My new mat!

I made this... I knitted this when Rick was away in Eygpt... it looks a bit crooked, doesn't it? But i'm so proud of it...

Rain, Rain, Go away!

It's raining again and there's flood everywhere... sigh!!! Starting to miss the sun already sinc ethe rain made me sick...hehhe
The final book in Harry Potter is fantastic!!! so much so I'm reading it again!!! hehehe... I'm trying to crochet a bag now... ya ya.. I have nothing else better to do now... but on Sat, we're going on our holiday to Rome, Venice, Innsbruck and Paris for 2 weeks... hehehe..it'll be so much fun and I'm so excited!!! I wonder what's in Innsbruck??? I've never heard of it until we booked our holidays...

Sick Sick Sick

very sick and its so cold today...hehe looks like summer is not yet summer after.. Rick's away in Milan and Rome today so i'm home alone and sick... porridge day!!!!

Distracted!!!

got my new Harry Potter book today so i'm a bit too distracted to do anything else...hehe..Rick's going to be off to somewhere in Italy tomorrow so I get to be home alone again... To all you ppl giving me hugs..thanx!!!!

Miserable Weather

it's miserable outside today... been raining again... i'm coughing like mad... looks like its time for ginger tea...

Sick!!!!

sigh!!! I'm sick today cos of being caught in the rain yesterday and I hvae a blister from walking around in water-filled trainers!!!! definitely not a good idea to go out when it's raining!!!! wonder if my shoes will ever dry...

New Project

I'm working on my new knitting project and trying to finish it today which I doubt...sigh!!!.. getting an ache in my shoulder from the knitting.. no idea how ppl used to knit so much... I salute ppl who knit!!!! got caught in the storm today and it's supposed to be Summer... was wet through..everything was wet even the money in my jeans pocket and i had water seeping into my shoes...not fun walking in the rain and wind at all!!!! silly idea to go out...

Sussex-Part3 Bodiam Castle

Doesn't this just looks like a fairy tale castle with the moat and the castle in the middle??? I love the whole look of the castle...inside is a ruin though...This castle was begun in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge. He was a soldier of fortune who built this castle. But nobody knows if it was a fortress or a house or both. To take some of the pics, we climbed up 3 or 4 floors of steps... each step was abt the height of my knee, imagine the hard work...up the corner towers in narrow spiral 'staircases'. We did 3 towers. I'm glad not all 4 towers are open... that night, i was tired!!!

These are the wildlife you can find at Bodiam Castle

Nottingham

So we went to Nottingham last weekend for James' 30th birthday. We had Spnaish Tapas which is a variety of dishes like meat balls, mushrooms, chicken croquettes, baked brinjal a wierd salad, baked potatoes, a selection of salamis, meat satay, and can't remember what else...for dinner. Then we went to a pub for drinks. We decorated the place earlier and that was the first time I actually succeeded in blowing up balloons!!! hehhe I have a phobia of balloons bursting in my face...so i'm very proud of myself!!! The most interesting drink they had in my opinion was the shots of vodkas they had... there were all kinds of vodkas in so many different colours!!! I didn't know there were so many kinds of vodkas. Then James had an ice carving where you pour shots of vodka down it. You are supposed to put your mouth at the bottom of the chute to drink it.

Here's a pic of Rick drinking vodka out of it...


On the way home, we saw all kinds of weeds by the motorway...can you believe these are all wild flowers aka weeds growing by the roadside? Can you imagine this in KL???


I had to take a pic of the signboard to Silverstone which fortunately I had been during the 2000 Silverstone F1 Grand Prix...hehehe..



and then we saw this small car on the road...I wonder where we can get it...I have a feeling it's for people with disabilities...

Sussex-Part 2: Knole

Knole was and is owned by the Sackville family who claimed they came to England with William the Conqueror. Thomas Sackville, the 1st Earl of Dorset, got this house in the 17th century. He renovated the house and the house has stayed as it was after he renovated it. Enough of history??? hehe I thought so. Anyways, apart from the usual big and expensive collections of paintings and china, this house also has the prototype of the Knole Settee and it looks really uncomfortable if you ask me, but they are not unlike our modern sofas.

Anyways, the first thing you will see when you come onto the grounds is the deer park. This is the only remaining medieval deer park in Kent where the deers roam about freely. So Bambis walked around everywhere but they are still scared of people. This 1000 acre park was originally created for the archbishops of Cantebury for hunting and recreation.


As you walk in through the Green Court, you will see statues on the lawns. The statues were placed here by the 3rd Duke in the late 18th century. The one on the right is Venus rising from the Bath. The left is the Borghese Gladiator.


Then you go into the Stone Court through the Bourchier's Tower. See the clock at the top? Well, there is a clock at the top of the tower. On the bell is an inscription that roughly translates to "St George is my name: may my sound be pleasing to God." This bell was cast in 1540. I didn't even know they had clocks back then... hmmm...when were clocks invented anyway?



Now, the first thing that strikes you when you enter Stone Court are the deer antlers on the opposite wall.

This one is a pair of prehistoric elk horns. See how incredibly massive they are? These were given to the 1st Duke in the early 18th century.

We also went for a tour of the house and in there is a billiard table! hehhe.. it looks like a billiard table but instead of using cues to hit the balls, you use lacrosse-like sticks... so it was like playing billiard with a long stick which is curved at the end and you hit the balls with the curved L-shaped end on the table and the long handle resting on your shoulders. if that made sense at all... can't show you a pic cos you are not allowed to take pics in the house.

Another interesting thing in the house was a white plaster statue of a naked woman 'reclining voluptuously'(according to the book) on a mattress and cushions at the foot of the Grand Staircase. This woman was the mistress of the 3rd Duke. And she was very voluptuous for a ballerina.

Among the paintings on the walls is a painting of a Chinese man in the chinese costume with the round pointed hat. He was a page of the 3rd Duke. His name was Wang-y-Tong. Wonder why he had a portrait done of his page...

Finally!!!!

Hehehe.. the boots that i ordered a month ago finally came!!!!!! hahaha.. now i have 2 pairs of boots, a black and brown...what else can a girl want???



And my scarf is finally finished!!! what do you think? hehe like the colour, Audrey? Its got green, blue and yellow...

Going to Nottingham

will be going up to Nottingham with Rick tomorrow for James' birthday party. Hehe... can't wait to try out my new camera after i take it back to the shop... The SD Card won't eject out when i press it... sigh!!! Nikon Coolpix S9...have a feeling i should hv gotten either the Canon or Sony Cybershot... at the moment, I'm very happy with the Nikon if i find out what's wrong with the SD card slot... but i'm not complaining...heheh I have a new camera!!!

Sussex-Part 1: Interesting things on the way

We passed so many places that my tip to Sussex is still a blur to me in some places...lol..

this is an interesting signpost we saw in Seven Oaks. While we were stuck in a jam there, i saw cobbled streets!!! Cobbled streets are so pretty to look at from far though a killer for high heels! Sexen Oaks looked really interesting with plenty of shops and cafes...I will have to go there one of these days... and the interesting bit about many towns or villages in England is that on some streets, people's front doors literally open out onto the main roads. Its like all you hv to do is take two big steps and u r on the main road with oncoming traffic... How cool is that??? Dangerous but cool.


This pub, The Squirrel Inn is a pub where we stopped for a drink in Bexhill if I remember correctly. I know this pub doesn't look like much...I'll try to get pics of nicer looking pubs.... Bexhill-by-Sea is a small town down by the south coast of England. The town itself is nothing much to look at (sorry, James!) but some of the houses there are big which i think is great cos these are the old houses that were built a long time ago so they are bigger, unlike the newer ones which are small and narrow.

We also passed by a place called Battle which is so named because this was where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. The way I understand it is Harold who was the advisor to the dying King Edward was named to be the King of England. And there were two other rivals for the crown. So King Harold managed to kill Hardrada of Norway when he attacked from the north. Right after that, William of Normandy attacked from the south. So King Harold went south to defend his crown. But he died so William of Normandy became King of England. Hehehe..would it help if I say William of Normandy is William The Conqueror?? Go read up on it if you want to know more.

Another interesting place is Windmill Hill. Actually i just liked the name. And they do have a small windmill which is a small local tourist attraction. I was going to steal a pic of that from James's mother's camera but forgot.

hehe...there's a Proton distributor in Coohen I think. Ya, our Proton! And because it's supposed to be summer now, fresh fruits are sold along the roads. Fruits like strawberries and raspberries. No, I'm not a fan of strawberries though i hv to admit the strawberries Peng Peng and I ate at Paris were the sweetest and biggest I've ever seen or tasted.

The Long Man of Wilmington

One of the things we saw during my trip to Sussex was The Long Man of Wilmington near Eastbourne. As its name suggests, it is very long... hehehe.. it's supposed to be 235 feet high on the slopes of Windover Hill in Wilmington. This can be seen from a long long way off because they restored and put concrete blocks on it and kept the blocks painted white so that people can see it from miles away.

The origin of this, as with a lot of things, is unknown. Nobody can figure out why it is there or who put it there. But they do know that long long ago, the Long Man could only be seen under certain light conditions and after light snowfall. Then, people had it marked out in yellow bricks but got the feet positions wrong, the things the Long Man is holding wrong , changed the helmet-shaped head ( they changed this cos it resembled a 'helmeted war god' and was and still is one of the sites where druids and pagans give thanks to nature) and left out details of its manhood (apparently because of the prudish Victorians according to the website http://www.sussexpast.co.uk/property/site.php?site_id=13) Then in 1969, it was restored by concrete blocks so it can be seen a long way off like from the car park at the Wilmington Priory where we took these pictures.

As you can see from the picture, on the day we went, the wind was very strong and it was very cold. But you can see the Long Man in the picture standing on my palm...wahahaha...

Charity Knitters

I was browsing through knitting patterns the other day cos i was rather bored at home and i thought...hmmm, why not knit a nice scarf? (which by the way is not finished yet!!!) and i came across an article featured on the website about a group of charity knitters up in Scotland who knit all kinds of stuff for babies and children in Albania or Croatia or wherever who need them.. I've put a link in this blog to their blog... it's really cool the things some of the ladies hv knitted... all for charity...wayyyy cool!!!! Anyone for charity knitting?

Presents from Eygpt

hehehe.. I love getting presents... the green mortar and pestle is actually made from onxy... can u believe that? I thought onxy only comes in black...well, apparently not! hehe Rick got me a mortar and pestle cos i said i can't make sambal without that so he went and got me that from Eygpt!!! I laughed my head off when I opened the box and saw that... hahaha.. The white one is made from alabaster according to him. hehehe.. i thought he got me that so i can put something in it but when i took off the lid, inside were two black bags... hehehe.. one was a necklace with a scarab beetle(as in the flesh-eating beetles in The Mummy). See the black bits on the beetle? That's onxy! The other with a cat pendant cos the cat is holy to ancient eygptians... did i say how much i love getting presents? hehehe... thank you...


Pics Rick took at the Pyramids and Sphinx...see how big the blocks of stone are??? can u imagine how ppl used to carry those stones from a long way off to build the pyramids without cranes and bulldozers... without any machinery??? Incredible, isn't it? I wonder why he didn't get me one of these really cool eygptian belly dancing outfits!!!

Back to Reading

I'm back!!! Had a wonderful trip down to Sussex thanx to James and his mom. Now, comes the job of sorting thru the pics, all 500+ of them...sigh!!! this will take a while I think...and I think I put on 2 kg over the last 3 days cos James's mom is a great cook and she's been feeding us...lol...Can't wait to try out her recipe for roast....lol ya and get fatter!!!!

Away to Sussex

What a beautiful sunny day today!!! heheh good day to go out gallivanting in the countryside... hehe... I will take plenty of pictures for you to see... Stay tuned for the next episode of...'The Adventures of Ah Bea'!!!! hahha... pardon me... in a giggly mood...

Away...

Rick's away in Eygpt now and I'm home alone...but not for much longer...heheh...James is coming down and taking me to Sussex tomorrow... so another new place to talk abt soon...

By the way, 1 July was the day England went smoke-free...so it is now against the law to smoke in enclosed and half-enclosed work and public areas like restaurants, pubs, train stations, at work, etc...you can only smoke outside...and no, it doesn't affect me cos i only do it at home with my head sticking out of the window!!!!

No, don't nag! I'm trying very hard to stop... so give me a break...Sigh!!!

New boots!!!

Check out my new Nine West boots!!! Aren't they gorgeous???

Thank you darling,..
heheh Rick was sweet enough to sit and wait while i chose my boots cos he hates shopping but he knew I was dying to get new shoes cos I love shoes!!!!!

I have to say Rick and Vince are my two favourite men cos they buy me shoes....lol!!!!

Holiday

sigh! it's so simple booking holidays here cos you can do everything thru the net like booking tickets, hotels, train tickets, etc.. practically plan the whole trip at home... but looking at Rick...heheh he's got a headache now... he's been doing it the whole morning and it's not done yet...hahah too many choices...we've only got as far as Rome and Como...hahaha...oh! I had wat tan ho for lunch!!! so i'm happy!!!