Freshman?

Girl: Hi, are you an NUS freshman?

Me: Nope.

Girl: Ok, thanks~

----

Guy: Hi, are you an NUS freshman?

Me: err.. freshman as in first year undergrad hor?

Guy: erm.. yah, I guess so.

Me: no.. I am a first year newbie but not undergrad. XD

random babblings

W: my mum suggested I set up a stall.. go back to buy more necklaces/bracelets/earrings to sell in Singapore.

J: go back? Your mum asked you to GO BACK?

W: uh huh. To buy things cheap cheap to sell here, since it fetches quite a good price here

J: does she noe..?

W: of course not!

J: I still remember my promise to you. The 嫁妆 ticket..

W: …

J: Really! I am ready anytime..

W: …

J: Don’t you think you’ll ever meet again?

W: even if I go back to buy things to sell, Lhasa is not THAT small..

J: Maybe you’re fated to meet..

W: If I see him again in my life I will FAINT on the spot and maybe even DIE

J: How are you so sure? After all, you met in Tibet, then you ‘met’ again in Taiwan.. who knows when you’ll meet here in Singapore?

W: …

J: Haven’t you thought of the possibilities? He is a tour guide after all.. he can bring tour groups to Singapore!

W: ...

Timbre.. but no Timmy

Ah.. after a long LONG wait, I was back to timbre on wed nite, with new company, Arzhou and Cat! ^_^ We dedicated a song for our 1.5yr Chestnutties Anniversary (with only half the population around), but a pity that the band didn’t know the song. Ah. Can’t blame them. We didn’t really expect them to know the “525600 minutes” song from “Rent” musical either.

It’s the 2nd time I’m at timbre not listening to Timmy play. (First time was Mardi Gras concert). Instead, Arzhou had wanted to try out EIC, thus we were there on a Wednesday night instead. (to the surprise of my mum and many friends who knew I usually go timbre only on Fridays. Hee~) It started off as a 3-man band, while a band member joined later on. It wasn’t THAT bad actually. Despite the songs being rather similar to the songs timmy plays, there was a totally different feeling to it. The EIC members sit and play instead of standing and dancing. When timmy plays, we tend to stop everything we’re doing, and really listen with our hearts. We’re drawn to the music when timmy plays. However, when EIC plays, we can easily continue talking. It’s not that the music is not nice, but rather, it’s a more relaxed mood that is created. And I must agree to some degree, about what my sister said about Timmy being more technically skillful, but EIC being more homely.

And I remember EIC saying goodbye to us Chestnutties when we left. ^_^ (ah.. we must really try and clarify ourselves if we return to listen to them.. that we’re called Chestnutties coz we stayed on Chestnut Street, and not coz we’re nutty in any way >.<) Anyway, I really hope we would be able to celebrate more anniversaries back at Timbre. Maybe Timmy next time. Haha. AND, remember to bring Pacey along.. coz he’s prolly the best equipped person to think of suitable songs to dedicate. ^_^ (yeah, maybe one day.. we’ll find a band that is able to play OUR song~)

the roomies back together again. cat has permed hair now, and i have shorter fringe ^_^

our song dedication

me drinking.. notice how red arzhou is already!!!! XD

2 weeks

Must have been really bored. For when I returned from my “tour around the world”, I challenged myself not to wear my jeans for the remaining 2 weeks of holiday I had. Haha. It was no easy feat ok. I am such a jeans-person. BUT, 2 weeks have passed, and I’ve succeeded!! Yay~~

Insufficient sleep no more

I am so used to blaming it all on insufficient sleep. My irritability, my temper, my forgetfulness, my inability to judge. Whenever something goes wrong, it’s due to insufficient sleep. I don’t deny that it is very often the main reason, but I cannot excuse myself from it all simply because I had insufficient sleep. I have lost too much because of that.

This is the limit. It’s time I learnt. To live even when I have insufficient sleep the night before, due to whatever reasons. It should no longer be an eligible excuse.

I signed up for PPP!!

Heard about payperpost from Arzhou a couple of months back. I had noticed that his blogs have an extra phrase "this is a sponsored post" below many of his entries. He later so kindly introduced it to me, as one of his many ways to "conveniently" make money. Him being quite a trustable source (in my opinion), i decided to give it try. Alas, one of PayPerPost's requirements was not met by my blog--blog age. Though i started blogging in 2003, i had recently changed blog address (due to weird things happening to my prevous blog template that couldn't seem to be solved), and that made my blog less than 90 days old!! I've waited soooo long for my blog to turn 90 days, before I finally got it approved. NOW, i can start earning some extra tea-time money! Being a student means we're not that rich, thus the need for extra income in ways like that. YAY~ Now i can start going out more often for afternoon tea or a cup of coffee when i'm free!! It's so convenient! Not like I am going all the way out to do something that makes my life difficult. I am just blogging as usual. Why not try it too? blog network rocks!!~~ ^_^

Does your heart TALK?

Mine does. To a certain extent. My heart murmurs...

"A heart murmur is an extra or unusual sound heard during your heartbeat. Murmurs range from very faint to very loud and sometimes sound like a whooshing or swishing noise. Normal heartbeat sounds—"lub-DUPP" or "lub-DUB"—are the valves closing as blood moves through the heart. A heart murmur is not a disease; it is a sound that the doctor hears with a stethoscope. It may be normal, or it could be a sign that something may be wrong. Most heart murmurs are harmless. Some are signs of heart problems, especially if other signs or symptoms of a heart problem are present. In adults, abnormal murmurs are most often due to heart valve problems caused by infection, disease, or aging." (The above information was obtained from here)

Yeah. Systolic murmuring. I do hope that I am not aging THAT fast >.<

Commencement 2007

I noe this is a wee bit late.. but.. I've Graduated!!!! ^_^

My final poster presentation..

Commencement ceremony, on 4th of July! ^_^

Singapore is

Singapore is…

· Being at sea level and having no need to take diamox to prevent altitude sickness.

· Having an ultra good flushing system where you can actually hear the water flush when u press the ‘flush’ button. (and can throw toilet paper INTO the toilet bowl)

· Cleanliness. Nowhere can beat Singapore in cleanliness.

· Ultra flat ground with bukit timah HILL being the highest point, with a severe shortage of mountains and valleys.

· A country that speaks not just Chinese, but also English!!

· My own bed, with clean sheets and nice quilt. And my bolsters!! Haven’t hugged anything to sleep for the past month. >.<

· Having a big, proper, and CLEAN towel to wipe myself after I bathe. (instead of the face towel I bring along when I travel, or the hotel towels that I don’t know what people have used it for)

· Keeping track of time to eat and time to go out. The time factor is back. Watch, clock, handphones..

· Checking of emails, msn-ing, blogging, facebook.. can never leave my laptop off for too long.

· No more of sitting around in an SUV and staring out of the window and admiring only the blue sky, mountains, cliffs, grass, sheep.. for up to 8 hours a day. I miss lazing around and using my brain for nothing but sustaining life.

· Not being able to sit around and doing nothing. Somehow, I get bored easily here if there’s nothing to occupy my time. Staring into space is different from staring at nature.

· Being able to place orders at Mcdonalds without spending half and hour reading the menu

· Mp3 no longer suffering from altitude sickness, and thus is working again~

· Camera being hidden in my drawer for up to 6 days a week.

· Back to reality. Back to school, back to work. Back to seeing people I know.

· Having a bath more than 2 times in 2 weeks.

· Being able to attend church

· Feeling that the lifts are too dirty to take, benches along the park are too contaminated with bacteria and spit to sit on; but random rocks and grass are clean enough to lie on (as long as it didn’t rain the night before).

· Not hearing the unhygienic spitting right beside me every 5 seconds

· No more of porridge for breakfast, and the egg and cucumbers/cabbage/tauguay..

· No longer discovering that the insides of my nose gets all clogged up with black stuff within half a day, resulting in a blocked nose from dirt instead of mucus! >.<

· No more nose bleeding from the cold, dry air. After almost 1 mth, the inner linings of my nostril is finally fully recovered. No more sensitive nose! Hurray~

· Channel 8 serials every mon-fri, 7-10pm. All other time on Taiwanese drama, HBO movies, Old Chinese movies, Korean drama… =P

There’s a lot that I miss about being overseas. However, there are things in Singapore that I cannot give up. And the most important things that cannot be reproduced overseas are family ties and cleanliness. ^_^

Courage

As I re-read my travel diary, I was reminded of the song that was played time and again on the train. A part of the song that seemed to be ever so appropriate at that point of time…

如果我的坚强任性
会不小心伤害了你

你能不能温柔提醒
我虽然心太急

更害怕错过你

If my stubborn behavior

Had accidentally hurt you

Can you please gently remind me

I may be too rash

But I am even more afraid of losing you

Besides the possibility that he does that ever so often, and ignoring her comment on his unprofessionalism, I wished he had never made the decision to do that. I don’t know what had gone through his mind that night, but.. if only it never happened. Then I might still have a friend, a friend in that faraway, unreachable highland.

Leisure and pleasure

Sermon on Sunday was so appropriate to someone who’d just returned from holiday. Psalm 23 was looked at from a different point of view, reminding us of how God encourages us to relax and regenerate. Speaker mr Anthony Yeo mentioned, why is all nature so pleasing to the eye? The sky and water is blue, the trees are green.. all these are colors that are pleasant to the eye. No matter how excited some people may be at seeing the neon lights of the city, nothing can beat nature to the soothing effect it has on our eyes and our soul. That explains how I was able to feel so relaxed during my Tibet trip, but felt so cooped up and suffocated when I was back in Shanghai. No man’s creation can beat God’s artistry. ^_^

Taiwan

What can I say? Though it is yet another place with Chinese words everywhere, the people are totally different. The girls really dress up like Japanese dolls. The guys are tall and cute. Most of all, everyone around is so polite and helpful, it feels as though I am walking around in a huge 6-star hotel place.

Tired out from traveling around. And since a lot of pple have been to Taiwan, I guess a short photo blog should be enough ^_^

Day1 – Taipei

Arrived on a very nice date, 070707.

First stop, was definitely ximending, as that’s where our hotel is.

Stall selling yummy Taiwan sausages.

Us sweating like mad after eating the famous ahzong meesua. 40NT per bowl. It’s really delicious! ^_^

I just had to buy the packet drink with wuzun on it. 15NT, full of vitamin C!

Enjoying donuts from mister donut. Ooh.. how I wish Singapore has more donut outlets.

Day2 – Hualien

Famous wanton stall in hualien, 60NT per bowl of 11 wantons.

Nice, huge tauhuay stall. Took a photo, which made me realize tt jx looked so much like tong!! >.<

Went to the biggest park, chongcheng park in hualien. View of hualien from the park.

Me enjoying steak and spaghetti for 110NT at a hualien night market

Kids playing with sparklers and fireworks.

Day 3 – Hualien Taroko Gorge

We were blessed with yet another day of good weather to visit Taroko Gorge. We followed a day tour.

Us at the entrance of taroko national park

More mountains and nature to remind me of Tibet. The mountains here are not bare, but full of vegetation though.

Took many nature shots.. butterflies and dragonflies and spiderwebs

Interesting ray-like leaves

‘zhuai’ gorilla?

Swallow grotto

Tunnel of 9 turns

Poem

Chulu cliff, which we were asked to admire upside down. Really nice ^_^

Cihmu bridge

Kids oblivious of dangerous rockfall areas

Longevity trail

Ended the trip with a nice buffet lunch, restaurant with aboriginal theme

Visited the 7-star-lake (qi xing tan)

Day4 -- Taipei

Back to Taipei, we went to the 12-storey Partyworld KTV to sing our hearts out. Each karaoke room has it’s own personal toilet! Shiokness~

Saw Taipei 101, nightview.

Day5 – Yangmingshang and shihlin night market

Visited the xiaoyoukeng, which is an active volcanic site. Lots of sulphur emissions, which got really pungent as we walked closer. (I hated the walk up though. The trail had lots of bugs and blue-tailed lizards that run much faster than the normal house lizards. So gross!)

Nonetheless, we took lots of photos while we were there. ^_^

Interesting Chinese poem to enjoy nature.

Taipei 101 in the day

More good food and shopping at shihlin night market and wufenpu

Day 6 – sightseeing and hotspring at xinbeitou

Sightseeing. Chiang kai shek memorial, concert theatre, istana

Hotspring at xinbeitou. We chose a nice, clean hotel called shuimei. 2 people room costs 990NT for 90minutes of hotspring/coldspring enjoyment. (10 min hotspring, 1 minute cold spring cycles)

Day 7 and 8 – Danshui and happening ximending

More good food at danshui

Siewmais there had more variation. We bought 10, and the auntie gave us 1 free one! ^_^ (the lady behind us saw and requested for a free one, but the auntie refused!! Haha)

Ximending on a Friday night is ultra happening. We first saw a singer-wannabe basking. Then a model in the midst of a photoshoot in the middle of the street. Then.. we caught the crystalball-fireball man. The bald guy who goes on 综艺大哥大? Saw a live performance (and caught on video! Yahoo~) and of course, took photo with him. He’s quite dao.. but oh well. Just take to show our mothers we saw him. Lol.

Saturday ximending even more happening. Early morning girls were already queuing up, waiting for the finalists of 台湾星光大道. Unfortunately, by the time we returned from lunch, we only saw the last bits of fans snapping their cameras furiously, but saw none of the finalists in person. Haha. As we walked along, we saw another large procession. The main leads of a new Taiwan serial.. something 柿子. The guys were really tall.. I think about 1.9m. Then the little Taiwan gals running behind them are so tiny.. what a stark contrast. I was so stunned I forgot to whip out my camera. So.. no photos again. Haha.

Taiwan was a good trip. Good company. And this is what I call holiday. Sightseeing, Eating, drinking, partying, watching tv, sleeping til noon and missing breakfast provided by the hotel, shopping til we’re broke.

Thanks fangers, liqi, junxiong for the wonderful trip.

It’s time to rest. ^_^