Japan Part 1

Beppu, Oita, Kyushu, Japan

24 May 2012

Lunch break - searching for food at a local supermarket

In front of a restaurant at Beppu Shopping Street

Beppu Shopping Street

Another shot dari camera canggih orang lain :P

Another Japanese restaurant

The display at a local patisserie

Night view from the hotel room

p/s: Sampai bersambung lagi. Cerita banyak, gambar pun banyak. Tunggu... :)

Jittery

Early morning tomorrow I'll be heading to Heathrow Terminal 5. Finally, the day is almost here. I'm going to Japan alone. And.. Unfortunately I'm not in the best shape - cold & fever, along with the uneasy feeling of traveling alone. Ugh. I hope I will survive. InsyaAllah..

My preparations;

Picked up the visa last Friday at Japanese Embassy in Picadilly

I'll arrive at Tokyo Narita Airport, and need to rush to Tokyo Haneda Airport to catch a plane to Oita. Kekdahnye kalau beli tiket murah, kenalah bersusah-payah sikit

Then, to catch a bus from Oita Airport to Beppu Station

From Beppu Station to the hotel - I have no problem walking, but with a big luggage in tow I'll probably take a taxi

But.. If I change my mind, here's the walking directions :)

From the hotel to the conference venue - should I walk? I'm tempted to take a cab actually :P Especially after finding out that the temperature will be around 22-26'C, very warm. Berpeluh ketiak & kaki jalan kaki 30 minit oii

Last but not least.. Arah kiblat & waktu solat

Harap-harap cukup lah persediaan.

Persediaan nak balik ke London boleh buat kemudian, bila dah tenang-tenang kat hotel nanti. Sekarang rasa sedikit semak otak, especially memikirkan nak tinggal DH sorang-sorang. Kesian dia sunyi nanti, 3 hari jugaklah kena duduk seorang diri. Then on Friday my family will arrive in London, DH akan ada kawan, meriah rumah. Hehe..

Tadi dah masak kari daging, lamb stew, ayam masak merah, telur dadar, sayur kubis goreng kunyit & sayur lemak fucuk+su'un. Buat stok dalam peti sejuk. Takdelah DH asyik masak pizza frozen je nanti. Nasi, couscous semua DH boleh buat sendiri. Dah train siap-siap :P

Akhir kata, harap sangat semuanya selamat & lancar. I know it's not a big deal to most people, tapi selama hidup 28 tahun++ di bumi Allah, ni lah kali pertama nak rentas benua seorang diri. Ish. InsyaAllah semuanya okay. Doakan ye.. Nanti dah balik kita story mory k?

:)

Effective advertising

Siang-siang, baling pamphlet ke dalam post box rumah orang

Orang pun bukak, telek sana, telek sini

Malam pun tiba. Orang tiba-tiba malas nak masak. Terus angkat telefon, order. Tak sampai 30 minit, loceng pintu pun berbunyi

Large chicken doner - orang lelaki punya

Small lamb shish - orang perempuan punya

Lega orang perempuan, dapat makan masakan orang lain. Dah muak oii makan masakan sendiri :P

Skincare monologue

L'occitane Immortelle range - bought the trial set on February 2012. Fell in love with the cleanser & toner, but not the moisturizer (Precious Cream). The Precious Pream is actually a bestseller, many great testimonials have been written about it. But... My face just couldn't take - it has caused breakouts, clogged pores, and small bumps all over my forehead.

The damage is still evident all over my face, and I am hoping that Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate & Overnight Biological Peel will help to clear my skin. We'll see. I'll write the review after a month of using those two.

Anyway, after a month using the trial set, we (my husband & I) ran out of the cleanser and dear husband himself  bought the full size Brightening Cleansing Foam - how extraordinary is that? Haha. He loves it very, very much. The cleanser is a foaming type - the dispenser dispenses foam with very fine bubbles(?) that smells 'green' and oh so refreshing. My face never felt tight after cleansing (even after rinsing with warm water). 

I used the trial size Precious Cream for quite some time (albeit the breakouts and what not), rotating with these two moisturizers -  Boots Vitamin E Day Cream & Clinique Moisture Surge. I find the cheaper one (Boots) suits my dry skin best, although the smell is not the best. I find Clinique Moisture Surge not moisturising enough for my dry skin. FYI, my skin used to be combination-oily (in Malaysia).

Thinking about it, during my days in the Netherlands my skin became very dry too, and I have used the Vitamin E range from The Body Shop (great job, but didn't like the smell though) and later I changed to Biotherm Aquasource (pink color range for very dry skin). I love the Biotherm range very much. Only after writing this I realized I should have gone back to that Biotherm range earlier. Oh well.

Lately I'm thinking of trying Kiehl's cleanser (since our cleanser is running out), toner & moisturizer just to match the Recovery Concentrate & Biological peel, but dear husband seems very reluctant to let go of that L'occitane cleanser. And I still have half of the trial size toner (Essential Face Water). 

At the moment I am also liking L'occitane Angelica Hydration Cream & Exfoliating Gel (received the samples and liking the results), so maybe I'll go for those too.

Oh I should make it clear, my skin condition now is normal to dry (after skin check at Kiehl's) with breakouts due to stress and hormonal imbalance. If you think yours is about the same as mine, maybe you can make sense of my review and go buy the things that have worked well for me (and hope that your skin will tolerate everything well) :p

Kesimpulannya, rasa-rasa nak beli balik L'occitane Brightening Foaming Cleanser, Angelica Hydration Cream & Angelica Exfoliating Gel. Panjang-panjang punya tulis ini je pengakhirannya.

Ok bye :D

Finding balance

:)

He's early

Catching up

Dah lama tak jumpa sahabat sorang ni sebab dia rajin melancong. Haritu dia ke Panama seminggu, kemudian ke India pulak 3 minggu. Lepas dia touch down di London, terus whatsapp ajak lunch sama. Baiklah. Jom! :)

We had lunch at a Thai restaurant. Ni 3 jenis appetizers - Meuk Kra Tiem (calamari  with garlic & pepper sauce),  scallops in soy dressing & dim sum

My main - pad thai with prawn

Ni lah kawan baik kita, Noelia namanya. Dia ni buat phD part time, separuh masa lagi dia adalah Named Veterinary Surgeon di RVC & King's College. She's a laboratory animal vet too, so we have a lot in common. Gigih u'olls, buat phD part time. Pengsannn

Ini kawan Noelia, Rosana. Dia orang Argentina sama mcm Noelia. Diorang ni baru lepas bersenam di gym. Kita? Kita takde gym-gym, kalau ajak gi makan je kita kata YES :P

Lepas dah kenyang makan sembang-sembang tadi, rupa-rupanya ada hati lagi nak singgah minum kopi. Sejuk katanya. Memang pun, semalam suhu 9'C. Walaupun ayatnya "let's go get some coffee", maksudnya jom cari dessert sekali. Hee..

We shared a banana pie & moist carrot cake. Sambil makan minum, seronok dengar cerita diorang di India, sebijik gambaran filem The Exotic Marigold Hotel

Ok lah, tu aje nak cerita. Oh lagi satu nak cerita, si Noelia ni super duper friendly, rasanya dah ramai kawan-kawan dia yang jadi kawan kita. Apa-apa pun, syukur sangat-sangat ada kawan sehati sejiwa sepanjang buat phD ni, kalau tak, tekanan perasaan lah jadinya..

April log

Nasi goreng kampung - DH's favourite :)

2nd attempt at sushi making. Banyak lagi kena belajar ;p

Nasi lemak dengan ikan sardin goreng. Makan panas-panas ketika cuaca sejuk suram. Aduhaiii, nikmat dunia 

Nasi goreng smoked salmon. Sedap oii. 

Vanilla cupcake dengan topping sukahati. DH sangat sukaa :D

Nasi putih, daging berempah hitam & simple acar mentah

DH's request - spaghetti bolognese 

Nasi minyak, ayam masak merah, kurma kentang & jelatah

Mi goreng - kegemaran laki aku (lagi). Apa menatang lah yang kami dia tak suka makan? 

Siakap bakar sumbat sambal kelapa, air asam, sayur lemak taugeh+tauhu & sambal ikan bilis+petai

Bihun goreng extra pedas. Makan sambil tengok cerita Jurrasic Park 

Bread & butter pudding with custard sauce. Tiba-tiba teringin sangat nak makan. Buat sendiri, makanlah 2-3 kali. Puas hati

Banyak lagi yang tak diambil gambar. Antara menu malas yang selalu berulang-ulang di rumah ni adalah nasi putih, sup ayam (guna rempah sup & sedikit rempah kurma) & sambal kicap. Jangan tak tahu, menu malas tu boleh buat nasi bertambah tanpa sedar :D

Kisah budak baru belajar

Minggu lepas giliran saya membentang di college internal seminar, video linked to the other campus. Royal Veterinary College ni ada dua campus, setiap kali seminar memang kitorang akan ber-video conference. Pembentangan ni simple saja, dalam masa 10 minit kena ceritakan perihal phD project sendiri, apa pencapaian setakat ni dan apa perancangan dalam masa 3 tahun.

Nervous pun kena lah bentang jugak, sampaikan ada words yang escaped masa sangat-sangat diperlukan, sampai jadi macam Tun M dok cakap "apa nama.. apa nama..". Takdelah saya cakap gitu, tapi maksudnya lebih kurang lah. Nasib baik supervisor buat gerak mulut, maka dapatlah perkataan tu - anxiety. Hantu betul. Saya yang anxiety attack sampai hilang semua words.

Bila sampai part Q&A, berebut-rebut lah hadirin-hadirat dari kedua-dua campus bertanya soalan. Head of department sendiri pun bukan main lagi bersoal-siasat. Maka ketika tu panik pun mencanak-canak jadinya. Tambahan pulak bila soalan dari campus di sana tu audionya putus-putus. Haih, makcik tension. Jawab, tapi dengan rasa macam tak puas hati. Betul ke aku ni menjawab soalan.. Tengok ke arah supervisor, nampak dia dok tunduk je (tak senyum dah macam awal-awal tadi). Ah sudah.

Selesai presentation, supervisor berlalu sambil bersembang dengan head of department, tak berhenti untuk komen apa-apa pun. Terus rasa makin tak seronok. Selalunya dia akan comment, kasi kata-kata yang sedap didengar. Sah lah presentation or Q&A tadi teruk....

Lepas presentation hari Selasa tu, rasa down sangat. Down la sangat sampai tak pi sekolah hari Rabu & Khamis - tengah takde running experiment bolehla work from home kan (work from home=bangun lewat, makan tak berhenti & melagha sepanjang hari). Tapi seriously rasa macam malu nak mengadap muka supervisor.

Semalam terima feedback forms dari insan-insan yang hadir ke presentation saya tu. Rupa-rupanya feedback sangat positive. Terima kasih la siapa-siapa yang sudi isi feedback form tu. Semangat dah kembali. Saya janji takkan ponteng lagi. Ok lah, janji sampai hujung minggu ni :P