5th Day in London

picture above from my first day, taken from the Tate Modern site, after my fish & chips lunch at the Borough market.  There's this stall called Fish! Restaurants and the meal was delicious! Attempted to burn off the calories by taking the Thames Path all the way to Tate Modern.  Tate Modern, is something i just don't get.  Most of the art I don't understand but they were pretty, and a couple of them i just found pretentious.  Like a rope sprawled over and around the floor, and a piece called "Mirror on Canvas," which is basically just a piece of rectangular mirror hung on the wall.  Right-o!  While looking at the artworks, i thought maybe i should just take a dump on the floor, and then call it, "Poo on the Floor - evocating the sense of disgust and shame within the cultured society." or whatever. hahaha.

Saturday was a good day, followed my brother and co to their friend's house near Portobello for a bbq.  Yumsy!  Took a little stroll down the market road, but it was the weekend, and the place was crowded as expected.

Sunday was quite exciting, i went out to see my friend Gemma (whom i met in Rome last year) and we walked through the huge crowds of the London Marathon.  Respect to all those who ran, and the runners were of all ages and size too..!  Gemma introduced me to the Gingerbread Latte at Costa Coffee...man it was so good!

The nice weekend weather ended, and Monday rained all day.  So i thought it would be the best time to visit the Henry VIII exhibition at the British Library near King's Cross.  I must have spent about 3 hours in there checking out all the historical artefacts and henry's personal belongings.  I must say i was a bit disappointed that King Henry doesn't look like Jonathan Rhys-Myers at all, neither does Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Katharine of Aragorn, etc etc.  The only person i thought looked quite close to his character in The Tudors was Cardinal Wolsey. heheh.

Then i stopped by Camden Town for some lunch at Camden Lock, and went back down to Tottenham Court Road to check out the bookstores and the gadget stores.  Almost convinced myself that i needed a Lowepro Fastpack 250 when i actually just needed a cheap padded backpack since i didn't bring mine.  It's really tough walking with a shoulder bag with loaded with camera stuff. heheh.

Today is cold as well, but at least there is sun.  Went for a run to the post-office this morning and came back feeling nice and warm.  I'm not sure yet what to do today.  Maybe i'll take a book with me, have some Taza kebab and sit at the park.

Ciaos.

Taking Off

Wish i had a bit more time here. There are supposed to be grand castles to visit just out of the city and all sorts of other things to see. 3 days worth of meetings, nothing else. Loving the sky, loving the cold, loving the doner kebabs. hahaha

Off to the airport in half an hour.

I learned a phrase: Soll Firefox dieses Passwort speichern? heheh. well, as well as ausgang, eingang (enter, exit), kopieren, einfügen (copy, paste hehehe) yet no idea how to pronounce them. Oh well.

Some pictures from my short stay in Munich.


Marienplatz and the Rathaus (Munich Town Hall)


Fürstenfeldbruck, 30 minutes away on the S-bahn from the Munich central station.

adios!!

Guten Tag!

hallow, finally got a chance for a posting. this hotel has no wifi, so we have to wait for this single pc on the first floor to be available..i really miss home for these geeky needs. hehee..susah sangat ke nak pasang wifi kat sini? i really don't understand it.

yesterday i tried to beat my jetlag by walking around Munich city. Walked around Marienplatz which was lovely, that seems to be the very center of Munich. The weather is lovely...just the kind of cold that I like. Language seems to be a problem here, all i know to say is danke and no sprechen deutsche, even that i'm not sure if i'm saying correctly.

After lunch (kebab restaurants widely available within the hotel's vicinity) i took a break and set out to read the few pages of Lonely Planet i tore off my Europe book. Really wanted to see an overall view of Munich, and i was told that if i could get on a high viewpoint, i would be able to see the Alps as well. So me and colleague set off to St Peterskirche to go up the tower. Paid €1.50 to climb 13 floors worth of stairs!!! As usual, in climbing situations, i always tend to want to give up halfway, but i kept on going anyway yesterday. It felt like a big achievement to reach the top, and strangely on one of the doors, there was graffiti that said, "Nadia, Ti Amo 4ever." hahahah...and it goes without saying that the view was quite breathtaking. Sorry, no pictures as of yet since I left my thumbdrive up in the room.

Today was a full day of meetings in Buchenau, about 30 minutes by train from Munich. Lovely quiet place, and the office was awesome with a lovely canteen as well! On the way back we stopped by Furstenfeldbrucke for coffee and some snacks, a nice little quaint town where my colleague stayed at last time they were here.

someday i'll come back and visit Germany properly. I want to go to Dachau and visit all that Holocaust stuff. No time left now, since the next two days is full of meetings and i'll be off to London on Thursday night. London calling...more like little nephew calling and i can't bloody wait to see him. hahaha. lemah betul auntie nadio ni.

ok..i should be off now. need to get ready for dinner.

on the road again...

am going travelling again. where? where else...to visit the little nephew at his home. bet he's not so little anymore!

but i gotta make a work-related pit stop in munich first. bak kata orang2 yang suka berlagak dalam facebook status, "gotta go to munich, then london...argh bosannya.." don't u just hate people like that?

i'm just glad to get the chance to step out of our scorching hot malaysian weather for a while.

will keep this blog posted. ta!

A day past April 15

nope. i didn't make it. in fact i have known for a week that i wouldn't make it.

i sent in a request for extension anyway, just in case they find it in their hearts to give me some pity.

heh...

unrest

at the time of writing this entry, i have sat in front of the TV in an attempt to fall asleep, i have lain in bed three times but end up wide awake, trying to sort my head out. I need to finish this paper, i need to sort out the contractor for apartment hangus, i need to sort things at work, and i have about less than 2 weeks to do 'em all.

suddenly all those hours spent at Lepaq, Rasta and all the mamak places, yak-yakking about nonsense seem so irrelevant. ni lah dia, orang tua-tua cakap, "masa itu emas." orang tua-tua also ada cakap, "sesal dahulu pendapatan, sesal kemudian tiada gunanya." note that this regret is directed mostly at the still-not-done yet paper. heh...ya, ya, i know that i said i won't be talking about it until 15 april, but this morning i just feel like whining (some more).

sometimes, in my weaker hours, i start thinking, what's the point of this paper after all? my heart's not in it, and who the hell would choose a really dry topic like process improvement and regret it later anyway? me, it seems. maybe this paper is irrelevant, not the rest of my life. but then another part of me tells me i don't want to be that person who says, "i almost finished my mba u know..." so here i am, unable to sleep, after writing another couple more pages to the document, whining.

maybe the problem is that i'm looking at it so negatively? ok let me try injecting some positive energy into it. Process improvement rocks! It is the most relevant topic in the world! Service desk is the center of the universe! argh..it's so hard to convince myself. hahahaha.

in some ways i am hoping for a miracle to happen. in another way, i feel, what the hell. i just want to be free, so it's do or die. if i manage, awesome. if i don't, i guess it's not the end of the world. i just need to remember never to say, "i almost finished my mba, u know..."

i suppose since it's 7am, it's probably best i get ready and take this opportunity to arrive at work earlier than usual and force myself to smile through the "eh, so early today? are u alright?" comments.

have a good week everyone.