God works wonders

I was walking around the streets today, trying to get some sunflowers for a dear friend of mine....I walked over to the florist and saw that the shopkeeper just opened the shop and was arranging the flower pots.

"Can I help you?" she asked, after I spent a minute or so just pacing there looking for the flowers I wanted.

"Do you have sunflowers?" I asked, half-expected a 'No' as I somehow have the thought that sunflowers are not in season now.

"No I don't, sorry." Spot-on. Oh what should I do now? The only thing that I could think of right then was 'I NEED flowers...or else I couldn't come up an excuse or a reason for a 'missing' gift number 5!' I was desperately walking around the shops to see what other types of flowers I should get...but none of them caught my eye.

I walked further down to the University....there were a LOT of students walking around. It was quite a sunny day =) I couldn't stop thinking about gift number 5. What should I do? Just then I past by a bench, and I saw some stalks of yellow flowers on the bench itself! Someone must have left them there. Immediately what came across my mind was that this must be one of God's work...if it is true that You want me to take the flowers then I shall take them. I sat down on the bench next to the flower stalks, just to make sure that no one left them there on purpose or if anyone came back to get them. Few minutes past by and there wasn't anyone coming to claim the flowers, and I thought, I shall do as You say...so I took the flowers and kept them in my handbag =P

These might not be enough, I thought, though I didn't have an idea of an exact number I wanted. Maybe I should try to see if there were any flowers on the ground at the park nearby (i.e. I wasn't thinking of plucking flowers)....so off I went, walked around the wet grass in the park and picked up some yellow flowers....just then I thought, I wonder how many I have? Hopefully I have 24, just enough for my BFF. I picked up a few more flowers, saw a squirrel on the way, got my shoes wet due to the grass and then I decided it was time for me to go home.

I came home and took out all the yellow flowers I got and started counting them. Looks like I don't have enough, as I started counting....but lo and behold, when I reached the final flower the number was 24!!!! OH MY GOODNESS....this is truly God's gift!!! What a wonder this is =D I was truly amazed!

Adding some liveliness to her room =D

Happy birthday dearest, love you bunches ♥

Thank you Lord for the special gift and thank You for the time spent with Angelene....

I was in Switzerland

Welcome....to Switzerland =P

Arriving at Zurich airport, we were a bit lost of how to get to the city centre...whether to travel by train or by bus, as everything was in German...finally we found an information centre so we bought our train tickets to Zurich city centre and another set of return tickets to Luzern, which is the place we would be staying. I had absolutely no idea what awaits me in Switzerland - or should I say, I never know what are the places to visit in each city beforehand - I only find out when I arrive at the place itself! So is the case at Switzerland....it's only when Lee Cil mentioned '我们明天去雪山' that I realised we were going to the famous Swiss Alps the next day!!! Didn't expect that I would see snow during my trip! Not my first time seeing snow but equally excited =D

In the train from airport to Zurich city centre....Swiss transport is quite expensive!

Zurich streets

In front of a church-like building

river

group pic

in front of Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) train station

After touring quickly around the city we took another train to Luzern....an hour's journey it was, and what a coincidence that there was some soccer match going on in Luzern so there were A LOT of soccer fans taking the train from Zurich....and it was so noisy inside the coach! ALL big guys with a bottle of beer each, talking and singing and some even smoking even though it said No Smoking in the train. Not a pleasant train ride....however it was nice that there was this lady sitting beside me who was a teacher who taught German to overseas students and we were able to talk in English, so we had a little chat =) And when we arrived at Luzern train station, all the soccer fans gather together and cheered (kinda like a strike)....and the policemen stood afar (quite a distance away from the crowd) to ensure nothing dangerous would happen.

We dragged our luggages to our hotel in Luzern....quite a tiring journey as we had to go uphill and downhill, crossing the bridge and the road (and also because our luggages were between 15-20kg!) but we finally reached the hotel.

Nice comfy place to rest for two nights =)

We explored Luzern a while to look for a place for dinner...

snowy mountain as our background

Luzern streets 

an ad in a language I don't understand 

Our shared Thai dinner.....yummy especially when we were so hungry!

Went back and had a good night's sleep. The next morning after having breakfast with the aunties....Mt Titlis here we come! We had to take the train from Luzern to Engelberg, about an hour's journey...

Snowy mountain again~

In the train on the way to Engelberg

The thick layer of snow

Before taking the cable car

View from cable car...simply breathtaking

Time to play!

Exciting and fun

Cute picture taken by Wei Ven

nice =)

Jump shot!!

Group jump shot

Snow attack

In front of an igloo-shaped hotel/restaurant

Inside the souvenir shop

Finally reached the top of Mt Titlis....10,000 feet above ground!!!

一片白茫茫的雪

Had Movenpick ice cream =)

Bought this t-shirt at the souvenir shop =D

And then we had to get back to Luzern before darkness came....so back with the train again....and while on the train:

Another award-winning picture.....trying to advertise watch

Walked around Luzern for dinner...

Night view of Luzern

Swiss restaurant where we had our dinner

Yes it has cheese fondue!!!

We ordered several dishes and shared around the table.

Swiss dining =)

Lamb skewers with rice

Pork chop with fries

Chicken skewers in sauce with rice

Cheese fondue! Dip bread with it

Swiss-style fried potato strips 

After the dinner we went walking around Luzern....spotted some watches...

Only available in Switzerland!!! 

Went back to hotel for another good night's sleep as we had to wake up early the next morning to catch a flight to our next destination....the journey continues =P

In Scotland still

We reached Edinburgh at around 2pm. It was raining!! Waited for a while for Wei Ven's friends to come pick us up. We went to their place to put our luggages and rest for a while...

The living room and kitchen - guess which of the cupboard is the fridge?

Didn't want to waste the afternoon, the two friends, Hao Keat and Lee Cil, brought Wei Ven and I to walk around Edinburgh for a bit. Luckily the sky cleared =)

The National Gallery of Scotland

black building - sorry I don't know its name

I don't know what is this building either....

Came across this Disney shop along the streets!

We walked up Calton Hill

View of some cliff from Calton Hill

The National Monument at Calton Hill

Edinburgh city view from Calton Hill

first jump shot! ('lompatan yang cantik' according to Wei Yong)

Nelson Monument

Dugald Stewart Monument

Wei Ven and I had dinner at Mussel Inn as the other two had bought chicken from Sainsbury (only 1 pound for one whole roasted chicken!)

1/2 kilo of mussels in white wine, garlic & cream (6 pounds); and also onion & croque soup - nice and warm for the cold weather

We went home after dinner and started to repack for our Europe trip together as we had a flight to catch the next day evening.

The next morning Wei Ven and I went to Edinburgh Castle.

In front of the University of Edinburgh (School of Divinity, New College)

Inside the University

On the way up to Edinburgh Castle....quite a walk up hill

Welcome to Edinburgh Castle =)

It's a huge castle!

Some random guy....

Bagpipes, Scotland-only =P

Inside the Castle grounds

Some memorial for the soldiers

In the Crown Palace

cannons

Edinburgh city streets....can you imagine walking down the streets with whole stretch of this type of buildings?

Scottish flag =) 

Went home to have microwaved lunch we bought from Sainsbury....and soon it was time to head for the airport.

The third airport I had been since I came to Europe

nice car on display

We flew to London Luton airport and stayed there overnight as our next flight to our next destination was early in the morning. A few hours into the night and suddenly the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate! We followed the crowd out of the small airport....there were some fire trucks (apparently it cost 1000 pounds for each truck to come), thankfully there wasn't any fire. But I just wanna get some sleep...

It was extremely cold outside...and with the strong wind, brrrr~

Soon came morning and we were able to check in. Went through security and to the waiting area to see which departure gate we had to go to. And I had my very first Starbucks coffee! (YEA first Starbucks coffee ever, and in the UK!)

my cappuccino and Wei Ven's latte

Time for boarding....stay tuned for the next destination =P