when time stood still...

There is this pendulum in the Pantheon at Paris which tells the time. Suspended 67 metres from above, the golden ball oscillates periodically around a circle, indicating time.

The mechanism behind this pendulum is simple. Its plane of oscillation remain unchanged with respect to the stars. The only thing that moves is the Pantheon, or in fact is the Earth itself. The Earth rotates around the pendulum or the Pantheon moves along the pendulum making it seem as though the pendulum is moving in a circle within the Pantheon.

Once a while, we become like this pendulum - we detach ourselves from the ground of reality hanging on to the thread of escapism, wishing that time would pass us by while we go along this fix trajectory of what we want our lives to be.

We delude ourselves that we are not moving while the fact is that even if we refuse to move, our surroundings will change and we'll be changing with respect to it, though unwillingly and unknowingly.

Time just marches on relentlessly.

Football Part 2

We went to Stade de Gerland on Saturday evening for an Olympique Lyonnais match. Unsuspectingly, we walked around the empty stadium just to realise: maybe, there might not be a mtach today... and it turned out that the match was postponed to Sunday. LOL, and we thought maybe the fans are not here yet or maybe its like the S-league or M-league where no one goes to.

the empty grounds of Stade the Gerland against the sunset

So, here we are, on Sunday at the stadium where the first thing we noticed was: It was very crowded. That's more like a football match!

Olympique Lyon fans

Juninho taking the free kick. look at the crowds at the stadium...

Crowded...

As usual, we can't help ourselves, must take photos!!!

Football!!

Yesterday, we went out to watch a football match between Olympique Lyon and Auxerre. When we reached there, we found out that the match was postponed to today. So, what we did was to visit the olympique lyon store and bought some team merchandizes. And some of them bought a football. So, what happened in the end, we played football on some street near the stadium. Haha...talk about total randomness.

So, we played another round of football today right after my lunch. I think I ate my lunch too quickly because my stomach is feeling funny now. I suspect it is gastric...lol...Haha...in about 15 mins time, I'll be going for the football match...

Reveries and Passion

I just came back from a concert held at l'Auditorium de Lyon. It was a performance by the Orchestre National de Lyon on the topic of 'Reveries and Passion' (Dreams and Passion). It does remind me of how I used to go for free concerts in NUS. I dont have that luxury anymore.

Two pieces were played before the half time interval. One was about the roman carnival, the other is an organ concerto. I forgot about the first piece maybe because it seems so classical but the second piece gave me the impression of a nightmare, rather than dreams. It was a contemporary piece composed in 1995.

I was amusing to hear various comments from my friends who went. Patrick was saying that he felt so uncultured because he cant appreciate it. He remarked that he saw one guy sleeping next to him and the old lady covering her ears throughout the whole orchestra piece. Yoke Hian was like saying the composer of the modern piece was so brilliant and the emphasis was on rhythm and how the notes fill...haha...he's known to be very cultured. (who usually gives us tour guides around museums). Elvin was remarking on the irregular rhythm also and he used to play in the percussion section in his symphonic band. No wonder...haha

Overall, I enjoyed the performance, although I will not probably listen to their pieces for a 2nd time. When I go back to NUS, I'll catch all the free concerts while I can =)

Finding the dustbin

After eating our galette, a speciality dessert of Perouge(a medieval city in France), we wanted to find a dustbin to throw our paper bags from the dessert. We kept finding till we arrived at the entrance of the cemetery. We still could not find it. Since, we are already at the entrance of the cemetery, Tai Qin and I decided to go in to the cemetery for a walk.

It was quite interesting, it was actually the first time I ever went into a cemetery. In the cemetery, there were various graves: some families buried together, some buried alone, some graves had flowers, others had withering flowers, some even have no flowers at all. Some graves were remembered, visited, some had been abandoned, forgotten. Some other graves have the French flag as a symbol of their contribution to the war, some had fire fighters plates, one had a beautiful poem, others had faded words. Some died at a ripe age of 83, some died young even as young as 8.

Each stone had a story to tell, for each one had lived on earth, had interacted with other people and surely in one way influenced other people. What was the story? What will it be for those who are still living?

After walking through once, we returned to the entrance of the cemetery and voila! It was there! We had found the dustbin. It has been always there at the entrance of the cemetery. It is just that we did not notice it. It is only after having our perspective changed, that we suddenly realized its presence.

So I guess life is somewhat similar. We often never realised the things that we are looking for are just right in front of us, staring into our faces. Probably after reflection and comtemplation of other people's life, and having our perspective changed, we only can find it.

Weekend Cycling

Lately, there is this craze among the 'Singaporeans' here in Lyon about cycling. The case is simple: A bicycle renting company, known as 'Velo' rents bicycles at automated machines all around Lyon. The charges are 1€ per hour and 2€ for the 2nd hour. But for the first 30minutes, its FREE!!!

So, the deal is - we can cycle to anywhere within 30 minutes and park the bicycles at the nearest station, we could save 1,60€ on trams and metros. If the given destination is too far, we have to park our bicycles and wait for 10 minutes before renting out another bicycle.

A huge Velo station near Part-Dieu

So we cycled in the rain to the Musee Des Beaux Arts. Of course, being cam whores, we did what we must do - take pictures!!

Hamon taking Kartik's picture in front of the Plate 'Musee Des Beaux Arts'

Me trying to imitate the sculpture in the museum courtyard

We had our personal tour guide, Yoke Hian, who took 3 semesters worth of Arts History to guide us through the renaisance paintings to baroque era and then romantic era, surrealism, impressionism and finally the modern 20th century art.

Some of the pictures were huge...as illustrated above

After that, we cycled to the cinema to watch an American movie with a french title and subbed french subtitles. Great way to learn French

After the show, it was snowing!!! Yeah!

Captured in snow...

A free day at Louvre!!

Last Sunday, the entrance for le Musee du Louvre was free. Being an opportunist, I went to Paris a day earlier than planned just to coincide with that day. After traveling for 2 hours and a half, I reached Louvre.


Notice the inverted pyramid has rainbows in it just like multiple prisms. Notice also the crowd.

This is the Grand entrance of Louvre. The famous pyramid. This is were I ate my lunch also.

Do not get me wrong, the subject here in this picture is not the Mona Lisa. It is the people scrambling to take a picture of the Mona Lisa. Being the most valuable painting here, it was guarded by 2 guards behind a bullet proof glass and partitioned by wooden barriers to prevent people from getting too near.


More people trying to take the picture of the Mona Lisa...

Yes, the subject of my pictures are the people. The big museum was crowded, crowded and more crowded. I didn't finish even one section of Louvre for my whole afternoon. When my friends said they gone through Louvre in 3 hours, I couldn't believe it...

Haha...anyways, it was a good experience. Although the place was extremely crowded (and I saw so many Asians... Is this Paris or is this like Asia?) I think everyone had the same idea of visiting the Louvre-when it is free.