31 May 07
Vesak Day

Intend to wakie at 6am to go reservoir for a jog but overslept! I was still quite awake at 4am plus but thinking that I may suffer from a headache if I didnt sleep, I went into dreamland at 4.30am. With the temptation of continue to roll, I gave jogging a miss haha. So much about my training plan haha.

Wakie around noon time and started to prepare to go out. 5 minutes before I stepped out of my house it began to pour very heavily without any warning. Thus, I armed myself with the biggest foldable pink umbrella and got out of my house, thinking that it should be big enough to shelter me from the rain. While walking under the covered walkway from my house to the bus stop, my jeans was almost half soaked already - contributed by the heavy rain and mighty wind. As I just missed the bus to the train station, I figured that I might as well walked there, like what I usually did. It took me twice the amount of time to reach the train station and as a result, I was late for my cca meeting.

Safely boarded the train and looked out, the rain has subsided to a drizzle! Oh man... so much for braving the wind and rain -_-"" Received a call from Mervin telling me that the meeting has changed to Raffles City starbucks instead of Suntec starbucks as its way too overcrowded over there. I dont know what has gotten into me but I took it as Raffles Place starbucks (if there's any to begin with) and took the train all the way to Raffles Place. Just as I reached Raffles Place mrt, Mervin called me again asking me where am I. I told him I have reached Raffles Place and it turned out that I got the wrong venue! Immediately I took another train and I really did look at the map before boarding to ensure that its heading towards City Hall, coz I'm always confused with the lines in the interchange. Ta-da! I landed up in Tanjong Pagar! -_-""" Finally, I reached City Hall mrt.

Citylink is soooooo crowded with people... luckily we found sofa seats at the Pacific Coffee - our good old place for meeting. Just when I took out the chinese books that I got for my friend from Taiwan, I realised that some pages of it were soaked with rain water!!! Grrr... the funny thing is that the paper bag that I put in my bag wasnt wet, but the books were! =( I took so much care in bringing the books back from Taiwan, wrapping them with clothes in my luggage so that the books wouldnt have doggy ears. Alas, they have to suffer such fate in Singapore... something that has slipped my mind. Haiz... poor books =(

Went to Ju Ju Hokkaido Hot Pot at Paradiz Centre for dinner. Its such a huge serving but because of the good food and quality service, I managed to finish almost everything, except for the mountain of cabbages, 1 corn and some desserts. I literally sat there and kept eating non stop for slightly more than 2 hours coz the food just kept coming... so busy wor haha. Eat until its so tiring that I wana sleep liao. Even till now at 4.30am, I'm still feeling very full =p

Tomorrow is another busy day too... meeting peeps! =D

五月三十日
台湾的朋友 take care!

现在在跟台湾朋友msn to discuss work.

台湾朋友： 是上班还是做工？
starylite： 上班和做工有什么不一样？
台湾朋友： 台湾讲上班， 大陆才讲做工。

Oh... i learnt something today!
希望能再见到你的happy emoticons!

27 May 07
最好的坏人有话说

最好的坏人说： e 刺激因素 would immediately brush away e 恐怖因素 once you ar in action... really no time to feel scary le...

I hope so too.

27 May 07
Part 2 of Dream

Took a nap and I dreamt of the Taiwan gang again! *Creeps*

This time round its a very short dream, coz I was woken up by another phone call of Ronald - again! Hahaha... he always choose to call at the wrong timing man =p

Only the gals appear in the scene. We were dressing up ourselves in the hope to scare the guys. So before we manage to scare them, I was brought back to reality liao -_-""

I think 我中 blogging 毒太深！ Too scary to kept dreaming about the gang =p Better stop blogging for few days hahaha.

26 May 07
A dream

Side tracked a little from my Taiwan trip...

Yesterday I have this mood for blogging so I spent almost the whole day blogging and ended up sleeping at almost 6am in the morning. Probably due to the intense blogging session, I dreamt of my taiwan gang haha!

The setting of the dream is in my house, or more specifically, its in my brother's room. All of us bunked into the room, with Yingjie and Jun Pei taking the upper deck. I was the last to sleep and by then it was about 2.4oam. We were supposed to wake up at 2.30am but seeing that everyone is still rolling, I thought of sleeping for an hour and wakie at 3 plus.

When I wakie, I found myself to be alone in the room. Called Suhui and she said she was already at our meeting place but nobody was there. Immediately I rushed out to meet her coz I thought others were on their way. So when I met Suhui, the rest wasn't there yet. Called one of them and it turned out that they were sleeping in my house still! As its too cramp in the room they shifted to another room to sleep, that's why we thought that everyone was out le. Apparently the dream seems to be that we were supposed to meet to tour err.... Singapore.

Okie sounds like a stupid dream haha. Anyway, we didnt get to tour Singfapore coz Ronald called me and wakie me from it. If I did dream of part 2 of the dream will let you guys know haha.

8 May 07
Chiu Fen and Ji Long Night Market

We had our complimentary breakfast in the hotel before we dragged our luggages to take the train to Taipei Main Station. Why do we want to change hotel? Coz we want to save money haha.


So city dwellers style! Jun Ming's hands are too free so he is the photographer for this pic

Although our hotel is just about 10-15 min walk from Xi Men station, I seem to have exhaust most of my energy shifting the luggage here and there. I sick people okie... =p


Finally reached Xi Men station!

As the hostel is in quite a wu lu location, we had some trouble locating it. Some of us went to check in while the rest of us hid ourselves so that its easier to smuggle in at night. Our plan is that if we get caught, we will just get more rooms on the spots. If there are no more rooms available, the rest of us can sleep in kbox or something. But being all too honest citizens, we declared at night and all of us have to pay for a bed. At least all of us can bunk together and not with some strangers heh.

We have to take a train and bus to Chiu Fen. Internet says that Chiu Fen is an old fashioned way of life with an aura of old mining. Doesnt really understand what it means but old fashioned way of life sounds boring to me. Boy I was so wrong about it! I totally love Chiu Fen that its voted by me as my favorite place in Taipei! =D


At the train station... so many different timings to different places!


I told them that this is so chinese new year shop man haha


The guys want to experience eating bian tang while waiting for the train. Yum yum

This is our first time taking train so we were super lost. The platform is like so long and you dont know where the train will stop. We see people chase after the train we also follow. And the intervals between trains are very frequent so we were not sure of whether this train is ours or the next one. Nevertheless it is a good experience to localise by taking their public transport heehee.


the dudes


the gals

Very comfortable ride I would say. As the seat in this train is those long long type with no intersection in between, you can practically lie on it and sleep there haha. Took a bus and there we reached Chiu Fen!


This is a hotspot for scenic taking

Walking along the streets in Chiu Fen made me understand why it has the description of 'old fashioned way of life'. I like this kind of feeling! =D Its like those small villages that you see in those martial arts show. A slower pace in life... just totally soaked up in that feeling. Its hard to pen down in words, you need to go there to experience it yourself.

This obasang very 'scary' =p Her hair is attention grabbing and her action is very big! Her butt kept knocking into mine and due to her attention grabbing while we were taking pics together, we came into the limelight as well (other people are looking at us too). Luckily the photographer still manage to take a clear photo of all of us and never pengz heehee

We bought our supplies of tai yang bing and feng li su in this shop. The chef who served us sure knows the traits of Singaporeans. Very nice friendly uncle who knows how to do his business. Therefore all of us bought so many that there's free delivery to our hotel haha

We also bought jelly from a nearby stall. It turned out that the uncle knows the jelly auntie so our supplies of jelly goes into the free delivery as well heehee.

We ate small food here and there. Ordered many different varieties of fish balls till I cannot make out 'who' is 'who'. The fishball Auntie pasted her photos throughout the whole shop. You definitely wont missed it de haha. What a way to decorate your shop eh... brave Auntie! Kinda get sick of fishballs so we played zong ji mi ma, the number game whereby whoever loses get to finish up the food!


So many varieties of fishball wor

As we reached the peak, I saw this little nice shop whereby we can sit and relax with the good view out there. Told Suhui that we can share drinks inside and obviously we two talked so loud that the Auntie should have heard us bah. Apparently we have entered a 'black' shop! All of us had to order a drink each before we could proceed to take any photograph. But well, I think this is just a surviving tactic that the Auntie has to use bah. Else if all her customers harbour such thought of mine, she can close shop liao =p


Its too hot outside! The view is only meant to be seen at that point of time, cant be captured as the sunlight is too strong le


Jun Pei leaving the shop. I like this picture of her. Okie credits to Suhui the photographer too


I like being squeezed in this kind of narrow streets



This is the place where the director got his inspiration for Spirited Away. Look at the mask! Exactly the same!

Next on our schedule is Ji Long Night Market. As I find it hard to breathe at night, I couldn't eat so Suhui and I went to explore around while the rest of the gang had their dinner. Suhui finally saw market in Taiwan and she's so happy about it haha. Actually their market looks the same like ours, but they have a map wor.


Suhui with her market heehee

At the fruit stall, we were amazed by a fruit that we never saw before. Uncle told us its apple banana and we were like 'huh??!!!' Bought four for the rest to try coz its much bigger than the size of a banana. After the rest had their dinner we began to shop together.

The smell of bbq corn is so overwhelming that we just have to sink our teeth in it! We were asking uncle what flavor he has and he said garlic and sa cha. We were like what is sa cha? His customers told us that its satay! Ooooh... I think Singaporeans are capable of direct translation, like satay to 'sa tiae'. Anyway I'm not sure of 'sa tiae' is right or sa cha is right, as long as we get to eat the corn heehee. It turned out that the Uncle's assistant is from Singapore too. But he is too shy to talk to us. And Uncle is too busy to take a picture with us so the picture turns out to be like this heehee.


4 Singaporeans and Uncle!

While bargaining the price for a top, the salesgirl told me to wait a while while she went to throw her rubbish. It turned out that the vehicle siren was to announce the arrival of the rubbish truck and everyone is supposed to get ready of their rubbish and throw! Haha something that I learn from the locals now. I think the rest would have knew about it from tv serials but cant blame me mah coz I stuck in jungleland so dont watch tv de. Anyway I asked the salesgirl whether they have different sirens for different months or something she said the siren has been like this all the while. Hmm... I thought they should have different gendres, like techno in the summer months, and probably some classical when the weather turns cooler or something. If not quite sianz to always hear the same music mah =p

7 May 07
Day Tour and I Guess X3

Wakie in the morning to found that I have almost lost my voice! Already made plans with Panny to meet her tonight but in my condition, I can barely speak a complete sentence out loudly. Hence, I left her gift in the hotel and sent her a text message, hoping to meet her when I'm better. Talk about ox in their suay luck this year and I'm one of them =(

The first stop of the day tour is C.K.S. Shilin Residence Park. Quite a boring place so we had our fair share of nonsense like titanic with Suhui haha. Oh, we saw an actress filming there but she's someone whom we didnt know so we sianz half le.


C.K.S. Shilin Residence Park

Next stop is Zhong Lie Tang, where the soldiers will be doing an elaborated ceremony of changing shifts. Jun Ming filmed most of the 'NDP' down. The marks on the pavement are the results of their daily marching. Seems like a must visit place for tourist over here.


Group Shot at Zhong Lie Tang

Headed to Wu Jiao Chuan Ban, a unique restaurant design by a lady. Too bad we were too early so the restaurant was closed.


Wu Jiao Chuan Ban

Its lunch time so we headed to Miramar Shopping Centre for lunch. And not forgetting to stop by Cheng Pin bookstore for Soon Fatt to sweep their books off the counter heehee. Followed up is a visit to the Mao Princess House where we were introduced to their culture and products. And the tour guide brought us to a place to 算命.

The highlight of the tour has arrived. A visit to Jacky Wu's I guessX3! Previously the internet forums gave different views about the filming dates of I guess. Thought I wont be able to catch it in Taiwan but heng heng they were filming on that day! Not sure why the gate was closed, we had to stand outside and waited for quite a while before they ushered us in. We were like the last bunch of people to arrive at the studio and its really interesting to look at the way they host and everything.

The studio is much much smaller than expected. I think they always seem to enlarge it on TV but the actual studio is actually just some furnitures. We were anticipating who are the guests and luckily some of them are those that we heard of before, like Vanness, Song Xin Ni, Xin Xiao Qi and some great hunks and babes. We were all waiting for Jacky to appear and I was practically rotting away in the studio. Other Singaporean gangs were there as well and saw Marcus. When the show finally started, we get to see the NGs, and how audiences were encouraged to clap and cheer haha.

All the waiting and everything means the whole afternoon is gone! Tried to suppress my cough as I do not wish to add in additional music in the recording itself. Probably there is too much waiting time, probably coz i'm ill, I GuessX3 didnt meet my expectation. Its not as fun as I thought it will be, but at least I get to see how it works. I think the next time i watch it on TV I will have a different feeling bah. Still, its fun to attend with a bunch of friends and this kind of thingie you can only do it while you are young. You cant expect me to go I GuessX3 when I'm 60 and cheering bah... I think they will need to give me priority seating bah haha.


Selina, Hebe and Jacky Wu!


Group shot at the tunnel prop


Another group shot of us. The studio is freezing cold!

After the recording we set off to Wu Fen Pu, which is a cheap shopping area. It used to be very cheap, but as tourists begin to flood there, prices are slowly increasing. Before we begin shopping, we set off to the pharmacy and I got myself cough medicine. Finished the whole bottle eventually and it was no use to me. We headed for dinner and its ru rou fan again. Not as nice as the one we had last night.

Its shopping time so the group splitted again. Not only do we need to take care of our barang barangs, we have to constantly be on the lookout for motorist too. Just when we thought thats about it, out came a truck trying to squeeze its way through the narrow streets. So we conclude their roads do not have segments for pedestrians and vehicles. Its all combine together... talk about the air polution tsk tsk.

In the end I met Panny in Wu Fen Pu as she said that she has more time this week. So much things to say to her but yet my voice isnt there =( She's a friend that kaka and I met in New York. Super friendly and a great host! Show us around in Wu Fen Pu, sending text messages to me to assure that I know the places to go and food to try. Too bad that she's starting work soon if not it will be great fun to have her around with us too. But its okie, when she has the time to drop by Singapore kaka and I can show her around heehee.


Panny and us in the train ride

6 May 2007

Beginning of Grad Trip!!!

Wakie early to do some last minute packing. Boy I was down with flu =( Pop a panadol and off I set (with my Dad) to pick Yingjie up to head down to the airport together.

We were supposed to meet the gang at 11am in Changi Airport. Instead of seeing a bunch of familiar faces plus some strangers, I saw my tourism friend, Junwen, who happened to be taking the same flight as me to Taiwan too. After much guessing game, we were introduced to each other by Suhui when we were queueing up to check in our luggages. Suhui, our tour leader, knows everyone and everyone knows her haha.

Guess who has the heaviest luggage?

Drum rolls please.....

Suhui! Ahahahha....

Why?

We figured that the mini mah jong that she brought along weighs 1kg (that's of course exaggerating lah). And her video camera and poleroid weights another 1kg. So she won the heaviest luggage award! Claps claps!

We proceeded to have our lunch in the airport as we knew that budget airline doesnt provide any meals. Little did I know that they will charge you SGD3 for a puny mineral water bottle =O

We were ready to go in le. Of course must take a picture together to prove how touristy we are heehee. Here we go...

Introduction of the Taiwan gang

3 dudes (from left to right): Jin Xin, Soon Fatt, Jun Ming

5 gals (from left to right): Jun Pei, Suhui, Me, Yingjie, Mei Xuan

The flight took off at 13:00 SIN and will be reaching Taipei at scheduled time 17:40. This is my first time taking budget airline hohoho. Its a small plane but not as exciting as I thought it will be. Sat with Yingjie and the uncle beside her started a conversation with us, telling us more about Taiwan as he used to live there too.

Finally touched down! Almost dehydrated man haha. Came out of the airport and saw Lu De holding a card with Suhui's name written on it... like some superstar like that hohoho.


First group shot in Taiwan

Luckily at the airport we managed to get some youth discount keychain thingie. You cant imagine how useful it is man. Besides getting discount for going up the Taipei 101 and Miramar Ferris Wheel, you can also get discounts when taking train! So for those who are going to Taiwan, remember to get hold of the youth discount keychain thingie. Its FREE! =D

While on the van to our hotel, I thought the scenery outside looks abit like China =p Okie blame it on my ignorance but we reached the hotel much earlier than I expected. After we throw our barang barang in the hotel, we walked to Xi Men Ding for dinner and shopping. I thought Xi Men Ding looks very much like New York City with the billboards and big screaming for attention look-at-me posters, except for those chinese words there heehee.

Xi Men Ding

We saw spidey! But isnt he abit too skinny?

Gals being the indecisive type will be thinking about where to have our first dinner in Taipei. But looking at the guys we knew that we have to think fast as the saying goes, a hungry man is an angry man =p Okie they were not really angry but its abit scary lah heehee.

They have one of the nicest ru rou fan here. We passed it to the guys for sampling and they returned us an empty bowl hahaha.

After satisfying the guys stomach, we decided to split so that smaller groups were easier to manage. At Xi Men Ding we must try the soooo famous Ah Zong Mian Xian! The difference between gals and guys are guys will each purchase a bowl while the gals will purchase a big bowl and share haha.

Eh... Suhui kept drinking everywhere she go haha


The guys with their Ah Zong

We tried small food here and there. Came to a Tian Bu La shop where this uncle is so cute. We thought that he forgot to take our money but it turned out that the shop's policy is to accept money after the customers have finished their food. Saw the uncle doing the ice thingie so we also want to have one! =D

Tian Bu La uncle

In Singapore I have made a deal with Chee Keong to meet him in Taipei Xi Men Ding. We jokingly said that meet at 7-11 coz there's so many 7-11 in Taiwan... its just like there's so many starbucks on the streets in Seattle.

Chee Keong - so back packer style wor

The gals went for more shopping and we saw this cute doggie in the shop. Much debate about whether this doggie is real - he's so lazy looking that he just likes to lie on the floor like a carpeted dog. Dont ask me what is a carpeted dog - I just thought he looks like one heehee.


Carpeted dog

Besides Ah Zong, Tian Bu La and mango ice, we also tried crepes, prata, qing wa xia dan. The biggest bargain in shopping is socks haha. We shopped till almost all the shops were closing. Proceeded back to hotel to do our accounts and amaze that their TV has almost 99 channels! The consumers are really spoilt for choice!

After much procrastination, I'm ready to blog about my pre preparation for my Graduation Trip to Taiwan. Yeah!

Somewhere in April

I'm so excited about the trip heehee. Suhui is the organiser for this trip and we have a strong team of 8, consisting of 3 guys and 5 gals. However, I only know 3 of them. So majority of them are strangers to me haha. As this is more of like a free and easy trip (only the 2nd day is a planned itinerary by the agency), some planning is essential to prevent us from being like lost sheeps when we reached there. Although the fun of travelling sometimes lies in minimal planning, we reckon that some planning is essential too so that everyone will roughly know the plan.

So instead of studying for my final exam, I got distracted by the overwhelming pool of information on the net. Taiwan really has more to offer besides Shi Lin Night Market and Xi Men Ding! And the white water rafting makes me so gaga over it... so I'm trying to endure through this difficult period of time till I'm officially free to make some serious planning! =D

2 May 07
Last Paper in NTU

This day is the unofficial graduation day for me... I'm done with school! Cant believe that 3 years of uni life is over... I will probably blog about this on a separate entry.

So after my exams I went to settle some administrative issue, followed by meeting some of my GIP friends for some photo taking session in NTU. Its hard to decide which scenic areas to take, as we only have our fountain (not very impressive as compared to the one in UW) or the yun nan garden. In the end we decided on the fountain, lee wee nam library which is so famous on youtube haha, GIP office where we have became friends, mlt which has changed its name to lkc, and one of the LTs where my engineering friends had their lessons before.

Next, I popped by to hall 2 to find my friends Zhang Zhang and Wang Jing. They are two amazing gals who have came over to NTU for an exchange program. We chatted for a while before I had to leave for the Spiderman 3 movie in Suntec. To see them leave reminds me of my own footsteps in Seattle. I think its easier for me to leave than to see people leave bah. All the emotional feelings attached are so tough to handle, sometimes. But I know they have truly enjoyed their stay over here and have learned invaluable lessons from this immersion. All the best to your internships back in China and I'm looking forward to have you here again!

Spidey show... Aint a fan of such gendre of movies so nothing much to comment about heehee. Thanks Ronald for the show, at least its a great form of immediate relaxation after my exams.

The serious planning of Taiwan trip begins from here haha. Did some last minute research as I will be meeting Suhui and Yingjie tomorrow to discuss about the itinerary.

3 May 07
Discussion of Itinerary

Went to collect my passport while Suhui went to update her photograph. She was really funny as she claimed to have brought a set of photographs (kiasu!) BUT she changed her bag. This means that the set of photographs which she claimed were in ANOTHER bag! -_-""" See lah who ask you to anyhow change bag =p So with only one photograph in hand, she has to take her picture on the spot as the rule is to have two photographs. Nevertheless, she managed to update her photograph the same timing as I managed to collect my passport. Talk about 人山人海 ('people mountain people sea') on a weekday afternoon!

We met Yingjie at AMK Big Mac in the evening to proceed with our discussion of itinerary. The day to day happenings in Taipei is more or less fixed, while for Hua Lien we have to contact the Hua Lien uncle. As for Gao Xiong, its kinda messy so Yingjie's friend, who went to Gao Xiong for an exchange program will be helping us out with the itinerary.

Happy Birthday to Yingjie!!!

4 May 07
1st Chat with the Guys

Had a WSC OVE meeting in school, followed by a dinner with my JC friends coz Hui Kie is flying off to Beijing for her internship. This gal is always busy flying here and there haha, but I'm sure she will enjoy every moment of it. Jun Kiat, the all time nice guy offered to drive the ladies for ktv session and me back home. Could not join them as the Taiwan gang is meeting in MSN to discuss about the trip and I'm already late! =p Driving from Orchard to AMK takes approx an hour due to the slow traffic.. pengz. And poor Jun Kiat's car was decorated with the arts of bird droppings in the car park =(

Appeared online in msn but to see the poor attendance rate haha. Heard that Jin Xin is busy playing mahjong so he could not appear online haha. Anyway, the two dudes seem to be okie with the itinerary as no objections were voiced. A bunch of easy going people heehee.

5 May 07
Phantom of the Opera!

The much awaited day has arrived! Nope its not the day of me in Xi Men Ding eating and shopping, its the arrival of Phantom! This is my second time watching it and I must say that the standard is almost as good as Broadway's de. Thumbs up!

Last minute packing again heh heh.

In Yahoo:

Wettest city in America?
If you guessed Seattle, you're wrong.

Oops, I really did guess Seattle haha =p

So which U.S. city does get the most annual rainfall?

Mobile, Alabama, actually topped a new list of soggiest cities!
Olympia, Washington pops up at number 24 heehee.

从报章上读到：

出国开眼界，去哪里不重要，重点是去接触当地的人，学习他们的文化；而且无论经验好坏，都是一种收获。

啊。。。its the process that matters.

啊！好激动！看到自己花了一个小时打的中文能成功显现在网上真的非常高兴！ 好象有了一种成就感一样哈哈。=D 好了我不要在这里胡闹了，要跟大家说晚安了。甜巧克力梦！

五月二十二日，二零零七年
第一次在部落革打中文

只打了标题我就快要发疯了！ 一定出现了很多让人啼笑皆非的错别字！哈哈！敬请原谅！

刚从台湾回来，觉得这次的毕业旅行收获不少！处了能见到 Panny 以外，还认识到了几位朋友。虽然只是短短的十一天，不过每天都是学习的一天。在那里到处都是密密麻麻 (这决定是写错了！我不会写啦，但也不想加英语下去) 的繁体中文， 看了我头晕目悬！ 在这种境况之下， 发现我的中文真的是见不得人。 太恐怖了！

但我对中文的热忱好象又悄悄跑回来了。 发现中文的美， 与台湾朋友交流时特别亲切。 但是打几个中文字还可以，要长篇大论的话我可会做中文梦！

最近常在网上用中文聊天， 这或许是我的三分钟热度哈哈。 打中文也可真考我的耐心！

现在的我是站在十字路口， 不知该往哪个方向， 好茫然。。。 机会就只有一次， 一定要好好保握。 不过我要怎么知道这个机会是自己要得呢？ 好难丫。 最难了解的还是自己。不知道应该怎么办， 又不能顺其自然，好烦丫！ 希望能一觉醒来就有答案！

好想在雨中跳舞， 你愿意陪我吗？ =)