As 2009 Comes To A Close...

Can't help but reflect on the year that it was...

The year 2009 closes having jotted down the saddest event in my life. Before the saddest event happened, there were the happiest moments of anticipation. Not sure how I've gotten to where I am now, following that time, but will put it down to lotsa support from the husband, family and friends. I can't say I've totally gotten over it, I guess one never ever completely "gets over" something like that... and there are still things I struggle to do because it brings back tidal waves of emotions. Nonetheless, I have, at least, been able to become a more functional human being in my daily life, ie, being able to wake up, get dressed, go to work, enjoy company from friends, have decent conversation, etc.

So here's hoping that such things will never repeat itself in my life ever again and with such hopes, I look to the year 2010 with much trepidation.

In the later part of this year, husband and I also had the grand opportunity to travel to parts of Europe, including the slightly harder to access, Eastern Europe. Our travel itinerary included our base in Amsterdam, where my cousin lived (free accomodation - yay), London, where husband's cousins lived, then Berlin and Prague before looping back to Amsterdam.

▲ Husband sitting at window of Wei's apartment, overlooking the 

Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam 

We really enjoyed Amsterdam, the canals were pretty, the people were English speaking and the place was easy to navigate. Maybe it also helped that we had a super host :) - thanks Wei! I also especially enjoyed the one day roadtrip we took - driving a rented car to Broke-in-Waterland, Zaanse Shans and Rotterdam. And Gav got a first hand experience at driving on the other side of the road in a manual car!

▲ Windmill at Zaanse Shans, very pretty. We went into a paint grinding 

windmill, where they make paint in powder form, using the wind power 

for the grinding process

Berlin was a sobering city and yet we had the most fun city tour on a Segway! Our tour guide was a Bangladeshi dude who had lived and worked in London in the IT department of one of the biggest investment banks before taking a hasta-la-vista package to go live his dreams of playing in a band in Berlin and being a Segway tour guide!

▲ On our Segways on the front lawns of the Reischtag, Gav - stop grabbing my boob... ggrrr

oh ya, one thing we didn't manage to do was to climb up into the glass dome above the Reischtag!

Prague? It felt like we were on the set of a Vampire movie in Transylvania... hehe.. with all the castles, gothic structures and cobblestone roads. It was pretty and quite surreal, really. But the people aren't the friendliest nor the most helpful.

  

▲ the outside and inside of the church (forgot the name) at the Prague Castle

Fast forward to December in the last week or so.... it has been a crazy flurry of non-stop eating! omg.... it's like Chinese New Year where everyday is a celebration... and so we have been eating and drinking our way from Christmas till New Year's!

There was Christmas-cum-moving-in breakfast, then Christmas lunch, then Christmas lok-lok dinner, then Wedding lunch, then followed by a no occassion dinner, then farewell Steamboat dinner, then Sang Ha Meen dinner...

Tonite there'll be NYE buffet dinner and drinks, and then a NY's day lok lok party for the cousins with bonus entertainment from a live band tomorrow! What a way to start the new year!

▲ Cheers! Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Seng!