Monday, January 28, 2013

Blah,blah

Having a lot of time at my disposal lately inspired me to dust off my old painting supplies and give the old hobby another go. I attempted several "projects" but most of them were a fail lol. I finally produced one decent looking art. More like "art" hah.
Tada! Unfortunately, I have received comments that it looks like a vajayjay. Maybe it is a subconscious expression of my closeted lesbian tendencies?




Wednesday, January 16, 2013

My 2012

Here we go..the customary rehashing of the previous year! My 2012 was actually pretty good! There were some up and downs, the usual, but overall I had more positive than negatives. If this were a matter of balancing the books, I more than broke even. I made profit! Go me! Heh.

And best of all, we all survived the supposed apocalypse 12/21/2012! Woooo! (please note sarcasm). Damn I was kinda hoping for some sort of zombie invasion. Though I'd probably get eaten in a matter of minutes. Cardio is not my strength. (Zombieland, anyone?)

Anyhoo, on to the best and the worst of my 2012!

March 2012

The Munich Train Station
In March 2012, I was in Germany for about two months for work. Though I was stuck mostly in a small town I delightfully describe as "the anus of the country", I took every opportunity I could to visit other cities/towns whenever I could during the weekends. Munich was one my highlights of my stay.

Munich is such a beautiful city! I loved the architecture, the culture and the food! Though I had only one day to really tour the city, I managed to visit the beautiful English Garden, I saw the the Glockenspiel chime, I explored and tasted food at the Viktualienmarkt(the outdoor farmer's market) and visited not one but two museums! I was especially interested in visiting the Asamkirche (church built by the Asam brothers) and managed to squeeze it in on my last day before I left.





More of Munich..

The Glockenspiel
 
Meat and Cheese at the Viktualienmarkt
 
Interior of the Asamkirche


I also visited Stuttgart and Heidelberg(where I've been before, so won't really talk about it here). This trip to Germany I discovered something: I really love traveling on my own! I traveled to Stuttgart with a companion and I found that having to plan your trip around someone made it stressful! Though traveling alone was well, more lonely, overall it was more fun to do things on your own schedule, see whatever you want, eat whatever you want at your own pace. I even made new friends on my own while I was in Munich. I drank huge tankards of beer and some Germans taught me to sing beer songs at the Hofbrauhaus(oldest beer hall in Germany I believe). Heh, Germans are more fun when they drink.

Don't get me wrong, Stuttgart was fun with a companion too, but I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked. 
Schlossplatz at Stuttgart

May 2012

My company holds an annual company event at a different location in the world ever year. This year it was held in....Lisbon, Portugal. All employees' hotel and plane fare are paid for, and I was super stoked to go. I have never been in Portugal before! I was only there for five days, but I absolutely loved the warmth, the beauty and the culture and history of the country. I would totally go back and visit again. Shopping was cheaper and better than in Germany too. :p

I'll let the pictures do the talking.




At the Baixa district
 

Love the tiled architecture!

The Jeronimos Monastery
View from Castelo St. Jorge (George's Castle). In the distance you can see a bridge that is a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The reason : it was designed and built by the same company who did the Golden Gate Bridge.
There was one spot of particular interest to me.. We visited the Monument of Discoveries, which was built in tribute to the exploration of the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th century. There was an entire map of places that was colonized by the Portuguese on the grounds of the monument.As you can see on the left picture, I am pointing to Malacca(which was colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century). I thought it was pretty cool.. a piece of history that was related to the place I was born.



I also learned a new fact on this trip. Egg tarts, which I have always thought as a Chinese created delicacy, is in fact Portuguese in origin. It was created  by the nuns at the Jeronimos Monastery(see picture above) over 200 years ago and was brought over to the East during the Portuguese colonization of Macau. Wow, you do learn something new every day.

June 2012

June 2012 marked my 1-year anniversary of working with my company. It was also the month when we closed on our new house! OMG we own a house!

No pics, because for some odd reason..I can't find any on my hard drive!

Aug/Sep 2012

At the end of August, I received some not so good news. I had been laid off. Between the stress of figuring out my immigration status and the hit to the self esteem, I was a huge mess. I still went ahead with going back to Malaysia, which I had already planned months in advance.

J and I had the best time in Malaysia. I haven't been home in 4 years so it was great to spend time with my parents and friends. Food was AMAZING.
Trishaw puller in Melaka

St. Paul's Church in Melaka
Old tombstones in St. Paul's Church

The Petronas Twin Towers
Mural along the Selangor River (I think) near Pasar Seni
Kanching Falls
Batu Caves
J and I spent a week at the Perhentian islands...which was pure paradise. How I've missed tropical beaches!  
Beach at Perhentian Besar

Baby turtle!!!!!!!

Sunset
There, J proposed to me... :) 

 

 Nov 2012

On Nov 10th, we got hitched! Yeehaw! It was short and sweet, and I would not have had it any other way. We had a couple of friends witness the ceremony and we came back to the house and popped champagne and had hor d'oeuvres. Then we had a steak dinner lol. In my mind, there couldn't have been a more perfect day.

That month, my siblings in Texas met J for the first time when we flew over for Thanksgiving.

Dec 2012

We went back to Phoenix to celebrate Christmas with J's family. My wonderful parents-in-law also organized a wedding reception for us..something that we would never have done on our own lol. It was a lovely event with all of J's family and our friends from Phoenix.

Well, that pretty much caps my 2012. Phew, that was a long one. On to 2013..may this year be a wonderful one!