Mdina/Rabat Area

Okay, let's continue with the Malta trip photos, shall we? Before I started, though, I'd like to say that because there were four of us, we decided to use the Airport Transfer facility to get to our hotel. After we arrived, we found the Airport Transfer desk easily, so we booked the two-way transfers right away. Then we were told to wait outside (there was another Airport Transfer desk near the waiting area outside). Unfortunately, we had to wait for over 30 minutes (after 30 minutes, I came back to the desk to complain and even then we still had to wait some more) as apparently there weren't anybody else (yet) leaving to the same direction. The other four or five groups (who stayed in a different area) could leave the airport within 15 minutes already. Thankfully it was already over 8 pm, so it wasn't scorching hot to wait outside, but we were worried that MIL would've been way too tired already. 

R2 and I both agree that the airport transfer in Malta wasn't as effective as the one we used in Budapest. However, at least we didn't have to wait too long for our car back to the airport (only 10 minutes after the appointed time). Oh yeah, we paid €10 per person for the two-way airport transfer. 

Okay, now on to the photos. One day we decided to go to Mdina/Rabat area. We actually decided to go there the day before, BUT turned out the bus going there only left every hour. Although there were three different bus who go to that direction at different times (every hour for each of them), but still when we missed the first bus, we had to wait for a long time. That's why we decided to go elsewhere that day and we made sure we were in time to catch the first bus to Mdina the next day. We were a bit worried that there would be no seats left as the journey would take around 70 minutes. Luckily for us, though, there were plenty of seats. Phew!

Actually, even for shorter distances, a lot of bus drivers in Malta were a bit crazy whenever they hit the brake to stop their buses and it was tough for MIL who has bad legs. One time the bus was totally full, so we had to stand up. A woman with her son were sitting on the front seats and she immediately got up to give MIL her seat and she had to stand up for the rest of the journey (30 minutes). Very thankful for passengers like her! 

When it was time for us to leave Mdina, we were SO lucky that when we got to the bus stop, 20 seconds later a bus arrived and again we found seats. :-D After all, it was such a hot day and we were tired already. Since we didn't buy any bus card, we had to pay €2 bus fare per person for each trip.

Here are some photos taken in Mdina/Rabat area. We went to a church, a museum, and a catacomb (which was rather tricky to find) since we bought the Combo Ticket.

The lovely church floor tile.

The next few photos were taken from the museum. 

The giant squid and my hand. OK, OK, to be fair, my hand is more like a kiddo's hand in size (probably a 10-year-old kid LOL), but the squid is close to 1 metre long.

The photo below was taken in St. Paul's Catacomb. In some places it was so dark that R2 had to use his mobile's light to guide the way. The steps in some parts were rather tricky/slippery as well, so we had to be careful. It was a fascinating place, though.

 One of the many colourful windows/doors in Malta.

Last photo: a funny toilet notice we found somewhere. Mind you, the toilets were quite low, especially for men he he he...

Back From Malta

This lazy blogger has just noticed that this year she's written so few posts compared to previous years. Work has been busier this year and I've also taken a lot of time off from using the computer to rest my mouse hand. Anyway, we went to Malta for our summer holiday this year and my throat is sore now. Hopefully it's only a sore throat and nothing much. 

Malta is such a beautiful place to visit. The temperature was around 24-32'C. We were lucky enough not to have caught any rain. When we stopped by at a bar to have some drinks (we stopped a lot of times as it was hot and we got thirsty easily), the UK owner told us that the previous week had seen some rain as well as tornado. It actually got hotter and hotter the longer we stayed there as the first two days there was some cooler/stronger wind blowing. What I love about Malta is the local buses with air-con that come on schedule and there are plenty of signs everywhere. The people speak English very well and there are lots of public toilets, too. Lots of places to see, eat, drink, shop that are still cheaper than those in Finland. Oh, and let's not forget the many Japanese/Asian restaurants and massage places here and there too! LOL!!!

As we were travelling with MIL who has problems with her knees and a cousin, we took it easy and didn't visit too many places, though we did take plenty of photos. Here are the first batch of photos from Malta. Some of them were taken by mobile phone and some were taken by R2. R2 and his cousin went on a free boat ride along the coast. I didn't go because I have really bad sea sickness. They got the boat ride for free as we had taken a hop on and hop off bus tour the previous day.

The first photo was taken in a posh marina area. Lots of shiny yachts and boats there. The building on the far left side of the background is Hilton Hotel. 

The second photo is St. Julian's Bay.

Below is a photo of St. George's Bay, the beach we went to twice. Malta has plenty more rocky beaches compared to sandy ones. We paid €20 for a full-day use of the sun loungers with parasols, the toilet, the shower and the price included a towel, too. Very handy! Plus there's a bar and restaurant on the left side. The right side (that has no sun loungers) is free to use, but there's no parasol there so you have to bring your own if you want to. 
 

Below is a photo of a 5-star hotel somewhere. 

Beautiful views from around the coast. Lots of historical and old buildings still in many places.

The dusk. :-)

I don't know what this is for, but this HUGE banner was seen as we were roaming around in Sliema area he he...

The vertical white figures on the mast were people graduating from some kind of marine school or something. 

OK, I shall end this here and I'll share some more photos in another post. Let's just hope I don't get sick. Otherwise when you lose a momentum to write, sometimes it's hard to go back to the swing of things.  

3BT: Random Days

1. Hubby found himself in an old video (he only appeared for a few seconds), but it was great fun for me to watch his younger self (thinner with more hair LOL!) in the video he he...

2. My period finally arrived before my summer holiday officially started, so that means I'll be period-free on my summer holiday. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!!

3. I didn't have to cook today as hubby had promised to buy some pizza. :-D

4. Went to a bookstore on a (rare) sunny day, found an acquaintance from Indo visiting this place, had a nice chit-chat with him, then I found a very interesting book on a discount (only €2).

5. I was looking for some dance songs to do some exercise at home and then I found this. And yes, I did follow the movements and had a blast HA HA HA HA HA HA...



6. And yes, you've guessed correctly! I did try out the other videos as well (some can be pretty tough for me, but still I had fun trying them out and I got really sweaty LOL!!!). These videos are great for a change compared to other exercise videos he he...

7. Watching funniest moments in Family Feud show in youtube. Some of the answers are hilarious! 

Kitty Cat

A few weeks ago our nephews (and eldest nephew's fiancee) came over and they brought a cat with them and the cat reminds me of my one and only cat when I still lived at home in Indo as they're both ginger cats. You see, my mom never allowed us to have any pets (with the exception of fish) because she sold food for a living and she was afraid that the food would be contaminated/stolen/ruined. One day, though, an old female cat (our neighbour's cat) came to our doormat with a baby ginger cat and she was breastfeeding him. My mom allowed them to stay outside as long as they didn't get inside. I actually don't think she was the baby cat's mother, as it was rare for a cat mother to have only one baby (I know this because she had had some babies beforehand and I'd seen her try to move them around).

This tiny little ball of ginger cat was so cute that I just had to try to pet him. He was pretty unique because his tail was a short swirl, so he could only move it a little bit (tick-tock movement) instead of swishing it about the way other cats could. He was so full of love and trust that I just fell in love with him just like that. However, knowing that my mom didn't like pets, I usually just pet him near the doormat and then let him go. One time, though, I picked him up and started petting him on my lap on the sofa and then he fell asleep! That was the moment that did it for me. :-D

So since then we started feeding him (as he got bigger already) outside the house, though we wouldn't let him stay inside until we finally got my mom's approval. Yep, the ginger furball melted my mom's heart, so we took him in and he became our cat. He picked the corner sofa as his sleeping place. He could do his business already as the surrogate mom had taught him how to do it and he never jumped to our dining table, either. As he was an outdoor cat, he'd go out and play a lot, but whenever he was home and we were eating something, he'd beg us to give him some (very politely and gently, never clawing or stealing). I think, though, he was deformed or something because he never grew big. He did grow to perhaps 2/3 of a size of an adult cat, so he always looked so cute because of his smaller size. 

One time he went out to play and didn't come back for weeks and when he finally came back, he had probably gotten stuck somewhere because he was so dirty and my mom had to bathe him (yep, the mom that usually didn't want anything to do with a cat!). I have plenty of fond memories feeding him and scratching and petting him. He'd even let me pet him in his sleep. He never really liked it if his tail was touched, though. I suspected that he knew his tail was different, so he was self-conscious about it, but whenever he was purring happily as he was being petted, his swirly tail would go tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock. So cute! :-D

Our only regret was that we never took pictures of him. At the end of his days, though, he got really sick and despite the fact that we took him to a vet and gave him medication, he kept on becoming more and more frail. He couldn't even jump to the sofa anymore, so I picked him up and set him on the sofa (thinking he wanted to rest), but he looked at me and meowed, begging me to put him back to the floor. I put him back gently to the floor and he left. That was the last time we had ever seen him. I think he didn't want us to see his last breath. We all shed some tears that day.

Anyway, I took some photos of my nephew's cat, so here goes...unfortunately she didn't really like being petted, so my consolation was to take her photos ha ha ha...So imagine a smaller version of this cat with a swirly tail. That was our cat!

 

Onion Kid

I've been taking a long break from my PC because I've had trouble with my wrist/mouse hand/thumb. And it doesn't look like my wrist likes doing certain yoga poses, either, so I've been trying to avoid doing yoga poses that would put too much pressure on my wrists and I opt to do other types of exercises in the meantime (though other parts of my body enjoy some yoga stretches). Anyhow, this summer reminds me a bit of Indonesian rainy season because it's rained a lot. This is definitely the wettest summer that I've ever encountered ever since I moved to Finland (and the greyest/coldest too!). I've been forced to use my SAD lamp this week because my brain feels like hibernating already due to the lack of sunlight.

Anyway, I was doing some house chores today when I was reminded of the term "anak bawang" or "onion kid". I used to play a lot with my cousins and neighbours when I was young (back then a computer was considered a luxury, only owned by rich people and even then the computer was still so basic LOL!!!) so kids played a lot outside with other kids. The term "anak bawang" was used a lot at that time. It means someone who's given some slack in joining any game due to their (young) age/lack of comprehension of the game rules. Being "anak bawang" also means that you're at the bottom of the ladder, so usually you don't get to decide what to play because the games you master are the simpler ones, so you're mostly merely tagging along with the older kids. It's definitely not a nice feeling to be called "anak bawang" or "onion kid" because it means you're not taken seriously, though at the very least the older kids do let you join in their games. Still, when you're called "anak bawang", you can't help but to wish to grow up quickly he he he he he...

Do you have such a term when you were a child in your own country, I wonder? :-)

Memory Book (AKA Buku Kenangan)

When I was in Elementary School and Junior High School (pre-internet/mobile phone days), on the last grade of both schools female students usually distributed a memory book (or "Buku Kenangan" in Indonesian) to her classmates to fill. The book was usually a hard-bound diary-like notebook (the size of which was usually more or like a paperback) with a cute cover and on the front page the owner of the book would write some introduction. The idea was that before the students graduated (sometimes this meant they went separate ways), they wrote down their details for the memory book owner to keep after graduation.

The classmates would then fill up the memory book with their names, address, phone numbers, hobbies, birth date, what they wanted to be when they grew up, their motto, their fave colour, etc. It could be as detailed, artistic, and colourful as they wanted it to be or it could be very plain and short (not too many details given). It was all up to the students themselves. The classmates could pick whichever page(s) they wanted to write down their details on, so one of the exciting things about getting the book back was to find out where he/she had written down their details on he he he...Another exciting thing was that if you had a crush on a boy, you could find out more about him after he filled in his details in your memory book HA HA HA HA HA...


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So the book owner usually gave the book to her BFF(s) and seatmate first and then she'd hand it over to her other classmates. Ideally the classmates took it home with them and then return it to the owner within a day or two, though sometimes the boys would forget about it and the owner had to ask them to remember to bring it back. Some boys didn't even bother taking it home, so instead they fill it up during a break and returned it immediately to the owner.

I distributed this kind of memory book in Junior High and kept it for years, though my mom has burnt a lot of my stuff after I moved to Finland. I remember some of the more artistic classmates would doodle or draw some stuff on their page. I myself loved adding colours when I filled up someone else's memory book, so I'd usually use different pens to write down my details he he he he...I'm not sure who or how the whole thing started, but I kinda like the idea of having my classmates write their own details in a memory book. Different handwritings, different styles.


Have you ever had this kind of trend back in your days? For some reason, this trend stopped altogether in High School (nobody ever gave me any memory book by then).

Microblog: Drops of Love

Sometimes love is looking at someone's eyes - a deep and searching gaze - to make sure that the other person is okay. No words necessary. Just a loving, thoughtful gaze that lets you know that the other person cares about you that much. Drops of precious love pouring over you in those extra seconds, quenching your parched heart. And all you can say is: "Thank you, thank you, thank you."


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Invasion of the Languages

The longer I stay in Finland, the more mixed-up my English becomes. Let me give you some example while they're still fresh in my mind. I realize that these days my past tense use in English has sometimes been mixed up with Finnish.

Here's a set of Finnish, Indonesian, and English sentences as comparison:

- Sinä nukuit hyvin. (You slept well).
- Nukuitko sinä hyvin? (literal translation: Slept you well?)

- Kamu tidur nyenyak. (You slept well.)
- Kamu tidur nyenyak? (You slept well?)

- You slept well.
- Did you sleep well?

Notice that in the Finnish language, in the question form, the verb doesn't change at all, though there's the additional "-ko" ending to denote that it's a question instead of a statement. So sometimes when talking to my husband, I'd blurt out, "Did you slept well?" instead of "Did you sleep well?" as the wires of my brain criss-cross between English and Finnish. And in Indonesian language nothing actually changes, only the intonation changes (going up at the end of the question).

Another example was my use of the word "psychologist". In Finnish, it's "psykologi" and in Indonesian language it's "psikolog". At that time I was writing in English and I wanted to write "psychologist", but instead I wrote "psykolog" (a weird combo of the Finnish and Indo version of the word) HA HA HA HA HA HA...

And don't mention the mix-ups I have with "him", "her", "his", "hers" because both in Finnish and Indonesian there's only one word for both genders. This has been happening since a long time ago. Ah, brain! :-D What an adventure you've had HA HA HA HA HA HA...

A Funny Incident

The other day I woke up very early due to some shoulder pain/strain that went up to my neck. As I thought I couldn't go back to sleep, I went downstairs to do some gentle neck stretches. However, soon after I got really sleepy again, so I decided to just sleep on the sofa. I closed the blinds and grabbed a blanket and slept with my clothes and socks on (like taking a nap). 

Hubby woke me up when he woke up to go to work. He walked round and round the house (from the living room to computer room to kitchen to the coat room back to the living room) while brushing his teeth with an electric brush. The noise from the electric brush was so loud that it woke me up. Unfortunately I had no energy to tell him to stop, so I went back to sleep after he stopped brushing. 

After he came back home from work, he confessed that he had not seen me AT ALL while he walked around the rooms like that (during his tooth-brushing session). He only realized I was sleeping there when my alarm beeped and I turned it off (he was in the toilet at that time). I couldn't believe my ears! I told him, "How can you have missed seeing me? I mean, I'm 50 kgs, not just a kilo of meat!"

Anyway, he was so glad that I hadn't said a thing to him at all when he didn't realize I was there (about the loud toothbrush), because if I had said something to him, he may have had a heart attack. To make things worse, he even went near the sofa at one point to open the blinds, so he could have seen me then, but he said I was neatly wrapped under the blanket that he just didn't realized! Goodness!!! It's still an impossible thing to experience, don't you think? 

We both had a good laugh at this story, though he he he he he he...and now I know that when he's brushing his teeth in the morning, he goes round and round the connecting rooms HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Image taken from here

3BT: Random Days

1. Hearing someone else I just met praise hubby (he got to know R2 through work). :-) He said, "You've got a great guy." Thank you for your genuine compliment! :-D

2. Spending quality time with family over Midsummer and having BBQ twice outside despite the cool weather. We had some chicken fajitas with tortilla wraps and then some sausages. Grilled sausages are the best! :-D

3. Seeing two sides of the rainbow.

4. Taking these photos after lots of rain.

5. Having time to recharge and think (and rest).