and so, it started with a book

i've always liked this series of books
under the collective name of "editions de paris" (e.d.p)
which contains mainly pictures of parisians' everyday lives
& their homes.
chanced upon my first of this series in osaka
didn't understand a word of it because it's written in japanese
but the scores of images it contained
made those words meaningless to me
and these images are really insipring
flipping through them will magically stir up inspiring thots in my mind

i used to finger these books longingly at kino
but couldn't bear to buy them
(they cost $40 apiece for an A5 sized book, less than a cm thick)
i would check up their website and dream of owning every series of it...

one day shoutmate told me: "you should check out the chinese section of kino, a same book in chinese print will cost less than a jap edition"
& so i ventured and found - a copy of "e.d.p" printed in chinese
at less than half it would normally cost! ($15 only!)

and so, whilst holidaying in taipei recently
we had to venture into pageone of course
and *!!!* i spotted on the "recommended shelf" an "e.d.p"!!!
so i asked the hubby, to please check w the staff
where's the shelf that contained this book,
so i could check out if they had all the other series too,
so i could buy all of them! muahahaha

and the hubby found more than just e shelf...
these taiwanese, they are ever so helpful
when the hubby asked the pg1 lady where he could find more of such books in pg1
she brought him to the shelf (where i found and bought 4 more e.d.p)
she then passed him this brochure and told him we could go look for
THE PUBLISHER [田园城市] of these books, which is in taipei, and they would probably have more of such books.
omg i nearly fainted.

and guess what?
the publisher was just a few streets away from our hotel! hahaha...
ok, not exactly just next door, but abt 10min walk away,
within the precinct of zhongshan
and this precinct was such an oasis for us
there were the type of shops that we really love -
ppaper - sells the type of stuffl like the defunct asylum;
de stijl - sells vintage jewelry which i can ill afford but i soaked it all up in my head and heart, i'll be back one day to buy something from there;
le bouquet - a very pretty bakery & yummy macaroons;
dandy hotel - a really funky hotel w whimsical windows,
really wished we had stay there;
and loads of other cafes, quaint shops and eateries



somehow we are always drawn to such places
the romanticizing of coffee & cakes, books, alleys, sidewalks, cafes, bookstores, jewelry, & designer shops which are like the brains of creative individuals that one can walk into, explore, prod...
these are really the fodder for our minds, & e fuel for inspiration

two things happened, this lunar new year

1
woke up last sunday morning to hear noises coming from the living room
i scurried out from the bedroom to find toppled, my vase of dried branches
and then, something flew past me

it was a sparrow!

honestly it was trifle alarming to see a bird in the house
i scurried again towards the balcony to slide open the doors wider for the sparrow to fly out
but before i could do so,

"PIAK!"

the poor bird whacked itself into the sliding door and dropped to the floor!
aiyohs, it really scared the wits out of me
somehow it managed to pick itself up only to fly a short distance
before hitting against one of the dining chairs

this time it stopped moving

k and i peered over the poor creature
it was blinking and still breathing,
its chest heaving up and down
k gingerly picked it up with a towel and brought it to the balcony

then i heard it again

"piak! piak! piak!"

i approached towards the source of the sound
*SCREeeeECH*!!!! there was another sparrow in the guest room!

this one was a tad smarter, despite several futile attempts to fly out through the closed windows, it didn't knock itself out as it was hitting against the glass with its feet.
i hurried to open the windows to release it and it flew with all its might out to freedom :)

(thank God the other poor fella maanged to recover by itself, by the time we returned home in the evening, it was gone =). k almost wanted to bring it downstairs to leave it by the tree! what if the cats got to it!!! hmmph!)

(we forgot to take pictures of the knocked-out birdie on the balcony! because: #1 - i was so caught up by the event, and rushing off to church, totally forgot to do so. #2 - k deliberately not suggest taking any, as he was worried the bird would not survive)

2
books galore!


my favourite delicious second-hand bookstall at beauty world plaza!
this elusive bookstall sets up periodically and sporadically
so the only way to find it is to chance upon it
and its my favourite haunt because you can get really rare finds here
so i greedily gobbled all these treasures with some mahjong winnings

1. the ever quirky Dr. seuss Dictionary! how cool is that! this one is printed in 1964!
"this dictionary has a serious purpose.
there is nothing more serious than helping a child learn how to read.
but the editors... who put this dictionary together,
decided they could be serious...and still avoid being stuffy.
so they made this book of words just as funny as they could make it.

it's full of ridiculous alligators, foolish bears and giraffes' uncles,
all racing around and getting involved in nonsensical adventures. - Dr. Seuss"

2. The Pooh Story Book, with original pooh illustrations by e.h. shepard -
nice nice lovely sketchy illustrations, unlike the pristine and flat illustrations of the commercialised pooh we commonly see now

3. Giant Treasury of Peter Rabbit
with beatrix potter's orignal illustrations of course

4. love and be wise
it's a children's story book adapted from a french book "riquet a la houppe" by charles perrault.
haven't read it yet, but this is one of the 3 morals from the book -
"if your lover's handsome
only in your eyes
is he deluded
when he thinks you wise?"

imagine, this in a childern's story book!

5. water voices
a book on water in different forms - rain, ocean, morning mist...

6. trashy novels! to unwind whilst chugging beer and chips :)

*

all in all it was quite a bountiful new year!