A hotel with an interesting lift

The first thing I am going to write about Madrid is our hotel. It is located in a rather old building, with an extremely old lift. 

The lift is a wooden box that travels in a steel-encased column. 

I had seen this kind of lift before, either in France or during one of my earlier trips in Europe (in Italy or Barcelona? Could it have been Barcelona, and this is a common thing in Spain?) But this was a first for my mother.

We have to open/close two doors to get in or out. It’s actually a little scary…and imagine if someone forgets to close the steel doors; that would be a huge hazard after the lift moves away! Which is why there were signs reminding us to shut the doors.

I thought I took a video...but it seems like I didn't. Maybe there were people around and I didn't get the chance... 

Since the lift is rather inconvenient (and scary), we took the stairs except when arriving and leaving with our luggage. Our hotel was on the 4th floor of the building.  

Then this is our hotel room:

Finally we have a kettle and also a refrigerator! (the fridge is the black thing on the right) No closet, just a railing to hang our clothes, above the fridge.

my mother says the free coffee tastes good, but we didn't see this brand sold anywhere...

Our hotel is close to Plaza Santa Ana, a square with a number of restaurants, mostly open at night, it seems. 

When we arrived back at the hotel on the first night, the square was pretty lively.

to get to our hotel, we walk to the right into the street at the corner of the square

And the next morning:

peaceful morning

Despite there being many restaurants here, we didn't once eat here. :P Anyway, I won't be posting about food in this post...

A new experience and a new Picklebuddy

Two weeks ago, an ex-colleague pinged me to ask me to be her partner for a pickleball tournament. We hadn’t been keeping in touch much, but we were both on Facebook and each knew that the other played pickleball.

After being reassured that we did not have to pay to join, I agreed. (I was not going to pay to play a few games and lose!) It was a charity tournament where the teams have to pay (donate) to participate, but we were actually being invited to join the beneficiary charity’s team, because they did not have enough female players.

The format of the tournament was an interesting one: Men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, veteran’s doubles (combined age above 100), and junior doubles (at least one player below 15). My friend and I would play women’s doubles, and we prepared by meeting up for three separate sessions before the tournament. The goal was not to win, but to not lose too badly!

There was another lady in the team, whom we met for the first time on the tournament day. (Actually we met everyone else in the team for the first time on the tournament day.) Hearing that my friend and I had played together a few times, our captain let us play women’s doubles for all matches, and Mei Leng (the other lady) played mixed doubles with another teammate whom she was also meeting for the first time that day. (They did quite well despite that, and managed to win one match.)

My friend and I unfortunately did not win any match…though we came close in two matches, losing 15-14. The first match was the toughest, where our opponents were so good that after the first few points, they slowed down their shots and seemed to be hoping that we could get a point. When one of the shots was close to the net and I missed reaching it by a bit, the one who hit it even said “sorry” to me :P (she was standing near the net, probably waiting for my return shot).

After the group stage, we had to wait till 2pm for the knockout stage. We were last in our group, but every team continues to knockout games, either in the championship bracket or in the consolation bracket. I wasn’t aware that there would be a knockout stage for us (since we were expecting to lose :P ), so I wasn’t prepared to have lunch there. Unlike the stronger teams who already had their lunchboxes prepared…and some ordered fast food like McDonald’s. Luckily there was an F&B outlet attached to the pickleball court. It’s called Cheang Kee, and it has both local and western foods (coffee and other beverages too). Not a big selection, but a variety of different kinds. Looking at the dishes coming out of the kitchen, I decided that the pork knuckle rice looked not bad, and ordered it. It was better than I expected, with soft meat and enough gravy soaking into the rice. Easy to eat with a plastic spoon (that they provided)! 

There was a lucky draw after the group stage, and I actually won a prize. But it was a prize that I would rather have not won at all…it was a voucher for a box of free contact lenses. And what’s strange is that the voucher even says that it is valid only for Court of Hearts participants (that’s the name of the tournament), and it was limited to 50 participants. It seemed like a voucher that should have been given to all participants, not as a lucky draw prize. So I felt like I had been used as an extra lucky draw recipient so that they could get more photos of people receiving prizes… That said, there were a lot of recipients for this prize, so I wasn't the only one. Right before that, I think four people received a camping chair (each :P ) from Decathlon, which would have been a lot more useful! 

They put up that backdrop for the lucky draw, and after that we took a team photo. Ten team members, and the one on the right is the person in charge of the charity. The four children (adolescents) are part of the charity programme. 

We received a goodie bag, and inside was a lot more stuff than I expected. 

The most interesting thing is this. I didn't even know that posture support braces existed!

I looked it up, and it seems that we're supposed to wear it to improve our posture. I don't think I need it though...I believe my posture is fine, especially after doing yoga. :P

At the end of the tournament (or should I say, after we got eliminated in our first knockout match), our teammate Mei Leng surprised Pauline (that's the friend who invited me to join!) and I by giving us each a little crocheted Snoopy. I think it was one of the items being sold for charity at the court. The packaging said "Picklebuddy to keep you company".

See the pickleball paddle it's holding? There's even a ball!

It's a key-chain, but I will be storing it in its packaging...since it is white and will get black very quickly if I hang it around...

Freebie day!

I saw on Facebook on Thursday that Food Bayana was having a perfume giveaway on Friday, for Father’s Day. Since we didn’t have any plans for Friday’s lunch yet, we decided to go there and try getting the perfume.

While we were eating, some promoters walked around holding a ketupat-shaped pillow. One of my friends asked them whether we could get that, and they said, you just have to fill in your details! He said that there were three items to choose from: the pillow, a mini-fan, or RM10.

This sounded interesting, and we were asking each other which we would choose. Anyway, after the meal, we headed to their truck downstairs and filled in our details… And then realized that we would be spinning a wheel to determine what we were to receive. No decision needed on our part… (that guy was probably being misleading on purpose)

My friend who went first received the mini fan. I went after her, and surprise, surprise, I managed to land on “merchandise” which was the ketupat pillow with a carry bag.

Two other friends received the fan as well, while another received the RM10, which was a TNG reload PIN. 

After that we went to Bayana's booth (a small table, actually) where they told us to follow their Facebook/Instagram/TikTok and give them a 5-star Google review. After that, we could select our perfume. (or a canned drink if we didn't want perfume; they said some people might be allergic...)

There were two kinds to choose from. I selected Aqua di Gio because its scent was slightly more feminine, which means I can use it myself. The second one was Savage, with a blue square. I liked the scent, but it seemed really masculine. Searching online, I think these are rip-offs from Acqua di Gio (note the extra C) from Giorgio Armani and Dior Sauvage (when I saw "Savage" on the label, I already felt that it looked familiar).

What I like about this bottle is that it seems to have a screw-on top! It means I can refill it later for travelling.

By the way, Friday was the dragon boat festival (or bak zhang festival). Since the ketupat came on bak zhang day, a lot of people said that it was a bak zhang. But looking at its criss-cross pattern (the weaving pattern), it is definitely a ketupat. Maybe left over from Raya...

Anyway, if it is a bak zhang, then I received two bak zhang this year (the other one was given to me on Wednesday by my neighbour). In my two favourite forms: food and plushie! 

Chobo chobo biscuits

One Friday we went to Queensbay for lunch, and decided to take a look at the new Muji store there after eating.

While browsing the snacks, I noticed this biscuit on sale (it was expiring soon). I decided to give it a try...

After taking it home, I translated the words on the package, and discovered that this recipe originates from Osaka, and the biscuits were also manufactured in Osaka. Truly Japanese biscuits!

So how did it taste? Pretty similar to our "chicken egg biscuits", actually. But it is a lot airier (and hence crispier). I like it...but the price is a little high, even with the discount.

Cucumber kimchi?

I have plenty of stuff I would like to write about, including my visit to Madrid (which is still not yet posted, even though I’ve done the Portugal part). Let’s get a short one out of the way: Haon aka Sam Gye Bab.

The other day I ordered their ginseng chicken soup. Recently (I'm not sure whether it started right after the renovations), the ginseng chicken soup comes with a small cup containing a cold drink. When we went there as a group earlier (at that time I ordered something else), someone else who ordered this was sniffing at it and let us sniff it too, and we agreed that it was some sort of ginseng (pao som).

I don't get why they give us that little cup, but I'm not saying no to a little cooling drink after finishing that hot meal.

But the purpose of this post is the kimchi on the left. This time, it came with thin crunchy slices of cucumber! I really liked it, and was glad that when I asked for a refill, it also came with some cucumber.

The cucumber was not there during our last visit. I wonder, was it added to enhance the taste of kimchi, or is kimchi too expensive and they are using this to "water down" the kimchi? As in, they could make some vinegared cucumber and stir it into the kimchi so that it takes a bit of the kimchi taste and looks like part of the kimchi...

Anyway, whether this is more economical or not, I like the crunchy cucumber, so I hope they continue giving us this mixture. I approve!

30th-anniversary Pikachu is here!

In case you did not already know, this year is the 30th anniversary of Pokemon, and they came up with quite a lot of merchandise. One of them is a re-release of the chonky Pikachu from 30 years ago, and Snorlax and I were determined to get ourselves one (each). We pre-ordered it back in April from Toys R Us Malaysia, and it finally arrived last weekend.

twins

with Snorlax's dirty old Pikachu
(new RM300 Pikachu and old RM25.90 Pikachu, if I remember the old price correctly)

the back

The package arrived on Thursday, and my company had a day off that Friday, so I went over to unbox the Pikachu. That same weekend, a gift from my friend arrived: Three Pokemon!

I like those cute designs on the straps :D 

Anyway, all these inspired me to create a video, together with other figurines and plushies that I already had.

 

A very green park on a very hot day

This is the last post about Lisbon! (and Portugal) We walked down this big park not far from our hotel called Parque Eduardo VII (Eduardo VII Park). I say “walked down” because the road from our hotel down to the Tagus river is a slight slope all the way down, and this park is further up from our hotel, just beside the Praça Marquês de Pombal roundabout.

The park is big; about half a kilometre long. We had lunch at O Cantinho do Alfredo near the top end of the park, then walked to the top of the park where there was a viewpoint to see all the way down to the river.

viewpoint with Lisbon's name on it

no idea what this is, but it looks special :P 

Lisboa aka Lisbon

I can't decide whether this portrait view looks better...

...or this landscape one with more trees on the side

the "special" thing with a Portuguese flag behind it

selfie

selfie in the other direction

Then we walked down the side of the park, where luckily there were lots of trees providing shade. This was on the same day that we visited Belém; it was extremely hot. We actually used my foldable umbrella on that day. I didn't bring my UV umbrella because it was heavier than the non-UV one, and we weren't expecting very hot sun; I was bringing it in case it rained! But it was still better than no umbrella at all. 

Even under the shade of the trees, we continued using the umbrella because the bits of sun that came through were really hot! 

The trees make a nice photo backdrop though :D

looking back up the park

If not mistaken, this is somewhere halfway down the park, where a path leads across the park. We didn't walk across though; I just walked in a little to take a photo.

from the bottom of the park, near the roundabout

zoom in; the wind happened to be cooperative and gave a nice view of the Portuguese flag!

And that's a wrap for Portugal! The next stop is Madrid in Spain; let's see how fast I can get those posts up... (no promises :P )

Belém Tower and the view from a roof

To continue from the previous post, we walked from the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries to the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower). It was scorching hot; I was trying to hide my bare arms on the side of my body away from the sun. It was a pity I didn’t choose to wear long sleeves that day…

more boats

at the end on the left, you can see Belém Tower

looking back to the Monument to the Discoveries (again, you can see the statue across the river)

Next to the Belém Tower, there is a garden.

aeroplane (I don't know what it's supposed to symbolize)

Unfortunately the tower was closed for renovations. The fact that it was closed was not such a big deal to us (not sure whether there was an entrance fee), but that it was being renovated was, because it was all covered up!

taking a selfie anyway

a photo including the surroundings

After that, we took a Bolt to MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, or in Portuguese, Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia). We visited it mainly to walk on top of the museum, not to go inside.

This Bolt driver was lousy; he dropped us off at a stretch of road beside the museum which was fenced off. We had to ask someone across the fence (thankfully there was someone there) who managed to let us know that we needed to walk back quite a bit to be able to go up. 

the slope leading up

You can see an overhead bridge for pedestrians to walk over the main road to the other side.

looking down from the top of the roof to the neighbourhood on the other side of the main road (the overhead bridge can be seen peeking in on the left)

sea (river?) view

zoom in, where we can see (again) the Sanctuary of Christ the King (Santuário de Cristo Rei) across the river

Now for a few panoramic shots, so that we can see how huge the rooftop is.

again, the pedestrian bridge on the left

on the other side, we can see the Monument to the Discoveries

I snapped another photo from a lower part of the roof, looking up from ground level. The roof has wide sloping steps.

That's all for Belém! After that we took a Bolt back to Lisbon, where we had lunch and then visited a park near our hotel...but that will be for the next post.