Welcoming 2012

As I sit down and do my last blog post for 2011, minutes separate me from the new year. This time, the presence of new year seemed more like just another day. There is no sense of euphoria in wanting to celebrate or do a countdown.

But there is a need to ask myself many questions - questions that I do not have answers to. This is because I have been too busy to think about these questions & too lazy to answer them. However, reviewing these questions are important, so here they are:

1. How has 2011 been? What have I achieved in the past 1 year?
2. What are my life goals now that I have started a new chapter in my life?
3. What are my 2012 new year resolutions?

The Old is Beautiful, but not the New

We visited Piazza del Duomo, the main piazza (city square) of Milan. It is named after, and dominated by, the Milan Cathedral (the Duomo). Indeed, this place is the tourist attraction of the city of Milan.

Through gradual development spanning several centuries, the city square was finally completed in the 19th Century. Back then, it must have looked gigantically gorgeous. In the figure above was a photo dating back to 1909. It should be noted that the piazza was already completed in 1896 and was celebrated through the inauguration of the statue of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

The amazing thing is that all these buildings are still standing intact today. In today's Duomo, there are many tourists vying to take a shot of the grand ancient architecture. But what spoiled the experience was the presence of many migrants - mainly Negros & Indians - all forcefully approaching the tourists. The former would give you a friendship band for free (but charge you for a fee thereafter) and the latter would sell you a spoonful of bird seeds (to feed stray birds that irritate you).

These useless migrants are the 'new' who spoil the old. With no enforcement in place, the 'new' has ruined the old. They are not only present, but make themselves omnipresent by coming to us countless times. I lost track of their approaches as they exceeded 7 times. The old is beautiful, but the new is ugly. Preserving the physical buildings of the old isn't enough; the latter should be segregated & disposed away, but it takes efforts. I wish the authorities can do something more to preserve the old or risking ruining it.

Venetian-style Stay with a Friendly Touch

Venice is a city that is different from the other Italian cities. Even the hotel room we stayed in differed from an conventional hotel room. Indeed, we enjoyed our stay at Best Western Hotel Olimpia Venezia.

Reasons why Our Stay was Uniquely Different

(i) Our hotel was 10m away from a canal. Only the pavement stood in between the hotel & the 'waterway'. In addition, it was pretty close to Venezia San Lucia Train Station. Unlike other hotels, there was no need to incur additional cost in taking a vaporetto. However, to reach our hotel, we needed to cross 2 bridges, walking approximately 500m.

(ii) The room was beautifully decorated. In fact, this was the most beautiful room that we have stayed in so far. The color theme and wallpapers of our room brightened our 2-night stay in Venice.

(iii) The receptionists, porter and waiters were warm, polite & helpful. The receptionist gave us useful information to kickstart our Venice trip, the porter guided us to our rooms before carrying our luggage up, and the waiters readily served us the moment we stepped into the restaurant.

If I was suggest how I could have improve my stay further, I would readily say - give me another 2 more nights so as to enjoy the beautiful hotel in such Venetian settings.

A Bumpy Start to Our Holidays

Getting from Malpensa Airport to the city of Milan didn't turn out easy. But this was the first time I experienced such difficulty getting from an airport to the city. We arrived at Malpensa Airport at 12.50pm on a Friday. I read that one can easily buy train tickets to get themselves from Malpensa to Milano Centrale. It will take us approximately 50 minutes to travel 35 miles.

However, we reached the train station only to discover the lack of trains. The train workers were on strike, resultin in frustrated and confused tourists. We were directed to queue and buy train tickets that cost €11 per person. But this ticket will entitle us to take a bus that will bring us from Malpensa to Cadorna Station. After a long wait in the cold for the bus, we finally reached Cadorna Station to begin the next part of the unexpected journey - to find our way via the Metro from Cardona to Centrale. That cost us another €1.50.

We alightened from Milano Centrale and it took us some time to get some bearings at this big interchange before we finally found the hotel, which is some 400m from Centrale. We reached the hotel at approximately 4pm, a long 3 hours after our plane landed. We had initially thought of exploring Milan during the late afternoon & the evening, but such thoughts were dashed after a draining and tedious journey to our hotel.

Mayeb we should have learnt some simple Italian to ask for directions. Maybe we should have read up more to prepare ourselves for such contingencies. Maybe we should have braced ourselves for such long rides. Or maybe it is just our luck.

Fidenza Village - a hidden Italian town

We went to Fidenza Village to do some shopping in Italy. I must say that I did not expect to venture into this small suburb that was deliberately created out of no where, but it was an interesting whole-day experience. It took about 75 mins to drive from Milan to Fidenza Village, a province in Parma. It was a bus load of tourists whose aims are the same as us - to view what Fidenza Village is all about and check out the cheaper factory outlet prices there.

There were more than 70 brands out there, each owning a store in this transquil shopping village. There were brands such as Furla, Calvin Klein, Fossil, Guess and D&G. My guess is that it must be due to the low land lease and cheaper labour costs in the suburbs that allow for such brands to price their goods more competitively. One of my steals was a brand new Levis 506 jeans that cost me € 49.50 (S$85.60), which was 38% cheaper than that of Singapore's prices (assuming that it is selling at S$139). I could have bought more, if I wasn't on a tight budget.

Maybe I should now more on the look out for such good deals now. Or maybe I should stop window shopping to control my monthly expenses.

Job Satisfaction

It's about time I re-evaluate my career switch. Four months ago, I decided to embark on a teaching career, a job that will take me away from the corporate world of business development into the sacrifical nature of enriching children's lives. It took me a lot of courage to do the switch. Afterall, it was a struggle between exploring my passion in teaching & maintaining that high-flier image of climbing the corporate ladder. I chose the former.

4 months down the road, I never regretted that decision. My loved ones & friends were shocked by my decision. Disbelief, coupled with scepticism, were written on their faces. But I held firm to my belief that the decision couldn't have been more correct. While I must admit this job is picking up in pace, I still love the moments when I appreciate the dedication and efforts that students put in, share my goals of seeking new-found knowledge with others and challenge myself to make improvements each day.

What I need to do next is to continue to love my job and embrace the tasks & projects, for I know the commitment I bring into them will eventually add that sparkle to my department, colleagues & students.

Puss in Boots

'Puss in Boots' is a 2011 animation film that bears no resemblence to the french literary fairy tale written by Charles Perrault. The movie story line is a spinoff prequel to the Shrek franchise and it focused on his earlier days.

Puss arrived at a town only to learn that Jack & Jill were around. After staging a failed burglary at the couple for their beans, he managed to escape. In the process, he befriended Kitty Softpaws and was re-united with Humpty Alexander Dumpty. The latter was Puss' long-estranged childhood friend from the orphanage where he was raised. However, Humpty has previously betrayed Puss in a youthful misadventure when Humpty tricked him into helping commit a crime.

Humpty, in his sly self, managed to once-again convince Puss to join them in finding the beans and retrieving the golden eggs. Puss was willing to turn a blind eye to Humpty's previous betrayal & character flaws. After another adventure in finding the magic beans, Puss believed Humpty has turned over a new leaf.

But the truth was that Humpty was his fiend' who remembered every grudge between them & wanted to take revenge on Puss. Humpty sought for wealth & glory through his despicable acts. Puss still continued to believe that his friend is a good person at heart.

I asked myself - how willing would I accept a friend for who he/she is, despite his flawed character? Maybe Dreamworks' characters live in a different world of fantasy.