Gym casualty

Went to Kylie's Bodyjam class in The Curve yesterday. As usual, her class is jammed packed. We had to stand about 1 feet apart from each other, hazardous!!

And I have the injury to prove just how hazardous...


Ouch!!

The gal on my right tertendang me. Not by any fault of hers but the fault of the class being too full. There's just not enough space.

Thank God it wasn't a Bodycombat class!! Or it wouldn't be just a small bruise...

DIY: Taking shower without a towel

After working out at Menara Axis today, I realized I forgot to bring my towel. I had to go and attend an MBA program preview after that, takkan la I show up all sweaty and smelly there kan? So, I improvized learnt something I'd like to share with everyone... taking a shower sans towel.

Pre-shower preparation:
Bring lots and lots of tissue paper with you into the shower stall.

Step 1:
Take your shower as usual.

Step 2:
Wring your hair as you would a wet cloth.

Step 3:
Make like a dog and shake-shake-shake!


Step 4:
Use lotsa tissue paper to dab yourself dry.


Step 5:
Step out of the shower stall and head for the hairdryer. Then blow dry yourself.

Ta-da!! Clean and dry... all ready for your next appointment!

Swiss Capital

In Interlaken, when we were torn between para-gliding and going to Bern we asked the girl at the para-gliding counter if we hadn't enough time to do both, which should we choose??? I am very pleasantly surprised that the girl, not at all kiasu or desperate for a sale, told us that Bern is their beautiful capital where there are cute underground shops and many more things to see. She told us to choose to go to Bern.

Wow! If she was an Asian, she'd definitely grab the business first... who cares about showing off your country's capital eh???

When we arrived in Bern, it was a much busier place than Geneva. Full of people, shops and plenty of construction going on. Not construction of new modern tall buildings, but renovations to preserve the beauty of old buildings.


Shopping area


A bridge with a view


Me on da bridge


Some more shopping area...

The shops here in Bern closes much later than in Geneva.


...and more


Beautiful gardens even in the city


Me breathing in the cool Swiss air

We got back to Geneva late that day due to the long train ride. But it was a wonderful day out, no rain... as if the skies are on our side. It had been raining almost daily prior to that. Still, I wish I had more time to do all the things I wanted to do there. What is going to Switzerland without going to the snowy mountains for a ski excursion eh??? Maybe next time.

Out of Geneva

Decided to skip blogging about the rest of my time in Geneva because it was just more churches, museums and archeological sites... *yawn*. So I've fast forwarded to the interesting bit about my Swiss experience... my adventures out of Geneva.

Thankfully had some free time before we left for home, so one of the Malaysian doctors, my Marketing Director from Singapore and myself went on an adventure of our own out of Geneva. We took the train Geneva-Montreux-Zweisimmen-Interlaken-Bern-Geneva.

Our adventures began when we stopped over at Montreux. What a beautiful little town... Wish we could've stayed for the Jazz Festival. Apparently Jazz music's best has performed there before including one of my all-time favourite, Ella Fitzgerald!

Postcard??


Picture perfect scenery, can you imagine waking up everyday to this?


Pretty pretty flowers by the water

From Montreux, we took the Panoramic train to Zweisimmen... admiring the view all the way.

Happy with my window seat!


Enchanting little train stations all the way... too bad about the reflection.


The hills are alive... with the sound of music.

There was a blind man sitting next to me, with his very clever helper doggie; a black labrador. So cute!! And so obedient... I wish my Melodie can be half that obedient.

Man's best friend

We passed the Lake Thun on the way to Interlaken. The name means in between lakes. The other lake is Brienz.

Lake Thun

We also had lunch in Interlaken. I had the Schweizer Rosti. The waitress taught me to say it properly, it's pronounced as Shvait-zer Ros-ti. It's grated potato with lots and lots of cheeeeese. Yum yum!!

My Schweizer Rosti


Snow-capped mountains!!

Wish we had the time to go up there. But since we all brought along summer clothing, we were not well-equipped for the cold. Dr Jam and I wanted to go Para-gliding but we did not have the time to. :(

We did the next best thing... shopping. Hehe! Not that there was much to buy, everything was super expensive anyway. We walked around alot.


Who's d horsey??


Houses by the mountains

What a beautiful sight to wake up to everyday eh? Majestic mountains and fresh cool air. The weather that day was perfect, sunny yet not even half as hot as KL.

Stay tuned for the final episode of my Swiss adventure!!

Time (piece) after time (piece)

One of the afternoons, I tagged along with my Singaporean colleague to go around Geneva... with a few of the Singaporean doctors.


Just took this because the bicycle lights look so cute

We went to visit the Patek Philippe watch museum because we had the free tickets from our conference registration booklet.


Couldn't take any pics inside :(

The museum was filled with super expensive time pieces. But in my opinion, they were quite ugly and old fashioned. Perhaps I do not know how to appreciate it. I only saw one pendant watch with was really beautiful, gold with crawling flower plants. I wish I can find a less expensive replica of that watch. It would be perfect for people like me who do not like wearing anything on the wrist.

This time piece we can take pics of!!


The flower clock

Later that night we went to a very popular Swiss restaurant called Edelweiss. Had fondue again! Yum! But this one was with alcohol... I preferred the one I had with Peter which was alcohol free. No bitter after taste.


Me and a bunch of Singaporean doctors... and cheese!

There was a performance held on stage.





How does this benefit my job? Networking with Singaporean doctors? ... perhaps I can get the opportunity to work in Singapore someday? Some time in the near future???

Broken chair???

On the way to the Palexpo convention centre in Geneva, I saw this in front of the United Nations HQ.


What's up with the broken chair?


Anyone knows its significance???

A Suisse Rendezvous

The second day was the opening of the conference so it was all work... nothing interesting to blog about. It was only on Sunday did I have some time to go about exploring the little town of Geneva in the evening.

Thanks to Peter, a friend of a good friend of mine... I had a host to show me around! He's from Switzerland but somewhere closer to Zurich. He's only working in Geneva for a couple of months for an internship.

He brought me to a charming little restaurant called the Chalet-Suisse and introduced me to a traditional Swiss Fondue. He also told me that they call what we Chinese call the "steamboat", Chinese Fondue. hehehe... imagine us calling this cheesie dish Swiss steamboat???


My gracious host


Cheeeeeeeesse... my fav, yummy!!

After dinner, he took me to somewhere near Lake Geneva where the locals were having a big celebration for the Swiss Sailboat that won some international competition.


Alinghi

There were tonnes of people around despite the light drizzle. All were well equiped with jackets, raincoats and umbrellas... all except for this silly-tropical gal me! I thought summers are supposed to be hot. I was dressed in the regular clothes I wear right here in KL, with no umbrella pulak tu! Luckily Peter brought one. He said that there will be a concert and fireworks later.


Open air concert - apparently he's a very popular Italian singer a couple of decades ago. Reliving his fame eh?

The speakers were super duper loud, too loud for both our ears so we decided to walk about elsewhere while we wait for the firework show.


Lake Geneva at nite


Wild swan... not like those domesticated ones at Bukit Tinggi Resort

Peter said that if the wind was blowing in the right direction, we would be able to see the Jet d'eau really close. It'd look magnificent. So we decided to try... but looking at the wind, it would be impossible to be close to the Jet d'eau without getting completely drenched. On a cold night like that? No way!


This was as far as I got

After walking about aimlessly for a while, it started to rain pretty heavily. Not as heavy as our tropical monsoon rain but nevertheless, heavy by Swiss standards. The air was freeeeezing.
We almost wanted to give up thinking they've cancelled the show due to the heavy cold rain when suddenly, it appeared in all glory...




It lasted for quite some time and it was a spectacular sight! It was worth freezing in the rain, getting slightly drenched.


I guess the rest of the crowd standing there with umbrellas thought so too...

Arrivée

After a long 12-hour flight, I finally arrived at the Zurich airport...


Swiss planes

Fortunately, the transit time was only about an hour to my next flight to Geneva. Found out later that many of the delegates for the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) meeting actually lost or had their luggages delayed. 1-hour transits may not be such a fortunate thing after all eh? Thankfully for me, my luggage arrived on the same flight I did, with not delay. :)

Checked in to a small charming hotel at the heart of Geneva, conveniently very close to the central train station Gare Cornavin.


With barely enough time to just chuck my luggage into the room, had to be on the move again... heading towards another town outside of Geneva called Neuchâtel to take a tour of our manufacturing facility there. Unlike the industrial areas around Asia, theirs is full of greens and colourful flowers. It's beautiful, wouldn't it be great to work in such conditions instead of the concrete jungle of KL.


Vast open fields of green all the way there


The little town of Neuchâtel

In the evening, we went back to Geneva and had dinner by the Geneva Lake where the famous fountain is located.


Jet d'eau... which is just a literal translation for water fountain



The sky is very deceiving there, you don't feel it getting late at all. This was taken at 9.40pm!

It only gets dark after 10pm!

The weather that day was perfect, cool and clear skies... perfect for a walk back to the hotel after a filling dinner.

French lesson

Spending d past week in Geneva, I picked up a few words of French to add to my limited vocabulary of bonjour, merci and au revoir... not by choice, but people don't speak much English around here.

Croissant = Cresent
Croix = Cross
Rouge = Red
because this conference was on haematology (related to blood)

Bienvenue = welcome
Fromage = cheese
Poulet = chicken
Poisson = fish
Prochain Arret = Next Stop
Rue = Street
Église = church

For now... au revoir, merci!

Bonjour Genéve!!

Will be flying off tonight and tomorrow morning, will wake up to this...

Wedding nuisance

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with my ex-boss. He asked... "When are you getting married?"

Then later that week, I had dinner with my cousins. One of them asked... "So, when are you getting married?"

Then last week, my mom just asked me... "So when are you and Alvin getting married?"

The several days ago, I went to HKL. The nurse asked me... "So, when are you getting married?"

Today afternoon, I went to University Hospital. Another 2 more nurses asked me...
"So, when are you getting married ar?"

The later in the evening at the gym, another friend asked... "So, when are Alvin and you getting married?"

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! Why does everyone have an obsession with other people getting married?

I know that most people get married around my age. That doesn't mean I have to get married at the same age as everyone else. Since when is there an unwritten rule that people can only get married before they hit 30?

The right timing for marriage is indiviualistic and unique to each couple. Some get married after a couple of months of dating, and some get married after 10 years of dating. Marriages are not mass-produced products that have the exact same characteristics down to the T.

I got home and found that I've received a wedding invitation from an old friend. I am happy for her and am looking forward to see her at her wedding. However, I truly dread THE question that will definitely pop-up from the other guests at my table... "When is your turn ar?"

I will definitely let everyone know if I am in fact getting married, OK??!!!


Right now, there is NO wedding yet so get over it and get a life!

The worst part about this annoying question is that there will be no end to it. Once you are married, the frequency of these annoying questions won't stop... just rephrased... "So when are you having kids ar?" For someone like me who never wants kids... I guess I would have to put up with that question for life eh???