InBetweenDays*

Race Adventura

2010-12-09T15:11:00.003+08:00

Looking at these photos reminds me of how much I loved those crazy sleepless days in NUS Sports Club!

I was doing some mass clearing of my emails when this particular mail caught my attention. Turns out that these are photos taken by one of the helpers at the bridge-jumping station. awww, i regret being too busy and stressed up and not trying out this station. It would have been my cup of tea. Well, it has to be since it was thought up by me. I'm glad I insisted on this station to be included in Race Adventura.

Makes me feel like joining an adventure race again!

lalala

2010-10-15T23:13:00.001+08:00

testing

testing

Day 3 - Kobe (Arima Onsen, HarbourLand, Dotomburi in Osaka)

假强是罪

2010-09-24T09:33:00.002+08:00

强就好，不要假强！

(>.<)"

God? not.

2010-09-22T17:28:00.002+08:00

Show me what I wanna see next week if there's really a you up there!

坏人气我，我不气，我若生气，中他计！

2010-09-06T10:26:00.004+08:00

Way tooooooo much angst! I must control!

忍一步，风平浪静。

退一步，海阔天空。

must...must...MUST...embrace this art.

I can do this!

Its not worth blowing my top over such an immature person.

*BREATHE*

*BREATHEEE*

*BREATHEEEEEEEE*

Of Eraser Wars n Ruler Fights

2010-09-04T21:47:00.003+08:00

Indeed, its been a while. 13 years to be exact. Gosh! Time really slips us by, doesn't it? It was quite a feat to gather 10 pri school classmates, who haven't met in more than a decade, for an impromptu dinner. Effort to Zhexin, i must say. It was pretty heart warming to realise that we still remember one another after all these years and definitely amusing to reminisce about those childish days where we had eraser wars and ruler fights.

We even met up with Ms Quek for a late night drink (well, i guess we kinda forced her to meet us). She said we were her most obedient class. I would totally agree. *beams* Its quite a surprise she still remembers each and every one of us. Gosh, i really need to get my brain thoroughly checked. To think I dont have any recollections of that fateful incident which was definitely too traumatising for any 12 yr old kid.

We had a classmate who was apparently wound up too tightly. He broke, one fine day, and leaped to death. All of us were sent for counselling lest this morbidness feasts on us. I actually have no memories of this at all. Even now, after all that my classmates narrated, I still do not have a clear scene of it in my mind. Ting2 said that I was probably too traumatised and chose to shut off by erasing all memories of pri sch life. That sounds credible, especially when i cannot remember 90% of those pri sch memories. Selective amnesia, is this what they call it? Or maybe my brain simply reached its capacity. Who knows.

Anyway, here's some photos of now and then. We didnt really changed that much, did we? To prove it, Cedric did come photo-matching. Cute!

Aftershocked

2010-08-21T21:49:00.003+08:00

I couldnt get the two particular scenes out of my head - when the mother chose to save the brother instead of the sister and then when the Step-father scolded the daughter who came home after disappearing for several years.

In the end, i cried my eyes into puffy bags.

To throw or not to throw

2010-08-04T00:13:00.004+08:00

to Throw or not to throw.

that aint the question.

how Long can i tahan?

That is the Question.

6 months does seem like a freaking long time!

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2010-07-09T13:39:00.003+08:00

i seem to be starring in A Series of Unfortunate Events...

what else? bring it on!

i need choc ice cream..

2010-06-12T23:19:00.002+08:00

after all those action, i'm still feeling empty.

such an insatiable appetite irks me.

what is it that i'm searching for?

Daddy-Superman

2010-04-13T23:20:00.007+08:00

Daddy's supposed to be invincible, he's afterall, my superman.

but now that he's sick, it all seems so surreal.

what i can hope is for nothing else to join in this absurd party,

for my fragile heart bears too much animosity against such distress.

oh please spare me some delightful news this saturday.

Should there be, i'll promise to be good.

Thanks for all the praise

2010-04-04T18:17:00.003+08:00

No, nothing i do is worthy of praise. Everything is just not good enough for you. Worse, anything I'm interested in is not important to you at all. It's simply regarded as too much garbage to be left on even that remote corner of your mind. Not once, did you ask me about my netball games (oh yeah you did, many times, checked on whether i've quitted netball). Not once, did you ask me what it is I like to do. Its probably just not important to you at all. All I had to do is to follow the path you set out. I recalled, pretty vividly, the first time I did well at something. I called you immediately to share my joy. I regretted that decision. While everyone else basked in that joyous moment with their parents showering loads of concerns and praise, not only were you not there, not only did you not give a fucking damn abt it, you had to push me down that bottomless hole. How comforting...

I love my daddy!

2010-03-30T22:28:00.002+08:00

I WUUURRVVVEEE MY DADDY!!!

After tonight, I finally realised that he might just be the only person willing to do anything for me. Its often him who appears before me when I needed comfort the most. I just know that I can most definitely count on him for every single thing that might come my way. Seeing him flare up when the sinseh attempted to close shop for the day and not treat my leg almost brought tears to my eyes. He's always there holding my hand and assuring me that everything's gonna be alright. Somehow, I feel safe the moment he holds my hand. Its as if, nothing else is able to bother me.

Excuse moi French

2010-03-28T00:53:00.004+08:00

c'est fou!

dont I so love japanese?

Its the first day of French class and OMG! its tough man! To think I still brought sweets lest I doze off during the long 2hrs and 30min class. Duhhh! no chance of it! Damien totally blew us away with the tongue-tying pronounciation. Its alphabets yet I cant pronounce it! rahhh! I didnt even had the time to think of appropriate han yu pin yin for each sentence taught during class this morning. Sure need to do ALOT of homework this week.

Damien made us practise conversation speech and that kuku meimei had me sabo me infront of the whole class! zzzzzzz! Basically she asked me a question which is not covered in our practice script. Being totally clueless about what she just asked me, I narrated my portion of the script. In the end the whole class started laughing as Damien explained that my reply should not be used for meimei's qns. Oh well, I dont really care if the whole class laughs at my mistake. I'm here to learn. So now I will remember "Je vous presente mon copain Damien"

Open Mind

2010-03-26T00:24:00.002+08:00

open mind...must..try..to..keep an...OPEN mind!

0_o

2010-02-04T00:44:00.000+08:00

I am He as You are He as You are Me as We are All Together!

2010-02-03T00:56:00.001+08:00

shall this be my new challenge for this boring stage of my life?!

2010-02-03T00:32:00.002+08:00

Does my face shouts "EASY TARGET" to you?!

stupid pig!!!

2010-01-30T16:31:00.005+08:00

Across the Universe

on Strawberry Fields

where nothing real gets hung about

Love this scene...wanna do uw photography like that..

Here's some short clips of this musical i adore..

- I've Just Seen a Face -

(when Jude realise he's falling for Lucy)

- With a Little Help from My Friends -
(when Max and Jude met for the 1st...well..technically it should be the 2nd time when Jude 'saved' Max by letting the latter into his room while Max was being chased after driving a golf ball into one of the dorms. After that, its all about drinks, marijuana, crazy fun and laughter)

- Revolution-

(Jude barged into Lucy and her group of anti-war radicals voicing his major dissent. In particular, Lucy's much extended time spent with the group and the imminent danger she's exposing herself to. I guess a part of Jude wants to join her in the protest too but his illegal immigrant status forbades him.)

- Strawberry Fields Forever -
(just love the tacking of strawberries on the board but thats besides the point. Can there be a place where nothing real gets hung about? Or does reality creep in all the time?)

2009-11-20T01:34:00.002+08:00

"Mao" and Jerry as claimed by my little boyfriend.

2009-11-05T14:48:00.004+08:00

PS21

@ HDB Hub

Having some fun at the STB booth as we while away the hours before our next seminar. The guy at manning the booth must have been pretty irritated as we insisted on taking photos with ALL the scenes available before releasing him for his lunch. lalalalla~~

- Gardens by The Bay -

- Aerial View of the IR-

- What Marina Bay wil look like next yr -

(cant remember what that lotus thingy at the BLHS is..some art/science musuem?)

- Flyer -
*yawn*

- Another shot of the Future of Marina Bay -
(no, we are not pests!)

- Fireworks -

- Durian..i mean..The Esplanade -

- Clarke Quay -

2009-09-20T21:56:00.004+08:00

"I wanna get a diet coke cuz I'm going on a diet!" *rubs belly*

My manager's Primary 3 kid said this to make me get him a drink. HAHHAHA kids are sooo cute! How could I not fulfil his wish? We had our family day at Waraku and The Minds Cafe last friday. (I HATE MY BOSS) Waraku's having this awesome promo which gives you 100% rebate on your bill when using OCBC cards. Which basically means that you get your bill amount back in the form of cash vouchers. This way, you can go back and simply eat for free! Not bad a deal huh. But this also means I've got to arrange for another dinner soon for my colleagues. Oh well, i'm pretty cool with it as long as my managers bring their kids along again. *beams* It was really a brilliant decision to extend the invitation to their kids otherwise the whole family day's gonna be sooo boring. I can totally imagine it. Although I did almost lose my voice during my short childcare service, it was totally enjoyable. The weekday promo by The Mind's Cafe is pretty attractive too. Just $5+ per pax and you get to enjoy 2pm-6pm of game time and free flow of drinks! (I HATE MY BOSS)

Now pictures of the cute (disastrous) lil boys!

Waraku's staff gave them toy guns as gifts and that started the terrorist streak in them >.<

*Abel, Benjamin*

btw, Benjamin's the one responsible for the diet coke dieting regime

Die and let die!

I shall spare you if you exchange your green gun with my gross pink one!

Andre (Abel's lil bro) seems so sad even with his special ice-cream. To see him yearn to play with his bro even when he's getting bullied half the time just gets to me. Kinda reminds me of Amir and Hassan in The Kite Runner. Pretty addicted to that book right now. Its the sole culprit for my lateness to work everyday.

It was all quiet for a while then suddenly Benjamin and Abel appeared with a whole stack of Waraku fans in their hands and started distributing to everyone. SO CUTEEE!!

Lastly, here's Bryan (Benjamin's lil bro). He got tired of the plain vanilla ice-cream. So he stuck a chopstick into the ice-cream and made coke float!

2009-09-11T20:50:00.002+08:00

these days

my mind is a battlezone

i cant come to terms with myself

seems like listression's here to stay

darn

2009-09-09T22:11:00.002+08:00

....

so need to keep my temper in check

2009-08-30T16:23:00.005+08:00

Nirgendwo in Afrika

Which essentially means Nowhere in Africa. Just finished reading this autobiography of Stefanie Zewig's life in Kenya, Africa. Being Jews during the Nazi regime, her family was one of the lucky few who managed to escape to another country, in this case, Africa. This wasnt the beginning of salvation, as understood by many. These were dislocations and sacrifices illustrating the upheavals and pain suffered by those who were "saved". The family was treated as outsiders, outcasts, enemy aliens when the war between Germany and Great Britain broke out. Despite numerous strains and obstacles, the family survived to see the end of the war.

I was particularly attracted to the bond between Owuor and the family. Owuor, a native Kenyan, was the loyal houseboy of the family. Walter (father) started off as a tenant farmer in Rongai, where he met and was taken care by Owuor when he came down with malaria. After some time, Walter got the opportunity to serve in the army and the family moved to Nairobi. Owuor actually ran away from the farm and his family to Nairobi in search of his bwana, memsahib and memsahib kidogo. Regina (this should be the role of Stefanie) adapted very well and quickly to Kenya, learning Swahili and Jaluo, understanding the African culture and got very attached to Owuor, who is her best friend. As a matter of fact, the Jewish family will not be able to survive without Owuor's help. Owuor is as attached to the family as he is to them. Ironically, he has a huge family of own (three wives and numerous children whom he rarely sees but supports with his earnings as a houseboy), which he abandons so that he continue to serve the Jewish family. Owuor does not read or write nor does he understand the german or english language. However, he is able to understand the family's intentions, thoughts and actions very accurately. I guess this is what they call "seeing and listening with your heart instead of your eyes and ears". Alas, there is a parting at every end, the family found a way to go back to Germany, their homeland. Before Walter found the chance to break the news to Owuor, the latter had already decided to run away from the family in the middle of the night. Owuor knew all along. It just breaks my heart to know that Owuor and the family will be separated forever.

So gonna search for the movie now!

2009-08-14T23:15:00.003+08:00

The world as such..

thru the eyes of a child

Went for a tour visit of SAFRA Jurong this sunny afternoon. What a brilliant idea to spend away a lazy Friday afternoon of work right? Kudos to our dear manager! *yipee* Anyway, I was pretty surprised at the scale of SAFRA Jurong. A pleasant surprise actually, since I have in my hands Mei-bf's SAFRA member card. hohoho! But my hopes were dashed when the person-in-charge told me the sad fact that single females are not entitled to membership. How am I going to fulfil my brilliant plan of sneaking in and leeching on their tantalising facilities then? *sulk* Oh well, its okay, its alright..let me devise my evil little plan B. I'll come up with something soon. *beams*

Nice pools, empowering gym facilities, yummy snack outlets all around, tennis court, childcare centre, not to mention KBox. These are what all clubs should, or rather, must have. Basic foundation needs of the pyramid. What really attracted me was the Magnificent KidsAmaze (i think it was something along those lines) and BazGym.

Anyway, KidsAmaze is this 3 storey high playground for kids whereby moms/dads/ahgongs(who occupies a much higher percentage of the consumer demographics, according to my observation this afternoon) can just drop theirs kids off here while they get busy with whatever adult stuff is required. Best part is, this maze playground is actually pretty fun for young peeps like me too! Though it might be a wee lil bit tough to scurry thru all those tiny openings and climbing up the ladder roofy. Why do I know that? Cuz this cute lil boy, Ryan (which i hooked up at the maze), insisted on bringing me around the maze and showing me every single gadget the playground has to offer. I almost had my limbs entangled while following him around. He seems to be so familiar with everything. The playground PIC should well make him the ambassodor. I was just telling Monica how beneficial this facility may have on the kids and not just the parents. Firstly, psycho-motor skills should be way advanced by now. Courage and dare-to-try attitude may be developed as well. Not to mention social activeness and speech. Kids will also be able to make many new friends (which is pretty impt in a concrete, close-up and individualistic environment like ours now. Take myself for instance, I dont remember making many friends in my HDB estate simply cuz my mom didnt allow me to play outside with the other street kids. So when ppl talk about losing sentimental value when moving house, it doesnt really bother me. I'll probably just miss the attached and comfortable feeling of knowing my directions. Oh btw, back to the maze playground, they have this long spiraling tubeslide which is F.U.N! The speed at which I slid down was a lil off my expectation. I even let out a yelp unexpectedly. Hmmm...wondering whether this speed is safe for lil kids (who probably will slide down much faster than me)? Oh well, kids are kids. They will survive anything thats spells fun.

Another one which I had my eyes glued and jaws dropped was BazGym which houses olympic-liked gymnastic facilities for kids all thru to adults. They are only accessible to course takers though, which should be the way. Otherwise, we can expect to see the papers' headlines offering free advertisements to the gym already. Pretty interesting courses for young kids to train their flexibility, posture and psycho-motor skills. So parents, dump ballet and piano, consider gymnastics. How cool is that? But thinking about it, 'cool' is probably only apt on surface value. I had a quick try at the easiest equipment i thought of, the trampoline. o_0..really is not as easy as it seems. Hmmmm, but I belive it all boils down to whether you dare to do it. Should you have the courage to try. You will eventually master it, no matter how many times you fail (why the hell should you care about how many times you fail anyway?). However, should you dont even dare to take the first step, it will always seem like an impossible dream whereby only god-sent kids with extraordinary talents are able to do it. But, kids being kids, they will probably not think twice (maybe not even once) and just do it. Sometimes, adults do need to learn from kids. Why cant we just go ahead and flow with with our gut feel? Why the hell do we need to think so much all the freaking time? Whats the point of all those contigencies and what-ifs when you arent even gonna take the first step out of your comfort zone? Those plan B/C/D/E/F/G are just devised as mere deterrence so as to possess that fine excuse of staying within your comfortable box and living that monotonous, boring life of yours.

So all in all, moral of the story is to embrace the 2 best sports brands of the millenium

> 'Just do it'

> 'Impossible is Nothing'

Much as girls adore diamond rings, I do not really fancy dark eye rings.

4 more hours of precious sleep before Netballuxion. Oh seriously, I'm crapped.

2009-08-09T15:21:00.023+08:00

DayTwo

Nihon Genki Yo!

Kobe, Sannomiya

Rise and shine cuz the early bird's the one which catches the worm! So that's the same for us. In order to ensure that we catch the JR train to Kobe, we decided to arrive at the train station at 5.30am. *yawn*

Yup, the train's departing at 6.30am, but we had decided 1 hr in advance should be just fine. That's kiasu singaporeans for you. Well, we had initially intended to allow us some buffer time to get lost trying to find the train station and also to figure out the mind-boggling transport network. Seems like we're pretty street smart after all. *beams*

Mister patiently queueing for the train which probably was scheduled to arrive like 1hr later? But that's the commendable thing about Japanese, they are so darn orderly. My jaw hung open for quite a while when I saw how they queued for trains. Or rather, *ahem*, we were frowned upon when we conveniently (and happily) trudged (unknowingly) into the train without queueing.

Here comes the train, but nahhh..not ours. Luckily the train conductor stopped us, otherwise who knows where we'll end up at. =X

Comeon now, Everybody in orderly twos for the approaching train!

We see the world in our shadows (:

TrainConductor-san dressed up ever so smartly for his train.

I dont know if its me or he's trying real hard to avoid us. Probably cuz we bothered him with too many questions. =X

Hah! Our Train to Kobe finally reached! Off to Kobe we go!

And I've come to appreciate (maybe totally-adore will be a more apt) my JR Rail Pass. No need for confusing ticket purchases. Just flash and go! And judging by the number of JR trips we took, it's so damn worth it! $439 (for a period of 7 days) well spent! The only low point probably accrued to Japan's much-too-established train network. Its quite impossible to avoid taking other types of train other than the JR. So, we still had to fork out a lil bit of money for the subways, skytrains and whatnots.

We bought this cheap and PRETTY bento set at a convenience stall near the train station. We took great care not to splurge on stuff within the train station as it generally screams EXPENSIVE! Well, this bento set isnt exactly that cheap either. Okay, maybe its cheap for average Japanese standards? Anyways, we decided to watch our wallet and our weight (at the same time, much forcibly). Hence, we are sharing the bento set.

The admirable thing point about Japanese is that they are able to make potray every single thing as a piece of art. Even their staple food look so pretty and It sure makes one think twice about consumption

A Japanese we chat up told us about Nunobikinotaki (which is translated to mean : Nunobiki Waterfalls). Since its extremely near the Kobe JR Stn and we had to ride another subway train before reaching our Kobe Hostel, we decided on a crazy itinerary, ie. Trek Nunobikinotaki with our baggage and all before crashing at our hostel.

Here marks the start of our little morning nature trek. How healthy~ Oh gawd, the mere look at the inclination of the slope makes us kinda regret our hastily sponteneous decision. However, a decision made is an action to be completed! So off we continueeee..

Along with many other ojiisans and obaasans (all walking at a pace much faster than ours) *covers face and runs to hide* errr..It must be my heavy luggage weighing me down! *blames it all on the extra baggage* 0_o

Finally caught sight of our first waterfall! And to laoshu's dismay, there're 3 (i think) more to go. This means more walking and higher risk of getting crushed flat by our backpacks. We had niavely thought that the mere act of trekking ard with our backpacks would be sufficient training for our Kinabalu Climb. =X Oh well, we did make it back alive and in one piece right?

Mini Niagara Falls?

Japanese do love dogs, i realised. Just like Taiwanese and Americans, for that matter. You can almost find every Japanese family to own a doggie. And the best part is, they are able to walk their dogs almost everywhere in town. Okay, maybe not so much for Japanese. But Taiwanese and American malls usually allow pets. I was quite surprised when I was surrounded by doggies while shopping in a mall in LA. I still remembered playing with this chihuahua while on board a domestic flight in California. Hmmm, I wonder whether that chihuahua requires an air ticket for itself?

A pretty serene place to spend your lazy mornings, isnt it? Does resemble Taiwan, Hualien's Taroko Gorge a wee lil bit.

After quite a while of walking, we came across this cool bridge with vines coiling all around it. I was pretty excited to see where it will lead to eventually. A pity, i saw the dead end a lil too soon.

I think this is the map of the the whole trail?

Seems like Laoshu is doing pretty okay on one of the many MANY stairways packaged in the trail.

Up, up and away..with his bike?? I'm already like dying with my backpacks choking me! Hmmm..I guess my backpacks may be heavier than his mountain bike?

Looks like Laoshu isnt doing so well already. ascending slopes everywhere, rahhh!

Here comes defending champ...Worm Slayer! *claps*

Then comes the ultimate black horse...Wormy Warrior!

Round 1 ... FIGHT!

Wormy Warrior : You think you big-size, I scared izzit?!! *Pow! Bam! Wham! Slammm!*

And the winner of the World Worm Grand Slam goes to...*drumrolls*...Wormy Warrior!! *claps*

Well, we need to get our mind off the long long road ahead of us, dont we?

Just another 0.6km more to go! susu!

The Dam! The summit is near! I can just hear it calling out my name!

We made it! Hurray! '

(did i mention I so hate stairs now?)

Just a little lesson on Kobe's water supply system, which is cleverly demonstrated in this reservoir park.

Hmmm...I guess this should be the name of the founder?

Obviously, mating insects feeds on our interest

Tranquility of the reservoir

After much time resting in admiration of the reservoir, our eyes caught sight of stairs again! sighhhh

When there's up, there have to be down. So reaching the summit also spells descent for us. As can be seen from the map, cable car service is available but (sad to say), at quite an exorbitant figure. So...being a shoestring backpacker, we decided to embrace the closeness of nature...walk!

The adventurelust in us decided to abandon the average route everybody takes and try out a new trail. Life is boring enough. Sometimes, just a simple turn into the vast uncertainty can spark off some fun and excitement. But, we soon realised that there's a reason why everybody follows that designated route. We landed ourselves on a desolate vehicle road. So what if we are so darn lost?! There is still fun in every corner and we dont even have to look that hard.

Morning view of Kobe Inner City coupled with Carp kites signifying the Festival of Little Boys. Yet, we totally missed it, sighhh. Give me some cute little boys! errmm..sounds abit paedophilic here.

Time for some artsy fartsy wild snaptures before working out poor feet again...

- turning to your fate -

- lone backpacker -

yes, laoshu is pretty tired of this long, dejected road which apparently seems to lead to nowhere.

- desolation -

But every road will lead us to somewhere, always.

and tada! we were led to Uozaki Stn - the home of my fav hostel in Japan - Kobe Dears Backpacker's Hostel.

Introducing the long road into this quiet neighbourhood, which I heavily depend on when searching for my way back to the hostel

And we are probably the only ppl who actually walk to the Train Station, obviously!

Yup! We made it back to civilisation and its time to feed our growling tummies. Got recommended to this bento shop by dear Satoshi-san *awwwwww* (this cute guy at our hostel). Such a brilliant recommendation for backpackers alike. Cheap and good and did I mention large portions of food for the price paid too! This guy seems to be the only one manning the shop which means he's the chef, cashier, runner, packer and whatever other roles that might be needed. Pretty solid one-leg-kicking skills.

Best thing is, this bento shop is just a stone's throw away from our hostel (Kobe Dears Backpacker's Hostel) and all the other sake breweries! Oh i so love Kobe!

just look at THIS! oh man, i'm hungry again!

seems like laoshu is enjoying her brunch! and we so love that black weird appetizer bento boxes usually have. In case you're wondering which alfresco restaurant we are dining at, its the most luxurious smoking bench outside the Sake Factory (yeah, the one that serves free sake samples). With food, wine, alfresco setting and natural aircon, what more can we ask for? *beams*

In a blink of the eye, our bentoboxes turned to this. Devilishly delicious! And best of it all, its such a great value for money!

Yup, this is our fav place of Kobe! wahhaha!! FREE SAKE SAMPLING! and funny old ojiisan who kept filling our glasses with all kinds of sake. I had to tell him STOP like so many times. After a while, he started all over again. Oh mann, i love the yuzu sake!

Time to switch on our brains and start our little sake learning journey. They have a whole series of pictures and equipment illustrating the differences between the traditional and modernised sake production. They even showed a film about sake production, its benefits, history and modern japanese culture. quite cool, though my the first thought that came to my mind was CHAIRS FOR MY ACHING LEGS!!

as you can see, the tour is pretty interactive. Well, i dont really remember seeing a "No Touching" sign. Okay fine, even if there really is one, I wouldnt understand it anyway. lalala~

This shows the modernised and high-techy method of sake production. The machines are basically doing what I'm demonstrating in the above and below pic - grinding of rice and sedimentation

Sedimentation of fermented rice in the olden days.

Just a few of the vast sake collection of this factory

" Hmmm..so you mean there's more sake factories around the area?! More FREE activities?! yuppieee!!"

Pretty flowers of Kobe unite!

anyway, the one on the bottom left hand corner resembles those flowers in Alice in Wonderland!

Come some bustling night life at Ikuta Road! Where we roam around in search for the legendary KOBE BEEF (which we probably would have a hard time debating whether we should showhand just for that miserable piece of heavenly beef).

kooooobeeeeeeeeee beeeeeeef!!!!!! *uncontrollable salivation* Its so hard to convince myself that such paper thin slices of beef costs such a freaking bomb! But the way they packaged it does kinda shout out its unbelievable price tag to me. omg, i'm gonna faint! definitely must try kobe beef! But no, this shop does not offer cooked ones. Search still in progress.

And then we obviously wandered into this international food street where they sell all kinds of cuisines but Japanese! -___-" While concentrating hard zooming in on the stall menus, I got stopped by this weird chinese/japanese/korean/just-some-weird-nationality and he started chatting! I tried telling him (at least 10 times) that i'm not interested in cuisines other than japanese and that i'm in a damn rush for my long overdued dinner but to no avail. And laoshu is nowhere to be found. Now I know she's off in a corner, shooting papparazzi pictures.

We found Kobe Beef! i repeat, KOBE BEEF! As you probably guessed it, due to its high-class price tag, we decided to share. Taste like tataki beef! *slurrrppp*

The mere thought of a need for such regulation does give me the spooks. Means that its pretty dangerous to be a lady at the train station, even at 5pm?!

Takopachi van right outside Uozaki Train station! Supper? heeheee! "Hello stunned-bro, so much food on your hands already still buying takopachi?!!"

2009-07-29T23:16:00.002+08:00

Gonna climb Mount Kinabalu tomorrow. Darn! i'm sooooooo excited!! I soooo wanna do the ferrata course too! Hope there's enough time for me to attempt that.

Flight's tomorrow morning and I just cant get to sleep. Seems to me that I am forgetting something but I just cant quite point out what it is. This is quite irritating! sighhh, oh forget it! I shall just buy whatever I forget to bring there. Too lazy to pack alreadys.

Drinking beer and screaming at the top of our lungs while watching sunrise seems quite a fantastic idea! hmmmm *beams* Lets just do that!

Better not rain, plsssssssss!! *prays to every god I can think of*

2009-07-04T23:35:00.026+08:00

My Aur-someeeeeeeee Dive trip
(26-28 June 09)

I'm still wondering what actually came over me when I had said that I missed those long hours on the ultra rocky ferry ride. Oh my, did i really miss those hellish hrs surrounded by merlions of all races? Well, at least it didnt take 7hr30min for us to reach the island again this time. and thank god that there arent any as many merlions this time. At least I'm able to walk properly and not hobble ard with the sway of the ferry. BUT, i was pretty stunned by the layout of the boat. Quite at a lost for words actually. OKay maybe not, cuz i couldnt stop exclaiming 雾索南阳!! It totally reminded me of that old SBC (if you get my drift, SBC had ceased existing since wayyyy long ago) TV drama about migration of slaves from china to singapore - 雾索南阳.

- tiny light from only window -

We had wanted to take a photo from the top of the window with us staring up at it (just like that pose) but the boat got too rocky too fast. It was too much trouble trying to manouveur our way past the other passengers too.

- our oh-so-comfy bedroom -

(living in self-denial)

But its quite an experience, I must say.

I seriously would have sang that drama's OST at the top of my lungs, if I had remembered the lyrics. And so, we were quickly packed into the boat and shipped off to Aur. We basically squeezed and slept on pathetic plastic gym mats with absolutely no space to stretch our legs. That probably explained why I couldnt feel my legs when I woke up. Oh did I mention that there was little (okay, maybe try for NO) ventillation in the boat? It sure stank! But everybody was so darn tired, I guess, nobody cared much since all of us were sleeping pretty soundly, lined up as sardines in a tin. The fact that we couldnt even see the person next to us probably helped us squeeze better. After some grueling 5hrs, we finally survived the ordeal and reached the much awaited island of Aur! *scream yayyss*

Its pretty much just another moment of shock when I stepped into our room. And I had thought the Tioman-Genting was cui? Imagine 20x worse. No mirror, no balcony, no chairs, no warm water, just 3 double decker beds for 6 peeps to squeeze in a room which disallowed 2 peeps to walk into the room together. To add on, the bathroom door functioned just like a torn curtain (luckily I shared the room with girls only) and our door couldnt lock! Why is there a need for a door that could not provide the most basic degree of security? This is just great! But just the thought of diving in the cool waters the next morning sort of dispelled all these grumpiness.

- the best i could do. there is just no space in the room. any further, i'll be out of the room already-

Rise and shine with merely 3 hrs of sleep, we're off to the pretty bluegreen sea sea seaaaaaa! Ting and I got separated from the rest of our colleagues (they are doing AOW, which we naively thought we could tag along and relive our AOW days) and hence we joined another group of leisure divers. The fun divers were good fun but the underwater coral life did disappoint me a little. How the hell did so much coral die in just 1 year? The underwater life is just so different from what I remembered from 1 year ago. Aur/Dayang was so vibrant and colourful and fleeting fish everywhere. But all I see now are just discoloured corals dead with grey. sighhh, its just so sad to see things change so much just like that. At least the sighting of the humongous Humphead Parrotfish and friendly cuttlefish made my day. I was so excited i almost forgot to breathe.

- the morning sea, which did chase away all those grumpiness from the night before -

- An ice cold coconut and a hammock pls! -

- open concept showering fronting the beach -
(though not much of a beach to start with)
or
maybe pole-dancing anyone?

- more shots of the blue skies and sea -

- and so this is how we were transported to our dive boats, by overcrowinding the miserable sampans which are at risk of sinking. Haha! OH well, it was fun though -

- jack and our resort-
photo courtesy of another fellow diver (kram)

Jack's the instructor of my DM btw, and he's damn funny! Haha! i was saying i want to see whaleshark and manta rays, and he started doing dumb actions and mimicking them

- everyone's in serious mood, setting up -

- all ready to rock and rolla -

Thanks to kram for this nice pic of my backroll entry.

- harshil's grad stride -
we were his graduation test btw. should have given him a hard time =X LOL!

- Christmas Tree Worms -

First u/w shot of the trip and new input into my underwater organism identification file. I was having quite a bit of fun playing with them. Reminds me a lil of the mimosa plant. It'll retract back into its hole when touched.

And this also became the first and last decent shot i can get out of my cui camera which went on to fog itself up. I could barely see 5% of the actual shot through the live view display screen. sighhhh..It sure was darn irritating to be seeing good photo subjects but unable to get a good shot.

Anyways, the Christmas Tree Worms comes in many different colours too! pweetty! I wonder whether its actually a worm or plant though.

Thats when ting here started giving me weird signals. I had thought that she had finished all her puke on the dive boat before we came in. But apparently, she is still continuing her vomitting even underwater. I seriously wonder how she does it. No wonder there's this Batfish which kept following us throughout our whole dive. Ting must have been feeding it.

- Shy Batfish which obviously doesnt its picture taken -

- and so i try and try and try and try again..finally got a decent shot -

- Star Pufferfish -

i think..

- A pair of Lizard fish -

They do look menacing, dont they?

- Feather Star -

These actually curl up at the detection of light at night. Quite cool. Got me quite excited at the beginning of my night dive. I had thought that the movements were caused by fish or crabs, etc.

- Wrasse on the run! -

- ehhhhhhhhh...some fish -

- Pink Skunk Clowns protecting their eggs -

And this reminds me of Mat Yie! He taught me how to look out for such photo subjects and I was quite in luck to have spotted this for my 1st dive. A pity I didnt get a good photo of them, the skunks were obviously pretty worried at all the attention that they are getting from kram and me. To add on, I couldnt stay still at that position at all. The current kept drifting me away. I wonder how kram stays still!

- false anemone clowns -
best photo targets and courtesy of Kram.

- our one and only blue-spotted sting ray sighting -
Pretty, but definitely cant beat the family of rays I saw in Perhentien! I had to hold my breath for so long for fear that my exhalation bubbles will scare them away

- highlight of the trip : my pet nudibranch -

I was happily shooting that huge puffer when i felt a tap on my shoulder. I was quite reluctant to turn away from my puffer actually (okay lah, I admit I was trying to force it into a corner in hope that it would puff up) but was quite delighted and surprised when Jack popped a nudi into my hands. This was the start of quite a stampede, suddenly i was surrounded by all the other fun divers, with each and everyone one of them trying to grab the nudi. Poor nudi, it must be quite traumatized. Try to imagine soap slipping out of your hands and then trying to grab it again and again. That was precisely what the poor nudi was going thru.

Finally caught it and had to kiap its tail (or whatever its called) in order to prevent it from slipping away.

Poor poor nudi, but I sure had fun! LOL!!

- and then i found a better way to keep it in place for my little photo keepsake -
*beams*

- Whoever said Anemones are poisonous?? -

I was quite stunned when Harshil's fingers went right into the anemone to catch the clowns. And then ting did the same thing. Am I the only dumbass who naively thought that anemones are fatally poisonous? -__-" Of cuz, I have to try it for myself.

Was I scared? - yeah, a little apprehensive i must admit
Was it fun? - Hell yeah! But i did get like red marks on my hands after that which i accrue to the anemone's poison.
Will I try it again? - Definitely, totally, absolutely!

- extremely territorial tomato clowns -

got headbutt by one of these. Got me disoriented for a while -___-"
I thought i kena attacked by some big fish.

(sighhhh...bad fogged-up camera)

btw, they aint those cutesy little false anemone clowns we are so used to seeing. these are bigger than my palm. They must have gotten irritated by that stupid harshil and I became the innocent victim.

- spot the pretty nudibranch -

Photo courtesy of another fun diver (SooHui)

I did try to photograph it but my camera fogged up so badly that I couldnt even see the nudi through the live viewer even though I was probably only an inch away from it.

SooHui photographing me photographing something
I wonder what was my photo subject though =X

- Jack with his weirdly cool fins -

Looks pretty comfy and user-friendly

thats Liang Ye, my 1-buddy-stand! cuz ting went off puking

poor ting, she's been puking everywhere! onboard, underwater, back at resort, etc

- more clowning ard -
Photo courtesy of fellow fun diver (Kram)

- Pweety Underwater Scenery -
Photo courtesy of fellow fun diver (kram)

He's darn good right? He's a Master Scuba Diver Trainer, btw.
I didnt even remember seeing this scene during my dives =X

- the full strength of the fun dive gang -

- boatman ah bang flexing his muscles and carrying the tanks back to the gassing room at the resort -

I was washing the seawater off my wetsuit when the sun set behind ah bang. This photo is too good to miss. Luckily my u/w camera is still in the washing. But as usual, its pretty fogged up. sighh. Anyways, ah bang actually walked much slower with the heavy tanks and all for me to finish photograhping. hahah

I was soaking in the sun outside our room while waiting for ting to finish showering when the other boat pulled up to shore. And I saw this female diver lugging another diver (did i mention that he's huge and full of muscles?) up to shore. She was desperately trying to carry him up the shore but was having much diffculty as the weight proportion is just too lopsided! After a while did I realised that they are practising the rescue diver course. For a moment, I really did think that something bad happened to that group of divers. Chehhh! Its pretty inspiring watching the female rescue diver "saving" that huge lump of muscles though. And I AM motivated to take the rescue diver course *beams* Kram mentioned that he dont mind teaching me. I hope he's serious, hohohoho!

Oh yah, there's also this bald diver involved in the drill, helping to carry the extra equipment (which belonged to the "diver in distress"). I had initially thought that the bald guy is Jin Tian. Well, thats based on my bad eyesight from afar. Chehhh! I thought how come Jin Tian so gungho sia.

- ting, the puke expert and loving buddy -
LOL!!

- last shot with our DM (in practice) before we part ways and head back to SG -

The thought of 5 hrs on that gross ferry irks the hell outta me -____-" No way I'm gonna stay inside that slave-shipping compartment again this time. Definitely have to stay outside for some air ventilation.

- Now for act cutesy fun shot -

Good job photographer (whoever you are)! For your fast fingers and quick reaction.

Harshil's cutesy alter-ego. LOL!!

And then we decided to do some jump shots.

Jump shots are a must for every album, isnt it?

Harshil's retarded luh! HAHHAHA!

he's obviously trying very hard to flex his muscles

- Goodbye Aur -
I almost did a backroll entry with my backpack and all, HAHHAHA! saved by the other instructors.

- Some effective self-entertainment/waste-time measures on board ferry -
And that's precisely how I accquired that ugly tank top tanline. sighhhhhhh.

When will I ever get fair?

- And that's the end of my aur-some dive trip -

Even though I didnt quite bond with my other colleagues (which was the main motive of this trip), but gained valuable experiences and friends though. Had tons of fun and that's all that matters, isnt it?

Hmmmm..so when's my next dive destination? *heeeheeee*

(I refuse to think about the sipadan trip the rest of my dive gang are going, which I'm not involved. rahhhh!!)

Nvm, aussie's gonna be next den maybe Bali for my mola molaaaaaaaa!?

2009-06-21T23:02:00.003+08:00

Win, Lose or Draw

Random stuff we used to do.

They arranged a farewell party (well, sort of farewell. This was my first long trip overseas alone) and we played Win, Lose or Draw. That was so fun! Till now, I still LOL when I view it. And I have absolutely noooo idea what that answer was.

2009-06-19T23:32:00.012+08:00

Nihon Genki Yo!

DayOne

Bought our tickets to Tokyo 2 weeks back, and *swooshh* in a flash, here we are..on the plane to Tokyo, Japan! I've always wanted to travel Japan.

#1 : to practise my japanese language. of cuz, i doubt i'll be able to understand the authentic japanese judging at the speed of their conversation

#2 : to stalk..errr i mean.. spot my most beloved Sorimachi Takashi!! (sad to say...i didnt even get to see his poster lying ard anywhere in Japan. Guess his peak is over..but its okay! i will always be his loyal supporter!)

Like i say...only got the idea of traveling Japan 2 weeks ago, so obviously we didnt have the time to plan anything. It was literally a mad rush of info gathering. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoy the adrenaline rush and surge of uncertainties. =X Lucky for us, a few of my colleagues just came back from Japan. So....I basically collated all their itineraries and turned it into mine. *heehee* But theirs only covered Tokyo. Knowing me, I dont really prefer big cities and the usuals. Definitely, I just have to go somewhere different! Oh well, we shall just roam ard and embrace any new happenings that approaches. Afterall, this is what makes travelling fun right? *sheesh*

Had actually wanted to travel to Hokkaido and Sapporo to visit Ming Xian too but the transport cost just to get our asses there is too freaking much. Sighhh, we just had to forego it. Next time then, lets pray that Northwest or some other airlines offer cheap flights to Hokkaido. I heard its beautiful in winter. rahhh!! zl going this winter!

The picture sorting did really took me the whole night. And i'm not quite done at it yet. We did really take wayyy toooo many pictures hahhaa. Okay, partly cuz my laptop is quite a senior citizen too. Kindly show more understanding for the aged then.

Awwwwwwww...He was so extremely nice to climb out of bed early in the morning to drive us to the Airport! ;)

so here we are, on top of the world and few hrs away from Japan! *salutes Northwest Airlines for their cheap air tickets to Tokyo! Though their seats aren't exactly of the best comfort, knowing that its not a budget airline. But at least we get to have nice meals during the flight! this rocks!*

Yeah yeah yeah..i'm really pretty excited at the meal portion! =X Come on lah..its not everytime we get meals on flight can. Most of the time, we're only on budget planes which dont even serve snacks! We had to smuggle chocolates and biscuits up the plane everytime in the past. And to make things worse, no liquid is allowed on the plane!!!! there goes our drinking water too. This time, not only do we have yummy breakfast and lunch, we get to watch movies!! I still remember me watching Jim Carrey's "Yes Man". Say yes to everything!! I thought it was quite inspiring. But shu begged to differ. Just Say Yes to everything and dont really think of anything else. I mean, how cool is that?! For once in your life, take the risk and embrace every single thing that may come your way, just enjoy and have fun!

Goshh! Turned our heads to the left and this is what we got! I've always had a thing with clouds. I strangely believed that fairies..okay maybe not fairies but people..or just things..lived on the clouds and their everyday jobs includes shaping the clouds into different patterns and sizes. This may largely accrue to that Enid Blyton book I read long long long time ago when I was still a little girl. The story is about a girl living in the clouds who had a pet cat. The cat dropped down onto Earth one day due to a hole in the cloud, which the girl forgot to mend (hmmm, i guess their job includes mending the clouds too.) A little boy saw the injured cat and brought it home. Cut the long story short, girl become friends with boy after saving cat. Girl brought cat back to the clouds. Boy and girl became such good friends but had to stay separated. So, girl will always shape the cloud she stayed in the pattern of a cat while boy will get reminded of girl everytime he sees a cat-shaped-cloud in the sky. Anyway, from then on, I developed a liking for clouds. Would stare at them and try to fit familiar shapes and patterns to them. *heee, yeah i know. such childish thoughts*

This is what got us all excited for a while. Ice crystals on the glass panes!! So damn cool! Thanks to shu's G10 that we were able to get this shot. My dear old Z5 could do nothing. hahhaha.

They said "Yokoso Japan" and *swhoosh* we landed in the land of the rising sun! Nice chilly weather! *beams, beams and more beams* Now off to take our very first Shinkansen, or bullet train and may be more commonly known as. I had actually wanted to take a picture of me with my face stuck on the panes of the train door and hair very messy, machiam on a damn fast train like that. But alas, the legendary bullet train aint THAT speedy afterall. I thought it would be quite scary, like cant really see anything outside due to the high speed. It pretty much felt like a normal train ride to me. Okay lah, it was pretty smooth, I would say.

Just before hopping into the Narita Express, we loaded ourselves with maps and info guides about Tokyo (they only had stuff about Tokyo in their visitor centre).

We thought we could pretty much take things easy in Japan until we say the transport network maps. OMFG is the only thing we had on our minds! I thought maps are supposed to simplify stuff and make things easier for the map readers? Okay...okay...calm down...we can do this! afterall, the types of public transport in Japan only includes JR trains, subways, normal trains, another kind of MRT-type train, and buses. Thats about it. We can so do this! Hmmm, are there monorails too? I think we traveled in one of that too. Oh well, alls well! we came back in one piece!

errrmmsss, just having some fun posing with my big yellow sunglasses to pass the time. HAHHAHAHAHA!! =X

1st try : eeeeeeeeewwwwsss!!! it really is unsweetened! is this even edible? where is my pokka green tea?!!

2nd try : hmmmm okay lah..I can get used to this taste.

3rd try : heck the pokka green tea. feed me more unsweetened ochaaaa!!! gimme my ochaaa!!!

After we got bored with my big yellow sunglasses and finished our ocha, we started making eyes at the neighbouring cute lil baby. Its at that time when I spotted the dispensable milk bottle. Oh my, I was so amazed! Japan really is a damn cool country! Innovations and cool technology everywhere!

After an hr long ride on the Narita Express, we still have to change a train and then a subway and who knows what else to get to Asakusa, where our hostel is located. Bring it on man!

Look at the sign warning peeps not to rush. Well, I guess this is much needed. Japanese seem to perpetually be in a rush. Morning, afternoon, night....anytime of the day, you name it! And yeah, its quite scary when you stand in the middle of the corridor (with all of your luggage on you) trying to figure out which way to go and which train to take. We resorted to hiding in a corner and stretching our necks, peeping at the signs. HAHHAHA

Asakusa..here we comeeeeee!!

Presenting to you..a typical day in the train. So what does a typical Japanese do in a train on a typical day?

1) Sleep

2) Read the papers

3) SMS

4) Sleep somemore..SMS even more..

Whilst the typical singaporean girl checks out the so-damn-cool hairstyle and make-up of those pretty Japanese girls on board. The typical singaporean girl also constantly wonders whether those ultra long eyelashes are real.

After changing a train, we reached Asakusa! First things first, we have to chiong to our hostel to unload! Carrying that huge backpack and another haversack infront is no joke.

I'm always amazed at the law abidingness (is there even this word? who cares~) of the peeps in Taiwan and Japan. They are so escalator friendly! Those who are not in rush only stands on one side of the escalator while rushing peeps will plod their way up and down on the other side. They dont even have signs telling them which side to stand on. Nobody breaks the unspoken rule. Everybody are so law abiding that you would feel weird if you stood on the rushing zone. Do we see that in singapore? Okay, lately we do see a little bit of such a scene. But some irritating arse just have to stand right in the rush zone and refuse to budge. Do you know how irritating it is for some peeps who are in a rush to board the train or get out of the train station? Ehhh but I conveniently blocked out all that I've just described hahhaa. Use your imagination!

Even a normal walkway look sooooo pretty. Thats the beauty of holiday huh! hahaha! First glimpse of Asakusa. And then..afterwhile, we caught this glimpse a tad too many times (we couldnt find our hostel and ended up walking in circles, hahhaha. Did i forget to mention...in the cold with our heavy backpacks!)

A nice ojiisan offered to help us look for our hostel but we thought he 越帮越忙 mainly cuz he didnt actually know where our hostel is located and to make things worse, he didnt speak any english while I only speak like super minimal and very broken japanese. Hahaha, in the end, we went to the police post nearby to enquire. We are finally on the right track.

Asakusa SMILE...yeah you're supposed to like :) when you reach the smile part. And thats me! on the 2nd floor in our room for the night.

After dropping our bags, we promptly made our way to the highlight of Asakusa and also the cultural point of Tokyo >> Sensoji! Many many lanterns lining the walkway and delicious BBQ-dango! *yummmy* A pity the temple is down for some renovations. We are not able to visit the insides.

And then we spotted SAKURAS!! *screams, jumps, runs towards to flowers* With a deep heave of disappointment, we realised that they are plastics. Anyhow, we came so far for お花見, we decided to just take some photographs with the sakuras and pass them off as REAL sakuras! WAHAHHAAH!

In a bid to blend into the local culture, we found our way into this small traditional eatery. There's like only this obaasan and two other ojiisans in this small shop. None of them speaks english and everything else on the menu is scribbled in hiragana. So I started slowly figuring out what food is on the menu. After a while, I gave up and began talking to the obaasan in my broken japanese instead. Oh well, it is not too bad. We managed to order some decent food afterall. Looking at the outlook of this humble eatery, we had thought that we got a good deal with some cheap dinner. Alas, after comparing the prices outside after our meal, we realised its not so cheap afterall. zzzzzzzzz...nvm its alright, at least we had some fun conversation with the obaasan and ojiisans in the shop. *beams*

Looking back at the picture now, the obaasan probably thought we would not have enough to pay her for the meal. That might just be the reason why she's grabbing shu's arm so tightly. HAHA

Now for some after-dinner-entertainment. What else if not the famous Pachinko which popularized the whole of Japan and everywhere else which imports Japanese Drama Serials! We, if cuz, have to have a go at it! And so, we held our breath and stomped into the smoky and noisy pachinko outlet. Got some guy to teach us how to play. Again, nobody speaks decent english here. So...I started conversing in broken japanese and the guy in broken english. He was trying to teach us how to operate the machine. I was only interested in how to win the lil metal balls though. HAHHAHA! Okay so after a long while, when the guy had ran out of english vocabulary, he gave up teaching and we still have no idea how to play. hahhaha. We thought, maybe if we watched others play, we might get the gist of the game. So we started watching this ojiisan play and win many many metal balls (the metal balls are supposed to be exchangeable for cash). We still did not figure out how to operate the machine and the peeps on duty are all avoiding us. booo! After considering how much food we can eat with the minimum bet required for Pachinko, we decided to just pose with the machine and pretend to play. Food is so much more impt to us. We need our ramen and sushi!

eeerrrrr...some self-entertainment at some random flight of stairs. Actually it started off with me sitting at the stairs to rest my tired feet and back. Then, we started setting off the timer and doing stupid poses. HAHA!

Well this is pretty much the end of Day 1 in Japan. Hmmmm we did have some drinks back at the hostel. Well, its complimentary! 不喝白不喝right? We konked out much too soon after that. Had like a few hrs left for decent sleep before we crawl out of bed to catch the morning train to Kobe.

2009-06-06T01:54:00.002+08:00

Kelong

with colleagues

Tanjong Pinang

- the Good Friday loooong weekend of 2009 -

so what's the highlight of the trip?!

BANANA BOAT!!

*fakes enthusiasm-and-squeals*

okay lah.. it wasnt that bad. Afterall, we all became banana-boat-capsizing-experts after maybe 10 capsizes?! hahaha! basically we were having fun capsizing ourselves! Now i'm damn good in climbing back up the banana boat already!

but then...I wouldnt recommend this kelong though..

food >> so-so~

activities >> everything is spoiled except the banana boat (yes, thats why its the highlight!) I was still hoping for the jetski!

equipment >> the lifejackets are so damn cui that it probably wont be able to save me should an accident occur. nono, it'll probably choke me to death first. Its so thin that it probably wont keep you bouyant should you be just a lil bit overweight. To add on, it has totally nothing to secure itself to you. You just have to hold on to it for your dear life. Basically, it just acts as an accessory.

room >> so-so~ i think cui-er than my cui-est dive resort in tioman

shower facilities >> NO HOT WATER!! even the cui-est Genting Tioman Resort only didnt have hot water due to blackout.

theme >> absolutely no rustic-kelong-feel at all. Its all concrete and all.

random others >> they caged up a poor monkey which has apparently gone bersek due to prolong irritation from the owners and any other stupid ppl.

cost >> After a detailed cost-benefit analysis, definitely not worth the money!

After all said..we did have a good time there.

I mean, though there's nothing much (and i really mean seriously nothing much) to do there, we still managed to come up with some stupid games to play just to entertain ourselves. Oh well, i think its sufficient. Most important thing is to have fun!

2009-05-26T01:11:00.004+08:00

Lao Pa's 54th birthday celebration

Celebration theme for this year shall be bowling!! we brought them to ktv last yr and pool the yr before. hmmm, i wonder about next year...blading? (impossible) swimming? (just as unlikely)

i know! maybe we'll cook for them and burn the kitchen in the process! well, that ought to be a memorable birthday ya!

glad they had a fun night at the bowling alley (my guess is other patrons at the alley had just as much entertainment watching our clumsy stunts and alarming LOLs). Well, we dont really care, do we? Having fun is all that matters!

I'm quite surprised my mom had never bowled in the past. I mean, come on..isnt bowling supposed to be the only hip entertainment in those days? If she's not bowling den what had she been up to? embroidery?!

And so after 2 hrs of intense LOL-ing and clumsy bowling, I present to you the top 4 of the night!

Cant stand the 2 olds...Now i do believe when ppl say that one age backwards as one gets older. Those 2 are getting more and more childish and so much cuter by the years!

the 2 super act-cute-masters in my family..and coincidentally, they look so damn alike. I know i've mentioned this, but i seriously got such a shock when i chanced upon a childhood photograph of my mom. The little girl in that photograph looks exactly like my sis!

totally, absolutely creepy!

2009-03-15T15:51:00.005+08:00

Long Overdued CNY 2009

yeah! we're the duo of eternal sueyness! both of us keep getting dealt with terribly lousy cards for at least 10 consecutive rounds! sighhh, this is a sign for us to quit blackjack and join the party of couch potatoes.

Afterall, CNY is the season where ppl challenge one another on the constant gorging of junkies definitely its the best time to flaunt those gambling stunts you've been practising for the whole of past year!

赌神 looking at his cards and analysing his best bet but was disturbed by 2 impatient fellow gambers, demanding to see his cards.

Presenting to you.. 'How to summon the best card?'
(i) bend over and stay very very close to the gambling table
(ii) chant continuously for the card you desire while moving your hand over the deck of cards
(iii) the chant turns into a shout for the card while picking the card up in a swift swoop and in a huge exaggerated motion, finally slapping it hard on the table!
(iv) viola~ hope for the best!

And that ritual taught earlier really worked!! lady luck finally found her way back to us!

see! those who doubt the ritual ends up like that red indian (notice no cash sitting beside her wallet?)

Maybe she thought that our little nephew will be able to give her better luck.

cheers! (After learning *cheers*, he practically went all over the house cheers-ing with everybody who had a drink on hand)

After he got bored with that, he starting pestering us to take photo with him. Super act cute! cannot take it! hahahah!

Wei Qi and I had wanted to take a photo (like just the two of us) when little ashley squeezed his way in between us.

now see the tallest and the shortest in our family.

sighh, should have never bought that ice-cream for him.

Now we have to runaway from him unless anyone wants to have chocolate clothes!

worst thing is, he thought we are playing a game with him. so the more we ran away from him, the more he ran towards us!

Had to drag him into the toilet to wash him!

Btw, he styled his own hair in the toilet!!

ice cream - rocker style!

yeah we were having much much fun cam-whoring! whooops!

2009-03-15T15:45:00.004+08:00

Mens' Night Out Pre-Spring (Feb 2009)

this is sooo long overdue until i cant even remember the actual events taking place. so i shall just do some picture description (is that what we used to call it? those kind of oral comprehension thingy back in sec sch).

Chimay Blueu from Chiang Mai!! Our virgin take on this one...interesting! but too bitter for my liking. But then again...no alcohol is to my liking anyway.

The early birds!
totally maxed out our pre-unxpected time by cam-whoring. can there be a better way to pass time?

yeah..featuring Hoegarden Grand Cru, and i cant remember whats the other two.

*tags laoshu, andyang and me*

Finally jiefuu is here! (after the 2nd set?) with his Little Creatures Beer.

As usual, eyes closed in every picture. so I didnt bother to QC.

hmmm..i should presume this was after loads of drinks and wedges and chicken wings and pizza and great music *beams*

A spiced combination of all probably inspired laoshu to travel back to the 60s.

or maybe she was just imagining her 2nd career : an over-enthusiastic aerobics teacher! HAHA!

all said and thought, i still heart this! =D

*cheese for the camera*

as usual, they were trying to see how red i can go.

its not my fault i have good blood circulation, you see.

the disastrous remnants of our Pizza Wala.

why i said disastrous? start imagining what could happen before this?

FOOD FIGHT!!

or should i say..VEGGIE FIGHT!

and yeah, veggie fight is just the thing for me *beams*

another night of wala ends here, sighhh!

Unxpected's packing up and everyone's going home to sleep.

NOOO! we refuse!

and so...we made our way down to geylang..sepatu..geylang! (is that even how they sing it?)

one more round of the famous rochor tau huey (which didnt managed to bring down our beer belly at all). So the only best step to take is to....take photos with Moses Lim! This is how we convince ourselves that beer bellies arent too bad afterall, standing next to Moses Lim.

and this rounds up the highly sought after event of the month..

Men's Night Out Pre-Spring Feb 2009!

stay tuned for Spring's event

coming soon...

yeah i mean real soon!

2009-02-15T04:19:00.002+08:00

Had a long MSN chat with Dave last night. Oh mannn...his life is just so exciting! Just what i needed! I cant deal with boring life! After working in the hostel (the one i stayed in SF. Yah thats how we got to know each other), then a forester, he's planning to move to Japan and backpack Asia altogether! All of which garners him thousands and thousands of miles away from his family. Like what I always say..most of the times, there is no impossible, its just what you decide to choose. Or rather, how much you're willing to sacrifice for the pursuit of your happiness and dreams. Some people can give you 1001 reasons why they "cannot" do what they dream to do, but i would think its merely excuses. Afterall, i strongly believe in "When there's a will, there will definitely be a way". Sometimes, these people do irritate me. If you have soooooooooooooo many reasons NOT TO, den jolly well quit harping on your dream! Matters are just this simple, if you want it, just do it! Whats there to think about? Well, definitely you have to be a rational person to start with. If the plan seems fine to go ahead with, just chiong!

Okays contradicting what i've just said, now is seriously not a very suitable period to just chiong. Unless you're some proshit sucker who would not have a lack of prospective employers, then better think through your plan B!

In conclusion, I should stop talking to Dave! HAHAH! otherwise, i soo totally think that he's gonna cause me to quit my job much earlier than I have planned! On the other hand, i'm sooo addicted to all his oh-so-interesting experiences!

2009-02-13T22:49:00.003+08:00

Chu Xi 2009

This is the scene that welcomed me the moment i stepped into Chinatown.

Just in time for the fireworks! No wonder everybody's looking up.

After a long while of blur-look-exchanges and the extra clear black sky above us, we realised that we're actually on the wrong side of the "viewing gallery". -__-"

in the end, we resorted to watching reflections of the fireworks on a building.

Oh well, better than nothing right?

Now we venture into the Human Stampede Level 1.

Rule #1 : die die form a long human chain and refuse to let go even though you got stuck in a jam and ppl cant move forward without you letting go.

Rule #2 : keep pushing and shoving the person infront while continually complain aloud at how impatient the person behind you is, pushing you like that.

Rule #3 : give an innocent look and keep pointing to the crowd behind you when the person infront turns back to shoot you a dirty look

Rule #4 : bring a pram! so that you can roll it over random peeps' feet when they refuse to give way to you.

Time to brave the suffocating smoke (actually i do mean fog) and hordes of sweat packs!

The Chinese believe that the deities will bless you with good luck and fortune if you manage to be the very first person to offer joss sticks at this temple at the struck of midnight

(which effectively means the first break into the new year)

Its actually pretty traumatizing! I'm not exactly a devoted buddhist.

A real free-thinker actually. But..simply for the fun of it and also to roll into the festive season, i definitely have to try it!

errmmss okays...maybe its not so fun afterall! But still...have to try! since i'm already here..might as well.

Well, i wouldnt say its exactly the best experience one could have, but...minus the stinging eyes and getting shoved ard, it actually was quite interesting. Though i'm still sore that the helpers at the temple removed my joss sticks almost immediately.
I think it barely stayed 3 secs in the urn (or is it what they call it?)

actually the main motivation that kept us going is cuz we spotted Mediacorp's camera crew =X

If we cant be the lucky one to be the very-first-joss-sticks-offerer, at least we get to go on TV! *beams*

Okays, this God of Fortune sure looks damn creepy! How to HUAT like that!?!?

No wonder my luck's been so lousy lately.

Is the budget so tight this year that they dont even QC?!

I thought God of Fortunes are supposed to be fat and chubby?

OKays, at least show me some prosperity tummy!

For goodness sake! This guy obviously resembles a weird halloween character much more than anything associated with CNY!

Maybe thats why his surroundings aint congested at all, nobody dares to be near him.

2009-02-05T16:55:00.001+08:00

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they areright and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour.Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five moreminutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, andyou should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually endin fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement oftenmisunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot andwonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with youabout nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women canmake to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard beforedeciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just sayyou're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless shesays 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you atall. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . that will bring on a 'whatever').
(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaningthis is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but isnow doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What'swrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

hmmmm really is quite true *heh*

2009-01-15T15:42:00.004+08:00

okay..this is so very tempting! *beams*

btw, this 'islandreefjob' promo really did a darn good job at marketing Queensland Tourism! both the official website and youtube is jammed up cuz of the huge influx of viewers.

2009-01-12T20:53:00.005+08:00

Ah Seng Korkor's Wedding

Whats up with 2008/2009? Everybody is like on a mad train rush to the ROM and attending weddings feels like going to the NTUC for weekly grocery shopping.

Whilst the subject of the gathering today is Ah Seng Korkor's wedding, the star of the night definitely wasn't the newly weds. Ashley totally outshone them. Oh well, since Ashley is from their family, it all works out to the same effect, i guess?

My cute lil nephew got so much smarter in just a few weeks! kids really learn fast! He's like imitating our every action. So the professionals are really darn true when they preach about adult role models.

introducing..the 5 sisters of the family

and so this is what michelle and weiqi will look like in 30 yrs time!

i was in utter shock when i saw an old photo of the 5 young sisters. Mummy and Michelle really literally looked identical! I could almost believe that Michelle was photoshopped into that photo!

Yap Men(2) Nu(3) Jiang(4)

cousins group shot!

yah yah yah..everybody hide behind me

The 85-ers and 小淘气 trying to look bigger by striking that weird pose

okay..i can see that my dad is having much fun entertaining the crowd!

singing songs that I have not even heard before.

After seeing that, Ashley wants to sing too. Yeah, pulled me to the mic and made me find the songs for him. And i literally had to drag him away from the KTV set and back to the dinner table.

OKay, i see some Singapore Idol coming up!

After so much flashlights and clicking at the dinner just now, we kinda got addicted and couldnt stop even when there's only 2 of us in the backseat of our car.

and i regret that you have to witness how obviously bo liao we really are

2009-01-10T03:19:00.007+08:00

Qui M'aime Me Suive!

What was the last time you still remembered that teenage dream of yours or even still had a dream?

What would you do to chase that fleeting dream of yours?

And how much does it take to fulfil that dream?

Max, a successful head of hospital in his thirties, decided to give up his current job and pursue his teenage dream of being in a rock and roll band.

Though the ending is a tat too abrupt, The songs just get stuck in my head after a while.

needless to say that praline and jojo have to be my favs! so cute! =D

Last of all..as in the movie..sometimes matters should be just as simple as.."Je t'aime et voila!"

2009-01-01T22:53:00.002+08:00

There had been only black or white.

Now that I found grey,

I dont know what to do anymore.

2008-12-21T16:44:00.001+08:00

The World is just AWESOME!!

boom de yada~~~

(been stuck in my head for the past few days)

2008-12-14T03:18:00.002+08:00

Photos from AVP Christmas/Zenith Championships Celebration >> #1, #2, #3

2008-12-11T15:47:00.004+08:00

now this is what underwater/land photography should look like!

total coolness to the max!!

time to inflate my BC and snap away while waiting for the other peeps to surface!

(okay, first of all..i need to get hold of an underwater camera -___-")

and this is the brilliant guy, Alessandro Catuogno (i think this is his name? the rest of the words are unidentifiable by my brain), who created all these works of art! Do view the rest of his masterpieces here!

2008-12-11T15:12:00.006+08:00

Magic in just that one perfect moment..

or maybe its just being in the right place at the right time!

2008-11-19T10:33:00.002+08:00

Latest Christmas carol for 2008

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

Recession is coming to town

It's hitting you once

It's hitting you twice

It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise

Recession is coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares

It's worthless if you've got bonds

It's safe when you've got cash in hand

So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing

Finance products are so vague

The banks make you bear the cost of risk

So keep out for goodness sake, OH

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why

Recession is coming to town.

2008-11-15T04:16:00.005+08:00

Off To the "Das Experiment : the Black Box" with Mei Mei

Inspired by the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971.

20 candidates participated in a prison simulation experiment for purpose of studying the psychological effects of being a prisoner or prison guard. Prisoners and Guards rapidly adapted to their roles. The Guards stepped beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and developed sadistic tendencies while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized due to the inhumane conditions in the prison. This led to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. Prof Thon decided to perceive the deterioration as standard psychological reactions and refused to end the experiment despite the obvious unethical acts by the Guards and the protests of his assistant, Dr Grimm.

The 14-day Stanford experiment was aborted after 6 days following concerns of the Guards abusing the in-mates and that the latter were undergoing psychological trauma and slipping into depression.

- prisoners in their cell -

look at our proximity to the set. which i thought was a good initiative. Allows the audience to feel more involved in the play. This play is very much recommended! Extremely intriguing. Gets you wondering about the dangers lurking in darker side of humans. Oh yah! the best part, in my opinion, is when Tarek's hair got shaved off by the Guards! MeiMei and I were caught stunned for a while. We were still discussing whether they were really shaving his hair off. Eventually, we decided that it must be a wig they were shaving cuz its impossible for the troupe to change a long haired Tarek every performance just for this scene. But the shaving scene was very well executed. *claps* The gun firing was also pretty good! Though the ending was quite abrupt.

Although the venue provider can certainly improve on uber hard and uncomfortable seats as well as their air conditioning system. It felt as if the air conditioner broke down! Oh well..after a while, i grew numb to my surroundings as I was so caught up in the play. So, maybe its all not too bad at all. Should catch it if you've got the chance.

I give it..3.5/5 popcorns! (0.5 popcorns deducted due to the uncomfortable seats and the lack of aircon)

glutton meimei gorging on my 2-bite-brownie

yes we were soooooo starved that we settled for 2-bite-brownie for dinner. After 1hr 30min of growling stomaches and dehydrated throats, we practically rushed out of the set during the intermission to get our hands on any food/drink we can find! Thank god for 7/11!!!!

when i had nothing to entertain me while meimei fiddles with her cui GPS.

off to the Das Experiment thru the black box!

Notice the clause "Free Seating"? This becomes extremely crucial when one is rushing for time and the cui GPS refuses to cooperate!

MeiMei obviously enjoying her after-Das Experiment-activity!

of cuz Mei Mei didnt let me off.

and so..we spent a good while camwhoring outside the SubStation before finally making our way to Timbre for more action!

HAHAHHA! i forced meimei to order this gross cough-syrup-like drink.

HUGE yummmyyy pizza!!

minus the irritating onions, urghh

trying to pass time while waiting for Shirlyn & the Unxpected to miraculously appear! Well, they were great, usual. but I dont really fancy Timbre if I were to compare to Wala. The venue is too big and sparse. No high factor. And most importantly, i'm sooooooooooo far away from uncle rene!!! HAHAH =X

To make up for it, we started rocking in MeiMei's car on the way home. Thanks to my zenstone and MeiMei's fabulicious stereos!

The Saw Fanatics

Finally got to meet up with the brothers. Been a long time since both got too preoccupied with their gfs. Here we are, at our fav past time, watching SAW V. However and quite apparently, we are the only sole survivors. and....SAW is never gonna end!!!! I can totally imagine us watching SAW 100 with our little toddlers! wahhaha!

the spastic brothers! but nonetheless my very companions thru jc and even now

bestie with 102 common friends! OMG! gross! hahhaha! though you're gross, i still love you! *wink wink*

we managed to psycho/drag jiefuu to Coffee Club even though we were heavily weighed down by our dinner. And at this very place again..we celebrated his bdae! with the very same muddy mudpie again! and still..he had the very same expression. SLEEPING AGAIN!

same venue, same pose, same bdae mudpie, same shirt colour, same sleepy eyes

Happy 23rd jiefuu!

2008-11-13T21:38:00.002+08:00

oh crap! it suddenly dawned upon me that i'm getting real sick of my job! okay maybe delete the 'suddenly' part. i was practically facebooking the whole of today. well, this would probably, most likely, accrue to the 50 nos. of notifications that popped up the moment i logged on to facebook this morning. I was quite stunned for a moment, remembering very clearly that i had cleared all my notifications yesterday right before i left office. Well, i have these proud 'notifiers' > TSP and TCC to thank for setting me off on a click-and-comment rampage. I was so engrossed and addicted that i still continued my rampage even in the face of my colleagues.

okay..i conclude that this post is pretty bo liao. thats cuz i'm extremely bored! rahh!

2008-11-08T01:28:00.002+08:00

Young me Now me showcases a series of cool photos of ordinary peeps when they're young and another trying to recreate that very moment. Interesting! kinda makes me wanna go dig out my childhood photos..hehh!

2008-11-08T00:20:00.003+08:00

what do you do when you're BORED and BROKE?

1) pop into a pretty boutique

2) pick some cute dresses

3) pray that the changing room is empty

4) change into those cute dresses

5) whip out your camera

6) pose and smile!!

2008-11-02T22:00:00.002+08:00

recommendation from uncle lin - surprisely, its pretty good!

total highness!

2008-11-01T18:39:00.012+08:00

Halloween 2008

Time : Lunch Break

Venue : Holland V

Activity : Preparations for Trick or Treat tonight!

Shall it be Scream or...

the White faced Witch?

My dumb King proposed a Dare to me in exchange for Ben n Jerry's

Dare : pick any random cashier in cold storage and scare her

and so i did it! i bet king didnt expect me to really do it. haha! Cheers to my Ben N Jerry's treat! *slurp*

we strutted down Holland V with these masks on during lunch hour! Almost ready for halloween tonight!

on the way to Night Safari

As my intended halloween outfit got lost somewhere in my house, I tried to smoke thru with this funky devil image! hahaha!

and apparently it looks too Act Cute that i, myself cannot even take it.

we spotted Adrianna WOW!!!!

Its a pity that i forgot to ask her act out Adrianna Wow for me.

lil devil and witch! So cute!! the lil witch literally sat on my leg while taking this picture! Brave lil girl! cuz when i asked her whether she's scared, she actually touched my face! think she's trying to figure out whether the mask is real anot.

i luurrrvveee her! SO CUTE!

caught by Count Dracula!!

this family is so cool! the whole family came all dressed up for halloween!

father pirate!

King with the other ghouls

the Wicked Witch of the East vs Scream!

She even spoke Witch accent!

Wicked Witch of the East vs HAnnibal

psychotic sadako-like cheena ghost vs Hannibal

now my turn...i think i lost! hahah! cannot blame lah, she's damn scary! totally psychotic! she kept going around chasing everybody!

Jack-O-Lanterns hanging up high!

bad attempt at trying to get a picture with the lanterns

pweetty

and she's king's dream tmm

random auntie who wanted our picture

now comes the real sadako with the black angel

king with sadako and his pretty angel

human char siew bao?

and she looks so psychotic while i'm just interested in the char siew bao!

i think this lil vampire boy looks much more scary than me, boo!

lil cutesey flintstones and pirate boy. SO CUTE!!!

weird head spotted

yummy B&J treat!! *yummy yum*

taxi uncle spotted something strange in his rear view mirror

scary movie 100!

we scared Hendrick's neighbour in the lift

Scream embracing mobile technology

2008-10-08T16:06:00.010+08:00

LBB/Dai Sai King's 25th bdae surprise

As the guys wanted to go trapshooting somewhere at this 鸟不生蛋 rifle range road, this began our ardous walk in. Did i forget to add "on an EARLY SUNDAY MORNING with an abundance of mozzies"?

Just for you, KING!

nearing the range, need to find a place to hide! cannot kena discovered by bdaeking, like in redang!

the guys showing off their shooting prowess

hendrick spotted us!

cooperative uncles..i mean instructors standing behind LBB blocking him from seeing us behind (we guess one!)

peeping janes at work! As the whole place embraces an open concept, we could only hide behind the pillar.

bdaeboy : what's up? not happy i got bdae surprise huh?

everybody's unanimous decision : now you take your own cake and sing your own bdae song!

hendrick : eh why no plates? how to eat cake like that?

but nvm, cake can wait. must always find time to act cute!

Uncle : oei you boy! stop acting cute in my territory! drag you out to become clay pigeon then you know!

*/ignores continue act cute! tweez!*

the act cool photographer

JQ : come on..just one kiss *pouts*

JQ : look at my luscious lips and alluring teeth!

xian : ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!

yummy yum yum! This cake is really quite delicious! can fight with my coco exotica!

laoshu happy with the choco cake

presenting to you the most delectable from Rive Gauche..

proof of how heavenly this cake is --> look at laoshu

i have no idea what this crazy king is doing

laoshu in an attempt to convince herself that she's an underwater photographer

lunch at Ivin's! Thanks LBB!

- pool at bkt timah -

me : ala~ which one to hit sia?

the master : just aim here can already!

laoshu : noob! let me show you lah!

me : kk let me try. Dunno how to play...nvm...most imptly must look like damn zai!

me : errr then now what?

the master : brush the side can already. confirm plus chop get it one!

sneak preview of the bugspong/pongbunny!

- the master at work -

- the worthy challenger -

and then the challenger fell asleep

- the camwhore champs -

divine fruit ice cream at Happy Kappy!

result of eating too much ice cream

2008-10-07T18:23:00.012+08:00

We Sally-Ported to Beer Fest. on the way to find the Wizard of Oz

- Sally-Portinggg in progress -

the two noob ones who refuse to sally port with us

tada~ the benefits of sally porting! --> the unexpected crashing of SG Beer Fest.

JQ directing laoshu the guidelines of sally-portation

elated at our chance encounter!

the rest finally joined us! bring on the beer and chips and sandwiches!

hot and spicy salsa chips! oh so tasty!

beauty of the day

the guys with their beer

us girls with ours!

laoshu showing off her nostrils

random pictures

hendrick seems to be having alot of fun!

JQ getting a lil drunkkkk

smokescreen at work!

so what happens when we've run out of beer and chips?

we cam-whore and lol at the poser noob on the right

constipated shu

getting drunkkkkkkkk....

or are we not?

finally managed a group shot after many many wasted shots.

her vocals rock!

waiting for the Wizard of Oz

cornered by 2 色伯伯

here's lion, tin man and scarecrow..so where's my wizard of oz?!!

Mt faber centre? some building in Mt faber

"follow the yellow brick road to find the Wizard of Oz!"

and my noob buddy actually slept thru the movie -_-"

2008-08-24T23:02:00.015+08:00

City Chase 2008

and this starts the eventful day of rain, fun, sweat and laughter

we are team 5167! (i kinda forgot our team name! haha)

a shot at the finishing line before the race

all the chasers patiently waiting for the start of the event.

some cam-whoring while waiting for the emcee to start the warm-up session.

this pair was so lucky to have won the lucky draw. I didnt notice what's the prize though, but they had to shave one eyebrow off each other.

start of the race with excited chasers frantically grabbing at the clue sheets which are floating down from all above.

our 1st station - Farewell my concubine

Task : yu to paint my face up like the chinese opera artiste (with thick thick make-up)

*as we were too excited about the race, we forgot to take pictures of ourselves. Hence, these stolen pictures*

not forgetting the robe i had to put on. After which, i had to run all over chinatown, like a mad woman, in that ghastly face and attire.

our 2nd station - Oohtique

Task : Blow a condom burst and describe some sex toys?

i didnt know a condom could go to such a size! took me a looooong time to burst it.

our 4th/5th/6th station? - Jitterbugs

Task : to learn a dance in 10 min and ensure the judge is satisfied with our solo moves

okay whatever~ i cant remember which station this is already. anyways this is at Rupini's

Task : thread off one eyebrow OR eat live meal worms

definitely it'll have to be eat live meal worms! i was shocked when yu said she'd rather thread. (she didnt think it meant the whole eyebrow gone)

who game for some sauteed meal worms?!

and there's this brave soul who chose to part with one eyebrow. kudos!

supposedly, chasers will be able to get a ride to their next station if they spot one of these. Although we spotted quite a few, none of them had drivers in them! rahhh!

my 1st try at roti-prata-making!

(with hands soiled with meal worms, make-up, sweat and who knows what)

not too bad huh!

learning balloon sculpting...

and try to sell them at The Heeren, for charity!

Free fall and get wet!

knee-boarding?

too bad we didnt get to play this! sigh..

and there's this too! all at ecp! rahh! should have gone to ecp!

taking on the bull!

aint so easy..

Champions of Citychase2008

an angmoh team!

i bet they are tour guides! *eating sour grapes*

yayysss!! we finished the race!!

2 funny filipinos we met.

exhuasted! nonetheless, fulfilling!

=D

2008-08-18T11:42:00.001+08:00

Greetings from Speedwing!

Great news! Speedwing has recently launched a new program - INTERNSHIP GERMANY!

We would like to invite all who may be keen to take up an internship position in Germany to view the attached document for more information. If you have any friends whom you think may be interested on this opportunity, feel free to forward them this email.

Once again, thank you for your interest in Speedwing's program and please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

IS THIS A SIGN?!?!?!??!?! o_0

2008-08-17T01:32:00.017+08:00

Dayang Open Water Course (May 08)

Excited, anxious, uncertain, lil scared, total coolness! Some of the emotions felt before we met up for the trip. (actually alot more, but blame it on my lousy house of vocab!)

Diving Buddies happily taking photos at the JB checkpoint!

intended jump into the picture but ended up disappearing from the shot

wilson pong and the stoned me and xian, wondering what we're waiting for. (After 3hrs of plain waiting)

Tired of waiting, we decided to entertain ourselves with the all-time-fav-sports-camp-PIZZA HUT-game!!

and it did keep us quite occupied for some while. got all other by-standers interested too, i guess.

introducing......wooooooooolaoda, our instructor with the blue shorts!

1/3 of our luggages?

After the pizza-hut-game had lost its usual circle of supporters, me and ahxian decided to resume our skipped netball training. Ball handling...den we went on to passes..(by which our stray passes scared quite a few)

cheers to self-entertainment!

after like 4? 5? 6? hours of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.....and the bus has yet to appear!

little did we know, this was the merely the start of our loooooooooooong nightmareeeee!

this is the end-product after 7 miserable hrs on that rocky boat! experience of an lifetime, seriously! casualty count : 80% and as you can imagine, hendrick is victim #76.

but alls worth it the moment we set foot on this beautiful island! totally like fantasy island!

the beach at our doorstep! how cool is that?!

just look at those clear waters!

our neighbour resort (dunno why our resort wasnt shot, probably cuz its too cui, haha)

can see the corals underwater?

and that is definitely not our dive boat.

alex - crazily funny boss of fishermen dive.

the one who came up with "what's the most dangerous shark in the whole wide world?"

the babes! or Er-Mei Sect, according to Alex

always time for cam-whoring, even in the middle of Alex's pre-dive briefing.

diving rocks!

drying ourselves up with the warm sun on the deck

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!! yummy yum yum!

too bad i didnt feel really hungry right after dive.

aaaahhhhhh~~~ feels soooo goood!

i think this is one of the diver's son!

the pole-dancing buddies!

yizhen . hendrick

...sunset...

our 重量级tanks. i cant even stand straight with those on my poor back.

our cui faces after a satisfying dive.

love this pic!

spot-on on the timing!

floating around on sea, waiting for our dive boat to rescue us!

the cuttlefish i attempted to chase and almost got separated from the group. luckily woolaoda called me back.

1 more shot before descending into the deep blue sea!

-rescue trg-

rescuing our buddies, tough swim!

some extremely tiny fish?

tweeeez for the camera!

- nudibranch -

eel? fish? cant remember.

- crown of thorns -

everybody pose like king-of-the-world!

buddy and i

i think its me . buddy . xian . junqin

more buddy shots underwater!

underwater smilies!

the whole jean gang of open water divers!

taking a rest at the jetty after our dives

hanging by the edge of the boat!

again waiting for our boat to rescue us. I wonder why we are always stranded somewhere.

the sun . the sand . the sea . the babes!

breakfast by the beach! how cool is that! (although the only thing edible is tea)

sad to say..its time to bid this pretty island goodbye, sigh.

group shot of the fresh grads with the boss

King of the Worlds!

on our boat back to Mersing Jetty

illegal gathering kena discovered!

goodbye dayang..

our seafood dinner, featuring whalepong!

cheeeeeeeeeers!!

on the coach back to SG.

all buddies unite with woolaoda in the lead

2008-08-14T11:56:00.003+08:00

The author of The Teenage Textbook (1988) - Adrian Tan, was the guest-of-honour at a recent NTU convocation ceremony. This was his speech to the graduating class of 2008.

Life and How to Survive It

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It's a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation.

I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband. My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me. On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable. Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife. And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you've already won her heart, you don't need to win every argument. Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You're done learning. You've probably been told the big lie that "Learning is a lifelong process" and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters' degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don't you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers. The good news is that they're wrong. The bad news is that you don't need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You're in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy. I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I'm here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There's very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap. Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom. So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you'll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they're 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn't meet their life expectancy. I'm here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy. After all, it's calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average. Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much. That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste. If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don't need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average. What you should prepare for is mess. Life's a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate. Don't expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over. Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free. The most important is this: do not work. Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable. Work kills. The Japanese have a term "Karoshi", which means death from overwork. That's the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there's nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.There's a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are "making a living". No, they're not. They're dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful. People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense. Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway. Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself. I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn't do that, I would've been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don't imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I'll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher. Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don't, you are working. Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I'm not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence. In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.It's not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it's often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one's own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong. The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.I didn't say "be loved". That requires too much compromise. If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone. Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We've taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable. Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul. Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn't happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you. Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don't, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.You're going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there's no life expectancy.

2008-08-10T18:48:00.006+08:00

Finally, its time for me to throw that mortar board! And i thought i wouldnt care too hoots about it. Initially, I had stubbornly insisted to skip my convocation ceremony to either go for a looooooong backpacking trip or go for WATUSA again. I was almost on the verge of doing it until I realised how much this ceremony mattered to my parents. Hence, I sadly had to give up my last loooong backpacking trip and will never be able to go for WATUSA again. sigh. Oh well, after stepping into UCC and seeing all those familiar faces again, it didnt seem that bad anymore. Just the beam of pride on my parents' faces is enough to make me contented. Though i would still prefer my initial plan.

congrats! no more thesis anymoreeee!

my dad looks like he's the one graduating instead.

these sweet peeps came down specially for me *conveniently forgetting that i forced them to* HAHA! thanks though!

you guys made my day!

laoshu: muahahahahha *evil grin* cold sore infection time!

me: no..nooo..nooooo...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

sweetest babes!

hunkiest dudes! (just to make them feel shiok!)

sweeties i spent 4 whole yrs with. what could i have done without them!

here comes the time which everybody has been waiting for....throwing of our mortar boards! I think i had so much fun throwing it again and again that mine was almost cui when i collected it back at the end of the day. But....who cares! its fun! thats all that matters! *sheez*

2008-07-13T12:45:00.003+08:00

conveniently stole these from sharon's blog..hohoho!
feels so good having a meal like this.

I wanna have a good time! Dont stop me now!

2008-07-09T18:54:00.002+08:00

am still and totally addicted to "Into the Wild"

beautiful . brave . mesmerising

he had the courage to do what most put off conveniently as unnecessary or stupid.

inspired to go all out to pursue own inner goals..

2008-07-04T00:22:00.002+08:00

To make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality, nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must first lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life which will at first appear to you as crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life, you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. The only person you are fighting against is yourself and your stubborness and fear to engage in new circumstances. Don't hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. You will be very very glad that you did.

- Alex Supertramp McCandless -

2008-07-03T16:03:00.002+08:00

some people put up walls not to keep others away

but to see who cares enough to pull them down

- One Tree Hill -

2008-06-13T02:27:00.002+08:00

me wanna find out which bus goes to Funan from Bukit Merah interchange.
Hence, me went to ask bus interchange personnel behind the counter.

me: Uncle, is there any bus that go to Funan?
Bus Personnel: yeah, 851.

So, me went to join the 851 que.
Then Bus 851 came.

me (asking the bus driver) : Hello! Does this bus go to Funan?
Bus Driver: No.
me (not fully convinced): you sure? cityhall? Funan? no?
Bus Driver (with a rather irritated tone) : NO!

me then got off the bus and decided to go ask Bus Personnel at the counter again.

me: Uncle, is there any other buses that go to Funan from here?
Bus Personnel: Tell you 851 already what!
me: But...but the bus driver say never reach.
Bus Personnel: that bus driver stupid one lah! Dont listen to him! I tell you got reach means got reach. I never bluff you!

me feeling dumb and amused all at the same instant. decided to go join the 851 que AGAIN after missing the previous bus. rahhh!

2008-05-21T02:41:00.005+08:00

Backpack Taiwan (Taipei)

Danshui Station

which closely resembles Chinese Garden MRT station, doesnt it?

feels like homeeeeee

the quaint streets of Danshui

on a rainy day

i'm pointing to the famous bakery where you can eat for free til you drop (ok, i meant try the samples as many times as you want)

apparently, they're very confident that ppl who try their samples would definitely buy their products

close-up of the bakery

i really ate til i almost dropped, haha

den we went searching for Ah Po's Tie Dan and we found her!

we chanced upon a fishball shop and decided to go in for some snacks

and immediately fell in love with their amazing fishballs and tantalizing wantons!

they are fabulous!

as you can see, i really love them!

we were so addicted to it that we had 2nd helpings and tried to come up with a zillion ways to pack them home. However, our heads must have been colonized by fishballs and wantons instead of any sightings of our brain.

this is some kind of tau kwa stuffed with tang hoon and meat.

quite an interesting taste, but my whole head was filled with danshui fishballs and wanton addiction

hotsprings by the road!!!!!

cool huh!

we saw a japanese girl walking in them too!

if only i wasnt wearing shoes and jeans, otherwise i would be joined her!

i could only do this..-_-

the public hotsprings that we went.

as you can see, lots and LOTS of aunties, uncles, ah mas, ah pehs, and what have you.

but it was fun!

this place had 6 pools. 3 hot ones and 3 cold ones. the locals there told us that we are supposed to soak in the hot ones den jump into the cold ones for a number of times.

self torture, i would say. but shiok, nevertheless!

night has fallen

didnt realised we had been soaking in the hotsprings for so long.

and its STILL raining! -_-

this definitely aint as nice as the one i ate in fangliao.

and much more expensive too!

ktv at Partyworld!

we got an huge room to ourselves! and sang our throats coarse!

damn fun!

the loveable peeps at Taipei Ximen Backpackers!

love them to bits!

hilarious bunch!

not forgetting to mention the comfy-est blanket! (i came to despise my one at home after a while)

they were acting out my name, if you need to know -_-"

2008-05-21T01:44:00.008+08:00

Backpack Taiwan (Kao Hsiung)

this should be a famous temple in Kaohsiung

presenting to you, KaoHsiung City

attempting to take a shot of the lighthouse at lover's bridge

British / American embassy turned cafe

cool place!

wang wang brought us on a ferry over to the other side of KaoHsiung.

its quite cool seeing ppl riding their scooters up into the ferry

night view of the pier

does look like clarke quay, doesnt it

reached the other side > Ciqin

the famous black sugar dessert! and my fav yam balls!! heehee!!

everybody should know Dream Mall!

but both me and shu didnt think that it would be worth the time going inside since its just gonna be like any other shopping mall so we made do with a picture from outside.

ferry back!

food!! finally fooooood!

i dunno whats wang wang's doing hhah

laoshu overcoming her fear factor > parson's nose!

well, it aint exactly fear factor i would say. parson's nose is delicious! hoho

snake meat!

coupled with wang wang acting cute

yummy yummy snake meat

nothing special. taste like chicken.

they sell little pigs as pets!!

gorging ourselves at the much recommended Liu Ho night market

and this is yum yum! i think its fried fish with some kind of thick soup and noodles

time to leave KaoHsiung and Wang Wang

really need to thank Wang Wang.

If not for him, we probably wont succeed in hitch hiking and wont be able to try out diving.

If not for him, we wont be able to get a free ride to KaoHsiung and tour KaoHsiung express.