Much Ado About Nothing I know About

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is talking to you while you are doing something and under normal circumstances you would be able to both do that something (eg. folding clothes or stirring something in a pot) and listen to the person talk at the same time but this time that person decides to go into a topic you have no idea about and they are super enthu about it so suddenly the clothes or the pot becomes so much more interesting and your mind starts flying off into space?

Well, that happens to me more often than I dare to admit. And it happens when the husband starts talking to me about music.

Don't get me wrong, I love music. I love listening to music, dancing to music and singing off key to music. And I certainly can talk about music if the situation appears BUT the husband... he's on a whole different music plane.

The man is a musician who used to play electric guitar in a band and who loves rock music as much as he does chocolate and has an in depth knowledge of the history of rock, the technical aspects of playing and performing and of producing music. So I NEVER talk music with him, not that it stops HIM from talking music with ME.

You know, after the first ex a lifetime ago, who loved rock music and told the most outrageously lame rock jokes (remember Rock Never Dies, Praisie? haha!!) I told myself never a rock enthusiast ever again.

Never say NEVER. Not only did I fall in love with a rock enthusiast, this time the man has an even wider, deeper knowledge and love of the music I call noise. Hai...

Every once in a while, he would start quoting some bisarre sounding lyrics from some little known song by some rock group that I hadn't known existed till that very moment. And it can be a little sad when the husband starts rambling some lyrics with a twinkle in his eye and an expectant laugh to me and for the life of me, I have NO IDEA what the significance of that lyrics would be and the silly man actually acts like I should have known all along. It's times like that when I have no idea to get truly annoyed with him for wasting minutes of my life with such inane trivia or to laugh at the patheticness of the situation.

How can I laugh along with him if I don't see the funny in it or even who the heck he's talking about? He's talking about artistes and groups and songs from the 80s! Talk about blast from the past.

Of cos if he had been discussing this with his own band members, each and every one of them will be laughing till they turn blue while their wives look on in disbelief and slight embarassment, or maybe that's just me?

I listen to BEP, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé. How am I supposed to know Kiss, Metallica, Toto and Pink Floyd and the names of every single band member, alive, dead or booted out??

So when he starts rambling about music...I secretly roll my eyes and wish the phone would ring just so he would have to stop talking and answer and hopefully forget his train of thought. Just wanted to vent...I just had to go through another rock music trivia with husband dear. Sigh...

Belated Birthday Party

It is tradition (Sweden is always about tradition) in the Sjöberg family that when someone has a birthday, a party is expected and all the family is invited. This is a whole new concept for me cos my family stopped having any sort of birthday celebrations when I entered my teens. Sure I've had dinner gatherings with friends to celebrate my birthday even until now but that's just another excuse for all of us to meet up and enjoy a good meal together. But with family? Hmm...a new and strange concept to me.

It doesn't matter how old one is, a Sjöberg (at least our branch of the extensive Sjöberg clan) is always expected to plan a party which is just another excuse for the entire family to gather which is also another unrelenting tradition in this Swedish family of mine.

So even though it was more than a month AFTER my actual birthday, I still planned my party like a good Sjöberg does but of cos me being me, I did it my way...which is definitely NOT traditional. But before the party, I was gonna experiment with my brand new Kitchen Aid stand mixer (my very expensive birthday present from husband dear) and baked cake after cake just to test out the machine and also to try my hand at frosting cakes.

My first attempt was a simple madeira cake (they call it sugar cake or sockerkaka in Sweden) in my new teddy bear cake tin and very simple lines of frosting to outline it's face and big belly.

Fine, I'm not the neatest of frosters or bakers but for a first attempt I thought it looked alright.

Husband dear said that the belly outline looked less like a belly and more like the male anatomy of the southern region. Hmm...upon hindsight I have to actually shamefacedly agree.
TOTALLY not my intention. Serious!!

My next attempt was for a full sized cake in my brand new heart shaped cake tin (yes,I went crazy cake tin shopping when I was in Singapore. There are no baking supply stores anywhere here!) I think this 2nd attempt turned out much better and the frosting tasted great too. I used a white chocolate frosting that used less icing sugar which made it fractionally less sweet. But found a cool trick to reduce sweetness in frosting. Just add some salt!

I actually really like frosting cakes although it takes a long time for me since I'm still just a beginner. There's a certain calming therapeutic sensation that comes with focus needed to frost. And husband loves the fact that whatever I bake is all for him.

But of cos all that baking and frosting was in preparation for baking my own birthday instead of buying one. A very untraditional thing to do. Plus the fact that it was banana cake (which one CANNOT find in any bakery here) with white chocolate frosting. But hey, my party is all about twisting tradition right?

And since I love butterflies, I decided to draw out a butterfly outline and put in colourful sprinkles just to give it some colour. It was either that or write out something. But I think my cake turned out quite pretty although one can tell it's an amateur job.

Birthday girl cutting the cake, another untraditional thing cos usually the person sitting closest to the cake cuts it but husband dear moved the cake to my side so I could cut it. Here I am, happily brandishing my knife next to MIL. See the fear in her eyes?? Hee!

So anyway, that was the cake for my party. Something else I did for the party was I actually kind of transformed the flat into a restaurant of sorts. I made 5 different Asian dishes, 2 types of rice and served it buffet style complete with condiments and sauces. And another thing that is strangely untraditional in Sweden? We had ice to go with the drinks. I know I know...you're thinking ICE?? But they don't have ice here. Nobody sells ice. We went to the supermarket to ask for ice and since it's such a rare request, we got it free.

Unfortunately I did not manage to get any pictures of the buffet table since it was quickly ravaged through. But the guests loved the food and even more the variety. Surprisingly, it wasn't as much work as I thought it would be. So the menu?

Chicken Rice
Steamed white rice
Prawns in plum Sauce (also known as Prosperity Prawns)
Oyster Sauce Beef
Pan Fried Breaded Chicken
Chicken Satay
Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

And after dinner and cake, we played PS2 although not for as long as we had hoped. Oh and the cat was thoroughly freaked out during the entire party and stayed well away from open spaces. Don't blame her.

So there we go, I'm a certified Sjöberg, parties and all, but with a twist. Always with a twist.

Operation Save Sussie

Husband had a 3 day weekend so we had a grand 'ol time just enjoying each other's company and playing on our PS2 (I'm starting to get pretty decent on Guitar Hero) or simply being.

Anyway, on Monday, we decided to go into town (seeing how small our 'town' is, we call going into the nearby BIG town, Orebro, going into town.) and set off before lunch. It was a nice day out and by the time we came home, it was evening.

Our cat, Sussie, would usually meet us at the front door when we come home even when she has been sleeping. In which case, we can tell she's still got the sleepy eyes as she stretches and greets us at the same time. It is quite rare that she doesn't come out to at least have a look before sauntering off to a quiet corner. But that night, she didn't come. Although we both thought it strange, we shrugged it off and knew that she would make an appearance eventually. So we settled in the livingroom and ate dinner, watched tv and talked. But after an hour and still no Sussie, I started to get worried. This was very unlike her to hide away and refuse to come out, especially since we didn't have any visitors so I started calling out for her. The good thing about my kitty is that she always comes when me or husband dear calls her. But she didn't come this time which of cos set off even more alarm bells in my head.

So we started looking in all her usual hiding places. We crawled all over the apartment searching under sofas, the bed, toilet, closet and still nothing. We opened all the cupboards in case she had somehow locked herself in (she's a VERY curious cat) but still no Sussie. Not even a tiny pip from the cat could be heard. I started getting a little hysterical (yeah, the melodramatic in me kicking in full force) and husband pulled on jacket and shoes and started searching outside for her. I began opening windows and looking out while shouting out her name. A number of people looked up at me, probably thinking I'm a crazy lady.

And still no Sussie.

Husband searched all the corridors, basement and ven parking lot but nothing. Our apartment building is constructed such that the stairway is in the middle of the building and there are doors opening into the stairway for every corridor that remains closed throughout the day. So the possibility of Sussie running off somewhere was rather slim but worried as we were, everything was possible.

And still no Sussie.

I began opening kitchen cabinets (just in case) while husband was outside. When I opened the cabinet below the sink where we keep the trashbin, I saw right at the back of the cabinet what looked like a hollow space leading into the back of the neighbouring cabinets. I started wondering if she had gotten in there when husband came back in from the cold. Seeing how big and brave the husband is, I instantly suggested that he go down on all fours and look into the hollow space.

I handed him a flashlight and climbed into the cabinet (not fully of cos since as mentioned above he's BIG) and that was when he caught sight of our little black cat. Sussie was found!! YAY!!!

But there was one problem. She was stuck.

My curious kitty had apparently gotten into the cabinet and walked into the hollow tunnel like space without realising how small the space is. The space is very narrow, about the size of the cat itself, but quite high. By the time she reached the end of the 'tunnel' which is longer than my arms length, she couldn't turn herself around and so she essentially got stuck. As curious as my cat is, she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen so for the life of her, she could not figure out that to get out, all she needed to do was walk in reverse. When I peeked in, she was literally pressed up against the end wall of the tunnel and could only turn her cute little head to look at me. I guess she must have thought the best thing to do was walk as far in as she could, pressing herself even more against the unmoving wall instead of walking backwards back into the open cabinet.

Hai...smart cat.

As relieved as I was and frightened as she looked, I couldn't help but laugh my head off before formulating a rescue strategy to get my silly cat out of there.

First, we needed to get her turned around since she's so far in, I couldn't even reach her. So Mathias handed me a stick for me to prod her so she would (hopefully) turn her body around. Narrow as the tunnel is, it is also high so could actually turn around by standing on her back paws. Anyway, I prodded and prodded and finally she did turn so she was facing me. I bet she must have been relieved to be able to rest on all 4 paws on the ground instead of being pressed face first into a wall. Haha! That was hilarious.

Anyway, by this time Sussie was too afraid to move or even make a sound so it was up to me to try and get her out. I tried treats and other cat food but she wasn't interested in eating at all. It looked like she had hurt one of her eyes as it was very runny and we became worried again. Mathias said we would have to go to the vet since she's hurt but my first priority was Operation Save Sussie. Since she wouldn't move by herself, I decided that I will have to pull her out myself. Afraid that she would scratch or bite me, I pulled on gloves and got down to work. I first pulled at her collar but she wouldn't budge and the collar snapped open. (Don't worry, it didn't hurt her. Turns out the collar snaps open with the slightest pull). Even though she refused to come out, I was glad that at least she didn't move backwards deeper into the tunnel.

I was getting desperate so I decided to go for it and grabbed hold of the back of her neck and pulled and pulled till she couldn't fight back and I grabbed hold of her and pushed her into her box and locked her in while husband dear called the vet.

Sussie eventually calmed down and turns out she didn't injure her eye but probably got some sand or dust into it while she was stuck and it cleared up when I placed a small bowl of water into her box in case she needed to drink and she accidentally tipped it over her face. Cool! Eye cleared!

When we had ascertained that she wasn't injured, I opened the box door and she ran off under the bed where we left her to lick her injured pride. But Sussie was soon back to herself and within half an hour, she was back to jumping up on the sofa and onto us.

And such was the little adventure that little Sussie got herself into. And to be honest, I don't know how long she was stuck in that space since we were away all day. Poor cat!

Just the beginning...

I was lucky last year when I first moved to Sweden. The winter, although cold and snowy, was considered really mild and even though I did contract pneumonia, I handled the weather pretty well.

But I'm not so lucky this time. The winter this time round is much, much colder and I am barely weathering it through. I hardly go out of the apartment now and as much as the sun shines through during the short daylight hours, I know just how cold it is. And this is just the beginning of winter, it can only go downhill from here.

I had to go out today and walk to and from my home. Even though the walk was short, little more than 5 minutes, I felt every single gust and breeze. With every sudden gust of the icy cold wind, I felt it go through my jacket, shawls, hat, gloves right into the bones. My fingers ached, my knees creaked, and my face was frozen. And now I can't really bend my index and middle fingers of my right hand fully cos it hurts so bad.

The daytime is cold, the night time is colder, the apartment is always cold now and my toes are ALWAYS freezing.

Just wanted to complain....needed to....winter bites....literally.

Anniversary Weekend

Can hardly believe that it's been more than a year since I got myself hitched and flew me over here to Sweden and settle in this tiny town of Askersund. Like any other newly wed couple(am I still qualified to call myself a newly wed? hmm...), we've had our ups and downs, hits and misses and ridiculous moments together. It's the toughest year for any couple and definitely deserves a celebration. So we celebrated...the whole weekend. hee hee...

Our anniversary was a few weeks ago on a Monday but I guess one can say that we began the 'festivities' on Saturday when we travelled to the capital city of Stockholm for an overnight stay on a company leisure trip. And right after that, we headed on to Orebro, a big town close to Askersund to spend the next night in honeymoon bliss.

At the train station waiting for our train to Stockholm! Very excited cos it was my FIRST train ride in Sweden. YIPPEE!!

The men chose to stand and try to look all important. The men in glasses are the brothers/bosses/owners of the company. They're really nice.

Our train arrives!!

Our entire group of 12, all dressed in black and pulling rolly bags. Dear husband was the only one wearing blue jeans...ok fine..LIGHT blue jeans.

Me, happily getting on the train. Little did I know that I only had 5 minutes to get my butt ON the train before it leaves the station. A bit goondu lah but what to do, I was a train virgin.

Finally all settled into our seats after much disorder and confusion. This is Katarina, the bosses' sister. She intimidates me a little but friendly-ish..is that an oxymoron?

Patrik, dear husband's colleague and partner in crime. He brought his gf along but for most of the trip, he chose to sit with the bosses, saying she's grown up and can take care of herself. Hmm...not sure if I would forgive Mathias if he ever did that to me.

Bengt is the handyman/deliveryman/cleaner/jack of all trades but sales man and Katarina's husband. Mathias thinks he's 400 years old cos he's done pretty much all jobs in the world when he tells his stories. Eg. construction worker, farmer, property evaluater...

DH and I happily settled in our seats. Well, I wasn't so happy since my seat is nestled between 2 windows which means that even though I got a window seat, I don't have any windows. Which sucks cos I wanna look at scenery!

When we arrived in Stockholm, we dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed straight to this Asian restaurant. Apparently it's a very posh place and Swedish celebs go there all the time. But to be honest, the food was so so (supposed to be fusion-ish) and I can't even remember the name of the restaurant!

Our group table. Youngsters (me included of cos) sat on one side and the oldies sat on the other. And the only time that Patrik sat next to his gf for a meal on that trip. So lunch was high class Asian Buffet which included Sushi and sashimi. Totally thought of you, Praisie when I saw the sashimi.

Happily posing for the camera the only time Mathias remembers to take my picture.

The food may be so-so but I love the interior of the building. I believe it is an old building that was converted to a restaurant.

The ceiling is so high and the chandeliers really add a touch of glam and pompousness. I guess I can understand why celebs like coming here. It's the place to see and be seen. Many of such places here in Stockholm. And sushi. Stockholmers LOVE sushi. I think they consider it high class Asian food.

The restaurant is located right next to the Chinese Theatre where we went to after lunch to watch The Producers!! I loved it even though it was in Swedish. The fact that I had watched the movie before helped..a lot. But the actors were all FANTASTIC! I love it! Love it! Love it!

These Indians are buskers that perform close to our hotel everyday and play excellent, soothing music. They don't just busk to earn from passers by but also to promote and sell thier own CD which has a really nice cover to it. Very haunting music.

One of the things I like about Stockholm is all the old buildings and architectural wonders abound. It's sometimes difficult to fathom that some of the buildings are hundreds of years old.

This is a metal statue of a famous Swedish writer whose names eludes me right now. But what is significant about this statue is that the entire front and especially tummy of the statue is so nice and warm even though it is blisteringly cold. I almost thought that the statue is heated until I felt the back and realised it's cold as ice. It is the morning sun that keeps this statue nice n warm.

The National Theatre where all the bigger plays, musicals and performances are staged. It's the Stockholm version of our Esplanade but so much more beautiful in architecture and presence.

Our hotel room at Hotel Scandic Royal Viking, my 5 star Swedish hotel experience. It was so so. Nothing really spectacular about the rooms or service. The Rooftop bar had a fantastic view of the city but is way too small and cramped and the bar staff aren't particularly helpful or eloquent which I would expect them to be since they hardly have a comprehensive menu.

The room is quite small but a very large mirror spans almost one entire wall, which comes to think of it, makes the hotel room rather sexy. And yes, it's not an afterthought. Luckily, I did think of that ..uh hum..factor while I was still staying the room. *wink wink*

The bathroom is not too bad and unlike all other hotels I've stayed in in Sweden, the bathtub is actually built into the wall so one doesn't accidentally tip the tub over a little. Yeah...personal experience.

After Stockholm, we continued on our little getaway and this time to Orebro where the rarely romantic husband surprised me with a booking at one of the boutique hotels, The Berhn Hotel, I've always wanted to stay in. And not only that, he had us booked in a 2 storey suite!! Ooh! Even better than our honeymoon!

The hotel is located in an old style building that has 4 tornets which makes it look like a small castle and our suite is up one of the tornets. So I kinda felt like a princess up in a tower looking down at the parking lot downstairs. Hee hee! The suite is divided into livingroom and bathroom downstairs and the bedroom upstairs.

That is the top of the tornet which is about 5 meters up from our bed. And blinds are installed which shut parallel to the floor so we can shut out the 4 'skylights' at night.

The stairs up to our bedroom. The only thing about the room is that there is no bathroom upstairs so one needs to walk downstairs even for the middle of the night number 1s.

Jacuzzi in the bathroom!! We used it a few times...on an overnight stay...heh heh...

The lovely couple on their way out to a nice Greek dinner. One of the surprisingly few pictures we took together that entire weekend. I must say, Swedes are really no good at taking picures.

My anniversary weekend was a blast which began on a train to Stockholm and ended with bowling in Orebro which the husband is very proud to announce that he won. Even though the very first time he ever tried his hand at it was when I brought him to a bowling alley a few weeks before. Good food, good company and lovely memories..that was my first anniversary.

My Crazy Cat, Sussie the Pussy.

My dear, darling and naughty cat, Sussie. Difficult not to love a creature like her and yet all her crazy and usually very un kitty like antics makes a mess of our house and I pause to wonder...what did we get ourselves into???

Let me list some of the strange things that she does, some of which is done while we're asleep. And I shall compare it to normal cat behaviour in similar situation.

Situation: Toy rat is idly lying on the floor. Cat spies it from a corner of her eye.

Normal cat will... pause and crouch down low in a hunting position and eye the target for a while before lunging at it and playing with it for a while. Cat may or may not roll around with toy rat but will eventually leave ratty alone in somewhat similar location.

Sussie will... see the rat and stop in her tracks. She looks around to make sure nobody is going to catch her in action (but we usually do) and lunges for the toy rat, grabs it by its neck and starts running around and around the house with ratty in her mouth, like a dog holding a ball. She will run at least 2 rounds into all the rooms of the flat before hiding the rat in a deep dark corner under our bed where I'm sure she does unspeakable horrors to poor old ratty. We may not see the rat for a few more days more.

Situation: Cat is under the sofa or bed, relaxing or playing.

Normal cat will...usually be licking itself, playing with some furball or toy it found or simply sleeping.

Sussie will... figure herself to be Ethan Hawke from Mission Impossible or that creature from Species and hang onto the bottom of the bed or sofa with all 4 paws so she is essentially hanging upside down and start crawling like that, sliding herself across back and forth the bed or sofa. She doesn't shred the underside of our furniture but just uses it as the medium that will allow her to do her 'spy-ish' activities. Once I caught her doing that under our bed cos she came too close to the outer edge and when we made eye contact, she froze for 5 seconds before running away. Cos she knows she'd been caught on a mission.

Situation: Cat wants to enter a room but has not been able to all night because room door has been closed. Now door is finally open and cat can enter.

Normal cat will... slowly and catiously walk towards the door, making sure that it is safe to enter before entering and surveying the room and doing who knows what it wants in there.

Sussie will... run like a cat high on Ecstasy towards the door but screech to a halt at the doorway and look around her very very catiously to make sure that neither me or the husband is going to chase her out or scold her before she rushes again under the bed, which in her mind is the safest place possible.

Situation: Nice new blanket has just been bought from IKEA and placed at an accessible spot on the sofa in case of chilly TV nights.

Normal cat will... perhaps consider it warm and cosy and paw the blanket into a comfy bunched up shape before curling down into it and sleeping away.

Sussie will... eye the blanket all night and when husband and I are asleep, pull it from the livingroom into our bedroom deep under the bed where she will paw it into a comfy bunched up shape before going back to the livingroom to sleep on her already comfily bunched up towel under the sofa. There will be no trace of new blanket the next morning when we wake up and all I have is a strange feeling that something is missing while standing in the middle of the livingroom. Blanket is found later in the day when we realilse what exactly is that missing something.

Situation: Potted plants are placed in various locations all over the house.

Normal cat will... consider it fun to paw into the dirt in the pot since it's an indoor cat and doesn't get to play with dirt very much. It's like a kid and mud. We understand. What one will be left with is a dirt-y (heh heh. no pun intended) mess all around the affected pot with trails of dirt where the cat headed to after it's fun with the potted plants. And after a while cat is relatively clean since it then spends hours licking itself of the dirt.

Sussie will... consider it fun to paw into the dirt in the pot since she's an indoor cat and doesn't get to play with dirt very much. But what I am left with is a dirt-y (heh heh..again pun not intended) mess all around the affected pot but no trails. My cat manages to make a mess at the scene of the crime and then perhaps tiptoe off before leaving a spot of dirt 3 meters away or more often in the next room. And yet not a speck of the plant dirt anywhere else but that lone spot a good 3 meters away. To this day I still wonder how the hell she does it. And after a while my Sussie is relatively clean since she spends some time grooming except for a spot of dirt at the tip of her nose, revealing what she'd been up to. Did I also mention she likes to eat dirt?

Situation: After a wild night, the house is littered with colourful confetti. Cat is given some treats and wet food is put into the food bowl.

A normal cat will... run for the treat and perhaps meow for it if one is too slow in handing it out. Then cat will possibly head on to the food bowl and attack the wet food. It had been a wild night after all even for a cat.

Sussie will... look at the treat with some suspicion, eye the wet food and give that some consideration. But ultimately, she will turn and spotting some loose pink confetti lying on the ground, run to it before gobbling it down like it was the best treat in the world. Did I mention that my cat likes to eat paper and chew on book covers?

That is the story of my crazy cat..or at least part of it. As she grows she will hopefully tone down a little in craziness but one never knows. But for now, it's just fun to see what else she can come up with.

Singapore trip

My trip to Singapore may have lasted a month but like all good holidays, time always seem to fly past and before I knew it, I was packing up to go back to Sweden.

So here is a pictorial summary of my trip in Singapore. Did not take that many pictures unfortunately cos I was just too busy with other things to remember to whip out the 'ol camera. And I only managed one picture of all the good food I ate cos I could never wait. Too bad..

Here are some pics of people I met and places I visited while back in Asia. Not in chronological order cos uploading a lot of pictures and trying to put them in order is a real P.I.T.A. So I didn't.

On my last day in Singapore, met up with some friends who had been working the midnight shift for breakfast. Advantage of being good friends with hoteliers? I got to enjoy a Marriott buffet breakfast! Yum! Oh and after breakfast, we decided to pull out a grey hair we saw on her head...in the middle of Orchard Road!

My best mate from work (ok fine..ex-work), Liyana, and the most chee ko pek boy you'll ever meet, Shaun. Don't be fooled by his charms at first tho. haha!

My dearest pal, Amin, who recently got promoted to Duty Manager (therefore my free breakfast!) handing me my Spirit to Serve Award that I had won in 2007. Finally!

My nearest and dearest ex-colleagues. Such a pleasure to work with and scold when needed.

Half of the gang UNITED!! We forgot to take pictures when we met Francine that one and only time. What a shame! So took these last minute while eating ice-cream at Macs.

Taken on first day of Hari Raya 2008. The best family picture we've taken so far with all the family (except my husband!)

Ate great food while in Malaysia. Sis in law made sure of that. This was a chinese restaurant we bumped into while on the search on a hot sunny day. Horfun looks good right?

But my beef kway teow was great!! Oh I love Asian food!!! How I miss it all!

Went to visit my 1st bro and his family in Malaysia where they had just moved to a new condo. How huge is the place, right?? The ceiling is sooo high up! Made my sis in law stand in the middle of the room for comparison.

A favourite pastime of my niece, Nadia when I came to Malaysia to visit. She LURVES sleeping on me and resting her head on my boobies. COMFY!

Taken at the entrance to one of the many swimming pools in that condo. So pretty right?

View from the condo if one was living facing the city side. We sneaked into one of the renovating units on our floor (24th floor!) to see what kind of view they had. Cos my bro took the forest view unit.Saying farewell to them as I left Malaysia and took the coach back to Sg. Sofia looks so SAD!

Was not a happy occasion when I was leaving. Everyone including little Nadia were upset. Aiyoh, how to leave like that right? I was also upset.

View of the swimming pool from the 24th floor. All the blue that you see is PART of the swimming pool. It actually continues to wind around the block to the other side.

Went to the zoo on the eve of Hari Raya. Timing was not fantastic I admit but it was quite fun.

Our fairly lively welcoming party perched on a branch just above our heads.

And other not as lively members of the zoo family.

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I miss Singapore so much and all the people and the food. Hai...Sweden is really not too bad but how to not miss Singapore when there's so much to miss there right?