London

October 12th, 2009

It was my dream since i knew about England, that i wanted to visit London, at least once in my life.

All my friends know how much i wanted to visit London….

Well, i had my chance and luck that i managed to make a short trip across the channel to London from Switzerland… with a friend of mine with easyjet.

First impression of London : messy, crowded (from my first experience on the Tube)

Subsequent impression of London : beautiful, gigantic, messy, lively, mix ‘n match

Final impression of London : i will be back :D

Having the small-town syndrome and the fact that i have been living in a village for sometime, London seems to be enormous and not to mention messy as well.

The Underground Tube system is very convenience, and with only 7pound, you will be able to get a day ticket for zone 1 and 2, which is more than enough if you have only a few days in London and have no plan to go out of the city.

London could be expensive, or so i heard, read and understand. In terms of accomodation, perhaps i would say they are really expensive! I booked myself a bed in a 2-star hotel… which i surveyed day and night with the help of Google Streetview. The hotel is located in an eccentric neighbourhood of backpackers, fast food outlets, tonnes of souvenir shops, pubs, and various ethnic restaurant. The hotel itself is located on a wide leafy boulevard with rows of beautiful, magnificent, and unmistakeably very british Georgian houses.

But the room itself leaves much to be desired. The room is in the basement next to the kitchen, enough said!

Nevertheless, luckily most sights and landmarks in London are free. The grand Westminster, the unique Tower Bridge, the majestic Buckhingham Palace, the weird Tate Modern, the awesome British Museum, the popular Trafalgar Square, the glamour Leicester Square, the expensive Harrods, the green Hyde Park, the colourful Piccadilly Circus, the gorgeous St Paul’s Cathedral, the noisy Chinatown, i am out of vocabularies and well… i am sure you get what i meant.




So basically, you dont need to spend much to experience the sight.

I had my first nasi lemak after more than 7 months in an authentic Malaysian Restaurant near the National Art Gallery… i gulp it down with a glass or original teh tarik… NICE…. and no… dont ask me the price please.

I also had my first wanton noodles for lunch, and roast duck, kangkung, real tofu, pork for dinner on one of the day.
hehehehe… is more like a trip to indulge in asian food… ya..sounds funny…

I had also the chance to meet a few of my friends, primary school friend, secondary school friend, and also another friend of mine…we went to the same tuition. It was lots of fun, to meet again after so long…

So from London, of course i had my first supposedly original Fish ‘n Chips. Those meals weren’t really expensive…. or at least so i thought.

Shopping in London itself, is worth a whole new post…
but anyway, to sums it up, i bought a crumpler camera bag, one bottle of DKNY perfume, 2 Puma shirts(£11), 1 Everlast shirt(£6), 2 Londonsdale(£16), 3 Hard Rock Cafe London t-shirts and i help my friend to buy an Anya Hindmarch tote bag.

Well…. conclusion, i enjoyed the trip, i enjoyed the company of my friend…. i love the new experiences….
and i am glad… i had one of my dream fulfilled…

though…. one of a dream of mine shattered this week… :(

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7th Month

September 23rd, 2009

2 more days, and it will be my 7th months here…
looking back, it was just like last month that i first posted about my First Day.

From all my posts and pictures, there is no prize for guessing that i have been quite comfortably settling down here, except for a few more important events, coming up that will then mark my settling in as complete.

I, for example has live my life the Swiss way, or so i try.
I, for example has discovered that i started to gain back the KG i lost. (not too good)
I, for example know more German words than before.
I, for example found that my English is getting worse.
I, for example found that my Malay almost do not exist now.
I, for example realized that my Mandarin sucks as well.
I, for example made more friends now.
I, for example enjoying to be alone most of the time.
I, for example starting to feel homesick, at times mildly, at some points quite severe.

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Posted in Life, Personal, Switzerland | 3 Comments »

My Ride

September 20th, 2009

I have been having this thought of getting a ride of my own here…

No… No… Not car… i am planning to get a bike…

I do not know how much bike costs before this…. wel coming from Malaysia, riding a bike was never an option or it never even crossed my mind. The reason is simple, i had one life and not nine! To cycle in Malaysia, i supposed you need nine lives, at least.

So browsing through shop and brochures and online store, i got a shocked of my life, seeing those sky high price for a bike. I mean, i do not know how much it costs in Malaysia, for say something that you could ride on the street, up some hill etc kind of bike.

Here a basic common bike…. normal looking with standard features, cost about say RM3000, anything lesser than it, they dont call it a bike…heheh literally, sort of.

So now here i am, a non-bike enthusiast, have to decide which bike i need and will suits me… and i hate being in this situation where uiknow nuts about any features, except the colour looks good or the size of the rim etc.

The above is the hybrid 7200….

and this is Hybrid 7300,

sigh what is the difference???

anywhere, if these are available, they are 2009 old stocks, then there will be 20% discount.

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Networking

September 12th, 2009

One of the many reasons i love being in my current company, is the chance to meet new and interesting people.. once a while….

Today, i had the opportunity to be in the company HQ, to take part in a HR Induction programme… for “new” employee.

I have been here for about 7 months, and i am glad that i took part in this program which i once rejected back in June.

This program gave me a chance to see the company i worked from a different perspective.

Today i learned new stuffs, i gained valuable new information, i understand new concept, and the most important was that, i met tonnes of interesting new acquaintances, Slovakian, Spanish, Costa Rican, Germans, Norwegian, British, and even a Malaysian!!!!!

In short, i felt great, i felt happy, i felt good for the wonderful programs organized by the HQ, and it definitely worth my efforts waking up at 5am today just to prepare myself and to make my trip up to the HQ

:D

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Posted in Life, Switzerland, Work | 2 Comments »

Getting older

September 5th, 2009

I remember a saying,

…for every year, kids gain another year, while adults lose a year…

in another word, kids look forward to birthday… kids want to grow up, and kids wished time flies…

now that you are a grown up adult, you dread birthday…. you dont want to grow old, and you wished time stop…

at least tht is wht i felt…. i felt time flies, and i m really scared… blinked, and a month passed, yawned, and is another year…

you could also say that may be i am afraid of tomorrow, or i am always in the past…

silently, secretly, subconsciously, i learned to appreciate life… i learned to appreciate ppl around me… i learned to be more relaxed… i learned to let go… i learned to live one day at a time

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Friends

August 21st, 2009

I am always been blessed with many friends….
well, at least to me, i felt that i am..
well…unless you guys never treat me as friend… hehehehhehehehe

Time flies, and i have been here for more than 6 months…
During this time, i am really thankful to have you, you, you and you, to be with me… through FB, blog, emails, msn, skype, and by the rest of other means.

Some of you even make it here.. right here in Switzerland… and i am really happy for that. It makes me feel that i am right at home… or at least never felt much alone.

Here, in Switzerland, first i have Nicholas, my primary and secondary school friend, whom i hv not been meeting for years… dropping by to say hi, and we went together for holidays. It was an awesome trip, i enjoyed it, and i hope Nick too.

Then i have my best friend here… BoSe…. well the last time he mentioned, he said i m just his acquaintance. Nevertheless, i felt great and i felt just at home to be able to see him here…..

Of course, here as well,i get to meet an “old friend” of mine, Patrick. Well, i knew him years ago from blogging… and have been keeping in touch all this while. I too enjoyed being the local tourguide, trying to show him around my favourite weekend city here, Zurich.

Next, i have met my 2 ex-colleagues here from my previous company. We too went to a few places within Central Switzerland, went to concert, went up the mountains, and we had lots of fun. Well, i think they did enjoyed it for they were here again for 2nd time…. it was just awesome.

And not forgetting last week, where someone i knew first by name, a “colleague” of mine from Singapore were here and we did some windows shopping and had dinners together. Now, i knew him more than his name… i think i make myself a new friend… again….or so i thought.

This coming weekend, i will another visitor… this round, someone i knew for some years… and we are good friend.
She will be here for a few weeks… and i am really looking forward to her visit…. and for her company.

Now, can anyone explain to me why i couldnt keep track of my spending?? heheehehhehe

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Posted in Food, Life, Switzerland, Work | 2 Comments »

You know it is 21st century when…

August 6th, 2009

a bunch of people, men and woman, meeting up in a pub, in the city on a Wednesday night and the common topic was about Facebook and Mafia Wars.

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National Day Holiday

July 31st, 2009

This coming Saturday is the National Day… nono.. not the Malaysia’s National Day, Merdeka…dont worry,  i haven’t lost my mind yet… 1.August,  it is the Swiss National Day…. supposedly celebrating its 718 years anniversary !
Switzerland’s history can be traced back to 1291, where the first 3 cantons decide to merge and to become a confederation.

It is a remarkable number, if you ask me, for i m so used to national days’ number associated with only 2 digits, as in for this year, it will be the 52nd birthday of Malaysia.

Traditionally, there will be parade, party, fireworks, events, festival all over Switzerland. This Saturday, i would be joining colleague of mine to “celebrate” in Brunnen, a village, a hamlet, a city by Lake Lucerne.

Well this is not a history class,so do read it up from wikipedia,  if you are interested.

What i wanted to highlight here is something very different very interesting.

Normally, back in Malaysia, a public holiday, like National Day, is the day where i go for shopping, go for movies, go to shopping malls for trekking, to have lunch, tea, etc, or just simply for windows shopping with friends or family.

Here, Public Holiday = every single shop is closed. And it is the worst, if the public holiday falls on a Saturday. Why? here is the reason why i said it is the worst…

Shopping are literally non-existence on Sundays… as such Saturday has been the day where the whole population seems to come out from hidding, spilled onto the streets, and to do their shoppings, and etc. Shops closed around 6pm on weekdays, except for Thursday (late night shopping) where shops closed at 9pm.

So the catch are that if shops are closed on Sundays, and the Saturday is a public holiday, you could only do you shopping on a Friday. But because Saturday is a public holiday, therefore, Friday is a  “holiday’s eve”, and then shops closed earlier (4pm) instead of the normal 6pm. And Friday being a working day, that means no shopping is possible, and hence, Thursday is the only day left, where you could shop and stocked up before the weekends. It is such a frenzy on the supermarket and streets, where everyone try to buy and to stock up their supplies.

So it is kind of weird and interesting and new for me. I had my fair share of frenzy shopping this evening too.

Well, just to paint the right picture, shops in train stations and airport are allowed to be opened 365 days a year. As such, in case of “emergency”, shoppings are still possible in train stations, the popular one being Zurich Train Station and also Zurich Airport.

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Posted in Life, Switzerland, Uncategorized, Work | 1 Comment »

First contact to French : part 2

July 12th, 2009

Montreux, a town by Lake Geneva on the french speaking region of Switzerland.

From my base in Gruyere Region, we did a day trip to Montreux… a city famed for its Jazz festival, and also its castle, Chilon Castle.

Driving from Gruyere Region to Montreux was a pleasant one. We passed by the pre-alps, with lovely mountains, and villages, before descending on the other side approaching Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French).

Montreux, a city which smells like money. Everything looks expensive and luxury, and have the feel of it.

This was the city where Freddie Mercury once lived,

It was a lovely day trip, and i do really enjoy it.

The view on Lake Geneva was good, the fact that everyone speak french, makes it sounds sexy??

The beautiful old town perched high up on a hill, the lively waterfront, the beautiful people, the city layout, makes this city interesting…..

Is definitely worth a visit, to get a bit of  french taste while you are in Switzerland…..

Here…. a toast… of Montreux wine to Montreux, with the background of Lake Geneva

part 1

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Miscellaneous cost

July 12th, 2009

Living in Switzerland, for sure is aint an easy task…

the high cost of living,the language, the different culture, and now the other things i discovered, the miscellaneous cost.

For example, TV and Radio licenses. These, in malaysia itself was abolished like 20 years ago. I remember the time when my dad had to pay for the TV license in the post office.

I cant imagine having to pay for these fees here in Switzerland, in year 2009. With the advanced technology and the brand conscious society, why cant the TV and Radio stations make revenues from other source, like advertisement, or etc?

Why is there a need to pay for these licenses… where in the first place, i do not have any TV and Radio with me??

Oh …. wait… they said i have INTERNET. i could watch online TV, listen to online Radio, therefore, i need to pay.

It doesnt matter if i want or if i could understand the German, the French or the Italian TV and Radio channel… i have the possibility of watching and listening to it, therefore i need to pay.

And because of this, yours truly, need to fork out additional 50 francs a month…not a huge amount, but it wasnt necessary.

Oh and i also discovered as well… that in order to throw your unwanted furniture or heavy items, you need to buy some stickers……5kg per sticker…

what you need to do is to weight your stuff, stick the numbers of stickers accordingly, and just put it by the road side on Monday or Thursday, someone, would pick it up.

You pay to have it and you pay as well to get rid of it.

How nice….

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