Hello From Down Under

Hello everyone! :)

How time flies, it has been 4 months since my last post. I'm feeling a bit guilty for neglecting the blog and my banters with my cyber-friends. The combination of relocating, family matters, and ill-health have been preventing me from blogging. The terrible internet connection at my new place doesn't help either - I'm still in Australia, but not  in Sydney anymore. If you're still reading this, I'm going to tell you a bit of it.

Hubby found a job in FNQ (Far North Queensland), to be exact: in Cairns, which is one of the gateways to the world-famous Great Barrier Reefs. It's one of the seven wonders of the natural world. We relocated here during jelly fish seasons, so we haven't had the chance to explore the reefs yet. Plus being unwell means I'm not healthy enough (yet!) to do snorkelling - can't do diving, ever, as I have dodgy sinuses amongst my other problems.

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I'm thankful enough that I'm still alive and sort-of well enough to enjoy things here. Cairns has humid-tropical weather because of it's location. So far we've had mild winter here, not too humid, not too hot, just right.

Our worldy things are still on the way from England. Once they're here we would be able to take our snorkelling gears out for a test-drive in Queensland's waters.

That's from me for now. I hope my blogging skill isn't too rusty. Do drop me a line if you're still around. Cheers! :)

Better Than Cinderella

You've seen the pictures of Kereta Kencana. Now you can see pictures of other coaches kept at the keraton museum in Yogjakarta. According to the guide, they're mainly made in Netherlands, Germany, Yogjakarta, and Solo. All the coaches have their own special names. I didn't write down the names of the following coaches. Suffice to say looking at some of them made me wanting to be a princess! :)

Which one is your favourite? Sorry can't give you bigger pictures, it would have taken me forever to upload.

On a different tone, I had my first trip to Sephora in Singapore the other day. I'll tell you more about it next time.

Kareta Karaton Nyangyogyakarta

I thought this picture is a perfect start to the re-telling of my adventures in Yogjakarta, which is situated somewhere in the middle of Java Island in Indonesia. It was my third trip there, the first one for hubby. My cousin L was assigned by his parents to be our tour guide/driver. I can tell you that he did a very good job! :)

The picture was taken outside the Museum Kareta Karaton Nyangyogyakarta (= Museum of Palace Coaches in Yogjakarta). Keraton is the palace where the king and his workers live, the reminder of an ancient Javanese kingdom, before it became part of Republic Indonesia. This museum is still used as the royal stables, where they keep coaches and horses belonging to the king. The present ruler is known as Hamengkubuwono X.

The most important coach they keep there is Kereta Kencana (= the Royal Coach). This coach has been used on coronations of a number of kings, 8 horses are needed to pull it. Local legend says that it was impossible to take pictures of this royal coach using manual cameras, as they always came out as blank pictures when the films had been processed. Not sure why exactly.

I've made sure that the pictures hubby took are here for you to see. But if for some reason you can't see them, let me know, the legend might be true for you afterall. So here goes: 3 pictures in total.

Kereta Kencana

Interior View - taken by tall hubby

Notice the golden fruits decorations. They symbolise prosperity.

The Mystery Continues...

Dear my lovely readers,

It's been ages since my last "proper" post . Not my fault, really, as my relatives kept us busy. I think hubby felt a bit overwhelmed and blowned away by their hospitality and unusual habits. He couldn't believe how much eating and snacking happened in my family!! We talked a lot, ate a lot, laughed a lot, then ate some more, travelled a bit, followed by more talking, more eating, and more everything. In a nutshell, the last trip to Indonesia was quite full-on, kept me busy from morning to evening. At the end of most days I collapsed in exhaustion. 28 days of good exhaustion if I may say so. *grin*

Thus my disappearance from the blogging world. I shan't be missing for long once I manage to get some proper computer time again. Afterall, I have loads of stories to tell, like the ones that go with the collage above - notice the lady in the hat: it's your's truly. Hehehe...

Which brings me to another point: I'm typing this in a hotel room in Singapore. How long am I going to be here? Only God knows. Like I said, I'm in the process of relocating to another country.

Now, tying up loose ends. About the Mystery Giveaway. I haven't taken photographs of the prezzies yet. I haven't drawn the winners either. My deepest apology.  Since they're supposed to be "mysterious", I'm going to show some of the prezzies soon. I would also like to extend the giveaway due date to another week or so. I know, it's been ages. Sorry again. I'll also try to be fair to those who have entered previously. The details will be on my next post. Promise.

Time to sleep, I'm looking like Garfield right now...

Travel photos from Delhi, India

Welcome to India! The "India" sign decorating the top of the arch was the official start of our adventure in Delhi back in 2002. :)

One of the amazing minarets we saw there.

Suprisingly lush garden surrounding the minaret - we went at the height of summer! As you can tell I'm over-compensating the freezing English weather with dreams of hotter weather. Mind you, not too hot or I'll die...

You know how much I love quirky old buildings & architecture. Here I present some for your enjoyment. Hope you like them. :)

Which one is your favourite?

If you missed it, check out my previous post: pictures from my visit to Taj Mahal in Agra.

Crime Against Humanity

I've given you pictures of the suspects and the crime scene. Now I'm telling you about the incident that lends it's nature to the title of this post.

It all started on a lovely morning at Fowey on that fateful day. Hubby & I had been enjoying our walk around the area, our eyes alertly spying for interesting things to see (and eat). Old buildings, fudge shop, numerous eateries and craft shops - including one weird one that sold jewelleries & trinkets made in Indonesia. Weird, I thought they're supposed to sell local crafts, as in made in Cornwall, not Indo!

Originally we wanted to eat fish & chips. Got distracted, bought the scrumptious-looking Cornish pasties instead. I bought a normal-sized vegetable pasty. Hubby bought the biggest meat pasty available. It was HUGE, much bigger than the giant size that are normally sold as "extra large". I tried persuading him to downsize his order as he was supposed to be on diet. He didn't budge. Well, he's definitely Mr Greedy where food is concerned!

So. Food bought, we made our way to the waterside, hoping to find a seat where we can eat our pasties. The seats were full, so we decided to start munching on our food while strolling near the water. The view was absolutely stunning.

Hubby was happily enjoying his Jumbo pasty when suddenly, lo & behold, three docile-looking seaguls started attacking him. One swooped down from above, one from the front and one from the back. They were all aiming for one thing: the Jumbo pasty!! The attack was so sudden, so organized and so vicious, hubby couldn't defend himself.

Imagine the scene: the half-eaten pasty fell to the ground, hubby almost fell to the sea below, I screamed in shock as the seagul who attacked from behind came very close to my head, people nearby shocked by the commotions. Next, still in a daze, hubby was determined not to let the seaguls win, so he kicked the pasty to the corner, hoping the seaguls won't be able to pick his (now fallen) prized pasty. It went down to the sea instead, afterwhich the culprits merrily consumed their loot.

It was a really good home-video material, pity no one had their video on us at that time.

A man (possibly a local?) approached us and said, "I hope you're okay. This kind of thing makes me really angry. Not long ago I saw someone feeding the seaguls even though there are signs saying you're not supposed to do it. It makes the seaguls vicious." We nodded our heads in unison, feeling somewhat consoled that we weren't the only victims. Hubby was quite upset with the lost of his Jumbo pasty, so we went back to the fudge shop and bought a big bag of fudge.

Moral of the story: let this be a warning to you - in Cornwall, if you feel like eating takeaway fish & chips/cornish pasty/ice cream/whatever, please guard your food carefully. Especially if you're around the beach area. In case similar thing happens to you. Also, as a common courtesy to your fellow human beings, please do NOT feed the seaguls. It gets them into the vicious habit of snatching food from humans instead of eating what nature provides. We don't want "the crime against humanity" to spread further, do we?!

Post script: I did say to hubby, "Perhaps you weren't meant to eat that huge pasty anyway as you're on diet?" To which he replied, "Hm." As far as I know, he's still fighting a war against seaguls.

* the last picture was taken in Looe, not Fowey. I thought the picture fits in perfectly with the story. :)

CSI England: The Crime Scene

You have seen pictures of the suspects, it's time to reveal more about the crime committed not long ago in Fowey, Cornwall, United Kingdom. As a surviving eyewitness I'm going to help you see the events in pictures, from the victim's point-of-view, not long before he fell victim to one of the most outrageous crime in history (read: his-story). This is where the story begins.

We're getting closer to the crime scene now.Below the crime scene:

Next time I'll tell you the crime itself. Watch the space.

Fowey, Cornwall

I'm fond of nook and crannies, so I especially love the first two photos. If I remember it correctly, that particular building has it's own ghost story. For that matter, everything in Fowey seemed to have a ghost story or two attached to it. I'm not fond of scary things, so I didn't make an effort to remember them. I love my sleep, I don't like nightmares!

More photos and a funny story to come. Please bear with me, I'm still trying to figure out how to use the new netbook hubby bought me - so we don't have to fight over computer time. We only have one broadband dongle though, so I can still see some fighting going on in the next few days, especially seeing most of my stuffs are still in his laptop. So yeah, please let me know if the post comes out wonky or anything like that. Thanks! :D

Ready Money...

Guess the connection between this:

And these:

Left: Suspect A


Right: Suspect B

Plymouth, England

Some photos from my trip to Plymouth, England.

I love the overall effect here. The waffle-like building on the background is a modern shopping centre, with an old cathedral ruins in the foreground. It would have been a perfect photograph if the cars and traffic lights weren't there.

A little corner of a secluded garden in the city. Hubby took this picture when I was coaxing a friendly cat out of the bush underneath the bridge. If you have an eagle eye you could see me somewhere between the "brainy" letters. :)

An old lighthouse on the foreshore. You can see a little island in the background. The locals said that 2 sisters owned the land and used to live there until they passed away and the ownership was transferred to National Trust (or something like that). Looking at the island reminded me of one of Agatha Christie's books: And Then There Was None - the perfect setting for murder mystery! I could also imagine Enid Blyton's The Famous Five roaming around the island: Julian, Dick, Anne, and George, with Timmy in tow. Oh, the wonder of childhood books...

Another corner of Plymouth' shore. I don't really know what that was. It was cold and the wind was quite strong, so I just sat on the bench doing people-watching. And island-watching, obviously.

Power Cuts, Burn & Crash, and Buckfast Abbey

Last weekend we experienced 6 power cuts in 2 days, leaving us feeling cold and powerless (pun intended). Hubby was bored as there wasn't any power supply for the laptop, good thing he has a wind-up radio to kept him entertained. I was using my reading light to read the TV guide for the week. Yup, pretty useless, as there wasn't any power for the TV. Next time when we have our own house I'm going to insist on having a bicycle-powered TV or a solar-powered TV or a mini wind farm to power the house, or something like that. :)

Yesterday I went to practice my cycling skill at a country lane nearby. That was the very first time I took my new bicycle on a proper country ride. I couldn't remember how to balance my shoulders. Result: I crashed into a bush, got my hands scratched by the thorns, the bike fell on me, resulting in spectacular bruises on my both legs. The "crash & burn" incident didn't deter me from finishing the 1km track. I still can't figure out how to work the gears, but I'm happy enough that I managed to go about 60m at a time without crashing into anything. I also managed to steer my bike away from cow pats, horse poos and dogs poos so I didn't have to clean the wheels. :) Hubby thinks it's going to take sometime before I could remember how to cycle properly.

That was my weekend adventures.

Now to Buckfast Abbey in Devon. We went there on our last break. According to the webpage, it's "home to a Roman Catholic community of Benedictine monks." The abbey itself isn't that old as it was being rebuilt quite recently in 1900. The weather was pretty bad so we didn't take many pictures of the gardens around the abbey. We had a proper Devonshire cream tea: scones with fresh clotted cream, homemade strawberry jam, and a cup of tea there. It was absolutely tasty! We slathered our scones with the cream and jam in the right order: the cream first before the jam, the Devonshire way. Apparently the Cornish way is to do it the other way round: the jam first before the cream.

The abbey is supposed to be famous for their honey but we didn't see any for sale in the gift shop. It probably has something to do with the disappearing bees in England in general. There was an interesting building in the compound where they sell different products produced by other Benedictine communities around the world. I would have bought some toiletries if I wasn't on "No Buy Challenge".

We didn't see any monks around, only fellow tourists. It was quite an interesting place altogether, you should visit the place if you're ever in the area.