School holidays came again!

Always there would be some kind of anxiety on my part on how to 'perform' during the school holidays. this is because my children expect me to do a lot of 'entertaining' them. i felt a heavy sense of anxiety because i was expected to prepare a good itinerary to amuse them. Aam would comment this as my paranoid, obsessive streak. never mind...

so this time round we combined the holidays with my interview with the Director of Institut Perubatan dan Pergigian Termaju (IPPT) Dr Ramli Saad (this bears another topic).

we arrived in Sg Nibong by bus on 28th may. Aam picked us up and drove us back on that chilly morning to our house in Balik Pulau. the heavy smell of durian scented the morning air and through the misty morning we drove across the island to the small town.

after a short slumber aam and i walked to the small town to buy breakfast and NST. we were seriously looking out for the article that i sent in to the editor but still not published (still not, till now. that's another topic though!)

at 2.30 pm i met with dr ramli saad at Hotel bayview on Jalan farquhar. after the meeting we went shopping, i bought my slippers with 20% discount at the price of 39.90. also bought my phone covering. here's a picture of us at the shop, taken again with the sony PDA-phone


we went home, found that aam's daughter mastika has arrived to see the notebook that Aam bought. he bought her an RM 1600.00 lenovo notebook with Windows XP and duo core processor. but mastika was not very happy about it, because she wanted an acer or toshiba notebook. of course aam was also not happy, but he showed a brave front.

we planned to take the kids out but it was raining. so instead we went to have dinner at a seafood restaurant some 15 km away. it was a majestic affair of ikan siakap masak sweet and sour, lala masak sambal petai, sotong goreng tepung, tom yam campur and 2 jugs of apple and watermelon juice. we were so stuffed out and to top it all, it only cost us RM75.oo. real value for money! just for the sake of the marvellous seafood i'd have gladly moved to penang right there and then!

A picture of nur with mastika in front of the sumptious fair

this picture taken with the sony PDA-phone was not so clear.

we went back with full stomachs and watched a movie afterward. aam was complaining of the worsening of his metacarpal joint pain and i really sympathized with him. we totally forgot that the joyous seafood had only worsened the gouty arthritic pain. poor aam. he took a double dose of celebrex and glucosamine.

the next day was thursday and aam sat for his induction exam. 2 papers of MCQ and also an essay. he was as cool as cucumber not like when yours truly sat for her exams, a nervous wreck! i caught some time to do my work at his desk. barely 30 minutes passed and he came out already. then went in for another 45 minutes of essay. i hope you passed, darling.

we bought chicken and fish and in the afternoon aam drove us to find a good place for picnic at Titi Kerawang but when we reached the place it was raining, the place was desolate and quite dangerous for any recreational activities. we drove some km further and reached teluk bahang where we had our grilled chicken bbq, and grilled garlic-chicken sausages. the kids were happy they got to dip in the water although there were surprised at how salty the water was! actually they were not used to swimming in the sea.

on friday aam was supposed to be working. i said 'supposed' because his real job amounted to nothing compared to mine...! (Jgn mare bang!). actually he didnot have that much to do because his students have not registered yet for the new academic session.

we came out of the house early and aam took us to bukit jambul which was about 700metres tall but the track was so steep it reminded us a lot of Maxwell Hill. i was left breathless with the kids some 20 metres of climbing or so.

we had breakfast at Desa Bakti-fajar. this was the place that i used to frequent when i studied there back in 1988-89. then aam took us to USM museum. i didnt fancy the name 'museum' because i abhor anything to do with history. this goes way back when i was schooling at Seri Puteri and i had a nasty experience in the form of mental torture having one Puan Hazlin Karim as my history teacher! so i tried to distance myself way away from history so i dont get that panic anxiety attack (am i a severe case of a depressed-psycho or what?)

as it turned out the Museum was far away from what real 'museum' should be - thank god for small measures. i really don't want my children to turn to be an history-hater like me. it was actually a mixture of history-artifacts gallery on science and art. there was a showcase of children's art, planetarium, a nice group of scopes, hologram, human anatomy, culture, etc. the kids surprisingly enjoyed themselves there. wow! that was a revelation.

Nur trying to see through the telescope.

afterward we went to Tesco and Giant hypermarts to kill time. while aam went for friday prayers i had a reflexology session. it was terrible with the capital T. it was a literary painful experience which i did not care to repeat. the charge was also more expensive than what we were used, plus shorter duration but a lot of pain! a real botched job at reflexology. i think this people need some kind of certification before they can be allowed to practise.

in the afternoon we wanted to take the kids to the swimming pool but it only opens after 3.00 pm, so we let the kids playing games on aam's computer while we got a shut-eye. as it turned out the pool was closed due to the previous day tragic death of a Jordanian student found dead in the pool.

on saturday we were supposed to await for the arrival of mak nun from ipoh whom was not scheduled to arrive until late afternoon. so we really had lots of time to kill. in the morning the children were woken up early and we went to visit Rumah P.Ramlee which was under the authority of Arkib Negara. it was a small place and not quite i expected. i would have thought a big name like his should have more artifacts and collections. there would be hundreds of his memorabilia lying around as personal collectors' items and the arkib should make some incentives so owners would gladly loan these memorabilia to Arkib Negara.


Aam at the foot of the house that P.Ramlee was born in.

The kids with p.Ramlee's old bicycle. it was said that the brake system was often faulty because P.Ramlee usually had to brake suddenly each time he had an idea for a song lyrics or something.

at the foot of Galeri P.Ramlee

afterward we went to the nearby flea market near the perbandaran stadium. aidid as usual got himself his toys. it was the ultraman 'transformer' and the autobots. he also got himself the ultraman CD and we bought the pirated indiana jones and the crystal skull (Harrison Ford) and CJ7 (stephen chow's). we tried nasi lemak and rudi got herself treated to nasi lemuni.

we went to Queensbay Mall which was a very large shopping mall at the new queensbay area. before that we thought of taking the kids for a day trip on pulau jerejak, but it was so expensive so we decided to watch a movie. we saw the new release "superhero Movie" which was a bad choice as it turned out to be. a lot disgusting scenes and cheap jokes. it was a combination of superheroes Batman, spiderman, superman in one. but no ultraman, much to aidid's dismay. it was the kids' first experience at the cinema and they thoroughly enjoyed it, lest the fight to conquer the popcorn, which aidid ultimately won as the final conqueror, as always...

i went to the giant bookshop "Borders". OMG i could get lost in the book store and never wanted to be rescued. there were thousands of books and so many were my favourites! i had a tough time to choose what i wanted and finally settled with Nora Robert's Survivor in Death, in her series of "Death" mystery writing as J.D Robb and also another book by Sandra Brown about a pair of twins in "The Switch". i must say Sandra Brown is boring me, i could predict her plot after the first chapter and i think to swear off her books in the near future if she didnt buckle up!

we were so tired afterward we went to aam's office while waiting for mak nun to arrive. i had a nap and the kids went back to playing... what else, the computer games! i must say being kids nowadays are so boring and not enough challenge. they must disagree to this statement!

mak nun arrived later then expected and not until 6.45 pm. the kids were joyous to see her and amidst the excited chatter we took her to the house. that night we watched CJ7 although aidid wailed his displeasure, but later he joined in the laughter at the hilarious renditions of stephen chow's.

the next day we prepared for yet another picnic at the Forest Resort near Teluk Bahang about 20 km away from balik pulau. unfortunately after 30 minutes of arrival, there was a heavy downpour and we ended up BBQing at one of the wakafs. it was fun, though. by the time we reached the house it was already late and we were so tired.

that night we went to the pasar malam. got a taste of one of penang's pasar malam. not much difference.

the next day we drove to taiping, because we wanted the kids to have a proper dipping in a swimming pool plus a change in scene. we stayed overnight at Taiping Golf Resort and Jana Condotel. there was a room promo for a standard room hillview at RM95.00. the kids had their laps in the pool and we stuffed on mamak foods. the next day still more swim, more mamak foods and aam had to drive back to penang because he was supposed to be working that day. meanwhile we took a bus to ipoh because we couldnt get tickets to KB from taiping. pak nif waited for us at Medan Gopeng and took us out for lunch.

after a lunch of RM37.00 we went to their house for a short break while waiting until 8.15 pm at which time we drove to Medan Gopeng to get on the bus to KB. the bus arrived on time. it was cold and the trip seemed shorter, the driver actually didnot stop at Grik but drove directly to Tanah Merah, Pasir Mas and we finally arrived in KB at 4.00 am.

so, how was our performance? a perfect 10, i would say..

The Passing of my Nenek

My grandmother who was born in 1908 passed away last week, 14th may 2008. She was 101 years old, according to her I.C. All my life i had only known my grandmother, who was my mother's mother since both my father's parents had passed away long before i was born. my nenek was practically our surrogate parent since she lived close by, had always taken care of us when we were small and for the past 6 years had lived with us due to her illness.

my early memories of Puan Minah bt Hassan was her enterprising career as a businesswoman. she was an educated lady by her generation's standard because she could read and did her sums. she completed 3 years of school before quitting due to financial restrains. my father said she would have been a headmistress had she completed 2 more schooling years. this i took as a compliment to an old lady who was also my Quran teacher, not just mine but also other scores of children living in the squatters neighbourhood of Kg Konggo and later Bandar Tun Razak.

As far as businesses went, my grandmother had her finger in every pie, be it in the textile business, jewellery, electrical goods, furniture, cookwares and to the manufacturing and sales of of bedak sejuk. in the old days my mother and grandmother were involved in selling air batu campur, rojak, mee, tempe, cakar ayam, and many others. my nenek acted as the 'middle man' in most of her business. from her saving of early days, she started accumulated her wealth by buying the goods from a chinese man "Gemuk" at Taman Midah, and she paid Gemuk RM3,000.00 every month from her customers' installments. i was always astounded at how a good at the cost of RM100.00 can be doubled to RM200.00 because of 24 months installments! so my grandmother was my first exposure to trading.

of course my father always lifted his eyebrow at how my nenek conducted her business. my father always scared her off with the word 'riba' to which my nenek would just ignored. my nenek had a strained relationship with my father from the early days. her damaged relationship with my father had crossed a span of 30 or more years. they did not talk to each other amicably, as far as i could remember. there was a reason for this, a trivial one, which someone explained to me, but the existing gap between them was more habitual than reasonable. this of course took a twist for, to her last dying days when she stayed in our house, my father was the one who took care of her.

my siblings and i were her companions on her buying spree. i still remember the trips to Kuala Lumpur, that my grandmother took us by bus.. yeah, she wouldnt waste money on a taxi fare, we would go to jalan masjid India to get more stocks of kain batik, kain pelikat, kain pasang, pawned jewelleries, etc. my grandmother kept a detail account of her business which expanded to many volumes of buku hutang and she often would ask us if it was the time of the end of the month when she would start going around to her customers' houses to collect the installments. she walked by herself and entered the numbers diligently without fail. a remarkable and challenging job, which would make make most people surrender!

my grandmother had always had a strong mind of her own which translated into a strong streak of stubbornness. other than the fall out with my father, i couldn't recall any loving attention bestowed to her husband, my late grandfather and also to her own daughter, my mother. to her dying days my nenek was not on talking terms with my mother, in fact she vent her anger on my mother with vicious words and derogatory remarks because of some small mistakes.

my grandmother lived with us when she was diagnosed with hypertension, heart failure and had severe osteophorosis and sustained multiple bone problems and was unable to mobilise on her own. she occupied our living room with her things which she prohibited us to keep tidy, she refused cupboards or containers to keep her things, she just plain instructed us to leave her and her things alone.

my nenek adhered to a strict discipline of her own. every morning after her bath she would have her 'keepers' prepared her breakfast, read the newspapers and went to the market on her wheelchair, this was like her highlight of the day during which she would went around mixing with people, bought her food which she would later asked my parents to keep in the fridge. in the afternoon she would sleep and woke up only for meals, bath and prayers. she took all her medications on her own and she had never missed her doctors' appointments, not once! she had lost her hearing many years ago and for this reason, communication was almost non-existent with people around her. but she had stayed alert and still recognized all faces.

that was until 3 days later when she changed her habit, she did not sit up, did not move around, did not drink or eat. and after maghrib on 14th may i heard news from my sister saying that she passed away quietly in her sleep, no pain... just her last small breaths.... according to my father, she called out to my mother, may be showing her imminent departure from this world and she wanted her daughter closely by.

after a week nearly passed, when the newspaper man delivered our newspaper, we still remember the 'road block' for which we had to surrender the papers to my nenek first without fail. when we entered the house through the living room, we always saw her lying on her simple mattress either sleeping or seeing with her far off expression. i still could hear her arguments with my mum and my father. her litany of 'aku orang tua, dah nak mati, tak da sapa nak jaga... nak halau aku", etc and we took that as rumblings of an old stong minded stubborn woman.

quite frankly i miss my nenek.... one Minah bt Hassan, who finally joined her husband Mohd Latim bin Sulaiman and joined their early daughter Rohani in the hereafter. Al Fatihah...

Majlis Kesyukuran

Mak Nun and her friends, some of the guest turning up for the Yaasin recital.

Mak Nun and relatives in Ipoh helped us organized a thanks giving party (Majlis kenduri kesyukuran) at her house in Ipoh. i witnessed the truest sense of a community 'gotong royong' affair with pot luck dishes on the tables. kak yati, a single mother who was also a good friend of the family's was the chef and she cooked a mean chicken curry !

about 200 guests turned up on that bright and sunny day. it started off with a Yaasin recital and followed by the salawat to the prophet Muhammad. it was so hot, we were sweating so much and i was feeling lightheaded because of the heat and the crowd.

among the dishes were chicken curry, deep fried steamed fish, fried cabbage (veggie), fried beef pergedil, boiled ulam and fresh ulam with belacan paste, for desserts we had - deep fried spring rolls with sauce, banana cakes, cocktail pudding and watermelon. the drinks were iced-cold orange and grape cordials. we experimented a cocktail of orange-grape combi and it worked out fine too!

i loved the cooked ulam best and kak yati's sambal belacan was so hot it made my head spin! i also loved her pergedil which had always been my favourite dish. i applauded their 'bravery' in preparing the pergedil because it was a difficult dish to mass-produce. they had difficulty as expected, judging from the broken pergedil balls seen on the side trays. the rich, salty, hot and sweet dishes were a good combination when you completed it off with sweet tasting and fresh watermelons.

the whole packs were there including pak ta, mak yong, mak yang, mak yam and pak bab, auntie shima and pak in and many otehr relatives i couldnt get their names straight. mak nun made made some souvenirs with recycled plastic/artificial flowers and sent guests away smiling with goody bags in their hands.Auntie Shima and Mak Yam cutting the watermelons. we bought them at Pasar Jelapang at Rm1/per kg which was a very good deal indeed.


the kids were behaving themselves... what more could i ask? my gratitude to Allah for the blessings in my life.

we caught a bus to KB from kuala kangsar and since it was the first time we were there, Aam took us around to the morning market (i bought ikan pekasam and the famous rendang tok) and also losyen kurus and a magnetic bracelet which he laughed his heart out at!

the 3 photos below are pictures taken with my new Sony Ericsson PDA phone P1i with 3.2 megapixel resolution camera. i didnt realize i was closing my eyes though.

Aam with aiza and aidid at the riverfront in Kuala Kangsar


Aam standing in front of the Kuala kangsar mosque. i was sorting out the buttons of my camera phone and missed the scenic pictures of Istana Bukit Chandan

i think the flash of the camera left a lot to be desired. it didnt help that Aam has a dark complexion. Tall, dark and handsome - my man!

2nd Month Anniversary

Today is our 2nd month marriage anniversary. i hope we will have a happy and blessed marriage for the rest of our lives. still no junior in the picture. i hope you're not too disappointed darling!

Salem high country

the Saga of the Lovebirds

Tell a story of 2 lovebirds, a match in heaven.

• Now a wind of change comes their way. ... a third person in the picture causes turbulence in paradise

Only love and patience could survive a rift between lovers, plus a lot of prayers and God's will will love perseveres

Maxwell Hill - Bukit Larut experience

Since the weekend has got an extra 2 days because of the Sultan's birthday we hoarded the bus, spent a night in Ipoh and took mak nun along with us to Bukit Larut in Taiping. it was a 30 minutes hair-rising experience on the 4wheel drive and i arrived on top of the hill feeling tipsy headed. not helping was aiza's and my motion-sickness! aiza nearly vomitted but the Piriton helped a lot.

Honey, i really envy you! not a trace of giddiness....At the foot of one of the chalets, near the tulip garden. in the background are the lavender bushes.
it was 5.30 in the afternoon and it was misty. we had hot chocolates at the cafe.

the Splash

My children took to the water like the eels... the nearest public swimming pool was the Splash at the Taman Indera Putra near SUK building. the entrance fee is RM4 for school going children, RM3 for kindergarten kids and RM1 for accompanying adults. they also rent out floats according to sizes (the smallest being at RM2). no time limits. the best time to come is right after zohor prayers! much cleaner pool and less crowd.

Nur's 11th birthday

Nur celebrated her 11th birthday on Friday 21st March. we bought 2 one-half kg of chocolate and vanilla icing cakes, fried beehoon, made puddings, fried chicken nuggets and had lots of goody bags. several of her friends turned up and also the children from the neighbourhood. she was especially happy to receive a birthday wish thru sms from her Ayah am. Thanks honey! Good wishes go to Nur, may you have a long life, happiness and blessing of Allah always.

Aidid's sports Day

Aidid's kindergarten school held a sports Day. but look at him, teary eyed and watery all the time!
Aidid's kindergarten friend - ishran

Singpore trip again

It's time to be in Singapore again. Now for the 18th Anniversary of Singapore National Eye Centre. Interesting programmes and very practical too, this in parallel to the theme "Practical Ophthalmologist". It's quite noble seeing Singapore thru the eyes of my hubby who had nstepped on singapore's clean soil, was in awe with its cleanliness, so impressed by the republic's well disciplined citizens, and the state of developed nation singapore is now.



thanks to pfizer for the sponsor. Standing at the far right is Mr Louise Poh of Pfizer. You were a great host!

Malaysia's 12th General Election

Malaysia's 12th GE was conducted on the 8th of March 2008. It was my third time doing my bit in the effort to see democracy still runs in this country. i had lots of stories about election tall tales , but the ensuing weeks leading to election time were unbearably busy weeks so i was not able to pen down my memories and thoughts. suffice to say there are good people and bad ones everywhere. evil does not exclusively belong to UMNO, but we have to choose the lesser of two evils, right?

Thank you Every ONE!!

i hope it's still not too late to convey izaham's and my heartfelt thanks to the whole family who were there to support us. we are embarking on a new life which we hope to be blessed by Allah SWT and added with your prayers, we hope we will weather love, and stand together in our new married life forever...

7 February 2008

Izaham's and me in dual celebration. also in tandem with the Gong Xi Fa Cai spirit we chose to be resplendent and wedded in red...

Finally a woman's values show through..

The new year 2008 started badly for some people, certainly for Dato' Seri Chua Soi Lek, the ex-Health Minister and his family. he resigned from his office to the pressure asserted by the 'whiter than white', 'holier than thou' people of malaysia. the tumble down was attributed to a scandalous sexual relationship between him and his 'girlfriend' captured on a widely disseminated DVD.
if you were thinking that what a waste it was, yeah... it was not the first time you heard a man falls from disgrace due to a woman. still remember JFK, Nixon and clinton? they were US presidents, for god's sake. what with a mere federal minister, eh? hail to the wife, the unfortunate datin seri, whom was prepared to forgive and will stand by his man. typical female's reactions. whatever it is, you will there for your man, although it hurts, it bleeds you dry, you sob and and you wade in tears, but you do that secretly. in the open you show tremendous courage..
i know how it feels and i sympathize to the datin ser and many other women out there, sharing the same fate as we did. i have been dealt the same fate and i'm sure there are more women like us outside.. infidelity seem like a second nature to men. they must do it, soon or late. for some it is accelerated by fame and wealth, and to some it was barricaded by iman and love. but still the nature of a beast is to conquer and to show that they are lord and master. must be the cave-men genes! and how it has mutated into a monster!
to some unfortunate wives, if you cannot take it, leave it. there's no sense hanging on to a lost cause, girl. i'm saying it 'a lost cause' because if they have done it once, they will do it again, especially if they can get away with it the first time. it's just like a polygamous muslim man, if they have breached the milestone of marrying for the second time, then the third and the fourth would come so easily.
i know most women hold on to the institution of marriage although your heart breaks everytime and your pillow is wet by your tears every night you were left alone. but just think that, if you couldnt make yourself happy, how can you make others happy, your children, for instance? i know this sounds so selfish, but i think everyone should leave to the fullest and grab happiness for life is certainly short. for all you know, you wallow in self pity until one fine day you wake up and your days are numbered. then you will regret that you have missed so much.
but then it still depends on whether you can diagnose the two timing self centred beast soon or late. they can be so smug, they think a woman can be so gullible, huh. i guess after living with a man for some time, when you have woken up to his tahi mata daily, seeing him relieving himself in the toilet, seeing his bare ass everyday, it's not so difficult to read between the lines or to detect his mind was on some other girls. sometimes they think we are so stupid, which is their biggest handicap.
i read the tell tale signs easily, when my ex kept trying to lose my hands, attempting to play down the affection we always show in public, yeah no more holding hands lest it was seen by people now associated with the new woman.. the far away looks as if trying to remember other times spent with another woman, the excuses for not being home, less time spent together, and with the era of handphones... inserting new passwords and switching off the phones whenever he was in the toilet. also deleting all call lists and message inbox! he started to pick on the smallest tiny weeny details just to blow it out of proportion, as if trying to look for your weakness all the time. also may be daring you to leave him?
well i finally left him. i hope to all women still being psychologically suppressed, don't think that you cannot leave without him. act fast, for your own sanity.... in the end a woman has it in her to emerge as the victor! someone has said it before, behind every successful man there is a woman, behind every failed man, there are more than one women! it's their loss, our gain. think positive.

Kane & Abel

When Kane and Abel fought their ways and also against each other in their vast business enterprises and became each other's no 1 worst enemy, they couldn't have thought or imagined that someday Florentyna and William Kane would fall in love and be married and they become in-laws and share a grand-daughter.
Thus is the circle of life, fates or simply Qada' and Qadar. Although the principle remains simple, in real life the lesson is always bitter, torturous, heart-rending, often left a metallic taste in your mouth...
i am at the moment feeling utterly hopeless at my life's situation. i know that God is at the helm of things, isn't it much better to let things slide on its own? isn't it less troublesome to just let the events in your life being managed by the Almighty? Oh, the feelings of just letting go... that's awesome! OK, that's how i'm telling you how hopeless i feel. not that we as humans have any power to change how things go, but we were supposed to charge forward, form our own destiny with hopes and prayers, aren't we? i'm saying that i'm at my deepest end with hopes and prayers, i'd say i've tried my best.
the best way for any other people to learn a good lesson is to experience it themselves. the malays were very smart with their idioms, if i could refresh one saying: 'berat mata memandang berat lagi bahu yang memikul'. yeah, that would fit my predicament with my siblings at the moment. none of them have actually undergone what i've been through, i dont think they understood an iota of my problem. it's so easy to stand there in their lofty positions; to judge, to criticize and to issue orders.
i've made a lot of mistakes in the past, but my decisions were never intended to cause pain to others. there were honest decisions, my ups and falls - a beautiful myriad of life's experiences. i've learnt lessons others have never thought possible to learn from, bitter events that some people only read in novels - i've gone through them all.
who are you people to say that i've earned less than to live my own life? when you hide behind your sham of a living? behind closed doors - you suffer and you cry? you wish for the better, but you were scared for a change? i've never been a hypocrite and i will not start now. just to assert a little bit of my revenge, i hope that you will experience some of my misery so that you know... so that you learn a bitter lesson ... so that life teaches you one of its most expensive lessons; you cannot underestimate Qada' and Qadar.

Cairo oh Cairo!!

The visit to Cairo was planned in a haphazard way. Malaysia Airlines has stopped this line, so i had to choose Egypt Air or Emirates or pay so much more if i transit somewhere en-route if i fly the national carrier.

23rd Malaysia-Singapore Ophthalmology Congress

Organized by the Ophthalmological Scociety of Malaysian Medical Association and its Singapore counterpart. this used to be a 2-yearly event, however it has not been organized for the past 3 years. too many conferences! this time it was organized at the 5-star Sutera Harbour Resort. very posh! Thank you Alcon..

as of all ophthalmology meetings and conferences, it was a time to renew friendships and getting on with updates with what goes on with each other's lives. i somtimes think that we grab the opportunity to attend these meetings to do what we always like to do on other people's money. there was that banquet dinner and shopping at the Filipino market, the sea food restaurants, all the terubuk ikan masin and udang kering which must be filling the baggage, no wonder the plane smells really fishy!

Islands of the Argosaronic Gulf

we embarked from port of Piraeus early in the morning in the hope to get the best seats on board. i was anxious about getting seasick although i was assured that it was a big cruise ship, unlikely i would get inflicted. i still did took some anti-emetics anyway. so did the rest of us! we sure didnt want to embarrass ourself vomitting out onto the Aegian sea!no wonder amidst the loudy guests and the entertainment, our group were dozing off!

The islands we were visiting included Poros, Hydra and Aegina which are scattered on the Argosaronic gulf. the ship the Giorgios, was a very big cruise ship (a la Love Boat), with a bar, live band, music, meals and champagne provided on board. It was full house, there were a mix group of jolly brits, japanese and koreans, also some latinos. good mixture of culture.

fortunately the sea was very calm. the poros island had many sidewalk cafes. the houses as in Athens, were built dotting the hills. the roads were entertwining. we stayed for 40 minutes only.

the second island was Hydra. it was beautiful. there were a lot of donkeys, which are the transportation to the hilly residentials. there were more shops than in Poros. we stayed about 1 hour on this island. leaving Hydra we saw some firehouse and cannons put facing towards the sea, must be for the people's protection back in old days.

boarding the Giorgios, we were served our lunch. we were initially almost being served pork (which was the next table's order). after the confusion (Malezian, Malezian) the waitress was immediately corrected, we were served our smoked salmon, salad and fruit juice.

the last island was Aegina, which was equally beautiful. we stopped for about 2 hours. there were losts of shops and more activities here. the main attraction was of course, the octopus! we ate grilled octopus, tempura prawns, grilled cockles with lemon juice splashed on it which makes it so palatable.

Going back to the jetty on Piraeus, we were fast asleep on the coach, it was a very tiring day indeed with lots of sceneries and peoples faces swimming in your vision.