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It snowed in January and London was beautiful.



And when it snows, I can never behave myself.



I also kidnapped a pedestrian signboard (it wasn’t even snowing).

 

I went to Venice with the funnest Venetian I know – the only one with whom I would sit on a bench at 5am, when it’s 2 degrees, drinking champagne from a bottle.



I celebrated La Befana on Lido island, an annual Italian tradition.



We went kite-running in Richmond.



The Chinese New Year arrived – and so did a 14-course meal.



I switched from skiing to snowboarding, and experienced my first ski festival (Snowboxx) with one of my best friends.



I finally got to wear my retro ski jacket.



I went to Porto for the second time, with three of my best girlfriends. It was crazy fun.



We said goodbye to one of our gang – Jeremy, who was moving to Sydney for sun and surf.

There were a lot of parties.



I started rollerblading again.



I saw The Courteeners in concert.



It started to get warmer, and the days longer.



My best friend from home, Joyce, came to play!



I decided to pick up skateboarding.



I was happiest in the sunshine.



I started practising my ukulele again.



I attended my first ever travel blogging conference in Rotterdam.
(With Goliath)



I went surfing in Scheveningen – look at all that spume!
It was very cold and a little disgusting. 
But I made a great new friend.



My luggage and passport were stolen in Rotterdam. 

But this woman rescued me and I love her.



I won a trip to Toronto to attend my second travel media conference.



I met a heap of cool people. And the amazing Lola, who helped make it all happen.



Back in the UK, I went cycling in the New Forest.



I learnt how to decorate cupcakes. Like ’em? 🙂



I had a bazillion picnics at the park. 
Everyone thought I was obsessed. Possessed by the sun.



London was blessed with a fantastic summer, I couldn’t help it!



I enjoyed my third Lovebox Festival. It got a bit crazy.



I spent a day in Brighton, and it was lovely (not crazy).



I travelled to Lisbon for Optimus Alive festival.



I made some unusual friends there. Know what they gave me?

Back in London, I sat at Primrose Hill and enjoyed a magnificent sunset with friends while waiting to see the full moon.



It was one of many beautiful sunsets I enjoyed around the city.



A lot of evenings were spent outside pubs.



I learnt to play and sing my first full song with my ukulele. 
Looking back at this video, it’s TERRIBLE. I’m much MUCH better now (just believe me)!



I celebrated my birthday.. with a huge picnic at Hyde Park, of course!

 
I went to the best festival of my life – Wilderness Festival. 
It got really crazy. I got really crazy. WILD, some might say.
I MUST write a post on this festival ASAP!



These glasses contributed.



Then I almost blinded myself at the Holi Festival in London.



I travelled solo in Portugal for two weeks and attended surf camp in Sagres. WANT TO GO BACK!



I made a multitude of new friends. Happy friends.



Then I went to Porto for the third time and made even more friends.

I finally got to see the Douro Valley.



After over six years living in this country, I said ‘Fine, I’ll go to Stonehenge’. 

Then I took this photo.



I celebrated Halloween with a wig.



World Zombie Day arrived.



Things got a little crazy that night.



I attended my first World Travel Market.



I went to Romania and stayed with a friend I had met at surf camp.



I went to Porto for the fourth time and reconnected with my friends. 

I decided the city was to be my second home.



I enjoyed the sunshine in Aveiro.



I visited Guimarães, ‘the birthplace of Portugal’, with my adopted family for the day.

 

I had a very English Christmas spent in Surrey. 
I mean, just look at this house!



Then I flew to Bordeaux to spend a week ushering in the New Year. 



I was reunited with great friends. And a lot of cheese.



The first few hours of 2014 were spent with a bunch of random French people. And a unicorn.



The unicorn tells me that 2014 will be yet another enjoyably odd, delightfully crazy, and colourfully happy year.

AND THE UNICORN IS CORRECT.If I had to summarise my 2013 in a sentence, it would be ‘The year my social life exploded, and I spent too much time in Portugal.’

I have had a FANTASTIC year. I’ve had so many days when I was filled with such happiness that my body couldn’t contain it and I end up skipping along the street – no matter that I’m on the way to work. Sometimes I want to jump into the air and tell a tree that I love him/her!

Last year I learnt to snowboard, surf, and skateboard.. amongst other things. This year I’m going to learn to drive (even though I already have a licence.. don’t ask..), get back into swing dancing, and take some flying trapeze classes.

I love life so much and I can’t wait to see what more it has to offer!

See how thoughtful my wonderful host was?

She left me two options for pjs – a nightie and a set of trackies. I chose the nightie. There were towels, a glass for water, and she also provided a toothbrush.

It was not until that morning as I was getting dressed that I felt the effects of losing all my stuff in that  suitcase. From the unfamiliarity of the strange new toothbrush I had to use and  having to wear the SAME CLOTHES, to the fact that I had to go out with.. no eyebrows.. (hey I’m just not very hairy, ok) – it all started to become annoyingly real.

My make up. My expensive Shu Uemura makeup palettes. My vintage sequinned jumper (you can see it here). All my CLOTHES. My best underwear! My kaleidoscope from Porto. The lovely new French Connection shoes that were gifted to me in time for the trip (luckily I did take pics, you’ll see them soon. Thank you Spreaditfast). My favourite parka from Copenhagen. My best bangles from SEA. All my funky headbands and ACCESSORIES. Macbook/camera chargers and Apple magic mouse. All the business cards I’d collected at the conference. ETC ETC ETC.

It was just so sad to think about it. 

And so there I was – dressed in yesterday’s clothes and looking blah. You know when you look just terrible, you kind lose the bounce in your step? I lost my bounce that day.

That is, until Anja pulled out a mysterious pink carrier bag from the backseat of her car as she dropped me off at the train station.

“It’s a little goodie bag I put together to cheer you up”

Seriously how sweet is this woman?? I LOVE HER! We then hugged goodbye. I wish I could’ve hugged her for longer!

^The contents of Anja’s goodie bag.

There were some of her own handmade jewellery, compact mirror, a couple of Estée Lauder eyeshadow palettes, a holographic postcard, pretty paper towels, toys, and even biscuits!

It reminded me of my high school days when my friends and I used to exchange gifts of random items we thought would make each other happy – be it crayons, a pot of fake slime, sweets, earrings, or simply a card that read ‘I Love You!’.

BACK TO THE HAGUE

I was lucky enough to have a friend from London make some calls to the Malaysian Embassy at The Hague for me, so they were expecting my visit and assured me that I would be able to obtain an emergency passport on the day.

One of the plus sides of this tragedy (I like to be dramatic) is that I got to see The Hague on sunshiny day.

I enjoyed the tram rides towards the Embassy. The whole city was rather green.. so green that the air smelt green. Do you know what I mean?

^Just outside the Malaysian Embassy. Like in London, it was located in a nice area full of.. other embassies.

It was about noon when I arrived. Just like back home, everything was rather informal.. there weren’t many people there. I had to fill in this form that was completely in Malay, and where the date field had a pre-printed ’19 _ _’ . THAT’s how old the form is. Of course, my Malay is so terrible that I had to ask the officer if I could please write my answers in English.

Then.. I had to take a 20-minute walk to the nearest studio for some passport-sized photographs.

^On the way there, I stumbled upon The Peace Palace (Vredespaleis), which houses the International Court of Justice (the principal judicial body of the United Nations).

It was so pretty, especially the grounds. There were a couple of groups of tourists crowding around the gates with their cameras.

Once I had my photographs taken and dropped them back at the embassy, I took a tram back into the city. I wanted to go back to the Escher Museum (I love that guy.. his art is so trippy!) to re-buy some souvenirs that I’d lost in my luggage. I had to! There was a cool 3D viewer and  large, colourful feather pens. If you know Escher’s work.. just imagine seeing those in 3D. Whoa man.. I couldn’t leave without it.

^I was so lucky that it was a beautiful day with blue skies.

I thought this photo was just so Dutch, with the bicycle, the tram tracks and the bazillion windows in grid formation typical of their architecture.

^This is Lange Voorhout, lined with lots of trees and leading up to the Escher Museum.

^Russian art sculptures being set up.

The Hague is hosting over 100 contemporary sculptures from Russia’s best known artists until 9 September 2013 on Lange Voorhout, as part of Russia-Netherlands Year 2013.

^Me, not really looking by best, with some of the sculptures.

I was so excited to find that a big flea market was taking place in the area. I browsed like EVERY STALL.. picked up a couple of cool things too 😉

^Front of the Escher Museum (will write about this in another post).

Do you think they should clean the walls?? Looks rather black to me.

After my little half-day sightseeing walk, it was time to journey back to the Embassy to collect my emergency document (€15). And do other crappy things, like ring up my insurance company to see if I could make a claim. I got into a bit of a fight with the operator – you know how these people are horrible; they try and make it as difficult as possible for you when it comes to making a claim.

I also contacted British Airways. Unlike the insurance company (it was INSUREANDGO, btw), they were extremely helpful and supportive. I explained that I’d missed my flight to London and why. For only £27, I was given a new ticket for a flight departing that same night. THANK YOU BA for your understanding and kindness – it definitely made my ordeal much easier to deal with!

HELLO AGAIN ROTTERDAM

Feeling much better knowing that I’d be on my way home soon, I arrived in Rotterdam again. It was my fourth time that trip/that week…

Above you can see construction going on around Rotterdam Centraal Station. It was cool! I took some time to walk around and marvel at their tall, shiny buildings.

I admired the buildings for a long time. Very long time. Just couldn’t get over how shiny this building was, too!

I had some time to kill, so I turned to Twitter and asked this girl (Kim) that I met during the conference who worked with Rotterdam Marketing. She mentioned a place called BAR (NEW BAR) that recently opened at Schieblock (a < ten-minute walk from the station). So off I went…

The vibe was really cool and relaxed, kinda like the cafes we have here around East London. There were only a few people.. or hipsters rather, lounging around with their juices and MacBooks.

Naturally, I joined in.

I had an AMAZING meal.. I love how it’s a lot more normal in the Netherlands to have a fried egg in your sandwich/burger. It sealed the deal, you know?

I hung out and had some Me Time at BAR until it was REALLY time to go. I was so exhausted from the last 24 hours and I’d been carrying my heavy pink backpack with the whole time. So, as I was on the way to the bus stop to get the airport shuttle, I pulled out what had been my saving grace that day: a joint (hey I was in Rotterdam hehe). It saved me all the way until outside the airport.

^Goliath posing for a goodbye pic.

Despite the shitty circumstances, it really was a beautiful day when I left.

I pretty much passed out completely during my short flight.

Had no problems whatsoever at Heathrow Airport immigration. I only had to wait for about five minutes while the officer went to check on the system to verify my UK residence visa.

It was kinda strange to arrive home from a week away without a suitcase. When I got into my room, I just thought, “Hmm, at least I don’t have to unpack!”. That night seems a blur to me right now.. but I think after having a shower, I crashed into bed straightaway.

THE BEGINNING OF A NIGHTMARE

It wasn’t until the next day (Thursday) when I tried to get back into London life that I had the opportunity to reflect and put some real thought into the consequences of having my luggage + passport stolen.

These were the problems I now faced:

• I had a flight to Toronto departing in less than seven days.
• I had no passport.
• The Canadian Embassy had not even approved my SECOND application for a visitor visa, which I re-submitted in Rotterdam based on my OLD passport number.
• The coming Monday was a bank holiday (i.e. the embassies would be closed).
• The cost of replacing my UK visa sticker was £860. 
• Completing the tedious paperwork for my insurance claim.
• I had to go shopping (i.e. go broke) for new toiletries, makeup, clothes, MacBook/camera charger, etc.
• I lost my online banking security key.

The first thing I did that morning was go to the Malaysian Embassy in London. I was hopeful. So you can imagine my face when the officer there told me bluntly, “There’s no way you can get your new passport in time. It normally takes at least four weeks. You need these supporting documents to apply *pulls out LONG LIST of documents I could never secure at such short notice*. I advise you to cancel your trip to Canada”

Literally, I burst into tears outside his office. I was just so STRESSED from everything! I sat on a bench outside for ages, not wanting to leave and still refusing to believe that I COULDN’T get my way. With tremendous help of a great friend who made some calls and found out the name of a person I should speak to within the Embassy, I dried my tears and marched back inside.

I asked for this person and we spoke in a private room about my situation. With the help of my very pathetic face, I got the list of supporting documents cut in less than half, and the permission to email electronic copies of what they needed directly to his email address. He said that if I could get it all through by Tuesday (after the public hol), I could have my new passport by Wednesday. My flight departs on Thursday morning.

OKAY. I took a deep breath and went on my way to work.

When I got home that evening, it was cold and rainy. I got to my flat and attempted to open the door with the set of keys that my flatmate had kindly copied for me in advance. THEY DIDN’T WORK.

The frustration and dejection at this point were so much for me to take that I just slumped onto the floor and sat there staring into space for a while before my face was covered in my angry tears. I was so ANGRY. WHY was this happening to me? WHY did I have to encounter such an asshole of a person who had nothing better to do than steal my ENTIRE SUITCASE and RUIN EVERYTHING for me??? I HATED HIM. I HATED HIS GUTS and his STUPID FACE and wished him all sorts of horrible things.

So there I was on the floor: terribly dressed (feeling ugly), with flat hair, no makeup, puffy eyes, and wet from the rain. I was like this wet scraggly rat with no home.

I let myself cry for a few minutes until I just couldn’t bear the patheticness of my own behaviour. I had to pull myself together. I knew I WASN’T an angry, sad person. I was a happy, positive person.

Once I was done crying, I rang my friend Reena and went to her house to wait for my flatmate to get home. I was fine. I just had to wait a bit, that’s all. I had to focus on my one main goal for the week:

Get what I need to make my trip to Toronto.

This was only the beginning..

*Next up: My (HELLISH) Journey to TBEX Toronto 

^In my backpack: conference schedule, spare cardigan, iPhone charger (we all know just how shit the iPhone battery life is), Goliath the mouse, and Panda.

^I tried to get some ‘work’ done while waiting at Heathrow Airport. Was editing some more pics from Iceland <– this just NEVER ends.

^It was BEAUTIFUL in London as I left it. Clear blue skies.

^A Vine video that I made whilst on the plane.  Click to play.
(Follow me on Vine! the name is SMALLCRAZY).

And then.. I arrived in Rotterdam. GREY AND RAINY.

“Some holiday…”

But look at their luggage reclaim area! I found it so amusingly cute. It was so woody that it even smelt it.

A bus from Rotterdam Airport to Centraal cost me €3 (and the ticket is valid on public transport for one hour). By the time I arrived at the apartment late that night, I was looking rather like a wet and tired rat. My host, Jan, was super.. and so was my little top floor studio.

^Planted myself on the bed and began painting my nails in between blogging.. totally havin a party.

It was so much fun unpacking and placing all my stuff around the room the next day!

I missed the morning opening remarks and keynote talks at the conference. I was just SO TIRED.

TBU ROTTERDAM & THE MAINPORT HOTEL

TBU Rotterdam took place at The Mainport Hotel, a brand new (literally it opened ONE DAY before the conference began) five-star design hotel located in Leuvehaven, near the water. A lot of the attendees stayed there out of convenience.. but sadly it was out of my price range.

I WISHED I could’ve stayed there though, because it looked super cool and I heard that some rooms contained your own little jacuzzi and SAUNA.

^Awesome chandelier lights hanging off what seems to be a giant upside-down compass. Without arrows.

^The long white reception desk looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.

^I hung out here a lot.. mostly to use the free wifi. And to pretend that I was really busy.

When in fact, I was doing this… >>

Just capturing the mood!

ANYWAY

All delegates/attendees were greeted with a  goodie bag including lots of information about Rotterdam and a three-day public transport card. I was (just a little) embarrassed to have turned up so late.. but I really didn’t wanna be shuffling around like a zombie all day. I had to turn up looking GOOD.

So eventually, I made it to the main room for the ‘Creating Content for Travellers’ presentation by Gary Bembridge and subsequent panel discussion. I was particularly excited about the panel discussion as one of the speakers on it was Gemma of Retrochick. True to form, she turned up with the most amazing vintage style hairdo and she was great when she spoke.

^This photo was taken by Anja of The Curly Traveller, who was attracted to me because of all the colours and toys and stickers I had with me. Anja turned out to be a kindred spirit and a gem – you’ll see why in a later post.

My jumper is from Topshop.

I took the above pics during the couple of short breaks in between. My toys are balanced on my pink business-card holder…. my rather LAME card holder I should say, cos it barely holds ten cards at once.

^I sat next to Clare of Need Another Holiday, and we had lunch together too – this was provided downstairs. The drink on the right is actually a cold soup starter.. can’t remember what it was called but it was something with tomato.

Clare was super sweet and lovely and funny.. She lives up north and hopefully I’ll see her again too. She writes about how to make the most out of travel while keeping a full time job.

^I have to admit that the food served at the hotel was not exactly mouth-watering. But y’know what it was there and available.. so I simply reminded myself that at least I didn’t have to walk out in the rain to find my own lunch!

HOTEL BAZAR, ROTOWN, & NRC ROTTERDAM

Clare and I went to a huge middle eastern restaurant (part of a hotel) on Witte de Withstraat (one of the main streets in Rotterdam where all the bars and restaurants are) called Bazar, following recommendations from other people who had been.

The place was huge and full of LIGHTS! I was completely enticed.

We shared a bottle of wine.

Ordered a couple of main dishes to share, too. The food was amazing! I loved it all. Everything was tasty and juicy and satisfying.

The TBU Networking Event for the first night was at a bar/live music venue called Rotown.

^Goliath came along too, but he found it a little boring since he couldn’t drink.

I managed to stop by a coffee-shop on the way. Got some goodies and proceeded to befriend the naughty people of the conference who would indulge with me. Sometimes I think this is the best way to make friends.. (as I’ve said before.. this is an honest blog!)

^Buzzing Witte de Withstraat on a Friday night.

Upon leaving Rotown, Clare and I stumbled upon an EVEN COOLER scene at a place called NRC.

The music was fab, the ceilings were HIGH and they had a giant disco ball! And cherry blossoms inside.

We spotted a group of Dutch girls wearing bodycon dresses and all made up.. but on their feet, all were wearing sneakers or Converse shoes. Super awesome! I love girls who dress to DANCE.

I had a fantastic first day both in terms of the conference and Rotterdam city. While it provided lots of useful content and an opportunity to learn lots of new things, I thought the best part was all the amazing travel-minded people I got to meet and play with. And Rotterdam was pretty cool.. I loved seeing all the tall buildings and modern architecture – being in Europe, this was rare.

More later! X

Arinsal Ski Resort, Andorra

The town of Arinsal is connected to Arinsal Ski Resort via two services – a gondola and a chairlift that connects to one of the hotels (I think it’s Hotel Crest).

The easiest one for us was the gondola, which was a mere 3-5 minute walk from our hotel – although the return trip isn’t that easy since it’s uphill and we’re either tired from snowboarding or drunk from partying..

^View from the bridge to the gondola

^View from our hotel

Our Snowboxx ticket included a 5-day lift pass., so we didn’t have to bother purchasing one separately.

^Gondola scenery

We had to collect our hire equipment first (one day I will have MY OWN) and because eeeeeveryone else from the festival had the same idea, we were stuck in a massive queue. We were late by about half an hour for our first lesson – like bad students.

  
Yep, the queue was so long that Reena planted herself on the tiles..

I compare the waiting experience to receiving a Christmas present early, but then having to WAIT till actual Christmas day to open it. However when the day finally comes, it’s freaking awesome!

^Our classmates and instructor on the baby/learning slope.

Our instructor was an Argentinian guy called Augusto. He was cool! He snowboards, skis, surfs, dives, and.. who knows what else. He alternates between being in Europe and South America / snowsports and beach sports. What a life!

He was really patient, and funny too.

On the first day we had to use this totally beginnerish ‘lift’ called the Magic Carpet. It’s like a walkalator with a very slight incline. It goes very slowly and gently, and takes you to the top of the learning slope, haha.

After a couple of rounds on the Magic Carpet, Augusto let us go up our first chairlift – a 4-person one.

One of the things I really love about skiing/snowboarding is the attire. Everything’s so bright and colourful. And for once, I don’t stand out like some crazy neon person. In fact, I felt rather.. DULL on the slopes during the days when I wore my boring ol’ white/pink ski jacket and GREY pants. How odd, as usually I’m one of the most colourful people in a crowd 🙂

^Reena, wearing my Billabong Boys’ size 12 jacket.. 🙂

Speaking of kids, we were rather impressed by all the tiny tots zipping around on their skis (snowboarding is not recommended for very young children).. they looked so cute and cool at the same time.

^OK This girl isn’t that young.. but I just didn’t manage to get a picture of the really SMALL ones.

There was even a girl of about five or six who was teaching her mom to ski. I overheard her giving her mom tips while helping lead her to the charlift queue 🙂

^View from one of the larger chairlifts, which we took on the second day.

Surf Restaurant/Bar/Club

I had to insert a section about Surf Restaurant  because it was where I consumed the largest burger I’ve ever had in my life.

  
A 300g patty. IT WAS SO GOOD! Look, it’s nearly the size of Reena’s head.

My friends and I are obsessed with these ‘paradise’ glasses at the moment..

  
^Goliath, my pet mouse, joined in the fun too.

Surf is reputed for its steaks and apparently has the ‘best steak in Arinsal’, although some beg to differ. I didn’t try it in the end, so I can’t really say, but looking at the grill on the way out made me wish I DID try it.

Retro Ski Day

^Zorro in a matching bright pink North Face jacket.

Despite my very AWESOME jacket, I wasn’t nearly as retro as many of the other festival-goers on the slope. There were groups of people in matching retro-gear, animal costumes, cowboys,.. in fact all sorts of random crazy costumes. It was so much fun just to watch!

^These penguins were in Zorro’s skiing class. We bumped into each other at a cafe somewhere up on the mountain.

^With Joe, a classmate.
Joe’s wearing an amazing women’s yellow zebra-print ski onesie. Haha 🙂

^With my beloved Reena.

After a productive day of learning to turn/connect turns, everyone headed back to Arinsal town for nighttime festivities, i.e. food, music, drinks.

  
^We kept our jackets and switched to leggings.

Aren’t these hotel lobby pics simply glam?

^Fancy dress peeps.. and a suspicious-looking blow-up doll..

When I saw this lot pass by I couldn’t help myself from stopping them in the middle of the street for a photo.

This was unfortunately one of the LAST pics on my phone for the night.. which ended up being kind of a blur..

Monday – Main Event at Panoramix

Nevertheless, we still got up eventually and managed a couple of hours practising on the slopes by ourselves (sans our instructor, Augusto).

Reena’s wearing my blue Billabong jacket (as in pic earlier) because she LOST hers the night before. But to her credit, she did find it in the end.

Monday was special because the gondola was going to be running special services through the evening and night to take people to/from the Snowboxx main event, which was being held at the outdoor Bar Panoramix stage at Arinsal Ski Resort. There was going to be a party on the slopes!

We stayed in our ski attire because we didn’t have enough time between dinner to get changed. This turned out to be good because it snowed non-stop that night.

The lineup from the night included Roses Gabor, Pedestrian, and The Other Tribe. The music was a mix of dubstep, electronic, garage, maybe some dance. Admittedly, I really am not a fan of dubstep.. but the combination of an amazing party location and a young, fun crowd made the night AWESOME.

^Zorro, me, Reena

  
It was pretty much blizzard-ing all through the night.

Imagine – dancing on a mountain with lights and music plus fast, angry snowflakes rushing at your face. It was crazy fun!

The finale had the team of snowboard/ski instructors coming down the slope with torches of fire. Our instructor, Augusto, was somewhere in there!

^Here is a compilation of some rubbish clips I managed to get that night.. You can spot me dancing like a moron at the start.

^This poor guy lost a bet with his friends and his punishment was to wear a PLASTIC BAG over his head during the whole party.

^Another poor dude who probably lost another bet and is paying the price by having to do push-ups on the snow. LOL!

The tap-dancing stage

Using my fingers, I gifted almost every car parked outside with a erm.. sample of my.. art.
Meaning funny faces, vegetables, and body parts.

It took a further 20 minute drive from Castelnaudary train station to get to the farm.

Bernard, Blanche’s husband, used to be a chef of 30 years’ experience and so the food was always top class. Lucky me or what! :p

I had the opportunity to marvel at him in the kitchen as he prepared lunch one day.. never seen someone chop up garlic and onions that quickly before. I was truly impressed! I watched intently and listened to all the little tips he animatedly shared with me, using what little English he knew, in his thick French/German/Moroccan accent.

I learnt how to say the names of a few vegetables in French, haha.

Particularly loved this pink princess castle hiding under some big plants by the terrace!