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.