dubai!

Hello i'm back to blog again. Why am i so free ah? Cos it's my 5th off day in a row! Omgomg! Why is this happening. I had 3days off after my 8day flight, yesterday was on standby but NOT called up! Arghh! So i'm not working again. I dunno why i'm complaining, i should laugh to the sky that i get to slack at home. But you see no work equates to no pay = a poor me. And i'm bored too cos it's fabulous friday but everyone is either working or writing thesis. *jumps around in tantrum*

All of you should go traveling to help the economy. SQ is having many promotions. Go go!

Again, i dunno why i'm complaining.

I should make good use of my off days to take a break, reflect, search my soul and find myself back. *lost*


OK so i went to Dubai! Woots! Charles works there so i was granted a mini drive around and tour explanation plus some insights of an expat (well almost 90% of the people here are).

When i first saw the city, the initial impression was "sparkling". Lol cos my first view was from the plane as it was landing at night, and there were bright lights everywhere. The roads i saw looked straight, systematic and even had brillant lights distributed in equal distance (sounds familiar?). Although i'm sure what i saw was the most developed of the city, but wow i like sparkling! I almost thought i was going home.

By the way this was an 8day long flight. A singapore-dubai-istanbul-dubai-singapore 4 sector flight.

Clockwise from top left: Tallest building in the world.... still under construction. The Burj Dubai. I think it's gonna be sensational. We drove through the business area. Many buildings under construction! Dubai is going through major changes... fast! Keep your eyes peeled.

See the pinkish houses? I was told that for each wife a local man takes, he gets a (huge) sum of loan interest free, PLUS a house. So under the muslim law each man can take 4 wives right? Hmmmmm.......

No wonder the people i see working are either indians/indo/ang mo while local men stroll around the malls rubbing their big round tummies.... Not bad a system huh. The tiny pool of locals supported by foreign taxes and skyrocketing rents. Ok not to mention oil. And you can never be part of them if you're not arabian.

The mall of Emirates. A dip made of chick peas with a plate of sour vegetables, sour cream with olives, thin pita bread, raw vegetables as appetiser (hur?), mixed kebab with fries. That's my first meal in Dubai! Yummy yummm!!! Loved it. Was thinking of where i could get lebanese food again in Singapore haha i'm crazy.


So there's this puesdo skiing resort in the mall except that it looks real. With genuine slopes and chairlifts! But 80SGD for 2hours hurhur no thanks. And then my friend's Porche haha thanks ah for the ride.

World's tallest hotel! Wished i had the opportunity to visit the islandisland thingy i think they called it palm or something. Maybe next time.... sure will get dubai flight again! By then maybe they would have completed the world's tallest building haha!

We got a free drink coupon! Crew is typically yao gui one so of cos we went to redeem. We sat there for a good couple of hours enjoying the live music, free flow chips and that ONE free drink. Yao gui right!

Next day we had chinese steamboat hahaha! Don't gimme the you're-in-arab-what-are-you-doing-in-a-chinese-restaurant look cos we don't care and we lack no opportunity to taste middle eastern cuisine.

Their sauces are..... indescribable. 3DHS per plate and "don't waste"! The grand master gourmet chef (that would be me) created a potent sauce consisting of garlic sauce, peanut/seafood sauce and coriander leaves. Taadaa! Die die must try!

It's early renuion dinner! Heehee! Yuan yang guo rules!

Chocs and nuts is like THE crew joint. I dunno how it happened cos it is nowhere near the hotel. VERY popular now cos of CNY! Yayyyieeee. In fact cashew nuts, pistachio, chocolates and such are cny staples!

The legendary Angsana suites. Stayed here for the last leg of the flights.

Have you ever seen a kitchen in your hotel room??? So extravagant and utterly useless. Why would i wanna wash clothes or cook food on my one night stay huh! Just shiok to look at :)

Ordered food delivery alll the way cos seems like the hotel room was too nice for the rest of the crew to step out. Chicken kebab, naan, lassi, raw vegetables (popular appetiser, apparently), and some curry and chick pea sauces.

See the briyani on the left? It sucks!!!! Cos they left out the curry sauce. Rarrrrrr whatsthisman.

Relac.........

Take a bath! Wooooooooweeeeeeeeyayyyyyyy!!!!

Copenhagen, Denmark

Haiyo!

I realized i forgot to post my Copenhagen pictures. Only trice weekly flight, might not be going there ever again.

But it was SO cold. SOSOSOSOSO cold, we gave up walking to see the mermaid :( The Tivoli was closed for winter too, and shops were closed for the new year. Hahhahaha ghost town! And there was no countdown or whatsoever nearby. I was in a sleepy place in Europe, nowhere near town. Haha! Zzzz... but i loved the fireworks :)

Fine dining at the hotel restaurant. We had a farewell dinner and new year's eve lunch there.

People.

At the mall.Streets at night. Top left hand corner is the town hall. Tivoli on the right - oldest amusement park in Europe. See the train station at the bottom left. We originally planned to take a train to Sweden but plans got distrupted due to company's new year lunch.

Which i could gladly go without. But. Oh well.

As i said, fireworks seem as though they were free.

More on my facebook page!

slacking in istanbul

I'm so bored.

I've been away for work for the 5th day and i'm still here....

3 more days to go...

It's 6.18pm now and i'm waiting for dinner.

So i'm in Istanbul riding on stolen broadband (thank god for free broadband). I watched Twilight and the part of Madagascar-where-i-fell-asleep online and caught Stardust for the second time on tv. We went sightseeing and took the local tram to the Blue mosque, some bazaar and the spice market. I also crossed the bridge from the continent of Europe to Asia and back! Pretty exciting. I never knew Turkey rests on 2 continents- our hotel is on new Europe and the airport in Asia. Whee hee!

I miss dondon :( But he doesn't come online nor message me nor offer to fetch me back (boo). I think he's too busy (yes more so than me) to think about girlfriends and such.

Let's all hope i get long flights all the time! :)

New Delhi

I went to India! New Delhi to be specific. Just an overnight stay but the hotel was so posh! I had to take pictures hehe.

Colourful paintings!



Detailed as well.




Whee a beautiful lotus quietly sitting in a bowl.

So i had this chicken thing which looks like curry but ain't exactly. I can't remember the name because i couldn't read it in the first place. To put it simply, chicken in some kinda sauce of black pepper and boutique spices with a texture like singaporean indian curry. Plus prata! Or they call it paratha there. It was so good love it! The spices are different from those in the curry i usually eat (at 24hr fong seng), though it got too salty towards the middle of the meal. And the paratha was crispy and flaky on the outside and soft/fluffy on the inside (not wet/limp like 24hour fong seng).



And then i had a huge sundae which was heavenly. Curry plus ice cream rocks.

So after a meal there was nothing to do but to watch tv and wait for work to start again. Room surprisely exceeded my expectations and most importantly it was CLEAN.

Yay sparkling bathroom.

Queen sized bed! What else could you ask for?



Foggy outside.




Make some tea!

Ok this entry's really kinda useless bahhhhhh. But this city's, or maybe india's in general, huge rich-poor gap is apparent when you get to visit. You see your hotel being so posh and all but right outside the window it's a completely different story.

But i don't dread indian night stops anymore cos at least i get nice hotel and the food is so goooooooood!

i love sydney!

Haven't been posting about my travels in a long time, mainly cos i have been doing short turns/regional flights. Here's Sydney about half a month ago *sheepish look* I got to the Sydney Habour this time, hopefully on my next trip i'll get to QVB heehee.

Ok some act cool photos first. I edited this on my cool shit camera itself. Ya lah i'm such a geek.

SO this is the Sydney Habour Bridge!



We had lunch by the habour with the sea breeze in our faces. Mmm hmm... Jean's gigantic Caesar salad, biggest i've ever seen.

Huge fish and chip. This is actually my favourite childhood dish. So damn good ok, but damn ex, cost me 35AUD which is approximately.... 35SGD hohoho yays for the exchange rate.

Where to find restaurants who'll give you half of a lemon?

Ok this is just regular water, nothing special. Let's move on.


Beautiful sky....




An old looking staircase. Simply found it photo-worthy.


I'm not sure if they were busking or just playing music.



We took a nice long walk. The weather was breezy-cooling yet the sun was blazing. Really have to slap on sunscreen the next time i visit australia.



Sorry hor no make up. I'm too lazy and my face is already destroyed by the clownish makeup i wear to work. Sometimes when i look iinto mirror i feel like a clown. Opps i digressed.


I would sure love to live in one of these houses.


Finally we reached the Sydney Opera House! Oh happy day!

You can click on this picture and print it out to pin on your wall.


Noticed that the opera house looked different at various angles.











Yays! So i loved Sydney a lot, hoping to go back soon. The hotel room was very clean with a good bathtub AND shower room, which contributed favourably towards my wonderful experience. Not to mention i took the B777-300ER for the first time in my life. The cabin interior was beautiful, too bad not very pleasant to work in.

But that's fine.

So it's 2009 and i should be making some resolutions. But i usually don't cos i know i never made any efforts to acheive them. Maybe i should start...... small.

1) I really need to start reading more books. I could feel my brain rotting with all the MTV reality TV shit.

2) Make an effort to work out. I need to be strong and healthy for my job.

3) Speaking about my job, i need to be more focused and less blur. Stop drifting away, mind!

4) Save a lot of money. I seriously am not interested in LV but i can't say the same for Chanel hahaha! Trying to stay away from temptation but i know i would be an easy target, cos it's just me. It's a different story from being tempted to try smoking cos that's just not me if you know what i mean.

Hokay! Let's sit back and watch what unfolds in 2009 - a very challenging and exciting year ahead :)