Jack The Ripper - Truth or Myth?

As many of you, I've been reading and watching and hearing tales of Jack the Ripper since the day I can remember anything. And I've also wondered if this tale was merely a tall tale or if it was something of a "history". I guess after walking through the Jack the Ripper Museum, I can say to a certain extent that these mysterious murders did happen and whoever did it was so slick, he managed to give the police a run around. 

I had a bit of a trouble finding the museum. It was just a small door by the side of the street, with not much huge signs to show it's close by. I would have just walked past it if I wasn't really looking for it. It was quite a narrow entrance into an old building. After paying the entrance fee, my family and I started exploring the museum, reading what was in the news at that time and what could have been or what was speculated, evidences leading to suspects, it was just too much fun. Ok, I guess I shouldn't say I had fun in a museum that talks about gruesome murders, but it was exhilarating to be visually treated to everything I've only read about till then. 

"Tragedy in Whitechapel", "A Woman Stabbed in 39 Places", "Gory Deaths", "Woman Mutilated" - details of each murder recorded on the walls of this old rickety building. Four floors and a basement filled with items from the past. There was a wax figure of one of the murder victims being found by a policeman. Old books, newspaper articles, maps to name a few. But the room that I was absolutely uncomfortable in was the basement which was set up as a mortuary. The smell was just overwhelming. 

I was told that there are Jack the Ripper walks that begins at the museum. We didn't plan it this time and couldn't work that into our schedule but certainly that's a reason to return. 

London

LONDON - tubes, fish and chips, Thames, architecture..oh and pubs! How could I forget that?

Too many people rushing past me, that's what I felt like when I first arrived here in London. Just way too many people. Okay, you can't blame me ;)  I've been living in Texas for the past 5 years. My friends say "But you're from Kuala Lumpur! That's a congested city!". But yeah, I haven't been actually living in Kuala Lumpur for over a decade. For those of you who have no idea where Kuala Lumpur is, look it up. As most travellers will say, it's above Singapore. I guess once you start living somewhere, you kind of just start adapting to the lifestyle and way things are in that place. So, coming for a trip to London was overwhelming at first. But then the city girl in me came out and I was enjoying the tube rides, how fast it gets you somewhere and how connected the railways is.
Though I have to tell you, I love my SUV and will not trade it in for anything, including taking trains everywhere I go. That's the Texan in me talking. I have done travelling by trains during my younger days in Kuala Lumpur and I know how difficult it is to walk, skip and almost run to the station in the heat and rain, worse still snow, especially if you have young children in strollers or babies in your arms. Nope, I'll stick to my car, thank you.

Complaints aside, I truly loved the architecture and food culture. I mean, travelling through time inside of Westminster Abbey itself is enough to make you gape at the amazing interior and intricacy of it all and wonder how they did it all those centuries ago. St.Paul's Cathedral and Big Ben and Tower Bridge and London Bridge, I mean everywhere I looked, there was a sight to behold. I guess if you're living in London or have been living here all your life, you'd just get so used to the idea of passing by Westminster Abbey on the way to work everyday. Or going out for coffee with your pals in a cafe next to Tower Bridge. I couldn't take it for granted, I was simply absorbing all the views and experiences. I could tell that my daughter was too. She's an artist and she was just having an experience of a lifetime coming face to face with all these magnificent architecture.

And my son was on the other hand, having a gastronomical experience of his own. He was eating fish and chips in every restaurant or pub we went to. Nothing else caught his fancy, just him and his fish and chips!

As for me, how could we go to London and NOT have tea? That's a no-no for me. So, I arranged for us to afternoon tea at BB Bakery at Covent Garden. Two tray loads of assorted sandwiches, scones, pastries and cakes. Delish! My son ate all the meat sandwiches and my daughter all the cucumber sandwiches, leaving me and my husband the scones, pastries and cakes. The things you give up for your kids ;)

Next on the agenda - river cruise. Our friend, also our tour guide, came up with this brilliant idea of doing a 'cruise' on Thames - except on a speedboat. His exact words in describing what we were about to venture "It'll feel like we're in a James Bond movie". Okay, the speed boat came with the James Bond theme too! I wasn't expecting that. Thought our pal here was pulling our leg. But it was fancy and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Water in your face (not worried if it was clean or not at that point), lovely view and great company, it was a cool ride!

Will I go back to London? Heck yeah! In a heartbeat. No questions asked. There's so much more to explore. I haven't had the time to describe my trip to the Jack The Ripper Museum. It'll have to do for another day.

Hey everyone. I started on this journey about a year ago and somehow I got distracted and couldn't and didn't continue writing for some time. I'm going to do my best to keep this momentum going, there's not going to be much exciting issues I'm afraid, just daily musings of things that's happening to me and around me.

I've been hooked to this recent reality show. It's a Tamil reality show. It's based on the show called Big Brother. This Tamil show is called Bigg Boss. For those of you who are not familiar with this, the show is about 15 people (celebrities in their own right) who live in a house with controlled environment, with cameras watching them for 100 days. No phones, no internet, no contact with the outside world. Every week, they are given tasks and they have to successfully carry them out in order to earn points to get their luxury grocery supply. I started off watching it to see the kind of tasks given and who is doing well, you know, much like how we watch a dance competition or something of that sort. Plus, my favorite Tamil actor Kamal Haasan is hosting the show, so that's kinda a plus point for me. However, over the course of a few weeks, so many behavioral issues and gossips and complaints seem to be surfacing that it has now become "who is saying what about whom" kind of show.  We witness the participants split into different groups, all having varying opinions about one another, to the extent of ostracizing some of them. I guess this show allows one to reflect on his or her own attitude and reactions to certain topics or people in general. When people are placed together in a space without any other distractions such as social media and technology, people tend to comment, criticize, complain and gossip about one another, is that a norm ? Can't people live under one roof in peace at all ? Is there no sense of tolerance towards another human, be it someone you like or not ? Just thinking out loud.

Yard Greetings & Celebrations

We celebrated our son's birthday recently and I had this grand idea of surprising him with yard greetings. I had seen this birthday yard greetings at a neighbour's place some time ago and had made a mental note to follow through. About a month before my son's birthday, I researched to find out if there was a local company (local to where I live, that is) that did these. A lot of places sold the yard signs and I didn't want to buy them, firstly because it was expensive and second, because I really didn't have a place to store these things.

So, on went my search and I found this event management company that I can rent the yard signs from. They even set it up and remove the yard greetings after 24 hours! I could choose the words and graphics that had direct connections or interests with my son.

So, what do you think about that? Doesn't that look awesome? I wanted to make it special for him, as he finishes his middle school years and journeys into high school realm. My son and his friends were pleasantly surprised and absolutely loved the greetings. I even had neighbours dropping in to have a closer look and some even took photos, maybe an inspiration for a future event at their homes. You can get lots of new and innovative ideas on Sign Gypsies' website http://signgypsies.com . Hope you enjoy your celebrations just as much as I did.

Welcome To Dallas

In the good old days, this is almost as if I'm a century old, but in the late 1970s and 1980s, whenever someone mentions "Dallas", one gets the image of men in cowboy hats, wearing suits and managing oil companies, living in huge ranches. Yup, that's what you got when you watched a whole lot of TV show called "Dallas".
I've lived in Dallas Fort-Worth for almost 5 years, and I've visited Southfork Ranch three times! Every time someone visits me, the trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to Southfork Ranch. So, today, for the third time, I walked into Southfork Ranch and took the tour, this time with my mother-in-law whose visiting from Malaysia. She has probably watched every episode of "Dallas". We went through the small museum in the visitor's centre which houses photographs, scripts, and memorabilia. As we were heading towards the 'Ewing mansion", she kept telling me how all of this was rekindling her memories of the show. The mansion may not look much, but one gets flashes of the swimming pool scenes, the numerous occasions watching Miss Ellie have her breakfast on the patio, the living room where Jock's photo hangs, the beautifully furnished mahogany dining table set for dinner. It was a totally different era and experience in those days.
Next time you're in Dallas, drop in at Southfork Ranch. It's definitely worth a visit. After all, I've been there thrice! I should be getting discounted tickets for continuing to bring in guests.

I'm Finally Online?

Well, well, well...so here I am..actually online. My husband surprised me with this yesterday, told me to use this as a 'pet project' of mine. Write my thoughts, 'stuff' that I find interesting, and hopefully that others might find useful. Let's see how this goes. Not being truly tech-savvy, I'm going to have to learn to blog. I have no idea how half of these settings work, but I'm going to try and learn and if successful, write things and share them with everyone. If I manage to post this piece today, I think I'm doing pretty good for Day 1.

                                         Lets do this....