Valencia

It was another whirlwind weekend trip and this time it was to Valencia. We were greeted by beautiful sunshine which was a very welcome change from the gloomy, grey London skies. Everyone was in such good spirits (despite having woken up at 4am that morning to catch the flight) by mere fact of the warm weather.

We spent our first day exploring the city center, indulging in tapas and relaxing over glasses of sangria. At night, we ventured out to the beach side for dinner. Having grown up in Sydney, the beach didn't really impress but the cheap cocktails at the bars certainly did. Dinner was fabulous at a traditional restaurant whose specialty is lobster paella (to my surprise, Spanish paella is really quite simply rice cooked in broth unlike the ones which I had back at home which threw in an assortment of veggies). However the real adventure was when we realised that we had missed the last metro / bus. After waiting for a very long time for a taxi and in our somewhat delirious / tired state, we accidentally tried to wave down a police car, thinking at the time, why does this cab have two lights instead of the standard one and why are the lights blue instead of green.

Second day was spent at their Science Museum which is massive and quite interesting (reminded me of year 10 science excursions). Spent the rest of our time eating, drinking, did more walking and drank some more.

I really enjoyed Spain - I love the architecture, the leisurely atmosphere of taking things easy (always a bonus when there's uplifting street music playing as well), the sun and the food / wine.

From left to right, top to bottom
Lots of map reading outside LOEWE (which I found out is Spanish) to decide where to go
At the produce markets. Valencia oranges anyone?
Bull ring
Lobster paella
Mary & I
Flee market
The cutest dog with the floppiest ears
City of Arts and Sciences
Street performer giving Karen's hair a restyle

And my favourite photo of all...

Happy New Year

New year, new beginnings. Thanks to the kind encourage from my good friend (see comment to previous post), I am now back to posting my photos. Link to the full album is on the sidebar.

New year celebrations: Predrinks at Gonk & Binh's before heading out to Turnmills. Having bopped to RnB music at friends' Asian dance parties most of my life (shameful I know), I can't say electro / techno is my thing. But it was a good night with good friends and the club was very cool too.

Christmas celebrations: xmas eve at Gonk & Binh's and xmas day spent at Joe & Keith's.


Germany: the xmas markets in Munich and Nurnbery were very festive and delightful.


Budapest has a quiet charm, thoroughly enjoyed the food and relaxing at the Turkish baths.


Paris: it was very much like what everyone says about Paris - beautiful and romantic.

Just too hard :(

It's just too hard to post photos on blogspot (in the format I want with the speed I want). I know this comment will undoubtedly reflect poorly on my less-then-developed computer skills but given that I may not have internet access in the coming fortnight, I don't have the patience to struggle.

Photos from Bath / Paris are loaded on Song ImageStation:
URL: http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/index.html
Member name: happy_pics
P/w: Access
Album: Bath & Paris

Belgium

From top 1-2 Market Square in Bruges; 3 one of the beautiful canals surrounding Bruges; 4 Shirley & I with our delicious chocolate Belgian waffles (note to Alan & Marki - I had two waffles in my hands b/c one of them belonged to Kris who was taking the photo, they were not both mine!), 5-6 Grand Place in Brussels, 7 Brussels Stock Exchange (Kris insisted taking me there, not my idea), 8 Kris, my wonderful Belgian friend who took us on a Brussels-in-three-hours-windwhirl tour, 9 the royal palace in Brussels.

My London home

This is the street where my place is.











My favourite part of the apartment is the upstairs living area :)








Helen & I are quite in love with our current place, it's a such a shame that we can't afford it. At GBP700 / week, we are not even close!

Goodbye Sydney

It's hard to think that exactly one week ago (Sat morning 3.33am), I was in my Sydney home frantically packing and sorting out what to take to London in preparation for the moving company's arrival that morning at 7am. Fastforward one week and I am here in my Westminister apartment taking a rest pause from the activity of the past few days.

Big thanks to everyone for indulging me so generously with your time for my 'multiple' farewells (in my mind, there really was only one farewell) and all the well-wishes. I really enjoyed my last two weeks in Sydney bathing in special pre-departure attention of dear friends :) I will really miss you all!