Category: Musings

Friday Blues!

On By mouseytongIn Italy, Misc..., Mousey's Travel, Musings1 Comment

I am not actually blue. It is Friday. I am on an island. Clear blue skies. Deep blue seas. All culminating into a very blue Friday!

blue skies in Sardinia
Blue skies, blue sea, blue outfit….feeling the blues!!

This photo was taken a few months back but at the same island that I am in now. It was a little cooler then. Hence the jeans, stockings and scarf. The weekend is here!! Though it makes not much difference to me here in the store as we are open everyday. It just means, (hopefully) that there will be more people mingling and maybe a sale or to 2 for us. 🙂

In my last scatterbrain post, ( no worries, I plugged the huddle into a power source) I wrote about the hot tv news. (ok, it was lost so you didn’t actually read about it yet! :P) The news warned of the upcoming record high temperatures from the heat wave from Morocco. From that day, the 15th till the 23rd!! I wonder how much hotter will it be. It is, afterall, already 38 degrees! I think we will eventually reach melting point. LOL!!

My reasons to dislike summers is practically making their own case. Winning hands down! Everyone is complaining about the heat but do nothing about it. I mean, how is it possible to stay indoors when there is no wind (even with windows and doors all open), scorching sun and just a (or 2) puny stand fan to cool the ENTIRE house!! On top of that, please do not stay in front of that puny fan because direct wind while sweating is not good for you. It has to be metres away and not too strong. At 1 would be just perfect. @_@!!

No one really believes in air-conditioning nor ceiling fans. I have no idea why!? That is why this summer’s apartment we have here is by far THE BEST ever!! Immaculate apartment. It has everything we would ever need. It was complete with all the daily necessities. It is a little elevated with unblocked views, which also means very windy. Even without the wind, it is cool inside. The apartment complex has beautiful lush greenery which helps cool the place and all kept in order by a gardener everyday! AND…it has a ceiling fan in the master bedroom!! It is much welcomed after a loooooooooong day at the shop. Cool and comfortable sleep. No mozzies either!! A hop, skip away from the shop! Perfect combo for a great summer!!

For this I am thankful for how everything has turned out in our favour! We couldn’t find a reasonable place to rent at first so we waited. This was our reward for being calm  and patient. 🙂 🙂

As they say, “Patience is a Virtue!!”

Thank you to the world!

Happy to have a good, clean, cool and comfortable place to rest every night!

Toodeloos from the blue, blue Porto Cervo, Sardinia!

Ferragosto in Italia!

On By mouseytongIn Italy, Misc..., Mousey's Travel, MusingsLeave a comment
Porto Cervo
Clear waters of Porto Cervo port.

Today is Ferragosto! An Italian mid-August holiday. I have linked in English what this holiday means but the Italian has more details. The gist of the day is explained in both languages.

arrgghhhhh……I wrote like a whole page for this entry and it all went to the dogs because I didn’t realise that my internet huddle was out of battery. Clicked publish and poof! it all went missing. I spent the last 3 hours on this post. Being constantly interrupted as I am in the shop. I don’t have anymore time to re-write this. I don’t want to. It is almost midnight and Ferragosto is coming to an end. It will be the 16th soon and the whole point of the post was about this day.

I will make a better effort for the next post and not be such a scatterbrain!! In my defence, I am in the shop and there are clients walking in and out all the time. 🙂

Good night from Sardinia! Toodeloos!

 

The Olympics have come and gone…

On By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Malaysia, Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

I am presently trying not to doze off. Been telling myself the last 2 days that I should blog. Between the shop and family (M’s family is here with us) and friends AND gym (yes, I got myself access to a gym here. 🙂 ) I hardly have time to pen any of my thoughts down. The shop is open from 10am – 1pm and 6pm – 1am. Understandably I crash every night almost immediately. Come home to help with lunch and the clean up then laundry. Then some time to myself. About an hour or so before I haul my ass off to the gym.

During these “myself” moments, I watch the Olympics. I watch it so much that my MIL wonders if there is anything else on tv and how long more is the Olympics going to last. She is getting tired of the same channel! hehehehe..

At the same time, I catch up on emails, Twitter, messages, Milo, etc…

What did you think of the Olympics? I wasn’t too impressed with the Opening Ceremony. Except for the dancing number it felt more like just a lot of big names and that was it. All the special effects and props were wonderfully done but if there wasn’t a commentator telling the story, I would have been absolutely lost and wondering what the h*ll was happening the whole time. I am sure many felt that it was really good. To me it was just so-so.

I love the Olympic Stadium torch though! I think it the best thing! I was wondering what the children were holding when each country was coming into the stadium. Also when each child was walking up the flag hill and presenting them to the spectators before fixing it on the torch. So much guessing. I probably won’t be able to watch the closing ceremony. I hope I will be able to catch the replay some other time. Or maybe some highlights of the night, tomorrow.

Now, to the games. Malaysia did really well!! We are not really known for our athletes except in Badminton. A sport I have to explain to everyone in Italy. No one knows what it is! They have never really seen the racquet not the shuttlecock either! So, not so easy for me to boast about our amazing Dato’ Lee Chong Wei’s silver medal which put us on the medal table!!! I search for the medal table and proudly showed M.

Me: “See! See!! We are on the medal table!! Silver!!” *huge dumb-ass grin plastered on face*

M: “uh-huh.”

Me: “See!! Look!! Look!” *finger pointing furiously at Malaysia*

M: *blank stare*

Me: “Yay!!! hehehehe” *oblivious to blank stare*

Then a few days later, we got a bronze!!! Whoot!!! I was watching Pandelela in the finals in the gym. Luckily I was alone in the gym, if not people would have thought me crazy. I clapped and cheered when they introduced her and after each of her dive. I must have been such a sight! LOL!!

I couldn’t finish watching here as I had to go to the shop so I was really surprised and absolutely beaming the next day when I read my Twitter and Facebook updates. Ahhhh….it was a good day. 😀

I did the whole exchange above again with M. hehehehe!!!

Throughout the Olympics, I was very surprised at the amount of athletes we had who were diving. I was also so surprised we had a female 10km marathon swimmer who came in 16 out of 24! Very good effort! I would have died 3km into it, I think. I am really glad too that no Malaysians were involved in the female badminton scandal. All in all, Malaysia, you did well!!

Where there were no Malaysians, I give you one guess who I cheered for?

Forza Italia!! 🙂

Now to wait for the next Olympics in 4 years time. Rio 2016!!

Mousey needs to work harder…

On By mouseytongIn Musings2 Comments
It is a dog’s life….

I have got to say that since I started blogging here at WordPress, things have changed for me. Actually many things have changed for me since I have started on changing my mindset. Blogging at WordPress has brought many like minded people to my blog and mine to theirs. What this does for me is that it shows that I really have to work harder.

All the other blogs are so entertaining, interesting and chock full of useful information, amazing photos, great recipes and out-of-this-world works of art. Mine pales in comparison. 😦

I really have to buck up!

Suddenly it feels like school all over again…but, I was a lazy student. Guess I am back at square one! Oh, well….

Coffee 1 – Mousey 0

On By mouseytongIn Food, Misc..., Musings4 Comments
Iced Cold Coffee!! Heaven in a glass!

I went on a warpath with Coffee and Coffee won! It was a 5-day long battle and I lost. Today. *_*

A splitting headache did not help matters. In the end, I caved and made an amazingly horrible coffee, if there is such a thing. Instant coffee with hot milk bought from a dispenser. My office has no pantry but we have dispenser machines. I don’t know how it went so wrong. Instant coffee with hot milk and sugar. That was all that was in it. How did it go so horribly wrong? uurgggghhhh!!

The sad part of the whole thing is…..I finished it! Every last excruciating drop of it!

I don’t even know why exactly did I decide to go cold turkey on Coffee. Why? Maybe I thought I should just cut down on my coffee intake. Not to be so dependent on coffee. Who knows? Before Uni, I didn’t like Coffee! Being the struggling active student that I was, *cough* I needed Coffee. Now, I hardly drink tea which was my preferred choice before Uni.

Maybe it was because I was having too much Coffee. A big mug of Malaysian style Coffee to start my mornings, which is strong Coffee, none of the Americano crap, which in Italy is a shot of espresso topped with hot water. Basically diluted Coffee, bleh! Thena shot of espresso after every meal everyday. Too much coffee! I still sleep, no problems there. So why?

I don’t know. Maybe it is because I am trying to lose weight and all, I figured cutting out coffee and other sugary stuff would help. I don’t take carbonated drinks at all except sparkling water and the odd beer. M doesn’t drink so no fun drinking alone. I cut it out so well, that the other day a sip of Coca-cola made me sick! Imagine that! Though I think when the cravings come, I can down a whole glass, I am sure! For now, I am safe.

I guess I will figure it out soon enough. For now, I shall forge on….Coffee! you have not seen the last of me!

Ps: Coffee, I might need you to come back some day….so don’t go too far away.

Annual Girly Trip 2012 – Boracay, Philippines

On By mouseytongIn AGT, Mousey's Travel, Musings, Philippines3 Comments

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I am finally writing about our Annual Girly Trip (AGT) though some of you may have seen the photos posted on FB by my friends. I hardly ever post any picture on FB so unless I was tagged, you won’t see them. 🙂 I have also trashed the other blogpost that I was working on because to me the moment has passed and I didn’t want to write about it anymore.

Anyway, lets start from the very beginning of our AGT planning which as always, starts the year before.There were the usual, where do we want to go this year. I wanted to go to Boracay! Like the year before and the one before that too. They finally caved in this time. 😛 Somehow, it was easier this time round to decide on the date as no one is flying anymore and only 2 of them have to decide between them the dates to apply for leave and then inform the rest of us. They decided on the last week of June. The MATTA fair also helped matters along. The said 2, Dee and Simone went scouting around and found a great deal that included air fare, airport transfer and hotel with breakfast! It was such a good deal, everything was locked in almost immediately! All this was done by March this year.

Then our journey begins. I flew in from Italy and Von flew in from Indonesia. We were missing another person but this year she has too much on her plate to leave Malaysia for this trip. So it was just the 4 of us, or so I thought. I got both good and bad news 2 days before leaving for Singapore. Suffice to say, the travel will not be very good for her. So She dropped out. But was with us in spirit! We missed her filming..she always does the filming while Simone and I took photos. This time, I filmed instead and Simone took the artistic pictures.

We left Singapore on the 28th/29th June. Check in was the night before as our flight was after midnight. After 4+ hours we landed in Manila International Airport in time for dawn to break. By 6 we have gone through immigration and customs and we were making our way to the domestic terminal. Once we checked in, we found a slice of home! We found Ya Kun Kaya Toast! It was funny! We were a little hungry so some strong coffee, kaya toast, half boiled eggs and bowl of hot noodles was welcomed with open arms. We had almost 3 hours to kill. After breakfast we sat around. Von caught up with her trashy magazines as she calls them, I, with my “1431” book and Simone with her sleep, only for her to wake up to knuckles on her face! LOL!!! what a sight!

Then it was time to board for Kalibo. Oh, I have to mention that Philippine Airlines has a very interesting and funny safety video. We all found it very entertaining! Made us laugh and smile each time. We had hot food on the first leg, but since this 2nd flight was only an hour they served us biscuits and something else, I forgot. I only remember the biscuits because they were really good. Not my first time eating them but I was happy to have them again. Spicy tuna crackers! Yums!!! Their service was good too for both the flights! A very good first impression for me. 🙂

All this, we were still not there yet. When we arrived, we were met and ushered onto a bus. That bus took us another 1 and half hours through winding roads uphill and down. If we were not so tired and didn’t sleep through the journey, we would have been really sick. Which is what happened on the way back. This time it took us even longer as it rained! *choke* *squemish* *choke* After that bus trip we finally arrived at Caticlan, to be met by the reps from our hotel La Carmela. Ushered onto a van only to be dropped off 5 minutes later at their jetty reception. 15- 20 mins wait and we were loaded onto the boat (though I am sure they have a better name than my generic term) for the 30 minute ride to Boracay. Next up, into another van for another 15 minute ride to the hotel. FINALLY! we arrived…..it took us nearly 12 hours! Now we know why the tickets was such a good deal. 😛

Then….another long wait to check in. It was nearly 2pm and we were not in a very good mood. So we snapped at the reception when the rooms were not ready and they told us to wait. Not happy campers! 😦 They also took FOREVER to check us in. Photocopying our passports took eternity while the machine was just there, right in front of us! They were writing and writing and writing and shouting into their walkie talkies. We couldn’t understand why it is taking so long. We were tire, but we couldn’t sit and wait for our rooms but have to stand there at reception while they “check us in”. Apart from this little hiccup, the rest of the stay was really good. The hotel was at a good location. We had the beach right in front of us.

Now the holiday begins. First day, Simone and I didn’t get very far. We headed out for lunch and then both of us crashed till the next morning. I crashed earlier. Simone made plans for diving the next day. Only Von, the strong woman that she is managed to go for dinner and did a little exploring. I woke up bright and early the next day. Up and about and on the beach by 6am. The breakfast from the hotel was not the best, but I was hungry. The voucher didn’t entitle me to the buffet but just a plate. Bummer! 😦 Then I rolled and lazed around till the girls got up and finished breakfast at 8.30. Simone was planning on a dive at 9am. We tagged along with no intention of diving but then got sweet talked into diving. We were pushovers! So easily talked into diving! We didn’t have anything better to do anyway…LOL!!!! It has been years since I last went diving. It was a really good experience. We saw, turtles and a very long black and white sea snake! urgh!! I don’t like snakes! After the trip I realised I didn’t have proper sunscreen on so my freckles were out with a vengeance! Darn it!! have to work extra hard to care for my skin and not look so “chau ta” (burnt).

back on land for lunch and lookee-here! Look what we found! Nespresso!! Both Von and I are huge Nespresso fans!! Coffee was the order of the day! 🙂 Lunch was good too! Then we wandered off to the beach to “nua” our afternoon away while waiting for Simone to come back from her dive. We saw a couple of girls posing away a la FHM or Sports Illustrated while taking photos of each other in those poses. They attracted quite a crowd. It was really entertaining! A good hour was wiled away watching them. This day was also the day we had cheap and good buffet dinner, polished off our wine which we bought at Changi and went for drinks AND witness amazing poi (hopefully spelled this way) fire dancing. We even explored a little and chanced upon a bar with table top dancing which left us with a sight we wish to forget! @_@

The next day was THE best day! Simone went diving again while Von and I “nua-ed” again but this time at another bar. Right next to the previous one. We had an adventure searching for bubble tea drink kiosk up and down the beach when all the while it was right next to us! We thought it was further down the beach. We walked under the hot sun back and forth, got bitten by ants (cause I stepped on an ant hill, silly me!) and sweating buckets. Finally, we decided to wait for Simone to come back and tell us where it is. We walked back to the cafe where we were at the day before but decided to go next door. If only we walked a few more steps forward, we would have seen the kiosk!! Imagine Simone’s face when we asked her. All she said was “you girls are so funny! It is right there! (pointing straight ahead)” We were mere 5 metres away!!!!!!!! @_@ We waited 2 hours for Simone while Von kept going “I want bubble, bubble, bubble !”

The sea was so refreshing on such a hot day! We were told that we were very lucky as it is monsoon season and the weather was predicted to be good over the weekend and then rain on Monday which was the day that we were leaving. Just nice! It really happened as predicted. Lucky us!! We lazed around till about close to sunset. Von suggested we go see the other side of the island. So we did. Got a tuk tuk like taxi and made our way to Puka beach. It is a very nice and quiet beach. The view was amazing! Off in the distance it looked like it was raining fire as the sun set.

We got back just before the heavens opened. We stopped near the shopping area so we had to walk back in the rain to the hotel. A quick shower and braving the rain, we made our way back to the wet market which Von had kindly showed us. The concept here was to buy all that you want from the wet market and all the shops surrounding it and bring all our produce to the restaurant nearby. They charge a fee for cooking the items but we get to choose how it is going to be cooked. It was THE best dinner of the lot! We bought prawns, lala (shellfish or vongole), crabs, ladies fingers, eggplants, squid…..what a feast!

Because it was raining we didn’t do much. Went back and finished off the last bottle of wine just chatting. Last day, Simone wandered off early to take pictures while Von and myself squeezed every ounce of rest we could get before checking out. One last dip and some packets of amazing out of this world ‘siew yuk’ (roast pork) we were on our way to make the long, long journey back to Singapore.

That folks is our uneventful, beautifully relaxing holiday. Even if we wanted it to be more exciting, the place didn’t help or maybe we were just to tired… 😛
P.s: I don’t know what I did or how to undo it. Been at it a few times but I can’t get my photos in the right order. 😦 Just enjoy the pictures then…

Lacking in words…

On By mouseytongIn Musings2 Comments

Okay, I have decided that my blog needs words! I have been working on other blogposts as I said in my last Life in Photos series but I have decided to write something. My blog feels empty without words. I have no idea where I want to go with this post yet but I think I will arrive at something by the next sentence. 😛

Since I got back last week, I haven’t had much time to myself. I have been to the doctors every 2 days, getting my blood tested, and body scanned and spending the rest of the day in the office, dinner at in laws, walking Milo and staying out till late everyday. All the meds that I am currently on I making me feel more tired than I would be normally. I am struggling to stay awake now just have a few hours to myself to catch up on everything on the blogging world.

Hopefully tomorrow is the last test and this weekend I will be in Barcelona again. Fingers cross that everything works out this time. I am going to crash now. oh wait, since I got home I have just plonked myself in front of the tv with my laptop. I still have to take off my make up and wash up…urrghhhh! I want my bed but I am vain so I will trudge through my skincare regime and get to bed. OMG, we just got back awhile ago and now it is already 1.30am and I have to be up at 7.30!

I feel tired just thinking about it….

My positive thinking and paradigm shift has taken a beating these few days. Am working on getting back on the wagon.

*chanting “nothing is ever as bad as it seems..” “mind over matter”….oooommmmmm*

goose nights to all!

Back to reality!

On By mouseytongIn Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

So so sad. Our Annual Girly Trip (AGT) is over. 😦 and it is back to reality. Stayed over for a night at Dee’s before waking up LATE for my flight back to Kuala Lumpur (KL) all because we were sooooooo tired from ALL our travel and we set the wrong timing for the alarm clock. Hehehehe! But I managed to make the flight in time.

Am now back in KL and I dove right into my workouts again after a looong, relaxing and extremely fun week away. Feels good! Though today’s trip to a Chinese massuese was really painful!

What is more painful now is the fact that I am writing this on my BIL’s IPad and it is driving me nuts!! @&$*^%!!!!

I am going to give up writing this post on account of this blardy IPad ! Arrrggghhhhh!!!

Ok…ciao! Laters!

Toodeloos!it

Mousey is on a roll!!

On By mouseytongIn Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

Wow! It is only the 17th of June and I have already 15 posts in for this month. Albeit a few of it being just photo posts. I will take it anyway. Cheating you say? No way, those are my photos which I took and it took time to search for them in my photo archives and to post them.  They are photos which I have always wanted to share. So it is ALL mine. 🙂

Feeling prolific! Going to bask in the glory of my fleeting glory! 🙂

Bwahahahahaha!!!!

Till the next post…Toodeloos!

Sampdoria is back in Seria A!!!

On By mouseytongIn Celebrations, Italy, Misc..., MusingsLeave a comment

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If you followed my twitter or even my update on “Life in Photos”, you will see that I had a great Saturday. I am not an avid football fan but in a land of football (soccer for Americans) you get swept into the celebrations. What’s more if your in-laws are ALL Sampdoria fans. Except for my husband, they are all Sampdoria fans. The hardcore fans are my FIL, BIL and nephew. FIL NEVER misses a game at the stadium if it is played at home. Now, if you are a football fan, you might recognise this team. I am not a hardcore football fan so I didn’t till I came here but my brother did. He follows most of the leagues especially those teams that have been in the EUFA like the other more famous teams like Juvetus, Milan AC and Inter Milan. Some cities have 2 football teams much like Manchester City and Manchester United. Truthfully, I never knew there was a Manchester City till they got into the Premier League a few year back but Man U? It would be blasphemy if I didn’t! My brother is a great fan of Man U!! I had an ex who is an Arsenal fan so, Arsenal is also known to me. To really irritate him, I will cheer for Chelsea always, doing a little dance and singing “Chelsea, Chelsea!” LOL!! All in good fun! I also never miss the World Cup. I watch it whenever I can. Suffice to say, I know more about football than M and that is not a feat. M has no interest in football except to maybe watch Italy in the World Cup every 4 years.

As I was saying, Genoa like major cities here in Italy, has 2 football teams. It seems Genoa is the older and first football team, and supposedly in Italy too. I don’t know how true this is. Then there is Sampdoria. Easily identifiable bu their colours (duh!) and the emblems (double duh!). I know, I know…. Anyway, Genoa has the Gryphon and its colours are dark blue and red affectionally known as “Rosso Blu” (Red Blue) whereas Sampdoria has the eagle and red, white,  blue and black also known as “Blue Cerchiati” (Blue circle?). All Sampdorianis do not like gryphons and I say this because when we started the vespa restoration company and designed a logo with a gryphon on it, my FIL was visibly upset. It was funny! 😀 We incorporated a gryphon because the original Piaggio (the company that makes vespas) has a gryphon on it. We changed it to a dragon.

Why the big celebration? Well, last year, Sampdoria played really badly and got relegated to Seria B. Something that was unfathomnable to most. In the last 6 years here and maybe more (since my brother has heard of Sampdoria means they were quite a team) they have always been near the top of the table. And for them to do so badly and get relegated was devastating. The constant playful taunting from the Genoanas was heartbreaking for my FIL. 🙂 Poor fella! It was worse because just 2 years ago, Genoa was in Seria B and when they got up to Seria A they blazed their way to the top of the table while Sampdoria slipped down the rankings and eventually fell off the table.

But within 1 season, they are back!!! This was what all the celebrations was about. Last Saturday was the determining game and we made it!!!!!!! Wohoo!!! I am not a true fan but a fan none the less. I went with M to the historic centre to celebrate with the family. Paid a little homage to Sampdoria and saw the crazy crowd in action. Celebrations went on till wee hours of the morning. At 5 am, the horns were still honking on the streets. Whoever who watched the game at home all come out in full force to celebrate. Streets were packed, there was traffic especially near the expo centre at Foce where they have set up a open air cinema-like area for the fans to watch the game. To give you an idea how big that area is, they usually have the travelling circus or theme parks set up there complete with the area for all their caravans and 18 wheeler trucks. That is how big that area is. There was fireworks, drinking, singing, horns and loads of flag wavings! It was fun!! Even the children were out with their parents. From babies to toddlers. Some were even fast asleep among all the ruckus! I don’t know how they could sleep through ALL that noise.

It was a fun Saturday night. A different twist to the usual Saturdays. 🙂

I will leave you with videos of that night’s madness.You can even see me in one of them giving my tribute. hahahaha! 😛

Toodeloos!