SeaSands in the Sun

I must say my reading style has changed over the years. I used to be determined to read at least a book a month - to ensure I don't lose the love of reading and maintenance and expansion of my vocabulary. That was my personal "KPI". over the years, I realised that by 'forcing' myself to read a book a month, I kinda lost the main objective - the LOVE of reading. So now I just read a book (or two) and take my own time to digest and enjoy them. I  discovered that I was setting these restrictions for myself. Therefore, I don't do that anymore :) Happiness is a Choice! Anyhow, during Christmas shopping this book was on sale. I told my sis to buy it for me as my Christmas gift ..as I was curious to read it, and I thought he looked rad in transition lens. haha #thickskin   His Holiness the Dalai Lama has a lot of wise insights and shares about the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism.  I must admit some of the content confused me a lot and some gave me a wider perspe...

.. that was the question that was asked to me over the past week.  "Myself" - I answered. The questioner wasn't very pleased with the answer. Dug even more and made me talk more about it. The question was asked again.."I don't know" - I said. Talked more about finding happiness since I "lost" it and "myself" over the past couple of years.  The following day, it was asked again.. "To find the meaning in life (I suppose)" - who am I, what is my purpose..  No one asked me these questions before, I felt uncomfortable and drained trying to answer it. I don't have an answer to please the questioner. That wasn't the intention. The intention was to make me aware of why I did certain things in the past and understand it and to ensure it doesn't happen again in the future (so I don't fall into the same cycle). I appreciate that. I am cared for so much. However, I do believe that this journey is for me ...

I haven't written or blogged in a really long time and since I took the day off, I thought I should write. Wonderful day out; so I'm sitting inside with the windows drawn closed. ha. ;) (I will get that Vitamin D and Sea later!) Recent developments - I was feeling pretty lost for the past couple of years and I think I'm in a transitional stage of accepting my past (not that it was bleak or anything like that!) and totally savouring the present moment - regardless what it may look like. hehehe When I turned 33 in early Feb, I realised I was unhappy, lost and unsure about everything; especially about myself. I felt alone and like no one understood me. Impatient, annoyed, and I'm sure, not very good company...this has been building for the past 2 years ever since I decided that Life was bigger than certain beliefs in an organised religion and dabbling in different theories (no, I can't levitate, we have aeroplanes for that :D ). I still believe there is a ...

So after The Netherlands, we went to Rome, Italy. We took a train back to Schiphol Airport and waited for our flight to Rome which was at 8.40pm. We used EasyJet. After waiting, we found out that our flight was delayed an hour (it takes about 2 hours+ to arrive at Fiumicino Airport, Rome). It was a little daunting (and cold!!) cause our flight was never on the display screen after stating that it was delayed.  After waiting for what seemed like ages, we decided to walk to the gates to see if they were going to display where we needed to board. There were no displays but after asking a Dutch couple, we found out they were on the same flight as we were. So that was sorted. The flight was smooth and we arrived around midnight in Rome.  Riccardo, our Airbnb host was gracious enough to pick us up from the airport. Upon arrival, we saw the airport was rather smoky and it took about 15min for my friend to locate her baggage and then we met Riccardo. As we were exiting, an alarm s...

If you are ever in The Netherlands during Spring, you HAVE to visit the Keukenhof Garden. It's a massive tulip garden that will blow your socks off. It was soooo gorgeous. It is only open for a limited time (Spring). That's when the tulips bloom! Weather can be unpredictable. It rained twice during our 4-hr visit there.  Keukenhof is situated in Lisse, which is about 40min drive from Amsterdam. We stayed in Leiden the night before, so it was a shorter bus ride there. You are able to purchase the tickets online, and it comes with a  return bus trip (ours stopped at Leiden Centraal Station). They have luggage lockers which are cheaper than Amsterdam (understandable due to the lower usage of the station I suppose). The garden ticket + bus tickets were about EU24 in total. The buses that go to Keukenhof are easily identifiable by their obvious tulips murals on the body of the buses.  Enjoy the pics!

After years of talking about going to Europe for a holiday, I finally did! I'll try to post as many info as I can :) Our first destination was the beautiful Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 5th May - we arrived at Amsterdam Airport Schipol . It is also where the train station is. Bought a ticket to Amsterdam Centraal. They have really good public transportation and wifi. They have wifi on the train and also tells you the train stops till your destination. I loved it! What we did was store our main luggage at the lockers at Amsterdam Centraal (there are 2 sizes - large and small) - we stuffed both our bags in the small one for a lower price (sorry I can't recall, could be EU7 for 24hrs).  The gorgeous tulips and the symbolic I amsterdam signage at the Airport From there, if you need help, ask the policemen/women or the tourist information counter outside the station. The others will NOT assist you. I was taken aback, they basically say "they don't know...

The Script had their first Malaysian concert in April! :) I was fortunate enough to attend it. I have always enjoyed listening to them since their "Man Who Can't Be Moved" days, and I'm so happy to see them doing well and getting the credits that has been long overdue.  We bought the sitting ticket (learned my lesson after the OneRepublic one!). There was a venue change (originally was in Putra Indoor stadium, like the Adam Lambert one!) and I was a little nervous that it was going a fair bit of distance from the stage (like the Linkin Park one!), but we had a pretty good view :) Pic taken from the Script's Twitter account. I added the yellow circle to show where we sat!  What's cool about them is that they are very interactive with the crowd and their gratitude is very genuine. You really do feel the love! The entrance was the bomb! They walked through the crowds to the stage singing Paint the Town Green. Mark and Danny sometimes will run...