Tracing back to... pre-Tas

Left Adrian's place and stayed in Urban Central @Southbank. Was a really nice hostel! Washing machine, fully equipped kitchen, toilet, tv, bar, games room, reading room, etc. More info on www.urbancentral.com.au. My 1st batch of room mates: 3 girls 0.0, i wasnt told it was mixed shared! Anyway, nice people: Yuki from Jap who knew almost 0 english but was in Aus for more than 3 months and still goin! Elizabeth from Scotland whos looking for permanent job in Mel. Lastly, a girl who I never got to know nor see since she returned late at night and disappeared the next evening. Wish them all the best in their plans ahead!

Exploring around town was really easy after moving in to the city. Went to the DFO, Crowns casino and the exhibition centre on the first day followed by Queen Vic market and the Mel museum the next. Queen Vic was the cleanest, organized and welcoming wet market I've been to! Aside from harvests (Which were really fresh and cheap) and poultry (in a separate building), they have rows of stalls selling souvs, clothes and other random stuffs. Had fish and chips for lunch at the food hall while leeching on the wifi :) Mel museum was worth my visit because of this particular exhibition where they have a video showing the labour process (baby)! It's more of a sci centre + discovery centre, all in place, fun to spend half a day there.

Saturday full day to Great Ocean Road! And here I say: Whoever's still living and know what's a coastline MUST visit the GOR! The scenery is breathe-taking! 2 days road trip there would be much favored! it's worth revisiting! Anyway, my tour group members was great! With me coming alone, there're 3p from Philippines, 2 ladies and an old couple from Ireland and the HK sisters. I was the youngest hence all the attention and well-treatment :P The guide (damn, I forgot his name) was an awesome chap who can drive and tour-guide at the same time, the whole day! I v-comd him and never see him yawned or sighed even once. Great man! Got back to hostel late night and found a new roommate, names' Glen from UK and I learned that Yuki is leaving for Gold Coast, good for her that she found a jap travel buddy.

Met up with bro and his gf on Sunday at Queen Vic then her aunt drove us to the Essendon DFO. Bought a Ralph lauren polo @$39 and Rivers Jeans @$27! Big sale and thus temptation everywhere! End the day with a dinner with aunt, bro and his gf's aunt and her daughter. 2 more new room mates when I got back to the hostel, Aus kids who were in Mel for some work shadowing thing, Glen and I find them REALLY Irritating: talking about partying, drinking alone in the room and proud to be 'grown up'! Was expecting monday to be a tiring day and indeed it was! Had brunch with bro in the morning and brought them around the city, in search for the pizza shop that aunt mentioned. Broke off from them 2 and head towards St Kilda area, searching for ideas for souvenirs on the way. Farewell to Glen (He's got a campervan with his fren Tom and planning to jus wander off somwer, cheers!) As for myself, Tasmania! By sea!

Cold daooooooo....

Brrrrr... Weather's gettin really chilly in mel. and freaking dry, must drink more waterrr!

Went to Dandenong instead of Warragul on Tues cuz my guess was Warg would be just like any other town. Dandenong was a blend of India, Afgan, Northen China and Turkey. Lots of interesting to see and cheap goods to shop! I got a beanie for just $2! There was a shopping centre as well, very large (3-storey) for a mall in a small town, more like a mini city cuz they have EVERYTHING. Short afternoon lunch visit before I head back and this time I would definitely not screw up the train ride, train was 28mins late though.

It rained from dawn to dusk the next day and I stayed indoors :( Did some ironing to keep my hands warm while watching DVDs. About to set off to stay in the city and Great Ocean Road Tour! Please be kind on me, weather.

Let's go to the City~~~!

After 3 days in Mel, pretty much settled in, except the urban life. It took me 3 days to understand the public transport, eating habits and weather. Visited Pakenham town on Fri to have lunch and do some shopping. A beautiful town that's busier than Garfield, shopping malls and cafes spread near the train station (and the furthest station with metro to the city). Love small towns like these, peaceful and quiet, with everything you need within 1km, they even have horseracing tracks! Here comes the highlight of the day: Was on the Vline back, that darn station crew led me on the wrong train! Since the time of departure matches, I didnt doubt her much. I felt something wrong when the train's not stopping after 15 mins (supposed timing) and it goes on till Dandenong! LoL, it's ehading to the city! Got off and on the other Vline train, it was 4pm and I didn't know if my ticket is valid for peak hours. Then came the owned2x, I actually missed my stop and end up in Longwarry! Here's the problem: they didn't announce the train station (which they did on my 1st ride) and nor do the doors open by themselves, thus I assumed the train stopped for some other reasons (changing tracks, etcs). Sucker... It was rather dark when I finally got off Garfield and walk the 2k plus back home.

Finally, Mel city here I come! Adrian dropped me off at Pakenham :) where I had my 1st metro ride to the city (thanks for his myki card as well). Was a long ride, about an hour 0.0, thats like JE to Changi. Got off at Flinders and visited Fed sq for the tourist info centre and idle around to watch the street perf. Great weather for a walk into the heart of the city. Marveled by the skyscrappers, shops and vehicles, this is the city I'm talking about! Took the "arcade and lanes" route based on a paper guide and finished almost a third of the city centre. Met gugu for dinner at box hill and visited Tzu chi @Melbourne. Most of the volunteers were of my age? some slightly older, uni students. The elders offered me to stay for veggie soup (which was incredibly delicious!) Had a quick chat with people and left for dinner (after being half-full). Gugu thought I would miss home food and brought me to a Malaysian restaurant with mostly... chinese cuisine, wasnt so bad, most chicken rice stalls should be ashamed of themselves when I can find an applaudable plate of chicken rise in a foreign land. Thanks aunt for the ride home, very long 1hour journey on the dark freeway.

Pretty much the same thing happened on Sunday with certain changes. I set off earlier and it was raining when I reached the city. Sat down watching the commuters go with some hot croissant and tea. There was some mother's day walk going on that day, in a rainy weather?I manged to book my GOR trip then off for another walk in the city. Hollan many times and the darn GPS wasn't working but still managed to find my way to the great State library where the famous La Trobe sat. Besides that its all asian muggers, as expected when you visit any library. The chinatown was quite boring, not much happening on a mother's day sunday. The rest of the evening was again with gugu for dinner (at an Italians) where we had a meaningful conversation over religion and philosopy. I got a free ride home again :P really thanked her for that.

I think I'm not gonna bother her again as it'd be taxing on her car petrol and time. Anyways, I lost quite alot of weight too, maybe because the body's going into hibernation mode and used the fats to keep the itself warm :) And the long walks... So far so good in Oz, just hate the cold dry air which gave my nose HELL.

Garfield Walk

The weather's getting chilly these days, it was great to be outdoors with even a faint of sunlight rays. As aunt put it, Melbourne skies always looked cloudy and gloomy at this time of the year but it just wont rain that easily.

Had a long long walk yesterday, 4 hours? 5-6km? Garfield was a nice and peceful town, all quiet, you can even trace a child's cry from the rows of beautiful houses. I visited the bakery for a meat pie and custard tart, $7.20! Of course it had to be tasty! Then went on to the convenience store to see what's on the shelves in this lonely town. I had a pleasant surprise when I got to know that the shopkeeper was from east timor? What are the chances (meeting a chinese or Singaporean is common in AUS) of meeting someone in a faraway place from home, who can converse in 3 different languages that I know of (aside from my family, relatives and some friends) Anyway, bought some Hot Chips (which are thicker & larger Fries) and left with a warmed heart. After walking around the small town for a while, making rounds and turns, deicided to head back from this recce trip. It began to drizzle on the way home and yes I was shivering in the cold until a white lab caught my attention. It just hopped out of one of the bushes and looked at me before darting towards the direction I was heading. Maybe it just wanted to play? (hide & seek) And so it "led" me all the way back to the farm and left after awhile, nice townfolks even the animals were so eager to take you around (I just named the dog Garfield :P).

Very exhausted after the walk, msg'd Adrian about me skipping dinner and off to sleep (its abt 4pm?) Fairly good day of exploration with many things happened, would be better without the rain. Earlier that day, I was mowing grass and doing some simple chores (replacing rat poison and unloading some stuff). Hence I was drained and managed to Zzz in seconds.

Decided to take a break for today, doing some simple household chores and do reasearch on my plans for the next few days. Weekends are coming and I want to visit the main attractions of Melbourne city! Plus, mother's day's coming and I do not want Adrian to fret over entertaining me over mother's day celebration.

Welcome To Melbourne!

Woohoo! Finally! Mel Aus! Touched down 2nd May morning and had a n extremely tiring day because of a couple of reasons.

Spent some time in the airport, around the tourist info booth and finding phone booths to call my aunt (none worked as they don't accept coins, wth right?). End up just skybusing to town and figure out something. Took a walk along Flinders st all the way to Federation sq... with all my luggage (reason) then hop onto the free city tram for 1.5 rounds. Bused to this place called The Pines shopping centre to meet up with aunt to have lunch. After which she drove (thank God!) me around: her house and work place. Lastly to Adrian's house which we took some time to figure out even with the GPS that aunt just bought. It was a vast and beautiful place with some cattles and other animal resisdents (a goat, swallows, wild chickens and spiders). Had a guided tour around the house (including details like where are the spoons and food storage). Had a quick and simple dinner while chatting till lights out. I was exhausted and dozed off after seconds! Did nothing much? Let's trace back abit...

I was on the Emirates flight to Mel the night before where I met this girl, Sam from London who is a lne backpacker and... had a kind of phobia? Don't know if phobia is the word to use but she had horrible past experience flying hence the trauma? Anyway, she sat up all straight, grabbing the front seat and had teary eyes. I can't help but notice her trembling hands holding on to her inhaler while constantly looking around. Even during mid flight terbulance, she would stop whatever she's doing and do mindless clicking on the screen (with shaking hands). We had a chat after she'd calmed down and it surprised me that she's been travelling since Dec 10. Travelling as in no going home, tourist in several countries since DEC 10, thats 5 months with an average of 1 flight trip per months? Given her condition, Respect! Her reason for goin on: meeting strangers and fellow backpackers. I do have to admit I was very nervous about the trip until I met her. I guess this was arranged to motivate myself to "enjoy"my trip. And so.. I end up not having any sleep which brings me back to my first night in Mel. Knock out after staying awake for ~48hours.

Adrian left for work before I woke up this morning. Had some cereals and off to work. Even though its quite chilly in the morning (esp in the suburbs), it becomes a perfect combi when you get yourself under the sun. Raked up the dried leaves, sccop some dung and some cleaning and dumping. Was quite relaxing and I get to plan my day flexibly. Tried to tame the cattles but failed. They weren't shy or afraid of me considering it's my first time with them, almost touched 1 of the cattles but she startled when I opened my palm. It was pretty cool to have them approach me while I just sit there fiddling with my phone.

Awesome days to come I hope, plan to spend the weekends out... erh no, I haven't done any planning, waiting for people to invite me for trips! hah!

Great Departure

It's finally May 1st! Long awaited day is here... Feelings? Both excited and anxious. I just realized its my 1 trip out of Asia (from what I can remember) alone! Busy with packing, planning and researching for this day. Also met up with all my close friends for meals and chats before I leave.

Hope this is going to be what I expected from the month worth of read up. Mum kept annoying me with possible kidnapping cases and health issues. Appreciate it but PLEASE let nothing of such sort happen to me (and all the travelers out there). She also kept bugging about bringing more clothings and supplements. Have to travel light with tight budget as this is a warm up/ test before any other greater adventures in the future.

Just got my new phone btw, a Galaxy SL! Still figuring out how to use it effectively. It's gonna be favourite handheld throughout the trip. Aside from that, its all about instincts and social skills.

Will blog from Mel if possible... Peace

Ipoop'd!

Spend the entire evening clearing out songs that I don't even hear in my Ipod. Songs from Ivan's ipod, XiaoLim's Mac and Boss' HDD, making up a butt load of 50gb songs. My 1gb Hard drive that crashed last June made me realised one can never keep every single thing and not to say for eternal! The most important lesson: Life is about learning to lose and just sucking it up!!!

3 more days to my grand trip... Please let me stay healthy. I was kinda worried cuz it rained this afternoon during my run, stupid Sgweather... 1 moment sun, the next rain like mad.

Post ORD crash ($)

Damit... Spent almost $100+ today

1. NTU Medical Checkup - $28

2. BBQ with BMT friends - $25

3. Kenna summon by Cisco for parking illegally - $70?

Bro suggested to appeal since elections are coming lol? I think I'll just pass and pay obediently since it doesn't cost me any demerit points (even if it does, i think i'll use some1 else's points reserve)

Tiring day mainly because of all the expenditure. Recced NTU with Boss this morning and at the same time complete our medical checkup. NTU seemed big on the map but actually quite small considering that you only visit the non-hall areas. Asked Jeslina (& her friend whom I numpangd) and Shirley about the delicacies in NTU, mostly directed to C1 & C2 which is (according to Boss) the artisans dining area (he expected the $2 meal for peasants). Had Jap and Boss treated me to Xiao Long Bao which is just so so.

Spent the evening with BMT boys at Aloha Changi chalet. If any1've been there, its... like a row of haunted house with bbq pits and a pack of cats, 8 of them in fact. To be honest, the gathering quite dull maybe because we haven't seen each other for a long time. I'd prefer just a bbq or a nights out in town for a get together, economical and time efficient.

Please don't make me spend any more money before my grand trip... Looking forward to it! (not as a peasant)

The return of the ME

After 2 years of national service, I've decided to revive my blog. Deserting it for a long time was intentional as it can save me lots of trouble filtering what to blog about during the 2 years in army (they are actually quite effective in hunting down bloggers who blog about ns life!) However, as a civilian today, my life would be more than seeing green and listening to bullshit!

This log (after nearly 2 years) will be primarily on what I've learnt and choices made over the months. Honestly, NS isn't as bad as many people think, well... maybe that's because I've got a better posting? 2 years of your youth sacrificed: For myself, I gained quite a number of things!

1. A broader social network

They say while serving, you can meet sorts of people from all trades and background. I'd like to thank these people for teaching me the meaning of life and how the world goes round. From the humble high ranking officers, down-to-earth colleagues and loyal delinquents. Can't be for sure if they'll remember me in 10 years time but I wish I could tell them how influential (+ve & -ve) their actions and words are to me! Just hope that they are the group of friends whom I can classify under "worth meeting up for a meal" in the long run. Never know if they might be my neighbor's relative, colleague's son, friend's spouse, etc?

2. How the working society works

This actually come in 2 parts: one of office politics and the other on awareness. I can't believe I'm actually praising the government for giving me 2 years (which is ridiculously long) of pre-work life experience. No worry of being sacked nor the need to compete for promotion since, like what every1 said: serve n Foff! I've seen how people can rise to backstabbing, the harsh reality of having to lose out in work opportunities because of qualifications (yes,the cert society). There's CG+C no 100% by right methods of doing things and every1 in the office knows this! Which brings me to the part on awareness. I've given myself a double confirmation on my own character: peace-loving. I'd say there's no 1 in my office I'd offend or mistreat, it's just my way of staying self-protective. What if one day he got your 把柄 or change to have you as a scapegoat? Despite this, I've learnt to not 'get eaten' and taken advantage of by maintaining a certain level of authority 'aura'.

3. My class 3 driving license!

Monetarily, this is the most fruitful gain! I've saved $1000+ for the little blue card not mentioning the experience on road and knowing my way around (fuel is expensive!)

4. From J to K

There'll be no better morale booster than watching some pretty plastic girls performing catchy songs. Initially I've paid 0 attention to them until that became the only thing that's the only thing on TV 8 to 5 daily. With every1 around me talking about it, it is impossible to just ignore it, hence the outcome. Furthermore, Kpop has taken over Jpop on the most played playlist in my Ipod (in terms of number of singles). Some awesome songs will be added to my piano repertoire in the future!

5. Pick and Drop

I don't know why its so hard to keep an interest alive! How is it possible my time spent on Variety shows > dramas/movies? Tennis and running over basketball? There's no computer game that can consume my attention for more than 2 hours! Nevertheless, I've gained interest in the most awesome things like travelling and teaching!

(6. I learnt that I've an sensitive stomach which can cause heartburns! All happened after my wisdom tooth surgery)

I believe these are the highlights and I'm sure there are more!

Some updates on life: Been pretty busy with trip planning. Since i can't join Shawn and Smurf on their epic journey to Europe, I decided to path out my own mini adventure in Australia. After which its Korea with my ex-colleague/senior. Budgeting, itinerary, contacts and packing list... so many things to think about! But GOSH I LOVE IT! Trust me, its exciting just by thinking and planning for a trip! Also spend some time with friends whom I've hardly been in touch with. Physical training for the overseas trips (need to stamina to run away from danger and strength to work). Last but not least, read read read, filling up my general knowledge vault essential for socializing!

That's all for now! Love myself~!

I shall grind on "... ..." the next 21 months

I've laid out a plan... to be done after work and weekends
I've not started on any... most of them need dedication (time)
I have to start saving $$... for my dream comp
I've failed to manage my $$ flow... eating out and cinemas

I'm playing Chocobo's Dungeon 2... too much time
I started reading newspapers (o.O)... too much time
I continued playing wow... too much time
I was hoping driving lessons start tml... too much time

I... ... ...
Wanna do something useful to pass time!

Update on life... went to watch ice age 3 and transformers with the dudes. Prefer IA3 coz the storyline is better and funny too. Esp the helium gas part.. lol, duno why I laughed like fuk then, even though its not THAT funny. Spent lotsa money on food, transport, entertainment, etc. Oh, after 2 days of grinding and questing, my din finnaly hit 60, max for now till I get BC. Been watching gossip girl and heroes. No mood for jap drama these days.

Back from 'cyber-break'!!!

Have this dunno how-to-describe feeling to blog... todae. Not been updating abt life for 2 months plus, since Im off to Tekong. Reason is... limited access to int, book in book out, spend more time out with frens and family instead of sitting infront of comp.

Well... its different now! Gotta stay out and posted to a place damn near home! Woots! Banzai SAF!

1st of all, I love my unit and cant wait to go for driving course. Lifes' pretty fast paced and i wanna log the random yet memorable things that happened. Out for dinner with rome, Gab and NA today at Aston's then SC mac. Talk kok all the way and started talking abt random pple... guess thats wad guys do wen they meet up? no more soccer or games. For me... always the laugh-er, keeps laughing, occasionally contributing to some jokes. We came to this topic abt best friends/buddies for life. Ever thought of who these Best-ies are? 1 closest to you or a clique who always look forward to gatherings. 1 way to know... perhaps it'd be those/the 1 who're gonna be ur best man/ best buddies during your wedding. Its the day where u must have these closest frens know abt.

Nth more to say, i need money, been spending alot on random things. Darn Hardisk cost me half a months allowance. Mum and Dad are back from jkt after like 1month+... miss home cooked food. Congrats mum for successfully learning how to make martabaks, on the 26th try :) Oh, since Gabs' in the same situation as me, we decided to take up some language course, 1st thing that came to both of us... German, jus sounds cool to know GERMAN.

5MDTG

Oh great... i jus recovered! Bodys' been really heaty these days, havin ulcers, cough, running nose, worst of all, toothache! Cant really chew anything harder than bread for the past few days, speech was also a problem coz of... all the pain and twitches.

Lets see... 5 more days to go, goin army... finally! Cant wait, i've nth much to do at home besides movies, shows, eat, sleep, music... Oh, i've started packing, have a 10-item list of tings i needa get. Been watching , Really great show! both comedy n action. Speaking of shows, i jus wasted 2 days on 1 fukd up hk drama, more like 1 day...

, it was not that bad for the 1st part... 2nd part jus junk! Crap! Bullshyt! The director mus b murdered or smth during the last 2 epis, coz the storyline was horrible, like he jus wanna wrap up everything in 2 hours. Even 5 year olds can ting of so much more alternatives to how the show should end. Fnobrain show lol. Im sticking to Jap and Us shows... Cleary, on the remaining days.

Longest Qing Ming...

Okok... As promised, I'd like to log abt my qing ming trip in Hainan, China

Arrived in KL via plane, got quite a cheap air fare which is only $80 to and fro SIN-KKL, its better than taking bus, waste time (its jus $20 diff)... Bus-d to KL central for LRT ride to meet Yeejie near her Office, near Ampang Park. At the central, got tis girl asking me for donations... to purchase a chair for the old folks, lol? I'll pass the fact that she mistook me as a malay... she speaks mandarin in a super weird accent, with this undulating tone. Got totally irritated and jus rejectd after her 10mins talk. Yeejie treatd me to a hell nice dinner, curry noodles. She said we're lucky to get seats, since we're quite early, arnd 5pm, its super crowded during lunch hours. I buy that story since the noodle's really nice. Got back to 5shu's hse and rest for the dae, had an early nite, 8+.

Out early in the morning to Mid Valley, numpang on 5shu's car to Ampang station, hes off to make my visa then to work. Had the whole day free till 6 wer i'll meet yeejie again for dinner. Window shopping for some time till lunch. Msg came from yeejie... "try out the prawn mee at xxx restaurant..." so, I did go and it was fabulous! I was there at 11.15am (still in preparation), came back at 11.40am, the restaurant was half seated with hungry customers! After lunch went to walk arnd again, wanted to buy tis book from MPH budden its kinda old liao (last copy). Wanted to buy some nice clothings too budden plan to save it for better deals in Hainan. Went to coffee beans to slack, read RD and have tea. The rest of the evening was in the cinema, myself. yup... myself. Too much time till 6pm, i'm not gonna walk anymore nor eat. Askd Leehom and Uu to come watch budden they'r quite busy with school/tuition/project. Yongjie did thought of comin to MV but she said I should go explore myself. Watchd Watchmen since its like 1 of the longest show among the boxoffice and I hvnt watched it. fairly nice, the cinemas' quite comfy and the tixs' onli rm7! End the day at 5shu's hse, dinner cancelled coz dinner was prepared, but yeejie still da bao wanton mee for me. Had an even earlier nite since we've to depart at 6 the next morning.

Cabd in a mercs to LCCT, met up with the other 2 uncles and grandma. Its a freakin long queue at the check in counter 0.0! Many pple goin to Hainan Dao to shao mu i guess... 5shu was like greeting and socialising with 80% of the queue, seems like he got a wide connection of frens, esp hainanese. The plane was freaking packed, I dun even get to sit in my assigned seat. In my impression, it was a rough landing, almost bit my own lips. Surprisingly the weathers great, cloudy, ~23 degc, its like the whole place is airconditiond. Soon, got to realise the 3 main problems of Hainan 1. Smokers everywhere 2. Vehicles horn like free 3. Locals with bad attitude... 1st destination was the kampong near QiongHai town (15mins journey) haha, its an authentic Kampong for heavens! Even the shit smells different and yes... shits' everywer, from animals of course, had to watch wer im stepping. Spend the whole afternoon in this so called Ancestors' hse. For dinner, got a treat from 5shu's frens... damit, duno they lived with such a diet... 1st dish: Zhu jiao 2nd dish: 1 whole steamd chicken 3rd dish: Suckling pig 4th: more meat 5th: finnaly some vegi, seriously oily 6th: some nuts and vegs. Had a bad feeling abt meals in Hainan since that day.

2nd day was rather tiring. Went arnd the 'home town' area to shao mu, total of 14 graves, we finished like 11 in a day, leaving the last 3 for the next day. Great discovery, theres my greatgrandfatheres', then his dad, and his grands'... yes, his greatgrands'. Even went to this really old 1, dating back to 1800s, cant believe they actually found that! Another cool ting is the way pple here shao mu. Its the normal procdrs, re paint, got rid of wild grass, burn incense, burn ppr money then pray. They've this additional ting of lightning fire crackers at the end. Bet u cant find this in SG, its still quite rare even in msia. In china, fire crackers were sold everywer. Got really bothered by the sound, imagine... 14 rolls of it in 2 daes... freakin defeaning! Lunch and Dinner at the Kampong... damn right its more ba ba (foily meat) I had beer for every meal coz i dun tink their water is safe for consumption even though its boild.

Its the 3rd day in china and the actual Qing Ming day. Had bfast i the hotel as usual, set off to kampong for the last part of shao mu. And so, its fire crackers and more cleaning and burning. Just to be more specific, the 2 daes were not as easy as it sounds, we've to walk through the woods, bushes, soil out shoes, pass streams, in a rainy weather, to various graves. Its totally disordered, a grave (some1s) ccould be standing right beside u as u track. Had more meat for lunch. Many relatives came to join us, got back to the hotel in the evening. And damn its raining, cant go shopping. Used the rest of the night to slack at lobby, read bk n mp3 since my roommate tuckd in early.

Apparently, we did went for some sightseeing, well... more off excursion. 5shu was in this hainanese guild in KL so the group happend to organize a trip to this famous temple, forgot wads the name but its the 1 that features the goddess of the sea (Ma zhu), taiwanese pple believe in this alot. Went there to pray and see see, its said that the temple is so called the main temple and there are others all around asia ( from wad i know theres 1 in indonesia and another in taiwan). Before we left, lit 2 flong rnds of fire crackers, 1 last for like 3mins+. The trip there was a torture, 2hrs+ bus ride for 1 way... worsen things, i made the wrong descision of not bringing my ipod! DAMIT! Its freaking boring and waste of time. Sat with this fat reporter and his fat ass is making the whole journey...straining, I've to give him like 1/3 of my seat so that he can stop fidgeting. And those fkin cars horn like no1s business .Does it seem like u socre a point wen u horn at a car u see? They freaking horn as they like, hands rdy at the center of the steering wheel. Curse the drivers, they'll jus die if they ever do that in Sg or Msia. Had a slightly decent dinner at a hotel restaurant. The Qiong Hai Mayor treated all the 'foreign friends' who wer back for qingming.

Its my shopping day, went to kampong in the morning to have the last gathering meal with the relatives. Set out to explore by myself in the afternoon. Its always fun to get lost lol. Ventured through streets and more streets. Full of cars, rside vendors, locals. Once again, damn them for smoking and horning so much. Walk through this market palce, song bo... cheap stuffs up for bargain. Bought few shirts and shorts, a pair of sandals, some sox and a cap. The food was great too, esp the mantou, its omglicious! 3 for 1Yen! At the end of day went to supermarket to get some local snacks and food (gifts for all my dear cousinz, nieces and nephews) Total spendings for the dae=400RMB wich is like less than $100 bah.

Early flight the next dae. Got back to KL and rushed for a transfer to SG. My flight was supposd to be late at nite, arnd 10pm. Somehow, theres another flight scheduled 2 hrs after my arrival from Hainan... so Decided to catch that flight instead (with an additional fee of RM50)
That ends my trip to Hainan, actually still got quite alot of things that i wanna sae, but kinda forgot... and I tink the log is getting kinda long :P

1 Tings for sure, I M NEVER GOING BACK TO HAINAN DAO! NEVER!

Back From Hainan... Off to Tekong... Soon

Yeah! Back to SG... been having this feeling that i've been away for a long time, even though its only a week + the 3 daes in Tioman + the 2 daes in JB.

Lots of stories to tell abt Hainan Dao, full of surprises, eye opener and Its a personal record of vocal swears in a week.

Freaking tired, need some time to tune back b4 posting abt the trip... ST~~

Speaking of which... most of the dudes are goin off to Tekong, damn, im gonna be kind of lonely, feel like goin for another trip to kill time till my turn :P

Back from Tioman... Off to Hainan

Jus got back from tioman with the dudes...
Guess wad... I'm off to another sunny island, Hometown, main purpose iz to shao mu since its qing ming
Jus so happen that im the most free among all the Hoshu and so tis year im representing all of em... with a bunch of uncle auntie and grandma.

Wont have time to update on Tioman trip, guess rome has it all, i'll log abit abt that after i got back from Hawaii(CHINA) lawl

Objective for Hainan Trip
1. Get to know more abt 'family tree'
2. Go Shao Mu, heard from bro got more than 10. 0.o
3. 1st visit to Hainan, heard it rox for a 3rd world country (got 5-star hotel!), Must explore arnd
4. Shop for dirt cheap gds... most probly with my aunt
5. Growing up, learn SOMETHING

Visit JB, Msia u must (once in a month?)

Part of my definition of 'Enjoying life' iz goin to places with dirt cheap,excellent food and goods of average quality... to the extend that u wont even think of how much they cost compared to your income/allowance

SG is definately not the place, for now...
Msia is the closest paradise fo far, imba food, cheap hangouts. Went to City Square@ JB ytd. Watchd movie, SF: Legend of Chun-Li... I'd say 4/10? Storyline sux, in-film time frame is too long. Acting waz average, Fighting scenes pulld it up even though the 'boss killing' scene sux, even 5yrols noe that she wuld use the fire-ball (she mastered it but nv use it even once against the villian frys) Oh btw... my popcorn combo cost rm8.5 and movie tix rm6... lawl

Dinner at jln WAF, had sting ray, sotong and oyster ommlts + 2 drinks... guess wad its ~$5 onli lol... Nex time trying the muslim kambing soup (mutton soup) and satay :)

Gonna go Tioman tml with the dudes for a sunny holidae :) Yeah!

1month+ to army

Seems like... my last log is... 3 weeks ago???
Guess wad, losing interest in blogging, anything that requires pc... lazy to switch it on and run programmes (they lag like ****)

Really tired from Fujitsu work, 6x13hrs of talking, explaining, presenting... learnt stuffs, made new frens and.... $$$!!! 90% of it will be used to patch up the $500 from Thai trip. The rest gonna use to buy other stuffs or makan wif frens.

1 month + to NS, 3.5 weeks to lonely life (i m the last to go Tekong... among closer frens)
Here comes my 1 month plan... GET OCCUPIED.
The list includes:
Do more sports
Read something useful related to courses i wan, in U ofcoz.
Tidy room... it gets mesd up 12hrs after tidying up.
Tune to healthy habits (slp early, wake up early, eat healthy)
Drink water, reminder: drop by kitchen to drink if mind is empty at any second
Few imp things for now...

Speaking of U, still quite unsure of wad to choose, 70% go NTU, 10% NUS and 10% NYP... 10% overseas. Pointers from Dad: choose wad u like 1st or else Freakin get into a U then see how! Not very useful but... im still gonna wait for their return tml to decide, then apply.

Dear wise brain, please guide me... show me some vision? In my dreams? lol

Serve! Smash! Volley!

Woohoo~~~!!! I love tennis!

Know i've not blog for quite some time coz lazy to log in and log. Some updates of life...

Been tennis-ing alot, arnd 5 times per week. It started wen Sam jio-d me to play 1 morning... used hanjie's racket that I borrowed 1 year ago (o.O) Sam taught me all the basics then after a few sessions, can play quite smoothly le. Its very horrible at the start coz I kept using wrist str (used to badminton strokes), oso screw up the angle, 3 ball casualties, flew out of court, lucky got em back. Hardly any stray balls in the previous sesisons. What i like abt tennis... 1)Get to run alot, moving all parts of the body 2)The sound wen the ball hits the racq hard! 3)Not very difficult to learn except serving... Shit part is u've to pick up balls -.-

Wen not outside, will learn some com stuff, programming and M-flash. Trying to programme new cards for Wagic and play on PSP, took lots of time to type the command, edit-try-edit-try-touchup-try. M-flash de things very difficult without tutorial... and haven really plan on wad to make after mastering it, probably a game. Doing some homebrew games for DS, if possible.

Lastly, cooking lol... Curry wz a success! Actually not very difficult oso, jus the last part, cannot allow a 'hard' layer to form, must stir properly. Gotta learn more jia chang cai jus in case hav to go overseas n live alone... that reminds me of A level results... :(... Dad kept saying... dun worry, no problem de, no matter wad jus accept it... ... confirm not kou shi xin fei lo... I knew he expects alot from me... still say until so comforting.

Keep it real for now, enjoy for the last 10 days, heard results out on 6th March... Feel like jus goin overseas for this period and not knowing the outcome... Gd luck bah...

Happy CNY 09!!!

15 days of cny, lots of fun, lots of memories, lots of hongbaos!

On the zeroth day of new year...
Da shao chu derh! Cleaned the altar, removed the dusty stuffs on it. Damit... its the 2nd time im doin the cleaning coz previous years, reached pagoh wen its chuxi night. hanjie theyll still sarca us(the guys) that they'd love to help and clean but too bad, by tradition only guys can do -.- had de 3 bao (chicken, duck, pork) dish for reunion dinner (plus other vegs, fish, etc) Last year like more shiok, got steamboat... Played mahjong after dinner, 5shu taught me his vers of counting $$$. Formulating it is should be:
(No. of 'hua' u hav (consider ALL 'hua' tiles)+No. of gungs if any+No. of Big tile pungs) X 4, then round up to nearest 10 + 50 which is a base independant value, lastly X (2 to the power of No. of 'Tais')
Very very complicated in the beginning but got used to it after that... Btw its sunday, got tian cai cong*3! Every1 gathered to watch it and its rolf all the way till 11.59.50pm then countdown. This year not alot of fireworks, but got freakin lots of fire crackers. Arsoles! 1am+ le still play with em.

On the 1st day of new year...
Yosh... new year new hopes. Woke up quite late coz its 4am+ wen i turnd in, have to look after the candles... can call it as shou shui (guard sleep?). Main angbao collection day, mahjong and cards, snacks, drinks and talk kok. Thats all for day 1... Oh we played Xia ping ABC at nite ( anyhow guess ABC)... its goes like tis, a chinese word appears on the screen behind ur partner, u've to use broken/lousy angmor to describe it to ur partner. ur not allowed to say the direct translation nor act it out... ur partner hav to guess the chinese word. Nice nice game, there must b chemistry between the 2 players to score. Describe-r must be creative, using words of common sound or meaning to hint. Whereas Guess-er needs to be... a good listener and pool of vocab. My 1st round wz with chuin, onli managed to guess 4-5 qns, above average le. Leijie and hweejie pawns all, 7.

On the 2nd day of new year...
Went Muar to bai nian and lunch. Kawaii niece zhizhi wz really obsessd with my DS, she wz damn sad wen the batt went flat. Mayb should giv the DS to her wen im sick of it...soon. Evening went to play badminton and bball. Wore wrong shoe, the fake Onizukatiger lol... 0 cushioning and terrible soles, make my feet ache during dinner. At nite playd all the TCCCC games, got dong zhi tempo (verb tempo) then also xia ping ABC. Waz really entertaining tis round coz its after 12 le, to keep the noise lvl down, we actd the word out instead of describing it. Super LOL wen xi and fei (twins) played... xi had to act out the word 'ha ha jing' (laughing mirror). The 'ha ha' was easy as xi jus did the laughing action... then its the 'jing' lol, she put her face rite infront of feis' then 'waved' an invisible glass pane infront! Thats so creative la! Heng heng they're twins so can act it out easily.

On the 3rd day of new year...
Nothin much, cards, mahjong, party games again. Badminton and bball in the evening, tis time went barefoot... surprisingly, better performance. Got back to SG at nite.

On the 4th/5th day of new year... (forgot wich 1)
Mahjong n bainian at Roge hse

On the 6th day of new year...
Bai nian with S22 peeps. Arnd 14 pple? Pc hse 1st then pangpang, followed by neko. Cards n tokok at pc hse, nice food prepared by his mum, salad n chicken bites. Mahjong n bridgd at Pangpang hse... Qing damn funny, freakd out by snowball. Neko hse last, mahjong, cards, watch tv and RA3d. Thats all I think, had fun with reunion.

On the 7th day of new year...
Lunch with kor n mum n dad at tis prata restaurant near mac ritchie res, lots of pple, better than avg prata and murtabaks...defn goin back there someday. Rome hse to bai nian after tat... Shawn, jialiang n xiaozhou were the early batch and left shortly before i reached.Bloody roge brought his couz ahbing sia... played blackjack n daidee, lost arnd $10 T_T
Aunt dju n granny came to our place at nite for dinner... more angbaos :)

On the 12th day of new year...
Out for movie, Love matters at JP... Freakin scam lol. The entertaining parts comes abit from the content and random humour... The tickler is the retarded actor benny and the malaysian chinese accent. Seriously, I think benny is some kinda assd up actor... no, hes not an actor, all his expression r so freakin fake! Rome waz rolf wen he showed up, he even shifted his seat to some empty rows of seats to laugh n swear by himself. I'd say the show is onli 3 out of 5 stars? Storyline sucks and half the cast can fark off... Its still an average comedy though... Had fish n co for dinner and dessert at some shop in the new JP wing.

On the 13th day of new year...
Bainian at Jenny Chua hse + meet up with some 4E3 pple. Damn smurf... nv mention the details abt the gathering then still call me in the morning to ask u comin onot... Anways, Jenny hse wz near beauty world, cool ting wz, there's no TV in the hse, for real! facing the sofa, in the living room wz tis piano sized bookshelf lawl. Chit chat till 2+, got to know how much BBSS changed and abt the new sch building. Mrs Chua now big shot liao, photo and room beside principal nya. At least she nv forget us and according to her, we were the onli batch that visits her every year 0.O... Lunch at beauty world n thats all!

On the 14th day of new year...
Cant believe we still bai nian on the 2nd last day of cny... but here it goes. Met up at JE early at 9... Felt xtra coz I wore jeans n sleeved shirt and the rest, shorts n Ts... damn... Chewy hse 1st coz its JE, playd mahjong while the rest ps2d. NBA match between the Team Jurong East (All stars East) and Team Bukit Batok West (All stars West) haha...JE totally pawnd BB. Chewy waz totally pissed off by roge bringing his couz along nya. Json hse nex, me n chewy guitar heroed while the rest played black jack. Boss hse 3rd... Roge damn bastard, saying boss hse like those on the chen yifeng n christopher lee show. Well, its our 1st visit to boss hse, for real... the living room very big, great place for gathering... as well as mahjong(s). Last waz my place, da baod chicken rice over while watchin southpark. Mum haven got back so we went for bball. Dinner with boss, rome and roge at 7mile wet market.

On the 15th day of new year... (0.O)
No banian liao, instead baibai, jus accompanied mum n dad to guanying temple to pray. Flooded with pple, bwg, all the auntie uncles ther displaying their kiasuism. Lunch at bugis junction then dropped by the office in temple street, dad need to settle some documents. Since its yuan xiao jie, reunion dinner again, just 5 of us :)

The End... Happy New Year!

Experiencing the land of thousand smiles: Part 3

Call me simple minded or anything, I ALWAYS thought that Bangkok iz another city like Jakarta and KL, warm, humid and dusty. However, thats a nono! The temp is arnd 16~20+ degrees C wen we were ther. Dusty iz kinda true coz of the zomg traffic jams. I dun tink i got sweat much that 3 days.

Day 6
Continueing from Day 5, arrived at BKK airport at 12am+. No choice have to sleep in airport. Found a nice corner with 3 rows of benches (no cushion), mp3s out, heads on bag and Zzz. Initially, managed to go into the 'sleep' state budden it starts to get freakin cold. Regretted nv wear jeans, shoes and brought any blanket. Roge and smurf cant slp at all so they went to explore the airport, finding ways to keep warm (Like beer, hot instant zok and stepping outdoors which wz suprisingly makes things worst). I joined them after several attempts to find the perfect posture to slp on the cold, hard bench. Changed to shoes and had 1 of the best cup noodles in my life! Black Pepper PORK!!! Thats damn rare in SG! Combd the whole arrival hall, looking for wad to eat for bfast... actually oso got other pple really sleeping in the airport and the diff between em n us iz they've brought pillows n blanket! We passed our time walking around pushing the trolley and yes... its 7+ le. Simple bfast... redbull n pocky LOL. I manged to 'auto' slp for an hour or so till 8am coz too tired. Transfer came n brought us to the hotel.

Bangkok... city of dirt cheap clothes and food. For real, we shopped for 3 days, nv visit the temples or chinatown (in the initial plan). Mostly for clothes, clothes and more clothes. After checking in, changed and go gai gai near the downtown area, its thiz famous area wer MBK, Siam sq, Siam center, Siam discovery stood. MBK iz holy shyt big, loads of stuff, gadgets, clothes and food!
Lunch at this cheena restaurant, had noodles, rice and cheap dim sum so arnd $5+ each!woohoo! Every1 very tired coz of insufficient slp and so decide to nap till nite then go out again.

Famous nite market... Suan Lum nite bazaar! 2nd to Chatuchak weekend market, many many stalls and a huge food center. Fried rice n fruit shake again for dinner, their fruit shakes ownes coz its cheap n oishii. No joke, the place is really big, finished 1 area in 40 mins+ wen there were like 10+ zones? I got my new adidas wallet for a cheap 100B lawl, the lady even use a ligther to burn the leather wallet to prove that its 'genuine'! The rest got some berms, shirt and random stuff. Oh, roge got his beloved magic pants there, i got 1 for myself too :)

Day 7
Every1s gettin sluggish... Zzz for more than 8hrs, waking up betwn 9 to 10am, it cant be the hotel bed. Anywae, our plan for the day iz platinum and pratunam plaza/center and other malls near that area. Cab again coz its hell cheap, arnd 70B even wen theres traffic jam. Tink the 1st mall waz platinum center? Its kinda empty... mayb we're too early. Hopd over to the next building wer the spree starts. Theres this market place with lots of clothes, local brand and designs. More like an outlet wer they sew and do final touchups there b4 selling/ importing in bulks. Usually they'd sell 3 or more at cheaper prices. Got me army pantsu there yeah.

Visited another 'market place', abit high class, inside a buidling but got many stalls, 7 storeys. Top floor waz a food court wer the foodz damn cheap for such a nice ambience. Unfortunately shawn wz feeling sick so he missed lots of imba dishes and the shoppin. Last shoppin destination wz Platinum, tis is a must-go, must-not-miss, no-go-you-regret place. We got most of our gifts and clothings ere. Comd the building from the 3rd floor up then back down, taking arnd 2-3 hrs. Got tis shop selling all the famous chang beer, coke singlets n Ts at imba low price. The boss wz an old lady who knows how to speak mandarin (mayb coz shes from ChiangMai? where most thai-nese live). Bought lots of shirt from her and got her name card, jus in case, mayb some dae, import n sell :P Oso lots of those shops selling locally designd Ts, some were nice, most were shyt, but who cares, they're quite cheap.

Shopd till 4+ and got damn tired le, decided to cab back hotel to rest and prepare for night activity. Dinner at a coffee shop near our hotel, had pork-organ meal at arnd 40B !!! Nite activity waz... dun wanna describe, its totally fukd up. B4 tucking in, got many food stuff from the MBK supermart, chuk and 10B red bulls lol, green curry and tom yam kung paste for mum.

Day 8
Last day in Thai le, IOW shopping! Went to MBK to look for gifts, sports Ts but unfortunately they're quite ex (still abit cheaper than in sg) Its a last minute decision to chiong back Platinum mall to do shoppind. Rush hour indeed, cabd thru the Tjam and chiong up the mall, trying to recall wer were the shops we saw the day b4. I tink i bought arnd 16 T-shirts? most for frens n family, only 4 for myself, not counting those for the bball dudes which were with smurf n roge. Its like amazing race, chiong here n there, shuffle thru the clothe hangers for nice Ts. In a nutshell, last day is for shopping and nth else, i tink we skipped lunch too.

Got to airport at arnd 2+ and makan 1st at this funny jap fastfood b4 checking in. we're trying to spam finish Baht in our possession b4 we zhaod back to SG so stop by at family mart to buy random food stuff. Damn funny during the baggage check, smurf almost got ownd by the officer, he wz carry 3 100ml bottles of redbull, the officer took it out n smiled which makes smurf kinda freakd. Then he took out another, then the last. Smurf abit panic n point at the bottle saying its 100ml. In the end the officer jus took out a zip-loc n stuffd em all inside. Jus wen he thought his precious 10B red bull gonna get chong-gongd lol.

3hrs plane back to SG, reached at arnd nite time le. This time no french dudes, got more pple though. Roge parents came to pick us up, b4 that we kinda sort out our stash at T1 arrival hall. Every1 staring at our heaps of clothes n food lol. Thai trip ended, safe, one piece!