Ahmygad I had such a stressful time this morning! Okay fine it’s my fault – for some reason I couldn’t find my confirmation email for my train ticket from Rome to Naples, or I didn’t save the booking number. Whichever. I’ve bought so many train and plane tickets I must have lost info for one… Anyway I went to the Customer Service counter for Italia Rail last night to find out what my booking number and ticket is. They said I had to call a phone number 30 minutes before the train itself (are you kidding? I’m not going to risk trying to solve this 30 minutes before the train leaves! If I miss it, I’d also miss my hydrofoil ride that costs 80 euros!)
So I went back to the Customer Service counter this morning at 8:45am, and had to take a number to queue. When I finally got some assistance 15 minutes later, I explained my problem and the guy said he can’t find out from the system, and that I’d have to ask his colleague at the train itself who would have the info on him. He told me the train is already waiting at platform 10. My train was at 9:39am and it was already 9:17am. Fuck man.
Looked up and down the platform with my huge bag in tow for this station master, and could find NO ONE. Found a young Italian lad who was helping another tourist at the ticket machine, and he tried to help me out too. I said thanks, you’re so nice to help everyone! He said it’s Italy, it’s the worst to try to travel now. He couldn’t find the train dude either, and suggested I just jump on the train, You’re a pretty girl, you don’t look like a criminal, just tell him your problem. As he was saying this, another Italian girl appeared next to us. She was very pretty, young, with long hair, and actually came to see whether I was getting help I needed from the Italian boy. He on the other hand, thought it was another tourist trying to get help from him and said no, I will help you after this one. I almost laughed.
Anyway they both agreed in the end I should just GET on the train, which I was planning to do anyway! I just HAD to BE on the train else I’d miss meeting Yishyene at the Napoli station! We all parted ways quickly and I clambered on, praying I’d sit somewhere which was taken. I had to get up twice but so far I’m safely on a seat with noone checking my ticket… yet.
Supposed to take a Ryanair flight to Rome at 1pm today but it got delayed… by six hours! I was standing in the waiting room to board the flight when an annoucement was made in French. I didn’t have to ask much to know what it meant, judging by all the groaning, merdes and putains I heard from everyone around me. Everyone was ushered to the eating halls… which was already outside the airport and I wondered whether I should just call Clem to take me home for awhile since the wait was then said to be three to four hours. I made friends with a really nice Italian guy called Vincenzo, who offered to sms me when the plane is going to leave so I could go back to Clem’s. Supremely helpful of him, as Clem called the airport at least five times to get updates which noone could tell him cos they didn’t know themselves.
I think I’m not going to drink for at least a week. Well, definitely five days at LEAST. I even had a dream last night where people were offering me red wine and I refused. If I were to put in a pile all the food and drink I’ve consumed in the past week, it would form a shockingly large and extravagant heap.
After spending more time with Clem’s parents and their friend, I realise how completely insane they are. So much more than me… I think.
They throw bread at each other.
They draw on each other when they’ve passed out from drinking too much.
There’s a joke that Didier and Nico are gay and to entertain everyone they started kissing each other and took pictures of their shirtless bodies pressed against each other. In my camera, no less.
My camera is full of random people’s body parts, some which I have no idea belongs to whom. Too many pictures from dinner and walking along a street to a club in Cap Ferret. Will add these at a later date for my own ref!
Clem and I took an hour’s drive from Bordeaux to Cap Ferret yesterday, to stay in his family’s beach house for three nights.
We got to be alone for the first night, his parents and Nico joined us today, and Clem’s friends will join us tomorrow. It’s a lot bigger than I imagined – with seven bedrooms and bathrooms, including one big bedroom with five beds for children. There’s a French pool table downstairs, inflatable boats hanging from a wall to take to the beach, and lots of games to play. Such a cool family house! Clem said he used to come here when he was a kid, where all his cousins and their parents would stay to go to the beach, cook dinners and the kids would give performances on the wide lawn (which he said the adults didn’t watch cos they were too busy drinking).
The interior is contemporary yet typical of a French beach house you’d see in pictures. White wood, cream sofas, large lounge pillows, cute painted wooden seagulls, and other sea-themed deco. The kitchen is the MOST well-equipped kitchen I’ve seen in my life! Pots and pans of EVERY size (I think there are seven different sized pots alone), countless dishes and utensils, some of which I don’t even know the use of.
All my friends know that i’m deeply into being environmentally friendly. I think about what food i buy and consume to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible. I recycle every scrap of aluminum, paper, plastic and glass that goes through my house (it’s amazing how much i lug to the recycling centre! I cry inside thinking of the millions who don’t). I just love our earth. Truly. Sometimes i even feel guilty about being a consumer and all the things i own and what will happen to it one day when i’m no longer here. -_- My dad used to attend global conferences to learn about new technologies other countries have, and i would listen to all these new inventions like they were precious bedtime stories and wish our government would invest in them too.
So it wasn’t out of ordinary for me to be really excited when i was invited to take a tour around the most environmentally friendly residential project in Malaysia, topped off with a scrumptious French meal in their penthouse at the end of the day. (Those pictures come at the end of this post!)
KEN Bangsar is a luxury serviced high-rise residence on Jalan Kapas (off Jalan Ara) that focuses on environment-sensitive features throughout its entire structure. It was developed by KEN Holdings Bhd – also responsible for KEN Damansara 1, 2, and 3 that some of us are more familiar with. The company is known for their efforts of diverting a river behind the Ken 2 apartments, so they could save a really old huge tree that’s home to a variety of migratory birds. That’s just one of many stories i have read/heard of them.
Because of the numerous green initiatives that have been incorporated into its design philosophy, KEN Bangsar obtained an award that is a first for a Malaysian company – the Green Mark GoldPLUS Award. KEN Bangsar also won:
– the Malaysia Green Building Index (GBI) Gold Award
– the Edge’s PAM Green Excellence Award 2010
– the FIABCI Malaysia Property Award 2011 (Sustainable Development Category)
In 2010, its company KEN Holdings was awarded Best Green Developer by the NST.
Besides many awards KEN Holdings has under their reputation, i am so impressed that they have a Carbon Neutral Certificate… A CNC is awarded when a company invests in projects that offset their current carbon footprint (look, it’s a property developer… there’s going to be A LOT they have to do to pay back Mother Nature!) KEN Holdings has invested in a wind turbine project and a hydro station in China, where ‘dirty’ coal-generated energy is replaced with clean electricity; and a charcoal stove project in Ghana. I must add that this makes them one of the first carbon neutral companies in Malaysia.
