one side of the story

平时不烧香，临时抱佛脚

2012-02-12T09:57:00.004+08:00

-_-"

2012-02-08T01:30:00.003+08:00

Probably a tad too early to say this, since I'll only be going for my final practicum in July, but I really can't wait to start teaching!

十五暝

2012-02-06T21:24:00.003+08:00

今天是元宵节，你吃汤圆了没有？

We had our annual CNY gathering at JM's place some 2 weeks back, a night before he took off to Eindhoven for his exchange programme. We had a very filling steamboat dinner with his family and a rather fulfilling (at least for me lah) gambling and drinking session after.

#1 Ah Ong, the gambler.

#2 JM, the designer.

#3 ZL, the accountant-to-be.

btw, look at the enormous cards in her hands!

#4 Boss, the Chemistry/Maths teacher

#5 Drinking game where JM was really unlucky lol

#6 Happy birthday Ah Ong! Congratulations on completing your FYP!

#7 We were kinda high by this time of the night.

#8 See what Kahlua and beer does to Boss...

#9 I hope he's enjoying the cold weather on the other side of the globe now

#10 I got the kitty frame from Taipei for about S$10, which I thought was quite expensive

#11 Nerdy frames ftw!

#12 The lot this time round minus Ah Ong and RL.

After countless rounds of ban luck and si gi, we went on to mahjong. It'll probably only be 6 months later before we can sit down together with JM again so... absolutely no apologies for keeping him up till 7 next morning.

I seem to be quite lucky in mahjong this year, concluding from the past few rounds I've played #pleasedontletmejinxit

Mumsy read the papers last night and there was a snippet stating that it's possible to make eggs stand on 立春, so we tried doing just that after dinner and... tadah!

#13 Number grid courtesy of my 4D-crazy dad; 7859, good stuff must share :p

speaking of which... Mumsy, Dad and YF won some money (3 + 1) for the $10 miliion draw a few nights ago. I must have been out when the god of fortune decide to pay us a visit :(

Anyway, I just hope that it'll be a great dragon year ahead for everyone! Let's huat together :)

Daring to be different

2012-02-06T03:41:00.001+08:00

Today, I sat in for an enrichment class for some kindergarten children and there was a component of the lesson where the 5 year-olds had to come up to share with the class what they'd like to be in future. As the school made use of content from a standard ICT lesson package, there were pictures of people in different occupations shown on the interactive whiteboard; including that of a scientist, a teacher, an astronaut, a doctor, and some other occupations that are well sought after. The kids had to go up to the board and tap on the occupation of their choice so that a picture elaborating that job would be shown; I believe some of the children didn't really know what was going on and so, just tapped on the same choices that their classmates made.

There were a couple of kids who went up to say that they wanted to be teachers; but they couldn't really justify what was it about teaching that they like, and got away with killer innocent smiles on their faces. And a couple of other kids who wanted to be scientists and astronauts too; but all of whom couldn't provide any reason for their choice. I know what you're thinking, that I'm probably expecting too much from a bunch of 5 year olds. And that was exactly what I was thinking at that moment too, maybe I should just cut them some slack. After all, some of them are not even 5.

I continued to think that way until this little girl, who was last to come up, spoke. She told the teacher that she didn't want to make use of the interactive whiteboard; we thought that she might be a little shy to come up to tap on her choice, but she clarified that her choice was not on the board. Wow. How's that for knowing exactly what she wants?

"I want to be a fish!" she exclaimed. I couldn't help but let out a chuckle for her most unexpected choice, not because I thought her answer was ridiculous, but because it was most adorable. Without much prompting, she went on to explain that "I want to be a fish because I want to/can swim very well". How awesome is this kid? I had 2 thumbs up for her in my mind; one for having a mind of her own and not just following her classmates blindly, and two, for her daring to be different and not being afraid of classmates laughing at her choice.

I'm not going to go into how she may not have experienced enough failures in life or may not have had enough people laughing at her unexpected and different choices, but I'm just going to say thank you, little fish girl, for reminding me of some of the most important, but easily forgotten lessons in life.

In the jungle

2012-02-05T23:15:00.002+08:00

After our idyllic stay at Danau Toba, we headed up north to Bukit Lawang, a "small tourist village at the bank of Bahorok River in North Sumatra" (wiki) to do a jungle trek.

#1 Rainforest - A simple home-stay run by the lovely Nora.

#2 Delicious watermelon juice to wean off the heat.

#3 A fast flowing Bahorok River right next to our backyard!

#4 Chrysanthemum in bloom

#5 'Lobby' at Nora's.

#6 These colourful paintings are for sale

#7 A friendly feline at Nora's; turned out that one of my travel companions is scared to death of them.

We did 2-day-1-night trek with some local guides at Gunung Leuser National Park (where an orang utan sanctuary is located) in the hope that we'd be able to catch a glimpse of our shy, red-haired cousins.

#8 Didn't have to wait too long for our first sighting.

#9 Was quite excited to spot such a colourful snake in the wild

#10 And another orang utan. They appeared to be doing quite well in the sanctuary; we came across quite a number of them during our trek.

#11 Gibbon, mohawk style.

#12

#13 Soft-shelled turtle. This is one funny-looking fellow who'd swim upstream furiously when it smells/detects food in the water.

#14 Heading for lunch

#15 Our friendly guides preparing fruits and lunch; loved how they arranged the oranges and pineapples.

#16 Lunch by a stream; a well-needed break to catch my breath.

#17 2-in-1 :)

#18 Love the way the baby is clinging on to the mother's body

We ended half a day of trekking at a campsite where some more guides were already preparing our dinner. We took a dip in the cool waters of a nearby waterfall to wash off all that sweat from our bodies, and also, to be honest, get out of the ways of our guides who were busy cooking.

#19 Friendly monitor lizard who stopped by

#20 Dinner in the making.

#21 'Million star hotel'; our sleeping quarters for the night.

#22 Masak masak toy cups from which we had some hot tea before dinner was served

#23 One of the few simple and delicious dishes that was served; this should be tempeh

#24

#25 Chicken curry

It rained briefly later in the evening, so we played Shithead and some other card games to pass the time, and I spotted my very first fireflies much later in the night too. Next morning, we woke up to find some unexpected visitors...

#26 Some very naughty macaques decided to pay us a visit

#27 They must be pretty used to having visitors in the forests since they were totally not shy at all

#28 That's our clothesline btw.

I decided to take a rubber raft back to our home-stay, and we walked for about 30 minutes to reach the starting point of the raft ride. Along the way, we had to wade through hip-deep water with strong under currents to get across to the other side of the river; that was quite an experience.

#29 Some of the most beautiful butterflies that I've seen

#30 Chanced upon them as we made our way to the raft ride start; they remind me of butterfly magnets that Mumsy used to buy for our fridge some 15 over years ago.

#31 The place where we got on to our rubber rafts. It was a 30-minute ride back to Nora's, and I'm glad that I went for it because it's such a different experience from the trek.

This should be the second time I did a trek while on holiday and though it got really tiring at times, looking at these pictures and recalling all the funny episodes that took place while we were getting badly bitten by the commando mosquitoes in the rainforest, I suppose I might just do something like that again in the future?

Today marks a year since I got back from Medan; I remember meeting up with KH straight after landing in Hong Kong on CNY eve so that we could visit a CNY night market. I had my first 麥芽餅 that night, and called Mumsy to wish her a prosperous new year when the clock struck 12 midnight; it's amazing how quickly time flew past and a year is over just like that.

And that... sort of sums up this long-overdue entry.

#8 My favourite internet friend

2012-02-04T04:24:00.000+08:00

B1. We haven't been meeting up much lately; it's been more than a year really, but I truly enjoy hearing stories about his travel adventures and what-nots when we finally do meet. What's more, I get to fiddle with his cool vintage camera when he brings it out! I suppose the main reason why he's my favourite internet friend is because of some of our common interests; and also, I can't think of any other internet friend right now :x

It looks like he's been supar busy for the past god-knows-how-long, I hope he's coping well with his bunch of kids and work, and I have no idea when it'll be but I look forward to catching up with him again soon!

Long island

2012-02-03T02:04:00.000+08:00

While on exchange, I had a three-day school week and plenty of time to explore Hong Kong. So I decided to make my way down to Cheung Chau (長州) on a very random note, after realizing that this is the place where McDull (麥兜), that cute cartoon pig, learnt how to climb a 包山 during the annual Bun Festival from his bald sifu. The island is said to be nicknamed "dumb-bell island" because of its shape.

Anyhow, there were no 包山s around when I was there; the festival is held annually in May (I think), but there were quite a number of people around, both visitors and islanders, and I did have a good time doing the long stretch of coastal walk. The island is not exactly big, but it'd have been much wiser of me to have rented a bicycle to cover more areas in that short afternoon.

And here are some pictures from nearly a year ago:

#1 Berthed - Some of the remaining fishing fleet of the island.

#2 Ladies speak up.

#3 BB Kill indeed!

#4 Water-front dining; lots of seafood restaurants here

#5 View from the coastal walk

#6 Tried to imagine what it'd be like to do a beach start here.

#7 Just a couple of 師奶 who just went grocery shopping

#8 It was nice to stop by the lovely beaches to watch the waves wash ashore and feel the sea breeze in my face

#9 Can't help but wonder if this angler went home with any catch(es) at the end of the day

#10

#11 Tricycles for rent; it seemed fairly common for couples to rent this while I was there

#12 Moody-looking sea

#13 The weather was just starting to turn warm then

#14 This should be (not verified) a karang guni uncle/auntie's home; it was felt a little strange (and maybe eerie too) to see this soft-toy at the entrance of some sort of courtyard with many other old things lying around - partly due to Mandarin oldies playing in the backdrop too.

#15 A rather unfamiliar nursery rhyme on magpies that someone shared with me sometime back:

One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for a girl

Four for a boy

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven for a secret, never to be told

Eight for a wish

Nine for a kiss

Ten for a bird you must not miss

#16 Long Island's Hachiko?

#17 Out-of-operation

#18 Looks deserted, but it's not

#19 Modern-day kampong?

#20 Looking out to sea

#21 Island fire brigade; entrance shutters

#22 How the locals get to their boats (that are berthed a distance from land); by using a raft made of jerry cans and pulling themselves forward!

#23 Near sunset

#24 Sun is setting, sun is setting

#25 Derelict would be an appropriate word to describe it

#26 Sunset sea

#27 Friendly couple I met on the island; the wife was on one of those tricycles and offered me a lift to the other side of the island. The lady shared with me some of her life stories; notably events that led to her Christian beginnings before we arrived at the other side where her hubby was. We took a picture on their film camera too.

The pace of life on Cheung Chau's vastly different from what you can get on mainland Hong Kong; much more laid-back in comparison. I reckon this car-less island (they use some other sort of small motorized vehicle) makes a good place to explore for tourists who've been to HK one time too many and think that the Hong Kong is all about skyscrapers and over-crowding human beans. I'd love to have a meal at one of those sea-front seafood restaurants in my subsequent visits.

in love

2012-01-28T02:14:00.002+08:00

What a voice.

recent read

2012-01-27T03:47:00.001+08:00

I managed to get a second-hand copy a few months back from a (pre-loved) book fair at Leisure Park and only got down to reading it some two weeks ago, before CNY.

The last Dan Brown book that I'd read before this was The Da Vinci Code, and that happened more than 10 years ago. It felt like I was being transported back in time on a few occasions; to the secondary school days, where I couldn't place the book (Da Vinci Code) down as I simply had to find out if the predictable plot is unveiling as predicted.

After reading my second Dan Brown book, I conclude that there's a pretty standard writing formula that Dan Brown follows, and that could be the main reason why his 'twists' are predictable more often than not.

Still good for light and easy reading nonetheless!

2012-01-26T03:38:00.000+08:00

Why?

Welcoming the year of the water dragon.

2012-01-24T02:33:00.002+08:00

#1 Card with description of yusheng's origins at Dragon Phoenix Restaurant, Novotel.

This lunar new year is slightly different from the others because it's my year! I can't remember if I was as excited about CNY 12 years ago, but I must've been; it was a dragon year too! Anyway, reunion dinner with the paternal side of my family took place last night at Dragon Phoenix Restaurant at Novotel. The place was so awfully crowded; the restaurant had even rented a ballroom from the hotel to cater to the numerous families gathering for their reunion dinners.

#2 Yusheng - Ready to be tossed

#3 and my very first lohei this year! Let's huat together!

Post reunion dinner, we headed home to finish up with the spring cleaning - I was so glad that we were done when we were done because Ah Hong had been breathing down my our necks all day; she's someone I don't wish to be around on 除夕. And as usual, we spent the rest of the night watching Mediacorp's CNY eve's special programme at home - just to hear what the fengshui master has to say about the luck of the different zodiac animals for the year.

#4 First angbao of the dragon year, from Ah Hong dearest!

Spent another 30 minutes helping Honghong prepare red packets for next day's visiting - and I realized that CNY is a jin 重本 affair!

Woke up only late afternoon today since I hadn't gone to bed till 6 a.m. in the morning. It was grandma's place until evening; I ate way too much new year goodies and we played mahjong - started off by winning a lup sup 自摸五台湖; I was so happy that I squealed and jumped around in joy.

#5 Cheongsam that I'm going to continue wearing even when it's not CNY

#6 Hiao hiao.

We visited Honghong and Dad's matchmaker friends in the evening and I think they had a good time catching up. I'm probably not giving them enough credit here, but dear auntie and uncle, I hope you will know that I truly am thankful that you brought Mumsy and Dad together about 30 years ago! I will not be here typing this if not for you guys!

I have a crazy amount of assignments to get done so I really shouldn't be spending too much time here so... all you people reading this, have a fantastic Dragon year of good health, love and wealth! Huat huat! :)

#7 Our new 'passenger'.

#14 Someone you’ve drifted away from

2012-01-22T04:22:00.000+08:00

Round One of this CNY's spring-cleaning started a few afternoons ago. It's an annual ritual that I go through the stuff in my drawers/cupboards whenever I get the order from Mumsy to "clean up the pig-sty that is your (mine) room" and this will be that one time (each year, excluding the last one) when I'll actually be looking at momentos; notes and letters, specifically, from my secondary school. Reading the now-faded words on the slightly dog-eared cards and slips of paper (result of trying to keep everything in a tiny box) always brings back flashes of the long-past secondary school days; folding-in instead of tucking-in shirts during morning assemblies, scurrying down from classrooms as soon as we hear William Tell playing over the speakers, pulling socks as high as we can (since ankle socks were not allowed), periods of time where we were crazy busy completing 10-year-series questions and preparing ourselves for the big O's, or where I was let down by a boy for the first time in my life.

These handwritten notes never fail to remind me that time - minutes, days, weeks and years, is always creeping by us silently and that I'm getting older with each annual CNY spring-cleaning. In recent times (where I appear to be more outgoing), these slips of scented paper have also started to remind me of the girly shyness and long-lost innocence I used to have back there. It's this very same type of naivety that makes me cringe (real bad) these days if I should so allow myself to think that I possess it now; in fact, I'm cringing while thinking about the notes that I might have written in response to notes that I've stumbled upon here.

Anyway, digress aside, I received a good number of hand-written notes (on postcards and scented letter paper) from a close friend from secondary school, lm. We used to confide in each other all the time about problems that were faced, gave each other words of encouragement when the O-levels preparation got tough or when we sensed that the other was feeling down.

But, as you might have guessed how this is going to turn out, after going onto the respective paths that we've chosen following the Os (me TP while she stayed on in NYJC), we gradually lost touch as time went by. I can't remember if it was a result of our differing schedules, or that we I simply just couldn't be bothered enough to keep in contact. From meeting up once every 3 months, it dwindled to once every 6 months, and eventually, it became an annual event of sorts. Nowadays, we still talk when we meet up and everything is fine, though we're just not as intimate as we used to be back in secondary school. And we're probably never going to be heading in that direction anytime soon, I guess.

Our relationship is an important reminder to me that friendship, like many other things in life, needs maintenance and effort to work. As we trudge along in life trying to fill new shoes, priorities may change, more people will enter our lives; something as simple as a lack of initiative (to ask each other out) and there you have it, 'friends' can sometimes be expendable too. It's sad, and regrettable but that's just the way things roll; like how lovers turn to strangers or how close friends can turn to mere acquaintances over extended periods of not keeping in touch.

2012-01-19T03:21:00.004+08:00

I bet you didn't know - armpits can be described as virgin or sluttish.

2012-01-18T01:18:00.001+08:00

My life in a few pictures

2012-01-17T23:03:00.002+08:00

#1 Taiwan Toto

#2 Apple strudel at Bugis

#3 Strudel girls

#4 Dad grinning after the TV purchase; on a side note, we've moved into this flat for 8 years now!

#5 Postcard from Nepal; from the ever-adorable Audrey. I'm quite sure she wasn't the one who pasted the stamps.

#6 Postcard from Haerbin; from another adorable girl, Stella. I can sort of imagine the freezing conditions based on her description of the place brr.

That's it for now. It's going to be a hell of a 6 weeks!

把狗放掉

2012-01-13T02:09:00.001+08:00

Mumsy is a lot of things; a wonderful mother who's nurtured me and didi to where we are now, Dad's good-luck charm, a 4D-winning 'expert', purchaser of materials for my uncle's knitting factory, one of the most important pillars of support in my life, etc etc.

But she is not an animal lover.

Me (and Yf): Mummy, let's get a dog leh.

Her: 你们试试看，如果你带狗回来我们的家，我一定把它放掉。

I hope she's just kidding!

#9 Someone I wish I could meet

2012-01-13T01:43:00.001+08:00

Anthony Bourdain, because he's such a bad-ass chef-travel-host/writer-in-one.

I'll probably bombard him with lots of travel and food related questions if I see him, and make him tell me some of his most memorable travel/food experiences.

#10 Someone I don't talk to as much as I'd like to

2012-01-08T02:17:00.000+08:00

My dear Lala.

Back in TP, I used to talk to her about relationship problems I was facing and she'd always have something constructive to offer; I was really glad that Lala was always making me look at things from different perspectives, thus allowing me to be slightly more appreciative of my ex-boyfriend, and my life in general.

We haven't been meeting as frequently now that we've graduated from TP, though we still catch up every once in a while. The last time I saw her was probably more than a year ago and I am feeling so guilty now that I wasn't able to attend her wedding since I was in Vietnam in December.

It's amazing how time flies by so quickly. We used to joke about marriage back then, but now, it's not a joking matter anymore. Not for her anyway. I really hope that she's happy with her life right now and this is also a reminder that I should really arrange to meet up with her again soon!

ps. I should really get this 30-day thing over and done with soon!

2012-01-08T01:59:00.002+08:00

Today, I said "No" to someone for the first time this year.

Well done AJ!

To Danua Toba

2012-01-06T02:30:00.000+08:00

Having spent a day and night at Berastagi, we decided that it was time to set out for Lake Toba (the supposed highlight for this trip). After making some arrangements with the guesthouse where we stayed at, we set off for the ferry point in Parapat - a small town found on the edge of the great lake.

Our driver made a few stops along the way to Parapat; included in the price paid at the guesthouse receptionist. The first stop was a local village where there was a mix of traditional homes and slightly more modern ones; the villagers went on with their daily lives as we walked around to get a slight idea of how they lived their lives, they seemed to be rather used to the presence of tourists like us.

#1 Laundry hanging outside one of the slightly more modern homes.

#2 A slightly more traditional home on the right in the background

#4 More laundry

At the end of our very brief walkabout, someone came up to us with a logbook and asked for donations to improve the lives of the villagers. I definitely hope the little money that we'd contributed will help the villagers improve their lives in some way, even though I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get a cent of it.

Following, our driver drove us to see a waterfall. There was quite a heavy drizzle when we arrived and the visibility was quite bad. When our driver told us that the waterfall was right across from where the car was, I thought he was making it up to myself. Nonetheless, we got off the car for a toilet break, an guess what we saw minutes later...

#5 Sipiso-piso Waterfall! (I looked the name up)

#6 Completely covered by the thick fog just minutes ago.

A minute later, I felt bad for doubting the driver :x

We took a short (but tiring) walk along a footpath that led to a better view of the waterfall, and took funny pictures like that:

#7 He totally looks like he's been photoshopped into the picture

#8 This waterfall is located on the north side of Lake Toba and water falls from a height of 120metres to lake level. Its name Sipiso, means "like a knife", and that probably is describing the waterfall's appearance.

#9 Lake Toba shrouded in mist. A lot of mist.

As we made our ways back to our driver, some friendly locals who were in uniforms (looked like rangers of some sort) called out to us and offered us some durian/coconut/jackfruit (I can't remember what was it).

It was a short ride from the waterfall to Parapat, where we'd head to Samsosir Island from, a large island (the size of Singapore) in the middle of Lake Toba.

#10 Passengers of another kind

#11 Yvonne and Doris

#12 Doris and me

#13 Lake-front holiday houses on Samosir Island.

#14 More lake-front houses

#15 A view from Samsosir now

There's not too much to do on Samsosir Island itself since most of the people who head there are really just looking for a quiet place to unwind, swim in waterfalls and hotsprings, or just to immerse themselves in the local traditional Batak culture so we went cycling on the 2nd day.

#16 Fresh start

#17 Beautiful rice-fields and rich green hills

#18 It was a very nice cycling experience indeed.

#19 Traditional Batak houses that we passed by along the way. Something interesting about the Bataks is that they used to engage in cannibalism rituals a long time ago; they would eat the flesh of either criminals or war prisoners. Of course, it's long been banned since the 1800s when the Dutch took over.

#20 Toba hound.

#21 Taking a breather

#22 One of the common sights that were seen while cycling

#23 :) Thanks for waiting up!

#24 I was so so so tired from the uphill slopes, but I wouldn't mind doing it again with great company like this.

#25 My lovely new friends.

#26 One of the two lakes within Samsosir Island itself

The cycling left me breathless and perspiring madly by the end of it; it was quite a pathetic sight, me hopelessly panting and gasping for air. But like what I said three pictures ago, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again. Besides, taking a dip in the cold waters of the majestic Lake Toba after cycling made me forget about whatever tiredness or soreness I experienced after the 5-hour cycle.

#27 We had some Bintangs (explaining the flush on my face) in the evening, sang and danced with the performers who performed some traditional dances and songs for us. I did quite badly trying to follow their graceful movements (what's new hur), but it was all good fun and I was happy beyond words to have them extend their Batak hospitality towards us.

2012-01-03T17:32:00.003+08:00

Watched this on the way back to Singapore last night; the plot was quite different from what I'd expected, but it made me tear twice nonetheless :(

2011, just words

2012-01-03T02:58:00.004+08:00

2011 started with a big bang and lots offireworks (literally); I ushered in the new year with KH at his friend’s placein Cheung Sha Wan (Hong Kong) on the evening of 31st. We had abarbecue party on the 49^th floor and Iremember poor Baileys (a 5-month-old golden retriever pup) falling into the Jacuzzi poolafter running around it a couple of times and losing her balance. All of usgathered around the edge of the 49th floor when the clock finally struck 12 to admirethe fantastic display of fireworks far off in the distance.

The next 5-odd months ofmy life was spent in Hong Kong. I never imagined that I'd one day head off to somewhere for an exchange programme, but I guess that's just the way life turns out sometimes, unexpected. So there I was, at HKIEd; Singapore’s equivalentof NIE. That’s a first – spending an extended period of time overseasaway from family and friends in Singapore; and it was such an amazingexperience. I got to experience the coldest winter that Hong Kong’s faced in a long time; I wore boots for the first time in my life, learnt to check theweather forecast to plan outfits for different days,and I'd even headed to Indonesia to take a break from the cold weather with somenew friends. It was 5 plus months worth of invaluable experiences and memories. As the exchange programme was drawing to a close, I also did a fair bit oftraveling and visited nearby places like Taiwan and China. On hindsight, coming for exchange was one of (if not) the best decisions that I’ve made in my life sofar, at least in recent years.

Post-exchange, I made my way to the northernpart of India with Siaos and Robin. I’d only gotten back from Hong Kong forabout a week or two so there wasn't a lot of time for me to complete the unpacking and repacking. But all that haste did not dampen my mood for travelling because India was stunning. The place was baking when we visited during summer; it was over 40 degrees Celsius most of the time in the days, and in the words ofRobin’s dad, it felt like we were constantly “standing next to a zhi char stallkitchen stove”. I’ve never been to anywhere like India and I've really enjoyed mytime here. I still remember that I was smiling to myself after a 4-hour (I think!) long train ride from Jaipur to Jodhpur in a non a/c sleeper cabin; despite being covered in a thick layer of sweat and grime when we finally arrived. On this trip, Ilearnt to be thankful for all the material comforts that I have back home andfor the kindness and hospitality of strangers.

Teaching practice started on a very hurriednote after India and nothing very inspiring happened; in fact, it was quite meh. I realized that the workingenvironment and the people in it play very important roles in influencing thejob satisfaction of individuals, and I also learnt about the kind ofenvironment that I do not really thrive well in. Anyhow, it got pretty stressful at somepoint because there seemed to be so much responsibility and so little attention given by the people in charge; I was just very gladthat there were no major cock-ups by the end of it.

The end of teaching practice called forreason to celebrate and hence, I found myself in Boracay, Philippines with someNUS windsurfers and David for a dive trip. Boracay might just boast of the prettiest beach that I’ve come across so far; coconut trees with their swaying leaves dot the fluffy beach and fully-filled triangular bluesails line the multi-layered turquoise coastline. I dived in Philippines for the very first time and learnt an important diving lesson that wasn’t covered in anyof the basic or advanced dive courses that I'd gone for – diving masks sink in the sea; so don’tbother looking up when yours come off underwater, for some reason or other (inside joke).

For the rest of the time, Istayed put in Singapore because there was school. I was glad to be back atNIE after what seemed like the longest break ever; and I caught myself smiling to myself a couple of times when I walked along the corridors - lectures, tutorials and breaks withthe girlies again! I didn’t work exceptionally hard (that explains mygrades this time round) but I did enjoy sitting through the lessons thatwere taught; most of them anyway.

Cambodia took place 2 days after the examswith JM; I was actually quite surprised by how spontaneous he was when I made a casual suggestion to the group - and really glad that he agreed to come together. Some of the architectural details of the tourist sites that we visited greatly reminded me of Thailand's. Oh, and the cuisine too! I'll get round to posting pictures of the beautiful Angkor, sooner or later.

And for the first time ever, I visited a country not asa tourist, but as a volunteer and had the opportunity to look at things from very different perspectives.My first visit to Vietnam took place in Year One, and I remember thinking that I probably wouldn’t be heading back here again. However, this second visit made mefeel that there’s just so much of the country that I’ve yet to see, and the kids atthe orphanage make it a valid-enough reason for me to head back to visit them again.

For the second year in a row, I counted down to a new year overseas. This time round, it was Taiwan with Mumsy and YF. I was in a bookstore at 12 midnight, and I stood at a road junction with YF to catch a glimpse of the fireworks that were being set off minutes later. Anyhow, that's the first group tour that we've been on as a family (minus Dad), and the only thing I liked about it was the knowledgeable guide and hotel rooms.

I’ve been travelling a lot this year, and alongthe way, I made many new friends whom I can’t be more thankful for; for leavingsome kind of print in my life one way or another. I've also learnt a lot from all the new people I’ve met;both good and bad - about things, other people, and myself. There were the happy eventswhich’ve made me laugh till I teared, and also the sad ones that made me cry like a baby. One important learning point that I've taken away from 2011 is to keep an open mind and an open heart tothings and let go when you have to because there’s no point in holding onsometimes; it's best to just take things as they come. And here's a phrase that I learnt from some of my new friends while I was inVietnam: 既来之，浙安之. How timely!

2012 resolutions!

2011-12-29T08:37:00.000+08:00

Directions and signposts in my life play an important role in guiding some of mydecision-making processes; a lack of guiding resolutions for 2011 has somewhat madeit a slightly more confusing year than what it could/should have been for me.

I sound like I’m implying 2011 hasn’t been agood year, but surprise (or no) surprise, it’s been pretty smooth-sailing sofar. I’ve gained so much from all the traveling that I’ve been doing this yearalone; and it’s not just new perspectives on, in , and about life, but also themany precious new friends and acquaintances who used to be complete strangersfrom halfway across the globe not too long ago.

Traveling aside, I suppose there were somepoints in 2011 which could’ve been better handled; e.g. where better decisions could’vebeen made. However, I understand that nothing’s for sure in life and situationscan always be handled differently, so I’m not too bothered about most of the could-beensituations that I’ve missed out on; we can always do with some new learningpoints in life.

For most of 2011, I’ve lived my life withouta fixed set of resolutions. Things went too well that I couldn’t help but thinkthat it shouldn’t be this way; there were times where I felt like I was alittle lost even though my life seemed to be pretty on-track… When things appear to be going well, this sortof aimlessness becomes very unjustified, however uncomfortable I may be feelingabout it.

I’m not too sure if a set of new yearresolutions will help to reduce any aimlessness in this case, but I sure hopeit will. I’ve been thinking about it constantly for sometime now; these pastfew weeks, and I’ve decided that in this new year, here are some resolutionsthat I’ll try to live my life by for the upcoming year:

1) Deal withrejection

Learn to bettermanage rejection – in both rejecting others and getting rejected by others.That includes saying “No” when I have to, instead of feeling all guilty aboutnot being able to help someone (when I am busy enough as it is); I usually endup being grumpy when I don’t have time to complete every task on time and Iwould really like to cut down on that.

2) Be more appreciativeof my food

Appreciateeach and every meal; I will spend more time in chewing my food, and give morethought about the tastes that I’m tasting, as well as the cooking processesinvolved.

3) Say “I loveyou” to Mumsy, Dad and YF more often

I supposeit’ll be nice to remind them of that no matter how ‘out-of-hand’ I may get attimes.

4) Judge less, acceptcriticism and love more

I’ve learntthat there is usually more to people than the way they behave at the surfacelevel; i.e. what you see may sometimes not be what you get, and all of us taketurns to become victims of circumstances. So dear self, judge less, love more,and avoid people whom you just can’t bring yourself to love altogether so as tonot say nasty things about them.

5) Avoidambiguity

This meansthat I’ll be doing a lot of clarification; in both clarifying things andgetting things clarified, so as to reduce instances of any misunderstandingarising.

6) Spend lesstime Facebooking, and more time facing books

Real books Imean. And read more Chinese books too!

7) Rememberthat time is irreversible

So make thebest out of whatever time I have, and that brings me to the next point:

8) Notregretting

In anutshell, getting things done before it’s too late and making the best out ofthe decisions made instead of mopping over what things could’ve been.

9) Find outwhat I’m truly passionate about in life

Because nothing in particularseems to interest me very much and I’m feeling a little troubled about it.

That’s more than enough resolutions for themoment, and since I can’t think of any more right now, let’s leave things atthat. Cheers to a less confusing, and an even happier 2012! :)

In a nutshell

2011-12-26T03:36:00.001+08:00

I'm back from Vietnam last night after spending a fantastic two weeks there.

I'll be leaving for Taiwan tomorrow morning, and will only be back on 2nd January.

Skype dates

2011-12-11T02:38:00.001+08:00

These girls cheer me up when I'm feeling down.

2011-12-09T23:10:00.001+08:00

I was chatting with a friend on Facebook earlier and realized it's been more than 2 years since we met.

Wow.

How time passes us by.

And that night remains awesome.

Hello December :)

2011-12-06T02:10:00.001+08:00

This is one of the busiest Decembers of my life.

In 5 days' time, I'll be leaving on a jet plane (again) for a YEP trip with some school mates to Ho Chi Minh City - a place that I didn't think I'd be visiting a second time. I'm obviously excited since this will be my first community service trip (of sorts), but what's less obvious is that I'm petrified that I we wouldn't be able to live up to expectations; both internal and external ones.

I'll be back from Vietnam on Christmas' Eve, and then it'll be Taiwan with Mumsy and YF on Boxing Day. So many people have asked me, "Isn't it tiring, all that traveling?" And to be frank, I guess it is a little tiring. But, not having the luxury of time to think about it takes my mind off the tiredness, so I'm cool with it. At least for now.

Queen Street walkabout

2011-12-03T21:26:00.001+08:00

Let's take a break from all the overseas pictures that I've been posting, and look at something that's more familiar.

Sometime back, I bought a Groupon voucher for a travel photography workshop at Fortune Centre. The workshop took place some few weeks back and it seemed to be quite a hit, judging from the number of people who turned up for it. The facilitator shared a fair bit of tips on photography and travel-related photography issues that were really useful and interesting; and made me look at travel photography in a whole new different perspective - e.g. drivers/guides can also double up as photography subjects, creating your own puddles for reflection shots. He showed some ways that we can make pictures work when conditions aren't perfect - which is basically most of the time.

The facilitator also cleared a big misconception that most people have about travel photography (me included); it doesn't necessarily have to be about photographs taken while overseas. Instead, travel photography is more of a documentation of things or people that one comes across while on a journey from one point to another; say from Jurong to Kallang - point is, it doesn't even have to be overseas.

We had an outdoor shooting session, so here are some of the pictures that were taken during our short walkabout:

#1 Red walls that surround Sri Krishnan Temple

#2 Colourful deity statues of the temple against some HDB flats

#3 Not alone

#4 Up and down; directions of the gazes of the child and the lady.

#5 Matching green; tourist who has something in common with the statue of Hanuman.

#7 Kwan Im Temple; forced to seek shelter at the dried-goods market opposite due to sudden rain.

#9 I just realized I've never been on a trishaw in Singapore.

#10 Uh oh, tourist doesn't look too amused here

#11 Fruit stall at the back-entrance of Bugis Street

#12 Garish!

#13 Making pancakes

#14 Loads of touristy memorabilia for sale

#15 I do.

#16 Chwee kueh from the hawker centre. On a side note, I just declared to Bun that my favourite food is chye por yesterday. Not too sure if that counts as proper food though.

#17 Drenched

#18 Uninterrupted

#19 Juices for you?

#20 Yes I just realized I like to take pictures of motorbikes too.

#21 Those shot-to-death spiral stairs

#22 A mini 4-faced Buddha shrine.

#23 Signs, aren't we all big fans of them.

#24 Colourful back alley

#25 Yes, 5 Xs - we get the point.

#26 Bubble-blowing bunny that looks slightly evil with those red eyes

#27 Reflection of the Old Girl

#28 Colourful chrysanthemums; I think these might have been artificially coloured.

On hindsight, I've walked past these places so many times in my life that I've lost count but I've never really stopped to take a clearer look at the things that make up these places. I guess now will be a good time for me to start revisiting these places, and catch up on what I've been missing out on all this while.

Hong Kong's Venice

2011-12-03T20:41:00.000+08:00

After some extremely lucky sightings of white dolphins, we reached Tai O not too long after.

Some background information:

Tai O is a quiet and (slightly) sleepy fishing village that's located on the western side of Lantau Island (大嶼山, better known as the island with that giant Buddha statue) and has stilt houses that were built in the past to avoid rising tides. Tourists who drop by this part of the island usually leave with widely-sold island-made preserved fish and other dried seafood products.

We were given about 2 - 3 hours to walk around this small village and here's some of the things that we saw:

#1 Eagles - a common sight in this part of HK

#2 Fishing vessels docked near the jetty

#3 Still Lantau Island, I think

#4 Aud

#5 Strings of dried fish maw hanging at a shopfront

#6 Dried shrimps

#7 Yvonni with her malt-candy biscuit (麥芽餅)

#8 Doris and Aud; that was the best 麥芽餅 I had when I was in HK btw - I think it's the crackers

#9 Pearls for you?

#10 Narrow streets of Tai O; this very same street was flooded (slightly higher than ankle-level) when we had to head back to the jetty

#11 Old-school letter boxes

We ventured a little deeper into the village and came across a man feeding some ginger tabbies with steamed fish.

#12 A whole family of ginger tabbies

#13 Probably one of Yvonni's worst nightmares hehe

#14 The man told us that one particular cat (who came to feed only much later) is always behaving like the leader of the group, and they nicknamed it King.

#15 Ancestral worship hall?

#16

#17 This is where things start to look a little like Venice

#18 Belonging of a biker would-be

#19 More narrow streets; way too narrow for any motor vehicle to pass through

#20 Duct-tape reinforced windows

#21 This is how I nua.

#22 Everyday I'm shuffling

#23 Annoying dog - different dog from the first

#24 Same annoying dog

#25 Ancient-looking house

#26 Matching blue

#27 It's not exactly the same as Italy's Venice, but I can see why they would call this Hong Kong's Venice.

#28 Drying kum quats

#29 Fish? Or squid?

#30 More dried fish maw

#31 Salted fish; I saw many visitors leaving the island with these wrapped in newspapers

#32 Salted egg yolks; is that salt I see?

#33 I would really like to know what this strange place is all about.

#34 Shared a cheesecake snack; the remnants

#35 Cheesecake cafe

When it was nearly time for us to head back to the jetty, we came across this old man who was selling 炭燒雞蛋仔 - of course we had to try it!

#36 Uncle hard at work.

#37 Filling the mould with batter

#39 I just realized that this uncle is quite famous after doing a search on 炭燒雞蛋仔 online; apparently he's one of the last few people in Hong Kong who still makes 雞蛋仔 this way.

#40 Scrapping excess bits of waffle from the sides

#41 And this has got to be the most delicious 雞蛋仔 that I've ever eaten in my life. If you ever come to Tai O someday, don't forget to try this!

I had such a good time hanging out with the girls, and looking at a different way of life that Hong Kong's got to offer. Totally glad that I decided to tag along for Audrey's field trip!

#5 Dreams

2011-12-02T02:17:00.000+08:00

Talking about dreams here in the sleeping sense; as opposed to the aspirations' sort.

I've heard a saying that says dreams are a result of one not working hard enough in the day; that's why our minds wander when we are in deep slumber. If this saying happens to be true, then I've probably never worked that hard in my entire life since I have dreams more often than not for as long as I can remember.

When I was much younger, I dreamt that I had super-powers, that I was constantly being chased by something or someone evil (resulting in me leaping off long flights of steps), that I walked together with dinosaurs, etc. There was one time where I even dreamt that I was 3-months pregnant - this particular one freaked me out quite badly in the dream. And I've had dreams that made me sob in my sleep too; those generally have to do with my family; I dreamt that all my family members turned to stone when I was 10. Found out that I wet the pillow quite badly later when I woke up.

These days, I dream of happier things and times, though some of them can get pretty weird and awkward still. I've met my dream guy(s) in a couple of dreams too, though I can not put names to those faces, not for now anyway - Jenny laughed at me when I told her about it.

And just last night, I dreamt that Dad bought YF and I the cutest Maltese puppy (ever!) from a pet-shop in Hougang but we had it changed to another cute Dachshund instead after agreeing that the hair would be easier to manage. It's never going to happen in real life though, because both Mumsy and Dad are not animal-lovers and they collectively agreed that they would release whatever dog/cat we bring back home into the wild :(

Anyhow, I really enjoy the dreams I'v been having so far. Most of them anyway.
They somehow seem to make sleep a little less boring for me.

Back from Khmer.

2011-11-30T23:37:00.001+08:00

As usual, it feels awesome when the plane touchdowns at Changi airport and I know that I'm less than an hour away from my comfy bed and home. It's been an awesome 5 days at the land of Khmer - Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang have been three contrastive places, but still, I'm (always) happy to be back.

Made a realization this trip, and that is, the only times when I go to and get out of bed early are when I'm traveling! That's supposed to be good for me right? Maybe I can use that as an excuse for more traveling :p

While on the buses where long hours were spent on the roads, I managed to finish a first reading of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. And it's managed to make me feel mildly flustered, with the recurring themes of dreams (both the sleeping and aspiration kinds), spirituality, beliefs and love. Out of my disbelief of most things spiritual, I barfed a few times in my mind when the author described scenarios which had a lot to do with religious faith (which is totally inappropriate, I admit and apologize for it). And yet, at the same time, I felt as though I could identify so well with the dreams Santiago (the protagonist) had and some of the mental states of mind that he went through in the book. Something that Paulo wrote about love in the novel also struck a chord with some stuff that's been on my mind recently; stuff that a new friend talked to me about a few days back, and that's made me start to re-think the path that I've set for myself awhile ago.

It's made me think that perhaps I shouldn't be basing my life for the next few years so rigidly and irrationally on just one path, and not offering myself any alternatives. Who knows, like Santiago, I might just fall head over heels in love with someone whom I'm going to meet in the desert; someone who will not get in my way of living life to the fullest.

Okay, best to stop before this turns into some mushy stuff.

Pictures coming after I've finished clearing them of the multiple dust spots. Sensor/lenses are dirty as hell.

A happy kind of tired

2011-11-24T02:46:00.001+08:00

because holidays are here again!

It's been a long week, long day and I'm just really glad that things are over.

On a slightly irrelevant note, I'm feeling kinda sad about the effects of the late nights this semester :(

2011-11-21T02:10:00.001+08:00

Sometimes, all we really need is a short break to clear our minds before we can move on with our lives.

Like an auntie

2011-11-21T00:45:00.001+08:00

I miss using Cantonese on a daily basis, however unproficient I may be.

So when I saw a cooking workshop that would be conducted in Cantonese while browsing through PA's website last month, I signed up for it almost immediately; after checking my availability - and ignoring that it'll be held 3 days prior to my last university exam.

There was much joy as I watched how steam escaped quickly and furiously from beneath the bobbing pot lids, smelled pungently aromatic whiffs of garlic and fermented beancurd paste that filled the room, and listened to the sounds of the knife on the chopping board. Hearing Cantonese phonemic syllables roll off the instructor's tongue was somehow comforting too, strangely enough.

It was more of a demonstration since the participants were only involved in the observing of processes (and not getting our hands dirty) and sampling of products at the end of the session. Here are the dishes that were cooked during the session:

#1 玉兰鸡; boiled boneless chicken with ham and kai lan.

#2 腩乳扣肉; pork belly and taro in fermented beancurd paste.

#3 粉葛排骨汤; pueraria with pork ribs and dried oysters.

#4 龙珠果花鸡汤; chicken breast with tofu, carrot and flower of dragon fruit.

I liked the chicken and pork-ribs soup best after trying morsels here and there; they reminded me strongly of grandma's cooking, from which my very first impressions of Cantonese cuisine came about.

Keeping fingers crossed that I'll get down to cooking some of these dishes for my family when the exam is over.

Expectant

2011-11-20T03:25:00.001+08:00

Like a pregnant mum who is expecting the arrival of her baby on 23rd (with no complications, of course).

That's exactly how I'm feeling right now; towards 440, that is.

Calm, but not surprisingly.

Giddy with excitement, but not going to count the eggs before they hatch.

4 days

2011-11-19T03:56:00.001+08:00

Waking up is the most difficult thing I have to do every single day. Once I get my lazy ass out of bed though, everything will be fine and dandy.

My desk's a big mess right now, and it'll probably remain this way till my paper's over; speaking of which, that will be the last examination that I'll need to sit for as a degree student!

Caught up with some of the ktowy guys last night at Beer Market, and we had a good time recollecting some of the good old times. It's hard not to notice how everyone's grown so much over the years, though we can still behave like the bratty kids we once were back in CCHS. Last night made me really thankful for the 10 years of friendship that we share between us. Things are probably going to be different in time to come - in fact, it's already happening; about twice as many people come for gatherings these days because of boyfriends/girlfriends (twice the fun). But I'm just really glad to see that everyone is doing fine!

Attended a workshop on travel photography this afternoon, and I had quite a fun time learning some photography 'cheat-codes'. The instructor highlighted some points that I've never really considered while on my previous travels and I thought they were valid and quite useful. Took some pictures around the Bugis/Rochor area too, though I'll most likely put them up only after the paper.

Don't sound like I'm all that nervous for the paper (though I really am feeling just fine), do I?

A moment to express gratitude

2011-11-16T00:35:00.001+08:00

Had been feeling pretty off the entire day, no thanks to someone who'd made me doubt and question my stature as yet another insignificant individual.

This was supposed to be a self-loathing, self-indulgent, emo and whiney entry that would make me seem like some self-pitying expert, but I'd just watched a documentary that described hardships faced by some of our founding mothers and got a timely reminder of how fortunate I am to be born in this day and age.

Tonight I'm thankful for many things, and just to name a few:

I'm thankful for the roof over my head,
I'm thankful for the food in my belly,

I'm thankful for my comfortable bed
(and blankie which I'll snuggle under in a few moments!),

I'm thankful for the love from my family,

I'm thankful for the laughter and joy my friends have brought me,

I'm thankful for the hot water showers I can get,

I'm thankful that I only need to turn on the tap when I am thirsty,

I'm thankful for the many opportunities to travel,
I'm thankful for the education that I've received,
I'm thankful for the opportunity to give back,

I'm thankful for my very existence (however insignificant),

and most importantly,

I am thankful for being able to express my gratitude for these little things that make up my life

- yes, even at the expense of sounding like the most naggy person on earth.

So, thank you dear Samsui ladies. For contributing to the early progress of our nation, and for the timely reminder that nothing we face can be as tough as the hurdles that you've had to get through during the peaks of your lives.

Dolphin-sighting, en routes to Tai-O

2011-11-16T00:30:00.000+08:00

Pictures were taken in February or March earlier this year. Audrey was doing a module on environmental issues at IEd, so after helping us get clearance from the tutor in charge for the dolphin-watching field trip; we made our ways down to Tsing Yi (somewhere near the airport) all the way from Tai Po early one morning and got on board one of those speed boats.

Hong Kong's probably one of the last places that you'd expect dolphins to be found in the wild, but hey, dolphin-sighting's quite a common occurrence here!

#1 Adorable Audrey - I miss her so much!

#2 Best gals on exchange

#3 Lone fishing vessel

#4 Yvonni - Someday I'll visit her and Doris in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

We were rather skeptical about sighting any dolphins initially, since Audrey's tutor had told us to expect the worst and to just enjoy the boat ride; apparently some luck (something that I usually do not seem to possess) is needed. Dolphins in the wilderness of Hong Kong, against a backdrop of heavy industrial settings and pollution, you got to be kidding right?

But as luck would have it (I bet there were probably some very lucky people onboard with us), we did spot some dolphins!

#5 The first of a few more to come.

#6 They're called the Chinese White Dolphins, but they aren't exactly white in colour.

These mammals sure made everyone onboard squeal with much joy, in amazement; with every leap out of the water surface, "oohs" and "ahhs" were bound to ensue. The noise that we were generating probably scared them off at some point in time.

It was a really great experience, and I have Audrey and her tutor to thank. Dolphin-sighting in HK, who'd have thunk?

#10 Pavilion found on Lamma/Lantau Island, can't remember!

#11 Next up, arrival at Tai O!

酸

2011-11-15T02:05:00.001+08:00

source

It's hard not to think about Why.

But whatever it is, I hope you're happy now.

feeling awfully weird now.

Crash course on Star Wars

2011-11-15T01:24:00.001+08:00

A friend gave a quick run-through of the 6 episodes and I couldn't help but thought of this set of photos from Clubsnap that I came across sometime ago:

For full set of pictures, click here!

I think they're funnier/cuter with the captions.

It sounded much more interesting than I'd always thought it would be, keeping fingers crossed that I'll have the time to catch all 6 movies when exams are over next week.

Laid-back Berastagi, en routes to Lake Toba

2011-11-13T03:25:00.000+08:00

After leaving the hostel where we'd spent a terrible first night, we winded up at a bemo (i.e. mini-bus/van of sorts) interchange and spent 15 minutes searching for a bemo driver who would get us to the main bus terminal, without ripping us off too badly (which unfortunately, I think he did).

#1 In the bemo; Yvonne and Tuomas.

#2 The driver made a few more stops along the way so that more passengers could get on.

Somehow, the bemo driver did not drop us at our intended destination and we ended up at some shopping mall instead. There was a local fast-food restaurant, and quite a number of little stalls run by Indo-Chinese stall-holders that peddled stuff ranging from handphone accessories to clothes and snacks. After withdrawing some money from the ATM at the mall, we were good to go!

In order to prevent ourselves from getting ripped off big-time again, I decided to check with some of the stall-holders; and approached a couple who looked like they were in their mid 50s or early 60s. I started asking them questions with my awfully-limited Hokkien and halfway through the conversation, the man decided that it was a good idea to switch to Mandarin so that he could better understand what I was trying to say. I was quite embarrassed by my half-past-six grasp of Hokkien and yet, at the same time, more than thankful that they expressed an understanding of Mandarin.

After a few minutes of explaining, which he felt wasn't of enough help, he came out from behind his stall, walked us to the entrance of the mall and tried to negotiate with two motorized trishaw riders to bring us to the bus terminal for a good price in Bahasa Indonesia. I was touched by his friendly and helpful gestures; felt a warm, sorta fuzzy feeling in my heart and found it a little hard to believe that people would actually go all out to help complete strangers (but yes, people do that and I'm more than thankful to them).

Three hours and a bumpy bus ride later, we found ourselves in Berastagi (approx. 86.5km south of Medan according to Googlemaps). Following the reviews on Yvonne's guide-notes, we walked down the main street where we'd alighted and into the courtyard of Wisma Sibayak Guest House. Got ourselves two rooms and that was half of what we'd paid for the lousy first night's beds.

#3 Tuomas: What's that funny smell, Yvonne?

#4 Now you see me, now you don't.

After receiving the keys to our rooms, we dropped our bags promptly and stopped by the dining area for our first actual meal in Indonesia.

#5 Gado gado for me.

#6 Our rooms; minimal furnishing in there - just a queen-sized bed, lights and a fan (if I'd not remembered wrongly), common toilet could be found outside the rooms.

#7 Backyard bike.

#8 Guesthouse's courtyard

We stayed in Berastagi for 1 night. Even though the place's well known for its two active volcanoes Gunung Sibayak and Gunung Sinabung and the hot springs, we didn't trek up or visit any of them because we wanted to spend more time at our next few destinations. We did however, take some nice long walks down the main street. I loved the laid-back vibe of the town, where everyone just seemed to be happy minding their own businesses and are not particularly bothered by the visitors that stop by the town. It's the kind of place where not too many tourists visit, and hence, there are no pesky souvenir vendors trying to sell their ware at every corner of the streets.

Here are some of the pictures that were taken on our walk:

#9 Competition? Bring it.

#10 Lovely Doris behind the gate of a souvenir shop

#11 Happy school girls posing for a picture. It was around 11.30 am when these kids were walking home; school ends relatively early here.

#12 Venturing into the local wet market

#13 Peace!

#14 Why so grumpy, baby?

#15 One scruffy-looking dog

#16 Lovely Chrysanthemum

#17 Two cute little boys (yes there's one more boy at the back!)

#18

#19 :)

#20 What money can buy... found on the wall of our guesthouse.

2011-11-12T03:27:00.001+08:00

YF: Jie I want to watch movie with you.

Me: Okay lor... let's watch Immortals.

YF: Don't want... it's a guy's show; I want to watch that with my guy friends.

Let's watch a horror movie instead.

Me: *raises brow* Why?

YF: Cos if I get scared during the horror movie girls won't think I'm a weakling.

Me: *rolled my eyes*

There's a lot of eye-rolling when I talk to him sometimes haha.

2011-11-11T00:43:00.001+08:00

Every single time.

奇怪的人

2011-11-10T00:47:00.002+08:00

小的时候，拼命的想长大。

长大后，拼命的想当小孩。

真的很矛盾。

Grey areas

2011-11-10T00:37:00.001+08:00

As we grow older, things that could be easily pin-pointed as right or wrong in the past don't seem so clear-cut anymore; black and white zones are no longer mutually exclusive, and the grey area has also increased tremendously.

The accumulation of life experiences and lessons over the years has made it so much easier, and yet, also much harder to make objective ~~judgements~~ evaluations about the people and events in our lives. So much easier because we are now better equipped with the vocabulary to talk about it, but more difficult due to clashes of personal beliefs, or the realization that everyone can be unwilling victims of circumstance (sometimes).

2011-11-08T01:27:00.001+08:00

I've been made to believe that I'm effectively bilingual since the secondary school days; my principal insisted we all were.

However, the bilingual module that I've been taking this semester has made me re-look at what defines an effective bilingual, and made me realize that I'm not so much of the competent bilingual that I've always thought I was.

I may have used to be slightly better back in the early 2000s, but I've now lost whatever language mojo I had back there :(

I want it back.

After this semester ends in a few weeks' time, I'm going to pick up some Chinese materials (books, magazines, newspapers, whatever) and read away!

Family Sunday

2011-11-07T00:54:00.001+08:00

Mumsy always knows what I'm thinking; just like a worm in my tummy.

We were watching some travel show on telly earlier this evening when I felt a need to pass some gas.

As I lifted my right ass cheek off the sofa, Mumsy shot me a dirty look immediately and asked: "你是不是要放屁?" before giving me a hard shove.

I love it when she can read my mind sometimes. Hehe.

The 2 most important men in my life.

Today was a family Sunday. Headed to Peach Garden at Orchid Country Club for a dim-sum and Peking duck brunch with Grandma and some of my paternal relatives since one of my uncles is back from KL for the long weekend. The food tasted pretty good in general; and I was quite happy to eat the 流沙奶皇包, even though they weren't really the best ones I've had so far.

Made our ways to the ever-crowded Ikea post brunch and the children had a good time running about. The Ikea visit ended with an ice cream cone for everyone. I can't remember when was the last time the different families actually came out for a meal and shopping trip like that, but it was good. Grandma looked really tired though; she looked like she could fall asleep while we were at Ikea.

And that's about it for today.

Came across an inappropriately-shaped cereal during YEP meeting last Tuesday:

They're supposed to look like rockets, but the cereal didn't quite match the picture that's been advertised. Rocket-fail.

worst hostel experience so far

2011-11-05T02:56:00.001+08:00

Few days ago, a friend remarked that I seemed to be very busy travelling this year and asked if it's tiring to be scooting around all the time. We sat down and counted the places I've been to so far in 2011 and it totalled 6 by the end of June (averaging one country per month).

It sure seemed like a lot of travelling, on hindsight, but it felt nothing like that when I was busy getting my passport stamped at the different immigration counters :x

Anyhow, I did a Sumatra trip with some of my new friends who were also in Hong Kong for exchange. Yvonne and Doris had planned to visit Medan, Sumatra, just before Chinese New Year, and asked if I was interested to join them girls (and Tuomas was able to make it in the end too). In all honesty, Sumatra wasn't a place on my to-go list so I didn't think I was going... that was of course until I finally got my tickets booked. To say the least, I'm really glad I decided to go for it, because we had such a great time throughout...

... okay, maybe not the first night.

We arrived in Medan close to/just past midnight, got a taxi amidst all that driver chaos at the airport terminal exit and ended up at some dodgy-looking street where our hostel's (Yvonne reserved beds for a night online) supposed to be. We had the impression that it was going to be a lively youth hostel, but our driver stopped us at the door-step of some weird-looking-building-that-turned-out-to-be-a-church. The owners didn't look too pleased to be woken up by a bunch of noisy backpackers, but after some verifying, it turned out that was the place that Yvonne made the online reservation with. The pictures, description and reviews on the website were one of the most misleading ones I've ever seen in my entire life; there was absolutely no mention that the so-called hostel is located within the same building of a run-down Catholic church.

Digressing, Catholic's the religion of approximately 60% of the population in Medan according to our cab driver (need some verification with the figure though).

#1 Sleeping arrangements for the first night

Back to the room...

there were cockroaches scurrying around when we finally reached the 4th floor (i.e. top of the building) where our beds were; and there were even a couple of them on one of the beds. Tuomas didn't seem to have a problem with those insects so we gladly offered him that bed. The windows of the room couldn't be opened; they were taped up or something, and since there was only one standing fan in the room (that was falling apart quite badly; I was worried the entire night that the revolving part might just fall off the stand anytime), it turned out to be awfully stuffy.

It was near impossible to sleep. After tossing and turning on my grimy mattress for what seemed like forever, it started to pour heavily outside. Heavy raindrops were coming into the room through the taped-up windows, nice. Not to mention that it became increasingly stuffy with the downpour outside and lack of ventilation in there. It was about 3 plus in the morning that I finally dozed off.

You'd think that was the end of my our attempts (gone horribly wrong) to get some sleep...

But no... we had to be woken up by a rooster's incessant crowing at 5 a.m. (I looked at the time on my watch and cursed the crow). Things were so bad (blood-shot eyes from not getting enough sleep and all) that everything seemed to be funny all of a sudden.

#2 Rise and shine!

We pulled ourselves out of our beds and glanced across the beds at each other to acknowledge the fact that the night didn't turn out too well. Then we went on to wash up and pack our stuff (in fact, I didn't even bother taking anything out of my bag apart from the toiletries; tried to sleep in whatever I'd arrived in), and had some toast with jam that the lady-owner sent to our room.

I can't recall when was the last time (prior to this trip) I wanted to leave a hostel/hotel so badly, but I was definitely glad that we were not going to be spending more nights here. As we made our way down the stairs, we realized that the 2nd and 3rd storeys were areas for mass/prayers (complete with the long benches). An old lady (whom I presume is the lady-owner's mother) who was working in the kitchen saw us and bade us goodbye with a "Selamat jalan".

Even though that wasn't a very pleasant stay in general, I'm still thankful that we had a roof over our heads, and that the experience opened my eyes to the different worst case scenarios to expect while travelling, and provided me with a benchmark to compare unpleasant accommodation experiences with!

Thankfully, things got infinitely better afterwards :)

Taipei: Rest of the short escapade

2011-11-03T02:48:00.000+08:00

Found some remaining photos of the city that I've yet to post here:

#1 Taipei 101 (台北101)- 15 minutes away from my hostel by foot. That was the time I took to finish a chicken cutlet for lunch.

#2 Taipei 101 (台北101) - View of the city from the indoor observatory on the 89th storey; would've loved to take another look from the outdoor observatory too but the weather didn't permit.

#3 Taipei 101 (台北101) - Toy cars from way up here

#4 Taipei 101 (台北101) - Another view from the top

#5 101 (台北101) - A part of Taipei that looks really densely populated.

And enough of these unspectacular aerial shots... let's move on to something more uh, random?

Wandered around Wu Fen Pu (五分埔), the wholesale clothing market (that somewhat reminded me of Bugis Street) after a shopping spree, and since Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市) was just round the corner, I decided to drop by to take a look.

I managed to snag two pairs of shoes for NT180 at the night market and that made me really happy again!

#6 Raohe Night Market (饒河街夜市) - Angry birds and pigs waiting to be clawed.

#7 Raohe Night Market (饒河街夜市) - 包心粉圓; there was a red bean or two found in the centre of each of these gelatinous balls so I suppose the 心 refers to the red beans. It was piping hot and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream by the side.

I really liked how the different stall vendors at these markets will try to get the attention of passer bys; like shouting out funny taglines of their products/brands happily (or at least appear to be).

#8 Sunflower Farm at Taoyuan.

Thought I'd like to head to somewhere less crowded on the second last day of the trip, so I arrived at this super far-off sunflower farm after a 2-hour long train ride, a 30-minutes cab ride with a friendly driver. It was so out of the way that the driver had to ask for directions several times along the way, and he even offered to pick me up again after I was done with the whole farm visit thing because there were so little cabs in that area.

#9 Rows after rows of sunflowers

To be honest, it felt a little depressing to be visiting a sunflower farm after a heavy storm; to be looking at sunflowers that have been badly pelted by raindrops and looking tired instead of radiating positivity, water-logged muddy furrows.

Just my luck!

Anyhow, the farm itself is a pretty cool place. You can arrange for walking tours where they'll introduce the different species of sunflowers (I didn't know there were so many variations until this visit) to you, share some interesting facts about the type of plants they grow at the farm, and at the end of it, allow you to cut stalks of sunflowers to bring back home. Barbecues can also be held here, and they'd even prepare the food for you. Apart from that, there's also a cafe and shop selling sunflower-themed merchandise.

A local group was there when I arrived, there were many happy figures in ponchos and rain boots who were armed with pairs of scissors in their hands. All of them looked really excited about the cutting despite the gloominess, and that was quite a lifting sight.

#10 Still at the farm...

#11 Post-rain lily

#12 'Almost there' - took this while waiting for the same cab driver to pick me from the farm; he took a 2-hour long nap while waiting for me to be done. And shared a lot about his family, and Taiwanese in general, with me on the way back to the train station; we had a really great chat!

I'm somewhat convinced that I have some sort of knack for getting into interesting taxi-driver encounters overseas.

#13 涼拌面; last meal in Taipei before heading back to Hong Kong.

#14 牛肉貢丸, 白蘿蔔湯. Looking at the picture makes me crave for a bowl of this NOW.

And that's all the pictures I have for Taiwan! For now.

Dear Taiwan,

I'll be back in December.

Mumsy and YF will be coming to visit too.

I hope you're excited to see them :)

Love,

let it be

2011-10-30T02:54:00.002+08:00

because I have no time for proper updates.

Sorry Dr K

2011-10-28T03:07:00.000+08:00

Feeling immense pangs of guilt after having my tutor 'talk' to me for producing a sloppy assignment in a module that I'd started off on a wrong foot. We didn't leave great first impressions on each other, the tutor and me; I missed the first lesson without a valid reason, arrived 5 minutes late (was booth-manning and the next person came in late) for the second one, and was berated by her in front of my classmates for that 5 minutes (don't think I've felt so humiliated ever since the stepping-on-skirt incident). Complying with her demand, I wrote a her an apology email; acknowledged my mistakes and told her that I was more than willing to take responsibility for my absence. I could never look at her objectively ever since.

Until today.

I confess, I haven't been exactly fair to her when I describe her to my friends sometimes; I'm always painting her in a negative light - the evil tutor that everyone hates. And it's been like that since that second unfortunate lesson; I'm forever choosing to talk about how she's crazy strict with her requirements, her narrow-mindedness and obstinateness for not allowing the slightest use of handphones in class, talking about me behind my back with other tutors, her poor choices of words that sometimes seem to indicate that the class is void of common sense, her trying-too-hard laughs and trivial things like that, instead of focusing on or acknowledging the great multitude of teaching experiences she's accumulated over the years and the extremely logical and useful teaching tips that she's been sharing with us in the lessons.Or simply the fact that she's able to remember all of our names without ever having to refer to the class list.

And so, I was genuinely taken aback after today's lesson when she wanted to find out if anything was wrong, and why the sloppy work. I apologized (on my own accord this time round) for not paying more attention while she was talking in the earlier lessons and for letting her down, mustered a sheepish smile and reached for the door handle. I haven't stopped feeling guilty ever since I walked out of that room.

Gave some serious thought about it on the way home earlier and decided that I will start putting in my best efforts for all the remaining assignments before the end of my degree programme journey lest I further disappoint more tutors, my parents or myself. It's for the best of me, anyway. Of course, I will also stop being the asshole student who is constantly bitching about how horrible her tutor is.

Talking about it makes me realize what a terrible person I am, though getting it off my chest here has made me feel slightly better. I think I can truly try to move on now.

Two types of people you meet who leave you in doubt

2011-10-27T04:58:00.000+08:00

After a conversation with YF tonight, we concluded that there are two types of people that you meet who make you question.

The first type would be someone who makes you feel so compelled to question your purpose in life and the motivation behind some of the things you do. And the second type is simply someone who makes you feel so compelled to ask them "What the hell is wrong with you?"

On secrets that were-not-meant-to-be-shared-but-were-shared-anyway

2011-10-25T23:11:00.000+08:00

At times where you're almost on the verge of blurting out things that you shouldn't even know about in the first place (yes I'm talking about the juicy fodder that your gossipy pals just shared with you)

with people you've just met... STOP, and try your best to pretend that you are completely clueless about it.

Saves everyone from any awkward trouble later on. True story.

Girly

2011-10-25T03:10:00.002+08:00

LEFT HAND, Y U NO GOOD AT PAINTING RIGHT-HAND NAILS?!

So I may not be the girliest girl around, but I like being a girl most of the time (except for times when the dreaded cramps are here); I enjoy the shopping, the dressing up, the smelling nice, the combing of hair, transformation into a bitch and blaming it on PMS, saying stupid things and getting away with it because I am allowed to "not know better", and having a natural flair for gossiping.

Having gone through a course that involved lengthy lecture discussions about gender bias and gender equality last semester, my prof would probably be disappointed to know that I'm still not buying that feminism stuff that's been discussed to death in the lecture theatre; I just don't think true gender equality can be achieved anytime soon; at least not in Singapore's context.

NS for girls, who are you kidding?

2011-10-23T23:56:00.001+08:00

Mumsy and I (and YF too) are always getting into 'scuffles'; she would come into our rooms when we are still sleeping early in the mornings and try to get us out of our beds by launching tickle attacks, pinching our fatty asses or putting weird-tasting food into our mouths, etc... we would usually retaliate by doing some air-kicks, shoving her hands away, tickling her back, or you know, stop being lazy bums and just get out of bed.

Counter attacks are usually launched when she's dozed off on the sofa in the living room; basically, any moment when she's just not too alert... and more scuffling usually ensue.

Earlier this evening, I landed a sneak attack on Mumsy while she was concentrating on the telly. She countered with some of her usual moves and told me to stop it.

Her: 不要弄我 hor!

Me: 为什么不可以? 你每次也是弄我跟弟弟...

Her: 因为我是 Mummy.

Me: Then 改次我做 mummy 了就可以弄你了是吗?

Her 还是不可以. 你可以去弄你的孩子咯.

Me: -_-

I probably have one of the cheekiest mothers amongst all my friends.

and yes, I love her so much despite all the pinching!

Cravings

2011-10-23T21:13:00.002+08:00

Something cold like a stick of red bean potong ice cream or a cup of Sour Sally fro-yo would be superb.

disappoint

2011-10-23T03:04:00.000+08:00

Change is inevitable; that is undeniable.

Still, I can't help but wish growing up does not equate to growing apart.

#21 Someone you judged by their first impression

2011-10-19T13:19:00.000+08:00

Let's call her C.

She was one of the classmates that I got to know on exchange. After having gone through a number of 崇洋媚外 experiences with the local students, I thought that she was just another one of them after seeing how quickly she'd warmed up to another new exchange student who is an ang moh. C proved me very wrong, and I was quite ashamed of myself later for judging someone based on a very brief first encounter.

I later learnt that she was my next-door neighbour in hall while making dinner one evening; we ended up talking for a whole 15 minutes in the pantry. C shared with me some of her experiences in the immersion programme that she'd been through in England that night, and introduced me to her room-mate too. Two nights later, she brought me and 2 of my other exchange friends for a grand 大排档 feast that included some delicious roast pigeons. That was my first pigeon experience and it was quite a yummy one.

We haven't been meeting that regularly ever since she had to go for her teaching practice, but on the day that we did have a chance to bump into each other, C pinned a bag of crisps on my door and left a post-it note with well-wishes, knowing that I would be heading back to Singapore soon.

How much nicer can a person get!

From C, I learnt that judgments based on first impressions don't usually count. It's much easier for me to say it than do it though, guess I'll just have to keep reminding myself.

2011-10-19T02:34:00.000+08:00

A younger cousin (17 years-young at this point in time) had just gotten a new boyfriend,
so Mumsy and I were talking about it.

Her: 我觉得她还不够成熟，心还没有定下来咯. 现在找男朋友还不是时候.

Me: 喔... then 我嘞? 够成熟吗? 可以找男朋友了没有?

(I was really asking for it -_-)

Her: 你啊... 熟到烂了啦. 哪里有男的要你... 全部都是你的 brother 来的.

Me: #$%^&*(#$%^%^$%#

Why Honghong so like that?

One helluva crazy month

2011-10-18T01:29:00.001+08:00

October's got me running about like one crazy octopus and I'm not finding it funny.

Things are definitely going to be much better once this month's over, and I'm so looking forward to the exciting trips lined up over the next holiday.

Headed down to Suntec to book the Taiwan tour with Mumsy and YF yesterday afternoon and we managed to get a 8D7N most-things-inclusive (air tickets, accommodation, some meals, transportation and travel insurance) package for about $1600 each from CTC Travel at the mini travel-fair.

To people who know me as that girl who's forever trying to get out of Singapore, it may probably come as a surprise to you that this will be my first-ever tour-package trip (free-and-easy not counted) with Mumsy and didi. But yes, it's true! Dad's not coming with us though because he's too much of a workaholic - just.cannot.let.go.of.work.

I'm super excited because we'll be travelling around Taiwan, and not just remain in Taipei like what I did back in May.

2011-10-17T02:16:00.000+08:00

Came across a new type of Oreo last week while grocery shopping with Mumsy and thought: I have to try this!

Verdict - Golden Oreo sounds and looks nicer (at least in picture) than actual product. It tasted quite similar to some of the old-school biscuits that we've been eating over the years (e.g. Khong Guan).

And some pictures from Photobooth accumulated over sometime:

We were (very) distracted while discussing the presentation topic for our Bilingual Education module.

And narcissism at work :p

visibly burnt from yesterday's surfing; nose should be peeling in a few days' time :(

Equipment failures

2011-10-16T02:21:00.001+08:00

Today's the first time I spent so many hours at ECP after getting back from HK a few months back.

I was the first person to head out to sea (that's a first), and I did so much (more) surfing than I usually do (really proud of myself for that), but it didn't quite turn out to be my day. Last week's and today's surfing made me realize that I'm quite the magnet for equipment failures.

1st instance:

picture from here

This is what we would usually call a universal joint (or u-joint in short) in windsurfing, it's used to join the mast (sail) to the board so that the two parts are linked together and therefore can work to allow windsurfing to take place. The middle part with the little black rubber band around it is known as the tendon and it is made of rubber to allow flexing of the u-joint when we manoeuvre by moving the mast around while on the board.

To cut a long story short, the tendon of my u-joint snapped into 2 last Sunday (due to wear and tear over a very long period) while I was somewhere out at sea and not very near to the shore. My sail couldn't be up-hauled any longer since it's no longer linked to the board and all I could do was sit on my board trying to get help from the power boats around as I drifted further and further away from PA (one of the NSC boatmen walkied Zai and he came to my rescue not long after).

Pathetic!

2nd instance:

This happened today and it had something to do with the u-joint again; it wasn't tightened tightly enough as I rigged up my board and sail, and the whole freaking u-joint got disconnected from my board (well, NTU's actually). At a distance of 400-500 metres away from shore with legs suspending in goodness-knows-how-deep water, I panicked like a mad-dog due to fear of losing the mast and sail altogether (it will sink if I did not hold onto it). I waved frantically to other passing windsurfers on my board for help and *I-must-have-done-something-right-in-my-previous-life* because this kind uncle spotted me, made a detour and came to help me put things back.

My gratitude to him cannot be expressed in words, I can only wish he'd felt it.

Cursed myself for not checking my equipment more thoroughly before heading out to sea, especially after last week's incident of equipment failure.

3rd instance:

It also happened today and this really takes the cake.

After a really great run (i.e. down-wind sailing), I tried to make my way back up-wind and back to shore. One slip and I ended up losing my footing; I lost control of the sail and was overpowered terribly. In the next few seconds, I got flung to the front (with my harness still hooked on), and heard a loud "crack" when my boom-head landed on the tip of the board. My body-weight (stupid harness, stupid me!) was really what broke the board.

If this did not happen today, I wouldn't have even considered the possibility that windsurf boards are destructible.

I made a desperate (pathetic even; I wasn't thinking straight at this point in time) attempt to get back on shore with the tip of the board flapping against the waters; I don't know if it was merely a psychological effect but the board became super wobbly without its front part. Landed in the following bay and did a walk of shame back to PA with the broken board resting on my head (this really nice guy brought my sail back for me); I combed the bay but the front part couldn't be found.

board that is now at Uncle Richard's workshop

The guys couldn't contain their laughter when they saw me with the board and they went "Wah! You kena shark-attack ah!" and "It's time to lose weight!" It would seriously have been funnier if I was not the butt of their jokes argh. They said all sorts of things but the shark-attack thing resonated best with most of them basically - Chubby said that was the 3rd time he's ever seen a board break throughout his windsurfing years; the nice guy who brought my sail back for me tried to make me feel better about it by saying it's happened twice to his board too, one uncle suggested bringing home the different parts (e.g. foot-straps, fin, etc) of the board as souvenir and someone else said "thanks to you, now I know what the inside of a windsurf board looks like".

I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and die.

Okay just kidding.

But seriously, why the fuck do I keep fucking up?

I don't want to admit it but if (someone puts a gun to my head and) I really have to answer that question, the problem obviously lies with me since I did not do thorough equipment checks prior to heading out to sea. I'm starting to detest myself for that and I suppose the best thing I can do next is to make sure everything's working fine before jumping into the waters so excitedly.

Murphy was right - anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Took me such a long time to figure this out. Noob!

Anyway, dinner with the long-boarders at Bedok Point tonight and bubble-tea after. It was all good and I came back home to this:

Honghong-cuddling! I love Mumsy!

I'm badly burnt from today's surfing and I sense a headache coming up really soon from last night's lack of sleep (had the awesomest impromptu bbq and mahjong session with ktowy at ZL's place).

Time to hit the sack.

It just happens

2011-10-14T02:12:00.003+08:00

That's how things usually work.

Like a boss, not.

2011-10-12T22:57:00.000+08:00

NSFW language

This "Like a Boss" thing has been going on for sometime now and some of the demotivation posters generated from that have given me quite a few chuckles here and there.

Anyway, Mumsy and Dad provided some comic relief after dinner today -

Mumsy: 哇! 我昨晚很累, 10点多头一动到pillow就睡到早上, 像猪一样.

Dad: 只是昨晚而已meh, 你很像每天晚上都睡到像猪一样leh.

Ah Hong's just not cut out to be a boss, I reckon.

And now I know from whom I got my like-a-pig genes from.

A few of my favourite things

2011-10-10T02:51:00.002+08:00

Just in case you haven't noticed, the colours go according to those of traffic-light posts!

I've been pretty addicted to oranges (and most things citrusy) of late.

Shilin Night Market

2011-10-10T02:08:00.000+08:00

Since it was still early by the time I completed my little exploration of Danshui, I made my way down to Shihlin Night Market (士林夜市) for dinner. Thinking about how I was finally going to meet the original Shilin chicken cutlet and all sorts of wonderful typical Taiwanese snacks for dinner, I couldn't help but grinned stupidly to myself while on the way there.

#1 Scene at Shilin Night Market

The first thought that came into my head when I finally stepped foot into the night market was:

THIS PLACE IS A FREAKING MAZE.

There were many rows of stalls selling all sorts of delicious-looking food (though truth be told, the assortment gets repetitive); I enjoyed sniffing at the different smells wafting through the thick and warm air as I made my way down the aisles, reading menus/signboards, dodging the hoards of visitors and trying to decide on what to have for dinner.

My first stop was at this stall that sold a snack with a really interesting name.

#2 棺材板.

#3 棺材板 - Yum yum yum

Literally translated, the name of this snack is 'coffin-board' (I think I'm just a sucker for dishes with such unique names lah). It's a piece of toast that's been deep-fried, hollowed-out and then filled with a creamy filling of your choice. I can't remember what filling I'd picked back there but I do remember it being really yummy - in fact, I think it's hard to go wrong with fried food. Agree?

#4 Squid in thick soup 生炒花枝

The squid was fresh and the (really) thick broth was tasty in an underrated way; like most Taiwanese food, the flavours are usually slightly blander than what we're used to in Singapore (and Hong Kong too). Anyhow, a piping hot bowl of this will be perfect for me on a rainy day.

Other than the coffin-board and squid, I had a serving of the famed chicken cutlet too and... it was so good! Wasn't too used to having such a piece of jumbo-sized chicken served uncut (I think we're too spoilt here in Singapore hur) but I didn't have too much of a problem with that, my face could get dirty for all I cared. And sorry there's no picture of it since I was busy trying to gobble up that gigantic piece of chicken cutlet and the tiny crispy bits that dropped to the bottom of the paper-bag. Got myself a nice cooling cup of bitter-gourd juice to wash all the junk I had for dinner down after; acquired taste, I suppose.

One thing that I've realized from travelling solo is that there's a limit to how much food you want to try when you're all by yourself and that is really horrible, considering that I'm the sort of person who wants to try nearly everything off the local menu.

It was raining rather heavily after I was done with dinner so I decided to take a walk around the other side of the night market where the carnival-styled games stalls were. Was really impressed by this particular stall-holder whom I bought some tiny souvenirs from because of her multilingual abilities - Japanese, Mandarin and Hokkien. We had a good chat and she had the most adorable maltese puppy that looked like this:

#5 "Hello, my name is Niuniu. Why are you looking at me weird?"

At one point in time, the stall-holder was talking to Niuniu and I heard her say to the puppy "你不要跟我sai nai!" when the puppy refused to do at her bidding; that was super cute hehe. I confirmed my observation that many Taiwanese are a bunch of dog-loving people after asking the stall-holder bout that.

#7 Bunnies waiting to be caught in the claw machine.

This reminds me of the term '夹娃娃' that I learnt from Audrey back in HK; it's an euphemism for abortion. Doesn't sound too cute anymore now that I know that meaning :x

There's something about Fridays

2011-10-09T03:37:00.000+08:00

That is my favourite day of the week - I get really excited counting down to Friday since it signifies a weekend of rest ahead, most of the time anyway.

Asked Jenny out for dinner and we finally got to try the much-raved Ippudo located at Mandarin Gallery. The interior was nicely decorated; red, white and black ceramic (?) bowls and spoons were used to decorate the walls and there's a grand-looking chandelier hanging right above our table. Servers would shout out some greetings in Japanese in unison when they spot customers entering/leaving the restaurant but it's not the usual Sakae/Suki Sushi greetings.

#1 Salmon on hot-plate - This was on the seasonal menu, though I can't think of how salmon is seasonal. It came across as a little dry, but we polished off all of it anyway. The butter looks like it's been infused with some herbs, and it's a pity that I didn't really manage to taste anything special.

#2 Shiromaru Tamago - Jenny ordered this and she seemed to have enjoyed it. I tasted a little of the soup and while it didn't really taste as salty as I'd like it to be, I have to admit that it was quite flavourful.

#3 Akamaru Tamago - Much stronger in flavour due to some special miso paste and garlic oil.

I talked about expectations for food over dinner and confided in Jenny that I'm always getting disappointed by food that's been hyped up; it usually ends up with me stating that so-and-so food is over-rated and I can't see why everyone is raving about it. Note: I'm not a fussy eater and I'll finish whatever's on my plate/bowl ~~whenever I can~~ whenever I'm not trying to go on a diet, I just think that some queues and waits are not really justified.

Maybe I'll need to learn to manage my expectations; food and relationships are similar in this sense - having great expectations will only lead to great disappointments haha.

Monkeying around at Ion Food Hall; picture with a slightly better resolution that shows my newly-coloured hair.

#5 Sour Sally fro-yo with granola and walnut crumbs

Ignoring what I've just said about food expectations earlier, now this was some good froyo! Xuanie recommended it sometime back but I never had time to make it to town the past few weeks; was really excited when I finally had the chance to try this out at Wisma's basement. I thought it tasted slightly sweeter than my usual favourite (Yoguru ftw), but Jenny said it tasted quite sour and she prefers the one from Canteen 2.

#6 Hello, meet Sally.

Ordered another one with pink and green mochi-bits for topping and I loved it; could taste hints of melon in the tiny green bits.

#7 Takoyaki with egg mayo from Tsukiji Gindaco at Ion Food Hall

Bun joined us later and this was what she had for dinner. I tried one (10 balls for $7 if I'm not wrong) despite being so bloated from our ramen dinner and it was yummy; was much denser than the usual ones from places like Takashimaya's basement 2 and the octopus chunks were also bigger.

#8 Happy Bun and Jenny

Popped by HnM for a quick look (finally) and got some suspenders for YF when I saw it in the mens' section since he'd been talking about getting those for awhile now. Thankfully, nothing caught my eye and I was happy to be just briefly browsing through whatever they've got in there.

Winded up at Acid Bar for some drinks at the end of the night, and discussed many things over beer, a glass of sangria and a banana margarita (that tasted like a smoothie).

#10

Somehow, Bun likened herself to "a monkey who missed her branch" after something that had (or maybe not) taken place in her life and suggested that was a result of her over-thinking things; e.g. having too many considerations such as "is the branch long enough?" and "is the branch thick enough?" My eyes immediately brightened in amusement when she said what she did; couldn't help it but made some suggestive associations with the words "long" and "thick", and that became our joke of the night.

I'm sorry for having such a dirty mind! :p

#11 Banana Margarita

And that sorta marked the end of my fantastic Friday.

Oh, and Korea's not happening. Vietnam is; Bun invited me to join her for a service learning trip where I'll be teaching English as a second language (I think) to some local kids at a home. I'm really excited.

Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant 瑞春点心餐厅

2011-10-08T20:59:00.000+08:00

Missed eating brekkie here the last time with YF because we got out of bed way too late, so I dragged Mumsy here with me for dinner two nights ago.

We arrived at the dim sum restaurant five minutes before 7. More than half of the tables in there were occupied by then (despite it being a rainy evening) but we managed to get a table nonetheless. Placed our orders and food was served very promptly.

#1 Chee cheong fun. NOT HK-style where there's charsiew/prawn fillings stuffed in between those rolls, just the version that we've been eating while growing up all these years. The sweet and chili sauce were served on the side in a little sauce dish so you can add in however little/much sauce you want to. It was mediocre at best, but I am being biased here since I am not a big fan of chee cheong fun; unless you're talking about the freshly-made ones found at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre *that is love*.

#2 Lor mai gai - The big piece of mushroom sure made it more tasty-looking; I found the glutinous rice to be lacking in flavour, though the pieces of chicken were tender (like how they should be in all lor mai kais).

#3 Deep fried fish skin - I was so happy to see this on the menu; I've been missing it ever since I left Hong Kong and now, I can have it in Singapore too! Didn't order any piping hot soup for dipping, but they tasted okay on their own or when dipped in the dim sum chili sauce.

#4 Fried custard pumpkin - Very pretty dish and unconventional in terms of its looks. This is a deep fried pastry made from glutinous rice flour and pumpkin paste; the outer layer's chewy (and oily) and they were rather generous with the pumpkin paste filling; it tasted slightly sweet and mostly savoury. Mumsy said it tasted like green bean paste found in some ang ku kuehs. It was something that I'd order just because it looked so cute on the menu.

#5 Chicken claw - Not mind-blowing but passable.

#6 Red bean paste pancake - One of my favourites (and Mumsy too) for this dinner. Liked it because the red bean paste was sweet, but not excessively, and the pancake was actually crispy while it was still hot.

#7 Sichuan chili oil wanton - Wasn't as spicy as I'd expected it to be. And nope, I wouldn't order this again.

#8 Crispy eggplant with meat floss - The eggplant was relatively tasteless on its own, the floss provided most of the taste. Ordered this because I sorta like eggplants but I think I'd very much prefer the ones stewed/simmered in sauce after trying it deep-fried.

#9 Carrot cake - Another dim sum dish that I have a soft spot for; this was quite average-tasting (but I had at least 3 pieces anyway!).

#10 Xiao long bao - Not a lot of soup in there but still passable. Of course, it can't compare to Crystal Jade's (at least for me).

#11 Mee sua kueh - Definitely the most interesting dish of the night, taste and texture-wise. This is made entirely of mee sua; the mee sua is 'compressed' into blocks, pan/deep-fried, cut up and then served. If I come back again, I'd probably order it again since this is the only place in Singapore (I think) that sells this.

#12 Bean-curd prawn roll - There's minced pork in there too, apart from prawns. Mumsy liked this, and I thought it was okay, though not fantastic.

All in all, though the food was average-tasting, the prices were really affordable (for most of the items anyway) and there was really nothing to complain about the service. Since it was raining rather heavily outside and the restaurant is air-conditioned, Mumsy asked one of the servers if the ceiling fan right above us could be switched off - they did so with no questions asked.

I'd probably be back again to try some of the items on the menu that'd caught my eye like 口水鸡, banana prawn fritters and have another serving of that deep fried fish skin.

Swee Choon opens from 6pm to 10am, and there's a take-away counter just next to the restaurant if you feel like doing take-aways. Late-night foodies, if you don't know about this place yet, here's a new supper venue for you.

"下大雨来咯!"

2011-10-07T00:45:00.000+08:00

That's my father's favourite phrase whenever there's an impending storm - "快点关窗口!" is what usually comes after. It's wrong grammatically, but I still think that's kinda cute... actually, that's probably one of the few cute things he would say/do.

I haven't been taking pictures with Penty for sometime now, so I brought him out today. And snapped the above picture in the car while waiting for Mumsy to knock off from work earlier; that's one of the rare occasions where I switched to manual focusing.

The rain was crazy in the evening. I get really scared when I'm all alone driving and it's raining elephants out there, the lightning and thunder unfortunately, don't make it any better. There are two things that make me really afraid of driving in downpours/storms: 1) not being able to see the lane markings on the roads; getting into accidents as a result, and 2) floods - for the love of tua pek gong, please don't ever let me be caught in one!

Anyway, after picking Mumsy up today, we headed to Swee Choon along Jalan Besar for dinner. I ordered way too much food for the two of us and had to pack some of it back for Dad's supper; pictures up in the next post maybe...

And today also marks the first dye-job that I did for myself. I've helped Mumsy with her previous dye-jobs but never got around to doing one for myself until today. It's supposed to be a bright red so I was slightly disappointed with the results (above); contemplated dyeing it a second time with a brighter shade of red but Mumsy said "you siao ah" so I guess now's probably not the time. Hope it becomes more obvious over time though.

Last night was the finals for Jolb's touch-rugby match (between NUS and NTU) so we headed down to the sports complex to lend some moral support. The game closed with a draw but NTU won based on a greater number of touchdowns (if I did not remember wrongly :x). Like last year, I was still as clueless about the rules, though I must say that I am truly happy for Jolb and her team for winning their well-deserved gold.

This week's been pretty awesome, I've been breathing much better compared to last week. It's Friday tomorrow, and I am so looking forward to the end of school.

Hurt

2011-10-04T03:43:00.001+08:00

Tofu-man; courtesy of rongster

Heard this on the radio sometime last week:

"People you meet in life are bound to hurt you in some way or other,
what you need to do is decide if they're worth the hurt."

And get them out of your life if you don't think they're worth your time.

(do it!)

How true.

About XLBs

2011-10-04T01:23:00.001+08:00

Had dinner with Jenny and Bun at Din Tai Feng today and I conclude (having made a few comparisons even before this) - Crystal Jade Xiao Long Baos over Din Tai Feng's for me!

I don't know what is it that Crystal Jade chefs put into their xiao long baos but I love how the savory broth in them always end on (so punny :p) a sweet note in my mouth. And it's a taste that I can never forget. I am always trying to look for the same 'sweet ending' in Din Tai Feng's xlbs (and Nanxiang's too) but nope, I've sort of confirmed that it just doesn't exist in them.

Not saying that all the other xlbs are lousier in taste or anything like that; in fact, I think quality is the first thing that comes to my mind when people mention Din Tai Feng - kudos to them for making sure there are 18 folds for each little dumpling and promising replacements for every dumpling that has its skin torn while being served, but yeah - I just happen to prefer the taste of those from Crystal Jade.

Enough of xlb-talk; it's making me slightly hungry now.

I've been taking far more pictures on-the-go ever since I got my new phone (Galaxy S2) not long ago, and I have to say, the built-in 8-mp camera's really quite impressive! I don't know how it measures against the other new phones in the market currently, but I am superbly pleased with the pictures that it's been taking so far.

But then again, I'm always that easily contented.

Changed my wallpaper to that of a very cute Nyan Cat and it makes me very happy everytime I see it appear to be moving across the screen. Hehe.

Red and green

2011-10-02T19:30:00.001+08:00

Made my virgin trip down to Red Dot on Friday night with JM and Zhen. That was probably one of the most impromptu outings that we've had, it must be!

I had a taste of one of the beers offered at this watering hole, and guess what, it's green!

Green beer, anyone?

According to the menu description, the green comes from a Spirulina (some health supplement) infusion. So now, we can all drink beer and stay healthy. What a great idea!

The green may come across as off-putting for many, but taste-wise, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I thought it tasted refreshingly light for people who don't drink beer that often like me.

We had a great time catching up, and WY joined us for a late-night supper at McDonald's after. I think it's really cool that the topics we're talking about these days are so different from what we used to discuss.

Ali Baba Eating House

2011-09-28T16:26:00.002+08:00

Decided to head out for lunch with YF today; we'd (okay fine it was just me) decided on Swee Choon for dim sum initially but I realized that they are only opened from 6pm-10am daily after checking out their website and some online reviews so... change of plans and we ended up at this kopitiam along East Coast Road instead.

It was a very filling meal.

Mary Tau Kwa Pau (豆干包) - $4.80 for four large pieces of taupok topped with minced meat, chopped-up hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers, and everything unhealthy, drenched in a sweet-savoury sauce. I could eat the topping on its own!

Lechon Kawali from Adobo (Philippine cuisine!) - $4.50 for a plate of crispy roast pork rice. I didn't have the chance to try Lechon while we were in Boracay in August, but this was really good for its price; loved the crispy and fatty bits and it tasted quite good when dipped in the chili sauce from Mary's.

Angel-hair pasta with tiny shrimps from Saveur ($3/4). It's supposed to be a starter but I thought the portion was generous to be considered a main. A simple (lightly salted), but satisfying pasta dish.

Foie Gras from Saveur ($7.50 for a 30-gram cut). A rich (a little too rich, or maybe it was just the oil) and decadent piece of duck liver served on a bed of lentils, chopped onions and carrots. Maybe I'll order the 60-gram cut as my main the next time I come here for a meal again.

Chicken Roulade from Saveur ($8.90). I have tastebuds that favour stronger tastes and this turned out to be a little too bland for my liking; the chicken I meant. Butter rice was alright... just don't expect anything too mind-blowing.

Had a good time with YF chatting over lunch and I would love to come back again someday.

Anyway, you can check out Saveur's website here to see what else they have to offer and, their Facebook page too.

It's recess, baby!

2011-09-27T02:16:00.001+08:00

Last weekend's surfing sessions were heartening, to say the least. Chubs shook his head and said two words to me that made me die a little inside on Saturday, but that feeling left for good on Sunday. I did pretty okay in the light wind conditions with the 6m sail and 160-litre board, I think (though everyone else will probably disagree :x). It wasn't anything fantastic, but still, I really enjoyed Sunday's surfing and felt what made me stay on. Ginger steps okay.

Jeremy's back from the U-S of A and it was a nice surprise to see him again after such a long absence. Had quite a dinner feast at Old Airport Hawker Centre and I finally tried the much-hyped Lao Ban Soya Beancurd; the texture's a little different from the usual beancurd that we're used to (it's the coffee-mate and gelatin!), it's much smoother. I'm no tauhuay connoisseur but I thought it was pretty damned yummy - Mumsy approves lol, and oh, the queues were definitely legend... wait for it, ... -ary!

It's recess week this week and I have 2 assignments due when school starts again in 7 days. It doesn't sound too bad, but as usual, I wish I'd procrastinate a little lesser.

Two pictures from the phone so that it doesn't get too boring in here:

Orange (mini) dress that I got from aeons ago but only rediscovered it in the wardrobe last week. YF went nutters when he realized I wasn't wearing any safety shorts beneath it and kept telling me how I would zao geng hahaha. I think he's trying to practice what he would say to his future girlfriends on me.

Yummy drink at Bugis Junction today.

Okay time to shoo the newly unemployed YF off my bed. Goodnight earthlings!

I ♥ Singlish

2011-09-25T03:44:00.001+08:00

No doubt about that.

Lah, leh, lor, mah, meh, hor - I love them all, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to make use of as many of them to punctuate my sentences whenever possible, though not everyone feels the same way as I do.

While the majority of us are always quick to dismiss Singlish as English that's broken, bad, incorrect and... you get the drift, I can't help but feel we're giving it far too little credit for its role within our society for the past goodness-knows-how-long, and how it's made itself to become something so indispensable over the years.

I love Singlish for a couple of reasons.

Most importantly, using this great language blend daily gives me a greater sense of belongingness here; speaking/writing Singlish is what makes me a Singaporean through and through. It is the single most important aspect (that I can think of, please feel free to come up with others if you can) in our lives that embodies all the different cultures we originally had as a nation, a social glue that binds all of us together. Something that all of us take ownership of.

The best jokes are always in Singlish. It's true, for true-blue Singaporeans at least. Also, there are words in Singlish that simply cannot be replaced by English words; the emotive functions of ba chor mee, wah lau eh, paiseh, or kena sai (one of my personal favourites btw) will simply be lost in translation.

I wish that the people who speak ill of Singlish (especially leaders of the country who we are supposed to look up to) will realize that constantly putting down the language spoken by a group of people will (not might, but will) have detrimental effects on the sense of identities of these people, us. I believe the same goes for religions, but of course, we are not getting there today. I digressed. Other than making us start to question our very own self-worth, I can't think of any positive effects that may arise from being constantly told to speak like someone else.

In fact, I am so very sick of constantly being benchmarked against other countries' standards. It's almost like, telling us that we're never going to be as good as these countries - that we'll never be good enough to be the benchmark. And you know what they say about repeating something often enough, it gets to a point where it becomes something automatically assumed true. Do we really want that? Do we need that?

In the opinion of another someone unimportant like me, there is no practical need for us to completely do away with Singlish like how the language campaigns and the country's leaders have actively been advocating. ~~Why should we learn to use Received Pronunciation (the Queen's English, that is) when just 3% of UK's population (I'm not even talking about the world's population here) is using it currently.~~ Oops, silly me. I forgot that we've just begun looking towards American English.

But really, is the majority of the local population going to converse with these British or American English speakers on such an extensive basis that they need to adopt their speaking accents?
I really don't think so. What about speakers of other varieties of English - are we going to marginalize them just like that?

Instead of hopelessly calling for the abolishment of Singlish and looking towards particular varieties, it would definitely be much more helpful if we acknowledge the role that Singlish plays in our lives (instead of merely dismissing it as something bad for the country's economy) and then learn about the different varieties of English found globally. It would also help if we become slightly more discerning when choosing to use Singlish in different contexts - use Singlish as much as you like in private domains, but drop the lehs or lors that may confuse an international audience or when you are taking your oral exams. I am not suggesting that standard English for wider-purpose communication is not important, it is and I acknowledge that.

At the end of the day, sense of identity/belonging > maximizing competitive advantage. Continually putting Singlish in a negative light will inevitably result in Singaporeans having negative perceptions about the language and refusal to be associated with it; you get people who speak Singlish, but yet claim to speak English because they are not able to make a distinction between the two or they simply refuse to be associated with a language crass like Singlish. That's a lose-lose situation I hope we never have to get caught in.
Oh wait, it already has happened.