Cherries

We have been to

Italy -Rome, Venice, Milan, Como Lake, Bellagio, Florence, Bologna. United Kingdom -The whole Kingdom including scottish land. Belgium France -Paris, Lille, Calais, Metz, Nancy. The Netherland -Amsterdam, Utretcht, Roermond, Mastricht, Rotterdam, Zaans schans, Velondam, keukenhof etc. Chez Republic -Prague. Slovakia -Bratislava. Hungary -Budapest. Austria -Vienna, Salzburg. Switzerland -Basel, Zurich, Interlaken Lake, jungfraujich, geneva, brig, lausanne, Lugano Germany -West and East Germany except Munich. Luxembourg United States of America -San Francisco, Hawaii. Poland -Warsaw and Lodz Spain -Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Barcelona Turkey -Istanbul Singapore Russia -st.petersburg and counting...

Adds

Sunday 31 August 2008

Salam Ramadhan Al-mubarak

Salam Ramadhan untuk semua kawan-kawan, pembaca blog yang tak best ni, silent reader
( annonymous) yang sellau bg komen tanpa nama..tq..dan semua umat islam yang menyambutnya. Semoga ramadhan kali ni akan membawa sinar kebahagaian dan kebaikan untuk kita bersama amin...

Friday 29 August 2008

Gypsies are F#####G B#####D!

Something bad happened to Am when he was coming back from Friday prayer. He was talking over the phone with his Supervisor, Greg. So, after hanging off the phone, he put it in the front jacket's pocket. Suddenly, a gypsy man came after him and pretended like he was crazy and he tried to say something in a foreign language. He laid his hand on Am's chest and kept mumbling indistinctly. He tried to tackle Am's leg and leaned forward towards my husband like a drunk. Am pushed and managed to escape from this crazy bastard gypsy. Am was walking away when he realized that something was missing in his pocket.

Yes, his intuition was absolutely right, the PDA phone has been stolen and when Am went back to face the gypsy, he showed all his empty pockets. And, he kept smiling like a stupid monkey to show Am that he did nothing wrong but at the same time, the face showed you that " I steal your phone, but you have no proof that I took it". It was him, the one who stole the PDA, but he quickly passed it on to his friends that were riding on a bike when this man was trying to stop Am. They were neck and neck in their so-called "stealing action". Unfortunately, they were too far away to be chased.

In my personal opinion, this bunch of gypsies were already keeping an eye on Am when he was talking over the phone. They knew exactly which pocket my husband put the PDA phone in, and quickly, one of them came near Am, just to nick it in the nick of time before Am realized the phone had been stolen. No wonder Gypsies always been put as a second class people in other people's eyes and they deserve to be slaughtered by Hitler! They deserved it well! I curse all Gypsies from now onwards!

P/S -moral of the story is to always be careful with the people around you! you will never know what they intend to do to you. But whatever it was, all things happen for a reason! Tawakkall je le..aku doakan diani mati kena langgar lori bulan puasa ni..amin!

Thursday 28 August 2008

Lepat pisang













Lapar tadi..so ended up buat lepat pisang untuk minum petang..
for the recipe plz click here

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Prague - day 5, 6 and 7 of our trip


This is the last entry about my trip. As per initial plan the last stop of our trip was Prague. From Dresden, we went off to Prague by train after buying the return tickets for two people that costed us Euro 109. Eventhough we had some second thoughts about going to Prague at the first stage, but thinking of how near Prague was from Dresden, made us just carry on buying the tickets and put the money matter to the second place. If we never went to Prague this time, there will be no other time left.

From my personal view, Prague is quite similar to Dresden, but My heart loves Dresden more than Prague. One thing that Prague successfully won my heart was in terms of Crystal shopping! I started shopping for crystals on our second day. The best area to buy crystal was in the Old Town, You can buy Bohemian crystals at bargain price if you find the right place. But, one thing for certain, try to avoid buying crystal in souvenir shops. It Would be much better to buy it at the crystal's shop. You have to know the difference between crystal and crystal glass. Crystal glass normally contain 16% of crystal compared to crystal which is normally 24%. Hand made carving is more expensive compared to factory made. So, let your heart choose which one suits you well in crystal shopping k!

Since we were there for three days and two nights, we had a plenty of time for sightseeing and shopping. We visited all the highlighted places in Prague twice, which was during day and night just simply to take photos in the two different situation. The must visit places in Prague are, the Old Town, Prague Castle, Schwarzenberg Palace, Episcopal Palace and Hradcanske Namesti area, The Loreto Sanctuary, The Charles Bridge, New Town, Wenceslas Square and many more to list down. After being tired from walking around the whole town, we went off to our room to rest, that was our typical routine when we were in Prague.

After spending 3 days in Prague we returned to Weimar before going back to Liege on the following day. Once we arrived in Weimar, we took the opportunity sightseeing in Weimar and took photos during the night. It was a nice moment for us especially when we had to stay still when Zek was trying to take our photos in dark places. See..only a patient person like me can do that..hahahahaa..Alright, the night was getting late so we went home and slept like babies after spending the whole day with long journey. The next day, we woke up and took the train at 10.52am to go back to Liege and arrived in Liege at 10pm...12 hours trip non stop. How terrible was it? Well,a nice experience indeed!

P/S- I'd like to say a million thanks to Zek and Bajang for having us..Eventhough you both still feeling tired from Barcelona trip, but you both managed to fulfill our necessity without any complaints at all. Thanks for the accomodation, foods,souvenir from Barc, all the spices, trip schedule and etc..thanks again..dtg sini lg k..or next trip kalau ada masa kita leh plan tmpt lain lak..thanks friends!!

Dresden -Day 4 in Germany


The fourth day in Germany brought us to the most gorgeous place that I have ever been to in my life, Dresden. Actually, Dresden was the place that we visited before we headed out to Prague later that evening (since the distance from there to Prague was just 150 km away and took 2 hours by train). Dresden, is located in the state of Saxony, east of Germany. First time I stepped my foot in Dresden, I was amazed by how beautiful the place was. I do not know how to describe it, but trust me, you should visit this place if you really want to experience Europe's most beautiful place! And this type of place is what I am looking for to be written down in my next must go places in the Europe. This place was full of amazing architecture buildings. Even though those buildings were reconstructed after being destroyed in bombing in World War Two, they still follow the design of the original buildings before bombing.

We spent our lovely day in Dresden for almost six hours before going off to Prague. We took a few hundred photos and bought some souvenirs to remind us of this place. I ended up buying a book on Dresden for my personal collection. Everything is there in Dresden, from panoramic view to the nicest building, Just name it! It seemed like we were living in a fairy tale town with horse carriages(but, just bear in mind that you have to pay quite a fortune for the horse carriage). For us, as travelers with a tight budget,walking around by foot is good enough. As long as we can experience and see this place for ourselves. Until this entry is being written, Dresden's experience has left a deep impression in my heart and it creates a question mark in my mind which is, Do we have a chance to return to this place again in the future?.

Tuesday 26 August 2008

Berlin - 3rd day in Germany


Berlin was supposed to be our day two trip instead of day three. Since we were too tired from day one's walking around from one place to another, Berlin was left to be the next day's place to visit. In the early morning, we buy the ticket and took the local train that costed us Euro 54 for two person to fulfill our mission. The time was ticking so fast and by the time we arrived in Berlin, it was already midday. Only a few hours left for us to enjoy the city. Straightaway, we bought the sightseeing bus ticket which costed us Euro 10 per person( well, quite a lot of money for 2 pax, but this was the best option for us though!) since we had a time constraint. And the truth was, we could not bear to waste anymore time on this trip. We departed from KÜrfurstendamm and we freely hopped on and off from any designated bus stop of the sightseeing bus.




This is some additional info to those whose do not know about Berlin in detail, like me. Actually, Berlin is full with the World War Two history, before this I did not give a damn about WW2 history, but since I visited Buchenwald and Berlin, I started becoming keen on gaining any information on it. So, I have just begun to learn and experience the history. We spent time to visit a few highlighted places such as the Berliner Dom, the Brandenburg gate, which is arguably the city's most photographed landmark , Checkpoint Charlie, Original Berlin Wall ( just took photos from our sightseeing bus, though) that was left after the fall of the wall. However it took about three decades until the wall was torn down.The wall was built to separate the city into two parts for more than 28 years. Nowadays, only a few part is left to be visited and the government put an effort to preserve them from getting totally damaged.



Together, we had lunch, that had been provided by my friends and we managed to save some money to spend on food. Thanks to them both for that. Taking photos was our priority during the trip and as a result, we took more than 300 hundred photos in one day. We had a bundle of fun in Berlin, and if I have a chance, I will definitely go to this place again in the future to spend more time in Berlin. InsYaAllah...

Leipzig - 2nd day in Germany


The second day lead us to Leipzig. leipzig is one of the well known town in Germany. The journey from Weimar to Leipzig was about 4 hours for the return journey. We went there by train and again, the Länders ticket was our choice to travel in Germany which costed us Euro 13.50 after sharing with my friend. As usual the original ticket price was Euro 27. The weather in Leipzig was not good enough during that day, so we went to Burger King for Lunch. I bought potato wedges, fish burger and chili cheese nuggets. Eventhough the variety to choose from was limited, we still enjoyed the foods so much and we ended up filling full for the rest of the evening..Burp!!


After lunch, we were off to see around the town. We went to the shopping mall and shops to windowshop. As far as I can remember, I bought nothing in Leipzig . Well, if you are a schopaholic, so leipzig town is the best choice for you to spend your money. Before going back to Weimar, I bought some souveniers there and then we hopped on train. We spent almost 4 hours in Leipzig that day. One thing that I can't help smiling from was that during that day, I had my haircut in Weimar after we came back from Leipzig at one of the saloons in there. The hairdresser was so kind and chatty to me. The haircut was unbelievably cheaper compared to Belgium. It only costed me Euro 15 for washing and cutting, plus I ended up giving Euro 2 tips to the hairdresser to show how satisfied I was with her service. Apparently, my trip was worth a thousands smile on my cheeky face! voila!

First day in Germany


In the early morning we were off to Erfurt, which is the capital city of Thüringen. We bought the Länders ticket which costed us Euro 13.50 after sharing the ticket price with Zek.The original price was Euro 27. The first time I've been in Erfurt, and I started to love this place. This place was quite similar to Weimar (very nice place indeed, especially for studying)!The surrounding looked medieval and historical. The simple words to describe these two places were "calm and fresh". And the calmness released my blocked mind.Sightseeing in Erfurt took us 3 hours. The places that have been visited by us were the shopping mall (I bought a pen drive stick, 4GB for Euro 8.88 only. Unbelievable cheap!), sightseeing on the Krämerbrücke (they created a tourist town on the bridge, can you imagine that?),took photos at a church that has only one wall left, currently used as a location for mass concerts, visited Erfurt castle St. Petersburg, and many more that I tend to forget the details. But one thing for certain, I can't forget the tasty and cheap Beriyani rice at one of the Halal shop in Erfurt. And in fact it is the only Halal restaurant in this place. The lamb and grill chicken were so good and must try if you go to Erfurt!


From Erfurt, we headed to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Buchenwald is a prisoners camp during Hitler's governance from year 1937 to 1945 (if I was not mistaken). The site was full of cruelty and torture and showed no mercy to neither men nor nature. The prisoners were Jews, Gypsies, political people, homosexual and etc.In fact, nobody deserved this type of brutality! In this place, we visited the crematorium, the SS soldiers barracks etc, but one place that I couldn't go inside was the basement that was formerly used to hang people. My friend told me that when she entered the basement, the smell of sterility of the place hit her nose. So, I decided against my keen intuition to have a look into the basement. Not to forget that during the night, I can't sleep and even had to wake Am up, to accompany me to the nearby toilet in our friend's house!


The last destination on our first day trip was, Jena. Since we were so tired with the whole day sightseeing, so in Jena we just walked to shopping mall and I bought a pair of Hunkemöller lingerie there which costed me Euros 15 after 70% reduction, hehehe..and then, after that we off to sightseeing around the Jena's town. Took photos and return to Weimar to fully rested before starting tomorrow's journey to Leipzig!

Monday 25 August 2008

Germany and Prague Trip

As per in my previous entry about our trip, we off to Germany on 17th August 2008 by train. The original planned was, sightseeing in Frankfurt first on the way to Weimar but since the time was against us (because of we misread the Belgium train timetable in Liege, it ended up that we arrived 2 hours late in Weimar, such a waste! Plus,we ended up paying 60 euro for the high speed train ticket,THALYS from Liege to Aachen,instead of 7.40 cents by local train during the weekend) Thus, resorting Frankfurt to be written into our future trip. Nevertheless, I had time to take few pics at the Frankfurt train station. Eventhough Frankfurt is a well known place among people, but, my opinion is,the city itself not as good as it sounds. The reason was,people all around you live a hectic life. Not to mention how packed the people were,like sardines in a small can.Huh! Terrible isn't it? We arrived in Frankfurt at 4.30 pm so not to waste our time, we hopped onto the train off to Weimar. We arrived in Weimar at 9pm, and thanks to Bajang for he picked us up at the train station. Together we walked to his house and we talked, ate, and showered before hitting the pillows and drifted in our dreams before we starting tomorrow's sightseeing and a miles journey ahead for the whole week!

2nd anniversary


Today is our second anniversary..guess what? we only celebrate it at home fully resting in bed after being tired from our trip to Germany and Prague. We arrived home at 10pm last night and in fact I just woke up to write this entry. Whatever it was, the trip and crystals that Am bought for me in Prague was my anniversary gift.hehhe..so no complains from me for just being at home today. The trip was good and my priority now is, to edit the photos and upload it in my fotopages. By the way, before I forgot, thanks a trillion to Zek and Bajang for having us..buat susah2 korang je..thanks for everything...moga2 makin murah rejeki hangpa after this..aminnnn...

continue...

In the evening, Am gave me a bouquet of roses and bought choc cake to celebrate our anniversary at home. AND....I used my new crystal glasses especially for the event!!

Saturday 16 August 2008

Going on holiday..

Yesterday, we finished cleaned our home just because we are going on holiday and will be away for almost ten days, so, it would be better to leave this house in neat and tidy surrounding. We will off tomorrow morning and one thing for sure, the miles journey ahead is waiting for us. For this trip we will cover the east area of Germany( before that will do sightseeing in Frankfurt first!) and the next destination is, Prague in Czech republic before we return to Liege). My friend told me that, Prague is the right place to buy crystals and maybe I will buy it for my own collection. In fact, I have allocated some money for this crystals shopping purpose! Well, not to forget that Prague is one of the nicest and beautiful places to visit in Europe. I read somewhere that, once you stepped your foot in Prague, you will fall in love at the first sight with the place and you will definitely go again in the future..Can't wait to experience it!ciao!

Friday 15 August 2008

public holiday

Belgium public holiday eh??huh..no wonder all shops are closed...cheh!

Thursday 14 August 2008

This is my life....


Rambling indistinctly by me in this entry, which is about my life. About the person I was 10 years ago is not the same person I am today. About everything that I have learned and experienced has affected who I am. About, I would not change anything because it was so fun, even when things were hard and even if I'd be crying in the shower because I have got unsuccessful dreams, unsolvable problems or when my surrounding was being mean to me, but, I had my presence of mind. Whatever it was, I always used to say...in a whisper 'this is my life'...About, I have learned that I can't reverse the past mistakes or rewrite the bad reviews about people to me, but I can do what I've always done ,express myself..all myself..and then find satisfaction in knowing that 'it's not about having control everything'..and it is all about doing thing that I'm proud of and just keep thinking that 'I did what I could'.Life must go on.whatever it is, I am always thankful for what I have and for what the destiny brings me today..So the conclusion is, this is all just rambling..another time to be wasted in my life..sigh!!

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Photography and I..


Every time I browse the internet, my fingers will itchy to type the words of photography website in the search engine. I will randomly click at the sites that related with photography and this will be my top priority during surfing. I can spend ages by sitting in front of my laptop to have a look in details for all those photos in the professional photographers's galleries. I do not realized about this for quite sometimes, until, a few friends of mine said to me that there was differential in the photos that had been photographed by me recently, compared to a few months back. Well, maybe it is true, or maybe it is not. Is it? hehehe.

I learn a lot about photography lessons, techniques, camera, editing, angle etc, simply because its my passion and maybe its yours either. I love to create the best result in the images that were taken by me. Yet, every time I take photos, I seem to forget all the techniques especially when it comes to the aperture and shutter speed concerning. Furthermore, to create a unique and exquisite photos by the surrounding and exspressionless are much harder compare to "ready for action" photos. I know, it just a little knowledge that I've already gain about photography world and there are so much expertise to learn and to practise .

To become a professional photographer is not in my dream list at all. Frankly, I think, cameras are great gifts for everyone that loves photography, but deciding which one is the right one can be tricky. For the time being, I am still using a compact camera that has a half of the dslr function. The camera is quite complicated to use and to adjust the aperture and shutter speed setting accordingly. It will get more complicated especially when I try to use it manually, because I am a type of person that likes to fiddle with things and is a techno freak, so that I have to make sure I will get something that give me the ability to make manual adjustments. But, once I know how it works, the result was blimey! concerning the fact that sometimes I kept doing the same mistakes when I took photos. In example, hand shaking that will result the blurry photos especially in the darker place or in the night whereby I forgot to bring a tripod to stand the camera, underexposed or overexposed lighting, wrongly focused and many more. These mistakes will ruin my photos. Even photoshop cannot be my saviour when the mistakes was terribly done!


Most of the people that I've known have 'migrated' from a digital camera to the dslr camera, well, dslr camera is my eager wish list item. The eagerness sometimes is killing me! I will absolutely buy them soon. Which camera I will go to? Aha, I have done a review about the cameras and apparently, I love Canon more than Nikon. So, there are a few choices that keep lingering in my mind. It just the matter of how much saving that will pile up in my account (until today's entry, still no saving at all..kikikiki..Oh dear!), and after that, I will make the final decision about this! My heart beats pounder every time I pass by the camera's shop. I cannot help myself to peep from the outside and glance at those displayed cameras. Oh pity me, if I have so much money to spend, definitely this dream camera will be in my hand at anytime, Just click my fingers and all done.

Whatever it is, all this enthusiasm about photography is for my personal satisfaction only. To be a really professional photographer is a long way to go to and too much knowledge to gain, but if I have a determination and believe in myself it could be the beginning of my never ending journey in photography arena.

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Exercise is must!


After being ignoring my weight and lived in a denial stage for quite some time, so I have decided to start an exercise to shed on a few pounds. I admitted that I put on weight after being photographed by my husband and the photos showed how chubby and ugly I was with the widen waistline and excess fat everywhere all around my body. I used to weight around 55 kg for the past ten years and what an incredibly shocked when I scaled myself last two weeks, the scale number showed that my weight was 59kg. I felt like a huge baby hippo (baby hippo sounds cute compare to rhino..hehehhe)everytime I stand by him, all clothes in my wardrobe creeped up from size ten to size twelve. Oh dear!

Trust me, It was not a normal condition that I have ever been, since I am only 158cm height. In fact, I am in a petite person category. Ok, that was it! I was so determined to do some exercise to maintain my weight. Unfortunately,to join the gym is not the best option for me since I was in a tight budget, but will do when I go back to Malaysia for good in the future! To diet? Ah! Nah! It was not my cup of tea. So, only exercise left for me instead. Undoubtedly, started last week, Am and I will jog along Meuse River at least twice or thrice per week depend on the weather and several factors to help me through this exercise regime difficulties. In addition, the river is located just nearby our house and I will make sure we did the exercise at least an hour a day. The total distance was about 3.5km for the whole jogging track. I think the distance was good enough for me since I am not a sport person.

Though, it sounds far for me, but every time we jog, the time went by so fast and without realized I was arrived at the last resort of our jogging track shortly. You want to know why? Yes, it was because the viewed along the river was so lovely, and we will definitely stop at the last destination to take the deepest rest with the balmy surrounding and the lovely greenish garden that contains blooming roses and flowers everywhere. Plus, there was benches to laid your butt facing the lake with the white swans. Actually, this viewed had been created in my childhood's imagination since I was a kid and every time I paint for my art class, the garden with the lake view will be my choice .

A very nice garden indeed! I love it so much until I cannot help myself from jogging everyday if the weather is permitting. We did the exercise routine for almost two weeks now, and the best things has happened to me recently. Whereas, when I weighed myself last weekend, it showed that I lost 1.5kg. So, my current weight is 57.5kg. Another 1.5kg to go plus to flatten my flabby stomach up to the best standard that I can do. In a nutshell, no more snack and tidbits in the middle of the night and I will keep an eye on my weight to ensure it will maintain around 50kg to 55kg. Not more than that!! InsyaAllah..

Monday 11 August 2008

sharing info?

Have you ever touched something that you should not? What I mean in here is something that made from forbidden animal in our religion which is pig skin. Since I've been in overseas I used to mistakenly touched them when I was shopping. I know it was my mistakes not to check the items first properly before I laid my hand on them,but sometimes, it was very hard to recognize it especially when you just see it through your naked eyes. Well, I know it was not a sin to touch them but what I need to do was perform "samak", which mean, I need to clean my skin thoroughly by using water and soil, and that's it, all sorted! Apparently, every time I made this stupid mistakes, I will quickly perform "samak" and the problem was the repugnant feeling remains eventhough I know I should not! It just the cliche mental attitude that has been implanted in my head since I was kid. For a lazy person likes me, it quites so much work to do. Oh, by the way, I read an article before about the soap that purposely made to be used when you touched the pig skin. Anyone has any ideas about where I can buy this soap? Do not get this wrong, I do not intend to repeat the same mistakes again in the future, it just the matter of that I think I need to keep some in my stock for unforeseen circumstances. Just if! So, if anyone knows this please inform me immediately and your information is much appreciated! I promised, after this, I will be more careful and beware when I choose leather thingy items in the future.


PETIKAN DARI SOAL JAWAB AGAMA

Berkenaan dengan isu menyentuh, memegang, merawat anjing dan babi yang dikategorikan sebagai najis '³mughollazoh '´ iaitu najis berat dalam feqah, ianya bukanlah haram seperti mana yang dikatakan oleh sesetengah masyarakat melayu. Ramai yang bertanya kepada saya bagaimana saya sebagai seorang muslim boleh menyentuh anjing dan babi yang haram disentuh?. Berdasarkan pelajaran feqah yang saya pelajari sejak sekolah rendah agama hinggalah sekolah menengah, menyentuh najis '³mughollazaoh '´ tidak haram. Apa yang dinyatakan oleh hukum feqah ialah apabila kita menyentuh najis '³mughollazoh '´ kita dikehendaki menyucikannya dengan bersamak iaitu membasuh dengan air yang telah dicampurkan dengan tanah sekali dan membilasnya dengan air (air yang bersih dan suci) sebanyak 6x.

Gathering and tahlil on occasion of celebration of Ramadhan


Did I mention in my previous entry about the "tahlil" and "bacaan yassin", that was taken place in Antwerp yesterday? I think nope, because I have forgotten to write about that in my last entry. Yes, we stayed overnight in Abg Mazli house after sightseeing to help them to cook for the feast. We cooked nasi kerabu, cucur udang, fruits salad etc. After being enjoying myself for the whole day, in the night I had to spent hours to finish some of the dishes. Even my day was pretty knackered but I was so happy to lend my hand in cooking, especially to cook my traditional recipe, nasi kerabu. I did not put high expectation when I cooked that but the result was pretty well! The tahlil was conducted by one of our friend, Zaini. He did it successfully for the first time. Well, maybe after this we can ask him to conduct bacaan yassin and tahlil at ours in the future. Insya Allah...

After the tahlil, we ate, talked and took some photos before went back to liege. We took train at 6.30pm and safely arrived in Liege at 8.30pm in the night. A nice and well spent weekend indeed!

p/s- for the whole activities photos as usual can be viewed in my fp.

Antwerp

Antwerp is one of the largest town in Belgium. This town is popular with the diamond's shop, and in fact, if you are one of the collector this is the right place for you . The price of the diamonds are madly cheaper compare to other places. I was so intrigued to visit this place since the first time I've been here in early April this year. So, we went there yesterday morning for a day sightseeing and our journey by train took two hours to arrive. Thanks to Abg Mazli for being our tourist guide. He was so keen to show us around. We really appreciate it so much.


Well, this was the first time we spent our precious evening in Antwerp for walking around. Apparently, I like the town very much in term of shopping heaven's place, the historic buildings layout, the port, the castle and many more. I really mesmerized with how interesting the town was. There was plenty of must see places to visit. Fortunately, even with the tight time and schedule we managed to cover half of it. The best places to visit in Antwerp were Grand Palace, Antwerp Castle, Antwerp Port and the botanical garden.


During sightseeing I found a few brand shops that I could not find in Liege such as MAC, Louise Vuitton, Ralph Laurence and many more. Just name it! Oh before I forgot, I was so happy when I found Gregg's Bakery in Antwerp, since this was my favorite bakery when I was in the U.K. Oh dear, how I miss Manchester so much and it was so frustrated when Belgium, especially Liege town ,could not provide something that I used to buy easily in the U.K. Besides that, there was plenty of Asean shops to choose and each shops normally sell unbelievable things like screw pine leaves, palm sugar, king fruits, Jacob's biscuits and etc.Lucky me! So, Antwerp was my saviour, I will definitely go there, again in no time in the future.

Friday 8 August 2008

08.08.08

I just realized that today's date is 08.08.08..Nothing exotic about this entry, just I like the number, 080808 because of the day, month and year happend to be in the same number.It's unique!This thing will never ever happend again in the future..cheers!!

Each man has his peculiar hobby



Speaking about hobbies, everyone has their own hobby. So does my husband. His hobby is to take care of fish. When I said "take care", what I mean is that he takes proper care of his fish by cleaning the fish tanks (we have two tanks) almost thrice a week, supply carbon dioxide to the plants in the tanks by mixing yeast, sugar bla..bla..bla,feeding the fish of course is the main priority, and many more. It takes ages to list it all.



What I want to emphasize in this entry is, how obsessed he is with his fish. I still remember when we were in the UK last month for his viva, on the way back to London he wanted to shop for something and even when the weather was not permitting, he insisted. So, I think all you can guess what he was up to? Yes, he went to Oxford Street which was known as the shopping heaven, a place just to buy clip pump for his small aquarium! And guess, how much he spent for that thing? Yup, 30 quids.Can you imagine that how obsessed he is? He doesn't bother about spending his money on his hobby and as far as I can perceive, he spent almost 200 Euro for all the aquarium's thingy.

Such a waste because when the fish dies, only the rotten skeleton remains.huh! Never mind that, because he will buy new fish to replace the dead one. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that he can spend hours and even every day in Aquaria shops just to have a look around and shop for his fish things,simply because, he loves it too much. Besides that, he bought almost everything to make the tanks look good from the small lamp to the bigger one, filters and etc. Just name it!

He said to me once before, that the fish will last much longer than you bargained for if you take good care of them and in his mind it is because fish make wonderful pets and add beauty to any home. I know that each man has his peculiar hobby and when the hobby is so obsessively done, it makes me lost my temper sometimes, Get a grip, will you my dear!

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Understanding

'Understanding' words is not as easy as it sounds when it comes to our daily life. To understand other people's position when we are not in their shoes. This thought crossed my mind after I chatted with one of my friend this morning. She told me exactly how she felt when a bunch of her close friends seemed to exclude her from some of their activities. I kept persuading her that it was just her assumption that maybe it was because of the hormones or whatsoever.

Frankly, I think she was not paranoid in this matter after she told me why she said so! Trust me I know her well since the past ten years or more. Regardless of the cliche reason that her friends kept giving her when she asked the reason why they were doing this to her, she kept trying to think positive,now, she just lets nature take its course. I know that I am not the one who should give advice to those who need it so much, especially when I already have enough on my plate. But for me, it is simply about "trying to understand as much as you can about others before you judge them, and trying to put ourselves in their shoes," I used to complain and talk around about some of my so-called friends when they did something that I thought I could handle it easily if it was me instead. The point is that I used to tattle about my friends about things that later on happened to me instead! As we know, what goes around will come around, since then, I think it is better to keep my mouth shut and just pray for them.People would never ever understand until it happens to themselves! Life is complicated enough to conquer with so I will try to deal with my life wisely!

Chicken Pau (s)












When I was wasting my time by browsing the internet, suddenly the feeling to making pau emerged inside me.Undoubtedly, I searched for the recipe and found out the easiest one from mesra.net. After being busies and sweating for almost two hours with measuring the ingredients, kneading, making the chicken filling and steaming, Eventually, I finished them and the result was not so bad at all for the first time of my cooking. It tasted good and the shape was ok!

Sunday 3 August 2008

Gathering at Ternuzen,Holland


Yesterday, We were invited to join a party by Kak Zue and Abg Zam at their house in Tenurzen, Holland. This party was more like a farewell party because they are going back to Malaysia for good this coming september. They arranged cabs (about eight people) from Ghent train station for us and even paid the fares. The hosts were very nice people indeed and I am pretty sure that we will miss having them around in the future. What more could we ask for? We are really grateful to them for everything. While we were waiting for the cab, I took the oportunity to take a few pics around Ghent station, Frankly, this town was not so bad for sightseeing and I will do that soon, maybe spend the whole day in Ghent.


We drove to Kak Zu's house and the journey was about 30 minutes. Actually, Tenurzen is a strategically located port on the waterways to Ghent, in present-day Belgium. Nowadays the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal is still an important shipping route. The port of Terneuzen is the third largest in the Netherland and it stated nearby the Belgium-Holland frontier. Besides that, this town is full of chemical plants that give people the oppurtunity to get jobs and to improve their economy. We arrived at Kak Zue's around mid afternoon.The first time I stepped my foot in their house, I was mesmerized by how spick and span the residential area was. The area looked private and very well cared for!


From outside I can smell the foods that made my stomach rumble like hell. Powerful beats of excitement rushed through me as I entered the house..Gosh! What a surprise, they provided plenty of foods to taste and the food smell was very very promising! There was Lamb, chicken rice, kek batik, baked potatoes pie, "sup ekor", fruits, drinks, "kuih muih", and plenty more..Guess what? I had three servings and even brought some of the leftover food back home. What a shame..hehehee.













The evening went very well, I met new friends from the Netherland and we talked, ate, took photos until we did not realize that time went by so fast. Suddenly, one of our friend said that the taxi was ready to drive us back to Ghent, Belgium. "Oh my God! What time is it, now?" I asked my friend and she said "5.00 pm"..see how terrible I was to lose track of time.


After saying good bye, we went off and continued the day by visiting one of our friend, Ros who gave birth to a baby boy at Ghent.Congratulations my friend! At 8.30 pm we took the train and arrived in Liege at 11.30 in the night. A splendid and knackered day indeed...