Monday, December 11, 2006

Fantastic Concerts!

6th Dec 06 (Wed) - A much-awaited date... After last year's Final Home Concert, Mayday hasn't stepped into Singapore for any performance!!! We've been looking forward to this day!! and I'm glad I've got the tickets LAST Minute to watch this ABC True Friendship 2006 concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The first performer was Bobby Chen. He's still got solid lungs despite being a notorious drunkard. As usual, he drank ABC Beer while singing. The taiwanese aboriginal guy had very powerful lungs! I loved it when they sang "One Night In Beijing". COOL!!!!

The next performer was Victor Wong. Loved his vocals and sad love songs. He did an unplugged section with his 'wife' (the guitar), and brought back lots of fond memories - like the song "Zhang Xin" and "Shen Bian". The feeling is different because these songs were sung when he's still a part of the now-defunct group "Wu Yin Liang Pin".

Mayday was the last performer and once they hit the stage, the place became super High!!!! As 6th Dec happened to be Ashin's birthday, they made him drink ABC Beer on the stage. After the concert, they actually made him smash his face into the birthday cake. Stone & Monster were not spared since all 3 of them were born under the same star sign - Saggitarius.

They performed quite a number of songs. I loved the part where they sang "Lian Ai I-N-G", cos Ashin wanted us to form the words "L O V E" with our hands. It was very fun! It really brought back memories of the "Final Home" concert held here at the Max Pavillion last year... I am looking forward to their new album, which was to launch in end Dec 06!!! Sigh... their last album with Rock Records... after which they're going to jump ship to join EMI.

9th Dec 06 (Sat) - An unexpected fun concert! Got free tix to watch the Sandy Lam concert at the National Indoor Stadium on Sat.

The atmosphere was really high. There's one segment "Sandy's Party", where the place suddenly turned into a disco, with cool lightings, and fast dance tracks by Sandy. I must say she had good dancers, good stage presence, and very good vocals!! She was really a diva!! And I must say I'm quite impressed with this concert.

The indoor stadium was almost 90% filled!! Really good attendance and the audience were really sporty!!! There were some 'gay fans' who congregated outside the stadium entrances. Haha...

Well... I sure hope more fantastic concerts come to Singapore in 2007! : )

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Night is Beautiful

Singapore's night life is voted as world no. 2, just 1 spot behind Italy!! WOW!! It amazes me so much because more often than not, my friends and I have to squeeze our brain juices dry to think of a place to go afterdark!

Nightlife is not only about pubbing or clubbing..... there aren't many food outlets that are open 24 hours, and 7-11 is clearly not a choice. The variety of products they have in 7-11 in taiwan puts us to shame! Well... you really can get anything and everything from a 24-hour convenience store overseas - like in taiwan, 7-11 offers dining (although the food is not superb, but its a place to hangout afterdark with some decent food, and not instant noodles or mash potato!) In Japan, the variety is more stunning (just by looking at the bottled drinks and the instant cup noodles!).

When I was in Korea 2 years back, nightlife was probably more exciting as people can hang out at 24-hour board game cafes, karaoke lounges, pubs, cafes, etc... and I really loved the Eslite Bookstores in Taiwan!!! There's 1 that opens 24hrs and I really loved the selection of books, the imported stationery items and decorative items, and a mini art gallery, a cafe, oh my god! That's so heavenly!! How I wish I can own this kind of bookstore in Singapore! Damn! Come to think of it, my friends and I were so HOT about this idea when we were still in Secondary School. We wanted to convert a shophouse of 3 levels into a concept bookshop. Level 1 would be a mini bakery ran by one of my friends who loved to bake & enjoys a nice cup of coffee, level 2 would be a room filled with CDs and level 3 would be filled with nice books, where the balcony area would be open a good place to read and relax... Sigh... still waiting for that day to materialise... but hopefully, we can have the capacity to go 24-hours to add to this beautiful night life in Singapore!

Hmmm... or is the night in Singapore beautiful because of its security? Then again, there are psychos lurking around the neighbourhoods, and that would not stay true to a certain extent. Wonder why... when a society progresses by leaps and bounds, the morality of a person actually got eaten away... In recent days, we've seen news of rape & murder, murder and dumping away of body parts, and the likes...

It still awes me to think that Singapore's night life is really that interesting! Hmm... maybe I should hang out late more often to realise that this is indeed true and not a hallucination?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

New Digital Camera

I bought my new digital camera at last!!!
Got it last Sat before going down to the Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch the "Global Chinese Music Awards".
Went to Sim Lim Square to hunt for my digital camera. I've always enjoyed using Panasonic Cameras. I used to own the first generation Lumix FX1. But it has recently been throwing trantrums at me. I know its time is up as digital cameras usually don't last for a long time if you are a heavy user. The maximum lifespan should be about 4 years or so.
Anyway, I bought my Panasonic Lumix FX07 at Alan Photo after considering it for quite some time... I bought the black one! hehe... was quite torn between the pink or champagne gold... more unique colours mah... but decided black is the timeless beauty :)
Its a very compact and powerful camera! I liked the part on the wide-angle lens, as well as the 3.6x optical zoom (at 7 mega pixel), and the anti-handshake element. If I choose it to be at 3 mega pixels, there's an extended optical zoom to 5.5x! This is great if I don't want to dilute the resolution of the picture!! :) The screen is wide enough for me (though the FX90 boasts of a 3inch screen!). It came with a 1GB SD Card... YEah!! Maybe I don't have to bring my Hard Disk to Taipei from 3-6 Nov 06 :)

Will be flying to Taipei on 3rd Nov 06! HOORAY!!! This time its Free & Easy with my colleagues (not my mum!) and I think I'll be able to experience more things! ; ) Will remember to treat my stomach well by filling it up with lots of taiwan snacks! Slurp... Chicken Cutlet... Spicy Hot Pot... Tempura... Takoyuki... Desserts... Seafood... Yum Yum!!!!

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Global Chinese Music Awards

28 Oct 06 - Indoor Stadium - 6th Chinese Global Music Awards

又是“分猪肉”的一年... ...

真替阿信感到开心,因为他为静茹写的《丝路》夺得“最佳作词奖,我觉得真是当之无愧!“丝路”的词真的写得太棒了!!!

YEAH!!!! 五月天也夺得了“最佳乐团”这奖项。可以说是大赢家。

真搞不懂为什么容祖儿可以赢得“最佳女歌手”,还有刘德华可以赢得“最佳唱片制作”??? 而燕姿的“完美的一天”专辑也为她赢了不少奖,但我都不觉得她应该拿到那些奖,因为那张专辑绝对不是一张“完美的专辑”。

陈奕迅也赢了蛮多奖项,他在演唱“怎么样”时很搞笑!故意用慢动作进场,唱歌是懒洋洋地。

SHE 也赢了蛮多奖项,Ella 尤其搞笑!Hebe 真的越来越飘亮了!

可惜王力宏没来... 不然听他现场唱“Kiss Goodbye”会即时融化!

周董也没赏脸到场。FIR 和陶吉吉更是两袖清风, 都没被提名!!!

发现今晚有好多明星脸!!!

J3 的 Alex 很像羽泉的成员之一,Nick 则像水木年华的成员之一,而Jacky就像侧田。

有一位中国歌手像木村拓哉!!! 而Tank和胡谚斌也有些相似!

林宇中的声音很光良,张靓颖很林晓培... ...

阿信唱《知足》时有点走音了... 但他说五子会不断努力作音乐(也会努力做人- 冠佑的女儿诞生了!! 真是恭喜夫人、贺喜老爷!)

Monday, October 16, 2006

A Dramatic Sunday

The haze is back!!! Damn!! And its always Satuday that's badly affected.

Went for a brisk walk with April yesterday at 7:30am. Was joking about 'breathing in some stale air so that I can report sick for work today' to yuan when she called me and asked me to accompany her to Chinatown to look for favours for her wedding.

The drama happened when we were going home from Chinatown. Our bus hit a man jay-walking!!!! We heard a loud bang, and then I saw this man stagger to the pavement and sat down, his hands kept rubbing his head. The bus stopped and the driver went out to take a look. Apparently, the man kept insisting that he was ok!! WOW!!! How amazing! He had been hit by a DOUBLE-DECKER BUS and he could still walk perfectly!

All the KPOs on the bus flocked to one side of the window and began to watch 'free show'. How I wish the bus wouldn't topple to one side because the weight suddenly shifted to the left of the bus! Anyway, the guy who got hit didn't want to go to the hospital for a check-up. One passenger who got up the bus started telling stories like that man was an illegal worker, or had problems with his permit.... and then everyone started talking about that incident!

Singaporeans are strange creatures. They bond by talking behind people's backs........... haha... how queer!

After that, we dropped off outside Bedok Interchange, and there's this man who tried to pick up his coin which had rolled off onto the road! Thank God he made it quick or else he could have been knocked down by a passing vehicle! Aiyoh!!! For Goodness' sake! Its just a few bloody pieces of coins! You can always dig into your pocket for more! Or you could ask for change from someone at the bus stop, or the vendor selling newspapers nearby! Why risk your life over that?? Another strange person!

And as our bus was approaching this bus stop near Bedok Reservoir, there was a slight accident where a motorcyclist got involved and the police were there taking down statements.

Anyway, I thought I would fall sick because when I woke up this morning, I had a slight sore throat, and my nose was slightly blocked. Sianzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Monday, September 25, 2006

Past Week...

Met up with Emily & her friends at JuJu Hokkaido Steamboat Restaurant in Paradiz last Friday. The meal was really scrumptious!!! Slurp... I had the fish as my main course... so FULL after the meal I could hardly breathe!! The concept is similar to Tao's restaurant, since they're run by the same management. It came with a starter, the main course, a special drink, the main dish, a side, as well as dessert : ) So fulfilling!! IT costs S$29 per pax but its definitely worth it! We can choose the base to be clear or spicy. Slurp...

After that, Emily & I went to Mr Bean's Cafe to have coffee and play the T-puzzle that she's created. We managed to solve 2 of the puzzles!! HOORAY!!! The puzzle is really chim!!! We had a first taste of this puzzle when we were at a hot spring resort in Hokkaido. We were really hooked on the game!! Instead of buying the puzzle, which is quite costly, we've decided to re-create it on our own :P

http://www.puzzles.com/PuzzlePlayground/TheTPuzzle/TheTPuzzle.htm

We only went home around 1+... and the next day, I went to meet Yuan & Xueling at 9am at the airport!!!! Got to wake up at 7am to get prepared for the meeting. Passed Yuan her souvenirs from Japan at last!!! We bought a cute Betty Boop apron for her, and FANCL cleansers : ) We had BIG BREAKFAST at T2 McDonald's.

We had initially wanted to take a 4-seater at the corner, but we saw an overturned backpack on the floor, in between of the 2 tables. Hence, we decided to take the table behind it in case someone used the backpack to reserve a table. In the end, a staff came over to tell us that its reserved. So, we moved on to the other side. To our disgust, that backpack was unclaimed and in less than 5mins, 2 police officers arrived. They took down statements from the Restaurant manager. Then, in another 5-10mins, a guy wearing a white uniform with a bulky device appeared. Its actually a BOMB DETECTOR!!!! WOW!!! So Drama!!!!

I was pretty amazed that the restaurant manager didn't evacuate us earlier. What if, it really is a bomb scare?? Hmm.... I think we would be blown to pieces by then! haha... but then again, there could be panic and stampedes! Well.... it made me reflect on the countless fire drills we've had... well... who would give a damn! Its just a drill!!! haha... but then again, I guess Singaporeans are generally quite 'bo chup'. Take the backpack in mcdonald's at T2. People just continue having their Big Breakfasts, chatting away, and even when those uniformed men were in action, they just stood from afar to catch the free show...

Then we went to Tampines Mall to shop since Xueling has a wedding to attend and need to buy some clothes for the themed wedding. She has to look for either White, Pink or Gold clothes. In the end she bought a white top, and a white skirt with orange stripes. After which we went down to Orchard. We went to Heeren first. After that we had snacks at Spinelli since we didn't eat lunch. I had my Cheesecake at last!! Slurp!!! and my sun kiss twist! : ) Lovely place to people-watch and take a rest!

After that we walked over to Ngee Ann City. Shopped a bit at Taka, then decided to move to Paragon to have an early dinner. We decided to eat at that soba place in the basement. After that, we shopped for a while before heading home around 8pm. Phew! The timing was great as the buses were not crowded at that time. There's the replay of the Singapore Idol on TV Mobile. Saw a lot of people sms-ing to support Hady...

Watched the Final Showdown on Ch 5 last night. Hady proved to be a better singer, way way better than Jonathan! haha... the more I look at Jonathan, the more he resembled this muppet from Jim Henson's muppets - Guy Smiley!! hahaha.....

Tonight is the results show... wonder who would win??

Monday, September 04, 2006

Burnt a hole in my pocket


Flew back from Narita Airport Terminal 1 on 1st September 2006 at 12:45am. Reached home around 1am, and had to quickly take out my clothes to wash them. Then quickly take a shower and slept around 3am.

Damn alarm clock! Forgot to set my handphone time back to Singapore time, hence, when the alarm rang at 7am, the skies were still dark... came to realise that it's only 6am!! Went back to sleep again, and this time, I only woke up around 7:30am.

Yawnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... felt quite alright at work but nearly dozed off during the 11am meeting... Went home early to rest since I didn't join in the company dinner. Still had to wake up early on Saturday for the HSBC Treetop Walk, and bring my hard disk out to transfer photos with Yanshan & Xueling.

Walked the wrong way and ended up completing the 11km trail + another 3km of EXTRA mileage because of the wrong turns. We were also distracted by the monkeys we missed the road signs! DAMN Monkeys!!!

Anyway, had fun perspiring! After that we were so exhausted we just drove down to Wheelock to eat lunch, and try out Birkenstock!!! Then we went to Borders Cafe to download the pictures for our trip. Reached home around 6pm. Then brought April to the library, together with Jenny. Borrowed 3 books, one of which is "Odd Body Questions".

Went to upgrade my mobile phone yesterday. YEAH!! My Sony Ericsson K800i! Lovely piece of device! : ) And bought mum a new watch - CYMA that cost me S$435!!! WAOH!! She sure has expensive taste man!! I thought the budget was S$100+!!! Sigh... nevermind lah... since she loved it, why not? I still have to pay for her Hainan Island trip end of this month! 7 days of peace.... Ahhh........

Today is quite peaceful at work... except for those urgent requests by stupid clients! Grrrr.... how I wish I could slap EXPRESS CHARGES on them! Irritating fools! One of them is so lazy that she's asking us to do HER share of work!! Idiot!!!

Oh well... I had better finish my stuff soon and go home early to sleep.....

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Rain Rain Go Away

It's lunch time... and its raining... wat lousy weather!!

Luckily I stepped out of the office early to 'ta pau' back. The Nonya stall which we frequent for its mee siam & mee rebus was closed today... SOLD OUT so fast due to the podcast by Mr. Brown making fun of the Prime Minister National Day Rally Speech?? Hehe... I thought its strange to have 'hum' in mee siam... was it supposed to be eaten that way?? Hmmm.....

Heard from my colleague the Prime Minister's secretary actually wrote in to the forum to say that the PM had actually meant "Laksa mai hum". That made more sense than "Mee Siam Mai Hum".

Bro came to my house around 10+ last night to fix my computer. Something's wrong... I can't seem to connect to the internet although my modem had successfully dialled in. ARGH!!! The internet is such an important tool for me at home!! How could this have happened? He said its virus... DAMN!! All the stupid spywares! We re-installed Norton Anti-Virus and ran a thorough scan on my PC... to my horror.... its 1am and the machine was still running!! Bro told me to keep the computer running till the next morning, then re-start and run the virus scan again... Yawnzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Sometimes I wonder why must technology be so advanced?? I would be happy if using a typewriter since no one can spy on my files and steal them. Just that I need to perfect my typing skill as there's no 'backspace' key on the typewriter.

Brought my "A Brazilian Sonata" cd to work today. I need soothing music to relax man!! The stupid Competitive Review for Jan-Jun 2006 is driving me CRAZY!!! Read an article in Her World (Sep 06 issue) that music is therapeutic. I shall try to relieve my nerves for today... Hopefully I don't fall asleep due to the lack of it last night...

YEAH!! Tomorrow is the day of my Japan trip!!! I've got to do some last minute packing... Nevermind, will do it after watching "LOST". Why must "My Lovely Sam Soon" be shown at the same time?? ARGH!!!!!

Rain has stopped... but I think the dark clouds are still hovering above our heads... Rain Rain Go Away....

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Ready to fly ...



I'll be flying off at 11:55pm on 25 August to Osaka via Japan Airlines : )

I wonder how different the service would be compared to ANA.

Wonder if I can fall asleep soundly on the plane since its a mid-night flight... I hope I can, or else I would look super tired when I arrive in Osaka, and maybe fall asleep on some rides in Universal Studio!! Eeeeekkk.... better try to catch some sleep.... I hope its not going to be bumpy and stuffy like the ANA flight to Haneda airport when I went to Hokkaido on 7th July...

I really look forward to this trip : )

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Break Up


Went to watch "The Break Up" last night with Xueling at Great World City.

The show was quite farnie... the common issues that would spark rivalry between couples. They loved each other dearly, but, because of circumstances, they broke up... and I think the friends around them played an important part to this ending.

But I think the story came to an absurd ending... especially when the both of them suddenly met - Vince Vaughn was buying stuff from a grocery shop, which Jennifer Aniston happened to pass by. He called her, and she looked back. I was like... so DUH!!!

I loved the condo in which they stayed in. Really spacious and cool!!! Too bad they had this unnecessary quarrel which lead to their break-up. Well... things like this do happen. Especially when male & female were made very differently...

Guys tend to keep everything to themselves and they are not very good at expressing their thoughts. Women, on the other hand, always felt that they gave up a lot and gave in a lot, but don't feel appreciated.

So the moral of the story is ----- Be open about your feelings. It's good to praise someone occasionally. Don't be stingy with kind words! This is relevant to all relationships. : )

Monday, August 21, 2006

Expect The Unexpected

The executive who replaces WC left on 14 Aug...

She had a better offer. Besides, she's unhappy with the team. So I think that's good for her, to get out of here fast, and with the right opportunity.

And before you know it, I'll be flying off to JApan again!! This time from 25 Aug (11:55pm flight) to 31 Aug 06 :)

Will be visiting Osaka first. Can't wait to go to Universal Studio!!! Then, will visit Kyoto : ) Xueling will lament that because of Universal Studio, we can't visit her Osaka Castle :P Last stop would be in Tokyo, where we'll visit DisneyLand!!! YEAH!!!!

Then we'll be going on our company trip in end Oct : )

The 4 destinations are out for us to vote - Bali (surprising zero votes by today), Hanoi, Shanghai & Taipei (most popular so far, with 9 votes).

The results would be out on 28 Aug ; ) I would be holidaying in Japan by then, so uncontactable anyway. hahaha..... watever will be, will be.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Day 5 in Hokkaido - 12 July 06

Ohaiyo Gozaimasu!

今早alarm 7am 就吵醒我们。但昨晚睡得蛮香的!

窗外正下着绵绵细雨… 昨天的天气预报显示今天会下雨,所以出门要预备雨伞。这里的毛毛雨很像water sprinkler spray 出来的 “mist”, 一点儿也不像新加坡!而且下完雨后有些凉意,又有点儿misty, 看起来好美!

今天是“瞎拼日”,我们都忍住购物的欲望,因为今天廖san会带我们去“狸小路”的一间小店买东西。在这间店买会比较便宜,而且还有10% discount!!!

我们会先到Nijo Fish Market看看。这里根本没有什么鱼腥味!! 而这里的海鲜类种类繁多,又很新鲜!我们徘徊了好久,在一间店前买了 corn 来吃。廖san 他们都很惊奇为什么我们生吃玉蜀黍!哈哈!原来他们没有这种习惯将玉蜀黍生吃,他们会先煮熟了才吃,好不容易说服他们试试看。哇!这些玉蜀黍真的好甜!!! Kenneth 买了一大箱回去给他的同事!我和Emily买了一颗玉蜀黍来吃,真搞笑!那玉蜀黍要3,000 yen!!真是好贵的玉蜀黍啊!

离开前,Emily在廖san的协助下,以4,000yen 买了一只螃蟹!!!

到了这间位于狸小路的店,我们就“大开杀戒”了!

我总共花了10,080yen, 买了3盒“白之恋人”巧克力饼、1组Hokkaido Hello Kitty 的茶杯、2盒Hello Kitty Milk Candies、2包北海道奶糖、1盒Royce 巧克力、1个Bear’s Paw Handphone Accessory 和1个怪怪的超人handphone accessory。

买完东西后便到隔壁的一间拉面店吃午餐。

这家拉面店叫“一风堂”,拉面的汤好香甜,拉面也很Q,好好吃!

吃饱后又继续逛。我们4pm才集合。

逛了pharmacies, cosmetics shops, convenience stores, 也买了potato biscuits for 雪玲,明信片,blusher & eye shadow。我们还排了大头贴!! 哈哈!真好玩!最后因为口渴想喝水,但vending machine 里头的水大多数都卖完了。这时竟看到100yen 店!!! 找了好久都找不到!! 现在它终于出现在我们眼前了!!!

100yen 店好大!有4层楼高。

1楼是日常用品、2楼有卖零食、杯、碟之类的杂物。3楼则是专卖stationery items。我们因为不够时间,所以没有逛4楼,赶紧跑下1楼还钱,就跑回集合地。

下个景点就是“北海道神宫”。我们进去神宫之前须要在外面的一个“泉水池”洗手,先洗左手,再洗右手,最后用左手将剩下的水拿来涑口。许愿前必须先向神明鞠躬,然后投一枚5yen(5yen跟有缘谐音),然后用右手掌拍左手掌2次,再许愿。许愿完毕又得鞠个躬!好chim啊!!我们看到一个日本妇人在许愿,就跟着她的动作做。

After that 我们便道神宫门口右边一个专卖“护身符”的小店。 有一些投币式的求签玩意儿,我先投下一枚100yen的硬币,抽到“小吉”。之后又投下一枚200yen的硬币,抽另一种签,拿到“熊手”,我们把签绑在绳子上。

最后一个景点就是“Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium”。终于坐上chairlift到上面看风景。哇!好美!

今晚的晚餐是teppanyaki,我们也会吃到预订的Kobe beef 和鲍鱼!!! Slurp!!!

晚餐后,会到酒店还早,我们放下行李,便马上冲出去,找好玩的、好看的!今晚住的是Green Hotel 2, Room 240。酒店就在Susukino附近。而Susukino离狸小路也很近!

Susukino是北海道的“红灯区”,有很多男人西装笔挺,但都是拉客的… …

我们看到摩天轮,但追了好久,就看不到踪影。我猜想应该是在某间高楼的屋顶。最后终于让我们找到了。其实不是很昂贵,1人才600yen!我们还在上面看到了最后的日落!好难忘的北海道之旅啊!!!

Expensive Melons!!!

Where's the Ferris Wheel???

Monday, August 07, 2006

Day 4 in Hokkaido – 11 July 06


Sigh… 时间飞逝如电,今天已经是11日了,还剩下2天……我会很怀念这里的一山一水、也忘不了这里的食物、日本人的服务态度,包装艺术,舒服的温泉……

昨晚睡得蛮舒服的!真是一觉到天明。在别的国家包括自己家开冷气睡觉只会让我半夜感到呼吸困难,冷气太冷,而常常不够睡。但是这里的冷气很user-friendly,我只调到medium,一整个晚上不但没被冷气吵醒,气温更是不会太冷!哇!好神奇啊!

我们今天要去的第一个景点就是Otaru Canal了。以前这里是一个繁忙的海港,有很多外国人在这里贸易,但之后天皇决定与世隔绝,这里就变成了货舱。现在的货舱被改良成一家家精致的小店,有卖吃的,也有精品店。

这里真的好欧洲风格哟!好美!廖-san说到了冬天,当周围都被皑皑白雪给覆盖,简直太美了!

在那儿逗留了15分钟,我们便坐车绕道去停车场,然后徒步道Otaru Music Box Museum。 在途中突然看到前面的人都乖乖地form a line,还以为到了入场处,谁知原来是有一间café 在分chocolate让路人试吃!哈哈!

Otaru Music Box Museum里头真的有好多好美的音乐盒呀!我们先走到最里面拿一盒free chocolates,然后再慢慢逛这间看起来好大好久的building。 Emily 要买一个音乐盒送给她哥哥和嫂嫂当结婚礼物。我们先走走看看,把楼上的exhibits看完,然后再慢慢选!

你可以自己亲手制作一个音乐盒,但花费蛮昂贵的。其实这里的音乐盒真的好漂亮!有天使,摩天伦,旧时的飞机、跑车,还有旋转木马!有一些Disney characters 的音乐盒,还有一些是keychain!最后我们选了好久,我买了一个蓝色心形的keychain音乐盒,上了链就能听到平井坚的歌!好好听!我也买了一个摩天伦形的音乐盒,因为很喜欢那些happy colours!还有一直很喜欢坐在摩天伦的感觉!真棒!在这里花了3,675yen!

之后我们便到对面的一间café 喝咖啡吃蛋糕。我们先选杯子,因为喝完饮料后,我们可以把杯子带回家!找了一个靠窗的坐位,坐下来好好品尝北海道的咖啡,在配上一片薄薄的蛋糕。Mmmmm… 真爽!

After this 就是自由活动all the way till lunch time. 我们看到著名的“北一哨子管”,还有一间专卖animal soft toys 的店。这里还有很多不同的博物馆。我们也看到rickshaw pullers & horse carriages!

总算等到这一天了!因为午餐可以吃大螃蟹!!!!
原本的set lunch 只由一条grilled fish, 一个mini hot pot soup, 还有一碗饭,但我们来到这里就一定要尝试这里的big long leg crabs!我们找到一对夫妇share 螃蟹来吃,这里也有sea urchins卖!yum yum! 我们选了一只medium-sized 的crab, 然后选了4粒sea urchins,便进餐馆准备进食。

这一餐吃得真饱!但也吃得好爽!螃蟹肉好甜!我也第一次尝试吃crab sashimi!Sea urchins 的味道也很鲜甜,不像新加坡的,yucks! 好腥啊!

吃饱后又要前往下一个行程- Shiraoi Ainu Village。半路中我们都睡着了,醒来时是因为突然觉得天气转凉了!原来下了一场毛毛雨。

我们便在highway point 停了一下,廖san说要打电话到 Ainu Village 看那里是不是在下大雨,如果是的话,可能行程就要改一改,明天再去Ainu Village,现在可以回温泉酒店。

最后还是选择去Shiraoi Ainu Village。要经过好多souvenir shops才可进去entrance。我们先到一间小木屋看表演。

木屋里有生火熏鱼。屋顶上也吊了蛮多只熏鱼的。奇怪!难道Ainu就靠着些熏鱼过活吗?

表演开始了。他们的乐器很简单。发出来的声音也很奇怪。

最后是他们的一个舞蹈表演- 赶熊舞!舞完后,那位男生留下来为我们讲解一些关于爱努族的生活习惯。他好风趣!之后我们便可以到处看看。

The lake beside the village is very beautiful, especially during the drizzle!!!博物馆里有好多exhibits,而这里养了一些黑熊!!!还有一些狗!!

第一只熊在发出奇怪的声音,而且背对这我们,好像在吃东西,又好像在吐!谁知它把吐出来的东西再吃进肚子里!Yucks! 好恶心!

第二只熊is sitting cross-legged!!! 但它好像在struggle to 把脚拉出来,然后可以sit normally。哈哈!看样子它好像不倒翁,样子好滑稽啊!

第三只熊只是默默地坐在角落,好像要zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz了。

第四只熊已四脚朝天,睡得不知有多甜!

那些关在笼子的狗其实也不是省油的灯!他们偶尔会拿狗和熊博斗!

4.50pm 离开Ainu Village,我们要前往地狱谷了!!!

Hell Valley 就是一个有sulphur的谷。那里一直冒烟,让人们感觉那里好热,就像地狱般,所以才叫它地狱谷。好臭啊!!!

今晚住在“石水亭”,好大好美的温泉酒店。 我们就住在4016房。听廖san说今晚住的酒店有两个温泉,其中一个是open-air的!hmmm…感觉应该不错吧!

Dinner was buffet style… 我们又因为在房间拍照而迟到。我们10:30pm要去泡露天温泉!!! 但因为有一部”电视电影”的show,里面有藤原纪香,她好美!!! 我们看完后再去泡温泉!

今晚的温泉比较多人,而且是台湾来的。她们很害羞哟!到处用毛巾遮来遮去!

要好好把握明天了!因为明天是最后一天,也是“瞎拼”天!要养足精神,明天要买好多守信回去孝敬家人、朋友和同事!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

生命奇迹小狐狸 (Helen, The Baby Fox)

http://www.helen-movie.jp/index2.html

好感人的一部动物片,电影配乐很棒!光听音乐就有被感动的感觉。

小男孩的母亲是一位摄影师,因碰到一个难得的机会而得出国取景而得把他寄宿在她第二春的家。刚好这位男士的太太已不再,而且育有一个念中学的女儿。起初这对父女不太能够适应有小男孩Taichi的生活,因为他母亲就这样把他寄宿在他们的“动物诊所”。

Taichi在学校是孤单的,因为他是转校生。 他妈妈寄了好多漂亮的明信片给他,告诉他她所在的世界里看到的一些趣事,例如有一种鱼会算术,叫“Matching Fish”,当她问3x2等于多少,有5支鱼竟凑在一起,最后一支慢慢游上来凑数,她觉得那支很像他,便把它取名为"Taichi"。当Taichi把这事件写成作文,引来老师和同学的嘲笑,他伤心透了。就在他最失意的这一天,他在马路旁的草地上发现了一只小狐狸,静静地坐着,不动声色。

“可能小狐狸也和我一样寂寞吧?来!我们一起玩吧!”

玩着、玩着、Taichi 做了一个梦,他梦到他抱着小狐狸来到一个似曾相识的地方,仿佛是妈妈寄给他明信片上的一片美丽岛。

“再见啦!下次再找你玩!” 但当他转头望着新玩伴原地不动,而目光直视他,好象很无助的样子,他也忍不住抛下小狐狸不管,便带它到警察局向警察叔叔求救,帮迷路的小狐狸找妈妈。谁知警察叔叔把Taichi和小狐狸送回那兽医诊所。Taichi想象力丰富,当警察叔叔找不到动物诊所的路,看到一个老婆婆,便停下来问路,Taichi 竟看到一个巫婆用邪恶的眼神在警告他千万不要把它送到这里来,否则他们就活不了!!!

原本兽医父女都不想收留小狐狸,因为人们都以为他们诊所专收留受了上的动物,常常送它们到这里“白吃白住”,他们因此都没钱赚!

好不容易才说服兽医把小狐狸留下,但突然发现小狐狸竟然是盲哑的! 就这样,小狐狸有了名字---"Helen", 就像Helen Keller,因为有Anne Sullivan 的帮助,而没放弃自己, 勇于学习,发奋图强!

Taichi 要做Helen 的 Sullivan, 帮助它度过难关,希望有一天它会好起来,然后回到妈妈身边。

因为下了决心要帮Helen,Taichi 的锲而不舍,尽责,让我深深感动。这么小的孩子,这么重的责任!

他试着用Sullivan教Helen Keller 的方式来教小狐狸认识环境,喂它喝奶、吃肉,好让它健康长大!

"Dr Northern Fox" 的出现能否救活Helen呢?当他把Helen带到大学的研究所做进一步的检验时,Taichi 边追着车子,边喊着“你要好起来!到时候我和你一起滑板!”

就这样, 他向一位同学请教怎样滑板,以实现对Helen 的诺言。

那天可能不会到来吧。

原本想让Helen感受夏天的北海道,花开芬芳的季节,当Taichi到篱笆后采各种颜色的花,Helen因害怕没有Taichi在身旁,便叫了起来。

Taichi摘了好多花,把花儿撒在Helen的四周,原本想让Helen感受早来的北海道花季,却变成了一场葬礼,Helen倒在地上一动也不动了。

这时,我的眼泪也开始唏哩哗啦地流了满脸,一包纸巾都用完了!

好久没看到这么动人的电影了。风景好棒!让我回想7月份北海道一游的美好时光!

Monday, July 31, 2006

Day 3 in Hokkaido - 10 July 06

Time flies... especially when you are having fun!

Slept at almost 12am but was too tired to wake up to catch the World Cup Finals. Yeah!! Italy won!! but I think this caused many people to lose money.... :P

The first place we visited on our itinery today the Milky Way Falls & Shooting Star Falls at the Sounkyo Gorge.

The water from the Shooting Star Falls are running quite fast and spurting in different directions, like shooting stars, hence the name. The Milky Way Falls, however, had water flowing down in a very 'yew siew' manner.... hmmm... but i think the water should be quite fast too! cos when it reached the bottom, can feel the strong currents.



We only stayed there for 30mins. After which we set off to visit the Ice Pavilion. Brrrrrr...... can't imagine how cold -40 degrees celsius would be like?!?!?

At the Ice Pavilion, we were given a 'thick jacket' to protect ourselves from the extreme cold. The jacket was really THIN!!! Not thick at all, but it was really really useful as I didn't feel the cold at all!!! But my fingers were freezing when I took pictures without my gloves. Argh!! Wearing gloves made me felt so clumsy and I can't really feel my hands!!

The interior of the Ice Pavilion was already -20 degrees!!!!! There's a button at the -40 degrees section where the harsh wind would be blown in your direction once you hit the button, to experience the extreme weather at -40 degrees, which is the lowest temperature Hokkaido experienced during its bitter winter days!!! WAH!!! I remembered when I was in Korea, the -10 degrees already were a torture for me!! Can't imagine coming to Hokkaido during winter and had to brace myself for -40 degrees!! KILL ME!!!!

Later we went to this cosy corner to have a cup of hot tea and some biscuits. There were souvenirs on sale here. I bought 4 cute walrus that emits light for my 4 nieces here. So kawaii!!!

After that, we left for Otokoyama Sake Brewery Museum. The sake here was very famous and won lots of awards from all over the world!! There's a very nice garden outside the Brewery Museum. There was an exhibition area displaying all the ancient tools for brewing sake. WAH... damn clasic man!!! The best part was the 'subtle advertising' found in the olden days woodprinting pictures, you can notice the logo of the "男山" in these paintings!!! Brilliant!!!

We were given a small cup of sake to try. There's the bitter one, the sweet one and the hot one. We tried the sweet one of course!! Yucks.... I think I don't like the taste though it won many awards... I prefer Sapporo Beer anytime!! :P

There's this fountain at the Sake Brewery, where it was believed that if you drink from this 'fountain', you'll obtain longevity. A lot of people really bring SUPER BIG Containers to fill them up with the fountain water. We tried some too! Very cooling and fresh!! Does it mean I'll live 1 year longer?? HAHAHA

The garden was filled with lots of pretty flowers!!! We took quite a lot of photos here as the view was really very nice! ; )

Lunch was at Lavender Hill. When we walked into the restaurant, we saw a mini hairy crab on the tables and thought "WAH!! We can finally eat crabs!!" but to our disappointment, that was not our menu..... Ours was a bowl of noodles, a bowl of rice with scallop inside, some fresh scallops, a mini hot pot, and some salad with 1 slice of orange and 1 piece of Potato Croquette. Its delicious, but when we see those Japanese tourists sinking their teeth into the delicious crabs... we felt envious!! Hmmmmm

From Lavender Hill, we had to take a 2hour bus ride to Ishiya Chocolate Factory. YEAH!! Finally I am visiting the legendary Ishiya Chocolate Factory.

The Chocolate Factory was HUGE!! and the building was very "European" and PRETTY!!!!! There's a huge clock tower there, and we saw the majestic performance by the 'statues' on the buildings when the clock struck 4:30pm (almost closing time). There's singing chefs, chefs playing instruments and some animals rotating around the clock tower. So fun!!!

The aroma of the chocolates filled the air.... The 'processing' was done mainy by machines... Damn cool!!! There were some tea cups on display at Level 2. So pretty & exquisite!!!! There was a section where you can pay to go in to learn the baking process and make your own cakes!! So nice!! The sugar crafts were so pretty that you won't bear to eat them if you buy them!! They come in nice shapes and designs - piano, dolls, shoes, animals....

After that, there's the TOY MUSEUM!! The toys were really classic!! I was so excited to see Astro Boy standing outside the Toy Museum! : )

There's this garden outside where there were lots of mini houses! So pretty!!! I squeezed into one of the house. There were some mini furniture inside as well!! If only I had such toys like this when I was young ...

We bought 2 pieces of cake from the 'souvenir' shop. Oishi desu!! The packaging was so nice!!!

We would be staying at a Hot Spring Resort Hotel tonight as well. It's about the same as yesterday's room, but I think the toilet was slightly more spacious. We stayed in Rm 605. Dinner was served at 7:30pm. Its a set meal waiting for us!! and I saw CRABS!!! long legs!!! Yummy!!!!

Liao-san bought some firecrackers. We went to the open field in front of the resort hotel to play with the firecrackers. So fun!!! We could never do that in Singapore as the government thinks its dangerous.... What a lot of fun we missed!

Went to the public bath around 10:15pm to soak ourselves in the Onsen. WAH!! The temperature of the water damn HOT!!! Ouch ouch ouch!!! I can only tahan for 15mins. There were a few obasan in the onsen. They really paced their way through... going in... then coming out to take a rest by the shower area.... then rinsed themselves with hot water before they dip into the onsen again!!! No wonder they can stay there like forever!! I felt myself cooked like a lobster in the onsen!! Grrrrrrrr....

The Yukata we wore tonight was nicer than yesterday's! At least we don't look like patients of a hospital!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

The Fast & Furious - Tokyo Drift


Watched it last night with Xueling.

The effects are ok... no storyline at all... and I thought Lucas Black looked a bit TOO OLD to act as an under-18 who was always getting into trouble because of his love for speed!

The guy who acted as "HAN" doesn't even look Japanese!!! I suspect he's a korean!!! hmmm....

The thought of "Initial D" kept "drifting" to my head. What a coincidence!! This is "Tokyo Drift". When Sean's mum put him on a fligh to Tokyo to look for his dad, I thought someone familiar would come to the door when he pressed the door-bell! hahaha... just a funny thought... he couldn't have known the owner of 藤原豆腐店 anyway as he's an ANG MOH growing up in the states!!!

Cars were really funky looking.... the car which Twinkie drove was real cute and had a character of its own - green with funny lumps and 'hair'! haha.... cool! : )

I liked the part where they used the car park as a racing ground for Drifting.... the space was so NARROW!!! and the car could drift smoothly up!!! WOW!!!! ..... and I thought DK = Donkey Kong was quite hilarious... haha (DK actually was the nickname of that cocky bad guy Takashi, and it meant Drift King)

西游记

今天心血来潮,和雪玲相约去“西边取经”。

从Bedok搭地铁到Boon Lay 需要花1个小时也!突然下起一阵雨... ...

第一站便是Jurong Point Shopping Centre。发现这里的鞋店很多!而服饰店卖的服装款式大同小异。我买了好多东西,下个星期要省吃俭用了!花了$62.10 买了一件褐色的连身群,也花了$28.90 买了五月天的“Final Home DVD”,又在Esprit花了$10.80 买了一罐眼部卸装济。 走累了,肚子饿了,便到楼上的Bento Box 吃了一顿很早的“晚餐”。这样也好,等一下不用跟人在晚餐时间争位子。吃饱后便道 Basement 逛逛。发现Sembawang Music Centre 内有 Mr. Children 的 CD 正在便宜出售,才$10!!! 真是有“捡到宝“ 的喜悦涌上心头!因为我一只要买他们的专辑,但之前看到一个CD要$60+, 就打消要买的念头。我总共买了4张Mr.Children的专辑,最喜欢的是“Atomic Heart“。

之后我们便出发到JurongEast的IMM逛。 但我们看到另一间百货公司-Jurong Entertainment Centre, 便过去kaypoh一下。

Jurong Entertainment Centre 没什么好玩的。有戏院,一些商店,和一些卖吃的,有点儿闷。我们从后门离开,看到Jurong East Library, 样子看起来好新,好大!我们便被‘吸’进书香里。

图书馆内有好多有趣的参考书-有关设计、音乐、邮票、历史等,我们在那里消耗了将近2个小时!!

最后一站便是IMM了。原来那里一部分正在进行装修!交通好乱!

我们先到Daiso去看看有什么有趣的东西可以买。雪玲买了一些wrappers。我原本想买一双筷子或汤匙,但想了一下,还是不要乱花钱啦。最多以后出国时自己带汤匙去。

接下来便去另一间书店看看。

时间过得很快。我们趁Watson's还开着,便买了一些日常用品。这时又累又渴,我们便去“麦当当”休息。由于太早吃晚餐,所以有点儿饿了,便叫了一个McNuggets Meal 来share。

吃饱后便去等shuttle bus 的地方等巴士把我们载道Jurong East MRT Station。 从那里要搭45分钟的车程回到东边。

在地铁上,我们觉得还是East is Great!!! 而雪玲更不怕死地说“I'm proud to be an Easterner!”

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Day 2 in Hokkaido - 9 July 06

Woke up at 6:45am but to my disappointment, breakfast was pretty lousy... except for the milk. Variety was quite pathetic... and it was buffet style... I only managed to grab some spaghetti, sausage, 2 potato croquet, some egg, smoked salmon and corn & ham... the smoked salmon was exceptionally salty!!! Eeeeekkkk

Went to the hotel reception to enquire about sending postcards back to Singapore, as well as 1 to Yanshan in Israel. The cost is at 70yen per piece. Quite cheap leh... In the end I sent 4 postcards - 1 to Yuan, 1 to Xueling, 1 to Yanshan, and 1 to myself : )

Our first stop of the day was the 'Chitose Salmon Museum', which was quite near to the hotel which we were staying. There's nothing much to see in the Museum since its not the 'salmon season', they've probably swam to Alaska... hence we only stayed in the museum for 30mins. There were some exhibits on how salmon gave birth, where they could be found, and an 'aquarium' where we can see all the different types of salmon. There were some suffering from albino... but I feel salmons are actually an ugly breed of fish... they looked super grouchy... dunno why??

What you looking at?

After that, we had to take a 2 and a half hours bus ride to Tomita Farm in Furano to look at my Lavender Fields. We stopped by a highway for a 15-min break, in case someone needs the toilet, or like us, want to buy some food! Hehehe... since breakfast was pathetic, we decided to buy a packet of Takoyuki (takopuchi balls) to fill our stomachs... There were a total of 8 balls, and it costs 350yen. Hmm... comparable to Singapore standards.

The journey to Furano was super long ... I dozed off for a while as the coach zoomed past fields and buildings...

The lavenders were really PRETTY!!!!! I smell lavenders in the air. Other than Lavenders, they had lots of other pretty flowers (but I dunno their names since I can't read Japanese!). The workers in the farm all wore purple t-shirts. So nice!!! The houses there were nice too! The whole place was so scenic that I wished I owned the farm!!! So tempted to fly back in August to see the sunflowers!!

Even the souvenir shop was nicely decorated with dried flowers!! I bought 2 bottles of lavender for Xueling & Yanshan. Since Yuan doesn't like Lavender, have to look for something else for her. I also bought a bookmark for Sherry. This would be easier to send out via postage.

Liao-san told us the Lavender ice-cream here is a MUST-TRY as the texture is smoother... We bought 1 on the way back. Man!! The ice-cream was melting way too fast!!!! (due to the sun) but like what Liao-san said, the ice-cream here was really smoother, and I felt its more fragrant too! Slurp!!

After that, we went to a restaurant nearby for buffet lunch. The restaurant's name was "Herb Hill Furano". There's a souvenir shop attached to it. Lunch was quite alright... After that, we went to look-see in the souvenir shop... Liao-san said we'll be going to a place on our last day where we can do our shopping at cheaper prices!! But we must tahan the itch to spend now... Gulp... this is soooooooo ..... ARGH!!!!!!

Then we had to take another long bus ride to Daisetsu Zan. I took the opportunity to take a quick nap.

The view up there was splendid. We had to pay 1,500 yen to take a cable car to the lookout point (the 5th stage of Mount Kurodate, which is 1,300m above ground). What a pity when we could only spend 20 mins on "the top of the world"!!! Cos we need to catch the cable car to go down to the 'ground level'.

We would be staying in a Hot Spring Resort tonight!! YEAH!! Can experience Japanese Onsen!!

We were at Rm 4108 in Chuyo Resort Hotel.

Its been such a long time since I've slept on a tatami!! I missed the feeling man!!

We booked a private room for our onsen at 10pm... have to pay 2,500 yen for 50mins. But I guess this was just a warm-up for us because tonight is the only night where we could enjoy privacy in a private room. From tomorrow onwards, the hot spring resort that we would be staying has only Public Baths!! oops.. have to bare all and use a miserable towel to cover your 'prized assets'. Where shall you cover?? Liao-san jokingly said that we should cover our faces if we were really embarrassed. In this case, people wouldn't know who you are! yah right! This would only make you more prominent and people would focus their attention on you more!

We had to wear the Yukata to go for our dinner. Dinner was pretty ok. At least the variety's good, and the stuff were fresh!! Yummy... I had never eaten so much sashimi in my life!!

The private onsen was quite cool... but we had only 50 mins to enjoy the steam. We had to wash our bodies at another area first before soaking ourselves in the big wooden tub. Hot water kept over-flowing from the tub. We had to wash ourselves with hot water so that our body could adjust to the temperate of the water in the tub. After that, we had to bathe with cold water so as to bring down our body temperature. I am seriously wondering if I will catch a cold if I do this for 3 cosecutive days!

There was this puzzle game in our room. We managed to solve 3 out of the 11 puzzles. Damn challenging!! But very addictive too! This could be a good game to play at Boardgame cafes... but it would be better to play it at someone's house... or else you'd be stuck to 1 game throughout the day!!

Actually the Yukata looked horrible.... the yellow, the orange, the green.... Eeekkks..... Emily mentioned that we looked like Patients instead... and I quipped to say that we could be mental patients for 1 night : P

I felt that the room in the Resort Hotel was bigger than the Hotel in the city we stayed on the first night. But the bathroom was super miserable in the Resort Hotel. I could knock the ceiling when I was changing in the bathroom!! Everything looked fragile as the cupboard was made of paper???

Yawnzzzzzzzzzz.... There's the World Cup Finals tomorrow morning... but I think I would be too tired to watch the show... Hopefully my Italian Hunks will win! : )

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Day 1 in Hokkaido - 8th July 06

Our flight took off at around 12am on 8th July. Breakfast was served as early as 5am+, cos by the time we reached Narita Airport, it was already about 6am+. Yawnzzzzzzzzz...... Japan is one hour ahead of Singapore. Hence, by the time we reached Narita Airport, it was already 7am+ (local time).

The flight to Narita Airport was quite bumpy and noisy, and the air-con didn't seem to be working. The seats were quite cramped and uncomfortable too! Thought advertisement portrayed ANA as a very good airline... hmmm... Had a hard time trying to catch a wink!! Argh....

Breakfast was ok. What can you expect from airline food... It contained salad (eeewwwweee... I hate raw tomatoes!), dessert, crossaint, orange juice, & rice + fish slices + few sticks of green veggies.

Saw a cute security guard at the 'declaration of duty goods' counter on the way out. He stopped to ask me for my passport. I thought he looked a bit like Takeshi Kaneshiro - fair, tall, and cute!

We met our local tour guide, Liao-san, at the Arrival Hall of Narita Airport. We had to take a coach to Haneda Airport for our internal flight to Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. The coach ride took us almost 1 and a half hours to reach the airport.

Liao-san advised us to buy a bento at Haneda Airport and eat it on board the plane, since we had an early breakfast, and they only served drinks on the internal flight (it only took us 1hr15mins to reach Chitose Airport from Haneda Airport). We went to shop around Haneda Airport and bought a bento each. Wow... must kowtow to the Japanese for their very very nice packaging!!!! Even the bentos were packed so nicely!!! But the prices were of course quite steep!

We were so tired on board the internal flight to Chitose Airport (Hokkaido) that we fell asleep instead of eating our 'lunch'. At least this Boeing 747-300 plane was so much more spacious and less bumpy than our ride from Singapore to Narita Airport. Some cute young Japanese guys boarded the same flight as us.

It was almost 1pm by the time we reached Chitose Airport. We only started eating our bento while travelling on a coach to our first destination - Sapporo Beer Museum. There were nice 'stamps' at the places of interest we visited. We stamped them in our passport ;P

The museum was huge! They have 4 levels. A japanese guide brought us around the museum. Liao-san had to do the translation cos the guide spoke Japanese to us. We tasted the 'hops' used to brew beer. Hmmm.... tasted quite alright lah...

After that, we went through some galleries where they showcased the first advertising done for Sapporo Beer. As well as all the packagings!!! Damn cool!!!!

We were given a small cup of beer for tasting purposes. The brewery came up with this "Sapporo Beer with Fruit Juice". Yum... but I could feel the effect of the beer within seconds. My whole face flushed!

As there's this 50yen discount coupon attached to the brochure for the museum, we used it to purchase ice-cream cones :) Slurp.... I ordered 2 scoops - Black Sesame & Lavender - since the price for 1 scoop & 2 scoop were the same - 300 yen. After using the discount coupon, we just had to pay 250yen! : ) Yummy... the ice-cream tasted good... Slurp....

After visiting Sapporo Beer Museum, we moved on to visit this Underground Shopping mall near Odori Park. Located in the downtown area, Sapporo Chikagai is an underground shopping mall filled with about 140 shops, including those specialising in clothing and sundry items, as well as restaurants.

We only managed to shop at Aurora Town, cos the place was like a never-ending tunnel... Dunno when we could see the light at the end of the tunnel as well.... after all, we had to meet at 5:30pm for dinner since we had an early breakfast and lunch. Dinner would be at a restaurant near the NHK Tower. Bought bra at this shop called "Takasho". 2,100 yen for 3 pairs of bras!! One pair even came with a matching panty!! Quite good bargain, especially when the bras were quite comfortable, and the designs and colours were so pretty!!!

Had tempura set meal for dinner. Shiok man!!! The taste was so different from the ones I've eaten in Singapore!!! Slurp Slurp Slurp!

After dinner, we went to Mount Moiwa to see the night view. Brrrrrr... it was quite cold up there... the way up was quite tedious as we had to walk up some uneven steps, and up a slope, and climbed dunno how many flights of spiral staircase before we reached the 'lookout point'. Since it was still early, the night view wasn't that terrific, as most of the buildings were not lighted up. Took a few pictures and quickly went to take refuge at the souvenir shop, where I bought a lot of postcards!!!! Would be sending 1 to myself, 1 to Yanshan, 1 to Yuanyuan & 1 to Xueling. Saved 2 for emergencies... dun think I will send back to my nieces as they'll most probably misplace them : (

Going up to Mount Moiwa was quite challenging for the driver as the road was like a meader, with lots of turns and the roads seemed quite narrow. Reminds me of "Initial D"... ahh.... But the view was quiet scenic. By the time we reached the hotel, it was already 8pm. Had a quick shower before rushing down to the nearest shopping from our hotel.

We stayed at APA Hotel for the night. Our room number was 1165. The view was pretty ok. There's this Pachinko Centre right opposite our hotel. We had to walk around 10mins to reach the BEST denki store, where there was a DAISO and a supermarket inside, not forgetting uncle Ronald & KFC. We bought some foodstuff from DAISO, and bought a few bottles of drinks from the vending machines :P

Then we went to this Fresh Food Market and bought cup noodles!! Liao-san said the instant noodles here tasted better than the ones imported by our home countries.

Went to the Pachinko Centre to see what Pachinko is all about. Why everyone is crazy about this thing??? But after seeing people (mostly old folks) loading balls into the machine and shooting them from all directions, and then the balls fly all over the place and drop into the various holes, occasionally you'll see nice animation appearing saying its "Bonus round" or some kind of rewards or warnings, I really don't understand what's so fun about Pachinko... Some machines even had Bae Yong Jun on the screens!!! Yucks.... You should see those aunties drool at the sight of Bae Yong Jun....

It was already 11+ when we went back to the hotel. Darn!! There's no fork or chopsticks to eat the Cup Noodle!!! anyway, we found a way to eat it :P The noodles was ok : ) but I didn't manage to finish it, cos I don't have the habit of eating supper.... and to eat cup noodles in the middle of the night was too jia lart for me, cos I can't sleep if I am too full!!! In the end I had to dump the noodles into the bin that says "Cannot be burnt".

Sometimes I felt a bit 'retarded' when I had to think hard before throwing rubbish. Its like an exam question - "Place the rubbish in the correct bin." Aiyoh.... headache leh.... is plastic burnable?? Help!! My brain cells are diminishing!!!!

My bento from Haneda Airport : ) Cost 714 Yen!! Oishi desu.


Sapporo Beer Museum. Very nice architecture.

NHK TV Tower. This was one landmark near Sapporo Chikagai.


Tempura Dinner... Slurp!

City view from Mount Moiwa. Too bad we were early... or else the lighted city would be very pretty!!!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I miss Hokkaido...



I miss Hokkaido...

I miss Liao-san... and his HK-Jap accent...and his corny jokes...

I miss the fabulous seafood... the succulent crab sashimi... the tasty ramen... the delicious pastries and dairy products...

I miss the beautiful lavenders in Farm Tomita (Furano)... and the wonderful Ishiya Chocolate Factory...

I miss the night when we played with fire crackers in the field at our Onsen Resort Hotel...

I miss the onsen... dressing in a Yukata... killing our brain cells over some IQ puzzles...

How I wish I can stay there forever...

Friday, June 23, 2006

好狗不挡路

大选虽然过去了,可惜一个新的党派没法来得及参选,那就是---“挡路党”。

这个党派党员无所不在,不论是在逛百货、搭地铁,他们都很受党规, “见人就挡”,而且还“视死如归”!!!

真想不透,这些党派有什么吸引人的地方,党员人数与日俱增,可怕及了!

早晨在地铁站看到他们“奋不顾身”不顾一切地冲进车厢,这样一来,对要下车的乘客造成很大的不便。有时看到这种情形,我真的好想否认自己是这个岛国的一份子。

有时在逛百货时,这些党员又刚好站在电扶梯的正前面,有一些就是推着婴儿车,但车里往往看不到婴孩,另一些就是仗着“人多势众”,喜欢站那里就站哪里。

有时他们因为有“党主”照着,挡住人家的去路还副凶神恶煞的样子,真想狠狠K他一顿。

难道他们不知道什么是 “好狗不挡路”吗?

真是一群“贱狗”!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Da Vinci Code


The movie was quite slow... but I liked the intertwined "past" & "present" scenes when Robert Langdon & Leigh Teabing were telling Sophie Neveu about the history of the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar... so beautiful!!! Ahh..... how I wish I could go back in time to look at what's happening. The scenery was breathtaking! I thought the Rosslyn Chapel was simple yet magnificent.

I thought Tom Hanks didn't do a good job as Robert Landgon... hmm... dunno why... I've always liked Tom Hanks. But in this movie, I think the role doesn't suit him. I think Sir Ian McKellen did a very good job! : )

I also liked the part when the police were chasing after Landgon and Sophie and they were in this mini "smart car". The car really was compact and agile!! It was on reverse while the police were chasing, and it managed to squeeze into the tiny space (but the side mirror broke) created by the 2 large trucks. Simply beautiful! How I wish I own a car like dat!!!

I am glad they didn't take all the details in the book and made it into a movie or else I would be bored to tears... Saw the trailer for "Silent Hill" and thought it was so CHILDISH! haha... horror flick? Nah..... the scenes made me feel like laughing... cos the trailers showed everything you need to know about the movie! And its not scary at all! Chey!

I am looking forward to my spa treat this weekend : ) The one which I won from my company x'mas dinner last year. I will be going with my sis-in-law 'cos we had intended to use that for our birthday celebration in April. But because of her arm infection, we had to postpone till June. Its going to expire on 22 June anyway. Hope the spa and hotel stay would be enjoyable... cos on Sunday, I have to go and helpout at my brother's stall... Eeeekk..... imagine the relaxing spa, and then later reek of the smell of curry......................... ARGH.....

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Juzbe is OUT!

Last night's results show was really 'gan cheong-ing'...

The best groups obviously scored the lowest votes from the audience!! Mi Lu Bing & Soul scored the highest at 37 marks, Qinobe got only 34 (I think) and Juzbe got 32.4. I must admit Juzbe's rendition of "Ye Lai Xiang" is quite bad last night, and when Qinobe & Juzbe were the only 2 bands standing, I felt for sure that Juzbe was going to be kicked out.

True, Qinobe is very predictable... but I think they are quite marketable. Their music is very much like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, where the noiser they are, the 'higher' the audience.

I liked Mi Lu Bing. I was so nervous for them last night. The 3 young lads are really talented. Soul was quite good last night too. Must admit the dance steps last night for "Da Yan Jing" was really cute! and the fashion was really retro!!

The office is very quite today... Jenn, Becks & Junie are all on MC. Boss came in late because she's on AM leave, Kristl flew off to Europe yesterday. Bet she's enjoying herself thoroughly there right now!!! I am waiting for my turn to come!!!

Really need a break... but I don't want a Kit Kat : P

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

WOW! It's Wednesday already!

Two more days... and the weekends are here!!

Kristl would be going to Europe... oops... I'll be super busy then... sianzzzzzzzzz... hope she'll enjoy herself and take lots of pics!!

Just got the internal training schedule. I'll be going for the training on the 19th & 20th June... Sianzzzzz.... I wonder if I can catch any ball 'cos Stephanie will be conducting the training... and her French ascent is quite unbearable for me...

Can't wait for 17th & 18th June to come!

I've already booked the spa package that I've won for my company x'mas dinner last year. Yeah!!! Time for a relaxed afternoon by the pool... hope its not going to be a hot afternoon!! cannot be wet either!! haha...

How I wish I'm at Maldives now....

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Stupid Ananda Travel

Damn it!

Stupid Ananda Travel actually said the Hokkaido Trip would not materialise as there's not enough people to go on the tour.

Sounds like a hoax to me after all!!! I searched for their website but it's under construction. So we are not the only people who've had unhappy experiences with Ananda.

Look at the following link!!!

http://www.singaporebrides.com/forumboard/messages/4/308520.html?1128055398

People were complaining about the fact that this is one tactic they like to use!!! and they take eons to refund the deposit!! Shucks!!!

I will report to CASE if they don't refund us!!! STUPID ANANDA!!!!!

I've called up Chan Brothers to enquire about their airfares to Hokkaido. Have tentatively made my reservation for 7th July. They do not include Tokyo so I actually asked what is the incremental cost for including 2 nights in Tokyo. The ticket extension is $100 per pax, and the hotel room extension is $300 per night (twin sharing). Sigh... to extend or not to extend??? Sianzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Ultimately, it all boils down to -----> STUPID ANANDA TRAVEL!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Xueling's 28th Birthday Celebration

Had wanted to give Xueling a fright yesterday by making her think that Yanshan is back from Israel. Hahaha.... she's always looking out to see if Yanshan would make a surprise attack on her. This year, the plan was changed slightly. Hehehe.... we would like to break the news of Yuan going through her customary wedding ceremony either in December, or Jan 07.

Our first stop was Settler's Cafe at Katong. Nearly got lost as we stopped opposite Katong Shopping Centre, when the exact location of Settler's Cafe was directly opposite Katong Mall!! Arghh!!!! We had our lunch there... I ordere the Wings & Chips & a Rootbeer Float cos I dun think I want to have a heavy lunch since I ate 3 sardine puffs and a glass of milo in the morning. Yuan ordered the Fish N Chips & a glass of coke, while Xueling ordered her Spaghetti with Meatballs (she had a craving for IKEA's meatballs actually...) and a lime juice.

Our first game was "Sequence". We were supposed to form 5 in a row, horizontally, diagonally and vertically on a board filled with the pictures of the 52 cards in the Poker Game. But we had to open the card and put the marker on the board instead. Each of us has a stack of 6 cards to start with. After putting out a card and a marker on the board, there's a pile of cards for us to draw and replenish. The first round was to connect 5 in a row. After that, it would be more challenging to try to connect more in a row. The J with 2 eyes would be a WILD card where we can put our markers anywhere on the board. The J with 1 eye would be a card where we can kick anyone out and replace that spot with our own markers. Yuan won the first round. Subsequently, I won the other 2 rounds. Then we thought it would be good to change into another game.

The next game we played was "Halli Galli". This was something like SNAP, where we flip open the cards and if the pictures on the cards add up to 5, and someone press the bell, he/she would win and take all the cards. The game is such that the winner has all the cards. We were pretty confused with the game at first, but after a few rounds, we got the hang of it, but the best part was hitting the bell.... haha... it really became quite violent!!! Phew!

After that, we decided to play "The Game of Life" 'cos Emily came and played the game and told me its quite farnie. We were supposed to choose if we want to go to college or start a career at the beginning. This game is like "Wheel of Fortune" where we had to spin a wheel to dictate the number of steps we take. If you decide to go to college, you'll be full of debts at the beginning. If you decide to start your career, you would choose the career card and then draw the salary card to see how much salary you'll get during pay day. I got the Entertainer and my salary was $80,000!! WAH!!! How I wish that was the real life!! In the process, I got married and had 6 kids! My white car had a truckload of tiny babies, I had 2 pairs of twins!! and 2 baby boys!! EEeeekkkk!! If that was the real life, I think I would be suffering from depression!!!! Anyway, I got the most money when I retired as I got lots of "LIFE" which are things I could cash in when I retired. There were items like "Wrote a famous novel - $20,000." and "Win Nobel Prize - $10,000." Then the house I bought gave me huge returns, and I bought lots of stocks. hahahahaha..... ultimately I had $1+million!! Sigh... but its all fake money....

Then we decided to play something that requires a little bit of brains. The waiter introduced us this game called "Blockus". We're supposed to put all the different shapes of tiles we have onto this board. The trick is to get all the tiles onto the boards, but the tiles can only touch each other at the edge. If we want to connect to the opponents, we can overlap in a way but still, one side of the tile must correspond to the edge of our own tiles. Chim..... I won the first round!! hehe... then we played again, this time, we took turns to put a piece of the green tiles which belonged to no one so that we can see how bad the JAM was.

After that, we decided to play one last game before we adjourned to our next destination. The waiter said we have 15mins to go, so he got us a simple game, like Halli Galli, but this was more confusing. This game was "Jungle Speed', where the cards were filled with pics of different symbols and colours. There were a few special cards whereby if those cards appeared, we have to either "Change colour", "Change shape", "Put out the cards all at the same time", or "Anyone can grab the stick". The stick replaces the bell in Halli Galli. It was really confusing because of the shapes and symbols. In the end, we gave up! haha.... cos its also about time.



We decided to move on to Singapore Art Museum to look at the Fiction@Love exhition. I liked some of the works being featured. The manga by Ai Yamaguchi was really sweet!!! I hope to have my wall painted like it too!!!! Then there's also a section on Jimmy's works. They were playing this DVD on "Smiling Fish" and I thought the music was nice, as well as the animation. There's this artist fFurious who used the urinal and made it look like a SPOOF ad for Absolut. He named that "Absolut New Water". Haha... Wicked! but Brilliant!

There's also this Korean Artist called "Kwon Kisoo", whose works are very child-like and innocent. His works basically consists of lines and circles. The colours used were very 'happy colours' too : )

After that, we went to the courtyard where we gave her the presents. This year, we bought her a Mr. Potato Head figure where she can mix and match his features. Then, we also got her a bottle of BioEssence Dark Eye Rings Remover so that she can have beautiful, sparkling eyes! haha.... then, we also got her a "Little Twin Stars" sticker, and a hand-made card ; )

Then we moved on to Novotel Hotel. Yuan's husband booked a table for 8 at the Dragon Phoenix Restaurant so that we could try the dishes. They're trying to find the 'best restaurant' for their wedding dinner. Xueling got a shock when she saw David's parents and elder sister! haha.... but this David also very farnie, he counted 8 in total, but there were only 4 from his side and 3 from our side. Xueling was very gan cheong about the empty seat beside her. hahahahahaha.... it got onto her nerves and she started asking out loud 'Is anyone else coming?'

After the 8 course dinner, we were really really full! By the time the dinner ended, all the shops in Liang Court were closed.... There's this "Thailand" sale at the atrium. Xueling got us a voodoo doll each. The guy who served us was quite cute. As we were leaving, we told Xueling to go back and try to talk to him more. I reminded her she forgot to buy 1 voodoo doll for Yanshan. Haha.. this gave her the reason to go back to buy 1 more voodoo doll! : ) But too bad nothing came about....

Then we walked to Boat Quay and nuazzzzz at TCC.... Initially we thought we could have the beanbag seats upstairs but it was fullhouse..... sianzzzzz... but hor... throughout we saw people going up on their own and the waiters didn't try to stop them!! Damn it!!!

Well, Yanshan's coming back in September and next year, Xueling's 29th birthday won't be such a heart attack... hehehe... but we shall see ; )

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Department Dinner

We had a department dinner at Still Road just now. The black pepper crabs are very fresh and nice!! Yummy!!! We ordered 5 crabs for the 7 of us (Kiam Pa didn't turn up... haha... as expeced! She's dat anti-social!). The cabs alone costs $120!! Hmmm... we ordered 4 other dishes to kick-start our dinner - baby kai lan, venisen, hokkien noodles & hor fun.

After that went to Parkway Parade to shop. IT's really changed a lot!!!!

I remembered the days I used to hang out at PP with my best friends in Primary School. We would always go to the arcade to play after exams. I used to frequent that place because we had to go for computer lessons at CAL! Those painful days where we need to use DOS commands to operate the computer!! HA Ha Ha

Tomorrow is the last day of May!!! WAH.... We're already halfway through 2006!!!! I'm already with the company for almost 2 years!!! (but it seems like so long...)

I'm looking forward to July!! Yeah!! Hokkaido!!!! I'm counting down.....

Monday, May 29, 2006

I'm still tired...

Went to help bro at his stall on Sat... yawnz... reached home around 1:30am, slept around 2am and woke up at 7.45am as I had to meet Yuan to go to the interchange to buy Xueling's birthday present.

Received her postcard from New Zealand on Friday. The view is really nice : )

Yuan & I had big breakfast at McDonald's. Yum Yum... haven't eaten that for a 'nong nong' time... got the 'nong nong ago' virus from Singapore Idol Season 2. Haha... nearly died laughing when I saw the repeat telecast on Tuesday night!

There was this guy who talked as if he could sing very well. He was telling the reporter about this special technique he learned for singing 'high pitch' and he said to imagine yourself in a dark room, and you see this pinhole of light, you try to reach the pinhole to get out of the darkness. I thought that sounded 'chim' and how he would demonstrate that in his singing later. When he sang, my glasses broke to a thousand pieces. It WAS HORRIBLE!!!!! Worse than William Hung!! Eeeekkk.... Singapore Idol, and all the other talent search programmes are obviously attracting all the weirdos. They should have "Super Clowns" up next : )

We were browsing in Toys R Us when I saw this Mr. Potato Head toy!!!! It was so cute!! I felt like buying 1 for myself!! We bought some lizards as well, those were meant for the 'home-made' card. We stuck the lizards to the cardboard : ) I thought it looked cool.... I took pics of the card, and the presents. Must remember to upload them on my PC at home and send it to Yanshan!

We would be meeting her next Saturday for the surprise : ) hehe.... think she would jump out of her skin again! Last year's birthday surprise was really a surprise for both parties. She was surprised when Yanshan appeared. And we were surprised because she cried!!!

Aiyoh! Must really knock some sense into Yuan liao! Went through ROM liao, now can say their characters clash!!! How can like dat?? Now they are rushing to hold their wedding dinner cos the fortune teller gave them 2 auspicious dates. They can't do it next year as it clashes with Yuan's horroscope. I wonder how r they going to make their preparations within such short notice!!!

Today we had this monthly gig in the office. The food was quite good : ) We had to play this 'Da Vinci Code' Crossword puzzle. Guess what? Our team won!!! but we didn't know what was the prize?? Hmmm....it had better be good!!!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Wild Rocket @ Mt Emily


This afternoon, Kinetic bought us lunch at Wild Rocket@ Hangout Hotel at Mount Emily.

The place was quite cosy. The food was quite nice : ) There's this scooter parked outside against the fence with a woven basket at the back (instead of the plastic box). On the side of the scooter was a sticker from the Initial D movie that read "藤原Tofu". So kawaii!!!!

I ordered the set meal which consisted of an appetiser, a main course, a dessert & a coffee/tea. It costs S$26 but since we requested to change the menu, there's a minimal charge to it. I ordered the Linguini Aglio Olio with Tiger Prawns for main course, and the soft-shell crab with thai chilli sauce for starters. The dessert was quite interesting - "Atapchee Ice-cream". The lunch was really filling!!!

I thought the ambience was quite nice. But we were a bit lost when we went there, but there were lots of backpackers (ang mohs especially) who were staying at the hangout hotels. Looks like a nice environment though! The surroundings were all private apartments!!!! Anyway, it was really near to Paradiz Centre. We walked down from the restaurant to Paradiz Centre to catch a cab back to the office.

Yeah!!! That "kiam pa face" resigned... There would be a reshuffling of accounts. Sian liao lor...

I'm looking forward to days without that irritating woman :P

Over The Hedge



Watched the Premiere for "OVER THE HEDGE" yesterday evening with Wallis and happened to bump into that "Kiam Pa Face" at the lift lobby. She was with a man, and she was trying very hard to tell us that the guy was her bf, or very interested in her... YAWNZZZZ... I think she should look at her reflection in the mirror more often :P

The movie was hilarious. I liked Hammy the Squirrel & Verne the Turtle. The farniest part was when the turtle's shell came off when he tried to save Hammy from these brownies who went around selling biscuits. When they saw the naked turtle in front of their eyes, they thought it was disgusting!!! It looked kinda farnie in the animation to see Verne covered his head in his hands, with his bare skin, showing only his BUM...

It was also pretty cute in the front when they saw the hedge and tried to decipher what it was. Hammy decided to name it "Steve" just because it sounded nice. Haha... and they started calling the hedge "Steve"! RJ, the Raccoon, being like the "town mouse" enlightened them, but he had an ulterior motive.... but I knew he wouldn't let the 'family' down in the end!

That was really some 'no brainer' for me to feel more relaxed due to the hectic schedule I had for this week....

More to come for next week since we've already scheduled a meeting with the client at 11am n Tuesday... DAMN!!! That means OT on Monday! SHUCKS!!! I will miss the SUper Band performance again!!! I really Hope & Pray that "Xia Ri Feng" gets out SOON!!!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Long weekend...

11th May - Went to watch Mission Impossible III with sis-in-law at Great World City. The show was okay... predictable but action-packed! After that had dinner at Kenny Rogers! Its been so long since I've last had a meal at Kenny Rogers... Missed their Kenny's Quarters! Slurp... ... It rained while we were waiting for 518 from Tangs Bus stop. Met Aunty Susan & her colleague. They went to Mount E to visit a colleague. There was this irritating man who thought he was very well-educated trying to read his copy of "Shin Min Daily News" while standing on the bus. I pity the poor man who was seated in front of him cos his life is at risk - the papers may poke his eyes or cut his face any moment. The man standing won't budge and lowered his paper throughout the journey. Sigh... how inconsiderate behaviour displayed on the bus! Ugly Singaporean!

12th May - Vesak Day. Didn't go temple to pray. Went to help brother at his stall. Business was quite slow since everyone is turning 'vegetarian' on this big day. Saw a few kittens when I went around collecting the plates. This grey kitty was all BONES!! sob sob.... Bro had some rubbish which consisted of rice and some gravy and chicken bones. I volunteered to go to the garbage collection area situated at the back of the wet market, cos I wanted to try to feed the poor kittens. To my dismay, the kitten ran away from me, and when I put the food in front of him, he didn't stop to eat but hid in a corner... well... I didn't want to be jailed or fined for littering, so I threw the rubbish to where it belonged. When I told my brother, he told me cats DO NOT EAT CURRY!!!! ok ok .... it was my oversight... I should prepare a bowl of water for it the next time.

13th May - Books were due. Went to the library to return my books with my 3 nieces & sis-in-law. Borrowed another 4 books on Tokyo & Hokkaido : ) I am really looking forward to my trip. I badly needed a break. Slept around 4am+ cos I had some unfinished work. Helped at bro's stall from 3:30pm to almost 2am! Wallis & Don went to watch the recording of "Super Band". Stupid “夏日风" got 19 marks from the 4 judges in total!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! They FAILED!!!! They are such a stupid band!! Ahem.... they can't be considered a band in the first place. Can't sing, can't dance! Yucks!!!!!! Dun even know how they landed a place in the competition in the first place! Hope they get OUT!!!! and dun make a comeback in the revival round!!!!

14th May - Supposed to attend Gek's wedding, but had to change plans last minute. Firstly, not feeling well liao..... secondly, sis-in-law bringing a cake to my bro's place in the evening for Mother's Day (though we had an early one on 1st May). The cake from Bengawan Solo was quite nice - in the shape of a heart - and its strawberry flavoured. Yummy!!! After that we had BBQ chicken wings, and waffles with ice-cream!! Stupid Daryl made a scene when it was time to go back. He wanted to wait for my second sis-in-law and he was there crying. Brother had to carry him to the main road so that I can send them home in a cab. He kept crying in the cab. Had it not for my elder sis-in-law who forcibly carried him into the cab, he would have stayed glued to the ground, crying and making a scene. He was really an annoying child!! ARGH!!! Luckily Xavier was the good boy today. If 2 of them made a scene together, I think I would kick them out of the taxi!!! ARGHHH!!!!

Another 22mins to 15th May. Time really flies...... Xueling would be heading to New Zealand soon : ) Hope she had an enjoyable time there, and when she returns, we'll be sabotaging her on her birthday!! ho ho ho ho ho

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Can die, man!

A very hectic week indeed...

I am looking forward to Friday - Vesak Day! YEAH! No need to work. This time, I must really really rest well.

Have not fully recovered from my flu... still speaks in a nasal voice... yucks!

Went for the "My Paper" trade launch this afternoon at the Red Dot Design Museum. Interesting interior. The taps in the toilet are interesting : )

Stupid client has lots of request and stupid boss is very gan-cheong... Maybe she in PMS mode again... ARGH!!!!!

Has been training the new person who took over Miss Keng. Heng she is young and smart, or else I will vomit blood again.

Got to rush the stupid ADEX for client for tomorrow. I've got another favourite person to add to my "FAVOURITE Client list". She really drives me up the wall at times. A bimbo, she is, and when she is stressed, she will scream and be nasty.

Thou shalt not be bitchy like her.

ARGH!!!! Its 8:14pm and I'm still in the office!!!! I hope to get this done ASAP. And this time, I shall call a cab at 8:55pm. I waited for half an hour to get a stupid cab last night!! GRRRRRRR....

Saturday, May 06, 2006

New Majestic Hotel

Had lunch with Channel News Asia folks this afternoon.

The 'partyworld' at Bukit Pasoh Road has made way for this 'New Majestic Hotel' and today happened to be the official launch! Heard that the owner of this hotel also owns Hotel 1929 & Scarlet! No wonder so similar decor and furnishings!!!!

Lunch was pretty good.... the first dish was the pecking duck :)~~~ The soup was also nice, but I think its a bit salty. After that we had this shelled food in a 'bamboo container'. Looks cool and tastes good too!! After that, we had wasabi chicken! SHIOK!!! The wasabi is not too strong, thank God! And lastly, we had the noodles. : )

After lunch, we asked the salesperson from ChannelnewsAsia to use his name to bring us around the hotel. The attendant brought us to the second level. The lift is a 'psychedelic blue'!! haha.... but I dun really like the ceiling if that's what it's meant to be. It simply looked off and unfinished!

We noticed that the restaurant was under the Swimming Pool!!! Hence, we could see people swimming when we look at the ceiling!!!!!! Someone nearly hit the chandelier in the cylindrical shape 'shade'.

Then we passed by the Gym, which is quite miserable... but the equipment wasn't in yet.

The room which we saw had this bathtub in the garden!!! So cool!!!! I loved the bath tub. The design is very cool!!!!! And the ambience of the room is GREAT!! The TV is right smack in front of you!! haha.... the painting on the ball where the bed is resting against is done by Andrea Tan!! Cool!!! The feel is very modern, yet the colours are very retro! :)

The place is not bad.... the room which we went to is about $200+.... not very cheap though.... but the ambience is really good!!!!

Ahh.... feels good to be back at Bukit Pasoh though BRANDZ is already not around....

http://www.newmajestichotel.com/

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Tired Feet

Ouch... feet hurts... Have been standing too long I guess..

Went to bro's stall to help out from 4pm to 1am. YAwnzzzzzzzzzz... after coming home, I smell terrible, so I took a bath.... but after that, I felt so refreshed that I think I will only get to sleep around 4 or 5am, and would only wake up around 12pm.... Right now, I feel hungry... ARGH!!!!

We tried out something just now, and if we succeed, my bro will be selling the new product at hist stall. I will try to search on the internet if such a recipe is already in place! : )

Election is just next week!! Yawnzzzzz.... maybe I belong to the majority of young Singaporeans who can't be bothered about voting...

Luckily this is a long weekend.....

Bro is resting on 1st May, hence, we would celebrate Mother's Day earlier. Bro called Sis just now to ask her to be the organiser for this year! haha.... think Sis's head should expand now... she's quite a sotong actually! And her brain is 'damaged' after giving birth to 2 kids. She likes to call and ask questions repeatedly. Sometimes I wish I could strangle her! But let's see what bright idea she has this year...

Saturday, April 29, 2006

终于

终于,她离开了!

今天的她, 好像“天王巨星”, 到处办“握手会”,又有免费午餐,又有礼物收,简直抢尽了刘德华的风光。也比参加大选的政治人物出位!

但她至少留到8点,因为我们4点有一个会议,6点左右才结束。走出客户的办公室,发现天好黑! 而这种天气,又碰到放工时间,的士好难等!

终于不须吐血了!!!

这是“完美的一天”!!!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Farewell, Miss Keng

Miss Keng will be leaving this Friday.

My boss told me on Monday that they intend to release her earlier. Oh well..... I am going to miss her to a certain extent :)

The new girl who's replacing Miss Keng happened to be an intern who's now with my company, and was in the same team as me in our previous year's Christmas Party :) Phew... at least someone who's able to work hard and take on additional workload without loads of grumbles...

I bought her farewell lunch at Checkers yesterday. She's never been there, and during the lunch, she told me lots of things. I was dumbfounded when she asked me if her work is really of bad quality. Well, I don't want to have an argument with her in the restaurant, so I just kept quiet and tried to steer away from that topic.

She's still unhappy over her dismissal, and she's taking it quite negatively. She pointed to my boss, who's out there to corner her and give her the answer she expects to hear. And she attributed her dismissal solely to my manager, whom she bears the grudges against.

Whatever it is, I just hope that Miss Keng straightens her thoughts, and in the event if she's still going to remain in this industry, to work hard and work SMART ; )

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Hmm...

I went to the library this afternoon with my nieces. There were not many good books, and the books were reshuffled again!! Only managed to borrow 3 guide books on Japan - 1 on Hokkaido & 2 on Tokyo as I need to do some reading before embarking on my tour in July :)

I managed to borrow Totto-chan: the girl at the window a couple of weeks ago. I was really inspired by Tomoe Gakuen's education system. If only such system exist in Singapore...

Tomoe Gakuen has railroad cars for classrooms, and the headmaster Sosaku Kobayashi is a firm believer in freedom of express & activity. Hence, he allowed his students to be indulged in the activity they had the most interest in, and introduced eurhythmics to his students. The students go for walks to the nearest temples occasionally, and they had farming lessons too!! How interesting!!! :) This is really an ideal school for me!! hahaha

I liked this sentence by the headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi.

"Having eyes, but not seein beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear..."

I thought this is the most beautiful sentence in the book :)

Thursday, April 20, 2006

38 Degrees


It's not the weather I'm talking about. It's my body temperature.

Went home last night with a fever. Searched the drawers for the "SARS kit" that the government gave out to every household in Singapore in 2003 when there's the SARS outbreak. Miraculously, the thermometer still works!! I put it under my armpit to check the temperature and it turned out to be 38 degrees. Since no doctor around my area is opened at 10pm, I had to search the house for panadol. Can't find any, so had to call upstairs to 'borrow' a panadol.

My nieces came down, since she had 2 math questions to ask me. I can easily strangle her 'cos she's not paying attention and obviously only interested in the answer. My sis-in-law came down a while later. Her wounds are healing. We can go for our spa soon! yeah!

Supposed to have a 'marcom gathering' during lunch just now but Sharon had a last minute meeting, hence the meeting was cancelled. But poor Daryl was out for an appointment, hence, he went to CPF building and waited... and waited... but no one appeared. So, I decided to go down to meet him for lunch. Brought him to TV12 canteen to eat, he was amazed that such a building exists! haha...

Hopefully my fever don't come back to haunt me. Saw the news about some disease spread by mosquitoes that's prevalent in Malaysia and may come to Singapore soon. I hope I don't get that! 'cos the symptom was - sudden fever. And it had to happen to me Yesterday!!!

Also saw the news about France going to catch people carrying fake goods. Dunno if they are going to pass the same law in Singapore. But I find it really absurd! If my 'fake good' is ORIGINAL but made in China, does it mean I have to pay a fine or go to jail? Strange!!!!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Happy. Birth. Day


Went KTV with Emily & Amy on Thursday night and only reached home at 4:30am the next day... Yawnzzzzz... so tired.... It turned out to be a rainy Good Friday, but I've already arranged with my buddies to meet up for my birthday celebration.

Yuan's hubby was the driver of the day. The car came around 2:30pm but the rain was still heavy. We decided to go somewhere for lunch... in the end after circling around the CBD area for so long, we decided to stop by M Hotel to have lunch. David paid for lunch. haha... It was then that they gave me the presents :)

I got a Blythe Doll (a small one who can blink her eyes) and a set of Postcards (Ji Ben Ba Na Na). After that we went to watch Ice Age 2 at Eng Wah in Suntec... "I believe I can fly..." and "Food, Glorious Food" are stuck in my head now. Its so farnie... the Moses and Noah's ark element are especially strong when you watched the movie on a Good Friday.

After which we went to Bishan Park to feed the mosquitoes! haha... not really lah... just that there's this pub/cafe at Bishan Park and we just want to go there for some drinks. The ambience is not bad... not many people were there... maybe due to the rain(?) though its sheltered. Anyway, we had lots of sinful food...

Before the movie, we went to Coffee Club @ Millennia Walk to have coffee and ended up ordering a mud pie! haha..... and our coffees... before that the lunch at M Hotel is really heavy. We ordered a mango&prawn salad and something like pohpiah with BBQ Duck inside to share, and had our separate main course. Then at that cafe/pub in Bishan Park, we ordered drinks to go with the beef lasagne, teriyaki chicken & sotong balls we ordered.

Reached home at almost 12:30am. But had to wake up early cos on Sat, need to go to bro's stall to helpout.

Had a mini celebration at my bro's stall on Sunday. Think everyone in the market knows its my birthday on Sunday. My nieces & nephews were there too! Too bad sis and my cousins couldn't come due to the rain. I had a cake, and some ice-cream too! hehe...... brother gave me something this year... WOW! Mum gave me an ang pao of $22. Then April & the other 2 gals bought me something out of their own pocket - a handphone accessory. And Jenny gave me a bottle of perfume ; )

My colleagues planned a quite unsuccessful birthday surprise for me on Thursday. I already knew what they wanted to do. But they are sweet lah : ) Gave me a Charles & Keith bag and CD.

My head is a bit dizzy now... Yawnzzzzzzzzzz

Thursday, April 13, 2006

The Alarm Has Sounded

10th April - the day the alarm sounded. has been given the ultimate warning and asked to leave.

11th April - tendered her resignation letter early in the morning, at the same time, decided that from then on, everyday shall be her 'last day'. Hence, early in the morning when I walked into the office, I see her chatting with her bunch of sisters from the 'auntiehood'. Then she actually went for 2 hour lunches, came back around 2pm, and disappeared around 2:45pm for another hour, before appearing around 4pm. Something fishy is going on as she started printing stuff, collecting them and collating them, and binded them. Also were seen doing MSN Marathon chats with more than 3 people online on a screen, and surfing the net as if there's no tomorrow. Or should I say, surf all the more now, cos free internet access would not be provided for some months.

11th April - Management sent out an email depicting why she was asked to leave in case she already started to spread rumours, which is highly likely.

12th April - Surf more websites (probably websites that she's not visited for a long time, or websites which she would not be visiting for quite a while). Checked emails. Mass chatting on MSN. Still in defensive mode - she msned me and I asked if she's gotten a job, but she replied saying that she didn't and told me she had a clear conscience. Well... I hate to say this, but reality is often cruel. WAKE UP YOUR IDEA!!!! Don't continue to live in your own world and think that your best is really the best!! and please don't poison other people's thoughts with your 'own thoughts'.

13th April - Decided to make the weekend longer by applying leave.

Well, management has been lenient to her, granting her leave and childcare leave. She's also waiting for her mobile phone bills so that she can claim her last 10 bucks from the company. Whatever it is, these, to her are her entitlement, and yes, how true!

For someone who don't work OT and asked media owners not to call her after 6pm, I wonder what's the reimbursement for 10 bucks for? Her husband calls on the land line. Media owners call her on the land line. Even Friends call her on the land line. Hardly do I hear her talk to media owners or clients on the phone and she has the audacity to claim 10 bucks every month. Though I think the amount is not huge, but this is wastage! Sigh... but nevermind, company can save $120 in 1 year on her now that she won't be making such claims!

Also, company won't have to tolerate her always on leave or MC. When she's on leave but not approved since another colleague from the same team is also on leave on the same day, she'll talk to that person and pressure him/her to give in to her so that she can go on leave. If she can't get her way, she'll be on Urgent leave! or take MC! Talk about responsibility. I think she should ask her conscience if this is the right way to treat colleagues and shrik responsibilities just like that. No proper handover is being carried out whenever she's on leave. Sigh... how do I know what needs to be followed up. Until the phone call rang. Either from media owner. Either from client. Or either from working partner.

Really, her dismissal is a boulder off everyone's chest (both literally and physically).

Hopefully this alarm will sound louder to those people, who have not been performing to buck up as this is not the first time the company has come to the decision to axe off people who are under-performers.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

我要放假!!!


累、累、累、累、累、累、累,七个累!一周复一周。天天都如此... ... 真想好好放个假!但偏偏假期还很遥远,现在就只能等待7月7日快快降临!那时候我就会快乐自在地享受北海道的一花一草,一景一幕,悠哉游哉,啊!!!

“每一次旅行,都有错觉,彷弗是不需降落的,飞向一个更接近理想的国度。”

“每一次旅行,都像放牧,把自己的心灵驱向神秘的大草原,招唤内在的力量。”

真希望假期能够多一点... ...

即使不出国散心也可以在家好好“充电”。

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Get LOST!


So excited I'll be watching "LOST" tonight :)

Think that's the only TV show I'll watch on Channel 5. Rest of the shows are so crappy. Occasionally I'll tune in on Sundays to watch the blockbuster movies, but they keep playing things like "Pearl Harbour"... YAwnzzzz.... really make my blood boil since we paid TV Licensing Fees to watch TV!!!! Why can't they give us quality programmes???

It's getting creepy... Imagine someone whom you've met by chance telling you "See you in your next life!" and you really got to see him again, but this time, at a hatch on an unknown island after a plane crash!! eerie....

Who are the OTHERS?

What are the personalities of the other survivors of the plane crash?

I'm really dying to know!!!!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

一天的开始是梦的结束


一直都觉得时间永远不够用。

一天结束后,另一天又开始了。唉!昨晚做了什么梦,今早就忘记了... 是年纪大了,留不住美梦?还是懒得把梦看仔细?又或者是根本不值得去记得?

偶尔做了个好梦,但又被该死的闹钟吵醒。

偶尔想做个梦,但是却一觉到天明,连个屁都没有!

欢乐时光会随着年纪越大而减少。而快乐的时光总是来得快,去得也快!

日复一日,时间永远不会放慢脚步;梦,也不会时常在睡中扎营。

瞧!现在已经是凌晨12:28分了。又是一天的开始,但我还没入睡,梦就因此不会结束!

Monday, April 03, 2006

House of Spice




Location : Blk 511 Bedok North St. 3 #01-23
Specialty : Chicken Curry, Sliced Fish Curry, Mutton Curry, Pork Rib Curry, Fish Head Curry

The gravy is good!!! Especially when you dip the crispy bread into the curry. So heavenly!!! I think the sliced fish is the best!!! cos its got 'asam' taste in it that makes it more spicy.

I thought the curry is spicy enough, but XL who likes super spicy stuff felt that it should be more spicy. Hence, she made request for the hawker to add more spice to her portion. Haha... Can see the smoke coming from behind her head!!!

Would definitely recommend this to my friends : ) As Singaporeans, we would travel all over the island to find good food! :)~~~

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Surprise Surprise

Gek SMSed me yesterday.

"Will you be free on the 14 May? I want to invite you to my wedding dinner."

I had thought that this was a joke, but it apparently was the real thing! More real than COKE!! ARGGHHHHHHH!!!! After much probing, she told me she was pregnant for 17 weeks already!!! Oops.... a shotgun marriage!! And it had to happen to Gek??? OMG!!!!!

Her husband is 4 years younger than her! It came as a shock to me 'cos when we were still studying in poly, her mentality is very conservative. She would not imagine herself to have shotgun marriage, or marrying someone so much younger than her. To her, 1 year is still ok, but 4 years her junior?!?!?!?

But I am glad she's excited about the baby.

So excited that Lost 2 is coming back on Channel 5 tonight! Hooray!! I can continue to unveil the mysteries of the island... Tonight's episode is a 2 hour special. Luckily I'm on leave tomorrow : )

Muay sent an email earlier on about some guerilla marketing done by a Coffee company in Brazil. It's very farnie! I liked the building corner wraps : ) Think its simple and nice. If only we can do that in Singapore.... this website is actually quite good for inspiration!http://www.adrants.com/



Had Nonshin Cup noodles for lunch just now... Dunno why but I had a craving for cup noodles...haha.. so I went to 7-11 to buy last night :P I got a Disney badge last night - Snow White. How come I'm getting all those characters that don't appeal much to me?? When can I get Donald Duck or Piglet???