p r a g u e

I made Bak Kut Teh for the 1st time in my life! Without premix somemore haha.. It was simmering for a long time and not sure whether the ribs I bought were pre-seasoned, so ended up a bit salty, but smelled really good haha.. So glad when the guys finally arrived at 8 plus pm... =) Haven't seen them in a looong time!

Yar and they fell in love with my room, they almost didn't want to leave for Prague anymore haha...

Kannan, the chaffeur of Go-Go Club cabaret Limousine! No money to pay, instead of washing dishes, it's a new trend haha.. Plenty of cabarets along the road to our hostel, and already 2 limos along just a short stretch of it!

On Sat morning, we went to this antique tram-turned-cafe for breakfast. It's more for the decor and atmosphere than the food of course.. =P Then it suddenly snowed!! First time that Quanhui and I saw snow!! We were sooo excited, we went out of the tram immediately!

Then we went for free tour.. Czech's got quite a sad history, I got kinda lost after a while, with every other country taking over at some point in time..

That's the astrology clock that every tourist must see.. Really not much though.. Just a few other clocks to show other stuff like the date etc within it, and statues of the apostles will move across when the clock strikes the hour. Think the Glockenspiel in Muenchen is better... =P

Apparently some thief was trying to steal the jewels in the church, then the statue of Mother Mary caught his arm and refused to let go, so they had to amputate his arm.. So that stump there is a reminder to all thief-wannabes haha...They should replace the police there with statues of Mother Mary..

Mozart held his concerts here... They claim that Austria never really liked him, he only got famous via Prague.. Whatever it is, as long as his name brings in the cash, why would they care right?

Woah... It's a time tunnel!! Nah, it's a never-ending stack of books in the library...

Snowing again!! Sadly can't really see it in the photo... Didn't snow long and hard enough for snow to pile up on the ground.. Oh well, gotta be grateful for the little blessings hee..

Typical Czech food -- beef goulash and dumpling. Don't think of the chinese dumplings nor Maultaschen.. It's just that white stuff at the top right side of the plate.. Tastes a bit like a mix of potato and bread... Totally filling...

Crossing Charles Bridge to get to the castle.. Managed to catch this picture.. Tower, seagull, moon (yar moon in bright daylight) -- how surrealistic haha..

Took forever trying to take this photo with all of us in and the church too.. Haha.. The church in the castle grounds... Was closed by the time we reached, but we came back again on Sunday.. Wanted to go visit the Bone church on Sunday actually, but it's closed on Sundays! How silly.. So went back to the prague castle.. There was a super super long queue to get in! But we didn't have the time cos we needed to leave early in order to arrive in Stuttgart in time for Alex's train back to Karlsruhe, so we were about to leave, when we discovered the exit and there were no staff there, so off we scooted in! Muahahha.... *Shhhh...*

Lots of marionette (puppets) shops.. Seems like Czechs were hardly using the Czech language anymore, at one point in time, so they tried to revive it by having puppet shows in Czech... Well, apparently it worked..

Nice little quaint quiet looking Prague street just off the Charles Bridge.. At dusk..

The Prague castle at night from the Charles Bridge!

Hmm who're these 2 gluttons at our table? It's a 'see-who-can-open-his-mouth-wider' contest! Food's cheaper than in Germany.. We were eating at a rather posh restaurant, but our pockets were still intact after that..

On the trip back.. Woot!! Road trip!! Quite doubtful about our GPS tho... Got a feeling that it thinks that the shortest distance between 2 points is not a straight line.. Sometimes we just took our own shorter route that we could see on the map in the GPS haha..

Us trying to pump petrol in the cold!! Seems like we went to the wrong lane, it was for diesel instead of petrol haha.. Freezing freezing! The temperature was below 0 degrees celsius that weekend! You won't believe our car saga.. We arrived on Fri night really late, almost 1am, so couldn't find parking lots, so asked this policeman along the road whether we could park there, and he said 'Yes'. But the next day, when we went to collect our GPS from the car, our car was wheel-clamped!! Ended up having to pay a fine of 1000 Czk which is about 40 Euros.. Sigh.. For nothing.. even the police are out to cutthroat the tourists sigh.. Oh well, just treat is as an experience, I guess, how many people can claim that they've been wheelclamped in Prague!

t r a m

Germany -- the land of punctuality.

I think not.

I just #@*^!* missed the tram yet again. It says on the schedule 7.02am, but it left the station at 7.00am just now! While I was still running for it.. Had problems with it for the whole of last week. First, there was some accident ahead of the line, so we all had to alight to wait for the service bus and thus missed my bus to BMW. Then the next few days, either it came too early, or so late that I missed my bus to BMW again. So had to wait in the cold for half an hour for the next bus to BMW.

Thought maybe they changed their schedule without my knowing, but just checked their website and it's still the same old one from end of last year.

So I either walk home and hang around just for 10-15 min then walk back to the station or wait in the cold for half an hour. So as you can guess, I chose exercise and here I am typing this complaint.

r o s e n t r a u m

My Rosentraum from my darling dear!! (aka rose dream) Today's our 1st anniversary together hee.. It's got a red heart surrounding the roses, but guess it's been a bit overwhelmed by the rest hee.. Comes with a teddy bear too! It's currently sitting on a leaf, sniffing my roses haha.. And a glass vase and fertilizer stuff in a packet too! So my bouquet's now on my desk soaking up the good stuff.. Apparently the company guarantees that their flowers will stay good for 7 days haha..

Was soo soo delighted with my flowers that I asked Daniel (one of my housemates) to help me take photos hee.. Yup that's me grinning till you can hardly see my eyes.. =P No worries dear, they got to me alright, safely packaged in a thick cardboard box, flowers still fresh and glass vase still intact.. ;)

Was actually quite depressed today, cos work was really boring and tiring, then went to the Deutsche Bank to try to check my account for transfers and withdraw some money cos I still haven't received my card via post. But the counter staff checked my account number, and told me that it's not in the records yet, and they can't do anything cos the lady who did my application is on sick leave today. =S Wth... Was super super sian after that, cos this means that I can't get my money to go to the Auslaenderbehoerde tomorrow (Tue is the only day they open till slightly later i.e. 6pm) and I gotta stay worried about my finances.. Argh.. Was sooo glad when I got home and Daniel told me that there's a package for me in the kitchen! It really made my day... =D Thank you soooo much, dear! Love ya every second too! Muakz!! =)

m o r e f o o d

That's the dinner that I cooked yesterday (sunday) -- my version of hainanese pork chop (coated with egg and herbs) and cream-sauce-mushroom spaghetti.. ;) Alex was quite shocked that I'm eating pork chops with noodles haha.. Oh well, whatever goes.. Had some salad that Agneska made too, unfortunately took the photo before the salad arrived.. =P

And this is today's dinner.. Croquettes dumped in the microwave, and omelette with sausages and mushrooms and grated cheese inside.. My omelette's finally looking like an omelette!! Guess the trick is the amount of oil sigh.. Going to try to cut down on it and yet still get a proper omelette.. Think my grated cheese is going bad sigh.. Stuff here seems to go bad really fast! Dunno whether it's just our fridge, stuff gets wet and it doesn't feel that cold too.. And stuff doesn't move that fast when you're just cooking 1-person's share..

c n y 1

Leipziger Lercher! And Chococcino.. Ooh lala.. Marzipan inside with crunchy pastry outside.. Raymond brought me to a bakery-cafe to try this speciality after lunch on Sat.. Had a rather exciting weekend haha.. We had a Chinese New Year celebration dinner at Chen Yi's place on Friday night, waiting for the photos that Raymond took for Soon (hear that, Raymond? haha).. Chen Yi's one lucky man, his wife cooks amazing stuff!! And there was the traditional dumplings too, which Anna helped to make with them till past midnight on Thurs! =O Then we watched 'Crazy Stone', a China comedy movie, really quite hilarious, though the germans didn't really get it.. Then tried some super-potent chinese wine of Chen Yi's..

Then the few of us went to a club, think it's spelt as Politzer.. Quite a small one, with 1 room that looks like it can be converted into a tiny school hall or theatre.. Plays music from R&B to country to retro haha.. Quite glad that germany's banned smoking in enclosed areas! Though there were 1 or 2 who still did.. There's still some 6 month grace period, I heard, but it's quite a drastic improvement already, most of them actually went out to the entrance to smoke.. =) Though Tom complains that he'd rather smell smoke than the stink of humans haha.. There was some other room upstairs too, but by the time we went up, it had just closed, sadly..

Yup, there's even a Table tennis table beside the dance area, can you believe it? I was sooo amused by it haha.. And they played it such that upon every hit, the players go round the table for the next hit.. First time I see it being played like that! We left around 4 am, no more trams for me by then, so Raymond and I walked over to his place which is nearer and I slept over.. Then we went to the Mensa (student's canteen) in Innenstadt for lunch (missed breakfast by the time we woke up!).. 1.50 euros for the dish of Bratwurst, potatoes and sauerkraut! But you need a card thingy like the EZ-link card to pay.. Gotta be a student from the University of Leipzig too I guess.. Then he found out that I haven't tried Lercher, so off we went to the bakery-cafe!

The chinese restaurant that promises 'authentic chinese food and chinese live music and dance' was fully booked for 3 days, according to Tom who tried to make reservations, so we met up for dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant in Innenstadt.. Food's not bad, though it contains some very italien garnishings haha.. Fusion.. Our conversation's hilarious as usual.. ;) Then when we were leaving Innenstadt, there was this group of guys who were dressed a bit strangely, who approached us to buy these tiny little bottles of alcohol for 1 euro each. Think it's a stag party, cos the poor guy in the middle was dressed up the strangest, and was back-packing this wooden cabinet with the little bottles inside, and pulling this wooden toy thingy along on the ground.. Apparently he needs to sell all the bottles that night, so they can all go have a drink haha..

m e x i c a n c o n c e r t

Went for a concert by the Mexican National Orchestra on Thursday at the Gewandhaus (concert hall) in Leipzig! Agneska was just asking us whether we're interested in going a few weeks ago, then suddenly Conni got 4 free tickets for it! So lucky hee.. =) Saved something like 30-40 euros phew.. They played music by Mexican composers, so lots of percussion, not the usual orchestra type.. And at the end there's someone in the orchestra who shouts 'Long Live Mexico!' in mexican! The Gewandhaus itself isn't very elaborate, much smaller than the one at the Esplanade in Singapore, but heard that they've got really good music here..

That's at the foyer during intermission.. Rather modern paintings on the walls and ceilings..

Conni, Agneska and I went earlier to collect the tickets, so we went to Moritz Bastei which is very nearby, for a beer and some food..

Yup it's down a rather long flight of steps.. The fortress thingy below that I had dinner with Agneska a few weeks ago... ;)

f o o d

Think I've almost perfected my cabonara pasta!! ;) Thanks to Quanhui for his recipe. Tried it a few times and I'm getting the timings and proportions right, I think... =P Sausages, mushrooms and ham.. Added cheese to his recipe too.. Next step will be to try to add in egg, not too early (makes the gravy lumpy) nor too late (tastes raw). No worries, lots of chances to try cooking it haha..

Alphabet soup! Didn't realise how much I miss having it till I ate it that day.. Nah I didn't cook it, just used the Knorr's instant kind haha.. Sometimes just too tired or lazy to cook something proper, yet feel like having something hot.. I'm still amazed at their Abendbröt (aka 'evening bread'), which is their version of a cold dinner. They can have sandwiches of ham and cheese for breakfast, lunch and now, even dinner! Now I feel like a fussy eater haha..


Went to the Altes Rathaus yesterday, cos the website says that there's free admission and even a guided tour by the Director of the Museum on the 1st Tuesday of every month. Reached there and read on a notice board that it's Wednesdays after all. So pissed... Like the Thomanenchor, why don't they just update their websites? There were these temporary stalls set up outside the Altes Rathaus, selling breads, meats, vegetables (the veges look cheaper than in supermarkets at least, not sure about the rest) and beautiful flowers! 2 euros for 10 tulips! Oh man oh man... Was itching to get some, but realised that one of my apartment mates has already bought tulips for the kitchen. My mum's so going to gush about the flowers haha.. Really hope my parents come to Europe with my sis after their trip back to Singapore... ;)

Passed by this Ice Cream Parlour that also sells ice cream on the outside, 1 scoop for only 70 cents! Couldn't resist the temptation, as you can see haha.. Tiramisu.. Yes, despite it being almost 0 degrees celsius with winds.. =P

w e e k e n d 3

Fridays with Morrison.. Haha no lah, more like just 1 friday at Morrison's.. Irish pub.. It may be a pub but it's nothing like most back home, it's well-lit, rather spacious and cozy, not in the least bit sleazy..

Wonderful wonderful apple cider!! Brings back memories of our 1st Apfelwein (apple wine) at Frankfurt am Main 2 years ago.. Oh man oh man...

I looooooove booth seats! Muahaha... That's Raymond and I with our emptied glasses haha... And my camera did some amazing trick at hiding his beer belly haha... =P Ok don't poison me at our CNY dinner.. Chatted for about 3h haha..

Yup back at Thomaskirche for the Saturday Motete.. Thought the Thomas Boys' Choir will be singing as usual, but they just started their holidays! Argh... Just went in still anyway, mostly organ and string ensemble and 2 basses. Was really not bad actually, other than the last piece 'Ich habe genung' that was a bit long.. Good music is like almost common fare here.. Even the buskers along the street are not bad haha..

Conni and Alex! My apartment mates who came for the Motete with me.. ;)

We went shopping after that.. Alex made new specs and I got boots and Reebok sport shoes! So glad Conni brought me to Deichmann's.. They're having sale, so the shoes are already on discount, and the second pair is half-priced somemore! So both cost a total of 40 euros only! Super light sleek black sport shoes! To replace my current pair which has holes haha..

Booootiful boots! Thick soles so the cold doesn't get to your feet unlike my current ones (which has lost their soles for the heels too).. And best of all, it's actually leather! With some fennel (I think) lining inside.. Have always been dreaming of wearing high boots, it's finally come true! haha...
Cooked hungarian Goulash with Kloese with Conni for dinner at home, then Angeska invited me to go for a Salsa party at a club. It starts around midnight, so we trudged through the cold cos the trams aren't frequent by then. So glad I brought my dancing shoes here! Actually danced quite a lot.. Though the dancers aren't as pro as the ones I've seen at Union Square.. =P But it was really fun nontheless! Only left at about 3.30am when nobody was dancing already.. Walked all the way home, luckily not that far, and had company to chat with anyway.. ;)

Fasching! I was quite pissed with myself that I had forgotten all about the carnival before Rosenmontag over at the Rhinelands (ie Koeln, Duesseldorf etc), wanted to go there for the weekend actually, but lost track of the dates.. Then was about to settle down to a quiet Sunday (Carsten invited me to cycle or have a car ride around, to the Battle of the Nations monument etc, nice weather and all, but won't have much time cos gotta go on skype in the afternoon). When Conni asked me whether I wanna join them for the Fasching carnival in the city centre! Didn't know they have it here too haha.. Mostly by the uni students here, like Rag day all over again! Floats, painted faces, costumes, even the spectators!

Like this little kid in a chick costume! All ready for easter haha... Cute right?

And they actually overturn their umbrellas to collect the sweets, apples etc stuff they throw out from the floats! Lots of confetti on the ground and on people too haha.. Alex was warning that I should beware of the oncoming sweets, then he was complaining why we didn't get the free beer they were giving out on some floats cos we were standing further away from the floats haha..

Another perfect weekend! =) And my 3rd one already! So fast, can't believe it sometimes..

r a n d o m

Here's some photos that I've been wanting to upload from my handphone but just got to doing so.. Above is Heisse Schokolade nach Wiener Art. Wiener type of hot chocolate basically.. Really quite nice, especially like the cinammon powder they add.. ;) Ok shoot me for being a cinammon-fanatic..

Had that with Soon last Tue after submitting my application for extending my Visa at the Auslaenderbehoerde (direct translation: foreign countries' authorities haha).. So glad he brought me there, no idea how I would have found it myself, it's like quite a bit from the tram station. And even had help from him and his german colleagues in filling in the longest (and crappiest, they even ask you for your height!) form ever.. In german of course.. Then we had 4-seasons pizza at a Turkish Imbiss place, like the thin crust! =) Then went to Auerbach's Keller, where Faust has a scene in, but didn't bring my camera, so we'll be back again! Ended up in this cafe, apparently it's the oldest in Leipzig, looks rather colonial with elephant heads (not real ones of course) at the entrance.

I've never had so much beverages in a day, everyday somemore.. I have a tea every morning, with milk (with cereals or by itself), then have a coffee during coffee break at work, then have another tea when I get back. Then sometimes I have an apple juice with my dinner too. Guess it's really good to have hot drinks in this cold weather... They never felt this good before haha..

And the previous Tue, after settling stuff at the Stadthaus, I met Agneska for dinner. We went to this really really cool place called Moritz Bastei, a student restaurant/cafe/pub/club thingy. It's like down in the fortress ruins, you can see the bricks at the background of the photo. Cozy place that's surprisingly large and tiny prices -- for a dunkel bier (dark beer) and potato-chicken gratin, I paid a total of 7 euros (inclusive of a bit of tips even)! Love the prices in east germany...

Really glad for all the friends that I've made in this short period of time.. They're making this trip really memorable.. Dunno how I'd survive without them to look forward to... =)

There's this amazingly gigantic flock of crows in the fields at my workplace, BMW Plant Leipzig. Wonder what attracts them, the shiny reflection from the car screens? Quite freaky when they perch all along the building and suddenly take off in a horde like in this photo. This is only about 5-10% of the whole legion, cos I had to take out my phone and start up the camera and even took a few photos before I was satisfied. Reminds me of the crows in Resident Evil 3! Oh dear oh dear... =P

w o c h e n e n d e

On Friday evening, I met Susi, a german gal whom Christoph, the guy who lives in Halle (near Leipzig) but was doing his internship in Singapore and helped me find my current WG, introduced to me, cos she lives in Leipzig. We went to Spizz, this supposedly jazz and live music cafe (haven't seen any live bands for the 2 times I've been so far), for a coffee and chat. Ended up chatting for almost 2 hours, despite my horrid german haha...


Then went to the Asian grocery shops in city centre with Soon and Carsten on Sat morn. Then we cooked Laksa, Ma Po Toufu and stir-fried oyster sauce vege... No laksa leaves though haha.. Still managed to gravy that tastes like laksa, thankfully... Then invited my apartment mates for the singaporean lunch. From the right: Alex (not in the picture, dunno why haha), Carsten, Soon, me, Barbara (kinda blocked, she's not a apartment mate though, just Agneska's friend who was over for the weekend), Agneska and Conni. My other apartment mates, Anja and her boyfriend Axel were in Muenchen, and Daniel was still sleeping when I knocked on his door at about 2pm to invite him to lunch. Weekends are really sleep-in days here... =P


Then went to Tom's place for dinner. Tom is Soon's and Raymond's (the other 2 Singaporeans in Leipzig) friend. Had great fried rice which was supposed to be kinda spicy but of course it hardly tasted so to us Singaporeans hee.. =P And Raymond also made herbal chicken soup.. Mmmm.. Tom's apartment mate, Robert, and his family (from Brazil) joined us for dinner too. Had such a good laugh after dinner over some wines, love conversations with these guys.. They're in English of course..

Went to church on Sunday, then met Soon for museum visiting. Went to the Forum Museum, free entry! Muahaha.. The entrance is deceivingly tiny, didn't even go through the 3rd floor cos we were too hungry by then haha.. Had a salad and coffee at some cafe near Augustusplatz, and low and behold! In comes Raymond.. haha.. He didn't join us at the museums cos he's rushing his presentation, but happened to pop into his favourite cafe for a quick coffee.

The weather was so depressing -- gloomy and windy with a perpetual drizzle -- that we decided not to visit the monument that day. Another time, I guess. Soon's going back to Sg at the end of this week already though. Then we went to the Bach Museum. Tiny little thing beside Thomaskirche (St Thomas' church). The photo above is the church with a statue of Johann Sebastian Bach in front. The famous boys' choir sings here, apparently. Wanna go listen to them someday hee..

And this is his grave, right at the altar haha..

This is what weekends should be about! =D