This is the scene at Bukit Bintang...drums and cymbals play in tune with the shoppers' gaits.

to visit the queen

where to?

newsbit

Oodles of money found......

deja vu

This is the A380 that brought us back to our mundane lives. It was a nice holiday, really. We had the good luck to stay in a glorious flat just several feet away from Hyde Park. On the first morning, I woke up to the clippety-clop of the horses and...the familiar smell of manure that they heap in vengeance.

The A380 was cozy and the flying time was shorter than usual but long enough to allow me to watch "Atonement" twice, thrice...

wishes come true - bournemouth revisited

That was last year when we had this conversation. Bournemouth is what I imagined to be. The air was biting cold but it was sunny - enough to embolden young girls to don their bikinis.

a tower raven

Ravens at the Tower of London have a lot of history - mostly ominous.

in Oxford

We came from Paddington Station and arrived at Oxford to visit friends; ate scampis; heard stories about our friends' first visit to the Royal Ascot days before; and showed Meeza around in case she would want to go to an Oxford institution for studies. She seemed interested and I was quite pleased, I just had to cross my fingers.

stonehenge, close-up

the brits showcase

We were on the River Thames Cruise. It's a cold summer. In a little while we were to see the dungeons of old, torture chambers and of course, the Crown Jewels.

Like in Kuala Lumpur and in most of Singapore, no Bruneian who goes to Kuching will ever doubt the halal-ness of the food he/she eats. Kuching is one of my favourite cities because, other things aside, it has an Italian restaurant (at the Merdeka Palace Hotel) that has a buffet of pastas and pestos and unbelievably halal at that!

The nasi lemak, of course, is staple food.

In-room dining at the Holiday Inn has these comfort-food:

Nasi Lemak with accouterments including a leaf-wrapped otak-otak


All too familiar - Roti Canai! The roti was light and airy - not the greasy type.

These are welcoming figures before entering the Damai Hotel and Spa. Very peculiar and very indigenous. They give the Hotel cum Spa a certain ambience, maybe Balinese or Iban, I am not sure, though.

a study in contrast

Well, we did not come across crocodiles, but we did see the contrast between a quaint little village and a symbol of affluence along the riverside of Kuching which is a lot to learn in one cruise.

cat city

Our holiday in Kuching, Sarawak is slowly winding down. We've yet to do the River Cruise tonight and I hope it's worth our time. I've been to river cruises before (Subic, Basilan Straits, Kg Ayer, Jolo, Bangkok, Pattaya, Penang, Hong Kong, Laguna Bay, Corregidor, Batangas, etc.) and I love them. I could easily spot the kinds of flora and fauna that inhabit the riversides - I remember glimpses of a croc head and a slithering snake among the mangroves. Hope to point them to Meeza if I get to see them again.

joie de vivre

This is the balcony view of the Broadwater along Marine Parade in Labrador, Gold Coast. We get to see this span of shimmering water for seven days.

the claws of summer

wiped out

Meeza is up in this huge contraption called The Wipeout having fun. My feet are on soil; my heart in bonkers. When the machine stops, I'm happy to see her still whole. She says, "That was really fun! Now, can I 'ikut' The Claw?" I say, "No Way" (to foil my heart attack).

pretty in pink

This bird lives at the Currumbin Sanctuary at Gold Coast in Australia. It is sooo pretty it resembles the pink sorbets of summer.

westlife's home

The commotion and excitement of the school holidays have begun. Family and friends have started the temporary "migration" to places near and far. Yet, there is no place like home. In the few days that we will be away, each of us will be missing our favourite nooks and niches at home. We've been singing Westlife's "Home" even before leaving. The song is at the sidebar and the lyrics down here........

Another sunny day,
Has come and gone away,
In Paris and Rome,
I want to go home,
Mmmmmm
Maybe surrounded by,
A million people I,
Still feel all alone,
I just want to go home,
Oh I miss you, You know,
And i've been keeping all the letters,
That I wrote to you,
Each one a line or two,
I'm fine baby how are you,
Well I would send them but,
I know that it's just not enough,
The words were cold and flat,
And you deserve more, than that,

Another aeroplane,
Another sunny place,
I'm lucky, I know,
But I want to go home,
I've got to go home,
Let me go home
Im just too far,
From where you are,
I've got to come home,
Let me come home,
I've had my run,
Baby i'm down,
I want to come home,

And I feel just like,
I'm living,
Someone elses life,
It's like i just stepped outside,
When everything was going right,
And I know just why you could not come along with me,
'Cause this was not your dream,
But you always believed in me,

Another winter day,
Has come and gone away,
In either Paris and Rome,
And I Want To Go Home,
I miss you, You know,
Let me go home,
I've had my run,
Baby i'm down,
I want to go home,
Let me go home,
It'll all be alright,
I'll be home tonight,
I'm coming back home.


[ www.LyricsTop.com ]

splendido

My husband has fallen in love with Taal, the cold mountain with a lake and an active volcano in the middle. This is where Splendido, the golf and country club is cocooned. He just had discovered Splendido, but I already feasted on the beauty of Taal long before I even met him. I am glad my husband found Splendido and Taal.

My parents always brought us here when we were children. The long trip, for us, started along the coast of Manila Bay and wove into the smaller roads festooned with fruit stalls. Along these roads we experienced the sight of freshly cut beef from Batangas cattle that hanged on rods and also smelled the brewing of the coffee called "Barako". A barako literally means a thug or a bully. This is the coffee that raises your adrenaline, I know.

In the vicinity of the famous lake, there are quaint, European-like houses owned presumably by well-to-do families. My husband is reminded, he says, of countryside England because of these houses and the cold climate.

As a child, I looked for my favourite fruit when we stopped over at the stalls. It is called 'tiessa' and it looks like a ripe papaya on the outside. The taste is like a chiku gone chalky, my brothers would say. But, it did not discourage me and I suspect I had more Vitamin A because of the 'tiessa'. All of us liked the 'atis' (sugar fruit) because of its unbelievable sweetness and we spit out the seeds to hit on each other. I found the pictures of these fruits (Marketman's) and I am brought back to the magic of Taal.