Saturday, July 26, 2008

psycho

been back in kuching since last sunday. haven't been doing much. mostly stayed at home. went out with kinchern and shing a few times.

just came back from senso bar and there was a freaking weird guy there. he's joyoki's friend or acquaintance or something, a doctor from kuching general hospital. we talked a bit for a few minutes and he was already putting his hand on my waist. then he was rubbing my back, sitting too close, trying to hold my hands, touching my leg, might have been trying to touch my butt too. omg. damn crazy. i just met him and he touch so much. where got such thing one. it's not even some drunk dancing whatever thingy. we were just sitting down and barely drank anything yet. then he drank a lot but still sober except touching me and i didn't know what to do. psychotic. denise tried to help me and say i'm taken but the guy deaf or something wrong still touching me. he doesn't even know if i got boyfriend or not. crazy! or maybe he never go out so he thought go bar can simply touch girls. he looked so young and kindof nerdy. wth. finally i told shing let's go home and we left. luckily he didn't try to ask for my number. then siaw ngien came out and apologised and said the guy also kept asking jo out and they want to make him drunk or something and see what happens. urgh. damn freaking weirdo. i would tell you to beware of a dr. something at gh but i didn't really get his name. and before you say kuching people are weird, he's from west malaysia!! omg crazy hamsap guy can be doctor summore. so scary.

Friday, July 18, 2008

in imu

hellooooo! i'm in imu right now. waiting for alvin q to finish his usmle application payment stuff. going to eat hakka mee later, if it's still open. then meeting sidney in midvalley. then tomorrow go find the guys in seremban. why am i typing out my plan? i dunno. nothing to do here. haha. alvin said i'm fatter. i said he's fatter too. jack said i look weird and he forgot my name. he asked if it's vanessa. haha. also met terry and patrick and jaslyn. lalalala.....

i'm home!!!! (kindof anyway) whee!!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

kong fui's visit

here's a short post on kong fui's visit. lots of kong fui's pictures for alvin q (as he is now known) to ogle at.

we went to see the oldest house in glasgow, st mungo, and glasgow cathedral. sigh always the same places only.

kong fui played the guitar and sang a for us a bit
we made dinner

the next day we went to the national piping museum

then went to kelvingrove museum, the museum of transport, and the university of glasgow

then we had dinner and took some pictures in george square

the last day was shopping. kong fui bought some clothes coz aberdeen has no shops and he searched high and low for a present for his newborn niece. i forgot what he bought. a pair of tartan bootees, i think. and then he went home.

have to resume packing now. i'm leaving tomoro! going to fly back to kl, stay a few days, and go back to kuching on sunday.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

offences

leaving underwear around

washing clothes in the toilet and/or bathroom and making the floor all wet

leaving wet clothes hanging until they stink

incessant ringing of the doorbell or knocking of the door and refusing to answer it

cluttering an already tiny shower stall

dirtying the microwave oven and not cleaning it

hogging sinks with clothes

using cutlery and cloths belonging to other people and not washing them

not flushing the toilet properly and leaving behind pieces of shit and bloody (literally) toilet paper

leaving drops of blood on the toilet seat and not cleaning it up!!!

my parents' visit

my parents had planned to come for my graduation, but since i was not graduating they decided that instead of cancelling all their tickets, they would just come sightseeing.
brought them to the oldest house in glasgow which they thought was ok. next was st mungo's museum of religious life and art which my dad didn't like coz some stuff weren't really old or something. next was the glasgow cathedral, which they liked. my dad liked the stained glass.

walked past george square on the way to dinner at filling station

went to edinburgh the next day. my parents liked calton hill. nice scenery and all.

then we walked down to the scottish parliament of which my dad took tons of photos

walked down the royal mile to st giles cathedral

by the time we reached edinburgh castle it was going to close soon so we didn't go in

we spent sunday shopping in livingston. then on graduation day, eelynn lent me her robe so i could pretend i graduated with my friends and family. :) the stupid hood couldn't stay on my shoulders properly so i look quite cacat in lots of pictures. here are a few good ones.

then we went to west end to see the university of glasgow

and kelvingrove art gallery and museum

then my parents went home the next day. my dad took tons more pictures than this but no need to put up so much lah. the end.

and it's my dad's birthday today. happy birthday! :)

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

bus drivers are jerks

just now we wanted to go out for dinner and a movie. it was raining heavily (by glasgow standards) and while walking there, a bus drove past us and splashed us with water. wth!! after walking a bit more, we were splashed by 3 more buses in succession. we all got drenched and cold. my jacket which i just washed was wet and water even got into my boots. what the hell man these stupid buses!!!

anyway, kong fui came to visit for the weekend and just left today so i finally managed to finish my post about italy. my next posts will be on my parents' visit and then maybe kong fui's visit. but first, i need to sort through the thousands of random photos my dad took. haha. i'm going back next wednesday! it suddenly seems so soon..

italy

ok, here's my overdue italy post which is somewhat abridged but still quite long. first of all we had to check in at glasgow prestwick airport where the ryanair staff were extremely unhelpful and quite mean to us. we were very pissed off but it was like so long ago so i won't go into details but they were very anal about the weight of our check-in luggage and the size of our hand-carry. then we spent the night at london stansted airport which was way too cold. wth these airports. they know people will be sleeping there but make no effort to make it more comfortable. and of course i hate all the paranoid airport security as well.

anyway, we saw some mountains on our flight to milan.
italy's public transport sucks. we missed our train stop coz the stupid train doors have to be opened manually and the door we were going to get out from was spoilt so we couldn't get down in time. they also don't announce the next stop, difficult to see the station name, etc. anyway, because so much time was wasted due to missing our stop, we didn't have time to explore milan. we had to go straight to lake como. this is a picture of hailstones at lake como.

the next day we took a boat ride to a few islands and saw some nice houses and stuff.

there was a helicopter delivering a crate to a house
we fed the ducks some of my leftover panini. paninis suck. they're so hard, it hurts your hard palate (roof of the mouth) to eat it. it's like the appropriately named pain (buns) in france.

cathedral (duomo) of como
spent 2 nights at lake como, then went to venice. venice has suchhh nice souvenirs. look at all the masks!

more masks and some stuff made from murano glass. some murano glass stuff are soo pretty. if i were rich i would totally buy lots of venetian souvenirs.

piazza san marco

there were so many pigeons around. we fed them some french fries. if you stand holding your arm out, one will just perch on it even if you're not holding food.

saint mark's basilica

we weren't planning on riding a gondola coz we heard it was expensive, but this group of 3 people approached us and asked if we wanted to share a gondola. it was 100 euro for a gondola so we ended up paying only 17 each.

spent 2 nights in venice, checked into our hostel at florence, then took a train to pisa just to see the leaning tower of pisa where every single person was taking pictures pushing/leaning/supporting etc the tower. italy also has some really bumpy roads and the lousy bus driver just sped over them.

all my pictures quite fail. only this one semi-pass lah.

random poses

then we took a train back to florence. florence is quite boring. this is a replica of the statue of david. to see the real one you have to queue up a few hours to get into the museum.

the night view of florence

this is pitti palace where when the security guard scanned me with a metal detector, it was suddenly triggered by my bra clasp. i was shocked for a moment then we started laughing and when we passed them again, he purposely scanned yannee's back and tried to scan eelynn as well. then when we were leaving, the entrance guard also knew about it - he was laughing and making a gesture at his back.

boboli garden

grape vines

after 2 nights in florence, we went to cinque terre which consists of five coastal villages. upon arriving, the train conductor was so nice to offer to take a picture for us.

we caught the sunset

we walked the street of love which connects 2 villages - riomaggiore and manarola.

the next day, we went to a beach at monterosso, one of the villages.
then we had some drinks. that's eelynn's lemon slushie, my really horrible limoncello which is a lemon liqueur, and yannee's white wine and sciacchetra which is a local wine made from naturally dried grapes.

we spent 4 nights at cinque terre which was way too long. the hostel sucked, the people sucked, and it was kinda boring. then we went to rome where marco was our tourguide. this trevi fountain which marks the end of one of the aqueducts which supplies water to rome. supposedly, if you throw a coin in, you'll come back again next time. i didn't throw one in coz it was soo bloody hot and i was grouchy. don't want to go back to rome. italy's hot in summer and rome was the hottest place we visited. unbearable. possibly hotter than malaysia. sometimes the sky got no clouds at all.
this is the pantheon which we didn't get to enter coz it was closing. it was originally a temple for the ancient roman gods but it was converted into a church. marco says most old buildings are only maintained if they are turned into a church.

we watched the italy vs spain match in a cinema. marco got us free tickets. it was kinda cool but i was quite tired.
the next day, we went to the roman forum where commerce and administration of justice took place in ancient rome
the arch of constantine to commemorate emperor constantine's victory over emperor maxentius
the colosseum, the largest ampitheatre built in the roman empire, where there were gladiatorial contests and stuff
there are fountains like this around rome which has refreshingly cold spring water

if you block the spout like in this picture, the water will come out of the hole on top and you can drink from it!

st peter's basilica in vatican city. it's the burial site of saint peter.

short skirts, shorts, sleeveless tops, etc were not allowed so we had to cover up. i was almost not allowed in because the guard thought that wearing a bedsheet (that marco lent me) was a bit offensive but some lady standing nearby turned into this sari-like thing for me and luckily he let me in. i look weird. haha. bleh. they should have provided shawls or something for people who would obviously be "offensively" dressed in their sweltering summer.

piazza navona where marco told us about the rivalry between the architect who built the fountain in the middle and the one who built the building on the right. as an insult to the guy who built the building, one of the statues on the fountain is shielding his face, either because he thinks the building is too ugly or because he's afraid the building has been built poorly and will fall on him.

there were "statues" which would move if you dropped them some coins

eelynn and marco got a caricature done by a guy who did it so quickly and effortlessly

on the way to the airport on the final day, marco brought us to see the mouth of truth where supposedly your hand will be bitten off if you tell a lie with your hand in its mouth

and that is all. spent another night freezing in london stansted before finally coming home. 2 weeks in italy. so tiring.