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.