What is the main concern?

Hmm. I smell a change in the air.

Having serious thoughts of changing my job. Like I mentioned before, it is not -bad-, rather comfortable but it CAN be better in certain aspects.

I love my little cubicle and the personal touches I made. I am used to the quirks of my colleagues and the way things are 'operated'.

I'm not very happy with the money but recent times have me start thinking about change. What is it am I resisting? The lack of self-believe that I can make it ... the fear of new environment... the idea of just CHANGE (aka resistance).

I read this book before, called Who Moved My Cheese? I remembered liking the motto and the whole in-the-nutshell stuff. It's easy to appreciate the words but to put it to action is another matter altogether.

Then I remembered my morbid post (in Jan I think) and I thought.. if I don't move now, when am I going to.. how long am I going to complain about the low salary and what-ifs.. if I have more, then I can do xyz.. sort of thinking. And I re-read my post about how short life is and the idea of death looming around.

So is that it? I'm going to fear changes and thus stick to one place so I am comforted and just live my life on hopes. Oh dear.. that doesn't sound too good to me.

Why am I beating myself up so badly.. am I that lousy that I can't survive in another place.. how would I know if I don't try. I may end up flourishing but it can't get -worse- can it.

It's a risk but there seems to be more excitement in it now (in my eyes) rather than despair and fear. Perhaps time has changed my outlook.

Interesting times ahead.

What happen to my sunday O_O

Sooo.. I woke up at 2pm groggy and still unaware of my surroundings.. crawled to the living room where my parents were already up and watching tv and mum catching 40 winks.

Decided to get my ass out of the house and soak in some sun. I have a $20 borders gift card and I know the latest copy of Sherman's Lagoon is out (http://www.slagoon.com/store/book15.html), after some serious planning.. I decided to go Parkway.

1) I can visit my grandma @ Marine Parade and bring along some stuff for her so mum won't need to

2) I can go Borders and buy my book while using gift card

3) I can pop to Cold Storage / Giant to find my herb Dill for the feesh I'm planning to cook

All in all, it was a pretty neat schedule. Grabbed a cab down to MP, then took a bus to Parkway. Spent more than an hour at Borders cause I was hooked reading Foxtrot.

Anyway, I got the last copy of Sherman's Lagoon (13th book) and I'm super happy. The icing on the top was when I reached Cold Storage and DID manage to find my dill! Yay!

Also bought some shaved honey ham and streaky bacon to cook some dinner for myself. Reached home, heat up the pan and cooked a mix of -something- that looked disgusting but tasted fabulous.

Steps:
Dice up 1 onion and panfry till near-brown, cut up 2 pieces of bacon and place on top. Let it sizzle until bacon is cooked (but not crispy), add milk and simmer.

When it boils, put an egg on top, suppose to be nice (if possible), mine came out.. wonky. Sooo anyway, just leave it alone.

When egg is almost ready, pour in more milk and start pushing everything into the centre (like a scrambled pile).. then put a slice of cheese on top (Kraft or anything but cut into half so it's easy).

Once the cheese starts melting, use a spatula and flip the pile into half, so the 2 halves of the cheese will stick together. Then off the fire and wait it out a bit.

Scoop onto a plate and itadakimas! By the time you put the cheese, the onion would have been all shrivelled and brown and it will taste super sweet. Mix in the saltiness of the bacon and cheese, along with the 'wet texture' due to the milk, you have the perfect sinful dinner ! :)

(well USUALLY you would eat that for breakfast but who's complaining?)

Mood: sinfully happy

Curry Chicken Day

Yep, I have decided to make use of what I have learnt in Europe and apply in SG..which is.. curry chicken making! On the whole, it wasn't so bad, in fact, I think it's pretty successful!

Dad says it's not spicy enough and Mum suggests a little less yogurt. Yep, I replaced coconut milk with yogurt.. not bad le!

So that's dinner for today! I did this ALL by myself *proud*.. from cleaning the damn chicken, to peeling potatoes and mincing garlic/onion XD

It's tiring but very satisfying. Bought the chicken this morning at bedok NTUC.

So here you go, RK's Curry Chicken served in the tavern :)

Cheers!

Travels - Part 11 (conclusion)

Howdy folks!

It's my last night in Tromso now and I have packed my luggage.. I'm bringing back cheese and some fish pudding (wish me luck eh..)

It has been a fun but tiring journey. Took alot of pictures, seen alot of sights and ate alot of food. In Tromso, I have been doing alot of housework (cooking actually). Wow, the most number of times I have touched a knife. I rather liked it actually.. mummy, here I come! Lol.. hate onion cutting though. Damn..

Today the host brought us to a slopey 'playground' for kids+adults.. and I did some sledding for the first time! It's not SLED.. but rather a styrofoam plate to sit on and slide. I had snow in my mouth but it was so fun I kept climbing the hill.. haha! Wheeeeee~

I will reach SG on sunday, 4+pm and it will be a pretty long flight. Miss my parents, my bwadder+Jacq and my sherman boy.. and of course my dear friends too. Yep, back to Kem brudder.

This Europe trip blew quite a chunk of my savings but it's worth (almost) every penny. My long-time wish has been fulfilled - to be in a winter wonderland. And to experience a snowfall AND see a glimpse of the Northern Lights, that is the ultimate combi.

It has been cloudy-ish so the lights weren't available the past few nights. But tonight, the LAST night, we finally saw it. A greenish strip of glow across the sky.

Fantabulous XD

Alright, see u all soon. My flight from Tromso to Oslo is at 8am so gotta poof to sleep soon. Then it's Oslo to Amsterdam (transit) then to SG.

See ya folks!

RK

Travels - Part 10

Hahahaha I have already resorted to using hand carry to distribute the luggage. Actually a bit of weight is also due to the food stuff we brought to the host in Norway (that is in my luggage...).. so once I take that out, it's pretty ok!

I got 2 bags of clothes n my netbook in my hand carry... damn heavy la! And I'm buying cheese back from Norway too... lol

Anyway Im so happy now, I finally got my wish to see snow and today I experienced a real snowfall. I was standing in the open and getting my stuff white ...lol yes.. wet and cold too hahaha

And at the bus station, while waiting for the bus to go back to host house.. I did a mad thing. I ran to the middle of the pavement, flopped myself down and made a snow angel. It was pretty dark already but still early (it gets dark fast) and heng, nobody was around when I did that.

No pics for that though, anyhoo, here's some snowy stuff to share! XD



YES, THIS is the house Im staying in!! AWESOME. Open door its SNOW!

Travels - Part 9

Hiya folks! ok more pics up as I finally grew some brain cells to take pics using cammie.. shouldav done that a loooong time ago.

First up, this is me balancing on the window sill at the Prague hotel. Nice old building opposite me. It was rather sunny hence I turned out pretty dark...

We took a tram out again to the New Town (yesterday Part 8 was Old Town..where the bridge is). For lunch, we ordered a hotdog each at a fast food stand and stood in the cold eating. Hehehe... It was fantastic!! Omg.. the hotdog is SO good.. T_T I'm going to miss it so much.. wail!

After eating, we walked a bit down the road and ended up at a nice cosmetic place. Bought some nice body wash and eu de spray. *sniff* Mmm....

A cloudy chill time in Prague


Mid-noon we took a break at.. where else? Coffee Heaven!

After more shopping.. like H&M (yes that shop again) where I got another handful of clothes.. we walked MORE, enjoying the sights and breeze.. the sun went down (sorta.. the sun was hidden anyhoo) and there was a nice pink glow in the sky. Love this pic :)

This is our dinner place.

A quaint and lovely spot where they have many antique-looking clocks on display and 'streetlamps' as the decor.

A night scene of Prague.

Sigh.... falling in love with Prague. It's very beautiful and just so rustic. The architecture, the cobbled stones.. I like walking on those stone-paved roads.. it's so different from SG (duh).

Prague (& Cesky) would be the two places I will visit again when opportunity knocks.

Definitely :)

Love ya all

RK

Travels - Part 8

Hello folks!

I'm in Prague now! It was about 2 and a half hours drive from Cesky and I was fast asleep most of the time.

We got a triple room hotel and it's pretty decent. The journey is getting tiring so a good night's sleep is very important (all that lugging and train chasing... whew =_=)

Prague is a gorgeous place and I'm loving every minute of it! It was pretty accessible with the tram system and our hotel is very near a tram stop. Today we visited Charles Bridge and the Vlatava River runs under it. The same river that you see in Part 7. Yep, the same damn freaking river runs from Cesky all the way to Prague!

So it was jus spending hours on picture taking and getting some tshirts as sourveniors. Bought a nice snuff bottle for my mum and we had a filling dinner near the Astronomical Clock Tower. More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock

Yes, a side excerpt on the clock. Every hour, something is supposed to happen but I don't know what. So at 3.55pm, the crowd was gathering at the base of the tower and looking up with obsessed attention, camera/vid poised to capture -something-. I was one of them.

It chimed and two doors opened, some 'internal' figurines going round in a circle while the bell goes off. After a few bonging... the door squeaked close and some rooster crowed. OMG. That was it! There was a blink-blink moment and I burst out laughing. I think the crowd found it humourous as well. It was rather funny and a little anti-climatic.

But imagine a huge huge tower and I was expecting some disney stuff happening. Anyway bong or no bong, the tower is lovely and the view from the bridge too.

I'm at the hotel lobby leeching on free internet access now and tomorrow is one more day of Prague before going to the last stop - Norway (tat would be by plane).

And I'm currently enjoying a bottle of local dark beer which is SOOOOO good - Krusovice Dark
I think I'm almost liking it better than my usual Edinburgh Dark.

Loads of flavour.. smooth.. and so yummilicous.

^_^

Awesomeness :)

Travels - Part 7

Hiya folks! Finally took the time to set up the nokia pc suite on my netbook and did some blue-toothing.

Only had a limited amt of pics so here they are!

Anyway I'm in Cesky Krumlov (Czech Rep) now and loving the town. It's so so gorgeous.. better than Sienna, Italy. Love love love this place in winter. *hugs*

Scene from the car 1: Road from Linz to Cesky Krum

The river next to the road


RK in Cesky Krumlov!


RK in Salzburg, Austria cafe (yeah.. lack of sleep...)


RK in Amsterdam cafe


That's all folks, will be heading off to Prague tomorrow (only one night in Cesky).

Thank gawd for free wireless internet in the hostel. Whew!

See ya folks!

xoxo

Travels - Part 6

Ok folks, this will be a quick one coz I'm at my Linz's host house and using his pc to surf the net. No wireless connection la.

Where was I...? Ohh I took a train from Salzburg to Linz and stayed two nights here. This is my 2nd actually. Tmr I will be going to Cezh (Prague) and then it's off to Norway and home.

Still loving the cold weather and enjoying the sights and food. A bit tired still and mainly due to the lugging etc.

Hugs to EH and my dear who commented lol. Nah didn't see Ms Mona coz it was too freaking crowded. I didn't had much time but it's ok! I got a bit of magnets here and there but not for all the places. Coz some just says Salzburg or Linz and there really isn't much significance.. on the picture... not much point to it..hahaha..

But def got pictures and tons and tons of uhm pictures. I blew my money mainly on shopping..hahaha I don't shop much in SG at all.. so jus whack office clothes here. That will be my stash to last me a while liao.. hoho..

Missing u all.. hugs hugs hugs hugs hugs

RK

Travels - Part 5

Hello folks,

Yep a late update coz Paris was quite a rush and there was no internet access in the room. Could only go to the small lobby to do it and it was pretty inconvenient.

Anyway Paris is sorta ok. Saw some architecture here and there but the main draw for my travel mates was the LV shop. It was pretty cheap compared to SG but I didn't get anything lol. Paris was only 2 nights. And the first was only evening. I caught Moulin Rouge that evening and it was interesting. Wasn't loving it but liking it at least. Kinda acquired taste sort as there was quite a bit of cabaret and old school can-can dancing.

We did a lot of sight see the next day and it was very cold in Paris. Brr.. the 3rd day (when we checked out in the morn), we woke up to slight snow!! It wasn't heavy storm la.. but there was some fall during the night and the roof of the cars etc were white. It was a fantastic sight as I'm seeing snow for the first time. Granted it was like a teensy bit of a 'snow land'.

So off we left to Salzburg, Austria. Had to catch a cab to Paris airport, took a flight to Vienna, caught a bus to the main train station and catch a train (arnd 4hrs ride) to Salzburg. Went to the hotel we had in mind but it was fully booked. Walked a few steps down and checked into Renaissance Hotel. It was quite cheap for a triple room and the beds are SO comfortable. I'm currently in the room typing now. Had to pay for the internet access that would be charged to the room.

Salzburg is GORGEOUS. The mountain sides, the pretty buildings etc.. they are so pretty. I love the city. It's definitely my cup of tea. I could sit at a cafe and looked at the tall snowy mountains the whole day. It's my last night here. Will be travelling to Linz tomorrow (another city of Austria). We have a host there so lodgings is taken care of.

My luggage has hit the 20kg limit and I'm sort of done with clothes shopping. I'm too shacked to lug any thing else -_-; .... so definitely cutting down on magnets and trinkets.. omg.. my poor back.

My shopping is done, and from now on, I'm just going to concentrate on the food and sights XD

I do have some bits of chocolates here and there for those at home.. Hahaha.. sorry folks. But man.. it's not cheap. One tshirt that says SALZBURG is like 12 euro? That's 24 SGD... for a tourist tshirt... zzzz...

Ok that's all folks. More updates to come (hopefully). Assuming I get more convenient (and free) net access in the later countries. My trip is sort of half way done. Will be coming home soon. Missing you all.

RK