Travelog: Me and our journey

Looking for a house was a new experience for us.  During our previous posting here, we just took over the previous officer's home and we were lucky to have a duplex apartment with garden.  And now, we are going back to Geneve and there is no house yet as our predecessor has returned home for almost a year and the residence had to be released. Looking for new house means that we have to consider where do we want to stay; the right side or the left side of Lac Leman and this also determines where the kids will be going to school, the public transportation bla, bla... so many considerations. At last, received feedback from most of our colleagues that the traffic is horrendous crossing the bridge during peak hour times!! So off the checklists for beautiful places such as Cologny, Collonge Bellerive, Hermance etc. So far, we have visited 3 houses on the right side of the lake and all are marvelous (in fact one is a mansion to the boot). Map of Geneve, showing left and...

We are back!!! Alhamdulillah, Alllah gives us a second chance of life in Geneve after nine years leaving this beautiful country. On 25th Jan 2019, we left Malaysia again to pursue a new life in Suisse.  This time the farewell was a bit sad and crowded! The whole clan of Said and Abu Seman's came to bid farewell to us.  It was quite a crowd in KLIA that night! The Said's clan on the left and the Abu Seman's clan on the right We arrived at GVA Aeroport around 12 noon the next day. As we get off from the airplane, we were ushered to the tarmac in the cold winter air to get to the waiting room as our luggages were being cleared. Quite a different experience this time as the treatment was more personalized! For the next one and half month, we stayed at Royal Manotel until we find our new home.  Deja vue again as Royal Manotel has always been the accommodation we chose to stay during our previous life in Geneve ( during arrival and departure). It's so conve...

“You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you take the time to water your own grass it would be just as green.” (Unknown) We always think that living abroad would be enjoyable and full of good things.  But we tend to ignore that there is the other side of enjoyable and fun. We tend to envy other people for their supposed “fun” time abroad, we tend to wish that we are in their shoes enjoying good time abroad.  But, we tend to forget that all things are not so sweet.  Life is full of ups and downs, life has so many challenges and that these shape up people’s experience and make them stronger. Yes…We did cherish the good memories in Switzerland but we also cherished the unpleasantness of living there. It shaped our life, it groomed us to be stronger, it added characters to our life, it added new perspectives in viewing life and it tested our tolerance towards others. The unpleasantness can come in so many forms, from so many sources and in so man...

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Robert Frost quotes (American poet, 1874-1963) Geneva or Genève in French or Genf in German or Ginevra in Italian will be our home for the next three years. It’s winter here and the cold blast was quite a shock to the kids. The best part was that they hibernated and become less active. Alhamdulillah! For the first week, we stayed at Royal Manotel , Rue de Lausanne in the heart of Geneva. Food was difficult but then since the room was equipped with kitchenette facility, we managed to cook some basic dish which mainly involved sardine and eggs! Initially, I was quite paranoid with the new place and only spent our time i n t he room while hubby went to work. It seemed quite daunting to walk in the col d winter weather with two hyperactive kids! We only managed to go out sightseeing whenever he’s back but by 5 pm, it...