LaundryAmah

It was Apoh’s birthday on 25 July and we had actually planned to go out for steam boat but I thought my sis-in-law was going to inform the birthday girl and she thought I would inform so at the end what happened?? Birthday girl cooked dinner herself! *piak piak* tsk tsk tsk…. “har yee but how..” (we were not filial to her)

However, I had prepared the cupcakes before hand, baked some over the weekend but we ate some so I had to bake again and as usual I had not much time at home as I reach home about 10.30 pm during the weekdays. No choice, I started baking despite it being late and finished just past midnight!

The morning of her birthday, I got the kids to run to her wishing her happy birthday and gave her hugs & kisses. I think that was her best present of all. As usual the kids were more excited they were fighting to blow the candles.

I tried to finish up work early that day to complete my cakes with decoration. It was quite a rush job and the below was what I could manage to come up with.

As I was busy arranging the cakes, Apah was taking pictures and a lot of them were not publishable! Too bad…See the distorted “67″ figures…hahaha..shaky fingers la…yes Apoh turned 67..

Hope she wasn’t too disappointed that she had to cook dinner for her birthday! But I am sure she was disappointed that her other son & family didn’t come celebrate with her…don’t know the reason why they didn’t turn up..

I booked the ticket to Rome the morning before. It was very convenient as I bought the ticket of the tour agent next to my hotel. The train station was just a stone throw away from the hotel but I had to lug up my luggage up the stairs as the place where we can pull up the luggage was on the other side of the station. Since Amah need to burn some calories, I carried the luggage up la..

Took my ticket to ask the lady at the information counter and she told me they do not know which platform yet and told me to wait a while. While waiting, I could hear the announcement overhead announcing so & so train which was supposed to be departing from Platform bla bla is now changed to Platform bla bla…and this kinda repeated over a million times! Warao! Imagine those people pushing their luggage from one platform to another!! So I sat there waiting till like 15 minutes before time of departure before making a move to the designated platform! I thought our system here was bad….but how come they can make such wonderful shoes, bags & clothes, and of course the steam irons that I sell la…

When the time came for me to board, I saw that the train was higher than the platform, what a stupid design lor…ayoo…people travelling inter-city sure ada luggage one ma….nvm..amah very strong geh..no sweat..so excited I didn’t realise the seats are numbered and I didn’t check before I boarded! Ended up dragging the luggage over like 6 - 7 carriages!!! So silly crab rite???

Train ride was about 1 hour plus..can’t remember..almost 2 hours la..and wala..I was in Rome. Me being the heroin, forgot to print out the map of the hotel I booked and was looking high & low for someone to help. Again, the system is not so friendly, but I managed to find someone who actually recognised the street and told me to walk towards a certain direction to exit to the hotel. But without actual & more proper guidance tak-kan I drag my luggage around looking for the hotel rite?? It’s no Hilton la, some crummy little B & B, I can’t expect people on the street to tell me where it is rite?? Good thing I found a tourist info centre and they had maps and the guy actually helped direct me to the hotel. It was walking distance, thank GOD!

Quickly checked in and took off for some sightseeing cos I will be leaving the next day! Look at my miserable EURO70 room! It’s so small and has some funny weird smell oso! Bleah!

Went up the see-Rome-in-one day city bus as I have limited time and I must see the Colosseum and of course the Trivi Fountain. I got to go there and feel the scenes shown in the TVB serial a few years back..neh that Truimph in the Skies serial with all the damn yau yeng (handsome) pilots! wakakakakakaa…

Above is the tour guide in the bus and she was rambling on in various languages, including English but I could hardly capture anything she said! I only wanted to go down in 3 places so I snapped photos from the bus! I sat next to this Iranian guy and his friends got all excited and one of them (the only one who spoke English) started chatting me up.

The first stop was this really grand looking place called Piazza Venezia which I just took pics from the bus. The next stop was Colloseum and I went down. Then those Iranian gang also followed and the guy asked me if I would join them since I was alone. I didn’t see why not, walking in public place (really public cos there were sooooo many tourists everywhere) ok ma..

I thought those “soldiers” were meant to entertain tourists by taking pictures with them but we have to pay for it and it was £%”^*£ EURO 3!!!!

The next stop was Circo Massim & Monte Savello which I didn’t get down as my next target stop was Via Della Conciliazione where the Vatican City was. The Iranian guys were serious about including me and they really followed me to this stop! We stopped for a meal first and it was really horrible and pricy meal, but they were packed thanks to tourists like us la!

There was a long queue walking in the cathedral so I was too lazy and didn’t want to go in. Instead I went for a gelati! Yes that Iranian guy was still sticking around eventhough his friends went in the cathedral. I thought it would be a good time to ditch them so I told him I had to go and there was a bus waiting and it was an open top bus! Unfortunately the bus didn’t take off after a while and the rest of the Iranian gang came and hopped on!! Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhh….

This is the mah latt loe Iranian guy la…so annoying….

Trevi Fountain was not very the bus stop and we had to walk about 5 minutes, thanks to the road map I had I found it. That place was so crowded I nearly couldn’t get a spot to take a descent picture! I didn’t throw a coin to make a wish la..

Cool leh this guy? There are a lot of people riding motorbikes there. I wonder how they can do it during winter…brrrrrr…

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l43/laundryamah/traffic.jpg

Traffic was quite bad along the way and I was really running out of time. After Trevi Fountain I really had to rush to Via Condotti where my favourite store was to buy my fave bag la…The Iranian gang’s hotel was located near there and they wanted to go back so I thought I can bid them farewell but they insisted I get on their taxi. Ok by now you guys must be thinking this Amah so daring… I too cannot fathom why I did that..but thank God I was ok!!!

My final purchase at Rome airport…

My butterfly Prada sunglasses..

Ok taking a break from my Europe trip and have some updates on the kids.

Took Kieran for a haircut last Saturday morning. Was in a rush so packed the kids in the car while they were still in pyjamas. We stopped for breakfast at our favourite roti canai restaurant and had roti planta. The kids were fighting as I ordered only 1 for them to share. I know Kylie will not be able to finish one, so mai share la..ok la..I gave some of mine to them also la…

Upon seeing the kor kor having the hair cut, our little girl also wanted one! But she just had her’s trimmed a few days back when my mom brought her to the salon. Kor kor was performing for a mini in-house concert in his music school (for like the mini-est part) but still he must look good ma…hahaha

That’s him in his new hairstyle and practising his recorder last minute…

Look at that cheeky face of hers…my hairdresser was of course pretending to cut la…

another random cheeky face pose…

Petting the rabbit at Bukit Tinggi one week ago…took her quite a while to gather enough courage to do that..

I again lost it in Kieran’s school yesterday. Apah was away so I had to pick him up from school. It’s so tough for me as I had to make sure I shut the office on time and then drive all the way to his school which is quite a distance. I had to drive like a maniac to beat the jam to avoid being late. (I was late one time as I totally forgot about having to pick him up and I had to get Apah’s uncle to help get him first).

The first time I created a drama was when I arrived he was nowhere to be seen. It was almost 7 or could have passed 7 and he was not waiting where he should be waiting. You know it’s so hard to spot him as the mass of kids in uniform and in that particular height makes it so difficult. I was already cooked up filled with pressure from the days’ work and not seeing him only made it worse. When we finally found him, I spanked him and screamed at him right there in front of everyone.

Then yesterday I was super early waiting in line at the school and the maid went down to get him. Slowly all the cars were dispersing and still no sign of them. I slowly drove nearer and nearer the gate and still no sign of them. After a while I lost my patience and went down. I saw them but they had that blur look.

Me- WHAT’S WRONG? (I THUNDERED..)

Maid-Cannot find bag…

Me-WHATTTTT?????? WHAT DID I ALWAYS TELL YOU? THERE ARE SO MANY BAGS N KIDS, YOU MUST ALWAYS STAY NEAR YOUR BAG SO YOU CAN KEEP AN EYE ON IT. NOOOOO, YOU MUST RUN AROUND AND PLAY, LOOK AT HOW SWEATY YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I THUNDERED AND SCREAMED AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS)

K-(stared blankly at me with wide wide round round eyes…)

Me-I DON’T CARE LA, I REALLY CANNOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE, I’M GOING OFF WITHOUT YOU! LET’S GO (I gestured to the maid to go and left Kieran standing there.)

The maid being the log she is, of course just followed me and had no compassion for the kid whatsoever and Kieran didn’t even panic or cried or tried to follow me and beg me for forgiveness. That’s why I know this gangster kid is a really tough kid.

I entered the car & immediately called Kieran’s tuition teacher to tell her that I want to stop his tuition since he doesn’t seem to learn anything and she was not cheap either. Then I had to let go steam so I called Apah of course! Good thing he was not in a foreign country, just different state. I just shouted n shouted and I guess I felt much better as I did pass some stress over to him even though there was nothing much he could do.

Then I asked that log of wood maid to go down and continue the search for his bag. I can’t really dump the kid there alone right??? After a while they finally found the bag, someone could have mistakenly taken it and then realised and left it in the guard house.

I continued scolding him in the car, nagging about how fortunate he is to have the chance to go to school bla bla bla…but I guess it just goes in one ear and comes out the other ear….as I have gone through this speech like a million times and always told him to look at the maid saying that she didn’t have the chance to study and had to come work as a maid. So with a living example right next to him also cannot motivate him I really don’t know what to do la…you teach me la…how????

It’s kinda old town and the buildings are very close to one another and the roads or rather alleys are soooo narrowwww…Had quite a pathetic breakfast (included in the room rate) and set off to take some photos since I still have time to kill before the scheduled bus to the factory outlet The Mall. First stop was the Duomo. Really not as impressive I thought it would have been.

Then I saw this…so familiar geh….

Then it was time to go back to the bus station and in 45 minutes time I arrived here together with a bus load of Asians….

Bought most of my stuff here (except the LV la..), tshirts and clothes for the kids from Armani Jeans, and a tshirt from Burberry plus a Euro 30 flowery shirt for daddy! (Eh from Burberry wor…quite cheap kan?) This place was located in some God forsaken ulu yam place among some houses and mini hills & lakes..quite good views from the bus. I didn’t manage to go to Prada which was further away from this place. Rats! I thought I could catch the direct bus back to Florence but somehow nobody could help direct me to the right bus stop! Finally I just followed a pair of Korean couple and then many others followed and I guessed it was the right bus stop. However, this bus stops at the smaller towns before reaching Florence so it took over an hour!

Was bored so I sms-ed LB, just to let him know that I am surviving so far! Once I reached Florence, I dropped all my shopping in the hotel and off I went exploring the town. Was walking around and then I had to pee and I couldn’t find one freaking public toilet! WTF! There are lots of cafes and bars around but tak-kan I just walk in and ask if I could use the loo meh. I couldn’t even find a McDonalds around…then I saw a department store and I rushed in but to my dismay the toilet is only available in the top floor which was 4 stories above!! Darn..by then my bladder was about to burst and there was of course a “berarrdy” queue la! I must say the toilet was pretty dirty but I have no “berarrdy” choice rite??? Blek..

After the toilet break I went to Miu Miu and drooled all over the bags and shoes. They were not on sale yet (the sale started only the week after I left la!) Then I found the store….LV of course…it was close to closing time but what the heck, went in of course. It was of course still very crowded with mainly Asians, abuden??

After that it was getting late and I started walking back to the hotel. LB sms-ed me to tell me give shopping a break and get myself a gelati instead, which I did! It was too sweet for me…but refreshing nevertheless. Stopped over at a cyber cafe and replied some emails. Surprising the cost was quite reasonable for 1 hour of internet usage.

The day ended with another cup noodle plus my dried chicken meat again…yes Amah spends $$ on designer goods but can’t pay for a descent dinner…no lar..I hate eating alone, more so in a foreign land…mai eat myself in the room lor….

I left the morning of the 5th day with this handsome chap in the photo below. He lives in Florence so he was going to give me a lift there. He also offered to take 2 other guys in his car so it was pretty cramped up and thank God all our luggage fit into his Saab.

Dunno what happened both of us ended up with bunny teeth!! Bleah!

The ride out of Frankfurt was pretty smooth despite the so-called morning traffic. The ride in Germany was really boring, with not much to see on both sides of the road, so boring till I fell asleep. I didn’t realise it until I snorted and it was loud enough to wake me up and my driver to notice!!! He looked into the mirror to check on me and I pretended like nothing happened! hahahahahaha…so embarrassing!!

We stopped after 3 hours for a break & pee stop and to my shock, we had to pay 50 cents Euro to use the toilet! Shiats! Bought this apple juice….was frizzy of course….what else?

Crossover to Switzerland was easy peasy, no need to chop passport oso. After crossing over, it’s tunnel after tunnel..and I noticed the driver was driving very slow (100 km/h is considered slow in his standard!!) as they r really strict there with speed cameras everywhere!

Lunch stop was at Marche. I can’t believe they allow customers to bring in their pets into the restaurant. Talk about hygiene…bleah! Good thing was, we didn’t have to pay to use the toilet here! Phew..

The scenery became really beautiful as we draw nearer to the Italian border, with lakes and mountains along the road and of course tunnels…tunnels…tunnels…

Once we entered Italy, our driver sped up and we were almost flying!! (as you can witness thru the pic of the speedometer!) hahaha..

Upon reaching Florence it was pouring cats & dogs so I couldn’t go out…stuck in the hotel, I had cupnoodles with my dried chicken meat (yes Amah lugged that along) and did some planning for my shopping the next day. Good thing the bus station was just 1 minute walk from the hotel! Cool!

The following was what I fell in love when I saw it on the display at the Florence store. However they didn’t have a new one in stock so I bought this in Rome. Too bad for the sales guy at the Florence store cos he was really very patient and nice to me while I made him bring me all sorts of designs to choose from and at the end I didn’t buy off him.

King’s wife asked if I was thinking of sausages when I wrote the previous post, I guess it’s obvious due to the title of the post! Yeah I saw sausages, like huge and juicy ones every where ok! hahahahahaha…

Day 2, 3 and 4 was basically to the exhibition fair and back to the hotel, stuffed ourselves with bread and butter on top of the main meal! I so love the butter here, it’s so yummy it didn’t taste like the butter like even those in Australia also cannot match ok! I don’t remember it being so yummy even when I was in Milan the last time.

Work wise I can say it was ok, not too promising but ok, I managed to learn something new again, and alsom met a potential big customer. Hopefully the deal will go through and I can pay off my debts! Sobz…

One thing I cannot take about Frankfurt is the frizzy and salty water plus the food is also very salty too.

emmmmm…so yummy the beer..We waited like more than an hour for the food to be served at this stupid restaurant! But the food was good, especially the bread & butter!

Bought these at the Gucci Outlet at Florence..pink ones are mine, black one is Apah’s. Initially I bought the Gucci iPod case but after I saw the one at Bottega, I immediately went to exchange it for something else but I couldn’t find anything else that I liked so I got this black passport wallet for Apah…hahahaha..

This was the first day of the exhibition and I had to survey the whole hall and see who’s in the show. I brought along my flats just in case. I walked around for about 1 hour plus and had to change into my flats! I really shouldn’t have bothered to bring my heels. It was only 1.5″ heels and yet I couldn’t survive in them for more than 2 hours!

The bigger exhibitors had like a bar serving beers and even hard liquor (get the customer drunk and sign the deal!!) and even leg hams! Since the food was not so good at the exhibition hall, I made sure I had a wholesome & fulfilling breakfast to last me through till dinner!

It was great fun catching up with my suppliers, whom some of them I haven’t seen since Nov 2006 in Milan. As usual, I was the rose among the thorns, so it was definitely great fun!

After they closed for the day, my German supplier was having a banquet at the Marriot for the customers around the world. I was lucky enough to get a ride in the owner’s Saab convertible. Although the ride from the hall to the hotel was short but it was really a good experience and the weather was great to top it up.

Check out my 6′ tall & handsome driver….(no joke, he is very good looking but already taken la..don’t dream ok!)

Amah taking pics of herself in the convertible!

My next pic of my loot….

I did take some time pondering on whether I should get this bag…so much so till I missed the direct bus back to the city…rats…Actually I liked another one more but it was too ex so this one was really my 2nd choice..

The smell and feel of the leather is so the shiok-kan! (heavenly…)

The flight delayed again, Mana Ada System mia pasal (MAS) as usual. The flight is 1155 but boarding starts like 1150! WTF! I was wandering around the duty free shops wondering what to buy for the guys, even thought of buying a bottle of whiskey but then I changed my mind since I don’t drink (just in case they make me drink with them), so I just got them liquor chocolates instead! hahahahaa…

The last time I flew MAS was last August and this time round I noticed they no longer use the cloth pillow cases for the cushions! I know they had massive problems washing these tiny blue cushion covers and with costs so high, they now use the cheapy fibre covers which I think they throw them away after use. However, I could smell the stench of the used pillow! Bleah!

Food was ok and I of course chose the nasi lemak (coconut fragrant rice with chilly) and assam fish (spicy sour fish) since I will be in Europe for a week!

Clearance of customs & luggage was quick and there was a Merzedes cabs waiting. The cab cost Euro 24 for a short 15 minutes trip to the hotel. The hotel was lovely, located amongst a housing area and it had a very homey & cosy feeling. Look at the flowers around the hotel! It was lovely! They even asked me to have the breakfast eventhough breakfast starts with the room next day. It was simple and good wholesome breakfast, with homemade bread and a variety of cold meats & cheese. The butter was the best, I could eat chunks of it and don’t feel it’s butter!!! Soooooo yummmmmeeeee!

Check out the garden around the hotel!

Went for a tour around the office and factory of my German supplier and then we went for lunch. It was an Italian restaurant, and food was so so and we waited like so long for it. After food we headed to the city and I was quite disappointed with the city, really no big deal.

We walked about a little and then had these! The beer was really good, for me who usually do not have much liking for beer, I kinda enjoyed the beer here.

There was this street which was like an open market (similar to our pasar malam “night market” but only more sophisticated, all the stalls were able to fold in can be towed away by a car!) Check out the wheels beneath the counter (selling various ham & sausages, so NOT HALAL)

After the beer, we headed back to where the hotel was, and dinner was nearby the hotel. We met some colleagues halfway and went straight to the restaurant. Dinner was great, had pork cordon bleu, very porky and meaty and rich!!

The weather was cooling, though it’s summer already. The walk back to the hotel was good. I can’t believe I couldn’t feel really tired and jet lagged! However, I woke up really early the next morning as it was already bright at 5 am!!

Here’s one of my loot from Italy, as said, will post one item per post! Can you notice that I’ve actually put in the cover wrongly???? Super blur!

Bottega Venetta iPod case, really a steal at Euro110 from the Outlet store at Florence

Prego! Greetings from Florence, Italy. Shopping was great this morning, I caught a 9 am bus to the Mall, which is about 45 minutes from Florence city. The bus stop was right in front of the hotel I am staying, lucky me! The Mall consists of various designer outlets, selling off season designer goods and eventhough the selection was not as what I expected them to be but Amah being Amah still manage to buy a lot in 4 hours!! In fact, busted my budget and I still have Rome to raid! Bleah!

Besides the shopping, it is really no fun walking alone and taking pictures of what I see and not have me in it!! Really, Florence is not much different from Milan, maybe a few more Piazzas here and there, well I guess more lively  than Milan…but really quite crammed and the roads are so narrow, the cars are like going to hit one another!

Am taking a break now on the way back to the hotel, accidentally found this little internet station which charges Euro 1.50 for 1 hour…so ok la…

Will be off to Rome tomorrow morning. More updates when I come back lerrr….yeah got to download pics, resize them and upload them…super duper tedious…hang in there mates!

See ya real soon!