Day 62 - Still thinking...

It's been a while now. Still thinking... why?

When will it stop? Can someone tell me?

Day 61 - Bumped into Anna

Found out recently that Anna & Stephen are leaving London soon!! Steve is gonna leave first and Anna will stay for a few more months... but gosh, the reality just keeps on hitting me when i'm finally enjoying my life in London. Cuz I will be like that too... and the day is coming soon!!

Anyway, I decided to message Anna so we can organise a catchup. We haven't really managed to talk to each other since we first met which was our Egypt trip. We have seen each other at parties but it's just so hard to keep a conversation going when the music is so loud!!

After work today, I headed to my yoga which is situated around Great Portland Street. And as I walking out of the station, I bumped into Anna!! OMG... we were both surprised. Can't believe that we ended seeing each other after sent a reply to me!! Such a coincidence!

We both were heading to the gym so we didn't talk much but can't wait until our Wed dinner! So much to catchup on!!

Day 60 - Kimchee

I haven't been able to find a good korean restaurant in Sydney. I would go back to a few restaurants but that's only because the food was alright. But still not the best that i have tried so far.

Tonight I met up with Addy at Golders Green to try out the original restaurant - Kimchee. They have recently opened the 2nd store in Holborn and because they had special promotions, there has been long queues for dinner each night. The reviews for the Holborn haven't been that good so I was determined to at least try this first store and see what the food is like.

The dishes were quite small. We ordered 4 dishes in total and ate around £27 all up. The flavours were there and it was quite nice and it is one of the better ones in London... would def go there again some day!!

Can't wait to go back to that Korean restaurant in LA!! Yum yum!!

Day 59 - Wing Yip

Finally the day has come!! I went to Wing Yip. The massive chinese grocery in Cricklewood that everyone has been talking about.

X booked a street car to go for a grocery shopping run. So the 5 of us headed over for yum cha and then brought some groceries from there.

Yum cha was actually quite good. Much better than the ones in Chinatown. London Eater wrote a review about that this place so i was quite eager to try it out and see if it is that good. The servings were pretty decent. The food was fresh. Not bad.

We ordered an additional 1/2 roast duck... there was so much meat!! The serving was way better than the ones that i have had in Bayswater or Chinatown... hmm... luckily, this place is hard to get to... if it was easy then my diet will go down the drain straight away!!

After lunch, we quickly went in to buy some groceries. I thought there was gonna be a lot more choices for korean and japanese products. But there wasn't. So i ended up buying a lot of instant noodles and drinks... and a bag of frozen prawns. The place is big and it has a lot of stuff... but i was quite disappointed cuz I couldn't find what i wanted. Oh well... need to head back out to Chinatown for my next run for asian groceries.

Day 58 - I ate sashimi today!!

I went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner today called Ginnan. They have "all you can eat" sushi deal for dinner.

I checked their website to see what the deal was all about. It's very similar to Hi Sushi. And I could see that I will need to eat sashimi to make it worth while.

I decided to just give it go. I've tried sashimi a number of times now. And when i ate it tonight, it's not that bad now. I still don't like the texture but I'm slowly getting used to it. At least I didn't gag it all out.

I mixed wasabi with my soy sauce for the first time today too... but i guess the flavour from the soy sauce does make the nigiri taste slightly a bit better.

I actually felt quite proud of myself after dinner. I know i can be stubborn at times. And i know that i need to adapt to changes in life... so i guess this time around... i'm slowly adapting to the fact that I'm eating sashimi and not literally a dead fish. You guys know what i mean... I just need a bit more time to get used to this idea... time... that's I need.

Add oil!! Fighting!!

Day 57 - X-Ray

Today I went for my second X-Ray.

I got sick for 2 months at the end of January and I couldn't stop coughing at one point. The coughing caused my rib cages to get inflammed... it was so hard for me to breath properly at one stage so i went to see the GP. I was hoping that she was gonna prescribe me with antibodics but she didn't. She just told me to take Neurofen.

Additionally, she suggested that I should go for an X-Ray for my lungs and see if everything is alright. Just to be on the safe side. So i did and they did find something. When she called me about the results, i was on the streets and couldn't hear her clearly when she was describing what it is. She wanted me to go for another x-ray in 6 weeks time to make sure the "whatever" has gone.

So today, I went back to the GP to pickup my form to bring to the hospital. As I was on the bus, I read what she wrote on the comments section.
"Found area of increased opacity in right upper lobe of lung. Check if resolving"

Ohh... so now I finally know what the correct terminology is. My coughing had caused some lesion in my lungs so that's why they detected opacity in my x-ray.

Had to wait around for half an hour but my x-ray only took 5 mins... so quick but the wait... so ridiculous!!

But anyway, I'm hoping that this x-ray will show that the lesion has gone... fingers crossed. Can't wait for my results!!

Day 56 - What to do in the States?

My USA trip is coming up soon. I'll be going for 3 weeks in July. There's still much things I need to sort out. I still haven't decided how many days I wanna spend in each city. I want to lock in those dates so I can book my internal flight tickets. I'll be travelling around the west coast again because I'll be visiting my uncle in San Diego.

I've already been to the States before in 2009. I've done most of the touristy stuff in LA, San Fran & Las Vegas. But I know that there is more I can do more there... luckily I have a friend in LA and San Fran so at least I can catchup with them at night for dinner and drinks.

So now... how many days do I wanna stay in each place? Will I be doing any day trips? If so, which city offer these tours? Where do I wanna stay in each city? I'll be by myself so do I wanna spend a lot of money and stay in a hotel or just at the hostel?

Wow... there's so much to think about... I need to make a decision soon!!

Day 55 - New flatmate

Our last flatmate to move into our mansion this year finally arrived today.

J and his friends hired a van to carry everything over from D's house in Clapham. They arrived around 10pm... quite late at night to move. And I was getting worried about that we were gonna get complaints from the neighbours because of the noise.

I was particularly scared of the neighbour that has the big dog.  While we were moving the things over, they actually decided to go out for a walk with the dog. The dog couldn't stop barking when it walked out cuz there were so many boxes blocking the passage way. The dog barks at anyone he sees... and when he saw us... he wanted to jump out at us!! But luckily, he was held back by the leash... I was so scared!! My heart couldn't stop pounding... so scared he was really gonna go and attack me at one stage!

After they left, I quickly called the other girls to come down and quickly help us to move everything up the stairs. I really wanted to move everything before the dog came back!!

J had a lot of bits and pieces but once everyone started helping out, it didn't take us long to finish. Everyone was sweating by the end of it. Can't believe I did a workout... so late at night!! I ended up walking up and down those flight of stairs more than 5 times... so hot!!

J is now the only male in the house... he will become our handyman... Hehe... but anyway, glad to have him around. Another chapter to my mansion house experience!

Day 54 - Dynamic Vinyasa flow yoga

After going to 2 Bikram yoga classes in the last month, I realised that I prefer Vinyasa flow yoga more. Power Yoga is definitely my favourite but both types are very similar cuz all the moves are all flowing rather than just holding a pose for a couple of breaths.

I went to Egoist Body today for the Dynamic Vinyasa flow yoga class with Michelle. I was a bit worried at first that I wouldn't be able to catchup with the pace cuz it's been months since my last flow yoga session. But in the end, I managed to follow through. It was tiring and I could feel my arms and legs shaking... which means its working and its also a sign i need to get back into yoga and exercise in general... need to tone up for sure!!

I'm going again on Thursday... can't wait!!

Day 52 - Geneva - Day 1

Another weekend trip away... Geneva

At the time of booking this trip, it was cheap flights under £50 to go to Geneva. I didn't know much about this city. I didn't realise it was part of Switzerland. (not surprising to most people) And I purely just booked it with G thinking that it would be a nice weekend away.

Now finally, the time has come to see what this city is all about. I checked the weather a few days ago and realised that this weekend would be thundery showers... damm.. gonna be a messy one like Granada... but this time around, I'm prepared! Umbrella & Raincoat - CHECK

Our flight was delayed by an hour which didn't really make much difference to our schedule as we knew there wasn't much to do there. We arrived at the hostel and started circling places to go to on the map. I had printed out a suggested walking route around Old Town so we circled the route as well.

We headed out for some lunch and chose a pub recommended by the hostel. We sat down, received the menu and looked at prices and my gosh!! the meals were so bloody expensive!! Just for a plate of salad was 19 francs, a thin pizza was 22 francs and our small cup of pear beer was 5.20!!! OMG!! I have never seen such food that expensive before... now i can finally understand why people say Switzerland is so expensive.

After lunch we walk around Lake Geneva and checked out the Jet fountain. Walked around Old town for a bit and then headed back to the Hostel for a quick nap.

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by the hostel for some cheese fondue. I honestly didn't know what to expect. I knew it was gonna be a pot of cheese but when the meal came... it was purely just small pieces of bread dipped into the melting cheese... and that was our main meal. Luckily we chose a set menu so we had cold slices of beef as starters. But seriously... if we had just chose cheese fondue for dinner, it would just be cheese and bread... we ended up paying 48 francs per person for the set menu... so expensive and definitely not worth it!!

Just as we were about to leave the restaurant. One of the guys (he looks so much like Andrew G!!) sitting on the table next to us, asked to join their table for a shot. We were so surprised cuz we were literally ready to leave and was pretty much at the door with our coats on. Anyway, we decided to stay and met everyone else on the table... chatted with the guys and was treated with a shot each. G and I took small sips of the alcohol cuz it was so strong but we did manage to finish it all. By the end of it, we were both started to heat up!! We felt so warm!!

I'm glad we decided to stay cuz everyone was so nice. Such a nice way to end our first day in Geneva.

Day 51 - Damm Blogger!!

Blogger has been down for the day or so.... was hoping to update my blog during work hours when I got bored of work. But its been down the whole day. When I got home just then Blogger was finally working again but when I refreshed my main page, my last 2 posts about Lanzarote disappeared!! ahhh!!!

OMG!! I spent so long on these posts cuz we did heaps and I spent ages writing a description and uploading the photos for each attraction. Dammit!! I now have to go back and rewrite these 2 posts...

I'm so behind right now...2 weeks behind... need to fasten up the pace. I can do it!!

Day 50 - Depositing a cheque

I had to deposit a cheque for the first time in London.

I ordered a pair of Onitsuka shoes online but it was the wrong size. I had send the shoes back to receive the correct size. I didn't realise that they refund the amount of postage you paid to send the shoes back so i was quite surprise when i received a cheque of £4.48 in the mail.

Anyway, i headed to HSBC during lunch thinking that i will either need to line up at the counter to deposit the cheque or chuck the deposit slip & cheque into an envelope - the way it was done back in Sydney. But instead, you just need to insert both the deposit slip & cheque together and it will scan the document and print it out as a receipt for you.

The recipt was really cute... you could clearly see what was scanned... such an efficient way to save time and reduce the need to go to a counter for assistance. I wanna if Australia bank have this new machine too??

Day 48 - Wow, so many photos to sort through

I copied over the photos from the Easter trip to my hard drive today... there are so many photos!! I took around 1200 photos using my phone, my small digitial camera & my SLR.

My gosh... plus I'll also be swapping photos with the others... and I know the girls took heaps of photos too. Esp H, who went crazy at Timafaya National Park!! She literally snap a photo every second as we were on the bus ride touring the fire mountains. She also went crazy on our car rides... so i'm assuming she will also have heaps of photos to swap!!

Yes, it's time to start deleting the crappy ones, duplicates and the ones where my face is so round... double chin!! Ahh!! I have so many on this trip too!! It must be the ice cream that i had every night in Canary Islands... damm!!

So yes... my sorting will take a while... but the album will get posted as soon as possible!! I promise!!

Day 47 - Sore throat... crap

Yesterday in the Hague, I woke up with a sore throat. Crap, I knew I was gonna get sick again. Everytime i get a sore throat, it always takes a few days to get better and once it gets better it turns in a cold. Ahh!!

I straight away went to the pharamacy at the Central station in the Hague and brought some sore throat lozenges (Netherland brand - recommended by the staff). And when i got home, i started to drink some honey & lemon water too. I hate the discomfort you get when you are trying to swallow... ahh!!

I had already started coughing too... i'm beginning to get scared. I don't want to get sick again. In January, I got the flu and it took me more than 2 months to recover. I couldn't stop coughing to the point both sides of my rib cage were inflamed. I had trouble breathing and moving cuz my rib cage hurt so much!!

Fingers crossed... this time around my sickness is only a small one.

Day 46 - Bye bye The Hague

Our last day in the Hague. Our flight was at 4.30pm so we couldn't really do much...

The guys slept in cuz they had the wrong alarm settings. But luckily, I went over to their rooms to checkup on them. We all made it to our crappy continental breakfast. And quickly went back to our rooms to check out at 12pm.

We went over to M's house one last time to say bye. I also transferred all the baby pics and videos to give to them. I feels so good when both of them see my photos from my DSLR camera... They don't own one so when they see the quality of the photos compared to a normal digitial camera... wow! such a difference!!

After saying bye to the family, we headed to the Central station to catch a train to the airport and back to London.

When we got to Heathrow airport, I got stuck at immigration. The line was massive and only 3 people were working. It took up to 45 mins before it was my turn. I felt so bad cuz the others had already through with their UK passport. so frustrating!! and the fact that they had my luggage and was waiting for me to catch a minicab back home... so annoyed!!

But overall, this trip has been interesting. Got to meet new friends, went to the beach, had my portion of seafood, went out on both nights till 4am and little Alex was just so cute!!

Day 45 - The Hague - Everyone is going to the beach!!

I thought this trip was all about sightseeing. The usual attractions that you will get in any other city... cathedrals, museums, observatory points. But instead... we went to the beach!!

The weather today was amazing!! Around 28 degrees or so. Everyone in town was excited cuz they get to go to the beach... suntan, relax and enjoy the views & company!! That was pretty much the talk of the town... "are you going to the beach tomorrow?"

I originally was looking forward to sneaking away and take a train to Amsterdam to check the city instead. But I felt bad for leaving them when the whole point of this trip was to visit little Alex!! M did tell me that i would be wasting my time travelling back and forth. And I would only be able to spend 2-3 hours exploring and then having to rush back for dinner at night. So i decided to stay and just enjoyed what the beach had to offer.

M kept on raving about the beach... it is so amazing... different from a lot of beaches and he went on and on about it yesterday. So finally we got ready and headed for the beach. We could see a lot of people heading out too... the excitement was building up!!

When we arrived, I was so surprised at how long the beach is. It's located in Scheveingen. It had a massive pier, similar to the one in Brighton. The younger crowd hangs out on the right side of the pier. The left of the pier is more quiet, relaxed and catered for families. When the summer season starts, they would build restaurants along the beach with comfortable lounges. Everyone can go into any of these restaurants, order a drink and sit out in the sun or with shelter to enjoy the beautiful sunny day.

We went to the quiet side and sat in the shade for a few drinks. I also walked around the promendade to check out the annual sand sculptures... pretty cool designs!!

The weather was quite hot today... it made us all really tired and maybe also because we had a late night too ^^... I was dying to go back to the hotel for a quick nap... but it took us a while to have lunch and more drinks so by the time we went back to the hotel, I only had time to take a quick shower!!! crap!

Even though we didn't really do much on the beach but we all really enjoyed the day... something totally unexpected for all of us. The concept of building these restaurants for the summer break was really cool!! And the beach!! It was so long!!

After the beach session, we got ready and headed for dinner at Harbour Club. The seafood was really fresh but gosh, dinner was expensive. One of M's friend joined us for dinner and also brought a long 5 friends that we all didn't know. They sat on the other side of the table and we didn't talk to them at all. They ended up paying for their meal and just left... but by the time, we started to calculate how much we owed... the numbers just didn't seem right. Bread... water... service charge... and some had wine too!! We were totally disappointed. We originally wanted a small gathering so we could all mingle but... oh well, we paid the difference but was not happy at all!!

After dinner, we headed back out to the city center for some more drinks. I had a great time hanging out with the guys!! Everyone is in the Hague was so chilled... the atmosphere was good and it wasn't packed too!! Just perfect to end our last night in the Hague!

Day 44 - The Hague - Where is this place??

Can't believe that I'm going on another weekend trip today... I had just arrived back from my Easter trip a few days ago and now I'm back at the airport... flying to another country for the weekend. Seriously!! I have no clue what was going on in my mind at the time I was booking these flights... make the most of all my weekends this year? cheap flights? the friends I'm going with?

Oh well, I guess it is too late to back out now. Back to the airport today but this time its to City Airport. Never been to this airport before but coming from work... gosh, it is so convenient!! It is a small airport but the location is not bad. Too bad i don't live on the east side to take advantage of it.

We are going to Netherlands but not Amsterdam. Even though we fly into Amsterdam but the friend that we are visiting, lives in The Hague.

'The Hague'... ??? Where is this city? Have never heard of it... I quickly did a search on Wikitravel to see what this city is all about. The 3rd largest city in Netherlands. 1st - Amsterdam and 2nd - Rotterdam. It's situated on the west of Netherlands. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands lives and works in The Hague. All foreign embassies and government ministries are located in the city. It is one of the major cities of the UN.

We arrived in The Hague in the evening. The ride from the airport to the city only took half an hour or so. M came finished work and met us at the Central station. We quickly checked in into our hotel and then headed over to M's house to visit M's wife, P and the little kid, Alex!!

After our visit, we went out for dinner at a turkish restaurant and went bar hopping for some drinks. The weather was just about right, not too hot and not too cold. We stood outside for most of the time... the streets were quite small and narrow... one particular area we walked around reminded me of London... around Bond St (heading towards Green Park) The city had a nice relaxing feel to it. Everyone was quite laid back unlike London were things can seem to be so rushed and busy.

Before heading back to the hotel for the night, M wanted to take us to one last place that he highly recommends: "Crazy Pianos". They have amazing pianoists that perform live each night with the band and they can play anything from classical sing-alongs to crazy American rock and roll. People can write down any songs on a serviette and throw it up onto the stage and they will choose which songs to play. It's quite amazing cuz the pianoists are all ages and they know every song you can think of. Because it is live, they jam it up and change some of the lyrics around!! It's pretty cool. Everyone there are all different ages and the atmosphere is amazing cuz everyone is singing along, dancing and just having a good time!! We all got pretty tired by that time of the night (morning) so we headed by to our hotel... luckily it was only a 5 min walk back! Phew...

Day 43 - Need to detox!!

Wow... now that the Easter holidays have gone... it's time to DETOX.

Man... can't believe we had like 8 consecutive days of buffet in the Canary Islands. Breakfast and dinner were included at our stay in Lanzarote and Tenerife. And pretty much every meal, i had like 2 plates of food, soup and ice cream (1 plate of meat and the other plate with just salad) each night!! So regretted eating that much each night... and all those scoops of ice cream... oh no!!

In a way, it was good to have buffet cuz a variety of fruits and salads were available... but then if you were hungry... you end up pigging out for the night!! Oops!!

Well, I'm hoping to settle back in to my normal daily routine. No more going out on week nights. Back to my favourite veggie soup with grilled salmon for dinner!! Hmmm yumm...

And time to focus back on exercise... yoga, pilates, bikram yoga, jogging & swimming... bring it on!!

Day 42 - 1 Year Anniversary

4th May 2010. Cold. Gloomy weather.
I still remember very clearly the day I arrived in London. 2 suitcases, 1 Country Road Bag and one backpack. The minicab came to pick me up early in the morning and drove me directly to my house... ringing the No.10 doorbell... waking everyone up... everyone giving me their quick introduction and by 8am, everyone disappeared to go to work.

At that moment in my bedroom... so big and empty... I suddenly felt so scared and lost. What am I doing here? What did I get myself into? I'm finally in London!! Are you serious? What do I need to do next?

Wow... those were clearly my thoughts on the first day I arrived. And now, 1 year has passed. It's been an amazing journey so far. I've done so much... travelling, clubbing, watch free movies, watch musicals, high tea, fine dining, yatching... and more.

I'm feel very blessed to have this opportunity to come over. I've met so many new friends. I've now  experienced what its like to live by myself and to be more independent. I know these opportunities don't come often so I'm gonna try to make the most out of this time in London.

There's still so much I need to do... so the Superwoman in me will continue to stay strong and active. Fighting!! Summer holidays here I come!!

Day 41 - Malaga

Finally the last day in Malaga. Just me and JLai.

Once again... we didn't feel like doing too much sightseeing... D&M suggested that we check out the Moorish castles. So we slept in a bit and headed out for breakfast.

- Castillo de Gibralfaro
It was a killer trying to hike the mountain to get to this castle. We didn't imagine the day to be so hot. I wore so many layers thinking that the day was gonna be cold and also the fact that my luggage was gonna be full... the hike took a while for me cuz i couldn't stop sweating but it was worth it. The views from the top was amazing... the weather was just perfect... so glad we decided to come!!

To end our time in Malaga, we did some shopping and then headed to the airport by bus...

Overall, this Easter trip has been awesome... the views, the food, the company... it was great that we got a chance to do a bit of everything. Some sightseeing, sleeping in, suntanning, swimming, road trip, island hopping, playing Big 2, the consecutive days of half board, a game of Bingo, Dat's amazing performance and all the fresh seafood is available!! Definitely a trip worth remembering!!

Canary Islands - COMPLETE!!

Day 40 - Ronda

The next town: Ronda

Didn't do a lot... I think we all were kinda over travelling around but we still tried to cover the main attractions. Plus weather wasn't looking too good...

- Took some photos of the scenery & the bull
Headed over to the Bull Ring - Plaza de toros de Ronda (the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain) and took some photos from the lookout point... the views were just amazing!!

- Lunch
We went back to the same restaurant for lunch... hehe... food was so so.

- Puente Nuevo
Is the newest and largest of three bridges that span the 120-metre (390 ft)-deep chasm that carries the Guadalevín River and divides Ronda. We walked down a pathway to lead us to a viewpoint so we could take a full length photo of the gorge. While we were standing there, we saw people jumping off the edge into the river below... looks so scary man!!

As we were walking back to the main street... it started to rain again!! This time around, everyone except for me was prepared with their waterproof jacket. My jacket got wet again... gotta make sure i bring a raincoat for all further trips!!

We drove back to Malaga as JLai and I were staying in town for another night and D&M were gonna drive the car back to the airport to fly back in London...

Wow... Can't believe the trip is coming to an end... 13 day holiday... it's been a long time!!
- Played for the last time Big 2 with Mary & Dat before flying back to London

Day 39 - Amazing Race in Granada

Today, we checked out of our hotel and headed towards Granada to visit Alhambra. We had to pre-order the tickets to see the Nasrid Palaces. Because we were visting the palace during the long weekend, all the tickets were sold out. The only way we could possibly get tickets is to buy a 3-day city pass. I ordered the city passes online but we had to go to one of the branches to pick it up. I didn't realise that the audio kiosk was one of the options... if i had known then we wouldn't have to waste our time going to the Science Park. We got to the Science Park and found it really strange that there were no one there. The security guard then told us that today is a public holiday... damm. I was gonna give up but luckily we decided to check it out and see what we could do when we go there, if not we would have wasted our city pass which was 27 euros!!

We ended up rushing from the car park to the city center information center to the audio kiosk to Alhambra to the ticket office (which was located on the opposite side of park) and then back to the other side of the park to enter into the palace. I didn't drink any water that morning so having to run all the way up the slope in Alhambra was so tiring!! Plus i was busting to go to the toilet!! Ahh!! It felt like we were on Amazing Race!! So crazy but I'm glad we made it!!

It was amazing to see the exquisite design of the arabesques but I wasn't wowed about the palaces cuz the building is really old. Very different to walking in the Buckingham Palace. And so while we were browsing around... it started pouring!!

JLai was the clever one that brought her raincoat. Everyone else including me got totally soaked wet... luckily i brought an extra scarf so i could cover my camera up... but seriously things got really wet. D & M's pants had so much mud at the back of her pants... hilarious!!

We all couldn't wait to get back to the car and change... such a relief!!

We then left Granada and headed towards Rhonda. We arrived in the evening and successfully checked in to our hotel. It's been such a long day, we just wanted to chill out and relax. We went to Casa Ortega suggested by our hotel ppl and went for a mixed tapas dish and sangria... such a nice way to end of the day!!