Monday 28 October 2013

Scotland Highlands - Day 1

Urquhat Castle
Loch Ness Information Centre
Loch Ness
Autumn at Inverness
Mountain
Eilean Donan Castle

Thursday 17 October 2013

Fruit picking at Chester


There was one good day, bright and peaceful. We all woke up early to celebrate the joyfulness. Sharp at 11 am, we departed from Newcastle to Chester. According to the navigator, we expected to arrive at 2 pm which then gave us two and a half hours to pick and pose.


There are a lot of fruits available at the farm. They are apples, pears, plums, and berries. The first row of plants we went was apple. There were a lot of apples, be it edible as raw or for cooking. We picked apples from the trees without hesitating. The apples were red and crunchy. We posed and jumped to take pictures. All were excited in photography rather than picking apples itself.


Finished with apples, we walked to berries field. There were a lot of berries and I could not remember which is which. The one that I know for sure, we picked blueberries, redcurrant, and raspberries. Only few berries were available at that autumn time as berries are good to harvest during summer.


Pears on the trees rather looked like golden bells on Christmas trees. With bright sunshine, the pears looked shiny and tempting. We plucked some from the trees and ate them fresh. They were sweet, crunchy,  and juicy.


We had not really seen plums as there were not a lot left on the trees. Same as damsons. When we arrived at the farm owner to pay for what we got, only then we saw damson. I took damson from the box and ate it just right in front of the uncle. He smiled to me and I dared not to say anything.


Finished with fruit picking, we went straight to Cheshire Oaks designer outlet for shopping time. I was too absorbed by the on going sale at every shop and boutique. What I had got were Verbena perfume and selected toiletries from Loccitaine, and an orange watch from Fossils. I wanted to see a lot but there were no time left as the shops closed at 7 pm and we were there at 5 pm and there are over 140 branded shops to browse.

I will definitely go shopping again!

Thursday 3 October 2013

8th June - Rome (2nd day) and the beginning of multiple chaotic events

Second day started with smiles and fresh. Walaupun Beautiful Hostel tu tak seindah mana, kami tetap tidur dengan nyenyak selepas keletihan merayau di separuh kota Rom. Apa yang akan dilawati hari ini? Struktur batu such as Colloseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, and Treviso Fountain.

Palatine Hill area
Treviso Fountain

Scenic Colloseum
Nak masuk Colloseum and taman batu surrounding it, kena bayar 18 euros. We bought the tickets in advanced to avoid queuing. Tickets could be collected a day before visiting at Colloseum itself. Semalam dah tengok Colloseum waktu malam, today, masuk dalam Colloseum pulak. There are exhibitions in Colloseum showing artifacts found in that place. Dah selesai tengok barang-barang purba, tibalah sesi bergambar. For the first time in my life, aku keluar berjalan-jalan pakai skirt. Though kena nampak ayu, aku tetap kurang ayu sebab suka ambil gambar lompat. Tapi, bukan lah aku nak bagi free show kat orang kan.. Tetap lah pakai track bottom gak. Masa ambil gambar tu, ada seorang mak cik cakap "Aww nice hat you have. You look colourful". Haaa tersengih-sengih la aku senyum kat mak cik tu. First time dapat pujian dari foreigner tentang appearance kot. Dah la aku sebenarnya pakai colourful habis. Tak de fashion sense langsung.

That is colourful me!
Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tu adalah dua kawasan yang berbeza and besar belaka. Nak habiskan tour Palatine Hill pon sekian, apatah lagi Roman Forum. So, we ended up just rayau Palatine Hill sampai habis and tak pergi pon Roman Forum sebab dua-dua nya pon memang ada batu je. Masa tour tu, panas sangat. Air sejuk dalam botol dijual dengan harga yang berlipat kali ganda. Ammar yang berkulit sensitif memang dehydrated la. Sebotol air dibeli dengan harga 2 euro. At the exit of Palatine Hill, ada satu pili air. Orang dok membasahkan diri kat situ sebab panas. Kitorang plak tak kan nak ikut mandi gak kan... Refill air je la boleh. Tak de nak fikir air tu air pelik-pelik ke apa, memang telan je air sejuk tu tanpa syak wasangka. Lega.

Muka ketat Ammar tahan panas
Actually, Ammar pernah sampai kat Rome ni dengan his siblings last winter. So, he said we had to go to Treviso Fountain or as known as Fountain of Love. Kenapa dipanggil begitu? Jangan tanya. Aku pon tak tahu kenapa. Tapi, memang tersangatlah ramai orang melepak kat situ. Aku yang kecil ni memang biasa dah menyelit in crowded place. So, dengan skill tersebut, dapat jugak lah kitorang main-main air tepi fountain tu.

Konon nak giyomi depan fountain
On our way to Spanish Steps, we walked through Via Condotti which displays all Italian brand lavish goods such as Prada and Gucci. The smell of Gucci dari luar kedai dah bau dah. Masuk dalam kedai lagi harum. Haha. Kitorang pusing satu butik tu for window shopping. Nak beli tak mampu. Masuk Prada pulak, aku sempat try a few pair of shoes. Dulu, masa kat sekolah, ustazah aku ada cakap, kalau tak mampu nak beli, sarung pon jadi la. So, berbekalkan 'nasihat' berupa pesanan vogue tu, aku pon menyarungkan la kaki comel ku ke dalam kasut-kasut yang indah menawan tu... But, seriously, memang sepanjang jalan tu memand kedai mahal-mahal belaka. Baik korang masuk kalau berkenan. Nak datang banyak-banyak kali lagi tak mampu kan...

Polis kacak depan kedai mahal
Sampai di Spanish Steps, tersangatlah ramai orang duduk melepak kat situ. Sambil menunggu some people to vacate some seats, kitorang terserempak dengan abang polis yang kacak macam model. Orang Itali memang kacak belaka. So, we requested to take some photos with them. Selesai je bergambar, hilang dah polis tu. Takut orang kerumun diorang kot. Haha.

Haa nampak tak paper bag yang aku pegang tu? Apparently Ammar ada beli item dari butik apa Roma ntah, football club yang famous dekat Rom. Disebabkan terlampau penat berjalan, he fell asleep masa tunggu bas, and paper bag tu terletak kat bawah kaki. When we arrived at the airport, baru perasan dia tertinggal paper bag berisi his new collection of football scarf dekat bus station. Hurmmm, melepas... Tak de rezeki nak show off kat kengkawan.
At first, everything turned out well for everything. Things got chaotic when we did not have our boarding passes handy. Apparently, for Alitalia, boarding passes could only be printed online 24 hours prior to departure time. So, we only got to check in the night before and there was no printer to get the hard copy. So, we decided to board the bus slightly earlier than scheduled time to avoid inconveniences due to that matter at the airport.

Muka girang kembali selepas checked in luggage at Fumicino Airport
Allah bagi rukhsah untuk musafir dalam beribadat. Tapi, janganlah sampai mengabaikan solat terus kan? Kekalutan bermula di airport bila kitorang terpisah dari Ammar untuk bersolat. Lepas tu, we, the girls terus pergi kaunter untuk check in. Rupa-rupanya salah terminal... Meraban la pergi lari ke terminal yang sepatutnya. Nasib baik lah dekat. Tapi, we did not know whether Ammar would know it or not. Aku pon pergi la tunggu Ammar kat security checkpoint Terminal international 1, Aqiedah and Atikah terus check in kat Terminal domestic 3. Tunggu punya tunggu, Ammar tak sampai-sampai. Aku pon blah in a hope that he would realise the situation. Bila aku sampai kat Terminal 3, diorang plak cakap Ammar pergi cari kat Terminal 1. Adoi... Pening lalat dah semua orang.

Bayangkan semua flight ni delayed and cancelled...
Bila semua dalam keadaan stabil kembali, kitorang pon masuk security check point and menunggu flight di gate yang sepatutnya. Masa masuk tu kitorang pelik jugak kenapa ramai sangat orang dekat compensation counters. Bila check kat schedule board, banyak flight cancelled and delayed. Rupa-rupanya, there was an incident happened at the airport. Wizz Air terlajak masa landing. So, semua landasan ditutup sampai dapat pengesahan traffic controller. Insiden tersebut telah menjejaskan seluruh penerbangan domestic Itali, termasuklah penerbangan kami ke Venice.

Anjing comel yang turut terkesan dengan delayed flight 
Our flight delayed for 3 hours. They even changed the gate to depart. Dalam masa delay tu, we tried to compensate something from Alitalia, tetapi gagal. Mengamuk lah Ammar depan awek-awek Itali yang panggil kitorang bila kitorang hampir sampai kat compensation counter tu. Dah la tak bagi meal voucher ke apa, no manners betul la Alitalia ni. Nama je main carrier, tapi hampeh.

We boarded the flight dengan perasaan lega. At least, tak yah la terkocoh-kocoh nak tarik bag. Scenery kat luar tingkap flight pon sangat cantik sebab flight tu terbang rendah and laju. So, kitorang sampai 20 minutes awal dari normal scheduled time. And...disaster happened once again which akan diceritakan di Venice to jolly on 9th June 2013

Muka happy sampai Venice. Tengok, dah hilang dah skirt putih aku. Tak mampu nak cantik dah malam-malam ni.
Since 

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Lunch @ Tenji Newcastle Upon Tyne

Orang dok sibuk bersosial dengan junior baru, kitorang dok sibuk bersosial dengan makanan jepun...

It was more to celebrating kak nas who finally finished her phD rather than desiring the buffet. I should as well mention about how hungry we were before arriving at the japanese restaurant. It was our first time having lunch at Tenji and it only cost us £10.90 for all you can eat buffet ranging from sushi variety, japanese dishes to sweet desserts. We started at about 2 o'clock and finished by 4pm. Our tummies were bloated with foods and drinks.

I will definitely make a stop by the restaurant again if someone is willing to accompany me.

Cream puff, chocolate muffin, berries pudding, chocolate ice cream
sushi variety
japanese lemonade
salmon sushi and prawns
spinach, salmon roll, fried tofu, aubergine tempura, katsu and radish, bihun apa ntah
soba mee