IWCB & Asian Ladies' Meeting

on tuesday i went to an International Women's Club Bratislava at Crowne Plaza, right smack in the heart of town. got to go only because the nice jap lady who invited me came over to our place so that she could help me with baby & her pram up and down the bus. she took 2 buses to reach our place - it was so nice of her.

anyway, it was my first time and she was the one who introduced it to me. her husband works with Sony as well, and she was one of the people who came over for bak kut teh at our place for dinner; she's Kaori-san. she and her husband had twins (one boy and one girl - kau tim, close shop!) now 8 years old and attending the international school here.

when i got there, the meeting was held at the coffee house and it was quite noisy - ppl chattering and laughing and all that. all women, the only 2 men there were the photographer and the other is the dance instructor who was there to promote dancing classes.

the only seats available there were away from the counter where they served coffee and a distance away from the white baby grand piano. there was supposed to be a small concert that day. after taking our seats and putting Arielle down, she wandered off on her own, more like wobbled off, where she found new friends and toys to play with. afraid that she would be rough on the other babies, i quickly sat down next to her on the floor and grabbed her. it was from there that i started talking to other mothers, but more like started to talking to their babies first. ahhaha... why do we do that?

it's good to find that there are other women who are also in my kind of position. husband working, we stay home all day with baby in a foreign land, where language and food and culture is all new.

would be good if i can join the club; they've got a few activities planned out for the whole year and i'll get to meet ppl with the same kind of needs as me. but it's difficult for me to travel alone with baby and having to take the bus. in add'n to that, i'd like to get more acquainted with ppl from church and see where i can fit in to serve first before occupying myself with other activities. at least with church activities, aylwin and i can go together with the car.

there is also another club for women, it's called the Asian Ladies' Meeting and they meet once a month. an Indonesian lady from our church had invited me, but i told her i wasn't able to go. i'm sure it'd be nice if i could; maybe they have sambal and nasi lemak.... hmmm...or laksa, or curry...

On the Water here

it's really different from back home. both taps (one in the bathroom and in the kitchen) have hot & cold water and the water here is safe for drinking without having to boil it first.

however, when we first arrived, i thought it tasted really funny. not sure if it's because of me being so used to drinking RO water, the water here has a salty and stale taste. on the first week going to church and meeting our new korean friends (Yooni & Soo), they have mentioned something about 'tears from the stone' regarding the water here, and that even if we boil them, the certain ingredient in the water still remains. so we decided to buy a special bottled water for babies for Arielle.

it's called Lucka and it's about euro3.20 for 6 bottles of 1.5L.

just last week i found yellow coloured sediments when i dispense the water from our electric water flask. when i opened it i found a lot of these things submerged in the water we take to drink everyday as well as for making baby's milk. of course, i took out the plug and stopped using the flask. however, because the tap's hot water wasn't hot enough to make hot drinks/baby's milk, i started to use a small pot to boil the water whenever we needed it. after a few boils, the base of the pot became yellowish as well.




there's also the case where when the water dries up, there's a kind of water stain on it. one of the pics below is from our shower cubicle, as you can see the marks of the water when it's dried up. it's like as if there's a mixture of soap and water dried up and then you have the stains.





don't know what to make of it currently, our korean friends don't take from the tap, they buy and consume bottled waters only. so far for us, we didn't get any stomach upset from it and everything's fine except on the yellow sediments upon boiling.

Ordering Pizza

the other day we got back quite late from kai-kai around town and then decided to order a delivery instead of cooking; thought it'd be faster. ayl called up a few pizza places that we got from a book called Easy Bratislava and we managed to get someone on the line after a lot of tries. it was a public holiday and there was some sort of festival going on that was why maybe they're really busy.

anyway, after ordering, aylwin asked for how much it was and then how long it would take to arrive at our place. the answer...2 HOURS!! crap! and to think that it'd be faster to order a delivery!! we didn't cancel the order tho, after so much difficulty trying to get them on the phone and all, plus we were curious!

so we had some tuna sandwiches while waiting for the pizza. when it came, it was worth the wait. :) here's why.







ayl put the fan and the laptop to compare the size of the pizza... ahhaha...
it was really really good and it smelt great! a lot of cheese and the crust was thin but it wasn't like thin until lembik that kind. i had 1 and half, and it was enough. ayl crazy had 3 and then he suffered ... hahaha...

we ate it for 2 days since we only got out pizza near 10pm that night and after the sandwiches we were already full. will surely order it again, but of course, 2hours ahead in time and prolly with more ppl to share it with!

4th week at Bratislava

i guess since i'm a siu lai-lai now (yeah right!), i have more time to start a blog... thanks to dave & peich for the suggestion.

well, since arriving here and getting our cargo on the 2nd week, things have pretty much settled in. most of my free time here is spent looking at pics in facebook, and the stuff that ppl do everyday back home in msia - and we're missing all the good food back home. so please guys, esp. Lu Chin John aka Lu Chin Suey for putting up all the pics of food you're having, and not only that, focused and closed up shots!! dun like you la...

i went shopping for groceries just now, and for those i've emailed/talked to; all the stuff here are either in slovak/czech/german, so buying things are really difficult. most of the time just guessing from the picture. just to show you what i mean, i've taken a few pics with my phone (sony ericson K5501), BUT i realized that since we got here i can't seem to find the CD to install the driver into our PC. so, i can't download them into the PC... does anyone know if there's a way i can get them from the web? please help.

as per current, ayl is at work, baby just woke up. i've to start cooking in a few mins. we're still waiting to get a car so that we can drive around, which will be a challenge as it's a left hand drive here. the delay's due to ayl's international license - waiting for HR msia office to send it. the car will be a toyota, and a manual... hahaha! so he has to focus on driving on the left with the gear on the right, focus on the road coz it's a different side now, and focus on which road to take! super! to add to that, we don't know the roads here at all and here's the best part, everythings' in slovak! super super!! pls kesian him and pray for him ya. ppl here drive really really fast, no joke.

oh, and for arielle's fans out there, there will be more pics coming your way - and yeah, stories about her and maybe a bit about how she's driving me crazy bit by bit everyday with her pranks and stuff. hai~ i guess most of ya'll just waiting for this right? yes, she's definitely more popular than the 2 of us.