Verona - Vacation Part 5

This is our final stop before we cross the border to Austria. And I couldn't be more excited !
I can already hear Maria sing DOE a deer a female deer, RAY a drop of golden sun, ME a name I call myself......

Arena amphitheater - famous open-air opera venue.


Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's house) and this is Juliet's Balcony.


Touch Juliet's right breast for good luck. wtf.
Romeo and Juliet is a fiction and didn't they both died at the end?


cute puppy.

Venice - Vacation Part 4

Inside the waterboat to Venice...the "City of Bridges"

The bell tower of St. Mark's Square.

We were lucky as the "high-water" subsided when we arrived, otherwise everyone would have to walk on these platforms.


Bridge of Sighs. One of the many bridges in Venice. The enclosed bridge (as you can see above our heads) are made of white limestone and it connects the old prison.
Prisoners would "sigh" at their final view of beautiful venice out of the window before being taken down to their cells.


Piazza San Marco.

St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

Gondolas, anyone????

Florence - Vacation part 3

Reached Pisa at at 8.30am. Weather got colder each day we travelled up north.
And I'm not complaining a bit.....and I still got excited being able to see my breath as I inhale and talk.

Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Square of Miracles.

Breathtaking view of Florence from hilltop Piazza Michelangelo.


Status of David. This is a replica. The original one, sculpted by Michelangelo is so perfect you can see his muscles and veins.


Another replica of David statue at Palazzo Vecchia, Florence.

Gelato is Italy can be a bit overrated as it cost and taste the same in KL.
They may have more varieties and more exotic flavours.


Basilica of Santa Croce.
Inside are Michelangelo's, Galileo's and Machiavelli 's tomb.

Rome - Vacation Part 2

The journey from Doha to Rome took about 6 hrs.
By now, I'm already sick or flying even for another hour, let alone another agonizing 6 hours.
Though I felt like a living dead, I can't sleep. And the economy class seat is not helping a bit.

So I decided to watch Hollywood Chihuahua, followed by The Duchess.

2 more hours to arrive Rome. Damn ! head spinning, butt aching, legs cramped, tired of my movie marathon by now.
I thought to myself, travelling to Europe is literally a pain in the ass.
I turned to hubby, and said "I don't want to travel like this anymore already."
What did he answered ? "Yes, that's the spirit."
I thought again, USA is definately not in my vacation list.

Arrived Rome Fiumicino Airport at about 6pm, and its already dark.
By now, I'm already a certified zombie.

The next morning, we were the 1st to arrive at the breasfast table. Everything was peaceful and calm till the arrival of a group of chinese tourist.
They are like "tornadoes" sweeping up food like there's no tomorrow and with no consideration to the people behind them.
Being a Malaysian Chinese, I felt embarassed for them.


VATICAN CITY



St. Peter's Basilica.
I did not know that Vatican City is a country. In fact, it is the smallest country in the world with population of only 900 people ! It's territory consist of walled enclaved within the city of Rome.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. Huge and very unique collection of masterpieces.

ROME


The Roman Colosseum - used for gladiatorial games, contest and public spectacles.

Fountain Trevi - fountain at a junction of three roads ("tre vie")
Throw 1 coin - for good luck
Throw 2 coins - for new romance
Throw 3 coins - if you want a divorce
So, be careful how many coins you throw.

At the top of the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in all Europe.


Column of the Immacolata.

Rome as an astonighing Grafiti problem. You see them everywhere. On elegant buildings, trains, highway walls, car parks, shop houses walls, windows and even doors !
I also noticed that the Italians hardly (or never) wash their cars.
Dirt can be seen piled up at the bottom of their car doors.

A series of Unfortunate Incidents

Hubby went to Penang for a 2 days business trip today.
So I decided to take the public transport home instead of driving as I didn't want to wake up early to beat the jam.
Reached Kelana Jaya bus stop at 6.25pm.
20 minutes later the feeder bus to Bandar Utama arrived, but I decided to wait for the one to Kota Damansara instead.

Why?

Bandar Utama bus = 10 mins walking distance.
Kota Damansara Bus = 5 mins walking distance.

15 mins of waiting and the $%^# bus still haven't arrive.
It's actually 25 mins late already !
Malaysian public transportation sucks.
And it's started to drizzle a little bit and I ain't got an umbrella with me.

Regretted that I did't take the earlier bus, otherwise I would have had my shower already.

So I decided to take a cab instead of wasting anymore time waiting for the unreliable public transport.
Inside the taxi guy request to pay him in small notes cos he has used up his last small notes on his last passenger.
"Ada duit kecil? Tadi semua orang kasi I sepuluh ringgit, I sudah tak ade duit kecil?"
I dig my purse and only found 4 pieces of RM1 and some coins and the rest are RM10 and RM50.
so how? If he ain't got change, it's either he give me discount or he keep the change.
Of course, I prefer the former la. Not my fault, right.

Anyway, I just kept quiet.

When we're almost reaching my apartment, about 500m away, his taxi engine stopped.....

Holy Mother of $%@#%$# !!!!!!!

He switched off his aircon tried to restart his engine and failed.
Cars behind honking away, and his car engine was totally flat out, he can't even switch on the hazard light.
"Sori ah cik, you kena jalan kaki la"
This statement still haunts me till now.

wtf. We're right at the side of the LDP highway at peak hours and it's still drizzling.

I didn't have to pay him the 5 bucks, cos he didn't get me to my destination and worst I have to walk like 500m under the rain to my apartment !
But I paid him anyway, out of pity. Poor guy earning a living with his
"state of the art" taxi.

Tomorrow I'm driving to work !!!

Vacation (part I)

This is my 1st CNY I did not celebrate with my dear mom, dad and ah meng in Penang.
Instead, after reunion dinner at my in-law's house and we are on our way for our honeymoon !
In actual fact, I would not consider this as an ideal honeymoon trip.
As I proceed to explain further, you will understand why.
Nevertheless, its fun fun fun all the way........

My former college lecturer would classify this sorta trip as "chau lan" tour or "Refugee" tour in direct translation. She was an ex-tour leader and I do not quite understand her at that time, but now I do !

Journey to Doha was surprisingly long....about 7 hours. I barely slept through the entire 7 hours.
Arrived Doha at about 6am. Weather was rather chilly at about 16 degree celsius and I was still feelin' drowsy by the total lack of sleep and the still undigested breakfast.

Our transit time at Doha is about 8 hours and I was rather excited by the city tour, but our local tour guide will only come and pick us up at 7.30am.
1 1/2 hrs to explore the airport smaller than our Pg International Airport. Great !



When we arrived at the camel farm, I was overpowered by the pungent smell of urine.
Imagine, 10 people urinated in the toilet and the toilet is not flushed and cleaned for 2 days.
Stinks like shit. Yes, that's how it smelt.
I think this is my first time seeing a live camel. The camels over here only has 1 hump.

Camels for auction. This man saw a bus load of Malaysian tourist as potential buyers.


Roofless house along the main road.
We were lucky to arrive here during the cold season. Temperature can get very hot at almost 50 degree. That's why the people here usually start work early at 7am and finnish work early to avoid the heat.
Our local guide told us it rained yesterday. I wondered, "so?". Hehe.....it hardly rained over here.


All imported fruits and veggies. You can't grow your own cabbages and tomatoes, so you import them la. Very expensive.

Doha was the host for the 2006 Asian Games. Behind us is where the torch was lit and the main stadium.

Equestrian Park. Pampered horses inside their air-conditioned stables.

Pampered horses getting their early morning swim. Swimming pool specially designed for these horses.


Breathtaking view of Qatar skyline.


The world's biggest oyster. Why am I not excited?

My Market Outlook (very humble opinion nia...)

I don't usually blog about politics or the economic, but I'm gonna right now.

Our Central Bank cuts Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 75 basis point to 2.5%.
In my very humble opinion this is a HUGE cut !
Great news for people with borrowings cause Bank loan is gonna be cheap, and I mean dirt cheap.
Base Lending Rate (BLR) was adjusted to 6.5% on 1 Dec 2008 from 6.75%. Banks are currently lending at BLR - 2%, which means borrowers only pay 4.5% pa !!!
Back track, 15 years ago......Lending rate was like more than 10% !!!!!! insane.
With the further cut in OPR, we are gonna see further drop in lending rate.

Sad news for FD depositors, as the interest rate gonna be a real 'kacang putih'.
So kacang putih, your interest ain't getting you anywhere, you might as take put your cash and go for a holiday.

I'm happy that I bought my Euros and USD on time before the announcement.

Happy 2009 ! Gals day out

Last week, we start our new year with a HIGH NOTE at Red Box Gurney.





After our K-session, we had 6 hours to kill before our steamboat session.

So, what would 4 gals with a camera do in a big shopping mall ?

Think

Think

Think




What else....other than cam-whoring in a fitting room.

4 gals (including our cameragal, TBH) inside a fitting room. This is LCE at its best !!!!

At Cheryl's cozy apartment for some light snack before our steamboat. Stomach growling like crazy.....bought 1 french loaf and TBH, KPL and myself finnish half before Cheryl could finnish preparing her "tomato dip". But the hostess couldn't care less, as she seemed to be enjoying herself cutting the tomatoes and garlic.......

cut cut cut cut.........

TBH, so hungry....holding the loaf tightly to prevent KPL from finnishing the entire loaf.
ei, aye lian....can u please hurry up? hungry already.
No need to peel the garlic skin la.

Buffet steamboat.

Bon apetite ! We had 2 types of soup : chicken feet with dates and peanut soup & tom yam soup.
We all love the chicket feet soup and TBH loves her 'bebola'
(fish maw).


3 gals and 1 plate of fried something........

More cam-whore

We couldn't stand the untie who sat right behind me with BIG bushy hair. Like Alleycat.
I told KPL that if a mosquito accidently flew inside her hair, it would get lost and couldn't find his way out.

Our main focus is the auntie's hair.

TBH also join in the fun. This usually happen when you ate too full....make fun of people.


CHEERS AND HAVE A BLESSED 2009 !!!

Pokkai !

WARNING !!! If you have a faint heart, please skip this page right now.

I went back to Penang last wekeend to have a day out with the gals. Thousand apology gals as I have yet to find time to post some of our cam whores over here. I will soon, promise.

In the meantime, let me disgust you with these pictures I took when I got POKKAI in front of Ghee Hiang mansion on Sunday.
Yes, after buying few boxes of tau sar pneah to bring back home............
was chatting with mum, I tripped and landed on my shin at the tip of the concrete stairs !!!

The 2 Singaporean guys (by their car number plate) must have seen me fell down, stared at my direction did nothing. Maybe they're confuse, or don't know what happened.

Excrutiating pain la, bit didn't want to create a scene and I quickly got up and went inside the carr to check-out the damage................

Here goes.......
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The last time I got this much damage to my leg is when I fell down from my bicycle while chased by a mad dog, like 15+ years ago????