Traveller's life

As an avid traveller, I adapt to my surrounding pretty well and at a fast pace. I mix around with the local without problem (well, most of the time) and I am quick to learn about their culture. I guess because knowing and learning about other people's culture is after all my personal interest. I am always interested in human subject and observe their behavior which sometimes are explain by their surrounding.

Another aspect about traveling is the eating. I basically eat anything & I don't mind trying any food though it might look disgusting or unappetizing. After all, we all live once so might as well enjoy what ever that is out there. During our stay in Rotterdam, we stay in a hotel which is a little bit out of the town centre so traveling is a hassle since we don't drive. The weather doesn't help either with the constant rain and strong wind. The rain I don't mind but the wind..ahhh... I really hate it because it make the weather so freezing cold! So, since Kris always come back late from work in the evening, we always end up having dinner at McDonald.

Yes! This is our official kitchen for the past 1 week and I literally have tried every single menu that is available there! hahhaha...sometimes we dine in and sometimes we takeout. Well, what to do. McD is the nearest food outlet to our hotel and I do not want to eat in the hotel. First, I bet it's expensive & second, it definitely come with potato. I have been in Europe for more than 2mths now & I have eat nothing but anything with potato.Seriously, I think I do have potato coming out from my a**! So, the only solution to our dining problem is McDonald! It is only 5min walk from our hotel.

I can even see it from my hotel room! Thank God they have salad so I don't have to eat fries & burger all the time. But at the moment, I do feel that I should have a share in McD.Hahahha... I just can't wait to go home to Denmark & cook since we finally move into our own house now!

Cakes for special occasion

I love baking birthday cake for my husband & my friends as well. Whenever we had our girlfriend get together at my place & there is a birthday coming up or a belated one, I always surprise them with a cake. Baking is one of the way I can release my stress from my work besides working out. But if I bake, I need to do if from the heart. If I am force to bake, normally my cake does not turnout great. I have no idea what's the connection but I do believe it's because the 'secret' ingredient is not there.:)

So far, thank God that my cake all turnout awesome and I seldom have leftover, cause everyone 'tapau' it.Hheheh..Anyway, would like to share some of the cake that I have baked before. Enjoy & don't get hungry ya.ehhehe...Oh by the way, some of it was not made by me but the idea behind the design was mind. I had some of it custom made for the special occasion.

Bake this vanilla cupcakes for our Turkish's friend birthday when we were still in China. He is still new in China at that time & not use to the Chinese foods. Therefore,my cupcake become the best food he ever taste since came to China.Hahhaha...

Did this one, oreo chocolate cake ice cream for my husband 38th birthday in China.

This is red velvet with cream cheese frosting which I baked for a very dear friend on her birthday.

This is a Christmas cake, Moist Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Icing. I baked this for my hubby's friend company Christmas dinner. He love it so much!

One of our girlfriend is getting married and we were invited to her bachelorrete party so I decided to bake her this cake as a gift. Since most of them are vegetarian, I have to bake this cake without egg & butter. It is  a red velvet cake.

 Another birthday cake for a good friend of mine. This is oreo peppermint ice cream cake. Simply delicious & I am eating the last piece of it.:)

This is an exceptional one because I did not bake it but I order it from Mama's Min. But the idea is mine! This I especially ordered for our girlfriend's bachelorrete party at my house. We actually surprise her because we didn't even say that we want to throw her a party.Hehheh..

This is the last birthday cake I baked for 2011. Actually her birthday is a week later but I won't be around so I decided to organize a high tea at my place and surprise her with a cake. This is her favorite cake anyway, red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

This definitely not my making.hehehe..my skill has not reach this level yet but soon I hope.And when I can do this, that is when I will bake cake for business.Hahaha...I order this cake from my favorite baker & this cake is damn heavy.

I baked this for my hubby 37th birthday. It is White Chocolate Cake with Italian Meringue Icing. For those who do not like sweet stuff, this is not your cup of tea because it is SWEET!

On his 36th birthday, we were in Kuching so I called a dear friend and ask whether I can custom made a birthday cake just like his favorite car. Luck for me she know where to order it & finally, we got the cake! He was so amazed coz he didn't expect it too look almost exactly like his car.  

Min foedselsdag

It is the time of the year again to celebrate my birthday or min foedselsday in Danish. Just like the year before, I don't look for anything special because I am special! Guess that is enough for me to celebrate. But the bonus is that, I get to be with Kris for the celebration. On a normal birthday basis, we would get a cake or normally I bake for him and went out for a nice romantic dinner after (that is if we are near each other on our birthday). This year, he decide to bring me to Tivoli in Copenhagen (though actually he has something to attend there & decide to stop by at Tivoli).

Tivoli is Denmark biggest theme park and every summer the place is jam pack with human being from all over Denmark and also other part of the world. I was there the first time during the summer of 2009 or 2010 (can't recall). I don't really enjoy it because there is just too much of people to actually enjoy it. Furthermore, from my observation Tivoli has more eating joint that games! I went to another theme park in Copenhagen previously (which I forgot the name) & I found it is way better than Tivoli.

Anyway, it was raining on that day and we arrived at the park at 3pm. Since it's winter, the day get dark very early. What I really look forward for in this trip is I am excited to see the Christmas decoration which Tivoli has every year. This year Tivoli Christmas decoration will be base on the theme, 'Russian Christmas'.

Few hours walking in the park & do some small shopping, we are on our way back to Aalborg but need to make a stop at Herning to pick up our stuff as that is when Kris got the phone call asking him to fly to Rotterdam the next day. We didn't get to do the romantic dinner thingy as usual/tradition of our birthday celebration but what the heck. Nothing to complaint about coz we still have time to have that dinner before I fly back to M'sia.

 Loving this beautiful carousal.

 It's raining so luckily I have my hoody!

Holland

Here I am still stuck in Rotterdam with Kris because he still has something to do here and tomorrow, we'll be here for a week. I spend more of my day writing my thesis while he went off to work and when he come back, we search for dinner or foods. We always end up at McD which is just situated across the hotel because he always come home between 6-7pm, which literally mean, all the shop in town is close. Adding salt to the wound, we stay in a hotel which is out of town because it suppose to be nearer to the port where Kris need to be everyday. Taxi ride to town cost Euro20 for less than 20min ride & the train station is like 30min walk (not really a walk in the park when the temperature is below 5C) and the wind is so strong that I can feel that I am almost blown away (please remember that I am not model stick thin)..hehehe

But last weekend, we do manage to explore the city which is very nice and interesting. Rotterdam is know as the port city and it has the biggest port in Europe (Port of Rotterdam) although it used to be the biggest in the world before Singapore took over, and now Shanghai is dreaming to be the lead (they come 2nd). 

So,basically you see port every where in the city & of course you will see lots of water around here (the country is after all under sea level). 

First time we tour the city, we just asked the taxi driver to stop us at the Maritime Museum as I can see from the map, the main attraction in Rotterdam is just a walking distant from each other. We were lucky that the day is sunny although a bit chilly, and we manage to find all the places we wanted to go to.

As you tour around the city, you will realised (if you pay that much attention), that almost every where there is a mention of the word "Erasmus". For example, the picture below is the Erasmus Bridge, it symbolised the city of Rotterdam. Quite new as if I am not mistaken, it was build in 1996 and the bridge is connecting the Northern & Southern part of Rotterdam. The local give it a nickname, The Swan.

FYI, Erasmus is a Dutch humanist and theologian who was the leading Renaissance scholar of Northern Europe. His criticism of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Reformation but he opposed any act of violent and condemned Martin Luther (the theologian, not Martin Luther King). Anyway, toward the end of our city tour of the city we stumble upon a Saturday market but unfortunately, it was almost closing time when we found it.

As expected there are many fruits, vegetable, cheese and flowers stall. Wish we had found it earlier.It would be an interesting place to find something out of the ordinary and probably find some bulb for my bro.

We eat at a Thai Restaurant which cost us Euro54 for two (we ordered Tom Yum Gong, 6 small pieces spring roll, 5 stick of baby chicken satay, rice and coke). Could imagine how much I can eat with that amount of money in a Thai restaurant in Malaysia.Huhuhuh....


On our second day tour of Rotterdam, it doesn't turnout out good because we suppose to go somewhere but end up nowhere! Hahaha...So, we just wonder around the city centre & it look pretty deserted as it was Sunday & most shop are close on Sunday (I miss KL!).

But as we wonder around without any direction, well.. well...what do you know, we end up at the 'happening street'.Hahahha...there are absolutely everything & everyone there. All kind of shops and restaurant (why didn't we find this the day before..heheh). After a while, we both need to pee but we just can't seem to find a single public toilet. Actually, I never see any around the city so far. Wonder where these people do their 'business' when they need to. I guess the canal provide a good spot..:)

Finally, we end our weekend with buying some Chinese takeout for our dinner and some snack along the way. Kris decided that we took the taxi instead of the train which we used earlier because he really need to pee! Though it is expensive, I do enjoy the taxi ride because if not here, where would I got the change to get a ride in a Mercedes & Chrysler or BMW. But before that, decide to take a picture with Papa Santa!

Living abroad

Some 'people' are so gung ho about living abroad especially in the so call 'negera urg hibai' that they tends to compare it with Malaysia. Seriously?? Comparing Malaysia with let say German is like compare the skin of an Indian & a Chinese, and who has the fairer skin. Get it?? Technically, we are still lacking the technology, expertise, development & most important of all, their mentality. Honestly, when I hear someone comparing Malaysia with those Western countries, I would say these people are actually making stupid comparison. Yeah..yeah..so they visited it or even study abroad...so what, that does not make you so knowledgeable about the country. 


I have been living abroad on & off, and visited a lot of places for the past few years and as an observant person as I am, I like to take time and study about the country's system and the life of the people living there. Yes, of course I cannot deny they do have a better facilities and social system, and also working system compare to Malaysia but they also have the not so good story behind all those good one. When you are a tourist or student or on business trip, you don't see all those detail. What you see is just the surface in general & hell, it is good!


But besides the free medication, free public transportation (for certain age only that is), free education, allowance for single parent, allowance for handicapped or people who raise handicapped children or high salary (on average the salary is approx. more than RM10K per mth), 'these gung ho' people forget about the 40% income tax (approx.), Euro2 per 1L for petrol, 40% housing loan (that mean you need to have the down payment/deposit of 60%), on average people spend RM500-RM800 per mth for groceries for the whole family (it can be less if you choose to buy almost expired stuff or at a cheaper joint & have less than 2 kids), 200-300% tax on all new cars (varied depending on countries), for those who love massage well, on average Thai massage cost you RM200 per hr ( I can do twice the hr for this amount in KL) and many others 'good truth'. So, if 'these' people actually analyse the detail carefully 'urg hibai' country is damn expensive to live in.


Don't you 'guys' realise how they admire our country for being cheap??? Well honey, they really mean it when they say that & it is for a reason. And FYI, they do like to live in Malaysia & believe it is a nice country to live in except for the mentality of the people. So, it all goes down to the mentality...again. If we have a better mentality than we have now, I am sure we can go as near as these countries in term of development. I won't say we will be on par with them because I am being realistic. To be on par as them, believe me, we still have a very long way and journey ahead of us. 


Still think they are better? Well, please do live abroad & experience it before making any kind of brainless comparison. If you think living abroad is way better than living in Malaysia, well...what you waiting for, pack your bag and move. Don't just bitch around about it and you're still here. 


Every country has it ups and downs because we are all different. No point of comparing it & do nothing about it. If you think living in UK would be great, so move to UK. Or if you think living in the US would be fun, well what are you waiting for. I have to admit, Malaysia still has lots to catch up if we want to become like these countries but hey, it's still a great place to live! There is a beauty in everything if you look for it rather than saying in ugly before even search for its beauty or in some case, u just look for the ugly part.:)

Writing

Writing can be damn hard sometimes, especially when you are doing academic writing. I can easily write anything but when it come to academic writing, man that is hard. You can't simply use the normal English language that I normally use when writing my blog or email because it just has to be the right wording to actually represent my so call intellectual thought and provide a solid argument for my findings.

On good days, I can write 5-10 pages a day. Helloo...this is a thesis writing so that much is actually an accomplishment (at least to me as I write every single day). And when this happen, I am so happy & fill very productive. Unfortunately, I do experience bad day as well where I can only write a maximum of 5 pages!! When it happen, I really feel that I wasted too much time with very little results and very disappointed with myself although I knowing I had tried my best. Writing also depending on your mood swing which explain why most writer prefer to be isolated when they are writing a book. Now I know..

Some people won't understand what actually I do looking at the laptop for few hours everyday for every single day since I'm doing my PhD. Well, all I can say is that, you experience it first before making nasty comment about it. It is not easy that is for sure. You do get frustrated sometimes when the ideas are not there or when you have it in your head but the words just won't come out. I have to admit, sometimes when I am lack of idea or when my head just feel heavy with thought,  I swear that I'm about to go mental!

But I am taking my time now to complete my 2nd draft as the 1st one received a nasty comment so I vow to have this 2nd one better, and 100% improve. But I won't want to take my own sweet time as I plan to graduate next year (though it is 1 yrs later than I originally plan). But hey...at least this time I can feel that it's for real & I am producing a better thesis! Wish me luck fellow!

Suria Fm

One day, I decided to download Hitz FM on my iPod, and there it is, SURIA FM! I am a fan of retro music especially Malay songs that are in the 80s and 90s. From that day on, each time I do my work, I will switch on my iPod and listen to Suria FM. I miss hearing people talking in Malay language whenever I am away from home, especially when the mother tongue of the population is not English.

Furthermore, the songs that the Dj is playing is the songs that I use to hear and sing along when I was living in the boarding school. Those day were one of the best time of my life! I was surrounded by wonderful friends whose friendship still going strong up to today. Hearing all those nostalgic songs remind me of good old days with the gals. Anyway, I do believe that retro songs are ever green that even when you hear it today, it still sound damn good & entertaining unlike the new songs nowadays that you can't figure out whether it is a song or just a clanging sound of nonsense.:)

Kris, bought TV package which enable me to surf online while watching TV, something like what Telekom has called Unifi. So, listening to my favourite radio with a full blast sound system won't be a problem.:) When I miss home, at least I have something that can remind me of home especially during this cold winter night.:)

Moving time...

Finally today, after almost 2 months of renovating, cleaning, burning, waiting, arranging, drilling and cleaning again, at last we moved into our own house. Still some work to be done but it is enough to make it a home again and good enough to be live in. The condition of the house is way better than it has been. All the hard work we put to make it  a beautiful house with a welcoming feeling has been paid off finally. I am so relief that we finally living on our own. Today, we move out our last items from my in law's house which was great. We finally get the privacy that we always need when we come back here. Not that my in law is some kind of busy body but it's just great to be at your own place.

Tomorrow, I will want to bake the best chocolate cake ever to celebrate. I also miss baking and cooking at my own kitchen, so it'll be nice! When my family or friends coming over, at least they now have a place to stay over. There are a lot of plan that we want to do for our home here but that will have to wait for now. I hope it will come true for both of us & also, we can finally raise our children here, at our beautiful and blessed home.