library honke bankyu

dinner was at 6pm and we were done reasonably early. vegged out in the library, got my internet fix and started uploading photos. i may or may not have been a little tipsy when i logged onto the ryokan computer. this may or may not have been caused by a bit too much sake. and i may or may not have said some very indecent things over adium. so if we happened to have been online at the same time, and i happened to have IM-ed you in a most out-of-character manner, with salacious comments and off-colour observations, i plead intoxication as a defence and pray you don't hold it against me.

photos of the journey to tokyo up next.

ladies' onsen honke bankyu

the view from the ladies' onsen by day. it would close at 930am and i would continue soaking in my private onsen till noon. such decadence :)

more autumn colours tomorrow!

goldilocks and the three bears kuching

the littlest bear got the littlest bed :( :( :(

but when left to my own devices in the room while my action mama roomies hit the gym in the afternoon, i snuck into a more comfy bed and snoozed away. quite embarrassingly, that was my ultimate piggy moment. five meals in quick succession with our sixth meal that day being an elaborate chinese wedding banquet and there i was making like a python digesting a big kill :) 

sin on a platter

multiply by two to get my breakfast.

perhaps i should feel bad for the poor goose that suffered and died for my satisfaction.

then again, i'm almost certain it will return from the grave to bite me in the behind one day.

and maybe as retribution i'd to snappity snap very quickly before the ants attacked my brekkie.

so much for the juxtaposition of industrial force-feeding with the zen courtyard...

the only thing good about this bloomin' heat is that the foie gras melted some and became molten goodness on a cracker instead of the cold paste it sometimes is.

one year ago in stockholm, in the land of mysterymeat balls and hence the blog address, i was morosely eating mystery animal liver pate that had turned moldy.

this year, i'm back home and relishing the creature comforts suddenly accessible again!

the night of the water thieves

disclaimer: i am as far from hip and haps as it gets.

but i happen to have sweet friends with sweeter offers and they know people who know people and tadaaa! avalon :) which was a little funny because the club itself is not ready so we were at the convention centre (???!) and it felt like a bad prom flashback. not that i ever had the misfortune of prom in a convention centre but the batch one year my senior at rj did (teehee). always wondered what it would be like to traipse through carrefour in a ballgown. but back to the avalon event being held in a convention centre, weird as it was initially, i can see why a convention centre was a suitable venue for a rave. 

all the sets were pushed back and by the time above and beyond started spinning it was almost 5 (they were supposed to go on at 3!!!) but it was nothing short of amazing and suddenly i'd a second wind and continued to boogie the night away. which was fun, because i hadn't 'boogied the night away' since freshman year. which is also why such nights are momentous and occur every four years, like the olympics. 

come on MBS, you have to up your game and not make patrons walk through the colon of the building before getting to the convention centre...

her table came with too much alcohol for 5 people ;)

the only downside was the randoms who circled like vultures and swooped in to steal water from our table. what's with that?

awesome night and today i'm back to my usual good self.

the end.

reality bites

crazy packed touring yesterday and...

tonight it's off to avalon with this amazing line-up 

2000 - 2045 NICOLE CHEN

2045 - 2130 ANDREW T

2130 - 2230 SANTIGOLD

2230 - 0000 MAJOR LAZER

0000 - 0100 FLO RIDA0

0100 - 0215 STEVE AOKI

0215 - 0330 STEVE ANGELLO

0300 - 0600 ABOVE & BEYOND

sleep is for the weak - and those who don't like above & beyond. foresee us pulling an all-nighter at avalon, and then sending him to the airport (he's off to saigon for the weekend) at 7am. gah. coupled with night class later and dinner with my girls, this is going to be one looong night. thank goodness for defensive sleeping and waking in the afternoon. ready to hit the ground running!

plus there are papers to write, why why why are there SO MANY papers to write. but i'm done with wills, and aiming to finish the 5000 word family law assignment before my 6pm class. just started, so wish me luck aplenty! 

this is defensive blogging, btw, in response to the slew of 'don't you go to class? don't you have work?' well yes and yes, i'm on course full-time, continue to work part-time (as i did through college) and with what residuary time i have, i do the other things that are so much more enjoyable. so sue me :)

i leave you with a photo of the family law assignment in it's 21 page glory. and yes, that's just the QUESTION.

metaphors

apparently, an ultra marathon in the gobi will be a piece of cake compared to going out with me for three years. 

(photo credits to googleimage)

hong kong and the magic pots

apart from collecting my bag, hong kong was a happy blur of gluttony and excess. i've come to expect no less than that from a trip with my granduncle and grandaunt. they've some firm friends in HK who pulled out all the hospitality stops. from fetching and sending us everywhere, to booking us into the hong kong jockey club and arranging for one exquisite meal after another. they made me feel like royalty! happily allowed myself to be stuffed with the best bo lo bao and dimsum of every kind. when asked to pick a favourite, i really couldn't! it was all so yummy :) and, i popped my goose web cherry (disgusting as it sounds) and within minutes of being cajoled into trying the webs, i was sucking on the bits of bone and spitting like the churlish champ i am! yay me for being adventurous and up for anything...

haha.

also, while i didn't shop at all, save a flouncy blue dress i'm going to wear to all three weddings i'm attending this national day long weekend, i did come home with 10kg of cookware because a friend sells some pretty darn amazing pots!

"It should be an interesting evening of friendship mixed with sharing our mutual interest in' health care' that our Health & Lifestyle Channel www.hlctv.net  promotes and broadcast to Asia with a good Lineup of TV Programs with my vision for HLC to serve our people. In line with the 'health care' theme we are promoting 'safe cooking' with 'Blanc' the world's first white nano ceramic cookware - Introduction: -http://www.blancwok.com/en/blanctv/blanc-knowledge / www.blancwok.com . Blanc is non-toxic cookware unlike Teflon cookware that is very toxic." excerpt from friend's email

who'd have thought! not me, as i lugged my stash to the concierge in the middle of the night and plaintively asked them to tape the boxes up for me. and then i bumped into my very attractive neighbour who raised an eyebrow and no amount of explaining could convince him that i'm usually not that aunty in real life. note to self: when in nice hotel in HK with cute boys in the vicinity, don't go anywhere looking / acting like his mother. sigh :(

p/s an overzealous science tutor told me at 11 that teflon was the devil and i believed her. a decade later, turns out that she was right and i'm so glad to have a pot that gives me the benefit of non-stick cooking without the toxins from teflon. incidentally, betcha didn't know that teflon is originally white but has been dyed black so as to mask the flaws as the material disintegrates with heat onto the pot / pan!

hong kong

hopped to HK for the weekend to pick up my bag. it somehow felt as close to the adoption process as i can currently imagine. no, not knocking adoption or belittling it by likening it to collecting a bag (people and possessions are two very different things). but to me, at this point, that's how it felt.

defensive disclaimer aside, i'd been romancing this bag for years and after finally mustering up enough courage to ask for one, it all happened so quickly. thank god for fairy god-aunties who know people who know people, how they conjured exactly what i wanted within a fortnight (especially after i walked into the store cold and was snootily told to return in four years) is beyond me. but i am ever grateful :)

as i was unwrapping my bag in the hotel, not knowing whether it was inner or outer stitch i.e. soft or hard, i imagined that's what having a child would be like. like you want a child, but you don't know if it's a boy or a girl. and you don't really mind as long as it's a child but at the back of your mind there's a preference. so, rather embarrassingly, i shrieked when i felt the firm outline. it was outer stitch and suddenly all was very right with the world.

of course, there was more to HK then picking up my bag, so more on the food tomorrow.

day 32

wednesday 9 june valencia to madrid

took the bus and almost missed it because some silly american (taking the same bus) was waiting at the wrong bay and insisted that was where we should be waiting. and i was silly enough to believe him.

thank god for divine interventions, and quick reflexes.

also, quite amazingly, i got a single at my hostel for the price of an 8-bedder (!) for the 3 nights i stayed there (!!!) i'd booked myself into a 8-bedder female dorm but was somehow "upgraded" to a female quad. and, rather miraculously, the bed i was assigned to in the quad was in a separate section from the other 3! so while i'd to go to the 'main' room to access the en suite bathroom, i enjoyed complete privacy thanks to a wall and door in between my section of the room and theirs!

day 27

friday 4 june 2010 barcelona

day 2

spent the morning at la sagrada familia. go early (before 11am) to avoid queuing for over an hour. i went at 10am and the queue was as long as my iberico sandwich (about 15min, but that's because i'm a slow eater).

After lunch, walk up Carrer de verdi towards parc guell. before that Lunch at plaza de grace (shadiest) plaza del sel and pl de la revolucio de Septembre

Walk up Verdi all the way until you see escalators on the right. Ride them to parc guell! Spend the afternoon wandering around parc guell.

i'd never have made it up without the magical escalators that just appeared out of nowhere and whisked me away. it was surreal! there i was huffing and puffing up the hill, cursing and swearing at the sun and my own poor choice of footwear (havis, way to go.) when suddenly, i saw 6 flights of escalators on my right. i thought it was a mirage! but i rode them, and at the very top i was gently placed on level with the parc entrance. who'd have guessed!

spent the afternoon wandering around parc guell and am very proud that i walked all the way there and back to the hostel. no public transport for me!

view from the rooftop bar of the majestic hotel

following up on the previous day's chance meeting, the very lovely L family invited me to join them in satiating their local food craving. they've gotta be mind-readers or something because by this time i was pushing 4 weeks without home food and about to implode in self-deprivation. had the best nasi goreng ever at the mandarin oriental along passeig de gracia. was initially debating between ordering pad thai (upon learning the chef was thai) and nasi goreng but went with the later and was well-rewarded for that leap of faith.

the rice came in a keropok boat so big it must've been on crack!

day 25

wednesday 2 june 2010 skavsta to barcelona girona

hit the ground running bright and early on wednesday. took the 7am flight out of skavsta and was in central barca by lunch time. had a 5pm tea date with someone C (swedish friend) had very kindly set me up with so i familiarised myself with my hostel (mixed 8 bedder - initially shudder-inducing by not quite after i got used to it) and eased myself into the idea of solo trippin', for it was the first time i'd planned to be alone for such a long stretch. true, did 4 days in berlin all by myself (yay me!) last november but i helped house-sit a friend's empty apartment. this time, i was alone in a hostel. haha it's such a big deal for my sheltered psyche but yes, young girls travel by themselves all the time and i'm not really all that special, except in my head and to myself :) made friends with gustalvo the brazilian dude working at the hostel and went in search of food with my trusty map once i'd left my backpack all padlocked under my bed. see? paranoia knows no bounds.

tea date went swimmingly, and before i knew it it was time for dinner. most unfortunately, i'm a self-confessed glutton who lives from meal to meal and after dinner i briefly flirted with the idea of joining the hostel bunch on a pub crawl, but my aching bones weren't up for the trauma. although i did, very bravely if i may add, head out to buy some water from a nightshop 3 blocks away. past midnight. brave or stupid, i don't know. but i was staying on the main street and stuck to the big roads, kept my wits about me etc. still, cheap thrill if nothing else :)

my brother

showed me his cache of youtube videos, bound to tug at anybody's heart strings. the 3 year old korean kid singing hey jude, "charlie bit me" and this black kid he found too adorable for words. and after sitting through all of them, apparently i rolled my eyes and went back to my trashy magazine.

"it's true," he mused, "you really don't have a soul."

day 23

monday 31 may 2010 stockholm

student specials

at hermans, the vegetarian buffet on the water.

all you can eat for SEK75.

need i say more?

happiness is a tummy of veggies and lots of summer sun.

stunning.

plus, i love a restaurant that doesn't take itself too seriously.

day 22

sunday 30 may 2010 stockholm

i think today i just spazzed at J's :)

so to spare you the boring details, here are some photos of my regular route to uni from kungshamra.

i still have stockholm on the brain.