New Me

getting rid of the old and starting a new journey ahead full of hope and dreams :)

http://thedreamylittlelady.blogspot.com/

Happy 2012.

Happy 2012! It's a brand new year again! It's always hard to believe that a year just past you by, leaving all undone things behind and start anew. All those resolutions you once mentioned or listed just got refreshed after a year and you rewrite a whole new list for the new year again. Like why is it always resolutions only written or thought about at the beginning of the year? haha but I didnt really want to write a list of resolution myself. I just want to roughly have something in my mind what I would love to do and let things come as it is :)

Anyway, 2011 has been great. Full stop. There are so many things to be thanked for and so many things to be remembered. Of course, there are many things to look forward this year too! It's my final year and I would want to end it good. It's all about choices again, to choose the right major and to choose the right course to take for each semester. It's never easy. But am taking each step at a time, following whatever that God leads.

Well, back to life in Malaysia haha It's been a good whole week that I tried almost all my favourite Malaysian food. I'm seriously missing all of them. If I could list out all of those food, it's way longer than you can imagine. ahaha One thing I have to admit Malaysia is awesome with its variety of food! Maybe it was the mixture of culture we have here in Malaysia. Everyday I crave of something particular and bugged my mum to have it. lol So at the end of the week, satisfaction is fulfilled and I'm still looking forward for Chinese New Year as there will be more food!!! xD

Chinese New Year is approaching! This year, I will be celebrating the Chinese New Year eve dinner with my relatives back in Johor. I always love having dinner over at my grandparents house because my grandma's cookings are superb and the fact that I've not seen them for ages, I am really looking forward to be back in my little hometown in Kulaijaya. It used to be a tiny unknown town in the very south of Johor. But today, it has grown so much into a modern commercialized area. I still love it there actually. Feels like a little inner you belongs there :D

My grandpa will be celebrating his 72th birthday this year (born on a dragon year too). This will be my first year buying a gift for my grandpa with my own salary. lol Feels weird but I feel kinda excited for him too. It's his big day :D So CNY this year is all about celebrations and happy times with family :)

Now, I feel really excited for this whole CNY thing. haha getting into the mood already. Felt so good being with family all over again :)

Alright, time to hit the sack.

In advanced, Happy Chinese New Year to all!
Enjoy with families and take care while travelling ;)

Barcelona, great place for arts and culture ♥

*Beware: long post with plenty pictures ahead*

Alright, time to jot down my travel journal :D Been travelling around Europe 2 weeks ago. Managed to visit Barcelona, Valencia, Paris, Venice and Rome. It was great and after all of it I love Spain the most and Rome comes next :D There are so much to share so much to tell, I guess I have to do it little by little..maybe start with the place I love the most - Barcelona!

Yeah, I visited Barcelona and Valencia in Spain and really like Barcelona a lot. It's a city filled with unique arts and architecture. I especially love one of the cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. It's called the Sagrada Familia [click here]. Yes, I shall feature this cathedral before others :D It was really unique and it is the first time I seen such design on a cathedral. It's like a double twin tower haha The details of its designs are amazing. Plus, it is still under construction and the buildings are not finished yet, not so in many years to come. Amazing, isn't it?

There was a really really long queue to go in and we didn't get in. Just admire it from the surrounding. There's so much details to see actually.

I'm always amazed by designers or architects, how they could come out with such designs and how long does it takes them to design every bit of it? It could seem forever..

Arc De Triomf. Famous design of an arc you get to see in Paris and Rome too and maybe in London I think. lol It is near one of the metro station and so, we started our journey from here :)

Then, we walked further till we come to Parc de la Ciutadella and there was a fountain, the Cascada (means waterfall in Spanish), which looks like some palace garden fountain or sort. It was beautiful. Love it :) Just found out that the design of this fountain was inspired by the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome (which was one of my fav place in Rome too!!) It does has some similarity with that one in Rome. The architect of this fountain was in fact assisted by Antoni Gaudi who was a student at that time.

A closer look at the fountain features. If not mistaken, it took 6 years for it to complete. Those days architects really spent their precious time building great buildings and structures.

This was in the park itself too. People jogs and do some little sports here like cycling or boating at the lake though I haven't seen anyone sat in the boat that time. It was just left on the lake untouched. The picture above actually shows a policeman with his horse. It is not for the public to go for a horse ride but used by the police to chase some thieves or crimes around. lol ancient eh.

This is part of the city in Barcelona ;) They have tall modernized buildings too. Found out that these two buildings are called the twin towers at Port Olympic. I don't know why they called it twin tower. To me, twin tower is Petronas KLCC which looks more similar to each other lol

No idea what this was but it looks to me like a satellite to communicate with some aliens (watched too much of Jimmy Neutron) I guess it's just some random piece of art. haha

Reached the Olympic port. Love capturing boats or yacht actually. Like how those poles stretch into the sky with the strings with so many boats together.

Nearby the port is this fish made out of bronze metal I think. It is called the Peix (Golden fish). Looks more to me like a fish with its head chopped off. ahah the picture is taken from afar, otherwise you wouldn't be able to figure out what it was when standing beneath it because it's hollow in the inside or you could say from below. You will think what shit is this when you arrived there but when you got away from it you see an art.

Now this was the best part too. Barceloneta Beach!! Further next to this beach is the Icaria beach connected to it. It's quite a long beach that you could walk. Love the waves of the sea, so strong and splashing high you just want to dive in and sway with the waters. Plus, the weather was good too. Spain was pretty warm when we were there.

See how strong the waves are?! We were not prepared for a beach day so, we just stroll by the beach.

Weather was so good people still lie on the shore sunbathing and play in the sea water. There are indeed some people who tried to surf because of the waves.

Yes, if you noticed it again the water is really blue. Will miss this kind of sea water when I'm back in Malaysia.

It was raining a little, so we decided to find some shade. This is the Market of la Boqueria. The seafood and fishes sold here are kinda extreme. lol

The pig's leg. Actually I'm quite disgusted by this. I'm not a pork fan anyway and to see this makes me not liking it even more. lol

And I'm not sure what is this. It looks like some alligators staring right through your bones. lol *ggrrrrh*

One thing I love about this place is the colours that filled the market. There were all sorts of fruits, vegetables, fishes, colourful drinks, seafood and the famous local food, Tapas! hmm, should have taken more of such photos.

After walking too much, we finally settled down for some food. This is the famous local food in Spain, Paella! To be exact, it is actually a Valencian dish. You can find it almost everywhere on the street. Of course, it's not that cheap actually. The price differ according to the place you eat. The more high class restaurant it is the more expensive. It ranges from 7 euro to 20+ euro I think. And it's always served in that big pan. You just have to finish it. haha

The above picture is the Seafood Paella. There are three types, you can order either Seafood, Valencian (vegetable, meat, beans) or Mixed (any combination of both) Paella. Basically, it's some sticky rice (like Risotto) with the seafood like shrimp, mussels, cuttlefish, tomatoes and some beans plus their seasoning. The rice is kinda fat when cooked and can be quite filling after eating quarter of it and then you feel sick of the taste haha

They even sell the Paella pan at the shops. There are various sizes of it.

Well, apart from food, the lifestyle of people here. You're either a street artist or street living statue or a mobile musicians. There is one street we walked that were filled with many artists sitting and drawing or painting to earn a living. I don't know how they could earn much with so many competitors around.

This is the street living statue. You dropped in a coin into their pot and they'll do something for you. Most of the time for you to take photo with them and then they'll returned to the statue state. Hard earning job eh. Once a robber run away with that pot of money, their long hard day of sweats being a statue just gone into waste. lol

Lastly, the mobile musicians. Usually, they will have a portable speaker they pull along with them like a trolley. Then, they'll choose the right timing to board the train and once the door is close, they start their music. After a while, there will be ppl walking down the aisle passing hat for money. Indeed, I've never thought that people could play in the train like giving free musics actually. But I have to say that some do produced some good musics.

The next day, we head up to the Nou Camp or Camp Nou, the football stadium in Barcelona. Famous for the place where FC Barcelona had their trainings. There is a museum or gallery inside where you can go for a short tour they call it Camp Nou Experience [click here]. I did not enter the stadium and the museum as it was quite costly, around 20euro for an entrance. Plus, I'm not so much of a die-hard fans of them so walking around the stadium and the megastore are more than enough :P

FC Botiga, the official merchandise megastore, two levels of all sorts of souvenirs. Seriously, like everything that you could think of they will have a Camp Nou souvenir made for it. For example, a dog food bowl for your pet or pencil for your kids, scarf, luggage, key chain, mug, cap, wallet etc

some mugs, magnets, key chains and chips if not mistaken.

Jerseys are quite expensive of course and it differs for different player names. For example, Messi's jersey are around 80 to 90 euro if not mistaken and some not so famous player i guess, their jersey is cheaper like around 60euro which is still expensive. haha

Next, we visited the West part of Barcelona city, Montjuic area. It is a huge place of nature and of course very scenic from above. You can either walk up the hill or take the cable.

You can see the whole of Barcelona city from above. I love going up to high places and look over the city. You get to see different types of arrangement of buildings when you're above and you could see how organized or disorganized the city was. haha

There's a castle on top of the hill. It's really windy from up here and I love the environment here. It's peaceful and quiet up here.

This is the view from over the edge of the castle. That should be the port where the containers are stored. Spent some time overlooking this amazing place before heading back :)

If you were to ask me which country I would visit again, definitely Spain! :)

Why? because Valencia was great too. Don't worry, next up, will be Valencia.

Hope you enjoy the photos ;D

*The last few photos are taken with my phone because camera battery K.O. haha*

*hope it doesn't takes too much of your time to load those photos :p*

Major achievement, self satisfaction :)

It's 15 Nov 2011! yeah, what's so great about it, you think?!! It's just the day I managed to get my project worked like how it was supposed to be! yay! And it's exactly one month till the end of my internship here. Like I mentioned before, it's the joyest day for a programmer when he or she succeeded. Well, it is a big thing to me because I've been struggling through at times to get it done and I would say it's not easy at all. Been through times when I wan to give up and forget about it, just screw it and go back Malaysia. You know when you're going through that hard times you just can't get yourself to think positively though you wanted to.

I felt like I've been digging my own grave for the past few months, fell into it and couldn't get out when I wanted it to. If it wasn't because of that encouragement, I wouldn't thought of climbing back up to see the light. haha kinda abstract but I just love writing it that way =b

So yeah.. I'm really happy today and I would have to thank God once again for answering my prayer. Oh well, it's been great to be here and to achieved something that my Sv would probably be proud of. The last time when I succeeded in getting my first major task done, he was really happy about it so hopefully, this time round he'll be glad altogether :)

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P/s: on the other hand, I treat myself to some movies and couldn't stopped listening to "You are the apple of my eye" soundtrack. Love it especially the instrumental soundtrack. Can't wait to get to watch that movie.

A laid back trip to the lake

Well, it's been a while since I went to Gmunden, but I wanted to photoblog about it. =) It was a pretty laid back trip and it was in fact an all-girls trip :D We just thought of going somewhere relaxing somewhere pretty and a place to hang out away from town. And so, we went to the lake in Gmunden which is quite a big lake that eventually branch out to a river here in Wels too. At first, I thought it will be just another lake you know what could you expect more from a lake. haha

But I was all wrong.. it was really pretty and cool, not only the fact that the water is so blue haha We had our lunch at Da Vinci's and had a good girls chat :) Then, we head out to take a stroll along the lakeside. We could see many people walking around, sitting by the lake, kids playing at the playground, old folks walking their dogs and some teenagers hanging out by the benches too. We walked over to the end and visited a small castle where we could see and feel the lake even better :D

Were having lunch and having the all-girls chat ;)

It was definitely a good day with nice weather to visit the lake. It was sunny but not too hot which was cool.

Yes, there are many people sitting and hanging out by the lakeside. Something like Gurney drive. Just that the view here are beyond beautiful haha :p

This photo looks like the couple are drawn into their very own world and left the kid aside.

That was the castle we are heading to. It seems like a small island protruding the lake isn't it.

I guess the water are so clear that it reflects the very blue sky and turns out pretty ;) The colours of the photos are not edited so it's pure blue.

Sitting by the lake enjoying the view and wind, listening to the water splashing. Love the sound of the water hitting the rocks. Never fail to give me that sense of tranquil =)

You can go for yachting or motorboat ride. But of course, you have to own ur own yacht but you could rent the motorboat and drive out urself.

There are few of this statue along the way. Enjoying not only the beauty of the lake but the art of statues too lol

I suppose those are the private boats and yacht.

On the street, there is this display at the roadside along the way. Each separated between few metres and in each of the box you'll find different displays. This is the cutest and most interesting of all. haha

Walking through the little woods before reaching the castle. Such nature. =)

Tadaa.. here we are.. the small castle at the end.

It's as if the island is there just for the castle. Standing on the bridge in between two sides of the lakeview is amazing. I could spend my time there just standing and enjoying the breeze ;)

I've no idea what is the name of this castle. Probably not that famous. It's just a place for visit while you're strolling at the lake.

On one side of the bridge you could see all the housing area at the other side of the lake actually. Look at the small deck, there's a bench which actually looks like a rocking chair. You can lie down on it like you're at the beach and rock ur way to and fro :D we were talking about it saying that why didn't they provide 10 more of those for us. haha that one bench is always occupied so, you'll need to wait for ur turn which is impossible. lol

On the other side of the bridge was the mountainside view. That's the motorboat ride you could rent and go around the lake as you like. Yes, you drive the boat yourself.

So, this is the internal of the castle. nothing much though.

But from what I heard it is famous for a wedding to be held here which I think could be pretty awesome too with all those views and classic feel of this castle.

This is the wedding agency if you want to have your wedding here :)

Outside the castle, you get to go down and sit by the lake which I did and the sound of the water splashing are even greater here :D

Then, we decided we should go for a motorboat ride. It was a great timing for a ride in the evening.

Moving towards the castle and trying to see if we could reach the most end of the lake haha

We met some seagulls :D or maybe we scared them off. haha We threw some pizza pieces we dabao earlier on but they don't want to eat. Love this photo a lot, the seagull flying away :))

This is their resting place or could be their playing ground...training ground? lol

When the sun goes down, it became colder and colder. I love this photo too because of the mountain contour colour like we used to learn in Pendidikan Seni, far distance object will be lighter in colour :D

We had a great time out at the lake. Time to head back to the deck :)

Can you see the tiny whinny moon? :D It's almost seven I think but it still looks bright though.

So, there goes the laid back trip which indeed I will not forget for its beauty and peace. =)

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am now excited for my long awaited trip around Europe!! Yesterday, I showed my sv the outcome of my project and major task which I'm quite proud of because of my hard work and sweat of long hours work this week. It turned out great and my sv was really happy about it that he is excited for my vacation too lol He is looking forward to seeing me back after 2 weeks :D He's too good a sv to me. haha Yeah, so..2 weeks of vacation, I'm so ready!!! ;)

Have a great week too, people! =)