We were there for 4 days 4 nights. but we only had 2 days full to stroll around the city. we arrived late at night for the first day, and left very early in the morning for the last day. I love Edinburgh! I don’t know the proper word to describe my feeling. It just simply has beautiful old buildings, beautiful views, unique culture (i heart Scottish traditional music with their bagpipes). But I despise the weather there. LOL. Couldn’t stand the cold! but overall, i love the city! I know we haven’t got much to see in only 2 full n days. Got to visit Scotland again someday, maybe not in the winter so we can get rid of the cold. hahaha. I’d love to visit the rural areas and villages as shown in some movies.

Princes Street, the shopping place.

park in front of Princes Street. the house is cute! just like house in fairytale stories. Lol.

Edinburgh castle.

On the top Edinburgh castle

view of Edinburgh city taken from the top of Edinburgh castle

Royal Mile Street, souvenirs shop.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, main gate.

Royal mile street at evening

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay (do you see people gathered bringing torch?). It is the traditions among local people to celebrate new year.

Aren’t they lovely, in spite of some bad pictures I took? (please disregard my poor skill of photography, my apology. I really do want to improve.)

So happy when I got this cutely wrapped package arrived at my house. I didn’t really expect it would be this soon as they said they were pretty busy with Christmas orders. Good job they did it unexpectedly fast! well, this is my very first tatty devine’s necklace. I visited their Covent Garden store in London couple weeks ago. Can’t resist them! I really want all of the collections! sigh. Some of them are quite expensive for poor student like me. Guess I need to do some hard works first and reward myself with that kind of fancy thing just right after.

I’m in love!!!

anyway, i’ll make another order for my sister’s upcoming birthday gift.

big smiles from us!

Members of the team: me, boyfriend, sister, and lil brother. We really shared great time last Christmas. I’m missing those moments now. I’m missing them! silly jokes and attitudes were all around. Did you ever notice that time flies faster during holiday much more than other days? sigh. anyway, I list some unforgettable stories from our past holiday:

• staying at the hotel all day at christmas day as there were no transportation and no places opened for public at that day (everyone were at home enjoying the warmth of family gathering). So yes, we too enjoyed our family time, our lazy-ing day. indomie and ikan teri (mom’s gift for me) for lunch! guess how we made the instant noodles? using water heater provided by hotel. haha!
• BOXING DAY! queuing in selfridges for ages. i bought nothing, seriously. i couldn’t find anything in such multitude hanging around. but we took that chance to buy gifts for mom and dad. my sister and brother also got something.
• our journey from manchester to edinburgh drove us all crazy. hint: do not always believe UK’s train! the train which was supposed to take us to edinburgh was cancelled due to i don’t know. so we had to get another train, the ugly one. never have i used such train here. we should have travelled happily directly manchester-edinburgh (without changing trains in  between) were the train not cancelled. but there we went, ugly trains, 2 times stopped and changed platform, lots of stairs (imagine us bringing big suitcases), bloody cold weather, in the middle of the night, sleepy and weary body, massive crowd in the train. but right after we arrived edinburgh, i felt sooooooo relieved. thank God we were finally there though we had to take that rough journey in advanced.
• spent time in my house in Birmingham for couple of hours. I and my sister cooked broccoli with mushroom and prawn in chilli sauce. it was really really fun!
• the entrance of our hotel in edinburgh was slightly invisible. haha. and frankly, the hotel was a little bit spooky. haha. it was an apartment hotel, actually. at first, we even assumed there were no other people staying at that hotel but us. haha.
• we did not go to the fireworks in London Eye. none could stand the crowd (well, me and little brother actually could). we were on the way back to hotel exactly when the year changed and we saw a lot of fireworks too (not the London Eye’s though). HAPPY NEW YEAR!
• and still many things in mind. i still remembered every single day, every single thing happened during those days.

Although I have been such a cry-baby since they went back (and I’m all alone back to routines too), still I thank God a lot for giving us those wonderful moments. Thank parents also. And now, study life! eeerrrrr. (despise!)

First of all, i would like to say many many thanks to WishWishWish blog for sharing this smart link, called ToyCamera Analog Colour. I am soooo happy! it produces very very beautiful pictures.  I am a total dumb in photoshop. Therefore, this program is such a cure to my dumbness. hihi..

before

after

can you notice the difference? hehe. FYI, I have a real crush on old-coloured pictures, known as vintage pictures, produced by toy camera or old cameras. thus i found I the program is amazing! LOL.

well, i just got back from lovely holiday (sad!). we did have wonderful moments! my brother and sister have flown back to Jakarta. and I miss them like bloody crazy (I have been a cry-baby these two days, seriously). guess i’ll post about my holiday later because i’m pretty tired of editing and uploading pictures to facebook which I just did (tee hee). ciao. x

A good year is coming. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(pic by me, taken from Edinburgh’s Hogmanay opening 2009)

there has been ups and downs in 2009. A lot of surprises (good and bad), a lot of life lessons. But i’m grateful for all those things.

By faith I’ll say, next year is gonna be a great fabulous year for us all, no matter what.

keep hoping, praying, struggling!