Since I got back from holiday, I got so busy that I had no time to really update my blog. I even had to spend my the first half of my birth day last year in the office!! My trial will resume again end of January 2010 and it is scheduled to end at the end of March 2010. So just imagine how hectic it is.
Even just now, I just finished helping my boss to do some admin and HR work for him and it is 3.30am!!
Time and time again, I wanted to update my blog and say sorry to my friends - Ludo in Brugge and Fanny (in Switzerland) for not being able to meet them during the holiday. So, Ludo and Fanny, I am so sorry for not being able to meet you guys. I will make it up soon as most probably I will be in Europe again between April and July this year.
Last week, we had a visitor from Malaysia. We just love having guests at our house so we invited them to our house for a Malaysian meal...they came. They were so happy as they said they have been eating banana, bbq meat, ugali (made of maize - a staple food for the locals) and other local food since Christmas.
I miss Malaysia so much...but then, I really like the village/kampung life in Arusha@Kilimanjaro. There are not many cars = less traffic jams and no toll to pay!! I can have live chickens at my house...I can still find easily ayam kampung (village chicken)...there are so many basikal tua (the old black bicycles that already extinct in Malaysia)...I dare to say Arusha@Kilimanjaro is like Malaysia at least 25-35 years back...so kampung, life is slow here...I am like in this comfort zone that has its own charms. No, I do not want to change my citizenship or even make Arusha@Kilimanjaro my other home...it is just that it is so peaceful here...no malls or Giant to go during the weekend...no broken things (like shoes, bags, chairs, etc) to be thrown away because everything here can be repaired for a small fee, call me cheapskate but it does not make sense just to throw away things if it can be fixed...one day I even had my broken cuffling to be attached again!! Just imagine if you still can do that in Malaysia...heheheh, I am confident all these towkays will get bankrupt in no time.
I have so many pictures to attached to my "Holidays" stories in this blog but I must use my wife's laptop...she is using an ibook so storing and downloading pictures are much much easier.
Did I tell you guys we had spent Aidilfitri/Eid Fitr here in Arusha@Kilimanjaro for the past five years!!! Celebrating it here is not like in Malaysia...Malaysians celebrate it the whole month as many claimed they fast for the whole month and it has became a tradition. For the whole month, some of my friends had to attend open house almost everyday and sometimes 2-3 houses per day.
But last year was the best so far for us...u know the Arushans celebrate it on the first day only and worst, no circus show in TV (remember the good old days in Malaysia right after the prayer, the kids even the whole family would be sitting infront of the TVs watching the circus show...it was like the climax of the Eid, hehehehe...
Anyway, last year, a circus organizer chose Arusha to be their next stop just before Eid Fitr/Aidilfitri...so we watched circus but this time it is a live show!! No more circus in TV. Then Arusha hosted this Commonwealth Parliaments Meeting for one week after Eid Fitr (around 70 Malaysians came, the biggest number of Malaysian so far to come to Arusha)...so we celebrated Eid Fitr with many Malaysians (around 15)...
Got to go. Will continue later.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Disneyland Paris
Dreams do come true!!
At last, my wife and I set foot on one of the three Disneylands in the world. Disneyland Paris.
We stayed for 3 nites in this hotel apartment about 5-10 minutes from DP.
Our kids (especially Irfan) met Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Daisy, Monster, Gennie, Goofy and other characters!! Did you know that Disneyland just bought Marvel for few billions bucks!! So this year we can see all Disneylands in the world displaying all the superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four, etc...
BUT we had to endure the cold weather. The good thing about coming to DP during winter is that there were not so many people so we did not spend so much time queing up.
You know what, the Europeans just could not believe their eyes seeing us having 3 children!! It is like 3 children equivalent to 10 or 15 0r 20 children...they said having two children are the maximum...and when I saw many of them rather having dogs than children...I think I can understand...dogs always listen to the their guardian, they do not wear diapers because they can poo anywhere they want and nobody will get angry...they do not to be schooled from age 7 till 25...do you see where I am going?
Anyway, I will post some pictures soon...
At last, my wife and I set foot on one of the three Disneylands in the world. Disneyland Paris.
We stayed for 3 nites in this hotel apartment about 5-10 minutes from DP.
Our kids (especially Irfan) met Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Daisy, Monster, Gennie, Goofy and other characters!! Did you know that Disneyland just bought Marvel for few billions bucks!! So this year we can see all Disneylands in the world displaying all the superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four, etc...
BUT we had to endure the cold weather. The good thing about coming to DP during winter is that there were not so many people so we did not spend so much time queing up.
You know what, the Europeans just could not believe their eyes seeing us having 3 children!! It is like 3 children equivalent to 10 or 15 0r 20 children...they said having two children are the maximum...and when I saw many of them rather having dogs than children...I think I can understand...dogs always listen to the their guardian, they do not wear diapers because they can poo anywhere they want and nobody will get angry...they do not to be schooled from age 7 till 25...do you see where I am going?
Anyway, I will post some pictures soon...
Friday, December 11, 2009
Brussels
Brussels' weather is more or less similar to London.
Brussels is more quiet during weekend. Its people love to go out of Brussels during weekend and infact many of them live outside Brussels. My friend works in Brussels but she does not live in Brussels. It may sound ordinary to us BUT she cycles everyday to work, even her partner. They said they took an average of 40-50 minutes to cycle to Brussels from their house...to us, they can do that because Brussels is not hot like Malaysia...
Do you remember last time there was a Minister suggested to build air-conditioned walkways for train/lrt passengers...for instance, from Masjid Jamek station to Wisma Yakin, they will be a covered walkway fully air-conditioned...fuhhhh...no more smelly armpits!!
Brussels is like it is designed for kids!! There are many entertainment parks and museums just for kids. Kids ride the train for free during weekend. Their train system is less complicated than Paris' and London in other kids friendly or stroller friendly if you want to say that.
But my other half did not like Brussels...I did not tell her I like Brussels for some reasons known to me, heheheheh
But one thing for sure, it has one of the worst Indian restaurants I ever encountered.
Will post some pcitures on our Brussels trip soon
Brussels is more quiet during weekend. Its people love to go out of Brussels during weekend and infact many of them live outside Brussels. My friend works in Brussels but she does not live in Brussels. It may sound ordinary to us BUT she cycles everyday to work, even her partner. They said they took an average of 40-50 minutes to cycle to Brussels from their house...to us, they can do that because Brussels is not hot like Malaysia...
Do you remember last time there was a Minister suggested to build air-conditioned walkways for train/lrt passengers...for instance, from Masjid Jamek station to Wisma Yakin, they will be a covered walkway fully air-conditioned...fuhhhh...no more smelly armpits!!
Brussels is like it is designed for kids!! There are many entertainment parks and museums just for kids. Kids ride the train for free during weekend. Their train system is less complicated than Paris' and London in other kids friendly or stroller friendly if you want to say that.
But my other half did not like Brussels...I did not tell her I like Brussels for some reasons known to me, heheheheh
But one thing for sure, it has one of the worst Indian restaurants I ever encountered.
Will post some pcitures on our Brussels trip soon
Sunday, December 6, 2009
London
London is full of Malaysians!!
But the weather is horrible. Cold, windy, raining and not much sun.
And I thought UK is facing an economic downturn. Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus area were full of people? shopping like there is no tomorrow!!
Another thing is never bring your baby stroller to the metro station because they are not stroller friendly. You ended up carrying your stroller most of the time in almost all the station.
I have so much to tell about London but the keyboard that I am using now is the french keyboard.
Be back later with more updates.
But the weather is horrible. Cold, windy, raining and not much sun.
And I thought UK is facing an economic downturn. Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus area were full of people? shopping like there is no tomorrow!!
Another thing is never bring your baby stroller to the metro station because they are not stroller friendly. You ended up carrying your stroller most of the time in almost all the station.
I have so much to tell about London but the keyboard that I am using now is the french keyboard.
Be back later with more updates.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Paris!
1 Dec - Paris
Bonjour!
Paris is formerly a fishing village and claimed to be more than 2000 years old. The old name for Paris is Lutetia.
Surprisingly, almost everyone now in Paris can speak English. They say French people are proud of their language. They say if you can't speak French when you are in their land, you are not entitled to their hospitality! Even when I was in their former colonies like Ivory Coast and Togo, the locals there were somehow disappointed with me for not knowing to speak and understand French.
Anyhow, there are few things I have observed so far. I notice there are a lot of young people here (age between 20 and 40). There are few (let me repeat few but I don't know about other cities in France) obese or overweight people here and when you are in their metro train station, they walk really fast and in an imaginary lines!! I mean it is like they really have to go to the toilet to answer nature's call!! And never be in their way for you will be guaranteed to be swept away by the flow. It is like in the movie "Finding Nemo". Remember Nemo's father, when he was searching for Nemo, he met a group of sea turtles. They let themselves to be swept away by the current of the river in the sea so that they can reach their destination. When he entered into the river, he was swept away too by the current, had no choice but to join the turtles' voyage and then eventually found Nemo.
We were going to stay for one night as tomorrow we have to catch the train to London!! We went to Champs Elysess area. It is equivalent to Oxford Street in London. So the shopping marathon began as we set foot on that area!
Paris is formerly a fishing village and claimed to be more than 2000 years old. The old name for Paris is Lutetia.
Surprisingly, almost everyone now in Paris can speak English. They say French people are proud of their language. They say if you can't speak French when you are in their land, you are not entitled to their hospitality! Even when I was in their former colonies like Ivory Coast and Togo, the locals there were somehow disappointed with me for not knowing to speak and understand French.
Anyhow, there are few things I have observed so far. I notice there are a lot of young people here (age between 20 and 40). There are few (let me repeat few but I don't know about other cities in France) obese or overweight people here and when you are in their metro train station, they walk really fast and in an imaginary lines!! I mean it is like they really have to go to the toilet to answer nature's call!! And never be in their way for you will be guaranteed to be swept away by the flow. It is like in the movie "Finding Nemo". Remember Nemo's father, when he was searching for Nemo, he met a group of sea turtles. They let themselves to be swept away by the current of the river in the sea so that they can reach their destination. When he entered into the river, he was swept away too by the current, had no choice but to join the turtles' voyage and then eventually found Nemo.
We were going to stay for one night as tomorrow we have to catch the train to London!! We went to Champs Elysess area. It is equivalent to Oxford Street in London. So the shopping marathon began as we set foot on that area!
Oh..oh wait let me write about the hotel apartment we rented. First thing we noticed - there were dog poo everywhere!! Then as we entered the apartment, I found it to be a quite small studio apartment! Camno la nak muat kami berlima ni...luckily they got everything that we need. They were crammed together in one tiny space. So just imagine where we put our luggages...
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