# Creep

宝贝- 张悬

(Tried to post a video from Youtube but the video failed to load, starting to suspect I am really technical-error-prone. Anyway, here is the video link.)

朋友寄来了张悬所唱的《宝贝》，一听就听上瘾了。

好喜欢张悬轻柔的歌声，更喜欢那纯真的歌词。在深夜听着这首歌，心中有一丝丝的暖意，还有一种幸福的感觉。。。

与大家分享这首歌。

歌曲：宝贝
演唱：张悬

我的宝贝宝贝
给你一点甜甜
让你今夜都好眠
我的小鬼小鬼
逗逗你的眉眼
让你喜欢这世界

Chorus:
哇啦啦啦啦啦我的宝贝
倦的时候有个人陪 （孤单时有人把你想念）
哎呀呀呀呀呀我的宝贝
要你知道你最美

我的宝贝宝贝
给你一点甜甜
让你今夜很好眠
我的小鬼小鬼
捏捏你的小脸
让你喜欢整个明天

# Trafalgar Green!

Let's take a short break before going to Santorini, and let's visit Trafalgar Square, which has been transformed into a green space today.

2000 square metres of turf would cover the square for two days to promote green villages in city under the Visit London's campaign. The turf was sourced from the Vale of York.

As we were already in China Town, we decided to drop over at the square to have a look at the rare sight of greeneries in London... and we saw this.

It was amazing to see that a small patch of grass would attract such a massive crowd! Makes me wonder how deprived Londoners are of greeneries...

We decided to join the crowd on the grass to enjoy the long-waited sunny weather in London.

When the weather is sunny, and when there is some greens to relax on, we can definitely see some bottles of beer in the scene as well. These guys below sure know how to enjoy a picnic.

We hang around there, looking at random people, watching the sunset, and just chilling out. As the blazing sun went down, the whole square was bathed in golden light...

Here are some people riding on the magnificent lion, enjoying the sunset.

I looked up and saw Nelson's column in golden glow, reflecting the beautiful sun rays.

As we were leaving the square, we saw a peculiar pagoda! On closer look, we realized it was actually the church under construction. It was very interesting how the construction work produced an illusion that transformed the church into a eleven-storey high pagoda. (And it looks good too!)

For comparison, this is how the church looks like originally...

That's a nice little trip to a GREEN Trafalgar Square. If only it can be green all year long...

# Greece - Athens (2)

After a refreshing walk in the National Garden, we arrived at the Zappion. It was the first to hold an indoor Olympic event in 1896. The building was to commemorate Zappas, the founder of the modern international Olympic Games.

(There are some controversies over who is the true founder of the modern Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) credited Pierre de Coubertin as the founder, while it is argued that Evangelis Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in Platia Kotzia in 1859. I will leave the arguments to the historians and professionals)


As we walked further on, we came upon something that totally took our breaths away - the Temple of Olympia Zeus.

The magnificent Temple of Olympia Zeus
- look at how huge the columns are compared to human size

The Temple of Olympia Zeus is the largest of the ancient Greek temples. It was one of the first to be conceived during 6th Century BC, but was only completed in 131 AD by the Emperor Hadrian - after 700 years later. The construction of the monument was disrupted many times due to lack of funds and change of governments. Also, during the Classical period (487-379) the work was abandoned because it was believed that the Temple was too ambitious and symbolized the human arrogance to be equal to Gods.

The remaining columns, with Acropolis as the backdrop

Originally there were 104 Corinthian columns, but there are only 15 which remains standing today. It was believed that the temple was destroyed in an earthquake during the medieval period. Like many other ancient buildings, the stones were taken away for building materials - what a pity! Now, though only these few columns remain, I could imagine how magnificent this Temple must have been during its most glorious period.

Remember Emperor Hadrian who completed the Temple of Zeus in 131AD? He decided to erect the Hadrian's Arch in 132AD as well, as a gate between the ancient city and the Roman city of Athens.

Hadrian's Arch

As we were heading to the Acropolis, we passed by the Theatre of Dionysious, the first stone theater built, formerly used by the Romans for gladiator fights.

Theater of Dionysious

Finally, we reached the ever-famous Acropolis! The word Acropolis means "upper city" and it is the place where most of the sacred buildings were built.

The first few things that we noticed when we walked uphill are:

• The place was pack full of tourists. Just look at the picture!
• The marble pathway was very slippery to walk on. Wonder how the people managed in the past.
• The view from the mountain top is marvelous! The sight of a sea of off-white buildings surrounding Athens was amazing. Every single houses below had different architectural design, yet together as a whole they formed uniform patterns which spanned across the horizon.

The sea of tourists & the sea of houses

This post would not be complete without a picture of the Parthenon. Designed by Kallikrates and Iktinos, built over 15 years and completed in 438BC, the Parthenon had housed the giant statue of Athena. It had been a temple, a church, a mosque and even a gunpowder storage place for Turkey. It was blown up when the Venetians bombed it in 1687.

The Parthenon, with lots of tourists

You can see from the picture that there were a lot of reconstruction work going on. It was quite a pity because I would have loved to capture the beauty of the Parthenon, minus the construction work and the tourists...

I didn't manage to capture a decent photo of the Erecthion. With the barriers standing in the way, the distance was too far for my poor k800i to capture the beauty without seriously reducing the picture quality. So I have to "borrow" the picture below from www.fulbright.com

Erecthion

The Caryatids which stand at the porch of Erecthion are actually copies, while the original ones sit in the Acropolis museum. And one of the original statue is still in British Museum, who claimed to be "safe-keeping" it, despite most people would have wanted it to be reunited with her other companions.

As our time is running short (we have to catch a ferry to Santorini at 5pm), we have to forgo a lot of interesting places such as the old town Plaka, the vibrant Thission and the fun Psiri. We stopped by Ancient Agora briefly, and we walked by the famous Monastiraki flea market rather too quickly.

We had some Greek food like Souvlaki, Tzaziki, stuffed tomatoes and mousakas in Monastiraki, I will write about the food in another post, they deserve a special post on their own. I have been very impressed by the food in Greece, it is amazing that healthy food can be so delicious that you would keep wanting more! More on these in future post.

As the ferry departure time is drawing near, we rushed to Pireaus, the port of Athens. With such a fleeting moment spent at the port, we haven't got time to explore the port area, but just got a grasp that it is a very busy port.

Our ferry to Santorini

Off we go to Santorini... where the real adventure begins! We will continue our exploration of Athens after we come back from Santorini yea.

More photos at my Flickr site.

# Greece - Athens (1)

We arrived at the Athens airport at around 4a.m. in the morning. It's still to early to go down to the city centre, and we are still feeling tired as we have not had a good sleep on the plane. Here is what Athens airport looked like early in the morning...

And here is how we looked like early in the morning...

After some attempts to get some sleep, interrupted constantly by the airport announcement, we finally decided it's time to go down to the city centre. We took the bus down to the city, and it was then I experienced the driving skills of Greeks. Boy! How the bus driver sped! As we sped down the highway, we realized that every other car was also on full speed. It was certainly a thrilling experience sitting in a rickety bus which threatened to run down anything that came between it and its destination.

Don't underestimate the ability of the bus...

We met up with another travel partner, ZZ, at Syntagma Square. There was a saying that "No matter where you have to go in Athens, if you can find Syntagma Square you can find your way there." Shows how famous and central this square is in Athens, if not all of Greece.

The square has a long history. The name Syntagma means Constitution, and many major events have happened here - it has witnessed the WW2, it has survived the battle between communists and governments, it has gone through its own civil wars and battle between communists and right-winged governments in 1940s, and it has marked the beginning of the Cold War. More recently it has been the place where massive political rallies took place.

At present time, Syntagma is a large public square with nice walkways, trees, benches and cafes.
It is a place to hang out, hold holiday concerts and festivals.

We walked to the Parliament Building nearby, which was formerly the King's Palace, built between 1836 and 1840 by King Otto. The palace was guarded by elite soldiers called the Evzones, who were selected for their height and strength. Their official uniform foustanela, the pleated skirts, which were worn by Greek fighters in the 1821 revolution. Like the guards at Buckingham Palace, they endured endless tourists taking their pictures or observing whether they make any movement at all. We witnessed the change of guards, during which the Evzones did some march with interesting kick steps. I particularly like their sarouchi shoes with the small furry balls at the front.

The change of guards - to be precise, the Evzones

To get to our next destination where Acropolis and all the ruins are, we cut across the National Garden, which was like a tropical paradise right in the middle of the old and dusty city of Athens. The garden was so tropical that for a fleeting moment I thought we were back in Malaysia.

So tropical!

There was a small zoo which has been known to have Bulgarian wolves, antelopes, monkeys, a lion, etc... But we only managed to see some chickens, ducks, some birds, and LOADS of cats and dogs. Apparently the duck and turtle population was also out of control. Interestingly, despite the over-population, don't ever think of sneaking away the ducks/turtles, as they are the "property of Greek State". ^_^

National Garden

I shall end this first part by quoting what Henry Miller wrote about National Garden in 1939:

"It remains in my memory like no other park I have known. It is the quintessence of a park, the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place one would like to to be in and never finds.

Seeing lovers sitting there in the dark, drinking water, sitting there in peace and quiet talking in low tones gave me a wonderful feeling about the Greek character. The dust the heat, the poverty, the bareness, the contendedness of the people, and the water everywhere in little tumblers standing between the quiet, peaceful couples, gave me a feeling that there was something holy about the place, something nourishing and sustaining."

- from Inventing Paradise: The Greek Journey 1937-47

A peaceful morning in the National Garden

(To be continued... )

More photos at my Flickr site.

# Peanut Butter Jelly Time

I was watching "Family Guy" the other day on TV (older season) and there was one scene where Brian did the Peanut Butter Jelly Time dance. I just burst out laughing, remembering the time a few of us flooded Moody's Neo Chatbox with the dancing bananas...

Here is the excerpt from "Family Guy"


Here is the original version


Hope you survive the song, it's quite annoying if you are not used to these kinds of things. ^_^

Oh help, I think I am seriously getting more lame each day...

# Temporary closure

Temporary non-activity due to final exams in progress. Will be back after 8 May.

Hehe... Sneak preview - Will be going to Santorini Island with a bunch of friends right after exam from 2nd May to 8 May. Very looking forward to the trip!

I just can't sit still thinking of the trip!

# Yassar Halim

When we was having a stroll along Green Lanes, we passed by the groceries shop that we buy our foodstuff from - Yassar Halim. It sells normal groceries such as vegetables, meat, fruits, and it has its own bakery which makes a variety of cakes, breads and Turkish delicacies. I enjoy shopping there for its large diverse variety of vegetables available at cheap price, its fast and efficient service, as well as for the yummy cakes which I like to have as dessert. ^_^

The picture below shows the shop - the green one is where they sell their groceries, the white one is their bakery. Notice the extra bit of white shop on the right side? That's their extension of bakery.Yassar Halim

When we saw a newspaper cutting stuck to the front window of the shop...

We exclaimed a big "WOW"!!!

Yassar Halim, the very place we get our groceries, is considered as one of the "100 Shops to Visity Before You Die"!!! It ranked along with shops like NikeTown, HMV and Selfridges in Oxford Street, Apple store in Regent Street, etc... Boy, were we proud!

I like the idea of Evening Standard campaigning for small shops, against the giant supermarket chains which always kill all the local business with their megamarkets and unfair price wars. An obvious example would be Tesco, who has not only infiltrated most markets in UK, but expanding overseas into Asian markets. In my own small hometown Sungai Petani, the arrival of Tesco practically killed many of the small groceries stores - they simply couldn't compete with the low-price goods and large-variety-store of Tesco. It is quite sad actually, especially many of the storekeepers are either our friends or relatives.


I don't despise mega stores or chains, but it is some unfair competition to put small shops with giant stores side by side to compete. Well, free market allows the survival of the fittest, but it ignores the softer side of the society - the local culture, the community, the tradition.

For developing urban area with expanding population, it may be all right to put in new mega stores to cater to the growing population demand for a variety of goods and services. But for small towns with dwindling population and small local community, putting a mega store would just saturate the market and squeeze out all the small competitors. Free market competition argument is just not right here, due to the different market setting and sizes.



On the softer side, I personally think that local culture and tradition is important to preserve the local identity of the community. It is those small shops that we always have closer bonds with - we know the owners well, and we chit chat about our lives and take care of one another within the neighbourhood. Doing daily groceries is some enjoyment, having the chance to communicate with our neighbours and friends. In big mega chain stores, such kind of interaction is far less, the services might be more efficient and fast, but do we actually know, and care about those army of workers in the store? Or rather, we just hastily do our weekly shopping and speed off to cater to our much-more-important-things-to-do?

... Perhaps, my thinking has been more old-fashioned.
... Perhaps this is just the thinking of a small-town girl, who has yet to embraced the big-city mindset of not bothering about any other people, but solely minding your own business. But sometimes I do wonder, how do city people feel happy in such kind of environment?

# Happy Easter!

It's the time of the year again...

HAPPY EASTER!!!

# Canary Wharf

This is is London's traditional financial centre, The Square Mile, Canary Wharf. These three buildings are the three tallest buildings in UK - One Canada Square, HSBC Tower, and Citigroup Centre. Although not as impressive as US's skyscrapers, these are considered some "WOWs" for UK.

I have been to Canary Wharf a few times to visit friends, and I could always feel a difference between the place and the Central London.

Central London is full of people and activities, and lots of buildings scattered everywhere. People are rushing, crowds are shoving, street-sellers are shouting out prices of their goods, shops are busy, shopping streets are packed full of crowd, weather was crappy as usual traffic was haphazard...

Canary Wharf is full of tall buildings, and lots of working people wearing suits, carrying solemn looks. The place is spacious, and cleanliness is maintained. I like the cleanliness, but somehow, I feel some feelings of emptiness when I was there a few times.

I don't know how to describe it, the place seems perfect and nice, well-planned and well-maintained, but it lacks of a feel of... life. I know it's somewhat a crazy notion, but that's the feeling that the environment gave me.

Just like these statues, the place feel the lack of "Living Qi"

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the whole place is such a concrete jungle that the "Qi" that it exudes is that kind of cold, metal "Qi".

The "metals"...

Perhaps it is because the city garden is man-made landscaped that it look too fake.

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the place is only full of working people, looking serious and rushing for work during weekdays; and become lifeless during weekend when nobody is around.

Some French-style open air cafe. Only difference was the seats in France were full, here most are empty.

Perhaps it is because I have been too used to living in places in London like Wood Green or Whitechapel which are so pack full of activities, street markets, all kinds of people (different races, different backgrounds, different social classes), where almost everyday we can hear police siren going off or see police cars zooming past. (Hmm... it's starting to sound a bit like the dodgy end of London now...)

Perhaps I'm a bit too particular about places, but I prefer a place which there are some communities and people and activities, where we can observe life going on, than a place which are clean and beautiful and well maintained, but somehow you just don't feel you belong there in someway.

Canary Wharf is really nice and clean and meets all the requirement of proper town-planning. I enjoyed my leisure strolls with friends at the place, I enjoyed the calm feeling I have with the quiet surrounding. But somehow, I just can't feel I can actually belong the the place like that.

More photos taken in Canary Wharf.

# From P2S to DSLR?

I remembered that about two years ago, I have pondered about changing my camera from point-to-shoot to DSLR. I have found interest in photography, and has always envied the people with proper canggih camera which can do wonders to the shots.

At that time, I was still having my BenQ DC2300, an extremely simple, basic digital camera.

This baby, BenQ DC2300, which is now out of production, was my first ever camera, also, the first ever digital camera. It was a gift from daddy, he bought it for me in PC Fair, before I leave home to study in UK. I still remembered his words, "Take photos and send back to us ya, especially photos with you inside!" Thinking back, I just felt so grateful to have such a loving daddy who has brought me up with love, care, encouragement and support...

BenQ has been with me for a few years, despite its lack of functions, I still love it very much. It is, after all, the first digital camera for me to explore the world of photography. During my first year in university, I brought it almost anywhere I go. I realized that since having a camera, I have started to notice simple, beautiful moments that should be captured and kept as memories.

Simple moment like this...

While having BenQ, I have been eyeing greedily with the various new cameras that my friends have. I still remembered I have been laughed at most of the time for having the most out-dated cameras in the market, hehe, but that made me more passionate to brush up my photography skills to compensate the technical weakness. And I have told myself, one day I'm gonna save enough money to buy a proper DSLR.

After some time, my passion somehow died down a bit, maybe due to there is no photography buddy whom I can share interest with, nor can I find any "sifu" to learn more proper skills. I'm really lucky to have bumped into JY and Ozzy, who are good in photography, and much more committed and avid photographer than myself. Made me feel shameful for being so slack. :-)

Both of them have helpfully taught me more about photography, and with their encouragement, I am starting to ponder again to get a DSLR. My Yangyang has been very sweet to offer to buy one for me,*muaks*, and now we are looking into a few models.

Anyway, I have been looking at a few entry-level DSLR, suggested by friends, for example Canon EOS 400D, Nikon d40 and Sony Alpha. I have looked into reviews from various sources to compare and choose the one which would be (hopefully) more suitable for my use as a hobbyist. For some unknown reason, I am attracted to Nikon d40, probably due to its affordable price, or some unexplainable attraction it has on me. Hehe.

Would it be D40 for me? I wonder...

Anyone with any recommendation or hands-on review on DSLR? I am a beginner switching from P2S to DSLR, and would not be going too deep into really expensive hi-specs ones. Currently I'm more inclined to D40, but would be glad to hear any other opinions and suggestions. :-)

DSLR, here I come!

# Unviewable?

As I am writing this post, I am having problems viewing all of the blogs which are under Blogger account. All blog page under blogspot.com just turned out blank when I entered the page. Wonder whether this happens to anyone else...

Drop a comment if you are experiencing the same problem. I have enable forwarding of the comments to my email. Hope I can solve this web-viewing problem soon...

*UPDATE*
My blog! My blog is back to me! Yay!!!

For more than a week, my ISP somehow (for unknown reason) blocked me from viewing all Blogger blogs. I have had to use some anonymous free proxy service to surf blogs. More inconveniently, the anonymous service somehow blocked me from logging in to comment on blogs. I am so glad when today, suddenly, I can access to blogs with just a click to the direct link. YAY!!!

Pray pray the ISP doesn't throw tantrum again...

*UPDATE 2*(09/03/2007)
Nooooo!!! Stupid ISP blocked Bloggers blogs again!!! Now I can't comment on blogs again!!! Noooooo!!!

# Pancake Day!

20th February 2007 is the Pancake Day! (Also known as Shrove Tuesday)

Shrove Tuesday is commonly used in UK, Ireland and Australia. The day comes after Collop Monday and before Ash Wednesday, where the Lent season begins.

So why are pancakes associated with the day signifying the start of the Lent?

There is an explanation that there is a 40-days period of Lent of fasting, during which only plain food may be eaten. Food considered "rich" like eggs, milk and sugar are disposed before the fasting starts. So, a way to use up these perishable goods is to make pancakes and doughnuts, which in a way gives people a minor celebratory feast before the pain fast starts.

According to wikipedia, the word "shrove" is a past tense of "shrive", its meaning is to obtain absolution for our sins by confessing and doing penance. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the shriving that Anglo-Saxon Christians were expected to receive immediately before Lent.For a non-christian like me, Pancake Day have a different meaning... It means, YUMMY!!!

My housemate made some salty pancakes, in which she added onions and peppers and other stuffs. They taste yummy, it's a totally different taste from the traditional ones.

I prefer the sweet ones, so I took out all my long-neglected flour (hope it is still useable) and eggs and sugar and everything...
and after 15 minutes... they're done!

As I squeezed the honey all over my pancakes, I can't help taking a closer look at these beauties...

And an even closer look...

I like to stack the pancakes up, and cut them in layers. It saves space and time too. Here I come, pancakes!

# Piggy Year!

It's piggy year! It's my year! I have survived through the second cycle of Chinese almanac! Yay!

There is a lot of confusion and debate on whether 2007 is a "Fire Pig" year or a "Golden Pig" year. Many confused "Red Pig" with "Golden Pig" as well. Checking with I-Ching shows this year is indeed a "Fire Pig" year, yet many mainstream media keep promoting the "Golden Pig", and even major banks went all out with their golden-pig-savings-account, blah blah... After all, "Golden" pig sure sounds better than some "fire" piggy. Now let's see what these people say when the real "Golden" pig comes...

Even before CNY arrives, sweet Sharon made us some wonderful cookies, like Almond Rosettes, Almond Melting Moments, CNY Peanut Cookies, and White Choclate Chip Cookies... She is so good in baking, her peanut cookies are one of the best I have had! I can't help remembering another time when she made us extra-chocolatey brownies which made me go crazy for days!

As CNY was creeping near, everyone was busy doing food shopping, card shopping, gift shopping, etc etc. I felt the pain when buying the expensive chinese new year card in Chinatown, oh how I miss the beautiful yet cheap cards in Malaysia!

The various shops in Chinatown really went all out to get business during Chinese New Year. As usual, the "Prosperous" symbolical items are up for grabs. Besides the normal crystal trees, "Fuk Lok Shao", miniature Shaolin monks etc, there was also a lot of "GOLDEN" pigs in ALL shops. Suddenly piggy banks are collectible items...

Some street hawkers set up their stalls along the streets too, posing competition to the shop sellers. There was a myriad of CNY decoration items, and the "Redness" all around could really blind people sometimes.

More redness overload...

The dragon decided to join the celebration too...

For me, it is always nice to have a walk in Chinatown London during the festive season. You get to see the lantern display, the bustling of crowd, some friendly westerners wishing us Happy New Year... I particularly like to have a stroll during the night, where all the lights displays were switched on.

And there are these same old three huge tanglungs which are always hung on the three gates at the three entrances to the main street of Chinatown.

I stopped to give a pat to the stone lions guarding the street too, it's new year after all.

There are also some other things which were must-do's during CNY.
Like buying egg tarts from Kowloon...

And having a good meal of Dim Sum with a bunch of good friends!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
HAPPY PIG YEAR TO ME!