First snow at Norway

This morning when I woke up and open the door to go to office as usual. This is what enter my eye...

snow....I was late to office for the past 2 days, reached office around 9am. Since I wanna reach office early, so I purposely woke up early. Due to the stupid snow, I am going to reach office late again because I have to start the car, let the engine warm up and clear off all the snow on the wind screen. Gggggrrrr.....stupid snow.....

It is the first snow in my life. Still....not excited...I am cursing it like hell....@#%$^@$^%^ (make me late again)
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Let's go!! Go office lo!!
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People always said driving on road which cover with snow is very slippery, but I feel ok all the way from my house to the office with summer tyre. (ya, i haven't change to winter tyre yet...)

Suddenly, when I took the last corner right in front of my office, the car just lose control, the steering is not listening to me!!!

Arrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~!!!

Accident happen. My car fly over the rock. =(

(can you see other cars in front of it? that is my office parking space)

Because it happen right in front of the office, so everyone who go to office will see my car is 'hanging' there. Today, everyone got a good laugh at me. I am the winner of this winter and very famous in the office today since everyone know that is my car.

In the afternoon, I got the news that norway highway got a few acccidents with more than 10 cars bang together. Along the way home just now, there are some cars which lost control as well. It is early snow for Norway and many drivers haven't change to winter tyre yet.

Every winter, there will be someone who lost control at the junction in front of my office. Last year, the car fly and bang to another 3 cars which stop at my office car park. I am consider lucky because the rock stop my car from being 'fly' and bang to other cars.

In a nutshell, don't curse snow. She is small gas...kecik hati...shh.....
karma...

Rome, Italy

I went to Rome for 4 days trip few weeks back. As usual, the post is always few weeks after my travel. Rome is a city that full of history and basilica. I am amazed by the glorious achievement of the Roman Empire. Becaues of this trip, I start to realise that how poor is my history foundation. Ya ya ya, it is poor even before I go there. But, I never aware of how serious it is!When I am doing research for the trip, I am so confuse with all the emperor, painter, artist, war, pope....bla bla bla... ! How I wish to have more time to improve myself on it, seriously.

Colosseum

First of all, of course I am going to talk about Colosseum. Colosseum souvenir is everywhere at Italy. It came across my eye whever I am there. Besides, Hollywood did plenty of movies about Colosseum as well. It is not something new for me, not at all. I believe almost most of the people in the world knows about it. When I were walking towards Colosseum, by the time it goes into my eyea my blood flush, my heart pumps. I am totally overwhelm by the structure. Titling my head up and looking at it, speechless....(haih....my English...my poor vocab....)

Colosseum---it may not as tall as Twin Tower, or the going-to-be-the-tallest-building at Dubai (lazy to search what that building called), still....his impact to the everyone who had seen him is something that modern building cannot make it. No wonder it is one of the 7 wonders of the world for so many years.Modern world keep on building skyscraper, trying to compete who has the tallest building in the world. Your country may claim to have the tallest building in the world, but within few years from now, another building will be taller than yours by that few inch or meter difference. So, what's the point of building the tallest?

Fountain di Trevi

Fountain di Trevi is one of the reason I am fancy about Rome. Please don't laugh at my silliness. I know it sounds shallow if I want to visit Rome for this. But, I am being honest here. Fountain di Trevi is always one of the place that I want to go. And...I make it!=) According to the legend, throw one coin with your right hand through your left shoulder, and make a wish, you will have second visit to Rome. Throw 2nd coin again, you will meet a guy and fall in love with him at Rome. Throw the 3rd coin, you will marry a Rome guy!!

I thought I am always positive with human attitude and always forgive what others had done to me. Seriously, this is something I will not forget. Talk about fountain di trevi, I have to mention a souvenir shop that right opposite of the fountain. As you all know, Nic's mother like to collect fridge magnet, I am planning to buy some souvenir back. When I entered the shop, I read the sign about DO NOT TOUCH on top of the fridge magnet rack. However, I saw some magnet that I never seen in that shop that other stalls don't have, so I took it up and choosing for other magnet. At the mean time, the shop lady walk towards me and I asked: how much is this? Instead of answering my question, she said: did you see the sign of DO NOT TOUCH? I said: ya...but I want to buy it, if I don't touch, how am I going to buy it? Maybe she didn't hear me clearly by my poor english or her poor english (most Italian don't speak English at all) but she replied with her finger point point at the sign of DO NOT TOUCH. And then, I was a bit angry, and I said, if I am not going to touch it means I am not going to buy. ( i guess i raise my voice a little bit, and some other people look at us) The boss of the shop walk to us and said, it is fine if you don't want to buy, thank you for your visit. @#@#$%^&* I should have just take the fridge magnet and throw a 10 euro on the floor! So angry!! Ggggrrrr....

a cup of cappuccino that take less than 1 min to serve. faster than kopitiam uncle's kopi.

It is a new habit that I have after start working at Norway or shall refer back to Bali trip. I will try the local coffee wherever I go. I love Bali local coffee - the sweetness even without any sugar added, love Barcelona coffee too with the thick texture, so so with Norway sour coffee. Nevertheless at Rome, I saw another culture of drinking coffee. Rather than blog about how the coffee taste, I have to talk about how Italian drink the coffee. Italian like to just stand beside the bar, and wait for their coffee instead of sitting down to drink. They will STAND until finish the coffee! It is new for me. I suspect that the main reason they do so is because once you sit down, the restaurant will have the right to require for service charge since you are sit in dine. The service charge sometime is not the usual 10%, but it might goes up to 20 or 30%. So, most of the lower class coffee shop, you can see everyone just stand there and drink.

Rose window. I don't know why but I always love it.

The church. Almost every street at Rome will have a church or basilica. Some of it may look small from the outside but never judge a book by its cover. Surprisingly, everyone of it got its own unique and beauty. Deeply fall in love with the church's painting on ceiling and rose windows.

There are so many things for me to write about this trip, too many stories to share. I haven't share about the the pasta I ate, the Rome Termini that full of Be Aware of Pick Pocket sign, the tidy road condition that has accident every day, gelato - the tasty Rome ice cream...The wine is cheap! I am not a good wine taster. I only know how to differentiate dry or not. Over there with 3 to 5 Euro wine, no matter white or red, it just taste so good! It is smooth....go into my throat, the aroma...really love this part about Italy.

Anyway, the length of this post is enough by now, I believe that I shall stop. I don't like a post which is super duper long, so I am not going to write a super duper long post as well. Unless...someone are interested to know more about Rome story, then I shall consider to write more about it in future post. =P

most of the city roads are narrow. parking at rome is challenging from the view of a Penangite. keke... can you park as near as this? i can't.

In conclusion, I would said this is just an okay trip for me. Yes, I am overwhelming by all the church and historical building. At the same time, I am really disappointed with the Italian attitude as well.

santa maria basilica's altar

What make a country attractive is not only by the history or culture, building, beach or natural scenery, the people plays a role as well. Building, scenery are dead, human are alive! Maybe most of the travel advertisement or brochure, rarely the editor will take the people as a selling point. But, undeniable, the people is always something that will make you remember back the trip. The auntie who show you the way when you lost, the guy who bring you to bus station, the lady who help you with the ticket machines...These are the thing that warm a traveller heart, these are the thing that will left behind in someone's heart.

ps: i will blog about Vatican City and Pisa at different post during the weekend. Hopefully....

from ss3 with love...

this post is long overdue and i've been trying to keep up with my work schedule and still make time for blogging but i've found out that it is kinda tough... =)

so, from my short trip back to kl for my eye check-up, i flew straight to kota belut to go onboard the ss3. well, i've heard of stories about this place but that still did not prepare me for what i saw when i reached kota belut. it definitely is a very "interesting" town - cows, ponies and plenty of dogs roaming the road... shops closing at 6 pm... and somehow, that place has hair saloons in every block in town... no idea why though... =)

anyway, from there, i went onboard the ss3 the following day. and from all my experiences so far, i guess this is the closest i've felt to being seasick... the water was kinda rough and the 90 minute boat ride to the ss3 did not help at all. i reached the ss3 with a growing headache and i was in time for a job actually. so we started pumping and my headache was still growing...

it was a bad first day to say the least. but from then on, the one week onboard was pretty smooth sailing - 5 treatments pumped. and in between, the crew onboard celebrated hari raya. we had a bbq dinner on the first day of raya and well, despite the best efforts to create a cheerful atmosphere, i sensed that most of the crew really would prefer to be home. who wouldn't right? but the dedication these guys have - that's the essence which keeps this company and this business thriving.

the slb crew at the hari raya bbq

the thing about every location that i've been to is that we've always got a great crew to work with. no matter the time of the day or no matter how tired we all are, we still manage to have a laugh and it was always a good atmosphere to work in. and it's always the crew that keeps me going as well. especially more since i'm still pretty new and probably not as mentally strong as i'm supposed to be...

port side view of the ss3 and south furious jacket e platform

starboard view with the personnel transfer boat in the background

picture taken on the first night i was on board

picture taken on the last night i was onboard (i like the effect)

about my photography... i've had my nikon d60 for about 4 months now and i dun really have the time to experiment except when i'm offshore (this makes offshore sound like a vacation)... but in those times that i've had, i've started to really enjoy taking photos of the sky... i used to be only interested in taking sun rise and sun sets, but lately i've started to prefer taking photos as you see below... it's no masterpiece or anything close to it, but it does make me stare in awe... mother nature is an artist and the sky is her canvas... =)

love the fiery look behind the clouds...

the cloud looks like cotton candy...

and this last photo is a courtesy of terry's arm... it has an uncanny resemblance to zeus with a shade of hades, which metaphorically speaking really does work for me... everyone has to be nice essentially but with a shade of evil... muahahaha... =)

really cool tattoo...

Autumn

credit to anas yang terer ( claim by himself)

Without any notice, autumn is knocking on the door. The temperature on the weather forecast is starting to fall as if competing with the leaf on the tree. The green mountain that I used to see on my way to work has been splash by yellow color.

Rain rain rain...autumn is a season that full of rain. It has been raining almost everyday for the past few weeks. Nobody like autumn as I know, at least for Norwegian. The rain makes autumn even more annoy till the beautiful maple tree cannot save his sin.

Summer....needless to say, full of sun and joy. fishing...swimming in the sea...endless barbecue... Summer is always lovely.

Winter...snow with snow...however, at least, can go snowboard, ski or having little snowman outside the house. Not that bad.

Autumn? rain with rain...the weather is neither cold nor hot. It is not hot enough for me to go jogging, and it is not cold enough for me to enjoy snow.

Fall fall fall...as the name mean...my mood starts to fall as well.