OL=Orang Luka... :P

Hahahaha.. suddenly got the mood to blog lah.. :P

Time surely flies, i've been an office lady for almost one week now.. still undecided whether i enjoy this life or not.. Luckily the environment is nice, colleagues are nice, pantry even nicer... hahahhahhaha... still in the learning stage and its like having a brand new toy, everything is bright and shiny.. ask me again in a year's time ya... maybe by then i'll be complaining abt the tediousness of it all, heh~

I have pictures to show (pictures which i havent received yet >.<), had 2 big meals already this week, one at Madam Kwan's on my first day, cos it was my colleague's birthday, then at Sushi Zanmai today, cos the girl i'm replacing will be leaving after tomorrow... All I know is tat if this goes on, I will soon be officially broke.. hahahha... joking joking, i actually didnt have to pay on my first day.. Thanks colleagues.. You all are great! :)

One downside is tat i have to rent a room outside.. I really really want my own room lor.. stupid LJMU's fault, made me used to having my own room and toilet dy >.<..

Its 10.30pm and i feel sleepy already.. Oh, tats another downside isn't it..

Oh ya, I accidentally cut my palm today, hence the title.. I'm starting to ramble, I know.. haha..

Pictures as soon as i get them~ :)

getting a bit lazy to blog, how ar?? >.<

Life, get better soon...

Life recently has been full of trials and tribulations.. I want to be strong, have faith and weather everything with my head held high.. but i think its getting to be a little too much right now.. I wish November would come soon.. maybe next month will be better?? sighhhhhhhhhhh...... 'Moody' is not a good feeling~ grr...

Adding to the frustration:

48 words
I can only type so few words per minute?! gah!

Europe Trip Day 7: Rome + Vatican City Part 1~

Suddenly feel like recycling one of my drafts from long long ago.. Back to the 7th day of my 14D13N Europe trip.. whee~ The day where i took the most pics i think, cos so many interesting buildings and things were stuffed into that one city, including one of the seven wonders of the world :)

Saw this ad that would never be approved in Malaysia eventho its actually quite mild for western standards~

Love the tree in this pic :)

You just cant help gushing when you see architecture like this!

The streets in Rome are all pretty narrow and many are not accessible by cars/ buses etc cos the whole city was planned a very very long time ago during the 'tamadun rom' era... :) and since our bus couldnt go far into town, we were dropped off and spent the whole day walking round all the tourist spots.. yay!

First stop was Vatican City, a city which is a mere 0.2 square miles in size~ and most people probably know what its famous for, especially since Dan Brown wrote the book Angels and Demons.. hehehe

St Peter's Basilica~
The biggest christian church in the world located in the world's smallest country.. @.@~

Our tour of the Vatican began here, the barriers are the boundary between the city of Rome and Vatican City, so you'll be standing in two dif

My interpretation of the sign: You can bring water bottles and umbrellas to protect yrself but no scary looking weapons allowed.. :P

A zoomed shot of the dome...

The whole length of the roof is covered with intricate sculptures like these :)

more proof that what i said abt the roof is true :P:P

have to queue and queue before can enter..

have to pass through metal detectors as well~

and after that, we are in! Mostly pics of the walls and floors, dont complain, cos very hard to find flattering pics of me during the europe trip, eating-sitting-sleeping repeatedly the whole day is a money back guarantee way to gain weight.. muahahaha..

One of the Swiss Guards in his funny uniform as described in Angels & Demons :):)

Ceiling~

more ceiling~

Some more ceiling~~

Walls~

Floor~

another wall~

Getting bored yet?? hehehe... met up with some very familiar ppl and grabbed them to take pics with us, hehehhehe...

Liverpool Gang!

Jason Lim the guitar teacher~ :)

found an ok pic of me!

Saw a very secret looking room where only a few ppl were allowed in at a time and no cameras were allowed, being the super curious and kaypoh person that i am, of course i had to squeeze in, turned out that the whole room (it was a small chapel) was gold and very very quiet.. kind of like a place to find peace and serenity...

sneaked a pic through the thick curtains.. After googling Cappella Del Sacramento, found out its actually not gold but bronze.. and works of the famous artist Bernini can be found inside...
A picture of the actual altar i found online~

also saw this very intricate hole on the floor.. and i was wondering what it was for... after visiting the underground crypts, realised that this is actually a ventilation system for the basilica's 'basement' hehehe...

After touring the inside, we continued to explore outside~

Mosaic murals on the walls on the way to the underground crypts...

No pics were allowed to be taken in the crypt.. but basically there were many tombstones like the pic below which i managed to smuggle out :)

After leaving the gloomy and depressing underground crypts, we emerged once more into the sunshine~ :)

Tadaa.. nippon paint advert :):)

Spotted 2 swiss guards. but nobody dared to go up to them to take a photo with them... :S

a cross-section of St Peter's Piazza (Square)~

one of the two matching fountains in the Piazza~

Kammy and me in front of Maderno's façade~

wanna guess wat this queue is for?? :)

Long long queue to the toilets... which were quite sanitary :)

obvious who needs to go~ (hint: the grumpy looking ppl, hehe)

12 ppl! finally a complete class pic~

Girls only shot :) before we crossed over the border again to tour the city of Rome.. even more exciting!

There's a post office in the Vatican where you can buy special stamps and send postcards home.. arghhh.. missed out on it >.<

Never imagined that i would be able to step foot onto Vatican soil (extra holy), hehehe..

stay tuned for Part 2 of Day 7: Rome + Vatican City which i will talk abt when i have the time to compile my hundreds of pics :S

Day 6: Venice-Rome

Somewhere else I thought I'd never have the chance to visit.. A place that may not exist about 150 years from now, because of ever rising water levels.. There are so many things to see in Venice that we took a ferry over in the morning and spent the whole day walking around the place described as "The most beautiful city made by man"~ Sorry this post took so long, cos I had to summarise hundreds of pictures into one post.. :)

The weirdest souvenir I have ever seen~

Our ferry~

Taken at the pier~

On the way over to San Marco, one of the larger parts of Venice where most of the attractions are located, we had a guide who explained about the buildings and structures we passed on the way..

Awesome ship in Venice~

The globe represents trading which was Venice's main purpose..

Oldest tree in Venice~

Looks familiar? Another statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, first king of united Italy..

The Bridge of Sighs

The 2 pillars signifying the gateway to Venice..

One of the canals in Venice

We then went for a compulsory gondola ride, which cost 22 euro~

Our friendly gondolier, who tried to teach us Italian, and kept pointing out interesting stuff to us :)

Instead of rubbish trucks, they have rubbish boats.. :)

Police 'car' in Venice~

This is a 'taxi stand' :)

Rialto Bridge, spanning the Grand Canal.. The oldest bridge across the canal..

The gondolier amazed us with his skills, cos some of the waterways were this narrow..

Like an advert for Nippon Paint :)

After the ride, we visited a Venetian glass workshop.. supposedly the original Murano Venetian glass~

Watch the video to see how a lump of glass is turned into a wild horse in less than a minute.. The explanation is in Italian and mandarin.. I bet you will gasp when you see the end result! Plus the place was so hot, even when we were sitting so far away.. That guy's skin must be heat resistant.. @.@~

No pictures allowed, this one i took sneakily.. haha...

Had the famous squid ink pasta (Tagliatelle al nero di seppia) at one of the trattorias

The set meal included drinks, bread, seafood salad and tiramisu ice-cream for dessert, yums~

Its messy food i tell you... >.<

After lunch, we wandered ard the alleyways where the souvenir shops were located.. Found this as well:

Ferrari merchandise store~

F1 car~

We then emerged at St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) into the bright hot sunshine~

Beautiful St Mark's Basilica

The bell tower of the basilica with the winged lion of Venice on top....

You have to pay to feed the pigeons in the square.. Why pay money to feed birds abroad when our local birds are all so skinny?? :P

St Mark's clocktower...

The zodiac on St Mark's Clock..

Behind St Mark's Basilica..

At the pier before taking the ferry back to the mainland.. All i know is that it was super super duper hot!

That night we had dinner at the funniest restaurant, cos they used these cartoon bowls.. I felt like a little kid eating there... haha... Our Hotel was Hotel Park Serenissima where we stayed for 2 nights~~ A hotel deep in the forest >.<

Conclusion? I will miss Venice no matter what~ sigh~