UEFA 030 – Viva Parie

UEFA 030 – Viva Parie


I arrived at Gare-de-East train station in Paris early next morning.


The morning crowd was rushing to work. Many commuters were jumping over the entrance and exit, indicating that many of them had free rides. I snatched some bread and a cup of coffee at a café to get some coins.


There were guide maps and instructions on how to go places with the public transport, but, all were in French. I could figure out somehow, that there was a bus service direct from the train station to Charles de Gaulle Airport. European has adopted sign languages for their directions and public instructions, that more pictures and logo and less words.


It seemed that the arrival hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport was a huge circular corridor. In the middle you can see escalator going up and down. I checked at the monitor and go straight to the Arrival Sortie, where my wife will be arriving. As soon as I reached there, my sister greeted me, as she was already waiting.


My sister moved to France in 1987. She had a boy named Frank and a girl named Paula.
Though a housewife, she was involved in some voluntary social works, such as, a committee member in the Association of Singaporean living in France. She wrote to me quite often after moving to France.


After a short wait, my wife arrived. She looked tired but managed to smile.


My sister drove us to her beautiful French cottage, located just at the outskirt of Paris. It was a village town named Quermoy-Viller, in the district of Creteil. Quermoy-Viller is pronounced as “Oma Villa”.



It was a 2-storey bungalow with basement.

The front yard was green turf. In the stroller was baby Paula, while Frank was sneaking from the front door.

The rear view of her house. In the stroller was baby Paula.

the backyard was a mini garden bordered by a bushy vacant land.

The basement was a garage, boiler-room for the heating system and storage of bulky items. The handyman would have their DIY workshop in there and the wine lover will turn some of it into a cellar. In short, it is a multi-purpose basement hall.

Of course my wife loved the kitchen and the luxurious dining hall.

Frank was a little shy, as he had not seen us for 6 years.

Paula looked at us a strangers, as she was born in France, and that was our first visit.

That night we had a nice delicious dinner, especially for me,

after a month of butter and cheese in Heerbrugg.

My sister is a fantastic good cook.

523 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 22.07.2007 at 0845hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5

UEFA 024 – Les Bicyclettes

UEFA 024 – Les Bicyclettes


On Sunday, after breakfast I went to Bregenz in Austria, with the intention to explore a town Lindau in Germany.

It was a successful trip and I took many photos along the way.

The buildings in Lindau are very historic and had detailed architecture.

From the museums and city centre I walked to Ferry Point. This is tne entrance of theport. I did climbed up the lightouse and it was an interesting climb.

As a son of a man who worked in the British Navy, I love the Lindau port very much. This picture was taken by my frind from the top of the lighthouse. Surely you would have noticed the castle wall which looks like the castle in the movie about Robin Hood. This castle has got the design of the Moors' castle.

Then I walked down to the main attraction of the port, the Ferry Point, where you can board ferries to many other places within the Lake of Bodensee, which is connecting Lindau to Bregenz in Austria and Roschahch in Switzerland, Schauffhausen and all the way to thw west German town of Stuttgart . With a special Swiss travel pass, you can board all the public transport, without having to pay any more extras. The tickets include also land and water transportation. But, of course, did not include the air planes.

Out transport system in Singapore should also implement such easy travel for tourists ticket system. One ticket can take all kinds of transportfor a certain period of time.

The crowd was at the ferry point. I saw a father and son was crawling on the floor at the walkway of the ferry point, doing floor art with crayon. The father was paintinga beautiful portrait of a sweet little girl.

In Bregenz, it was much quieter. The train and bus station was lonely.

From the train & bus station I walked to the town centre of Bregenz and the streets was also quiet. Along one of the lonely street I saw an old Mercedes, probably used during Hitler’s time.

Then it was time to go back to Heerbrugg in Switzerland.

This is a view of the yard nearby Leica factory. I managed to rent a bicycle from Mr Aerni, my training manager, so that I can go to more places during the weekends on bicycle. I also cycle to the factory every morning.

Wild Heerbrugg factory is an old 4-storey building, but, was undergoing major renovation. As a result our training was temporarily located at level one of the red administration building. Thus the training room became quite cramp. However cramp it was, there was always space for coffee room, where Mr Jungker will call us for break at 10am and 3pm.


After lunch I would walk around the neighborhood of Leica factory with Mike and Yakhzan. We strolled from streets to streets and made a loop back to the factory. During one of the afternoon stroll I saw Mr Jungker,my instructor in Leica, was riding on a bicycle home. He stayed nearby the factory. Therefore, driving was unnecessary.

As I had known, the Swiss are very particular about saving the Earth from pollution, and less driving means less carbon monoxide are produced. Even Mike also rode from Hotel Heerbruggerhof to the factory. He had managed to hire a bicycle from Mr Aerni.

When Mike finished his training he handed the bicycle to me to continue the rent. I must tell you that I really enjoyed the bicycle rides as long as I was in Heerbrugg. I rode to the farm behind Leica factory to see what were grown in the field. I also saw beautiful horses in their barn. It was a very free and tranquil experience. It was only me, nature and my Lord.

On another incident I also rode to the edge of River Rhine, but unfortunately, it was the new river bank which I am sure is a modified concrete river. I did not manage to go to the waters, because it was too far down the slope. Must have been the flood prevention strategy.

One weekend I rode the bicycle to a place near Au, about 5km from Heerbrugg. At this place there were many small huts. Each huts had a small compound where vegetables and flowers were planted. I learned later that it was a kind of weekend pastimes of the Swiss, i.e. doing gardening in a small garden. It reminded me of a German word ‘kindergarten’ which means ‘garden for the young’. But, this one is ‘garden for the old’.

484 words

Drafted on 07.04.2007

Edited on 03.05.2007 at 0029hrs

At Woodlands Avenue 5