en venezia (in venice)

in venice rite now. (and google is in italian... ooooo) arrived in milan yesterday. took an early train to venice this morning. will be headin to barcelona tomoro and spend christmas at port aventura. yay!!!
hmmm... its been a long time since i last blogged. too lazy... nothing much happend. tried out capoeira n lacrosse. ouch!! checkd out salsa dancin too. went to 2 bday parties. 1st one was a dress up party, dressed up as mulan. 2nd one involved a LOT of alcohol. word of advice: do not have a mixture of different brands of different types of alcohol shots (in a two-shot sized shot glass). went to a halloween party, last minute decision n dressed up as a mafia. a couple of ppl got it rite but one thought i was a cuban pimp (maybe it was bcos i was handcuffed to my friend at the time). my laptop died on me so i got a new one. got one with big harddrive that rams fast. got a part time job as a cook at chilis restaurant.
my parents sent my sis to spend xmas with me. been shoppin a lot and piggin on ben n jerrys n haagen-dazs. am travellin with my sis. had 2 cones of gelato today. im such a pig. n its damn cold here. oh well... too lazy to continue. dont think will have internet connection in barcelona. most likely will be deprived of internet for the rest of the trip. oh well...
Merry Christmas!!! Feliz Navidad!!! Buone Natale!!!
>>>over and out...

My trip: 10/09 - 18/09

Visited Portugal, Spain and Italy with my mum using Ryanair. We got the £0.01 and €0.01 fares (excluding taxes) to Porto, Barcelona and Milan.

Porto & Fatima
We went to Porto on the 10th. Stayed at Residencial Aviz Porto. The hotel has good location. It's near the bus station and shopping area. Simple furnishing, not air-conditioned, but I guess it's ok for its price (about €45 for a twin room) and good location. Porto has a nice airport. Looks new. And its easy to get to the city centre via the Metro. Just ask at the info desk. We asked how to get to our hotel and the lady told us to get the Metro and stop at Bolhão station. The hotel is about 10 - 20 minutes walk from the station. When we purchased the Metro ticket we were told to keep it, as it can be reloaded by inserting the ticket into the machine and selecting new journeys; by doing so the fare is cheaper. One way to Porto city centre costs €1.85, with the ticket it costs €1.35. We found a small restaurant serving a set meal for €5. The set came with 0.5Lt wine (or any sort of other beverages), soup, main course, bread and coffee. I think the place is called Murda, that was the sign on the building anyway.The next day we went to Fatima by bus/coach. The bus station is pretty near to the hotel. We took the 'Rede expressos' coach which was €12.15 per way. The journey took about 2hours. The Fatima church is approximately 15minutes walk from Fatima bus station. There is an info kiosk within the church grounds which has a map of Fatima town area. The last day in Porto, we decided to check out the nearby area. We took the bus to 'El Corte Ingles' shopping centre (this particular shopping centre has a few branches in Barcelona), the bus fare was €0.70 per way. Had lunch at the food court just outside the supermarket, got a whole chicken with 400g of rice for €8.45. The people are friendly and helpful.

Barcelona

Arrived in Barcelona around midnight, so we waited at the airport till morning to catch the coach transfer to city. The transfer was €21 for a return ticket. We stayed at Agora BCN University Residence. Its pretty far from the city. From the bus station we took the Metro to Catalunya and from there we changed to Line 3 (i think) and stopped at Mundet where the hotel was. There's an info desk at the bus station where you can ask for directions to your hotel. The room looks like modern student dorms and it's air-conditioned. There are 2 computer stations at the lobby which offers free internet access, however users are requested to use it for 30minutes at a time. The hotel is pretty near to the Metro station. It's best to buy a multi-journey ticket as it works out to be cheaper per journey; and one ticket can be used for more than one person. A one journey ticket costs €1.25, and a 10-journey ticket costs €6.90. We toured the place, saw Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo, and walked down La Rambla. We had buffet lunch at a place called Lactuca, €8.50 per person. Buffet included salad, pizza, spaghetti, fish, ice-cream, sodas, fruits and coffee (i might miss out some other food). The next day we went to the harbour area. Nice place, theres a shopping mall there with a Barcelona FC store. We tried to walk to the Barcelona Olympic Stadium but it was too far so we headed back to the hotel for our luggages. Our flight to Milan was an early morning one so we went to the airport the night before and waited there.

Milan & Venice

From the airport we took the Terravision transfer to Stanzione Centrale (train station), €12 for return ticket. We stayed at Edolo Hotel which is about 20 minutes walk from the station. The hotel is not bad. Simple furnishing, air-conditioned, and has sky tv. There's a tram stop near the hotel. Tickets can be purchased from the newspaper stand. One journey costs €1; a full day card costs €3 which is valid on all forms of public transportation (except for trains), ie trams, busses, metro. We had 3 nights in Milan, so we decided to spend one in Venice. We got the train from Milan to Venice (Santa Lucia station which is on the Venician islands). We checked the ticket machine (and online) which quoted €24 fare per way. We approached the counter which gave us a cheaper fare of €21, but when we requested for the cheapest they told us that it's €12.90 per way; ETD Milan to Venice: 0715 and Venice to Milan: 1519 (tickets valid for 2 months). In Venice we stayed at Allogi Agli Artisti Hotel which is very near to the train station. The room is kinda small but nicely decorated and air-conditioned, with shared bathroom which is pretty clean and neat. Venitians are pretty helpful. It's not hard to get around Venice althought it's like a maze. There are directions pointing to the famous monuments. It took about 1 - 2 hours to find our way to San Marco by foot. However that is the cheaper (free) option to getting the waterbus. Plus we got to find some interesting shops along the way. Last day in Milan which was the 18th, we got the day ticket, and went to see Duomo and the shopping area nearby.

All the hotels we stayed came with breakfast. Breakfast mostly consist of bread, butter, jam, hot drinks, juice.... the usual. Agora in Barcelona had omelette, sausages and ham, whereas the Italian hotels came with yoghurt. And all except for Venice, had a supermarket nearby.

Most of the people we've met were helpful, there were some who were totally not. But I suppose it's the same everywhere. And I'm grateful for those who helped us find our way, eventhough some of them couldn't speak english they still tried their best to help us.

OK, I guess that's all.

>>> Over and out...

Holidays almost over....

Back in UK. Left Kuching on the 4th. Arrived on the 5th. Went to Porto on the 10th. Then headed to Barcelona, Milan and Venice. Got back on the 18th. Met up with most of my friends yesterday. The uni had a barn dancing night last night. So we decided to check it out. Barn dancing is like the British version to Americans line dancing. Its confusing. Will prolly blog abt my trips....if im not too lazy.

>>> Over and out...

Holiday... back in Kuching

WOW... haven't been blogging for so long... been back for more than a month now. exam was ok, result was out a few weeks ago... not bad considering my lack of effort in it. went to london b4 exams to get souvenirs. turned a year older, im officially legal. had a bday dinner on the weekend b4 the actual date, a party 2 days after and a gathering 4 days after. and we had our farewell bbq in between. so much food.... had a picnic at st albans after my last paper. went shopping at watford, bought more souvenirs. went to rome b4 coming back to kuching. my 2nd time. i got to see the sights that i missed the 1st time. i missed the trevi fountain and spanish steps the 1st time. this time i threw in 4 coins into the fountain. apparently if you throw coins into the fountain, you'll come back again to rome. but i didnt even get to see the fountain the 1st time and i went back there again, so i guess its not so true then. then again having thrown 4 coins in this time, i'll prolly return to rome again, which i would really like. vatican was very nice. enjoyed rome... with the gelatos...

haven't done much since im back in kuching. eating most of the time. i prolly put on 20kgs. oh well. got my ears pierced. finally... went tree planting in a forest reserve a few weeks ago. been staying offline most of the time. pretty much glued to astro. was deprived of it for 9months. anyway, thats about it...

>>> over and out...

Holidays OVER!!!!

I'm so still in a holiday mood. Got back on saturday. Class started on monday. As usual I totally didn't touch any of my work during the hols. So was rushing to get it done as it was due on thursday. Still have some more assignments due and EXAMS. CRAP!!!! Then again, I'm going home soon. YAY!!! Cant wait....

Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool were nice. I prefer Manchester out of the 3. The Manchester United match was good. It wasn't as rowdy as I thought, and wasn't super exciting as their opponent was crap. But I still got to see C Ronaldo in action.... we sat quite far up so i could only see his number....anyway, better than nothing. The day before we went on the stadium tour. ok....im kinda lazy to continue now... above are some pics during the hols...

>>>over and out...

Holiday!!!!

2nd week of holiday now. pretty much spent the 1st week lounging around not gettin any work done as usual. went to london on the friday before holiday. had krispy kremes at harrods. then during the 1st week, went around st albans and managed to revive my watch, and window shoppin in watford. monday went to this greek easter party. then went to spain on tuesday for 3 days. PORT AVENTURA specifically. managed to put my spanish into action. not very good tho. saw a ferrari car on display at luton airport. got back and am repacking for edinburgh. will be leaving early morning so am skipping sleep. will prolly catch some ZZzzs in the coach. after edinburgh, will head to MAN-CHEST-er to watch the man utd match against sheffield. not a big fan of soccer, just wanna watch cristiano ronaldo playin his SWEATY BALLS....hehehehe......anyway better continue packing have abt 2hrs to go. will post pics later.....
>>>Over and out...

Holiday soon........

Easter break is in 2 weeks. Can't wait.
Went to London on Saturday. Visited 3 museums and Harrods. Had Krispy Kreme in Harrods....YUM!!! We later had dinner....chinese buffet dinner...double yums!! Anyway, too lazy to continue.....

>>>Over and out...

Hmm.......tEmpOrAry LaCk oF fOcUs....

Crap.....I keep getting distracted from doing work. Last week, there was like a promotion on Haagen-Dazs and Ben&Jerry's ice-cream, GBP2 each. I got 2 Haagen-Dazs and 1 Ben&Jerry's. Yes, I'm tamak. I've already pigged on like half of them. DAMN!!! I've got a number of assignments due before Easter break. And after Easter break, more assignments due and FINALS!!. Double DAMNs. Suppose to have Wednesdays off, but I have to go for a lab session for Control Systems. I so don't get it. I just don't get all of the modules I'm taking. I did pretty well last semester. Straight As, which is so totally UNEXPECTED. I was happy when I got my results, but at the same time I felt pressured to maintain it. What's worse is that, I'm not the rajin type. I don't pay attention in class, I procrastinate all the time. For some reason this semester, the assignments and labs seem to be neverending. One module I'm taking this semester is Fluid Mechanics & Mechanical Design. It's fully coursework based, meaning no final exam. Sweet, right? So NOT. More than half of the marks is allocated to the Mechanical Design projects, which we have to design a mechanism to help in the injection of drugs in hospitals. We have to design a product, as in make it look nice and that ppl might actually want to buy it. I find myself as artistically challenged, how the heck am I suppose to design a damn product. Besides that, we have to do calculations based on the specs given. There's another assignment for another module called Dynamics, Instrumentation and Control Systems. The assignment is on car vibration. So don't get it. Oh man, it's at times like these that I wonder why on earth did I take Mechanical Engineering. I don't know much about cars (vehicles) like most of my classmates do, and that just makes me feel even less suitable for this course. Then again my course is more than just fixing cars. I really like this course, even though I don't know what I'm doing most of the time. It's so broad and....well, just interesting. Hey, I'm somewhat a qualified engineer since I've already got my diploma. But, I doubt anyone's ready to hire me yet. I can just imagine the interview session going like
Interviewer: So, what do you think about...blabla...piston...blablabla....reciprocating..blabla...
Me: ??!! ....the piston is the thing that goes up and down and round and round, right?
Interviewer: (O.O) Don't bother waiting for our call.
Oh well...
>>>Over and out...

stuff......

To be or not to be....that is the question. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Went to Shakespear's hometown on Saturday. It's called Stratford-upon-Avon. I got a postcard and coin with Sonnet 18 on them. The only Shakespear work that I studied in school. I was such a LEMBIK. I was wearing my shades while taking photos. I started to worry when I realized that the monitor of my camera is looking brownish (something like dat), I thought I broke it. It took me a while to realize that I was looking through my shades. Doi!!

This week was Europe week at uni, about European culture and stuff. There were various European films showed. I went to watch a Spanish film. Kinda disturbing. Anyway, played soccer on Friday. Kinda my first time. My body's aching but not that bad. It was fun. Anyway, that's about it.

>>> Over and out...

Shoppin.....

Went shopping at Watford yesterday. Didn't get anything much just a few items. Got a hoodie top at Primark. Got a Disney Princess Belle Eau De Toilette. And a pair of Tommy Hilfiger sunglasses for GBP15. I was so tempted to get more, but I just got one. After shopping went over to someone's place to watch Devil Wears Prada. Predictable movie, but still good. Went around St Albans today after church. Just got Thorntons chocolate Easter eggs. That's about it. So tired from all that shopping. And the assignments seem neverending. Aaarghh......

Oh well....

>>>Over and out.......