The Grumpiness Within
This Is My Life In Europe A Grumpy Old Man
More Than A Fifth Of A Century Old

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Hermes

Fleming House Captain
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My Babe September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
August 2011
This skin is a !ferris production.

back!! decided to breathe new life into this blog after 2 yrs 9 mths!!

anyhow, life has moved on a great deal since then. back to work now. though not a lot have changed..

weekend without my love has been alright thus far. chance to clear up lots of stuffs that have been hanging around undone. much thought have been put into the direction of my life thus far. (okay, not really that much thought)

anyhow much to do!! for both work and life.
(1) trip planning! do i really wanna go Argentina!? seems so fantasy..
(2) get my trading account up.
(3) do i want to join the DSLR madness?!

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finally! done with all the pesky work. final report done. textbook summarized. all slides downloaded. preparation for exams done!

next up is to spring-clean the room for baby's arrival. book the remaining trains for the trip. and start sorting out accommodation! oh, and I have to figure out what modules I want to take for next semester. 1 Core & 3 Electives. not too heavy not too relaxed. just nice for my final semester =)

oh and feisty is getting better =D sis says that his head tilt is almost back to normal. and the little guy is more cheerful and has a healthy appetite =) good good good!

and the best news.. baby's coming soon! =D

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little feisty's sick =( with tilt head.

try to eat okay? and rest more.

please get well.

hang in there buddy.

=(
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last week was the tour of England. of course, the main agenda of the trip was the Manchester United vs West Ham home game *woohoo!* needless to say, we also contrived to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing. 6 days, 6 cities =)

it started with a late flight to Birmingham, after which we spent the night at Birmingham Airport. that's when I realized that I forgot to put my memory card into my camera! goodness me. the previous trip I forgot my passport, this trip I forgot my memory card! =( after a uncomfortable night of little sleep, we took the early bus into Birmingham to take a look. imagine my delight when I stepped outside the airport to find Birmingham covered with snow =) heng lo, cos Oslo snowed that same night. first snowfall witnessed =)

Birmingham's an industrial city situated in the West Midlands and have little in terms of attractions. 1 major reason is that most of the city was destroyed during WW2. we only had 3 hours cos of our bus to Manchester, and walked around the city centre and had breakfast during that short time.


many hours later, we finally arrived in Manchester =) we found our hotel and took a little nap before the most important event of the trip. after a solid 2hr of sleep, we headed down to Old Trafford =D followed the crowd streaming down to the stadium and had a very filling fish & chips at Matt Busby Way. took some pictures, and took a look around the busy Megastore. didn't buy anything except the ever important Match Day Programme since I'll be returning in Dec =)

now, the match. as you probably know, Manchester United won 2-0 =) with both goals from Ronny. the 1st goal was a brilliant left foot shot from 12 yards in the 14th minute, assisted by Nani.


the 2nd goal was absolutely brilliant - Ronny provided the simple tap-in but Berbatov did the magic. Anderson threaded a harmless looking ball to Berbatov down the left flank. West Ham's Collins seemed to be covering Berbatov well keeping the ball tight to the byline. Berbatov had almost no space to do anything with the ball until.. he stopped the ball with his left foot, did a turn on the ball and flicked the ball over Collins and along the byline with his right foot. with Collins out of the way, Berbatov simply had to pass it square to Ronny for a simple tap-in. absolute genius. witnessed with my own eyes =D


Man Utd pretty much controlled the game from start to finish. West Ham barely threatened and the Man Utd players were starting to show off their tricks and flicks. it was almost like a training session. pity though that they didn't convert any of their chances in the second half when they were attacked Stretford End where I was seated =( oh wells, the view was excellent from my seat, the match was brilliant and the result brilliant. absolutely brilliant. will try to be back for Middlesborough match in Dec. =)


we spent the next day sightseeing in Manchester. Manchester is a pretty modern city and is a sprawling. city with many many different districts. it's the unofficial Capital of North England and is a very diverse city. of course, it's known for its sports (think Manchester Unity and City) and is also a very popular destination of students (I wanted to go there actually for Instep). its also rather multi-racial and is one of the few cities in Europe to have a Chinatown of its own.


the next morning, we headed to York. York is a medival city dating back from the Roman times (again!). some of the exciting sights are the York Minister, the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe. of course, they had the usual supply of ancient beautiful medival ruins. its a rather touristy place, with hordes of tourists everywhere. but still, the town itself is very beautiful. unfortunately we didn't spend the night in York, otherwise we could have taken their world-famous Ghost Tour. & it was Halloween loh. what a pity.


we then headed down to Leeds, one hour away, for the night. Leeds is the largest city in Yorkshire (where York is situated) and it supposedly has one of the best shopping experiences in UK. unfortunately, we are still not savvy to winter culture. at 4pm, as we were walking to our hotel, the streets were very busy. so we thought "hey! let's dump our bags, then do some shopping!" after dumping our bags, we returned to find.. a ghost town. everything was closed, everyone was gone. and it was barely one hour since we last passed through the area. diaozzzzz.... anyhow, we had dinner and took some night snaps of the city's sights.

the next day, we proceeded on to Chester. Chester's a small historical city with of course, Roman ruins. it is also the gateway to Wales, located practically on the border between England and Wales. it too has some pretty important historical monuments - one of the most complete city walls in the world, and also the Rows (which is a series of two-tiered shopping galleries, one of its kind). we pretty much spent the day sightseeing and retired pretty early.

oh, and the freaking hostel had no heating! dunno what my friend was thinking when he booked it. hmm, maybe he didn't know. haha. anyhow it was FREEZING. inside was colder than outside lorh. =( slept with full battle gear on. haha.

the last day ended up in Liverpool - European Capital of Culture 2008, home to the famous Beatles and of course Merseysiders Liverpool & Everton. we kicked off with a stop at Anfield to pick up some merchandise, then headed back to city centre to do some sightseeing. the buildings were gorgeous baby, no wonder its the Capital of Culture. and you could tell that the city is absolutely obsessed with soccer and the Beatles. you could see it everywhere! even their airport is named John Lennon Airport. LOL.

this ends our little whirlwind trip to England. but the memory of that brilliant night in Old Trafford will forever be etched in my mind fondly =)
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update as requested by my dear sis =)

this trip to Southern France was a whirlwind 5 day trip and on the itinerary was 7 cities - Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Avignon, Gordes, Les Baux, Pont Du Gard & Arles.

the trip started on a bad note when we missed the airport bus and had to spend 2500nok or 600sing on a freaking cab ride. and it was just 1 hr! 120km. =( the meter was jumping faster than my heartbeat! and it actually stopped 2/3 of the way - there's apparently some sort of legal limit on the cab fare? haha. thank god.

full album: nice #1
anyway we then proceeded to Marseille where we spent a night at the airport and took a morning train directly to Nice. Nice's a very pretty city located on the French Riviera. it has a great (though stony!) beach, a very famous and beautiful waterfront and of course it is a port city. we only had half a day there, so we did a whirlwind tour of the city and climbed up the Colline du Chateau for some gorgeous views. afterward before heading to Monaco, the rest headed back to rest. whereas I went to take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea! absolute bliss =) the painful walk down the stony (yes! it's a stone beach, not a sandy beach) and the struggle to get into the water (the tidal pull is freaking strong) is absolutely worth it.. pictures!

later that day, we went to Monte Carlo, Monaco! Monaco actually isn't part of France even though its geographically in France. it's actually a country by itself, and the 2nd smallest city in the world! in fact, it beats Singapore at being the most densely populated country. anyway, the glitz and glamour of Monaco was kinda under expectations. but you could really see that people who live there are really rich. we took a walk around the famous F1 track route, went to gawk at the super luxury boats parked at the Marina, and of cos went to look see at the famous Monte Carlo Casino. pictures once again.. =)

the next day, we took the train back to Marseille and spent the day there =) Marseille indeed lives up to its name "Land of Criminals". the city was very ghetto and gritty, even more than Milan. but the sights was pretty good. we went to see the forts and wandered around the Old Town. and we took a trip up the hill to see the Notre Dame. it really is a sight to behold =)


the next 2 days were spent out in the Provence area where we visited several small cities/towns. first stop, Avignon. Avignon is one of the biggest cities in the Provence area and it was our base for the day. We spent a few hours visiting some of the main sights of the city - the Palace of Popes, Notre Dame and the half-bridge Pont D'Avignon. after the short walk around the city, we embarked on a guided tour of 3 other towns in the Provence area.

first stop was Gordes. this small mountain village is perched on a hillside and it is really very beautiful. its buildings are all built out of white stone and its really gorgeous. it reminded me of Greece! though I've never been to Greece.. haha! oh and it is also a very old village - the castle in Gordes was first built 1000 years ago!


the second stop was in a even smaller town of Les Baux. this small village is on a small rock amongst the Alpilles Mountains and is very touristy - not surprisingly because it is so pretty. almost every building seemed to be a ruin. oh.. and this small town used to have only 22 residents, but now it can entertain thousands of tourists in the summer. amazing =)


last but not least, we headed to Pont du Gard. this isn't a town or village. in fact, it is a Aqueduct near the village of Vers. if u recall from my Spain trip, I saw an Roman Aqueduct at Segovia as well. well, this is the same =) it's not as nice or dramatic as the one in Segovia, but this one is more accessible considering that you can actually walk along it and could actually climb to the top of it. too bad the climbing on to the top part is closed =(


the last day was spent at Arles. this small city's main attractions are the Roman ruins left behind by no other than the Romans =) it was a pretty small town and had some pretty interesting sights. works by van Gogh is littered around the city. Arles is where he did some of his most famous works.


this marks the end of my Southern France tour. think I would definately head back one day, rent a car and drive around to all the charming little french towns. =)

next up.. England trip!

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I'm back! back from a fantastic yet eventful 5 day trip in France. went to loads of places - Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Avignon, Gordes, Les Baux, Pont Du Gard & Arles.

updates to follow!

I miss you too! =D

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sitting in the room waiting for your reply. are you that upset with what happened yesterday? I hope not. mentally willing you to reply now. =(

anyway.. updates. so far 6 trips planned. the first starts tomorrow (that's why I don't want you to be upset, I'll be gone for 5 days soon), going to Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Avignon & Arles. following that would be the Liverpool & Manchester trip to watch the Manchester United versus West Ham match =D more on this later. Scotland & Poland trip follows 2 days later. followed by your arrival and our trip to Holland, Bergen & Sweden.

just bought my Manchester match tickets online. first, I forgot about the shipping address portion and forgot to update my profile to the Norwegian address. ok nevermind, still can send to Singapore then ask mom to send it to me right? NO! the freaking idiotic website didn't show my entire address on the confirmation slip. I've checked my profile and the address is correct =( now it's missing the unit number and the postal code. die. my S$140 tickets dunno getting sent to where. stressed =( emailed them, will call them if I don't get a response tomorrow morning. hope for the best. an exciting event of the lifetime starts out on a bad footing.

as for the big trip. we really need to get our act together. continue this way and flights will be expensive, trains will be expensive and hotels will be expensive. as the famous maxim goes - fail to plan, plan to fail.

sigh.

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the final leg of this trip ended in Zurich - Cultural Capital of Switzerland. Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and has been generally considered to have the best quality of life in the world.

the entire trip was pretty uneventful - especially after the fantastic trip in Munich and at Oktoberfest. but Zurich itself is a very nice and quiet city. it is also a very small city! we basically covered 3 main parts of Zurich - the Old Town, the area around Lake Zurich and the area around the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

as usual with most cities, the Old Town area was charming and nice =) because most of the buildings are low-rise, the beauty of the tall churches around the area is accentuated. there was the Grossmunster, which had twin towers and looked very cool. and St Peter - the clock face on the tower is the largest in the world.


we also met Yvonne's friend on the 2nd day and he basically brought us around to see whatever we've missed in the 4-5 hours that we had. the highlight was probably the trip up the hill to ETH Zurich & University of Zurich campus. One might wonder why a visit to a university is a highlight.

well the reason is this. first, both universities (located side-by-side) are located on a hill overlooking the entire Zurich city area. how cool! next, the interior of the universities are like.. museums. you have statues all over, and basically it doesn't feel like a school. it feels like a freaking museum. ultimate cool-ness.

that sums up Zurich, and the entire trip to Milano, Munich and Zurich =)

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after roaming the streets of Milano, we boarded a night train to Munich! a brief introduction to the city of Munich. Munich is the 3rd largest city in Germany (after Berlin & Hamburg) & is the capital of Bavaria. it is of course home to over 1.3 million people.


let's begin with the night train. it consisted of 2 legs - Milano to Verona, then on towards Munich. 1st leg was alright, there wasn't much people and we could stretch out and sleep. after a short wait at Verona, our train came .. and we couldn't find our assigned train carriage! after panicking for a while, we saw our carriage roll slowly in and link up with the train. cool =) and it was crowded! space was pretty limited but it was okay. its just the noise from the tracks that kept me awake. well but I saw some fantastic night views of the Alps - the lights from the small towns lit up the sheer cliffs of the Alps and it was just stunning.

okay.. Munich proper. on our way to our hotel, we passed by the Oktoberfest fairground. boy! it's huge! I always had this impression of Oktoberfest in my head and it wildly exceeded my expectations. haha. and the activities hasn't even started yet. LOL

after washing up, we ventured out to see the city. Munich is quite stunning in my opinion. the atmosphere in the city just feels so good. the weather was good and the architecture magnificent. the entire city seems steeped in history and it was just very atmospheric.


we toured till around noon, and headed off to Oktoberfest! first, I'm sure you have wondered why Oktoberfest is called so when the majority of it isn't even held in October! well in 1810 mid-October, Oktoberfest was born when the Crown Prince & Princess held it as a celebration of their marriage and it was then a one-day thing. the festival was continued and as it became increasingly popular, organizers had to extend the duration. they chose September because of the good weather =)

the fairground itself is huge and it was like a huge theme park! there were roller-coaster rides, game stalls, ferris wheel and many many rides you would find in a theme park. and of course the huge beer tents. nothing can prepare you for the atmosphere and scale of the tents. it was GREAT!

when you first enter, you will notice the colorful streamers and decorations all over the tent that symbolizes the beer merchant that is supplying beer for that particular tent. next, you will be astounded by the endless rows of tables and the sheer numbers of people just sitting there drinking from their 1L mugs of beer. and of course, there is always a raised platform in the middle of the tent where a large band is playing great Bavarian music. everyone is just simply having a great time. and of course.. we did as well =D


we drank and ate and made merry at 2 tents that day - Augustiner-Brau & Lowenbrau. I must say I prefer the Augustiner-Brau. a local told me that it's the best beer because it's the only beer still stored in traditional wooden barrels and the flavour is absolutely fantastic. and he was spot-on =)

after getting ourselves tipsy, we stumbled back to the hotel for siesta. 4 guys shared 2 beds and of course Yvonne had a bed to herself. after getting some rest, we headed out to this traditional beer garden called Ratskeller and had dinner. it's located below the Old Town Hall and we were eating in this underground cavern called the Noah's Arc (named after the mural of Noah's Arc on the wall). the food and atmosphere was great =D

later that night, we went to take the Ferris Wheel for some fantastic aerial night views of the fairground and headed off to the Allianz Arena. pity I didn't know Bayern Munich was playing a cup match that night. I would have tried to get tickets to see it =(


the next and last day in Munich begun with some great time spent in the tent of Hofbrau Munchen (partly to seek shelter from the drizzle) and seeing some of the other beer tents. we then headed off to the city centre and surroundings to see more of the city before leaving. I boarded the train with great regret =( I really liked Munich. oh well..


next stop, Zurich!

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my evolution into a nightcrawler is complete.
a creature of the night.
guardian of snorers and bad dreams.
still awake at 6am. my gosh.
really need to reset my sleeping cycle.
and i still owe you Munich & Zurich posts.
my bad. =(

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