An evening at Christmas Market

I've been looking forward to Christmas Market for many reasons. So when I found out the first day of Christmas market was going to be on the 26th this month in our town, I got Oli to pinky-promised me that we'll go come rain or snow or blizzard. Okay, so we might not have gone if there was blizzard. But bless the weather for being a little kind for just drizzling and even so, we didn't even notice. 

Maybe it's the 'Christmas is around the corner' mood that seems to linger around the air.

Maybe it's the Christmas lights, Christmas miniatures and people seemed to hang around in town way after 8pm (usually, the town pretty much sleeps at this time)

The smell of coated roasted nuts. It's addictive.

Glühwein. To be indulged without guilt only this time of the season.

Did I mention the town is so pretty this time of the year?

We are reminded the true meaning of Christmas. The birth of only the most awesome man of all time.

Just being there with loved ones.

Where people are usually in a jolly good mood and they will smile for the camera. :)

Where you discover something new but surprisingly good. I love that kind of discovery. The one that takes you by surprise in a good way.

Friends. Someone you share those moments of joy.

An opportunity to take pictures and post it up on Facebook, instagram and blog.

Recap where I wrote about the joyous discovery. This was another one of those but the one that brought us to tears and made us wish we didn't have it there and then. At least, now we know.

I love....

Crepes! Banana Nutella and Salted Butter Caramel, my favs.

Glühwein (Hot spiced red wine) and Hot Chocolate.

And again, the company.

It's all these and more. To many more Christmas markets in days to come.

Autumn has arrived

So I'm sitting here sniffing my nose off due to cold. My butt hurts from attempting to do a butt/leg exercise I found on Youtube. I'm looking out of the window and despite Autumn and how it had been pretty gloomy these past few days, the sun is actually out playing and teasing me at this moment. I'm so tempted to go out to town for a walk or even take a short walk to nearby grocery stores just for the sake of being out. But then again, my butt hurts. Oh well, maybe later. 

Anyways, since I have this much time, I thought I write something here. A lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote about how things were. I recently turned 28. It is really not a big deal, only the fact that I am 2 years away from being 30. Yikes. Okay, instead of focusing on getting old, I rather focus on counting my blessings. I think, no, it HAS been a good year for me and for us. When I first got here in January, I was pretty worried. I'll be away from my family and friends and I had to leave my job and depend on Oliver. I'll be deprived of the food back home. Hey, don't judge. But it was for the better. Oliver is now my family and us finally settling down is well, the right thing to do. And in fact, we are having an awesome time here. It was a little difficult at first. I recall minor things that annoyed me and it was probably for him too. But we're getting good at being patient and considerate, truthful, forgiving and swallowing our pride. Then there are things that just give conviction to our marriage. Little things like how he prepared hot bubble bath just to ease my cold and aching body. Moments like that, I just can't help feeling blessed to be married to a good man. 

Then, there are the people that I got to know closer (having met them briefly a couple of times when I came to visit last time) and the new friends I've acquired. Even in these short period of time, I've been blessed so much with their loves and their constant support and prayers. And recently for my birthday, my German coursemates, friends,  who I've known for barely 2 months, threw me a birthday celebration and the fact that they spent their whole Sunday cooking and preparing awesome meals. How awesome is that. There are also those who walk with me in my spiritual journey to get to know God more. 

And there is God's constant provision and blessings in our lives. When I think about all the things that had happened in our lives, good and bad, I see God. How He carried us through the bad times and reminded us to love and forgive. How He blessed us during good times and reminded us to give glory to Him always. How He guides us to be a better person, a better wife and husband, friend, daughter and servant. How He sacrificed his only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to wash away our sin. And so much more. Just because He loves us first.

I hope I'll never forget this. To always give thanks despite of everything.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." 


Psalm 107:1

Berlin in Summer 2012

Berlin. Oh, notice the green traffic man. 

So I've got to say, Oli's job is pretty cool. Sometimes. Like when he gets sent to places for conference. And the cooler thing is his trip is usually paid for. But the coolest among all is I get to tag along. Sometimes. Like Hanoi but not Bielefeld, Germany (not that I care) or Berlin but not Barcelona (Okay, I really wanted to go to Barcelona but his accommodation was in Campus and truthfully, I couldn't miss any more German classes). Anyways, I thought I write about Berlin because it is a cool big city and I really had a good time just exploring Berlin. The things I enjoy about my days in Berlin, well, a plenty. First, it was so easy to get around in Berlin. And the accommodation that we chose helped because it had good train and bus connections just around the corner and very close to Kunfusterdam shopping street. Oh, and I have to say, I had Curry wurst from different places almost everyday I was in Berlin (that is 7 days) and the best curry wurst for me was the one located beside KADEWE shopping mall. Straight off the pan (which what makes it good and fresh), it was crisp from the outside and juicy inside. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Curry Wurst. Cheap, tasty not so healthy.

The long queue into Pergamon Museum.

We visited the usual tourist spots; from Brandenburger Tor, Holocaust Museum, Jewish Memorial Site, and Jewish Museum to Checkpoint Charlie and whats left of the Berlin wall scattered around the city. We also went up to Bundestag Dome, Pergamon Museum (well only visited the special exhibition which was pretty fascinating) and after a bit of persuasion from Oli, Berlin Aquarium. I only agreed because Oliver said, there was whale but when we got there, none. Nada. I love him. Other days, when Oliver was cooped up in conference, I wandered on my own to the less touristy part of Berlin, which was pretty cool you know, slower paced and I guess, I'm pretty proud of myself. Having learn that much German (still learning) and being able to get around with much ease.

Bundestag (Berlin Parliament)

Loud, drunk, shirtless men.

Behind us are Berlin Dome and TV Tower

At Checkpoint Charlie. When East and West Berlin were separated by the wall, they had to go through several checkpoints to cross over to each side. Checkpoint Charlie was one of them and somehow, the popular one.

Pretty synagogue.

Us at Brandenburger Tor at night.

So yes, Berlin is a great city to visit. I've always vaguely known about Hitler, the Holocaust, World War 2, Jewish etc. And my visit to Berlin had really opened my eyes to the things that had happened in the past and how it shaped the things as of current. I learnt a great amount of history in Berlin, in a good way. One of the profound moments I had was when I visited the Holocaust Museum. The museum had different partitions or rooms and they were arranged in such a way that visitors will walk through rooms in chronological order depicting events in pictures and captions. In one of the rooms, it was set in dark, no light except the light coming from the previous room. There were a few blocks for people to sit. So I sat in one of the blocks. And in all four walls of the room, a name was projected. Every 20 seconds, it changed to another name. And another. Each names was narrated from a speaker. Those names were victims of Holocaust. Since the room was opened to public a few years back, it has been projecting names of the victims and up till today, they never repeated a name twice. There were just too many. Over 6 millions.

History, no doubt is one of the reasons you must visit Berlin. Even for someone like me who is not into history. Otherwise, there is the little interesting things that catch your fancies. Oh and of course, curry wurst. 

I didn't forget

Every now and then, I think about this little space here, where I used to write about stuff. Whether it's drafted or random thoughts, travel stories or just every other things. It's pretty obvious from the lack of posts that I either have no time to write in this space anymore which is not true because contrary to that, I have more time than I ever had before. Maybe, my life or our life is not as interesting anymore, I'm not saying that it was 'that' interesting'. Again, I personally think that I'm having the time of my life. Minus the occasional me missing/wanting to work. Most of the time, I wake up and go about my housewifey duties and think to myself, "Huh, I can do this, being a full time house wife/future full time mother". Okay, I'm not pregnant by the way. But hey, it's been so long since I had any stress or pressures from work. I remember walking up and instantly dreading to go to work. Again, I don't hate my previous job. It's just the nature of it. Strategies, executions, performance, reports and back to square one. Anyways, back to the point of not writing as often as I did. Perhaps, it is just me being here, with Oliver. The main purpose of  me writing was/is for us. We used to be thousand of miles apart. Back then, although we did skype or talk on the phone, we couldn't talked about everything. And so I wrote in this space to remind me/us of the times that we travelled, the things that we spoke, the plans that we shared, all these were our display of love for each other. And then, there is now. Things have changed. Just yesterday, we were skype-ing with a friend from Greece and he was looking at us from his screen and he said, "It's just unbelievable. There used to be one. One in Malaysia and one in Germany. Now, I'm seeing two." 

Anyways, I do miss this space. It's been a part of us for so long. Our stories had been shared, told and read. And we will continue to share our stories, maybe not as often, but just enough. :) Pictures in no orders.

Us with Hong Kong's skylines in the background. It's an amazing city. 

Taken in one of the parks in Paris, where we shot Maternity/Anniversary photo for a couple/friend.

Night shot @ Lourve

Another shot at Lourve

With mum @ Stephanplatz, Vienna

With Mitchel and parents @ Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

With newly graduated Dr. Mitchel Brian @ Schonbrunn

With dad while waiting for Tram 1 to go to town, Vienna.

Little photo joke during Oli's birthday celebration hosted at our place.

Friends @ Kaiserslautern

Waiting for Michael Buble's concert to start @ Cologne

Dream came true. *To go to Michael Buble's concert once in a lifetime.*

Hello there. :)

During one of our forest walks. 

Spring

Oliver stretching it out. 

It's all about balance.

Us on top of Arc de Triumph. Waited for an hour for sunset and for Eiffel tower to lit up.

Finally. One of our favourite cities to visit. Le Paris.

Sometimes, those good moments are just these blur memories. But beautiful nevertheless.

Thankful.

Discovering Hanoi Part 2: Halong Bay

Halong Bay, which translates to 'Descending Dragon Bay' is a destination to be reckoned with. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it was also a setting for two previous James Bond films.  Okay I sound like I'm writing a travel article. Geez. Anyway, the tour started with a 2 to 3 hours drive from Hanoi central to a docking area where all the boats and ferries to Halong Bay usually depart and arrive at. That day, the weather was not in our favor. It was raining when we left our hotel up to the point when we arrived at the docking area. But we didn't let it ruin our mood. We were ready for Halong Bay, come rain or shine.

We got on the big boat and it cruised towards the open sea. Lunch was served on the boat; they were French fries, spring rolls, some chicken dish cooked with soja sauce, steamed prawns, fried fish with sweet and sour sauce and some vegetables. We shared meals and chatted briefly with three men from Italy and a Japanese guy who we sat with during the journey. Shortly after lunch, we were looking out to the sea and Halong Bay revealed itself in all its glory. Ta da! Beyond were isles and karsts made of limestones all standing tall and majestically above sea levels. Other things that made the sight were tourist boats as well as local fishermen boats, a few fishing villages built on wooden stilts. We also saw banks which were built for the people living on sea to deposit and withdraw money. How convenient! Local vendors selling their produced goods on a smaller boat.

 

There is a story behind Halong Bay but I'll let you google it. :) During the excursion, we also had the chance to visit Hang Sung Sot (Cave of Awe) or also called the 'Cave of Marvel' by the French. It is one of the biggest caves in Halong area. We were led through a narrow passageway and soon we were standing in a massive interior cavern illuminated with multi-colored fluorescent lights. The lights were a little bit tacky but it was nevertheless an awesome sight. Our tour guide, Sunny was pointing out stones of stalagmites and stalactites that resembled different kinds of animals, a Buddha and a Virgin mary among others.

After spending some time in the cave, we got back to the boat and it headed back to the initial docking area. That marks the end of our Halong Bay excursion. Yes, we didn't get to take pictures of Halong Bay at its best with the lingering fog, mist and all but at least we now can cross Halong Bay off our list. The next few days were work and conference day for Oliver and he had to be in university and attend talks whole day from morning till evening while I got to enjoy a day at the sauna and jacuzzi, the swimming pool and city tours with people I was fortunate to know in Hanoi. I am a happy wife cum traveller.

More about Hanoi in another post. What can I say? It's an amazing city.