Wednesday, 29 July 2009

countdown: 3 days!!

Okay, im going to do something that i must do every year at this season:



...... also specially dedicated to juan ying, vmae, deenath and also all other august babies out there :D

Friday, 10 July 2009

what a nice to meet u..

Hi, im yun yun, a new intern. Nice to meet u..



I cant rmb exactly how many times i ve repeated this authentic quote for the past week..

Haha.. dont ask first... Yes, im in the midst of an internship now.. If u r asking how's my first week, i would tell u: not a good one.

Now only i m aware that consultants work extremely long hours.. I can finish work at 7-8pm everyday. Worse, i would even work during weekends.. My beloved weekends, they are all gone.. Goodbye shopping, goodbye friends, goodbye astro.. Goodbye goodbye =((

Every single day, i was so exhausted when i reached home. The only thing that rejoiced me was mum's dishes. Oh wait, another one, astro, whee... :D I dun really mind if i could learn and grasp knowledge and skills, but.. tis wasnt really what i expected!! Everyday, my role is to do action plans, follow ups, reading presentation slides, stoning, mugging, fishin Zzzzz.. I look forward into something more dynamimc and innovative working environment. N better workplace perhaps??

The reason that i can withstand for one whole week was just bcuz of my friend's encouragement. Other than that, was just what i remembered 'sei nai nai' in the rosy business told 'chai gau' when he wanted to resign his position as assistant: "It's as easy as lifting a finger to leave, but the most difficult and challenging task is to stay and hang on.." Yes, so im biting my teeth hard, spraining my nerves (if u understand its underlying meaning in mandarin)... N keeping my fingers crossed that the whole scenario would be different (at least a little) at later stage, esp after i picked up the overall procedure of work..

Tell me, tell me please, that im just being too picky.. If u r doing ur internship too, tell me please that ur encounter resemble mine too..

Okay i shall stop complaining for the time being. After two weeks, i sort of indirectly got used to it. Well, start working!

Sunday, 5 July 2009

adventuro italia

Okay, the story continues..
Upon checking out from our worst hostel for the entire trip, we headed to pisa the fifth day. What is the first thing that pops into ur mind speaking about pisa??

#1: The leaning tower of pisa!!!


#2: First pose: Oh no, pls dun fall.. Here, the supergirl’s here for rescue!!


#3: Second pose: Push for u to tumble..


#4: One more snap before bidding farewell to pisa =)


The same day, we took the bus which brought us to volterra. U must be wondering where is volterra? But I can assure u, after few more years, volterra is going to be another famous tourist attraction for Italy. Tis is because volterra was the setting for the ever romantic movie, Twilight!! See?? Only, future oriented and long term prospect looking ppl like us will go to volterra now before food and expenditure there are going to rise to be as expensive as in other cities like venice and rome.. Hehe.. What a compliment =)

Volterrra is a very quiet little place, but the state of peace kind of calms your mind. Suprisingly, most ppl here can speak English, and they were so much friendly-er and helpful-er, and everyone seems to know everyone here. Maybe bcuz tis is an isolated place on the highland and hence the residents are very close to each other.

#5: The main entrance..


One of the most unique attraction here was the torture museum. The museum exhibited different forms of torture equipments used in ancient time, and some even now. But the saddest thing was that most torture were actually forced into women rather than criminals..

#6: The interrogation chair, the first torturer that welcomed us at the entrance..


#7: The head crusher


#8: The main highlight: the oral and vagina pear.


#9: The roman theatre


#10: We spent quite long at the peak as the weather was so much cooling here than the rest too. N the view, hmm.. lovely :D


There was lots of shopping too. Bought some necklaces and wines from here. That night, walking back to our hotel, we were grinning widely and laughing happily, with bags and good memories to be brought back from volterra.

The next two days was spent in rome. Never in my wildest dream I thought that I could step on the land of Rome – a city as romantic and stunningly beautiful as your expection promised it would be. The beauty boulevards of Rome conjure poetry and romance. The drive to come to Rome stems from the drama Triumph in the Skies, in which I promise myself that I would really really like to be in the same place one day. Im glad I managed to =P

#11: We first went to the Vatican city, and visited the Basilca San Pietro.


#12: A quirky fountain that accompanied us at piazza san pietro while queuing up.


#13: The authentic Vatican guards.


#14: Look at the ceiling. It was said that the ceiling was made with pure 24K gold..
N there’s a prison linking to the building too..


#15: Bridge of Sant. Angelo


On a brighter note, I shall share with u our favourite accommodation for the entire trip. The plus camping roma. Tis was a campsite where ppl stay in caravans or cabins.

#16: My cabin with chewy.


#17: Well equipped with facilities for instance supermarket, bars, internet point and laundry. Was a very well catered accommodation to suit different needs.


#18: Swimming pool with beaches and chairs for u to enjoy the sun.


#19: A very nice place to gather with your friends and hv fun.. Since it was going to be our last nite, we decided to treat ourselves well. We went to the bar and played pool. What more we were offered free game being a resident.


#20: Haha.. My first pool game.. U can guess how clumsy and how bad I can play. But it was the fun that matters.. I want to be as skillful as nikki in the King of Snooker.


The next day was another wonderful and splendid day. We first visited the long awaited colloseum. Oooohoo..

#21: The colloseum – front view


#22: The colloseum – side view


#23: The colloseum – grand eye view


#24: More pictures of the colloseum


After that, we went to the palatino which was just opposite the colloseum.. Spent some time on the top here since we expended much effort to climb up here. On n off, we needed to stop down for a breather. But there was lots of things here, the garden, the Indian temple, the museum, the roman forum and the palatino.

#25: The peak


#26: The roman forum


#27: Last one before we say goodbye


And next…. My favourite!! Also captured in one of the scene in Triumph in the Skies :D

#28: The trivi fountain


#29: Water supply where ppl will rush for refill


#30: We definitely would not miss the opportunity to make our respective wishes..
But it’s really really beautiful and captivating..


#31: I really really like tis place very very muchie =)


#32: The last checkpoint was the pantheon..


#33: Pantheon


#34: Look at the beauty of art that can amaze u..


#35: Last dinner for the trip : Full course with the lasagne as the second course..


#36: Skewed veal as main course.. Hilariously delicious.. Yummy Yummy.. =P


That nite, we were forced to sleep OUTSIDE the airport bcuz the airport WAS CLOSED(??) at midnight. What an ‘interesting’ encounter.. Hence we were spent the last nite outside with few more tourists waiting to check in. It was a pleasant journey anyhow, and it was delightful to have travelled with u guys.. Goodbye Italy :D

Saturday, 4 July 2009

espresso italia

Hihi, as i ve promised, im here to post a short note on my italy trip.. I know it has been a long delay, but my internship had been keeping me deprived from internet, cause it's ann extremely tiring work. Shall talk bout it with u next time..

So, it was seventeen days ago, when i first stepped on the land of italy..

Honestly, I hope that i can still recall all the sequences or emotions throughout the 7 days journey.. Fortunately my pinkie camera kept my memories for me.. But still, that's the consequence for delaying my post.. Haha.. My fault my fault..

We stumbled on milan at 830am the 12th, all worn out and with weary eyes. THe only slept we got was during the two hours flight, but it wasnt that productive anyway, cause it was a very noisy one.. With babies crying, people chit chatting, announcements from speakers, flight attendants walking here n there.. Well we headed towards our first accommodation which is nearby the metro, in which we admitted that it was exactly worthwhile for the price we paid.

#1: Hotel Ambra. A little home-like so called hotel, where i have to take my bath at the upper floor. Hehe.. But hey, that's how bagpack travel should looks like =)


#2: This was taken after we settled in our little hotel


After some research on our journey for the day, we chilled out and started our expedition. We deported towards brera for our first lunch. We could barely understand the menu. Lucky that tHe restaurant owner was very friendly, and he could speak english (i shall tell u why is an italian that could speak english will be so helpful later, or probably u could guess them out). He taught us some italian terms for food, eg. risotto=rice, patata=potato, manzo=beef, piatti=soup and the most important word: prego=thank you :D

#3: This was recommended by the owner, which was a perfect combination of risotto, patata and manzo. Free hassle from choosing our main course.


On our ways, we stopped and visited two piazzas.

#4: The first: piazza la skala.


#5: Let me introduce, chewy and leo. U know, leo was from kwang hua too, but a year younger than me. Oh no, im implying that im old..


#6: THe 2nd: the duomo.


#7: The real scene as u would see in televisions or magazines. Swallows, feedings..


#8: Comparison of a malaysian females and italian females.. Haha..


#9: Inside the duomo (=church)


Oh wait, not forgetting the most most long awaited italian specialities.. THe gelato!! Ice cream in italian was super super super SUPER delicious.. There are such a large potpourri of flavours, eg. pistachhio, vagnilla, almond, caramel, cranberry, limone etc.

#10: Rich diversification of colours, red, green, brown, white, yellow, orange..


#11: We then took the underground tube and headed towards the castello sforzesco.


#12: THe inlook of the castle..


We had our dinner at pasteur. It was a recommendation by our seniors. Accodring to him, the pizza of this restaurant received awards few years back.. Esp the napoli pizza.. We could not understand the menu and tis time, no one was to translate the pizza.. So we picked and chose our pizzas based on our instinct.. It was quite adventurous actually..

#13: Yummy pizzas waving at us..


#14: What a delicious and satisfying meal =P


#15: Funny cute looking trams on the road..


After filling our stomach, we worked it off to our next place. It took us few exchanges of trams to reach our final destination for the day -- the grand canal.. OUr effort proved to be worthwhile when we saw the quaint charm of the place. The area was thronged with ppl and there were lots of stalls selling bags, apparels, accessories etc alongside..

#16: The grand canal
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The next day, we popped onto the train and headed to the nearby town… Verona. The first thing that we did was to check in our accommodation, and put down our luggage first. The hotel was a very lovely one, compared to the former.

After that, we went to the town centre for our visits and lunch.

#17: Lunch with spaghetti, ham, and few more (I forgot ooops)


#18: The Arena


Speaking about Verona, stil the most famous one was the romeo and juliet’s house.

#19: Posing with Juliet. Everyone was doing the same pose. I believe it brings some sort of blessing.


#20: Im outside Romeo’s house now. But too bad that today, it was closed =((


#21: Dinner main highlight: Horse meat.. The one in black.. Don’t ask me how it tasted.. I told u Im not good at tasting food.. =P


Day THREE was spent in Venice, one of the most shining gem of Italy. We travelled around the island with the waterboat. I wonder how inconvenient tis is for the residents here. Imagine, going to school and even hospital by a boat!! But it was really a very very lovely and pretty place. So captiving that I could not describe.

#22: It was so relaxing to board on the waterboat, enjoying such a picturesque. We finally stopped our grumpiness and laid back to enjoy that fantastic moment.


#23: More scenaries..


#24: That’s called a gondola.. What an enjoyable thing to do in life..


#25: We were lucky that it was just about sunset. So romantique :D


#26: Famous face masks from venice..


#27: The basilica san marco that we disappointly could not go in. Bcuz the queue was just too long n it was closed before we managed to visit..


#28: If u could not find ur directions, u can use tis tall gigantic tower as a landmark =)


#29: Piazza san marco. I enjoy sitting here n watching ppl..


#30: Dodge’s Palace..


#31: The night scene..


We spent our next day bumming up in Florence. We have concluded that since we were extremely exhausted after 3 days of travel, we will take the bus whenever we could. U could not imagine how tortured it was to be under the hot glaring sun for hours, queuing and waiting.. As if we were here for sunkissing or sunbathing. Coupled with difficulties in terms of communication, we spent more time miming around for directions. There are many times that we could not understand a word at all. If u r lucky, u would bum to an Italian who can speak a bit of English. Otherwise, u would resort to asking for direction using actions or pictures =((

Our grumpiness actually diminished today (esp chewy) because hurray! We achieved consensus that we would try to explore as much as we could, but not under pressure or tension. Florence was another city with loads of attraction, in which again, we could explore each and every.

#32: The art academy


#33: The Duomo


#34: The inner of basilica San Croce. Churches here are really very pretty. The beauty of architecture and geography, the whole place was filled with peace and literature-feel.


#35: The statue of michelangiolo, one of the greatest artist in the world


#36: All the little buildings, roads and houses from the top. They look like miniature models that we can pick off anytime.


#37: The pitti palace


#38: Scenaric view


#39: Once food was served, four of us quickly snapped a photo for memorance and dashed to drool over the heavenly smells wafting over to our table. We had actually eaten pizzas for days. Or maybe we were too ravenous.


That’s all so far.. too long for a post!! Will venture into pisa, volterra and rome next!!! Stay tuned :D