Life Rambles

Quest For French Residence Permit

In one of the previous posts, I talked about how I became an English teacher in France. In this post, I will talk about the biggest obstacle I or any other foreign national has to face before being able to live and work in France — Residence Permit (Titre de Séjour). The application of a …

Haircut After Lockdown

Last Tuesday, 15 days after déconfinement, I finally got my hair cut. Post haircut. Hair clippings can still be seen on my face. Messy-Hair Couple Silviu and I are different in many ways, but we are similar in that we do not take as much care as we should of our crowning glory. Silviu is worse …

How I Became An English Teacher

In June this year, I will have taught English in France for four full years. These four years have been as much a learning experience as a teaching one. How did I end up being an English teacher in France? Numbers, Numbers, Numbers Generating sales figures, gathering data, analysing numbers, producing statistics, justifying valuation, verifying …

Confessions Of A Consumerist

I am super hyped. I am testing my new microphone in this episode. For the past eight episodes, I have been using Silviu’s old Sennheiser headset. It’s gaming headset with memory foam ear pads and a short boom arm for the microphone. I am using it as he has bought a fancier one. A Bose, noise-cancelling headset …

Musings Of Déconfinement

Today is the first day of the déconfinement. Déconfinement  is the French word used to describe the period after Corvid-19 lockdown. Do you know the English word equivalent for Déconfinement? Please drop me a text if you do. I was stumbled by my students when they asked me for the English word. After poring through …

Our Neighbours Upstairs

Passerelle du Bassin du Commerce. Le Harve, France. December 2019.

What types of relationships do you have with your neighbours? In this episode, I am going to talk about my neighbours. Our upstairs neighbours, have been a source of noise nuisance since last October, and the situation has gotten worse during the lockdown. How would you deal with this kind of neighbours?   Quels types de …

What I Think About When I Am Training On My Indoor Bike?

Ep 6 What do I think about when I am training on my bike?

In the last episode, I told you about a new routine that I have picked since the start of the lockdown in France. It’s indoor bike training. I am training 5 times a week on my bike, based on a 6-week training plan from Zwift, a virtual training application for runners and cyclists. In this episode, I …

Virtual Cycling Adventure With Zwift

Ep 5 Week Virtual Indoor Cycling Adventure With Zwift

What’s keeping you sane during the lockdown period? For me, it’s the 30 hours and 610km of virtual indoor bike training with Zwift, and of course, the buckets of sweat over the last six weeks.In this episode and the following one, I am sharing with you my virtual cycling adventure that I have embarked on. …

Food Ramblings Of A Singaporean

Ep 4 Gardens By The Bay, Singapore

In this episode, I want to speak about food. I want to gripe about the tons of food photos my friends from Singapore have been posting on Facebook in the past three weeks, since the lockdown in Singapore. I want to ramble on about the different dishes from Singapore. I want to tell you that …

Self-Reflection: Productivity Guilt

Ep 3 Ferme Viltane. Tulips. April 2019

In Episodes 1 and 2, I mentioned about my low productivity regarding the list of things I have planned to do during the first month of lockdown in France and that I have experienced feelings of guilt and failure. I shared with you two newspaper articles countering the fad of achieving productivity during these trying …