Backpacking Bonanza!

The last few weeks have involved a great deal of excitement of the travel and end of exams variety.

The end of exams was clearly celebrated in a very student-like manner involving pubs mainly. I suspect you don't require a great deal of detail here.

The travelling makes up the second part of the after exam celebrations...this portion is on a slightly grander scale than after exam parties with backpacking trips around Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Greece. Not that we intended for it to be quite as grand as it transpired, but that is how it worked out in its odd and bizarre manner (as always).

So we begin the journey in Dubrovnik, on the southernmost tip of Croatia. It is a sweet little city with lots of old buildings and walls and generally has a very Mediterranean atmosphere to it despite being part of Easter Europe and former communist bloc.

We arrived in Dubrovnik to this little guesthouse in the city and were greeted by the owner who was the sweetest old lady with about half a dozen word of English in total. We muddled through our encounter and had a fairly unsuccessful night of wandering looking for food. However tomorrow was another day and we eventually found our way to the old city and the tourist region of the city.

So this is Briana and I on a trek around the walls of the old city when it finally stopped raining on day one of our adventure!

The next day we found what was dubbed a beach...for Croatia, a beach is some concrete slabs set into a rocky area beside water but it worked well for us and the day was spent lazing around by the water and occasionally venturing into the swirling sea that looked far more dangerous than it was (honest!)

The beach was quiet and largely undiscovered in many ways, it was a little off the beaten track and so for a good few hours we had the place to ourselves though gradually a few odd souls ventured down our way and discovered our little private beach and its sparkly blue waters.

The next day was spent on a the first of many ferries, this one to Korcula where we spent a day. Korcula is much like Dubrovnik but far smaller and quainter. Mostly that day involved wandering and beachyness as well! (there is a small pattern emerging, see if you can spot it!)

The next day was a nice and early Catamaran to Split where we promptly jumped on a bus to Zagreb. This is where the slightly more local aspect of our trip begins as we headed off to meet various obscure family relations and friends of Briana's that she had never actually met before! This was the whole reason Croatia was on our list of places to go, so we hoped the trip would be worth it. Turns out it was; her third cousin, Teo (self proclaimed Brad Pitt look-a-like who looked nothing like Brad Pitt) greeted us at the bus station and proceeded to give us a personal tour of Zagreb, the tour naturally had to involve a taste of the local delicacies, firstly this meant beer. Ozujsko, as it is known.

We were then treated to a fabulous meal looking out over Zagreb with Teo, his grandparents, Leo (a family friend of Briana's father, whose fathers were also friends) and his wife and son. It was an odd bunch but we were treated to local wine (which is fabulous, incidentally) and some good Croatian food. I would tell you what it was but all I know is it involved turkey and something that was vaguely like pasta but wasn't.

Sadly the next day was our final in Zagreb, we were taken around a fruit market and met a few other family members of Briana's before Teo drove us to Rijeka where we were to invade another one of Leo's sons flat for a few nights. Teo dropped us of at a truck stop restaurant where we met Igor for the first time, and with a name like Igor you simply couldn't dislike the guy.

So he showed us around Rijeka, this is us looking out over the city from an old castle I forget the name of...

Igor took us around the area venturing to Pula which lays claim to an old Roman Amphitheatre. It was in good shape as well and was quite spectacular, you can see it pictured below. They still hold concerts and everything there...

We also went to the smallest city in the world, which it turns out is in Croatia and is named Hum...who would have thought!

Sadly by this point our time in Croatia was up and the decision was made to head to Venice for a ferry to Patras, Greece with a stop in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Simple right? ha.

This is Briana searching for our train from Rijeka to Ljubljana...

The stop in Ljubljana was short lived but also interesting...having never heard of the place ourselves (it transpires on later research that it is the captial of Slovenia) we arrived a little bemused by the fact we were in a city that was barely pronounceable which neither of us had heard of and had 12 hours to occupy ourselves with goodness knows what. Naturally we switched to the default occupation of wandering around and discovering the city. This involved much getting lost, and much sitting down and looking at maps.

As is demonstrated below:

From Ljubljana we took a rather unpleasant 2am train ride to Venice where we had another 12 hours of exploring and wandering to do! As Briana had spent some time in Venice before though we were a little more prepared for what was in store. However, it transpires that going to Venice and not getting lost in the many back streets is a virtual impossibility. Venice is everything you would expect it to be really with gondolas and rivers everywhere as well as gorgeous backstreets and cute nooks and crannies everywhere.

And this is proof I actually went!

From Venice we took a 2 night ferry to Patras, Greece where we instantly made our way towards Athens. We were there early morning (as the ferry arrived at 6am), dumped our stuff in the hostel and headed straight for the Acropolis.

Athens was essentially a historical stop which was of particular significance to Briana and I having both studies Classical Civilizations. Sadly the Parthenon was under a lot of construction and big cranes and scaffolding made it slightly less of a spectacle, but none-the-less it was impressive.

Below is me at the Temple of Hephaistos, one of the best preserved in Greece I believe. It probably more commonly known as the Theseion though.

Athens has a mostly superb metro system which we made ample use of (though got very peeved when the line to the airport was under construction and the line to the port wasn't running when we needed them...typical really)

Here I am standing at the tracks on the way to the National Archaeological Museum which had particular interest for me as it housed all the statues and pots we had studied in Class earlier that year.

That essetially sums up the main points of Athens...from there we travelled on to Aegina for a night...here we reverted back to the beachyness aspect of the trip...as is pretty obvious from below...

After a night on Aegina we went to Paros for another night where we spent the evening in a tent of all things..hey it was cheap!

and that was pretty much the end of our jaunt around the region!

The next day was spent getting to the airport and from there we arrived back to the joys of Glasgow!

Next, it's off the Malaysia!

Globe Trecking, etc

So I am in Kuala Lumpur once more, till Saturday that is.

The past few weeks have involved a fair amount of jet setting, but after 6 months in the UK it is a welcome change. The weather, naturally is an improvement and it always helps to have a break from Britishness. So the past 3 weeks have involved the UK, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand...quite a list really! 

So far my holiday has involved pleanty of food, shopping, self-cleaning clothes, snacks-galore and lots of sitting by the pool enjoy lots and lots of sun. 

So, pictures! 

Our glorious villa...lounging in the pool. It is such a trumendously hard life, is it not?

As you can see the entire break revolved around the pool or water of some description or other....so to demonstrate our obsession with water...pictures of me sporting various head decorations the water...

And I want no comments about the beer...I still don't like the stuff, it is merely for posing purposes! Plus it just goes so well with the hat.

Other than that, there were sunsets and food and sunsets and food and general lazyness...
Now there are a few more days of heat before I return to the land of Glasweigens and examinations but for now there are DVD's to watch, books to read and there is plenty of sun to soak up :) 

Home, Holidays and Hamlet

Well it would seem rather a lot of time has past since the last post and Exams have been and gone as have the Christmas holidays and the festivities that come along with them. 

The flat is now looking lovely and lived in, we even have two resident goldfish floating around the living room! 

Now sadly it is time to return to Glasgow and leave all the home cooking behind as well as the clothes that seem to wash themselves :)

Now for your enjoyment are some of the latest flat Photos...the living room, one of the bedrooms and the kitchen. 

Other fun and games have been ensuing over the past few weeks as I journeyed south of the border to England-shire to visit Lizzy in St. Albans where I also bumped into Jasmine on a jaunt to Leamington! We had a wonderful lunch out and caught up on all the latest gossip while eating rather a lot (I had Sticky toffee pudding for desert and don't regret it one bit, 'twas rather delicious!)

The reason for the journey southward was, of coarse, an RSC production of Hamlet which was supposed to star the rather wonderful David Tennant; sadly he convienently had to toddle off to have some surgery and so we had his understudy, Edward Bennet. Nevertheless though the production was amazing and, as I am off to study the play next week, it was quite helpful to see such a high quality production. Bennet was particularly good in the role especially the moments when he is 'mad' and babbling on about crabs and the like. 

As you can see below Lizzy is presenting the wonderful tickets dutifully market, "Hamlet Tickets" in case anyone forgot. 

Now it is back to the cold and rain of Glasgow (as the weather man has promised, and in this case he is probably acurate) 

Till the next post then, Cheerio!

Sprinklings of Snow and an abundance of alliteration!

So the weather has gotten frosty cold and a sprinkling of white stuff has covered the ground so it's pleasantly bright and not so pleasantly freezing beyond the barrier of the window. 

Our first sprinkle of snow was sadly at 2am and involved me staring out of a window longingly hoping it would stay on the ground, at least till morning. Sadly by 2.30am it had turned to rain and by morning it was simply wet. 

I did, however catch the glimmer of hope as the snow sauntered down and a few specks can be seen bellow....

Despite this rather sorry start, promise lay in the air for the next week as the temprature dipped and i woke one morning to find a glimmer of whiteness covering the roof tops and fences....

It brings me immense joy to see such a sight once again it was like being 10 years old again...I may have even gotten the notion in my head that I could switch on the radio that morning to see if it was a snow day and uni was cancelled because of that slither of snow.... 

Sadly it was sunday...

But it does look pretty :)

Anyway other than my childish excitement at white stuff outside there have been many wonderful nights out and in...including an odd St. Andrew's day polish tradition on a cold Glasgow night. 

The idea is to learn about your future. So accoding to Magda, my flat-mate's, chart thing I shall be marrying a fat man called Steven who is a witty music conductor.  

We also melted candle wax and poured it through a key into a cold bowl of water where it hardened into a shape...using a light we then study the shadow to see what shapes it creates...that should tell us something about the future.... here is Saskia, Nora, anna and Magda modelling their candles below...

The wax was then poured into the bowl through the key hole.... (why a tin foil key hole I am not sure...there may be some significance....if your that interested try googling it!)

 

Anyway the result is this...I believe this is Saskia's wax shape...which we believe looks a bit like a man on a horse....perhaps Prince charming?

For those interested parties my wax blobs looked like a spider and possibly a ring????

It's been an interesting few weeks and as it is December 1st I can officially accept the fast approach of that glorious holiday we like to call Christmas....now it's off to search of Christmas gifts and brave the horrors of busy Christmas shopping! Wish me luck for I shall certainly need it!

Falling on Ice

So another post less than a month after the last - a record I think. 

University is fine and dandy. I handed in my english essay on friday which has meant this weekend is nice and free from essay stress. 

Naturally, of coarse, this must be celebrated by a weekend of oddness and so I found myself at the ice rink with Nora, Magda and Anna. Despite the combination of me and ice though...I am proud to say I never once fell over and (less importantly I think) nor did anyone else. 

Shocked? 

I should think so.

For you enjoyment then i have provided a few fun photos to muse over and role your eyes at the general sillyness. 

Nora, Anna and I getting the skates on before the plundge. 

Ready? Set? Pose for a picture!

And no falling over....

Anna and I display our skating skill....while standing still...

Anyway little else is happening...Christmas is comming (though far to early, I think) and its almost time to start worrying about Christmas presents. So it would seem a shopping trip is on the horizon. 

Other than that there is little else to report. The weather gets colder and windyer and the walk to and from uni is conducted at a faster and faster pace. 

Exams loom and procrastinating ensues.

Greetings and Salutations!

Its been over a month now that I have been an official student here at Glasgow Uni and so far it has involved many adventures and even a little bit of work -shocking though that may be. 

The weather has now turned bitterly cold and unseemly but before it did I managed to do a little adventuring around and found the botanic gardens and a nice little bike ride along the River Kelvin. As you can see it is rather nice down there....

Now all the leaves are brown and orange and it is officially autumn...even if it does feel more like the middle of winter. It is now my first autumn in quite a number of years and is rather exciting really. Seasons! I'd almost forgetten about them. 

Anyway as for the social scene there have been many nights out at Ketchup with good burgers and people....and the obligatory group pictures. This is our flat (minus Nora) outside for Chelsea's birthday.
Never fear we did go inside after the photo shoot. We didn't just pose in front... :)



Other fun nights out include halloween last weekend which included a picture perfect old haunted looking house (which I, sadly, never got a picture of) and many silly costumes. Bellow you may see me as a bollywood dance, Anna as some bat creature and Magda as a general scary creature; while Chelsea seems to have forgotten to get past the showering stage. 

So all in all it has been rather a good few weeks/months (I've lost track of time now...a good sign I imagine) and all is going well. The first few essays are handed in and I no longer get lost every day. I have even (almost) mastered the hill back from uni to halls without getting ridiculously out of breath...though I suspect it will always torture me...

Now I shall leave you with this somewhat random picture I quite liked and though I would share...

Just because. 

Greetings from Glasgow

Greetings and salutations! I am in Glasgee city and a week into university life.
So far the experience has been both enjoyable and terrifying. It's also been rather tiring.

So far I am moved into halls set up and done with the first week of lectures...despite this I have not encountered a great deal of that aspect of university called 'work'.
Mostly I'm getting through a large reading list...as seen below in all its glory. The picture conveniently provides a view from my window as well for any interested parties. Mostly the list isn't bad but the rather large anthologies on the right are somewhat intimidating and more like weight lifts than actual books.

To further demonstrate the joys of my abode this is a picture of my, not especially neat or messy, room. There are oranges on the desk so I'm sure I get a few points there for healthy eating if nothing else.


Now for the university itself.
Below are pictures of the Main Building which is, as you can see, quite breath taking. It certainly displays all the appropriate cliques of university buildings if nothing else. I do, in fact, have a lecture somewhere in the depths of this gorgeous sight however the only thing I can claim about the old lecture theatres is they are simply the most uncomfortable places imaginable...and that's since they put the cushions in.

These are the cloisters between the west and east quadrangles. If I weren't supposed to be an adult I imagine I could have great fun running around here playing tag or hide and seek :)
go on...you know your thinking it as well....
Naturally most of the university lectures and classes are in less impresive buildings but if you start to believe you've entered the new flat pack building show room in Ikea then the Main building is always a short hop skip and jump away to provide a cheerful change of scenery.

Other than that there is little else to empart about my new abode. University life has been fun so far and hopefully will begin to include a touch of work as the weeks go on.
For now i'm enjoying the joys of 3am fire alarms and rowdy Glasgweigens outside my window at night....oh the joys!

Off road driving, weddings, birthdays, canada, family, Niagra Falls, and a lot of airplanes.....

July....

The Evil Month in terms of travelling. Spanning 3 continents I have successfully jumped from Malaysia to Scotland to Canada to Scotland to Malaysia all within that evil little month of July. Whose mad idea was this you ask? Well, it could only be my mother’s couldn’t it.

My mother in her infinite wisdom decided it would be nice to visit both set of grandparents within the same convenient 3 weeks thus ensuring we do not leave anyone out. Naturally, as my family are rarely helpful in term of geographical location, this meant insatiably horrible jet-lag which, thankfully, my mother suffered from more than anyone else, this being her idea I find a certain amount of irony comes across.

Despite my sinicism, the trip was enjoyable and it was lovely seeing everyone for the brief time we were there.
Below I have provided some proof of our brave journey into the land of those peculiar Scots and oh so conniving Canadians. Hopefully it shall garner some insight into their odd cultures and mannerisms.

First I shall begin with the first driving lesson.
Ordinarily this takes place in an empty parking lot with an abundance of tarmac, no obstacles (bar the odd cat) and little by way of danger to all but the gear box. For my lesson we shall replace tarmac with mud and a lack of obstacles with hills and big ponds. I shall leave my explanation there.

This is in fact dad driving, pictures of me in the drivers seat are available but sadly are on my dad's camera and I'm to lazy to go and steal them.




While waiting Sian discovered that if she had wellies on then surely jumping in a puddle of mud wouldn't matter. She discovered the error of her ways when removing the wellies to discover muddy socks. But it's the fun of it that matters right?


Carrying on from this head-bashing adventure we all found ourself in a wedding (actually the wedding was before the driving lesson but I've taken a bit of dramatic licence with dates..also its too fidely to correct)Marc and his now-wife Arleene seem to have gone and gotten married, which is rather odd really but the reception was lovely and you can see the Weber family all in the same location for the first time in many months all dressed up in kilts, waistcoats and whatever you call what my mum is wearing (clothes, I suppose).



Taking a sharp turn from weddings to Birthdays the second annoying idea my mother came up with was a 70th birthday party for granny.
This. was. a. headache.
First we had to deal with the rather threatening aspect of Scottish weather for which we aquired a tent thing to cover the almost certain rain (which never came)
This was no small feat, as father dearest shows his attempt at translating the de-structions.


Add to the mix a small amount of margaritas, produced by oh-wonderful-brother of mine, an art which he has worryingly perfected, and you can gain an underdstanding of the night that was to follow.



It also involved bagpipes.

We discovered that, yes, it is possible to play happy birthday on the bag pipes...who knew?


We then rather suddenly find ourselves in canada.
Observe my Canadian half....


Then to Niagra Falls.
Tempted as I was, I did not try to go over the falls in a barrel...I decided it might mess up my hair...or i could chip a nail.


It's a canadian flag...


Thats the American Falls...puney in comparison to the might of the Canadian ones! (not that it's a competition)



Then we went for a wander around Niagra-on-the-Lake which is a gorgeous little town and the weather was scorching hot and splendid so I bought a big wooly coat...as you do. Sadly the picture of me wearing it, in the sorching heat, is on my dad's camera and I'm too lazy to retreive it...as i admited earlier.



And just because it's a lovely picture...here's oma in one of her favourite places, Niagra-On-The-Lake looking very cheerful.

Now I have finally recovered from my trips I can admit that they were lovely despite the evil jet-lag and that it was a wonderful trip with some, brilliant and...interesting...memories.

Hop, Skip and Jump

So graduation has come and gone and I am now officaly no longer in Secondary school. Instead I suppose the only term I can feasibly dub myself is unemployed...that is until I re-enter the glorious position of student-hood come September (that is, banking on getting the grades to do so). In celebration of the blessed event I got all dressed up (as you can see below) and got a piece of paper saying I'd spent many years sitting in classrooms attempting to learn things I have mostly already forgotten (not to be cynical about it in any way)

So this is graduation... Fancy dresses and lots of people:
So this is my dress...it's green and that's about all there is to say about it.

From the left: Mariette, Jasmine, me, Lizzy.


From the left: Lizzy, Niharika, me, Mariette, Emma and Victoria.
So that is all the fancy pictures. It was a lovely night starting with the ceremony at school then heading off to the Shangri-La for dinner.

After Graduation , the jet setting began with a fabulous trip to Langkawi (I know, it's such a hard life I lead). We went there for one thing: unwinding. And of coarse that involved lying by the pool, lots of reading, pleanty of food and, of naturally, a few cocktails.


I think this was a chilli...If it was, it was a rather exciting one...at least I seem to think so in this photo...

To Further the image of spleandour and general self-indulgence after a day back in Singapore I was back in a plane and off to Hong Kong with Jasmine and Lizzy. This was a smaller group but certainly not unexciting as we had the wonderful Jasmine with us who knows all the best places to go. This included, but was not limited to: shopping, food, light shows, food, trams, food, heights, food, ferries, markets and, oh, did I mention food?

This is Lizzy and Jasmine with the skyline of Hong Kong in the background. You can't tell in this picture but they had a light show on with all the buildings in the background flashing various oloured lights in time to chirpy music.

Now we may have been in Hong kong and not Beijing but it seems you cannot go anywhere there without encountering the Olympic mascots. This was over the Harbour from Hong Kong Island and you can see all 5 mascots in their florescent glory.
Finally we come to the end of my exciting trips around South-East Asia with a picture of the three of us at Stanley Bay (or was it Repulse Bay...I forget). Now I am in KL and here to stay, at least for the next few days.

With the height of my stress levels currently being which DVD I shall watch next I will depart to watch a few more episodes of Boston Legal, enjoying the wonder of having absolutely nothing to do.

A Mish Mash

This is a bit of a mish mashed post with lots of little bits and pieces.
Things have been hectic with the count down to exams on the way but that doesn't mean we have to spend all day procrastinaing over our notes...observe, Lizzy's birthday!
She is now a legal beagle and we had a lovely dinner to celebrate it.


I even ate my vegetables that day! Are you proud of me?
So it was a pleasant evening with music, laughter and incessant chatting. Oh and Champagne...

Anyway now I am in KL enjoying the joys of revision, by revision I do, naturally, mean procrastiantion.
Granny and Grandad are also here which is exciting...they've been doing all sorts of exciting things like going to the Cameron Highlands to look at tea and Malacca to see Tescos (unintentionally).

Other than that life is mostly exam centred.