A Spanking New Day...

My sleeping schedule is so fu¢ked up. Been waking up after lunch in the last few days. Of course it doesn't help that I surf all night til 4 in the morning...

Didn't feel like going to massage class and wanted to take my time with my ling 900 assignment, but I'm glad I went to the class. What little massage we got was nice. And Keith actually volunteered me to be the chest massage demo. :s And did I jump straight into my assignment after that? Of course not. I had to watch Alias and it was a really good episode. Good thing I didn't miss it.

Have a blast in Italy!

Had such a great time in Europe! (Thanks Stevie, David & Alice.) But so glad to be home to a life more constant. And to offload all that luggage, and also to finally take off the shirt and jeans, and the 3 pairs of boxers, 2 tanks, 1 t-shirt, 1 long-sleeve t-shirt that I had on as well. Couldn't stand having 3 pairs of socks on so took them off at Singapore. The flights back wasn't too bad though I didn't sleep all that much. Thought I could handle the time change and didn't even feel sleepy when I hopped into bed this morning. But when I next opened my eyes, the sun had already set.

Posting holiday events retroactively. Will write more later. *muah*

Last day in England. Got out of the house by 10ish and walked around Brighton. Went to the post office. Didn't understand what the girl was saying, and we're all supposed to be speaking English! She was actually asking me what was inside the envelope and she had to say it 3 times to get me to understand it. And I guess everyone must be a little cautious about crime here. The counter was all windowed up.

The sun came out for another day and people were already hanging out at the beach. The area reminded of the one in LA. Had fish & chips at Buddies for lunch (to make up for not having it for dinner last night. Hope that makes you happy David!)

Alice was supposed to be home by 1ish, but ended up coming back around 3. Kat and Vicky drove us out to the beach to take photos for D&A's collection. They get their guests to pose in front of the beach huts. I was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, and my pose was grabbing my crotch with my right hand and my chest with the other. Hope it turns out ok. :p

Met David at the Pool Valley Coach Station (not really a station), and Kieran came 2 minutes before the bus took off. Talk about cutting it close. So it took even longer than 2 hours to get back to Heathrow T4. There wasn't really much traffic until after Gatwick, and I think the driver was trying to take the local roads, with little success. Anyway, I got there with plenty of time. (And the driver needs to use some deoderant.) So glad my luggage didn't cost me for overweight. It got tagged with another "Heavy" (26kg). And I still had heaps to carry by hand. Then it was hours of doing very little. Sitting at Gate 10 looking at the beautifyl sunset. It reminded of Van Gogh's paintings. :)

Today was pretty much my own day out. Armed with notes from D&A and a London Lonely Planet, I was out the door by 9. Hearing Stevie hit so many places on his travels inspired me not to sleep in. Got the "daypass" and took the train from Brighton Station to Victoria (Central London?). My first stop on the Tube was Tower Bridge. Walked along More London Place towards Tower Bridge and the City Hall-Greater London Authority (new mayor courtesy of Norman Foster) on River Thames. At first I thought it was a complete dome. It's not. Incidentally, you can also see the new Swiss Re HQ (30 St Mary Axe) on the other side of the river, also a la Foster. Along with the Millenium Bridge and the London Eye (which I wanted to see but didn't get to), it's really given London a push into the new modern world that I couldn't experience when I was there 10 years ago.

Then walked along Queen's Walk, pass Hay's Galleria, London Bridge, Winchester Palace (on Pickfords Wharf), Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe, Millenium Bridge (where you can see straight towards St Paul's Cathedral), and finally spent a few hours in Tate Modern. Sadly, the "sun" that I heard so much about wasn't on. It was actually quite draining on me trying to take in more displays of art, so I left after 2 floors of it. I wish they allowed non-flash photography like they did at the Rijksmuseum.

Next stop on the Underground was Leicester Square. (Really, really love the Underground.) Made my way through Chinatown (where stranger tourist girl didn't know how to take a photo), and then onto Soho. Very lively and atmospheric. Had a late lunch at a cafe not too far off. Then it was off to Convent in search of Sarah's Pap t-shirts. After a few rounds, I gave up. There were some entertaining street performances, but on the whole more conservative than the ones in Sydney.

At one point while I waited for dinnertime, I had to relief myself. And I'm not talking about whacking off. So here I was simply trying to pee, and the guy next to me start staring at me, up and down, up and down...I look over and he wasn't even peeing. He was just playing with himself. Oh, it's the obligatory "aftershakes" you say. But remeber, one shake, you're just being lazy and not hygenic. Two shakes, just right. Three shakes or more, you're having way too much fun. He was there for way too long. I was outta there.

Had pub dinner with D&A and Rob near Covent Garden. I had cajun chicken because the other things didn't sound appealing. Suppose it is just a pub dinner. Rob is working for a cereal company. The rest of us agreed he should've worked for a cheese company. It was really great hanging out like this. Natsukashii na~!

Tagged along with Alice to Brighton Uni at Eastbourne campus. Went on the internet to do email during her first class. Then sat in on her second class and fell asleep in it :p Hung out at student union and had a light lunch. Wasn't very eventful. Alice played pool. Went back to Brighton by train and met up with Paul, Alex and David, at the George.

David and I went to the supermarket to get stuff for dinner. On our way, we took a photo of me in front of Hector's House :) It's not just a pub, but also a British British children's programme first broadcast in 1965. Hector is the dog. (Streets = Wall's) Had "toad in the hole" a la david. Oishikatta!! Alice stressed quite a few times that it's the wine sauce that makes it. Went to a pub quiz later that night. We lost miserably. David's never doing a pub quiz...again.

Last day in Lund. It wasn't very exciting as I just took my time with lunch and final packing. Sad day to be leaving.

Checkin baggage was so overweight (heavy = 28kg). Had to leave my backpack with the laptop with Stevie while I checked in. Arrived in Heathrow and it was miserable. The sky was gloomy,it was starting to rain, the whole atmosphere was crap. The unfriendly bus ticket woman and the 2 hour ride to Brighton didn't help either.

It was so nice to see David and Alice waiting at the bus stop. It was like old time. Really. The walk back with the rain drizzling down just added to the crappy condition. And there was dog shit everywhere on the narrow sidewalk. There must be heaps of irresponsible dog owners in the area or the local authorities don't give a crap about stray dogs.

Had a light dinner of fried rice a la Alice.

(One more thing, when your plane gets into Heathrow, there's so much advertising from HSBC. Even when you walk out of the plane into the terminals you're bombarded with it. They must spend so much on that. )

Didn't get much sleep last night.

Shuttle bus to Schiphol Airport, train to Rotterdam Centraal Station, bus to Rotterdam Airport, plane back to Copenhagen Airport, train to Lund, bus back to Sparta.

They were playing Delta's "Born To Try" at Rotterdam airport. Ahh, Delta. :)

Dinner at home.

It's hard to imagine Amsterdam, especially Damrak, so quiet. Ok, so it was barely 7 in the morning but even MacDonalds hadn't even opened. ("hey china, can you give me one ero?") We went straight back to the hotel, grabbed some Maccas there. Slept and came back out in the arvo to get our souvenirs at Dam Square and around. It was quite a drizzly day. Had our last dinner in Amsterdam at La Piazza Pizzeria (Palleisstraat 3). (Sorry they didn't have what you wanted, was it kebeb pizza?) But very pleasant dinner.

Didn't sleep til late that night...

Really like the Rijksmuseum because you can take photos. Weren't supposed to use flash and got told off twice...oops. After this, I was all museumed out.

We ended up having dinner at Zorba de Griek (Leidsekruisstratt 16-18) because the Japapese restaurant was too long of a wait :( It was still early when we finished dinner so we had coffee at Grand Cafe Heineken Hoek. I don't recommend it because you have to pay to use their toilets. It's not like the food is that cheap to begin with. And it was so smoky inside. Eventually went dancing at It. Had a very thorough body search :p We partied all night! So much fun! Had such a good time! Could've danced all night!

There are certain people who should never come out into broad daylight. Some illusions are meant to stay as such.

Our first full day of Amsterdam. Not a good start when the crazy (and probably drunk) driver shuttling us from Mercure to Schiphol Airport didn't see a car coming from the side and had to brake extremely abruptly. Steve fell forward a bit but the the girl who sat at the back landed on the floor! :s He didn't even apologise!

First stop was Van Gogh Museum. We had a light lunch in the Museumplein park area looking out at the wading pool (that doubles as an ice-skating rink in the winter). Good thing we pre-bought our tix. Wandered around the museum with occasional shoulder massage. I think my attention span is no longer than 2 hours. So we stayed for about 2 hours. Learned a little about Van Gogh and that his brother was a big part of his life.

Onto Anne Frank House (Prinsengracht 267). The house itself wasn't anything impressive, and I won't go so far as to say that you can feel what happened just walking the rooms and reading about the events that took place. It's impossible for me to pretend to be part of something so horrific. I can barely begin to imagine what life was like then, that in such a quiet place, these walls house experiences that speak of the best and the worst of human beings. Ironically, it was probably just as quiet then as it is now. Maybe more so. It had to be. But the words of Anne Frank have become so loud in the minds of so many around the world. And now I walk away being that little bit more aware of another piece of this world. This is one of the reasons why I love travelling. You can learn so much from one visit than you could in months or even years of reading books. I'm not dissing books, but I learn about things faster when I see it in real life.

Albert Heijn, the local supermarket chain.

Rembrandtplein, very nice square, good atmosphere, I like it very much.
Dinner at Le Monde (Rembrandtplein 6), bar/bistro, "Dutch food with a Brazilian Smile"
Really is a good place for people watching.
Dessert wasn't bad.

My first bubble bath in years!

Woke up feeling so good.

We walked to Centraal Station instead of catching the tram there. I waited while Stevie went off to find out about getting to Amsterdam. (Deja vu? :p) Some Chinese woman came up and started Mandarining to us. Neither of us knew the right answer to her query, nor did we know how to tell her properly. Everytime we sent her off, she'd just come back to us. We had to run off when Stevie got our tix.

At Amsterdam Centraal Station, I waited with the bags while Stevie went to get info. (Hmm...:p) When he came back with that "smile", I knew we had stuffed up again. Yes, I was pissed off. But how can you stay mad at someone when they look at you with those eyes. :) We doubled back on the trains and got off at Schiphol Airport. Mercure is so bloody far from the city. No wonder it was such a "good" deal. And they didn't have the king bed, just two separate smaller ones. And no kettle. (I had told Stevie that they would have it being an international hotel. So much for bringing the exotic tea bags.) At least they had the bath that Stevie had asked for. :)

It's back to Amsterdam to plan the rest of our stay here. Well, so the train ticket machines don't take credit card. That's fine. But they don't even take cash notes. Even the ones in Sydney do. Damrak, Dam Square, Madame Tussaud, Magna Plaza, Aboriginal Art & Instruments, (Streets = Ola), red light district...
Dinner at Getto (Warmoesstraat 51). Dessert sucked again. What was that? Lime? Pear? Pie?

Bumped into the boys from Getto. They were looking for "straight" fun. But then again most men in Europe drink cocktails.

Our first day of our Netherlands trip. We were back in Copenhagen for the 2nd time in as many days. (The pollution on the northern horizon as you cross the bridge between Sweden and Denmark was a surprise to me. Maybe I shouldn't be so naive.)

We got some "Japanese" food at the airport that was so not what was on the display panels. They were microwaved space food charged at a premium, or the price of the cheapest one if you couldn't tell the difference. Yeah! Stevie bumped into some of his Spanish friends. They were on the same flight and will be on the same flight back. They told us there's nothing to do in Rotterdam and they're going straight to Amsterdam. Good thing we're only staying one night.

It took forever to find our Hotel Wilgenhof B.V. (Heemraadssingel 92-94). We went the long way and I was getting irritated. I stayed at the tram stop with our bags while Stevie went looking for info. This would become quite a common practice in the days to come. When we finally got to the hotel, we were given the keys to Room 31 but were told there was no number on the door. It's the one at the end of the corridor left of the lifts, and it has picture of a horse on it! We entered to find an equine playhouse. So weird. Reminded me of stories of love hotels in Japan. Yes just stories. :p

With the bags dumped, I felt better and we went out to explore the city, centre of the world's biggest port. Just like Copenhagen, there were bike lanes. There were also tram lines. So many traffic lights blinking at you. Near Centraal Station, was Chinatown. Never knew there were so many Chinese here. They even have a Chinese church.

As part of the architectural portion of our travel program, we went to Kunsthal Rotterdam designed by OMA.

Crossed the river Maas on the Erasmus Bridge. It reminded me of a lot of other brideges I've seen. But don't tell the people at UN Studio i said that!

In search of food for dinner, we came across the Bep van Klaveren Walk of Fame. You can even find Dame Edna here! Things you learn everyday. We also learned that things in Europe are expensive. If you start converting, you'll either have to double your spending or half your pleasure. We quickly gave into pleasure. (Like it's ever a dilemma for me to choose pleasure!) But choosing the spicy meal at Iramasuka (Indonesian) was not such a plesant experience. And to think I could've saved on drinks. Bam! The goreng pisang was dry as! Bam! They don't take credit cards here. Bam! Guess I'm never coming back here.

Was so tired by the time we got back to our stable. I ended up sleeping backwards on the bed.

Stevie and I took a day trip to Copenhagen. It was another beautiful day.

At the first shop we stopped at, Stevie already bought something. :p But it was a cool yellow t-shirt with Hokusai's Great Wave.

The streets were bustling with shoppers, tourist, locals...so different to Lund. This is the part of Europe that I like very much.

We had a nice take-our-time lunch at Oscar, a nice little cafe near Rådhuspladsen (Copenhagen's main square). The guy who took our order was very helpful in giving us info about the area. After lunch, we walked along the canal next to Ridebane, Thorvaldsens Museum, and Christiansborg. This granite castle was the Royal residence until 1795. It now houses the Danish Parliament, Royal Reception and the Supreme Court. We were posing with the statues in the courtyard (Prins Jørgens Gard?)! :p

Following the road onto Torvegade we made our way to the Free City of Christiana. (Streets = Frisko) It wasn't as extreme as I had imagined but on this day something had attracted a lot of police. We left before the protests/riots started.

We didn't make it to Ørsted Parken or the area southwest of Central Station. Instead, we went back along the Copenhagen waterfront and checked out the part of the Royal Library known as Den Sorte Diamant or The Black Diamond. Very impressive. I never would've guessed it. (Mirror)

Next stop, Rotterdam!

NTS: When was movie night? And when was massage night?

As per usual, my packing was done in an over-leisurely manner. At least I had socks on this time round. Managed to grab a quick bite at Flemington with my chauffeur, Bernard, before heading off to the airport.

Arrived into Copenhagen airport (with stopovers in Singapore and London)...so good to Stevie again :) It's been too long!

Had dinner at home that night, courtesy of resident chef Stefan. Gochisousama!

Night club somewhere later...danced a little...I'm so not into the club scene, well, not at this point in time anyway.

Ah nuts! I forgot they celebrated Easter here (unlike in America) and everything is closed. It's like a ghost town. Sabireta machi mitai na!

Crap! Crap! Crap! Just realised I answered one of the sections wrong! Crap! Guess I have to redo it and hand it in tomorrow. Or if the office is closed, have to get Bernard to do it for me. *grovel* *grovel*

Another all nighter and I'm finally done with my Ling 937 paper. What a load of crap. But I'm crashing now for a few hours of sleep and then it's my last uni class before the hols. Goodnight!

Henry has really short upper arms, but massaging him made me realise it's easier to massage firm muscles.

On the way back, saw a concerned and confused possum by the side of its dead companion, so Bernard helped me put the poor lifeless creature off the road. Those eyes were so sad. :( Humans get more emotional when something to which they've assigned a high value of innocence is damaged, especially when they become part of the incident.

Finally finished Ling 936 assignment and what a relief. Thanks Stevie for staying up.

Bernard and I spent the morning with Dad and saw him off. Think he had a nice time. Hey Bern, just go your own way! :p

Dinner with Lees at Superbowl in Chinatown.

Anger Management (2003)