I want to sleep…

But then I remember I haven’t blogged for the week!

Ok I cant postpone replying friend’s mail and transferring notes from my E66 to iPhone…. But I can’t postpone this one… :)

Let me quickly sum things up… hmm…

Rainy season seems to be short-lived, and summer has come faster than expected. I know I cursed the rain a lot when my cloths were still damped after few days or when I can’t wake up because of such a tempting cooling breeze… but still… I would not have expected the summer to come so soon :(
Apart from the general comments, nothing much in office… We get the morning exercise rolling again and I feel better with the Yoga… I got few days of working late, but get to knocked off at 7 on Friday, which is enough for me to feel good on weekend :)

On Friday, I finally met up with my mum and dad and brother (DB version) after such a long time… It was a nice dinner accompanied with a good beer… but I should have guessed that my face will be total red when I took some photos in the end… so no photos to be shared on this!

After the dinner, I continued with the Spy Next Door, a movie by Jackie Chan. The movie was a normal comedy movie… it was good but nothing very special about it. Without even realizing it, I focused a lot on the English that Jackie used in the movie. He pronounced it pretty well… I was amazed… But then in the end of the movie, they showed the cut footage… and there I saw how he was struggling with English afterall. Haha. Ok, now I know at least I’m not alone :D

On Saturday, I dropped at City Hall at 12pm, and didn’t go from there until 10.30pm where we were hopping to catch the last bus. The weather was hot, but it’s a good thing as the view is then pretty clear from the lunching restaurant :)

Main Course – Two pieces of Soft Shell Chili Crab. Enough to tickle my tummy .

After the semi-buffet lunch, we went to Suntec for some shopping (get a red shirt for my first day of working after CNY and a pair of shoes) and some sight seeing before proceeding to… dinner. Yes, the lunch and dinner was only 2 hours away… but surprisingly, I was already hungry at that time =.=’

The dinner was going until around 8.30… and then we proceed to Esplanade for further catching up… we left at around 10.30 and I touched my bed not long after showering.


Sort of reminding me of my freshie days...

Same place, 5 1/2 years ago.

Alright, I woke up late on Sunday… That goes without saying. I roll out from bed at around 12, took a shower, called my parents, ironing, and when everything completed, time was 2. Then the owner came and brought some potential buyer for viewing. I was so tempted to ask of how long the owner wants to trouble us like that – evading our privacy by keep letting people taking pics of our stuff… but finally I decided not to.. before thing goes even worse… it has been almost 20 months of good relationship… and guess I can hold it for few more months.

Citra made it to my place with a very minimal clues… I envied this type of person… I would not have made it without a taxi. We chatted and planned for holiday this June, but alasa, I forgot that I will be busy with all this moving home stuff on that month. After that, we went for swimming, where I broke my own record by being in water for 50 minutes (normal time is 20 mins. Haha..) After showered, we both went for a dinner at westmall… and bid her farewell after a nice dessert at Udders ice cream :)

Reached back home, I felt thankful that I have ironed my cloths. I just have some relaxing time, watching some last episodes of How I meet your mother season 1… and now.. really ready to sleep :)

One week closer to CNY,
ED

A new baby is born

Today, 17 January 2010, is a big day for me. My long awaited baby is finally here. I was eying for it for a good 30 months, ever since I was introduced to it by Steve Jobs on the WWDC 2007. Yes, my patience is a virtue.

It has come a long way. Not smooth, and I forgo lots of things for this new baby. I was charged $100 penalty for breaking my contract and wanting it early. Plus, my free voice mail is terminated, my free auto roam is terminated, and the worst? My free caller ID is terminated, too. I wasn’t aware of those at all, until the minute before I signed the contract. What can I do? I have come this far, a 2 hours queue in hello shop, and I definitely biased when it comes to iPhone… so yes, I signed it anyway. So there goes my $618. And my bill will be twice as expensive from now on.

I can’t put note on my phone anymore. I can’t type without looking now. I have to input all my new contacts, and I don’t know how to set the alarm yet.

So if you ask if I’m regretting my decision…

First touch on the iPhone

I’m far from it :) I know more exciting stuffs are coming their ways (at least I want to believe so)

Ok… That’s all for now… time to understand more about the new born :p
ED

A week of Habour Front

I visited to Habour Front 4 out of 5 working days. And I went off from office before 8pm everyday (and, er, sad to say, reached office 5 mins late constantly). Those are really my own records for this New Year :)

I almost fully recovered from my cough and flu. Almost… would have been fully if I had resisted myself from eating spicy tom yam soup, fried chicken, satay, peanuts, ice creams, and my sin list goes. So here I’m still with few coughs whenever I felt guilty.

When I passed through KFC, I look inside the restaurant and guess what; the black pepper chicken is gone :( I love that menu… how I wish it will be the normal menu list. There is nothing new from KFC… so maybe I can endure another week for that.

On the other side, I tried the Pasta @ Pizza Hut. The lunch set was really value for money. Pizza/Pasta + soup + drink for $7.9++. Deep within I always have the judgmental thought that Pizza Hut is expensive. Now it seems a little bit more affordable… at least for its normal pizza. I saw its new creation for CNY, Pizza in flowery shape. Trust me it looks good…

Meanwhile, MacDonald is embracing CNY with 12 sets of Chinese Zodiac featuring Doraemon. It has Doraemon in tiger cap, Doaremon in rabbit cap, and so on. It released 3 sets / week… and when I know it, my rabbit is already gone :( a bit too late.

Well, I don’t know why my blog is all about food this week. I had a big fried rice meal for dinner and still can’t stop thinking about food T_T Lets move to something more meaningful… hmm…

The reason that I went to Habour Front so often is to meet up with friends. I’m so glad to catch up with them again, after so long :) I never realized that there are quite a lot of my friends working nearby! It’s time to hunt for flatmate to share a flat this coming June. Haha..

Talking about moving, there is some more ‘potential buyer’ viewing our current flat today. I promised my flatmate that I can handle the viewing, but in the end…. I jumped out from the bed only when I heard the bell rang (it was 12.30pm) I didn’t know how messy I looked like, but at least I didn’t make their journey wasted. Fuuiih… I just hope that the agent wont blame me if somehow the potentials are scared away.

After the unique wake up call, I showered and went for lunch at my normal eating place. I had a nice lunch and chat with flatmates. It was already 3 when I called my sister and chat till around 4.30. Time flies when you enjoyed it. Soon enough, it was time for dinner again :p. After dinner, I worked for few hours, and now just relaxing and going to sleep soon.

Btw, I tried Bailey’s. It’s the best tasting liquor I had so far. It has a strong taste of coffee and milk, but almost no alcohol. The best thing is, it doesn’t make you dizzy (I hope I get the right Bailey’s and not coffee milk)

Tomorrow will be about a decision whether to get an iphone now or to wait for another 6 months. It’s my biggest decision of the year. haha..

More to it later!
ED

New Year, New Twist

It has been a week after New Year. I didn’t have anything planned for this year, but seems like things start to roll by itself. No idea of where it will bring me to, but life is exciting because of the uncertainty, isn’t it? :)

After I back from Taiwan, I got myself into the first (and hopefully the last) cough and flu of the year. haha.. haven’t fully recovered from it, but I know I will get my KFC next week.

Office has been less tense. We finally (really finally) make it through one of the major milestone. Something which made my 6 months stay in the team worthwhile :)

From now, it’s one month to Chinese New Year. I have started some shopping and it will continue until next month when I go back. I can’t wait… Finally a complete family gathering =D my sister is even much more enthusiastic than me. I don’t know how she is going to manage with her 50kg luggage.

Chinese New Year Spirit everywhere

Nothing much this weekend… Have a fun day out. Jess just moved house. East is really not a bad option, if only my office is somewhere near there. It will be my time soon in 5 months. Can’t believe that one and half year passed just like that. I would like to find a place near office. Somewhere around Red Hill will be good. But I need female flatmates badly. Any takers? I have to start hunting for juniors it seems. Haha…

I started watching Liar Games Season 2. It’s one of the few series that I watched. The series is good… and I need to have a better hold of the watching temptation. I watched until almost 5am in the morning on Friday T_T definitely not good for health.

Right now, I’m watching “The Blind Side”, a new movie from Sandra Bullock. I was expecting comedy, but it turns out to be true story about a football player Michael Oher. Nice inspirational movie… :) It’s not out yet in Singapore, but has been played at the other part of the world since November.. so yeah.. we got the good quality movie at our room step :p

Ok, I’m bad in multitasking. I’m ending the blog here and going to focus on the movie before it ends without me knowing. There are lots of nice quotes there, and this is one of my favorites, summarized from his essay…

“Any fool can have courage. But honor, that is the real reason you either do something or you don’t. You should hope for courage and try for honor”

Courage and Honor. Hmm,
ED

After all the December fun…

Here come my mobile bill of the month

SGD 124.82!!

Thanks for making me stay connected everywhere. You didn’t come cheap.

Anyway, I learnt that making calls are at least twice more expensive than receiving calls. Lesson learnt.

Time to save more for my iPhone… T_T
ED

See you again, Taiwan!

Saturday, 26 Dec 2009
We reached airport at around 10.30pm for our flight at 01.50am. Guess what we discovered… Our flight was delayed to 3.10am :(

China Airlines and its timeliness.

What to do? I planned to sleep till the time for the flight, but the rest were so excited that we stayed awake until the time of our flight.

Christmas @ Changi Airport

Sunday, 27 Dec 2009
We boarded at 3.10am and reached Taipei in the morning 7.30am. After some greetings to our local tour guide, we proceed to have our first buffet breakfast. The weather was alright at Taipei, just like the weather at Genting.

We continued with the tour to Shilin Official Residence, a beautiful garden full of flowers. Everyone was so into camwhoring for the next hour.

Next location was Chuifen, which is famous for the food. We have at least 5 different foods in an hour time. That marked the end of our day in Taipei. We took train for the next 3 hours to Hua Lien and proceed for dinner and fireworks fun before going to Hotel.


Chiu Fen and the food

As the night was still young, we went out after a shower, to the night life in Hua Lien. We had the best food bargain of the day, 40 dumplings for TWD 160. That is less than SGD 8. The taste is comparable to the much more expensive dumplings here, tasty and juicy :D


4 baskets of tummy-warming food for TWD 160

Monday, 28 Dec 2009
First thing in the morning after breakfast is the Hua Lien’s most famous attraction: Tarako Gorge. The scenery made the 3 hours train ride worthwhile. We had the starbucks-comparable price coffee at the area too, which was supposed to be better than the normal coffee because it was made from the mountain fresh water. I can’t make out the difference… but it’s good enough to warm us up.

Wonderful scenary @ Taroko Gorge

After lunch, we left Hua Lien and go to Taitung, where we were placed at the 5 stars hotel and served a really nice dinner where we finished almost everything except the rice. We spent the rest of the day in the hotel playing pools, enjoying hot spring, and participating in the cultural performance.

Wait, that wasn’t the end. At around 12, we were hungry and hence wandered in the road looking for supper. We ended up having instant noodle in the 7 eleven.

Mid night Supper @ 7 Eleven

Tuesday, 29 Dec 2009
Next morning, we went to a beach which was famous because of the filming of Cape No 7. the sun was burning and we can survive only around 15 minutes there before carrying on to Maobitou Rocky Seashore park. Nothing much special there, except the local delicacy of flying fish. We didn’t eat much as it was after a huge lunch.

@ Cape No 7

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Ok, to be honest, I can’t really remember all the places we have been through. There are lots of sightseeing places, lots of temples, lots of night markets. Not knowing Chinese language was really a hindrance there. Not only you’re not able to understand what the tour guide said, you can’t order the food you want properly because they understand but Chinese. Thanks to Ryoma, our best translator, we can still order the well-known food around that area.

Between Dragon and Tiger, there are Rabbits =D

Buddhist Holly Land, Fo Guang Shan

Night markets are really famous in Taiwan. They are always so crowded that we can barely stop walking without being pushed around. In contradiction, the malls are almost empty. All the food courts and restaurants have almost zero customers when we visited the malls on Saturday. Unbelievable.

Leo Ho Night Market

The food there are awesome. Out from 1800 pics I took, I am sure that at least 800 of them are photos of foods. You can guess how much we have eaten there. I didn't post it here as I can't pick which to post. And God, my worries came true. I gained at least 5kg from Taiwan. My daily activities was sleeping, taking pics, and eating. I will not be surprised if I can’t wear my office outfit tomorrow T_T

On the New Year Eve itself, we're so overloaded that we just spent our night at Royal Hsinchu hotel playing poker and watching fireworks from TV. We decided to sleep after few players KO-ed and slept while playing.

Anyway, few points to be noted. Taiwan is fun. What lacking for me was the time to really appreciate all the places as we’re bounded to the itinerary. Plus some of the places are not reachable due to the weather condition (Alishan!) Plus it was raining and foggy most of the time which affect the scenery (Taipei 101!)

The bonus I got from Taiwan was the chance to meet my hometown friend – Pin, my witchy relative – Chin, and Taiwan’s President – Mr. Mao!! Hahaha..


Thanks Guys for spending all the time to find me among Ximending's crowd

If I get the chance of visiting Taiwan one more time, I will book a 2 weeks holiday, plan my own itinerary, and go around spring / autumn :) Before that, I will have to polish some of my Chinese.

For now, I need to cure my flu and cough T_T

ED