Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas - The Season to Give & Receive is finally here! PHEW!

I had a fun time choosing and buying Christmas gifts for my friends, colleagues and family members. And this year had been a GREAT YEAR as I received the most presents in my whole life!!! WOW! Imagine coming to the office to see your table filled with gifts!

As of today, I had received 22 Gifts in total!!! And on the 27th December, I'll be meeting 3 good friends for our christmas gathering! :)

I received towels, hand-made coasters, card holders, wristlet, necklaces, clips, teacup set, biscuits, honey, chocolates, decorative items, pen, pouches, journals/schedule books & Evelyn & Crabtree Lotion set.

Hopefully I will get the items on my wishlist for the Gift Exchange with my 3 girlfriends :) I had been good and stuck to the list of items they wanted. But, I did something different this year. I advocate being GREEN this x'mas and started wrapping the presents with Magazines, and used recycled items like Shoe Boxes & Mooncake Boxes! HO HO HO....

Flying off to Tunisia...

Yeah!

I will be setting off to Tunisia in another few hours.

The flight is at 11:05pm via Turkish Airlines. We will transit at Turkey before taking a domestic flight to Tunisia tomorrow. Tunisia is 7 hours behind Singapore... Hopefully I can sleep on board the flight and don't suffer from jet lag.

I am so excited about this trip!!

There are a couple of FIRSTs for this trip!

First "FIRST" would be my DSLR camera!!! I finally bought my DSLR Camera at the Sitex Fair on 30th November! Talk about economic crisis! The queue at the cashier was super long! We had to queue for almost 1 hour for payment and another half an hour to redeem my camera!!!

I settled for Olympus E520. It cost S$1,048 and comes with an additional battery, 2X 8GB CF Card, 1 14-42mm lens, 1 camera bag (which is super bulky but definitely for professionals who had a lot of lenses and flash to play with!), a tripod, and a 58mm filter! And it comes with a 4 year warranty!! Will be paying via 12-mth instalment plan with Harvey Norman...

Second "FIRST" would be my NEW T-shirts!!! I bought a green bambi T-shirt from Pure Milk the other day and will bring it for my trip. Also, I also bought the Little Miss and Mr Men T-shirts from Bossini a few days ago and will be wearing my Red Mr Bump and Pink Little Miss Chatterbox as well!!! And just an hour ago, I went to Watsons to get some last minute supplies and stumbled upon a very cute T-shirt with a "patchwork" horse on it and got it for $18!! And of course not forgetting the Adidas Originals T-shirts I bought during the sale!

Third "FIRST" would be my Adidas Originals canvas shoes & slip-ons! I will be bringing 2 pairs, out of the 9 pairs I bought last month during the Adidas Originals Sale!!! hahaha... I think I am going mad buying so many shoes but I just can't help it! They are super CHEAP!!! and a girl will never complain having too many shoes, right???

I will bring along these pairs :

We would need to gather at Terminal 1 at 9pm.

Damn! It rained a while ago and the weather was so humid! I simply can't stand the weather! Its so unpredictable!! Grrrrrr....

Ok.... better do my last minute checks to see if everything is in place.

Looking forward to a good trip!

Summary of Beijing Trip - Day 1 (11th Oct 08)

11 Oct 08 - Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3

Reached Beijing at 6:30am. Need to take a bus to the terminal, and from there, need to take an LRT to the Arrival Hall to pick up our luggages and meet up with the local tour guide.

First tourist spot for Day 1 is Forbidden City!!! Well, I was quite disappointed with the sight as there were many people, and the Forbidden City was not as grand as what I used to see on documentaries or drama serials... We got LOST in Forbidden City due to the massive crowd!! ARGH!!! Had to contact the CTC office in Singapore so that they can touch base with our local tour guide to pick us up from 太和殿at the Forbidden City. Phew! Thank God my tour guide managed to find us! We felt so bad to get lost on our first day, taking into consideration that we are two young ladies!!! Most of the people in our tour group are above 40 years old I guess, with the exception of a 12-year-old boy who had the luxury of an advanced holiday break after his PSLE exams.

The Forbidden City is HUGE!!!! Luckily the weather is quite good, hence, most of the pictures turn out quite well.

There were separate sections where the Emperor would hold meetings with his officials on important matters, sections where the empress and concubines live, section where the imprerial exams were held...

The structures look impressive but I don't think they did a good job in putting up the exhibits where the royal family used. The exhibits were so dark, and kept behind glasses... we had to act like burglars in order to have a close look at what was being exhibited. The best part is, the mainland Chinese people who were also on vacation and travelling interstates, they are damn CRUDE and they really pushed their way through! ARGH!!! How uncouth!!! That was my bad encounter at the Forbidden City, which made me cringe. I thought they had become more 'graceful' due to the Olympics!!! Sigh...

However, I have to admit that the air was a bit less polluted, as the government still maintained the method of allowing cars with odd & even number plates to fill the roads during certain times of the week.

11 Oct 08 - Tiananmen Square

The structure looks a bit like the palace in Forbidden City. Except that for the Mao Zedong portrait in the centre... As I was standing there, I thought about the massacre that occured which lead to many deaths of the student population in this area in the early 1980s.... Although the square is littered with people, all of them are in peace.

We also visited the National Theatre, which was newly built, and I think the person who built this structure is the Danish guy who also built the Sydney Opera House. The nickname for this structure is the "water egg (水蛋) because it really looked like a metal egg in a pond!! haha...

After that, we visited 大观园, a massive "garden" that they built to film "Romance of the Red Chambers" (红楼梦). The garden is very cooling, and it sure is HUGE!!!

11 Oct 08 - Da Guan Yuan

We went to watch an acrobatics show in the evening before going to eat dinner and head back to the hotel to rest. Phew! The first day is sure tiring!!!!

11 Oct 08 - Acrobatics Performance

We stayed at Royal King Hotel, which is a 5-star hotel located in the Olympic Village. Its a new hotel and the room is very cosy :)

2008 的匆匆

每当时间分分秒秒从我指尖流逝，我都会想起朱自清的《匆匆》。

“燕子去了，有再来的时候；杨柳枯了，有再青的时候；桃花谢了，有再开的时候。但是，聪明的，你告诉我，我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢？”

聪明的，你告诉我，为什么晨的脚步来得那么快？
聪明的，你告诉我，夜的眼为什么和繁星的交错变得如此短暂？
聪明的，你告诉我，时间到底流逝到哪里了？是大海吗？天空吗？
聪明的，你告诉我，要如何紧紧握着时间不放， 不让它从指缝间溜走?

“去得尽管去了，来的尽管来着；去来的中间，又怎样地匆匆呢？早上我起来的时候，小屋里射进两三方斜斜的太阳。太阳他有脚啊，轻轻悄悄地挪移了；我也茫茫然跟这旋转。于是洗手的时候，日子从水盆里过去；吃饭的时候，日子从饭碗里过去；默默时，便从凝然的双眼前过去。

我觉察他的去匆匆了，伸出手遮挽时，他又从遮挽的手边过去，天黑时，我躺在床上，他便伶伶俐俐地从我身上跨过，从我脚边飞去了。等我睁开眼和太阳再见，这算又溜走了一日。我掩着面叹息。但是新来的日子的影儿又开始在叹息里闪过了。”

时间总爱捉弄人。在我们眼前的，我们未能把握珍惜，只有在失去后才感到可惜。

时间匆匆地在我们日常作息中不断地溜走 – 我们是不是应该更珍惜和身边亲密的人一起吃饭的时候？更应该珍惜每一刻在阳光下嬉耍的日子？毕竟，时间终究会毫不留情地把一切给匆匆地夺走。

“在逃去如飞的日子里，在千门万户的世界里的我能做些什么？只有徘徊罢了，只有匆匆罢了；在八千多日的匆匆里，除徘徊外，又剩下什么呢？”

徘徊了299个日子，匆匆地，2008 也要圆满结束了。当我们正在惋叹2008 的流逝，2009也匆匆地接近了。

“你聪明的，告诉我，我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢？”

在时间跟我们定下的游戏规则里，我们从来没有权利向他喊停，但，我们绝对有权利决定他的去向 –不论是 徘徊在大街上，音乐/书香中，抑或在虚拟世界里！

Flying off to Beijing...

Yeah!!! My long-awaited trip!!

It has been 6 months since my last holiday trip to Turkey in April!!! Had a memorable birthday. Hopefully the Beijing trip will be fun. This time, there are altogether around 38 people in the tour group!!! There are quite a lot of older folks.... hopefully we will not be slowed down by their pace... and their frequent visits to the loo...

Looking forward to this trip! Just wish that I can sleep comfortably on the flight... since its a midnight flight... and I've never taken Air China before. I will check out airlinemeals.com later to see what kind of food they serve on board their flights.

Also would need to check the weather and re-pack my luggage if necessary. Heard that the weather can be as low as 4 degrees celsius at night!!! BASKET!! I am not prepared for winter!! For Goodness Sake!! Now is just the beginning of October! Shouldn't it still be Autumn???

Had a rewarding day at work today!!! My client praised us for the good work and hard work we put up for them during this Rebranding phase. And my HK Office sent a note to us, including our GM, and the Regional MD to praise us!! Hohoho.... Hopefully they will value us more! :P

Ok.... I need to be work on time tomorrow and on Friday as the BIG BOSS is in town! Ciao!

Historic Moment - 28th September 2008

This was a historic moment for Singapore as it held the first F1 Night Race in the bustling CBD district on 28th September 2008.

Stunning race with crashes, as well as unexpected results.

Alonso was crowned the champion for the Singapore leg, followed by Rosberg (Williams) & Hamilton (Mercedes McLaren). I feel happy for Rosberg as RBS sponsored the AT&T Williams team. Have to admit that this young chap has potential. Also, Alonso turned his ill fate around as he was 15th in the Qualifying Race on Saturday due to some errors in his engine, but thank God he managed to beat all odds and emerged as the champion.

What I really felt bad about wat Kimi Raikkonen crashed in the last 4 laps of the race!!!! Poor Massa made a huge blunder during refuelling as well, where precious time was wasted when he had to wait for his team to help him get the fuel hose which was still attached to his race car when he saw the green light that signified "GO".

Anyway, this was really a significant moment for Singapore. By the way, the Singtel Grid Girls looked HORRIBLE!!!!

Exciting Week!

The Formula 1 Grand Prix has finally arrived!!!!!

On Thursday when we went to Prego for lunch, we saw some of the Ferrari Team Members in their suit at the hotel lobby of Swissotel. Then when we had breakfast at Intercon at Bugis, we also saw some F1 team people, but being "DUH" about F1, I don't even know who those people were....

Anyway, we can see the F1 from our office window. OMG!!! The cars really looked like thoes Hot Wheels toy cars from our office window!!!! We saw the practice race at 3pm. They were by some Singapore racers... most of them went out of the corner!!! Haha.... but the sounds they made were really LOUD!!!!

Had dinner with Pat, Betty & Charmayne at Miss Clarity Cafe. Good catch-up session :) The food at Miss Clarity Cafe turned out to be quite good!

This week was an "ice-cream" week for us!

We found this very nice homemade ice-cream at Shaw Tower - Tom's Palette. Fell in love with their "Granny's Favourite", "Apple Pie", "Caramel Cheesecake" and the "Lavender" flavours!

Also had "Strawberry Cheesecake" flavoured ice cream when we had lunch at Dozo at Valley Point Shopping Centre. Dozo serves good Japanese fusion food!! Its concept is almost similar to Tao's and Hokkaido JuJu Pot where you were given a list of items in the 6 course meal to choose from. sLRUP!!! The beef on the hotstone with Pu Ye leave was simply to die for!!!! The soft shell crab too!!!!

Then went to MOF to eat their Black Sesame flavoured ice-cream at Suntec City yesterday.

I think I will never suffer from any Point of Diminishing Return for Ice-cream!!! hehehe

Oh! A piece of good news - Our company is going to Bangkok for our company trip on 17th November!!! HOORAY!!!!!!

So the coming 3 months would be something to look forward to:

11th to 15th October 2008 - Beijing trip with Indira and Maliga
17th to 19th November 2008 - Bangkok trip with Company
6th to 15th December 2008 - Tunisia trip with Yanshan

YEAH!!!! I love to travel!!!

Mama Mia!

This is super hilarious!! It's a light-hearted movie and for a moment, I think Pierce Brosnan's singing was quite awful!! But alas! He had a lot to sing for the male parts. I think Colin Firth was a better singer!! But why does he have to be the GAY man in the end??? ARGH!!!! Spoil the image of a gentleman of him!!!

Nevertheless, I think they injected ABBA's songs at the right moment, though some parts with the background singers and actors looked so damn out of place and hilarious!!!

This really chased away my Monday blues!!!

Le Wedding

St. Regis has very nice decor. They even had some sculptures of Botero outside the ballroom.

However, I must say the wedding dinner was very boring.... there wasn't much programmes, and the music played was just instrumental pieces (mainly saxophone and disney songs). The food was served by the banquet stuff, but at quite slow speeds.... the cutlery was very 'intimidating', cos they looked like fine dining, but not quite there.

The pineapple rice was tasteless!!! The sharks' fin was too saltish!! The best dish was only the cod fish... I think cod fish tastes nice no matter how you cook it! (That's why I loved cod fish!!!)

Yawnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

14th September - Lena's Big Day!!

My cousin Lena, who is born in the same year but 3 months older than me, is getting married on this day.

After the wedding, she will be following her hubby to South Korea who is posted there for 2 years on a company trip... Sigh... she really gave up everything here in Singapore to go to South Korea with him.... I wonder if its really worth the sacrifice??

Anyway, I bought a blue dress from Joop to wear for the dinner tonight at St. Regis. So stressed man!!!! The dress code stated on the wedding invitate states "FORMAL" and I was scrambling to find something appropriate to wear from my wardrobe.

Initially wanted to wear the Olive Green Wrap-Around Dress I wore for Yuan's wedding, but am afraid that if I had my menses, it would be quite uncomfortable....

Nevertheless, I also bought a very sweet looking necklace from Craft Jewellery and a pair of ear-rings from Helen :)

Am going to look poised and unconcerned if nosey relatives tried to ask me when will be my turn :P

Beijing Olympics Vs National Day

Happy 43rd Birthday, Singapore!!!!

9th August marks Singapore's National Day and boy! the fireworks are very pretty!!! However, I thought the opening for the Olympics yesterday - the most auspicious day - 8th August 2008, 8:08pm - was so much better!!!!!

The whole show was cheorographed by Zhang Yimou and I must say its really done very nicely... I liked the part where there was a lot of guys dressed as scholars and using the scrolls to create a very nice dance formation. The part on Taichi was also very nice!!! The backdrops were very beautiful!!! So glad to see Sarah Brightman perform the theme song of the Beijing Olympics with this chinese guy who has such a soothing & powerful voice at the same time.

Amazing thing for National Day - the rain will always stop right before the parade starts!!!!

On the other hand, the surprise was the clear weather condition for Beijing as pollution was clearly one big problem China had to counter for the Olympics to happen. Seems like the cameras are good at playing tricks on us, or the pollution issue has been greatly solved??? Hmmmm...

There's nothing much to watch on TV ..... despite it being a Public Holiday, and Singapore's 43rd birthday.... Sigh ....

But the comforting part is watching the "Calafare", "First Class" and "Heroes Season 2" after the NDP 08 telecast, as well as the snippets of some of the heats that took place in the Beijing Olympics....

Pat's Farewell Dinner

Damn full!!!

Had Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat at Thien Kee Steamboat Restaurant located at Golden Mile Tower with Pat, Betty, Charmayne & Jessie.

The rice & chicken is very nice!! Slurp!!! There's an article on Hungrygowhere on this particular steamboat restaurant - http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/thien_kee_steamboat_restaurant/

After that, we went to the Ben & Jerry's at Raffles City to continue our conversation and eat some ice-cream.

Time flies... Pat is leaving this Thursday!!! Sigh..............

Eventful 2nd August!

Today is an eventful day for me!

Met YS at 12:30pm to collect tix for The Mummy 3 : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (show time was 1:15pm) at GV. OMG!!! Why is Tampines so crowded?

The chinese actors & actresses who spoke Mandarin in the show sounded funny, except Jet Li! I hate it when those hollywood actors try to speak their lines in Mandarin! Don't even know what they are mumbling about? Its hard on the actor, and its detrimental to the audiences' ears as we strain to figure out what the hell is he talking about??

Anyway, the show was okay. I think Brendan Fraser looks more 'beefed up" and has double chin which is so obvious, and he's not as agile as before..... hmmm.... is it age or is it size??

After that, we went to Cafe Cartel to eat our lunch cum dinner. I ordered the Ribs! Slurp!!!!

Following that, we made our way to Singapore EXPO. We were so annoyed by this uncle and his family who jumped queue to get inside the NATAS Fair! He was so damn THICK-SKINNED!!! No matter how my friend and I 'suan' him, saying "Wah LAU!!! Some people very thick skin lor? Cut Queue also do it so openly!" but he just ignored us! So bad attitude! Dun even know what's SHAME!!!! ARGH!!!!! If I ever see him in my tour group, he will kena from me BIG TIME!

I saw Rick but he was very busy. We intended to go to South Africa but when we asked a staff from Dynasty Travel on the package, her attitude was SUPER LOUSY!! She didn't really seemed keen to serve us. Threw the brochures in front of us and asked us to read on our own and she went away to get something else!!!! Hello?? Aren't you supposed to be telling us more about the packages?? I can read the brochures at home anytime I like!!!! BASKET!!! And the cost she quoted us was super exorbitant!!! It costs S$5138 + S$692 (Airport taxes) to go to South Africa in December!!! Huh??? How come so expensive?? On the brochure, it said from S$4,588..... that is a bit misleading leh!!! In that case, why don't they put from S$5,000....

Anyway, we met Janet, our last tour guide with Universal Travel to Scandinavia. They have this new tour package to Iran and we both signed up for it! :) Hopefully there's enough people to form the tour group.... or else, we will be switching to Tunisia :)

I simply love visiting EXOTIC places!!!

The highlight of the day is Sodagreen's concert. Qingfeng is super farnie lor!!! haha... he sang a lot of songs today and the more I hear his voice, the more he sounded like 2 people - Guangliang, and Cranberries.

I like to listen to them 'Live'. Actually, its equivalent to listening to the CD! Both are equally nice and soothing!

I hope they do come to Singapore again! They are really good performers, though sometimes they quite bo liao on stage! (keep talking about the 'love affair' of their guitarist vs drummer vs violinist who are all GUYS!)

I truly enjoyed 2nd August!!!

Red Cliff

The ending was so abrupt that I felt like falling off the Red Cliff...

How can John Woo do this at the most exciting part?? "To be continued" just screamed at me when I was anticipating the climax of the movie!!!!

Shucks! Need to wait till end of the year for Part 2 to see the continuation of the bloody war scenes! and if Liu Bei + Sun Quan's armies will win the war...

I liked Takeshi Kaneshiro's candid portrayal of Zhuge Liang :)

And I think Tony Leung is very cool for Zhou Yu.

Overall, I quite like the show... except for the highly anticipated "To be continued..." right at the end!

I hope John Woo don't pull such stunts again in future as I simply hated gimmicks like this!!! One more time and I will boycott John Woo's films!

Money No Enough 2

I don't really understand Hokkien but I read the subtitles and thought some of the dialogues are very farnie... they are very reflective of the Singapore society - ERP woes, Filial Piety, Materialism amongst the Youngsters, Youtube scandals, MLM marketing....

The actress who played the mother of Jack Neo, Mark Lee & Henry Thia is this Malaysian who starred in the FAB Washing powder commercials!!!! Her acting was good man!!!

She played an old lady who turned senile, and had diabetes and her kids decided to toss her around (taking turns to look after her), before they finally decide to dump her in an old folks' home.

That part is very sad!!! The background music plus the scene made me tear!!!! The song is very meaningful (though its in Hokkien). It speaks of the unconditional love that a mother gives to her kids when she's young... doing her best to provide for her kids so that they grow up to be useful people, but when the kids grow up, the mother's love for them still continues... but it seems like a one-sided affair!!! as the kids will grow up to have their own families, and then in return, they forget that their mothers exist and become low priority!!!!

Sigh.... the poor mother to the end still gave up her life to safe the spoilt brat grandchild!!!!

This show is paying tribute to the love of a mother. At the same time, they didn't forget to make fun of the ERP gantries!!!

Overall, I think this movie is quite cool!

Scrumptious Lunch at Bussorah Street

Today afternoon, Su brought me to a Turkish & Mediterranean Restaurant at Bussorah Street for lunch and I must say the food was yummy!!! It definitely brought back memories of my Turkish trip.... the kebab.... the iznik tiles.... the handpainted plates that hung on the restaurant walls.... and the cute Turkish chef with blue eyes! hahaha

We ordered a Karisik Kebab - combination of kebabs as our main course - and that 'red' coloured rice. After that, we also ordered desserts - Baklava (Turkish fitto pastry with pistachios) and the Sutlac (Baked Rice Pudding). I also ordered the Apple Tea, while Su ordered Turkish coffee.

Yum Yum Yum.... I think the food is definitely yummy! and the environment is pretty quiet and serene. We thought we saw a minister walk in for lunch as well! But as I'm not very interested in politics, I don't even know who he was when Su ppointed out to me that there's this guy who's very familiar and is one of the ministers... OOPS.....

I will definitely bring my friends to this restaurant to try the other delicious stuff they have! Hopefully the standards will remain as good as what I've tried and tasted today!

WANTED

Went to watch "WANTED" this afternoon with YS at The Cathay Cineleisure.





Think we caught the movie too early as after that, we walked about aimlessly........ before settling down at Coffee Club to have our coffee & cake.





Dinner at Shokudo Pasta & Pizza was TERRIBLE!!!! The food tastes ..... MEDIOCRE... I think Pasta at Waraku is much better! Though I think they shouldn't try to infuse Japanese food with Pasta just like that!

"WANTED" has a lot of interesting stunts that resembled "MATRIX" like dodging the bullets, curving the bullets, as well as jumping through the building to appear on the roof top of another building opposite.

The twist was when "Wesley Gibson", who was supposed to kill "CROSS" to avenge his father, was being "cheated" to do so. "Cross" is actually Wesley's real father!!! Aiyoh.... but this show did a lot of 'cruelty' to animals - strapping bombs onto rats and sending them in as the suicide squad. There's dead pigs everywhere in the 'abbattoir' where this guy is supposed to train Wesley's reflexes by cutting and slicing him.

Funny thing is they have a remedy for curing pains and wounds. They were made to lie in this pool with wax. But the poor guy who was the 'healer' died.... while he was trying to catch hold of "Cross".

There were funny parts to the show as well. Wesley loves to apologise.... and even when he's killing, he would say "I'm sorry".

But I think the stunts are very well done and the pace of the movie is quite alright.... the exciting moments are when Angelina Jolie's car crashed into the train, and the train later had to go into this tunnel amidst the mountains and someone pulled the emergency brake! The whole train FELL into the valley!! That's so amazing!!!!!

I also like the part where Wesley tried to kill this rich man who was in his limo listening to classical music and smoking his cigar. When Wesley fired at his car, the windscreen was bulletproof. But because he was smoking, he left the top open. So Wesley and "Fox" pulled a stunt where Wesley's car charged and 'crashed' into Fox's car, his car flipped and he could shoot the guy from the top. That was cool!!!!

I think the movie has been quite okay so far but I think the ending is a bit stupid! Its like Wesley just asked the audience a question "So what the F*** are you doing for the past week?"

HAHA.... maybe its time for me to recap what I did last week so that I won't be assassinated!

无与伦比的美丽

天上风筝在天上飞

地上人儿在地上追

你若担心你不能飞

你有我的蝴蝶

天上风筝在天上飞

地上人儿在地上追

我若担心我不能飞

我有你的草原

嘿 嘿 你形容我是这个世界上无与伦比的美丽

嘿 嘿 我知道你才是这世界上无与伦比的美丽

嘿 嘿 你知道当你需要个夏天我会拼了命努力

嘿 嘿 我知道你会做我的掩护 当我是个逃兵

非常期待苏打绿8月2日在狮城的演唱会！！！ 虽然我喜欢这首“无与伦比的美丽”，我也非常喜欢他们其它很棒的作品！只可惜他们要暂时离开舞台，不过，我相信他们的歌迷会痴痴等待他们“凯旋归来”，蓄势再发！

加油啊！苏打绿！

Singapore Toy And Comic Convention 28th to 29th June 2008

A brand new month!

WOW!!!!

Time flies.... its already July!!! Half the year had passed by just like that!

Today at Tampines Interchange, I met my Poly classmate - James! What a coincidence!!! I've not seen him for ages and he's become skinnier!!! My friend Rachel also bumped into him a couple of weeks ago!! WOW!!! Time for a reunion!!!!

It's my 3rd week at my new workplace. The view is fantastic! I can see the Singapore Flyer from there!! As well as a few other landmarks - CK Tangs, Kallang MRT Station, Concourse....

The location of my new office is very central! I can walk to Suntec City, Bugis Junction, as well as Raffles City Shopping Centre!!! WOW!!! And so far, I've ventured quite far away for lunch - Arab Street, Liang Seah Street..... the food is yummy!!!!!

I hope I will have more time to update the blog now that my timings are more flexible than in my ex-agency!

My ex-boss from my first media agency actually joined my ex-company today! I hope she can survive there man!

Went to visit the Toy & Comic Exhibition on 28th June at Suntec City and was very excited about the whole thing!!! This is the inaugural event! I think they are going to bring it back next year and invite more artists to participate in this show. The artists for DeviBot, Tokidoki, Gloomy Bear came down!!! OMG!!!!!

I bought a Smelly Tofu toy.... though it costs $9, its pretty worth it as I've always liked the Tofu characters!! I also bought 5 postcards!!!

I will post the pictures separately :)

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 8

20th April 2008 (Sunday)



Today is the last day of the trip...



Couldn't sleep peacefully last night due to the noise pollution! Cars wheezing by... Ambulance or police cars siren... people talking and shouting loudly... ARGH!!! Woke up by the natural alarm clock at 5am when the mosque blasted the prayers....



After a quick breakfast, we decided to walk around the hotel to check-out its surroundings since we didn't manage to do it last night... Most of the shops are not opened yet... we saw a lovely looking Church opposite our hotel but the 'housekeeper' of the church is not very friendly. Saw 2 cute cats outside the church and 2 big cute dogs inside the church!



We were nearly 'stalked' by this weird looking guy who's a bit 'drunk'... We quickly made our way back to the hotel after going to the furthest end of the street.



Our first stop was Dolmabahce Palace. There's a long queue man!!!!! But what's inside is definitely worth the wait. The interior is really very grand! The chandeliers!!! The 'crystals' along the staircase!! Even the head maid's room is so beautiful!!!!!! We need to buy another ticket for permission to take pictures inside the Dolmabahce Palace ($7 Turkish Lira).



After that, we went to this small town called Ortakoy. There's this very 'arty-farty' flea market going on. The place is quite scenic as behind it is the Bosphorus River. I managed to buy a hand-painted magnet and a set of postcards from this artist. His works are very cute. Its very "Where's Wally" and he always paints himself as a character amidst all the passersby in the pictures. He also painted a lot of stuff on his cat.

<---- The Artist's Cat (which has a Turkish name, and a Turkish feline girlfriend!)

XL & I shared the gigantic potato stuffed with a lot of fillings and some fried mussels and meal balls for lunch. Burp..... Damn filling!!!!!

After that, we went for our Bosphorus Cruise. We had the WHOLE ship to ourselves!!! The breeze made all of us very sleepy..... ahaha.... instead of listening to Taner's explanations on the sites that we can see along the cruise, we began to take group pictures!

Following this, we went to a super big Shopping Mall in Istanbul. We managed to try the fast food - McDonald's & KFC - there! hehe.... it tastes ok lah :)

This trip to Turkey is indeed a very fruitful one as its filled with lots of fun, laughter and culture :)

Remember! If anyone of you wants to go to Turkey, choose CTC Travel (Singapore)!!

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 7

19th April 2008 (Saturday)

We reached Istanbul around 12pm+ as there was a bit of traffic jam. However, we were just in time for lunch at a Chinese Restaurant. Sometimes I really admire the Chinese! They can survive anywhere just by operating a food business!

Immediately after lunch, we visited Hagia Sofia Museum. The building is very majestic! Taner told us the dome in the middle has collapsed 5 times!!! Wow!!! Thank God there's some construction works within the Hagia Sofia to support the big dome so that it won't collapse again! Surrounding the domes are some more semi-circular domes as well.

The Hagia Sofia is a very unique building as it has both Christian & Muslim influences within it.

Was mobbed again outside Hagia Sofia! OMG!! We are really becoming "superstars" in Turkey!

After that, we walked across to visit the Blue Mosque. The Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque shared some similarities in the form of architecture - just that the dome is more sturdy and smaller than the one in Hagia Sofia. The Blue Mosque got its name because of the blue tiles inside the mosque. (what an uninnovative way to name mosques!)

Following that, we went to visit the Spice Market. Wow! It sure is crowded and it reminds me of the bazaars in Egypt... but the things they sold were very fragmented - it ranges from food products, spices, flowers, and even livestocks!!!! There were a lot of pigeons outside the Spice Market. We were very afraid that we may be 'bombarded by bird shit' anytime!

After visiting the Spice Market, we made our way to the Grand Bazaar. I met a lot of harrassments from the stall owners and couldn't really shop in peace... I gave up buying souvenirs for the rest of my family in the end as most of them were talking to me and trying to ask me out to 'have fun' with them. Yawnzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Only managed to buy a hand-painted dish and a magnet for Yanshan.

As our Turkish Lira is depleting soon, we withdrew $60 Turkish Lira from the ATM Machine... I thought I would have difficulties getting the money out from the ATM as I don't understand Turkish... phew! Luckily there's English by the sides. But I thought the screen was 'touch screen activated' and was touching the screens. It turned out that I had to press the buttons by the side to make my options. Haha.... So blur!

The hotel we stayed for the night is Hotel Villa Suite Rm 1112. OMG!!! This place is really NOISY!!!!!!! Plus the room is hot and stuffy due to the centralised heating system! ARGH!

The hotel is located in Taksim Square - a happening place equivalent to the Orchard Road in Singapore. The lift is super duper small, and we need to push the lift door to open it!!! Wah! Damn old school lor!!!!!

Dinner will be at this place called "Gar Muzik Bar". There's even a website www.garmusichall.com! There's performances and dinner (with 2 free drinks). I ordered the beef and deeply regretted my choice as the beef is very tough... I had to spend a lot of time chewing it till my jaws ached..

Ah Hao was being called up onto the stage to show off his bellydancing skills again!! hahaha.... He was also being pulled up to the stage to help in a more dangerous stunt - flying daggers!!! WOW!!!!

Tomorrow is our last day in Turkey. We've signed up for the Full Day Tour (optional and at an additional US$90) and this would include the Dolmabache Palace (So EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!) and the Bosphorus Cruise.

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 6

Day 6 - 18th April 2008 (Friday)

Holidays are coming to an end... Sigh... I think I need another break to get over this break! hahah... Wishful thinking on my part!

Today's journey brings us to the capital of Turkey - Ankara. There's only 1 place to visit in Ankara in our itinerary - Ataturk Mausoleum. Ataturk is the "Father of the Turks" and he's considered a national hero in Turkey. Can see his statues and sculptures everywhere!

Before embarking on our journey to Ankara, we stopped by this pottery factory at Kaya Seramik and we managed to buy some small souvenirs for Yuan! The hand-painted plates are so lovely!! I would really love to buy this for myself but I don't think it'll do them justice when I bring it home as I've no place to display them... sigh...

After leaving this pottery factory, we travelled for a while before going on a toilet break at Salt Lake. Oh my!! Its really SALT and more SALT across the lake! Some of them were hardened and you could walk on them! Must be damn saltish man! yucks!

Lunch was pretty tasty... perhaps its because all of us were too hungry and tired due to the long distance...

At the Ataturk Mausoleum, we were mobbed by young kids who were there on an excursion. The funny thing is - when they saw us, they made us looked as if we were superstars or exhibits - they flocked to us and started taking pictures of us!! and only a few bold ones wanted to take pictures with us....

Some teenagers also tried to talk to us with their 'private limited English" and also asked to take pictures with us. I wonder if these pictures are being circulated among their friends?? Boasting they took pictures with some Asians during their excursions!!! Or they could be posted on online photo albums! haha

Now I fully understand how tired superstars are trying to maintain their smiles in front of the cameras, and accede to requests for photo taking and autographs. Phew!

The hotel we are staying tonight is the Hotel Boru. Brrrrr... as this hotel is located on top of a mountain, the air is very cooling... and it makes night time very cold!!

2 more days left.... and its back to Singapore to slog till the cows come home!!! Sigh....

I will miss Turkey! and I will definitely miss the people in this tour group! They've made this trip a most memorable one!

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 5

17th April 2008 (Thursday)

Yoohoo! This was the day when I experienced my first HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHT!!! WOW!! The view is indeed splendid! And I must admit Cappadocia has very unique landscape!

The end of the ride was quite an adventurous one when we 'crashed' into this tree (I shouldn't say tree as its quite tiny, and has lots of bare branches). One of the girls suffered cuts on her finger!! OMG!! This was quite terrible!!!!

After we landed, we had some champagne!! and then we had our certificate presentation ceremony. The ride was US$220, but definitely a worthwhile ride!

The best part was when the guys tried to help us out of the hot air balloon. One of the girls actually told the guy "If you touch me, you have to marry me!" haha... what a way to get married!

After that, we 'rushed' back to the hotel to have our breakfast before going to visit the underground city of Kaymakli. Its a pretty amazing underground city as its got lots of facilities - including cooking.. toilet... hmmm... reminds me of Cu Chih Tunnel in Vietnam, but its a lot more spacious!!!

Heard from Taner that this underground city is 750m underground and more are to be excavated!! However, there's not enough money to fund the diggings! WOW!! This is so amazing!!! Imagine if it goes deeper and deeper!! I wonder what they will find down there???

It was outside the entrance of this underground city that an old Turkish man started to make small talks with me. He claimed that we spent the night together at the hotel lobby drinking tea!! Hmmm... must be drunk early in the day! I didn't even remember doing something like that!! HAHA.... anyway, strange things happened to me after my birthday... I suddenly became a Turkish magnet... attracting men & kids!

We then proceed to Goreme Open-Air Museum. There were some interesting churches here with lots of elaborate paintings in the 'caves'. One of them was the "Apple Church", "St. Basil's Church" and "Snake Church". We didn't go to the "Dark Church" as Taner mentioned that the entrance ticket was very expensive and what you see in the "Snake Church" can be seen in that "Dark Church" as well, hence, don't bother to go there.

We had our taste of Pottery Kebab today at "Dede Efendi Restaurant". Yummy!!! At last lunch today was GOOD!!!!

After lunch, we visited the Pigeon Valley. There were lots of holes in the caves used for housing pigeons!!! Opposite the Pigeon Valley was a Jewellery store and we went there to take a look at how stones were made. Following that, we also moved to this winery where we had some wine tasting, and some of the group members actually bought some bottles of wine back.

We also visited the Uchisar Castle Village where they filmed Star Wars!!! Damn gorgeous!!!! We also went to visit the Fairy Chimney... the name may sound nice and fairytale-like but they in fact looked more like .... ermmm.... male sexual organs to me! :P

At night, we went on a Cultural Show at Yaser Baba Restaurant. This was an optional tour at US$35. We went 'cos we had nothing much to do at night in the hotel anyway. The show was fun! Shihao was pulled out to perform bellydancing!! HOHOHO.... caught some of his stunts on video!

YAwnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Pictures on 16th April (Turkey Trip)

People hiking up Cotton Castle

Clear blue skies along the way to Konya

Nasuriddin Hodja

Entrance to Caravanserai in Konya for lunch

Mevlana Museum from the Reflections of the Window

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 4

16th April 2008 (Wednesday) - My Birthday!!!

Good things tend to happen on one's birthday! Guess what? For me, this is the 'weirdest' birthday I've ever had.

The moment the alarm rang and I got out of bed, a sleepy XL told me "Happy Birthday! I am helping Yuan & YS convey the message to you", after which I replied "Hmmm".... and she immediately quipped "Of cos including me!" and then she went back to sleep again...

Oh well!! Talk about sincerity....

The journey today is considered arduous and long.... we are travelling from Pamukkale to Konya and finally to Cappadoia. Heard that the full day's journey was 8 hours!!! (or more!!!)

We stopped by this place where we could take some pictures of the Cotton Castle from another angle. We could see people hiking up the Cotton Castle from the side!! WAH!! I would love to do that too!!!



The first 'toilet break' stop was at this Dinar Restaurant where we had the luxury of trying this honey yoghurt with poppy seeds! Yummy! The yoghurt is made of ox-milk, that's why it tasted a bit different from the rest of the yoghurt we've been eating for the past few days. The combination of honey & poppy seeds made the yoghurt taste extremly sweet and yummy! Slurp!!! This simple dish cost $4 Turkish Lira! XL was thinking of buying the poppy seeds back!! But then again! Poppy seeds are the bi-products of OPIUM --- which means we can't bring it back as its considered an illegal drug!!

Honey Yoghurt with Poppy Seeds


After that, we travelled for another 1.5 hours before reaching Konya. By the time we reached the lunch venue, it was already 2pm+! Everyone was famished!! And it was at this ancient caravanserai (a 'hotel' for ancient traders and travellers) that I met my first Turkish suitor - Selim - who worked as the head waiter of the restaurant.



Caravanserai in Konya

At first I thought his small chats were gestures of hospitality and friendliness... after which the questions became weirder... "Would you like to stay here everyday?".... ermmm...Why would I want to stay here everyday? I want to go home!



"Can you write me?"- Initially I was quite reluctant to write him, but my tour members who sat with me on the same dining table told me no harm knowing another friend. So, I told him "OK". He really passed me a piece of paper with his name, email address and mobile number on it. At the end of it, he even wrote "You are very beautiful girl. Thank you very much" eeeeeeeeeeeee... my hair stood!!!

After which he still came back to me and kept talking to me, not leaving me in peace to eat my lunch! He asked if I have a mobile phone so that he can write me a message everyday. I told him I don't have it and it's ok, he doesn't have to write me a message everyday. He told me its tough for him to write emails as he needs to work everyday.



Towards the end, he gave me an orange as a gift. XL asked him if he had 5 camels, he replied saying "I don't have 5, but I have 10!" Well.... my good friend of 17 years tried to sell me away for 10 miserable camels!! How ironical!!!

He told me to go back to Turkey next year and that he would wait for me! XL said he can always come to Singapore to look for me! hahah... adding more salt into my wounds... This is totally impossible 'cos I think its tough for him to get out of Turkey in the first place :P



After lunch, we went to visit the Mevlana Museum. We had to put on these plastic bags around our shoes so that we don't dirty the interior!! So strange wearing plastic bags around your shoes... what if someone slipped and fell and crashed into the exhibits and then there's the domino effect?? Ok.... imagination running too wild!



Mevlana Museun

There were many exhibits but we were not allowed to take pictures.... Oh well....would just try to find some information and pictures off the internet then.

On the way to Cappadocia, we were suddenly "hit" by a sandstorm!!! WOW!! IT was pretty scary!! The whole place just became a blur!! So dangerous!! And we were driving along the highway some more!!! What if some other buses travelling the opposite direction crashed into our bus??? Also, tomorrow would be the day for the Hot Air Balloon ride!!! If this bad weather persists, I won't be able to experience my hot air balloon ride!!!

The sudden 'standstorm'




When we reached the hotel, all of us were FAMISHED!!! We didn't even wait to unload our luggage! We just dashed straight to the restaurant for Dinner!



The hotel we were staying for the night was "Dinler Hotels Nevsehir"... Brrr... don't know why the air suddenly got colder..... We stayed in Room 414... the hotel room door was pretty nasty and difficult to open! We had to ask our neighbour for help! haha....



The hot air balloon will take off tomorrow!!! We had to wake up super early for the hot air balloon ride! The alarm shall ring at 4:30am!

Pictures on 15th April (Turkey Trip)

Statue of Mary (House of Virgin Mary)

Wishes in knots (House of Virgin Mary)

Temple of Hadrian (Ephesus)

Public Toilets (Ephesus)

Library of Celsius (Ephesus)

Library of Celsius (Ephesus)

Early Adverising Signage (Ephesus)

Grand Theatre (Ephesus)

Temple of Artemis

Cotton Castle (Pamukkale)

Delightful Turkey Trip 12th - 21st April 2008 Part 3

15th April 2008 (Tuesday)

Our first stop was to visit the House of Virgin Mary. The surroundings was rather peaceful. We were not allowed to take any pictures in the house, and also had to be very quiet when inside...

There was an area where you can collect holy water from the tap. There were 3 sources - Love, Wealth & Health. There was also a wall where you could write your wishes on paper and tie them into knots on the wall. Some of the wishes were quite heart-wrenching, especially when you saw pictures of some little kid suffering from cancer.....This piece of wall reminded me of the way the Japanese tied their wishes in knots onto the wooden structure or trees in those shrines.

Following that, we went to visit a leather manufacturing factory - Naturel Leather Goods'. The GM of the company taught us a few tricks & tips to buying leather products. The fashion show was very entertaining because 3 of our tour members - Carol, Rhinda & Raymond - were chosen to go up onstage to do the catwalk!!! Raymond's attire was really atrocious!!! He had this afro big hair wig and a jacket that looked like patchwork blanket!!!

Some of the group members bought the leather jackets as Rick told them that the quality is very good and that they are very durable.

After that, we set off for Ephesus!!! YEAH!!! I'm dying to see my MAJESTIC LIBRARY OF CELSIUS!!!!!! I loved this place as it reminded me of Egypt.... ok ok... I think its that "Indiana Jones" feeling that's emerging everytime I step into a place rich in History... I always imagine lots of hidden secrets and treasures abound... and try to imagine life back then... somehow I really felt that its a pity they don't offer archaeology in Singapore universities...

The Temple of Hadrian and the Library of Celsius could be found at the back of a $20 Turkish Lira note.

Anyway, I was very much amazed by the Library of Celsius even if its just the 'gate' that's standing there... There was this "first advertising sign" on the footpath that has a pretty funny story behind it.

According to Taner, there was this brothel that was linked by an underground passage from the Library of Celsius to the right. This piece of 'advertising sign' said that if you have an empty heart and you have the money, there is a beautiful girl waiting for you on the right. If not, please go to the library to read some books and make yourself useful." haha.... how innovative!

The toilets in the olden day were just one row of holes!!!!

The Grand Theatre was very interesting too! AT least the accoustics were good! Some group was there singing! Their voices were beautiful and the 'sound system' was really good! How I wish Mayday was there!!!

After that we went to visit the Temple of Artemis before going for lunch.... I was so famished!!!!! Breakfast was pathetic! Lunch was also equally PATHETIC.... sigh .....

The next trip was an interesting one as we moved on to Pamukkale. Along the trip, we passed by this tiny village where the they had this tradition where if there's an unmarried woman in the household, they will put empty bottles on the roof. If any young man would like to marry this woman, he would need to come and shoot the bottle. Once the bottle is shot down, they can arrange to meet the parents. If the girl brewed sweet tea for you, it means they are willing to accept your marriage proposal! haha... so CUTE!!

The cotton castle in Pamukkale were simply breathtaking! We were able to take off our shoes to walk on the 'limestone' formations. Its so pretty!!!!! But the feeling of walking on these limestone formations do not feel like 'cotton'!!! Its as if we went for a foot reflexology session!

The hotel that we were staying for the night had "hot spring water". Its called "Lycus River Thermal Hotel". We met a man called "Saoban" in the Jaccuzzi room. He told us he would be turning 40 years old the next week! He's divorced and had 2 kids! WOW! HE didn't look like he's 40 years old! I felt that people in Turkey looked very much older than their age... is it because of the weather?? Or is it because of the genes? hmmmm

The next day was a tiring one as we would be travelling almost 8 hours to go to Cappadocia!!!!

More Picture on 14th April (Turkey Trip)

Kids having dancing lessons (Cumalikizik Village)

View of Cumalikizik Village

Turkish Mussels for Sale! (YUM!)

Apple Tea At Tan Kaferterya

Cats Sunbathing outside Restaurant

View of Muradiye Complex

Bread on Sale...