Oh boy oh boy oh boy, this is now a great story to tell...(more pics on my album)

Friday, 1st May 09
The day started off at work, where I left at 12noon to go back and pack, in which I didn't really need to but was avoiding work in a way. Came home, clear up the place so that there is room to drop our stuff when we come back and manage to fit in one episode of Naruto ;)

Off to grab the tube at the airport after. Checked in at Lufthansa's terminal whereby they use machines instead to print off your boarding pass and one pretty much just head to the counter to drop off any bags. We then head off to purchase D's new toy. Heh. The thing is that when he went to the shop, the price was £30 more than what he saw online! So what he did was to ring them up instead and made an order. Smart eh? We then head to meet up with our friends at the gate and boarded the plane. Seats on this Airbus are quite spacious that made our traveling comfortable. We receive a snack too which made the trip such a great value since we only paid about £50 each return. The trip took about 2 hours


Was quite efficient at the airport. We grabbed the city map, and took the Malpensa bus into the train station in the city that took about an hour. As soon as we got off, we grab our luggage and headed off to one corner of the footpath to look for our hotel. I was so glad that we were quick because as soon as we decided on something, I was looking for my roller bag. No where to be found. Panic attack. Dave quickly found out that there was something fishy going on when one Italian dude interrupted us by asking us for the airport while we were looking at the map. He quickly ran in that direction, only to realise there were 2 people who were working together so he had to run the other direction. He saw the bag (since it was florescent green) and the dude that carried. As soon as he was found out, he dropped the bag and ran, in which me and Ket saw from afar...

What a great start after 2 mins of touch down time o.O

Anyway, we scooted off quickly from that dodgy place and found our hotel. Everything was fine until we saw our room. We only had a single king size bed with one pillow! Our poor friends had to go down and enquire since this was not what we pictured from the internet. But in general, it was much better to our previous hotel we stayed.


Saturday, 2nd May 09
After our Buffet breakfast, we headed off to the Church in Duomo. We went to central station to check out the tickets for the train to Lake Como the next day.


Being so eager on the first day, we walked. Took us about 45 mins to get to the Cathedral. Took pictures on the way (check out my album). We passed by the statue of Leonardo da Vinci before arriving to the Galleria




There were alot of high end retail shops (even McDees was in Gold!) but the Gallery itself was impressive.



As we got out of the gallery, we stumbled across a 'piazza' which is a courtyard, whereby the Duomo Cathedral was on the left. Was quite crowded that day.




It was quite dark inside and wasn't as impressive as St. Stephen's bascillica in Budapest. But I was keen to go up. Then again, we gave up since the queue to even walk up looked like it'll take an hour before we actually climb up the stairs. Bleh.

Anyway, went back to the piazza and took more pics





Headed off to have lunch in a recommended restaurant. Mozarella was the specialty and there was story about 2 of the 3 brothers that established this restaurant and the youngest became and artist and had his works done in this restaurant.


Pizzas in the restaurant here are done in such an original way. Special oven and not forgetting proper crust and yummy cheese. YUM



When we came out, we saw some of the remains of a building dated back in the 2nd - 3rd Century!



We headed off to a castle that had a park for us to hang out and relax

Went off to the Puma factory shop to check out the deals...in which I found this to be funny


we had gelato on the way back and OMG the stores are amazing! It's not just the 20 or more flavours they have but as well as mini cups of dessert and cakes. HeaVen~


As we head back to get changed, we passed by a supermarket and bought mushrooms, pasta and some snacks for our office.

Dinner was at a steakhouse. Service was superbly fast and steak was excellent. Had a tad too much of Italian red wine. We walked to a Canal after and had more Gelato :P



Sunday, 3rd May 09
Woke up slightly later and went straight to the train station. Lake Como was half an hour away.






We were deciding on whether or not to grab the boat one way to Bellagio (one of the cities by lake Como) or city hop 4 smaller cities instead for a more reasonable price. We went with the former since we heard nicer things about it. So we took a ferry that went for an hour to the place. Also, apparently george clooney stays in one of these cities. They were selling postcard of his holiday house LOL. Poor guy.



This was something we have never seen for a long time, check out this man's camera!


Bellagio city is unique on it's own, and Lake Como is very beautiful especially when we could see the alps from afar. We explored the city (even walking to the other side) had more Gelato and tried one of the Italian's popular starters: Melon and ham.




There are more pictures of the city on my album. Do check it out :)


We went back to the hotel, changed and quickly head out for dinner. We wanted to go to this restaurant called 'Anna and Leo' where they are famous for their pasta but was closed when we arrived (took us 2 hours to look for the place and it was 11pm when we found it). So we went into the next one that was open. And I have never seen the largest pizza in my life. One slice was only 1/8 of the entire piece and it filled up the entire plate!


As well as the menu was written in italian, the waiter was italian, I went with the safest dish: Ham and cheese pizza LOL. Ham was called 'Cotto'. As expected, food arrived quick.


Had more Gelato on the way back...mwahaha. We manage to get better rooms on the last day but our air-conditioning wasn't working. Ah well, at least the beds were bigger.


Overall, trip was GreaT, got a sun tan, trip taught me not to trust people and to have my luggage in FRONT of my eyes, but wishing I had more energy to withstand less sleep and I learnt that 'preggo' was a common word used when people serve us and when we say thank you, and I still have no idea what the word means. Milan is a small taste to what we are going to get in July :D. Am looking forward to more sun and Italian desserts.....

And please check my album out! More pictures loaded up :)

"Swine flu will carry the name "pandemic" even if the new virus turns out to cause mainly mild symptoms as it sweeps the world, raising questions about how serious the global alert actually is."

Full article here.

As well as the media might be overhyped upon this breakout.

In my honest opinion, I think it's ok for the media to make a drama out of this since it is something for all of us to be weary about. Better than being over hyped about gossips on celebrities etc.

But do take care, all of you out there. Keep warm, take enough vitamins, sleep well and wash your hands ;)

MEanwhile, Its Milan tomorrow baby! Woohoo! Check out the weather forecast ^_^

Forgot that we took a few video clips to the trip too.

Finally...have loaded the pictures up. Can't believe that it took so long to get those going. Well, things have been a bit tied up at work after I arrive home and I wanted to blog about it but I have probably forgotten alot of things :S. Click on the map (we relied through the whole trip) below :)



But we have finally got internet!!! Shall be writing more these days...I hope...Next trip will be Milan. Woohoo, can't wait

Police are mounting a huge security operation as anti-capitalist and climate change activists plan a series of protests around the G20 summit.

Click here for the full news review


My work place is perhaps almost at the last stop. Have seen people in yellow high-viz vests walking about on the outskirts of buildings, police car flying around more often in the morning and helicopters hovering around some areas. Some buildings had boards covered the windows on the Ground floor too.

As for the good news for me, it's dress down day aka mufty day for 2 days woohoo! Funny how it falls on April Fools...

And as we speak right now at 12pm, the protest have now moved to the Bank of England, 10mins walk from my work place!

What can I say comparitive to Mt. Ruapehu, NZ:

• Chamrousse mountain was about 2km tall (and nobody knows about it when I told them since it's a tiny mountain).
• Took 2 buses to get there (Airport-city,city-mountain) and it took bout 2 hours
  
• Almost everyone spoke French
  
• Flight costed only £44
• Ski pass and accomodation for 7 days was £160
• Gear hire for the week was £60
• Chairlifts are all the same as the newest one in NZ (cushion with support for gear)
• Chairlifts are at our doorstep
• View of the mountains from our balcony
• Fresh French Bakery every single day (MMmm, baguette)
  
• Small mountain near the Alps but 3x more runs than Mt. Ruapehu
• Fresh water off the tap!!
• Snowboarded at least 4 hours each day
• Stayed in a chalet for 10 people but with only 8 of us
  
• Tried Racklette (Cheese Fondue)
• Sunshine all week, sunburnt on my face 8)

It was FANTASTIC!!! BEST EVER SKI TRIP IN MY LIFE SO FAR =D

I can't really remember how the week went but all I remember was sleep, eat, snowboard, fall, eat, snowboard till the sun set, fall, eat, play sh*thead or poker, sleep. And while snowboarding, was checking out the other slopes on the mountain. We couldn't finish it.

Oh and my hardest fall wasn't on the slopes. It was at the pool while I was running to get into the Jacuzzi. I slipped on the icy staircase and wacked the top of my left foot on the stairs, had zigzag scratches near my knee and hit my right shin all in one go. Gosh, what a dufus, and as I got into the Jacuzzi, it was freaking cold! Talk about being extra hopeful...

I have uploaded more photos and comments :)

Too lazy to re-write them again, haha. Yes, the frequency of me blogging these days is getting less and less when there is no internet connection at home and when work is keeping me busy. Am happy in a way but nevertheless I will however will succumb back to my world of blogging when there is more time at hand and when I am more or less settled.

Am currently at St. Pancreas over hearing the screeching sounds of the trains coming in (really sounds like someone screaming and this leads to me wondering whether the train has met some ghosts along its pathway underground / ocean to Paris)

In the mean time, enjoy: (click on the pic below)


Hmm, as I began to type abit more, I think I'll share abit more about the weekend...yes, my juices have started flowing muahaha

Thur
There was panic and helplessness when we were about to get on to the train to Birmingham. Me being half dreamy and super dits thought that I collect my tickets at the ticket machine when we arrive Euston station. When I keyed in the code, it only limits up to 8, whereas I had 9. We were about 10mins early before the train left

I was like wtf? We went to the ticket counter and they said that they don't deal with this print out page..more panic, then we went to the info counter...same problem. More panic. So I rung Virgin. She told me that I can't get my tickets anywhere because I opted for it to be printed OnLine. More panic, as there were no internet sources nearby. Nor a printer.

I felt like I was losing it. But my darling D manage to 'beg' the info counter so that we can use their internet and print off our tickets. I was feeling superbly guilty all the way to rush poor D.

But as we got onto the platform, we were lead to another that would take the train past Birmingham and was confusing too. Anyway, all is good as luckily the train was running late (for the first time) and we were 10mins early. PHEW. What a flipping experience.

When we arrived, our friends were already there and drove (yay, car ride) back to his place.

Fri
We explored the market and the mall near the train station and things here are waaaaay cheaper than London. Groceries are like half the price and there is more space and abundance of pretty much everything over here! We had 5 pound lunch deals that were filling and there is a 10pound all you can eat sushi!! Comparing to London, you probably spend twice the amount.


People here are much nicer, there are less of them around too and the weather was sunny too.

Our match didn't start till 5pm so we wondered more about the city. We took a scenic route to the NIA and took some nice photos on the way.

I don't really want to bore you with the match details but it is one of the upclose and personal best matches I have seen in my life. Top seed players, suprise winners and losers and we were there from the quarter finals right through to finals. Our favourites Lee Chong Wei was the only one that manage to get into Finals. I can't believe he is younger than me o.O

The rest of Sat and Sun was pretty much about the games but our friend was kind enough to drive us to the NIA and back, cook and even had sheets for us to sleep on! The both of them even suprise me with a fruit flan bday cake! I was so touched....We were extremly grateful to have some place to stay over in the first place too. And they even made tea eggs when I was mentioning about it briefly over dinner! Aaaawww...


So there you go, my weekend away...it was really enjoyable though short :). Next week: Chamrousse, France!