Tea Coffee Shop

Walking in little town of Znojmo, we found this shop selling all sorts of tea and coffee.  It was looking very interesting from the windows, so we decided to venture inside.  What we discovered was more interesting that what the eyes saw from the outside.  The owner was a very nice guy, the shop does not only sells tea and coffee but also cater for tea and coffee drinking. The ambiance of the shop was simply beautiful and welcoming.  We all ordered our drinks, take shelter from the rain, do our Zohor solat, rest our tired legs and enjoy this place till it was time to go.  I wish I had got the shop's name to share.

  Varieties of teas

 Tea pots, cups, mugs etc also on sale here

  Little corner for the mischievous little people (kids) 

 Beautiful display of paintings for sale

 The outdoor sitting place, simple and cosy

The owner and the curious visitors :)

Artistic Pottery - Znojmo

I was invited to join in this journey to Znojmo - Praha, in fact, this is my second trip to this place with the same group of friends, or nearly the same group of friends.  Znojmo is just a tiny town that once upon a time was under the Communist Regime.  It is a beautiful, quite place with friendly people and different currency altogether from other European states.

The ladies rather my friends are simply crazy with the original artistic pottery that originated from Poland.  In fact, I'm beginning to get the feel of it too and had started my own collection of same.  

Healthy Eating

We came into this shop because we were hungry and out of curiosity on the name displayed, indeed this place is called 'Matcha'.  We discovered, that they were serving were very healthy food.  There was no frying at all.  The ambiance was super cute and warm, however, taking into consideration the health conscious people looking for such place, it was over crowded.  Will we come back again?  May be, not.

 Green tea latte

 Items being sold but with ridiculous prices 

 Very artistic display of a counter

 Paper lanterns with electric bulb ..... beautiful

 Beautiful

 Yours truly drinking Jasmin tea

 The miso soup

 All the food served here are poached and boiled and healthy

Avocado and salmon onigiri

Silat Performance

 The Gurus

 Some of the local silat performers

 The too cute 'zapin' dancing couple

 The silat guru from Vienna with the Gurus (ignore the guy in the back .... he he he)

 Dolling up for the main performance

 H.E the Ambassador delivering his opening speech

 The youngest silat performer from Vienna with her guru

I Hope We Cross Path Again Mr Stranger

How often do you meet a total stranger and discovered that you could already trust him/her instantly.  In my situation not too often, but sometimes in February this year, a chance meeting turned out to be a magical one. As I'm writing this entry, I could not even recalled his name, that's how strange this encounter was.  He was the co-owner of a spice stall.  Tall, dark and handsome and friendly and honest, what's more important was that he was kind.  Almost everything that my two friends and I bought from his stall was given so much of discount.  Alright, that was not what had made this stranger memorable.

Story be told, I had a severe attack of very painful re-flux, that caused me to uncontrollable throwing up, and fainted in the middle of thousands of people in a spice market.  One of my friends left me under the care of another friend, and walked back to the stranger's stall and asked him for help.  He left his stall came to my aid, called the ambulance, organized the security to keep the crown away from, and waited till I was put onto the ambulance and on the way to the ER.

Without his help, I don't know what would have happened to me that day.  May the Almighty Allah bless him with good life, good health, and continue with the very kind heart.

I hope we will cross path again kind stranger.

For My Husband And My Children

Another Crystal Party

What A Day?

Hubby is not around, and I have to do a lot of running around on my own.  Alhamdulillah the weather has been great and don't really need to dress heavy anymore.  One of the many things that I need to get organized fast were the insurance issues.  Problems have been each time, I went there I came back less determine and more frustrated.

History repeats itself again, went with a claim of Euros 3,375, after pushing me around from one room to the other and with their fierce refusal to speak any English at all, I was made to feel like a beggar.  However, I have been blessed with a lot of patience now, so I just play it cool and act stupid.  Cutting long story short, finally I was asked to fill up the account number for the revert of the claim. Guess what? the amount that was given back was only Euros 103.

I looked at the paper long and hard, and giving up I just put the account number and left.  In my heart I was thinking I should have told them to keep the money, so that the government could afford to buy more disposable plastic for the people to pick up their dog poop on the street.

Arrived home and found a new bill in the mail box.

What a day?

Kitchen-In-Charge

A day before my last operation, I was asked to take care of the kitchen during the 'silat' performance here. It was a good thing for me to get out of the house and be among these people.  However, little did I know that the performance was to be housed in an underground pub that was filthy with the stench of smoke.  It was almost suffocating for me, hubby had to leave the place and go out for fresh air a couple of times.  That aside the performance was good, the crowd was good too (not great) but I had a good time doing some charitable thing.   Alhamdulilllah.  Oh, oh my little angel was one of the girls carrying the 'bunga paha'.  As usual she was adorable (in a borrowed 'kebaya') but I don't have a picture of that to share here. 

 'Seri muka' by your truly.

 'Pulut kuning' by Dear Jah and the beef 'rendang' was donated by my family here

 'Pesembor' by the 'silat' lady who is currently doing her masters at one of the local hospital here

 Condiments for the 'nasi lemak'

 Chicken curry for the 'nasi lemak'

 The food on sale area

 Ambassador next to my hubby haggering price with me :)

Yes, yours truly busy at her station