Update….

I don’t seem to have much of the mood to write… or maybe it’s because I feel the onslaught of motion sickness since I’m typing this in a car haha…

On the 17th of September 2009 I went to Italy with my parents. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona and Milan, beautiful place. I drank water straight out of a fountain, and nothing happened to me, haha. The water was really what I’d called pure mineral water.. It really had no taste.. It felt really pure and refreshing, and it was amazing that it was cold as well, as in icy cold, when the water came all the way from the mountains. The wonders of nature and the roman aqueducts haha..

I remember reading bout them and all, and it was a sort of dream as a child to go to Rome, so one thing off the bucket list (catch the movie, it’s a good one) haha..

On the 23rd of September we flew off from Milan to Athens, where my sister was, and we headed to Santorini from the 26th till the 29th. We left Athens on 1st October and touched down back home on the 2nd. A really tiring journey, at least 30 hours wasted to the travelling. It was fun, I really enjoyed it, especially Santorini, where we went to the beach. Sorry, the museum in Athens was splendid, but I’ve been jaded haha..

I haven’t been to the beach in years to play in the waters. And the water at the beach was so damn clear.. I only got a slight tan though cause we didn’t really spend that much time at the beach. It was fun.. I got to wear my bikini again haha... and had loads of fun playing in the water.. It was so clear I could see the little grey and green fishes in the water.. And the thing about Santorini is, because it was volcanic?? The beaches aren’t white and sandy, but black and stony, so it was an interesting experience… the stones were so hot, that when you came out of the water you were practically jumping, whereas the water was icy cold, and you would be screaming before entering it haha..

So yes, that was my holiday before starting work again on the 12th of October… and toodles for now, before I throw up from all this movement.. erghh…

-Oracl3-

Update….

I don’t seem to have much of the mood to write… or maybe it’s because I feel the onslaught of motion sickness since I’m typing this in a car haha…

On the 17th of September 2009 I went to Italy with my parents. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona and Milan, beautiful place. I drank water straight out of a fountain, and nothing happened to me, haha. The water was really what I’d called pure mineral water.. It really had no taste.. It felt really pure and refreshing, and it was amazing that it was cold as well, as in icy cold, when the water came all the way from the mountains. The wonders of nature and the roman aqueducts haha..

I remember reading bout them and all, and it was a sort of dream as a child to go to Rome, so one thing off the bucket list (catch the movie, it’s a good one) haha..

On the 23rd of September we flew off from Milan to Athens, where my sister was, and we headed to Santorini from the 26th till the 29th. We left Athens on 1st October and touched down back home on the 2nd. A really tiring journey, at least 30 hours wasted to the travelling. It was fun, I really enjoyed it, especially Santorini, where we went to the beach. Sorry, the museum in Athens was splendid, but I’ve been jaded haha..

I haven’t been to the beach in years to play in the waters. And the water at the beach was so damn clear.. I only got a slight tan though cause we didn’t really spend that much time at the beach. It was fun.. I got to wear my bikini again haha... and had loads of fun playing in the water.. It was so clear I could see the little grey and green fishes in the water.. And the thing about Santorini is, because it was volcanic?? The beaches aren’t white and sandy, but black and stony, so it was an interesting experience… the stones were so hot, that when you came out of the water you were practically jumping, whereas the water was icy cold, and you would be screaming before entering it haha..

So yes, that was my holiday before starting work again on the 12th of October… and toodles for now, before I throw up from all this movement.. erghh…

-Oracl3-

First week back….

Warning: huge crap-ology ahead… do not read if what you lack is time… or interest.. it’s okay I understand.. Still love you all the same… haha

It’s been a while since I wrote anything in English, and well something this lengthy haha… nothing much to blog about (in English as of late besides random ramblings in Japanese… causing me to lose readers, since only one fella.. I think, can read Japanese, and I think he couldn’t be arsed since my grammar is horrendous hahaha)

Oh well, life goes on…. As it must and will, whether you like it or not, it will not, and cannot wait for you…. The same goes for my muse… another reason why I haven’t been blogging lately…? No muse? haha… although by default, I don’t think I really need one…. I need a better internet connection at home (pages aren’t loading..sobs), time and… Ermm.. But that’s another story…

So my first week back at work has finally ended.. With…. More to come… that being beside the point, I guess… haha, since I’ve already worked at this same firm during my chambering time, the familiarity is there, and there wasn’t much adjusting in to do. Since I’ve already known and worked with the people that I’m working with now when I was chambering there, during half of my chambering duration. (Spent first half in corporate, next in litigation)

What can I say... going back to work, after 2 months of not - so - active brain usage…. Hmmm~ well.. Going through documents now… is a bit of a pain on the eyes.. Literally… I don’t know if it’s my astigmatism or something…. (Guess I’ve to go back to printing them out to view rather than stare at the computer, or risk going blind =.=’ or make a new pair of spectacles, that hopefully doesn’t increase my headache..) But oh well….

Ermm, work wise… well corporate is corporate.. To be honest I find it a tad harder than litigation, (learning wise) in terms of understanding and documentation, because well, stuff in litigation, we basically covered in CLP, (not everything, but at least we had a basics of sorts to start with) but corporate… well, let’s just say… university didn’t really equip us for it..

But in a sense, that’s cool, it makes it a challenge, cause you have to learn everything from the ground up…. (Searches really hard for her brain haha) not to say litigation isn’t cool… haha.. I already miss going to court…. (ermm only that particular court though… haha… I miss my dockbrief days.. days where I had to run between court rooms to enter judgements... sigh, those were the days my friend…we thought they’d never end… la la la la…)

Either than that, learning is learning.. And I believe I will get a hang of it sooner or later.. I managed it before; I believe I can do it again… what’s life without a few challenges? Need to un-blur myself haha…

Oh, and also… in the office I’ve to remind myself.. I AM NOT USING A MAC!! And at home… I AM NOT USING WINDOWS!! ….. Makes me feel kinda crap sometimes… sigh..

What other difficulties I’ve been encountering?? Hmmm well, waking up in the morning, and trying to get the brain to function at that time, is another challenge… a real huge one, might I add haha..

I’m a nocturnal creature, forced to live under the glare of the shining star….

Although, after last night… I take that back.. This so-called nocturnal creature has sort of adapted to living under the shining star, that sleeping at 5am last night, was a huge torture to me..

Why?? Cause my body kept trying to wake up around 7-8 am… and I had to force it back to sleep, only to have it wake up again round 9 something and then 10 something…. Till finally my friend called me at about a quarter to 12.. I gave up… but damn… The mind and the body… cooperate!!!

You know you got home late, you know you slept late… stop trying to get up early.. It’s a freaking Saturday for crying out loud… gosh!!

Oh which reminds me speaking of Saturday.. Happy Deepavali to all my friends! Especially Shanie *hugs* you need that! ☺

Right, another thing, adjusting my sleeping hours was also quite difficult due to some miraculous jet lag I experienced…

I just don’t understand why… when we go over to Europe, we don’t experience jet lag, we can adjust to the time there so nicely, but when we come back home.. by golly, I don’t get why the jet lag is so bad…

In all my years of travel, I’ve never, and I repeat, never experienced jet lag this bad…

Err, why jet lag? Well, since no one in particular has been wondering about my disappearance…. It’s cause I was on holiday in Italy and Greece, a week before I started work…

Ooh yeah… living the high life, as some friends had teased haha.. But anyway yes, was in Europe, took almost 30 hours to get back from there to home.. Door to door, I mean.. With all the transits… =.=’ cause we had to fly from Athens to Milan, from Milan to Bangkok, and Bangkok to home…

One whole day of airplane food… managed to cause me to lose all the weight I picked back up in Italy and Greece, and my appetite as well, which hasn’t been well since I fell ill and stayed ill a few months back.. (Still not fully recovered actually… sigh..)

So yes, stuck in airplanes and airports for more than 24 hours, having nothing but airplane meals took their toll on me, and when I touched down, I had to immediately make arrangements to meet a friend who would be marrying the next day, and we had to go over the wedding plans, since he kindly requested that I co-emcee his wedding XD (Thanks Ray & Ivy, for that opportunity and Shane for the books..)

Anyway, slept a measly 2 hours or so, woke up feeling like the whole body was made of lead… forced myself to get ready, headed over to the groom’s place… discussion with the other wedding planners.. bla bla… home to bed, woke up early for cousin’s wedding… on the 3rd of October, it ended in the afternoon, rushed home, got ready in under an hour for the next wedding… (Ray’s wedding).. Rushed there, went through stuff with co-emcee, and everything went from there..

After the wedding dinner at about 11 something, headed to Mel’s house for a Mooncake festival gathering kinda thingie.. Stayed till round 2 something before heading home, and finally.. Rest…

Rest of the week was adjusting my time back to wake up in the morning… and then work started… such is life… when things get hectic, they are hectic… but it was cool… loved it all.. Tiring and torturous as it was..

Now the goal is... to gain back some weight apparently, although I don’t mind the weight I have now, but if I lose anymore.. I was told by a friend that it would be the death of me.. He’s not cussing me, don’t get me wrong, it’s true anyway… so yes, no more losing weight for me.. It’s either maintain it as it is... or gain 2-3 kgs… and maintaining it at that…

First, I need to find my appetite again.. Which seems to be cured by not so spicy food, which again, my stomach seems incapable of taking after not taking it for so long.. haha… I should really lay off my C2-O5-OH haha

Only good news for the time being is… my appetite seems to be returning a bit, but it’s not what it used to be.. Due to the stomach ailment.. so one step at a time.. That’s what I do with everything now a days…

-Oracl3-

P/s: oh, by the way, did I ever mention that my first day back to work started out bloody?? How’s that for a first day back to work… =.=’
あれはねロスコちゃんの血いです。たく始めて見てだよ、びくりした。。。ベビのうしろう「backside?」はきずがある。。。大変な，私のベビ。。。

Stupid Maxis, stupid internet connection.. sigh…this is a Mac.. not windows.. damn the short cut keys…

was going through my files, as i need to delete files to make space...

i really need some dvds...

the boy band that would become mothercare.. haha refer to my birthday pictures to get what i mean.. (27th april 2004) a walk after dinner is healthy.. here we are at the agricultural building site, about 10 minutes walk from our hall..

watched too many korean dramas? haha (27th April 2007) taken during one of our after dinner walks to calm exam nerves haha

27th April 2007, the dandelions are different to malaysia's they are nice big and round haha...

this my dears, tilt head left, is a heater in a restaurant in prague, a greek restraurant.. 19th april 07

19th of April 2007, was staying in prague for the easter break, (i stayed for 2 weeks, it's ok to tour but not stay there long term.. it drives you up the walls..) sister brought me out to eat greek food.. it was yummy :)

...but here i am, looking pensive.. wondering... will the food arrive first or will i die from hunger first, while my sister plays with my mobile haha and you were fulled by the looks hehe i looked like i was deep in thought but i was thinking about food haha

18th of august 07, a little reunion upon my return from the UK at our favourite japanese restaurant..

17th June 2007, what one does when bored in Paris, the first time i managed to built a card house this big haha..

Paris Palace de Italia (i think that's how it's spelt) 17th june 2007, inside the church...

Paris Palace de Italia (i think that's how it's spelt) 17th june 2007, inside the church...

Germany, Potsdam 9th June 2007, Antje's neighbour's ducklings haha 可愛い　：p

-Oracl3-

with the fellowship of five now broken.. the 3 remaining Malaysians strived to continue on their journey striving through eastern earth.. errr Europe... riding along the tracks.. following it all the way to Salzburg, the final leg of their journey, before their mission is complete, enabling them to return to London... but what a sight beholds them in Salzburg!!

upon arriving at the Salzburg train station, our heroes were given the task with finding the Strawberry Youth hostel.. yes the name sends shivers down your spine... the strawberry youth hostel.....

anywya, so armed with nothing but a map, as it always has been in eastern europe.. (that's how we explorer's got around.. a map and luck :p get one from the travel information counter at the train stations when you arrive, really useful things they are hehe)

we found our hostel which actually turned out to be quite a grand hostel, when compared to our other hostels.. i recall the one in Bratislava to be a student hostel actually... mel, des and i in one rom, xian ai and maggie in another.. our room was quite nice and cooling...

in Budapest, the room was quite warm and noisy... 8 beds in a room, all 5 of us together.. and as mentioned before we had a little adventure before finding it...

in Zagreb, the lying directions, which was in NO WAY 10 MINUTES WALK!! emphasised at least 3 times on my blog already i think haha.. well in Croatia, hostel lika was like a 3 storey house converted into a hostel?? and well the room was super hot.. and stuffy.. met a nice roomie, who actually was a black from america, and was working at the hostel, borrowed us his eastern Europe book.. what's it called.. travel a lone?? lonely traveller.. anyway.. useful things to have on you.. borrowed it to us and recommended splitvice lake to us..

in ljubljana... the hostel was ok, it was a 3-2 situation again as we had 2 rooms. this time our room was kinda warm.... and well des left the window to me. cause he claims he doesn't know how to open it, i bet you, he knows but he's just lazy.. he's a guy he can figure out how it works..
but it was ok.. i kind of flooded the hostel on the day we were leaving hahaha >:p

in Vienna.... oh my freaking god, the bloody hostel was on a bloody hill, took my breath away just trying to get there (hey you try it with 11kg on your back!!) the room... was ok, all 5 of us in it together again sharing with 2 other people. and suddenly... i don't know how this came about.. but ermm.. one of our innocent friend was getting a little pep talk on the birds and the bees.. and well it was the usual 3 roomies talking to each other, the other two went to shower i think or maybe they left for the airport already... when our friend suddenly asked, "how often do guys hit the air planes?? (translate to Cantonese)" hahaha and mind you, there was another guy in the room... haha i quickly changed the language from English to Malay as i suspected that she didn't know there was another guy in the room.. gosh, was a good thing for me to laugh at all the way to Salzburg.. i m so sorry girl, but it was really hilarious.. thinking about it now still makes me laugh so hard :p hehehe >:P

ok anyway enough with the hostels.. i was saying that strawberry hostel in Salzburg was like a 3 star hotel... it was once called Rosen hotel, which is German for rose hotel.. by the way Austria uses German.. unlike the other 4 countries which used their own language.. but i do know hvala is thanks.. (it's Croatian by the way) and it works in the other countries..(such as Slovenia) their language is similar haha...

so anyway nice hotel we were staying in, well for the price we were paying as well ==' and nice breakfast as well, which we packed secretly for lunch as well hehe... ok enough of the banter know to allow you to feast your eyes on the sight in Salzburg.. a really quaint and beautiful city... during this last leg of the journey my ankle started to hurt... ==' sigh old injury... well at least it lasted 10 days of abuse before starting to hurt... :p

ok- ok.. pictures... -->


nice view right? the salzburg castle is behind me :)

streets in Salzburg, small little town, love the signs for the shops.. so quaint.. :)

well, since the town was so small, we finished seeing it the day we arrived, so the next day we went out of Salzburg to the biggest ice cave in the world... or was it Europe?? well it was an interesting adventure for the 3 Malaysians.. :) who thoroughly enjoyed being in a cave with a temperatures of 0 celcius using what ever clothes they had to keep themselves from blending in with the ice... wonderful experience :)

above is des and i in the ice cave ;p the ice there was supposed to be a shape of a bear.. take a look at the picture links to see the full thing properly :p

the view from up there, in the mountains, near the cave entrance.. we had to hike a well, wouldn't call it short or long a moderate distance from where the coach dropped us.. and we walked up.. and yes des.. i know that i have no stamina... ==' the air up tehre was quit thin as well.. so imagine how high up we must have been :p

it was cold and to top it off it was drizzling,... we could see our breath condensing !! :p

nice view eh? haha guess how many layers i was wearing..?? hehe i was wearing a tube, my yellow long sleeved top, a cardigan, a t shirt, my readiing jacket and my wind breaker... :p hehe well nothing new right? you guys know that i m afraid of the cold haha
it was 0 degrees for crying out loud... colder than winter :p

welcome to the view ehhe

further down i could strip off some of the clothes.. nice castle behind :) forgot what it's called =='

walking around Salzburg we came to a flower garden...

with a view :)

in Salzburg castle, well we walked all the way up the hill and at the entrance we had to pay like 7 euros i think to enter.. so i was like.. since we took the trouble to hike all the way up, we might as well go in.. well mel was atas pagar, and des didn;t want to go.. but i don't know how we ended up going in.. guess those two scared i get angry?? haha.. am i that scary when i m pissed?? but i was ok if they didn't want to go in anyway.. but oh what the hell,we went in anyway la.. :) ehhe.. both of them are just being nice hehe.. and well my sister recommended the castle and so did other people....

inside the castle, that's a grand piano behind there :p
apparently sometimes they hold music concerts here :p


ah yes Salzburg is teh birthplace of Mozart :p and here we are a statue of our all time favourite composer... and musician... :)

so that was the end of our trip, we stayed in Salzburg for 3 days.. and on the 25th of July left for the airport to head back to London, where we arrived around 10 something in the night, so mel and des came back to Liverpool street with me to stay.. and the next day we went to Harrods... and Leceister square.. oh we also went to the MAS office at earl's court...

don't know how des uses the internet, but he said the nearest tube was South Kensington.. but when i looked it said earl's court.. unfortunately i had a case of amnesia in the morning and couldn't recall the station, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as des showed me the national history museum and Baden Powell house as we trudged along to the MAS office...

well more exercise is good for health anyway haha, and knowing where Baden Powell's house is, i returned, but that my friends.. is another story.. hehe

so there was the eastern Europe trip, for more pictures look for the links on the blog they are somewhere.. in one of the posts :p

-Oracl3-

after Slovenia, it was Austria next.. here xian ai and Maggie separated and went back to London from here, while des, mel and i continued on to Salzburg, before heading back to London.. i m sure i mentioned it before somewhere who went on the trip with me, and i don realise that at some places i was repeating myself, but teh thing bout hostel lika, in Croatia, that was on purpose, i will keep stressing that fact no matter how much it takes haha...

oh one thing i forgot to mention in the Croatia post and am too lazy to edit, so will just say it here.. desmond is one of a hell good in haggling haha.. i bought a pair of earrings from Croatia. cause it was costume jewelry apparently like traditional fold jewelry.. haha from 80 kunas he haggled it down to 30 kunas haha.. thats like what 60% discount? haha.. man he's good.. no wonder he likes to shop :p

but anyway, back to Vienna, we went to the palace there, and well the thing about europe is mostly seeing architecture... and the old buildings and trying their traditional food.. if you love musuems unlike us, then it will be even more worth your time.. for good sites well you practically have to travel out of the city..

and well if you have even more money to spare, and love music, orchestras and operas are a good thing.. but since we were on a budget and didn't love museums. we had quite a lot of spare time on our trip haha, so no rushing like the other trips, and good food.. minus the back packing and it's really a nice holiday :p

and well i must add.. we were more than willing to spend and search for our food like true Malaysians do ;p

an interesting actually happened in Ljubljana which was really funny haha
in front of the St Joseph church was a square and they had a sprinkler above it.. and well. i won't mention names, but one of our friend really thought it was raining when the sky was so bright and sunny haha.. amusing no..? ok she will kill me if i say more.. haha but it was funny neh? ai kun :p kekeke

OK back to Vienna.. it has beautiful buildings, but Austria i must say is pricey =='

visiting the palace.. this is the garden :p

too bright can't open my eyes.. my sunglasses broke in Bratislava, so the whole trip i had to go without them, i did buy another one in Slovenia.. but cheap things.. sigh... it was a goner too.. so sad!!!!!my poor eyes... but lucky i had my cap haha... should have brought my white pair of sunglasses la actually, but i didn't want to get a weird tan on my face... == ' things we suffer for vanity.. guess that's what being a women is about haha

the maze!!

fountain.... :p

in Vienna's city centre.. one of the opera houses i guess... =='

it's actually a museum behind us...
don't know whether you can see it, but i was wearing the earrings that Mr Choe managed to haggle the price for hehe :p




oh and we went for a Mozart music thingie.. to the people out there.. it's not worth it, and to top it off there was a noisy baby there arghh... well toddler but still.. but i liked the music la, though i must say the 1st violin needs to know how to play her violin softer.. she was drowning out the other instruments!!!!
after the Slovenian philharmonic.. this was kinda crappy.. and well.. Desmond wasn't really happy, but we paid for it and watched it alreayd la. its just an experience.. forgive me for being selfish and crazy for classical music =='

-ORacl3-

Slovenia...ahh.. not a bad place.. really... the sights were quite nice, and well they had a lot of bridges there, the food was affordable, as was Zagreb... the method of getting around so far, in the eastern Europe countries were mostly by our very own bus 11, and also the trams.. not bad... the food was quite nice as well :p
anyway let the pictures do the talking.. maybe when and if i am free in Malaysia. i will type a little summary essay on what i think of my trips and maybe include some pointers as well hehe ;p


nice church right :p
i think this is the St Nicholas church? no St Paul's.. errr the saint for travelling,, which one was it??

ah Ljubljana was popular for its dragons :p

the popular land mark, dragon bridge :p

and yes, i got to watch an orchestra.. finally!! the philharmonic orchestra.. not bad.. they played Grieg's peer gynt, Beethoven, and some modern composer which i didn;t know.. it was really nice :) i m gonna go for the Malaysian philharmonic next!! :)

-Oracl3-

after Budapest it was off to Zagreb in Croatia... well honestly speaking, Zagreb itself is nothing superb... it's just like any normal city round Europe.. in eastern Europe i seriously felt that it was very similar to Prague and well even the language was similar... =='
but anyway. since there was nothing to do in Zagreb, we travelled out of town on a 2 hour bus ride to the split vice lake. it was a beautiful sight to behold as the pictures below will prove my testimony... :)



the water was as clear as the water in Switzerland, but unfortunately no swimming in it haha :p




this is the guest book of hostel Lika, the hostel we stayed at.. warning to future friends who are going there. no matter what they say, hostel Lika is not 10 minutes walk!!!! take the god damn freaking tram!!!!

and another thing about the buses there is that, their buses are like Malaysian buses, and worst is that there are no time tables around for you to estimate what time the bus will be coming... ==

on another note, we watched transformers... or was it harry potter? in the cinemas in Zagreb.. haha, see we really had nothing to do...

i think in Hungary we watched transformers... can't remember which country it was, but we watched two movies on our trip, one as mentioned was transformers and the other was harry potter.. i do recall watching a movie in Zagreb, the other movie i cant remember where we watched it.. any of my travel mates care to remind me? :p

after Zagreb, it was time to pack our bags and move on to the next country .. Slovenia :)

-Oracl3-

after Bratislava, our next stop was Budapest, Hungary...(i think... ) it 's a really pretty place.. and it was interesting to note that, when we first arrived we were sent on a little wild goose chase by this Danish guy that we met. we thought he was looking for the same hostel as us, but it turned out that he was in a different hostel then us, and we helped him find his hostel instead haha..

it was interesting, but not really fun, seeing that we were lugging our backpacks around and we were really tired.. but after that was all settled, it was dumping our backpacks in the hostel and sightseeing and trying Hungarian food... but i must say that Hungary was kinda pricey, when compared to Bratislava.. but still.. and the women at the hostel, gosh.. does she understand what we meant by we want Hungarian food? she directed us to a lil' posh French restaurant instead.. but nevertheless we tried the food la.. compared to Slovakian food? i like Slovakian better ...


the bridge... :p

view of the city..

that's the parliament there.. really nice scenery right?

des being a retard here haha :p

er.. castle, palace.. they are all becoming the same to me in Europe... ==


Budapest opera house... :p

-Oracl3-

after our graduation, we all decided to head to eastern Europe for a trip, backpacker's style.. so prepare for yourself for 5 posts regarding my eastern Europe trip...

the first place that we went too was to Bratislava.. we arrived on a Sunday.. and my god the place was like a ghost town not a single soul there. the town was totally empty... oh ye i forgot to mention that we had to spend the night in Stansted airport as well.. waiting for our flight.. cheap flights sigh, that;s how it is.. and i must say that Stansted is really cold ==.. compared to Singapore's Changi airport which was warmer.... == anyway.. since we were in Bratislava, besides sight seeing we also tried the local cuisine.. so here are the pictures of my trip to Bratislava, for the rest of the pictures for the eastern Europe look for the post titled picture links and click on that, here are only a few pictures from the trip...


yumm the local cuisine.. food here was way cheaper than the UK!! so we ate like kings haha comparing to our other trips.. this trip was a holiday, cause we didn't have to stinge on food hehe :p

sight seeing around town.. see what i told you? not a single soul!!


one of the landmarks... the man in the sewer hole.. i dunno the story though... no one to tell us, and even if there was... we wouldn't understand Slovak now would we? :p

heading off to Budapest, Hungary... backpacking.. hehe hitch hiking my way there :p no la, we took the train haha.. ;p

-Oracl3-