On the move again

No wonder all my friends scold me for being so slack with my blog, the last update in May. Gosh! Sorry pals.

Well... guess what? Yes. I'm at the BA lounge in Heathrow, again. Seems to be the only time that I ever update my blog is when I'm in the lounge.

This time the situation is a little bit different. I'm not going for work. In fact, I am going for a holiday... for a whole month! YAHOOOOOOOOO.

I've finished work in London as of today and have take some time off before I begin work in Oct. So here's another short summary of what had transpired between May and now.

1) I accepted a job offer which will see me based in Bangkok for the next 2 years. I'm both excited and worried... excited because this is another opportunity for me and worried because of the heat. I don't think I'm quite prepared for that.

2) Mom finally come over to London in early Aug. I've been after her to come over since March, so it took a good 6 months. This time, she'll be away for 2 months. She spent a big part of Aug in Europe and we'll be in US in Sept. Poor Dad. hahahahah

3) Took Mom to Paris for 4 days. ... oh, I think this deserves a whole new posting by itself! Let's just say that I came home with a "souvenir" and I am not likely to EVER forget this trip and a certain artist called Monet (and no - I didn't swipe a painting away from the Louvre).

4) Went to Switzerland to see the lakes and mountains. And boy! Did I see a LOT of lakes and mountain. Switzerland being the land of chocolates and cheese - so an expected, I ate a lot of cheese and chocolate. Yum! I would have bought more too except for the fact that I would be leaving the UK one week after that trip and going to the States. I didn't think they would last a whole month before I got home to KL. I'll write more about this trip in another posting.

5) Packed packed and packed some more. It is amazing how much stuff one accumulates. The shipping agents came and packed up my stuff to be shipped to Bangkok. The engineer that came apparently remembered me (or more accurately, remembered my flat). He claimed to have delivered 3 boxes when I came to London 2 years ago.
Guess how many he had to take away? Post your comments and I'll let you know who has the closes answer.

6) Settling up with the utilities, flat and other stuff. The less I say about this the better.... arrrggghhhh. What a nightmare.

7) On holidays in USA for 1 month.

Got to go. Promise to come back and post more details.

Not a complete internet idiot

I must congratulate myself for not being a total internet idiot. I figured out why I could not get the broadband at home to work on my office laptop. I've even managed to set it up myself and I only needed to call the internet provider once (and that is because my father could not remember his password).

Like the TV adver says...... "soooo clever one!" :-)

East West Home's Best

I have been requested to help out in an event in KL on the week commencing 14 May, which means that I get to stay for 3 weeks instead of 1 week.

3 weeks of eating glorious FOOD!!!!! Oh how is my waist line going to bear this????

Let's try this

I'm in Bangkok now and I thought I'll share some pictures from Keukenhof on my blog.

Suddenly all the default language on the websites are in Thai and I have no idea how to switch it back to English. I'm navigating from memory - so let's see if this works :-)

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

Now I understand why Holland is the land of tulips.... miles and miles... as far as the eye can see... TULIPS... of all different colours.

Sorry - you'll just have to imagine it for the time being. I'm at the BA lounge again and I won't be able to upload any pictures until I get to Bangkok.

I went to the Keukenhof gardens while I was in Amsterdam. Everyone tells me how beautiful they are, so I thought I'll go check it out since I'm there. The gardens were wonderful for flower lovers.

It was really funny though.. cause the average age of the people who were there was probably 50+ (and I think my friend and I brought the average down significantly). Does this mean that the younger generation do not enjoy flowers (?) or they just won't bother travelling miles out of Amsterdam just to see flowers - when there are flowers just about every where you turn around in the city.

To be honest - if left to me, I may not travel there specifically there to look at flowers. I went there more for my mother (sounds strange?). Mom really loves flowers and she always wanted to go see the tulips, but she's never here at the right time. So I was instructed to take as many pictures as possible. I think I may have taken close to 180 and my friend took another 200+ - you reckon she'll be pleased with that? I also bought her a DVD of the gardens.

Off a-wondering again

Hello there. Why is it that I only seem to update my blog when I'm waiting for my flight at Heathrow? This time has got to be the earliest yet... 5am!

So here's what's been happening since the beginning of 2007.

1 - Reunion dinner with Tina, Sook, Yun-Qi, Lisa and Anton
For Chinese New Year, we decided that we would each cook something at Lisa and Sook's place. We got tired of fighting with people in the restaurants in Chinatown. I invited Yun-Qi who is over here on a 18-month secondment to join us. I made Mom's vegetarian dish and everyone loved it.

2 - Working like a dog.
The bosses decided that they wanted to issue the courses earlier this year, so I have been really busy right up till the end of March. At one point, I didn't step out of my flat for a whole week as I was working noon to midnight to coordinate with my team in the States. Oh the relief when I finally posted the announcement to release those courses....(hence why you have not heard much from me)

3 - Visited the "Count"
I took the first week of April off to visit my friend Angela in Romania. This time she took into into Transylvania. We travelled over the mountains by train. It was a lovely sight as there was still quite a bit of snow over the mountain tops. At one point of the journey, it even started snowing pretty heavily. I almost thought I could make my snowman, but alas, we didn't stop long enough for me to do that and when we finally got off at Brasov - there wasn't any snow there.

4 - Saved by the scarf
My travel "tragedy" struck again. While I was in Brasov, someone tried to steal my wallet. A woman way-laid me as I got on the bus and her accompliance cut through my handbag. Luckily, I had placed my scraf in the bag which hampered his ability to get anything out of the bag. For a while I was sweating bullets cause I had my passport in the bag.

5 - Off to see the tulips
Today, I'm making my way to Amsterdam. I have to run a workshop there next week so I'm going over earlier to do some sight seeing. Since everyone raves about the tulips there, I thought I'll go see what's the fuss about. Mom is so jealous as she really loves flowers, but she can only come later - by which time, the flowers would no longer be in bloom. I have been instructed to take lots of pictures. We shall see.

Maybe the next time I update my blog, I'll be able to post some photos to share with you.

Wedding

My cousin, Suet married Ian on 28 October 2006 (sorryy... told ya I was a terrible procrastinator). It was a lovely day for a wedding. Suet looked very lovely in her gown.

Her brother came over and gave her away. I thought that was so sweet. His words..."I wanted to make sure she is REALLY gone for good!" Haha.. bet he would secretly miss his sister. She asked me to be her witness, so they've got my signature on their wedding certificate. We were all busy texting home after the event to report to the folks that it was a "done deal".

Tina made the wedding cake... and the cake probably got more praises than Suet.

I met them for dinner last weekend and from the looks of things, married life suits them.

Good luck Suet and Ian.

Can you believe it snowed...

It snowed! It snowed!......

24/1 - I woke up at 5.30 am as I needed to be in the office before 8am. I was wondering what that white "floaty" stuff outside of my window and it took me 30 secs before I realised that it was snowing. So what did I do? Got my camera and ran outside in my jammies to take pictures... hey I'm Malaysian.. so what do you expect!.

It was so cool as I walked to the train station. The crunch of the snow under my boots was so fun! We had 2 inches and I really wanted to make a snow man - well maybe a snow ball or at least do snow angels on my neighbours' lawn. But didn't want to risk getting arrested for trespassing. Did not think that that would look too good on my CV.

Has it been 2 weeks already?

Jee... time flies by. I can't believe that it has been 2 weeks and now I'm back at the BA lounge (this time in JFK) and waiting to go back to London.

I did a couple of touristy things this trip. My colleague and I went up the Empire State Building. The view was good but it was really really cold up there.

Opps! They are calling my flight. Got to go. Will do more updates when I'm back in London.

Let's see how much I can get done in 30 mins

I have loads to update but since I only have 30 more minutes before I am to board the plane, let's see how much I can get done.

Let me start on LIFO.

Mom finally came to visit... after a much long awaited promise. She was here for 6 weeks and wouldn't you know.... the day she arrived was the day we had that massive travel alert at Heathrow. It took her more than 3 hours to get out of the airport, but the important thing is she got here safely.

First week we just stayed around London. I wanted to get her familiarised with the public transport system so that she could go around when I was at work. Wasn't too sucessful though. For a person who can read, talk and write English, she was way too scared to move around on her own.

In the end, she only ventured out once by herself. And that was because I bought her matinee tickets to see Dancing in the Streets, so she didn't have a choice but to take the train into London. Even then I spent a good 15 mins guiding her across the bridge from Waterloo to Charing Cross as the theatre was just next to Charing Cross station.

In London, we went to

• Kensington Palace (I didn't realise that Mom is such a huge Diana fan... and I mean huge! You should have seen her reaction whenever I mentioned P.Charles and you know who)
• Tower of London (oooo the first star of Africa. Now THAT is a diamond)
• Saw TOWER BRIDGE open (see lots of people still think that that is the London Bridge. It isn't)
• Buckingham Palace and saw the lovely collection of gowns the Queen wore on her official visits. They even had the dress she wore to Malaysia for the Commonwealth meeting.. and more jewels.....
• To be continued...........

I booked us on a 12 days guided tour to Scandinavia.. going through Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We spent most of the tour going through the moutains of Norway where we got to see the lovely fjords, which we learnt about in school. The sights were fantastic. The next time I get, I'll post a few pictures and link this note to that site.

The not so good thing about that tour....everything was soooo expensive. For a person who is living in London, that is saying something. Imagine if Mom had to pay for things and she did the conversion to Malaysian Ringgit. She probably would not have eaten at all.

Opps they are calling my flight for boarding. Got to go. But I have another trip back from NY, so I'll be updating this again :-)

Here I am again

Well, it looks like the only I ever update my blog is when I am at the BA lounge at Heathrow. Strange huh... you would think that since I now have broad band at home, I'll be much better at updating my news......

Yes. I am travelling again - for work. That's the only time I get to go business class and therefore can make use of the lounge. But then again, all my previous travelling have earned my enough points to be a silver member... so I guess I can make use of the lounge anytime I travel.... I think. Well... enough of this rambling.

I'm off the New York. This time for 2 weeks. I won't be in NY exactly, but will be close enough that I can probably travel in for the week ends, if I so desire. We'll see.

As the meeting starts on Monday, I'm staying with my cousin this week end. Hopefully, I get to eat the yummy sashimi again....ooooo...... and get that hair cut which I have been saying that I need to get since 3 months back. My cousin will think that I only cut my hair when I go to NY, cause that was what I did the last time I was there.... hehehehe

Ooo... the wonders of broadband at home

Okay .... so I am probably one of the worse bloggers around as I seldom update my blog. My excuse is that I am so busy at work and I don't have time to do any updates. When I get home, the connection is way slow as I did not have broadband....

So now that the excuse is no more, I hope to do better...(promise ....)

Chalking up another cultural experience in London

Question: You’ve got a nice sunny week-end. What would you do?

Answer: Have a BBQ or have a picnic in a park.

Last week end, I managed to tick off another thing from my “to do” list whilst I’m in London.

Tina won tickets to the O2 Wireless Festive and we went to see one of her favourite artist, James Blunt, perform.

I enjoyed the performance and at a few levels was quite surprised myself. My friends know that I avoid being out in the sun at all cost, thus earning me the nick name “Puteri Lilin” (princess made of wax). And here I was, out in the direct sun, baking like a lobster. True to form, this didn’t last long and we moved to a nice shady spot to rest. Here’s another first, sleeping on the grass, in full public view!

We then moved to the main stage and managed to get quite close to the front too. Considering that 30,000 people were at the park on Saturday, that was quite an achievement. Here’s another first for me – being in a middle of a shouting mob of fans. I usually prefer to watch shows from a “safe” distance, preferably from the comforts of my couch.

However, there is something to be said about experiencing the local culture, and it was worth it aching feet and all.

PS: Note to self. Before going to another park in summer, take hay fever medication so as to stop sneezing my head off and earning a nose which even Rudolf would envy!

Side splitting laughter

Last Friday I went to see the musical Avenue Q. The show was absolutely hilarious. I haven't had such a good laugh in a long while. Just the thing I needed to pick me up after a long hard week... err... months.

The cast was a combination of actors and puppets - think an adult version of Sesame Street. They sang about taboo subjects in the show - sex, racism, homeless people, unemployment; and all in good fun.

Definitely highly recommended! And if you are quick, you can get tickets at preview prices as the show officially starts at the end of the June.

3 steps to getting an indoor swimming pool

Here are my 3 simple steps to get an indoor swimming pool.....

Step 1 - Wait for a really heavy rain storm - the kind that will blow your roof off

Step 2 - Wait for your roof to be blown off

Step 3 - Which you should have really done before step 1 - move out all your furniture.

Unfortunately, I learnt this the hard way and did not manage to move my furniture out before the storm. So now, instead of a bed room, I have 2 indoor swimming pool (one in my parents room and one in mine).

My parents' room is absolutely trashed and they have to throw out their bed. It absolutely reeks. I don't know how and where they are going to sleep for the next few days. My room fared a little better, so I told Mom and Dad to use my room, until they can sort out something.

We were praying the whole time for it to stop raining but it still persisted. Good thing my cousin came over and got us some plastics sheets to cover up what was left in the rooms. He also loaned us his maid to help clean up.

Dad found someone to come and patch up the roof on Sunday, and now we pray that the roof stays down.

Sigh - what a way to end my 1 week break at home.

Yipee! Freedom..... at least for the next 3 days

Phew! Finally - the project which I have been working on was release at 4.15pm today. Now I get 3 days of peace and quiet... before coming back and dealing with the mountain of other stuff.

I'greja.... mentaga....limau.... sabun????

The Portuguese came to Malacca back in... errrr (can't remember the date but it was a long long time ago) and so I went to Portuga, last week end. That's only fair.

The firm organised the handover meeting for the project which has been keeping me awake for the last 4 months in Lisbon. So I got Tina and Sook to join me in Lisbon last week end.

The weather in Lisbon was a nice warm 16 degrees Celsius. I had forgotten how warm that was - given that I've been freezing my not so tiny tush off in London. It was so nice to walk around and not have a million layers on.

Sook suggested that we try to find some similar words in Malay (since the Portuguese had some influence on our national language) and so a word hunting we went.

I first spotted I'greja when we visited the Castle George on the hill and yes - that was the root for geraja (meaning church).

Then Tina found limau on a menu (meaning lime) and then she was really on a roll. She subsequently spotted mentaga (which was butter) and sabun (which is soap).

Poor Sook - was trying desperately to sell us that perigi (meaning well) also had a Portugese origin. Unfortunately, she was unable to corroborate this.

So we came away with 4 words - not bad I must say.

Arrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh


I can't believe this happened to me....... I had just finished typing this nice loooooooonnnnnnggggg blog and the system kicked me out (BEFORE I SAVED IT!) sob sob. Now I have to start all over again. wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Well.....

The jet setting life style.

Here I am again, in the BA lounge, updating my blog. This time I am heading for New York, the Big Apple (I wonder why they call it the Big Apple? Maybe, I'll check to see if there are any "big" apples there).

Work of course - which has been the stem of all my traveling of late. I'm going a little bit earlier to visit my cousin and his family. My nephew is so cute. He wrote me the other day to give me a weather update. He said it was "a little bit hot and a lot cold. So wear a lot of cloth". Now, I'm not sure if he is just taking short cuts or whether we need to question the level of English he learn at school. We shall see.

It was his birthday recently and he requested for a Liverpool jersey. Now I understand why these football club can afford to pay their players in millions.

His brother requested for a "large toy" (not small one - that was the exact message). So, I went to Hamleys last weekend. It is supposed to be the biggest and oldest toy store in UK. It was fantastic. The kids are really spoilt for choice. There is one problem though.... the place was completely overrun by kids. The screaming! Guess I won't get any brownie points with them.
(STRONG HINT! to all my friends with kids or planning to have kids. I DON'T DO BABY SITTING!).

I'm going to try out the shops in NY. Hopefully the £ to $ works in my favour. I'm down 2 dress sizes now, since coming to London, and in less than 6 months. By that rate, I'll be down 8 dress sizes by the end of my contract. Yohooo! One can only hope :-)

Okay, now for the second time, I'm going to try to grab some breakfast and hopefully this time this thing saves. I absolutely refuse to do this over.

An education in Romania art.

I had a fairly interesting Sunday last week. My colleague invited me to a screening of some Romanian short films. Was it good? Well - let's just say, I was extremely grateful that they were short films and not full length features. All the films were really depressing and if someone have had a really depressing week already, that would be just enough to push them to slit their wrist - in my opinion.

At the end of the screening, the organiser invited the director to come up and dialog with the audience. I was dying to ask why were all the films so "dark" but I thought I had better keep my opinions to myself so as to avoid being lynched. I think I might have been the only Asian in the cinema.

I did learn something though - to be grateful for what I have. The people in Romania must have struggled for many decades under the communist oppression, and the pain is still fresh in everyone's mind and heart. I believe that they are merely trying to purge all this pain through their art and hopefully, in a few years time, they will be able to reflect on the happier times.

GONG HEY FATT CHOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Boy! Has this been a long and hard week. This is the first time in many many years that I celebrated Chinese New Year (29 Jan 2006) away from my family. The last time this happened, I was at university and that, it was entirely my own fault. Well - technically, this also is also my "fault" - choosing to come to work in London. So, I am trying to make the best of it.

I had dinner with Lisa and Sook on Chinese New Year's eve (friends are important, when one is far away from home). We went to Imperial Kitchen (I think). We ordered a Taiwanese chicken dish, prawns with salted egg yolk, some vegetables, and each of us had a different soup. I had the lobster soup (which was orange in colour - strange). Sook had a seafood soup - which was quite nice. Lisa went for the safe wonton soup. The food was quite good but the waiter kept dropping and breaking things. I told the girls that he may have been really upset because he did not get his "ang pow"(red envelopes with money in it). The really strange thing about this restaurant was, they decided not to serve dessert because they were really busy! The first time I've been to a Chinese restaurant, which did not serve dessert.... hmm...... So we went around the block and had "tau foo fah" and chestnut cake.

Chinese New Year day itself - I decided to keep to family tradition and went vegetarian for the day. I found most of the ingredients Mom used for her traditional vegetarian dish and I made myself a huge pot. It fed me for 4 meals. Because I slept in and had to cook lunch from scratch, I did not make it into the city to see what the celebrations were like. Well - there is always next year.

While everyone in KL was having a gala time (they have almost the whole week off - lucky people), I had work really hard on this project - so much so, I think I fried a few brain cells (not that I had many to start with :-(

Tina is back in KL for 3 weeks and Lisa is going back as well (I WANNA GO BACK TOOOOOOO)

Although I am not home, I made sure I called all the family and wished them a Gong Hey Fatt Choy (with a very heavy hint about ang pow - of course!) -

Who says shopping is not a sport!

I officially declare that shopping is a sport. Why? I got tennis elbow from shopping, and if tennis elbow is generally a sports related injury, then by definition, shopping is a sport... correct?

I've had this pain in my right arm since Christmas and I've been puzzled as to what cause it. Yesterday, I finally went for my health check (as required under my contract) and I consulted with the lady who was examining me. I described my symptoms, and she told me that I had tennis elbow. And the cure..... rest the arm. Well, how am I supposed to do that when I am right handed?

She advised me to get some anti-inflammatory gel and apply it twice a day. Apparently, it might take up to 6 - 9 months for my arm to be back to normal. So in the meantime, no heavy lifting with the right arm. I've even had problems opening a jar the other day.

Food glorious food......


I'm so happy that I got to visit with my parents in Hong Kong last week. They flew up from KL to join me for the week end before I had my meeting. They were exactly the same... (still picking at each other despite the fact that they haven't seen me in more than 4 months. Glad to know some things don't change).

I've also eaten my fill of Chinese food in Hong Kong. For the first time, I was completely organised and I knew exactly what I wanted to eat and where I would go.. of course, everything else was secondary. And the best thing... I even lost weight during that trip. I think it must be all the walking I had to do. It was seafood, dim sum, char siew and more seafood and dim sum all the way.. yum!!!!! Fantastic!

I had such plans to take my parents sight seeing in HK, but in the end, we did not manage to do that. Good thing they got a half day city tour as part of their Cathay Pacific Super City package. In fact, they probably saw more of HK that I did, in all my 3 trips combined. I did take them to the flower market cause Mom is absolutely crazy about flowers, and I had to stop her from buying anything. I kept telling her that it would not survive in the KL heat.

The shopping was not too great. Everything is so expensive in Hong Kong. Even the public transport is not cheap. I must have paid at least £15 every day just for the MTR alone (this includes fare for my parents). I must find a cheaper alternative the next time I go.

In the end, I bunked in with my parents for the 2 nights before my meeting. I could not get a room in any of the hotels near where my parents were staying (apparently there was a toy convention happening at the same time), and it didn't make sense to stay far away from them. It was a pretty tight squeeze, but hey, now that I've lost weight, I don't take up much space (hahahhaah).

I had terrible jet lag when I arrived on Friday. I could not sleep and I ended up sitting in the toilet reading my work stuff at 3 am because I didn't want to disturb my parents. It was so much nicer when I moved to the hotel where the meeting was held. It sure makes a difference when one room is USD100 per night vs USD230 per night.

Horrors of horrors..... I found a fly (one of those that hang around fruits) in my porridge at breakfast one morning. I fished it out and showed it to hotel person, and I made sure I wrote it down in my comment letter - and I got free breakfast the next morning. I'm just glad I didn't get sick.

I flew out on Tuesday night and arrived back in London on Wednesday morning (5am!) and went straight to a meeting. It was a wonder my brain was working at all. Needless to say, I went home and was in bed by 8 pm on Wednesday, and slept straight through to 6am the next morning.

It is now back to work and it promises to be busy busy busy for the next few months.

Hong Kong and eating.... here I come


I'm writing this from the British Airways Lounge in Heathrow. I'm about to get on my flight to Hong Kong..... I'm so excited cause I will be seeing my parents in Hong Kong. I will be spending Friday evening and the week-end with them, after which I have to do some work.

I have made all the plans for the time with my parents... eating plans that is. I have searched the web and marked down all the restaurants I want to go to. I figure I need to take in at least 4 meals everyday to complete my "eating" list. Good thing I did not binge during Christmas :-)

YIPEEE!!!!!! 4 days off


On your mark.......Get set .........EAT!!!!!

4 whole days of eating, drinking and sleeping.... I'm beginning to see why Christmas is so beautiful. And then, it is the post Christmas sales... that should be fun. I expect my credit card is going to get some serious exercise.

Me, myself and I

Oh... this is depressing. I'm the only person in my department left in the office. Everyone has gone off on their Christmas leave. So here I am, looking at our attempt at putting up Christmas decoration (the no budget way) just counting down the time.

Have you seen a more "lovely" Christmas decoration? I must say, the 6 feet blow-up snow man the other department has is great, but hey, that's just store bought. Ours have originality..... and it is coming down so quickly too!

Well - Merry Christmas everyone. Let's eat lots and be really merry.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now this would not come as a surprise... I still have not got all my Christmas cards out (sheepish grin). Actually the real question is, when have I even gotten my cards out on time. I promise to do better next year.

Being that all of you would not receive my seasons greetings before the holidays, (I promise that I will post them tomorrow!), I just wanted to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

When I figure out how to attach pictures onto my blog, I want to share with you the "special" Christmas decoration in my department. I guarantee you would not see anything like it. But that will have to wait until I can figure out the technology. Maybe what I'll do is ask Tina - she would know for certain.

All roads lead to Rome......or so we were lead to believe.


Finally, my second sojourn in my European adventure. We have been planning this since we found out that Tina is going to be posted to Rome for a few weeks - perfect opportunity for a visit, right?

We (Sook, Lisa and I) had it all planned. We were going to take an afternoon flight out of Heathrow, arrive in Rome late afternoon and start off our holiday with a nice dinner and plenty of rest, so that we would be all geared up for the miles and miles of walking we were going to do in Rome. We even got Tina to organise a guided tour of the Vatican City for the first thing on Saturday morning.

Personally, I might not be looking back at this particular holiday with too many fond memories. Now that I think of it, I'm not too sure if throwing 3 coins into the Trevi Fountain was such a good idea (first coin is to wish to return to Rome, second to find love in Rome and the 3rd is to marry that loved one in Rome). If you think you are up for the full blast of Murphy's Law, then read on.

I woke up on Friday morning to a heavy blanket of fog. Our 2pm flight was cancelled because of the bad weather! We waited in queue for more than 2 hours and got on a later flight leaving at 8pm. Right up until 10pm when our flight finally took off, we weren't really sure that we would get to Rome. We finally got into the apartment at 2.30 am and poor Tina had to wait up for us.

All of us trotted out bright and early on Saturday morning as we had booked a guided tour of the Vatican City. When we got to the outside walls of the Vatican City, we were horrified to find a queue going around the block that was 6 - 8 people deep. The hours and hours we spent in Heathrow came flashing through my mind. Once the line started moving, we got in quite swiftly.

The Vatican City was the absolute highlight of the week end. We all endured sore necks, but the frescos on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel was worth it. It boggles my mind to think that men were capable of such feats, with what little they had as resource in that age.

It was totally down-hill after that. I lost my wallet to a pick-pocket (even though I had the warning flashing through my brain a million times - beware of pick-pockets!) on the crowded Metro (train system in Rome). The girls and I spent more than 1 hour in a police station trying to make a report. There were at least 7 other groups who came into the station, similarly affected. The bright side of this fiasco was that they didn't get my passport, which was sitting safely at the apartment. So, there I was penniless and cardless, and having to live off the charity of my friends for the rest of the week end.

Everything else after that was a blur.... I tried to maintain my cool. After all, no point getting too upset and I can't change what has happened. That is why I got travel insurance in the first place. The girls were very good in helping me get all the phone numbers so that I can call to cancel my cards, which I got done whilst sitting in the police station. All the time I thought if I should have shouted and maybe stand a chance to catch the pick-pocket. Or if I had done so, would we have gotten knifed. Well ... cest la vie. Learn and move on, I suppose.

On Sunday, our flight back was delayed as well due to the massive oil depot explosion near Heathrow. I finally got into bed close to mid-night.

I can honestly say, I had experienced everything on this trip .... some good and some not so good.

Now, I just have to wait for all my cards to be replaced... and that is becoming another nightmare on its own. Well, this is one way to ensure that I don't spend any money over Christmas.

Well - what do you know? I finally got started on my very own blog....not bad actually, considering that I didn't even know what a blog was until 3 months ago. What to say in my first posting????? Since I didn't even keep a diary to begin with (though was sore tempted after watching Bridget Jones' Diary) I hope I don't bore everyone to tears.

It has been 99 days since I came to London, and I still don't know how to read the A-Z(that is very comprehensive street map of London). I keep getting lost, which is quite pathetic, actually. Which is why I was so proud of myself when I found my way home last week, when the trains got cancelled (apparently someone threw themselves under a train). It took me almost 4 hours, but I got home! Had to sleep the whole of Saturday to recover from that "ordeal". That'll teach me to check to see if there are any disruptions to rail services before leaving the office.

Thanks to my friends in London (Tina, Lisa, Sook and Ian), my move here have not been too traumatic. I can honestly say, I haven't gotten truly home sick.... yet. Although the first time I had to do my own ironing, I really missed my Mummy....

So what have I been up to?

I've gone to Madrid and will be going to Rome in a couple of weeks. I went to Oxford and was sorely disappointed that the place was not crawling with young college men.

I've seen quite a few musicals and plays and fell asleep during a modern dance production. The latest musical I saw, Guys and Dolls, featured Ewan McGregor and oh la la - boy can that man kiss. I've been warned to keep my dreams off him as Tina has "chup" him already. So, I'll hang on to Mr Colin (Darcy) Firth - thank you very much.

Shopping of course... however, I must say, I am pretty restrained cause I am waiting for the sales to start after Christmas. Of course Tina would disagree with me since she witnessed me buying 7 pairs of shoes at one go. Hey! I really needed good shoes, so I can walk in London.

Very important - I lost 1 dress size (at the bottom - top is getting there) since coming to London. You think having to eat my own cooking and doing house chores have something to do with that?