Friday, May 31, 2013

random update: random act of kindness

My team has came up with this random-act-of-kindness week.. which means we would each pick a member from the team and do at least 5 random kind acts to them within 2 weeks... It's something like secret santa, just it's not Christmas yet...

since I have just gotten into felt wool stuff.. i decided to give my recipient a felt wool thingy every day.. that will be 10 of them... feeling the generosity of kindness here... hahahahahaha...

here are  the felt wool stuff i have made...


Thursday: a "heart" to start your day


Friday: some luck that will last till weekends


Monday: A smile to chase away your monday blues


Tuesday: an  inside joke within the team... the answer is Roll Call, by the way...


Wednesday: Feeling Cheerry???


Thursday: I doughnut know vot to say today~~ (Feeling Russian here.. hahahaha)


Monday (The previous friday was a public holiday.. hehehe)


Tuesday (Just fyi, my team mate's name starts with a V)


Wednesday: have an egg-cellent day!!


Thursday, hashtag and a cheeky face inspired by the LINE stickers... some notes, seaweed rolls i bought from Thailand (oh dear, that's another chain of travel posts to be written) and some chocolates..

That's all for kindness...

Signing off!!
Toodles!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

[D]reams

This a phrase that I think most people will always say, "If only I am rich...."
Oh well, this is something that I have been saying all the time when i see something I like or want... and people will just give me a dream-on look that totally bursts the bubble of my fantasies...

And then, i came across this site which seems like a total dream to me... as people who have been reading this blog would have known that I love Harry Potter and have always dream of going to Hogwarts.. Which Harry Potter fan is not waiting for their Hogwarts acceptance letter to go to Hogwarts??? Poor mail service of various countries, they have been framed countless times for losing Hogwarts' letters.. when they obviously did not... or did they??? Hmmmmmmm....

Anyway, it is pretty obvious that I don't have $2699 (i assume it's US dollars) to spare... or any extra cash for a flight in to London... from 27 October until 2 November...

It will be so cool to get myself into London and kinda live an English life for like a week or so... The thing I always loved about travelling is I could walk on a foreign street and try to act as though I am not a tourist and blend into the crowd, whereas I am actually going to tourist spots for sight-seeing... so much for blending into the community...

Oh well... I guess I could write out the itinerary as though I joined the trip... just for self amusement... so please bear with me...

So.... if I were to join to the tour.. I will be boarding a flight to London...


London is still in my 10 places to go before I die list... At least I could go see the Tower Bridge that is not falling down...
.........
.........
........
fine, that's lame...

However, there will be a welcome dinner to start the journey... I sure hope it will be like the Welcome Feast during the start of semester in Hogwarts, where you get to see the Sorting~~ Maybe the participants could be sorted into their respective houses... Ravenclaw all the way!!!


The next day, the participants will get to visit the London Film Museum.... I wiki-ed it, it features the original props, costumes and the sets of film... I could spend hours here... I am starting to love film museums since i visited the Harry Potter exhibition last year... and I must splurge on an audio guide.. a museum visit will never be complete without a tour guide or an audio guide because looking at exhibits without knowing the background of it feels like spaghetti without the sauce.. So, I must chase away the cheapskate in me and get an audio guide... it will be worth it~~

Then, there will be a panoramic tour of London in search of Harry Potter film locations.. The hunt really sounds fun.. we will be in an air conditioned coach.. if the coach is something like the Knight Bus, the whole journey will be even more memorable~~ (minus the sudden brakes and turnings.. the passengers might puke their lunch)

Not forgetting, the iconic Platform nine and three quarters at the King's Cross Station... The entrance to the magic..

Day 3, we get to visit Warner Bros. Studio Tour of The Making of Harry Potter.. This is going to be the best experience a Potterhead could get because you get to see behind-the-scenes, experience the sets and exhibits of the film.. I think there's Butterbeer!!!! Just thinking of this really excites me, there'll be sets like the the Gryffindor boy's dormitory, Hagrid's hut, Umbridge's office, the Great Hall... these are the sets I saw during the Harry Potter exhibition in Singapore last year.. I guess it would be somewhat the same but bigger and a lot more exciting with interactive exhibits to play with.. This is gonna be a hell of an experience!!!



Christ Church College is the Great Hall set... Imagine the Halloween Feast or Christmas during the Yule Ball... I think its interiors were also used as the interiors at Hogwarts besides the Great Hall.. it will be like stepping into Hogwarts..


The Bodleian Library... This looks a bit like Gringotts.. Hang on.. google-ing.. Oops.. my bad... it was the  Hogwarts library...the exterior does resemble Gringotts though...

We also get to visit New College that was the set of the courtyard, there's a huge tree there, if i remember correctly, it was the place Harry told Cedric about the dragons during the Triwizard Tournament... and a corridor...if you could recall in Goblet of Fire, the students gathered there to see the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang..

Day 4, off to Lumley castle.. i think this is the set of Hogwarts.. a really magnificent castle.. it overlooks the River Wear and Durham County Cricket Ground which I assume is the Lake and the Quidditch pitch in the movie.. I think~~ besides, we get to stay here!!! staying in the castle is like staying in Hogwarts... I wonder if the rooms will be like dormitories with common rooms.. if they are, that will be superbly perfect!!!


Day 5... we get to take a vintage steam train, the Hogwarts-Express alike passing by routes used in the mvie for the Hogwarts Express... and the Goathland station, I assume, will be Hogsmeade station..
The journey ends n Whitby(Oh, one of my colleague's kampung!!) Besides, the Whitby Museum has the Hands of Glory that Draco used in Half-blood Prince...

We get to celebrate Halloween on that day too!! If only this could be done in one of the Great Hall sets.. that will be so much fun!!!


Day 6... the Durham Cathedral... according to lexicon, it was the Transfiguration classroom, and several sets seen in Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.. check out lexicon
walking around the cathedral give you the feeling of walking on the Hogwarts grounds, making you feel like a real student...



Day7 is when all the magic ends.... breakfast and back to London..

I want to repeat that I did not participate in the tour.. I was just writing this for self amusement because I really wanted to go~~

In the meantime... I'll just continue my journey as Janet Hayden....

So that's all for my dream travel... now it's time for a real dream.. off to sleep I go..

Signing off..
Toodles!!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

[C]areer talk

Speaking of careers... I have always dream of a career in showbiz, being a scriptwriter has been my life goal since I was 10... So, I was certain that I could adapt to the life of showbiz, write stories and deal with the productions crew and actors, seeing them present the stories that has been rolling around in my mind into real life images that everybody could see and understand, instead of me being the only person enjoying the story...

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to leave the showbiz industry and venture into another field that I never thought I would venture into... although I do not hate the work that I am doing now... but I still miss productions... most of the times.. To get back in, is kinda impossible... so, the current situation, I accept..

Then.... some things that were not in my initial career plan eventually appeared... I believe many of us have thought of being a teacher once when we were little.. Since I saw how problematic some students may be, i have ditched the idea to be a teacher... However...... I happened to be one now...





I am currently teaching my first batch of students... halfway through the syllabus now... So far, I think I am doing ok...

That's all for now..

Signing off..
Toodles!!

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Macau-Hong Kong Birthday Trip Day 5 -Part 1-

It's my birthday and our last day in HK... 
On a side note, I know my birthday was almost 2 months ago and this was last year's birthday.. I'm very sorry for the delay..

Alright, back to the story... We had our final breakfast in HK... I always loved their breakfast sets...








Hp's macaroni and bun... their macaroni's are usually in soup rather than in thick gravy.. I guess that's the difference between the east and the west..




My pork slice spaghetti and milk tea~~~ slurps









After breakfast... We strolled around and went back to the hotel for check out....
Good bye to my room key..


While waiting for hp who was in the washroom... I asked the receptionist if I could get a taxi downstairs.. It was just a random question i decided to ask just to clear the awkward-ness of standing in front of the counter not having anything to do.. I'd only expect her to answer a yes or a no and maybe a suggestion for a better spot to hire taxis.. 
She asked me where am i heading.. I told her I was going to the jetty to catch a ferry to Macau.. and she suddenly become quite agitated and told me to not take the taxi because it's expensive and suggested me to take the MTR instead... 
That wasn't my plan so I just nod and say ok, thinking that I will just hire a taxi later when I get out...
However, being very very friendly... she decided to take us to the station and taught us which station to get off and how to get to the jetty after that... She shoo-ed us into the station and didn't leave until we bought our tickets to the station (we returned our octopus card the previous day so we had to buy single trip tickets).. So, we had to get on the MTR and get to the jetty...

We bought our tickets via a travel agent and got a cheaper rate.. our train was set to board at 1pm so we waited...



Here's a last look at HK... and off to Macau I go...


Part 2 coming up... soon, hopefully...

Signing off...
Toodles!