Moley

2012-01-08T03:10:00.002+08:00

2011 has been a long year. A year full of changes in my life. I've experienced so much in the past year. Have I grown even more mature? I have absolutely no idea, except that my attitude and character seems the same though.

Looking back..

Jan: Doing up Yanjia's 21st birthday. Coping with the 2nd month of playing at Imperial. The experience of being so happy doing up her birthday, down to the neutral feeling of things subsiding, all the way to dropping all things for each other. Me and yanjia, all in one month. We were really really close. I guess I can only say that those are now just in memories. One of the persons in my life that I shared almost everything. Someone who totally supported my thinking and ktv stints.

Feb: Yanjia left for Shanghai, and I sent her off. At the point when she walked into the customs area, it was a sad, longing yet very relieved kinda feeling. It's hard to drop something, but when 2 person could just drop it with so much mutual understanding, and things have come to an end, you feel so relieved. No tear dropped.

March/April: Boring life with Imperial everyday. No offs even. I just wanted to work. Life became mundane and I was getting bored.

Imperial closed down on 22/4 if I recall right, and I did their last show. The boss gave me $500 flowers for it. A sense of reminiscence when I left the place. It was my "training ground". Where I picked up the trade. 老师's job all from scratch. I was reaslly very fortunate to be given this spot. Adam was next door and he always looked after me. I really learnt a lot. Saw how money was thrown, saw how guys can be transparent. Cigars, diff countries cigs smokes. Drinks. Girls. PR. Night life. At the point when I left the place, I really couldnt bear to. Initial setup all for me, to my requirements. I miss the keyboards. I missed the playing.

May: It was a whole month of unpaid leave. I went travelling in China and looked for Yanjia, Jim and Dikai who all brought me around different places. Dikai really surprised me a lot. He's my 23SA friend, and though we were good friends, we did not talk much about personal life. I did not expect him to actually take leave to bring me around Shanghai. And to accompany me for food and shopping throughout. Really touched by it.

Also, I spent almost every other free day in Singapore exploring recipes and cooking and cooking and cooking.

June: I started work at Baidu. It was no where near Imperial in terms of customer support, deco and the overall 气质 was just lacking. However, I was given the sole 老师 spot, and had to handle everything on my own. I think I managed to do things well. I got to meet some really sincere friendly girls there. The singers. They're more sincere and real than those in Imperial. I even went out for supper after work once.

July: After a month in Baidu, I realised that my life was oh so mundane. I'm leading a boring life and it's not the kind I like. I did some soul searching and was finally enlightened. I wanted to venture into culinary business. And while surfing the Net for information on the mandatory hygience course, I came across a webby by At-Sunrice, and eventually signed up for a 1.5 years full time diploma course. The time lapse between spotting the website to enrolling was jus 4 days. I would say that it was pretty rushed.

When school started, I faced a major problem of needing to work at 10pm to 3am, and school from 8am to 5pm, not inclusive of travelling time. I started off by taking one MC per week for the first few weeks to get sufficient rest. I even rented a car for an entire month in August to try to cope with this. Eventually, I decided that I could not do it, and had to quit my ktv job. It was a painful decision.

Also, I got together with Kailian this month. A girl I met online. Something I made a super wrong decision in. I knew her since Feb, and we went out a few times together. Somehow, I just thought hey, let's just try to get tgt and see how things go. In a way, I was being very very selfish cuz I din really love her, but was juz "trying out" and using her to forget Yanjia.

When I was with her, I was really trying to and making her happy. It wasn't an all emo kinda relationship. Over time, the personality differences as well as the lack of communication(communicating topics and understanding) got to me, and I felt a bit tired of things. What's the point of a gf whom you cant talk to..

Aug: While in school, I met ShuYun, who was coincidentally from NUS Architechture, and also from the same batch as myself, o8. This came as a big surprised because I did not expect to see any NUS student in Sunrice, much less from the same batch. We started of clicking quite well...

Also, this month happened to be the last month I'm playing in a KTV. I was actually quite relieved and happy because the work and study issue was really making me very very tired, and it was draining my life force away. Nevertheless, I was missing playing, and recorded my last shows on audio. Times in Baidu when I was playing with Xiao Yi was super fun. He was a host who knew how to control the customers' reactions, and I had to work on my effect and keyboards stuff impromptu, in sync with him. The experience was super duper fun.

Sep: Sch Sch Sch. I became more awake and alert, and started to pick things up faster. I needed time to get my vitality back though.

October: Term 1 ended, and there was a break. My ShuYun Daniel went over to the Philippines (Laoag and Manila) and met up with Roxanne and Michael there. They brought us around. Philippine story would be on another post.. I hope.

Prior to Philippines, I went to KL with kailian too.

In Philippines, something happened. Something I did not expect of myself in the wildest of dreams. It opened a huge door.

I came back to Singapore slightly changed, and by the end of October, broke up with Kailian. It was a lesson to remember. Something I would remember forever. I felt really guilty when breaking up because I did not love her in the first place when I got together with her. She did love me though. And because of such, I hurt her a lot a lot alot. So much so that she landed in hospital. I felt really bad about it but could only hope for the best. I'm still hoping that she's leading a normal life now. I caused her such hurt and pain, and can only say that I owe her something forever.

Also in Oct, I started my first attachment site in RWS at Fiesta.

Nov: Yun and I got closer after that. Nov was filled with school, work, and free times with her.

December:
My birthday.
With Yun. On the actual day, and 3 days later. We had dinner at Hokkaido Japanese Reataurant at M Hotel. She bought me Antoinette's Mont Blanc too cuz I havent tried a Mont Blanc prior to that. She also bought an Antoinette. It was an Omakase meal with a super reasonable price.
3 days later was at Blu, which I really enjoyed. There was a lobster dish with egg plant that stood out. The textures and tastes were very nicely blended! Prezzie: A self-sewn apron of Pineapples(she calls me Pineapple), a lip balm, and boxers.

With Almido. It was a couple of days before, and we celebrated mine, Russel and Terence's birthdays together. It was a meal at MdZ or sth like that at Orchard Central, followed by cake cutting and prezzie time at an area near Scape. Prezzie: 2 tees! Good cuz I dun have time to shop these days.

Last one with my family. It was a dinner at Man Fu Yuan. Tea Pairing. Something new to experience, but not something I would go for again. The food was good though. Better than Royal China.

Xmas: Spent it with Almido with the gift exchange, and spent the actual day working. Met to Genting on 26 to 28 with Yun to chill.

New Year: No countdown nothing. Working. At least last yr I was doing a count down show at my ktv.

December was also the month that Yun became The Girlfriend.

A very very very long year. Most of my time now is occupied my work, school and the gf. I really love her a lot, and despite some differences we have, I do hope we can have a happy ending. It's all about faith and fate. Fate brought us together. Had we met in NUS, I dun think we'd even started talking. Some how, all the way to culinary school, we met, talked, got close, and got together. Someone I'm putting everything I have onto. Time, effort.

Her birthday's coming and I hope I can do something about it. The indefinite schedules we have doesnt help in my planning at all too.

Hoping for the best, and I will definitely do my best.

I hope those still stalking my blog have a rough idea what I went through the entire year......

Year 2012, It's a big mystery. I know for sure that it'll be filled with memories of the gf. Happy memories. =)

2011-10-27T01:02:00.002+08:00

Quite a bit of stuff happening to me during the past 2 months.

Firstly, my attachment at RWS started. It's at Fiesta, Festive hotel. And what i've been mainly involved in would be buffet runner, and helping to prep food for the buffet. Usually my Fri, Sat and Suns are gone. And in a way, my social life is missing out a lot. I've just seen photos of Voices Mini Concert 2011, and I'm missing my friends made from Voices, esp marcus. The days we spent staying out, and on the phone talking non stop about plan for the club.. concert preps etc. In a way, after starting out on my culinary journey, I'm missing events and music and performances. A lil lonley at times.. not that I have no friends, but I miss the performance adrenalin rush.

In a way, my life is in a mess now. No personal time at all. Cuz there is simply insufficient time for me to spend with close ones, friends, families, and myself. With just one off day a week, it is really really hard to juggle. It's a step in life en-route to being my own boss.. I hope everything will fall in place and fit nicely soon, as it has always been in my life.

Blogging mood just went by.. haizz.. Too busy and tired to blog even. My life is in a mess.

2011-08-29T23:16:00.002+08:00

Coming Wednesday, 31/8/2011, it would be my last day as a LSB 老师. Mixed feelings really. On one hand, I do really want to quit cuz I'm having a hard time juggling school and work and sleeping only 2 hours a day. But on the other hand, I'll miss having to touch the keyboards everyday, and be so close to music. I guess I made the choice, that I will put music aside, and do culinary.

Over the 9 months, have I improved musically? I would say yes definitely. Aside from musically, i've been officially exposed to the LSB environment, and seeing how money is thrown around. Way back in Dec, I was discussing with a vv good friend about how much I would change after being in this line, and thinking through it, I do not think I have had any negative changes. Changes definitely, but all positive.

I've grown to take up the role as a 老师, and from one who doesn't know anything, to one who people respect, and earned the name as 百度老师，and not 豪门小老师. These 9 months have really passed by super quickly! I've been playing the same songs over and over and over again such that I do not have to think at all. I'll miss the night life, the 老师 life. I do not think I would ever go back to being a 老师 again given my schedule. DCA, start my own restaurant, move on with life...

老师 aside, after having being in touch with music daily, I hope I will not get rusty. I want to perform regularly still. Rusty fingers, rusty ears, rusty brain... I hope not!

I've seen flowers for a show totally to $120000.. see how grand things are, seen the antics of the old men. All in all, a good experience. I love it when I saw 2 old men vying to help the girl they like to get the most amount of flowers for the night, and when both of them drew at 13.5k, they stood up, shook hands, and laughed it off. Kids at clubs would juz whack each other. I don't miss the entertainment, I miss the learning experience. I've come to a standstill, and sitting comfortably in my comfort zone... Im sad. =(

Till my next stint at RWS as a chef trainee!

2011-08-28T02:04:00.002+08:00

Fortune teller says that I've the guy's 桃花运. I think it's really true. Since I'm attached, I have to be focused! Cuz it seems that I've always been closed to girls due to my "no-motive" befriending of everyone. Some guys juz get to know girls for some reason or another. Thinking back, it's been like that throughout my life. But it so happened that I had only 1 ex, and gt close to another.

Take it like for my DCA course. There's this girl who's from the same NUS batch as myself. We're getting closer by talking more etc. Ppl in sch are gossiping about us. No matter what, focus! =)

Good thing I'm ending my night job soon and I am able to recharge my tenacity and stuff. No affairs or such. If friends notice, slap me alright!

=)

2011-08-23T01:50:00.002+08:00

I'm a power freak. I like to be in power and in control. Haha! When I was sous chef on Friday(which means like a class monitor), and I was in charge of getting the peeps to do certain things. The command and control felt shiok! And I am missing this kinda command and control. I like stress.. mental stress! It's been a while since I did a concert, or was in charge of a big event.. The sense of self-achievement i gain when I see instructions being put to action bit by bit. Haha! =) Well, not everyone wants to be in control or can stand these kinda stress. I'm missing it! My brain has been taking a break for like a year now. It's screaming to let it out! I cant wait to start my own restaurant and be stressed everyday over it. Oh well, see how it goes! And I'm hoping for a nice place for my apprenticeship! No hotels, or some places which I tried and was unimpressed with. Looking forward to Fri for dinner with Almido!

2011-08-22T00:00:00.002+08:00

It has been two weeks since my last MC, and so far, I've been coping reasonably well at school. However, I do feel really really tired whenever I'm "travelling" to places. Be it on cabs or MRTs etc.. I just need 1min before I fall asleep. The worse was on 12/8. After school, I wanted to get to Aljunied Phoon Huat to get some stuff for the dinner with my sec school friends on sat. First, I got on the wrong train at Tai Seng, and had to change train once. When I eventually got to Paya Lebar, I thought that maybe I can try out the Phoon Huat at Simei. Here's the joke.. I took the train, and overslept! I woke up when the train's next stop was Tampines, got off, and took the train going in the other direction. Apparently, the train I was actually taking had reached Pasir Ris, and was going towards Joo Koon, and by taking the train towards the other direction, I ended up back at Pasir Ris. I eventually took the Pasir Ris train to Simei, but did not see my items, and took another train to Aljunied. A 30min journey took me like 1.5 hours! =(

I took a quick nap when I got home, before getting to work, and spent 4 to 730am making desserts and some Mise-En-Place for the dinner, 8 to 10am at the market, 10am to 1230pm doing more Mise-En-Place. I went back to sleep, and woke up at 530, 1 hour late! The dinner was supposed to be at 630! Luckily, I managed to complete everything by 645! And I was quite satisfied with the dinner! The only one dish that was not that appetizing was the soup, which was a little too sweet! I really need to know how to boil a good soup cuz I want to do my steamboat restaurant, which specialises in wonderful soup base!

And I cant wait to quit my job. Last week or so.. I have totally no mood to work already! =( I get to work everyday, waiting to get off. I'm taking more offs(unpaid leaves) just to rest at home etc. The new guy.. pls hurry up come ok! I cannot take it already! My reactions are slowly down, brain not functioning as well as before!

2011-08-11T01:16:00.004+08:00

My life is really too rushed, and in quite a frenzy. I'm at work now, and there're only 3 tables that are very quiet. It's dark, and it's breaktime for myself and the singers. The customers are ktv-ing. Imagine Eason's k歌之王.. I'm really really feeling the tiredness coming through, and don't think I can stand this much longer. The good news is that there'll be a replacement in 1 to 2 weeks time, and it's bye bye to my night job! Good pay, but to put it crudely, I only have money now. No life, and no time for any social life of such. The tiredness is really eating into me! And with more time, I can go for more gatherings! Make use of these 2 months before apprenticeship starts cuz that'll mean another stint of lifeless-ness! =)

我这一生中，目前最爱的人，除了家人，还是她... 希望能够尽快move on in life. Physically and mentally I've moved, but emotionally, I still feel it. Especially when songs that relate pop up from the radio or somewhere. Hmm.. come to think of it, our 代表歌曲s have not appeared yet. Haha.. Memories memories memories............

2011-08-09T02:38:00.004+08:00

At this point in time, I'm feeling very very tired. I'm tired of juggling school and work. It's really taking its toll on me! I usually take just a 2 hour nap each day, from 430am to 630am, and if I have no plans after school(which is getting super rare now), I get an additional 3 hours from 6pm to 9pm.

School's getting more fun with the frequent outings and gatherings, and the bringing of our foreign classmates around Singapore. All these impromptu gatherings.. I'm missing quite a few of them because of work, and I think if I am going into this industry, I would need to know more people who are going into this line!

Working life on the other hand.. each time I get to work, I look forward to getting off work! It's a chore to me.. I'm not getting any excitement now. Perhaps it could be because I know that I want to start my own business. Also, I'm into my perfect comfort zone at work, and have been able to cope with all sorts of problems and situations around. No more excitement for myself. Of course, I can explore more to up the ante, and create a niche for myself in this industry, but time is lacking. I do not even have time to get a minimum of 7 hours sleep a day!

I'm losing my tenacity in things I do. I need to get a recharge. I need HTHTs!

Tendered my resignation.. just hope I can leave asap. I dun think I can stand it until the end of Sep......

2011-08-07T05:03:00.004+08:00

好久没自己唱自己写的“其实我爱你”了。在几天前，收到朋友的要求，就唱了一遍。非常惊讶。因为虽然只是通过电话，也没有什么刚请伴奏，就唱得非常有感觉。那在同一个晚上，通过电话，也加上钢琴的伴奏，自己自弹自唱了一遍。以为没什么大不了，致使多唱一遍自己写的歌曲。但唱得当儿，真身发热，好多感觉，但在脑海里一个画面也没有。是因为什么呢？

Could it be that I've been blocking things away so successfully from myself, but yet the subconsious tells the truth? I dunno if I still miss her. I dunno if I'll still think of her, and I do not know if she comes "clapping" to me one day, what would I do. I know I have to move on, and I'm moving on. To the "you" and the Almidos reading, I'm attached. But was it an abrupt move? Is this move a genuine one? I do not have the answer to these myself. But I do know what are the right things to do.

Throughout this period I met this person, and started to just talk. IMHO, I did not do anything except to just talk talk and talk. Simply communication. I did not compose a song, nor cook or make anything, absolutely nth, but somehow, she says I did a lot. Then again, my threshold for "doing a lot" is really much higher than most.

It's a situation of girl has more feelings for the guy than guy has for girl. But cuz of the previous para, the girl is doing quite a bit for the guy. Making barley.. ginseng.. cooling stuff cuz the guy is sick and works late, and sleeps very little. The girl is now giving morning calls at 630am when she only has to wake up at 8 or 9am! The girl is talking all about it to friends and families. It's like come on, such a nice person doing this, I must know what to do. I'm going what I said most people are doing, that is "to get to know each other whilst in a relationship", and climbing the so-called relationship ladder, rather than the friendship ladder. It helps that I'm super busy now, and dun even have time to sleep. A good chance to see how this goes, and to nurture the flame. Hopefully, when I quit my job (which I hope will happen asap!), and when I have more time at hand, I would be ready to fully commit my whole life in this. Ok, half, the other half goes to my restaurant building.

I've grown up a bit now. I can feel it. Lots of ideas and thoughts have changed.. Aging perhaps. And yes, I'm all ready to say that, I miss life when I was younger.. JC, Army, Uni.. I'm missing the experiences and lifestyle. I'm now worrying about making enough money for a boomz marriage in future, and for family(parents and kids next time).. Enjoying life, everything! Haizzz.... I am really vv happy to be in Almido. Very very very lucky.......

2011-07-24T01:20:00.004+08:00

Thinking through, and reading through my blog, I took about 1 month for P. It's been like 6 months or so already for Y. I know now that it'll take something for us to be like before. It'll take two hands to clap, and somehow, it'll have to start all over again. Like seriously all over again. I long for the day that I'll be able to read through my unpublished blog entries and think, "Ahh.. it was a great experience. I'll remember this wonderful period in my life. Ok, next up would be ~~~" And not just feeling sad over everything etc.

Oh, and as I was reading through those entries, I recalled something Angela told me. A date, and a celebration, are two different things. Say a couple meets up for a bday celebration. It has to be something special! And not just to go out, hang around, have a "better than usual" meal, go home. There has to be something more! Even going to USS is something special, and surprises etc!

So many of my classmates are now attached! Like seriously.. 7 in 10 are attached! I was quite surprised cuz no other group of friends are like that. Hmm...

My classmates are like going out so often! Just on Thursday, 21 of us went to Golden Mile Food Centre after class, Friday, 12 of us went to eat Kway Chap near school, Saturday 19 people for harry potter <- which I overslept for! =(. The thing is, this is the Culinary side and Pastry side together. Once we split at the end of this coming week, I'm not sure if we would meet up too often! Hope we would!! It's now a class of 38! A number last seen in secondary school! Re-living school life all over again! =)

2011-07-22T00:29:00.004+08:00

It's been 3 weeks at school! And to be working and studying at the same time is horrendous! I need sleep! I've been taking one MC per week for the past 3 weeks, and it's helping a bit. But this is definitely not a long term solution. I am really prepared to quit this night job, and just lead a normal student life. I would have more concentration this way. Pls let there be a permanent replacement soon!!

Next week's my first's exam.. it's mainly a practical one whereby I have to do service and wine service to guests. Hope it'll be fine!

At school, the aroma from the bakery is super tantalizing daily! I get to smell the wonderful freshly baked pastry everyday and it's boomz! The breads and pastry baked by the students are rather nice to eat, but other than that, the cakes and cooked food in general are very average. No aroma from the cooked food there AT ALL! My amateur cooking at home producing aroma at least!

I'm getting closer to more people there and making lots of friends and going on outings! There's another NUS student with me, 3 A-levels, a couple of polys, ITEs, N-levels etc.. and you can actually identify the different education qualifications from the way they speak, and how fast they absorb the theory stuff. I'm not saying being able to enter NUS is all so awesome or anything, but just a rather generic thing I observed.

Kitchen in 2 weeks~~~~

2011-07-16T04:05:00.004+08:00

She's coming back tmr.. Haha.. like finally. I dunno if I've moved on, but I do feel spasms of intense feelings at times. But I was thinking through the recent ones, and wondering if it is due to this person in particular, or just the inner emotion created by thoughts of this person. I rmb the day a few months back, when i was in the car, raining, lowest point, and the radio played Ah Du's 下雪.. and a week back, we were talking about spending Xmas tgt, going around Orchard to do things I nv ever did, that is to camwhore with the Xmas deco. It was a horrid horrid piercing pain when the song came on...

2011-07-07T00:15:00.004+08:00

I was blog surfing again, and I realized blog entries on break-ups touch me from within. It's about how much the person learnt while being in the relationship, the mutual understandings all the way to the mutual agreement of breakup.

Quote:

I want to thank you for teaching me to love someone again and how far I can go to really love someone.

Appreciation is another thing I've learn so here goes:
- Thank you for sending me home though you are tired at times.
- Thank you for waiting for me while sleeping in the car.
- Thank you for comprising on things I insist
- Thank you for all of the surprises :)
- Thank you for helping out when I needed you.
- Thank you for tolerating my nonsense talk and bad English
- Thank you for watching the movies that I chose though I noe you wanted others.
- Thank you for lending me your shoulder and hands.

All those entries that I've read ever since the days leading up to the creation of 其实我爱你 were from ladies. Guys dun really put these kinda stuff down I guess.

2011-07-06T01:44:00.005+08:00

School's started, and I completed day 2 today. I rented a car for a month to see if having a car would help me juggle both sides, and so far so good. But it's only day 2. I was soooo sleepy in class this afternoon, but so was everyone with more sleep than me, and that means I'm normal =D.

The place seems rather strict with a standard grooming to follow. Similar to the army, but I'm ok with it. I met some friends and most of them are there to stand out and be outstanding. I'm just there as a fast track into the industry to learn as much as I can before I start my own eatery 2 years time. I guess I'll just do everything at a comfortable pace and spend more time on money making, Yes, mercenary I know I am.

As for the night job.. I thought of quitting, but once again, a 天地人和 situation in the sense that
1) I'm knowing more people here, both staff and customers and getting to talk to them, dine out tgt. I just suppered with 2 staff, singer papa and 3 singers on Saturday night.
2) The boss is renovating the whole place and everything related to me, he consults me literally. Changing everything according to what I tell him, and providing me with a super conducive environment.
3) I'm getting right into my comfort zone and able to muti-task like a somebodehh here.

On the other hand,
1) School is fine, ending at 5. I sleep from 6 to 930 before driving to work. And from 430am to 630am. Taking many small winks. Killing myself softly. But as I'm typing this, I'm thinking through... the study is just a good exposure and learning platform, the night job is something practical. Night job priority? Haha!
2) School sometimes MAY end late at 11plus or so. How do I work on these days?! This is the main problem. I'll be participating in a banquet dinner for the French embassy on France National Day 14/7. Basically cheap labour/server. And with the Ritz Carlton for F1. This is something new, and a good exposure in every aspect. When attachment comes in from Term 2 to 5, it'll be more unpredictable timings

So how? Haizzz.. Sch's curriculum is fixed and I dun really have a choice in my timings etc. Ok, I'll talk to the so called "form teacher" asap about this and hope we can come to a compromise.

And tianju, shuangying and huiting's convocation is this Fri! I am so damn excited about it! 3 years we were running around Sentosa for E5 and now, graduation!

2011-06-19T01:51:00.002+08:00

What does it mean when you go out for gatherings with your Secondary sch friends of like 12 years, and topics of marriage, engagement, houses, babies etc comes out. Does it mean that you guys are all getting older? Hmm.. there're some of who aren't even attached at all, and others getting houses and having kids! Oh wells..

And I signed up for a Diploma in Culinary Arts course from sunrise. It's a 17month program. Is it a milestone in my life? I have no idea and am slightly confused. I do know that I want to start a food business. And I need lots of knowledge on it.. thus, the decision to sign up. It starts on 4/7, and it's just 2 weeks time. I do not know if i can carry on with my current job too. I'm just taking it as things go by. But sch's 8 to 5. Work's 10 to 230am. Can I cope? Even if i can, why try so hard. Lack of sleep, and I need lots of mental concentration for these 2. Arghz!!!

2011-06-18T00:24:00.002+08:00

You want to cook, want to run errands, chores, have someone to bitch to, to talk about your decisions in life, to spend hours talking about anything that comes to mind, on the phone, at some cafe from 230am to 530am, and when you stop talking, it's daylight. To do things just for that special person, the deserving one, who appreciates everything, even the horrid tasting nua butter cake, to the wonderful tasting pork, and mum's soup, koi's ice cream bubble tea, sashimi, exploring random food places, bringing to boomz places in an otherwise boring Singapore, Singapore's top 3 rooftop chillout/dining areas, MBS Skypark, One-Altitude, Equinox. The endless car rides to that place in Yishun, going around Nassim, dancing in the car, shaking in the car, that idiotic face, that night at Barrage. The quarrels, the apologies, the silly things, innocent animals, ko yi mak, zi pais, a million zi pai, a hundred million zi pai. The birthdays. That birthday. The ideas, that were all in words, nothing to keep for memory.

Haha.. This post was not supposed to be like that, it was supposed to be very generic. Oh wells....

2011-06-14T00:18:00.002+08:00

2nd time blogging from my work place. It's NOT an office! I'm blogging with a singer singing, and like 4 tables of people drinking and playing games in front of me. Yes, I'm bored.

Just some thoughts la.. being ignorant is indeed a bliss. As much as I'm super open to almost everything, I quote a super close friend.. "i don't believe, but I accept." These will probably not make sense to anyone except the person whom I quoted. Another quote from my favourite forum, In this age, most people accept it that their wife-to-be/fiance are non-virgins. It's too common, but it says a lot about the girl if she's a virgin at marriage. Some people, when at the peak of their love, say that it's ok, and he/she understands that it's common now, but in an over-heated argument late into the marriage, this is a time bomb waiting to explode. It's like religion. Say both respect each other's religion or non-religion such as perhaps a free thinker and a Christian. But the problem comes when it's time to decide whether to bring the kid to church from young, or to just let nature flow.

For myself, I am a strong believer of a "white lie". Although I guess if a couple is going to get married, there are lots of things that need not be said. Taboo stuff.. Self delusion. Blocking or "negative" thoughts and just assume things you want to believe in. With all I said, I do believe that aside those "taboo" things by the general Singaporean, everything else should be clear. Things like saying that your place, address, meeting your friends.. are very important. It's a fact that the more one digs, the more one finds, and if you're hiding something, you can't hide it in front of soooo many people.

No idea why I'm posting this, but just that some people lead a double life. Or rather, just a small 5% and a 95%. The small 5% is with that someone who you look for company. You don't talk about your personal life, your family, your friends.. just general things. And it's like, in a crude way, friends with benefits. Of course, the danger for most people comes in when they cannot differentiate between the 2 lives, and they start to mash up.

I've a friend, met not too long ago, that keeps on going out with this guy. My friend's a she btw. None of her friends know this guy, she nv talks about him, and he's just anonymous except that he's from a rich family, and drives a Type R. Someone who dines with her, and yea, have fun together. Sounds like a typical playboy yea. Not that she's someone super decent too though, having had sugar dads and flings. I suppose ex-es dun really matter in this case. Once there's a first time, there will be many. Once you meet someone as a friend, this person grows and become friend, good friends, vv good friends etc. To turn it sexual is just weird. But, on the other hand, for friends who started off as sexual, can they go to the other ladder? I guess if it goes, the problem of the 2 lives being mash up comes in. It's similar to the relationship/friendship ladder mentioned all over the Internet some time back.

To spend $150 on a few seconds pleasure with a prostitute, or to spend $150 on an atas meal? I'm to choose the meal definitely. But, is it too much to ask for both. Haha.. Oh wells, for a person with enough money to spare, it doesn't matter isnt it.

Feb to June, 4 months. Ending soon. Reality. Have I gotten over? I'm not sure myself. In a way, unless someone gives me a shove.

2011-06-09T05:26:00.001+08:00

Here’s on my trip to China. I went to Shanghai, Hang Zhou and Beijing for about 10days. It was in the middle of winter to spring, and the weather was cool. Comparing it to Singapore, it’s like constantly in an aircon room! Even the hottest times in Beijing were less warm than Singapore. Perhaps, the humidity difference played a part too.

I booked my return plane ticket to Shanghai from Zuji at a promotional $575.80 from China Eastern. Lodgings were all settled by friends who were in China.

11/5:
It was a late afternoon flight. I took the 1635 flight. It got delayed for about 45 minutes awaiting Take-Off orders, and I only reached Shanghai Pudong International Airport at almost 11pm.

Right after my arrival, I took a cab to Fudan University Overseas Students Hostel where Yanjia stays at. The cab ride took an hour and costs RMB220. That’s expensive! She booked a room for me, and it costs only SGD20 per day. It comes with a whole room with bed, cupboards, study table, shoe rack etc, fully air-conditioned, and an in-room toilet! It’s really cheap!

I travelled light with only a sling bag and had to purchase lots of daily necessities at the mini mart before turning in though.

So the first night spent debriefing me on my itinerary for the next day, where I would be travelling around. I did not do any research, and depended on Yanjia to plan my route =D.

Oh, and I met some of her friends.. Very nice and friendly people! Felicia, Ying Nan, Si Yuan!

12/5:
Woke up at about 1030, and met up with DiKai! He’s like super nice to take off from work to bring me around!

First up, 生煎包 and 牛肉粉丝汤from 小杨生煎包, and salted egg 小笼包 from 佳家汤包 along 黄河路! The bestest 生煎包 I ate in China! Crispy exterior, with the soft inner bread, matched with yummy savoury soup and minced pork! I drank 王老吉, which has disappeared from Singapore for my reason or another. This is a simple lunch, and off we go to 七浦路 for some cheap shopping!

The clothing range from sgd 6 to 10, and shoes from sgd 9! I shopped the entire afternoon, which made DiKai a little bored cuz I CAN shop. =D I tried their legendary, much raved about 手抓饼 too. It was just roti prata with whatever filling you want. Super oily though, and not tasty enough. I like my Jalan Kayu Honey Prata anytime pls =)

Next was the Bund, and we met up with yj and friends. I guess I was the only one who’s a tourist in the group, and amongst a group of calm people, it is hard for me to get all hyper about the beauty of the Bund. I thought the lightings and architecture etc was nice, but I just did not get the feel of the entire beauty. Perhaps I should have gone up the tower to get a view from high up!

After hanging around for awhile, we went for dinner at an eatery near the Bund. We ordered
- Sautéed crystal prawns (Average. At least the prawns did not have a stale taste)
- Braised Pigeon (Cant rmb anything)
- Fish with Ginger Chilli Sauce (It was a river fish, and it had lots of boned in it. The sauce was msg-full!)
- Hot Plate Beef (Beef tenderizer-ed-ed-ed. Overkill)
- Stir-fried Kang Kong with Garlic (Tasted quite good, but msg-full)
-糖醋排骨 (Something uniquely China. But my 排骨王 anytime!)
- Egg with tomato (Simple. Boring.)

After dinner, Dikai went back home, and yj brought me around 五角场, which is a shopping complex area near Fudan. Explained a few stuff, showed me a few things, and 边走边聊 about the surroundings as we walked back to the hostel. We stopped for salted egg XLBs on the way, and it was like only RMB8 for 6 pieces. At this point in time, I was starting to get super irritated with all the MSG put in their food. Everything seems so full of msg! Sadly, that’s the Chinese way of cooking. MSG.

13/5:
Woke up at about 1130, and waited for yj to look for me at my room. Left at about 1230, and she brought me to a few areas near Fudan to look, see and eat.

First up was this 山东杂粮煎饼. This is really really good! Think of it as something similar to a vegetarian Peking Duck wrap! It was a lone shop in some lone alley, but really really good! It’s a big pity that I only tried this once. It was like a flour wrap(freshly made), with some crispy beancurd skin, and sauce. Yummy yum!

Next was 糖醋排骨once more. One of Yj’s favourite dish in China I learnt, and followed by this 麻辣汤 thingy. It’s like yong tau fu, where you choose your stuff, and they will cook for you in a 麻辣汤. MSG full once again, and the ingredients are mostly.. unfresh. Thus probably the use of 麻辣 to cover the taste.

I learnt that Coco’s Shanghai equivalent of Koi, and I tried it. Super tasty! I absolutely love the Jasmine milk tea, and it’s only RMB5! You can taste the frangrace of the Jasmine leaves, the bitterness of the tea, sweetness of the milk. Everything just combines perfectly!

As we walked and walked, I decided to try bread from one of their western bakeries. The breads are similar priced to Singapore’s and in China’s standards, considered rather expensive. Super oily breads! And nothing to rave about.

Next, XLB again at RMB4 for 8. Like SGD80cents! MSG full. This was followed by a Jap restaurant, and got one of their specialty sushi rolls, the Motorolla. This was deep fried spicy tuna, snow crab, tobiko, maguro and avocado filling. The combination of flavours went well with me, but I simply do not understand why he had to put so much mayo!

Rushed back to the hostel to prepare for our Hang Zhou trip, and to book my plane tickets to Beijing. Felicia, Ying Nan, yj and myself spent the weekend over at Hangzhou, and off for the train ride at Hongqiao railway station.

It was only an hour ride, and after reaching Hangzhou with 23987122131 people, we decided to have dinner at 大粮水饺 near Hangzhou train station.
- 鲜肉高丽菜水饺 (Erm, no recollection)
-秘制排骨木桶饭 (Tasted quite good, with good flavours. But once again, msg full!)
- 鲜虾仁汤 (only remembered that it had lots of seaweed, and the soup was full of the seaweed taste)

Next up, walking up and down asking people, and getting horrible quotes to get to our hotel. After asking 8217031 people and walking some distance, we finally found it. We got a giant room with a super duper king sized bed. Super duper cuz it’s bigger than the super king size bed I have at home.

Spent the night watching some music awards thing on their TV before turning in for a long day ahead.

14/5:
Woke up at 9am, and went down to their the hotel’s brekkie. It was soyabean milk, congee, a choice of bun or 肉包, and a choice or banana or cucumber. Horrid. Haha! Yes, it tasted as bad as it sounds!

We went out and walked our way to 西湖, and stopped at 新丰小吃 for breakfast. 鸡粒包(Bread with 5 spice powder filling)，麻球(Glutinous rice ball)，肉包，水饺, XLB. Very very normal!

After that, we continued walking and walking and walking. We asked around for directions and when China people say that “曼远的”, it really means it’s FAR. On the way there, we walked through some 步行街 which has all those China related things such as drawings, carvings, fine arts, music, food etc.. Everything! You name it, they have it. Hang Zhou is the place for 龙井茶, and there were many shops selling them. I wanted to buy, but I know that there are many grades, and since I’m not an expert on it, I did not want to take the risk. They could very well swap the low grade ones for me!

When we finally reached 西湖，all of us were like tired, and to go around the entire 西湖 to view all 12 scenic spots would take like 5 to 6 hours on foot! Eventually decided to take a bode ride cum tour of 西湖for like rmb320. It’s 320 a boat to fit up to 6 pax. So the 4 of us went on it, and listened to the guide. He used damn a lot of chim words and phrases that stunned us. Ok, just me. =D. Apparently, 西湖/杭州’s famous for their pearls as well. Be it for luck or to flaunt your wealth or just an accessory, it doesn’t really appeal to me.

After going around the 湖，we went 雷峰塔. The scenery on top was normal, but there were 182937129 people around, so imagine the crowd. This is a 5 star rated tourist spot, but it seems too “modern” in a way. Hmm…

Next up, 4 super hungry people looked for lunch, and got duped. We were walking by the main road just outside the 塔，and this small eatery was saying he’ll give us 20% discount. Ok, so we went in, and ordered the top 4 杭州 dishes. 东坡肉，龙井虾仁，糖醋鱼，叫化鸡. The pork was rather good, with big portions, and sufficient sugar and wine in the sauce. Chicken was over-cooked and dry. Fish and prawns are horrid. Unfresh! Price was like almost 200, and it was the quality of the food that irks me!

After a super unsatisfying lunch, we wanted to shop, and tried to find this ladies shopping street. We ended up at a haji lane – esque place and with clothings priced around sgd20 and above, very expensive in China standards. We walked around window shopping aimlessly around the small shops, and some shopping malls and ended up at a bookstore. Felicia and myself grabbed those tourist books and read through to find places to visit! Spotted a highly recommended street for food, 高银街, which was the street beside the 步行街 we walked through the afternoon.

There were many restaurants selling the same 杭州 top dishes and most were packed. We decided on one which served their 东坡肉 in a clay urn(a novelty that attracted us =D), 邻家菜，老杭州。

东坡肉：Soft skin, melting fats, tasty meat, yummy sauce. A good blend of soy sauce, wine and sugar.
Hangzhou pickled cabbage: Sth like a pickled cabbage appetizer in canto restaurants here, but a super sour version.
特浆鸭: It’s like a preserved duck in some super salty sauce!
Prawn and eel stir fried: tiny shrimp more likely, and eel fried to a crisp such that I cant taste the eel at all. But it’s like a tasty fried dish that goes well with rice and hungry tummies la.
牛腩香干锅: This is tasty. The chilli spice mix is rather good. But then again, 麻辣 came from China, and if they can’t get this right, den it’s gg to them.

I guess with the full house they had, it should be a good place for dining. Costs only like 170rmb. But I thought the blend of flavours was normal, and had better ones in Singapore…

Next time, we walked another 1298371209km back to the hotel, and bought pineapple and watermelon up to eat. It’s like a super duper tiring day! Watched a lil tv, and zzzzzzzz.

15/5:

We woke up late, got ready around 11plus, and checked out. Our train back to Shanghai was at 1430, and so we could not venture out too far lest we missed the train. And so we thought of trying Grandma’s, a highly recommended place, and it was located at a hotel just beside the train station. A pity it was lunch time and we had 28 tables in front of us queuing! That was like omg! We went around walking for some cheap food, and saw this “kopitiam” nearby. I ordered the “菜贩”, not nice, horrid. Costs sgd5……

While the others chill at BK and went for round 2 of lunch, I went to this 土产店 and bought about rmb200+ worth of food to be brought back to Singapore, which includes 楼外楼’s signature 叫化鸡 and 东坡肉 vacuumed packed. 楼外楼’s Hangzhou’s top restaurant so-called. When I reheated them and shared with my family back in Singapore, the meats were dry, perhaps caused by the vacuum packing, but was rather tasty otherwise.

Next, the train ride back, and when we reach Shanghai, I went to visit Old Shanghai street and Chen Huang Miao area on my own while the rest went back to the hostel. It was a very tourisy place, with LOTS of policemen on patrol, which is a good thing I guess. It has a lot of things similar to the 步行街in 杭州。When I got there at about 4, the chen huang miao has closed, and I went to this 欲圆, which is a replica of what gardens in ancient homes were like. It was super big, and once could really get lost in it. If not for the maps around, I would not be able to find the exit. A nice history place to be in and to understand more stuff.

After the garden, I just wandered around grabbing lots of bites…

里脊肉串：Bbq thin sliced pork. Horrible. Msg and pork.
特大烤肉串：Bbq sliced beef. MSG and beef. Tough.
香菇菜包: This is good. As the name says.. And tasty! I think they fried the chives and mushroom in butter before stuffing it into the bao.
五香茶干: Not something I like, I prefer my pork and tau pork and egg in black sauce back in Singapore. Tried it cuz it’s like a famous dish there.
韭菜煎饼：Very very good. The Chinatown one is far off. Thick fillings, crispy crust, soft interior. And this was from a roadside stall!
生煎：Couldn’t swallow one bite. Too much rancid pig smell.
水饺：Couldn’t swallow one bite. Nua. Very the nua.
饺子：Swallowed only one bite. MSG and pork.
蛋挞: Quite good. Buttery Portuguese style egg tarts.

I shopped around a little before going back to the hostel to meet them for dinner at this 风波庄, a restaurant near our hostel. It goes by themes from Chinese martial arts such as begger sect, wu dang etc. And with each theme, you get a diff set menu. I thought the food here was tasty enough, but too much oil, and we get very gelat after a few bites. There’s one in Singapore, but not sure if it’s related though.

Glutinuous rice ball with pork and salted egg yolk, 麻辣牛腩，stir friend peas pods, cabbage stir fried with meat, pork rib with spicy sauce, egg with green pepper, chong qing grilled fish. It’s super a lot of 4! It can fit like 6 to 8, and we left a lot untouched. One thing I dislike about China fishes is that they’re all river fish! I prefer my salt water fish with firmer flesh, and bigger bones. River fish has a “muddy” smell too!

Back to hostel to tcss, and sleep. I needed to catch my plane to Beijing the next day, and that’s where horror starts!

16/5:
I woke up at about 545am, and travelled super light with one a small sling back to Hongqiao airport to take my plane ride to BJ. When I reached there, I missed the flight cuz of a miscommunication. Grrr, and so I purchased a plane ticket and waited till 1030 for my flight. While waiting, I tried some fast food xiao long bao in transit, and it was the BEST xiao long bao I put in my mouth since I reached Shanghai. No msg, and with light sauce and sesame oil!

Ok, so I took the plane, landed in Beijing, and off I went to look for the great wall. Took the airport express, and changed to a train. Dropped off, and asked bus driver directions. Got on the bus, and viola! I’m lost. First, the bus made a BIG detour because the usual route was disrupted. The locals were kbkb-ing about it, and I just listened. When I reached 怀柔，I got off, and asked for directions. Got back to the same bus, so I took the bus, and went round in circles! Like what the hell?! The same number has different routes! It was like a town link, only thing the town was like from Pasir Ris to Bedok, and the bus moved at not more than 40km per hour. So after it went 1.5 rounds, and I realized I was going in circles, I got off, and took another bus hoping to get me back to the city area. 怀柔 is in the 5^th circles, and super far off from the city. I took the correct bus, but in the wrong direction. !@#!$!@. Reached the interchange, and finally took the right one, and reached the train station. This wasted my ENTIRE afternoon!

And so off I went to meet Jim, and he brought me to 大同烤鸭. Supposedly the best Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. The 2^nd best meal I had in China, but the food did not impress me. For the price, a big NO. Maybe just the duck to try it cuz it’s only sgd40. Singapore Peking duck costs from 68!

Da Dong Super lean duck: Too lean la! Dry! And the skin was tasteless. No fat means no taste. =( rmb198 + 8 for condiments per person.
Sauteed prawns: A large prawn pan fried with some savoury sauce. The sauce was too sweet for my liking, but the prawn was cooked very nicely! Rmb66
Sweet sour yellow croaker filler with honey coated diced fruits: Just a fillet of fish with fruity sauce. Super duper sweet sauce once again, the fish was not a fish I was accustomed to in Singapore. Rmb 90
Dried Scallop with Matsutake: Nice mushrooms, well, it’s the top of the top grade mushroom. But no dried scallops detected whatsoever. Something interested.rmb 28
Grilled beef steak cooked Chinese style: No theme to this. 2 thinly sliced beef in black sauce. Very very very normal. Wagyu beef or not, have a theme pls! Wagyu is not a theme. Rmb32
Steamed Oxtail with longan and honey: The oxtail could be softer! Rmb 28.
Summer 3 appetizers: A trio of appetizers created for each season. Nth to comment.
Beijing 6 specialty desserts: Like omg! Both me and Jim cannot stomach a bite of each! It feels like those small bites my dad buys to pray! But I wanted to try BJ’s top desserts la.

Overall an atas place, with not too good service. Tourism. Just go for the duck. After dinner, Jim brought we walking around the “Orchard Road”, and some clubbing areas, as well as an alley of roadside stalls. Had I not been so full, I would have tried these road side stalls! Throughout, we were approached by like 10+ pimps, and I got pissed, but that’s besides the point.

Walk walk walk until about midnight, before we cabbed to Jim’s place where he hosted me and I slept at for the 2 nights.

17/5:
I woke up, grabbed a bite at a bread shop, before going over to the National Museum and The Forbidden City. The bread was not cheap, sgd1+, similar to Singapore priced, but was not too bad la. A lot of oil though.

Ok, nth much to mention about these 2 places cuz loads can be found online. The forbidden city was like super duper big la! I couldn’t finish it in one day, and sort of regretted not following a tour there. I think with a tour guide, I would have learnt a lot more on the history and stuff. To be alone.. it’s just not a lot to learn from. It’s like the TW museum place… we learnt a lot when the guide talked about the artifacts etc.

After spending the whole afternoon being artsy-fartsy, I met up with Jim again at night for dinner at 海底捞火锅, one of the top steamboat places there. We reached at about 7, and had about 15 tables ahead of us. I think they’re used to having lots of patrons queuing up, they actually set up a “waiting area” outside for people to munch on snacks, drinks and play board games! Also, ladies could get manicure for free. I’m quite sure they’re earning a lot! The 2 of us ordered the 麻辣，and the 三鲜 soup base. Super tasty soup base made from natural herbs! Absolutely the best steamboat soup bases I’ve ever tried! You can drink them on their own, and it’s tasty enough. Unlike most places where the soup is too light and bland or just simply MSG full, this one’s just perfect.

We ordered 11 dishes, which include meat, vegetables, mushroom and beancurd stuff. There were dishes not commonly found in steamboats in their menu such as cow offals, snails, mudskipper, frogs etc, not forgetting the spread of about 20 odd sauces and condiments! Superb service too! The guy kept on teaching us how to cook the various stuff, and mixed a concoction from the different sauces and condiments available, telling us that’s the best way to enjoy the steamboat. It was only about sgd 18 per pax. Expensive in China, but reasonable in Singapore. In short, I just love the soup base.

Next up, we walked along the “Clarke Quay” of Beijing looking for a nice pub to chill at, and to listen to the live performance. Yes, there were like 23819038120 pimps approaching us again…. But that’s beside the point. After walking up and down a few times, I decided on a pub with unplugged performance. The girl was quite a good singer, and her choice of songs were rather modern and not so 中国民歌！I was about to buy he and her keyboardist a drink, when they started to sing horrid folk songs for an hour before switching back to modern songs. Well, mood lost. While walking up and down, I tried their steamed egg pudding, and it was surprisingly good! Tasty combination of egg and milk, steamed just nice, and super smooth!

18/5:
This was my last day in Beijing, and I walked around alone.

First up, I went to 王府井 food street to look at all the exotic stuff like scorpions, centipede, starfishes, silk worm larvae etc! =D There were quite a lot of people were there taking photos too. Of course, I did not try these weird stuff, but I tried quite a bit of the other normal things.

- 土耳其烤肉. Just like a kebab sandwich, but super dry meat, and dry bread. Taste of msg.
- 金丝卷饼 . Some gigantic popiah thingy. Tasteless. Just natural veg in the filling.
- 羊肉串. Rather nice tasting lamb kebab! But WHAT’S WITH THE MSG?!
- 奶油炸糕. Like a buttered dough deep fried. Super duper yummy! But I have to keep the calories!
- 老北京煎包. No recollection. Must be horrid.
- 门钉肉饼. Same as above.
- 正中肉夹馍. Minced LEAN meat and green chilli in a bread dough kinda. Horrid.
- 煎饼. Horrid. No recollection.

Next up, I went over to the warehouse shopping area near the 动物园 mrt station and shopped! There were like a few buildings all selling a WIDE variety of clothings! Super duper a lot, and cheap too! I only had time to comb one building though, but it was enough.

After that, it was time for me to leave BJ, and I went to the BJ International Airport like 2 hours in advance thinking I could spend some time to slowly shop and purchase some Beijing goodies, but it turned out that I was at the wrong airport! I immediately rushed over the 南苑机场, but it was peak hour, and I ended up missing the plane there AGAIN! And so, I cabbed back over to BJ international airport, and purchased another ticket to Shanghai. Rmb1290! And the rmb300 odd on cabs too! =(

When I finally got onto the plane, and flew to Shanghai, it was almost midnight, and I had to cab back. The cab fare was another about rmb180. So much money wasted just because I was not meticulous enough!

I went back to the hostel, and grabbed some food from the stalls outside the hostel. As you recall, I only ate the snacks from the food street, and that the plane back did not serve meals!

19/5:
This can be considered to be my last day in Shanghai as I was leaving on a morning flight back the next day.

I left the hostel at about 11am, and went to 世纪公园 to see the gigantic park where Singapore Day was held. Yes, it’s a BIG park, with lots of facilities, but I reached there at noon, and it was scorching! I left just after like 5 min, and made my way to the Science and Technology Museum station to look at all the fake goods. It was nothing much, and I left after 10min to meet Dikai at 打浦桥 for a quick lunch before going to 田子坊 to look see at artsy stuff again.

Lunch was at this franchise joint, Jade Cuisine, which serves not too bad food! The xiao long baos had sesame oil =D.

The 田子坊 was like walking through a historical area, with old buildings, but the stalls there sell unique things you might find at haji lane. Not so much the clothings, but the gifts and everything else. There were quite a number of western cafes too! But the pricings were similar to Singapore.

After that, I went over to the Shanghai National Museum with Dikai to look at some history again. More info when you google it, but what impressed me were the furnitures! Few hundred years old and the wood still looked super solid. The designs were not super “old-fashioned” and a similar replica could very well be sold in furniture stores. Other than that, I’m not too involved with the paintings, and costumes. The coins were interesting enough though. Imagine bringing a slab of metal to shop….

Next up, we went back to 黄河路，and ate the 生煎，and 小笼包! This time around, we tried the 蟹粉鲜肉小笼. The crab egg really made a difference! A pity the crab roe wasn’t fresh enough, and that left a sticky after taste, but the combination of flavours was heavenly! Dikai agreed totally.

We walked around aimlessly after the meal, looking for 土产店 for me to purchase some stuff, and we eventually found one. And I got cheated.. well, not exactly, just that I did not check. I bought a package which was supposed to have 2 green flavours and 2 yellows. I had 3 greens, 1 yellow when I checked it after walking a distance. Well, laziness got the better, and I decided to just 算了吧！

Dinner’s next! Dikai brought me to a place near his place, called 泰皇鸡. This is a franchise, but apparently, this was the best. When I stepped in, the smoke from the kitchen was super strong, and it filled the entire hall. But that’s just the only bad thing. This was arguably my best meal in entire China.

- 泰皇鸡 rmb27.80, 白斩鸡 with a sauce. Similar to our soup restaurant’s samsui chicken. The sauce here was light sauce based with minced ginger. I love the sauce! Sweet, salty, spicy, everything blended!
- 蟹味鱼片 rmb 16. I did really like this dish but Dikai loved it. Yes, the fish was fresh and in thick slices, but it was the vinegar based sauce that put me off. I don’t really like vinegar. This was topped with steamed beaten egg white.
- 一品大白菜锅 rmb15. Absolutely my favourite! It was just the 大白菜，with some mushrooms and a few slices of Chinese ham, but in a peanut stock that absolutely explodes in your mouth! I cannot taste what’s in the sauce except for peanut! No, the peanut wasn’t overpowering, it was just nice, but the blend made it very hard to get the individual ingredients. One thing’s for sure, the wok used to prepare this was very very very very hot, and that’s something I cannot do at home.
- 野山菌煮牛肉. Rmb16. Tender beef slices with some veg and mushrooms. The sauce was once again, unique. Unlike just the usual black pepper or bbq sauce kinda preparation.

This was where I bided goodbye to Dikai, and went back to the hostel. I ate one final around of the roadside stalls outside the hostel, and tcss with yanjia and friends before packing everything thing up and I’m ready to return home. 10days is indeed long, but it was a very good trip to China. Most of my friends say I went there for another purpose other than a holiday, but that was the stimulus, holiday and Chinese history was the reality, and when I was there, it was just simply, a holiday. =)

20/5:
I woke up at like 545am to prepare, and I had lots of luggage! Cuz I help dikai and yanjia carry some stuff back home. I took a private car which Siyuan helped to book, and because of the peak hour jam, it took me almost 1.5hours to reach Pudong Airport. I guess I was lucky I was not charged excess baggage, and the estimate weight should be 27kg! I was ordered to check in one of my hand carry luggage because I was simply carrying too many things!

Once in the airport, I rushed to the gate as it was the “boarding” time, only to find that the plane was delayed. Wait wait wait wait wait… waited 4 hours! And lots of people kbkb, especially the locals. The Singaporeans just sat amongst themselves and sui sui nian. We were eventually compensated RMB400 each. That’s like sgd80, but better than nothing la! The thing is, what am I going to do with the RMB now that I’m back home? Just keep it until the next time I visit China! =D

I reached Singapore at about 8plus, duty-freed and cabbed home. The cab driver was pissed as usual. Haha! Costs only $12 including airport $5 surcharge.

This concludes my stay in China. A timely one. =) And this document has about 5400 words. My third holiday in 18 months… and all with… Haha.. I need to plan another one come end of the year!

2011-06-09T01:11:00.002+08:00

Quite a long hiatus from blogging.. Not that I have not been keeping tabs on my life, but just that some stuff I would like to keep it to myself. Well, not really to myself, but at least not to the whole world.

Let's see, from March 10, I worked at Imperial till 22nd April, before having a break and resuming work at Baidu on 1st July. In between, I went to China(Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing) from 10-20th May. Besides that, I went to Batam with Almido on 7-8/5. And I've been bumping around, not doing anything really meaningful. Perhaps cooking for Almido and Voices peeps, and experimenting lots!

My night life screwed up my body clock, and it took some effort tune it back normally. Took me about 1.5 weeks to tune it back. I have been waking up at 3 to 5pm and I cant get to sleep even at 5am. And so, I spent one fine day not sleeping at all, and going to the market to bargain and buy stuff like an auntie at 7am, before cooking some super complicated stuff that occupied me till like 2pm. I had plans to go out too, and when I eventually returned home at like 10pm that fine day, I was zonked out by midnight, and from then on, I've been sleeping by 2am, and waking up by 11. It felt super duper fresh the first few days when it happened! =)

Looking at my calendar on my phone now.. and I've been..
- To some Taoist talk thingy, which supposed to answer some qus I felt about life. I asked if loan sharks lending money to people who really need it for like surgery or stuff, but giving you just enough time to return the money, without disrupting your life. Well, most of the times, unless the person who borrows tries to chu some stunt, then it's a different story. The reply was that all loan sharks are evil. Full stop. No more discussion. Haha.. Stereotyping and standard generalization. Not me.
- Met some new friends from online. Well, I need to fill up my free time!
- Ate at the legendary Buko Nero, which so did not blow me away. The amuse bouche of some canape was shiok, so was their pumpkin and crab meat soup, and their dessert. And their home made linguine.. It was super Q, like a mee pok =D. But other than tt, their mains were disappointing. The cod fish was over cooked, and that made it dry. It does have crispy skin though! Their uni with duck ragu pasta was.. good, but not good enough. The uni doesnt unami me, and the duck ragu pasta at Forlino was much better, and more flavourful. Possibly with more cheese incorporated into the sauce.
- Tried Osia at RWS. The bread was super duper good! The best bread I've ever put in my mouth. But a thin piece of 8 slices costs $8++ is quite steep. then again, if you were to dine at Osia, what's the $8. I'm a strong believer of ordering the chef's top dishes at a restaurant to rate it. You do not go to an upmarket establishment and order the cheap normal things, and come out saying that it's nothing special. OF COURSE THERE ISN'T! Though I also understand that there are some "must do well dishes" in the various cuisine. Like sweet sour pork in canto, and unagi and tamago in Jap. Anyway, Osia's dishes were not so much of flavourful, but full of it's natural freshness. Perhaps that's the Aussie's culture. You get a very clean palate and do not feel all gelat and stuff. Their Macadamia nut pie was superb too. A defo get!
- Tried Lush. Bought the voucher from voucherlicious, and it was horrible to the max. NOTHING was right. A total rip off. We had more shiokness at Golden Mile with the $5 claypot rice with lots and lots of meat! It'll go bust before the end of the year. I'm quite sure of that. Basics like getting the oil hot enough to fry pre packed fries... enough said.

I've tried the Cathay Platinum Movie Suites recently, and with the student 1 for 1 promo for screenings before 5pm on Mon and Tues, it's worth it! $14 each for a super big leather seat with motor reclining, and with a thin comfy blanket provided! On top of that, Xmen: First Class was super shiok. Non stop excitement from the start to the end! Perfect combination.

Batam. Took the 130pm ferry over cuz GE was on the same day, and reached the hotel only at about 3. We went to the biggest mall there, which has nth, and ate random stuff, which were horrid and nth to talk about. Dinner at 333. Ordered sea bass steamed hk style, which lacked the push of hua tiao jiu, and overly sweet cuz of the substitution. Fried cereal prawns, or shrimps! Super small ones, but tasty enough la. =D. Scallops steamed with garlic was a failure. The hk one was so good that even yj who doesnt take garlic at all enjoyed it. Veg, rice and coconut juice was standard. We spent the night in the room watching GE. Haha.. that's how boring Batam is. Good thing is that we got connecting rooms.

The next day, followed the tour. Massage, which I did not enjoy at all. Very neutral. If I have to pay for it, I wun. Haha.. Den the usual shopping stuff. The kueh lapis the tour guide strong recommended was not good leh! Dunno why so many people actually bought them. The ones my dad get for CNY was really the top of the top. Spoilt me. =D The prices difference was 2.5 times though. Haha! We dropped out of the tour after lunch to take the ferry back to Singapore. If we had followed it, we would only return at 7pm, and it would be too late for my Mothers' Day Dinner. There was some changes made to the itinarary cuz of the GE, and we were not informed. It was an additional $50 spent, but i did not chase the tour agency like how I usually would.. lazy i guess.. and it was only $50, not $500, like my return plane ticket from SHA to BJ.. More info in a few days,

For mothers' day dinner at park royal hotel... I bought a super duper big hello kitty doll for my mum, and did the same thing i did for Winnie's birthday. I placed the big doll at the concierge, and worked with the restaurant's receptionist to approach my mum saying that there's a surprise gift for the youngest mum. Well, she isnt, but sure looks like the youngest relatively to her age. The receptionist then brought my mum to collect the doll, and with some tcss. It was so well done that my relatives all really thought it was a surprise gift from the hotel, and not a gift from me. Oh wells.. Haha! =)

I guess that's how I spent my days since March. Times flies, and it's now early June. Come next month... would it be the same as 6 months ago? Haha.. I dunno, and I'm feeling the heat as the clock tick tocks. I'm starting to get "emotional surges and pangs". Not so much specific to a person, more of in general. FOCUS. I just read my life 8 characters today, and it says I will have lots of money and woman, but i must be focus, if not i would lose all my $ and the one woman i really love. That's in future though.. Tao hua yun for me as he put it. I was quite shocked at the things he said just by reading the 8 characters cuz a lot of stuff were so damn true. I went in and he said that I would have to take care of my stomach cuz I get stomach aches often, as well as poor blood circulation leading to sudden flashes, and the deteriorating of my eyesight towards next year. Also, that I have lots of fighting spirit and passion. But I'm vv curious, so I want to do a lot of things leading to myself becoming lost. True. Also, emotional, kuai lan. Haha... shocked. Just from 8 characters.. the things pre-programmed. I must do things related to 吃喝玩乐, and to do big things, not small things. Hmmm...

Zen.. knocking? Juz one msg, and you can feel the msg. Like always. Why? Ppl move on as ppl change. Things are always stagnant, only people change. People dun change, things remain. Taoism.. lol. And no, I'm not a Taoist convert. I love my meats. =)

2011-03-10T04:56:00.002+08:00

Recently, I came across this food blog by a 20 year old girl. She's a chef-in-learning and just went overseas for her chef studies. Althought I do not know her, but by reading through her blog posts it's like I can see how much she loves food and cooking, and all the efforts she take to come up with a meal for her family! I mean yes, I cook for my family at times too, but I dunno.. it just feels different. Perhaps her presentation and food description boomzified me? Haha..

Here's her add: divinejoybites.blogspot.com

I admire her passion. Extreme passion and willing to take a path other than a normal Singaporean.. JC>Uni>9 to 5 job. For myself, I have no much of a choice other than to carry on in the workforce.

I have been thinking recently too.. as to what do I want to do. I want to open a cafe/restaurant and set up an events company. Both are my passion. But the thing is, I cannot open a restaurant without a chef. I need to find one, and this is a main problem! Thai chef from thailand? Indon chef fron Indon? Just go there for a month and try to find one good one and ask if he's interested in working in Singapore? This is so drama! Do I think it can work out, yes i do. Haha.. extreme optimism from me. Aside from the chef, there's the logistics, menu, marketing and publicity... And the menu.. pricing.. raw ingredients and stuff! What's my start up cost, and how much how long before my money comes back? Lots and lots and lots of research. Should I just start and if it's just a time wasting thing cuz I cant find a chef, you never know what would happen in future. Ok, I jus decided I would start on my research slowly.

The next thing.. events company. No head no tail. I've done events and stuff, but I need a platform. The platform would be to work in an events company. But it's usually 9 to 5, and I cannot do it with my current job. I'm not going to give up my current job yet cuz I just started. Oh my.. Marcus... I hope we can really come up with something once you grad in June.

Tuition centre is another thing I thought of, but it's simply because it's easy money. Haha.. And it's the easiest of all. Get a place, get furniture, get teachers, market urself like a somebodehh and hope people will come to you. An almost no brainer if we dont consider all the admin, licensing and manpower-ing issues.

2011-03-02T05:25:00.003+08:00

Lying to myself too much! Or rather not facing up to things.. and living in self delusions. In another way, I'm protecting myself well. This whole thing will definitely strengthen me mentally though.

I get the occassional sadness, loneliness, difference now and stuff, but coping well. Or at least I think I'm coping well. Say I'm trying to find someone else to take all these stuff away from me.. Is it possible? Is it fair to that someone, if that someone ever appears? Haha... Life is not fair. Once you step in, it's hard for you to step out.

I'm trying to meet more people(yes, local and not PRCs from my workplace), and to brighten up my life a lil. And I'm finally trying out Yoga.. although it is just one session first, but everything has to have a start.

I have to face it that as of now, there is absolutely no way of returning to the past. Everything is moving forward and I have to move FASTER than everyone. Once I'm lagging, I'm at a disadvantage. Come on Joel, you are much much stronger than this!

You asked me if THAT was worth it. Yes it is. Because it forced you to make a decision, and you made it. And yes, I agree that sadly, I'm too smart for you. Haha.. in a bad way. Seeing through your "evil plans". As time goes by, everything becomes memories and memories.. maybe distant. How close as friends can be be compared to 2 person who have something for each other? I do not know. In anycase, it's just ONE week since you left. Though I have been getting this vibe since Tajimaya day. Perhaps my one second step on the acclerator and switching gears gave you another slap. Haha.. In any case, like I said as before you flew off, that finally, both of us broke free. Unlike that night at Chinese Garden, when I wanted to, but we still came back the next day, or rather the day after.

I think Almido can agree that THAT was arguably my happiest moment in the 2.5 years they knew me.. =) Well, at least there was a past.

I'm damn sure you would read this. Yes, super duper sure cuz I still understand you a lot. No worries, I'm really coping fine back here, and moving ahead with my life. I still have my events company and tuition centre and food establishement in mind! And no matter what's going to happen these months be it we drift like damn far or wad, the promise a year back still holds. Find Li Pei Fen at a GeTai during the 7th lunar month. It's a something to just look to.

Just ranting. Many many more rants, but I'll just keep them, and i will forget about them, hopefully. =)

2011-02-21T04:06:00.001+08:00

It has been sometime since I returned from HK, and I 'm only writing this down now. Hopefully, I can still remember what we did, the thought and stuffs =)

Om 4/1/11 to 9/1/11, I went to HK and Macau with Ben, Yanjia, Yuxing and Qianhua. We spoke in English and horrible Cantonese around Macau and HK, but still managed to get around well. Personally, I thought the experience in HK and TW with the company was rather similar, but I had more things on my mind in HK that made it less totally carefree compared to TW.

Some background. The return air ticket, one way trip from HKIA to Macau via ferry, Macau and HK accommodation were all pre-booked online.

4/1:

It was a morning flight, at 940am. We took SQ and sat in the supposedly awesome A380 to HKIA before transiting to the Cotai Jet at the airport to bring us to Macau directly. The transit was like 1.5 hour or so.

The A380 is nothing to rave about.Compared to our return flight on a normal plane, the economy seats were actually harder in the A380. But then again, this is subject to individuals. Food wise, similar, and although there were more entertainment options in the A380, it did not help cuz I was spoilt for choices. Haha! Little choices also wrong, a lot of choices also wrong. Singaporeans =D

When we reached HKIA, we walked around the airport and cam whored a little before settling down at the transit lounge while waiting for time to board our ferry to Macau.

The ferry ride took like 45min or so, and when we alighted the ferry, it was SUPER cold! We were in our jackets but the wind everything made it damn cold. All 5 of us were jumping around like idiots and blowing "mist" from our mouths. Grabbed our luggages and made our way to The Venetian where we stayed for ONE night.

The Venetian is the most popular resort hotel in Macau now, and the interior is really beautiful. We got a choice of either lower or higher levels. Of course we chose the higher levels. It was on the 31st story and we stayed in a Suite. The suite had 2 queen sized beds and a sofa bed, and a GIGANTIC toilet comparable to our WHOLE room in HK =D.Me and Ben, YX and QH, YJ on sofa bed.

We put our stuff down, freshened ourselves a bit before taking a cab out to Taipa Village to look for the legendary Macau Pork Buns (猪扒包) and some other dessert shops and local products shops in Macau. Lost our way a bit and a kind lady took us to where we wanted to go in her car! All 5 of us squeezed into the car with her! =D

As we walked around looking for stuff, we grabbed some egg tarts(Macau specialty) to fill our tummy before dinner because our last meal was breakfast on the plane!

First up was Koi Kei Bakery. We tried their almond biscuits and egg rolls which are their specialty. I bought the almond biscuits back. Next was Pastelaria Fong Kei, where I bought their pig ear biscuit! They are super duper fresh and tasty and crispy! One roll of about 25 pieces cost like SGD2 only. I regretted buying only 4 rolls! This was followed by some ice cream dessert place, Gelatina Mok Yi Kei, which is famous. But I thought it’s nothing much. Maybe we were too cold from the weather to appreciate the cold desserts. Dinner was at this random thai restaurant. The food was really tasty. We only order the specialty braised pig trotters, friend rice and tom yum soup. All 3 were very very tasty and the seafood fresh.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel resort to explore the place to see what's at the shopping area in Venetian. I took the chance to look for another legedary Lord Stow's egg tart which has a branch in Venetian. It was good! The skin was thin and crispy yet still having the fluffiness, and the egg filling is tasty enough.

Despite it being top class, Venetian does not have any supermarket, and so we only could purchase expensive drinks around. Water costs like $2.50 for a 500ml one. Grrrr... This is when I did my uncle thing of boiling and cooling lots of water in the room to drink and to refill our water bottles.

Walk walk walk, got tired, and we went back to the room to bathe and wash up. Yj and myself then went out again to talk through the casino area to look see. The people there are super chill! We were wondering how the guards would react if someone came in, killed someone and ran off. Really.. everyone super chilled. Walk walk see see, we went out of the hotel to take like 1893712389 pictures with the exterior deco, which were beautiful. We eventually called it a day at like 3am, and returned to sleep.

5/1:

We woke up early at like 9am, and travelled back to Taipa village for our Pork Buns because we buay kam wan find so long the other night stil cannot find. It was so worth the trip back. Freshly baked bread and grilled pork chops from Café Tai Lei Loi Kei. The pork chops was not tough at all and we could easily bite them off without needing to struggle like most pork chops! Aside from the pork chops, we shared their wonton mee, and teh as well.

Next up, we took a can to Senado Square where there were 12938274 people. Cam whored. Ok, I will not talk about camwhoring cuz it's what we did the entire time. At Senado Square, we looked for this Yee Shun Milk Company and tried their legendary steamed egg and stuff. Good, and soft and palate cleansing. We tried the Pork Chop Buns but it's horrid. This was also where we took “couple shots”. Everyone posed a couple pose with everyone and took a nice couple shot. I really liked the Ben and YJ one! Super sweet looking. I am so going to kop that idea for my wedding montage!

We continued walking through the streets leading up to St Paul's Ruins, a tourisy spot. Next up, rush back to hotel to check out, and make our way to HK.

Upon reaching HK, we walked like 381278km before finally managing to find out hostel. It was Ah Shan Dragon hostel. Cheap! Just like $50 per room per day for twin sharing. The ONLY down side is that the rooms are tiny, and the toilet is jus like 1 step to any wall if you stand in the centre. Because it is in PRIME district, beside us is 花园街, and just one street away is Argyle Centre, 2 streets away Mongkok MTR.

After checking in, we we out to Kwun Tong, where there are supposed to be warehouse priced clothings, but did not manage to spot then. It could be due to the wrong place, or that the stalls are closed. We reached there only at likr 6pm or so.. Pretty late cuz the ferry to HK took some time, and we spent more time getting to the hostel.

Next we took a cab to Lei Yun Mun Seafood bazaar where there were lots of restaurants, but they dont actually sell the seafood. There are many small stalls outside the restaurants selling live seafood. Anything from fishes, to sotong to shellfishes. We went into one and ordered

- Oyster sauce Kailan

- Steamed fish(I forgot what fish)

- Garlic vemicelli steamed scallops (This is wonderful! Burst of flavour! Even yanjia who hates garlic enjoyed this the most)

- Cold sotong with some sauce (This is horrid)

- Bamboo Clams with Black bean sauce (Nice wok Hei! But a lil salty)

- Marmite fried king prawns (Tasty, fresh prawns with shells cooked to a crisp)

- Butter Mantis Shrimp (My first time having it. I did not really like it because the flesh was soft not firm, and it was difficult trying to get the flesh out of the shell. The taste was good, but i would perhaps prefer it with the usual prawns.

Next up, Langham place, which is the same artsy giant mall that I went to a few years back when I visited HK alone. We took a neoprint in one of the shops and that’s just my second neoprint in my life. Yj is like the ultimate expert… fast fingers!

This was followed by 许留山 desserts! I want my mango and coconut noodle thingy! But it’s not longer available =(. After desserts, we walked around the streets in Mongkok before suppering at a café near out hostel. You tiao, pork and century egg porridge, and some rice kueh thingy.

6/1:

Disneyland!! We woke up and went for breakfast at a HK Cha Chan Teng(which serves the usual normal food and so-so tasting), before going straight to Disneyland!

Super duper cold there! And partly because so, I got “conned” to but the giant mickey mouse gloves. =D I buy it for 效果, and happy that everyone played around with it! Haha!

Camwhored like a sombodehhh in there! Taking photos with Winnie and Goofy etc. It’s not like wow or boomz to me actually. It’s just another theme park with the Disney characters ba. The rides and shows are all very kid friendly!

Disneyland is just a place of happiness. You just feel happy being there! Perhaps it’s cuz everyone there is happy, and when you’re in the midst of happiness, you just follow everyone, and be happy. Haha! What an analogy… But Disneyland is indeed a colourful place!

After finishing with Disneyland, we went for dinner at some place in Mongkok, before YJ left to go to King Edward to meet up with WangQian, Jesse, Amelia and Melvin for another meal. I walked around aimlessly myself and finally ate my Char Siew Roast Goose rice. Horrid. Haha! But it was the craving.

I met up with the Jesse gang and went to catch the last MTR back to Mongkok. They ate again at some random noodle shop. After which, we split and all went back to where we stayed.

7/1:

Woke up and head for our first Dim Sum in HK. It was 新兴食家 at Central area. We reached only at about 11 and had to wait like 45min before finally getting our seats. The dim sum was not fantastic, but reasonably priced. For myself, I would not mind spending more on a fantastic tasting dim sum since I’m already in HK.

After eating, we walked around Central and Sheung Wan and SoHo. Really nothing much there and wasted precious time =(. However, we did meet up with Kee Onn at about 4pm, and started our food spree.

- Mak’s Noodles (Ok la.. not bad, but I’m not a big fan of noodles)

- Law Fu Kee Pork and Century Egg Porridge (So-so.. not that fantastic)

- Kau Kee Beef soup and beef curry. (This is absolutely fantastic! The beef soup was full of flavor and the beef was super tender. A wonderful dish on a cold cold day. The curry was tasty too, but compared to the soup, it’s never going to be No 1!)

- Tai Cheung Egg Tarts (I really do not know what’s the hype! It’s not nice at all! Our Red Star trashes it hand down)

- Some roast pork and char siew and roast goose Kee Onn rec, that was beside Tai Cheung. No good. Horribly dry and lack of any real taste.

After all the eating, we went to Causeway Bay to shop at the shops nearby including H&M before going back to Central for Lan Kwai Fong. We walked around and everywhere was packed with Caucasians. I preferred a place that’s packed with locals cuz I can go to Clarke Quay and mix with the ang mohs. Eventually, we decided on a bar, and played drinking games and stuff. Ended up 5 of us half drunk(Kee Onn left before LWF to return to his hostel), and I was the most undrunk. Or maybe I was equally drunk, but forced myself to be awake to take care of people. Esp people feeling down… One thing’s for sure, the drinks are much cheaper than in Singapore!

Sometimes, trying hard to sleep, and letting one just fall asleep is a good way to escape from reality. After all, we all get better after a good night’s sleep. Emo-ing over someone and feeling super down the entire night, and after waking up, the past night’s incident seemed to disappear. Haha.. how we can cheat ourselves…

8/1:

Our 2^nd last day in HK. Time flies! I spent like 9 days in TW and only 6 in HK! I MISS TW! This is the ultra tourisy day of the trip!

Woke up and had brunch at this small café thingy serving zi char kinda dishes.

- Stir fried Maggie noodle (tasty, good wok hei)

- Special sauce stir fried chee cheong fun (Unique, but the sauce was a little creamy making it gelat after eating a bit)

- Won ton noodle soup (Not my kinda thing)

- Special deep fried wontons (Nth much except that it’s BIG)

Next up, Noah’s Ark. We had great expectations cuz it’s Top 3 must visit places rated by Asiaone. We went to 3 areas of the place. 1^st was horrid, or rather, did not really suit us. It’s like many rooms on different categories of simple knowledge of say “Transport” “weather” “music” etc.. More for kids.

The next place taught us how to make a cake using a towel. It was like omg! Haha! Take 2 different coloured towel, put one on top of the other, fold and roll, and stuff it into a piece of plastic. Ta-dah! A towel cake! Like wad the… Haha! Cam whored with some of the wall decorations though.

The third place is the outdoor area where they showed a lot of life-sized animals, and screened the story of Noah’s Ark. This place overlooks the sea and seaside. We saw a couple taking wedding shots there! The sand is like white, and not like singapore’s… Black!

After Noah’s ark, we headed to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and the Peak. I bought custard pao, and some ice cream crepe to eat before going to the museum.

Ok, the museum. Nothing much to write except lots and lots of wax figures. Like 1/3 of my photos were taken here! I thought it was just one story but turned out to be 2 stories and never ending. Oh, there was this “haunted house” place in the museum. Free so we went to try out… Not too bad! Haha! People were screaming as we walked and the “ghosts” came from all over surprising us!

Next up was the peak! We went up, and yes, wonderful view! The down side, toooooo many people for it to be romantic or wad. I have a place in Singapore that can match up! And we cant really take photos cuz of the lack of tripod. The photos turned out shaky. And yes, it was super duper cold! Cold to the max!

We headed back to Temple Street after that to shop and eat. We felt like eating claypot rice and ordered one, which was not exactly claypot because of the lack of charred bits at the bottom. But the rice was really tasty with reasonable amounts of ingredients. We also ordered a garlic fried prawns which were fresh and tasty. Lots of garlic helped the taste but yanjia had to scrap every single grain of minced garlic off her prawn before touching it! =D Lastly it was black bean sauce mussels which took forever to come. The mussels were super fresh and did not have any weird smell or taste. With fresh seafood, you juz need minimal cooking. It’s good enough!

After all the salt, we needed some sweet and went across the road to a quite populated roadside dessert stall and ordered mixed fruits with tau huey and papaya white fungus soup. Healthy ppl! =)

Walk and walk and walk and walk and shop and shop and shop before going back to the hostel to call it a day.

9/1:

The last day in HK!

Woke up, checked out, and put our luggage at the “concierge” =D No concierge at the hostel, but they allowed us to leave our luggage there.

Breakfast was at KFC which I skipped, and we split up. Me and yj walked around ladies street and there were like 123089138291 people around on the Sunday morning. Lots of shops having nice clothing at damn cheap prices! I did not take down everything because it was impossible. Grab, try, not bad, go! Grab, try, not bad, go! Over and over again! I got my nice shoes during this time too! And yj was praised by so many people! 好身材 =D. I also finally managed to eat a nice roast goose, char siew and roast pork. My last proper meal there… and I left HK with no regrets! =)

We met up at a Hang Heung branch in Mongkok to purchase the lao po bing and stuff, before RUSHING back to the hostel and rushing to the airport! We were late late late and ran to the gate!

Boarded the plane, and that’s the end of the trip. If 天地人合，we could have extended the stay by one more day because we spotted lots of nice cheap clothing at the end. One more day would be good! Oh wells…

This concludes my HK trip, and return to reality….

2011-02-08T04:23:00.003+08:00

Why am I feeling everything that she's feeling. All the sadness, emotions, extremities.. I'm feeling everything! Am i really felling everything? Or juz trying to make myself feel everything. Arghzz.. doesnt matter.. I know I love her. That's all.

2011-02-05T22:40:00.004+08:00

Why do I get more emotional and sentimental more frequently? Why do I feel my eyes start to fill with tears so much more these days? No crying but juz the tears filling up.. well, it was only once in January, at my secret hideout now.. =D Also, why do so many song lyrics suddenly just strike up to me when they never did so before. Haha.. the 哭点 seems to be dropping! No good no good... Is it just simply because my life is not as busy as it seem it is? Not really.. ever since HK, I never really had a full day to myself.

A lot of people ask if what I'm doing is really worth it? I dunno myself.. all I know is that with each successful thing done, the happiness on the person's face is worth all my effort. And furthermore, at this point in time, if I do not do the things I did, I would have nothing to do. Now, would it be similar had it been another person.. perhaps not.

Being able to cry is a great thing.. I would want to be able to cry more easily, but I dun want to =).

Now that Im working, I'm really look forward to all gatherings and outings with sec sch friends, Almido, Voices etc.. But the sad thing is, most gatherings are at night and I have to be at work at 9 daily. Is this job paying me very well now? No, not really.. I hope it'll get better after the 3 months probation period, and after 22/1, I can devote all my time on this by catching songs, coming in earlier to prac etc.

2011-01-25T03:47:00.003+08:00

I went over to JB with yanjia today to just shop shop shop and shop! Supposed to meet at 11 but i overslept and ended up meeting her only at 1145 =X But still, had enough time to shop at Holiday Plaza, KSL City and City Square. I got my jeans and jacket and some tops.. she got a few tops too!

When we reached Singapore, we went over to harbourfront terminal wanting to take the Long Jie cruise, but it was too late! Perhaps on Wed when I meet her to celebrate her birthday for her =) We took a bus to Bedok and ate Simpang Bedok. But she was really unwell.. insufficient sleep + period + long walking hours + lack of food. =((

Went over to collect the care, and sent her back. Simple day. =)

2011-01-20T14:53:00.005+08:00

He has flown off to SEP last night. Yj told me she cried a lot. It's hurting to me simply because she really misses him and love him. Is it really a two way thing for them now, and one way for me? I understand everything she's doing because I would do the same to her when she's gone. I understand it perfectly.. so well such that it hurts.

Although we spoke on the phone at night, yj is hiding something. Perhaps using everything else to cover her feelings. She's a superb nice girl.. doing everything to help him. She said she's going to/did something super shocking to me.. but left it hanging there. What is it?? It's really 胡思乱想.....

I dunno.. my options have to open up a lot a lot. I can't rant to anyone because I know what I should do and what the replies would be. It's so obvious I have to back out.. but it's hard. Very very hard... I gave everything to her birthday, and there's the part 2. I guess, let's see how things go from now until she flies.

I was looking through our sms-es before I slept and saw that in just ONE month from 20/12 to 20/1. A lot a lot happened between us.. Everything was super fine until I sent the email. Was it coincidence that it was the cruise trip? Perhaps, perhaps not..

I dunno how she pacified him to go on the trip, but she did it anyway. And they seemed to get closer from then on. Even in HK.. she blurting out buying thing "for my boyfriend" in front of me not knowing it. Her heart has all gone to him. I'm just someone who treats her super good. Even though he hurt her time and time again, she still loves him a lot. Haizzz... I really miss November.. I really do!

Ok, more pictures from the Thailand trip is up. She did a shirt for me.. and the exact same one for him.. Mine's "Nobody plays it better than Joel", for him "Nobody loves me more than my girlfriend". This is like so deja-vu! Haizzzz.. nth to say....

When you see all those stuff. You have some feelings, but nth much.. and it subsides after a few minutes. What does it mean? Does it mean that you have given up? No, I havent.. I still love her a lot. Then does it mean you are emo, but feel happy for her cuz you see her happy? Perhaps.. But come one Joel, this is not you. So not you... Are you that noble? I'm emo cuz she's not with me, and she's feeling happy with him. But because she's feeling happy with him, my emo-ness gets subdued? Perhaps perhaps... It's until July. A good half year from now and a lot of things can happen in half year. I dunno.. It's been a very very good Oct/Nov 10 for me. =) As long as she's happy... haha...

2011-01-18T16:05:00.003+08:00

Finally, time to sit down in the afternoon at home to do my own stuff, and to slow down my life a little. Aside from HK, I have been busy with yj's birthday party the whole of last week. It's a week more to part 2 though.. Haha! I guess probably after today, I would be busy fretting again!

Yj's birthday
The program
1) A life-sized stand up card-out of herself at the reception area to welcome everyone! This was something we spoke about before, and so I decided to just get it for the 21st.
2a) Singing <<睁一只眼闭一只眼>> using the track with her vocal recording. And KO was to expose that she was not singing live as a distraction to everyone and herself for part b.
2b) Singing <<野蛮游戏>>. Simply because it started off with 老虎老鼠傻傻分不清楚. I had a tiger mascot coming in from the back and it surprised everyone including herself. Why a cute tiger mascot? Yj likes Tigger, and that's the closest thing I could find.
2c) Singing <<你的眼神>>, and oldie. Chose it because she learnt about this song at my workplace and liked it a lot. The surprise here was to 调 her with a $10000 "garland", to put on a tiara and to give her a wand like my workplace style. It was something she wanted to try out too. Coincidentally, her dressing was not elaborate, and with these 3 things on her, it did not seem too "over".
3) A charades game whereby she was supposed to just act and everyone guess. Forfeited her with sugarcane juice, something she hated. It was a bottled version.. the mildest of all things she hated.
4) Open mic for anyone to sing any song. Provided that either me or weiquan knows of the song. Together we have super a lot of songs =D
5a) To sing her 主打歌 <<了解>>.. something that has a story behind for us as well. I was on the keys for her and it was a touching rendition. Not the best, but really good enough. =)
5b) As the song ends, the cake comes out. The cake is a 3d sculpted cake of a Pig Angel. Super duper cute which everyone rushed to take a photo off!
5c) Right after blowing out the candles, all the lights go off, and on the wall shows "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" using Christmas lights.
5d) A video of her life from her friends around, and the Voices journey.

Food wise, it was from ISS Catering.. their $8 buffet plus the roast baby lamb!

Yes, I planned everything! With a lot of admin help from Marcus. He really super duper helped me a lot. KO was the main MC and he got my points across, to prevent anything from making me unhappy happening.

I think Marcus deserves a longer post. He came down with me to recee the place, plus missed lecture, plus help deco everything. When there wasn't enough drinks, he went to buy it when I was busy. I admit I was in a flush at the initial stages of the party cuz of personal reasons and he settled everything for me. The best part of all, he insisted on cabbing back home at the end when he was offered a ride by the pig. =) This is a friend. =)))

Quote: A birthday anyone would long for..

I put everything I had into it.. It was smooth, with many surprises one after the other culminating in the video. Was the money and time well spent? To me, very well so. Efforts paid off!

2011-01-12T03:31:00.002+08:00

A long time since I published a post. Haha.. I had 3 personal entries but decided not to publish them.

Let's see.. Xmas and New Year.

Xmas:
I spent the eve having dinner with 23sa peeps at this Korean bbq place at City Square. It was rather cheap but service horrid. Haha.. After that, I rushed down to Imperial for my very first show! Emcee-ing and playing is very very hard! It was a good first experience nevertheless.

After I ended work at 2am, I met Angela and we hung around talking about stuff until about 6am, and I slept my Xmas day away. Woke up at like 7plus pm and just went straight to work. =)

New Year:
The long awaited Almido Xmas gift exchange and gathering was on the eve of New Year! Terence had a small gathering at his place and we went there. I had to leave early thought cuz I had work, and had my 2nd show.

Almido met up at Swee Choon Dim Sum after I ended work for a super duper sumptuous meal! Oh, this year, I got Mich's Xmas gift! It was a cup with customised words and pictures of Almido! Mich's presents have always been the most creative and hand made since the first Xmas exchange we had! I would say I'm super lucky to get hers this year! =)

I slept New Year day away like Xmas, and went to work in the evening. I met up with her to get her luggage from Chinatown, which is near where I work, and she stayed a little to watch me before going off. That's my New Year!

On 2/1, 2 pigs supposed to meet for breakfast/lunch but they slept in and overslept! =)

4/1 to 9/1 was my HK trip with Ben, Yanjia, Yuxing and Qianhua! A whole summary in another post another day ba!

For the previous years, I used to write down the highlights of my life for the year.. Let's see..

2010!
Jan: Completed another countdown, but with Voices peeps this time, and the "final" sem for nus..
Feb: Priscilla went out of my life. A really extraordinary thing I would say... But it's long gone behind me.
Mar: Emerge! Something I am very proud of. A whole concert done up with standards and enjoyed! =D Yes, I'm thick-skinned! =)
Apr/May/June: Got "out" of nus.. Auditioned for Dragonfly, got thru to my lsb..
July: Overseas trip to Taiwan with Yanjia, Winnie and Angela!
Sep/Oct: Someone came into my life....
Dec: My first performance and start of my lsb job.

It seems a pretty boring and mundane year.. I had more in previous years I think. Haha.. nevertheless, it's the quality..

2010-12-31T04:54:00.003+08:00

The air's cleared! Finally! A big big big relief for the 2 of us.

We spent a whole night talking about everything that happened in the past 2 weeks. From me dropping my first tear in a long long time to her crying to herself at night even on cruise. =( But overall, I am super relieved that things are ok now. Same as before. =)

2010-12-28T04:00:00.006+08:00

Well, it's been the first time we met since stuff happened. It's been like one week + since we last saw each other. Was it awkward? Haha.. It was to me. It helped that we were with a group of people who do not know the story and all we talked about was our HK trip.

I thought last night that I have gotten over things, but there are always moments which I just felt that I missed you. All the rants and stuff we share.. On your tumblr.. I would really be willing to do those you posted on 27/12 for you to the best of my ability, but.. would you give me a chance?

You said you're at your wits end because of something. What is this something? It doesn't help that you are telling me it doesn't matter. There is something behind all these which I do not know about. Come on, you know how well we understand each other.

Today.. I could sense something when Xing teh-ed me and stuff, and when I opened the sweet wrapper for her and sort of almost fed her. Also, when you told me on the bus about the steamboat at golden mile.. There was an impending urge to say "Let's go leh!", but yea.. And and when you just bought the frogs porridge to share like that. Over-reacting? Haha.. or understanding a little too well. Well, it can go either way. Oh, and your red hair when I asked if you dye-ing red and you said you din like red.....

I am like a total fool now. Haha.. If it turned out to be such that I was always the spare tyre, I'm an idiot. Like I told you ages ago, and you told me to.. there isn't a need for you to do this cuz there is nothing to gain. Emotional support gained. But anyhow, up to now, I still believe that you wouldn't do such stuff. Yet, everything points to this. Is it worth it even doing such cover ups just for something I do not know. I mean, just let me know would you?? Pls... But dont tell me a white lie.. ='(

2010-12-26T16:51:00.005+08:00

The first tear dropped in a super duper long time. I can't remember when was the last time. Though it was just ONE drop, it meant something.

It was dropped because I was listening to Ah Du's 下雪 song on radio in the car as it was raining very heavily outside. I din even pay much attention to the lyrics, but at that point of time, I had decided to drop it for good. And when the song played, all the happy times flashed through.. all the way to us saying we would walk down Orchard road taking photos with all the Christmas decorations. I recalled how excited I was when I was talking about it.. saying that I always wanted to do such things but had no chance.. And now, it's just all gone.

The tear was not because of any other external factor, but just me deciding that hey, it's over. All those things were just memories. They were really wonderful memories. We were "unofficially" together for like one month... Met up like 14 times in November, a good 2000 minutes talked over the phone. Endless sms-es that last from 早安宝贝 to 晚安宝贝s be it who woke up first or slept first. Those sms kisses, phone kisses.. when we both just fell asleep over the phone and woke up to see 2hrs/3hrs passed. Haha... To the point when I just had the feeling to say the 3words to you as you were sleeping, and you said had you known, you would not have slept. All these memories..

Why is fate so cruel?! Put everything together nicely just that it was dropped at the wrong time! One month earlier at least? Everything might really change. Throughout the whole thing.. it's super obvious that if you were not with him, we would really get together. But the fact is that you were with him. And the horrible thing is that we are like getting super close with each passing day and you kept on saying that you and him wun last and stuff. That's something that gave me hope, and continue doing everything I did, which you reciprocated whole heartedly.

I can make big detours just so that you do not bump into him when with me. Go big circles, take a different route, stop at a point 200m away hidden from him and stuff. Do you know how much it hurted me?? But I did it just simply because I dont want you to be unhappy.

You always said we have lots of time to do lots of things together. But has it finally run out? The photos you took on cruise with him.. your expression was just blissful. Was it all an act for him? Haha.. even if you told me that, it'll be hard for me to believe. So, I wun believe, but I would just accept.

Haha.. the irony. Everything I talked to you about even before we got close seems to be happening to me now. All these shit..

That Thurday night went I looked you up and we talked, and I told you I would do my best to not love you anymore.. The next day you kept on dropping hint. WHY?! You could have left it at there, and it would be better. No matter what I do, I'm still not strong enough to hurt you. Why on Saturday when we met, I told you I realised everything you wanted to do.. and just wanted to not hurt him. Your reaction was neutral with slight guilt. And throughout the time we were out, you mentioned his name thrice! The cruise.. omg.. haha..

Simply because I dun want you to be hurt, that's why Im still hanging on. Even up to now.. I saw the cruise pictures, and I know I really have to be strong and get away from you. But, my biggest worry would be that you get sad over it.. haizz...

Really.. understanding you too well hurts a lot.....

2010-12-25T17:59:00.006+08:00

It's been a shitty 2 weeks. I've been practically emo-ing the whole time these 2 weeks.. It's all about yj.

First up was the pig's birthday. She planned his birthday and they went out the whole day. I'm ok with that, but somehow it just felt saddening and perhaps that the night out for supposedly my birthday was cut short and it seemed more of a date. Appreciate is one thing, feeling for it is another things.

Then after that came the news that they're going on a cruise together with her family. Wad de.. I was super duper emo. How can she let that happen if she's been telling me that all she's doing now is not to hurt him at his weakest point and that's all?! Ok, i accepted that too. Chose to believe that was the real point, and somehow felt relieved that I saw it that way.

However, in-between seeing it as it is, I met her up on 16/12 night to talk about us. By then I've decided to let it go, and try hard to stop loving her and to just be friends, and also at the same time, to let the pig know about us because I felt that enough is enough. I have really done a lot a lot to just make her feel happy and can be sad and emo and be at the background the whole time. I thought 开心就好, but it turned out that they got closer. Yj gt emotionally closer to him over the months since October when I start to really chase after her.

After we parted on Thurday, she asked me out for dinner on Friday. And it was actually ok, but why did she have to drop so many hints to me?! Did I catch the wrong ones? Choose to believe the wrong ones? Maybe, perhaps. And so, on Saturday, we met for breakfast and I told her ok, no, I understand that wad's you're doing to him is just to not hurt him, nothing else. I accepted that, and will continue chasing you. I felt the reaction. For 2 person who understand each other so well, I knew you had something in your mind then. There was a big block.

Nevermind, Saturday night I sent the super knn email to the guy telling him about her. The next day, she said I betrayed her trust and stuff and ignored me until only yesterday. Well, she was on cruise from Sunday to Wed night with her parents and the guy. I would never do such things.. she knew about the email I was going to send. Perhaps it was some rashness that included things that were slightly off.

The whole time she was at cruise, I was apologizing non stop. And did some super big surprise at her place when she came back. The reaction was rather different from wad it would be previously. Is it because she was still very mad? Or did the trip and the email somehow made them closer.

And today, I saw the photos of their trip on facebook. This is shit. A really shitty feeling. Come on! I know I chose this path right from the start when I decided to let you know of my feelings because you were already attached to him. But why did I do so? It is simply because you reciprocated. Throuhgout the months, we grew so much so much closer. All the late night talks, endless sms-es, outings.. Plans for holidays, cruise etc.. Everything! There was the "love is in the air" thing going around. I'm not an idiot.. if there isn't anything going around from your side, why would I jump further and further in?!

And the worst thing, you never explicitely say that we have no chance, or we have a chance. So I'm constantly waiting.. All the hints doesnt help.. from "I think 2 person have to be attracted to each other to constantly have things to talk about", and "It doesnt matter(that you let me know your feelings now), because the only difference is who says it first). You know how hard it is when you see someone you really love being with someone else.

I never blamed you, and am not blaming you because I got myself in this shithole. The cruise pictures on facebook really made me u know u know. I cant take it anymore now. I cant.... It's been since early October and everything, every single thing I did was so that you be happier each day. Every surprise, outings, listening ear.. BIG detours so that we do not bump into him. I dunno what you tell him about us. I do not know about now, but I do know that for a period of time in October and November, aside from being your bf, I was providing everything a bf could provide.. all the emotional support and stuff.

You dunno how hard it hurts when you rant about things he do to me. I just listened and pushed my emotions to the back and just consoled you so that you can feel better. Our pictures? Just 2 good friends doing stupid things together. Your pictures? A girl who loves the guy..

My hands never trembled so much. Not with Priscilla. You said do not compared you with her because it's demeaning. I'm not comparing. But somehow, certain things are similar. Why am I always in this shit?!

When I saw the fb photos, I wanted to cry. I really do, because if I did that, I would feel a lot a lot better. But I just cant.

Dont say I dont understand you when Im typing all these. I know you can probably do it, but I cant anymore. I cant absorb everything, and control all my thought just so that you feel happier and not so bothered about things I say. I cant.. No more.. I'm very lost.

It's a race of time now.. You make yourself clear, or I eventually drift away from you. We or maybe I fell for you cuz of personality and character. We never thought we would have anything going on. But somehow, things just happened. If you were single now, everything might be different.

I told you before, not showing, doesnt mean not having. He can cry in front of you, rant about all his shit and stuff, and you worry and wad nots about it. I dont not because I dun have. It's because I can control.

Maybe if you have no reason to love someone, it's harder to give it up because there isnt a reason why you love, so there's nth to break it. But if there's a reason to love, if the reason is gone, den it's gone...

All those 宝贝s.. and XXOOs, and phone XXs, and the hand holdings. Ok, can be nothing. I'm thinking too much huh. Fine. Den what about all the tehness, the saying 我对你最好，我最了解你..

I really hope you can come out and let me know everything. I know your point that we cannot start anything because you're with him. So.. solve it! Let me know or let him know. Wad is wrong?! This is not very difficult. I have no right to know or interfere.. but.. so?! I'm the direct party involved. ..

2010-12-23T04:54:00.000+08:00

"I don’t understand how you can smile all day long but cry yourself to sleep at night. How pictures never change but the people in them do. How your best friend can become your worst enemy, or how strange it is when your worst enemy turns into your best friend. How forever turns into a few short months that you’d do almost anything to get back. How you can let go of something you once said you couldn’t live without. How even thought you know something is best for you, it just hurts the same. How the people who once wanted to spend every second with you, think a few minutes is too much to spare. How people make promises despite knowing how common it is for promises to be broken. How people can erase you from their lives just because it’s easier than working things out." <- Author Unknown.

It's a meaningful passage itself....

Emo-ey week.....

2010-12-09T17:25:00.002+08:00

Oh my glutinuous rice! GRRR!! One should not publish blog posts late at night! You never Q-C. Grrr! And I had to edit it to remove some sensitive personal stuff in it. And there were 4 views le! OMG! =(

Birthday!

2010-12-09T05:38:00.007+08:00

3/12/10

I went over to Boon Lay for an early breakfast but everyone wad late!We met at JP and had this Yogurt Ice Cream thingy. We planned to just grab a bite before going over to meet the other Voices people who were at Voices Keep Fit Day at Jurong West Sports Hall, but ended up talking until quite late, and so we just took the train back to the East and hung around East Point before meeting the rest for dinner.

I treated Voices for dinner at Bedok Blk 128! =D A super sumptuous zi char dinner that had
- Birthday Mee Sua
- Cold Dish (Water Chestnut omelette, top shell, black pepper beef, seafood balls with lychee, sweet and sour fish)
- Steamed Fish
- Marmite Chicken Wings
- USA Duck
- Cereal Prawns
- Yi Ping Wo (Abalones, fish maw, sea cucumber, scallop, prawns)
- Baby Kai Lin with Abalone Mushroom
- Red Bean Glutinous Rice Dessert

Ming Ming, Kee Onn, Darren, Winnie, Roxanne, Miao Ru, Yuxing, Qian Hua, Roger, Wei Ping, Yi Kang, Marcus, Yanjia, Kendrick, Ben, Sze Hao, Jansen, Wei Hao, Angela and Hao Ran turned up! Super a lot of food, super big portions! Everyone was full to the max after that!

Well, I got rather emo after the dinner with stuff. Ngiam-ed over the phone at midnight for awhile. It was a super emo thingy for myself. I guess I was tired due to the lack of sleep as well ba! I took a short nap and woke up feeling super guilty about the whole thingy. I did an apology video hoping it would be laughed at and yea….

4/12/10:

I had difficulty sleeping throughout the night, and when I woke up the next day, I was so afraid of B-Con. I felt that it's rare to find someone with so much chemistry and understanding.. I called Angela and talked about it for an hour plus but after that, I did not really feel better. No choice though, as I had to gear up to get to Macau for a rehearsal practice with the singers.

Throughout the practice at Macau, I always had the previous night's incident preoccupied in my mind. Hoping that I would receive an sms or something. When I finally got the sms that things are ok already, and it was juz a bad night, I felt really really better. Oh, and the video is indeed funny! =D

Next was dinner with paternal side at Yan Palace which I thought is very average. They used lots of msg though.

After dinner, I went back home to chill awhile before going over to Michelle’s place for Almido’s birthday gathering for me. I received a surprise birthday call at midnight! I was super duper awesomely happy then! Haha! Problems solved, and back to normals!

I thought the idea od actually knowing that I'm with Almido and wanting to pop up and surprise me is sweet. Though it din really happen, but the thought that counts la! Haha! That's the reason why my old Nokia was not returned to me even though a new iPhone4 has been purchased. And this just means that the plan was there since 13/11 which was the day she got her iphone. Awwwwww~ Though it did not happen but it was a thought and a lovely surprise which I did not pre-empt at all!

When we ended the call, and I went into the house, they were saying that I was brimming with laughter, and full of radiance! =D I guess it was partly due to the phone call, but on top of that, it was another wonderful gathering with Almido. Even when I have no plans for my birthday, I know Almido will always plan something and that is very heartwarming!

First up was my birthday “cake”! Candles on a you tiao, and with tauhuey too! They formed JOEL on the tau huey using gummy snakes! Haha! That is very creative and I really liked this a lot! It’s the idea that really counts.

Next were the presents. Three tops. One “Shit head”, one Rock and Roll , and one dri-fit. I really liked the presents because I did not buy tops for myself this birthday and they bought it for me! Also, the dri-fit.. I have wanted a dri-fit for a super long time, and they got it too! The card’s something that you cannot but with money. As per previous years, I really love it!

We spent the night htht-ing and myself interrogated and Guitar Hero-ing before all of us turned in at 5.

5/12/10:

We woke up the next day at about 9 and headed down to Prive for breakfast! Wonderful company with good food! =)! Unique birthday breakfast together!

After that, I went back home to chill and catch up on some sleep before dinner with maternal side at Chin Huat Live Seafood.

- Geoduck Sashimi + Shabu Shabu

- Poached Live prawns

- Dong Po Rou

- Lobster fried with XO sauce

- Roasted Chicken

- Tau fu with mushrooms and Tau Kee

- Hokkien Mee

After a super duper full dinner, I went over to Macau for my first performance ever and Yanjia was sitting there waiting for me! A big big surprise! =) =) =)!! She was there to pass me some birthday presents as well as to encourage me on my first day performing! She actually wanted to pass me the presents and leave, but I told her she could stay and watch if she wanted to. So, she stayed until 2am when I ended =). My teacher talked to her a little and was like encouraging me to talk to her more. Like erm, if we don’t talk enough, WHAT IS ENOUGH!? Haha! The xiao di xiao mei treated Yanjia very well too.. Constantly checking on her drinks and offering her drinks and stuff！

After I ended, we drove around aimlessly and talked talked talked! Super duper aimlessly before we ended at Jurong Bird Park Hill Top BUT when we reached there, it was TOTALLY EMPTY. We felt awkward and quickly drove off and ended up just below her block where we took like 108137261203871 photos! Super a lot with lots of damn unglam poses! =D Did super a lot of childish and silly things… Haha!

6/12/10:

I came down with runny nose and was unwell, and so slept from 7am to 7pm! =D After that went to Macau for work as usual.

7/12/10:

I met up with Shunfa, Weichin, Dikai, YiBin, and Yanming for dinner at Pearl River Palace. They’re quite nice leh! I told them that I was treating them, but they bao “ang pao” equivalent to the price of the buffet dinner. It was Chinese ala-carte buffet dinner that was rather good! About $39 per pax on weekday nights. It has been some time since all of us had a nice meal together, and talking about the army stuff we went through! =)

8/12/10:

I was bao-ed today to celebrated my birthday but the bao-er fell sick!!! =( It was the fever and runny nose thingy, which I thought I passed to the bao-er on Monday. The constant late nights and stuff did not help the bao-er too. Therefore we only met at like 630pm instead of much earlier.

It was good in the sense that the bao-er had enough rest and was not looking bad when we met. First was dinner at this charcoal fish head steamboat place at Jalan Sultan, which soup is superb! We went over to Golden Mile to jalan jalan a little after dinner. We checked out the cinema there but all it was showing was some Tamil movies! Omg! Haha! After hanging around there for a while, we spent sometime in the car checking out the movies around. I wanted to catch The haunted House Project but no cinema was showing it though.

Next was Yong He at Geylang then Ah Chew at Bugis, before we went over to Barrage to chills and talk. =) A simple day out but it was the company that matters.

All in all, it was a really comfortable and fun day! A little tiring at the end but =)

2010-11-27T05:22:00.002+08:00

A person who can feel your emotions, and who's emotions you can sense; who understands everything in your mind in one word "ya"; who shares your simple joys in life; who supports you in what you do; whom you literally travel across an island for early morning surprises; who wants to just spend the additional minute hearing your voice; whom you feel so comfortable with; who keeps you on the phone for hours; whom you want to share everyday with; who makes hours seem like minutes. Your 宝贝.

5 days. I hope.

2010-11-25T01:42:00.003+08:00

Your last sms today was at 2346. And since 0135, my phone doesn't have any reception and I'm suddenly super worried! Wad if you tried to contact me and you cant?! I gt a bad feeling~~

0220:
Wad de hell?! Exam period! You do not want to confront him for anything cuz it's the exam period lest you get the blame for ruining his results. And now in the midst of the exams, he comes and gives you problems. Wad de hell?!

2010-11-09T05:02:00.003+08:00

The past few days were very nice, comforting, and happy. =) Simple words, which can tell a lot.

Mini-Concert was on Thursday and it was a big big success. One of the best mini concerts ever. I did not perform and was the Stage Manager. I guess the venue was good and everyone was feeling high after that. There were lots of improvements from vox and band, and the standards way surpassed our expectations when they first came in. Somehow, although things did not seem too right on paper, they turned out very well in the end. The Angel-Mortal game really helped Voices to get closer. I was really surprised that a good 30+ people went out for the "Qing Gong Yan" after the concert. =)

On Friday, post-concert syndrome. Nua-ed the whole day! But I had to go to school and return the NUSSU van at night. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because "we" talked and talked and talked over the phone for like a whole 6 hours like omg. It really didn't felt that way la! Ended up sleeping only at 6am, and the next day, when she texted a "Good Morning" and I called over, we were juz sprouting gibberish and teh-ing all the way. It turned out to be 20min when we both thought it was like 5-10min. Talkative ppl la!

Ok sat, the 灯灯节without灯! Cuz it rained! =( But nevertheless it was the company la. Ate at Makan Sutra for the first time, and I thought that the food is TOO greasy. Note, not oily but greasy! Grease is the black kinda oil. Hung around, walk walk, look look, see see before coming my place to look at all the wonderful 宝s I have. ALMIDO! You guys really did a lot! I went throught the stuffs and recalled wad you did for me, really really nice! =)=)

Things were actually very happy and nice until like say 430am, when splinter came in again. So from 430 to 530, it was rather dull. Awkward a lil. =( Could have stayed on continuing the 宝s, and breakfast the vegetarian bee hoon I was talking about!

Den Sunday. Went over at night and brought some food my grandmum cook over for the family as well. Met her parents for the 3/4th time and small talked. It feels nice that all 4 of us can just talk and get along well. Mundane stuff, to holidaying in HK, to nice food places etc. =)) Hung around after that, and talked till about 215am before I left for home. Continued on the phone about rather realistic and serious stuff. Splinter....... Grrrr!

Past 4 days spent together. It was really a 开心，放松，轻松 kinda 4 days if we do not talk about the splinter! Really getting closer now, and i dunno.. Splinter!!!!

2010-11-02T04:43:00.002+08:00

=) One night of feeling down on Friday, and part of Saturday day, and non stop 3 days of happiness! Worth it? Haha! I dunno, but good enough for now!

On Sat.. Car insurace... den silly talks, falling asleep, more silly talks.. Talk and more talks,
never ending talks! Once we start, it goes on and on and on =D, such that we have to control, and stop talking cuz the next day's an early day in school for you!

Den come Sun, juz a simple morning call made the day. Still, couldnt stop talking and had to stop otherwise we'll be late for our own appts. From the silly things to serious things and problems etc.

Mon too.. with the rehearsal and stuffs. Beef ball soup and 猪脚 to bring home.. Haha! What a silly entry that followed the previous one.

Somethings can feel it la.. =)

And if my dear splinter happens to be stalking me. It doesnt matter. 有能量就来找我吧！要不然，就随缘！

2010-10-30T04:20:00.004+08:00

What if history's repeating? It seem to be, just that this one's more reciprocative.

What happens if
- the stuff I actually bring from home is shared?
- the things I do are just filling in the gabs left by the other person who's not doing much?
- I'm on wild goose chase, literally?

den again.. What happens if it's because of ONE indecisive person?

An extended period of happiness, but occassional, and getting more frequent emo-ness. Worth it? The splinter is there.. I cant take it out, and am just going to wait for it to fall of naturally. So this person here has 2 choices, either to take it out, or to make changes to everything just to suit this splinter. Namely, month-saries. I mean the dates are similar, it's quite obvious.

Each time the splinter appears in the picture, there's an inner emotion that surfaces which is constantly being surpressed. This is not a good feeling. Imagine how hard it is to surpress a laughter, this is twice harder. But den again, the splinter is already there when I decided to be involved as well. A choice I made which I ought to face? Perhaps..

Arghz! Worry, and you are able to do something, it's not too bad.

Worry, but yet, there are a lot of things you can't do.. Like
- I can't call or msg cuz the splinter's around. Either dun reply/reject/disappear.. It's like last time.. Like wad the hell...
- You wanna ngiam.. scold.. nag.. but, how much can you do so when things are at such status quo?
- Cheer you up? So many worries, so many things going on in your life! You know.. 因为太了解所以很伤心，但因为太了解，所以会觉得越多事我还真的不懂! 我没必要懂，可是因为不懂而真的很担心. 但懂了，可能会突然明白太多太多. 懂也不行，不懂也不行!

The "date", the "bake", the "make'.. 妒忌，怕，烦，矛盾.. 怎么办呢............... I'm a person who really appreciate these minor details in life. Seeing it in front of you... yet.....

On the brighter side, all these might be just paranoid? Haha....

Says come Jan when there's a split for 6 months, things would change. I'm not quite sure.. I would think it would resume after 6months.. It's painful. 真的........

Not emo-ing now. But more of reality check. I'm confused.

2010-10-28T02:05:00.003+08:00

Lying to others.. This is rather common. Happens naturally all the time. How about lying to yourself? Hmm..

I guess we only lie to ourselves to make ourselves feel better? Cowardly act? Haha.. Perhaps. I lie to myself because otherwise, I would be thinking a lot and feeling unhappy. Choosing to believe the things I want to believe even though I know there may be many other points to look out for. Or are the things I choose to believe really the truth, and I am just being too paranoid. Many ifs, many ors. But all in all, I just want to be happy. We all just want to do things that make us happy even though it might not be the right thing to do, even enough we know that things might drop drastically in future. We do it, there's a 50-50 chance it might work out, if we do not do it, 100% chance that it will not work out.

Arghz! But then again, sometimes things don't work like that...

I'm starting soon.. my nights are limited.. It'll be a start to another phase of my life.. =) But the above.. =( .. =() Haizzz..

2010-10-17T04:58:00.004+08:00

Had quite a full day today! Haha.. Woke up, and left house to meet Winnie, Angela and Marcus at Sim Lim to get some electronic equipment for home studio. We went on to Peninsular Plaza and Plaza Sing looking for headphones and mic stands etc too.

After that, had dinner with yj at Chikuwa Tei. Chikuwa Tei is the "new" Wasabi Tei that was at Far East Plaza. The price.. upped by a good 50% after adding the GSTs and Service Tax. We ordered quite a lot of stuff though.. I dun think it is wise to go all the way to Mohd Sultan and eat some Terriyaki Chicken with rice and that's it. Silly! Haha! Mix sashimi, Cod and veg soup, Chawanmushi, Unagi, Garlic Rice, Soba.. Costed $107. It's a lil on the ex side for 2 person, and the standards dropped. I guess it was cuz the chef's assistants prepared some of the stuff. Nevertheless, the sashimi is still as thick and as shiok as ever. I'd probably spend more on the sashimi the next time!

Went on to Sembawang Park, and saw a temple procession there.. It was some deity's birthday. The roads were closed, and people were holding the large joss sticks. There were lion dances etc too.. Quite a grand affair and there were a lot a lot of people. It's something new cuz I never seen anything like this in Singapore. We hung around a little before going over to Woodlands Waterfront to talk again. It's happier now! Talking about happy things is all it needs.

Oh ya, I was supposed to go to the Night Safari with some of my Voices peeps today, but cancelled cuz there were very little people. Some cockster spoiled the plan too, totally 猪！=)

2010-10-05T04:08:00.002+08:00

I juz came back from Club Macau, and everyone was surprised to see David Tao Ze there! He was there as a normal paying customer, without informing anyone but everyone starting to notice him after awhile. And he's Se Pei Pei as well! Touchy and tried to kiss the girl who was talking to him! He's a playful dude la! Haha!

Brought home-cooked ox-tail to sch today for yj too! =) Before meeting up with Almido and going over the Centrepoint for Michelle's birthday gathering. It was a small cosy gathering at Aston's Prime. She has her 21st at her place last Saturday (25/10) and catered and bought like 128937210812 food! Super super a lot of food to cater to her 70 guests! Her 3 layer cake was cool too!

Other than that, life's pretty stagnant these days. Oh.. brought yj to Khatib Dam on Sat night and spent a few hours talking about everything. Times like these are really cosy because you can talk about anything with all the privacy you want with cool night breeeze blowing at you! And it really helps that we think quite similarly and understand each other so well. =) You know.. Sometimes when talking, you are suddenly at a loss for words cuz you are unable to think of a suitable explanation for things. Then your partner just tells you that he/she gets it, and at the same time, you know it's not a fu-yan kinda thing but he/she really gets it! That's yj for you.. It's like transferring data from a computer to another.. It's very heart-warming =)

The 了解 sang during auditions really created something.. Had it been another song, things might change altogether. This is fate.. Haha.. 因为太了解所以很伤心.. 你想个孩子一样被我看穿，在你面前我试着隐瞒.. 想见你没有你时间在宣也没意义.. 想给你听我的心跳，想你知道我睡得不好.. Honey Honey 我只想对你说声对不起.. These song lyrics.. Haha.. =)

There's been THE something recently too.. Shall continue on.. Life's a give and take... And sometimes, instead of having many reasons to do sth or no reason to do sth, there's also ONE reason to do something. And the reason is that, I'm happy and smiling when I do this something. =)

2010-09-24T00:56:00.002+08:00

A week full of Voices!
Mon: Voices mini concert preps etc.. Brought Bak Kut Teh from home + Sem Buay
Tues: Voices mini concert preps etc.. Lunch at Red Star, Da-bao-ed char siew sou for them.
Wed: Whole day at office. Demoralizing yet again. I was super confident.. but boss told me more improvements can be made and still not gd enough. =( I wanna play soon! =(
Thurs: Cant believe it either. Woke up with lack of sleep, went back to Red Star to da-bao egg tarts craving for since Tues, went all the way to 取经, and all the way back. Lunched at Joo Chiat, Claypot Bak Kut Teh, before looking at the Bedok 218 Kopitiam.

Sometimes, things just can't be explained. I've explained them in another context, and it's like on me now. Haha.. Too much too much! Should chills a lil. A dangerous bet to put down if it happens. My plan? See how it goes till Aug 2011. A whole long year, well worth the queue for hot bak kua since I have time anyway. Many smalls streams join together to form a large river. Hope no floods occur! But most of the time, things don't go according to plan. Just see how things go.

Hmm.. first time things are going this way. Previously all didn't really start from crawling but more of jogging. This started from crawling to walking to jogging and so on. Or perhaps it's due to age.. getting older and starting to look for different things instead.

Going back to that things don't go to plan. Haha.. The irony... I dun like my bak kua to be made of minced meat or chicken or worst, minced chicken. But after knowing how it's made, understanding the different stages etc.. yea.. Sliced pork is still preferred, but somehow this minced chicken is just different. It helps that the chicken thought is chicken, has pork textures, and doesn't advertise itself to be the meat everyone would like, and the mincing is done very similar to slicing. Haha.....

Oh wells.... let's see if reciprocated. =)

A weird post.. but not that weird to...

2010-09-16T21:51:00.001+08:00

Quoted from my blog post in Dec 2004..

I was juz thinking..

I rmb quite a few yrs back, i cant rmb when.. But i had Chinese tuition. At the end of every lesson, she would tell me to write a diary in Chinese. Juz one entry between lessons would do. Of course at tt time i thought keeping a diary is stupid and useless. But i had to hand up sth. So i wrote down the date, weather and started my entry. All my entries were the lyrics of Chinese songs. I juz copied them down. At the beginning, she laughed at them, but still made an effort to loko thru them and guess wad song. =). And sometimes i eevn copied the words wrongly. Haha! When she left, she gave me a small hard cover note book. She said tt eventually, she hoped tt i would start to keep a diary. As i grow older, i would be able to look back and laugh and cry at my own entries............

Thinking back now, she makes a lot a lot of sense. A blog is somewhat like an E-diary. Sometimes i even look back my my own entries and smile, or get watered eyes. Maybe in a yr or so, when i look at them again, i would laugh at my childishness, attempted maturity or sensibility. =)...

It's things like this that I want to rmb and blog about so that 6 years later, when I read it again, I get that feeling all over.. =)

2010-09-16T16:26:00.002+08:00

I was looking for some photos for a friend's project and going through my albums when I realised I could not recall much for my 22nd birthday last year. I had albums labelled "My 19 Birthday 06", "My 20 Birthday 07" and "My 21 Birthday 08", but no 09! Then I went back to my blog to see what celebrations I had in 09. Turned out, it was only Almido, which I appreciate a lot a lot.

Hmm.. Perhaps it's cuz I like events, I like plannings. I enjoy birthday gatherings and even though it is not a big thing to quite a lot of people, I still enjoy my birthdays. Reason being it's a fantastic excuse to gather friends together in a happy occassion, which can follow up with Xmas, New Year, and CNY =). I should plan my own birthdays this year, and boomz it a lil with many many small gatherings.

Oh, talking about small gatherings, I recall how I used to plan my long "off and leave" days during army. Before I go away from army for an extended break, I would plan all my days with stuff first! I feel that if Im taking a break from army, and I stay at home the whole day, it's like wasting time and I can do that in army too by watching my HK serials etc. Haha! It feels good that you're going on a fully planned break with activities planned. This is me! Though some would want it to be relaxed doing nothing until something pops up out of nowhere. The same thing applies to my holidays unless it's a super short trip of 3days or so. Anything far, I'd plan the itinery so that I wont be wasting my time. It's being practical =D

2010-08-27T02:56:00.002+08:00

I've been going to Dynasty KTV and Club Macau Lounge frequently recently for training. It's been about 2 weeks and all I've done was to be a sound man! =( I should buck up in my songs to start playing... I really really can't wait for the day to be playing. Simply because a sound man's job is simple, and for those singers... I gain more respect from around if I can play, with the title of "老师" and more than just another waiter playing songs for them!

That's at night. In the day, I've been going back to school for Voices auditions, and I would have to say that this batch is indeed lousy. No one struck me at all! I really hope that they would be gems when we officially start otherwise the mini concert and Emerge would be a big big problem!

That's pretty much my life so far. Music and music. But I'll be having lots of free time in the day, and would have to find other things to occupy me. More money making opportunities pls =)

2010-08-12T02:49:00.002+08:00

I spent the first half of the day having a looooong talk with Yanjia. It was a rather nice talk in fact.. I've never been able to talk to someone who understands what I really mean when I put things across vaguely. Most would either misinterpret or not get it at all. Hmm.. It was very much about life and lifestyles of things around. She has experienced or seen some things that I've not really come across, and vice versa. Thus, it was a rather good exchange. =) I just hope that I've knocked thing across well enough... Old habits die hard perhaps.

2nd half of the day was at Angela's place teaching her pop piano playing. I can't believe I basically covered an entire year of Hark's pop piano syllabus in about 3 hours. A lot of self-practice for her to do though. I hope I've done enough for her to self-teach for a while. And I did not expect it to be such mentally tiring.. but it was perhaps due to me not having enough sleep the night before. I totally knocked out on the train back to Pasir Ris from Chinese Gardens. And her parents actually recognized and know my name, a big big surprise. Haha! I only met them at the airport before we flew to TW, and after we came back. 见家长！！！ Haha!

A day spent with 2 good friends, did nothing much myself actually, but one of the more meaningful days of late, talking lots of Yanjia, and teaching loads to Angela. A wonderful day......

2010-08-06T04:57:00.001+08:00

2 month2 without posts. It means either my life's boring, or super exciting such that I have no time to blog about it .

The last post was on food for Voices. I cooked for them a 2nd time on 27/7, and cut my finger while chopping chicken! =( The menu this time round was super chinese, and traditional. We had Winnie, Angela, Yanjia, Miaoru, Darren and Haoran around for dinner.
- Claypot Rice with loads of lap cheong and mushrooms, and salted fish =)
- Braised Pork Belly (Joel's special sauce)
- Braised and Baked Soy Sauce Chicken
- Sweet and Sour Fish
- Herbal Soup
- Stir-fried cabbage
- White fungus with Pear (desserts)

I liked how my sauces turned out. But as all Chinese sauces, they have to be kept at least overnight before the flavour will all seep out. If only I had cooked a day before, the food would be much better!

Next up, Taiwan! I went to TW with Winnie, Angela and Yanjia on 10/7 to 18/7. We combed Gao Xiong, Tai Zhong and Tai Pei over the 8 day period free and easy! Somehow, I am missing TW. I never missed a country I visited before and I wonder what am I missing. The food is not good, things not that nice.. Hmmm, my only take would be that it's easy to adapt there; with us knowing Mandarin and Hokkien.

10/7
We met at Changi Airport Terminal 1 at about 530pm and checked in. Their parents all came, and I went alone. So, I "met" the parents, and being the only guy, and the oldest among them, I had to like "take care" of them according to the parents. Haha.. =)

After checking in, we went over to T3 to get Popeye's before going over to our gate to board the plane. We were the LAST people to board the plane. As soon as we stepped in, they closed the door! It was so paiseh! Nevertheless, we did not cause any flight delays etc.

Plane left at about 730, and reached KaoShiung at about midnight.

There was transport arranged for us, and we were brought to our hotel. The streets seemed a little quiet on a Saturday night, then again, it was past midnight.

After checking-into China Trust hotel, we rushed out to visit liu he ye shi in which imo, had the best oyster omelette of all the places we went to. It has the famous Papaya milk shake which had celebrities signing all over it's signboard. It was a pretty small 夜市 though. Finished it, before going back to the hotel to end the day.

11/7:
We woke up late, or rather, the girls were late! =) And we all went down for the breakfast at 9:55am which would end at 10am. We had to dish the food out and put it on our tables. Despite it being a rushed thing, the food was not too bad, and the spread was rather good. I would consider this hotel the next time I come back to KS. Good service, good food, good roooms, good prices!

We went over to Cijin Island after breakfast, and it was @#$%$$@!#!@ HOT HOT HOT!! Sweated like nobody's business la! We couldn't take the walking and even rented a 4-person-cycle to cycle around the island and explore the place. Nth much there except for some temples, and beach. It was quite packed on the Sunday.

After Cijin Island, we went to 新倔江购物商圈. It is quite a big place to shop. There were many many shops around, and the girls bought quite a bit. They took about an hour plus in ONE shop. As much patience as I have and as much as I can shop for ladies stuff, I got bored after awhile and decided to roam myself. Got myself a couple of clothings in the next stalls. We had a break at a Japanese restaurant after shopping before we went to Rui Feng Ye Shi.

This ye shi is super super big. One of the biggest and most extensive ye shi i went to. Besides the food and clothings, there were games, and pets etc! Many many things. As usual, it was a Sun, and it was horribly packed!

11/7 is coincidentally the world cup final. We planned to watch it at some pub, but got too tired after the long day and decided to watch it in our hotel. Yanjia came over to my room to watch and it was fun with her supporting Holland, and me Spain, which eventually won! =)

12/7:
The girls were damn late! I went down at 945am to dish food and stuff like the day before. Grrrrr! We went to check-out and took the gao tie to Tai Zhong. The gao tie was surprisingly comfortable and fast. All of us almost overslept our stop in it!

At Tai Zhong, we changed our min su at the last min, and had to spend some time at a super atas 5 star hotel surfing around for a min su closer to the city area. We ended up with Tomato. It was horrible, and more like a hostel. It was beside Feng Jia University perhaps that's why. And I see students around too.

After checking-in, we went over to yi zhong jie to shop and eat. Ok, we ate first cuz we were super hungry. The steams guo tie kinda thing we had was pretty good! And the 黑糖奶茶！！The pearls were made up of the 黑糖 and glutinous rice flour I think. Memorable drink! This is when we started to split up while shopping. Instead of the 4 of us following together, Winnie and Angela shopped, and Yanjia and I shopped. *winks at yj, we know each other's impt sizes! Grrrrr =D

Next up, we went to International Arts Street aiming to find some interesting things to eat and see. Turn out quite a disapointment cuz there wasn't anything much! The place was like an extended holland village cum haji lane. I tried the 永和油条. HORRIBLE! PUI! We had dinner at some chinese restaurant. Rather cheap and quite good food. The mixed veg and specialty pig's trotters were good.

Seeing that the night was still young, we walked along feng jia ye shi, which was near our min su, until everything closed.

13/7:
Woke up really early at 8am to make our way to LeoFoo Amusement Park, and met a really nice tour guide who helped us purchase our tickets and ensure that we were safe and sound and playing the stuff smoothly before he went on to do his own stuff. VERY VERY NICE!

We started out with the dry park. The rides were NOT scary. There were mild. I hate the pirate ship cuz they had this automatic bar thing which presses onto your thighs. My thighs were damn pain after that. I spent half the time bitching about the bar. =) Not an interesting place. The wet park was more interesting. But we din really play cuz of personal reasons from the girls side. But we had to be in swim wear and the cap too. In the end, we just explored a bit and made our way back to the min su to wash up before making out way to 自由路 to try out the Tai Yang Bing and stuffs there. Settled on 阿明山, and bought damn a lot! =)

After getting the tai yang bing, we saw this really really cheap foorwear shop just across the road and went to buy some things. It's these kind of ulu places out of the tourisy spots that have the best stuff! Haha!

The remaining part of the day was at feng jia ye shi. Nth worth recalling really except for this braised duck neck thingy. Very very tasty!! The marinade got right into the tender meat which fell off the bones easily! I bought some giant guavas that were really sweet too. Guavas are high in fibre and aids digestion. Oh! Some random Taiwanese guy approached Winnie and Angela and asked them to buy things from him. They acted like they did not know Mandarin, and spoke in English. =) Recalls how Weiquan and Franco was talking to this guy in Clarke Quay who tried to sell them stuffs. Haha!

14/7:
We took a cab ride all the way to Tai Pei from our minsu, and checked into the hotel. Pretty decent hotel from the outside. It was rather small and only had like 8 rooms per level. Room however, we pretty big and comfortable. They provided a water dispenser in the room which was very convenient.

After putting out stuff down, we cabbed down to Wu Fen Pu. It's like some wholesale area. Cheap cheap clothings! We went for a short lunch at this 8 gong zai place near wu fen pu. We had their cold dishes such as seasoned chicken feet, pig trotter, duck etc, and their specialty soup. The stuff were flavourful and quite tasty! Healthy hearbal soup to freshen us up from the lack of sleep the past few days! The boss actually said that me and Angela were together...... Grrrr!

Shopped and shopped and shopped separately once again, and there was this peanut shavings with ice cream wrapped in popiah skin. It was quite good. But I thought it was largely due to the fresh peanut shavings. All the peanut shavings we get in Singapore are factory made, and they lose lots of their natural fragrance! =( We went across the street to Rao He Ye Shi, which I had not much recollection of, except that we stopped over at this Hu Xu Zhang Lu Rou Fan place which Darren recommended. We were so disappointed with the food though. It was more of a franchise than a really nice and popular place for a meal. Expected Boon Tong Kee, gave us Ajisen. =(

15/7:
Winnie and Angela were lazy, and so me and Yanjia woke up early to try the hotel breakfast, which was not too bad, but very very limited and cooked by one Aunty, and went on to visit Yang Ming Shan!

We took the MRT to Jian Tan station before changing to a bus to bring us there. When we reached the place, we hiked up about 1.2km to the visitors' centre only to realise that we had to go all the way back down to take their internal shuttle bus to this Xiao You Keng place to see the nice scenery. The air was cool when we finally reached there! Rather high up, nice scenery, cool air. =) There was a lot of smelly Sulphur though, and we saw lots of them sprouting out from holes in the ground. We wanted to climb up to the top which was about 1.5km from where we were, but did not due to a lack of time. =( But it was a nice experience up the mountain for the scenery! I actually like trekking and hiking up to see nice scenery. Perhaps army cultivated this with me! But i so do not like hiking and trekking with all the signal sets and rifle and sbo! Grrrrrrrrrrr

We took as bus back down and stopped by to grab this mini butter cake things at Jian Tan Mrt station. It was the best we had in TW! Some commercial things just tasted good! Like Koi Bubble Tea =)

Next, we met up with Angela and Winnie at Taipei City Hall to visit the Taiwan Storyland! Took 23872198412 photos there! It reminded me of Shanghai Toy Museum, only that it was much bigger and had all the vintage Chinese stuff other than just toys! And amazingly, the lu rou fan at this place was the best of all those that we tried in Taiwan. It was good enough for us to get two bowls instead of 1 to share among the 4 of us. 4 is a really good number to go travelling with. Just nice for amusements ride, cab rides, food to share! We shared everything there and were able to try a lot more stuff. I recall myself wasting a lot of food in HK cuz I was basically just trying the food, and threw the remaining away.

We went back to Xi Men Ding after that for Winnie and Angela to visit their Luan Jian place to do up their hair. While they were doing their hair, gluttony Yanjia and myself went around looking for food to try. First up was "Ah Zhong Mian Xian", which was basically their oyster mee sua with intestines. I am not a noodle kind of person and did not find that it was very good. Yanjia liked it though, but I thought that it was just because she was too hungry. 2nd, some duck bee hoon at some random shop. We went in cuz we saw lots of people in it. The duck and bee hoon was not too bad and had quite a bit of flavour in them. I liked the bee hoon cuz there wasn't any of the plastic bee hoon taste, and it was cooked just nice such that it was not nua. The duck was a little salty though, but matched the bee hoon quite well. It was however super expensive! We just ordered without asking for the price, which is so typical me. =( 3rd was just sweet potato balls. Trying it the 3rd time and it was the better ones. It had more sweetness in it whereas the rest were just plain sweet potato flour. 4th was "Lao Tian __ Lu Wei". There was a very very long queue outside, and being Singaporeans, long queue means must try. I bought the duck wing and tau kua. NOT GOOD AT ALL! Very normal. Singapore's You Ji, which imo sells sucky duck rice, sells better flavoured tau kua and duck!

Following the eating spree, we visited this large temple situated in the middle of Xi Men Ding, and 赌鬼 Yanjia bought her Taiwan toto. We met up with Winnie and Angela who were very very happy with their hair and visited (ye shi) which was supposedly famous for its food.

Fantastic food I wouldn't say, but amazingly I could recall quite a bit from this ye shi.
1) yan su pork soft bone ribs. (GOOD! Better than those yan su ji la! It was rather ex, but I know pork soft bones are expensive itself. Yan su chicken uses the chest meat which is super cheap. Pay for what we get =) )
2) Mutton ribs soup. (I prefer our Singapore ones. The mutton were overcooked and dried out, but luckily, all its flavour got into the soup!)
3) Lu Rou Fan from THREE different stalls. (All were horrid. The worst was a stall using lean minced meat with spring onion to make its lu rou. I cook better lu rou than them!)
4) Duck Blood Soup. (Did not like it. It had a very gelatinous feel, probably due to large amounts of gelatin put in. And the taste was odd. The spicy soup broth it was cooked in was rather unique. Sweet sour taste with a variety of spices. Layers in your mouth!)
5) Oyster omelette (So-so)
6) Mixed fruits ice. (So-so)
7) Dried meat with almonds. Something like a crispy bak kua thingy. Winnie and I bought some back home to Singapore cuz it was rather unique and tasted quite good as well.
8) Some biscuit buns with black pepper meat filling. (Did not like it, but there was a long queue. Angela liked it though. I thought the meat fillings had too much black pepper, and it reminded me of western black pepper pie. The crust was too starchy too.)
After I recalled this, I realised how much Yanjia and I ate on this day. It was DAMN A LOT!!

16/7:
We took a half day tour to this person's memorial hall, some temple, Zhong Lie Ci, some tourisy souvenir place, as well as the Taipei National Palace Museum, which photography was prohibited. I liked how the tour guide brought us around the museum and explained the artefacts to us. It was really an eye opener. I had never seen those intrinsic works done by ancient Chinese artists live before! The works are really really beautiful. Some took even 3 generations to complete but the end product cannot be matched by anything made by machines nowadays. We made a good choice to take the tour cuz otherwise, we would be just looking at the artefacts without any background knowledge. The pride of China, and Chinese peopl! =)

Next up, we went back to Wu Fen Pu to continue shopping and buying more stuff there before going over to Shilin Night Market, which was a BIG failure. The LONG queue for their world famous yan su chicken was so bad it brought me into a damn bad mood after the first bite. The outer layer was crispy no doubt, but the meal was obviously not thawed and fried frozen! And worse, they use chicken breast meat. Nth in Shilin was actually good. All bad except this Almond peanut bites which all of us brought back to Singapore. The food was damn bad! Worst of all the ye shis! We did not spend much time there cuz we were rushing to watch a show at EZ5 in which Lai Ming Wei was singing for the night.

At EZ5, we were treated to a cultural shock by one of the performers. Su Zi was very entertaining no doubt, but was very open-minded. He made two birthday strangers french on stage, and the guy had to buy everyone a bottle of beer. Angela almost got called up to kiss the guy, and she said she doesn't mind cuz he's handsome =D. Su Zi ended his set with him pulling his pants just below his butt and showing this leopard prints Thong underwear. We had a good night with the entertainment, and Lai Ming Wei was the ya zou. Very wen, but not as entertaining. He was very nice and took photos with everyone after the show. I could tell he was tired, but still managed to smile and pose and talked to everyone. That's the way of an idol!

17/7:
Lazy Winnie and Angela slept in again, and as usual, Yanjia and myself explored. We went to Long Shan Temple. It was the temple of Guan Yin, and it happened that we saw many devotees chanting when we entered. An eye opener cuz I did not see anything like this before. The man-made waterfall at the entrace was damn real too! After walking around the biggest and supposedly nicest and oldest temple in Taipei, we explored the streets, and walked through a market. Their market was rather different from ours. The animal parts were very animal looking still! Like the chicken.. they were all alive, and as we walked, we could hear chickens bring slaughtered. The feathers on the neck and head were not taken out though, and we could see the chicken, as it was chicken. Haha! And the feets were very stiff as they were placed on the trays to be sold. I supposed that was because it was struggling before it was killed and the muscles haven't relaxed yet.

We continued walking and came to this breakfast place with long queue, "周记肉粥店“. Some pork chop with porridge. VERY VERY GOOD! Their specialty pork chops are similar to our curry rice pork chops. It complemented the sauce very well. The porridge was more Teochew style with the rice grain still intact, and the soup which the porridge were cooked in were flavourful. This was the best meal in Taiwan! I always believe that the good food would be at ulu ulu corners in which you have to explore yourself! Next up was visiting Taipei 101. Atas place, nothing much! We did not go up cuz it was expensive. While we were walking back to the MRT, we came by this expo place which had a pets food fair kinda thing. Got duped by this man who sold us some promotional tickets but went in anyway. We saw many many many dogs around. Big, small, long, short, cute, friendly! The dogs in TW could roam about freely and they were very well groomed physically and in their character. They won't bark at you or attack you. The dogs were like young kids who got excited and curious about everything around them! I was plesantly shocked when I happened to turn around, and saw a dog at my eye level giving me a curious look before licking it's own lips! It was exactly like a Singapore food fair, but for dogs mainly. Exercise stuff, insurance, donations, foods, free trials/testers, what have nots. The dogs were trying out the stuff there and if it was good, the owners would buy it. If this happened in Singapore, some aunty would complain saying it's dangerous and dirty and grrrrrrrr! SCREW THESE AUNTIES! Groom the pets well, and they're clean! We saw these 2 artistes at the Expo too, though I have no idea who they are. They were promoting their new film. The girl was very pretty, but very skinny. Before we left, we saw a group of BIG dog owners taking photos with their big dogs! It was sweet! And surprisingly, I dont recall a single bark I heard over there.

After that, we went back to the hotel room to rest a while before meeting Angela and Winnie at the legendary Modern Toilet Cafe. Average food. Just the novelty as expected though. We then accompanied Angela to her Sexy Diamond before making our way down to Dan Shui. The long trip was worth it. The air was much fresher at Dan Shui, and the food was more seafood orientation too. Perhaps it was because Dan Shui was beside the sea. If we did not have to rush to Shi Da Ye Shi, I would say we could spend more time at Dan Shui. Everything felt fresher at Dan Shui, and I tried their legendary Ah Gei too. Basically Tau Pok with Tang Hoon in some sauce. Nth boomz about it la.. Before we left, Yanjia and myself visiting this Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum located in the middle of the shopping street in Dan Shui. Took lots of photos, and saw some novelty stuff. I really wanted to spend more time at Dan Shui, but as it was our last night, we had to move on to Shi Da Ye Shi.

At Shi Da Ye Shi, we saw many nice clothes. Think haji lane but cheaper and bigger. Haizzz.. I spent too much before and had no more budget for it. I would definitely come here to shop earlier the next time I go to Taipei. As we walked, we came across this Oden kinda thingy that had a long queue. Tried it, and it was good! I guess they were closing soon, and all the flavours from all the meats and veg were in the hot soup! Very very very tasty and flavourful. As there were a lot of people around, I took the wrong plate of order which was mainly vegetarian. We ordered another plate of meaty ones. Tasty too. The noodle absorbed the flavours of the soup base, and the meats and veg exuded natural sweetness!

Ahh.. this concludes our last night in Taiwan.

18/7:
We woke up and rushed to Zhong Shi for Xing Guang Da Dao recording at 9am. Grrr... we had to wait till 11am before it started. Nth much, and everyone looked the same as on TV except that Wei Ru Yun was damn unglam and Yan Yi Ge is fantastic live. I love her musicality. We left the place after the first recording and rushed to the airport to catch our place back home. Spent almost everything we had on the duty free Tu Chan store in the airport, and that concludes our stay in TW>

It was quite a good trip I would say. We covered quite a bit of places at our own pace, and I thought Yanjia makes quite a good travelling and food exploring buddy too. If there's another chance, I'd definitely consider Yanjia in my future travelling plans! =)

Back before TW, there was CAC Orientation camp from 26/7 to 30/7. That was quite a bad experience with the admin people, and the games were not very fun. I missed Ethelonter! CAC Camp had very very bad planning, and everything was very haphazard in my opinion. The worst thing that happened was when Sentosa cut off our electricity cuz they did not apply for permission to use it.....

23/7 to 25/7 was Tioman trip with Almido! It was FUN!!! =) =)
Day 1 was spent travelling on the bus there, plus the ferry. When we reached the resort, it was about 4pm and there wasn't much time to do anything. We ended up exploring the place randomly walking around the beach and having dinner at this place just outside our Bejaya Resort. We, or rather I, ordered damn a lot of food. A LOT A LOT. Our whole table was filled and we couldn't finish some of it. Haha! Cheap though.. what do you expect, it's Msia. Singapore has expensive things! We spent the night sleeping relatively early. Oh the room.. Huiting and Michelle shared a room above us, the 3 guys one room with single bed each, and Shuangying and Tianju shared a double bed. Our room and theirs were linked.

Day 2. We woke up and went for the complimentary breakfast which had quite a large spread. It was like any hotel breakfast in Msia.. same kinda things in Malacca, Genting, KL, Kuatan etc =) After breakfast, we went on our snokelling adventure around Tioman! We rented a boat and a guide who took us around the place. When I first stepped into the water, I felt small stings all over. I think it was either due to the salinity content + jelly fish toxins in the water. It was actually quite irritating, but luckily, my body got used to it after a while and it felt normal. The first stopover was boring, nothing for us to see. The subsequent stops were good! While snorkelling, fishes swam right up to our faces, and it helped that we were feeding them bread! It was a very very beautiful sight! The fishes, corals, sea urchins, jelly fishes, sea slugs and cucumbers! =) I recognized some of the fishes cuz I ate them before =D. This I quote Tianju! Haha! We saw promfrets, grouper, sea bass! Lots and lots of them. The sea urchins had super long spikes too! Different from those short spike ones we usually see. The jelly fishes were small and transparent. We tried to capture one, but I think it did and disintegrated into the water! I sort of recalled how to swim there too! For the first few stops, Terence and Russel had to move me around, and it was very tiring! Haha!

After the trip, all of us were terribly burnt! I had to apply SK2 on my shoulders and back la! =) And drank lots and lots and lots of water. We saw a rather large monitor lizard running up the staircase into the golf course building though. The staff there were non-chalent about it. I think it was a common sight and they have gotten used to it. Imagine you are doing your business in the toilet and the large lizard pops up behind you. Haha! It'll be a funny sight. They're pretty harmless to humans and only eats small animals. =)

Dinner was at the chinese eating place outside the resort as well. Not too good, but average chinese food. I guess we were all hungry after the snorkelling trip around. I saw that they kept a pet chicken in their backyard, and a cat as following it throughout. Not sure if the cat would do anything to it though, but they were playing a game of cat and mouse =)

After dinner, we nua-ed a bit before catching the 10pm World cup match between South Korea and Uruguay. South Korea put up a good match and fought hard for the draw. A pity Uruguay scored a wonderful goal late in the 2nd half and that took everything out of the Korean. It was a good match and Uruguay gave Germany a good match in the 3rd/4th placing match.

At night before sleeping, the 5 of us squeezed into the room to talk. Terence, despite having his head DIRECTLY under a lamp, could still sleep and not talk. He's a pig. Haha! Somehow, the "shuang ying guo lai~" and the lure of not trekking the next day drew shuang ying sleeping with me on the bed for a while. Haha! =D Nice sacrifice for the trek, thought it sadly rained the next day.

Day 3. We had plans to go trekking up the mountains! BUT BUT! It rained =( So we went for breakfast and nua-ed before making our way back to Singapore.

That's the end of Tioman. I can't rmb what I did from June till the 23/7 except ShuangYing's 21st bday party at the PA Chalet. I guess there was nothing much except nua-ing around. Grrrr.. How time wasting!

Now to something more recent! 3/8! Voices peeps celebrated Winnie's bday! Her bday was on 31/7 but we celebrated it later. I was PD for it. Haha! Ok, so early in the morning, I woke up and rushed off to Ritz Carlton to get the lengendary Mango Mousse Cake before going over to Mandarin Orchard to place the cake, and present 2(The microphone and Audio Interface) there. At the same time, arrange surprise with the fnb manager of Triple 3, and the Concierge. Following that, I went to get two slices of Guanaja cake from Rive Gauche to bring to Settlers'. At Settlers, I spoke to them and they had a game which had a card which could make Winnie close her eyes. So while her eyes are closed, Darren, Haoran, Ben, Angela and myself set the cake and present 1 on the table before she opened her eyes and we sang the bday song for her. Present 1 was a bottle of scented dried flowers and a piece of cardboard with WINNIE pasted on it. Hand made by myself the day before. Very very last min and I almost couldnt find the necessary materials from Daiso,Spotlight and Giant.

Just as she thought the surprises were over, we went over to Triple 3 which was having a 1 for 1 promotion with DBS/POSB cards for dinner, which Ming Ming, Miao Ru, Kee Onn and Marcus joined. Dinner was quite good with quality ingredients! After we finished the dinner, the manager brought out the cake and the card for Winnie to collect her present from the Concierge, and all of us sang the bday song once again. I did not know that Winnie would be embarrassed when people sing bday songs for her, especially loud in public. Haha! Something to take note of in future. The cake was good, and worth the money! Everyone liked it fortunately! Next up, she collected her present, and we went over to Scape to open it. She and Miaoru unglammed themselves when they played with the foam balls in the box like little girls. Hahaha! =) I was glad the day turned up smoothly.

That's all for the updates. This is a really long post and I took like more than 3 hours over two days to complete it. Nevertheless, an update to my life, in which I can read up in future and recall those fun things I did before. =) Happy Reading!

2010-06-04T02:03:00.004+08:00

I juz cooked a 10 course meal for Maye, Winnie, Miao Ru, Yanjia, Ming Ming, Wei Quan, Darren and Ben at my place.
- Cold Pacific clams in sweet sour sauce (my mum)
- Shi Quan Da Pu Tang (my mum)
- Baked Pork Belly in Honey Sauce
- Steamed fish Canto style
- Steamed Minced Pork
- Roast Chicken in Pik Fong Tong Style
- Prawns in Salad Cream
- Har Lok Prawns
- Stir-fried Cabbage
- Mango Pudding

Took me the whole day, but I think I am better at multi-tasking cooking. =D Finished 7 dishes in 1.5 hours. Slow by zi char standards but for home.. quite ok la! Haha! Baked, Deep fry and steaming all at the same time.

The food turned out not too bad. But my previous attempt of the chicken was tastier. The har lok prawns were a little bland w/o the sauce. However, my first attempt of the steamed fish was damn good. Super surprising cuz my sauce was very similar to that of restaurants and zi chars. I've found the secret to creating that sauce! =D =D

Ahh~ Long time w/o posts.. Exams.. Shit. Wasted another semester. All I learnt in these 2 years in NUS were music related. Nothing to do with my degree at all. Screw it. I wonder.. should I even restart my degree in Arts if I am accepted... Now with my present job at hand.......

CAC+US was a week after exams. It was much better planned that last year and a good experience too. Perhaps it was cuz I was the main liaison and was kept in the loop of everything. The retro image we had was damn funny. Haha! We couldn't stop laughing at each other in the dressing room.

Voices chalet and qing gong yan was after CAC+US. BBQ, and we had a good time watching Emerge videos. Though not edited, it was still ok. I really hope the edited one would be boomzifying. Looking forward to it! And I became totally crazy and lost all image I had playing Polar Bear. I never knew Polar Bear could be so amusing! Haha! It's the company.. perhaps the people I used to play with were too serious! Ended up sleeping while seated at the couch shared with yj. I remember I got a shock when I opened my eyes as I woke up cuz all I saw was black hair! Haha! Somehow I ended up looking at yj's head.. it was a scare =D

Stardust next up. I was SM. Terrible project. Horrible admin. My job was not to let rehearsal overun, and smooth actual program flow. Rehearsals ended on time. And the switch over of bands during the actual show was damn fast. Playing of MMOs for vocalists were good too. A job well done by me. But overall, a terrible experience for me. I guess that's a typical NUS student initiated kinda project. =)

Got a job. Seems like a combination of whatever I've learnt. Be it frontline as a keyboardist or backline. Sounds good. Pay's damn basic for a start. But see how. Work hard for it. Screw sch I guess.. Haha..

2010-04-11T04:31:00.002+08:00

I need inspiration for lyrics!!!! Melody seems ok.. but no lyrics. And why am I always trying to kill the singers?? My melody's range is like 2 octave ........

2010-04-06T04:08:00.004+08:00

Ok.. I think I've gotten over it. It's been fast, but the numerous "disappearances" during the 2 years add up to approximately a year. With the last one about 6 month.

I've found out that over the 2 years, she did not break up with her ex. Perhaps just cold wars at the start. Which, so happen that I unluckily came into the picture. It's like what the hell... Really...

I always felt like there's something there, but have no idea what. So yea.. It's wasn't a clean break, but whatever it is, it's a super expensive lesson learnt.

All the money lent to her "friend" is actually her ex! I am a total IDIOT. And to think I actually met up with the ex and lent him money face to face not knowing is her ex. Even when I met up with him, she told me that there'll be a girl with the ex, and it's the ex's gf. What a fanstastic show.. And I introduced the ex to one of my friends cuz he wanted more money. Eventually, my friend told me that the ex is a compulsive gambler who speaks sweetly etc.. those kinda guy. I told her that her "friend" is this kind of a person not knowing that it's her ex.

Next, I have always been picking her up and dropping her off at this place which she says it's one of her girlfriend's house. Like before we go out for Valentine's Xmas etc.. it's always this place. I was wondering why would she spend times with her girlfriend, and why the girlfriend is so buay zi dong. So now.. yea.. And there were times she was totally uncontactable when she went over. And to think I would actually wait like a blaly fool to be a chauffeur in the wee hours of the night! And yea.. the thing done when she wad uncontactable is !%^T$@#@#$%@##$%#@. Think of the worst..

Approx $2k in cash lent, $1k in clothings bought, $500 for ITouch 32. Plus miscellaneous etc.. It's close to $5k. It is so not worth it at all. If there were times that things were true in the 2 years, I wont mind. Now I so mind it.. regretting. $5k leh. Hello... 5k.. I can do lots with this 5k. I would rather spend this 5k on myself!

What's worse.. the things I do or the ex give, would end up with the ex or me vice versa. Perhaps maybe this + disappearances made the giving up so much faster and smoother...

I dont understand why some couples end up strangers. I do now... I would rather not have known this person at all. Totally full of lies from day 1..

PS: Your parents were right when they said they cant trust what you say anymore.. cuz you always lie. I should have noted that down.. and not console your sadness when you confided in me......... I never regret knowing your dad. He's a great guy....

2010-03-30T14:03:00.002+08:00

I juz woke up, and had a another dream that I'd like to note down. I think I haven't been writing down about dreams for awhile. It's gd to rmb my dreams =)

This dreasm revolves around the song 我知道你很难过. It's a very nice song. Haha.. Anyway, it's quite a short story. 3 leads.. Me, Angela Shum and a guy who is a stranger.

Angela and myself became very close friends(not sure and can't rmb if we were together. But probably so cuz of the ending.) For some reason, she was bathing in a single-cubicle public toilet which door is spoilt and there's a gab. So I was keeping a lookout outside. Then comes a random guy who tries to peep. I stopped him, struggled and ended on with him kneeling on a field and me with ONE finger pushing his head down. He sang the chorus of the above song, and fainted after that. Next Angela came out and (a whole blur mess)... The guys is her ex and the song was written for her. Awww... In the end I told the guy i really liked the song and it'll become famous cuz the lyrics can reach out to people easily but not too "bai hua". The final scene was when Angela carried her barang barang and walked away slowly and lonely(it's like a scene from some MV). Haha!

Weird weird weird dream. I think it's cuz I really like chinese pop cuz of the emotions in the songs.. thus the dream. =D

Emerge-d

2010-03-15T05:08:00.003+08:00

Emerge 2010 is over. Finally over, but yet, I don't want it to be over. =)

We have been gearing up for this since last June! A whole 8 months for the 3.5 hour concert. For the past 3 weeks, I have literally stopped my school work. I simply have no time! It has been only rehearsals and practices for Emerge....

This batch of Voices lived up to my expectation. They perform well on stage. The big performing stage did not frighten them, but spurred them on to use up everything and just showcase all they have no stage. It's something that I'm very amazed by.

It's a pity I did not have time to watch each item fully during the concert. However, for those glimpse and short clips, I felt IT again. =) I could probably feel the full force when I get the DVD. The crowd was fabulous too. All the cheers, and responses! I feel great leading this wonderful team of performers.

I only noticed one item, that's probably cuz I was playing in it, and it happened I could hear them through my monitors. It's Qian Nian Zhi Lian. I felt super high playing it. The band, vocalists, groove, climax! Everything was there! Woo-hooo!!

Waiting to meet Amos, Xin Yun and Jane to ask them about the concert.. How they felt etc.. =) Ahhh~ Mixed feelings now that everything's over.

I'll miss this group of wonderful performers.... Missing the action, missing the performing. I DO want to perform. =)

Emerge-d. I'm glad things ended right before Emerge. I had to pull myself tgt fast, and thought through things. I guess, it was easy. haha! Partly cuz it wad hovering since last June. 9 months to get over things. =) It's over, and I'm ready to move on. I juz felt 1/2 second of IT a few days back when chatting over msn. =)

NUS CAC Voices.. the managing team this year revolutionalised you.

2010-03-01T04:00:00.001+08:00

Well.. I guess.. It's a new beginning.

"sometimes beginnings aren't so simple.

sometimes goodbye's the only way."

I'll always rmb it... ='(

2010-02-18T02:06:00.002+08:00

I've been really busy these few days.

I dunno wad's wrong with us. Or rather, I dunno wad's wrong with her. After the 6 months thingy, nothing seems right. There was only one instance when it felt last before.. Just once. I dun think it has anything to do with me actually. TY suggested that we talk it over, and I talked it over. But still.. my intuition tells me that there are a lot a lot of things that I do not know. I'm reaching breaking pt in this cuz there are so many doubts. Too many too many that makes wanting to trust difficult!

We are not talking about law.. There isn't a need to have evidence to prove. But I base on my feel. I recall the wonderful feeling we had when we talked last time. But now, it only happened once! And when I asked to clear those doubt, it seems that it was only partially told to me. Does not looking in the eyes help anything? There are things that is all about feel.

I dun want this to crack or anything cuz despite my horrible school work, and busy music committments, I really cherish us. I do feel that I'm doing super a lot a lot a lot a lot. Who would online shop like at least once a week, get an itouch when you asked for it, bring and pay for the hair styling etc? I am not rich.. I'm juz willing to spend... more on you, less on myself..

We used to tell each other quite a lot of stuff, happy, sad, angry, embarrasing.. whatever.. But now why the change? Is it juz cuz the honeymoon's over? I dun think so.. some communication stuff should not change cuz communication is the basis of everything! The emotional and spiritual supports...

Just during CNY.. when I went over to visit Uncle and Aunty, and spend some time tgt. I saw things that made my legs weak, and made me confused. Messages in your hp were from an unknown no, and were all like "HAM", "Last night after u msg me, i cant sleep", "Dun think so much.. Just go to sleep. Good Night. Love you", "Would u love me as much as before even though~~~~~" All these msgs are like OMG.

Ok, so I asked about it. You said it was ur brother's cuz you are temporarily using his no as ur line died. You have been using it for about 3 days or so, which is ok. I am unsure if the numbers which sent all the msgs are from the same number, or even if the messages are dated earlier than when you took over the phone. So perhaps.. it's ur brother's msgs. You even told me that nowadays, your bro refused to let you see his messages like before...

Ok, I din really buy it, but chose to believe. It was hard to force myself to believe. But I have to anyway. HAM is wad your sec sch friends call you... Thus.. yea..

That was on Tues. Wed, you din reply my smses or pick up my calls, Thurs, you only replied that I'm irritating. I really dunno for what reason would any gf not pick up the calls or reply to smses. Reasons u gave were "exam stress", "phone msg limit reaching", "nv hear the phone" etc.. But how often can these happen? Can we even talk on your house phone? Not that we're talking about how to elope, or to burn the tree beside your house! It's juz normal talking! But why can't?

I happen to take down the number who sent the "do u love me" sms, and made a call. It doesnt help that the number was an easy to rmb no.. No response. The return call was a guy... Soo.. I need answers now! I dun think you'll read this though. But to put it bluntly, am I juz an ATM after the 6 months thingy? I was very very sure things were going alright before that.

We could even wake up at 630am on a Sunday morning to go to the beach to pick shells. But now.. it's because of you, that's why I feel that my efforts are not appreciated. And my birthday.. nth.. totally nth! Reason: You were afraid that I was angry with you, and you saw the birthday celebrations with my friends on fb, and dun want to make me sad.

I juz want to know.. What actually happened throughout the 6 months? What happened to all the money? What happened?!?! I wun be angry with you if you tell me the truth! Now you're only confusing me.... 97513898.. Should I call and talk to this person? Should I?

2010-01-09T03:48:00.003+08:00

It makes absolute perfect sense to fully concentrate on my uni studies now, and resume anything music in 3 years time. Reason being that the music thing would always be around, but if I'm kicked out of NUS, it's the end for my time in NUS, though SIM is juz next door.

HOWEVER

It also makes perfect sense not to concentrate fully as the University would always be there, but opportunities once gone, are gone-d.

Grrrr.. It's like a horrible decision! I'm like inside the danger zone. Have been in it since my very first Sem cuz I screwed up super badly then. It's hard to pull it up cuz it's like super low.

Having perf at NP and Jurong Pt tmr~~

2010-01-07T00:59:00.002+08:00

Ahh.. the turn of another year. For countdown, once again, I was at Khatib being Stage Manager for the big scale NSS Sparkle on Countdown. Each big event like this is a wonderful learning opportunity for me to gain valuable experience. Esp in terms of how the technical people do their job. I was able to meet some artistes as well and that opens up my contacts! But haizzz... these ppl only know me as the stage manager, nth else. They do not know that I can play the keys too. I was debating with myself on whether I should stop backstage and get into just pure performing, but decided that a two-pronged approach is best for me. I learn to see things from both points of view and each job teaches me diff things.

A big improvement in terms of my music stuff for the year. I learnt a lot a lot about playing as a band keyboardist and have put it in my unplugged. Also, vocal and stage productions, etc.. Many many things that cannot be seen. I always like to say that I'm super proud of myself for all the musical improvements I've made over the past 3 years when I started not knowing anything about music and even wad a major scale sounds like. DU XIN!!! I would like to meet u and let u comment on my improvements over the years cuz you were the very very first music teacher I ever had. =)

And about today.. I juz came back from JB with Almido. Quite satisfied with wad I've bought! And the dinner was like super cheap la! Live seafood restaurant for 7 for only 500ringgit. That's like 30 each with crab, live fish, prawns, oyster etc.. Haha! That's a fantastic place discovered. I'm a foodie =)

2009-12-07T02:18:00.002+08:00

My birthday was on Saturday. I think.. this year was the quietiest birthday ever! I am quite sad in a way. I always like gatherings.. no the big ones, but many many small ones so that I am every busy. For so many years, I sort of planned my own birthday celebrations, but stopped doing so this year totally. I was hoping for something to happen though.. but.. yea. A lil sad. Which spoilt the mood of everything else a lil.

Celebrations started on Friday.. Almido. Yup, I expected them to do sth, so it wasn't really much of a surprise. I know that if they did not do anything, I'll feel sadded, but cuz everything wasn't really on a high for me, thus wad they did did not like make me high, but made me less low. It wasn't them, but juz how things went around me.

Anyway, each of one them cooked something personally for me. Well, I'm quite a practical person, so the food had lots of effort put in.. that's all. =) I really appreciate the cooking though. Arghz!!! I cant even give a proper AAR to this cuz I'm not really in a happy mood now! The card holder, photos, roundabout car trips, clarke quay, red tee, cards.. all of it had lots of effort put in. All the efforts are really nice =) But.. it's not them, but there's sth tt's holding onto me...

The next day.. it was quite sad for me in a way. I slept till 2pm before running all over the place to finalize my music stuff. I gt 2 new keys, studio amps, mixer and a guitar for myself. Dinner with family a Pu Tien, and had the buffet. Still, even after getting these stuff, I dun feel like super high.

Sun.. whole day doing nth except badminton for a while and dinner at Geylang.

There's something that has been bugging me since July! I told myself that had this thing continued all the way to my birthday, my decision is confirmed. But.. like 1 or 2 weeks before my bday, this thing like stopped, until the 3/12 and then it continued. Like seriously continued! There was nth on my bday and now I'm super confused with myself. What is going on?! If the thing did not stop at all, it would be much easier for me. Cuz it stopped, it gave me an excuse to think twice, and this thinking twice is bad... Should I, or should I not? Cuz if i should, i dunno wad's the real reason for me to do it. Yet, if it's no, I have no stimulus cuz it's really really tiring to not get responses and for this thing to literally disappear for nth! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Like come on.. 5 month and u meet only once. Wad is this.... And all the talks in between is about lending u money to help your friend. Now that it's settled, wad's the issue again?! Phone faulty huh..

2009-11-08T03:15:00.003+08:00

Been some time since Mini concert..

Really.. the preparation work leading up to Mini concert was horrid! Coupled with unplugged practices for Munchie Monkey, I reached home at about midnight everyday! I mean, I'm ok with it, but it is not good for me in the long run.

On Mini concert.. A break. We took a gamble, and it failed. We did everything we could to ensure that the performance would be gd, but screw the sound and light. Screw them.. they were non existent! Had the sound be good, and the lightings available to us, I very sure Mini concert would be a moment to remember for the audience. Most if not all the vocalists really improved tremendously in the 6 weeks. Like come on.. which music school in Spore will give you that result in 6 week. I would say you are just getting through ur open vowels and diaphragmn exercises then! Well.. I'm am optimistic person.. so Emerge.. here I come. It defo has to be damn gd.. Otherwise I would have failed totally in Events, which I would very likely go into.

Munchie Monkey.. I've been taking the bulk of the songs for Munchie Monkey. I realised that all my songs are played the same way. But it's no longer a problem of techniques(cuz the songs are ballads) but a prob of me sitting down and thinking through of the arrangements. This is time consuming and with so many things at the back of my head, I cant do it. Even so, I enjoyed preparing for Munchie cuz I'm increasing my song library, and would help if I audition for some cafes like Ai Qing Hai or stuff again.

Oh, on Ai Qing Hai.. I cant rmb if i screwed them. But yes, I'm screwing them.. 129308190283 vocalists and about 20 instrumentalists auditioned, and they took in ONE guitarist and ONE vocalist in the end. Like wad de hell.. the money earned from the registration fee is like a annual bonus for them. Ok, I went through all the way to the final round and performed there for an hour, which I was so nervous and screwed up lots of songs, so I've gotten my money's worth! And one gd thing is that I met Sherlynn there! She was part-timing and she was in my first vocal class at Hark Music. I dun consider Ark something proud of. They SUCK.

Talking about Ark.. I was at Echo Music for awhile learning jazz piano, and I realised Du Xin is there too! I would really really want him to analyse my improvements because he was the first instructor I had who went through vocals and keys basics with me. I knew nuts prior to that. So I would really value his comments. =) I stalked his fb, and his vocals has improved loads! Cant tell his keys though cuz I dun really rmb his playing then.

I was juz thinking a moment ago too.. that in future, all the contacts and friends I made while in Voices and Geyao would very likely be linked to wad i would do in future. Really.. say 10 yrs down the road.. some of us happen to be judges for the same event. It'll be nostalgic. =) Ahh~ Nice nice feeling now. Haha!

And lastly.. Can i have stronger ears and vocals! I need them now!!! It's really irrittating when my fingers can do more than wad I can hear. It sucks.....

2009-10-19T02:08:00.002+08:00

Hmm.. Nth much to blog about.

I've been too busy recently with my Voices Mini Concert prep. I hope things turn out real well on that day.

At the same time, deadlines and deadlines and deadlines.. This is crazy. Sch juz started and yet it's ending soon...

Went to this Shin Yuu Jap restaurant at Greenwood with ty for her bday. Not too bad.. quite nice raw stuff. But the cooked stuff was average to bad. We enjoyed the sushi. The special recipe sushis were really good. But I thought the sashimi was bad, ty thought otherwise though. I think it's cuz the soy sauce was not too gd.

Ok, more on food... I forgot when, but not in chronological order
- CafeBiz(Traders Hotel) Lunch Buffet. Not too bad.. quite a lot of food choices. Desserts were terrible. With ty.
- Olive Tree(Intercontinental Hotel) Lunch Buffet. I thought the choices were fine, and the desserts were very presentable, and I'm certain that helped to up the taste a lil. With ty.
- Bar and Billiard Room(Raffles Hotel) Lunch Buffet. I din really like the food cuz it was too westernised. Everything dish was like wine sauce etc.. The desserts were limited though. But I had the best smoked salmon ever, and I'm not a fan of salmon.With ty.
- Azur(Crowne Plaza Hotel) Lunch Buffet. Absolutely stunned by the food choices. It was SO limited. I think i went on a wrong day.. I should have gone on a wkend dinner cuz most gd reviews were for wkend dinner.With ty.
- 10 @ Claymore(Pan Pac Orchard Hotel) Lunch Buffet. Limited choices but fantastic quality for the choices they had. I went here 3 times! Cheap and gd.With ty.
- Gourmet Kitchen(Pan Pac Hotel) Dinner Buffet. Spread was gd, taste was gd! Only complain was that the desserts were limited. With 23sa peeps
- Spices Cafe(Le Meridien Hotel) Sun Dinner Buffet. Horrible. Totally horrible. Themed seafood but the shellfish were all UNFRESH and smelt horrible. Yucks! With family.

Haha! Yes, all hotel buffets. I would really want to try all the hotel buffets! That's all I can rmb for now though...

2009-09-26T01:34:00.002+08:00

I just came back from Dance Reflections to support TJ for her dance. And I can say that it's one of the best concerts that I've been to! It's super high and touching.. everyone put in lots of efforts in the practices, and during the concert, let everything out. It's really touching.. I rmb the last time I got such feelings was during Impresario. It's really addictive to be touched by these kinda stuff! =)

Another scene I saw today was a dad and a kid(about 13 yrs old) who went to the F1 together. I saw them on the train, and I dunno.. maybe i'm really old. Haha.. I like the feeling when just the dad and the son going to enjoy something together. It's something diff from going as a family. =)

2009-09-07T17:52:00.002+08:00

你的消失回忆带走曾经的天真

This is the last line of a song written by this Kueo Miao Ru. A friend.. I hope I heard the words correctly in the song track though.. Haha.. But from wad I interpreted, I really like this last line because it has lots of meaning to it. It's something I cannot write out.. Really nice last line. =)

2009-08-31T03:55:00.000+08:00

I happen to come across this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCh4Wxxt8wQ&feature=related
and it's really nice. The keybdist gets me high. The technique in the fingers.. omg! But most imptly, the whole band started off really confidently and ready for the last lap, ie the final round. It's a wonderful feeling.. vv hard to decribe it. =)

2009-08-29T02:35:00.003+08:00

Today was Voices' Welcome Bash! We have been preparing it for a loooong time.. and it's finally done and over. Really looking forward working with the new batch of peeps toward Emerge. There are really a lot a lot of talents in this batch. Really excited about it all!

And also, I juz realised. That i have NOT performed to a big watching crowd in a long time. Most of the crowd before was small (at hark/music dreamers), or juz passing by. The feeling is super shiok. When the whole band instruments came in.. Wooohoo! Fantastic. It's moments like this when I get to relive those intial passion for music. As one gets more involved, a lot of the initial and simple stuff gets pushed behind. I worry about techniques, voicings, fill-ins.. all those complicated stuff. Not that these are impt, but the passion tt started me off is wad I really want. I've been doing support stuff for some time.. cant wait to perform in front of a crowd again!

2009-08-06T02:50:00.000+08:00

Juz a passing thought that makes sense to me..

There is nth wrong with 2 human beings who have great affection for each other even though they are the same sex. I do believe that such things occur naturally and is nothing really wrong about it.

Physical attraction comes after that..

Gays movies portray this image and is so true.

2009-07-15T02:28:00.002+08:00

Had dinner at Equinox with Pris for her bday on sun and it was omg delicious! I am a super food critic and I feel that the food is really rally superb. Pictures are with me!

140+ per pax for the degustation menu, and it was really really really really really good!!!!

Strongly recommended!

2009-07-04T22:28:00.002+08:00

I juz came back from Ethelonter 6, with Xarpho. It was a really nice experience but honestly, pales in comparison to Almido.

Xarpho gt 2nd in Internal Hunt, 1st for Sentosa Finale and Talentime. It felt good winning, but like wad I've always said. The most memorable time of the camp would be the preparation for the talentime, which was really really lacking this time cuz of H1N1. Screw H1N1!

It also felt good that I proved ppl wrong. I really did my best for this camp, and the group is really much better than the rest. It can been seen most prominently during talentime. Only our group cheered and clapped along to the music. No other groups did it. Other groups were just literally stonning. I proved ppl wrong cuz I slacked and relaxed throughout the pre-camp days, but when camp started, I juz went all the way ahead. =)

Looking forward to our 1st outing with Xarpho, and the 1st year anniversary of Almido. Three cheers!

Also, I'll be going for my Music Express Semis tmr, followed by my 4th and final audition for Music Dreamers cafe.. See how things go la.

2009-05-25T23:29:00.003+08:00

Just finished round 2 of my auditions at Music Dreamers. I was super nervous cuz I havent performed in a while. Thankfully, I managed to pull it off and the commented 2 things! =)

That I look super 帅 on the keys and I played vv well for Dai Wo Zou. Yea!! Haha! The very first time anyone said tt I looked gd on the keys. Woots! Maybe I should scrap the idea of polishing up and getting my guitar.

Oh well, see how it goes. I saw the 2nd keyboardist who played the same songs as me. She's super classical, but I'm overall better =D See how the next auditions go, IF i get thru, and most prob so cuz I've received good comments.

2009-05-19T02:47:00.002+08:00

I was taking some insect repellent out of my army stuff. I came across my SBO. I went through the pockets and the memories starting flowing back. Thinking back, the exercises were really interesting!

I looked into one pocket, and saw my gloves. The smell on the gloves really brought me back. It was this smell that greeted me each morning outfield. I would say the combination of nature sweat and camou. Everything.. it's really wonderful.. Haha!

I went on and saw how I put my insect repellent and camou cream together, something which order only I did to help me know wad I was doing while in the dark. My gortex jacket.. the swiss army knife.. etc etc etc..

I'm going to Ubin tmr and when I was running through my army stuff, it felt like I was going for an exercise. It really feels good to be prepared to go on an exercise, and knowing wad u'll need for the next few days are all in your bag. Somehow.. this is the part of army life tt I think i'm starting to miss... =)

2009-05-11T03:02:00.001+08:00

I juz resumed my Hk drama serials watching. Finished The Four, and it has really one of the nicer endings around. Gt goosebumps after tt =)

2009-04-28T02:08:00.003+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqT8lBPTAIw

2 things in music that gives me goosebumps.

1 - This progression.. 4 5 3 6~~
2 - Performer immersed in his/her own world when performing

I juz cant stand these 2. I will always get goosebumps and feel super high after tt.. =) I totally love the interlude solo!

2009-04-18T01:35:00.003+08:00

Anyone interested to learn how to play the keyboard?

Do you want to sing along to your playing? Play on the keys/piano and sing along to it! Contact me for more information at 98208739. I teach privately at afforadable rates.

In just 4 lessons, you would be able to play your first song!

Tags: keyboard instructor , sing-and-play , sing and play , pop piano, pop songs, chinese, ballad , ballads, pop keyboard

2009-04-09T02:17:00.001+08:00

Competitions make ppl grow. Competitions leave lasting memories and are really great learning experiences. I want to join competitions!!! But sadly, I dun have really many things to join. Join competition as kbdist? Would get owned by some classical display. Join competition as vox, get screwed when i sing the first word. Join as composer, prob get somewhere, but not a great deal of experience earned. Join as a band.. hmm.. Aiya.. competitions competitions!!!

2009-03-23T02:57:00.003+08:00

Mixed thoughts now..

Attended my very first wedding on Friday, the first wedding since I could think =). Raymond and Xena's wedding! It was super touching! Especially the videos which they made for the guests. And calling us, their decade friends. I've known them for 10 years since Sec1! We literally grew up together. They've been together for 8 years now and I'm really happy for them to finally get married and move on to another life. Things still seem pretty normal to me now. It's probably cuz they've been tgt for 8 years now and them being together married din make much of a difference. Hmm.. There SHOULD be some difference. I cant wait to experience and feel the difference.

I initiated a video to be done for them. In my opinion, the video was quite touching. It could be better definitely, but I've exhausted all my resources. I compiled photos from our younger days as well as some video clips of the closer ones with them. The song I used as background was Power Of Your Love. A song which I have never played back after sec school. It brought back memories to me.. and well.. I heard from Ray that xena cried. =) Super happy!!

Next up.. Done with Campus Reunion Concert. I guess the thing I can take back most out of the experience is meeting new ppl. Met Evan.. another music enthusiast. I would say that I never regreted joining M5. Although ppl bitched and complained about it, I feel that I didn't lose but gained lots.

I've not written songs in a long time. More than a year.. Why is that so?? I have no feel to write songs. One dilemma. I started off writing songs which are sad to portray my thoughts in the melody. However now, I am aiming to write non-mainstream songs. The thing is non-mainstream songs do not touch me. If the genre doesnt touch me, how can I write songs of that genre when my stimulus for writing is being touched? Dilemma!!

2009-03-09T02:49:00.002+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aErEGdYN5xI&NR=1

XQRJ's number one. It's a nice sweet song tt i like a lot! And from the clip, it shows tt she really enjoyed the song and performed it the way she wrote it. Simplicity and it lets ppl get the most feel out of it. Really really nice and catchy song! Wonderful!!

2009-03-08T05:14:00.002+08:00

I'm watching xqrj's videos online, and i think.. cuz the finals it's juz 12 original songs, more music is shown. And definitely, the style of xqrj is more laid back and relaxed. I'd like to experience it myself.. Nxt yr! =)

2009-03-01T03:44:00.003+08:00

I'm just back from Impresario Grand Finals at NTU, and I've gotten 2nd runner up in the Song Composing category!! =) But the feeling I have not is not tt of coming in 3rd up against a strong line of competitors, but the whole experience over there!

Let's talk about other ppl's performance. I mean.. over there, I can really feel for the passion other contestants have about their music. It really touches me deeply when I see a wonderful performance made of hard work. At the point of performance, everthing juz shows and I was super super touched over there. The guy who gt champion for vocal solo was just sooo solid. It's not just his voice, but the way he handles the song with so much feel. Live music is really really different. Comparing these to Voices, there is definitely still a long way to go.

Now to the dance, the champion group was really really fantastic and once again, watching it touches me. The synchronising, timing, everything was just fantastic.

To composing segment. Hui Se Tian touched me. The moment Cecilia opened her mouth to sing, I could feel her emotions pouring out and I had goosepimples then, a performance worthy of 2nd place. I din think Only Way deserved to be first though.. den again, song composing is very subjective.

On my song, I felt for the song even though I was playing very little throughout the song! Vencent really did a wonderful job. Vencent, and when WeiQuan came in with the harmo, I was soooooo touched then. I couldn't help but get that wonderful feeling. A wonderful performance, to my standards, a wonderful live performance. Many people tell me that they felt it during the song and I'm super happy!

Marcus said that the crowd was very quiet during our performance because of the feelings they get, and they cheered loudly when it ended. The feeling was really indescribable! Wonderful wonderful feeling!!! SY too! Sang to the song even as it ended.

I cant wait for the DVD to be out. I really want to watch it! I guess I'm really satisfied and happy for my self as I have put in quite a bit of work and sacrifice for this. This feeling is... wooo-ohhh! Ahhhh!! Seriously, I'm super proud of myself to have moved and improved and learnt so much over such a short time.

2009-02-25T01:42:00.003+08:00

Just finished Emerge. It was quite an experience performing at a club. Something different from all those I have performed. However, even with an audience of 410, there wasnt any super nervousness that I felt. It felt comfortable on stage. Haha..

When it ended, I din feel much. But looking thru the photos taken now.. Hmm... it was really an experience. The post event hangout at some place at Clarke Quay was nice too. Ahh.. David.. really. If I din ask him to perform for my bday, Voice ppl wouldn't know how good David is, and wouldn't even know David. Yesterday was really a showcase of David's skills. Haha! By the "long kang", sing 2 lings, and we'd have the song played on guitar. Woo-ooh! Can't wait for the videos to be ready!!!! =D

Next up would be my Grand Finals on Sat.... =X

2009-02-12T00:12:00.002+08:00

A lot has happened and is going to happen until the end of the month!

CNY! I grew fat over the CNY period! =( Trying hard to diet now.. but I'm a foodie! omg.. Haha.. But CNY was pretty normal. But this year.. I did not meet up with my sec sch peeps at all. Mixed feelings about it..

Well.. every year.. I organized it, and I feel that ppl dun put it as their priority, so this year, I decided not to do anything. I juz tried to get the guys down for dinner, but it was hard la..nvm...

This year.. I had house-to-house visiting with the Almido people! I mean.. it's hard not to, that's why I always compare this almido group to my grp of sec sch friends. Maybe cuz we're old friends.. that's why things are taken for granted.

Anyway, the day with Almido was simple, but the key point was that all of us spent time together once again!! And that brings me to tj's birthday celebration at the zoo! I spent little time at the zoo, and only brought the cake over though. But had dinner, and brought them to Khatib Dam for the wonderful view! Thanks to the 24km route march during AOC. Otherwise, I wouldn't know such a place existed too!

Then on 8th February. Revelation Day. The results of my grand final place. I was at J8 waiting for the results and I was super super nervous! I can't remember the last time I was so nervous. Partly it was cuz I really really wanted to get to the finals. Well.. after the first 3 of 6 names were announced, I heard my song being played on the PA system! I was soooo happy! And so, I walked up on stage, and yea.. that's all. I got into the finals! And the people I met there said that my song was really good. I'm so happy!

The finals would be on 28th Feb at NTU. Not prepared for that at all now. But, it'll go along la.. Photoshoot tmr, radio interview and composing lesson coming up... Busy busy.

Also!! I have my biggest performance ever at Lunar Bar on the 23rd of Feb. I dun think i'll be nervous much cuz I'm not along. Haha.. Hope I dun make any mistakes.

A busy end of Feb coming up. AND LASTLY. Mid term exams on the first week of March. So yea... a busy Feb. =)

2009-01-18T01:27:00.003+08:00

yanru. someone whom i met online, and has heard my music since a year ago, said tt i improved loads. And i'm super happy!! =)

That's wad i love to hear. Haha! From ppl who know my music before.. the improvements.. the changes etc. That was very encouraging. Thank you =)

2009-01-15T01:27:00.002+08:00

Recently, I've been having sneeze attacks. I sneeze for no apparent reason, or rather, i have the "I need to sneeze now" feeling. It might be a blessing in disguise =) Or it might be an impeding disaster =(

Anyway, I got into the Semis of Impresario =)!! Qi Shi Wo Ai Ni got in and I'm super happy and excited about it. I hope I can record a better version to be put online for online voting. Judges count towards 70%. 30%'s online votes. Really hope to get to the finals. After that, whether I win or lose doesnt matter le =)

Looking thru Almido photos... Really heart warming. =)

2009-01-13T01:57:00.002+08:00

I just received an email from CAC Impresario about my song compositions. Results would be out over the next few days, and I'm nervous! It's because I have high regard for my own compositions =x

I got my NS Unit. 740 Guards. I've met a few ppl who are in the same unit as me. Hope to discover more =)

To date, I've yet to meet another fellow composer whom I think makes good music, or rather, music that appeals to me. I would want to meet one, and to compose together. And this person, preferably a guitarist. Then again, I would learn more on piano if this person is a pianist. Haha.. got good got bad la.

Chinese New Year is coming! I dunno if I'm excited or what. Perhaps it's this original composition I'm listening online now. Super touching. Really talented ppl out there waiting to get spotted. Like mee =))

2009-01-11T02:17:00.002+08:00

I'm back from Msia with Almido! It was not as fun as I thought it would be. But an enriching experience with each other!

The highlight was probably the crazy stuff we did together, and the late night talks. I think those are the stuff we can take most from the trip.

I really think tj can be a super nice girlfriend. Really a very nice person.

A lil jet laggy due to weird sleeping times over the past few days. School's starting, NS unit 740 Gds. Haizzz...

2009-01-01T04:05:00.002+08:00

I feel that I'm distancing from my secondary school friends. Is it me? Pls enlighten me. It's like although we know each other for 9 years and counting, it doesn't hurt to do things that ppl do when they first meet. I recall cooking for them last year for xmas potluck too. The response I got was totally different for that I got from Almido.

They would say that they dun say it if it's good, but criticize terribly when it's not done well. I feel vv disappointed and sad. It's like my birthday party! They came late, and left after an hour and caught juz the opening of the show. I was and am terribly disappointed.

I spoke to them, and they said tt they left to watch soccer and drink or something like tt at Pasir Ris. They left cuz they had that planned out. To me, a 21st birthday party is less important for friends of 9 years than changing their plan of going out to drink? It's totally absurd. I did the show party because of them. I wanted to show them how much music means to me and stuff. On top of the leaving early, 6 of my closest friends couldn't make it on that day.

I'm feeling disappointed just thinking back on this. Your friends of 9 years left your party early just because they had plans? Like come on pls! And they said that it was because of my show. That my show was boring etc. Every show would be boring if you think it is. I agree that the first half wasnt as exciting as the 2nd half, but they missed it and left, thus giving me no chance for redeption. I asked everyone about the show and the response was that it was not bad. Gaby shocked everyone. Haizzz.. They even said that they were playing card magic tricks during the performance. Like get high with the crowd, hype up. Omg.. AhhHHHHHh!!!!

And when they said that they're going to make up by having a gathering on the following Sat, it was total bullshit. The plan was postponed to the next Saturday cuz of the girls couldnt make it on the earlier Saturday. I told them that I would be in Msia the following Sat. So yea.. make up to me.. Bull shit.

Terribly angry ahhhh!!!

So much hard work and planning yet.......

2009-01-01T03:41:00.002+08:00

Maybe I should add on..

2008.. Hmm.. Eventful year. I got in M5, and slowly fading out of it. Many things are unpredictable. I met a few people in M5 who loves music, and although we are leaving M5 one by one, we are still very much in contact. Closest would probably be David. He's a pro guitarist who has perfect pitch. A fellow music lover instrumentalist. I brought him into Voices, and I'm glad he's met fellow music lovers and playing music together now.

Other than that, Uni started, and I met some really nice ppl. Mushu and Almido. I feel close to Almido.. I dunno how many ppl actually read this, hope everything read here is no taken too personally.. Haha.. I think Tianju is really a vv vv nice person. I'm not saying the rest aren't but it's a personal thing maybe. I was telling Yanzhu that if I were to go on a trip and to pick one of the girls to go with, who would I pick. I told him that if I were going on a leisure trip for fun holiday, TJ. But if I were going on something like Amazing race or Survivor, I'll pick Michelle. Wendy is a little between the both of them. This speaks lots on them.

I think to a certain degree, we've come to a stage which we feel that we are close enough, and we are starting to take each other for granted... to some extent. Initially, we try hard to be close. Now we are close, that's why we dun really do much. But i'm surprised at the Xmas potluck we had. I was really amazed at the gift exchange. Peopl making stuff. Especially Michelle's gift! It was really amazing. I grabbed my gift off the shelf and I'm really guilty of myself.

Oh Xmas eve. Pris joined almido out. We went to Aston's for dinner before roaming around Taka before finding an ulu spot to sit and talk before going to Geylang for food and durian. Parking there was terrible though. But the food at Aston's was great as usual. I made an order for the prime roast and it was really really good. Yum Yum!!

Uni.. my life in Voices was a good learning experience. I've met fellow music ppl whom I've been trying hard to find before. I realised that it's fun to play music with ppl with similar standards and direction.

Hark music.. I got in their performing team once again this year, and I'm learning and gaining experience on performing with different ppl. I met one girl.. Bernice. She's a rather good singer with loads of confidence. It was encriching working with her. I've not worked with anyone like tt and I feel that it's a pity I'm unable to work with her cuz she quit HPT. Our performance were raved about the most. I dare to say that I'm at least top 2 in pop piano in the team, and she's definitely top 2 too. The guitarist I'm working with isnt that good. I recall working with David and Tze Wei. It was much easier. Haha! =X

Perhaps lastly.. I dunno.. Mixed feelings once again. Getting old... =)

2009-01-01T03:28:00.002+08:00

I finished an event for Countdown. I was the Back Stage Manager or sorts.. gathering ppl to get ready before their item etc. It was the first time I'm doing this and I've learnt quite a bit which I could probably use in Emerge.

I met a few artistes too. Liu Geng Hong is unfriendly! Dao! Cool! Fake! Haha.. But Jim Lim, Eric Ng, Wu Jia Hui were very nice, warm and friendly.

Anyway, it was an experience performing too.. I sang Ai Wu Ji Xian on stage.. Haha...

But in the midst of these all, I got scolded by Pris.. And I'm guilty a lil. That I am at Coundown instead of with her. Nvm la.. gain some, lose some. I'll make up.. So muz add smiley face ah =)

I dun put photos up cuz everything's on friendster. Unless I spot something interesting etc. Oh ya.. hmph! No one asked to ask photo with me ah.. So sad =(

2008-12-23T02:10:00.003+08:00

I've got Ming Ming and Ying Peng to help me with demos for my compositions. And I was like omg when they sang it la! They made my song sound really good. Haha! I sound like I'm praising myself =D

I cant help smiling during the recordings when I heard their renditions of my songs.. I was soooo happy that my songs actually sounds tt nice. =D =D =D

And I've entered xqrj and impressario.. See how far i can go though..

2008-12-07T03:01:00.002+08:00

My 21st birthday has ended! But it was a nice one! Definitely the best one I had in my 21 years, and it's cuz of the company!

On Thurs (4/12), I met up with some Almido peeps for dinner at Thai Express at City Hall, before heading to Shaw Tower for subway. Well, I thought this was it though. When I reached home, all of them msged my at the same time and left something outside my door. I pranked them that I was not at home.. Haha! But eventually I opened the door and followed the isntructions on a card outside, went down to the carpark, and found the almido jrs suprising me with a cake at MIDNIGHT. It was shocking! But nice! I always admired people having this kind of midnight surprises at their places, and i got mine! =)

We cut the cake, took some photos, before going to the airport and spending the night there! The result was I missed my soccer. Haha!

On my birthday, I had lunch with GW. Good to meet up again. After that, it was totally Pris. We went to the beach at tanah merah safra, and has a lot of fun theree!! Haha! Drew on the sand, took pictures, sunset.. Yup! Really a nice brithday for me! Finally, we went to the Night Safari before going back to AMK for supper.

On 6th.. my BIG party. I didnt want to do a big party, but since everything were there as in my mum's friend was able to get me a good price for the buffet at the hotel, the hotel allowed live band, and the live band were my friends, I thought, why not.. juz do it. Haha..

I was disappointed that my sec sch friends left early TOGETHER. So it was like 1 1/2 tables leaving together at barely the halfway point of the show! To think that the show was catered mainly for them~~

But on the other hand, I was happy that everyone else stayed on! Well, most.. those who left were individuals and they had reasons to go la..

Raj, Louiza and Tingyi.. Like i mentioned. I was really happy to have them there. =) =)

And it was really nice catching up with louiza cuz I havent met up with her for more than a year! It felt great recalling the stuffs such as the food she eats, food she likes, her block... Haha!

Yup, Gaby's voice was woooo-hoo!

2008-11-18T02:01:00.002+08:00

Looking through old photos DOES evoke memories within me.. And i feel that I'm quite a sentimental and emotional guy as compared to the guys around me. There's probably only a handful I know who are more senti and emo than me. Anyway, that's not the point now.

I was looking through the stash of photos I have and I am so glad that I used to bring my camera everywhere and take photos. Recently, I've stopped doing that! I dunno why I stopped. I have to start bringing my camera out again to take photos and store those photo memories with me. What I would probably do now is to pass a thumbdrive around to save those photos i've missed.

My birthdays.. They have been quiet close affairs with my closer friends. This is the first time I'm doing it big, mainly cuz I'm turning 21 and there's a live band available. I'm actually quite disappointed that the percentage of my longest friends who would not be able to turn up is much bigger than those friends I met over the past 3 years. 8, 9 yrs friends... I guess the long friendship might make the celebration seem a little insignificant. Afterall, we've been celebrating on and off for a few years now. Ervin and San have gone away for sometime, and I would really want then to be at my party.. but.. yea. Saddening..

Looking through the pictures.. my 19th, 20th..

Some pics of Louiza and I. I think it's a BIG waste to let the friendship go away cuz I'm with Pris now. But because we dont really have vv close mutual friends, it's just. Hope she'll be able to go for my party too. Even TY sacrificed the boredom.. haha..

I was looking through my army days as well. POP and NS40.. Haha! Well.. I realised that I do miss the TCSS sessions i had with my army pals. I'm like a totally different person with them.. able to talk about any thing at all.. really like TCSS. =D

Hmm.. musically changed too. Ahh.. I'm really confused in my music ways. It might only be an interest and a hobby, but I'm really very very interested in it. I think I've learnt too much and become a little technical. Do i want to be an instrumentalist, a vocalist, a composer? I'm quite confused and I hope someone can come and enlighten me. Ever since I changed my blog address, I'm not sure of the traffic inflow here..

I dunno if I'm distancing from my longest friends.. I feel like I am during the gatherings. I'm lost, confused........

2008-11-16T01:06:00.003+08:00

It feels good to know that what u've teached has a positive effect. I was literally doing producing for this guy's performance in geyao. He was really bad the first time he sang, but improved soooo much such that i'm enjoying the recording of the performance. Maybe it's cuz my dynamics followed his and i did my part vv well. Haha! =x But it feels really good. He even walked over to thank me when he won some best newcomer make vox. =)

As well as doing the harmo for another song. Correcting the harmo, and getting very positive feedback on the harmo.. Haizz.. I would rather teach harmo and singing by demonstrating and not just pointing out the mistakes that they should take note of. =(

Mixed feelings!

2008-11-15T04:40:00.002+08:00

I was having a talk with some Voices ppl about my singing etc.. Now i'm thinking. Do i really just want to do instruments or to sing as well? I love singing. I think now I love singing more than keyboard! Hmm.. I'm a little confused.

They were saying tt my singing has no feelings (and tt's besides the point it being vv pitchy). And i should be more emo in my life as well. The most emo time i felt recently was the time I wrote Zou Le. Some parts i really agree, such as if u sing it with feelings, the pitching technique everything doesnt matter. Ok, it does a little, but yea..

2 yrs since I first touched music. I have improved ALOT these 2 years, but there's still a long way to go. I think me being pitchy is not because of my being unable to control it, but more of me being used to hearing myself going off but thinking I'm on. I would probably need some time to get my pitching right etc. I can listen out to pitching faults etc, but i just cant correct myself! It's so irritating. I know wad's wrong but I cant do anything. Haizzz..

Shiru and Vencent asked me this before. Do i want to be very good on the keys or singing. I would answer singing now. Look at Gaby.. omg. Totally no background, but blessed with a super nice voice and spot on pitching. The 5 notes zhuan yin was really cool.

Contemplating pulling out of HPT. Hmmm.....

2008-11-11T01:51:00.002+08:00

I realized that after my stint at T3 watches, I'm noticing watches so much more. And appreciating them as well. However, I notice more of the aesthetics part that the features part, though i would want the best of both worlds. Some watches are really nice and I'm tempted to get the replicas =D. Haha!

Seeing quite a lot of high end watches in school. Saw an Omega ladies small two tone diamond constellation and a cartier tank america rose gold. Like omg.. expensive watches. They look more ex than IWC. IWC, though ex, is more plain and for those who knows them.

2008-10-25T02:36:00.000+08:00

Finished Voices performance, and OMG OMG OMG!! Excited! High! Great!!

Hong Qing Ting, Winter Love, You Hua Zhi Shuo gave me goosebumps! It was super la! Esp You Hua Zhi Shuo. Tze Wei's fingers..... WOooHOO!!!

Videos pls.. Hurry hurry!

And I've told them about my bday performance. Hope it would be great!!

2008-10-24T00:26:00.003+08:00

It's been a long time. I've been busy with school work and CCA. School work is terrible! And i have lots of stuff to catch up on. Haizzz... And I've changed the blog a little. I removed all the pictures cuz I'm making the blog public again. And I'll leave it to Pris to decide if she should put our photos up =D

Anyway, I joined 2 CCAs.. Voices and Geyao. Just finished a performance with Geyao. Spent about 3 weeks practising and rehearsing etc. It was really tiring but it all paid off! Not as much as it should, but it did.. Haha..

I realised that although I've been saying that my priority is at Voices, I actually enjoy what I'm doing at Geyao more than Voices. That goes down to what I'm really interested in. In Geyao, I do band coordination, unplugged, song arrangement and even down to vocal quality and harmo. I dun get to do these in Voices mainly because there are always someone who would be faster than me and could solve the problems earlier. And most importantly!!! There's song composition at Geyao!! I think I'm more improvising than replicating. Partly, that's just an excuse because more effort is needed on replicating, but to improvise is a skill itself too. Oh.. Geyao is more Chinese too. And i'm inclined towards there in the music way.. Haha..

Tmr's Voices performance.. Stressed!! =X

2008-08-31T01:52:00.002+08:00

I was watching Yoga performing perhaps a year ago? During Xing Guang 1, and to see everyone grow and improve.. It's really touching. Although I've just been following the show, I sort of feel for them. It's a little emo-y, but a nice feeling.. =)

I dunno how long would my love for music accompany me from now.. But I do hope that It's for some time.. Esp after my Uni years. I would probably still want to perform, and play, and compose. Hmm..

2008-08-06T23:53:00.002+08:00

I’m feeling super emo today. But it’s not the sad kind of emo, but the touched kind of emo. I have been watching 2 programs and am super touched but them. Haha.. Though I know that to most people, it’s nothing.

The first program was some pre-national day program on channel U. Every year without fail, I would be feeling so proud to be a Singaporean. I can’t help but smile to myself after seeing all the changes that has happened since 1965. Furthermore, the program is a documentary revolving around a guy who was born on 9 Aug 1965. I dunno, but I just felt so patriotic then. Haha..

On patriotism… I dunno if ppl would consider myself to be patriotic, but I would say that I have been supporting everything Singapore since I was able to make my own decisions and think properly. I support the movies, music, books, sports.. everything that I know of, I’ll definitely support. No idea why, juz feel this way =)

The 2^ndshow is a HK drama on Japanese food. The ending is some happy ending that touched me albeit it being a common ending. It’s some wonderful love ending la.. haha.. And yes, I’m easily touched by it. So far, I believe Under The Canopy Of Love is one of the best love dramas I’ve watched. It’s fairy tale yet realistic. It really really touched me when I watched it then.

Hey, watching TV is useful ok! I learnt quite a lot of life stuff from TV. Including my A-level GP essay.. It revolves around constant watching of ESPN. Haha!

I was also thinking when at home just now. The strong cool wind blowing into the living room while watching TV reminded me of the times at Lake Kenyir and Genting.

Memories at Lake Kenyir was very strong! Almido-ans, we SHOULD go and enjoy there too! The beautiful nature, water, canoeing, trekking, waterfall… The night sky, full of stars. Cool strong breeze blowing as we were on the speedboat going around the waters. It’s really very romantic I feel.. the night boat ride with the sky FULL of stars. My first truly jungle-ly outdoor experience as well as first time traveling out of the country without my parents by my side. It was when I was 15.

Genting… Everyone’s been there a couple of times before I’m sure. What had the strongest was the one I had last yr. I went over with Jun Vid and Vin. Just the 4 of us, 4 guys. It was really, really really really fun and memorable!! It’s because with such close friends, the theme park seemed more fun! In fact, everything was seemed more fun! We met 2 Msian Chinese girls there who used to work at Genting, and they took us to places around Genting we never knew existed. Like a 24hr prata shop inside a carpark (which I had stomachache 30min after consumption), and this park at Genting overseeing KL’s night lights, star-ful sky, and with birds flying about real high up. Those birds were luminous ok! Haha! Ppl, go watch Journey to the Centre of the Earth =D And the last thing was thinking about going on a first holiday with Pris.. To genting would be a good idea. Prob the end of the year if her results are good enough. Haha..

Anyway, I was thinking of the things I cannot not do if I am not 21 and a Uni first yr student. I realized, truly, time in army was well spent working on every musical aspect of myself. Those 2 years improved me a lot. I regret not starting earlier.. very much earlier! Another would be those fun games and stupid things. I dread reaching a point when we would have to be mature and all.. It’s quite sad not being able to do silly and stupid things.

I was thinking about the conversations with the Almido ppl too. Do I really know a lot of stuff? Perhaps it’s Jack of all trades master of none. I guess Harold Sim and Chu Cheng Chwee really tweaked my thinking and reasoning skills during army. The former being the positive one, and the latter.. ya.. Haha!

School’s starting once again in a few days time. Scared. Scared that I’ll be alone in lects and tuts. Maybe he’s right.. I’m afraid of loneliness, and that’s why I always plan things to ensure that I’m never alone. I’m already starting to think of what I can do for my 21^st birthday. I guess for the Usuals.. A cosy meal probably? I dunno. I was thinking of asking Almido to plan my a chalet with fun filled programs for my other friends. But it’s not really a good plan. Cuz I want to hang out with different groups individually cuz every group talks in a different language figuratively.

2008-08-01T00:42:00.003+08:00

I juz ended the Almido Chalet. It's amazing how people can get along with one another when everyone starts to open up. You can tell when one has opened up when u see this person doing all unglam things in front of you. Haha!

Anyway, the chalet was totally fabulous! Seriously, it was one of the best I've been too. Usual chalets would be filled with card and game console playing. This wasn't at all. BBQ, Talentime, HTHTs =D, Night cycling. We filled the time with really meaningful programs. In my opinion, I feel that HTHTs are things that we cannot not do if we are not in a chalet cuz the atmosphere and feeling is different.

So much food such that it lasted us 2 days. Well, it's always like tt when i order the food. =D

Talentime was ok, average. The act for the quarrel between me and Wendy was rather ok. At least Elicia believed it. Haha.. HTHTs was nice. Hey, my name was mentioned a few times ok! For reasons I cant say. And night cycling, my first time. Really happy that I learnt cycling about a yr ago. My first night cycling and it was really fun.. really really really fun!

Looking forward to our next homely gathering. I really want us to be close for a very long time. =)

2008-07-10T01:02:00.002+08:00

Let's talk about Xcalibur first.

The group had just 7 freshmen and I would say that we were also similar in character and style such that we were able to talk to each other rather well. Of course, the GLs were really helpful in answering our questions on Computing and Uni life too.

The Guan Dao we did for the Cosplay finale was really really impressive! It was a pity i had to leave early and not see through the finale.

Fright Night was fun as well. It was freezing in the aircon though.

The tee was great! Nice material, colour and design. However, food was quite bad. Haha.

Next's Ethelonter.

A group of 10. I met KaiMing and Russell there. Haha! What a small world.

The group was really high and hyper. We were all playing along with each other and not just sit and stare. It was really really really fun. I guess it's all the hyperness from the starch on the first night to the hyper songs on the last night. When we finished the dance performance, I really felt vv relived and happy cuz what we had been practising for the past new nights was over in just 3 minutes. Only we know the effort spent and it was enough to keep me smiling to myself the whole dance. It was a really natural smile. =)

And now we're getting so excited organizing a chalet for the seniors. Haha! Cant wait.

For myself.. I juz received 5 lyrics from Shiru and I'll have to try to melodise them. haha..

2008-07-07T01:06:00.003+08:00

I'm back from a long stint of NUS Orientation camps. Ethelonter was really really fun. Really. Shall blog more later. I love my OG for Ethelonter and Xcalibur. Both were fantastic =)