Final thoughts for the year

As I sit here in my familiar swivelling chair in front of the computer screen, music is blaring from the countdown programme on TV while the year or what's left of it can be measured in mere minutes. 10 more minutes to be exact.

Looking back, it has been quiet an eventful year for me, despite my paltry 38 blog posts this year. This was my most travelled year, where I made a few short working trips around Asia and the US. And yes, I experienced my first snow fall in the small mid-eastern american town of Kokomo. Then there was my all important nuptials and the major planning that preceded it. That was soon followed by our European honeymoon. Not too bad to have stepped into two new continents this year.

Career wise I'm still where I left off last year. No promotion, a little more extra dough, but at this trying times I am just thankful that I am still in my job. The year ended in a flurry of bad news. It doesn't help that my company is in an industry that is struggling to keep afloat amidst worsening car sales and a credit crunch to boot. Work now is highly focussed towards plugging the gaping hole at the bottom of our ship. Cash is king. And it took this deep recession to make us realise how true this words are. Looking forward, I believe more hard times are ahead of us. Some people will be thrown off the sinking ships and some ships will sink to the bottom of Davy Jones' locker, but importantly we'll have to keep ourselves afloat (and fire some flares) until the next ship comes along to rescue us.

Okay, enough of the gloom. Resolutions?? To make some this year, after failing to make any last year. It will probably contain words to the effect of continuing to learn and experience something new. In short, to continue to grow in all the right ways, not sideways. Why bother with something that is doomed to fail from the onset as past experiences clearly proves that? We must have faith ... a little hope and faith won't hurt your chances. I liked what Mr.Oei Hong Leong quoted in the papers today, "‘If winter has come, can spring be far away?"

So cheers, drink a cuppa on me, and let us make this new year the best one yet.

Two Words

Though we did not get to hear Justin's rendition of the song, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable celebration, filled with food, drink and song(s)...

I'm getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! The bells are gonna chime.
Pull out the stopper! Let's have a whopper!
But get me to the church on time!

Eurotrip : Day 7 - A walk in Rome

What can you do on a Sunday in Rome? We were done with the major sites and had one last day before we took off for the mountains. So we decided to take a long walk today. The day was brilliant, blue skies and all, a total opposite from the day that greeted us to this old city. The church bells were ringing, from towers of churches and basilicas that hid among the buildings of the city. The streets were just calling out to us to come out and roam.

But first we had to pack our bags and bid goodbye to our homey apartment. Here is a peek.

After settling our breakfast at the Termini, we hopped on a bus that took us close to the Campo de Fiori. We took a quiet stroll to the Campo square, before venturing to the banks of the Tiber. Of course, this river was quiet not in the class of the Seine, but the cobbled stone streets and great Piazzas of Rome, not to mention the espressos and pastas, is what makes this one of the best cities in Europe. Maybe it is too soon for me to mention that, just after stopping in my second European city, but let's see how long this stands in my book.

Here are some photos of our walk.

Flower Stall at Campo de Fiori

What looks like a church in a quiet street corner

The lively Piazza Navona

The street performer with his bag of gags

Sant Eustachio, possibly the best coffee in town

Pantheon, the Temple of Gods, where everyone constantly looks up

Outside the Pantheon

The Trevi once more

After spending the last leg of our walk accompanying Vicky in her window shopping, we were ready to head back to the terminal for our final Roman dinner. On our way back, we did some last minute souvenir shopping as we decided that Switzerland could be too expensive for simple key chains and magnets (we were right!). Our train was leaving at 7.55pm and we just had time to gobble down our dinner, grab our bags at the Beehive and hunt down our cabins. We were done with our Roman adventure, but something tells me that I will back some day for more adventures in the eternal city, and that belief is not just some myth from the coins thrown into Trevi Fountain ... well at least I got fate on my side. Ciao!

Eurotrip : Day 6 - Of the Holy and Ancients

It was back to sunny blue skies after a rare wet blip on our european tour. Today we plan to blend in with the tourist crowd and make the pilgrimage to the hallowed grounds of the Vatican as well as to get a peek of ancient Rome.

First the Vatican. We found ourselves at the back of a snaking queue of what we guessed to be heading for the Vatican Museums. Fortunately we were right and the queue moved fast. It was fairly easy navigating ourselves through the Museum as it was all one-way. When we found some exhibits interesting enough, we just had to side track before rejoining the tour which eventually led to the pride of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel.

Bust and Statues of Greek Gods and Roman royalty

Priest of Troy and his Sons

Perseus and the head of Medusa

Raphael's School of Athens

A contemporary piece of the pope

Michelangelo's Masterpiece ... we could not resist taking a few shots

Inside St.Peter's

The grand facade of St.Peter's Basilica

After a costly lunch near the Vatican, we set off to explore the ruins of ancient Rome. Where better to start off than the Colloseum.

The pits

The Collosuem, looking its age

After the quick tour of the Collosuem, we ventured next door to the Palitine hill and Forum.

Ruins of Ancient Rome

A mighty door that still stands to this day

After a exhausting walk around the hills and forum, we got out near Piazza Venezia but we were not quite done yet. There was one more stop before we called it a day and that was the famous La Bocca della Verita (or Mouth of Truth) located at the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

La Bocca della Verita ... where everybody queues up to take a shot like this

Quantum of Connubial Bliss

A wedding run. My third in a row. I bet you're having a run too as it is after all the season for nuptials. Four more to go this year. A D&D this Saturday, a half way break. And Daniel Craig & Olga Kurylenko on Sunday. And to beat the Monday blues the next day, you guess it right, a Wedding to start the week.

Here are photos from the recent Weddings...

At Alex and Lily's in Grand Hyatt, JB

From Wei Wee's at Grand Straits Garden, Danga Bay JB

With Ling Tze and Raphael at Full Gospel Centre Muar

Eurotrip : Day 5 - Wet welcome to the Eternal City

We were served coffee and croissants in our couchette while we passed the expansive Italian countryside. The train was running late and it finally arrive in Stazione Termini at 11.40am, almost 2 hours past its scheduled time. Our late arrival was not helped by the wet weather. We managed to find 'The Beehive' along Via Marghera despite the 'blink-and-you-miss' entrance. We were too early for check-in so we had to wait till 3pm; so off we trudged back to the station for lunch. We purchased our Roma pass for 20 Euros each. This pass allows us unlimited transport within the city for three days and two museum passes, so it fits nicely into our plan.

We checked into our shared apartment, which was just a stone throws away from the train station, soon after 3pm. It had 4 big rooms, a kitchen, a common bathroom and even a Mac in the living area for people to surf the net. It was a nice change from staying in a hotel, although Vicky did get rashes on her hands while we were there.

View from our bedroom window

The rain was now down to a drizzle so we decided to do one of the walks. We started with the church just down the street, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, stopped for dinner at a pizzeria, strolled down the dimly lited cobbled streets to the Trevi Fountain before making a final stop at the Spanish Steps. There was a big crowd of tourist at Trevi, each taking turns to throw coins into the shallow pool. It was quite confusing following the hand-drawn map in the guide book, so we made a few wrong detours along the way, one which led us close to the walls of the Colosseum and another to the columns of the Pantheon. This also goes to show that Rome is actually quite manageable on foot, especially on bright sunny days.

Basilica di Santa Maggiore

Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon

The Spanish Steps

Eurotrip : Day 4 - Homage to the Sun King

On our last day in Paris, before we ventured off to Rome, we decided to make a trip to Versailles, to where else but the Sun King's palace. King Louis XIV's royal château was supposed to be the dream palace of every European king during his days. So we parted with 21 Euros each for 'Le Passport' that covered the RER trip, main palaces and the estate of Marie-Antoinette.

Versailles Palace
Equipped with an audio guide, we were definitely going to understand more about this place than the guess-work we found ourselves in at the Louvre. From the minute we entered the King and Queen's apartment, we were treated to a heady mix of opulence and extravagant luxuries. From the hanging chandeliers to the ceiling paintings, and from the dazzling hall of mirrors to the the richly decorated bed chambers, all of it spelt wealth. However we left the château feeling slightly disappointed as we had set our bar of expectation real high. The jarring artwork of Jeff Koon's that stood out like sore thumbs in the palace halls did not help. (see giant balloon dog below)

It was now mid-day and we thought we could wrap up the visit early with only the gardens and the queen's estate. But we were not quite prepared for the scale of the gardens which was easily 20 times bigger than the 'puny' palace. Our walk to the Queen's Estate seemed like ages (around 50 minutes), though it had a country-side feel to it with tall handsome trees on every side. Must be a wonderful place to jog.

The Queen's little hamlet was like a little 'kampung' she decided to built near her royal abode. The place was a picture of calm and quiet, filled with quaint huts, small vineyards, a pond and a handful of farm animals. She must had been a 'Kampung' girl at heart.

Anyway, we underestimated the time and found ourselves brisk walking out of the palace grounds. We reached back to our hotel just in time to gather our bags and head for the Bercy train station. We managed packed some Kebab before getting on the train.

Au Revoir Paris (we'll see in you in a week), Rome here we come!