hey there! i'm home! touch down safely at klia on 17th sep.

just got up not too long ago :oP haven't been lazying at home for awhile :oP anyways, time to update my 2 weeks holiday....

1 sep 2004 - wednesday
thought my flight was in the morning.. but found out that its actually at 11.30pm :oP so spend the day doing some final packing and looking for any last minute things that i need to get done and got the boy to help me run the errands when i'm not around :oP

2 sep 2004 - thursday
arrived at manchester airport in the wee hours of the morning at 5.20am. after going through immigration and customs, my parents and i had to walk all the way from terminal 2 to terminal 1 to get our rented car and drove to leeds to look for my younger brother and get some food! ended up going to a supermarket and got roast drumstick :o( after checking in to holiday inn express... my mom and me headed to the city to shop shop shop! but unfortunately i got nothing for myself :o( after that , had dinner at a chinese restaurant (lucky dragon) in their super small china town and rested at the hotel.

3 sep 2004 - friday
my youngest brother had to do his thesis so my parents and i drove to macarthur glen, which is a designer outlet store to do even more shopping! spent about 5 hours there but i only managed to get a skirt... sigh... shoppings not being very good to me... :o( helped a friend buy a shirt from M+S (super cheap at 7 pounds!) and got a early birthday shirt from M+S for boy which is crease resistant!!! :oP on the way back, we ta pau burger king (the fries is yummier than in m'sia!) for dinner.

4 sep 2004 - saturday
checked out of holiday inn express in leeds and drove to london to meet up my dad's friend who has been staying there for many years. managed to get 1 hour shopping at selfridges BUT i didn't get anything whereas my mom got a LV bag :o( a design that i dun like :o(

then had dinner with my parent's friend and wife at a chinese restaurant in london city at bakers street and stayed the nite in their nice cozy home near gants hill.

5 sep 2004 - sunday
took ryanair (budget plane) from london stansted airport to tampere airport in finland. then got our rented car (a volkswagen!) and drove to helsinki, finland. left hand drive, aiks! plus we couldn't understand how to read the map or find our hotel! :o( by the time we found the hotel it was midnite oredi!

6 sep 2004 - monday
went to ABB company and visited their drives factory and had lunch. then took the train to helsinki city and looked around. i managed to get a really nice long dress + shawl but i have to alter it a bit. got a plain black spandex baby tee too :o) spent almost the whole afternoon and evening walking around taking pictures as well as buying our cruise tickets (helsinki to stockholm, sweden). then we came back to the hotel and had maggi for dinner.

7 sep 2004 - tuesday
took the rental car and went for a drive. my dad found a golf club course on the way so we went in to have a look. its pretty nice... but... its still a golf club :oP then we returned the car and walked to olympia terminal (helsinki). as we had some time, my dad took care of our luggage while my mom and me went to the street market. hehe.. i bought 2 crystal stone bracelets, a pendant and a ring :oP then we boarded the ship 'Silja Symphony' and off we go to stockholm! the ship is pretty similar to star cruise, it has a casino, restaurants, bars, a couple of shopping places, etc.. i manage to find a duty free shop and bought some yummy chocolates :oP then i found a nice cafe and had swedish meatballs but its not as good as ikea cos i think its too salty :oP

8 sep 2004 - wednesday
woke up early and rushed to the ship deck to capture photos of the zillions of islands on the way to stockholm. it was super cold and my fingers were practically frozen plus my hair was like a flying wild due to strong winds! but the view was priceless! after we docked, we took the bus to the city and managed to get a youth hostel to stay in... a room with 3 beds, a window and a wardrobe from ikea. we had to share toilets, shower room and free internet access (limited to 1/2 hour a day). after we checked in, we walked around and did more shopping :oP but i didn't get anything.

9 sep 2004 - thursday
took the sightseeing bus (doesn't stop for us to get down) and went touring around stockholm area. the sight was breathless... the waters were calm and blue with all the nice little ships docked at the pier... no wonder they call it stockholm city on the waters... really beautiful! after the sight seeing we went to do more shopping :oP hehe... then headed to the bus terminal to catch the night bus to oslo.

10 sep 2004 - friday
arrived in the early hours about 5am... it was super cold! then went looking for information booth to plan our stay there. managed to get a nice hotel (for once!!) which is right smack next to the central station (where all the bus and trains are). the hotel's name was hotel opera, so the central theme of the place had something to do with the opera. our room was called robinson crusoe. boy oh boy, the room was huge with an even bigger toilet!! it had a big shower and and huge bath tub! luxurious!! plus they gave out free apples at the reception :o) after check in, we took the hop on hop off sightseeing bus and went touring. beautiful place as well. didn't have much time to stop at all the sight seeing places though, but saw the viking museum from the outside and a couple of other interesting places. stopped at the sculpture park where the theme is based on the passage of life, so all the sculptures there are based on the theme. really cute! the flowers were beautiful! they had a whole garden of roses of all colours :o) heaven! after that did a little shopping, i got a pair of shoes :o)

11 sep 2004 - saturday
hung around the hotel room (had to enjoy the last moments of luxury before heading back to uk :oP) then checked out and did a little shopping around and taking photos with my mom while my dad took care of the luggage at the bus terminal (dad didn't wanna walk anymore, not cos we purposely left him there :oP) after that, we took the bus to torp terminal for our ryanair (budget airline) flight back to london stansted airport. i thought i could get some shut eye on the 2 hour ride but there was this baby that just couldn't stay still and sleep (sitting in front of me) so we made faces at each other the whole time. hehe... when we got to the airport, we did more shopping :oP got a couple of really nice artistic crystals and i got a bracelet and earring made of hermatit stone (apparently there are plenty of that type of stone in oslo).

during the flight back to london stansted airport, i wanted to get some sleep, but apparently my family seem to attract babies a lot, so there was this particular really cute 3 month old baby sitting horizontally from our seat that bounced our way and entertained us (or rather we entertained the baby!!).

when we got back to london airport, we took our rented car (hertz upgraded our package cos they didn't have an available car we wanted :oP), which was super cool, the car key looked like a credit card with the key lock. u just have to insert the key into the car and press the start button! haha... one disadvantage though, the key lock on the 'car key' is only for the driver, so we have to wait for the driver to get into the car first and unlock all the other doors :o( so off we went to my dad's friends place to stay for the night. my youngest brother took a bus from leeds to join us as well :o)

12 sep 2004 - sunday
went to london city to shop shop shop!! i didn't get much things :o( and then went sight seeing. by the time we got back to my dad's friend's place was like 11 plus already! cos we went sightseeing at piccadily circus and chinatown.

13 sep 2004 - monday
we packed our things and drove to cambridge to take the photo of kings college (supposedly the famous college attached to the university of cambridge). nice view :o) then went back to leeds to rest.

14 sep 2004 - tuesday
woke up in the early morning to take my dad to the airport to get a last minute flight back to malaysia as he had an important meeting to attend the next day. after that went with my mom and my brother to a designer outlet in sheffield to do more shopping :o)

15 sep 2004 - wednesday
went to leeds city and did more shopping with my mom while my brother had to move his things to his new room. hehe.. managed to buy a couple of nice dresses :o)

16 sep 2004 - thursday
woke up early and went to manchester airport for my 12 hour flight home to malaysia. did more shopping at the airport as well :oP hehe... wanted to sleep in the plane but then as usual, babies love my family, so as usual we were seated next to some family with 2 small babies that can't stop crying the whole trip, mind u, its not the quiet crying type, more like the screeching crying type. my poor ears... so spent my 12 hours playing pc games and nintendo games.

17 sep 2004 - friday
touched down at klia at 705am. yay! finally back in malaysia land!!! took the taxi back home and unpacked all my things and all. although i didn't sleep for at least 12 hours, i was wide awake, so went out with boy to have italian and boy was nice enough to take me for my beauty grooming sessions :oP hehe.. wanted to sleep earlier but somehow i manage to fall asleep only at 3-4am :oP

18 sep 2004 - saturday
its boy's acca graduation day! congrats boy! went for his graduation at sunway convention centre. pretty cold there, luckily i wore a cardigan! my best pal came back from singapore for the weekend, boy... she lost so much weight and i almost couldn't recognise her!! she looks so classy now!! really the sia girl :oP

later for dinner, went to coffee bean to have salad with a friend of mine and i bumped into my childhood buddy and his gf there :oP haha... saw a lot of people from my secondary school as well, like 4 of them? but i dun really know them, just recognise their faces...

after that i went to bar flam to hang out with my best pal who was back from singapore for the weekend. goodness, i haven't been partying for ages since my best girlfriend left for sia. also went to mamak with her after that cos she missed the mamak food here :oP by the time i got home and got to bed, it was like 4am oredi!!

-Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the tests first, the lessons afterwards. (Vernon Suanders Law, Chicken Soup for the Teenage soul: Tough Stuff)-