Switzerland - Interlaken

It was spring and weather is getting nice. We decided to do a weekend car trip to Switzerland. We started off early, packed some bread to eat along the way. Usually when we drive to Switzerland, we will stop by a rest stop for a cup of coffee after passing by the border. It is always nice to have a cup of hot coffee in the chilly morning. I always like it when the mountains came into view, especially when they are capped with snow. Our goal is Interlaken for this weekend.

We were on the road for a couple of hours when we saw a restaurant and decided that it was time for a second stop. In this place, we had the most delicious and most expensive croissants in our lives. We were so hungry that we ate up every single piece of croissant that was placed on the table in front of us. And all of us agreed that it was simply delicious, even though we soon realize that it would be the most expensive croissant that we had ever eaten.

We explored around the area since the view was captivating and everything was quiet and serene.

We passed by Lake Thun and Brienz. We were so excited when we saw the first signs of spring, our driver drove into the green out of this excitement and before we knew it, our car got stuck in the mud.

This was the first time in my life and hopefully the only time in my life that I have to push a car. We tried many different theories trying to get the car out of the mud, which now looking back, I am not sure who suggested them. In anycase, we were relieve to get the car of out the mud but it was quite funny now that we think about it.

We found a place to stay somewhere in the town area. And we were lucky to find a room for 5. It was a cosy attic room and we liked it a lot.

We drove around a little bit more to Lake Brienz

That night dinner was cheese fondue with fish and chips. And it was yummy!!

It snowed again the next morning. What a beautiful sight. I didnt know what woke me up but I was there, looking at the snow from the attic window and it was so beautiful.

We took a little walk before breakfast. Everywhere was covered with snow once again. But it is always cosy to look at snow when you are on the inside.





We continued again with our journey to Grindewald. Along the way we had pitstops again and played with snow. We had our share of snowball fight and we found our buddy snowman :)

Time passed quickly when you are having fun. Before we knew it, it was time to start on our drive back to Milan. It was a very simple trip with no real itinery. Just sightseeing and company of friends and it was enough to leave me wonderful memories.



Dinners in Italy

Dinners in Italy were a rather "rowdy" event on most days during my stay in Italy. At least this was the case for the first few months. That's the fun when you have a group of colleagues staying together.

Usually we do our "marketing" at the nearby supermarket after work. Not every ingredient could be found easily in the European environment, but luckily we had some "stock" that we brought from Singapore. Initially we would do the cooking in our own apartments then bring the food to one "selected" apartment for a common dinner. But after a while, we got complaints about bringing dishes from one apartment to another and hence we decided to do all the cooking in one apartment. This could be rather disastrous as we are fighting to use the stove, the oven the basin all at the same time. The kitchen was a warplace during dinner making ;p

Occasionally we get also invites from our Italian counterparts and we also invited them over for dinner.

Dinner at Nino's

When we are lazy to cook and miss Chinese food, we sometimes go to the nearby Chinese restaurant Yu Yuan for dinner. We even had our Chinese New Year reunion dinner there since we were away for CNY that year. The style of Chinese food is not really the same as what we have in Singapore, but we could still find food like fried rice, noodles, so at least it could still satisfy partially our cravings.

As times goes by, we also learnt to venture further, sometimes to nearby towns like Monza and Bergamo for dinner. My favourite pizzeria is Il Cinghei, first introduced to me by a good friend of mine, Andrea. I rememberd the first visit at this place, I wanted to have the tiramisu for dessert. But it was also out of stock. The owner invited me to another dessert, the Panna cotta instead. Over time, we frequent this place and for each visit, it was like visiting a friend.  

When I look back at the photos, I realize how these dinners brought us closer together, of course also with much disputes, but we usually manage to patch up afterwards. Sometimes it can be over silly stuff, but well, this is how things are like living together and perhaps through this, we all grew up in one way or another.

My first apartment away from home

I was telling KW that I wanted to write down the different stories in my life. So that if some day I am diagnosed with dementia, alzheimer, amnesia and what ever it may be, I can look at my own stories to look for some memories.

I thought that I would probably want to know my first experience away from home. Strictly speaking this was more of the first experience to have a long trip away from home. I was scheduled to be attached to our HQ site in Italy for 3 months for basic training. There were a group of us. Mostly fresh grads with a few seniors. So we were all pretty excited. We started to fly in small groups begininng of the year in 2005. I was also excited till the moment we had to leave for the airport. That was when panic start to overcome me after it suddenly dawned on me that I had to settle my own dinner, clothes, dishes, make my own plans and decisions. Even though it was already planned that two of us will be sharing one apartment, the thought of staying with a new friend also frightened me a little.

Mum was also getting quite panicky and kept reminding me how I should be careful when I am outside, and try to stay in groups, not to wander around. I seldom confide in Dad, but that very day, I told Dad that I was thinking to change my mind. Instead, the next thing I knew, Dad took the suitcase out of the room and told me to get ready. I remembered the words he then said "It's a good chance to go and see the world. See the world out there and learn from life experiences" I don't know if he ever regret saying those words to me, but it was those words that made me brave the first step towards my next phase of life.

We bade each other goodbye at the airport. I left thinking that I would be back in 3 months time. I didn't realize at that time that I would  be staying there for the next 8 months of my life.

It was my first time taking the long flight. I felt really uncomfortable since I didn't really sleep in the plane. But what I remembered from the flight was the nice view when we flew over the alps. The first time in my life I saw what we had read in books, watched on tv, seen in magazines. But it was a really unforgettable experience to see the alps covered with snow just beneath us.

We took a cab from the Milano Malpensa airport to our town Vimercate where we then checked into our apartment. It was already 3 pm in the afternoon when we checked in. I remembered going to bed after showering and I didnt wake up until the next day. I don't think I had even explored our apartment. I vaguely remembered my housemate trying to wake me up for dinner. But I think I shooed her away. What a friendly "hello". (We had known each other already in the company and she had arrive a week earlier.)

So while everybody was still soundly asleep, I was awake at 4 am in the morning. I went to the toilet to brush my teeth. I found a glass and filled it up with water. I decided to switch on the lights. This was when I made a big fuss and started waking up my housemate -- What's wrong with the water?? I almost screamed into her face??? It's all milky!!!! I could remember she was still half asleep but she was still in the right mind to answer "just let it settle, it's normal" With that she went back to bed. I waited for a while and true enough the water become clear after a while. I realize afterwards that it was due to the minerals that were in the water that made it milky. Ever since, I became the pampered kid of Singapore.

We started off for work when everyone is awake. We finally had the chance to say hi and had breakfast. She had already stocked up some mineral water in the house. In the meantime, I started to explore apartment. It was a rather nice apartment with parquet flooring. We were on the twelfth level with our other colleagues occupying the neighbouring apartments and also apartments on the other levels. We had a big kitchen with a nice balcony.


Our living room



Our kitchen





What I liked the most was the view we had from the apartment and how convenient it was to have a shopping mall with a supermarket just next to our apartment building.

That very night when we got back, the first snow came! Yah all of us were excited. For most of us, it was the first time we see snow. We didn't really care about what others were thinking. We were just amazed at how soft snow feels and how fun it is actually to be playing in the snow -- but not for long ;p

It just took a few hours, and the whole place was covered in snow. It was cold but a beautiful sight.

Our balcony covered in snow

The view outside from our balcony