Reached home today and the reality of me being alone in Stockholm dawned on me so hard that I can hardly breathe. The whole studio is pitch quiet and I hate this silence! Where is my dear dear?!?! I miss him so much, so glad that he finally pick up my call at Heathrow airport and I can hear his voice! Wish I can touch his face now!...Not sure if I can fall asleep tonight ALONE without him... It's going to be tough but I know I can get though it... LOVE YOU SO MUCH DEAR!
I am pretty impressed with Mr Brown's blog ( http://www.mrbrown.com ) these days, maybe because I miss Singapore too much, simply watching his unpretentious, funny Singlish videos kind of brings me closer to home... strangely, viewing his blog allow me to relax and yet at the same time, abrogate almost completely the overwhelming sense of homesickness within me.
Anyway, woke up this morning and is in the "gadgety" mood, so I went online surfing for these cute X-mini II capsule speakers (nice review from Mr Brown's blog again). Think that it is a pretty neat design for travel speakers, proudly designed by a Singapore company - XMI ( www.x-mini.com ). I guess they will only be available in Singapore around September, hopefully I can lay my hands on them then!
Saw these elegant sleek cases on http://www.more-thing.com/ and love their design cases for ipod touch! Unfortunately, the metallic series, engraved edition which I like will only be out in September :(
PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATA! Congrats for turning a quarter of a century old!
I love to look at babies! Innocent eyes, cherubic cheeks and tiny hand and cutey feet... I ponder what happens to those people who totally loss this kind of innate innocence... will they have bad karma? Maybe we should look at babies more often and appreciate the fact that we were all once like that before...
Babies clothes advert from H&M
Our own private cabin on the Viking Line cruise ship - Mariella
Fantastic and awesome view of the archipelago on the top deck
Max burger for the night, yummy yummy! And chilli cheese fries too, ok only, still prefer KFC's cheese fries!
We had some vodka in the pub. since we reckoned that no one will recognise us, we did one dance after mastering enough courage to walk to the dancefloor, I think we are one of the stiffest pair of dancers among them..haha...
Some duty-free spanish red wine for the night...
Finally Helsinki is in sight! Aye Aye Aye!
The Senate Square and Cathedral in the background
Rise and shine for a day in Helsinki
Perhaps due to the influence from Russia, they are selling Russian dolls as Finland's souvenirs, RJ simply enjoys dissectin' these dolls and he is in awe when he discovers that there is another smaller doll inside each doll...haha, just like a kid!
Open air market at the Helsinki port
Love this pair of woolen socks but they are wayyyy too expensive..:(
Our preciously found 2 Euro bicycles, kind of scary to cycle around with these 2 broken bics.
And guess what we found at Kamppi shopping mall, Singapore wok and guess what they sell?!?!
Char Kway Tiao!
Despite costing a whooping 10 EURO per dish, we still settled down for it, we simply just cannot resist the temptation!
Me adding loads of small red chilli!
Yes, the spicer the merrier!
RJ's artistic shot of Kamppi shopping mall
Temppeliaukio Church, a church that is carved out from the rocks, pretty amazing!
The weather was so hot, we sat down for an ice cafe latte and raspberry ice-cream at the oldest cafe in Helsinki - Cafe Ekberg to coool down...
Treated RJ to Food Garden the a-la-carte restaurant on-deck..
He had duck breast in blackcurrant sauce
Fried lemon sole fish with potatoes for me!
And a final stop to the duty-free shop for some cidar, vodka chocolate and RJ's long sought-after CK men's perfume - In2U
And here come the photo for the Pride parade, beware: these photos are Not Safe For Work:
Pride parade is meant to celebrate the equality of gay rights and it is held in Stockholm every year at the beginning of August. It is always interesting to experience the crowded streets of Stockholm city, bustling with paraders proudly swaying the prominent rainbow flags - such is a rare sight in Stockholm - which is usually far too cold and quiet.
Can you spot the winnie the pooh and piglet?
It is time for the crayfish party this season and we are invited to Jens' family! Thanks to Sharon for the invitation! It's great to visit a traditional swedish family for a small quiet gathering. Jens' family is very friendly and hospitable, making me and RJ feeling totally at home, plus they provided us with loads of food, wine and snaps!
Chatting with Sharon, Jens and Annie, BBQ pork and berries and ice-cream for dessert!
Snaps is a traditional scandinavian tipsy alcoholic drink essential in most crayfish parties. And we have to sing a little swedish song before we imbibe the entire shot!
Happy belated birthday to Jens and Annie!
We lit the lanterns as darkness falls...
Anders entertaining us for the night with his songs and guitar...
Luckily RJ is resourceful enough and found City Akuten from his school’s website which is the only clinic that do not require any appointment and he immediately send me down to hoterget to see the doctor. The wait was long and I drifted in and out of darkness, when the swedish doctor saw me, she was shocked at the state that I was in and since she was diagonised that I was down with a kidney infection or may have appendicitis. Appendicitis! What luck is this, I will need surgery if it is so! She would need to have more detailed tests in the hospital to confirm what I had been infected with. Kindly, they arranged a taxi to bring me to the nearest hospital - Danderdys Sjukhus and from here, the swedish doctors and nurses acted very fast and took great care of me. They were appalled that my body was so weak and immediately started poking catheters into my veins and administering antibiotics intravenously. Blood was drawn (many times) for blood culture to check for infection as well. Fluid was also given iv to replace the large amount of blood lost.
Afterwhich, I was wheeled around for different scans - CT scan in the abdominal area to check for appendicitis and Lung X-ray scan to check for pneumonia. This is all I can remember as I drifted in and out of sleep then, I only know that RJ was always beside me, checking on me to make sure that I am OK. I guess I must have sacred the hell out of him! The doctors insisted that I have to be hospitalised in the renal department so that they have constant supervision on my condition. I was wheeled into ward 71 and the days spent there seems forever. Everyday, I count down to 12 noon which was the official visiting time and listened intently for RJ’s footsteps thumping along the corridor.
Fortunately, I had kidney infection and not appendicitis, so no surgery was required. I was anxious that the fever will not subside and worried that I will not recover in time before my parents' and sis’s arrival. There are so many beautiful things in Sweden that I wanted to show them! Until the last few days, I felt so lonely and depressed in the hospital and I kept pestering the nurses and doctors that I wanted to go home. Luckily, my fever has gone down a bit and he let me go home for one night but wanted me to go back for more blood tests subsequently.
THANKS to the kind nurses of ward 71 for taking such good care of me and of course RJ, sorry for making you worry and I will promise to take care of myself when you return to Singapore. And sorry to family (especially mummy, papa and sis) and friends back in Singapore for making you all worried too, I am fine now so do not worry! Thanks to RJ's mum and dad for the bird nest concentrate and ginseng tea! I will drink them and "bu" my body!
This catheter was attached to my arms constantly so that they can administer the antibiotics intravenously. Not very comfortable!All times are local times, add 6 hrs to get Singapore time. Eg. 0815 here is 1415 in Singapore.
Updates
They went to this quaint little French lakeside town just south of Geneva!
Location of Anncey:
What They Can Expect to See and Experience:
We are meeting them at Copenhagen at 17 June 1400! Then we will tour the capital of Denmark for 1.5 days before flying back to Stockholm together on 18 June evening. See you till then!
Day 1 15th June 09 - Geneva
All times are local times, add 6 hrs to get Singapore time. Eg. 0815 here is 1415 in Singapore.Updates
They have arrived safely in Geneva at 0815 and 'checked in' at the apartment suite of Jacky & Jamie at Carouge, Geneva! The long flight was tiring and they had a little rest in the apartment before embarking for lunch and a little tour of the city centre at 12noon.
Geneva is one of the major cities of Switzerland (capital: Bern). Competing amongst Zurich, Lausanne, Basel, St. Gallen, Lugano and Lucerne, Geneva is the 2nd-most populous city and the seat of international affairs with numerous governmental as well as non-governmental institutions and headquarters. UN, WHO (who decides the pandemic of swine flu recently), Red Cross, u name it, all have or had important HQs in Geneva. It also hosted the 2008 European Football Championships last June along with other cities in Switzerland and Austria. The one where Spain won Germany, remember?
Geographically, check out the part of the Swiss Alps in the east of Geneva that almost seem like engulfing the regions around. Geneva also lies at the South-western tip of Lake Geneva, which serves many picturesque lakeside towns including Lausanne (place of IOC HQ (Olympics Committe), Vevey (HQ of food and beverage giant Nestlé), Montreux (the jewel of the area with casinos, gives a Monaco feel) among others. Conclusion: this lake is a very important lake in Switzerland.
Let's zoom in somemore and you can see Jacky & Jamie's place at Carouge, about 2.5km away from the city centre of Geneva, and accessible by trams.
My relatives are going to be here any moment!
大姑，三姑，四姑，小姑 & Uncle Johnny, together with my sister and brother-in-law, Jamie and Jacky are visiting Stockholm as part of their Summer '09 plans across Europe!
Kids of the above persons, meaning my beloved cousins who are unable to make the trip here, are invited to visit this blog daily over the next two weeks! I will try my utmost to keep you updated with the happenings around here since for once, I will be nearer to 'them' than U. (It's a coincidence that 'them' here could refer to the 1st blocks of letters A-H) And I mean the following people Grace, Bingquan, Bingwei (if Tekong has evolved so much that it provides free internet for its recruits), Jojo, Shuwen, Yiling, Chok Leong, Alexander and Victoria. Dun worry, your parent(s) is/are safe with us. Of course, the rest including Emily, Zhiyang, Zhiheng, Leon, Renyih & all the other spouses of the above people, feel free to drop by this page too!
This is a brief outline of their 12 days in Europe:
Day 1 to 3 (15-17 June 09) -- Geneva (Switzerland); Hosts: Jacky and Jamie
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Day 3 to 4 (17-18 June 09) -- Copenhagen (Denmark); Hosts: Jacky, Jamie, Renjie and Linqiu
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Day 4 to 7 (18-21 June 09) -- Stockholm (Sweden); Hosts: Renjie and Linqiu
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Day 7 to 10 (21-24 June 09) -- Berlin (Germany); Hosts: Jacky and Jamie
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Day 10 to 12 (24-26 June 09) -- Geneva (Switzerland); Hosts: Jamie (Jacky will be away representing France in a soccer tournament)
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Day 13 (27 June 09) -- Reach Singapore 1550 via Frankfurt (for u fellows to pick up your parent(s))
Return them to ALL OF U again.
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I hope to bring you the latest daily scoops and updates from Europe.
I might fail, but I will give it a try.
(I have a feeling I will learn alot about kyrka (swedish) at the end of this.)
Summer '09 GENEVA-COPENHAGEN-STOCKHOLM-BERLIN-GENEVA
Flags kindly from www.flags.net
Even though it was a couple of days before my written Swedish (elementary) exam, I couldn't resist the opportunity to tag along with LQ when she went for a conference in Oslo - capital and largest city of Norway - in early May.
Around Oslo Sentralstasjon (Central Train Station)
Hotel Room, Thon Hotel Astoria (Chain in Norway)
Having breakfast every morning in a hotel is a joy.
On the Way to Akershus Fortress
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