Ok, firstly goodbye 2008. Every year, same time, we always wished for a better year ahead…. so is your 2008 better than your 2007 ?
Well, perhaps. The highlight this year being the trip to Europe. Places that I thought I would never have the chance or money to go…. I’ve been there this year. So, i consider my 2008 as better than 2007. Haha.
Hello 2009. Hope 2009 will be better than 2008.
Lets go for a Ramly burger and a pint of Guiness with homies.
I don’t know if its part of the itinerary, but the visit to Swarovski (while heading to Innsbruck, Austria) was interesting… firstly for the scenery… the Tyrol region…. the Alps, the vast green fields and country side. We all love these postcard-picture/calendar scene and this is it. I would certainly want to spend a few days at these “kampung” (village) but too bad…. I dont think I’ll have such a chance.
The headquarter of the world reknown crystal manufacturer, Swarovski.
The eyecatching fountain…… the exhibition centre inside that “giant head”.
Crystals are everywhere… “Yes to all” is filled with tons of crystals.
One of the displays in the exhibition centre. We have to pay an entrance fee.
The jewelleries they sell here are cheap as compared to elsewhere in the world.
Ok… its the time of the year again…. Merrry Christmas and a happy new year for 2009.
Lately we see numerous opinions on whether the country should adopt a single school system or not. Well, firstly I would say I am siding Prof. Khoo Kay Kim’s opinion/suggestion as I think it is the way to go. We need to take the first step to create a Malaysian race. When schools use the same common language as medium of teaching….. we will have everyone able to communicate with each other across the board. Usually people will group with people who speak the same language.
We just gotta abolish vernacular school and introduce single national school to create a new generation of people who dont speak broken Bahasa Malaysia anymore…… even some foreigners can speak better BM than some Malaysians. I would suggest that Mandarin and Tamil should also be made compulsory language along with English. Hence we will create a nation that can speak 4 languages…… no matter you are chinese. malay, indian or others.
Ha… what about that? Call me a traitor if you like but I strongly agree with Prof. Khoo !!!!!! I would stress that all Malaysians MUST read this.
Shit does happen. Bought a pair of Clarks shoe the morning right before I boarded the plane back to Malaysia from London. Now, slightly after a month and worn a only a few times for casual outings, the shoe is now rendered useless. Why? The elastic shoe lace snapped. Emailed Clarks London and all they replied is :
Dear Mr G
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately, we are unable to obtain replacement laces for your mamba Drum shoes and I’m sorry for any disappointment caused.
Regards
Linda Murphy
Customer Care
Our Ref: 000699099A
I can’t believe thats all they can say. Well, I decided not to pursue the case and full refund is only available between 28 days of purchase. Furthermore, this Ms. Linda Murphy have not replied my second email which I asked for a full refund as there are no laces replacement available. In fact, I went to the Clarks shop in 1Utama and was told that they dont sell accessories such as shoe laces let alone an elastic shoe laces. This is real shitty. I was so frustrated. I bought that fucking shoe for £49.99 (incl. VAT) and that was before the forex fell to RM5.40 to a pound. Arrghghhhh… fuck.
Luckily, I found a pair of laces at Bata, 1Utama. The colour may not match entirely but it does the job. At least I can wear the shoe. Looks like I gotta drop by their Malaysia HQ/factory in Jalan Kapar, Klang to buy matching laces.
Long live, Bata…
Guten morgen ! The breakfast at the hotel was great….. the best breakfast for the entire trip… where they have free flow of real german sausages….. thick fat thin small short long…. all sizes for your liking. I whack a whole plate full of sausages.
So after that, we checked out and headed straight into the city again. Munich at night was nice…. the buildings were lit up brightly…. weather was just nice.
The bus dropped us here and from there we ventured ourselves. Here I was standing on the bicycle lane risking my life to take this picture.
Ok… now where do we go? I dont know… anywhere… we’re tourist. No we’re traveller. No we’re tourist. Ok, whatever.
Kaiser Ludwig’s statue in the background. And a Mini….. haha. Was wearing the Mannschaft tshirt.
Englischer Garten…. travel guide book said this park is more expensive than Kensington Park or Hyde Park in London.
It was cold and foggy…
Teathiner Kirche
The entrance to the aldstadt… old city…. inner Munich.
Maggi… and their showcase and retail shop.
Munchener Detektive…. private investigator service
St. Peter’s Catholic Church, the oldest church in inner Munich.
I like the idea of putting mannequin at the window
Spielzeugmuseum, (Toy Museum) at Marienplatz
Some of the toys displayed
The Glockenspiel….. everyone was waiting for it to come to life at 11.00am. Munich is world famous for this structure.
The clockwork is actually boring….
Guten tag. Alright….. here’s the long overdue post. We reached Munich in the evening after visiting Dachau. Checked into a nice brand new hotel…. Azimut.
We were supposed to stay in the hotel next to azimut but there was some last-minute glitches and contiki switched the hotel for us. Well, we were glad as the hotel is nicer, cleaner and its new. Maybe it just opened recently.
A bunch of italians occupied the hotel that nite. Bayern Munich vs Fiorentina for Champions League that night.
So, the first stop in town…. Glockenspiel. Everyone was hungry but Richie insist that we see it first. Thats the main attraction in the centre of Munich. This is the best nite shot we’ve got. After that, we headed straight to the best beer garden in the world…. Hofbrauhaus.
From left: Amanda (partially covered), myself, the senior American couple, Gary and Steven. Seen here in the picture on the next table is Niki and Shanell. I love this beer. By the way, give the jolly Steven a vote. He’s a nice guy.
The lady is Maria. Szer took the pictures.
My favourite beer. Now I prefer this to Paulaner.
Together with german sausages…. it was great dinner.
Germans take their beer very seriously. They even have their personal stein locked up at the beer hall so that they can used it when they come here for a drink. Behind these steins was a bunch of fellow tour mates with our tour manager, Richie. He was later kicked out by bouncers immediately after bringing down his underwear let alone his trousers. They were piss drunk.
After dinner, szer and I separated from the rest and we explored the city on our own.
Just some random pictures…
One thing I realised is that europeans like to put statue on the corner edge of buildings.
Passed by a pub and a bunch of local Bayern Munich fans was watching the game. Just as I stood into the crowd to check the score, Munich scored their 3rd goal against Fiorentina. Here I was celebrating with the locals with both my hands up in the air…
The taste of Paulaner there is different from the one we got here in Deutsches Haus and Bavarian Bierhaus, two of the more famous german food joint.
This is the most historical video of 2008. I think It will be the most historical moment in his career. This is hilarious ! we all know that all this while many people hated American and their foreign policies……. but not to this extent. This is by far the most embarrasing moment in the history of US.
hahahah…..
Wooohooo….. got a new machine that can do number crunching, gimping, interneting, endrooging, facebooking, openofficing, gaming and a whole array of stuffs. I love my new portable hd-ready lenovo computer and by the way, my house is wifi enabled. Yay… I can read Malaysiakini in the loo. At last….. I wifi’ed the house.
Wonder if I can play some classic games like Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honour and Red Alert/Command&Conquer?!
Met an old friend a few days ago and had some chat. As usual, when old friends meet, we usually reminisce the old days and joke about how everyone changed.
Many old friends…. mostly schoolmates… have changed over the years….. from hairstyle to body size and plain jane to spice girl (or vice versa) etc. However, this friend I talked to is like forever young and he still look the same as he look some 10 years ago. He still retain the same hairstyle, same jolly character and same body shape/size. His overall look, skin tone and fashion etc…. is still the same.
So I asked him what is the secret for all this and he said most of the the guys at this point of life… I mean at this late 20s of age is starting to worry about the future and it is all the worries that make someone age (wrinkle lines will develop). This is especially true when many of your peers are getting in track to entering the next level of life – having a family. Yeah, you can say this is peer pressure.
Ok back to the topic. So, this friend of mine is quite lucky that he is already married with 3 kids and have a healthy income from his business. He stressed that in order to look young is to not worry about all the money problem and compare yourself with other people. Petty things like when you don’t have much savings when your friends are buying big houses, big diamond rings and etc… will only make yourself unhappy and lead to aging as you go through the stress.
Hmm, maybe he is right….. most of us have money problem to worry. So, his secret is to be happy…. but fuck… how to be happy when you have money problem? You cannot help but to worry, right? It is true that when we grow older, there are more pressure but is there anything you can do?
!@#$%^&*
Managed to take this picture at The Curve.
*edited* Soon Keong, myself and the most famous blogger todate in Malaysia. We support the cause, RPK.
http://danielfranklingomez.com/blog/2008/12/04/mini-bloggers-rendezvous-13th-dec-2008/
For more info, follow the above link. Sure heboh.
The dream of every football fan is to visit the home ground of their favourite team. It was so kind of Uncle Robert… a hardcore Aston Villa fan… to take us to the home of their archrival. Well, for appreciation of his effort, I’ve agreed that he take us to Villa Park in Birmingham, the home ground of the strongest team in the Midlands to catch a glimpse of their stadium. I’m not going to show the world the picture I took at Villa Park. Haha.
So… from there, we went to Manchester….the United part of it only though.
The legend.
The megastore is HUGE. Well, when you are a club as big as this, your cash cow is merchandise.
Frankly speaking, I dislike the No. 7 in the background poster. He’d better off being in Hollywood.
Fergie’s achievement in his career.
The famous Stretfod End. It was named after the nearby town, Stretfod, that the West Stand is facing.
The name that needs no introduction.
My lovely photographer and I at the south-east corner of the stadium. The pitch look very near and small as opposed to what you see in TV.
The clock is frozen in time.
South Stand is now also known as Munich Tunnel since Feb 2008… to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich tragedy….
The International Honours Board. What happened to Johan’s son, Jordi?
Q: Platini or Zidane?
A: Cantona !
The captains.
A friend asked me to get him a jersey exactly the same as this…. with Giggs 11 on the back minus the EPL/Champions League sleeve badge. The jersey £43, “Giggs” £7 and “11″ is also £7. Altogether £57.
Coming out from the tunnel.
I touched the grass. Luckily the tour guide did not see me sitting on the curb for this pose let alone touching the grass. I would’ve been prosecuted by the club.
The United Trinity – Best Law Charlton.
After the tour, we received a certificate. It was a memorable visit. From Manchester, we went off to Liverpool for a night after that. Thanks to Uncle Robert to drive us all the way to Liverpool to drop us there.
