Christmas Past

In an blink of an eye, Christmas has came and leave. And just like that, Christmas is over. Spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas night at Straits Quay. Had a nice night out, it was nice, had some good laugh. But somehow, deep inside of me, I still feel something is missing. I still feel alone, despite everyone else were around me.

I guess I still haven't really let go of the past. What I felt last Christmas, few years back, still lingers in my mind. My heart aches everytime I think about it. Maybe it's a little less hard now, but it still pains me most of the time. Guess I just need to try much harder at letting go.

Anyway, Merry Belated Christmas to Everyone. Shared some photos which I took at Straits Quay. Hope you guys like them =)

Night shots test

Tested some night shots from the balcony with a D90. Normally, when using a normal digital camera, I would set an higher ISO for night shots. But my friend told me to leave the ISO as it is and just adjust the shutter speed instead. I am a noob when it comes to handling DSLR so I just listened to the 'pro' =P

First few shots came out blur, as my hands were shaky. Hate it whenever that happened. Tried to steady my hands and took a few more shots. Finally managed to get some decent shots. Shared the most 'decent' one here =P

Germany - Frankfurt (Part 1)

Continuing my Germany travel post xD Ya, it's not over yet, bleak.

Spent my last weekend at Germany in Frankfurt. Stayed at another hotel called InterCity Hotel near the airport. Managed to get to the hotel with almost no issue. Only problem I had was looking for the section where all the hotel buses stop to pick their guests. Asked the information counter for assistance. Got to the so called bus stand and waited for almost an hour for the hotel bus.

When I reached my hotel it was already past 2pm. Don't really like the hotel. The receptionist was kinda arrogant, and the service was bad.

The lift is so small that I doubt it could fit 3 person with big suitcases -.-'' Smallest lift I ever used.

My room.

The bathroom, which is quite small as well.

And the worst part is the hotel is in the middle of nowhere.

Ya, sure it's close to the airport but left and right, all there are, are highways. Photos above, taken when I walked around outside the hotel. Nothing much to see. Ruined my plan of walking around the city of Frankfurt at night, and taking the cab to the closest downtown cost more than 30Euro which was very pricey -.-'' Not a suitable hotel if intend to visit the city, but if just for a quick stay then I guess it can be considered.

I stayed in the hotel after that till it was evening and time for dinner. Paid for the internet service again and this time it cost me 20Euro for a measly 2 hours of surfing. Why is all the internet service not free anyway?!? T_T Spent my time surfing for tourist attraction spots in Frankfurt. My flight was scheduled at 10pm the next day, so wanted to fully utilize my free time.

Went down to the hotel lobby, and I only got two options. Fluggi Restaurant or Pub JU52. Saving on budget, I went for the latter.

The interior of Pub JU52. I sat at a corner, just in front of the bar counter. Almost the whole wall are covered with photo frames.

An airplane hanging in the center of the pub. I think it's a twin otter, mini twin otter xD

More photo frames.

My hot Cappuccino, there was actually more foam than coffee -.-

JU52 Burger, specialty of the house, served with tomatoes and pickles at the side and not to forget the 3 sauces (mayo, ketchup and mustard). Thought I gave it a try. It was nice, very big and juicy burger. Was very full by the time I finished it.

Some fries, actually a side dish from the burger.

Ordered a glass of sprite, served in a smaller version of coca-cola contour glass. Purposely took this photo for Chao Yng aka Co0lwinter who is a coca-cola glass collector. *Wooi!! Chao Yng, your glass, in 0.2L version hehe*

I stayed at the pub for quite sometime, slowly eating my fries, drinking my sprite, watching the tv which was on mute and listening to the music playing in the pub. Luckily they played English songs.

Walked around the hotel after my dinner, then I headed straight back to my room. Took a nice hot shower, watched Criminal Minds in German then zzZZZzzz.... Got to wake up early the next morning for my new adventure in Frankfurt =P

Post Cafe

Had an early birthday celebration for Audrea and Audrey last Friday. Actual birthday for Audrea falls on the 13th and Audrey's falls on the 14th. One day difference but no, they are not twin, sibling, but not twin =P

After some discussion on Facebook's group wall which Audrey created, we decided to come here for a cousins' gathering cum early birthday celebration. None of us been here before and the prices look fine from their website plus the place doesn't look bad. Situated along Carnarvon Street, it's not hard to find though we did miss it the first time, bleak.

The exterior part of the cafe.

Most of us ordered the set meal. A much affordable 5 in 1 set meal, ranging from RM9.90 to RM23.90. The set meal consists of Garlic Bread, Soup of the Day, Main Course, Coffee or 100% Wheatgrass and Dessert. They also have ala carte if you don't fancy the main course that comes with the set meals.

Our 100% wheatgrass drinks from the set meals. Tasted very grassy ~.~

Ice lemon tea from the ala carte menu. Somehow the ice lemon tea came with foam on top.

A small slice of garlic bread and mushroom soup, from the set meals as well. Tasted just mediocre for me, but Audrey liked it a lot.

Some of us were already very hungry *my fault cause I was late from work* and they ordered some fries.

Jumbo Sausage. I ordered this as my main course, it was nice but I didn't managed to finish them. Was sick on that night, my throat was killing me. So I gave most of the sausage to my cousins xD

Black Pepper Chicken, Audrea ordered this and seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Seafood Spaghetti. Kee Lee gave a thumb up for this.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, not the normal kind. Somehow the cordon bleu here is served differently. Normally the chicken meat, ham and cheese would be wrapped together and fried. But here the chicken, ham and cheese were just spread on top of each other.

Hawaiian Chicken, one of us mentioned that whenever there are pineapple, it would always either be Chicken Maryland or Hawaiian Chicken. How true, haha.

Chicken Bolognese Spagehtti, doesn't look that much appealing from the photo but Adrena said it was very nice. I recalled a very strong smell of Parmesan Cheese when it was just served.

Fresh Mushroom Rib-eye Steak. Doni ordered this from the ala carte menu. I didn't try it though.

Indiana Chicken, the very last dish to arrive. Not sure why it took that long, but some of us had finished our main course when Anny finally got hers.

I just realized one photo of the main course is missing. Eileen ordered the Grilled Norwegian Salmon, but I couldn't find any photos of it. Not sure if Audrey managed to snap a photo of it. Will update if she did. Our digital camera's batteries were flat so our only option was using a camera phone. Audrey took most or could be all the photos that night. I was too sick and tired to be taking photos, was having one hell of a week's training at work, ughhh.

Mango Pudding for dessert. Nice and not that sweet, too bad it was just a very small serving.

And oh, I forget to mention, with every meal we ordered we are entitled to one so called lucky draw. If you noticed the small red post box which is attached to a toothpick and poked into our main course, well those were the lucky draw. The mini envelope on top of the post box is either written with the word "Thank You" or "Congratulation"

Daniel, Doni and Adrena were the few lucky ones. And they get to have a real lucky draw. A few numbered ping pong balls are put in a very big box and they just have to randomly without looking into the box, choose a ping pong ball. The prize they get are based on the numbers on the ping pong ball.

The 3 prizes from the lucky draw. Not bad but they are only valid for 2 weeks, hahaha. It's kinda lame -.-''

Group photo of the night. This was taken by the cafe owner, I think she's the owner. All of us signed on it before it'll be pinned at the side wall near the entrance.

Contact Person : Rachel Koo
Address: NO.3&5, Lebuh Carnarvon, 10200, Georgetown, Penang
Tel: 04-261 4595
Fax: 04-261 4595
Mobile: -
Email: Support@depostcafe.com
Business Hour: 11am-2.30pm; 5.30pm-2.00am (Closed on Tues)

Surprise Gifts from Japan xD

My torturous and tiring training has finally comes to an end. Was sick since last Wednesday but my boss warned told me I must come for the training T_T And despite having free meals for 1 whole week, they kept serving spicy food -.- My sore throat was and is still killing me slowly.

But I managed to meet most of my counterparts from other AP countries. I need to provide supports to all of them after the new system goes live so it was good to get to meet them in person and get to know them. And I think it's time for me to actually start learning some Chinese. Anyone willing to teach me for free? =P

There is one counterpart from Japan, and she bought gifts for everyone of us. Each of us got a piece of hankie xD

This is mine!! hehe... Though I don't normally use hankie.

She also bought some "extra" gift for me. I told her I like anime a lot and been wanting to buy those chibi miniatures from Death Note but it is just too expensive for me. And guess what she brought all the way from Tokyo for me?

3 small boxes of Death Note's characters miniatures!!~ So nice of her xD

The miniature I get from the box are totally random and pure luck. She can't choose the specific character for me so she bought 3 boxes for me and hope I'll get the one I want. So so nice of her!! I really like both Light and L miniatures which are on the main display of the box.

The 3 miniatures from my boxes. Didn't managed to get the main two characters, but at least I still got L xD

Thanks a lot, Naoko-san!!~~

Germany - Kassel (Part 2)

Went to Kassel again the next day. This time I went to Bergpark Wilhelmshoehe, a very big park in Kassel, Germany. This was the initial place I wanted to go the previous day but got lost. But this time, I came partially prepared. I already asked for directions and which tram to take, blek.

My breakfast of the day. Some cereal with milk. Can't remember the last time I took cereal back home.

And some hams. Different kind of hams were served that morning, and I couldn't resist trying some.

The tram station just outside Wilhelmshoehe's train station. I was told to take Tram No. 1 and get off at the last stop.

Reached the last stop with no issue. I went to the tourist information office to ask for direction on how to get to the Hercules. That guy pulled out a very very big map (big enough to cover almost half my body -.-), and told me to get there I need to walk and hike 1 and a half hour to get there. And after that I need to climb a long flight of stairs to the Hercules -.-''

Due to the limited time I had, I decided to give up the Hercules and walked around the huge mountain park. The tourist guy told me there are a lot of things to see as well in the park and gave me the big big map and some brochures. And I already had a few places in mind of what I want to see.

Walked uphill for around 10 minutes with the big map as my guide but still nothing to see except lots of trees. Well, it's a park afterall. While referring at the map, hoping I was on the right track, I saw these gigantic building right at the top in front of me.

At that moment, I didn't know what building it is but I know it's the back part of it. So I began to look for a track or path leading to the front of the building.

Came across this big beautiful lake while "track hunting". The sun was shining very brightly at the opposite direction and was having a hard time with the glare. Was looking for a suitable spot to take a nice shot when I noticed 2 ladies suddenly jumped up from the bench they were sitting. One of them took out her camera and snapped at something.

I walked over, out of curiosity and saw a raccoon under the bench. And another hiding behind a tree xD This was the first I actually saw a raccoon out in the wild and not in some zoo.

Walked away from the bench. Didn't managed to snap a photo of it under it =(

Tried to get away from my focus -.-

The second raccoon, coming out from its hiding.

Both walked away "selamba-ly"

Done with the raccoons, I continued on with the lake, bleak.

I went as close as I dared to when I took this. The swans were not afraid of me coming close to them, but I was afraid of going close to them. Don't want any swan or swans suddenly come chasing and peaking me -.-''

There is actually a big waterfall somewhere in the park, but couldn't find it. Only found this very small waterfall =P

Found a maple tree with red leaves, hehe. Reminded me of Maple Story, a 2D side scrolling game I used to play xD

Finally, the front of the building. Schloss Wilhelmshöhe - The Wilhelmshöhe Palace. The gallery houses the Old Masters' classical pictures and sculptures' collections. Took me quite a distant to actually capture the whole building in one frame. It is so freaking huge!!

A small garden in front of the building. I didn't go in though to check out the gallery. Something caught my attention while I was taking photos of the palace.

When I was walking away from the building, trying to find a suitable distant to capture the whole building, I saw the Hercules in the far distant. It made me changed my mind of not going there.

Notice the teeny weeny statue on the very top at the far far far distant? That's the Hercules and that was how far and how high I had to walk and climb.

I didn't really had much time then, so I started to walk towards Hercules once I was done with the Palace. Snapped some photos along the way though, and because of Hercules, I ended up didn't visit the Löwenburg, a Romantic castle ruins and also a Medieval Museum.

Apollo Temple & Roman Aqueduct.

The view looking down from the top towards the Hercules. The Hercules was still very far ahead though.

Getting closer to the Hercules, but was still quite a distant. Was already tired then =|

A narrow track to the Hercules. Still no sight of the stairs.

Walked, walked, walked, hiked, hiked, hiked for God knows how long till I saw the first flight of stairs in sight.

The first flight of stairs, and climbing up those stair was no easy task. It was even more tiring then hiking, ughh. A very long climb to the top and thankfully I still got some stamina in me -.-''

Reached which I think was the foot of the monument. From here I still need to climb up more stairs to reach the Hercules. Was already panting like hell -.-''

Took this halfway up the last flight of stairs while resting. There is supposed to be water flowing down from here but I heard that you can only see that during summer. So no water when I was there, too bad for me T_T

This was taken almost at the top. A more details view of how the water fountain looks like.

The Herkules Monument!! I reached the very top, gasping and panting for air =P Part of the statue is closed for renovation work, but luckily they didn't cover up the Hercules.

A very breathtaking view of Kassel from the top. Cool breeze and a nice view, worth the torture of climbing up the whole way, haha.

By the way, for those lazy bums doesn't want to hike all the way up from the park to the Hercules, there is actually an alternative way to get to the top. From the tram station, take tram no 3 to Drusetel then take the bus to the Hercules, or just take a cab there.

That was how I came down. Was too tired to climb all the way down to the park so I asked someone there where I should wait for the bus. The guy was very nice, and he actually volunteered to drop me at Drusetel xD Took the tram back to the train station and took my dinner there before I went back to Melsungen.

Took my dinner at this small Asian cafe. The rest of the eateries were too pack.

Can't remember what I ordered, but I think was sweet and sour chicken. The Chinese lady speaks good German but can't speak English -.-''

Went to catch my train after my dinner. Wanted to go back early but my plan was destroyed due to some problem with the railway or the train. Didn't know which as the announcement was in German. Waited for almost an hour in the train before it finally began to move.

Was almost 9pm when I reached Melsungen and it was freezing cold. I was shivering while walking back to my hotel. One guy walking behind me asked if I was ok. Guess I must be shivering very hard -.-''

He asked if I am Chinese and when I said yes, he asked why am I so little, swt. He said he's a big Jacky Chan's fan and want to be like him one day. We walked together and talked till I reached my hotel. And when I said goodbye to him, he gave me a high five and suddenly exclaimed "Your hand, it's so little!" zzz...

Quickly took a hot shower when I got into my room. Dozed off after that. Its been a long but worthwhile day xD