I want to eat a cinnamon roll

I just read the papers. Or sort of read the papers (theStar online mah!)

Someone was killed today. Stabbed to death just for a handbag. In the sleepy, stinky little town i spent 4 years in at USM. Thirty minutes away across the bridge from my home.

Its just a small town, more village like than a city. Its quiet, shops close early and theres no entertainement. I thought crime only happens in big cities, i guess i was wrong.

Now Penang's CM is urging the Federal Government to speed up the installations of CCTV in Penang. Speed up wor. I think they've been trying to install em for at least a year . . .

Welcome to Malaysia.

Why is it that something has to happen first before action is taken? The bus crashes, the mat rempit cases, the snatch theft, break ins, rape cases, abuse cases . . .

Only when a major catastrophe occurs and it ends up in the papers does big shot up there decide to step in, offer condolence and come up with some kind of ops but always tak jadi.

Cis.

Bah. Whatever. Todays pretty picture:

Along the Seine, walking towards Notre Dame on Saturday night.

Week 3

Crap. I just lost one whole page.

Now im too lazy to repost the pics. SOrry !

Got a call from Yu Ming today (thanks ! ! ) Really, really miss you girls !

She said i sound sad. Do I sound sad? Am I sad? I dont know .. Its been a busy busy few weeks, and not know when i get to go home is kind of hard to deal with . . cos theres no specific date I can look forward to.

BUT despite that Im gradually losing my voice and its freakin cold, I think Im doing okay

Missing.

Have you seen my dog?

I lost him somewhere between transit of hotels. I cant find him anywhere and the hotel doesnt have him.

I am so upset.

Rex has been my buddy and constant companion for the past 20+ years. Ever since I before I can remember, and I cant find him. I know its dumb to be so attached to a ratty stuffed animal but I cant help it. Im a nester, I nest. I put down roots, and he was my anchor. And now I cant find him its all crumbling apart, Im starting to miss everything.

Dont tell me its time to grow up or to just buy something new; it doesnt work like that. And if you know me well enough you'd KNOW how much that stinky dog means to me.

Call me childish, I dont care. I lost my comfort item. I lost my anchor, I lost my constant. A stuffed animal has been keeping me sane through my journies across Malaysia, Europe, Doha, Sydney, Thailand . . I am so weak.

What do I hold on to now?

Psycho

Its all quiet here in the classroom

We've got a break, and all is silent except for the tap tap tapping of fingers flying across the keyboard. Everyone is either on MSN, YM or something else.

So quiet! It unnerves me. Im not used to it. Even my old Motorola office was never this quiet. Or the sound of typing was just never this obvious.

Oh man, i hate having nothing to do.

The idleness stresses me out.

I checked the weather today, its 10degrees this morning! Freezing! I really wish I had bought those boots at Zara in Doha.

Todays pic:

Notre Dame church at night.

I need to go in and ask for blessings.

Grrr

I am annoyed.

I am actually very annoyed.

I've got a withdrawal and expenditure limit set on my Maybank account. And I'm stuck here spending in Euros and Riyals and I cant get money out of my account cos I've gone over my 1k limit.

Crap.

I've been trying to get Maybank to increase my account limit but they wont. Cos in order to increase my limit i have to personally go to a Maybank ATM branch in MALAYSIA.

How the hell am I going to do that?

I couldnt change my cash into Euros before coming ( i came with only 145 Euros in my pocket) and I cant take out any extra cash. I should have just gone for HSBC.

Anyway, a couple of pics from France:

Too lazy too upload and resize anymore, i'll do it another time :)

I cant speak French

Its been a while. . .

Im trying to keep to updating this at least once a week. So many things to say, but not so much I want to share. Hmmm..

Call me if you want to know :)

Anyway, I had a jammed packed weekend (weekend being Thursday-Friday in Doha) before packing and jumping onto a flight and here I am in France!

Details of the weekend may or may not be posted just cos im lazy, but I had a good time

Its my 2nd day here now, I love it! Its fresh and green and cold but not to the point where im freezing yet. Good change from hot and dusty Qatar. It was 46degrees the afternoon i left.

Food is good (so far) but expensive (sadly) mainly cos of the shitty exchange rate we get. Havent gone out much except to the shopping area around Val d'Europe (is this how you spell it?) cos well . . . Im here for work/study.. so i hop on the bus in the morning at 7 . . . it takes an hour to get to the elc .. then we leave at 6 so im back at the hotel at 7. Twelve full hours!

Im hoping to get out a little more today.

Anyway, yesterday we went grocery shopping. . . And then I realised how freaking hard it is to be in a country where ALL the signs and ALL the labels are in a foreign language. I couldnt find the milk or the yoghurt or the biscuits. . had to randomly wander around all the aisles.

Im really glad im not here alone. Pics coming soon!

Jam.

I am, once again freakin cashless.

Damn.

My meal allowance isnt here yet. And i forgot i was out of cash ... haven't been out to the city centre for the past two days and i didnt go tonight so i cant get to an ATM.

Currently cashless and hungry. Damn. I could scab a loan but i dont really want to. Kate will cook rice for me, but i dont feel like it. And im too lazy to get up and go out now that i've taken a shower and im dressed in my jammies. The boys are ordering pizza (again!) but i dont feel like it and it will take like an hour to reach here anyway. I dont know what it want. . .

Why la?

Yoghurt for dinner, anyone?

Toaster Waffles

Okay.. Well . ..

I went home for 3-4 days of non stop activity (obvious from the lack of updates and puffy eyes), drove down to KL on Sunday, got my stuff done and hopped onto an all night flight.

And now im in Doha, Qatar. Again.

Sitting in my new room (moved to 2819!) where the AC is much much colder (freaking freezing), the window is bigger (nice and bright) but im missing my fridge and wastepaper basket.

I have got to look into that.

I had to sneak down to my old room and steal all my food. So now im sitting here, eating toaster waffles (which by the way are pretty good) waiting for time to pass till its 8.55AM and i head down to catch the bus to get to the base.

I am SO tired, i just arrived this morning. But what to do . . the price to pay for going home. It was worth it :)

People miss me. Its nice to be missed.

Missing all of you! If you're reading this then you know im safe and alive and not in the back of some strangers car

Till the next update, hugs and kisses

_

I've been staring at the blinking cursor for a while.

So many thoughts swirling around my head, yet I can't pin them down and put them into words. Or maybe I dont want to.

Things seem so much more real when they're out there in black and white for the whole world to see. And maybe if i say nothing and pretend that everything is okay, I'll have more pink days than blue and purple.

Im hiding. What am I hiding from? I dont know.

What has changed? I dont know.

Too many questions. I have no answers.

This is harder to manage than I thought. Alot of shit this week.

Blank stare again. Just breathe.

I wish I could just leave everything behind me and start again. Just pretend.
Dammit, I need to get to the happy place.

Mini Hobnobs

Crap. I just lost like half a page of ramblings.

It doesnt matter. They were last nights depressing thoughts anyway, and I refuse to rehash them and spoil another day.

Its my day off today. Kate is studying which is making me feel guilty so I need to study as well. I'll drag her out for dinner.

I keep nibbling because I'm bored. Its been so long since I've touched any formal learning material and/or used my brains (har har) that I simply cant sit still long enough to get anything done. I am such a lazy bum.

I've been eating chocolate like almost everday. (It helps me through the rough times, the sleepy times, bla bla bla). Can someone please tell me if I'm getting fat? Or am I just being paranoid?

Bah. Whatever. I need some retail therapy. Or a little bit of love.

Oh, its already August and I'm at day 26 here.

Egg Shaped

Week 3.


Im still alive, still very much in one piece, still okay.

A few minor minor accidents ( i squished my finger under a valve seat retainer. You dont need to know what it is but its a small thing and its very heavy - my finger first turned blue, then purple and now its red) but the main thing is, i am okay.

Miss home every now and then, and wake up feeling damn grumpy EVERY morning . . but i've settled :)


I am starting now to wonder whats in store for me in Kemaman. I kinda like it here, i've settled. . . the thought of having to move again is just horrible.



Anyway. Whatever.

Some other random pictures because i know everyone doesnt like to read a whole bunch of words

Camel riding!


The real Qatar. At the beach. Its really really pretty

Orange Marshmallows

Its been a rough couple of days, but i have hung on (im good at that) and am for the most part getting on fine. People are nice to me :)



I made friends, i found food . . . Now i just need to figure out how to squeeze in 6 to 7 hours of sleep in each night and still get work done.

Damn, Im pretty sure i got to sleep more in uni. Bah. Whatever. Lack of sleep makes things harder to tackle than usual, makes the days seem really long.

But as a whole, days here have passed by really quick; im in my third week of work already!
And i have blisters on my fingers, grease in my nails and am now a whole lot darker. Such is life.

Im hoping for alot of things; but mostly im just hoping that someone sees the bigger picture and that it all works out somehow.

Its late, i have work to review.

Btw, had the most amazing molten chocolate cake at Applebees today.

Beats Chillis anyday :)

Missing you all. Please go check on my dogs.

Counting Days

I have been here for 11 days. Yes, I am actually counting at the moment.

Time has passed faster than expected, Im starting to worry i wont have enough time to finish all the tasks before September.

I have whined. And I have missed home. So much. (Suddenly have become damn patriotic)

Simple act of picking up the phone and going for dinner. Having pasta. Or tomyam. Or maggi. A bottle of dry muscat. Things I cant do anymore.

Qatar is a strange city. 'New' Doha as its called is like a massive planned structure bursting out of a warzone. While im on the bus to work (it leaves at 6.50 btw, so NONE of you complain to me that you need to wake up early again) we go past piles of rock and sand and rubble. Some small little structures set in a backdrop of more sand. No green, no trees except sad looking pine trees (if you;re lucky). I pass roadworks and banged up cars; roads with no pavements or lines, plenty of potholes and orange cones.

But take a trip to the 'new' doha city, mammoth structures of glass and metal are sprouting like mushrooms (btw, do mushrooms sprout?)

The view from my window

The only nice place in Doha to eat.

Around the city centre

Im too lazy to resize and post up more pics here, will probably put them up on fb :)

I need to study.

Today

What I have learnt about Qatar in my one week stay so far:

1. The preferred mode of transport (if you have the cash) is a big white land cruiser. The bigger the better to ride sand dunes with.
2. Cars are cheap. Cheap enough that they can be abandoned by the road if they were in a crash.
3. Petrol is bloddy dirt cheap. QR0.70/l. Which works out to roughly 65 cents/liter. Which is why people can drive big cars.
4. The majority of the people living in Qatar at the moment are non natives, like me
5. Shops close in the middle of the day. Literally close.
6. Friday = Sunday = Day of rest
7. People eat alot of meat, I miss eating proper veggie
8. Movie tickets are friggin expensive. QR35/ticket. Dont EVER let me here you complain that RM10 is expensive anymore.
9. You can do wheelies in the middle of the city streets at night, traffic stops for you
10. The majority of cars here have dents in them.
11. Hungry people. They give girls the once over look everytime they pass. Damn pervy
12. I havent seen any stray cats. Maybe its too hot?
13. Temp will soar to the fifties and reach the sixties next month. Its also the time when humidity is at its maximum so you literally cant breathe.
14. There is (from my observation) a large number of prostitutes in the hotel bar/clubs
15. Hotels are the only place with a liqour license, that stuff is damn expensive

I have gotten several shades darker; I hope i haven't got any fatter.

Musings

I've reached the end of my first week. Yay!

I am very proud of myself, no tears yet. Almost tears and almost homesick, but still hanging in there.

To those of you who took the time out to email/msg me/text me/write on my wall, thank you. You have no idea how much comfort something small like that brings when you're so far away from home and there are no familiar faces.

To those who havent, shame on you! Keep me company lah!

In any case, I've managed to sort of settle. At least I'm not wandering around (that) lost anymore.

We went to a 'club' in a hotel a couple of nights ago. Its called a club, but seriously it doesnt deserve to be called one. Brings down the name of clubs everywhere else. I didnt realise that the clubbing scene in Penang/KL was that good until I came here. Haha. That place looked like a cheesier version of the old, old Soho's.

Time to get ready for work, its already 6. I cant wait for the next weekend to come, so i can sleep in!

More updates coming, toodles!

Oh, I'm excited, there are a few new people due to come in soon! Hoping that they're nice!

Mocha Mud Pie

This is what I feel like eating today.

Completely unrelated, only because I have no real pics of Qatar (my window cant open so i cant take a good night shot) and i didnt want to put up another ugly post with only words.

Its day three here . . . Because everyday is a work day I find that all the days of the week just melt into one big blur. If I didnt have to mark it off on the bus list everyday I wouldnt remember what day it is anymore.

Today was better than yesterday, hoping that tomorrow will be better than today. I finished my HUET, H2S and Sea Survivor training (Qatar has alot of sharks, yikes!) and we did the final simulation indoors, with the lights off, flashing strobe lights (lightning?), rain, wind and waves.

Wicked.

I would probably panic and freeze up if I ever had to do it in real life.

I have finally got a mobile number here! Although there is really no point in me saying that since i dont know what the number is yet . . .

The sim pack here is ridiculously expensive since there is only one service provider in the whole of Qatar. Monopoly. Bah. Like the Maxis prepaid pack 6 years ago, QD200!

Call me, talk to me, I'd love to hear another voice to say 'lah' to.

Missing all of you.

New Beginning

Im in Qatar.

Doha, Qatar to be exact.

Its hot and dusty. Like Abu Dhabi in the making. No big buildings, alot of dirt and construction. The closest shopping centre is at the city centre, a 20 minute walk away from my accomodation. Thankfully, its a nice place to stay; double bed, soft comy pillows, tv, internet, bath tub with a common kitchen and washing machine. Supposedly theres a swimming pool and gym, but I havent found it yet.

Im at Edzan Towers, you can reach me at my room at +974 4969330.

I share the place with an Indian girl, she's leaving for offshore tomorrow which leaves me all alone.

The closest place to eat is also 20 mins away at the city centre. I forsee alot of eggs, instant noodles and McDonalds delivery.

Its hard to find taxis here. And food is super expensive.

I wandered about in the sun for around 20 mins or so and I already feel crispy.

Hoping everything goes well for me. Fingers crossed.

Short Break

I'm Home!

Im back in Penang, my happy little semi turtle shaped island and im back in my room, with its multitude of pillows and soft cuddly things.

And i got a hair cut!

Its not really that much of a change, but at least some of that mess is gone.


Its a bad pic, im tired. I've been in and out of airports over the past 12 hours. And i dont sleep on flights.

I know, I am vain.

Packing Up

Its Monday, 30th June , 3.10pm and im packing up.


This morning i said goodbye to the Chai, Ann, Yun .. last night i said goodbye to the whole lot of pakistani/indians and the day before to Mitch, Ky and Chris.


Half and hour ago i said goodbye to Wes and Yasu.


In another hours time I'll say goodbye to Oscar and then at 7 i'll send off abdul and Ali.

Then its just going to be 3 of us girls left here at the Blue Towers.

I came to OFS-1 a little bit hesitant and not quite sure what to expect. Its surprising that in the space of a week I found people I could talk to, could go out with. . just the simple act of having dinner together or lunchbreaks together means alot when you're somewhere new and dont know anyone.

Im packing up and feeling just a little blue at the thought of moving on. I was getting comfortable.. Now theres so few of us left and so much free time it feels strange .. kind of lonely i guess. . But thats life. Move on, meet new people, make the best out of everything.


I had a good time here in Abu Dhabi. And its hard to imagine going to Qatar where i'll be starting out all over again. Im feeling a little envious that Mus and Wes will both be going to Labuan together.

Cross fingers, hope that i'll be okay.

When I say it fast i call it Abi Dhabi

Only a day or so left till i pack up and leave Abu Dhabi for my next location.

I dont know, although is different here i've settled into some sort of routine, made some friends..
Its going to be difficult going to a location where i know noone. At all.


Judging from the geographical coefficient, Qatar isnt all that bad . . Judging from what I've been told, if you want to go out in Kemaman, it would be better just to head to Kuantan. Damn.


Anyway, I dont do much here.. at the moment its just alot of courses (ALL DAY, OMG) so by the time we get back there isnt much time to do anything..

I wake up around 5.30 am everyday (SHIT SO EARLY) and now im just tired.. Maybe its the food, maybe its the heat... Im just so tired. Havent had much of an appetite either, i have a chicken whopper, a steak and cheese subway, a few subway cookies and chicken briyani sitting in the fridge. Just not hungry. Oh well.

By the way, stuff here is EXPENSIVE! And the meal portions are huge ! Even the McDonalds burgers are bigger (the regular is our large - i couldnt finish it) and a medium McChicken meal was 19dirhams.

Sorry if i cant call you all, 20 dirhams for 10 minutes is wayyy out of my budget

Did go out to visit the malls and do a little sightseeing . . which may be why im so tired cos im spending my rest time going out, but im only gonna be here once . . so . .


I got my coveralls. Now i look like a giant blueberry.