Reflections

2011-07-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

I am almost speechless....

When others don't care, why should I?
I don't understand this, but hey, why should I even try to understand?
Do I need to do that? No, I can simply just walk away and choose to ignore.
But we need to look at the bigger picture, why are we doing this?
Or rather, for who are we doing this?
It is not for you, neither is it for me. It is for everyone.

Being silent doesn't mean I'm alright. It just means that I don't wish to make matter worse hence I'm taking a step back.

Well, all sorts of people out there. As long as I know I have tried my best to make things right, the rest ain't really in my control.

2011-06-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Not quite comfy...

One of the best ways to overcome your weakness is to face it, be in it, stay with it and be-friend with it.
Being uncomfortable is a growing process, otherwise life is too boring if it stays the same.
There isn't a moment when you will be ready for it, for what will come will come.
Just face it with courage and be natural about it.
Breatheeee and gooooo!

2011-04-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Symptoms of 24/7 (Overwork) Speaking from self experience: - When you start to click 'ctrl + alt + del' to lock your personal computer - When your friend said we need to harmonize during duet singing in ktv, your mind immediately thought of yes, we need to harmonize HR policies - When you dream about work - When you start to miss homework deadlines - When you start to prioritise your weekend schedule to make room for work How???????????????????????? Breathe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-02-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

书本

看到烹饪书有介绍许多营养丰富的捕汤，觉得如果能自己动手（或妈妈）下厨应该会很棒吧！
所以就决定把我第一次买这类型的书本交给了它哈哈。有点像家庭主妇的感觉吧？嘿嘿，想太多了！
被问到为什么我每次都说这类型的书都能到读书馆借，这次却例外呢？我突然不知怎么回答呀。
就说省着麻烦。心想或许我对烹饪的兴趣又突然像风一般的回来。好期待喔。

在逛书局的当儿，有而外的收获。
对另一本书爱不释手。
不是另一本烹饪书啦，你以为我真的是一个全职的家庭主妇吗？哈哈。
虽然不能翻开内容，但当凭封面和背面就知道非买不可！很少对书本有这么强烈的感觉。

。。。人生是一场不断抉择的游戏，什么样的选择，决定什么样的人生。。。
Life is a cross road full of turning points. Decision made brings us to another point.
Some says it doesnt matter where it will bring us, for it is the process, the journey that matters.
Looking at where I am now, I think back of the paths which I have taken.
Then, we need to think forward. What's next?

。。。是说你要有放得下的勇气，然而并不是所有的人都能做到，很多人依然活在过去当中。。。
The past, the present, the future.
Where do you want to live in?
There is a choice, because it is your life.
You are the director, the script writer, the cast.

现在头痛的是，全都是以繁体字写的，会读得比较吃力些。
我的第一本繁体中文书本！加油哈哈！慢慢享受中文的美。。。个人觉得有些词用中文来述说，感觉比较丰富些。

2011-01-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

Drained

Not sure where to start, but emotions are piling up like nobody's business.
Didnt expect that to come, but standing at the greater side of view I know why that decision was made.
It wasnt easy for anyone, but I wasnt expecting myself to react in this way, for I thought the past one year or so has made me - detached.
This made me realise that deep down, I'm still the same.
And it dawned on to me that this maybe what some had experienced or were struggling with.
When it's too overbearing, one may choose to leave and start afresh.
The most difficult thing is not to hang on dearly, but have the courage to choose to let go - and really letting it go.
Time isnt the factor, it is the moment that counts.
The TLC that fillls up the whole area will never be the same again.
Talk about decision analysis, problem analysis whatever.
Some things just cant be processed through in this manner.
Listen to your heart, think with your brain and follow through.

All of us have a common destination. But the way we embark on this journey may be different. Conflicts, clashes etc, that aside, focus on the similarities and leverage on it. Turn our differences to synergies and ride on it. Help ourselves, help others, and help everyone.

2010-09-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

Everywhere

Pondering whether I'm in my comfort zone,
but there came another pool of waves that I've to ride on.
I haven't really found the answer to it but I guess it doesn't matter now,
for what's really important is the present.

This is the primary reason of being here,
but yet aint really confident to put chaos in place.
I think back, of the things that I've learnt, of the place that I've grown up in, of the mentors that have made a positive difference to my life.
I hope I haven't forgotten all these.
As others have made a positive difference to my life, I hope I have somehow made others felt the same way too.

Another new perspective of work that's not just about work itself nor the people, but it's also about the grounds covered coupled with heavy weights on the shoulders. Not a bad deal to be able to lose weight while on the move - I just hope I wont grow shorter haha.

2010-08-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

I just want to say:

"It's tough everywhere, but we have to start somewhere."

Have you found the somewhere to start?

It's right here, waiting for you.

2010-07-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

Equilibrium

When moments of truth are swayed, we are the ones who (try to) bring it back.
Be it terms that we dont understand, or making our hands soiled by walking down the line.
We know that what we have done may have little impact to the end result,
but what we are trying to achieve out there is to let the world have a little bit of fairness when things seem gray.

When it gets overwhelming, we try to take control.
But there you are, suddenly barged in with a strand of words that left no explanation.
Speechless for a moment as I see your back, unable to comprehend the reaction.
Trying to stand in your shoe for a moment, yet realise that it's too big for me to handle.
Shouldn't read too much into it, for I believe it is the circumstance that translates this behavior.
Doing what I can to make things right, and hoping that emotionally you will feel better.

I am not a superman. 1 does not equals to 4.
Keeping it afloat is straining, but I know that tough times dont last, tough man do.
It's tough everywhere, but we have to start somewhere.
That somewhere brings a path of light that leads into many other paths.

Even in the toughest condition where environment is unfavorable, they are fighting hard to pursue their dreams for a better tomorrow.
But where in the city can we find this form of fighting spirit?
So true, strong and pure.
We have to continue searching for it, to detach if necessary.
At least for a moment, the universal language helps to heal the gaps.

When we are the ones trying to bring a little bit of fairness into the world, who are the ones to bring a teeny weeny bit of fairness into our world?

2010-06-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Shoe Size

When it comes to shoe, there's no free size, as one size doesnt fit all.

We need to try wearing it, wriggle our toes around, catwalk a little to see whether it feels comfortable.

Sometimes you may feel that you can sympatise with those wearing heels with a plaster sticking out, while at times you may wonder in awe how one can walk gracefully with that pair of heels on.

This is all but illusion.

The former may feel perfectly fine with plaster as a daily form of accessories while the latter may be struggling with internal pain but yet pretending that its really really fine.

It is difficult to put yourself in other people's shoes. You need to take that pair of shoe and walk in it. Yes, walk in it till there is wear and tear and its only then you can gain a better understanding of what other people have went through.

So the next time before you said 'yes i can understand what you went through', do you really understand?

At that point of time you may have thought so. But wait till you walk the same pair of shoe then you will truly understand what that means.

The process may be painful but I am thankful that it didnt last long.

2010-06-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

Back to Basics

Have a strong foundation and see how you can apply that under different tough circumstances.

The fundamentals dont change. Think logically and transform that thought into an amazing end product.

Sometimes we are afraid because we dont have the knowledge to execute, or dont have the capacity to bring out a point that we know.

'Things' that we hold deeply to our hearts are what affected us most.

Dont let whatever that may comes along take away that pure innocent heart of yours.

Reaching almost end of quarter 2, have we get to where we want to be?

2010-06-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

Solid & Liquid

Dont let ourselves be limited by the structure. We should push ourselves to the boundaries and try whatever possible options - only then we will know whether it works! Pls put in more effort in this.

When the well is empty and we try to draw water from it, how do we ensure that there is constant supply of water source? We need to dig harder and deeper.

Adopt a 360 degree approach, step in and step out, flip around - to look from different angles.

Set small achievable targets. It doesnt hurt to take a step a day, it may just take you a longer time to reach to the destination but hey, at least its an inch moved.

Just get your butt off the chair and move - lah!

2010-06-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Solutions for 10 year series?

I failed to answer a '10 year series question'.
Somehow I knew that it will be asked, but I choose to let it go. I thought by doing so will be the best answer but seems otherwise.

Since its already over, no point crying over spilled milk. The other party may not feel any better either, and by looking from the biggest stakeholder's perspective, may the best person win. It may be a blessing in disguise for another person. I hope it will be a win win situation for all of us.

Studies have shown that we should spend more time to further build on our strengths to move ourselves further rather than to spend equal amount of time trying to improve on our weaknesses, which may be a marginal return compared to the vast amount of effort being put in. I guess sufficient effort has to be put in to improve on weaknesses to an acceptable level and pushing our strengths to a much higher level. Seems quite true to a large extent by looking at the people around. But first, we need to identify our strengths and weaknesses. How well do you know yourself?

When we load ourselves with more things/ emotions, we need to let go some as well. Otherwise it may get too overwhelming and end up getting screwed.

Question of the week: How can we create value?

2010-05-26T05:37:00.000-07:00

More Thoughts...

Fear is distracting. It diverts our attention away from the goal. We need to analyse why we fear in order to come up with solutions to control it.

Being just a small pea, you may get overwhelmed easily. Take a step back and look at how the big guys are coping. They aint complaining, still keeping their cool and juggling around. So instead of wasting time yanking away, why not just learn from them and get things done?

One great man can accomplish great tasks. It will be even better if one great man has a great team behind him. Learning how to let go, trust your team and not micro-manage is a skill to learn as time goes by. Otherwise it doesnt matter whether there is a great team behind the great man, as all will fall on the burden on that one man. We need to create synergies within the team, tap onto their expertise and generate higher efficiency. 1+1 does not have to be equals to 2. We are aiming for 1+1=3 over here.

We dont need to put across many points to the audience at one go. As long as they receive and understand 1 main point is good enough, 2 points is lucky and 3 is a bonus.

Sometimes we may be too hard on ourselves. We must learn to let go and give ourselves deserving pats on the back.

Small sacrifices and endurance now wiill make you a better man in times to come.

2010-04-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts

Some places that work out for you doesnt mean that they will work out for others. Giving yourself sufficient time to try and adapt means giving both parties a chance as well. It may be time for you to move on, but eventually there will be a place meant for you.

With power comes with great responsibility. Does it mean that with no power comes with no or lesser responsibility? True to a large extent I think, and power can indeed be a double edged sword. It can either magnify the greed/ evil intention or it can make things move in the right direction. Whatever it is, exercise with caution so that it will not be abused, and we must always stand on the ground and keep that faith going.

Why do we have to conform to the environment we are in? Did anyone state that as a rule or code of conduct? Or is it an assumed statement in the society? Sounds plain easy to use these as excuses if we didnt think hard enough why certain things happen in this manner or did anyone really take the first step and try to make a difference? A positive difference? No doubt it takes courage to do so, to move out that one inch and be a little different, yet not to deviate too much if you dont really want to be so ahem, different - so where is the midpoint? It is easy to go with the flow, follow the norm, but when things shouldnt suppose to be in this manner, would you be the first to voice out? In the state of uncertainties? We should fight for what we want and not conform to the usual circumstances if it brings about a win-win situation for all of us. Never try, never know.

Can you tell me more about yourself? Many people were caught unprepared with this question, a one word sentence that seems so easy yet carries some depth in it. How well do you know yourself? If you dont even understand yourself, would you expect others to know you better?

If you have the knowledge but yet cant express/ communicate it out, its almost equivalent to not knowing it. People will not know what you know or dont know if you dont say it out.

Sometimes if you are trapped under a circumstance, it may be better to move yourself out and get going, so that you will be able to see things from a different perspective. Who knows after awhile, you may be equipped to go back to where you have left and complete it, to move on even further. Leaving it halfway doesnt mean you are quitting, you can choose to take the longer path to complete it too.

There's really a lot of work going on here. Can you manage? Yeah well its managable but a little stretched, but yeah we are fine. So what's the issue over here? Aren't we all stretched? Just gotta bite the bullet and move on. How about trying to deploy resources around? Putting a bit more effort today will reap far more rewards in the future.

Being emotionally attached isnt a bad thing if you can manage it. Looking from a different perspective, the reason why you're emotionally attached is because you care! Nothing wrong with that as its common for humans to function in this manner because we think, we feel and we react. We are somehow, 'configured' in this way. What's challenging is to be in control of your emotions and not breakdown.

Can you do it? I'll try. Try isnt good enough, but yet I wouldn't want to overpromise and underdeliver. I'll try my very best to make things happen.

We are taught not to simply be 'yes man'. But who can accept a 'no man' that's right in front of you? Do you do things that you know its right but nobody will support or just let it pass?

Even when the future seems uncertain, we have to stay focus and put in our very best effort to get things going. We are not just responsible to ourselves, we have to be responsible to our people as well.

Will passion overcomes procrastination? Who is the big daddy here huh?

2010-01-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

Just Keep Running

There's just too much running to do. Not plain running in sports shoes but killer running in high heels + sometimes skirts/ dress.

A real challenge for someone who cant even walk properly with heels on the whole day.

Deepest impression goes to the 100m or so sprint at RM carpark, though this is just 2nd in place. The ultimate champion would be wearing thick winter jackets and carrying heavy school bag, running few streets down in Seattle chasing after a cool marathon runner with his music on. Yes, this was what happened when Jack is out of box (i feel so cold.. blurrr)

In this vast land where public transport is highly inaccessible, I am indirectly trained to be a marathon runner in heels! Not complaining, but pretty amusing hee.

2010-01-16T06:58:00.000-08:00

Looking Back 2009

It seems like it has always been a tradition to look back the year whenever we are approaching the new year, giving us some kind of opportunity to do a pulse check on whether we are heading the right direction or we have lost ourselves in the midst of the rat race. This year is no different as well, for I am typing my first entry in 2010 to have a closure for 2009.

Work has all the while been taking up a huge portion of my time, therefore its not surprising that much of my daily conversation surrounds the topic on work. Things changed when people started to cross your path frequently, giving you a different perspectives on the way of working, culture, attitudes etc. Comparisons started to form and when either party dont give in to one another, by giving in means either you adapt to his/her way of working or he/she tries to find a common ground, somebody will need to give way eventually. It is a good learning experience to interact with different people, for its only through these circumstances that enable you to see yourself in a different light. This is like you never know how far you can stretch till somebody has given you a task that you never thought you would be able to do. I guess things have changed and will never be the same again. Time and effort were spent to try to change things, to put things back in the right path and not troubleshoot the same kind of issues every month, but I guess one man's strength isnt enough to change the perspective of everyone. I suppose I have done all that I could and perhaps its time to move on. Thanks to those who have made a positive difference to my life.

And no, the ultimate action wasnt done on impulse. Considerable thoughts and endurance were factor in so lets look forward. I'm sure things will be better for everyone.

Back at the crossroad once again where we were once freshies, I chose the harder path again. So the next time you heard me complaining about it, please give me a piece of my mind haha. Things doesnt seem so well right now but with the integration going on, lets see how it will go as its still too early to conclude.

OK now for the fun side, went to travel around Taiwan for the 2nd time to get some retail therapy, adding few kgs to my weight and visiting friend. The deepest impression that I had would be the various theme restaurants that we tried. I'm sure there will be a 3rd time to Taiwan again hahaha.

Realised that time seems to pass faster as we grow older - is this a sign of old age or?
Had too much big emotions that sometimes I wondered whether I would collapse from it. How not to be the person I am? Thats a tough question to ponder...

2009-11-03T06:31:00.000-08:00

3 Nov 09
Sometimes you just have to keep Scrolling Down...

Was clearing my emails and came across one that says:

.... Hope you find this mail in Great Spirit!!!

Kind of lifted me up a little and prompted myself to read further.

Ah.. they are looking for a data center technician...

Why is this landing in my email when those alien alphabets dont make any sense to me?

When I scrolled towards the end of the mail, finally something that I could relate to:

If you don"t go after what you want, you'll never have it.

If you don"t ask, the answer is always no.

If you don"t step forward, you"re always in the same place... So Move ahead...

2009-10-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

27 Oct 09
2nd Day

Witnessed a major event today and it brought back memories of the past.
I still find it hard to let go, to believe that I'm no longer a part of the entity. This isnt a good sign.

Some asked: 'Eve, 你不要我们了吗？'

'我没有不要你们, I love my people'

Hope I can carry these beautiful memories with me and not be so emotionally drained.

Lets jiayou and pursue our dreams bravely!

2009-05-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

1 May 09
Celebrating Labor Day...
... by Enjoying the Simple Pleasures of Life!

The WSC OVE gang decided to venture to JB, Malaysia to celebrate Labor Day!
Just when you thought that staying in City Square sounds bored, especially when i was about to tell you we stayed there for the whole day, take a look at the pictures and you may have a second thought =)

Gathered at Woodlands MRT around 9am before we board bus 950 to cross the custom. This was my first trip being suspended, resume and suspended again haha! Being a good kiddo, there's no termination dont worry heh.

Reached City Square almost 12 noon due to the jam, kinda expected that since its public holiday. Headed straight to Kim Gary restaurant with high recommendations from Ronald.

They have more varieties displayed in their menu compared to the ones in sgp. We spent quite some time browsing through before placing our order from the Fish Market menu for lunch.

This is the Norwegian Salmon blah blah blah... We came up with the idea of tagging these food to us so that those who missed out on the good food would be able to get the share as well haha.

Corn = Sherlyn

Tomato = Thong Loon

Brocoli = Kelly

Salmon = Wei Ching

Calamari = Pho

Prawn = Ian

Clam = Ronald

Wedges = Me

What's after a satisfying meal? A group photo of course!

Its time to do some retail therapy for digestion heh. Didnt know trying a pair of shoes could be so much fun! Mu Yang Papa commented that my foot looked bandage, and we were all so proud of this master piece that we had to signify victory for it.

Yes, we were still in this shoe shop taking more pics, as Sherlyn commented that the backdrop looks good with the sunshine wor.

As we proceed up to the last level, we went to check out the movies cost and schedule. Checking the cost required abit more skill, where we peeped at the screen when others were making payment heh. Since it cost only RM10, we immediately bought tix for the movie, Uninvited. Had a laugh when we settled down in the theare, as the 3rd row from the front was really very front! Even the 1st row from the front back home wasnt that front ya know?

Dinner was at the sizzling stone grill restaurant and it was testing our patience as cooking and slicing the meat was found to be very tedious! Not for the lazy bums and aching arms, for we had to repeatedly turn the meat round so that it wouldnt get stick on to the stone grill.

Gave up on the usual flipping and we started exploring innovative ways of cooking, such as slicing the meat and stir fry it! We had so much fun that any vegetables that came along the way were not spared.

Presenting to you our master piece...

Smiley!

Sad

Sad with eye brow

O shape mouth

Funky fido dido

Nothing much left as most food were cooked already when we reached the final master piece

'Playing' with the food not only entertained us, it also ensured that the food were stir fried and thoroughly cooked, with additional flavorings from the vegetables hee. We were good farmers who dont waste food, and to end this off, we headed to our 2nd round at Secret Recipe next door.

The ramen girl was on the big screen, and we have the lasagne guy right here!

Sherlyn started using the leftover creams on the cakes as her play dough.

Our love love to Wei Ching!

After a whole day at City Square, here's the verdict from the nuasters:
Lets meet at City Square instead of City Hall for our next gathering haha! Eat, sing, movie - you name it, they have it!

2009-04-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

4 Apr 09

1st Post of Year 2009

I had always wanted to post something to conclude the end of Year 2008 and embrace the new year. However the lazy bugs get the better of me so it ends up all virtual thinking without action heh (whats new huh?)

Looking back 365 days of 2008, a huge portion of my time was spent on work. Those days where you worked past midnight, sometimes weekends, occasionally public holidays, but still, the workload never seemed to decrease. Undeniably, its also through this pile of work where i get to learn new things, interact with night shift staff, and learnt more about myself under different circumstances.

My boss bought me supper for Payroll week, nice gesture! =)

But hey! I do get my fair share of fun as well. Otherwise, all work and no play makes Eve a dull gal ya know? heh. Catching up with friends for gossipy sessions + a getaway to HK for shopping and makan were great ways to rejuvenate hee. A fruitful 2008, minus the fact that I still didnt pursue the things that I've been wanting to do/ learn all the while... Never mind I thought, for I have Y2009 to continue my resolutions...

Being a kiddo in HK Ocean Park

So Y2009 came and we are now in Q2. Q1 has just passed and I shared with some that 20 Jan 09 had been one of the most stressful night since I started working. It was my company's D&D, and it was the first time we had this. I felt that all 450 happiness were dependent on my 1 emcee, and it was a tremendous pressure to ensure the show ran well. I certainly wouldnt want the budget to go to waste, and all my staff deserved this to reward for their past performance and a night for us to unwind and have fun. The night is yours, and truly, everyone transformed overnight into cool dudes and beautiful ladies. I have to thank my committee for this, if not we wouldnt be able to done it.

The preparation stage, 2 hours before the final showdown, and my committee String is busy being the photographer to capture our hardwork haha

So the Hollywood Nite was over and it was a busy month of deep dive and T&A project. Looking towards the fun side of Q2, a Malaysia trip was planned on Labor Day and Taiwan trip in May. I remembered my first Labor Day ever since I started working was spent in office, calling up interns and sending emails invites. Some of the interns were surprised that we do actually work on public holiday! Oh well, what could I say haha... But rest assured that this aint gonna happen again because I wouldnt be in SGP, aka, no access to labtops hee.

April is a peak period of hard work before I embark the journey of fun in May. Hope all are doing well and lets work hard and play hard!

2008-08-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

15 Aug 08
Another First Time...

Went for tourist trips, went for exchange program... This time round its on a business trip to China, Shanghai.
Its kinda different feeling, coz for a start, I've to fly alone to Shanghai to meet my boss and agent.
Not a big deal to fly alone, coz afterall there are signs everywhere and 'road on the mouth'. Its just kinda lonely and bored. There's nobody that i could talk to, and nobody to take photos with. Felt kinda silly to zi pai, so i only took one pic of myself before i quickly hide my cam heh.... dont wish to be caught in the act =O

Its a good experience to be independent and alert, keeping track of time every now and then in case i missed the flight =p Went to tour around Terminal 3 and realise they have some interesting stuff like a free movie theatre for you to 'sleep' inside, some spa and therapy that you would have to pay. And oh, this internet that i'm using is free as well. Waiting for the boarding gate to be opened... although its just half an hour more to go before the plane departs.

Wasnt prepared to go on this trip due to the huge amount of work that's ongoing. However, there will never be a time that i'll be prepared so lets just go and learn from there. Hope things will go on smoothly! Till then~

2008-07-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

10 Jul 08
Memories are made of these...

Was looking through the photos and realise that time flies.
The journey that we took with different groups of friends - how have they been?

I hope things stay good, or even better for everyone.

Happy convocation/ commencement for Class 2008! Cheers!

2008-06-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts

16 Jun 08

Its interesting to see how humans react under different circumstances. By doing different things, or doing the same things in a different manner, one is able to learn much from it. Observe not just what other people do, but how they do it as well. Talking to people subconsciously allows me to do some self-reflection, of how I reacted to different circumstances, my Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions (TEA concept). Not exactly a mature way to kick start June, but I'll do better in July heh.

Just when I thought I could catch a breather, there comes another wave where I've to learn how to sail without learning the ropes. What if there's no time to learn? Well, somehow or rather, things always manage to straighten out in the end isn't it? With deadlines, its either things get done or face the music -alone. Given that the latter's consequences are often too much to bear, the choice is obvious.

There's a saying, 'If you dont plan, you are planning to fail.'

I would like to add an additional line to it.

'If you do plan, please add in some flexibility as well.'

Otherwise, with the amount of ad-hoc matters going around, you will be overwhelmed and grabbing whatever lifeboats thats around.

I dont' grab lifeboats, I grab the Luge!

Slow and steady wins the race.

Fast and furious gets the shiokness!

2008-06-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

5 Jun 08
18 hours and more...

At first its 12 hours...
Then its the weekends...
Gone the public holidays...
Survived through 18 hours...
Cant imagine what's coming up...

I need to see some sunlight!

Having some fun at Botanic Garden on 25 May. Not exactly a bright and cheery Sunday, coz it drizzled halfway while having picnic.

Great place to play hide and seek haha!

There's no cherry blossoms tree in sgp for us to climb. Nevertheless this tree is popular with the young and the not-so-young (haha!)

Ended up with mosqi bites after this shot!

2008-04-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

10th Year Anniversary
5 Apr 08

Moving from Girl Guides to Choir, that's how we got to know each other.
One Alto, One Soprano, that's how 'One Song' begins.

Those were the days where we would go eat our 'Ah Hrm' noodles... blowing 'One Song' using the recorder... being the best buddies for Literature...

Few years ago, i wrote in Friendster: 'to meet my fishy friend in 2008 to celebrate our 10th year anniversary!'.. and...

here we are, having our 'Grasshoppers' session during Kbox!

2008-03-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

23 Feb 08
Hui Yu's Graduation Ceremony at Marriott Hotel

It just seems like yesterday where I wore the heavy motar board and dressed like a Harry Potter character attending my convocation ceremony... and now its my friend's turn at Marriott Hotel. That aside, I must say that their chickens are very tender, and they serve extremely good cakes =D

Anyway, its a joyous occasion to see batches of graduands and looking at them reminds me of where I am 7 months back.

It's just the beginning of yet another episode of life...

The JC Gang, missing Yingjie who's at PS eating with 'somebody' and Hui Ling.

We have graduated!

The oh so typical stunt to signify that we're out of the student world

2008-01-01T04:35:00.000-08:00

1 Jan 08
Happy New Year!

Finally I'm back blogging after what seems like four months of virtual disappearance haha. Looking back, it has been a fruitful 2007 which I need to leave some alphabets behind, otherwise it may seem like a year has gone by without much happenings heh.

Beginning last year (2007) Jan, I thought I'm going crazy with the amount of stuff I had with me. Going on internship during office hours, having FYP meetings and CCA meetings after that, doing assignments in the wee hours... I thought I'm experiencing the life of a full time worker plus part time student heh. No kidding man... but still, I manage to survive with some bruises here and there.

Rushing through FYP, enjoying the last bit of student life before officially saying good bye in my convocation gown, which also means embracing the corporate world. That's where real learning begins.

Going on my graduation trip with peeps from both NTU and NUS, Malaysia trip with WSC COR, Cambodia with Campus Impact... makes my May to July holiday a meaningful one. You really have to go and experience it yourself to know what it means...

Gatherings with different groups of friends to eat, talk, sing and shop, acting tourists to explore places of interests in Singapore, attending interviews to find out more about companies and through it, to understand more about myself... have been the activities to keep myself 'alive' before stepping into the corporate world.

With each step that we took, we are learning things and finding purpose in it. Determination and courage is needed for the year 2008, and I'm riding it to keep myself afloat. Cheers to a brand new year with champagne in hand! Slurp! =D

2007-09-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

1 Sept 07
My First Time...

... catching a movie alone!!!

I have always wondered how is it like to watch a movie alone, well not really alone since I cant be the only audience in the dark theatre. You know what I meant eh? To me, the idea of watching a movie alone is kinda lonely... peeping around you can see or rather hear friends chit chatting to one another, commenting when the climax is reaching, or simply just laughing together. I cant understand why a movie fanatic friend of mine kaka enjoys going movies alone, but this time round, I guess I'm able to understand why.

Catch The Willow Tree at The Cathay... 风吹柳树静. I like the chinese title of this film. I find myself deeply engrossed in the show, and I can really feel for the main actor to the extent of weeping, taking my tissue out and blowing my nose. This is something that I find myself hard to do when I'm catching a film with my friends. I guess I'm more emotional being alone, and its easier for me to convey my feelings especially when the theatre is dark and I'm in the last row with nobody beside me heh.

This is my first time, and definitely not the last to catch a movie alone heehee. Simply love The PictureHouse!!! =D

2007-08-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

15 to 19 June 07

WSC COR - Taman Negara

A trip where I learned much about myself and others. Keep the spirits alive ya? =)

Zhan Zhi, Qian Hao and Jin He while caving. It was actually quite dark in the cave, which explained why Qian Hao was wearing the head light like a detective eh? hehe. This is the first time I realised the benefit of being a shortie heh. I dont really have to bend down much and could climb up and down within the cave without fearing of bumping my head into the protruding edges of the rocks heh.

Abseiling - Bravo to those who conquered their fears and landed safely.

Rock Climbing isnt easy as the rocks have sharp edges. Besides these, we also tried flying fox, river crossing and rafting. My greatest fear lies in flying fox but after trying it, I realise that its actually not as scary as I thought. In fact i didnt know that its so tiring to climb up the ladder and so carefree while flying across the river heh.

This was my first time camping in a cave. Kinda cool experience despite having backaches the next day due to the uneven ground heh.

Group C

CMY on the suspension bridge

Group C in Taman Negara. After long hours of being in the forest, we had rapids shooting and were completely drenched haha.

What better things to do other than 'taupok' people on the last night? Hahaha

One last shot of the whole group to leave some memories behind. This is truly an amazing adventurous trip where it challenges not only physically but mentally. Thanks to everyone who cheered upon each other and yeah, we made it! =D

2007-08-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

16 May 07
Tao Yuan Airport
Singapore

Its time to travel all the way from Gao Xiong back to Tao Yuan to catch our flight.

The 5 gals who travelled Hua Lien and Gao Xiong together.

In the plane with Mei Xuan

Back in Singapore feeling like a star haha. The dudes were really cutie and thoughtful to welcome us back heh.

Yeah we have survived our graduation trip together (missing Jun Pei who has to rush off).

Looking back, I thought this is one of the most fruitful trip that I had in my entire life. Although I did go for other trips later on, I believe that there is only one graduation trip and I'm proud to say that my graduation trip to Taiwan is a huge success filled with fun and nonsense with the peeps that I had with me hee. From the planning to implementation stage, from exploring the places to talking to strangers, from shopping and bargainning to eating and getting sick, all these form bits and pieces of the Taiwan memories. This trip is not possible without the participation of everyone, and I hope we all have our share of fun before we embark on a different journey heh. Taiwan graduation trip - 成功!!! =D

2007-08-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

15 May 07
Gao Xiong
Rui Feng Night Market

Its kinda like a free and easy day so we landed ourselves at the movie theatre in the morning. After catching brokeback mountain in the states, I always try to make it a point to visit overseas theatres if I have a chance so that I can see for myself how different it is and at the same time, experience the way of local lives. Anyway, we decided to catch '28 days later' because it sounded pretty interesting but horrors of horrors, one of the most terrible thingie that you could watch early in the morning. Super gross eek!

The place for people to hang around before heading into the theatre. Since we catch the film early in the morning, there were only 1 couple and us heehee. So we had our nonsense of fun again by jumping on the stage and exploring the theatre.

This is Qi Zi Bing - literally means chess biscuits. We had trouble searching high and low for this. Thought its an innovative way to eat and play chess at the same time heehee.

Super duper hot day that we just randomly walked about to explore. Kept on bumping into the Singaporean gang whom we met in the hostel in Taipei. Talk about what a small world out there heh. Anyway I reckon that the above thingie is consumable water, didnt try it though heh.

What better thing to do at night than to eat and shop at the night market? Haha... our last night market - Rui Feng.

Back in hostel celebrating Yingjie's belated birthday heehee. We got a hello kitty cake for her wor... tastes exceed expectation given that we bought it at their local 7-11 hee.

2007-08-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

9 Aug 07
Happy National Day

Regarding my MSN nick, "without bridges, we would all be islands." Hanwen has something to add on...

"Even with bridges, Singapore is still an island."

I guess it must be National Day that inspires him to come up with this verse haha. Nevertheless, Happy National Day Singapore!!! I'm proud to be a Singaporean!!! =D

Instead of catching the NDP at home nor hearing it live at the waterfront, Yingjie and I went to kbox and sing some national day songs haha! Kinda unique way of celebrating right? heh

2007-08-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

9 August 07
Some Happenings in the month of July

14 July 07
HSBC Treetop Walk

This weekend is going to be an adventurous one! Time for my lazy bones to be in action and embrace the nature once again heehee! I have always wanted to pay the HSBC Treetop Walk a visit and finally, I'm going to land my foot there!

Breakfast in the reservoir... food taste especially good haha

So touristy eh? Must take a photo at the entrance haha.

The treetop walk. Not as exciting as I thought it would be. Felt the same as walking on normal ground.

At jelutong Tower having some nonsense of fun

Cheers to us conquering 10km of walk hahaha! This includes trekking, avoiding the monkeys (for Hui Ling), getting lost ( a little), lots of talking (which scares the animals away), mistaken one animal as err.... Can expect our muscles will be aching like crazy soon haha!

15 July 07
Cycling in Pulau Ubin

For somebody that has not the slightest clue on the theory of balancing, cycling in Pulau Ubin requires someone in front to do the act of balancing and with me behind contributing to the screams when going downhill heehee. Thanks to my partner vince, we, lite speed duo manage to conquer cycling albeit with some blue blacks and mosquitoes bite haha.

One of the rest point hearing David for de-brief haha. So typical of him =p

After we cycled for hours, we were rewarded with sumptuous seafood and desserts haha! What an adventurous weekend for me embracing the nature with different bunch of people. Its good to do this once in a while heehee. Now, when shall be the time to conquer the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve? Hmm...

The Pulau Ubin gang taking a group shot before we took the ferry back to mainland.

17 July 07
Sleeping in the Theatre

Went over to The Cathay, otherwise known as Cathy Cathy by the other half of lite speed duo, to catch The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros. This movie requires a lot of my attention span that half way through the show, I kinda doze off a little heehee. Its been quite some time since I last slept in a cinema le. Nevertheless, I like the way the show is being filmed, just that I need to sleep more next time before I head to the cinema heh.

Joke of the day: Lite speed duo asked me whether I want some chilli for my dim sum. I said yes, just 一点。 He really gave me just 一点, one drop of chilli literally! I just stared at the one drop of chilli, dont know to laugh or to ???? Next time I shall request for 一大点！ One big drop of chilli haha!

21 July 07
D for Donut!

This is the second time my year 1 roomie and I baked together heehee. We were quite enthusiastic at the beginning, afterwhich we became bored with making the donuts and simply finished the flour by rolling them into small 'ball-lah' (name given by my roomie) altogether.

Who says donut must be round? I dont care... I want it to be of all sizes!

22 July 07
3 Events in a Day

Went to Marina Square Kenny Rogers to have a gathering with the OVE gang before they fly over to the Philippines tomorrow. Bon voyage! May the trip be a fulfilling and rewarding one and safety first! See ya all when back! =D

Next, went to watch The Seagull at the esplanade with Sheila. We couldn't believe our luck as they changed our seats for the better and we found ourselves just about 10 rows away from the stage at the ground level! However, as the show was mainly dialogue and I was too tired running about, I doze off haha! Not surprising right?

Right after the show, I fly over to town to meet the Taiwan gang for dinner. The food was bad, but luckily the company more than compensate the food.

27 July 07
3 Events in a Day (Again!)

Interview in the morning... followed by watching Harry Potter with the Taiwan dudes in the afternoon. Slept more than half of the show coz I was super duber tired, and not to mention that I just had lunch before entering the theatre haha. Apparently i fall asleep during the exciting parts, and was so awake at the boring parts that I fall asleep again... like a cycle man. At the end of the show, I couldnt make head and tail of it, so I guess you could say that I have never watched Harry Potter before haha.

My first time to Holland V with the GIP gals! Didnt manage to catch the windmill over there... coz I have always wanted to see for myself whether there is really a windmill in Holland V heehee. We had mexican food for dinner, which were pretty similar back to the mexican food that we had in the states. Dessert was at Cold Rock, kinda disappointed because it taste pretty normal to me. Cold Stone was soooo much better in my opinion heh.

2007-08-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

5 Aug 07
School Reopens Tomorrow... But its not for Me...

There are those...
who are already in hall chit chatting with their roomies;
who are doing some last minute printing of lecture notes;
who are already in bed so as to wakie at 630am in order to be on time for 830am lecture;
who has made plans with their friends to meet at Boon Lay Interchange before 8am so as to avoid the crowd;
who are busily looking around for people who are in the same class as them;
who are complaining to their friends how sianz they are to embrace the books once again...

There are also those...
who realise that they are no longer students.

School reopens tomorrow... but its not for me.
I miss school.

2007-08-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

3 Aug 07
大自然的美

从报章上读到一个专访。。。喜欢钟琴小姐说的一句话。。。
“当你浸淫在简朴而快乐的大自然中时，你会觉得自己生存的世界很肤浅，每一次从大自然回来，就会自我反省。。。探险是一种考验自己在恶劣的环境下如何继续生存的活动。”

When I read this, images of the Cambodia trip seem to flash back. The simple laid back life of Aoral... bathing with soapy water in PKH centre... just when I thought bathing is an uphill task, I manage to complete it and look back with fond memories haha.

That aside, want to share with you guys a neat place for some healthy food (yes, they have lotsa greens) and chit chat.

food for thought - good food for a good cause.

Interested peeps may like to check out this link
www.foodforthought.com.sg

Happy Birthday to Hui Ling!

2007-07-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

24 July 07
Convocation Ceremony

Photo taking in convocation gown consists of a four part series for me.
Part 1 on 12 June 07: Buying of gown and heading back to NTU to take with sign board
Part 2 on 9 July 07: Proper attire in NTU to take with sign board (again) and ADM (Art Design Media school)
Part 3 and 4 on 24 July 07: Actual convocation ceremony using two cameras, reason being that my batt died on me.

Part 1 on 12 June 07
Purchase gown and head back to NTU

Thanks to Jackie, we managed to get to the wu lu gown place to either purchase or rent it. I purchased mine, reason being that I could take with my other friends when they graduate next time, saves the hassle of going back to that place to return, and not much of a price difference. After that we head back to NTU to find kaka and while on the way out, we decided to stop by at the NTU signboard to take some convo pics since we had our gown with us.

With us in that kind of outfit, it had created quite a scene with people staring out from bus 199 -_-""" So you could imagine us trying to hide our faces whenever we heard buses coming, and our smiles would literally froze wishing that the photographer could quickly click for the shutter to move haha.

Requires some skills to capture the long signboard wor

Equal no. of guys and gals

Double degree in business and engineering hahaha (i wish!)

Part 2 on 9 July 07
Collection of Cert and Transcript

Yes i'm back to take pictures with the signboard again haha. This time round, with proper attire and a different group of people - the Cambodia gang.

Me and the signboard!

This is my first time to be up on the ADM building. Totally loves the grass so much that I can just roll on it!!! Wee!!! =D

Getting so comfy on the grass

Free stylers

Gee, we are all so cutey haha

I love to look at them in this manner

Feels really good to be on grass

Part 3 on 24 July 07
Actual Convocation Ceremony

I never knew convocation could last one whole day haha! Was practically stuck in NTU from 910am till 5 plus in the evening! Many thanks to the well wishes, thoughts, gifts and presence from you guys... definitely brightens up my day! =D Sorry for all who has waited for me coz i have been running about... and apologies goes out to those who have to be my photographers and nanny who has to look after my bags. I really appreciate one and all who have participated in this hectic day haha! Thank you so much!!!

Reached NTU around 910am... which was kind of late considering that I havent put on my gown, motar board and registration. In addition, my bro couldn't get the extra tix so he had to sit outside the Coffee Club Express to rot. Since there wasnt much time to spare, everything was like a rush for me, and it didnt help that announcements of graduands to be seated kept repeating like last warnings!

Found my place in the auditorium and settled down quickly, chatting with the gal beside me. Think I was kinda relax throughout the ceremony as the stranger beside me was tellin me how nervous she felt and she was afraid that she might tripped on the stage. I guess this convocation ceremony isnt very important to me so I didnt felt the stress and pressure of looking good haha. I just treat this as a gathering with my friends to take pictures heehee.

So it was my turn to be on stage. I watched where I had to stand, for i'm worried that I might get too excited to walk all the way up the stage before my name is being called haha. Upon hearing my name, I walked up and looked at the president in his eyes for few seconds, became shy (haha!) and looked away. Dont ask me why I felt shy suddenly hahaha... for I have no clue either! Shook his hands, smile into the camera, him saying congratulations to me and me saying thank you in return, took the folder and continue walking pass the stage with my two hands holding the folder like I'm a waitress carrying a plate! Afterwhich I decided to swiftly hold it in one hand.... and I was telling myself to enjoy the process of being on the stage since I have waited so many hours for it haha! So the 'harry potter' show has ended and its time for photo taking!

My family

Dad and I

Me and Mum... My mum likes this pic haha

When its my Bro and I taking pics tog, we never seem to have any decent shots haha. Always ended up doing wacky poses till my parents shake their heads

The gal whom I sat beside in the auditorium

From NYJC to NTU HRC

I really think NTU is very thoughtful to have this mini stage near the reception. Its a good place for all graduands to take pictures together, and this picture consists of graduands from the specialisation of Human Resource Consulting

My JC gang... Another thoughful gesture by NTU... balloon as decoration with HRC imprinted on it

My HRC friends

Part 4 of 24 July 07 shall be continued when I receive pics from Suhui haha! Again, thanks to all who has made my day! =D

2007-07-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

21 July 07
在雨中

走到一半，突然下起雨来。
没雨伞，快跑！
跑着，发现自己其实都被淋湿了。
那就潇洒一点，走吧。

---------------------------
感冒了
早知道就在雨中跳舞好了。

2007-07-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

13 July 07
What's in a Name?

The above question.

Today's Straits Times:
Lots, if the names fit people's jobs.

And came a strand of examples of pairing up of names and jobs altogether.

Stereotypes? Coincidence? True to some extent?

Compare and constrast it with the lines from Romeo and Juliet:
'What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.

Names are just meaningless labels we put on things.

2007-07-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

13 July 07
Taiwan's friend MSN nick

人生不是学习得到，而是学习经验。

How many times do we find ourselves counting the things that we have gained as the end result, compared to the things that we have gained through the process?

2007-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

14 May 07
Gao Xiong
Qi Jin Island
Xin Jue Jiang
Cheng Shi Guang Lang
Ai He

Set off early to go to Qi Jin island for some cycling. As I dont know how to cycle, havta got a double seater bicycle so that Yingjie can took control of it while I was at the back reading the map heehee. As there were a few iconic areas on the map, we just followed the trail... So much like being explorers on the island heehee.

Xing Guang Sui Dao... glow in the dark astronomy horroscopes

Its indeed a very hot day... much hotter than Singapore

Cycled some more to see wind mills

Yingjie and I conquered a huge shell heehee

We parked our bicycles to get ourselves this shot. The uncles suddenly said that we must pay them money if we parked here. They sounded so serious which I thought it was real - and actually it was true coz after that I spotted a sign board that said so. Luckily they didnt really get money from us coz its just a five minute parking only.

Most comical video of the entire Taiwan trip goes to this waterfall haha. Oh, and there's rainbow too hee.

Since I dont have a license, must action action a bit heehee. I like the helmet, so cutie.

To sum up the Qi Jin island, I thought we were on an amazing race or something haha... cycling from one stop to another for some photo taking before embarking on for more cycling. It could have been better if i'm in tee shirt and shorts, but I guess I shouldn't complain much coz Yingjie has been the one controlling the bicycle while I'm merely figuring how to read maps at the back most of the time heh. Anyway, it felt good to be adventuours once in a while hee. Went for lunch and had tou hua for desserts hee.

Xi Zi Wan - good for walks if it aint that hot

Outside Zhong Shan Da Xue while waiting for cabbie

Took a cab to Xin Jue Jiang for some food and shopping. Didnt stay in Xin Jue Jiang for too long as we were rushing off to find the store that sells Da Gou Bing (we call it beat the dog biscuit hee). However, as night falls we realise that we wouldnt be in time to purchase it so just ended up strolling along Ai He.

Jun Pei and I with our Mister Donut! They taste really different from Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme.

Cheng Shi Guang Lang - quite similar to our Clarke Quake area

Ai He - This doggie is so guai that I told the gals if we are in Singapore now I would have adopted the doggie! This doggie simply followed us from Cheng Shi Guang Lang to Ai He... which was at least 30 minutes I reckon. Whenever we stopped to ask for directions he would stopped too, so much so that a lot of people mistaken the doggie as ours! From crossing the traffic lights to the bridge to the pavements... Alas the doggie was tired from all the walking... he took a nap and we all left quietly =(

Back to the hostel where I went to their Fu Li She to grab a can of Taiwan beer to try out of curiousity. Their Fu Li She looks very much like the Nanyang Supermart in NTU. Anyway from my expression you can tell lah haha.

2007-07-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

13 May 07
White Water Rafting
Gao Xiong

The much anticipated day has arrived - white water rafting hohoho! The thrills of the rapids back in the states had made me love this water sport, so I just had to give it a go in Hua Lien.

Didnt bring a pair of shoes with me so I had to buy it over there. Like market like that!

I think we all look rather cutie in this outfit haha! So action packed eh? keke

Turned out that May isnt exactly a good period for rafting due to the lack of water level and rapids. As it would be way too tiring to raft throughout the journey, they have speed boats to push our raft along heehee. Most of the time we weren't really rafting, its more of like playing water and attacking the opponents' rafts haha. On our raft were three Taiwanese and it turned out that this were their first time driving over to Hua Lien for rafting heh.

Chatted with the Taiwanese guy in front of me and turned out that he was a chef wor keke. Luckily our raft had two guys because sometimes they had to get out of the raft to push it along whenever we got stuck in between the rocks or something. And its not that I belittled gals power or something... but because it really need a lot of strength to get the raft going. I'm speaking from experience okie, coz halfway through I decided to help by coming out of the raft to push it going. The moment I stepped out from the raft, I lost my balance and sort of fall. Stupid me kept clinging onto the raft for I feared that if I let go, I wont be able to catch up and back in it again. Due to my clinging, my knees rubbed against the stones or whatever objects thats in the water and ouch! It was bleeding -_-"""" So instead of trying to help the group, the dudes had to help me back into the raft instead. Talked about recovering from my illness and now getting myself hurt again tsk tsk!

Anyway there was a rest point for us to had lunch before continuing to exert our energy to attack the opponents' rafts heehee. In a whole kinda disappointed with the lack of rapids, and worse still the scenery couldn't make up for it. Nevertheless I think we all have fun playing water haha.

The survivors!

Next Hua Lien uncle drove us to some scenic area to embrace the nature.

What a view with our towels?! Hahaha...

The fishing net aint ours.

Nice Uncle who gave me dried fish to eat

After all the photo taking its time for us to retreat back to homestay to get our luggages to set off to Gao Xiong. (So many 'to's in that sentence haha!)

Home stay. I had one big bed to myself that night hohoho

Hua Lien uncle bought us dumplings! So nice of him wor =D By the way we had Mei Er Mei sandwiches for breakfast too! Yeah its really good!

Another long ride from Hua Lien to Gao Xiong. Halfway through the train ride met a nice Taiwanese guy who kept peeping at the rest of the gals gambling haha. He is a nice dude coz he offered to help me carry the luggage down the train okie? Haha. And I remembered how Yingjie was so addicted to gambling that my hands literally became a table for them to cast their cards man haha.

Took a cab to get ourselves in Zhong Shan Da Xue hostel. Bad experience with the cabbies in Gao Xiong.. think they were too commercialised liao. And they just act as if they knew the way when actually they dont. Okie not all cabbies behaved that way but some certain were! Ended up we had to walked so far and climbed slopes with our already too heavy luggages to get to the right hostel. And yes the luggage wheels came off again so you can imagining me panting all the way man.

2007-07-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

12 May 07
Hua Lien
Taroko

Managed to catch about two hours plus of sleep before rushing to check out of the hotel. Last met up with Panny for breakfast before heading off to the train station in a hurry. She wanted to ta bao some Mei Er Mei sandwiches for us, saying that its authentic Taiwanese breakfast and is a must-try over here. Sad to say there isnt any Mei Er Mei stall around Xi Men Ding area, so we settled with some other food instead. Just hastily finished the breakfast, half run half walk to find the train gate before I turned to bid goodbye with Panny and the dudes. Luckily everything is so action packed, else it will be harder to say goodbye.

I kinda felt a bit lonely without the dudes accompanying us for the remaining journey. Although they have been strangers to me seven days ago, I'm glad that we kicked off pretty well in Taipei. Left with five gals on this journey also transform me to be in auto alert mode - have to be more careful and need to recognise directions better heh.

As this was our first time on train, we were kinda puzzled as to why our seats were taken when we boarded it. Figured that the passengers who took our seats were old folks, we decided not to pursue the matter further. Had it been strong youngsters who took our seats, we would confront them coz its not easy to sacrifice our beauty sleep to go to the train station at 4.15am to get the tix ya know?

Luckily half way through the old folks alighted and we were able to claim back our seats... else our poor feet would be complaining heh. Finally reached Hua Lien and called the Hua Lien uncle, who told us to come out from the front gate. There were two gates in the train station, one called the front gate and the other of course, called the back gate. Not knowing which gate was the front and which was the back, we just came out from any gate that looked like a gate. Alas we got it wrong and had to detour back! It was not an easy feat to carry my luggage to walk around ya know, simple reason being that the wheels had fallen off and I cant wheel it! Arrgh...

Hua Lien uncle drove us to homestay to throw our luggages, followed by bringing us to try Bian Shi - a kind of food that looks like dumpling. Initially he ordered one bowl for each of us, where we had politely refused because its too huge a serving! Just two bowls for all five of us to share will do heehee.

A long drive up the Taroko where I thought we would be rewarded with some awesome views. Kinda disappointed... probably coz I have heard so much stories about how beautiful Taroko is, and sub consciously I'm comparing it with the parks in the states. I guess they are beautiful in their own ways, which I havent truly find the way to appreciate Taroko. Nevertheless its the great company that counts hee.

Hua Lien uncle said this is a must take scenery before embarking the journey

Casual

Me and Mei Xuan

Just had to dip my legs in the water and sit on the stone to relax haha! I enjoy such simple pleasures in life hee.

Jun Pei and Yingjie on the rocks

Err... Suhui acting as ????

Mei Xuan likes this 'bridge'

Yeah I cant even recall I took this shot!

Uncle told us that we'll be able to see waterfall further down the drive. Okok patiently we waited... never did we imagine that the waterfall is soooooo puny hahahah!

As the sky turned dark, its about time that we leave Taroko to go to a beach. Nothing much to see coz its too dark already. Next we proceeded for our dinner at a night market. Although its just a touch-and-go kinda feeling in Taroko, it still felt great to be away from the heavily polluted night markets heh. Breathing in the fresh air makes me feel alive and kicking hahaha.

The night market in Hua Lien is super duper small compared to those in Taipei. The size of it can be comparable with the pasamalam that we had back home. Also bought some mua chee to bring back home hehe. Since we were only going to stay over in Hua Lien for a night, we ventured to other shopping areas as well.

2007-07-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

11 July 07

My All

"My All" is built around a Latin guitar, Latin chord, and also makes subtle use of Latin percussion in the first chorus, before taking on a more conventional contemporary R&B - styled beat. Its protagonist declares she would give "her all" to have just one more night with her estranged lover.

- M. Carey - W. Afanasieff -

Ooooooh

Mmmh

I am thinking of you

In my sleepless solitude tonight

If it's wrong to love you

Then my heart just won't let me be right

'Cause I've drowned in you

And I won't pull through

Without you by my side

I'd give my all to have

Just one more night with you

I'd risk my life to feel

Your body next to mine

'cause I can't go on

Living in the memory of our song

I'd give my all for your love tonight

Baby can you feel me

Imagining I'm looking in your eyes

I can see you clearly

Vividly emblazoned in my mind

And yet you're so far

Like a distant star

I'm wishing on tonight

I'd give my all to have

Just one more night with you

I'd risk my life to feel

Your body next to mine

'Cause I can't go on

Living in the memory of our song

I'd give my all for your love tonight

[guitar break]

I'd give my all to have

Just one more night with you

I'd risk my life to feel

Your body next to mine

'Cause I can't go on

Living in the memory of our song

I'd give my all for your love tonight

(I'd) give my all for your love

Tonight

The MV, shot entirely in black and white and on location in Puerto Rico, was one of the last music videos directed by fashion photographer Herb Ritts before he passed away. It begins with Carey lying on an overturned rowboat in the ocean and progresses to her exploring the beach past flowers and a beam from the beach's lighthouse. The images of her lying in the shell and in front of the flowers were inspired by Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus. The video climaxes to a scene where Carey and her lover make love, but then ends with her alone.

Beautiful black and white MV

(Thanks to Youtube and Wikipedia)

2007-07-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

11 July 07
"Without Bridges, we would all be islands."

This has been my msn nick for the longest time that I can ever remember.

I dont know the actual meaning behind it. But my own interpretation is that if we are all islands in the first place, we are all alone. Its only when there is a bridge that can link me to you... the bridge is sort of like communication... communication will link the two islands together.

This is also my first time hearing people commenting about it.

Vinclone has additional three verses to it.

Vinclone:
"Without bridges, we would all be islands.
With these bridges, we are still islands.
However connected above the common sea,
in the end islands shall be islands."

Henry:
Heard rumours that without bridges, we'd all be islands.
but den if we're not islands in the first place, why den would we need bridges ley?

Shall not comment much over here... let your thoughts wonder. I guess there's no right or wrong answer to the bridge and islands thingie... its just your way of interpretation... nobody could say its wrong, right? well somebody could say its right though =)

2007-07-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

5 July 07
Commencement for my Dear NUS Friends

5am: Just manage to hit the bed after clearing up the silent explosion of A&W can in my cupboard.... Zzzzz so much work!

615am: Alarm rang. Cant seem to wakie.

730am: I want to roll some more. Please...

810am: Chum! I'm going to be late!!!

825am: Get myself out of my house in the fastest speed that I can hold in my sub conscious state.

835am: Reach AMK interchange.

840am: Shocked to see Lijun wearing so formal when she informed me that she would be just wearing jeans, so I decided to dress down too haha. Share a cab with Kallis, Xiu Rong and Lijun to head down to NUS UCC (University Cultural Centre, if i didnt remember wrongly)

915am: Reach NUS. Late coz we were supposed to doll Suhui up. Started our make up strategy on her, some hair beauty, adjustments of motar board and gown etc.

940am: Ready to be seated. Phew! Finally all the madness has subsided for the time being. However, still need to open my eyes big big to catch when's the three stars going to be on stage. Luckily Soon Fatt has good eye sight. He can easily spot where they were sitting while I was like still where??? There? Eh? Dont have leh cant see. So he became a live reporter of when were their turns on stage etc while I grabbed my camera to be on stand by mode.

Their commencement was shorter than our convocation. Not sure whether is it my illusion or something, I thought their UCC was smaller than our NY Audit. Anyway, am glad that the ceremony has ended fast without me dozing off heehee.

Next up was photo taking session haha! Really so much like taking bridal photos lor hahaha!!!

Suhui (the 'bride') was so popular, taking pictures with her fellow NUS friends and different groups of friends such as the SRJC gang, the MFSS gang, Taiwan gang, zapalang gang etc. I jokingly called for NYJC and TPS gang but no cameras were seen clicking coz Lijun and I aint the stars today haha.

Took the indoor shots with the fake flowers, on the staircase leading to dont know where in level 2, some random shots here and there before Suhui decided to venture into the outdoor shoots haha. So we had two statutes outside and some grass patches for you to lie on, like some literally professional outdoor bridal shoots haha. Of coz in between we helped ourselves to the buffet. Very small plate that they had which I was trying soooo hard to arrange the food properly so that all can be squeezed in, albeit with some food poking out here and there haha. Cant blame me for being greedy coz i havent eaten anything since the morning and the siew mai were zapped up sooooo fast!

Stoned and waited for Vincent to arrive. He was supposed to arrive at 2pm but no news from him. Waited till 225pm before sensing that something was wrong... coz he was to be seated by 240pm. Called him to find out that there is no reception in UCC!!! Yes totally zero (read again: 0) reception!!! With so many graduands, Suhui and I were like walking from one end to another trying our luck to catch a Mr Zhou Xing Ci look a like. Alas we caught him hiding in a corner, trying hard to get himself dressed up properly haha. Came his other two friends, Vincent Pang and King. King was super funny lah... let the picture do the talking.

NUS Start of Commencement

I'm so happy and proud of you Mr Chen Junming

Yes and you too Mr Tan Jin Xin

And my dear 'bride' Suhui

Taiwan Gang

King wearing NTU convo gown appearing in NUS commencement hahahaa!

Anyway to sum up the NUS commencement, I feel really really happy and proud of all my friends! The happiness is something that is very hard to explain in words... It has been a long long time ever since I experience such strong emotions... so overwhelming for me! Of course not to the extent of crying, but the emotions within me is making me feel soooooooo.... unexplanable! Just super duper happy for all of them!!! =D

2007-07-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

4 July 07
Hunting Down Blue Roses

Tomorrow is a B!G day for Suhui... Yes its her convocation... eh, nope. Its her commencement. Talk about arguing the difference between KFC and Kentucky Fried Chicken haha!

Anyway, I realised that buying flowers, or rather to be exact, buying blue roses aint easy. Went to my house's market to check out the shop that's supposed to sell flowers but they do not have any roses. Decided to explore the market further and saw a florist... happily went in to tell the boss that I wana a dozen of blue roses and came her reply: "Must order in advance."

Ah??!!! Today isnt V-day leh, how come must order in advance de???!!

Coz must dye the roses. The roses need some time to absorb the blue dye. Earliest you can collect is tomorrow afternoon.

Pengz -_-""' I need it tomorrow morning leh.

So i msg Lijun and since she was already at Suntec, she went to check out the florists around that area and Carrefour. Came a shocking news that 5 blue roses were on sale for 70 bucks! That's day light robbery man! Carrefour didnt had any blue roses so the only place that I know of is the florist shop in Yishun.

However, being a stubborn Leo and Virgo means that I just had to find a florist that sells blue roses in AMK! So I explored another nearby market but the ones they had were fake flowers, in all sorts of varieties haha. Oh on the way I saw an ah ma drying the utensils with a towel. She took the utensils with her bare hands and placed them on a towel to dry - like what I had did back in Cambodia, only to get scolded in Khmer by a sister. Scary! Coz the sister 'pi li pa la' in Khmer thought what had happened. Turned out that I did it the wrong way, sorry oh! If this incident didnt happen in Cambodia, I wouldn't have paid much attention to this ah ma.

Tried my luck near Jubilee area and finally found one florist that sells pretty blue roses! 3 cheers to my stubborness haha! Not only are they pretty, the auntie that attended to me is very patient and polite too. They even gave me a purple plastic bag to put the bouquet in, which I was expecting an 'or biang' bag keke.

Both blue roses and purple bag are pretty right? heh. Suhui loves blue! And the desktop picture is one of my favorite pic taken in Taiwan with Suhui and gang.

She is making me so excited for her commencement haha! From shopping for cosmetics with her, to going to help her wear her commencement gown... felt so much like her wedding day haha! =p I dont know why but i'm not at all excited for my convocation. In fact, I can even forgo my convocation and join my OVE (Overseas Voluntary Expedition) gang for a trip to The Philippines. However, I guess I had my fair share of fun so I havta guai guai attend the convocation.

A surprise postcard from Kaka! Kaka msg me while I was heading to Malaysia to get my address, saying that he might send me a postcard. Thought he was kidding so didnt want to expect anything from him but ta da! A pleasant surprise haha! He said that he dont like Tibet so much coz its already very commercialised. Sigh I hope I will be able to travel to Tibet soon before it become way too commercialised! Anyway, heard from Rayray that you're sick so pls take care and get well soon! See you for Ben & Jerry's when back! =D

2007-07-02T02:22:00.001-07:00

You Are An ISFP

The Artist

You are a gifted artist or musician (though your talents may be dormant right now).
You enjoy spending your free time in nature, and you are good with animals and children.
Simply put, you enjoy beauty in all its forms and live for the simple pleasures in life.
Gentle, sensitive, and compassionate - you are good at recognizing people's unspoken needs.

In love, you are quiet and sweet yet very passionate. You love easily.
You have an underlying love for all living things, and it's easy for you to accept someone into your heart.

At work, you do best in an unconventional position. You express yourself well and can work with almost anyone.
You would make a good veterinarian, pediatrician, or composer.

How you see yourself: Sympathetic, kind, and communicative

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Incompetent, insecure, and overly sensitive

What's Your Personality Type?

2007-07-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:

You have medium extroversion.
You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party.
Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences.
But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time."

Conscientiousness:

You have high conscientiousness.
Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.
Most things in your life are organized and planned well.
But you borderline on being a total perfectionist.

Agreeableness:

You have high agreeableness.
You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.
Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.
You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance.

Neuroticism:

You have low neuroticism.
You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.
Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.
Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is medium.
You are generally broad minded when it come to new things.
But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it.
You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

2007-06-10T01:55:00.000-07:00

11 May 07
Beitou Hot Spring
Tian Mu
Wu Fen Pu
Xi Men Ding

Despite the hot weather that's melting all of us, we were all keen on experiencing hot spring! Went to the famous Long Nai Tang where it has a rich history... though it doesn't look like the kind of hot spring that I was expecting =p I guess I must have watched too much tv, 'fantasizing' about those outdoorsy hot spring with a towel on your head, admiring the clouds and chit chatting with friends at the same time.

However, the kind of 'treatment' that we were entitled to were the complete opposite haha. They do have the common pool for all to soak in, but being conservative Singaporeans we were all too awkward to be so exposed together with some strangers (no towels allowed). And the towel that we bought from them were a joke - so small that you dont have to think of where to cover. Just BIG enough to put on your head -_-""" Probably the only consolation was that there were multi colors for you to choose, if it helped anyway.

I had a peeped into the common pool... the ladies common pool to be exact. Coz I almost peeped into the wrong pool haha =p The scene was sort of like what we would see in the IMA (GIP people would know keke)... until the lady boss said 有什么好看的！ then i quickly stopped being a peeping tom =p

We settled on the private pools and the guy boss was kind enough to let us have 6 individual pools. As there were 5 gals and 3 dudes, there was only one permutation and combination for this. 5 gals would take 5 individual pools and the 3 poor dudes were all thrown into 1 pool. Despite allocating the biggest pool to the dudes, frankly speaking it should be too cramp for all of them coz the maximum people it could hold was just 2 people. But just additional one dude wont hurt right? heehee. Afterall during my hall orientation camp we could squeeze around 20 people into one toilet cubicle, so what's so difficult about having 3 dudes sharing a pool right? heehee =p I'm sorry that there was no democracy with the dudes, the gals have a final say in this haha.

Test the water with my feet and ouch! Its soooo HOT! Started to pour cold water into it so as to neutralise the effect and it took me like 10 minutes to bravely immerse myself into the hot spring. During the 10 minutes there were lots of shouting here and there haha. I never knew that hot spring will get so noisy haha. Coz Suhui whose cubicle was just beside mine kept complaining that hers was too HOT and she just couldn't step into the hotspring. And every few minutes we would be asking each other whether we have go into the hot spring, updating about our progress of pouring cold water, testing the water and how the hotspring was still so hot etc haha so Auntie wor!

And apparently it doesnt help that the dudes kept saying that their hotspring aint hot enough and they were like already in the hotspring almost immediately -_-"" Such a huge contrast hearing them to be so relax and Suhui to be so gan jiong coz we were saying that the 30 minutes would be up before she could even step into the hotspring =p

Under the time pressure I had to force myself to go into the hotspring, afterall that's what coming here is all about. When I'm in it its actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Felt so bored that I just started 'swimming' in the hotspring, meaning moving my hands and legs about given the limited space. Had to be in it for about 10minutes, come up and rest for 5 minutes and go back in again.

After I'm done with mine, went around other cubicles to test the water heehee. Now I can finally understand why the dudes landed themselves into the hotspring almost immediately, coz the water aint hot enough. In fact its just warm, can almost jumped into it without 'ouch!' While Suhui's hotspring is the hottest, I'm just surprised that there aint any steam coming out haha... coz its really very hot that I dont think I would be able to ta han leh haha.

And its only after we were all done then uncle told us that we should stay still in the hotspring with our hands in the air, reason being that our hands are the delicate parts of the body. Eh... isnt it abit too late to say so? =p Coz' I was happily 'swimming' away just now haha.

So what's the immediate effect of the hotspring?

Sweat and my face turned red!

Just had to put the towels on our heads coz I think this is part of the fun of hotspring heehee

All wakie and in alert mode after the HOTspring haha

Next we visited a nearby hotspring museum to understand more about the history. Too many words but luckily, they had some english translation too. By the time we were done, its almost lunch time so we headed to the Pu Pu shop at Tian Mu for some pasta.

Pu Pu was the place where the casts of Meteor Garden had a dining scene, evident from the unique car seats and displays in the restaurant. We aint sure of the way to get there, so we engaged in conversations with strangers at the bus stops as well as on the buses. While on a bus, we were talking to a lady as she spoke to us in english. When we were about to alight, an older Auntie turned to us and spoke english! We were all surprised as there was this stereotype that older Auntie doesnt know how to speak english. I mean those Taiwan variety show that we have watched, some of the young artistes and hosts doesnt even speak very proper english, thus making us formed the stereotypes that older Auntie doesnt know how to speak english too. Boy this Auntie totally proved that we were so wrong about it! And we jokingly said that she must have 忍很久，忍到终于我们要下车时才 showoff 一下 english! =p Of couse its just meant to be a joke, we dont literally mean it.

At this point of time, it reinforces a belief that I always had.

"The only way to counter prejudices and stereotypes is to expose yourself to it"

真的是要亲身体验才能纠正 any prejudices and stereotypes that we had formed both consciously and sub-consciously.

On the 2nd bus to Pu Pu, we asked the bus driver for directions and to alert us when its the right stop to alight. We had a shock when he pulled the bus right infront of Pu Pu, where there wasnt a bus stop stand there at all! Sooooo nice of him to do so! Landed ourselves in the restaurant with each ordering a pasta. Finally we had a plate to ourselves without sharing haha.

Yingjie, with the 'so called' Initial D pose by photographer Jin Xin

This is the car that we dine in. Again, no democracy exists among the dudes and the gals concluded that we had to take the seats in the car hohoho

Group shot

Happened to see a post office so I got Ronald and I some stamps for souvenir sake. Too bad that I didnt have a postcard with me else I can mail myself something haha. I guess after the New York trip I enjoy mailing myself a postcard whenever I have a chance to drop by overseas post office. I like the surprise of receiving something when I'm back home, though not exactly a surprise afterall since its 'To LQ From LQ' haha.

As there was nothing on the itinerary, we declared that the remaining day shall be a free and easy day haha. So typical tour itinerary where the last day is always a free and easy day hohoho. Because the dudes will be flying off tomorrow, we thought that it would be good for them to visit some places that they desire, and Suhui could land herself in her comics land while I could pay Panny a visit.

So Yingjie and I did some shopping in Wu Fen Pu first... last minute 血拼 before we try to squeeze all our stuff into the luggage. Finally bought a pair of shoe over there, and its so easy to 'kill price' in that shop heehee. Wasnt expecting a further discount and the dude just quoted a lower price to me, unexpected =D Didnt get to meet Panny coz she was on a business trip out of Taipei. After Wu Fen Pu, we headed back to Xi Men Ding to meet up with the rest of the gang to take neoprint!

Haha so many heads in the neoprint! If I didnt remember wrongly this is our last group shot together bah. This neoprint machine is so well worth the money haha... coz it just kept snapping us till we all complained that its too much le lah haha. Even the gals buay tahan le, let alone the guys! =p This is also yet another of our nonsense of fun hohoho

After the shot, the gang headed off for their 299 steamboat. As I dont have any appetite, I wandered around the Xi Men Ding area alone. Its pretty late, around 10 plus or so I guess and many of the shops were closing already. Hence, not much things to see as there wasnt much night life around this area, except for the movie theatre that was still crowded with teenagers.

Back to the hotel room trying to squeeze the Tai yang bing and pineapple tarts in the luggage. Didnt know that 2 boxes each were so heavy!!! Next up was to have a farewell party thrown with leftover dunkin donuts where we played zong ji mi ma to finish it.... and poor Jin Xin was the biggest winner (considered winning donuts to eat =D) and also the biggest 'loser' (considered eating the donuts after the 299 steamboat =S)... pat pat. He lost 3 times and Suhui declared that he must hide in the wardrobe for a minute! Haha what a true and dare 'punishment'?! And the choya thingie that they got was very nicey... totally love it but couldnt find any of such in Singapore =( An award ceremony by Suhui who gave out 'graduation academy gown' to those who graduated heehee thanks wor! This farewell party ended at 4am where Soon Fatt, Yingjie and I took a cab to the train station to buy early tickets to Hualien. This is because we missed the sale (we got there like 10 minutes late only!) and thus, had to be the first (they opened at 4am) to get hold of the tickets in case they sold out! Typical kiasu Singaporeans eh? keke.

Thought there wouldnt be anyone at the train station at about 415am... But looked at those people whose camping there waiting for their train!

Yeah we got our tickets! Still alert at 4.15am heehee

2007-06-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

10 May 07
Tamsui Old Street
Fisherman's Wharf
Shi Lin Night Market

It's time for us to shift our luggages again haha. From Taiwan Hostel Happy Family back to Paradise Hotel.

All of us in the train heading to Tamsui

Reached Tamsui Old Street, where there were a list of famous food that we had to track down. But before that, we just had to get dunkin donuts! As they were having some kind of promotion, we bought a dozen of assorted donuts and couldn't resist taking a few shots of it.

Dunkin Donuts... my childhood donut hehe

As we were too early, most of the shops in Tamsui weren't ready to do business yet. Went to a shop selling coffee and other 3-in-1 beverages... Auntie was too kind to us that she kept pouring samples of drinks for us to try till we ended up being full haha. Reckon that we were in the shop for more than half an hour till other shops began to be in operation too. Just in time for some makan-ing heehee.

Matching hats and shorts. Just lack of a fishing net heehee

Some munching here and there... and Suhui recommended us this shop where its voted by her as her favourite stall.

Their menu is written on the ceiling, unique eh?

Take a look at the logo. What does it reminds you of? keke

Tried most of the recommended food but there's this Ah Gei that we couldn't find! Ended up its on a 'hill' and you really need to 'climb' (consider the hot weather) in order to savor it.

Climb so hard of coz must take a picture - lah

There's this suuuuppppppeeeeerrrr taaalllllllllll ice cream that we must laid our hands on! So touristy heehee.

The gals with the suuuuppppppeeeeer taaalllllll ice cream

Fisherman's Wharf is the place where the show, Meteor Garden filmed the sunset scene. As its highly recommended to catch the sunset over there, how can we missed it??

Me so act cute wahaha puke. Taking this yatch reminds me of the one that my GIP gang took to see the statute of liberty from afar. If only kaka is here and we can sing Home together haha

Finally reached Tamshui Fisherman's Wharf!! =D Very relaxed place that shares similar ambience with San Francisco - with the artists drawing portraits of people and scenery, soothing music and some pubs from a distance.

Yu Ren Ma Tou

I cant think of a caption for this pic

Thought this pic is kinda lonely with the background of the mama and kid

从下面拍上去有不一样的感觉

我喜欢这样安静的凝望着日落

Ah... finally the moment that we have waited for has arrived!

Beautiful sunset. Even more so beautiful with my friends around me

The gals with our back facing the cam

This is one of my favorite photo. Love it so much that its currently on my desktop. I think I love pictures that capture our backs haha. The last pic of my desktop was the one taken in portland, with our backs too. 这张照片非常有感觉！

这张也不错！

Under such beautiful sunset, we all had our share of fun and laughter.

朋友和日落，在加上一点欢笑 = 永恒的回忆

All of us at Qin Ren Qiao - Lover's Bridge. Jin Xin wants the uncle to kneel down and take this group shot.. Uncle sweating wor hehe

As its getting dark, Mei Xuan, Suhui, Jun Pei and me headed to the Mirarmar Ferris Wheel while the rest headed to Shi Lin Night Market first. As long as I remember, this is my first time taking the ferris wheel. The view wasn't as awesome as we thought, but we had fun on the ride heehee. Caught something unexpected though =p

Ferris Wheel

After we were done, we went back to meet the main group for some eating and shopping in Shin Lin. Tried lotsa food like guan cai ban, where I literally took it as a coffin snack -_-"" Turned out that the meaning is 升官发财， and not direct translation of coffin. My favorite is the peanut ice shaving thingie... Wanted to look at how Auntie do it but she was done in seconds. 来不及偷师！

Famous Shi Lin chicky

Did some shopping in Shi Lin and its kinda comical to see those mobile vendors moving about whenever they heard rumours of police coming =p

They just love this kind of basketball arcade

九份是我最喜欢的地方。。。喜欢边逛小镇，边吃东西。那种小镇味道 + 朋友 = 非常棒的感觉！ Moreover the inspiration for 'Spirited Away' is derived from there.

渔人码头是第二名！日落 + relax ambience + 朋友 = 构成出美丽的画影。 Also, we had some nonsense of fun there. 感觉是非笔墨所能形容的。

如果要来个第三名的话，就是淡水！只是因为有很多好吃的东西而已。感觉 normal. 只是非常的热啦！

A little bit of regrets in Shi Lin. Didnt master the courage to try 猪血糕！因为大家都说很好吃哈哈！不过，听名字就够吓人了。哈哈我这么肤浅。。。以后要勇敢的尝试！

2007-06-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

9 May 07
Zhong Zheng Ji Nian Tang
Taipei 101
New York New York
Raohe Night Market

Set off from the Taiwan Hostel Happy Family to the train station. Was just taking the escalator down when I suddenly remembered that I forgot to bring along Panny's gift! As we would be heading to Raohe tonight which is near Panny's house, there might be a possibility of meeting her. So Suhui and I told the gang to go ahead first while we went back and take her gift.

You wont be able to believe it but yes... we were LOST!!! Sobzzzzz!!!

We past by it so many times but it didnt occur to us that that's the staircase leading to our hostel! Grrr....

And I'm so smart to claim that it should be further down the streets as I remembered seeing this coffee logo. It turned out that the coffee logo actually exists, but we didnt past by it while leaving the hostel.

Hmm... now the question is if we didnt past by the coffee logo while leaving the hostel, where do I see it then???

I saw the coffee logo on a drink in 7-11!!!!!

And this coffee logo actually left such a deep impression in my head that I THOUGHT we walked past it -_-"""

I would never forget Zhong Shan Bei Lu!!! There's so many Zhong Shan Bei Lu!!! Everywhere!!!

So ended up Jin Xin and Soon Fatt came and 'rescue' us... and once again, I had to let Panny know that I couldn't meet her =(

Okie anyway, met up with the rest of the gang at the train station and off we proceeded to Zhong Zheng Ji Nian Tang. It was a super hot day and I was stuck with the bananas. Let the following pictures do the talking then.

So neoprint style heehee

Everyone fall in

Yup... I'm still continuing my banana

Jun Pei, me and Yingjie

We are so patriotic! Orchids!

Some of us decided to go up Taipei 101 while others decide to give it a miss. So for those who went up, they were rewarded with awesome views and some nonsense of fun. For the rest, we were bored trying to lengthen our stay in a shopping mall called New York New York. Really nothing to shop - lah.

Taipei 101 from afar

Jun Pei, Suhui, Soon Fatt and Jin Xin went up

See, this is what I mean by some nonsense of fun heehee

Suhui acting scared =p

You're captured hohoho!

Awesome view of a bridge out there

Nope, its not the dining restaurant. Its the shopping mall

Guess what? I saw cold stone in Taiwan!!! Never did I expect that cold stone has franchises in Taiwan, so how could we miss it? We went and grabbed a strawberry something thingie coz its officially declared that there should be no banana in the ice cream. Yes, strictly no banana coz enough's enough hehe.

Eh.. statute of libery also loves cold stone in Taiwan?

Saw the biggest Cheng Pin Shu Dian... of couse must dropped by so that Soon Fatt could conquer yet another Cheng Pin hehe.

This is the ceiling with the flap flap thingie

Found a nice corner to settle down to read mags. On the floor lies a mag with Arashi as the cover

We had to take this simply coz of the word NTU over there keke

Went to Raohe Night Market. Its quite a small night market as there's only two rows... and I thought that the air was worse than the other night markets. Very difficult for me to breathe so no more hehehaha from me. Couldn't talk, couldn't eat... felt that everyone is fighting for oxygen and my share was getting smaller =( So after exploring Raohe, Suhui and gang went to ask the police for the nearest hospital. Actually it wasnt that serious, just that clinics were all closed at that time so the option left was to head to the hospital.

Suhui, Mei Xuan, Jin Xin and I took a cab and off we go. Had to register myself at the counter, fill up the particulars and take blood pressure before the doctor could attend to me. While waiting, I saw a patient who's having difficulty to breathe.... and her family is beside her. See liao very heartache... then I started to cry. The doctor must have thought that I'm such a baby come hospital sick also cry. Anyway, hope that the patient is okie le. So the doctor asked me what happened and took my temperature etc. It turned out that I was having a fever by then... and somehow it also affected my breathing too. The doc is very patient and detailed... kinda impressed by him hehe. Saw this cutie torchlight on his desk and meddled with it, then he showed me how to go about using it. I thought they would be keying chinese into the system and so I was caught in a surprise when I saw him typing english into the system. Not that I thought he dont know english, but coz I thought people in Taiwan would prefer tying chinese. He explained to me that sometimes he found it faster to type in english thats why now he's typing in english lo hehe. And I started complaining about the poor air quality in Taiwan and he agreed keke =p

Went over to get the medicine. Their packaging kind of different from ours... so many chinese words were typed on the packaging to describe the medicine and its usage etc. Couldn't understand so I have to get the nurse to explain to me what each medicine is used for, afterwhich I diligently wrote the following words on the packaging: flu, fever, cough. Jin Xin laughed and commented that I'm wasting their efforts of typing the chinese explanation out when one english word of mine will be able to make me understand le hehe. Paiseh ah my chinese standard cannot make it.

Took another cab and returned back to Taiwan Hostel Happy Family. As the walls for the individual rooms were quite low, I was able to climb onto the upper deck of the bed and throw the cab fare over to Jin Xin's room... and so we began a series of money throwing haha.

Hmm...

First time got lost in Taiwan...

First time stepped into a hospital in overseas...

Experienced a lot of emotional ride today.

Nevertheless, I need to thank the gang. Without them, I guess I would still be struggling to breathe in the hostel. THANK YOU ALL!

Entrance of Raohe Night Market

2007-06-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

7 June 07
Ouch Ouch!

Went back to NTU to pay the medical centre a visit. Boy I was surprised by the number of patients they had in the holidays! It took me slightly more than half an hour to land myself in the doctor's consultation room. This is twice the amount of time taken for me to queue in Canteen B during peak hours for Chinese mixed rice wor hehe.

At the registration counter, the lady asked me what year I would be in the coming academic year. I said graduated and she stunned keke. It took her like one minute to understand my status right now and she reminded me that after July I would no longer be entitled to student rate in the clinic... okie okie yes mdm!

I was stuck in the doctor's consultation room for soooo long that I lose track of time. Conversations were briefly summarised as follow:

Scene 1
LQ: Hello, I need to get a medical checkup as I'm going overseas soon.
Doc: Okie. You have the form for me to fill in right?
LQ: Yup. Here it is. You need to read the introduction as it tells you the kind of activities we will be doing.
Doc reading and flipping.
Doc: Eh... you didnt sign here.
LQ: Oh, I dont have to sign here as I'm above 21. That's for parents to sign if the participants are below 21.
Doc: Oh okie. Do you have any heart problem etc.....
LQ: No... no.. no.... no........

Scene 2
Doc: Height and weight must be filled in over here.
LQ: Yup. I know my own height and weight so I just fill it in later.
Doc: Nope, I'll get the nurse to measure your height and weight.
LQ: Huh???!!! So even if I know my own height and weight the nurse still has to measure it and fill in for me ah?
Doc: Yes that's right.
LQ: Then what about blood group? If I know it the nurse must also take a blood test for me?
Doc: That one no need. You can just look at your IC and fill in yourself.
LQ: Ah... okie -_-"""

Scene 3
LQ: So what kind of vaccinations do you recommend to take for going to Cambodia?
Doc: I'm not sure of it but you can look at the recommended ones... we have a phamplet that you can take from outside.
LQ: My friend took malaria pills. I understand that there are many different kind of malaria pills so which one do you recommend to take?
Doc: It depends on which kind of mosquitoes are present in Cambodia. Because some mosquitoes are more resistant to certain malaria pills, so it really depends on which kind they are over there.
LQ: Then which kind of mosquitoes are present in Cambodia?
Doc: I wouldnt know. You need to ask the locals in Cambodia.
LQ: Eh... My friend took the once a week pill so I just take that can?
Doc: Can. But besides taking pill you also need to do other preparation.
LQ: So the pill is not 100% effective? What other preparation?
Doc: Of coz its not 100% effective. You must get those insect repellants from pharmacy. And when sleeping you need to sleep in sleeping bag. The sleeping bag will cover your legs so mosquitoes wont bite. As for arms, you need to wear long sleeve. Then your head how? You know the cover food that cover? Must use that cover to cover your face so that when you sleep the mosquitoes wont be able to attack your face.
LQ: Wah... really must use that cover ah? So funny leh haha.
Doc: Not funny ah.. last time got one gal like you... she go... then ah.... so preventions very important! If possible also must buy those patches to put on your hands, legs and face so that it will be have a smell then mosquitoes wont come near you.
Doc: Also, that time my whole family we went to eat in a restaurant at... The food is cooked so we are okie. But one thing i'm not okie is the water. The source of the water we dont know! It can be from the tap, or from the river. So after dining we all got diarrhoea. Why? Must be the water problem!
Doc: Unless you can tell me that you dont eat outside food in Cambodia. Not possible... even brush teeth must use bottled water! So Hep A, Typhoid and Cholera are very important too. They help to prevent diarrhoea all these... especially if the preparation of food is unhygienic.
LQ: Eh.. diarrhoea only mah. Not very serious right?
Doc: Aiyo, diarrhoea is enough to make you suffer liao leh.
LQ: Then since Hep A, Typhoid and Cholera about the same, can just take one?
Doc:........

Scene 4:
Doc: So you need malaria pills and compulsory to take tetanus. Any other things that you want?
LQ: Nope. That's enough for now.
LQ: By the way, I have another form for Malaysia. Can shun bian help me fill in the medical stuff as well? Hee.
Doc: Wah, Malaysia also monsoon season. Also have malaria. You need more malaria pills then. Your personal particulars havent fill in yet for the Malaysia form. You need to fill in.
LQ: Yup. I'm going to fill in later so that one no worries.
Doc: Cannot lah. You must fill in now then I can do the medical checkup. You go outside and fill in while I attend to the next patient. Later then you come in.
LQ: Orh.

Scene 5:
LQ: Okie I'm done.
Doc: What's all these dashes under your medical history?
LQ: Dash means dont have lor.
Doc: Dash can means have, dont have or dont know. Cant put dash lah. Must put nil. Nil is confirm dont have.
LQ: Orh.
Doc: Okie you go out and the nurse will help you take height and weight.
LQ: Okie thanks bye!

Scene 6:
Taking height and weight.

Scene 7:
At the counter, discussing about vaccinations with one of the lady in a suit over there.
LQ: Do you recommend people who go to Cambodia to take flu vaccinations?
Lady in suit: Yup. We recommend all travellers irregardless of where's their destination to take flu vaccinations.
LQ: Okie I will take it too.
Lady in suit: Actually typhoid also very important for going Cambodia. You can consider to come back and take next time.
LQ: Ah.. dont want lah very troublesome. 2 jabs enough liao heehee.

Scene 8:
At the dispensary.
LQ: Auntie how much is the malaria pills?
Auntie: 1 is $3.50. Altogether plus other things is $78.
LQ: Wah so ex ah. Can cheaper anot?
Auntie: Cant lah haha. Already student rate liao. We absorbed GST leh. When GST increase to 7% then we absorbed more ah.
Another Auntie: Ya lor... cut into our bonus leh haha.

Scene 9:
Looking for room 6 to get the jabs done.
Nurse behind me: Yes how can I help you?
LQ: Oh, I need to take 2 jabs. This tetanus thingie and flu.
Nurse: You paid already?
LQ: Yup.
Nurse: Wait ah I go prepare. You sit outside first later we go another room coz this room is occupied.

Scene 10:
Nurse: You sit here. I give you a certification first before jab okie?
LQ: Wah still got certification ah?
Nurse: Yup.
LQ: Very scary leh... pain anot?
Nurse: The flu one not so pain. The tetanus abit more painful than the flu.
LQ: Ah.. that time i took the anti chickenpox and the NMR or MNR... wah that one very pain leh.
Nurse: Ya lah. That one of course more pain. But this one not as pain as the previous ones that you had. Pain also depends on whether I jab your fats or your muscle.
LQ: Then you jab my fats better lah.
Nurse: No. Fats more pain ah. I jab your right arm first with flu. This one not pain one ah... Relaz. Breathe in.. out.. slowly.
LQ: Okie a little pain only.
Nurse: Then now is the tetanus on the left arm. This one more pain than flu. But still okie one lah.
LQ: Ya this is more pain than flu. But not as pain as last time that one... that one really scary leh.
Nurse: Ya lah told you already. After jab no drinking ah.
LQ: Ah? I havent drink leh. Chum thirsty liao.
Nurse: No... its no alcoholic drink.
LQ: Oh okie... thanks ah. Byee!

Manage to get out of the clinic at 4.20pm. Oh man I was stuck inside for 1.5 hours!!!
Ended up late for meeting... late for 1h 45min! Aiyo.... Terrible me!

The above dialogue is based on the author's personal experience. No offence to anybody in the clinic hee.

2007-06-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

1 June 07
Dinner with GIP gang

After shopping for pressies with the JC gang, I headed to the vines restaurant over at Novena to meet up with the GIP gang for dinner. The last outing was in May over at Settlers' (I think). Jackie reminded me that I wasnt there coz of planning itinerary with Suhui and Yingjie haha. I guess I have been missing out a few of the GIP outings as the proposed dates always seem to clash with my schedule, so sorry about it! But this time round, I'm able to make it okie... coz I'm the one who pick the date haha =p

Xiao Jun joined us for dinner too. Its good to meet her in sgp... which reminds me of how times fly when we last met in seattle. Everyone's still pretty much the same and I think we were the noisest in the restaurant oops. Apparently we seem to be all too long winded so we continued chatting in the nearby mcdonalds before we caught the last train home.

2 June 07
Grasshoppers in Action

Met up with Wan Wen for kbox session and the conclusion for the day was that we were two big jokers haha.

Our theme songs were Cao Meng aka Grasshoppers' songs! They are like classics of the classics... our primary school era haha! These are great songs for us two big jokers out there. I'm glad that our friendship is still going strong despite meeting like two or three times a year only. Hang on friend... Brave through the OT and you'll be fine~ Jia You!!!

4 June 07
Auntie... Aunties

Went shopping in NTUC for a full one hour haha! We bought so many things that less than half of them were on our shopping list... really powerful Aunties! Next headed to Dilys house to start our main purpose, ie to design shoe for Lijun, and to cook!

Dilys started cooking the tang yuan while Suhui and I took charge of the guan cai ban. Guan cai ban is a taiwan snack thats rather popular over there. While in Shi Lin, I still claim that guan cai ban is so easy to do and its appearance is really nothing impressive. Just have to cut the bread and put the filling inside. So Suhui and I tried our own version of guan cai ban today with the ingredients as below:

English muffins X4
Eggs X 3
Chicken satays X 1 pack
Satay sauce

Procedures are as such:
1. Cut the english muffins to have a hole for you to put your fillings in. Take note that the hole should not be too deep else the sauce may leak out from the bottom. The cover should fit the muffins as well.
2. Fry the chicken satays for about 5 minutes.
3. Fry the eggs till golden yellow.
4. Heat the satay sauce till you see steam coming out.
5. Cut the eggs into half or to your desired size and place in the hole that you have created from the english muffins earlier on. This egg will serve as the base for your chicken satays.
6. Add the chicken satays in. Do not be too greedy else the cover may not fit the muffins properly!
7. Add in some chicken satays sauce and wrap it up using the fried egg.
8. Close the hold with the muffin cover and you are ready to savour it!

Of course this version of guan cai ban, if prepared in front of the taiwan version of guan cai ban will be ban men nong fu! At least our guan cai ban is edible, thanks to the nice chickey satays haha. There's really a lot of differences - theirs is square while ours is round. We couldnt get those square thick breads haha. There's much more varieties in their fillings while ours are just chicky satays. But I guess if I'm still unemployed for long, I might start my own business of guan cai ban in singapore first haha.

Oh, one tip for interested chef-to-be.. you might want to consider toasting your english muffins!

The preparation is actually very simple, yet it took us like 1 hour plus (?!) to get it ready for serving. So tired after cooking wor haha... Had our tang yuan in dou hua shui as well. Yeah! Tried the 'whatever' and 'anything' drink. Not very impressive =p Didnt have much energy left for designing the shoe so ended up playing with Dilys's Chip soft toy keke.

Too bad its getting late else we four aunties can try and play mah jong too haha!

2007-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-05-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-05-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

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！

2007-05-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

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？ =)

2007-02-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

19 Feb 07
First Entry of the Year 2007

We are in the month of Feb and i'm just making my first entry of the year? Haha... Probably coz its CNY which inspires me to leave some alphabets behind...

I knew that CNY is just around the corner when shopping malls are screaming with CNY songs! and then, i realise how i missed listening to these songs one year ago when the net radio doesnt work on my side! Wanted to use the word noisy, but i guess 'lively' is more appropriate in this context =p when i ate bak kwa, i began to think of the vacuum pack bak kwa where my friends had sent them over to me... the reunion dinner made me think about the potluck and the ang pow that i got.. pole dance with sheila haha.

Chatted with Johnny and we were talking about those long long holidays haha... that's the best part in winter quarter. For the locals it means reading up in advance, and for the rest, it means short trips! =D

I hope this new year will bring about happiness and peace, luck and hope. Good health to all of us and may everyone enjoy the things that they are doing! Pursue your dream, stay true to yourself and... Huat ah!

2006-11-27T23:22:00.000-08:00

27 Nov 06
Birthday

Happy Birthday to Ray tong xue... our driver to the trips we had in the states... luckily most of the time i was fast asleep in the car, didnt get to witness those stunts that you had while driving... well except the one where you drove in reverse direction hahaha... too exciting =p and i get to sit in your car in spore! hehe... safe driver but took us approximately the same time from ntu to merchant court by public transport leh hahaha. nevertheless thanks for the free rides yo... hope you are having lotsa fun travelling right now! =D

Today also marks the birth of legendary icon Mr Bruce Lee. A quote from him from the internet:

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water." - Bruce Lee (1940-1973)

2006-11-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

Random Surfing

1) There is this article about researchers seeking routes to happier life... and the method which they propose is simple and cost free, well except for opportunity cost where your sleeping time will minus 5 minutes hehe. Every night before you sleep, just think of three good things that happened that day and analyse why they occured. It was said to increase your overall happiness =D i think the underlying rationale is to show appreciation to the little things that happen in your life everyday, and the thought of them making you smile will leaves you with sweet choco dreams hehhehe.

Diener made this statement: "Happiness is the process, not the place. So many of us think that when we get everything just right, and obtain certain goals and circumstances, everything will be in place and we will be happy.... But once we get everything in place, we still need new goals and activities. The Princess could not just stop when she got the Prince."

2) From YAHOO! Answers, a dude posted this question:
"I'm an American mna, about to marry a Chinese woman. What should i know about our cultural differences?"

One response that came by the name of Gucci Girl:
"If you are going to marry her, shouldn't you have known her culture before hand, did she not teach anyting? sounds as though she really wants to come to America... by the way they eat dogs."

The last line totally cracks me up hahaha.

3) Yesterday while surfing for some articles pertaining to IMF, one response derived from YAHOO! Answers was:
"IMF = Impossible Mission Force???"

2006-11-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

The End of Exams to Embrace yet another Beginning!

My exams for this semester have officially ended! Although this exam period is a relatively short 12 days compared to the norm of two weeks or even stretches till maximum three weeks, i still find it very draggy! especially with 9 days to my final paper, oh man this leaves rooms for some ultimate slacking before back to my last minute nature again.

After finishing my core paper, i told my roomie that i felt lost. i'm not sure about you guys, but i always have this 'lost' feeling whenever my exams are over. its like the never ending work load for the past few months and preparation leads you to this exam and ta da! your role of studying for this particular module has accomplished and now, you are aimless. that's of course, rubbish! because learning is a life long journey and oh well, its the process blah blah blah... i guess this explains why in life, there's always lots of planning to be done, to ensure that you will always keep yourself busy and ok lah (haha Jeroen likes to put in the extra effort of including a 'lah' in his statement, and boy i'm doing it right now, chuckles), allows you to have some time to do some nua-ing (rotting) hehe.

It seems that my plan for december has already been fixed long time ago. okie so be it. friends around me are making plans to get out of singapore, while i'm stuck here. boo! =p its good to have a short getaway to let your hair down, doing some retail therapy in Bangkok or exploring new and exciting places =D but well, i'm ok with it since i have my fair share of fun before too. so now its payback time! meaning attachment attachment attachment!!! hohoho... kind of excited about it, to see how much of those HR stuff that i have learned in school can actually be applied in the work place, and to look at how strategic role HR plays, or so they claimed. these eight weeks long of attachment translate to an opportunity cost of missing three weeks of classes in Jan! oh gosh, i'm starting my cycle of missing classes again... bad bad!

With a modest one week break before i begin my routine schedule, i'm going to do lotsa stuff! hmm... lets see, meeting my ZesPreneur groupies to conquer the virtual L'oreal world. it sure gonna be tough with those P&L statements coming back to haunt me again, but its a challenge that i gladly accept hehe. 1st CCA meeting that sorts of serve as a form of orientation to me heh. Going to have dinner outside too because i'm so sick of hall food! some shopping for attachment clothes will brighten up my day too, and oh! i'm going to vacate my hall and finally able to 'repatriate' back home! hahaha... okok i know there's FYP too... yup that's always on the list.

i'm a busy gal haha, but i welcome disturbance as and when i needed a break =D i have been looking forward to this moment, the end of exams and the beginning of a whole new challenge. the only sad thingie is that some of my friends are going back home and i dont know when will be the next moment i get to see them again. hey that's life! people do come and go, so i wish all of you to have a better life out there!

hohoho xmas is coming! i want to have a white xmas too! envy! i'll pay the ice hotel a visit in future when time and resources allow haha. till then, enjoy the holiday folks!

kiwi jumping for joy!

2006-11-20T05:46:00.000-08:00

Beautiful NTU at night

I remembered there was one night where i explored NTU together with my ex roomie while we were still freshies... took some random photos and sank ourselves at the couches in BS rotting some time away. NTU is really charming at night... shall armed myself with tripod next time to capture the night scene hehe. They represented my feelings at that point of time... I love the night version of NTU... and the mist mist mist!

NTU at night

view outside my window where i used to stay in hall 11

2006-11-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Failure is just the Beginning of Success

"I rather you fail, because you will only learn when failure sets in. If you are always successful in the things you do, it only proves one thing, that you can do these things. what can you learn out of them except the repetitive way of doing something that you are already good in? hmmm... life is a matter of accepting new challenges and to learn from failure. celebrate your failure and laugh at it! these are precious learning points that you have went through... and they will be the building blocks in your journey."

2006-11-17T02:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you...

I'm finally done with my core exam... i thought the content of strategic management is one of the hardest module that i have taken in ntu. you really need to be jack of all trades - analysing the balance sheet, P&L statements blah blah from the exhibits, some marketing models that i'm quite comfortable with, looking from the perspectives of a managerial position... ah.. anything that has the word strategic is tricky! but well, i learn quite a bit from this module, not as crappy as i thought it would be. especially enjoyed reading the tutorial cases and textbook cases where i'm better able to relate to the examples and compare in different contexts. its interesting to learn about the strategies undertaken by companies - both successful and not so good attempts to learn from them.

This semester just come and go like nobody's business. Due to outside commitments, i have missed a couple of classes, especially for my GEs. yeah i'm indeed guilty about it because the purpose of overloading is to learn the things that i'm interested in, if not it defeats the purpose! i'm back again taking another crime related module heehee. its interesting to learn about forensic science and how those smarties managed to crack tough cases. guests speakers are generally good as they bring in applications and real life cases to share with the students. i guess the only downside about this module is that you really need to memorise the terms, techniques etc, down to the teensy weensy details. as such, i did real bad for the exam coz i just find it hard to memorise and didnt focus on the details as well. things get worsen when i made a stupid mistake in reconstructing the case, thereby starting a whole pile of illogical and nonsense arguments thats unforgivable! i guess i'm not someone who can accept failure easily, and once again, it proves the equation of studying is not equal to grades. an element of luck plays a part as well.

ok i guess i better stop complaining about the exams for afterall, its over! just left with one more paper, regional tourism development before i begin my internship in the coming december. so excited about it! =D

just felt that there's so many people helping me this semester and i truly appreciate them. without them this semester is going to be a tougher ride.

Thank you to...

Yingjie: my roomie who has been lending me her forensic science notes whenever i missed classes, explaning some of the terms to me... complaining and gossiping together... lunching and dinner... glad that although we were in different faculties, we could still end up taking the same module together heehee.

Weilin: thanks for lending me your tourism notes for i have missed so many classes =p all the best!

Jun Wen: thanks for lending me your strategic management notes, as well as explaining them to me when i understand that time is precious for everyone. really appreciate your time and effort. see you in tourism exam!

Ray: for helping me with strategic mgmt... you are good at these bs stuff haha... enjoy your holiday!

Jeroen, Cecilia, Sophie and gang: you guys brighten the tourism class~ had fun during the tutorials and projects... i hope all of you have enjoyed your exchange programs and have fun travelling around the region... yoo hoo!

Strat Mgmt groupies: efficient team where 5 strangers created synergies. i learned a lot from you gals. thank you.

HR Training groupies: we managed to survive through this hectic semester with so many presentations that i have lost count on it. the nights in mcdonalds will be something to remember haha =p

IMF team: although its just a short period and i dont get to know many of you well, its cool to work with you guys. thanks for giving me the opportunity to be at esplanade where i'm simply blown off by the showcases of the different cultural aspects of singapore. great job!

Hui Ling: for jio-ing me for the GES where we get to interact with someone who offered insights to us haha. lets work hard for our internship and go shopping after work yeah!

Junhong: for listening to my complaints whether you like it or not heh =p

and many others...

its so ironic... whenever i'm suffering from the massive workload, i would hope that everything would come to an end soon. now, i'm feeling sad that classes have ended... in fact i think i feel more sad than my friends who are on exchange to singapore... because they are leaving soon. but well, i'm happy for them because life moves on and i hope that life will be better for all of us =)

continue to pursue your dreams and capture it! the world is small, we may get to meet one another again~

2006-09-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

29 Sept 06
Busy September

The inner strengths of humans cant be underestimated. Just when i pondered how would i survive through this busy september with the desperate need of juggling between school and work, i managed to live my way (not exactly the way i wanted, but who cares) and declared that i'm still in one piece.

During the amazing race, i was caught in a pleasant surprise as they had something under their sleeves - a birthday celebration for the recent august babies. It has been quite some time since i last stood on the stage facing a sea of audience, and it kind of reminds me of the good old days when i performed on the stage with my fellow choir and guitar members. through this, i made more friends who had the same birthday as me, and guess what? i'm one of the eldest among them, as some are still freshies in the polytechnic (imagine the generation gap =p). The best part of this celebration is the mouth-watering banana and tiramisu cakes. oh my, they are really heaven, one of the best cakes that i have ever eaten! the rest of the august babies can testified that haha. lucky chee keong also had a bite in it, but too bad it was grabbed before he could went for a second helping heehee.

So at Swissotel Merchant Court, I get to try the variety of food that are nearby and made new friends while working. A diverse group of people, with Shatec, SAF, graduated students and current ntu students. Though it was just a short 1.5 weeks, i did gain something out of this volunteering experience =) The opportunity of going to the esplanade and watching the outdoor performances made me feel proud to be a true Singaporean breed. Everyone is working so hard to make this event a success and it all ended so beautifully with the magical fireworks and the all so hype up merlion haha.

Of coz i aint an iron lady, so the negative result is that i have to miss some classes - both voluntary and involuntary. this makes me wonder how people can work and take up night classes at the same time. its really tiring to reach back hall at 12 midnight plus and then wakie at 9 plus for morning lessons, not including spending some time to do some catching up too. so i began to dread hall, that jungle land which is so noisy even in the reading room where people are playing volleyball in the badminton court. so i have decided to stay home throughout the recess to gain some peace and comfort heehee.

Meanwhile, there's whole pile of work to be done which leaves me unmotivated as i have no idea where to begin. time to dig out my hardworking brain cells (if there is any to begin with) and get moving before everything is too late. so what's up for me in october? attending recruitment events, madness rush for projects and presentation, kissing my textbooks and the best of the best -- my FYP

2006-09-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

9 Sep 2006
A Movie

Plan to catch 'The Devil Wears Prada' which is recommended by kaka, but decided to put on hold. Recently added my primary school friend on MSN and chatted with her till about 4am (we are both night owls haha) and she commented that 'The Host' is a good show with a fusion of horror, comedy, sadness and touching.

My first reaction was, how can it be??

How can a movie be scary, yet funny and touching at the same time???

Since its also highly recommended by DJs, I have decided to foot the expensive weekend movie ticket to give myself a treat before i get real busy in the coming weeks.

Personally i feel that the show aint scary, just that the monster is gross.

I think I'm too sad to laugh at those exaggerated parts. How could they laugh when deaths were concerned? Too exaggerated.

This movie made me reflect a lot about the world.

The elder gal took care of a little boy and sacrifice her life though he was just a stranger to her. In the adult world, will this exist among two strangers?

The will to live and the spirit to fight on. To try and try no matter how difficult or unfavourable the situation is to you. The important thing is you try, and the results doesnt really matter.

Even if the whole world doesnt believe you nor stand by you, you have to be strong and fight your way through.

Often, you have to do things against your will, especially when it is instructed by someone with higher authority.

Its really a sad show and I dont like the ending coz its too comical for me. I admire the gal's bravery and cant help to show my empathy towards the guy, who gets injection and drilling for no reason. I can feel his helplessness, and i'm feeling negative towards all who dont believe him.

In fact, I'm feeling sad for the monster too. I mean, who wants to be a monster? the monster is created due to the negligence, or rather i should say the mean act of humans, who knew the consequences of pouring chemicals into the river but chose to turn a dead ear towards advice. so at the end of the day, who should we blame for such causes?

Though its just a movie, I still wish for a happier ending, with the gal alive bringing the little kid to her grocery stall eating the food that were once on their 'food list'. for the little kid, sausages and cup noodles. for the gal, cold wine.

2006-09-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

6 Sept 2006
McDonalds Accross Borders

For my AB311 strategic management class, the McDonald's team did a wonderful job by cracking us with the Ronald McDonald's look alike, as well as leaving our stomach contented with muffins. While reading the case, I was relating a lot to the McDonalds which I have tried in both US and Canada, and compare the differences across countries. Of course, McGriddles would come into play since its the 'ambassador' of McDonalds, and suddenly I miss the taste of it. Ah... Just couldn't get enough of it! And not forgetting to give credits to the USD1 burger!!!

And so, pork nuggets from Hong Kong came into play as well. However, I asked my Hong Kong friend whether there's any pork nuggets over there and he claimed none. Hmm.. weird... wait till i touch down to Hong Kong one day and grab one of their McDonalds staff to track down the whereabouts of mr pork nuggets haha.

Whenever McGriddles came into discussion, I would always remember Mark - a guy who has never tried McGriddles in his life time and i actually have to persuade him to try it before i leave! ok he did try in the end, but he said nothing fantastic. in fact its too oily for him. I hope he will like our singapore stingray when he dropped by here some day.

and so, look what we have over there. McDonalds in New York that sell donuts! And what specialty does our local McDonald offer? shaker fries? or is the past mr kiasu burger formulated by them? hmm.. i guess it would be really interesting to critically compare the product varieties under the same company, but located world wide. Imagine McDonalds in Japan that sell wasabe burger!!! that's just my imagination...

so from McDonalds we digress into Wal-mart, K-mart and Target. oh ya, i saw Target in Funan IT Mall... but of course, it aint the same Target. But surprisingly, the logo is the same!

I'm looking forward to the KFC team presentation... for me to relate to the KFC in US, as well as my advertising class =)

2006-08-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Maddening

I have so many things that are bursting out of my lungs! I cant take it and i simply dont understand why people are doing these...

Qn1. why did people do something that will impose inconvenience to you, when they have an option of not doing it? they can, trust me, but they dont want to let you have an easy time. to me, that's called selfish. to them, it's called 'too bad you are suay'.

Qn2. why are some people not doing their best to help you, when it's within their capabilities to do so?
they dont have the obligation to help you. you need their help, not the other way round. on what basis should they help?

Qn3. why talking to some people makes my blood boil?
coz they are incompetent, when they aint suppose to.

Qn4. why do words being spoken out weigh lesser than impressions held?
coz of '1st impression', nothing matters after that.

Qn5. why sometimes, people cant give you the support that you need?
coz they are not you, so who the hell knows why you want this or that? shoe size is not free size. it doesnt fit all, you know it. so expect disappointment.

Qn6. why cant we forgive and forget?
coz we are just human beings, not angels nor saints.

still, i believe the remedy that time can bring about. i know that in future (who knows how long?), i'll look back at this entry and laugh. but for now, i'm mad mad mad and upset about human beings, just for a short moment.

2006-08-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

1 Apr 06
Tulip Trip

So its April's fool day? try harder yuliang... you really made me laugh... play harder ah haha

FIUTS organised a tulip trip but both the timing and weather were disappointing. it kept drizzling, and to top it off, i'm only wearing a thin layer of jacket. both sheila and i were freezing as we thought that spring is arriving but alas, its still as cold as ever. this trip was scheduled too early and many tulips havent even bloom yet. plus, my cam batt died on me.

its just a small tulip farm so there's nothing much to view. ended up going to factory outlet but the driver got lost halfway... so with only one hour in the outlet, how to shop?!

pink tulips

the place where everyone will take photos at

bed of tulips

2006-08-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

31 Mar 06
Slacking

Slacking around at home... prepared dinner.

2006-08-01T23:58:00.000-07:00

30 Mar 06
Doing This and That

Although there isnt any classes today, i'm still doing a lot of 'this and that'.

In order to get around, I finally went to collect my Spring quarter U Pass sticker. Luckily the building was easy to locate, however what left me dissatisfied was the way the admin stuff pasted the sticker! it was totally off the designated area, and the 'leftover sticking out piece' was folded to the front -_-" so the nicely pasted Winter quarter U Pass sticker by me was totally ruined by her act. there goes my souvenir... okok i'm a perfectionist, i admit.

Retrieve my consumer behavior coursepack, aint really thick but the notes are really messy.

To gear up for a quarter of exercising (we shall see), it's time to renew the IMA locker.

Met up with my HR groupies to work on the first skill builder assignment at balmer commons. the assignment has several typo errors and we were totally clueless in finding the statistics. so, the familiar ones started chatting...

2006-08-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

29 Mar 06
Routine

Attended 3 classes today and surprisingly, my consumer behavior prof actually remembers my name! i mean, it's a chinese name and it sure aint an easy feat for caucasians to remember. this proves that if you really have the heart to remember something or somebody, you can do it. so he got my name right and i receive an add code from him. i'm officially declared as his student!

2006-07-11T01:54:00.000-07:00

28 Mar 06
See See Look Look

Cant decide between consumer behavior and retailing so went to 'see see look look' retailing class. most of the students are actually involved in some retailing program thats why they are attending this class. the time is really bad, 330-520pm, and the only reason that i figured out why students want to take this class is because of the word - PASSION.

2006-07-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

27 Mar 06
Spring Quarter Begins!

happily turned up for my HR class as this is my first, as well as the last HR modules to be taken in UW. kinda excited about meeting students from the same field as well as the exposure of how HR is taught differently in UW as compared to NTU.

we were required to form our group members during the first class and thick-skinned, i approached a group in front of me and ta-da! i'm offically part of their group =)

as the HR cohort is really small, say probably less than 50 students, each HR module only offers one class, which means there isnt a need to fight for places since there's bound to be enough for all HR students. this saves the hassle of time table planning too. and everyone knows anyone, its just like a small family.

so after my HR is advertising class, which required some degree of courage for me to take it. just ask me about any US advertisements and i can only tell you those miserable few (but awesome) ad that i saw during the superbowl. with a 0.000000001% (pls include ads from superbowl) exposure of the market, its where learning totally begins afresh!

totally clueless about the examples that were raised during discussion, but luckily i had jack with me hahaha. managed to convinvce him that advertising is THE subject to take. the best part about this class is i get to watch many ad clips in class! i figured thats the best exposure to the creating market when there's no tv back in my apartment.

went to sit in the consumer behavior class as its directly after my advertising class... saw several familiar faces from my ad class.

oh and did i mention that my earliest class is 1030am? grins

2006-07-11T01:28:00.000-07:00

26 Mar 06
One Day To Relax before Spring Quarter Begins

Rot rot rot...

2006-07-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

17 Mar - 25 Mar 06
NYC updates

This is a recollection of a 10 day trip to the east. with a strong gang of more than 10 people, our enthusiasm resulted in many thousands of photos snapping away. as we joined a guided tour during most of our stay over there, its a madness rush of getting up and down the bus, fighting for the strategic position with the 'kiasu' uncle and auntie - just so to get quality pictures of the whitehouse, getting all so hyped up about the liberty statue, going gaga over the hershey's chocolate factory, staring at the niagara falls in awe... and nothing beats the 24h time square!

too much to say, too much to show... thus, these pictures shall do a brief summary of the trip. allow the caption to do its job.

time square with its glamorous billboards and oh, reckless cabbies!

view from empire state is awesome!

money, make money$$$

my favorite hershey's products - reese's

piping hot nissin cup noodles seen from afar

its cool to be part of mcdonald's eh

the statue of liberty

white house

hershey's show - for both adults and kids

niagara falls in the day

world's largest hershey's choco bar

niagara falls at night

MIT - a dream place for future engineers

in the disney store

"he's there... the phantom of the opera..."

long queue over musicals

harvard

saw an actress along the street of time square... no idea who she is

2006-06-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

26 June 06
The Finale (and no more 'wakie early for Mcgriddles')

Whatever happened to my spring quarter with entries skipping to the finale?!

Well, i was too lazy to upload photos for my NYC trip - too many megabytes or gigabytes to deal with. too lazy during my spring quarter to update any stuff that i have done. its definitely more happening compared to the winter quarter, more travelling were done, more friendships were forged, more sunshine, more..., less headaches, less rain, and simply, no entries uploaded.

Aint going to skip altogether, i'll update it once i'm back in singapore, to complete the purpose of this blog - reflections of the GIP trip.

So the finale has arrived, with friends leaving one by one, and eventually its my turn to leave today. this will be the last time i'm blogging in acacia court, mixed feelings.

As i revisited the places in seattle, past memories floated in my mind. it just seems like yesterday when we were all taking pictures outside the first starbucks store, looking at the merchandise and getting hold of our first starbucks coffee in seattle. the revist of cheesecake factory reminds me of my dining group, of how we were eagerly waiting for the cheesecake and supersweet dessert.

This is all too much for my brain to handle it, thus decided to blog just one last time in seattle to leave some footprints behind.

Its too rush a journey to have time to sit behind and think through everything. i guess i have to do it as soon as possible since a report have to be handed in to the GIP office haha.

I know the same old cliche, 'all good things have to come to an end'. yeah i agreed with that, but wishing that it can prolong for just a little while more - greedy. the familiar pantry where my dining group fed each other's stomachs, the route to UW, the 'booky' smell of foster library, my dim room, my bed that has bed bugs (-_-")... even the cooking pan i'm thinking about them, all of it now. its so hard to leave, despite behind here just for 6 months. feelings have developed for this place called seattle, both the things and people. its finally the finale to pack up and leave...

so many things are floating in my head now, a flashback of the 6 months. i cant write anymore...

goodbye seattle, i'll miss you.

to be continued in singapore...

2006-04-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

16 Mar 06
Set off to NYC

Finally the adventure to the East begins!

the first batch shall set off today, 3 dudes and a blur sotong haha. luckily the flight did provide some light snacks, else i would have starved on the plane. transit at cincinnati and off we landed at NYC.

bed of clouds

in the subway

flight stewardness served us expired pretzels, better than nothing i guess

transit at cincinnati

poor jiahui busy wearing his army boots again

2006-04-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

15 Mar 06
Capitol Hill, Queen Anne

Wakie early for McGriddles again... cant seem to get enough of it haha. unfortunately my stomach turned upset later during the day, probably due to the oil early in the morning eeks.

Headed to Capitol Hill to visit their famous Volunteer Park and a greenhouse with different breeds of cactus in it. Followed by Queen Anne, where most of the rich resides in. The pavement and feeling reminds me of San Fransico.

Our dining group had a drink at our pantry before all of us went for our spring trip, kinda like a get together session and we had a chat with our neighbour. felt slight tipsy soon after, but i was still able to walk straight!

tipsy tipsy

View in a O

Thats space needle!

Volunteer Park

looked like some dungeon

2006-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

14 Mar 06
My Last Paper

Last paper for the quarter down! desperately needed a workout to sweat it off so headed to IMA. on my way back, i happened to catch Tiran and Ray so off we set to Pike Place Market and Krispy Kreme, where we self-shoot ourselves. hilarious!

Learned about the Three Dog Bakery in my entrepreneurship class and finally i landed myself there in awe. they have such cute pastries that you feel like sinking a bite in it if you werent told that they are in fact, treats meant for doggies!

celia's pose

look at how wide their fingers can spread! E.T.! =p

Ray is so fascinated by the krispy kreme crumps

curd? cheese?

heh heh

cheese making process

a must visit for doggies

only for doggies... woof!

2006-03-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

28 Mar 06
sick

the neon lights, $1 hotdogs, busy streets, tall buildings...
were sealed in a beautiful bubble.
the gal tried to chase it,
but it just floats further and further away.
what was left were bits and pieces of memories,
a puzzle that cant be completed.
the tap water, stuffy plane air makes her sick.
the never ending laws and cases make her feel worse.
suffocated,
but its just temporary.

photos of the journey to the east shall be posted once things get settled down over here. its a madness rush of subject registration and nonsense that you couldnt think of.

happy 21st birthday to Rina! i have never been to settlers before so count me in next time for a second round of celebration hee hee. cheers!

2006-03-15T01:19:00.000-08:00

13 Mar 06
Food day

As the name suggests, our stomachs were happy today!

Sheila and i headed to odey to study. wasnt really efficient in the morning, coz i just simply aint a morning person! lunch at subway, yes my first subway in my entire life coz i held the impression that its very complicated to order! 12 inches for both lunch and dinner. sounds like a pretty good deal and convenient coz this means dinner is settled!

efficiency level auto went up at night. pretty enjoyed reading the entre articles, some are really interesting i would say. at about 10 plus, an annoucement caught my attention! free supper in lvl 2!!!

thought i was the only cheapo one but the queue was really damn long by the time i got down. after queueing for abt 10-15 min, we managed to get ourselves burittos and 7-up and pepsi, plus an additional plastic cup (thanks to my jacket hee). if only our lee wee nam lib have this kind of free supper service as well... haha. suddenly inspired to study in odey next quarter oops =p

everyone enjoying the free supper

grins

just look at the queue when i was still upstairs

my 12 inches long subway!