nOt doNe wiv SWE updAtes...

...
yet here i am.
3 weeks later.
back in Scandinavia.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BERGEN, NOR
Thu 25 Sep
8:30am

Norway is BEAUTIFUL!!
tsktsk.
such sweeping statements i make.
ha!
only been in Bergen a little more than 24hours right now.
and again, bcos of work, there's so much i wish to see outside yet so little time.
will fly to Trondheim tonight after the fair ends here.
i think im going to have to resort to buying postcards of the cities to remember them by!
fat chance of me actually going round visiting places :(
but but but!
the flight into Norway (Bergen, to be v exact) was gorgeous yday early morn.
all that greens from the lands and the blues from the lakes and seas!
such a beautiful sight!!
amazingly different landscapes - here and home.
huge "nature vs. man-made" issue!
shan't write more now.
my heart and thoughts aren't in writing anything proper a.t.m. i know it. i feel it. i SEE it as i type.
messy and random.
oh well.
time for work!

tHe reSt of oUr daY(s) in GotHenBuRG

Wed 3 Sep
Gothenburg


it was all good at the fair.

we had Alex join us @ the booth. he was fab' with the local kids!! having studied with us for 3 years... having actually lived in SG... plus! i suspect lots of the younger girls wanted to talk with him cos he's pretty cute! everyone loves talking to beautiful people right?? :p


a group of us went out that evening.

took a short boat ride down the canals of the City. coolness! the bridges we had to go past were so awfully low! many times we had to bend forward / lean back / sink into our seats so our heads wouldn't hit the bottom of the bridges.

and then...! we went for dinner!!! and i finally got to eat authentic Swedish meatballs!! awesome!!! i think i have photos somewhere... will post 'em up if i ever bother to transfer them onto the lappie :p


Gothenburg being home to Alex, he took us for a walk down The Avenue after dinner.

**Photo: Goran Assner/Goteborg & Co.
the weather was just beautiful that night! it had rained earlier that afternoon, but that evening, with the rains gone, what was left was a kind of crisp coolness and freshness in the air. haha! i sound like i'm talking abt some mountain resort eh? :p but seriously, it was fab' just walking down The Avenue back to the Hotel.


then we had drinks up @ Heaven 23. very nice!


Thu 4 Sep
Gothenburg - Stockholm


nothing much happened that day.
CIS organised for us to take the train up to Stockholm.
First Class.
wOOoohoo!


uneventful train ride.


Stockholm, to me, is another big, European city - very many old-ish looking buildings... some beautiful, grand archi... pedestrian walks dotted with SHOPS!! woooo!! shopping!... huge gardens in and around the City... there was a diff here though. Stockholm apparently is made up of very many 'lil islands; an archipelago-ish City. So there were a fair few bridges that linked the various parts of the City together.


no time for any 'exploration' that day. we all went out for Wine & Cheese that evening. OMG! it was like, the first time i had so much wine and cheese at ONE TIME!!! just thinking back on that evening is making me feel fat fat FAT!!! argh!!! i'm no good with wines... so i have no idea what we had now. 'xcept they were all Reds. haha! and the cheese! 9 diff varieties. and many diff crackers to go with it!! so proud of myself leh... im not a huge cheese person. but i did try abit of all 9 cheese :p didn't take to the goat's cheese thingy much. also didn't like the blue cheeses. yucks!!! but there was a herb-y thingy i loved!!! i polished that off the plate. naturally. ha!!


more on Stockholm when i find time to upload piccies :p
i is wans to watch Breakfast at Tiffany now! don't ask me why, i just feel like watching it NOW :p

今天情人节 - 梁静茹

真的好久好久都没有买cd了！！
最后一张cd应该是半年多前买的吧。。。
都不记得是谁的cd了！
今天跟ling出去喝茶逛街，
聊到A*mei下个月到新加坡的演唱会。。。
还有最近出的新歌新cd(s)。。。
有一股冲动，非要买张cd！
而且，是要定fish的"今天情人节" ！
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
开心！ 她还是一样棒！嗓子真好。。。让人羡慕那甜美的声音！
她去年在台北小巨蛋的演唱会也有够好看好听的！！
梁静茹真是我心中的情歌天后！
好期待能到她演唱会看她LIVE演出的那么一天！！
*fingers crossed*
：）））

jEtLaG no MoRe!!!

wOoohoo!!
got over that whole timezone/diff thingy thu night.
just in time for the weekend!!!
oh happiness!!!
got shitloads done @ the office yday.
the girls picked me up 9-ish.
we caught Bangkok Dangerous (Dangerous Bangkok? cant remember).
Charlie Young's hands look freaking old!!! OMG!!! somebody pass me the handcream!!!
we had Rocher Tau-huey for supper @ ... where else? Duh!!
WL, YF and i teased Jaime mercilessly about her going AS on us the last few chiong-nites.
oOooh the drinks and boys you missed babe!!!
haha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
planned to swim this morning.
freaking rain spoilt our plans.
we had late (ok maybe 8 isnt all that late) brekkie @ home. oily greasy chinese style noodles and riceflour rolls courtesy of jie :p
goin to hit the shops with the sisters this arvo.
i promise to update abt Sweden trip.
i solemnly swear that i will do so. soon.
gotta go prep to hit town now!
hohoho :)))

Wide awAke..

... @ 2 in the morning.
dead tired 4-5 hours later.
HELP!!!
still operating on SWE time!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
yea, if you havent guessed by now, im back in SG.
got in late tue arvo.
tired my best to keep awake.
fell asleep 8-ish.
got up and went out with the girls for tau-huey (in an attempt to get back into normal SG time; yea! supper! haha!).
came back physically tired yet mentally wide awake till 4 plus 5am.
slept heaps (well it felt like heaps) till 10-ish.
finally got up and went into the office @ 1.
now?
im wide wide WIDE AWAKE!!!
cos it's like... 6 in the evening back in SWE!
argh!!
i can see it now...
i'll be such a zombie when it's actually time to get ready for work later.
havent done such time-differences/zones in a while... have to get used to it again :p
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
blogging nonsense now just cos i need to kill time.
maybe i really should be using this time wisely and go pray.
yea.
k.
bye.

gOOgLe EaRth

=)
mum's hooked on it a.t.m.
she's been spending much of last night and this evening looking up all the places she's ever lived in, traveled to, the relatives' homes and the various places daddy, Yuan, Jerome and i have lived in too.
my first home in Subang.
our home for 6 months @ Tingkat Ipoh 1.
JB.
Yuan's place in Harlow.
the various apartment homes in Beijing, Shanghai, HK.
all the big cities and little towns the parents have traveled to all over China.
UK and Scotland.
places i called home DownUnder; from St. James, Wilson, Bentley WA to Randwick, Kingsford NSW.
St. Anne's.
beautiful Freising.
the Boy's place in Taichung.
the Godparents' place.
she's still in front of the pc now.
just heard her shoutout to dad that she's flying to Freo.
she's getting a kick out of "flying" to the next destination, zooming in on buildings of her choice, oOoohing and aaaahing over how cool it is to be able to see our old homes and whatnots..
hurhurhur.
the simple things that make her happy.
=)

Valkommen till Goteborg

tmd! im having the mother of all headaches!!!

and the fair starts in...2 hours?

Wed 3 Sep
10:30am
Gothenburg, Sweden

yday's fair was brilliant!
the organisers are really good! it's the first time we're joining them here in Sweden so we really didn't know what to expect. but the turnout was fab!! CIS really went all out to get in touch with the various schools and their contacts :) and the local kids were awfully cool! omg u hv no idea! the swedish peeps r so so SO stylish and cool! no, seriously! they r!!! and they all look so goddamn gorgeous!

okok, quite gushing over 'em cool peeps. i m so not cool. :ppp

so neways, 5hours of standing rd, talking wiv many many many cool peeps later, we packed up, had another fab dinner (all our meals so far hv been sOOOooooo good i tell u! lunch yday was @ this 'lil cafe where i had the biggest ceasar salad with grilled chicken so tender... oh YUM! and dinner that first night was some awesome steak at another 'lil restaurant), then took a 3, almost 4 hours bus ride to Gothenburg.

we checked-in awfully late. i washed-up and just fell into bed (i think im still operating in SG time. bah!). then i wokeup early this morning with this awful headache =.=

ARGH!!!

it's drizzling outside. ive been working frm the room all morning. the view outside is beautiful! but too bad... the Gothenburg fair starts soon. so...

ah well, at least we'll be heading out for dinner after work! haha! im such a pig!! all i can think of is food!! wahaha!! but but but... i cant possibly come to Sweden and not have MEATBALLS wat!!! ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRR

im impossible sometimes. hurhur.

ok. gotta go!

Greetings from the land of Vikings, IKEA... and Swedish meatballs!!!

Tue 2 Sep
8:44am
Malmo, Sweden

I just got back from brekkie. I LOVE a good ang-moh-ish brekkie :) All that ham, scrambled eggs, multigrain cereal, multigrain breadrolls... oOOooh yum!

Anyways... i had brekkie alone. First time ever! In a hotel! No kidding! It takes alot to get me to eat on my own in a cafe or restaurant. I'd rather skip the whole thing than sit on my own eating with me, myself and i. Ugh! But Derek la!! Think he's still sleeping. And anyways, i think traveling for work with a guy is def. diff from traveling with another girl. Oh well... guess this is a start eh? Eating on my own. Ugh!

So... yea, we arrived yesterday. Late morning. Minus my bag. Argh!! It got left at Stockholm when we did the domestic transfer. Ugh! Incompetent staff at Changi when i checked-in Sunday night. Said that i didn't have to do anything with my bags and that they will go direct to Malmo. Gave me my baggage tickets and everything and before i left the counter i asked a second time if i needed to pick up my bags at any stage of the whole long-haul + transfer thingy. Again, no. My bags would go straight to Malmo. Pfft! No loh!!! It got left at Stockholm cos apparently, everyone doing the domestic transfer thing had to pickup their bags and get them re-dropped at domestic transfer side of the airport!! Argh! Frustrating i tell you!! We arrived in Malmo to find i had to wait ages for my bag to be picked-up and put onto the next flight from Stockholm, out to Malmo, and then wait for it to be delivered to the hotel. And it cost me a freaking 300 SEK!!! Sick i tell you!!!!! ROARRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Ok, 'nuff abt the bag. It got here fine in the end. At 7-ish last night.

We did a quick walk around the City yday arvo. Lovely 'lil place!! You know... the whole stones and red brick buildings kinda thing? So country-ish! Plus the weather is fab!! So autumn-y :))) i like! You still get the glorious sun in the arvo... yet the constant gentle winds bring on a cool, comfy feel everytime you're outdoors. Got abit chilly later at night when we were walking back from dinner. But otherwise, yea! It's fab outside!!

Not that i'll get to go out much today though. Fair starts in a few hours. In fact, i should really be getting dressed right abt now!!! Brb!

9:07am

So anyways, back to the City. You know those European small-ish cities? They all have their large town "squares"... and then they have the 'lil "squares". You'll get your monumental statues in those "squares"... a mountain or two... beautifully well-preserved renaissance or i duno... 16th, 17th century residences or buildings rd the "squares"... and the many, many, MANY 'lil cafes and pubs lining the sides. Very nice!!! Oh, and there's always a Church or two you have to visit in every European city eh? So yea, i popped by St. Peter's, went round to the Stortorge, Lilla Torg, took in the shops along the pedstrian walk/malls, Derek and i walked some 30-40 mins to see the Turning Torso... yea! That was abt all i managed to see actually! Shops close 6pm here. Pretty much all you do after that is hit the restaurants and pubs i guess. Nice life eh?

Saw the Malmo "castle" and museum from afar... didn't manage to head over there though. And there were a fair few gardens in the local tourists info guides i would have really liked to go to :( but we only get a day here in Malmo. And besides, this is a work trip. Not exactly a paid holiday :p so yea... save it all for another time maybe.

Oh, which brings me to this issue that's been on my mind since we got here:
I've hardly seen any asians!! Like seriously! I saw like... four asians the whole of yday? Derek mentioned too, that we hardly ever hear of tourism to Sweden (in SG). No tour packages... no mentioned of flights here... nana. nil. none. nothing! But yet, this place clearly is a beautiful place to visit!! Hmmm... maybe the Country just doesn't need tourists from asia eh? There's plenty of peeps from Europe and The States i guess. Plenty of peeps doing the whole "visiting family and friends" thingy here. You can just tell when you're at their airports :p But yea, otherwise, doesn't seem like this place is designed/developed with tourism in mind.

Argh!!! 9:45!!

Gotta pack up! We hit the roads for Gothenburg straight after we wrap up here in Malmo this evening. Updates from Gothenburg next then! Pictures when i get back to SG later next week.

ps: one full day in the land of Swedish meatballs... and i havent had any yet!!! ROARRRRRRRRRRRR.