Wordless Wednesday

Li-river boat cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo

17.5.2011

Walking With Bill - Part 3 : The Changing of Guards

Bill told us that if we wanted to catch the changing of guards ceremony, we'd best hurry. He said the ceremony would be at 11am at the Presidential Mansion and at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A bit of walking for us still to get there. I was very exicted and trailed behind Bill as fast as I could.

Guards leaving their barracks for the Presidential Mansion

As the new guards arrive the old ones get ready to leave their post

The ceremony marks the end of the hourly shift of the guards or Evzones as they are called and the beginning of the other. These guards are carefully selected for the honor of participating, and most of them are very tall, averaging over 6'3". We were told that the Evzones are the keepers of the Greek flag.

What was very unique about these guards were their uniforms. They wore kilts and shoes with pom-poms on them representing ancient Minoan times. Bill told us that the uniform has a historical meaning. It also refers to the uniform of the Kleftes and Armatoloi, two groups of Greek warriors during the War of Independence i(1821) against the Ottomans.

Very precise movements

Getting ready to leave

 

Ceremony done and done with very much precision and synchronization.

  

Walking with Bill - Part 2

Athens is the capital of Greece and is also largest city in the country. It has a recorded history that goes back 3,400 years. Bill, our guide explained that classical Athens was a center for philosophy, art and learning and considered the cradle of Western civilization and democracy. Today, Athens with its 5 million inhabitants is a modern metropolis that is the financial, political, cultural and economic center for the country.

The name of Athens in Ancient Greek was Athenai (pronounced At-he-na). According to Bill the Greeks believed the city was named for its protectress - the goddess Athena. Before our trip I read a fair bit about Greek mythology and its Olympian Gods and also its heroes and monsters. Zeus (king of all the gods), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty and love), Athena (goddess of wisdom and defense), Poseidon (god of the sea) were my favourite reads. 

From the stadium, we walked towards Herodou Attikou St. According to Bill this is one of the most aristocratic thoroughfares in Athens. The street is home to the Presidential Palace and the Maximos Palace which is the official residence of the Prime Minister. 

Herodou Attikou St is lined with orange trees

Residence of the Prime Minister behind those gates

Police wheels near the PM Residence

Greek Presidential Guards

A very unique kind of march

next...changing of guards ceremony

A Walking Tour & A What If.....

We had about 3 days in Athens. When I was doing up the itinerary for our "to dos" in Athens, it was tough, like I said earlier. Athens is a big city there was no way we could visit the many recommended interesting places. On top of that we have our own must do gigs at the must go places - gigs like the jumps, the bums, the selfies, wefies...and others. It's really a pull hair task coming up with this itinerary.

Nissa & her "signature" bum post...so how to go on group tours like this?

And this was also one of the reasons why we don't do group tours anymore. The photography that we do could get us really carried away and in group tours the time allocated may not permit us doing things we like most when we are on holiday. However, we also enjoy listening to the stories given by the tour guide when we go on a tour. So much of information and there was no way we could get such valuable information from any readings about the city.

 So how??

In the past we'd go on the City Sight Seeing Tour Bus and the bus would take us to most of the recommended sight seeing places. There's always an audio guide we would listen to. Not comprehensive but it suffice in giving us a brief introduction to the city. When I googled city tours for Athens, other search categories came about ie. the "Walking Tour" and "Free Walking Tour". I clicked on a few of these websites and found very interesting information about these walking tours. I did comparisons on their walk routes and the reviews others gave about their service and I finally decided on the Athens Free Tour Team. Sent them an email on the date we chosed and they were fast at responding. 

This was our first time doing a free walking tour. I wanted to try it when we were in Ghent last year, but some conditions given on the website somewhat put me off. 

The email from Athens Free Tour Team provided a meeting place and time for the tour. We were earlier, took the metro from our apartment and stopped at the Akropolis station as instructed in the email. The meeting place was near the Hadrians Arch. 

Our first try at taking the Athens Metro. This was Metro Line 2 and we were to take the train that goes to ELLINIKO.

Platform was not crowded as it was still early

Clean and spacious

Our Metro stop - Akropoli...only 2 stops from where we boarded

 

Archaeological finds at Akropoli Metro Station. The frescoes on the wall are well preserved 

She...in her element

In the email it said that the tour was to start at 9.45am. We didn't see anyone there except just the 3 of us. Not long after that came this really tall guy and he asked if we were joining the walking tour. I hesitated at saying yes in the beginning as somehow, suddenly, this thought "what if this guy was....." hit me. Yikess I hate that feeling, really! 

At the Hadrian Arch - where we met our tour guide Bill. The arch was erected by the Athenians in honour of the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a token of their gratitude for the works he had done for their city.

The one facade of the Arch of Hadrian demarcated the borders of the historic centre of ancient Athens and the other one of the modern part of the city, where Hadrian had built great public buildings. On the one side of the arch, there is the inscription: “This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus”, and on the other one, the inscription reads: “This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus”.

Anyway, after exchanging greetings and he showed us his ID (still...it could have been a fake one) I decided to give him  benefit of the doubt. Later we got talking and he told us that he was an Irish who is married to a local girl from Athens. 

Bill (that was his name) later explained the routes and the time we would take to complete the tour. He started explaining the history of Athens and as he started telling his stories about the places we visited, my "what if..." thoughts just flew into the winds :) 

And off we went with Bill.....

Trivia Tuesday #1 - Van Gogh Museum

We are ardent fans of art galleries and museums. When we travel, we try to make a point to visit one or two famous ones around. 

I find museums very intriguing; a place where you can see things you have never seen before and these things hold a lot of history in them. They also tell you about the about the country and its people and culture too. 

Some museums and art galleries allow photography as long as it is done without the flash. However, there are many that prohibit any form of photo taking and video recording. 

During my recent trip to Amsterdam, I visited the Van Gogh Museum - an art museum in Amsterdam dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It is located at the Museum Square. 

Before going I had checked online if photography was allowed. There was nothing official on its website but some forums have reported that it is allowed to snap pictures in the museum as long as you take extra caution on the usage of the camera flash. 

Excited to see great masterpieces of Van Gogh, I was all set with my cameras. I went in happily snapping away - one picture after the other whilst being extra cautious with my flash function. Unfortunately, after a couple of captures of the paintings, the museum officials came to me and informed me that photography is not allowed in the museum. I was disappointed of course! 

Vincent Willem van Gogh the Post-Impressionist painter

However, I did manage to snap some before the warning. I guess those will suffice to help me remember the greatness of Van Gogh's works. 

And here are some of them.....

3 in a row of Van Gogh's flower paintings

The Iris

The almond blossom

 

#throwback Thursday - Pompeii on My Mind Still

This is the continuation of my earlier #throwback entry.

So we lost Abe at the train station. And what were we supposed to do now?

At Napoli Station...before we lost him

The train was packed with people heading for Pompeii. I tried looking up - trying to search for stops on the train line. I saw the line had many stops but somehow the stop we were heading to was not there. 

My next question was...did we get onto a wrong train? Couldn't be; I was very sure we were on the correct platform. I tried calling Abe again on his mobile phone. It rang continuously and Abe wasn't picking up. Double whammy! Darn....

In that packed train, standing next to us were a group of Chinese students. They too had that lost look on their faces. Then suddenly we heard two ladies explaining to them, "No...no Pompeii. Wrong train. Get down next station." 

Ahhh...that explained why our stop was no where found on the train line map!

We got down at the next station and was told to take Napoli - Sorrento train. I tried calling Abe again. Still no answer. Told Nissa to send him a text saying we took the wrong train and now waiting for the next train to take us to Pompeii. 

I was concerned if Abe knew which stop was for Pompeii. Nissa said, "Let's just keep our fingers crossed." 

Every morning before we kickstart our adventure, Nissa would run the day's itinerary with her dad. I know at times her old man would just doze off before she could finish her briefing. She complained to me but I told her she had to be more creative at capturing her dad's attention. 

Luck had it when the next train arrived, it too was packed to the brim. There was no way we could squeeze in. So we had to wait still.... in the cold. 

Pompeii Scavi Station

The next train didn't arrive in another 15 minutes. And when it did, we were glad to be on it. It took us about 30 minutes to get to our stop - Pompeii Scavi.

Nissa asked me what's my plan B. What if Daddy wasn't there? I had no answer to her question. Told her to keep walking to the entrance of the archeological site and to look out for her dad.

As we came out of the station, we scouted around the area to see if Abe was there. Still no sign of him.

Told myself to keep calm. Abe could be totally oblivious when he's with us, but we knew that when he's on his own, he's pretty sharp and independent. 

It was a good 10 minutes walk till we spotted someone waving at us. All so calm and composed, he wore his usual smile. It was Abe alright. He had arrived earlier than us for he was on the train which we didn't manage to get in.

Nissa asked her dad how come he didn't pick up our call or return our call. 

Smilingly he said.......

Guess lah apa jawapan dia.......

She could smile again after the lost & found adventure

Some adventure that was. Anyway, it was a big relief when all ended well and we were so glad to be reunited again!!

#throwback Thursday - Pompeii on My Mind

Hiatus again.

Life as a freelance is picking up again. Been to a couple of back to back meetings over the past few days. I can feel my bones cranking up again. It's been a while...heh heh

Browsing my picture folder, amongst the many pictures taken during our trip to Italy last year, this particular one has a pretty good story to tell.

It was our second last day in Italy and we decided to go to Pompeii. Got our tickets and from Roma Termini we boarded the Intercity train to Naples. From Naples we had to take a commuter like train to Pompeii.

Train ride was smooth all the way. Seats were comfortable and the two hours journey from Rome to Naples was certainly a pleasant one. 

After arriving at the Napoli Centrale station, we headed to the Circumvesuviana train ticket window and got tickets for Pompeii Scavi - the stop for Pompeii. We were told to take our train at the lower level platform. So with the rest of the eager crowd who were also heading for Pompeii, we headed to where we were directed.

There was a bit of a wait for the train and it later became pretty crowded at the platform. We heard the announcement of a train arriving, but it was in Italian and as it was very noisy and crowded, I wasn't too sure what was said.

Then came the train. The crowd rushed forward towards the door. Both Nissa and I were pushed in together with the rest of the people. Unfortunately, Abe was pushed out from the crowd and by the time he got to the door, it closed right before he could step in.

And the train moved.....

Both Nissa and I could only stare at each other in that crowded coach. Nissa remark was, "Mom we lost our banker..."

I replied, "Ohh gosh.."

to be continued.....

TELEPASS - yup that's what happened to us. TERLEPAS keretapi!

Wordless Wednesday (again)

Bottled water in a Jakarta hotel - full size bottle for whole day stay. Guess what's the shorter bottle is for? Yess....a half day stay grants you the shorter size bottle. @_@

Sent via Kay's Berry

Semanis Senyum

I noticed this during my morning walk – very few of us like to smile! Aishhh....why larr?? It's like 7.15 in the morning and you see the familiar faces passing each other at brisk walk along the routine track. A new day dawns and we are not happy and cheerful? God has given us another 24hours to be on his earth and we are still wanna “sentap”? New future beckons, more opportunities waiting so senyum lah sikit...... 

Trust me I have tried smiling at others whom I passed during my walk. Tapi kenapa the response that I get doesn't seem so encouraging. Most of them don't bother smiling back. Some turned and looked else where. And many yang couples tu would definitely look at me as if they were ready to bite if their spouse returned that smile. Errr...kak...I have so much on my mind - work deadlines, 3 days of unsettled laundry, routes to take so that I could avoid the rush hour traffic jams, so menggedik is so, so not in my list ya! 

Bila teringat semula pesan ustazah masa sekolah dulu yang “senyum itu adalah sedekah” termanggu seketika dibuatnya. Tapi itulah senarionya di lake near my home that I frequent every morning. 

A few weeks back, however, when I climbed Bukit Gasing in PJ the “air” was a lot different. Fellow climbers, brisk walkers and runners there had a more cheerful look. Never mind if I wasn't a familiar face - my first time actually venturing the hill tracks, the trackers that passed by me wished me with a friendly “good morning” sweetened with lovely smiles!!

Bukit Gasing track...not an easy climb for 1st timers

Forestation at Bukit Gasing

The upshot from that - I felt so welcome, embraced by the warmth, motivated and inspired to venture the challenging track. It simply puzzles me though – napa eh...my own color, my fellow qariah mates (I think so larr..) have an indifferent advent towards such harmless advances. 

 

Mungkin lepas ni kena dengar selalu lagu M. Daud Kilau kot....♫ ♬ senyum lah senyum lahhh...wahai Cek Mek Molek....♫ ♬ and boleh give that famous Cik Mona's smile :) :) :)

Sent via Kay's Berry

An Act of Worship - A Poignant and An Emotional Experience

It was a journey of a life time - packed with spiritual and very personal experience.  I recall the struggling through the loving and worshiping crowds. I remember standing still - eyes roaming, in reconnaissance for that little space where I could fit in and do my prayers.  I remember sitting and read calmly His words,  crying for His pleasure, reading for His pleasure and praying for His pleasure.

Al-Haram....I stood in it with awe and inspiration watching at His creation; the millions who were already in the Holy Land, all ready to perform one of the five pillars of Islam. Nowhere else in the world does one see such a huge sea of humanity comprising every nationality and race that inhabits the earth, converge to the Holy City of Mecca, to fulfill God's commands and seek His forgiveness.

The Ka'abah.....always beautiful, absolutely splendid and magnificent. Syukur Alhamdulillah, He had given us a great bounty by making His house near us.  Tears ran down my cheeks as I made my invocation to Allah. Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Ka`abah.

And most of all, I remember the day of Arafat -  the most important day of Hajj. The Prophet (pbuh) emphasised the importance of this day by saying that Hajj is Arafat. A day spent on the desolate sandy plain asking Allah for forgiveness and being deeply touched by this spiritual experience. As we stood before the Lord and creator of mankind, asking for His forgiveness - reflecting on our past life. The things that we have regretted; the hurt towards the loved ones; colleagues, family, friends.

In Arafat, we poured our hearts out and asking Allah for His mercy. Sincerity and humility caused uncontrollable tears to flow from our eyes, as we were absorbed in this timeless experience on this a day of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Now, years later, memories of my Hajj experience float through my mind as if I’m watching someone else’s film. Certain scenes are frozen, but most are lost in the maze and flash of the changing shapes, colors of Mecca and the streams of pilgrims on the desert plains braving the odds and going through great sacrifices and hardships to fulfill the command of God.

Labbaika Allahumma labbaika.
Labbaika la syarika laka labbaika.
Innal hamda wanni’mata laka wal mulka.
laa syarika laka

"I am present, O Allah, I am present, there is no partner unto You. I am present. Definitely praise and glory is yours (for You). The Kingdom is also Yours. There is no partner for You".

TALAM Bermuka-Muka

This is a rant, so bear with me.

I am so, so upset. What happened this morning at the housing developer office almost made me jump sky high. These people are ROBBERS, I tell u and they have no remorse guilt over the offense they are committing. They are cheats and they get away happily. Well, maybe they do feel a little threatened; thus requiring them to hire a couple of big built guys as their body guards. Chicken lah tu. Berani buat tapi tak berani tanggung! Tau pun nak takut kann.

My rant is about my LAD claims with TALAM; a developer for a property I purchased almost 10 years ago. Yess...sekian punya lama and sakit hatinya masih ada. Oh by the way, if you Google TALAM, you'll find TRINITY as well. Yess...they were in a rut and to get themselves out unscathed and what did they do? They changed their name – to avoid confusion they claimed. But me this lil person with no so lil brains thinks they want to continue cheating others and reap more and more for themselves. It's like they dug one hole, deep enough for people to fall into. And when there is so much huha, they dig another one elsewhere pulak. Tak ke cheats namanya tu? And just because they are associated with folks who have powers bestowed upon them, they have now become the untouchables and they feel they can do things as they wish.

Memang sah lah TALAM bermuka-muka!

Anyway, to begin with, today was not at all a good day. Well, it started pretty good. Went for my usual walk and then when I came home, I found Manis our cat screaming for food. Sharksss....someone forgot to buy cat food (again!!) I gave her some ikan goreng left over from last night's dinner but she wasn't to happy with that. Oh well, Manis, you have your bad day and so do I. So, please stop being a pain, okay!

Then off I went to pick up Abe at his spanking new office. Of course, I tak kuasa nak naik and melawat office which is said to have one of the best views of KL (and bump into so many of these “stiff” guys?? Ohhh tak kuasa sangat-sangat!) So, I bbm-ed him and told him to wait by the road side; saves waiting time and I don't have to do that run-around-driving. But of course lah guys being guys, if there wasn't any element of surprise, tak sah lah kann. Tak thrill kalau tak dera wifey yang dengan rela hati (read: bull%$#@) doing the driving.

In his bbm reply, he said, “Make a u-turn. I wait kat bawah office.”

Ayooooo.....this was like the 2^nd time I lalu kat office baru ni ya. Jalan kat situ pun I have not hafal-ed yet. U-turn? U-turn kat mana pulak ni??? So dalam hati sudah sedikit panazzz. But it's okay, follow instructions still.

Then there was this infamous KL jam to deal with. Roads heading into KL ni kalau tak jam, memang tak sah lah kann and as expected there was a bit of a crawl to get to his office. Van Nissan Vanette rosak tepi jalan pun can attract the attention of beribu-ribu manusia behind the steering wheels to slow down and have an eye feast. Driving to the city certainly equates to STRESS. If I have to do this everyday, confirm hari-hari akan meroyan bad mood!

To cut the story short, I couldn't find the u-turn Abe mentioned in his bbm. Had to make that turn still, tapi punya lah jauh detour. Akibatnya, tolerance thinning and temperature slowly rising.

Anyway, why must drag Abe along eh? After all it's a property under my name kann. Well, since I am so hopeless at keeping taps on documents and correspondence between developer and meself, and since he is the one who is very abreast on the latest developments on the property, he has to come along lah.

TALAM's office is somewhere in Pandan; yesss...it's on the other side of town, an area which I seldom go. Parking there could be a hassle but we were lucky to have found a spot which was close enough to the building. Upon arriving at their office we were directed to an officer whose table was full with computer print outs. Alah biasa lah kan...office developer, mesti nak nampak busy. Business juta-juta. Or maybe this guy was just a slob at cleaning his work station, I don't know and I didn't really care.

So we showed him the letter TALAM sent us; the letter which stated that our cheques were ready for collection. Next, surat bertukar tangan and he handed to us a letter which had numbers and figures. And asked me to sign – acknowledging receipt of payment.

When I checked the figure stated in the letter handed to me, the number was different from the letter that I had. It was a much, much less amount. Ehhhh??? Why pulak like this??

The officer explained yang my letter tu was no longer valid. Huh?? Tak valid?? Mind you it was a valid legal letter stating the judge's call on my LAD claims from TALAM; me confused sekejap.

The officer then informed us about a court convince that TALAM got and he said the decision of the court convince had superseded the letter from the consumer tribunal. He went on explaining more about the court convince and said that all the claimants agreed to the new settlement amount. Errr...how come I didn't know about this collective agreement??

Put it this way lah, simple plain logic. If you are supposed to get a Hermes, tiba-tiba tukar jadi Longchamp, nak ke? Logic ke semua orang agree to so much slashing in the deal?

I did argue and stated my case with the legit tribunal letter. He obviously was not interested to nego lah. I guess he wasn't there to entertain anymore negos either. His task was to pass cheques to the claimants and hope they will kiss the cheques and go home happy.

I told him that I am not going to accept the cheques, will talk to my lawyers and we'll see what's the next action lah. To me it was plain daylight robbery. How could they be so arrogant and not at all respect a decision that was made by the court and simply change the settlement amount without consulting us. And the best part was......the settlement was in 6 post dated cheques. And guess what was the date on the last settlement cheque? JULY 2014 ya!!! Haaaa....that blew my entire patience away and just something I couldn't tolerate. Dah lah reduced settlement and progressive paymentnya punya lah lama nak habis! Boleh ganyut tunggu settlement yang so ciput tu!!

I was so, so pissed by then. Naik je rasa macam nak maki the officer. But no point lah gaduh coz' bukan dia pun yang terang-terang scheming kaedah penipuan tu.

So I told him that I refuse to sign and I am not accepting the settlement. I pun bangun and walked away and left him blinking in disbelieve yang perempuan ini tergamak turned down their offer (read: gula-gula $$$ and I am not stupid!).

It really irked me how easily these developers could get away. They could commit the biggest sin cheating folks on the street and not nobody bothers to nab them. In my case, I'm considered lucky as the property was completed and we have rented it out. Thus, there is not much of a financial burden on us. But what about folks whose property they totally failed to complete and deliver? By now I'm sure there are cursing TALAM every month when the banks demand for the monthly loan payments. 

So, TALAM.....u rot in HELL okay!

Wordless Wednesday

Korean brollies are found every where - at the market, on the streets, in the subway. It's so common seeing a Korean carrying one.

Take your pick

full use at a film location

more to choose from

and finally settled for this one :)

Walk With a Cause

It was my first walk this year. My busy schedule did not permit me to participate in the KL Marathon held earlier. Plus I didn't have much confidence that these knees would hold up to the stress from the run.

So the closest adrenaline rush to a marathon was this charity run by Avon Malaysia.

When I signed up for the "Kiss Goodbye to Breast Cancer" Run sometime last July, I thought I was gonna be walking all by myself. Promoted the event on FB but there didn't seem to be many takers. It being held on a Sunday, I guess people had plans already made. Anyway much to my delight, that 1 later multipled to 5; my sister and her two daughters had signed up too and I managed to drag Nissa to come along.

This auntie all set...all charged to go. Like 2 weeks before the run, I walked almost every morning. Some days I did 4km, some days I only managed 3....

.

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Nissa and Aliah doing jump warm ups

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The Kinrara Gang - my sis and her two girls (and they were very competitive one lorrr...nak finish top 50 and they did of coz)

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Crowd starting to build up (and while waiting to the celebs and VIPs we had to tolerate 3 rounds of zumba!! Katanya for warming up...yeah, but like THREE rounds??? In such a limited space to be shaking, shaking away?? Helloooo...organizers, pls be practical next time yar)

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Can't wait to start dah ni....

Let's walk everyone!

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Ehhh ehhh....check out who was in the crowd too ;)

Mommy and Nissa@2km mark

Nearing the 2.5km turn

Some were on roller blades

Pink sash...the BC survivors

Enter the Stress Free Zone...laugh, smile, no worries...just be happy

At the finish line...yesss...WE did it!! It was all fun last Sunday. The mood was not at all competitive; lots of smiling faces....cheering and picture taking for social media updates.