Taking Stock

Christmas is exactly a week before the New Year so yes, the New Year is just around the corner (next Saturday, to be exact. Yikes! That’s too soon!).




I read that we should be taking a psychological or personal stock on ourselves, reflecting on and assessing what we have done during the year. It means looking at both our personal and professional lives with honest eyes, reviewing the highs and lows, the successes and failures, the ups and downs, as truthfully as we can so that we can try to make the next year work better.

Let me share with you the three basic tips for successful New Year’s resolutions:

1. Make a list: Keep to absolutely essential things that you must deal with in the coming year.

Outline your goals

Make plans. Set a target

2. Use the list to focus: Making a list will give you more focus and direction in how you concentrate on those items you wish to deal with; and

E.g. LOL Cat’s to-do list

3. Tell other people: once you’ve drawn up your list, share them with your family and friends as a support system for seeing your resolutions through.

Taking stock helps us to realise the life we want and helps to ensure we are on the right track. I know what I want -

I want a work life balance
I don’t want to run around for everyone else without any ‘me time’
I want to be happy
I don’t want to struggle
I don’t want to feel stuck in a rut
I want to move at my own pace

We only have one life to live and we must get it right.

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Cesc, me and the furry and funny LOL Cats would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2011! Feliz Navidad y Prospero año Nuevo!!! (I’m so grateful for the LOL Cats site for cheering me following Mummy’s departure and any of Arsenal’s loss).

And if you’re travelling, don’t forget to get to the airport at least two hours early.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the Gunners’ Christmas lunch on 17 December and their visit to a hospital on 21 December 2010.

Nothing Compares To You

I was reminded of this song over the weekend and it wasn’t hard for me to change the lyrics to suit my situation. You’re sorely missed, Mummy. Nothing will ever compare to you.

It’s been eight weeks and three days
Since you took your love away
I cry in my heart and think of you every day
Since you took your love away
Since you’ve been gone I feel empty and lost
I can’t see how it will improve
I can cry my heart out or try to cheer myself
Still nothing
I said nothing can take away these blues

‘Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares to you

It’s been so lonely without you here
Like a bird without a song
Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling
Tell me God, why did she have to leave so soon?
I could bury myself in sorrow for as long as I wish
But nothing would bring her back to me
I told my best friend and guess what she told me
Guess what she told me
She said, ‘Girl you should think of all the good times
No matter what you do
And cherish the memories’

‘Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares to you

All the flowers that you planted, Mummy
In the backyard
We’re trying hard to take care of them
I know that living with me, Mummy, was sometimes hard
Yet I wish we could give it another try

Nothing compares
Nothing compares to you

Dreaming Of A White Christmas?

Well, if you’re one of those wishing and dreaming of a white Christmas, it looks like your wish and dream have already come true. In Europe, specifically the UK, millions of travellers are either stranded or delayed when their Christmas and year-end holiday plans are disrupted by the heavy snow. It remains a question whether they will arrive at their festive destinations. It seems to be chaos all around, with 10,000 vehicle breakdowns, rail services disruption, blood stock depletion and deliveries backlog. Heck, even footie (boo hoo), rugby and horse racing were affected. So I guess be careful for what you wish for.

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It’s déjà vu all over again. Arsenal will face Barcelona in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. I was cursing when I found out about it. Why oh why can’t it be any other team? Well, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame for not finishing second in the group. We always do things the hard way...

Fragrant Harbour

8 – 12 December 2010

I had promised my niece, la niña, a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland if she did well in her UPSR and to our surprise, she did exactly that. I had wanted to take her on the trip at a later date, maybe during one of next year’s school hols, but decided to bring forward the trip. So, on 19 November, I booked a Hong Kong SuperCity Package from Cathay Pacific (the package included a return trip, a 3-day 2-night hotel accommodation, return airport transfer either by coach or Airport Express Line (AEL) and complimentary half-day city tour among others). If you are planning to go to Hong Kong, I really suggest you take up this package as it’s really good. I extended our stay to a 4-night stay and paid only a bit for the extra two nights.

We left KLIA on Wednesday evening, 8 December 2010 (24 hours after I arrived from Medan!), and landed at 9.30 pm local time (Hong Kong is in the same time zone as Malaysia). We had to board a train from the arrival area to get to the main building, go through immigration and collect our bags. It was 10.30 pm when we finally boarded our coach but thankfully the traffic was kind to us and we reached our hotel by 11 pm. I chose the coach as if we had taken the AEL, we would still have to find our own way to the hotel and some cabbies don’t speak English.

It was a bright and sunny day on Thursday. We took the hotel shuttle to Pacific Place and made our way to Admiralty MTR station. I bought a Tourist Day Pass (it entitled us to HKD30 off Disneyland ticket price). We stopped first at Tsim Sha Tsui station as I wanted to perform prayers first at Kowloon Mosque. We then boarded the train and finally reached Disneyland after changing trains twice.

There are only three lands at HK Disneyland and I had thought we’d breezed through them all but although the queues were considerably shorter, we still found ourselves rushing here and there (we decided to watch some shows and had to turn up early for those shows to secure good seats. Those shows, in turn, lasted up to half an hour each). We finally sat down for a meal after 7 pm (the park closes at 8 pm, unbelievable I know) and then rushed to buy souvenirs. Things didn’t cost cheap there of course.

We decided to take the tram back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we got down too soon and had to walk the rest of the way back.

I had booked to join the city tour on Friday morning so we woke up early on Friday and took the hotel shuttle to Hong Kong station. We then navigated our way to Central MTR station and took the train to Causeway Bay, the nearest station to Park Lane Hotel for the city tour coach pick-up.

First we drove to Aberdeen on the other side of the island and went on an optional boat ride around the harbour to see the fishing village. The ride lasted about 30 minutes. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to a gem showroom. Next, we went to Tin Hau Temple at Repulse Bay Beach. We stayed about thirty minutes there and I wandered up and down the pier, enjoying the hazy sunshine. It was neither too hot at 23C nor too cold (wind factor).

We gathered back on the coach after 12 noon and drove to The Peak; after my first trip, I had planned to visit The Peak again anyway (although I’m not too happy about taking the tram down the hill) and I was chuffed when I found that it was included in the tour. And no trams for us, hurray. We spent another half an hour here looking down at the spectacular view of the city skyline. Too bad the day was a bit hazy.

I asked the guide to drop us at Kowloon Hotel instead of Park Lane and after having lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, we walked to find Esprit Outlet. Turned out it had been relocated from Hankow Road to In-Town Outlets at 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s located near Harbour City (and that’s another gigantic mall – no, wait, it’s the biggest mall in HK; seriously everywhere you look, there are shops, shops and more shops! I kept wondering how people there could fit anything in their pigeon-hole apartment. Yes, consumerism is very much alive and kicking in Hong Kong). I didn’t find anything interesting at Esprit though (too many winter clothes) but managed to find some scarves at the Tie Rack outlet. After that, we headed to Haiphong Road to get to the mosque.

After prayers, we took the MTR to Mong Kok to check out the Ladies’ Market and Fa Yuen Street (aka Sports Shoes Street). We left empty-handed though as nothing particularly impressed us. I persuaded la niña to check out The Avenue of Stars and A Symphony of Lights (recognised by Guinness World Records as the World’s Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show). There were a lot of people taking a stroll along the waterfront. We walked until the Clock Tower then turned back to find a good place to sit for the Symphony of Lights show. The show starts at 8 pm every night and we were lucky that it was conducted in English that night.

The show lasted about 15 minutes and we then went into Sogo. We stumbled upon Food Paradise at Level B2 and only then realised we hadn’t had dinner yet. After a hot bowl of seafood udon, we window-shopped and I ended up buying a pair of Skechers sports shoes (they would have cost me more in KL and even other brands would cost me more even during sale in KL). We finally left at 9.30 pm and took the MTR back to Central. As the previous night, we took the tram back and this time, alighted at the right stop (Hill Road).

I told la niña that Saturday would be a shopping day so we started off the day with a tour of Pacific Place. Still not satisfied, we left and took the train to Tsim Sha Tsui. We walked to Sogo (yes, again!); I left la niña there and went to check out The Avenue of Stars again as I didn’t walk all the way to the Bruce Lee sculpture the evening before. It was a windy noon at the waterfront promenade and after having found Bruce Lee, I hurried back to Sogo. We had lunch at Food Paradise and feeling energised, went to check out the boutiques at the posh Peninsula Hotel.

Still feeling unfulfilled, I persuaded la niña to check out Harbour City, passing the beautiful Heritage 1881 along the way (The original site of Heritage 1881 was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from 1880s to 1996). OK folks, Marks & Spencer stuff cost less in KL so don’t bother. Then I popped into H&M at Canton Road (crazy crowd in there but the queue was fast). After that, we headed to the mosque for prayers. There was an introductory course on Islam every Saturday – in Cantonese – so there were a lot of people in the mosque when we got there.

After prayers, we hopped onto the train for Jordan to check out the Temple Street Night Market. The market opens from 4 pm (the Ladies’ Market starts from noon) and we were very glad we didn’t buy anything at the Ladies’ Market as we managed to find better bargains at Temple Street Night Market. By no way am I saying that Temple Street is cheaper or is a better bargain but do shop around and bargain, bargain hard.

La niña wanted to return to the hotel and not eat out so we headed back to Central and took the tram to Hill Road stop.

Our coach pick-up on Sunday morning was at the ungodly hour of 5.30 am so it was a ridiculously early morning for us. I had to perform prayers at the airport as morning prayers was at 5.34 am. We reached the airport at 6 and after checking in our bag, went straight to immigration. We had a light breakfast (I was already famished by then) and walked around the shops. I don’t think there’s a significant difference between the prices of goods downtown and at the airport as HK is a duty-free city anyway. We then took the train to the departure area and walked to gate 43. Turned out there’s a multi-faith prayer room near the gate anyway so if you have a noon or evening flight to catch, you can always perform prayers there.

We took off on time and landed at KLIA at 1245. My bag however took its time to get out (it came out more than ten minutes after la niña’s bag although we checked in together). Akak was already waiting for us and drove us back to Ampang.

That was my third trip to HK, so will I return? And although I have now visited all Disneylands and Disney World (syukur alhamdulillah), I wouldn’t mind visiting Disneyland Shanghai (yes, inside me is still a kid who wants to play and doesn’t want to stop playing). Wait, people are evicted to make way for the park?? Hmmm... and it’ll be smaller than HK Disneyland. OK, scratch that idea then.

Medan

4 - 7 December 2010

I was in Medan over the weekend. We left just after noon on Saturday from Subang. There were thick clouds around and the small Firefly aircraft bravely made its way through. It was so bad at one point that I actually jumped in my seat – the poor cabin crew was trying to serve drinks but the juice splashed and they had to terminate the service. I woke up early that morning (jolted awake more like) when my dream suddenly featured Tommy (dang you, Tommy) and was hoping to catch a nap but with the rough ride, I doubted anyone could even rest.

We landed at Medan Polonia International Airport at 12.30 pm local time. You can smell the strong cigarette smoke the minute you walked into the terminal. Welcome to Indonesia (I do wonder how many cancer patients the country has).

It had started raining steadily by the time we walked outside. The local tour guide from Lovely Holidays was already waiting for us. There were two families from different travel agent and then we were joined by a Chinese couple from Penang (they arrived earlier and killed time by waiting for us in Sogo).

We went for a nasi padang lunch (the dishes were quite hot and spicy) and performed prayers there too. The guide then took us to a store selling prayer attire, kebaya and batik stuff. Most of us left empty-handed as we were not impressed with the store. He then took us to yet another store before we made our way to Parapat town, situated by the massive Lake Toba.

It continued pissing rain and the jam we endured was really horrible. There still was one more pit-stop at a store in a town more than an hour before reaching Parapat. I was feeling knackered and decided not to go down. That proved wise as even the airport sold the food stuff at lower cost than that store. The guide was good but I wish he was less obvious about his desire to collect commission from the shops we stopped at. We finally reached our Parapat hotel after 10 pm and had a very late dinner (hello, it was way after 11 pm in KL; it was more like supper than dinner). We then had to drag our bags down the steep stairs to our room ($#&(~)*~!%) and to my despair, there were only three TV stations available and none of them showing footie (!!!). I had to text a fellow Gooner to find out the results.

On Sunday, we left after breakfast and took a boat to Samosir Island in the lake. We first went to Ambarita, a traditional Batak village about 45 minutes away with stone court and execution place/Raja Sialagan, and stayed there for close to an hour before boarding the boat again to Tomok to see the tombs of three Batak kings/Raja Sidabutar. I dislike persuasive in-your-face hawkers like what we had at Samosir and was really put off by the charmless efforts, so much so I left empty-handed. I simply refused to buy anything. Besides, I don’t have much use for the things they sell anyway. Wood carvings? Not interested. T-shirts? I have more than enough, thank you. Bags? Looked pretty fugly to me.

We finally made our way back to the mainland and drove on for lunch. Prayers were performed at a mosque across the street from the restaurant. Then we drove on to Brastagi, stopping en route at Sepilo-pilo Waterfall. We reached Brastagi after dark and stopped at a market to buy fruits before heading to our hotel. Dinner was had at the hotel dining area. It started raining during dinner and went on well into the night. Now Brastagi is situated about 1,400 metres above sea level in the Karo highlands so it was quite a chilly night. A few people commented it was just like at Genting or Cameron Highlands.

We woke up to a misty Monday morning and after breakfast, we drove back to Medan. En route, we stopped at a durian stall (Delia and I shared a durian – heaven!) and later, at a gallery selling teak furniture and other items like t-shirts and Batak handicrafts. The items were a lot cheaper than at Samosir and wasn’t I glad I didn’t spend the day before!

We then went for lunch and after prayers, went to a factory outlet (again, the guide wanted to earn some commission). I wasn’t impressed at all; in fact, I thought the outlet was quite pathetic and I wanted to cry out aloud at the goods on offer. We were then brought to a place called Pasar Ikan and thankfully, the market was better. Well, except for the kids who chased you around and tailed you like a dog, asking that you spare them some change. I’m sorry but I don’t like to give money to beggars like that; I’d rather the money be donated to charities or orphanages.

We left the area after an hour and went to Medan Mall. It was yet another sad place for me and to kill time, we went to a salon. I had a manicure and pedicure while Delia only had a pedicure. It was getting dark when we emerged from the mall. After dropping off the two families at their respective hotels (we stayed at different hotels in Medan), we went for a buffet dinner at Tiara Hotel before checking into our hotel.

After breakfast on Tuesday morning, I went to Heritage Spa just next door to the hotel and had a herbal massage (I was badly in need of a massage). It was supposed to last 90 minutes but I told her I needed to return back to the hotel by 10.45 am (so it was like 75 minutes for me). It cost less than RM40 for a 90-minute herbal massage, bargain!

The bus arrived just as I was about to have some ginger drink so I declined the drink and hurried back to my room to get my bag. We reached the airport in 15 minutes. There was another ground handler from the local travel agency who helped us check in.

The flight took off at 13.15 local time and we landed at Subang at 3.30 pm. I was home by 4.30 pm (thanks Delia!).

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Nasri had the touch of an angel and his superb goals helped made the difference on Saturday and sent Arsenal to the summit of the league. Super Sam!!! To the tune of KC and the Sunshine Band’s Baby Give It Up, Nanananananananana Samir Nasri, Nasri, Samir Nasri! Go here for a mixed version of the chant. Nanananananananana Samir Nasri, Nasri, Samir Nasri! Our defence still needs a lot of work though.

Nicked from here

I'll Be Back

I know, I still haven’t really returned to blogging. I’ll be back again folks, I promise. In the meantime, I’m ready for adventure again.





Take care peeps. Until then -