Thursday, 27 December 2007

A White Christmas

Here I watched in delight,
Fallin' snowflakes being in sight;
Christmas tree and candle light,
Warmin' the house, glittering bright.


A lighted Christmas tree in 4th Aunt's lounge

A close up view of the Christmas tree deco.

A white christmas is what I have longed for. And to spend it with dear ones is the best reward i could ever grant myself. The christmas eve dinner was splendid and fun. Exchanging presents and chatting away were equally rewarding.


Dinner at home with aunt, family and wei chung

And with lots of good food.

Roast goose with glutinous rice stuffing

Paprika Salad

Chinakohl Salad

Cucumber Salad

A serviette in silver ring holder


Surrounded by thick woods, Grossglattbach is a pretty village especially during winter. it has been snowing for the past few hours and i hope tomorrow there will be chance for sledging. the kids are already shaping their snowman out there. the bare trees in the woods are now all covered with pure white snow.. it's indeed a white christmas.

A white christmas doesnt always happen every year here. This year the Snow Luck was just here. :)

After a pleasant stroll in the woods

Sunday, 2 December 2007

When you just don't get enough sleep

you will start doing weird things
you will start having funny thoughts
you will start talking crappy stuff
you will start staring at the ceiling blankly.

This is what you get after taking a 12hour journey bus to and fro in a day.

but being swamped within an enormous number of Malaysians at the Nottingham's Game feels good. This is the first, and perhaps the only time that we get to be with so many Malaysians in the UK..

i wonder how did everyone manage to drag themselves through the whole day with the lack of sleep.

cheers to all, Viva Glasgow contingent! :) and many thanks all for all the support during the table tennis matches. :)

zzzzzzz.

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

My brein : Now and Then

my brein has been on the frying pan for the past two days. I have no choice but to treat my poor brein this way. Two dead-lines to rush this week. I'm quite sure almost everyone is in the same situation too.. but frying it last minute and with hot blazing fire is not good. coz it turns out this way in the end:

In Chinese, we call it CHOW-HUI-TA.

ahah... Thank god it's a non-stick pan. if not i'l have a hard time gettin my brein outta it. :p cant weit for this week to be over, then will be free again!

images were photoshop edited. click here for original images : brain + fryingpan

Thursday, 22 November 2007

Our lovely french lecturer


Immediately after the lecture last Friday, i asked quite a few of those who attended, "Did you hear her mispronounced the word ORGANISM???" and mostly giggled and responded "YESSSS!!"
it's so funny that my initial intention was to draw this lovely young lecturer together with a *speech bubble "...******..."
:) but on second thought, i wouldnt want to spoil her image, she's just too adorable you see, especially with her fluffy hair and 24-7-smiley-face!!! she shall be depicted as a lovely lecturer, so people, no speech bubble for this picture okay.... ahhaha. mispronounciation is common, and i don't blame her. after all it was an entertainment when words are mispronounced as something hillarious!! Organism without the "end" and the "eye". ahhahah.
a bunch of us were just talking about mispronunciations after jayee's birthday surprise just now... so i guess it's normal. but but but, you guys gotta see this if you havent seen it okay.. about how Kenny Sia picked up a funny huge mispronunciation. see his Zam_Rap post... take note of the word "election". =p

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Angel of Music


SiuAnn and I, for the first time in the four days, were left to wander around on our own in London. We had elaine, glen and shenhan as our dear tourguides throughout the trip, but on Monday night, both of us decided to go for our most exciting awaited plan, the Phantom of the Opera musical play...

"If you only see one show this year, make sure it is this one!"

This is their punch line in their official site. and i agree with that!

It was seriously one of the highlights of our trip. coz we both have always wanted to watched it, otherwise we wouldnt have crazily scouted for flights to london over the weekend. and to thank god that we have got the flight for as cheap as 2.02 pounds including tax, we didnt mind spending good money on good seats at the stall of the theatre, so we were basically just a wee distance away from the stage. It was spectacular. songs, music, orchestra, background, props, actors and actresses, so on. and to listen to the songs so familiar to my ears was perhaps the best part of all.

I am loving every bit of it. ask me to go again, i would say YES. :)




Thursday, 15 November 2007

Warm Stay


Folks in London are cordially warm and friendly. elaine, glen and a bunch of their hospitable housemates and friends were kind enough to let us in to their new halls. shenhan was also pleasant to recommend siu and i good foods around the city.

The picture was taken during the housewarming party in their new halls at St George's.. It was a good time to get together. :) Thanks a bundle folks, we do miss the weekend spent in london!

Wednesday, 14 November 2007

London in the morning and at night

Weather was a darling over the weekend... These are a few of London's main attractions :


London Eye


London Eye

Tower Bridge at night


Parliament & Big Ben at night



London Eye at night

We used to read, hear and see so much about these places in story books, movies, tales, songs and so on. Being there and seeing those places with my own eyes were as though returning to yesteryears when I was first told about them... It's an experience.

Foods and more foods

craving is indeed hard to be satisfied.. but London is the best place to be if you are craving for Malaysian foods. seriously. Thanks to all the buddies studyin in London, they do really know how to find good foods!

Nasi Lemak

Char Koey Teow


Hokkien Char noodle


Wa-Tan-Hor

Right here at this time, foods like these do remind me of home. Precious ones. :) Siu Ann and I spent a good 4 days in London, having good foods for almost every meal. Big eaters we are. :p

Saturday, 3 November 2007

Crappy Stuff


WC is on board now. and he's heading home to Malaysia!!! lol.. His brother's wedding dinner is next week, so he gonna skip MANY MANY days of classes... How'd i wish i could do that too!mannnnn. what do i miss right now? foods? home? Sunlight? people? ahah...

can't wait for him to be back. I'm SO BORED. ahah. This boredom is really eating me up. It's evident, if not i won't end up with such crappy stuff. ahah.. our teachers in Convent school used to make us draw map back in Geography classes.. now i draw it with a mouse instead of a pencil! by the way, those pics are real photos.. dated years back. i hope WC doesnt kill me when he sees this. Nobody has seen his baby pic before!! DON'T CARE. compensate for the nasi lemak that i'm going to miss!!!

Thursday, 1 November 2007

Hell-o-ween?

Was just musing over the word “Halloween”. As far as I know, to "hallow" is to make something sacred or holy. It is so contrary to the meaning what most people perceive “Halloween” as, is it not?
Perhaps it would be a good idea if we start calling it "Helloween"? :)

p/s : It may be an old movie, but if you havent watched it, "The Nightmare before Christmas" is a good movie to watch in conjunction with Halloween. :) brilliant in both visuals and audio.

A metaphorical measure?

On the way back from Table Tennis trainin’ ystday, a german friend brought up the topic of the “Ladder Theory”.. I don't know, but i find this theory partially true, yet awkwardly untrue.

The theory dictates that each man has a ladder. On this ladder of his, he ranks his women friends according to how much he desires to have sex with the girl.. So obviously a girl whom he loves or dreams of being with, will occupy the top of the ladder, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, women are said to have two ladders, unlike men who have only one. This is to say that women see their male counterparts in two possible ways. One is the type whom she may regard as a possible candidate for her to commit a sexual relationship with. While the other type is a man whom she regards as mere friend. These two ladders are termed “Good Ladder” and “Friend Ladder”.

As a truncated summary, a man has a ladder, while a woman has two ladders. What implication has this concept drawn on male-female attraction?
Let’s first talk from a guy’s point of view. If a man has only one ladder, then he would find it rather impossible to be just mere friends with girls whom he ranks on top of his ladder? Personally, I disagree with this point of the theory more than i do agree. Why do I agree? Coz I see that most (but not all) men, after breaking up, will find it very difficult to be friends with their ex-gf whom they are still very much in love with. That’s pretty true how this ladder theory applies in this case. But like i said, I disagree with this one ladder concept, coz I believe there are many guys out there who are sincere in just being friends with more-than-plain-looking girls without having any slightest intention of those sex elements. I dunno, but i hope what I said is true and applies to some guys.

What about from a girl’s perspective? The theory says that a girl sets up two ladders to rank guys, the “good” and the “friend” ladder. My friend, who brought this topic up, said that most guys who are already sitting on the “friend” ladder will find it very difficult to hop to the “good” ladder. For e.g. if a guy who is a very close friend to the girl, and he one day confesses that he has likings towards her, this guy is considered to be jumping from the “friend ladder” to the “good ladder”. And in most of the cases, it is said that girls will not accept these kind of relationship, and that’s how the word rejection comes about.

But, I beg to differ. I have seen many relationship blossoms from years long of friendship.. I have seen girls who eventually gave in to plain-looking-good-hearted Jack instead of strong-muscular Tom.. Most girls do get touched by the things the goody guys do, they are swooned by the sincerity they show, they are melted by the patience these guys show. These guys who are initially in the “Friend Ladder” may one day be on top of the “Good Ladder” with the efforts shown. It’s possible, so one should not render those guys on the “friend ladder” from being unable to climb up to the top of the “Good ladder”.

When i first heard of this theory, i do find it more like a satire, but well, it does emit some smells of truth in certain circumstances.. The ugly truth about human is that we naturally tend to judge people on first impression. But I believe that when it comes to friendship or relationship, there is more than this outward perspective. In essence, the ladder may come in handy to describe BGR matters, but one must not forget that it is also merely just a metaphorical gradation.

Perhaps they should run some evidence-based trials, since this hypothesis has never been validated before, as far as i am concerned. :P
This is what i found on Internet, the original Ladder Theory http://ladderwiki.com/wiki/Original_Ladder_Theory or

Sunday, 28 October 2007

Daylight Saving


Today is the last weekend of October. I thought i remembered seeing sunlight at 6pm just last few days back... and today, I see sunshine no more at this hour.. The sun is gradually setting earlier by 2 minutes each day, how amazing.

and, what more with the daylight saving starting tmr, we have to say goodbye to the sun at 4pm!!

but on the flipside of the coin.... weeeeeee, we are earnin' an extra hour of sleep tonight. :)

Sunday, 21 October 2007

In Sync with The Nature



Autumn leaves shedding away,
Colours emerge in fine arrays;
Crimson, red, orange and yellow,
Dancing away, rich and mellow.

As the birds flock in resonance,
The spirit floats with buoyance;
As the breeze sings in harmony,
The soul rises with the melody.

Monday, 15 October 2007

Europa-Park, a continent of fun and play!

To those who love thrill and excitement, do not ever leave out Europa-Park if you are plannin a trip to Germany. This is an authentic theme park with many fantastic roller coasters, and this includes the largest and the tallest megacoaster in Europe! The rides and attractions are themed according to many countries in the continent.


"Atlantica Supersplash" against the cloudy sky; weather was superb for both play and photog!


"Euro-Mir" roller coaster, a twist of a life!



Following are more pics of us girls. We look horribly fun on coasters and rides!


On Euro-Mir; This is a funny picture. The mat-salleh in front look damn cool and with little expressions. and we were like a bunch of soh-poh. From the last row on the left-Siu Ann&Sarah; 2nd last row-Me and chuey Ee;)




weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!




"Vindjammer"; the ship swings from end to end! Second row from behind; Sarah, me, ChanSee, SiuAnn, ChueyEe




Chan See and Jun Wei at the front row!



The birthday girl (Siu Ann) in her birthday hat.


Just outside Europa Park



Hint and advice : ONE, check the weather forecast before you go, a bad weather may sometimes tear the fun apart! TWO, set off as early as possible, Europe Park is massive, so you wouldnt want to spend a good 35euros just to cover a small area in the park, would you? THREE, make good decisions on which rides you would want to try, the entire park is a home to more than 100 rides and attractions, perhaps? and i assure you, one full day is not enough to try on every single ride. (hint; Silver Star is a must in your list, if you are all frenzied over getting adrenaline rush). LAST BUT NOT LEAST, lift up your hands and scream the hell out of your lungs when you are on a ride, it gives you the real flavour of flying in air!! Like this picture below :





That's Siu Ann (in white) and Chan See (in dark green-brown)



"Silver Star" this is the only picture that is not taken with wc's camera. ;) it's computer generated picture which wc bought at the end of Silver Star ride. (back row : me, WC, chueyEe, sarah)


*More about Silver Star : It's the largest megacoaster in Europe, height 73 metres, and it moves at a speed up to 130km/h. Sliding down from the highest point really made us feel weightless!


After an eventful day...

A picture of SilverStar, sillhoutted against the bright evening sky to conclude the day.



Wednesday, 10 October 2007

Pictures of us at Glasgow Science Centre

Lan-yeng pose from left; chueyee, siuann, jennette, sarah, jinwerne, michelle

butt-ery pose (pun intended) from left; pLing, chueyee, siuann, jennette, jinwerne, michelle.

*Both were taken after exiting GSC. Yeah, we looked innocent, didnt we?

Such system BOLEH survive-kah in our country?

Have been in Glasgow for quite a while, and I realised something very different about the general public system here (UK and a couple of other western countries we'v visited) compared to the type we have back in our homeland.

I mulled over some incidents lately, three examples to follow...

1) I visited Glasgow's cinema twice so far. Havin' the reputation of being the world's tallest cinema, i thought there would be a strict and rigorous system here. Surprisingly, we were checked for the tickets only at the ground floor before the elevator.

And even more surprising to us was that the door to enter the cinema screen is also the door to exit the screen.

Hey, DOES THAT SENTENCE PROMPT AN INSPIRATION IN YOUR BRILLIANT BRAIN? The corrupted part of us (perhaps “naughty” is a nicer adjective) would have immediately cooked up with some cheeky conspiracy yea? Pay for a ticket worth a movie, and get in and out of the cinema screens as you wish and watch as many movies as you can in that one day. Wow, how cool could that be??

Nah, we didn’t do it.

We don't have this kind of things back in Malaysia, do we? (that is why we exit a cinema screen to some other part of the mall or a car park). Correct me if otherwise. If we do, our cinemas will chap-lap very very soon huh?


2) okay digress. Let's take the train as another example. You see, most (but not all) of the train stations here do not have the check-in kinda machine like the ones we have in Malaysian's LRT/KTM stations.. It's fairly different here. There are some trains which you can board without having to punch your ticket until the conductor comes to you, that also being infrequent sometimes. My own statistics : Out of the 10 times i boarded short-journey trains, i was checked on my tickets only perhaps 4 times? Hey, that is like less than 50% of chance man!

And in this city where i am located right now, there are even trains of which you can just board without a ticket, and buy it from the conductor in the train itself. (If such system were to be reproduced in our country, what would we possibly do if the conductor doesnt come to check on our tickets? Feel lucky, smile silently, and walk out of the train like nothing happens??)

3) Next, this is a classic example. So, one of my housemates’ friend was here in Glasgow for visiting lately. We decided to bring her to the Science Centre since we had not been there before. At the parking lot, we saw the price quotation to enter the Science Centre.. It was pretty expensive, so we decided not to enter the Science Centre, and just walk along the nearby river while enjoying the scenery.

As we walked towards the rear end of the huge building, we saw a cafeteria and we thought of we could find some toilets in there. As we walked in, nobody was really bothered and finally we found toilets, around 200metres down the cafeteria.

After easing ourselves, we noticed a flight of elevator up and the signboard says “To the Science Mall”. We thought, “Hey, sounds interesting wor. Shud be for public view eh? Heck, just enter-lah!” Elated, we went up and it was really cool, we spent so much time in there and played with all the canggih stuffs and experimented almost every gadget we could find in the Science Mall.. After an hour or so, we decided to leave...

Hey dudes out there, have you forgotten mums always tell us NTH IS FREE!? So you could have guessed as much what had just happened yeah?? We, 7 girls, were actually in the Science Centre building itself! Those things we saw and played with were part of the Science Centre! And we didn’t know until we walked past the ticket counter just before exiting the entire building.. lol.. We couldn’t believe it, so we were trespassers for that two hours without knowing?? Blissfully ignorant??


So moral of the story???
1. Keep all your movie-time and watch them abroad in one go?
2. Pretend innocent in the train until the conductor comes to you?
3. next time to any places of interest, enter it free from the rear door?


NO, peeps. They are all wrong. I don't even mean to corrupt anyone. I just want to raise up a point, a very important point, right here. You see, such systems are applicable in western country. Ever asked why? Well, it can survive here because people here are civil-minded. They are brought up in such an environment so much so that they have a more refined mentality. They are generally better educated.

Wow. Taken a deep breath??? Really, education is the key thing. We need education to be civilised. We need civilisation to be developed. We need development to advance. We need advancement to live in such globalised world. If such a basic thing is missing in our lives, how do we progress?

Sunday, 7 October 2007

A Blend of The East and The West

Sometimes a mix of two different elements may seem awkward. Not in the case of 4th aunt's lovely home. She remembers her roots, and this is evident in this picture of her house common lounge.

Common lounge

At dining table, we would have several languages in our conversation. This is also a nice blend worth noting.. My aunt would speak to me and WC in english and hokkien.. She would then automatically switch to her German tongue when she speaks to Uncle Siegfried (her husband) or to my cousins.. WC also speaks to my cousins in German, and it's fun to hear them converse and i always try to catch their conversation. most of the time, i would know the gist of their conversation, but not the entire story. then one of them would have to translate the whole thing to me. ahah..

i always love to see how different cultures mix and match. my extended family is huge, and i am fortunate to have many relatives who introduce new culture to the family. WC always says that he would be drown within my big family. ahaha.. Many pictures to follow.

Aunt's Haus (house) from the garden view

Chopped firewood, for winter use.

An apple tree in the garden, a birthday present for Uncle Siegfried from family.

Flowery and Fruity Talks

When we are at a new places, we tend to look at the bigger things rather than the smaller ones. Let's make this post a testimonial to the smaller things of nature. Feast on the following flowery and fruity talks. (taken by WC in various places; Ludwigsburg, at Uncle Siegfried's farm-Muehlacker, and Esslingen)

The truth:the pumpkin has already been there in the green house for a few months!; Muehlacker, Germany.

A fly on a flower; Ludwigsburg, Germany.

Raspberry; First shot with macro lense


Green juicy tomatoes; Muehlacker, Germany.


Raindrops on leaf; Esslingen, Germany.