Autumn is Almost Here

The weather are getting colder and colder day by day. Leaves fall from trees one by one, leaving their own root which once had them swing with pride has now made them appearing in brownish color almost yellowish, but not quite. Soon every heaters in every house would again be functioning. Blankets tucked neatly in the drawers are required again to warm beds at night.

Its almost september now. An excuse for me to count days till the day we will go back home for just 2 weeks for the reception.

Summer have been good this year. No annoying rains like last year. Just plain hot sunny weather just nice for a summer picnic and barbeque under the trees. Nothing much happen this year compared to last year. Maybe because everybody has started working and some of them have gone back home for good. Oh how I wish my friends are here. This summer was perfect. Which remind me I haven't share the rest of my Rome pictures with you. There were so many breathtaking and beautiful places in Rome to visit, I can't barely snap pictures and at the same time enjoying the view and history. Nevertheless, I still manage to snapped thousands of photos. Some of them I'd be glad to share.

Me @ Trevi Fountain

Rome was sure a city of tourist. Its hard to take a decent picture without tourist passing by ruining your photo.

Vatican City.

Loving you in Vatican City

Vatican Museum, St. Peter square

Every 2 hours we had to stop by a stall to buy cold drinks. It was really hot like Malaysia.

Pigeons at Piazza Novana

Me at The Pantheon

The Pantheon - This was my personal favourite

Colosseum

Us at the Roman forum

Me @ spanish steps

Spanish steps - Notice the blue sky? Yes indeed it was the hottest summer I've ever experienced

Sistine Chapel and Vatican museum

Truly Honeymoon :)

Vatican Museum at night

Castel Sant'Angelo where "Angels and Demons" were shoot.

Christian Prayers at St. Peter Square - Vatican City

My lovely being so serious. We were exhausted and this was the last place that we visited.

But soon after that he was pretty excited to ride his first Tram. LOL

Pheww..That was a lot of pictures needed to be loaded. I truly love the city of Rome or Roma as what the Italian call it. Rome was beautiful and breathtaking. It was more beautiful in real rather than in pictures. Ask me again and I would definitely go to Rome again. But it won't be in the summer. I like colder weather better. And definitely won't be in the near future. Atleast not yet.

Merdeka Celebration UK Style

Last week Merdeka day arrived earlier here than it should be. The Malaysian community held a Karnival for us Malaysian and also for the locals who wanted to enjoy Malaysian cuisine. I guess it has something to do with the Ramadhan around the corner. For us it was a heaven of foods as most of us spend time try to cooks rather than buying. But for the locals, it was more of a new foods to experience.

The heat of Ramadhan month is arriving again starting tomorrow.With almost everyone gone home make my homesickness worst. However, tonight I'll be first time fasting as somebody's wife. I've been busier than ever with my work. There's so much I need to catch up on as most of my colleagues are off to Glasgow by Monday for the EUSIPCO conference. Me? I'm here in the office trying my best to get things done.

Yesterday was our first year anniversary since we got engaged. It was nothing to celebrate to but just to mark down that it has been a year since I wore a ring. Even so, I just can't help to share that my adorable husband was being very nice by giving me a present. Isn't he a doll.

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Meanwhile, there is this emptiness in the house with 'cat' no longer being here. Cat has been rehome to a single mother whose daughter is leaving for university life. She loves black cat and the family is animal loving. So we decided cat would be happier with her. she told us cat is happy. We'll miss cat dearly.

Sunday Night Blue

It never occur to me to realize when I'm feeling down and a bit blue, I've always expressed it through writing. Either in a form of a diary, an email which aren't intended to be sent to anyone, a wall, a piece of a tissue, or just a short word in any paper that were ready to grab. I didn't realize about it until I've opened my old note book that I found left unopened for quite sometimes. This habit of mine have been lasted since I know how to spell.

To be frank, although I'm the kind of person that express my feeling of gayness very well but on the opposite side, I beg the differ. When I'm not in the mood, I never actually talk about my problem to anyone. So I find writing is very therapeutic. I would write and keep the note to myself. Just a simple short note and I'd able to sleep the problem off. Call me an ego but thats just the way I've always been.

The good thing about it is when I woke up I never actually remembered what my problems were. Although it wasn't entirely, but it was enough to just make me move on.

Oh goodness me, I do feel a bit blue but I shall sleep now. Who knows, maybe when I wake up, sunshine will be waiting for me. And I'll be able to carry on.

Marriage

While I was browsing around the other day, I stopped to one blog that had me glued to read one after the other of her entries. She was telling people about each and every minute of her miserable life how her husband betrayed and cheated on her for another sad older women. This was not a blog for the kids I tell you. My god there were swearing everywhere. Judging from it, her marriage life has failure written all over her. She blame her husband for the divorce and she was not strong enough to sustain

her patient and maturity until she had done something that send shame to her husband only life horribly. She claim that he deserve it.

Ideally, when some of us encounter a headline in a news or in a magazine that read something like "How to survive long marriage" most of us would have guess is it really read, "Love and happiness for years to come" or "The secret to successful marriage".

Funny how that works, your brain reads one thing, your mind takes in another. Like how Obama wins South Carolina and suddenly he's winning the race.

Reading the person blog really had me thinking. According to a person that have been married for 17 years said that what lasted a long marriage or relationship is actually survival, most of the time, rather than success. Success, personally, is about trofi, winning and an achievement that has a beginning and an end.

Unlike the war in Iraq, with a questionable beginning and no end in sight.

They see it more as survival. They've survived each other. They have managed to love each other even though every illusion has been stripped away.

Actually, continues to be stripped away.

Because while there is a beginning, there is no end. They continue to grow, evolve, at different rates. Core issues- the ones that start to harden after the first six months of being together- take the form of dirty socks on the floor or dishes left in the sink.

But when their ages increases and maturity takes over, they learn to accept, they learn to not pointing fingers and compromising, they learn to take turn in responsibility and that quarreling and swearing is not the answer but more of a communication and discussion. Trust is out of the question here because trust is suppose to be part of them when they first agreed to be married to each other.

Few months back we had a chance to meet with my father mum living in Scotland with her children all grown up and even grandchildren. She was old and so is her husband Jim. We ask Jim

"How long have you been married? He gave a big smile and show his full palm to us while saying, "50 years, can you imagine that".

"How did you do it Jim? He gave a pregnant pause and gave one answer

"patient"

Have I Ever Told You

Have I ever told you I love traveling so much. Even when I was in Uniten, I was never in my room. I'd run here and there, in and out, rushing back and forth of the hostel apartment every single day. I just can't seem to stay put. Especially when I'd have all the freedom in the world to live independently. When I was in primary school, my first trip was the US. I can't seem to remember why our family was there but I remembered my father had some sort of work to do and we stayed there with my uncle. That was the best trip ever other than I had to skipped school,I got to to go to Disneyland. I was so excited but what a shame I was terrified of Mickey mouse because I sweare I've seen Mickey way smaller in the TV rather than in real live. But my brother was the opposite, he kept on coming to Mickey to shake hands until every other children was annoyed with him for not giving them a chance. Mickey just shook his head.

We also got to go to hollywood studio. Even though I was 7 at that time, I know I was able to appreciate the movie business there in California. It was fantastic. I can say that I was more observant that time rather than now. How they made Star trek character disappear and all. king kong and Jaws movie was just made within the studio gate. Even still, it felt so real I cried thinking that King Kong was going to kidnap me. He was humongous. What a naive kid I was.

As a bona fide city girl, most of my traveling life I spent it by traveling to big conventional cities. Paris, California, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, London, Barcelona and the recent one was Rome. The first thing that came to mind would be the Colosseum. There's so much to be told about the great Roman architecture. I won't be babbling here about the Colosseum history nor the Rome empire, believe me if I would to it would take more than 1 page of this blog. But I can say that it is worth to know the interior and why it is build as it is.

But if you have the chance to travel, doesn't matter if it Rome or "Jelapang Padi". Make an effort to know the history and the culture of the places that you're going to visit and the people that you are going to meet. It will give more meaning to your travel experiences and maybe you'll get some knowledges here and there for you to teach your children in the future. Enjoy yourself and at the same time learn a thing or two about people, about cultures, about the world.

Otherwise, why do you think god created all the wonders in the world in the first place?

For you to learn and appreciate of course!

P/S: Sorry for the color. Pictures are published raw. Without editing nor cropping.