Diamonds & Memories are Forever...

6th July 2010

Our last day in Cape Town!! For the last day, we managed to squeezed in few more main places to visit...(haha..sempat lagi tu..). It was drizzling when we went out and not far from the house, we spotted rainbow!! The background is Table Mountain.

About 5 minutes from our house, stood the Afrogem factory. I actually planned for one diamond factory tour, but since the company did not reply my email, I decided to let it slide. We pass by this factory everyday and spotted the Free Tour signage and decided to give it a try on our last day. We were taken to the manufacturing floor where all the jewelleries were made.

Ija bought few stones (nice cut btw) since the jewellery design is just asi-asi . But the stones are real bargain. For a total of 4 stones that can be made into one ring,one pendant and a pair of earring, she only paid less than RM 1K.

We target to go to The Bo Kapp Museum, but it was dissappointing. The museum sopposed to show the history of Muslim in Cape Town, I expected to see the items that was brough together by all these slaves from all over (maybe cooking utensils from Indonesia probably since Dutch did transport most of the Muslim slaves from there.) But what we see was just a house, with not much artifacs, the best that they have is posters showing how Bo Kapp used to be during British colonization. The second house link to the museum gave more about Islam, but still not much. I noticed that they emphasize much on the religious leader and some places where this leaders were buried was dedicated as shrine. We came across one shrine at Robben Island.

One old man that was manning the place was kind enough to show us one of the first mosque in Bo Kapp. This is after I asked him why all the mosques was locked when we tried to go in the other day. I could not get straight answer from him, but good enough we made way to the mosque, Auwal Mosque (est 1794). It was not even Zohor yet, so nobody was around, but it was not locked. The old man passed us to one young man that is studying inside the mosque. This young man, Sayed, is a Muslim revert, we spoke quite a while and from him I found out about the true Islam in Cape Town.

Although there is a big population of Muslim people in Cape Town, they are still looked down upon by other religion. This is because the Muslim youth is not living the Islamic ways. They partied and drank like nobody's business and some even got involved in crimes. Eidul Fitri is not gazetted as public holiday, but mostly the bosses acknowledge that their Muslim employee need that holiday and it was arranged internally within the organisation.

There is no objection from the government to practise Islam, but the Muslim community is not strong yet, they have no say in the cabinet. Probably that is the reason why it is so hard to find musolla in the shopping centre although the halal certificate is all over their fast food joint.

I wanted to know more and I think I can spend all day talking to that boy, but we planned to go to the Castle of Good Hope before 12pm. So we have to leave.

We got to the castle 5 mins before the ceremony begins. At 10am and 12 pm everyday, there is guard exchange ceremony that took place in the castle. We stayed until the ceremony is over and took a tour on our own (for guided tour, we have to wait and since we are running out of time, we just strolled by ourselves)

We bought lunch at one of the fast food in the area and took taxi home.

We did some last minute packing and managed to say goodbye to the lady in the cafe, Browyn. There were a few nights that we had dinner at this cafe, my favorite was tomato and lentils soup with toast, yummeh..no pictures though as we mostly forgot to bring the camera when we went out for dinner. The white lady is Stacey, the house admin, she helped us with all the day trip, taxi and safari bookings.

The taxi came at 3pm, we have to check in at 4.30pm. The airport is just 30 mins away but since we want to settle some tax refund, we decided to go early.

While waiting for check in, we had drinks at Mugg and Bean as our farewell bid to Cape Town.

It was showing repeat of Spain vs Paraguay.

We departed 2 hours before the Netherland vs Uruguay kick off, when the plane passed by Green Point Stadium, there was an undescribable feeling inside me. Definitely a memorable journey and I highly recommend to all those nature lovers out there, Cape Town is a must visit place, beautiful and will instantly takes your breath away....(macam nyanyi lagu pulak...hehehe..)

Historical Lesson in South Africa

2nd July 2010

What is the first thing that came to our mind when people say South Africa? Apartheid of course. It still baffles me how people can diffrentiate others just by skin colour and their races. Apartheid regime ruled South Africa from 1948 to 1994. In all those years, many people has rebelled towards apartheid and many of them are political leaders.

South Africa was ruled by the Dutch for 250 years, before English took over for another 100 years, so they were never really freed until 1994. In all those years, the Dutch and English ruled other countries as well, (including Malaysia) hence you could expect the same rebellion taking places in those countries. The leader (rebels) from all over the world were taken into custody and sent to maximum security prison situated at Robben Island. The island housed a prison complex and only facilities to staffs of the prison.

After apartheid was knocked down, the political prisoners were released and criminal prisoners were relocated. So the complex was restored and opened for visitors.

We bought the ticket to Robben Island Tour on my birthday but the trip was cancelled due to bad weather, so we differed to this day.

We took the 9am trip. The jetty is situated at Waterfront, the boat is the big one (like the one going to Langkawi) . On the way to waterfront, we spotted this!!

The tour on the island is led by ex-prisoners, and they told us first hand how they were treated back in those days. We were taken on the bus tour, and the guide is this man Yassin. He was really entertaining. He started by asking around the bus where we all came from, and he relates his narration to each and every country that was on the bus. His ancestors were both from Malaysia and India, so he said to me, we probably some 3rd or fourth cousin..kelakar la pulak...;)

He made a lot of jokes, one that gets the most laugh is,

Q: Why India can never win a football match?

A: Because everytime they gets a corner, they open a shop.

We passed by few main landmarks. This one is the house where the pioneer rebels Robert Sobukwe was kept. I always thought Nelson Mandela was the one who started it all, apparently I was wrong. Read more about the late Sobukwe here.

We we are also taken into the inmates cell, shown artifacs of how the prison cards look like. We had the chance to go to the block where Mandela spent his 27 years in imprisonment. In each cells they posted personal experience of former inmates, on how they were arrested, under what act they were charged, so on and so forth.

We were also shown the limestone mine, where the prisoner was tasked to work there during day time. Limestone is white as it is, the scorching sunlight in the day makes it hard to work. This task were given not to get the limestone, but serve as a sort of punishment. Many of the prisoners were blinded due to that punishment.

My camera battery died here during the beginning of the tour, so I do not have that many pictures, more with Ija, but have not met her yet since we came back. So I kinda forget what we did for the rest of the days...bole tak? hehehe...Will update once I got the pics from Ija.

Day Trip : Worth It!!

1st July 2010

When we consulted the house admin on how to get to certain places, we found out that we could not go to this one particular place, Cape Point, which I really really really wanted to go. Reason being is that there is no public transport going there and both of us do not have international driving license to hire a car. So she suggested we follow on a day tour. I found out about that in the net but at first I thought it was not worth it. But seeing the difficulties that we faced, I am willing to take the tour.

So we paid R545 for a day tour. The driver pick us up at the house around 0830H and later went on to pick up the rest of the pack. We have with us 2 French ladies, one American guy, 2 Indian guy, 2 more American (a guy with his father..sweet kan? but he's married, - yup, I checked the finger, boleh? hehehe...) 2 German guy, a Korean kid (he's still in uni) and a Columbian lady.

Our tour guide, Alex, is very good, he was willing to answer all kind of question. From him we found out that the train rail to Simons Town are out of order, that is why we could only got to Fish Hoek the other day (even people at the station didn't think to tell us that..)

So off we go to our first destination, Hout Bay with options to go to seal island. Both me and Ija went there already via Blue route yesterday, but we did not go to the seal island. So this time, we did. The boat is big but the waves are more nasty, turbulent waves to get to the island. There were few moments that I thought I would have thrown up. The island is not actually an island. Its just a big rock where most of the seals rested.

We bumped into a group of Indonesian that is being sponsored by Coca Cola to watch the World Cup (they won contest maybe..)

Next to Simons Town to visit the penguins, yay!! But we passed by this cliff with magnificent view and stopped to take some pictures,

Nak amik mcm aida, tapi salah shot..;)

We also passed by this part of the Cape Peninsular, they actually drilled onto the hill to make road. It look pretty scary though..

We finally hit Simons Town, we passed by the stone factory that was once used during Amazin Race Asia (the challenge where they have to find 3 marked stone out of thousands other stones) but we did not stopped there. Simons Town is popular of its Boulder's Beach, that is the place where they keep the African Penguin. The birds on its own will destroy their own food by stamping on it, so the center actually put a fence to new plants and opened parts by parts once the plants are ready to be eaten. (Yes, they ate plants apart from fishes..I just knew it too..) Entrance fee is R35 but included in the tour already.

Last but not least is what I have been waiting for, Cape Point!! We got there around 1330H, just about lunch time. At it is included in the package. We did asked for vege menu, as we are not sure what kind of meat that they have. We combined with another van (same co. tour) and the other driver bought us chicken salami, it was nicely wrapped. I told Ija just take it, sebab orang dah belikan, so just being polite, we took the chicken and later left it at the house pantry.

Entrance fee to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was R70 but it was paid for (in the package). We were driven to the cable car station going up to the light house. There is also staircase for those who opt to do a 'healthier' way. Me and Ija climbed up with majority of the people. The view from the light house was magnificent!!

Next we cycled from the Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. It was around half and hour cycle downhill. On the way we bumped into ostrich and baboon. We were told not to stop as babboon can get really nasty. We took more pictures here, more here.

We got home exhausted, like any other day and crash to a really good nite sleep ;)

Game Day!! Portugal vs Spain

29th June 2010

After first day not going according to plan, we decided to consult the admin of where we stay, they also provides services to book certain trips and activities. So second day we decided to stay in the city since we don't want to be late for the game ;)

We started to climb the Signal Hill (the starting point is like 10 minutes walk from where we stayed) around 10 pm. Bumped into one local guy. He was asking us where to go. Turns out he is concerned about us. We were told to keep our cameras in the bag, the actual place is safe, but getting there, the road is a bit quite. We were also told to be vigilant, do not let any strangers talk to us.

We were the first one that gets to the hill, it was windy and freezing cold, then hill overloking Cape Town city, waterfront and Green Point Stadium. The Noon Gun ceremony was initially intended to signal the sailor, such that when the gun is fired at 12 pm, sailors around Cape Town waters will reset their watch.These days, it was continued in honour of the ceremony.

with one of the navy on duty, Alistair

The other tourists arrived in taxis and vans, seems like we were the only two that climbed by foot ;p After the ceremony, we went down and make way to Bo Kapp, a supposedly Muslim area. There is one restaurant, and we decided to have lunch there. The tagline is 'Malay Cape Food' but when I looked at the menu, only one that I can identify with Malaysia, Pienang Curry (yup, spell that way). The rest is more Indian than Malay, lots of other curries, and main dish is beriyani. But the thing that ticks me the most is this. Anybody ever heard of this?

We didn't even finished lunch when the rain started pouring, and both of us did not have neither rain coat nor umbrella. After lunch, we decided to find a mosque, but most of the mosque are locked, we made way by foot to the city, and bought ourselves raincoats before heading to stadium. The day was getting colder and it was only 2.30pm. Passed by waterfront and the Japanese-Paraguay was shown on the big screen. Not many people as it was still raining.

So we made way to stadium and waited till we can get in. 3 hours before kick off, the gate is opened. There is a fan zone that consist of sponsors camps set up all over. I was like a kid in a candy store jumping from one camp to another. 1.5 hour before kick off, we went to look for our seat. We got the second tier seating despite paying the Category 1 ticket. I saw from my place that Eduardo, Portuguese goalkeeper came out for warm up.

I quickly ran down trying to get a closer look. I got a close up look on the whole team ;)

too bad that my favorite no 6 did not come close..so lelaki ini je la yang enterframe..hehehe...

It was an entertaining game despite the bummer that is only one of my favorite team will advance to q-final. I really enjoyed the live game experience. I was lucky that the ticket that I bought one year ago, is for this particular match. Where and when again I get to see Spain vs Portugal, only Allah knows.

We went back exhausted, partly due to the endless walking, which is compounded by walking in the rain, but satisfied ;)

Journey Begins...Waka-Waka Day 1

We (Ija and I) started our journey in KL Sentral. We planned to take the ERL to KLIA. Since this is Ija's first overseas trip, I insisted on taking the ERL, to mark our journey, plus I think its the most hassle free and green mode going to KLIA. Her family from Shah Alam sent her to KL Sentral and I made my way via Komuter.

Met at 2230H and we board the train to KL Sentral. Checked in to Emirates counter and both metally and physically be prepared to the longest journey we are going to take.

Leg 1 : KL to Dubai (6 hrs) then transit for 5 hrs

Leg 2 : Dubai to Cape Town (9 hrs)

Since Emirates is the official partner for the World Cup, we get live updates on plane for latest results. Touched down in Cape Town at close to 1700H , local time (-6 hrs Malaysian time). We were greeted by the taxi driver, and drove us to Zebra Crossing backpackers travelodge.

It was dark when we reached the backpackers (sunset at 6pm). We book a room for two but since there is some arrangement problem, we were given the room for 6 just for the two of us. We do however have to switch room to smaller ones on Friday when a bigger group check in ;)

Day 1 28-06-2010:

We walked to the water front, breakfast at Mugg & Bean, a famous SA coffee shop chain, then we proceed to city center.

With my folder in hand, trying to take the metro to get to our first destination. Initially we plan to go to Chart Farm near Wynberg for some sightseeing and later head to Simons Town to pay a visit to Africans Penguins. There is a metro line going to those places. The staffs at the station were very helpful. We were told for the two places, we can take the hop on hop off Southern line train for R30 (~RM 15) for all day ride. So we bought the tickets and started our journey. First stop in Wynberg. When we got off, we started asking around on how to get to Chart Farm. To our suprise, not many locals know where the place was. So we started to walk around the Wynberg station area, trying to find our way. We decided to ask one shopkeeper. The owner was nice enough to let one of his boys to show us part of the way but they have some concern look on their face.

The boy can only point us untill the Wynberg Police Station. From there on it is another like 1 hour walk and we were told by locals no taxi goes to that area..hhmm... looking at the sorrounding near us, the town is kinda dodgy place. Many people loitering around and I don't think it will be safe for us to walk another 1 hour or so.

So we decided to board the train and continue our journey to Simons Town. The train stopped at Fish Hoek, and we were told that it was the last stop. Both me and Ija were a bit confused. So we got down and started walking around. Since we could not get to both of the destination on the first day, we decided to go with the flow ;)

We stopped by Kalk's Bay and bought a postcard (yes Shaz, the one that we sent you, as your address is the only one that I can remembers on top of my head) Ask the friendly shopkeeper where can we get a good seafood meal. She quickly points us to Kalky's. We bought a deluxe platter and plan to stop by at St James before heading home.

At St James, we met a local Muslim, Rushaan and exchange contact nos.

It was around 1600H that we started to make a move before it gets dark. We had the deluxe platter for dinner and we could not even finished the fries (it was that much ;)

We did not planned to explore the night life as it is kind of new territory to us and besides, its not advisable by the locals, especially the two ladies.

Am a bit slow updating...so kena sabar la ye? you wanted ALL kan dieya ;)

I am back!!!

Letihnya...touched down last night, sebab excited punya pasal I didn't sleep to catch the Spain vs Germany match. Nasib baik Spain menang, yeay!!!

Lots of things to tell, just in a nut shell, I had the time of my life watching two games at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, first being Portugal vs Spain and second was Germany vs Argentina. I spent 1 week ++ at Cape Town, exploring the beautiful place ;) Nanti ye cite.. !!!

Journey Begins

My prediction has been confirmed!! Now Portugal will see Spain in the round of 16. And what is the best news? I get to see them LIVE!!!! InsyaAllah..

Currently logging in from KLIA. We already get the boarding pass KL-Dubai, then Dubai - Cape Town. Can't belive that I am actually on my way :) Still a bit nervous as I am not in the stadium watching the game yet.

Game 56 : Round of 16 is 1H (Spain) vs 2G ( Portugal)
Venue : Green Point Stadium, Cape Town
Time : 1630 H 29th June 2010 (Local time) or 0230H 30th June 2010 (Malaysian time) a.k.a my ~birthday!!! what a day..what a day to be ;)

Am on My Way...

Currently logging in from the free internet kiosk at KLIA,waiting for departure. Finally it comes true :) Will tel more if and when I have the chance.

*wishing for a safe journey!!

Jabs update

Previuosly a friend told me to get jaundice jap for people going to Africa. I went to see my doctor to ask for what else do I need to get (vaccination). First the dr said yup I have to get jaundice shot, but since its not a stock items and normally clinics do no have it, I must go to KL to get it and supposed to be done 10 days before...(alamak..dah lepas dateline la...) But she said I have to get it anyway. She did not even have to clinic's name that supposedly have the shot.

So dengan tak puas hati I went to second Dr, this one lagi best, he said I don't have to take any shots...(really??) Apparently he told me that he and his family went to South Africa already and they were not required to take any jap. South Africa is still OK, but if you are planning to go to other parts (Kenya,Nigeria,etc.) you may want to check. So the only thing that he offers me is the H1N1...

Haish...macam-macam kan? Nak travel baru tau sume benda ni ;p

Freak Out!!!

I am freaking out right now. Many things to be done, yet I have settled none yet. Listing down:

1. Buy backpack, crocs,meds
2. Packing kat PD
3. Get shots (jaundice and malaria)
4. Charge battery camera
5. Bwk balik Sony Camera
6. Beli kompas kiblat
7. Settle (at least try to) my work!!
8. Put OOO note (out of office)
9. Print out waktu solat for Cape Town
10. Travel insurance!!!!
11. Pay my installment (car, home, CC, etc...)
12. Create hard copy folder for all info (waktu solat, itenary, ticket confirmation, etc..etc)

What else? Am getting cold feet...countdown 5 more days....

Cantiknya Crocs ni.....

I am going for a trip, so am thinking to buy one comfy shoe. So I browse for those blogs that sold ori crocs at half price, but found nothing that I really like, price is around RM 80-85 for off road design. So I browse the official Crocs Malaysia webpage...man I am drooling right now, memang tau diorang ni...

Click here

Now dah berbelah bagi nak beli yang RM 80+ ok-ok design or nak beli yang cantiks ni at more than double the price.

Lucky that they do not have Portugal punya, if they have it, this post won't be about choosing anymore, I'll be parading my crocs. Spain punya a bit too vibrant for me, I like France punya but I don't like France, then how?

Argentina's one look nice jugak...macam mane ek? Adui.....

Candak Sotong Weh!!!

Always wanted to do this since I watched Majalah 3 back in school days. So when my friend Jija offered me to join she and her ex-classmate, I jumped right in ;)

We depart from KL at 10pm on Friday nite. Believe it or not this is my first time taking bus at Hentian Putra (I don't have that many east coast connection). Reach KT around 5 am and Jija's friend, Baya pick us up and we crashed at her place in Hulu Terengganu. Later that day around 3.30 pm, we made a move to Jeti Lembaga Perikanan at Chendering (some 20 minutes away from KT).

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There were 8 of us altogether, another 3 girls were Jija's classmate, and the rest were friend of one of the classmate. Simply put, I went on this adventure with total strangers (apart from Jija)

We depart around 5.00 pm. The boat is quite comfortable, handled by 3 men. It has its own pantry, sleeping place, 2nd tier sleeping place, and a place to do 'small business'. I dare not do 'big business' in the open sea ;p

We heard the pakcik were betting how long can we survived without falling sick. According to the non first timers, last time they went, they threw up almost immediately after the boat moves. This time we took the anti-seasick meds. So we were still smiling and laughing till we reach the target area, some 1.5 hours away from the jetty.

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The pakcik help us all to set up the 'candat' and taught us how to 'candat' sotong (squid fishing). The guys gets the first squid, none of the girls gets any yet, and the skies quickly turned dark.

I was getting seasick, my friend Jija has already vomitted twice. I could not look for fear I will feel sick too.

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One of the pakcik prepared dinner, it was white rice, with kari ayam and fresh fried squid. I took a taste at the squid, but I could not even finish one small pieces. I can feel that it sort of get stuck in my throat. I know that if I continues eating, high chance that I will throw up. With that I did not eat dinner. The rest was happily digging in (except for 2-3 of us). The fresh squid actually tasted sweet, its a pity I could not digest it.

Happy faces gets to eat!!

At close to 10pm, I finally managed to catch my one and only squid!! I caught the medium sized, the other guy gets the biggest. The length is from his hand to this elbow, that long!!

See how big it is? Compare to the ones that we see in the market..

After around 12pm nobody gets any squid anymore, there were few occasion, the squid was eaten by big fish, hence scared the rest of the squid to come nearby us. One of the pakcik suggested we change venue. We move to another area where he sets baits for fish. We ends up getting two big fish.

Me posed with one of the fishes, a haruan tasik, weighted 35 pounds (~15 kg)

It took the pakcik and his friends almost 30 minutes fighting with the fish before we can actually brought it up. That was around 4 am in the morning.

Come 6 am, we were preparing to get back to Jetty, again one of the pakcik (seriously I don't know their name...sorry..) fried us the squid, and this time I can eat it. The plate was swipped clean by us in no time ;)

Hungry people early in the morning....

Group pics as soon as we made on shore safely ;)

As both Jija and I traveled by bus, we could not bring back any bounty. Plus, we have to rush back to KL. The rest went on to Baya's house, and I think they barbecued the squids and fish.

Baya drop us in KT, Jija and I showered backpackers style, at a surau, before we went to Pasar Payang to buy some keropok lekor to bring back. We also sampled some local delicacies, but most of it are too sweet for my taste buds.

I left Terengganu that day with a new adventure, I plan to make a family trip back here again and maybe go for another 'candak sotong' adventure.

This is my favorite picture, taken at almost sunrise, explains one thing the best, Serenity...

Not Needed

This is maybe an old news, but at least confirms that I do not need a visa to go to Cape Town ;)

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/bm/news_lite.php?id=419978

Yeay!!!!

Travel Insurance

This is the first time ever I am planning my own trip. Hence, I did more research compared to those other time. Its now confirmed that I am going to Cape Town, South Africa. Few people raised their concern wrt safety of the venue. I know people are skeptical when it comes to African country. Well, I have my doubts too, when I first went to Phillipines, but I went there with colleague and on business trip, so the concern is not really there.

After going there, I think most of these things are the fear for the unknown, and therefore this time am going to persuade Ija to take any of the travel insurance available to our case. We have to be prepared, better safe than sorry. I have looked at HSBC, still looking at other insurance provider. Will discuss with Ija on which one to take.

Why do we need insurance during travelling? Read HERE

Tickets Confirmed!!

We have been doing research for air tickets since last year, and that time flight schedule is not out yet. Typical ticket price to Cape Town in the range of RM 6K to 11K, depending on which airline we pick. Since we are travelling using our OWN money, the cheaper the better. So I thought of waiting for at least MAS travelfair to score a great deal. It was in Feb, little did I know the travel period for the whole month of June is a blackout period, which means to discount, no bargain and no offer, which translate to normal price!!!

So we waited for MATTA fair which was last 2 weekends. And to my horror suprise, South Africa is not one of the targeted destination. Not even one booth that I saw have travel tour to South Africa. The ticket price for all airlines have no promotion for South Africa, what the ****? One of the biggest event will be going on in June, and yet nobody in Malaysia is interested to go?

I know that Malaysians like to go to more 'popular' sites, Europe, Australia etc...but this a world class event!! Come on people!!

So at last Ija and I decided to purchase return ticket from Emirates. We are scheduled to depart on 27th June and coming back on 6th July. That is a long break ;) Ticket price is RM 5151. This is considered quite cheap. We have to transit in Dubai, so total one way journey is almost ~20 hrs.

Update : Shaz pulled out due to personal reason. So just me in Ija in 'Escape to Africa'!!

SA 2010 planning update

Raya is over, so is kenduri and my SA fund has been affected quite badly because of the celebration. So now my immediate action is to re-fill the fund so that I can enjoy SA as I planned!! Updated budget to set aside for a month is freaking RM1000!!! banyak tu.. I would have to forgo a lot.. (new novel,DVD,karaoke session..new furniture for SP house have to be put on hold jugak ni..)

Haish..tu la raya tak ingat, spending not so wisely and now paying for the consequences. Shaz and Ija ape cite? I'll follow up later. Am finalising the accomodation places. So far there is 2 or 3 places that offers the price within my budget. But some still have not published the World Cup season price yet.

Check this out!!!http://www.mountainmanor.co.za/BPack_about.html - awaiting the WC ratehttp://www.penthouseonlong.com/index.php - confirmed WC rate already, and I thought the place looks good and decenthttp://www.zebra-crossing.co.za/accom.htm - confirmed WC rate, another decent place http://www.catandmoose.co.za/home.html - awaiting WC rate.
So now finalising among these 4...

Me in Sydney

Its 19:37 on my laptop clock, but the local time is actually +3 hours. Its my second trip to Sydney ;) First time was in Dec 07, for a meeting in Geelong and I fork out my own money to travel to Sydney and meet with my schoolmates, Siti. This time I have the opportunity of participating on a course here ;) All expense paid trip, but its a pity that I could not stay longer and discover more of the city.

This time, the journey has been interesting right from the beginning. I've bumped into Eric Casa Impian at the lift to Departure floor in KLIA. Then after checked in, I headed straight to MAS Lounge ;)..hehehe..since I'm flying on Business Class, hence the priviliged of the facilities. I was wondering around the lounge to get a good sit, where I can watch TV without many people around me. Found one, although the reception not so clear, it is still bearable. Asked one of the waiter to flip to any channel that air football, little did I know it was the Man U and Liverpool derby LIVE!!!

So there is me, a Malay lady clad in tudung and watching a football game alone ;) I have a peek at the buffet counter and guess who I spotted, Chef Wan!!! Of course, no photos taken as I was too occupied filling my stomach and eyeing the game. Later on I realised a lady sat on my back and seems like she is a Liverpool fan!! We said hi to each other and from our small talk we were not only rivals in football favorites, we rivals in business too !! Apparently she's with Petronas and going back to where she is based, London..oh how nice..

Travel on business class is a luxury!! No complaint at all. I finished watching Slumdog Millionaire before dozing off to sleep. Next thing I know is we are already on Sydney's air space ready to land. In this time of recession I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to travel and attend courses overseas. My only complaint is in this part of Sydney, Parramatta, no halal food available, hence the next best thing is vegetarian food and seafood. Two days in a row I have been eating pasta, I am becoming Italian..hehehe...

The course is going well for first day and the best part is, there will be TEST at the end of the week and passing mark is freaking minimum 80!!!

p/s: Man U lost 1-4 and I need all the luck that I can get for the TEST!!!

Mundo distante faraway

I need to go somewhere, been bidding my colleague to go to Krabi with me but to no avail. A colleague went there once and she said it was cool. She has asked me to join her for umrah next year. InsyaAllah if everything goes well, we will make some booking come this Sept Matta Fair.

Meanwhile I will be heading off to Miri next month for 3 days (Shell Games). I was supposed to play netball, but I'm not good at it so they just put me as reserve, what the heck, free travel to Miri!!

But seriously, I need to go away, Shaz and her Diva gang is going to Bandung. I could not go as my sister is getting married in Jan..oopps, I need to save for that South Africa trip in 2010 for World Cup. That would probably be the only opportunity that I will get.

I need to go away!!!!