to teach others things I knew but they don’t. It was just a thought that got me pondering upon tonight…

Hi, Blindekuh Zurich

Once again, I find myself in Zurich but this time round, for a school marketing integrated project as we embark on our research on Blindekuh Restaurant in Zurich. This is the world’s first dining-in-the-dark restaurant, which is well.. well copied by many other restaurants. But what remains as its main purpose of the project since 1998 is that staff there are blind or partially sighted, giving them chances to work in a restaurant that shares their ‘sight’ with the well sighted ladies and gentlemen from all over the world.

It was a pretty interesting experience I’d say, aside from improvements to be made in terms of culinary. In a way, you could say, perhaps the dining in the dark experience would probably make it up for the ‘maybe not that up to your expectations’ dishes.

Staff are friendly, especially when you have to lay your trust in them, as they lead the way for you to your seats. Perhaps you’d understand the reason for not having any photos of the Blindekuh restaurant.. because I obviously dined in the dark! It’s not that difficult looking for the cutlery and perhaps most of the time, you may have to send your mouth to the food instead of the food to your mouth, or out of frustration, you end up eating with your fingers like how some other guests might have done so. It’s up to your imagination how you think the dishes may look like.

Having visited the restaurant, it’s time to work on our project in terms of guests’ pre-experience, experience and post-experience. This month of February shall keep us busy like bees!

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A gift for a lovely young lady

I obviously got the idea of my blogpost title as seen above from this post from Joanne whom I met through blogging, always love reading her blog posts about her fun weekend trips in Switzerland, fortunately she gets to go back to Singapore now and then too, her baking adventures, fashion posts and even some travel posts (she recently went to Istanbul, now that is one exotic destination I want to go too!)

There was the CNY Singaporean dinner last Saturday in Zurich.. yes I went for that, wasn’t sure if I could make it for today’s in Geneva. A few days ago, I realised I’ll be available on Saturday but by then it was too late to mention that I’d love to join the CNY Singaporean dinner in Geneva, but anyway, I managed to take a train alone to Geneva today just because I thought it was only polite if I said a simple hello to Joanne. And again, if I were to go empty-handed, there’s no way I’m doing that for the first time we’re meeting each other. Thus, I decided to quickly pick out some Singapore food packs that mum sent me earlier on for her.

So these are what I hoped will warm her up during this crazily cold windy period in Switzerland, the Siberian wind can really blow me off from Switzerland back to Singapore…


Photo taken by Joanne

Unfortunately, we did not managed to really sit down to chit chat because all the Singaporeans were eager to meet one another in Geneva (that explains why I did not managed to ‘lou hei’, my favourite yusheng… how could you do this to me?!) I’m certain we might have another chance to meet up since we are just slightly more than 30 minutes away from each other :)

After meeting Joanne, I went for my Thai lunch, took the chance to do some shopping, braving the Siberian wind.. see what girls do to themselves just for shopping?! Scored a coat that’s on sale (everywhere’s on sale, even the brands!) and a drink I’ve missed so much at a Japanese minimart I happened to chance upon, here you go:


Weather, please be kinder, this is too cold for all of us!!! The water in the school cat’s bowl is frozen, how to drink ice?!

Musee d’Olympique & Musee de l’Elysee

When family and friends ask me about Lausanne (because I am studying right now), I’d better know the places of interest, tourist attractions at the very least.

A trip down to the Olympic Museum (free for now until the 29th of January) which features the largest archive of the Olympic Games in the world. To be honest, I’ve only really looked into The Olympic Games – its history, efforts, architecture when they had it in Beijing, China 2010. Looking into the past of Olympic Games all over the world was interesting, things I never knew, things I’ve never seen before.

Musee de l’Elysee’s the Photography Museum, always amazed at photographs featured in such exhibitions because I always end up wondering why and how these photographers/artists are inspired and end up snapping such photos of a certain angle, genre, series.

Next time if anyone comes over to Lausanne, at least visit the Olympic Museum if you come by Ouchy (you have to come here anyway, it’s such a beautiful sight of the Lake Geneva anyway). :-)

My Magical 2011

2011 was lovely, it really was. Not just lovely, it was crazy, wonderful, educational, fun and all the positive adjectives that could describe it fits well here. It is indeed hard to believe that the time has come for us to say goodbye to the year 2011 and welcome 2012 in a few days’ time.

1. I had the best time of my life with Four Seasons Resorts Seychelles and Seychelles, no matter was it for internship or for holiday with the family. Seychelles Memories



2. A short trip to http://madeofballoons.com/category/travel/hong-kong/”>Hong Kong to get the family together once again was much appreciated.

3. Going around hunting for cafes or restaurants to dine at! Hatched, Strictly Pancakes, Food for Thought, 2D1N Soju Bang, Riders’ Cafe, The Knolls, Prego, Rochor Beancurd, Sing Ho Chicken Rice, Muthu’s Curry, Oomphatico’s, Old School Delights, Salted Caramel, Roti Prata House, Bedok 85 etc. Foodiefreak

4. Participating in Spotlight Singapore in Cape Town was an eye-opener! Stepping into the Africa region was new to me for certain!

5. Being part of Project Yume in Japan, Iwate and Fukushima prefecture was one magical trip. The fact that I left home to spend that precious one week in Japan to do what I’ve never expected myself to do, I did it. Getting to know a lovely bunch of friends in Japan, running all around the touristy attractions, rushing for trains, carrying the heavy luggage up stairs, lugging the camera everywhere I go and most importantly, eating the best meals of my life, meeting the most adorable kids and witnessing them drawing to change the world =)



6. Learning a language was never this fun, until I went to French Toast to pick up French!


7. Discovering the restaurant of my life: Red Pig Korean BBQ… Don’t mind having myself soaked in the fragrance of samgyupsal because my love for it never dies (at least till today and now that I am still penning this).

8. Graduating from Temasek Polytechnic with the Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management, and even though being the almost valedictorian already meant a lot to me. Sharing my future plans with my course manager and lecturers, at the same time hearing their points of view and advices…



9. Submitting my application for EHL, going all the way to Switzerland for selection day, family and friends who gave me so much support, and finally seeing myself in Lausanne since September as an official student of Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, also the first graduate of Temasek Polytechnic HTM to have applied there. It was one huge step nearer to dream :-)

10. The early arrival of En certainly added overflowing joy to the L family just right before I left for my studies in Switzerland

11. So fortunate to have met a wonderful group in school: members who enjoy working with one another so much, so cooperative, so thoughtful. May we continue to work well in the brand new year!

12. A memorable 20th birthday spent in Lausanne and Zermatt, Switzerland the winter wonderland! Surprise Surprise, Shinn you’re 20 years old / Birthday Trip to Winter Wonderland



This year 2011 has been magical. Thank you for friends who let me into their lives and thank you friends for coming into my life. Family and friends who shared their most magical moments with me, thank you. Family and friends who shared their most disappointing moments with me, thank you as well. I love growing up year by year, it feels like I build more blocks of education, maturity, fun, excitement, happiness, experiences, thoughts, inspiration and etc into this life of mine and that it gets even more precious day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

Cheers to the arrival of 2012!