Read Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches and Karin Slaughter's Broken during my vacation in Dubai. I started the first book about 2 weeks before the trip, but only finished it a few days ago. Now I am anticipating for book Two, Shadow of Night to come out.
I have tried the quiz to discover what are my hidden traits, and proved that I am nevertheless a human. Good lord !
Humans are rational, sensitive beings who thrive in the company of others. They show talent in many different ways, ranging from academic interests to more practical endeavours. The humans in A Discovery of Witches are aware that their interactions with creatures are unusual but they often turn a blind eye to the peculiar activity of the 'others' in their midst.
Excerpt from Broken which grasped me in the first place :
Allison Spooner wanted to leave town for the holiday, but there was nowhere to go. There was no reason to stay here, either, but at least it was cheaper. At least she had a roof over her head. At least the heat in her crappy apartment occasionally worked. At least she could eat a hot meal at work. At least, at least, at least ... Why was her life always about the least of things ? When was there going to come a time when it started being about the most?
I had similar moody feelings till the very day of my flight, due to some miserable, shitty things happened at home. But at least I could afford for an overseas holiday to get away from the shits, at least I could enjoy some quiet moments reading, at least I could spend some quality time with my incredible, at least, at least, at least ...... Wahaha!
Thanks to my colleague, I managed to book a room at this cosy, quaint Japanese-operated hotel apartment. The room came with all the necessary electrical appliances, kitchenwares, a traditional alarm clock, and amazingly an extension cord with multiple plugs which fully satisfied my needs. On top of that, you would find lots of drawers scattered around the room, 2 'assumingly-hidden' vertical drawers at the back panel behind the bed and a chest box storage under the bed. Though I didn't make use any of them for fear I might forget something when checking-out.
When the night fell, we're lazy to go out for dinner. So we contented ourselves with simple foods, like cheese-flavor instant noodle with eggs and nuts, Japanese vege salad, sushi, local-delicacy Shawarma, etc. The last night we had a more sumptuous meal - scrambled egg, prawns, chicken and beef.
I were very happy that my incredible loved the meals. He kept on saying cheap and yummy. Wahaha!
Time really flies. My Dubai trip was over. Touched down Singapore at 5am yesterday.
My impression of Dubai is that there is a lot of towering buildings in many different, amazing shapes and designs, many many luxury cars on the roads, the shopping malls are huge with a much wider selection of designer brands and products, numerous cafes, restaurants, entertainment centers, blah blah blah. Cost wise, though not cheap, I should say.
The weather is ok. It is a bit hot in the middle of the day but fine, or even cold at times, in the morning and evening. My only complain is that the dryness makes my lips chapped, which always the case when I travelled to colder places, no matter how frequent I apply the goddamn lip palm. So painful ;-(
Me and my incredible moved like these :
24 Jan - Ibn Battuta -> Dubai Mall -> Burj Klalifa -> Mall of Emirates.
More pictures here.
25 Jan - Ibn Battuta Stn -> Khalid Bin Al Waleed Stn -> Al Fahidi Stn -> A day tour around Al Souq Al Kabeer, Old Town of Dubai and crossed over to Deira by boat.
More pictures here.
26 Jan - Hot Air Balloon, Sand Bashing & Safari BBQ Dinner.
The most tiring day. We woke up at 4am, reached the pick-up point at Kempinski Hotel @ Mall of Emirates before 5am, and returned to hotel after lunch around 1.30pm. Rested for a while, then started our next program at 3 pm till 10 pm. Whoosh ! Super !
More pictures here and here.
27 Jan - Shopping Day at Ibn Battuta, a huge mall which split into 6 main courts - China, India, Persia, Egypt, tunisia and Andalusia. Watched 3D Journey 2:The Mysterious Island. Price per pax is 45 AED plus 3 AED for the 3D glass.
28 Jan - Home Sweet Home. Around 9 am in the morning, there was a sandstorm just a block away from my hotel.
Extract from the back cover from What Gives Us Our Names by local writer, Alvin Pang.
This is an extract from A Pound of Paper by John Baxter, a book which i had finally read through few weeks ago.
Many People, it seems, are convinced that the front endpaper - the blank page at the beginning of a book - exists to be written on. Ladies and gentlemen, the free endpaper is not there to scribble on, or otherwise, as it used to say on computer cards when computers used cards, 'tear, fold, spindle or mutilate'. The endpaper has the same significance in a book as the silences in a Pinter play, the gaps between movement in a Beethoven quartet or the unpainted canvas of one of Bacon's screaming popes. Between the gaudiness of the dust wrapper and the solemnity of the text, it provides a beat.
On this special day to remember ........At Tanglin Shopping Ctr
Kiehl @ plaza Singapore
