What A Crappy Weather

Saturday, 23 Oct : It has been gloomy, rainy since this morning and mind you, I was wide awake already at 8am shucks...not sure why since today is a weekend. I should be still in bed snoozing, having wonderful dreams, etc but no my biological clock inside me just went 'ting', time to wake up at 8am aarrrghh.. So I did and sitting in front of my laptop looking out at the windows....all gray and rainy :( :( Brilliant to start your Saturday morning. After several hours, it's still raining out there....our plans are to go to the city and perhaps hit the market but not in this crappy weather. We SHOULD be in Florence today walking around the city with 20 degrees and the sun shining happily!! Instead, we're stuck at home with this crappy weather.

Tomorrow at 03:00, the Daylight Saving Time (DST) will change to winter time. We just have to remember to change the time in all our clocks at home, watches, etc.

There goes our weekend trip

At this precise time, my Hubs and I would be walking around the city of Pisa, doing some sightseeing, etc but nope, we are back home. Our whole weekend trip went down the drain because the Italians decided to choose this day to have a national strike. All flights flying in/out to/from Italy will be delayed or cancelled. In our case, our flight were cancelled! When the Italians decided to have a national strike, they mean business. All public transportation in Italy came to a halt.

We woke up very early morning to drive to Brussels Charleroi airport to catch our flight at 10:30am. We both were looking forward to this trip especially me, I have not been to Italy. We got there after braving through the horrendous traffic in Brussels and another one in Charleroi area and finally we'd arrived at the airport. We dropped off our luggage, got our boarding gate number and was going through the security check, when the announcement came simultaneously. Our flight was cancelled! I thought that guy doing the security check was kidding cos he was scanning our boarding pass and we were about to pass through the customs, etc. Shucks!! So what happened next?! We were send off to enquire and ended up at the airline ticket counter, waiting for an hour or so for our turn. There were many people like us in the queue getting flights changed, refund, etc.

While waiting for our turn, my Hubs decided to collect our luggage and we were told they could not locate our bag and we have to go to 'Lost and Found' counter to try our luck. After such news, we decided to sort out our tickets first (a full refund) then deal with our luggage later. Meanwhile, I had to cancel our hotel booking and hopefully we will also get our full refund without any penalties.

Gosh, it was such an exhausting, disappointing morning for us. We wasted first half of the day just driving, queuing and in the end no weekend trip for us. Though we were very near to Brussels about after such an ordeal earlier, we decided to head home, had a quick breakfast at the airport and start our journey back. *sob*sob*sob* Better luck for me next time to visit the beautiful city of Florence, Pisa....

Taboo Game

Yesterday, my Hubs and I had a birthday cum housewarming party in Amsterdam. It was a small gathering with less than 20 people. The guests were divided into 2 groups: one with the locals which was the host's family and family friends and the other group was the hostess's colleagues and us.

It was in fact a nice evening with some chatting, eating, oh the hostess made such great sushis, it was finished in no time! and cocktail drinking, playing board games - Taboo. For those who doesn't know this game, it's a word guessing game. The object of the game is for a player to have their team member(s) guess the word on their card without using the word itself or five additional words listed on the card. You can imagine the fun of struggling to describe the word without using the most obvious words to describe it. I missed playing these kind of game, when I was back in Malaysia, occasionally board games were played in the family parties and Pictionary is one of my favourites! The objective is the same as the Taboo game, but instead of using words, one has to draw it out. It was definitely a fun game!! It's funny to see how each person think differently in communicating via drawing!

A new Car

Finally, we went and did it! We got ourselves our very own car, though it is a second hand and very well-maintained one. It is a Volkswagen Polo :) :) In fact, the size is just nice for me ;). It's a nice feeling to know that I'm mobile now...totally independent hmm...just that have to update the navigation CD in the car...not sure if I'm confident enough to drive it to another city esp to new areas :P. Though traffic is horrendous here but at least I know I'm not out in the cold waiting for the train/tram, worrying about what if the train breaks down, will I be able to find another way back, etc. It's getting cold now with more rain, wind, etc so I'm very glad that I have this little car to keep me warm during shitty weather. However, we're officially 'bankrupt'....but is it worth it? For now, it is!!

MIA

I've been missing in blogging for awhile as things here were a bit crazy...geeez didn't realised I was actually stop blogging since end of September wow. But then again...work was extremely busy...was sick for a week...my girlfriend came visiting...and just like that, few weeks have gone by so fast.

Now, I hope so now and then I get to sit down and put my thoughts in this blog before the travelling starts *sheepish* Next weekend, my Hubs and I are off to Pisa/Florence for a short weekend break hooray!! As usual, totally so looking forward to it. Thereafter, the following weekend, I'll be travelling but this time for work for a couple of days in Middle East and break for a week, and another business travel for a week. Talk about stretching my self thin..these few months will be it. My body needs some major pampering and recuperation. The next long break for me will be year end with Christmas and New Year's.

The best part of having a gf over to visit is our plan for the entire duration of the her trip will be packed out. Every day/evening, there will be plans and especially on weekends. This is more so since I've started working and being a tour guide is only available during weekends. Nevertheless, I sure had a good time when my gf was here last week despite all the late nights even on weekdays and all the walking in the weekends. In a way, it was quite relaxing as she was not one of those that likes to visit all the touristic places ;) Honestly, I'm still recuperating....

Extended!

I've finally gotten my contract extension...was informed by my boss the other day to raise a form to proceed with the process of my contract extension which apparently take a looong process *rolling my eyes* On top of that, the extension should be for another 4 months but because the year budget ends Dec 2009, my extension is until December and then in January, I have to raise another form for another 2 months to make up the extension of 4 months. Sigh, talk about efficiency. Everything you have to do it yourself in this organisation and hundred of signatures/approvals you have to get for one task. At least, it contributes to our joint-savings to buy a 2nd hand car for me....IF everything goes well....

Berlin!

Berlin....the largest city in Germany, the city that was rebuilt after the World War II. Quite frankly, my hubs and I were both quite disappointed. No offense, no doubt Berlin is a fairly nice, huge, urbanised city, but somehow with such a big city like this, cosy is not the word to describe it. Nevertheless, it is a city I always wanted to visit..at least once.

We took the first flight out on Saturday, very early morning and arrived in Berlin at 8am so we had a full day. Of course taking such an early flight out meant that we had a very short night. And the next day, we were out and about in the city center, walking and did our sight-seeing which covered approximately 10km! That was our first day and mind you, both of us had only less than 4 hours of sleep the night before. I am quite impressed that we managed to cover most of the highlights in the city center - Fernsehturm (TV tower), Rotes Radshaus (City hall), Alexanderplatz (that's where we stayed), Bradenburg gate (what a sight to behold), Berliner Dom (the Prostestant cathedral), the remains of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the museums in the Museum Island, Potsdamer Platz :) :) In between, we had our pitstop to rest our poor tired feet and of course to have nice German desserts that they are good at making. We crashed out nicely that night, very early Zzzzzzz.

The next day we took it easy and decided to visit the Schloss Charlottenburg palace and the must-visit Pergamon museum that was highly recommended by my parents-in-law. The palace was quite a disappointment but perhaps we have seen much more beautiful palaces in other countries such as France. We had to take the public transport to the palace as it is situated outside the city center. We were quite impressed by the German public transportation, it is pretty good. Everywhere, there will be frequent buses, trams, fast tram, trains, etc. Initially, it was quite confusing for us as there were so many type of public transportation available but once you get used to it, it's pretty easy.

Whereas the Pergamon museum took our breath away. The museum is world famous for its archaeological holdings. The Pergamon, located on Museum Island, is really three museums in one – the Collection of Classical Antiquities (also on display in the Old Museum), the Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Museum of Islamic Art. The Pergamon Museum’s monumental highlights are truly breathtaking to behold. This museum will be my second most favourite museum after the Egyptian Museum in Cairo ;)

Since we had some time left before dinner time, we decided to check out the Reichstag building, the German parliament building. The building is an iconic glass dome constructed on top of the rebuilt Reichstag. It was designed by architect Norman Foster and built to symbolize the reunification of Germany. The distinctive appearance of the dome has made it a prominent landmark in Berlin. Many tourist flocked to this building to catch a glimpse of this German parliament building. We had to queue for 30 mins before we get into the building with tight security of course. When we got into the dome, it was worth it. The view from the dome was magnificent and the dome itself was amazing. The Bundestag dome is the iconic large glass dome at the very top of the building.The dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which might bedazzle those below.

The last day, we had a full day as our flight back was at night, we decided to hit the shopping area, the famous KaDeWe ("Kaufhaus des Westens") shopping mall, 60,000 sq. metres of flagship store packed with designer labels! More like window shopping there...drooling all over the nice clothing on display :) Believe it or not, Berlin also has a Galleries Lafayette! But unfortunately not as nice and big as the one in Paris of course, and no shoes department :( How disappointing.

We didn't waste our last day shopping alone, we went to visit the famous Berlin Zoo after spending 2 hours browsing around the stores and had a quick, delicious lunch in KaDeWe. Lunch was very good in their chic food court right on the top floor of the stor one of the best zoo around and has the most species of animals in the world which we agreed. Probably being one of the older zoo around, some of the 'habitats' for the animals were sorely lacking (small area of confinement) as compared to the zoos in Holland. Perhaps too many animals cramped into one big area. We hope that with some works going around now, the management are going to enlarge the zoo area further.

Last but not least, the German food.....I was quite disappointed the first 2 days and most likely we had picked some wrong restaurants/cafes cos the food was sorely lacking than what we had expected. We were compensated on the last day when we discovered this nice cafe, a stone throw away from our hotel. It was soooo good and of course with the lunch that we had in KaDeWe, it sure make our day in Berlin ;) ;)

The Long Weekend Starts Today

The long weekend starts today yippeeee!!! My workplace will be closed for the Raya so Monday is a holiday for us! When the clock striked 6pm, I happily packed my things and left the office in a hurry. Who doesn't...it's Friday...weekend!!

I have more to look forward to....I'm heading to Berlin tomorrow with my Hubs for a weekend trip ;) Weather forecast - sunny with temperature ranging 22-24 degrees. That's not too bad for this time of the year... coming autumn. Trees here are losing its leaves, turning to a beautiful shade of yellow and red. Yup, autumn is definitely around the corner. I just hope that the weather forecast in Berlin stays true, eh...

Liberation Day @ Maastricht 13 September 2009

Maastricht, 13 September 2009, windy and occasional drizzle - Today marked the 65th anniversary of Maastricht's liberation from the Nazi. The first Dutch city to be liberated by the Americans in 1944. This anniversary was celebrated with exhibitions, ceremonies and concerts. The city center was packed with tourists and locals alike enjoying this meaningful day whereby many brave American soldiers gave their life to free this city. I'm fairly surprised that it was celebrated with a bang here.
Hence, the World War II Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. The Cemetery lies in the village of Margraten, 6 miles east of Maastricht. The Limburg Symphony Orchestra performed Dvorak's Requiem at the cemetery.

The opening of Maastricht cultural season were also happening at the same time. At 45 different locations in Maastricht, everyone can enjoy free theatre plays, live music, etc. That was exactly what we did. My Hubs and I were in Maastricht for our visit to the parents-in-law/parents. We had another nice weekend.

On Saturday, an exhibition in front of the city hall's courtyard of reenacting the Second Armored Army (150 men in original American uniforms and 70 vehicles from the earlier days of the Second World War II) were accessible to the public.









The next day afternoon, though, the weather was not so nice, we had a good time as well, went from one location to another catching all these talented local bands playing live on the streets of Maastricht. From rock n roll, blues to jazzy music ;) It was indeed nice. We managed to squeeze into a table for the 4 of us and sat right in front of the jazz band playing in ' T Bassin 10 mins walk from the city center.

Body Pump Class

Last Saturday, I've decided to be a heroine and went to join the Body Pump class in my gym. The class is an hour long whereby participants use light free weights and barbells in repetitive exercises that focus on the biceps/triceps and stomach muscles including lunges, squats and presses. Little did I know that the class was pretty 'heavy' for a first timer like me. Boy, did I suffer since then. Mind you, I did finish the class without collapsing. My muscles were screaming in pain for the past 3 days!! First it was my leg muscles, then it was my arm muscles and of course in between were my stomach muscles :P :P

T'was a painful experience on Monday while I was on my way to work...and of all days, my Hubs need to use the car so I had to take the public transport. Imagine, the pain of walking up and down the stairs in the train station, walking that stretch to my workplace were unbelievable slow and painful....every step I took, my muscles were screaming in pain!! Btw, I did miss my tram because it took me longer than usual to walk to the tram stop, etc :P

My Hubs told me that was the result of not using these muscles all my life.... sigh...Oh well, I'm going to have 2 weeks break before going back to the class again and I hope by then my body has gotten over the shock.

Finally....I'm Contributing

The past 2 days, I was finally busy at work!! It's been a long time since I can even utter those words. Think about it, I've officially stopped working 2.5 years ago!! My oh my, time sure flies. This may sound a little crazy, but I do miss being busy at work...able to look at my watch and say "oh dear, it's already 5pm" :) :)

Our New Bonsai Tree

Yes, we did it. We got sucked into the whole Bonsai show during the Koi Show and my Hubs bought one :) Do you know that bonsai is an art of aesthetic miniaturisation of trees? Well, pardon me, I didn't know until that day :P

Definitely the Bonsai show was a success, we were not alone. A lot of people were buying these plants. There were displays of really nice ones, some were as old as 100 years!! There was also a demo on how to trim the plants, etc. It was quite interesting.

I must admit it sure looked very nice sitting in our living room on top of the cabinet ;) Well, it's bonsai so it's high maintenance. I know my Hubs will take good care of it ;)

17th Holland Koi Show

Sat, 21 Aug - Known as the biggest Koi show in the world which was held at Kasteeltuin (Castle Gardens) in Arcen, Limburg province of the Netherlands. From 21-23 August, koi enthusiasts and dealers from all over the world exhibited their koi to a large public visiting the show. My Hubs and I were invited by my parents-in-law whom by the way, owned a very nice koi pond in their backyard.

All Koi lovers or people like us will flock to the venue to catch a glimpse of these beautiful prized kois.

The castle itself was nothing special as compared to many other castles but the span of area that makes up their famous beautiful gardens was something else. The castle was built in the 17th century in the Baroque period. When we got there, there was a long queue at the entrance so we decided to have an early lunch first. Lunch was kipsate (chicken with peanut butter sauce aka sate sauce in the Netherlands) with fries ;) After a full lunch, we went to check out the gardens of the castle which was divided into 5 different themes. Rosarium (rose garden), Watertuinen (man made rivers and canals with beautiful landscape), Wereldtuin (Italian garden, Eastern garden, bamboos garden among others) Lommerijk (literally means shadow area where beautiful plants were also can be seen there) and Casa Verde (Mediterranean and tropical plants and animals garden, over here they have a big green house where visitors can enjoy a stroll to see all the tropical plants and flowers). The garden areas were huge, it will take you hours to finish all!When we finally walked to the center of the koi show, there were over 140 stands with a great variety of offers focusing to the entire koi commerce. Mind you, it is a very lucrative business. An advanced filter can fetch up to EUR1k plus easily. We get to see all the manufacturers and dealers displaying their kois, advanced ponds equipment and filters, pond magazines, koi travels and koi paintings.

This year the organiser have included 3 new shows such as the Holland Bonsai Show, the Holland Aquarium Show and the Holland Shrimp Show. This show has a very friendly atmosphere, perfect for a family day outing. We definitely enjoyed ourselves very much.

Of course, the whole point of going to this show is to catch a glimpse of all these beautiful selected kois and of course to see the grand winners of the koi show.

Below are the grand winners....aren't they gorgeous~~they are big too!

A constant batte at work...

Although organisation such as the one I'm working for has an advantage of having a few days of their own holiday for all staff, there are also the 'dark' side of it. Information are given on the need-to-know basis so if one is a newbie, the doors are closed. People in the organisation are very protective over what you should know and not. Most of the time, they determine what you should not know :P so you're constantly in the dark, fumbling around. It's a pity as there are no unity within the branch and division. Everyone is doing their own dance. At times I wonder, why on earth was I hired? The whole summer, I was basically doing very mundane things to the point like I'm overly paid for such a mundane task *DUH* while 'waiting for some sort of activity of my given big project'. The big gap between now and next year is a LONG period. I just hope things will pick up soon.....for my sanity sake.

It's a constant battle raging within me which I've tried to supress else I think I would have gone to a depression by just thinking of it. The uncertainty of my contract extension when I have the short-term contract does not help matters. This mean I'm unable to plan ahead with my holidays, to buy a car, etc. I'm wondering does 90% of the staff are like me during this summer period or it's just me? Was I hired for a job just to cover a branch budget? Or does the Head of the branch knows what his plans are for me in the organisation besides the big project assigned to me? What is going on? A conspiracy that I should know about? I want to contribute, I want to work. But unfortunately for me, it's not happening anytime soon :( I prefer being busy then pretending to look like I'm busy all the time...it's stressful! It can do some damage to my brain cells in my remaining intellectual department. Let's be honest, I'm only using 5% of my active brain cells everyday for the past 44 days since I've started working :P Who knows....the organisation might extend me or might not, if they do, I think it's a miracle considering my 'workload' :P Part of me, I wanted to be extended...for the $$$ and the experience, whatever it is.

Holiday Spree

After a taste of a great but short weekend break in Paris recently, I'm now in a quest for another short weekend trip ;) We will be given an extra day off in September and October respectively in my work place so this means taking a 3D2N trip will be possible :) These are the perks with working in a public organisation such as this as they have their own holidays besides the national holidays in the Netherlands.

Our next planned trip will be to Berlin in September!! A city we always wanted to go or at least me. I'd finished all our flights and hotels booking yesterday and mind you, hotels were pricey especially during this peak period - summer. We are looking forward to this trip. Moreover, Berlin is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this year so there are bound to have some sort of special events organised for tourists.

In October...yes, I'm already planning for October...ha! we're thinking of going to Tuscany, Italy. My Hubs and I always wanted to go to Italy...to tour Italy by car...my Hub's ideal trip :P But for this October, there'll be no driving trip. I know at this moment, we are spending a little too much on all these little trips (but always within our limits) but we'd a good reason for it. Both my Hubs and I are thinking of starting our little family soon hence that gives us not much time to visit as many places as possible beforehand :P I reckon that we should do this before having a baby cos once the baby is out, to travel will be different next time...travelling with baby bottles, fixed feeding time, nap time, strollers, etc.

2 Museums and A Bag

14-16 Aug, hot summery weather with an average temperature of 30+ degrees in the City of Lights - "Bonjour!!" There went the greetings wherever we went in the city. It was definitely a nice and hectic weekend back in Paris. To be back in the city again after 3 long years of absence, it was deja vu ;) We decided to make up of what we'd missed the last trip - visiting the museums and taking the river Seine cruise :D

Boy, was I glad that we spent most of the time in museums and not outside cos going sightseeing with a temperature of 30 degrees and above was way too hot even for a tropical gal like me :P Even the birds had to let off some steam in the puddle ;)

Covering 2 museums such as the Lourve and Musee
D'Orsay was no joke. However we managed. Both museums were delightful different in their exhibition. Musee D'Orsay has a modern and contemporary way of exhibiting all their masterpieces whereas Musee Lourve, it's more traditional in big rooms/halls. Nevertheless, both museums have such amazing masterpieces! It was impossible to see them all in 1 day or even 2! In D'Orsay, beautiful collections of Renoir, Monet and even Van Gogh impressionism paintings can be viewed!! In Lourve covers a lot more of other masterpieces such as Leonardo da Vinci and of course the famous 'Mona Lisa' whom recently was attacked by a very angry woman with her cup of tea!

My Hubs and I both enjoyed the museums a lot, just a shame that we did not have more time to do it more leisurely. We definitely need more than 1 day to cover a museum. Oh and we discovered this really nice cafe in the Lourve called Cafe Richelieu. The cafe has a nice terrace overlooking the Lourve courtyard where the pyramids are...this is our nice panaromic view while having our tea at the cafe. It's definitely a must-visit cafe if you decided to take a break for a coffee at the Lourve ;) Mind you, there was a queue outside the cafe. After a long day spent in the museum, we went for a nice and relaxing River Seine cruise. Well, the plan was to take the St.Martin canal cruise however we missed the evening cruise at 6pm (only 5 mins late!) and was informed that the night cruise was cancelled :( Since we were leaving Paris the next day, we had no choice but to take the River Seine cruise instead which to me was equally nice! The cruise took us passed all the top attraction monuments such as Musee D'Orsay, Notre Dame, Pont d' Alma and the Eiffel. None of them let us down, all the buildings and along River Seine was beautifully lit up (now I know why they called it the City of Lights). The finale was when we approached Eiffel Tower. She was magnificent at night with all the lights!!

Of course this trip was not complete without going through the famous shopping streets of Paris in Champs-Elysees and a particular store! In that particular store, I'd sinned big time, I got myself a bag. The only shopping item I'd in this trip but it was enough to set me back for a long time...and to recuperate.

This time around, we managed to take the metro and went to Boulevard Haussman to Gallery Lafayette and Printemps. We decided to hit the shopping streets in the morning to avoid the crowds but still it was crowded :P When we got to the Gallery Lafayette, it was like going into a candy store...the store was filled with all the designers goodies and of course all these came with a steep price...so all I did was gawked and drool over it! But then again, we were rushing for time cos we wanted to hit the museum right after lunch and only managed to quickly went through the shoes/bags floor :( Too many things to drool over but too little time *sigh* Next trip......

More Home made Steamboat!!

Tuesday p.m: My girlfriend and her boyfriend decided to host a dinner at their place in Amsterdam since our girlfriend and her boyfriend from US were in town for a visit, it'll be perfect to host a steamboat dinner!

Steamboat or hotpot that evening was superb. The whole day, I was anxiously anticipating the dinner since the last steamboat I had was months and months ago. One thing about steamboat, the more people, the better. This also means that we get to have more food items in the 'menu'. Trust me, we sure know how to indulge ;) My girlfriend bought so much food and of course the dinner lasted for hours! All of us took our time to enjoy it, chatting and chilling out in the comfort of my girlfriend's apartment. And none of us that night dared to say that they went to bed hungry. It was perfect! We ended up leaving close to midnight and mind you, both my Hubs and I had to work the next day.

But it was such a nice time to catch up with my girlfriends and conversation flowed so easily and comfortably among us, it was really a great feeling :) How often do I get to do this, right? So the next day at work, coffee all the way!

Bazar

Monday p.m.: Bazar Hotel cum restaurant in Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam....my Hubs and I had been there before but mostly during lunch time. Last Monday, we had decided to choose Bazar for our dinner get-together with 2 other couples. One of the couple were from US whom were down for a visit in Holland - the girlfriend was my ex-primary schoolmate which I have not seen for yonkers! It was so bizarre that of all places, we met up in Holland and not back in our home country, Malaysia :P

We had such a hearty meal, the food was simply delicious. Everyone was very happy and content, we decided to proceed to Witte Aap, the best pub in the world voted by Lonely Planet. We have not been there before so we thought to bring our visitors to the pub for a drink ;) It was indeed a cosy pub, the staff was friendly and it was packed with tourists and locals on a Monday night! After a couple of drinks, we had our nightcap at our place before the group left. Although, it was close to 1am when they left, nevertheless, it was a nice evening out with great company, some catch-up with the gals and good food :)

Our little Gent trip

Today, my Hubs and I decided to take a short drive (1.5 hours drive from Rotterdam) to Gent, Belgium. We have not been there ourselves so we always been wanting to take a trip down and finally we did. It was such a great sunny day throughout the day, it's unbelievable considering we'd some pretty wet weather for the past few weeks.

Gent, a smaller town as compared to Antwerp and Brussels and it is the city before Brugge (another favourite touristic city in Belgium). Though it's not as popular as the latter, Gent has its own charm. Its canal running in the city centre was once in the medieval time, an important harbour. Now, it serves as a touristic purpose for tourists to take a cruise on the canal. One of the few highlights of our trip there were the St. Bravo Cathederal, the Town Hall, Belfry Tower, Korenlei and Gaslei, to name a few.

Gent is a nice, relaxing city minus the hustle and bustle of Antwerp and Brussels. It has also it's own shopping streets so if you want to spend a nice time shopping without the crowd in Belgium, I would recommend Gent :). The people speak Flemish (Belgium Dutch) and for me it was a bit difficult to understand with the unique accent. However, people are friendly there. We'd a long lunch in one of the cafes, watching people passing by and I noticed that the ladies in Gent were pretty slim/skinny side ;).

Nevertheless, the next time we go back to Gent, we will further explore the nice city since this time, we did spent some time in the shops :P :P *guitly as charged*

Summer Holidays Frenzy!

Black Saturday, the busiest day on the European route ever recorded: Yup, it's official, the summer holidays has begun with a big bang! Today while we were on the way to Gent, Belgium, we heard over the radio that there was 870km of traffic in France!!! In Austria and Switzerland, the traffic was at its peak by the Alps tunnels. Holiday goers have to wait for 6 hours to get into the tunnel en route to their holiday destination!

Even during our drive to Gent, we saw so many cars and caravans with their family, packed to the brim (some you can't even see the back mirror anymore) on the highway en route to their holiday destinations. And because of the global economy crisis, more people are opting to spend their summer holidays in neighbouring countries instead of travelling anywhere further. Some of the favourite holiday destinations: Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Geez, I just hope in 2 weeks time, the holiday traffic in Europe will ease up a bit cos we're planning a weekend trip to Paris!

It takes 2 hands to clap?

I always believe to establish a healthy relationship (be it between friends, colleagues or lovers), it takes two hands to clap. That'll be an ideal way isn't it? However, in life it's not it. There's a saying in Cantonese, "lei kan yan, yan kan lei" (direct translation, it will be...you choose people, people choose you).

There are people who very quickly categorised certain people into 'significance' and 'insignificance' importance category in the back of their mind. So if you're in the insignificance category = no effort required to get to know you. I guess everyone wants to recruit a 'buddy' on their side to further their own agenda. And this is a fact in my working environment. Some occasions, it's very obvious, these people are nice to somebody out of their own selfish agenda and not based out of their genuineness. In these cases, it's always among women. When you have women in one place = trouble brews. Tension between 2 women because of jealousy, sensitivity, I-don't-like-your-face, popularity, the-boss's favourite, etc are so common. I had my fair share of these 'interesting' experience and mind you, it was not on voluntary basis. Somehow trouble comes and find you even when you're not even looking for it *sigh*.

Does anyone out there wants to know the 'real' person within somebody anymore?

Baby Boom 2009

Baby boom this year? Off hand, I can already count 7 soon-to-be newborns ;) Many people believed that the Ox/Cow Year will be an auspicious year to begin with.

I will have 2 babies soon-to-meet-the-world within 2 weeks...One is from my sis-in-law and the other one will be my 'big sister' back home. What a coincidence that the both of them will be expecting their second child. One will be expecting another baby girl and the other will be expecting another baby boy :) One of my best friend, will e also expecting their second child end of this year. My Hubs and I are both looking forward to welcome all of them. For now, it'll be our nephew first then the rest it'll be next year since we won't be back in KL this remaining year :( These days when you go out with friends, you don't go out with them alone, you go out with them plus the lil' ones ;) The circle of friends are definitely growing eh....:)

Summer Carnival in Rotterdam 2009 - 25 July

Rio de Janeiro was in the house!! The Summer carnival came and went with a bang! It was a huge event in the city of Rotterdam. Participants from all over Latin-America (locals and foreigners) participated in this parade in their most beautiful, colourful costumes walking along the street of Rotterdam. On that Saturday, routes en route to the city has been closed off for this mega event. The streets were filled with spectators like me wanting to catch a glimpse of the parade. Thank our lucky stars, the weather was perfect - strong wind but sunny here and there.

In the inner city, shops were going about their normal business, people are also walking around shopping. However, new food stalls were littered everywhere trying to cash in as much as possible on this day. A small stage was also set-up for live Latin music bands...particular one that we caught a glimpse of it ;)

I've never seen Rotterdam city so busy as last Saturday :) The locals sure love their carnivals, parties and booze ;)

1st Year Wedding Anniversary

Finally TGIF! One will never appreciate it as much until you're back in the slave market. This is the most popular day of the week. After an entire week of doing nothing and stressing because I've nothing much to do, I'm all geared up for a nice weekend :)

On Saturday marked our 1st year wedding anniversary and my Hubs and I celebrated it in a nice French fusion restaurant in a nice neighbourhood of Rotterdam. 'In Den Rustwat' is the name of the restaurant that we had picked. We finally get to use our wedding gift - a restaurant bon we'd received from our ex-colleagues last year. This was our little treat :)

The dinner lasted 3.5 hours and that's a typical Dutch way of dining out. It's a whole evening affair. Basically you waited 15-20 mins for a menu, then another 10-15 mins to order, another 20-25 mins for your first course to arrive. Both of use opted for a 4-course menu where my Hubs ordered 4 glasses of wine (the restaurant will serve different wine for different course) and I must admit the wines were splendidly chosen for each menu.

Food was absolutely nice, service was impeccable (and of course it comes with a high price ;) Nevertheless, it was a very nice evening we spent for our 1st year wedding anniversary; great food, nice, cosy place and of course great company.