Thank You!!

I have finally gotten my laptop back
and it has restored my communication with the world again.. haha... Well it has been busy weeks for me.. parents were here for 3 weeks and spent 5 days in Germany and went on a visiting spree of family friends around England(literally).. was tiring at times but it was great to have mum and dad over here..

Thank you all again for all the Birthday wishes and especially those who even sent me an sms, Thank you... The day before I left for Germany my friends Serena, Alice, Joan and Mabel gave me a surprise birthday party of sorts.. it was unexpected... they bought some champagne, a cheese cake and a truffle. Mum was also present as she was giving them some 'cooking' classes while she was staying with me for a couple of days.. We left Uni on Friday after class to join dad in Harlow, North East of London where he was working.. We took the flight from Stansted Airport the next morning at 7am to Karlsruhe, Germany.

We landed in Karlsruhe and with the help of a chinese hot dog lady made our way to Heidelberg where we were staying.. It's was quite an unusual experience because everything was in German and surprisingly not many people could communicate in English.. or at least understand what we were asking them.. It was really funny especially when mum was ordering her food because half the time the waitress wouldn't understand a word that we said.. had i known earlier that i would be coming to Germany i would have taken a couple of lessons from Chirs... haha.. the only word i knew was 'Danke' which means thank you.. Heidelberg was a really nice place.. We went up to one of the oldest castles in Germany which was on a mountain and it was snowing there.. the view of Heidelberg city from up there was exceptional.. simply beautiful.. Heidelberg has nearly 1000 years of history and happens to have the biggest wine barrel in the world.. The wine barrel was really interesting as it was used to tax people in the olden times.

We were in Heidelberg for 3 days and then we moved on to a small town called Speyer where dad had a meeting.. I 'celebrated' my Birthday on our last day in Heidelberg and got a series of sms wishes right through the night before because of the time difference... Speyer is an even older town with more than 1000years of history.. It is home to the 3rd oldest Cathedral in the World after St.Peter's and St.Paul's.. The Cathedral was just a stone's throw away from our hotel and it looks spooky.. It still contains the tombs of the kings of Germany but also has some beautiful paintings on the ceilings and walls.. While we were walking around in the Cathedral, there was this pianist who played the most iry sounding music on the pipe organs.. Imagine walking in this hundreds of years old building with tombs, dim light and echos whenever you speak.. and you get this joker playing the pipe organs.. shivers man.. Pipe organs don't exactly produce the nicest sound.. it makes you feel sad and guilty in some way.. maybe that's why so many people go for confession.. haha.. We went back to Karlsruhe on our last day to stay for a night.. We visited this Media and Film Museum which was really interesting.. Never seen anything like that before.. It had equipment that were first used by movie producers years ago to the latest used by people like Spielberg.. I'm sure Ryan would love it.. It had equipment that could manipulate sound and images.. the great thing was that we were able to do it first hand on our own..

One thing that impressed me most about Germany was their efficiency, it was just quite incredible. The transport system is excellent and with the combination of trams, trains and buses are able to take you to nearly anywhere in the city. The trams run straight into the town centres and its track act as the divider for the cars on the road.. All public transports are very frequent and has a timetable for it which nearly never changes. BUT, the Most Amazing thing i encountered is the punctuality of all public transport. If the timetable states that the next tram is at 5.43, be sure you be there before at 5.42(literally) because the tram would arrive at 5:42:30 and leave at 5:43.. its just incredible.. i timed it for the first few times and it never failed me.. These goes as well to buses who are nearly uncontrollable when on roads.. It just blows my mind on how they do it.. In Malaysia we indicate time using quarters(every 15mins), that's how bad we are.. when we were there dad and i were indicating time by the minutes and seconds because we had to or we will just simply miss our transport..

One of my main goals when i went to Germany was to try their famous Franks(sausages).. At the end of the trip i counted that we(3 of us) had a total of about 25 franks in 5 days.. The franks a just simply delicious and come in all shapes and sizes.. The mustard they use on their franks are also superb which i would attribute my new found love for mustard.. The Germans eat a lot of pork and meat and i must admit that i was so busy trying out different German delicacies that i got a bit sick of it on our last day. Mum also got to try her favourite Swine-Hacks(pigs trotters).. If you are a meat lover, Germany is definitely the place to visit for you.

Over all, it was just a great time that i got to spend with my parents. Travelling in a foreign country especially of a language we don't understand was certainly an interesting experience and would certainly not be the last for me..

I would just like to Thank Mum and Dad for giving being here this last 3 weeks here with me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to experience life in a different country and culture. Hope that i would be able to make you proud.. Love you both..

I want to Thank our Heavenly Father once again for providing the open door for me to be here.. Lord, may You continue to lead and mould me more and more according to your plan for me..

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!