Another suitcase in another hall?

Its a rainy Sunday afternoon here in Brussels.

I am sitting in my living room here, with 4 open suitcases in the hallway, and trying to sort out my clothes and come to some order to how I organise my wardrobe. With the frequent travelling, I have now resorted to shifting from one suitcase to another, and then some more of my clothes are still hanging out to dry on the clothes dryer. You may ask - why so many suitcases? well, I have been commuting almost on a weekly basis between London and Brussels. While I am trying to keep my stuff to the minimum in my London flat, still there are many `extra' sets of materials which I have no use of here in Brussels, and of which I am slowly bringing over to adorn my almost empty London flat. These go along of those placemats, throw for the sofa, etc. I just don't see the point of why I should spend my funds in getting another new set in London, when it is just a temporary accommodation for those days when I am there. It helps to declutter around my Brussels apartment as well, so why not?

Second suitcase is a larger case, which carried my belongings for my last trip to Malaysia and China. Going on a longer trip usually requires more items to be carried, and a larger case also allows more shopping to be done and carried back. I do find that of late, I am buying less and less stuff from Asia to carry back, guess I am now much more settled in here, and basically either learnt to live without some stuff, or already acquired the knowledge of where to find those items (particularly food items) if so needed.

Third + fourth suitcases are more of the "changing of the season", and of which the in-between-season/sizes/I-can't-decide-if-I-still-want-them clothes. I just stuffed them all into these suitcases, and hopefully one day soon, I would know what I am to do with them. periodically, as of now, I am trying to see what are some of the clothes which i could perhaps give away.

In conclusion, I definitely have too many clothes and too many shoes. Travelling all the time is a way of life for me now and that is certainly adding to all this massive clutter. I really wished for those good old days when I am more `grounded", and my life is not shifting from one place to another. I guess basically I am a pretty homely person, and would be happy to just be in my cosy little apartment, with a good company or two.... someday soon, I hope to have my own little cottage in the countryside and a place called home, and no more travelling !

A sprint back into the past few months

So what did happen in the months that I didn’t come around to blog about?
I will now attempt to take a sprint flashback to record the key highlights of my first year, hence will start from the 5th month onwards till my anniversary. At least that would encapsulate all the things that I want to be reminded of, later on this life.

5th Month (July’13)
• Had my first birthday in Belgium – received a nice bunch of flowers from a colleague (and boss, few months later)
• Over here, you are expected to buy a cake and bring to office for all during your birthday, for people to celebrate with you. This is the total opposite – as back home, you are feted like a Princess, and you don’t have to pay anything at all during your golden day
• The frenzy of summer’s sales! There are only 2 sales period/months in Belgium, and people here really take advantage of that, and keep their money till then!
• Went to Antwerp with friends on first of many `shopping’/`girls only’ outings
• My first taste of Summer aperos ! – which is basically : do nothing but gather after work to have a drink and enjoy the sun

6th Month (Aug’13)
• had my first taste of the European summer holidays in the office – nearly everyone is gone! Office is always half empty. Our Italian office officially close down for 1 month. How’s that for Asia?
• Booked my last minute holiday too – to Montpellier for a weeklong French study cum holiday. People thought I was crazy to be studying during summer….
• Montpellier – stayed with a host family for an immersion experience. Verdict : I think I am too old for this kind of stuff…plus my French at that time was very atrociously limited, and they don’t speak any other language at all except French…so…. It gets rather challenging sometimes. While it was a memorable experience, I would definitely not do it again. Next time I’d just book a hotel. 
• Intensive French class in Montpellier – helped to kick start my study of the difficult language called French again.

7th Month (Sept’13)
• Started my lessons in CCLM for French – and my week is no longer the same. Every Tues and Thurs, from this point onwards, I spend them in class
• Saying good bye to a dear sweet friend – who left after her rotation in Belgium ended.
• Hosting my bestie from primary school, L and D, her other half!! We had a fun time going on beer tours, and checking out some of the attractions in town
• Collected my new car- yippee – a Mercedes beauty 

8th Month (Oct’13)
• Brussels marathon! Ok, so it was only 4km, but it was a fun activity to be doing. I went with a friend, and the joke of it all is that our anonymous `pacer’ is that of an old lady (who looks 80ish), and we were so slow that we were on a mission to always stay ahead of her. But sometimes when she catches up, which made we having to sprint again. Her consistency and persistence is very admirable!! Way to go girl!
• Went back home for my brother Rich’s wedding – all the galore, jazz and the descend of all relatives near and far! Had a fabulous time! Of course, waist expanding as well – who could helped it with all the good feast around.

9th Month (Nov’13)
• Rushed back in time to fly over to Florence, Italy for a conference
• Had the opportunity to experience a long long Italian dinner – and pasta is only a starters! Too much meat for my liking though, and surprisingly they don’t eat tiramisu for dessert, I wonder why ?
• Crazy month at work as we rushed to prepare a campaign
• Trying time at work as well with changes to the team, and the new boss, and pressures to conform
• Sent my car to change to winter tires – yeah, winter, I am now ready for you, bring it on!

10th Month (Dec’13)
• Things are winding down at work generally but for the campaign, it was the most critical time, hence it was not such a relaxing time for me
• People are leaving on holidays! Leaving me working alone in the office !
• Lesson learnt – next year, I want to leave early too, so I shall plan my leave early
• I was hoping for an invite to spend a white Christmas somewhere, which would be my dream, but alas, in the end, this didn’t happen. No invites came, and there was also no snow – so with disappointment, I headed home for the holidays

11th Month (Jan’13)
• Sales time again! Woohoo….
• Temperatures dipped and it was getting colder, but…there was still no snow…
• Started the year by revisiting my bucket list – I have managed to scratch off some in the last year (yeah!! Sense of accomplishment ), but there are still many more to go. Some, I am coming to realize, would probably never happen in this life, and wonder should I still keep them, or just delete? Oh well… let’s see…
• Celebrated Chinese new year on the 1st day, with sushi for lunch. Delicious! Happy to have found a sushi place in town, that serves sushis which are fresh and yet with an affordable price. Arigato gozaimasu!
• Also used the occasion to introduce friends to steamboat 

1 year anniversary (18th Feb’14)
• Again…no snow during winter? is it even possible?
• Celebrating my 1 year anniversary in Belgium – I made it!
• However it was a double whammy month – after a few weeks of uncertainty, I finally confirm that I will be moving on to another team, and also, the month ended with the heartbreak of realizing that what I thought to be, just wasn’t going to be.

Nearly 11 months have passed....

...since my last blog entry!!

Not that nothing exciting has been happening, in fact it was the contrary. However, me being me, I am always so lazy to be thinking of what to say, and write in my blog, and the ideas are quite a few. And then I will be bitten by the lazy bug again, plus be so embroiled with the rest of the activities of the week that I hardly have the chance to be sitting behind my laptop at home.

I suppose I could be more laissez-faire about all this, and just write and shoot ahead. Sometimes I believe I do think too much, cos end of the day, I think I only have at most 2 readers (and you know who you are!!). No one else really reads this blog..hahah...

I have thought about closing this blog down, but then felt that whatever entries for the past years would then be lost, and that would really be a shame. After all, all these blog entries, while not my diaries but they do chronicle how I have been living my life, snippets of it here and there. I do think I might be able to look back all these scarce entries with much joy and sweet reminiscence, when I am an old lady rocking in a chair, waiting for the sunset in an old folks home.

So, I will keep on writing/blogging as much as I can - and try to preserve these whimsicals, and whatnots of my life for the `older me' in future.

The night when there was almost no tomorrow....Part 1

I have often being asked of what really happened when I mentioned I have had a bad allergic attack previously. Thought I'd better start writing that before memories start to fade, since it had been such a significant event in my life. And no, till now, though it happened last year, my memories on this had surprisingly been very intact and I remember every detail vividly....so...flashback.... 13 months ago....

One night in mid July 2012.. I went for dinner with bella after having an extremely tough and emotional day at work. I ordered a very commonly available seafood noodle soup, which wasnt spectacular and didint taste nice but I finished it off nevertheless. In the midst of dinner, I started to get discomfort in the stomach, with a growing bloated feeling, and hence, ended dinner early to go home. Thats when things started going weird. I felt flushed when I reached home, and then started to feel itchy here and there. Thought to myself, its probably my usual reaction to food, nothing to worry myself about. then the "avalanche" started...
* Felt itch starting from the base of my feet and moving up quickly like a swarm of ants climbing up my legs..
* weals started appearing on my legs, and trunk...
* my face looked very red and flushed
* my eyes looked bloodshot..which was scary
Thats when I decided to drive to the nearby clinic, and then another scary symptom - I started to get blurred and distorted vision. I thanked my lucky stars that night that I was able to get my friend staying upstairs my apartment to fetch me to the hospital on time!

I could barely walked straight when I got to the ER dept, and the scariest part was that my vision had by then lost all elements of colours, and suddenly what I could see was just black and white (like those days of black and white TV). Everything felt so surreal..I remember being directed to the treatment room, and thats what i could feel the slow motion of me falling to the ground as my brain and my limb motions seemed to have become disconnected...and it was at this moment, that a question suddenly hit me...."Is this...it (i.e. the end)?? as I felt darkness was about to engulf me, and I was about to lose consciousness..

No! I hear an inner voice telling me firmly..."don't give in..this shouldn't be `it'...this isnt my time yet"... I willed myself not to give in and to continue to fight...the main thing at that time was that I didnt want to lose consciousness, and hence fought to stay conscious and awake... as a part of me was really afraid that should I become unconscious, what if i don't wake up anymore??... I then remembered being helped up from the floor and then put on the hospital bed...all this time I had my eyes closed as it was really difficult to see properly and it was really exhausting... a flurried of activities as the medics started giving me injections and setting up IV lines...the beeping of the machines in ER, always a sound in the background..

Last one standing?

(This was an old unpublished post - written 2 years ago- sometime in late May 2011)

I should be working. Its `that time of the year' again (for those uninitiated, its `brand plans' period).

However, this evening, saw a post on facebook and found out that one of my ex has just gotten married a few days ago and somehow that kinda impacted my evening.

Not that I still harbour any feelings for him. It was like really eons and eons of years ago! He is not in my immediate circle of friends anymore and in between the years, we have but met up only a few times, probably still countable with the fingers of one hand.

However, I still can't explain this strange and weird feeling that I am having. No, I don't know the bride and no, am also not jealous. I am just trying to decipher and analyse this weird potpouri of feelings that I am having.

Its a sense of loss somewhere, but wait, hold on, what `loss' am I actually referring to? when I don't `have' whatever it is to `lose'? Perhaps its the feeling of being the last one who is still `standing' in the land of singlehood, while everyone else seems to be entering matrimony by now... how fate and destiny and bad choices of men I've made in this life had collided and now this is my path...

Certainly not Vidal Sassoon

Today I finally mustered up the courage and walked into a neighbourhood hair saloon for a hair cut. Been postponing this for quite a while, making it not high up on my priority list. However as i would be going for a big meeting next week, having messy hair wouldnt really do much to help my professional image, so its now a matter of `when push comes to shove', which finally saw me out of the door to look for the next Vidal Sassoon.

Till now i don't really know the name of the saloon! anyway, I guess purple being my favourite colour, I was attracted by their exterior enough to want to walk in. And was very pleasantly surprised when the hairstylist, a young lady can actually speak English to me.

So, it began one of my bizarre hair cutting experience! I was asked to stand when she was trimming my hair! and this went on for a good 10-15 minutes... before I was finally allowed to sit. When she was done with layering my hair, she asked me if I wanted mousse, which I said `yes' and the next thing is, she pumped out a whole big glob onto a towel and proceeded to spoon off these to a comb and actually combed through my whole head! i think I have never used so much mousse before..

At the end of it, the price of the total hair do - 53 Euros! which I think is pretty expensive since I know a colleague of mine does her usual haircut at only 25 Euros...and I asked the lady..her answer, `yeah, but you agreed to use the good shampoo..and you wanted a conditioner..and then also the mousse"...waah..that means that every little bit of material used on my hair is at a cost to me, welcome to Belgium!

And how was the look? honestly, I think nothing much as changed..she just trimmed 1-2 cm off the length..my hair still looks very much pretty similar as before, only probably tidier.

This clearly ain't Vidal Sassoon...

To Brussels, to Brussels, I am finally there!

I moved over to cold and clammy Brussels one day in mid February 2013. Had meant to write all about my horrendous experience getting all the paperwork sorted and done but ..never got around to do that. Had also meant to write about all the new experiences of my new life here in the first few weeks, but..also never got around to doing that! so, how do I then quickly sum up in a nutshell then? here's my attempt:-

My move : KL to Brussels was on 17th Feb 2013

First Month -
* had the shock of my life when I was handed keys to a car to drive back from the office, on the 1st day of work! it was snowing, and the driver's seat is on the other side...
* got sick on the 1st day of work as well - probably too stressful the days before leaving warm sunny Malaysia
* learnt to drive in the snow ! it was still snowing in Feb. First day driving on my own, banged my other side mirror on a stationery truck. Lost the outer casing of the mirror..it was never replaced..
* asked for snow tires and never got it - cos was told that come March, the winter snow would be over (but it didnt!)
* learnt to start and be more vocal at work - not always the easiest when others speak faster and louder! and they are native English speakers to start with.
* stayed at flat rented by the company - was on a duplex, with the living/dining/kitchen on the basement, and only the bedroom on the ground floor. So, literally i was living in the basement. This went on for 2 months. Damn and cold, not sure if its the apartment or the weather!
* still converting Euros to Ringgit, and feeling really poor *hic* (salary not yet paid yet till end month)
* surviving on the maggi mee I brought over, and also started to buy other brands of instant noodles from the little shop in `Chinatown"
* starting to realise that my cooking skills had deteriorated tremendously, and feel that my cooking sucks..oh well, need to quickly warm up again and refind my cooking skills, else how to survive?
* started my registration at Etterbeek commune (my temp flat) as my visa is only valid for 8 days upon arrival ! need to stay legal!
* attended the Singaporean assoc's Chinese new year do, and made some new friends
* didnt attend the Malaysian assoc's Chinese new year do, as down with a bad cold

2nd Month 
* it continued to snow into whole of March (lesson: weatherman is not always right!)
* after being taken around by the relocation agent to view >20 units, finally found my home! hurray!
* started to plan for my move, and visiting Ikea, which is some distance away...
* getting more confident with my driving, but still avoiding driving if I can
* discovered that the croissants at the cafeteria is ooh so so fresh and delicious. Am having this for breakfast everyday onwards!
* started to drink more coffee - since the culture is so `hey, lets chat over coffee" ...when in Rome, need to do as the Romans do!
* starting to `couldnt care less' of how others view my dressing - which is not the trendy stylish european way. so what?
* learning that there is a `Continental' Europe..and Europe - and the people from different European countries are very different in terms of behaviour, speech and outlook
* pulling my hair out on where to find reasonably cheap curtains, and also wardrobe for my bedroom
* Ikea became my common haunt during weekends! having meatballs dinner there on Fridays, and breakfasted on scrambled eggs there on Saturday morning
* had to restart my residents registration at another commune, Woluwe Saint Lambert (where my new home is), as there had been no progress from the 1st commune
* my furniture arrives at Antwerp! hurray - now, need to clear customs before being moved to Brussels

3rd Month
* completed my move to my new home - hurray! 
* starting to see progress at work (albeit slower than anticipated), things are not so alien anymore. People are beginning to get more familiar with me, and vice versa
* realised that there are some really nice people around at work, and then again, there are also those who are not so accommodating or just plain selfish - just like any other offices
* had an impromptu `house warming' at my new place, and realised that Europeans are not used to potluck concept and everyone just brings wine and dessert, no `real' food! and drink beer like water.
* Italians are fast becoming my favourite Europeans (no offence to the others please), as I have a couple of good friends whom I can connect with, and they are Italians. Found that we share some pretty common values, e.g. tight family ties, community closeness etc. They are also the ones who understand potluck! haha.. had one friend who came and made fresh gnocchi at my home, really lovely!
* my confidence in driving in Belgium sees another achievement - I no longer feel strange driving on the right side of the road and driving is becoming natural again
* had my first 2 visitors from Malaysia - hurray! and we did a mono Belgium tour
* had the most beers of my life in 1 week, while bringing my visitors around - clearly am starting to drink beer like water too
* weather is getting lovelier by the day! spring is upon us...
* had my first bout of hayfever when spring hits..and continue to sneeze my head off..geezzz...
* starting to plan my summer holidays!


There! the key summaries of my first 3 months in Brussels...And now...I move into my 4th month!

Rose, Rose I love you

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) once said,
"Of all the flowers, me thinks a rose is best."

I, for one, have always love roses. There is just something about roses. As the symbol of love, roses have inspired many musicians, poets and authors. Shakespeare alone mentioned roses more than 50 times in his poems and plays. Now, the average person on the street would most likely know how to differentiate roses by their colours, be it red roses, pink roses, or yellow, and associated these colours with whatever meaning as heard from the media, e.g. yellow for friendship etc.

However I find that roses are beautiful not just in their colours but also in their names, variety, and characteristics. I had stumbled upon one beautiful rose garden, in the Principality of Monaco on the French Riviera, it is a charming space called the The Princess Grace Rose Garden, located in Fontvielle, Monaco. There are more than 150 varieties of roses cultivated and grown within.

I’ve managed to record down in pictures all the beautiful roses together with their unique names. Someone once said a rose is like a poem, it can say so much without saying much at all.

Henceforth, I shall write no more, and let the roses speak for themselves!

Statue of Princess Grace

Stephanie de Monaco

Johann Strauss

France Libre

Grace de Monaco

Maria Callas

Black Baccara

Amber Queen

Republic de Geneve



Last but not least, Solidor (from the 2nd picture of the same flower, where it is the solidary lone ranger in the rose bush, its no wonder it got this namesake!).

Taking Stock, Fast Forward

Today being the last day of 2010, am sure a lot of people are also like me, filled with nostalgia, and reminiscing the year that is just about to pass.

I would classify 2011 as a good year, though it came with a lot of trials and tribulations, and at times, at its darkest hours, i wasnt so sure, but yeah, looking back, think I'd just call it a good year!

Found this picture today in a dainty little place (which I will blog a bit later), which really sums up in a nutshell what I want to say tonight, as we are about to usher in the new year.

1) For 2011, I shall remember and always remind myself that my `Attitude is Everything', and that it will dictate how my year will churn out.

2) I shall be less materialistic, i.e. buy less consumer goods, and be happy with what I already have. So, no new cars although I just paid off my car loan. :) The key goal would be to build up my retirement funds adequately, and to pay off my housing loan asap; so, the less consumer goods I purchase, the more extra $$ to put into these funds.

3) I will be less of a pessimist , and try to be as optimist as I can, especially in situations which are beyond my control. We attract what we think! Must believe in the law of attraction, since this is scientifically proven, right? :P

4) Last but not least, I need to be less of a perfectionist, since being a perfectionist sometimes can be very tiring and can actually kill your spirit. And, being a perfectionist can be risky, as it is also known to build up (gulp!) to obsessive compulsion behaviour (OCD).

Happy New Year 2011 ! :)

Zambuk-ing into the new year!

On the 2nd day of Chinese New year, via a freak `accident' at home, I slipped and fell, hitting down hard on my kneecap. The pain was surprisingly excruciating and my family had even thought that I had cracked my kneecap. Perhaps it was due to the whole weight of mine, which accumulated to one point, and pressed down at that very second on my poor left knee cap. In fact I fell kneeling down on one knee in that infamous position for proposals! It was a painful experience, yet on hindsight, appeared pretty hilarious as well.

My older bro immediately jumped up and whipped out his wonder ointment, Zambuk, and advised me to slowly apply and rub into the affected part.

I went like `duh? Zambuk ? are you sure?"

What exactly is Zambuk ? as far as I can remember, it had always been around ever since I was little. My grandparents used it like a `cure-it-all". Zambuk is in fact a dark green ointment, with a distinct aromatic herbal smell. It comes packaged in a dark green tin, and has that `classic' look. The fact that this little gem is still around after so many years (I had forgotten all about it until this moment!) piqued my curiousity.

Upon googling, I discovered that the name is actually a town in South Africa, and thats where it supposedly originated from. There are many uses for Zambuk, be at as an antiseptic, for minor cuts and burns. In this case, my brother and his family has also been using it for mozzie bites, or like in my case, "to rub away the formation of a bruise"(is this even possible??) when the kids had a fall.

Did you know that Zambuk is also a nickname for a first aider in Australia? the story goes that the St Johns ambulance men used to carry Zambuk in their first aid kit bags, and when neccessary, whipped it out to immediately treat injured rugby and football players on the field. The name has since stuck esp with the older generation Aussies.

And so, I followed my bro's advice, and gingerly applied on my wounded kneecap, slowly rubbing and hopefully to rub away the pain of the fall. Feeling the heated sensation (is it from the ointment, or is that from my rubbing?) somehow did help to dull the pain

The next morning, the bruise that was starting to form wasnt apparent anymore!

And so, Zambuk, really lived up to its name of being the `cure all'!

Meanwhile, I brought back the ointment with me to KL since am not sure if I can buy it in the local pharmacies here and hey, it seemed too wonderful to let go...:P (Sorry bro.. but saw that you already have a backup at home, a brand new can! :D )