Watched the news today and an interesting topic was the No Plastic Bag Day, designated on the 1st Wednesday every month. It's interesting because in Taiwan, convenience stores and supermarkets (and some shops) do not give plastic bags at all. Our first experience on this was buying Ayumi singles and the 5-cd Ah-Mei compilation (not sold in Singapore) and the cashier asked "Do you need plastic bags?" Apparently, you had to pay for the plastic bags too. I certainly think that this implementation is very feasible. To think that there were people who insisted on using plastic bags on the No Plastic Bag Day... these people may need to shift their mindset soon because we certainly need to reduce usage of these plastic bags in order to help conserve the environment.
Also read the news today about the drought in Australia, notably in Queensland. Jinki, what is your take on the current drought? I guess water rationing isn't too challenging for you guys who had been through the dirty and tough NS. I wonder if I can bear through it too? Haha. This also serves as a psychological warning to Princess Cow and company who will be visiting Australia end of next month. Hopefully they get to enjoy the trip without too much hassle. To think that in Taipei, we happily took tub baths and soaked in hot springs comfortably... aww. I guess the rains will come soon as the winter season approaches the southern hemisphere. That should alleviate the situation slightly. And I do applaud the conservation policies implemented by the Australian government, perhaps Singapore should try water rationing once a month in different constituencies? It would be really interesting to experience such inconveniences.
Alright, let's get back to Day 4 & 5 of the trip. =)
Day 4 of the trip was 21 Apr, a Saturday. Saturday is a good day to be in XMD because all the teenagers gather at the area for their weekend getaways. Moreover, many stars and artistes would come on the weekends to do their promotions and gigs. One memory I still have was a Japanese girl playing her guitar and singing on the street. Oh man, she does have a great voice though I doubt someone will enlist her as a developing artise =p Hee, I think the standards to become a star would be much tougher. We went to Nova to check out the laptops again. One of the sales assistant, a handsome chap told us many interesting news on the laptop market. Amazingly, Taiwanese computer sales people aren't pushy at all, unlike Singaporean sales assistants. They are very friendly and polite. Before you step in, they already greet you "欢迎光临" and then when you step in, they try to find out about your needs and try to make recommendations. We felt that the price was still a tad too high so we decided to go to the computer street again. We then took the MRT to ZXXS and spent 3hours there! Woohoo! Again I would like to commend the sales people, especially the guy we bought the laptop from. He actually recommended us to delay our purchase because new developments and the instable Windows Vista (the same reason cited by the yandao in Nova) were coming up. He also tried to find out what we needed and made the appropriate comparisons and recommendations. No single attempt to try to push the sale through at all. Actually before that we discussed for some time whether to buy the laptop or not. I felt compelled to recommend the purchase because of the huge savings, coupled with the fact that the best laptop wrapping specialist was in Taipei while we heard many problems from the Singaporean wrapping shops. By "wrapping" I meant not like packaging a present, but to put a transparent membrane on the surface of the laptop to prevent its surface from discolouring or dirtied. At the point of discussion, we shared 10 xiaolongbaos 小笼包 sold by a roadside stall at 40NT. Of course it isn't as nice as Dintaifeng 鼎太丰 but it was not too bad either for that price. We ate and discussed while sitting on a bench in front of a interesting monument made up of hundreds of empty glass bottles, which faced the Holiday Jade Market 假日玉器市场 as well as the Farm Produce Market 农品市场. And, so we spent 2.5hrs comparing, and deciding on the original target, the ASUS W7J. Heh. Beware that you may need to have your ID/passport ready for them because when using your credit/debit card, they may need your documents for verification and records for such huge purchases. Hee.
After checking the laptop thoroughly, we had the laptop packed back into the box with the freebies and moved on to the next destination. Haha, not back to the hotel but across ZX East Road (remember Power Station's song 忠孝东路走九遍? That's the long long road cutting horizontally across Taipei). We moved through a area that highly resembles Kowloon of HongKong. Too bad no Taiwanese salon is as affordable as any Kowloon salon. We wanted to find the famous 阿婆甜不辣 but unfortunately turned at the wrong road. It was actually northwards but we turned southwards and spent some time walking around the supposed street. The stupid street signs of Taiwan is one troublesome hassle for non-Taiwanese people like us. We gave up and went on to Dintaifeng (the first original outlet, not the ZX Dunhua branch at the basement of Sogo) to check the area out. It was already near dinner time at 6+ but the sky was already darkening. At Hsinyi Road 信义路, just opposite the famous original eatery, we were splattered with cement! One woman screamed at the operator for not looking out for the poor pedestrians like us. Luckily the damage was only minimal. Dintaifeng was awfully crowded, and taxis were waiting by the roadside, people coming by the bus loads. Wah! We decided not to queue and went on to explore the food street just beside it called 永康路. If you tried this shaved ice in Bugis, you might have some idea of this road, where this shaved ice shop called 冰馆 first began. It's designed like a al fresco dessert dining area with the shop looking more like a takeaway counter, but it still looks cool. This road is peppered with so many eateries! Japanese, Chinese, Thai, steamboat, etc. We decided to eat at a Chinese noodle shop (can't remember the name, but you should lookout for its red banner depicting its history). For the first time we sat down to have a meal! Haha. I ordered 鱼焿面 while Pika ordered some noodles (see photo below) whose name I can't remember =p. We also shared some special 饺子 (substitute our disappointment of no Dintaifeng) I think. Overall the meal only cost us 100+NT. Woohoo.
We continued to explore the area and decided to go back by WALKING (while taking turns carrying the laptop box). Think of it as a walk from Bishan back to Khatib (which actually we had already walked before). We were absolutely lucky to have walked past some tourist destinations like the CKS Memorial Hall 中正纪念堂(see photos, it actually has its own MRT station) and probably a local destination known as Bridal Street 婚纱街. (check out the photos). Bridal Street is a romantic street with many bridal shops and photography specialists. Check out their works right on the pavement itself. Heh. Using XK Mitsukoshi as a compass bearing, we walked along the CKS Memorial - Xiaonanmen - XMD Station route in fact. Along the way we even picked up a wallet belonging to a Taiwanese student, right on the road itself! I have sharp eyes, don't I? Unfortunately we didn't see any police station on the way so we brought it back all the way to the hotel. Haha.
After the hotel, we decided to go Carrefour because it was 24hr operated and we walked past it earlier on one of the days. Man, it was already 11+ by then. We walked past the famous Red Theater 红楼剧院 (built by the Japanese) which seems to cover a plethora of nighttime hangouts. Many al fresco pubs and eateries are just right behind it (rumour says this place is also a gay hangout, which I did see some guys behaving quite intimately, hand caressing shoulders and weird whiny voices =p) Oh and don't forget Jay Chou once held a promotion concert there before. Heh. We took some time to reach Carrefour, slightly past 12 midnight. Pika saw on the signs that only level 2 & 3 were opened but I didn't until I reached level 4 =p. There wasn't any travellator going downwards but he had to go to the washroom so I waited there awhile contemplating how to go down. One silly idea I had was to walk down the upmoving travellator, which of course was met with opposition. We decided to go up to level 5 instead where the car park was. Oh man, it was a bad but really fun decision, as there were those soft-toy catching machines there! Hahaha. One try is 10NT only (around 46cents) so we decided to try out luck to catch a furry cute teddy bear. After spending nearly 200NT, we still did not manage to catch any toy! LOL. (I tell you more about the toy catching machine next time). Feeling cheated, we proceeded to Carrefour level 2 (non groceries level) and tried to explore the hypermarket. One absolutely great buy we had there was this San Disk Cruzer 4GB thumbdrive, going on special offer at 999NT. Man, that's about $45! Referring to our minds for the last price list we could muster, Pika's San Disk 1GB thumbdrive was bought at $30+ at the last IT show if I'm not wrong, so 4GB would cost at least $60? By that logic, I wanted to get the thumbdrive no matter what (since I don't have one and needed one anyway). It was a great decision as it cost at least $70 here! Hehe. We continued to check out the cameras, the toys (no bear similar to the toy catching machine) and other stuff like laptops etc. We then proceeded to the groceries section and bought many stuff. One of which, the best buy, was the Meiji matcha ice cream. One tub (1l at least, I think) only cost 69NT! But we forgot we did not have any spoons until we got back to the hotel. We bought loads of buns (6 for 145NT) and they all seem to have pork floss in them, but none are comparable to Breaktalk (obviously). (Do bear in mind that bakeries in Taipei are usually very up-class shops, higher class than Four Leaves~) I paid 2717NT in all for all the stuff using Visa (including buying 2 big plastic bags, which they had to scan as the same as any inventory). There was a voucher promotion there where every 1000NT spent earns you a 100NT voucher but we were mistaken because the promotion was only for Carrefour members. Pika joked that I should show my lucky charm since I'm (actually it's in his name) a Singaporean Carrefour member. =p
We carried the loads back to the hotel while feasting on the buns. Man, I tell you, even if we were hungry, 6 buns were too much for both of us. We walked past the dingy, Chinatown-like Wanhua district (万华区) which was previously the main area of action in the heydays of old Taipei. Getting back to the hotel around 1+am, we had to put the ice cream sadly into the fridge because we had no spoons and couldn't "kope" any spoon from the convenience stores. (I actually found spoons on sale 2 nights later, no thanks to Pika's oversight while he looked at the disposables section). We also bought a magazine which we suspect to be a product of Baleno / Ebase, as the clothes featured were mainly of that family of brands. But it was a good buy at 95NT since there were some skincare freebies that came with it, not to mention many reports and insights (like vital statistics) on hot stars like Farenheit, and hunks like Aaron Kwok, etc. We read the magazine together for a while and watched tv while taking turns to bath. By the time we went to bed I think it was 4+am... but of course I knocked out first. =p
So much for Day 4. The next day, we woke up late and hence missed the timing to go Dintaifeng for brunch =p (my fault again for being unable to resist the bed despite having set an alarm). This time while I harboured hopes to visit Danshui as Stefanie Sun was having a promotion there, but we decided to go to Wufenpu 五分埔 instead for our clothes shopping because Monday was designated for wholesalers only. We took a long bus over to the area, and walked a short distance and voila, we found the clothes market without too much hassle. We explored a few alleys and came to a shop selling drinks and Pika wanted to drink Papaya Milk. Their papaya milk is rich and flavourful, and unlike here where they add sugar water, the shop had no need to do so at all because the papaya itself is sweet enough. Heh. We continued to walk Wufenpu for another 4hrs, stopping at a bag distributor (and bought 3 nice, stylish handbags for 1050NT), and many clothes retailer. You should see the bags of stuff I carried man. I also tried stuff like the fried hotdog with a sweet dough (tastes like hotdog in a fried bun actually), and sotong balls etc. Niceeeee~ We really walked rounds and rounds around the area, trying to comb for the best deals in the myriad of alleys which resembles the famous weekend Thai wholesale market Chatuchak. After feeling satisfied and hungry, we moved on to Raohe St NM. We passed by the train station as we crossed the overhead bridge, and also a police station. So I returned the wallet there and had a nice chat with the police officer. Haha. We then thronged Raohe St. I say this is a MUST-VISIT night market. The place is very exciting with the crowded walkways, shops and all the foodstores right in the middle of the road. The fragrance of the food (ignore oily stenches like chow tauhu) filled the air. One thing we missed eating was the ice dessert called 三色冰, because of the lack of seats at the dessert stall. It is actually similar to ice kachang except that it is made up of ice, milk, and fruits (kiwi (guava or some green fruit), strawberry and mango). SOBS. On the bright side we ate the best XXXXL chicken chop ever tasted and a myriad of other stuff. Hehe. (Reminds me that previously at LinJiang NM, the takoyaki was the best I ever tasted, it was crunchy on the outside, soft and satisfying on the inside!!!) *Droooooooolz* Again the 133NT shop was "closing down" there so we had a great battle for the shoes and stuff. We also went to A. Antonio shop which sells cheap leather belts (50NT for one, and they can even customise the belt to your size, woohoo!) and wallets and other accessories. We bought many nice wallets after taking about 30mins to search through the entire trolley. I bought the overpriced (on hindsight) Barclays EPL wallet upon seeing the cool look it takes on when it becomes used, when showed by the very nice, and helpful male sales assistant as well. He used a similar wallet (but I can't remember his wallet logo) and I felt I should have one as well as my current wallet ought to be retired soon before it breaks down entirely =x (now I'm feeling a tingling sense of ferocity from a certain eletric Pokemon). This EPL wallet which I'm using now isn't friendly to my numerous cards, so maybe my birthday I have to get a card holder or something. *hint hint*. Lalala. Satisfied with the great buys we had (4 huge loads for 2 of us), we waited nearly 30mins for the elusive bus back to XMD. Nearly got killed by the air pollution at the bus stop there, smoking, vehicles dust, KFC oil-stained air, etc.
We went back to the hotel full of everything and after playing a little bit with the W7J (let's call it Whitebox, shall we?), I decided to pack the luggage bags a little and the little bulge was kinda like warning me to stop our shopping forays.. haha. But of course we were undaunted!
Ok, photos time. Then the next and the final entry for the story on the trip should be up around Thursday..... arghzzzzzzzzz, still haven't did a single bit of work which I'm supposed to finish by Labour Day. (I should call it Labourious/Slavery Day, I guess, but heck, I'm going to play football and perhaps visit JB with my brother a short while later). 2.20am already~~~~~~~!!!!!!!! Pengz.
Siansified Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:26 PM
Sunday, April 29, 2007
AHhhh!
I was kinda depleted earlier on after playing some 45mins of street soccer and another 3hours training with the dragonboat team. I seriously doubt my capability as my fitness sucks to the core, couldn't row one entire set continuously.... sobs. Seriously I have not really begun any training regime, and this could be the source of the problem. Vice-Captain Wilson has recommended doing 100x crunches, pushups and some "superman" exercise which I know the steps but not the name. So I guess I should start with Wilson's recommendations, and add in my own variety of activities. Another negative factor is my increasing weight. I have reached the 150 pounds level! Of course this is not my highest weight ever so maybe I still stand a chance of cutting it down... my big round tummy will be a feature for the time being =x
Shan't whine anymore and get back to business about Day 2/3 of my trip to Taiwan.
Day 2 began with a walk again to the Main Station area. This time we were focused on looking for the computer stuff so we went on to the computer street at BaDe Rd Sec 1 (八德路一段). The silly thing was that we walked across Taipei central, probably about 3 MRT stops there. Think of it as walking from Khatib to Sembawang Shopping Centre. We probably walked about 2-3hrs in that area, covering Rainbow Plaza (similar to Sim Lim Square) and the computer street itself. After collecting the information, we went on to City Hall station 市政府站 where Taipei 101 was. We passed by another few Xin Kong Mitsukoshi shopping centres, and saw Taiwan Ah Cheng! They were filminf a serial. Pika asked if we should take a photo, but I saw the security personnel stopping someone from taking a photo (think it's to prevent people from filming it too) so there was no point. We continued our way to Taipei 101 (see photos at the end of post) and the main attraction there was the Sony Fair! (Taipei 101, nah) There were Spidey statues, Sony Ericsson mobile phone girls, and pretty hostesses for the exhibition segment where they introduced the latest Sony technologies. We probably stayed there for an hour because they had a "visit station, get a stamp" activity and you can take part in a lucky draw after completing the card. I wasn't very keen on it, but Pika got two of them and then seeing that he wasn't very proactive at getting the stamps, I got the rest of them. Saw the new Gundam game on PS3, very nice lei! Too bad no $$ to buy PS3. Haha. We took some photos and moved on.
After the fair we walked past Mister Donut and got a good rest there munching donuts in the air-conditioning. Mister Donut should come to Singapore!! Their donuts are so nice! It's akin to a donuts fast food restaurant. Heh.
Then without any real targets to go to, I suggested going to Shilin night market 士林夜市. This was the start of the nightmarish part of the trip. Okie, first and foremost it's my fault, so there's no doubt about it. I want to cut short this part as it brings me heart pains. Put it this way, at Taipei Main Station interchange, I walked way too in front, caught the train on a rush without Pika, and left him stranded there while I went to Jian Tan 剑潭 Station only to find to my horror that he did not board that train. It took 2hrs before we finally managed to meet up again but the damage was done. You certainly do not want to see the Incredible Sulk. It's absolutely scary. By the time we met, I had eaten the Shilin XXXL chicken chop (the 1st choice (yellow signboard, 2 row inside the food centre) was sold out at 7+pm!!, so I ate the 2nd choice one 豪大鸡扒 blue signboard, right opposite the MRT). After gathering, he sat there for donkey minutes without saying anything until I decided to take a look at the belt stall. They were selling at 50NT a belt! Woo! We bought some belts, but the mood was still icy. Then after much persuasion, we went on to the main area of the Shilin night market, which was fairly crowded, but not entirely full. There were so many stalls, so many shops but too bad there was no mood to eat anything special. One particular stop we made was the 133NT shop. Everything going for 133NT!! Who can resist it? Bought some stuff and then moved around again until the whole area was fairly covered (most of the time I walked behind the Incredible Sulk) and then we went back to the hotel. Suddenly he made his way out with the hotel room's keys but I was stunned and too tired to move (and if i go out without finding him, then how?) so I stayed to bathe and rest while he went to explore XMD. He then came back with a cd. Then that's the end for that day lor apart from some funny night tv.
The good part of this nightmare was that I learnt how to dial overseas using the public phone (need so many coins!) which was cheaper than using the pre-paid Singtel card.
The nightmare continued the next day beginning from XMD MRT station. After a series of turns, we got into XMD station without any particular place to go. I didn't dare to suggest anywhere in case I was given the cold shoulder. When he decided to go somewhere, he decided not to tell me where, after he had already passed the gates. So I bought a 30NT ticket (in case he wanted to travel far) but by the time I passed the gates, I did not see him anywhere. I went to the platform to look for him, but after walking 2 full lengths of the platform, to no avail. I was utterly shattered by this time, but I decided to go my way to find stuff around. I alighted at ZhongXiao XinSheng 忠孝新生 station and began my walk to find the famous DinTaifeng so that when he got his mood back, we could go there to eat. Ended up I turned the wrong direction and went to Da An 大安 area instead. I walked past the Da An park though and reached Da An station. I had bought a Taiwanese phone card earlier on so I dialled his mother first to file my greivances =p and then he himself on his handphone and we agreed to meet at ZhongXiao Fu Xing 忠孝复兴 (where you can find 2 SOGO shopping centres) at 4pm (which was about 45mins later). I shopped around Da An residential area, and my WORST purchase of the trip was at one of the shops there which I bought a handbag for my mother at 2000NT!!! (original price they claim is 2780NT lor) Freak. When you get emotional, there is less logic available to help you make decisions. Turns out that when we went to RaoHe St NM 饶河街夜市, without bargaining the same bag cost 1680NT only!! Imagine my siansified face lor. Anyway my mother likes the bag, so not so heart pain....
So we met again at ZXFX. The mood was still icy cold but we made our way to go find 阿婆甜不辣 (Ah Po Tempura) which should had been 4 streets away. We probably passed the Kowloon equivalent of Taipei. Haha. But still we never managed to find the legendary tempura store (on hindsight, we turned southbound instead of northbound at the correct street, sianzzzzz) but we went on to LinJiang NM 临江夜市 at the junction of Keelong Road Sec 1 基隆路一段. This NM not too bad la, quiet and filled with food goodies. Ate new stuff (can't remember what) and walked about 2hours there before making our way back, on foot! Lol.Heh. By the time we got back to XMD, it was about 10+pm. We checked out XMD area for food and yes, Ah Zong Mee Sua 阿宗面线 was still available. I tell you, this is a must eat!! Many people stand outside the shop holding a bowl of mee sua eating but this chap is clever, he ta pau back to the hotel la. Haha. I tried a mouthful and oh god, it was very nice. Except that I don't eat oysters, so I had to control abit. Besides the poor chap hasn't ate much throughout the day so I felt it was better for him to eat the most of the mee sua.
I shall conclude Day 3 here. And photos! Here you go:
Actually very difficult to write captions for blogspot photos la, you know, my friends dun like to use blogspot because the photos can't put where you want them to be put, so mian qiang i upload some 精点 highlights and you all go and self-interpret ba. But I guess I will load all of them onto my webshots account in the future, that one easier to add captions too. Heh, look out for Part III on Monday night perhaps. Tomorrow no time to blog la...
Already 3.20am lor!!! Later have to work at the library.... sianzzzz~
Hungry, miss TW food Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:01 AM
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Ciao a i miei amici! Ogenki desu ka? Heh, I'm back from Taiwan! Ironically, as I wanted to begin this post, a call from Taiwan came. Surprisingly, it's a call from a woman... haha, it's the mother of the chap who dropped his wallet on the road which I picked up on my long journey across central Taipei. Interestingly I must had made it difficult for them as I returned the wallet at Songshan Railway Station police post rather than anywhere near where we picked up the wallet. Okie, let's begin the story proper now, to continue where we stopped from the last post.
After the last post, I went to take a short nap and then woke up pretty early in the morning to go MOM again. This time everything was ready and the permit application was just as smooth. The trouble was that I had to make my way to Raffles Place to change money for the trip and that driving to Raffles Place was not very feasible, so I took the train. The money changing exercise was not too bad, we got good rates for that day(but on hindsight, if we went later the rates would have be better too). I rushed back to Ubi and then hurried to take a bus to the nearest MRT station so that I could go to the airport as soon as possible. By this time it was already slightly past 11pm, which was our original meeting time at the airport. As I huffed and puffed, I could only at best reach the airport at 12nn. Fortunately Eileen was available to help Pika to move my luggage from Yishun to the airport as she offered to send us off. We had a hurried lunch at Popeye (a fast food restaurant at T1, just renovated) and then made our way to the boarding area. I still had stuff which I ought to have passed to my brother before leaving, but I forgot due to the all the hectic rush. So I had Eileen to help me deposit my cheque, mail stuff to my brother. Thankfully it's my fortune to have known such a great friend. Heh.
The 4hr+ flight was absolutely boring because we hadn't really prepare any entertainment. Luckily, Jetstar prepared some Today and My Paper and we read them quickly. The news wasn't kind, there was a duststorm in Taipei blown from China. Such a bad news set a worrying tone for the start of the trip (in my opinion). Time just passed boringly and then we reached Taipei in a darkening sky. The flight reached CKS Airport slightly early, and that helped to better the moods slightly. I think airlines should change their destination titles to Taoyuan rather than Taipei because the airport is in Taoyuan county rather than Taipei county. We took a Freego bus because their marketing was the "loudest" and paid 135NT for the one way trip. (I just read that if you buy a return trip it would be 30NT cheaper at 240NT). The bus trip was slightly bumpy but otherwise fast, smooth and comfortable. We watched a Taiwanese hokkien drama on the way. Haha. This Freego bus is good because it stops at various hotels in Taipei. Not knowing that our hotel was nearer to the first stop (Royal Castle;成都大饭店), we alighted in the middle of Hsimenting nearer to Rainbow Hotel;长虹饭店) After walking one round because of a directional mistake, we finally found our hotel. I tell you, my first impression was, "Oh my god". Well, this hotel we lived in is actually quite budget one, $51/wkdays and $60/wkends, but after some checking on the Taiwanese forums I decided on it because it was still acceptable. IT IS INDEED ACCEPTABLE if you don't mind their provoking logo =p. Haha, sorry I can't post a photo here yet as I can't find my cable. In actual fact, upon seeing the room, everything was good, very good. Cheap and good and comfortable. The only problem was the noise you can hear when people talk in the corridor (and we heard many SGreans) and the central air-conditioning system -> doesn't feel like there is air-conditioning as there was no wind and it was even colder outside. Lol. But they do supply a small fan so we used that for air-circulation.
The first night was more of an exploratory adventure. The main target was the areas nearby, but not the immediate XMD area. So we went across the camera street, the bookshop street and found ourselves behind XinKong Mistukoshi (星光三越) which is a Japanese shopping centre. The pungent smell of the chow tauhu was somehow unbearable for me. We tried several stuff like 继光炸鸡 (fried chicken pieces with bones),胡椒饼 (pepper biscuit), 水煎包 (pan-fried+steamed chinese bun), and a couple of bubble tea store drinks. I was looking forward to sitting down for a meal but Pika was too excited to see the cd distributor having all the Ayumi singles that he was looking for. As we walked around the area, reaching furthest the 228 Park, we had covered the area near Flowers Hotel (his aunt stayed there earlier a week ago before us) and also saw some computer stuff, which was the start of the laptop hunt.
At night we went back to the hotel, flipped through the tv and went to bed around 2am I guess. The spoils of the day were brochures and a HYSNSN magazine which I bought for Eileen... Was very tired!!
I shall continue soon..... stayed tune tomorrow!!
Me at the airport
On my left is the border of XMD, on my right is Taipei Main Station area
Pika savouring the Pepper Biscuit
Bubble tea!!
Acknowledged my existence at
10:11 PM
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Another 8hrs+ before I take flight to Taipei for a breakaway from the boring environments of Singapore. Just completed some last minute work.
Murphy's Law is always at play when you are at your tightest time. This is one of the worst traits I possess -- being last minute! I tend to think that many tasks are very easy (with the help of the computer these days, things are really fast) but in fact, even though they are relatively easy, they are time-consuming. Take for example if I write an email from my hotmail to you about my trip to Taiwan. I would take 30 seconds to power up the computer, 30 seconds to get Internet Explorer to start, 10 seconds to log into Hotmail, and perhaps a minute later I would have written "regards" and clicked on the "Send" button. So writing an email to you took me 2minutes rather than if I would to type an SMS which probably will take me half the time. Or even faster, I would call you and the message would be across in 30 seconds. This is what I observed from our obsession with making things more efficient. We made things easier, faster, but not necessary time-saving. It could be due to the nature of today's environment, that the time-savings obtained is no longer enough compared to the relatively quick pace of life. In the past, an overseas mail could have taken months to reach, but an email now takes 2 minutes to write. The time-savings looks substantial here, but hey, we are no longer living in the mail era. Rarely someone would expect to wait for your mail for 2-3 months. Rather, they expect the mail to be in much faster and therefore even though 2 minutes seems fast, it is still not fast enough by today's standards.
I drifted away from my original topic, which was to complain about my loss of time due to the oversight by the reception of the Work Permit Centre at Tanjong Pagar Complex. Not only is the drive there long and boring, the wait there is absolutely a killer. To think that the receptionist told me that my printout was unacceptable and yet still admit me into the queue only to find out that my printout was still unacceptable. Isn't that stupid? I admit that I could have saved the trouble of going down again later (on a real time-tight day, it is an absolute killer task) by making the printout perfect, but what the heck, this is the stupid MOM's software fault because I clicked "Print" just as instructed on that page but the printout was cut off at the first leftest line (meaning the first 1-2 letters of every line was missing). If there was a blame-sharing approach, I would only share 10% of the fault as a "naive, assuming, lousy computer user". Why don't they just make things easier?
The other stupid thing is that the Work Permit Online (MOM's website) only opens from 8am - 10pm (Mon - Sat). This is not making use of the internet's prowess! Shouldn't it be 24-7? Now I have to wait till 8am in the morning before I can access the page to remake the printout. This is absolutely dumb. To think that 60,000 civil servants are going to have a pay rise.... not all of them deserve it, definitely.
Well, that's life for you when you have the deadline looming. I should take the bulk of the fault, of course, for having pushed myself to this timetrap...
The one last thing to write here is that my 7 day trip to Taiwan will be entirely centred in Taipei and nowhere else due to the multitudes of adventures available in Taipei alone... I guess I have no fate with the rail, the tranquility of the countryside. Hopefully, the mountains and parks inside Taipei would at least make up something for that.
Here's a new Jeffirean quote for you to ponder: "Understanding someone is not just knowing what about him but knowing when, where and how to know what about him"
Frustrated Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
4:32 AM
Monday, April 16, 2007
Today is the first day of the summer holidays. I tidied my room and cleaned up the place, washed my white laundry (i separate them into colour and white for washing). Feels great to have a bright and nice smelling room (the Softlan that was used on my clothes smells greats =p). Heh.
After cleaning, I went to the police post to get my address updated on my IC. The police officer told me that it was an OFFENCE to not update your address within 28 days of moving house. Oh dear, I didn't know that and neither was there a notice telling me so. I mean this is my first shift since I got my IC 12 years ago, so luckily I didn't get into trouble.
I proceeded to the post office to collect my postage item and went to CompassPoint Library. Woohoo! This time I was very fortunate to find a book recommending all the nice shops and snacks in Taipei! Woohoo! And there were some "vandalising" inside the book (written shop names on the maps) but they seem to be helpful somehow, I guess. I have yet to really read through the book though.
A trip to CompassPoint on a lottery day means a visit to Metro as well. Haha, trying a last attempt at making my trip as paid for as much as possible. Hope to win something!
Then I made lunch for myself using all the leftover stuff in the fridge, the last 3 pieces of ham, the last 3 frozen hotdogs, 2 left-from-yesterday's red and yellow peppers, the remaining handful of spaghetti and the last bit of mozarella cheese. The roundup seemed to be quite "calorie-laden" as the sauce which I made from abalone sauce tasted very flavourful. Possibly due to the molten cheese, and the black pepper I added, but it still tastes delicious! (to me, haha). No pictures of my cooking as I'm too siansified to take any.
Yesterday the yoga lesson was quite difficult for me as I returned home from football earlier in the morning (@ NUS) with a huge broken blister on my right sole. This is pretty usual, but I can't pinpoint the exact cause. It could be my running style (I observed from my shoes's wear and tear that my weight is spread on the righter/lefter sides of my right/left soles, my shoes look like this --> / \). Also, the ground was extremely hot with the sun bearing down without any mercy. (I was slightly cooked) and finally it could be the problems of the selection of my shoes as those were not running shoes but sneakers worn for outings. (my brown fake-Nikes) Oh well, this means I may really have to break the bank by my birthday for a pair of street soccer boots. And also to mentioned, yesterday's football I was a total goner. 0 shots on target, 0 goals, 0 balls won from tackles and aerial contests, many many miscued passes, slow movement, etc. I gotta get back in shape soon!!!!!!! I also had a pounding headache after the football while I was in the library working.
Ironically, after yoga, as I was driving and we were in a good mood, we went to Icekimo @ Sin Ming. LOL. We laughed like mad there especially about the joke on Eileen and the Rainbow TV in Taiwan. =p The ice cream was great - triple scoop on one waffle (and their menu never wrote that, I dunno how much it costs) and tiramisu ice cream on a rich chocolately brownie. Heh, Princess Cow, drooling now eh?
Saturday was a siansified day with all the exams. Strategy exam was easy but I was late about 2-3 minutes. Just dived right into the MCQs, 25 of them to be done in 30mins. The Boeing case questions for the essay part was quite open-ended, I am not sure what kind of answers will suffice, so I'm hoping for the best here. The afternoon exam was even worse. 8 open-ended questions for Performance Management & Compensation, and even though it was an open-book, I was stumped at the 1st question - The HR scorecard. Damn. Then I probably wrote too much for the other questions and in the end had no time to complete this first one. There's no way to "sian" anyway for the questioned asked for a drawing of the scorecard and I couldn't recall how it really looked like. So bleah. After exams I went home for a short break and went to Pika's home to play mahjong with his family. Wahaha, with my favourite xiaolonghanahanabihebe-douzouyoroshiku, I was the overall winner for this 3.5hour contest. Yeah!
I should be quite ready for the trip I guess. Tomorrow we will go and exchange for the currency, wonder if it would be better to exchange some there or to exchange all here. The hotel booking is confirmed, we will be staying in a dingy hotel in Ximending zone. (I really don't know, la) Hur hur. The itinerary looks sensible as our research seems to have confirm so but the trouble is the booking of rail tickets to Hualian... not too sure if we should book now or go there and buy as we are only departing on Sunday.. see how ba.
I want to look like this after the holidays lei... =x =x =x howwwwwww?
Do you know who is this guy? He is the Olympic Diving Champion Tian Liang!
I have finally submitted all the reports required for the term and even got one of the grades back (a B, which I think isn't too bad since there wasn't much to do for it). Tomorrow I have 2 papers and until now I am still not sure which one is the first one. Lol. This is Jeffire's approach to exams. Obviously, rather than to dwell on the exam, I choose to think of what to do AFTER tomorrow's exams as I would finish my 3rd year in SMU after the exams.. heh. One more year to go! Anyway do remind myself to go look at which subject is the first exam. Hahaha.
After reading XM's blog, this is a test which I took at this page Since there are only 3 choices for each question, I guess most people would get somehow similar results.
Your view on yourself: You are intelligent, honest and sweet. You are friendly to everybody and don't like conflict. Because you're so cheerful and fun people are naturally attracted to you and like to talk to you.
The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for: You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.
Your readiness to commit to a relationship: You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.
The seriousness of your love: You like to flirt and behave seductively. The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms. But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?
Your views on education You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.
The right job for you: You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.
How do you view success: You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.
What are you most afraid of: You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.
Who is your true self: You like privacy very much because you enjoy spending time with your own thoughts. You like to disappear when you cannot find solutions to your own problems, but you would feel better if you learned to share your thoughts with a person you trust.
So I like to flirt. Lol. Charles should know the answer, I guess.
Today, I finally learnt how to open lockers. Haha. And I realised there is a Starbucks in TTSH! Wow. The new KFC Meltz is like eating a burrito, not bad but also not very exciting. Haha.
Yesterday I went to school to submit my Starbucks report. Was pretty siansified as the rain poured like mad. But it subsided when I made my way to FEP (Far East Plaza) to cut my hair at Maison Hairmake. The two hairstylists are guys. I didn't make a choice but I got the smaller guy named Kevin. He really takes his time to cut and wash your hair that I only finished 1h 15mins from the time he began to touch my hair. That was really cool. I mean their service is fabulous as I was served water and magazines while waiting. Unfortunately, the people who saw me after my haircut said nothing about it. Apparently from today's feedback, I seem to have not cut my hair. But but but but, I feel that my head is certainly lighter, and my hair can fly nicer. Heh. It also means it's easier to apply hair wax to style my hair. The previous 2 weeks was horrendous with my hair thick and shapeless. Now the back is more layered and it makes me feel better. One thing to be aware if you want to cut your hair though is the oily smell you will get as half the level is occupied by eateries (hair salons occupy the other half). You can read the Hair Talk forum at www.flowerpod.com.sg to find out more about them.
It's Friday the 13th, this is my 288th post and I'm flying to Taiwan in 5 days! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!
Shiok shiok~ Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:07 PM
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Ehh.. no no. I'm not sick, and not reporting sick. Choy, touch wood. But it's 6am exact now. That means I have yet to sleep a wink...
The funny thing is I actually don't really feel sleepy. I feel very very hungry even though I downed a mug of milo and some Digestive biscuits some 3 hours ago (my MOST favourite biscuit). Fantasising about my favourite vegetarian bee hoon... but I also miss the morning lor mee stall at Khatib.. These are one of the best choices for breakfast in Khatib. Heh.
I finished the Starbucks report around 130am after repeated checking and drafting of new paragraphs. The 10 page limit for the report proper itself was very irritating and that meant I had to put most of my team's research into appendix and devote 4 full pages on suggestion strategic solutions for Starbucks Singapore. Hope it is acceptable so that I'm on track for my B..
Yesterday I brought my grandma to the hospital for a check-up. We were late 5minutes because of my delayed departure from home (struggling with the above report). However, we were kept waiting for almost an hour. Not too sure what ailment she has but she has to go for further tests to confirm. The waiting wasn't very irritating because Eileen was messaging me. The wait to pay up was troublesome because many of them were knocking off. I ran up and down the stairs a few times trying to be at the pre-admission counselling session as well as to be able to pay the silly $31.55 bill. Yawnz.
Talk about being too free after the exam. Eileen mentioned that some Indian guy crashed into her and then she felt giddy, fearing she was "cursed". I offered the option of going to the "holy place" for a cleansing and protection session, and she seems to like it. Maybe to improve her relationship with her father, they should both go to the "holy place" for peace in the mind. Personally I do not like going there even though I do not have anything against the devotees nor the "holy representative", but it is always interesting to hear superstition stories from my mother. The challenge is to make them fit into real life logic, rather than just unquestioned acceptance. My mother is a definite 200% devotee and therefore it sometimes makes me think if there is such a thing called "religious indulgence".
Speaking about indulgence, I have been really enjoying the super leisurable pace of life that I have yet to flip a single page of the textbooks. When I have the mood, I cook and make my own food. I watch tv with attention (especially HK modern setting dramas)but I still want to watch some movies like Mr Bean's Hliday or maybe the japanese movie Dream Detective (the trailer feeling reminds me of Death Note...) Anyone catching these movies soon?
Finally, most of the football leages had passed a considerable season. My fantasy league points are picking up! Hope the winds go my way!
Playing with Poohs Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
5:58 AM
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Around this time of the month, I would have to do a 6-7hour job (depending on the volume of work) which is to compile and produce the monthly invoice for my dad's workshop. So I did half of it yesterday and did the other half this morning. However, as the morning was pretty boring, I turned on my music (finally, once in a blue moon) and listened to some songs...
I began with a few Jay and Gary songs (as I am practising them for future ktv sessions) but after a few songs I went on to add Stef's songs from her new album and Angela's too. Angela's songs are so difficult to sing! I continued my work...
Until I was stuck on the song <<我怀念的>> by Stef.
I sang along the song until I cried. Why did I cry, I don't really know. I supposed it's the music... the effect of the music makes you feel there is something in the past you want to return to... a beautiful experience, perhaps. I continued my work and later when the song returned again, I still could cry with it. You know, not those bawling cry but like a sense of helplessness 无奈...It's been a long time since a song has jolted my tear glands...
Try singing it.
Touched Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
3:01 PM
Monday, April 09, 2007
Today I took the bus 851 from Bugis to Yishun. I only bought bus concession for this month as I wouldn't be going to school much, hence I took the bus as it seemed to be the fastest way to get home on bus (if there is any other way, please tell me).
I begun the trip with a seat in the middle of the bus, but as we passed by the Fu Lu Shou Complex, the old people flooded in, so I gave up my seat. Later at the Little India station, there was a free seat at the front 2nd row(the one with the "Please offer the seat to those who need it") so I went to sit there but was intercepted by a big sized lady who stuffed herself into the inner seat and put on her earphones. So I just sat on the outer seat.
Later when we passed by the stop near the Old Police Academy (where you always see the blind people there), there was one person who had the white cane, so I promptly gave up my seat. But he didn't take it, but another person offered him a seat about the 4th or 5th row. He was encouraged to take the seat so he just took the seat with gratitude, however my seat was taken up by a lady, which I guess it was okie since I already gave up my seat. However, the person did not give up the seat (even it was the "offer seat") when there was a another lady with a small kid and a baby in hand. Two ladies facing the reverse direction gave their seats up, thus relieving the lady of potential danger.
After passing Ang Mo Kio Secondary school, a girl clad in that uniform blocked the way while she stood near the entrance. An old man wanted to alight opposite KFC but couldn't because he couldn't take out his card on time. Eventually he alighted opposite Yio Chu Kang MRT. I presumed he wanted to do some more shopping at the centre but wasn't fated to.
Next, at the Castle Green condominium, one of the elderly man suddenly shouted at the window and then he tried to hurry down the bus. I thought he saw a friend and wanted to say hello, but he just rushed down the bus without tapping his card. Then suddenly he reappeared at the front door, and a guy in black t-shirt handed a silver handphone to a little boy in Anderson PE T-shirt. The elderly man said to the little guy that how could have he forgotten his phone, and luckily he saw the incident and intervened. After hearing this, I felt that the boy was really really very lucky to have someone so nice to help him, whereas I had to suffer the agony of losing stuff. Of course blame should be put on these blur owners like me, but sometimes you have to put yourself into other shoes and see that perhaps the demands of life could have sapped the owner's alertness. Ah well, I thought the elderly man was brave, decisive and action-taking. How I wished I was like him as well... to have the courage, the decisiveness and the conviction for justice. Sometimes we are just too self-protective that we never offer good help to others. Also, I also did not hear the little boy thank the uncle as apparently he was stunned and shocked. Moreover the whole bus was looking at him. However I felt that he should had thank the elderly man for making the effort to go down and up the bus for him.
The ride ended smoothly as I alighted with a surprise that the guy that had been standing beside me also alighted at the same stop. The funny part was that I was peering in his direction towards the rear side to see if there was another bus I could take instead of this hot and seatless bus, and he was peering occasionally in front to look at the traffic conditions. Hahaha.
Since I am at this, maybe I should also talk about the other bus journeys I had. Firstly I took 62 from home to go to my dad's workshop. Bad timing it was at 2pm as all the students were waiting to go home. The first batch was from the school opposite my home, Punggol Secondary School I think. The Malay guys at the bus stop had the cheek to tease a cute girl who was talking on her phone by trying to emulate the other party on the phone. Luckily the bus came quickly and the teasing had to end. Unfortunately, it was the start of a market ride as the same Malay chaps began to make noise in the bus with their silly chanting and screaming whenever the bus braked harder than normal. The situation worsened as students from another 2 schools boarded (at Hougang, but I don't know which schools they were from) and this time it was Malay girls who responded with a counter boo whenever those from the back began to scream. It was virtually a school bus full of rowdy kids, but luckily I had an old man sitting beside me, not one of those idiots. If not I would probably had screamed the bus down to a screeching halt.
After that I took 51 from Hougang Ave 3. I hate that journey because some idiot in the bus farted. Men! You know, uncles of a certain age certainly have no manners and no shame.
After handing my father the document he needed, I took another bus 25 to the next bus stop where I knew there were more buses that went to town. Again I had 51 that came and I just took it. This time the ride was pleasant and had great sights of Geylang and Joo Chiat. I also watched Lost and Found, a foodie show by Gurmit and Michelle Chia. They introduced some great finds including: 1. the beef noodles at Amoy St market 2. Rex Satay at Changi Airport T2 Staff Canteen (anyone want to go there and try the Malay food!!!!) 3. Bak Chor Mee at Beach Rd coffeeshop which is very famous (moved from Hill St to Marina Square to present location) and Pika, Eileen and I had ate there before. And on the way to town I also saw Rui Kee Chicken Rice, the so called original hainanese chicken rice of Singapore. 776 North Bridge Rd is indeed within the Arab St zone. Let's go there try!!! Anyway the bus ride was very tiring as it was long and jumpy even though I had a window seat on the upper decker. I also saw many suspect Chinese ladies in Geylang gathering in a group, but let's not have any stereotyping here, ok? I just hope my Taiwanese hotel would have nothing of the sort as it is a very cheap accomodation by normal Singaporean standards as you can see in the forums of Hardwarezone and Flowerpod.
Well, I guess that summarises my thoughts of the day. I suppose I would try to blog more often like XM as I always wanted. Instead of devoting time to the special events, I would also like to highlight the bits and pieces of normal life like my bus rides. As an observant person, I am sure I can bring home many insights.
Oh, and don't forget my nickname in Army: "Walking Bus Guide". This came from one of my old hobbies, to take long buses on rainy days to enjoy the cool and comfortable ride. (esp SMRT buses and not SBS "yucky" buses.
Ciao Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
7:18 PM
I shall talk about my few phone calls to Taiwan... Conversing in Chinese was not difficult, but they sure use different terms and add in their own Hokkien slang.... The guy from Hualian running the min su (private lodging) was loud but he's pretty nice to say he will fetch us from the train station.. hehe. Now my problem is transferring funds to their accounts because instead of doing telegraphic transfers from Singapore (I only need to do one to the hotel for the first acccomodation), I have to go there and do the transfers. But I have no banking facility there, and neither do I know if I can just step into any of these owners' banks and deposit money to their accounts like in Singapore. Hopefully they got those cash deposit machines like the UOB kind where you only need their account number and cash, then things would be 10000000000000x easier (and don't need to queue in their banks)
Earlier yesterday my family went tomb-sweeping at Lim Chu Kang. The traffic was not as bad as last year even though this time it seemed to be our earliest wake-up record at 640am. Probably more due to the long long distance from the Northeast to Southwest, we reached LCK around the same time as at any year. This time the weather was freaking hot (seems so every year). Luckily I wore my Fox sleeveless singlet. But I was in jeans as I had to work at the library at 12. I also missed praying my respects to my uncle (father's younger brother) this time, but I guess he would understand.
At the library the day was pretty good until one uncle (surname Lau) queued up and requested for Friday's Business Times. As usual, there is a need to fill up the publications consultation form (a small yellow form) but he roared to me that I'm new, I do not know him for he has worked many years at the library and that everyone else (he mentioned specifically the manager) knew him and therefore trusted him. I do not blame me for ranting because the erosion of your reputation by time and personnel changes is indeed alarming for old people who have only memories to fall back on. However, the system has been taught to me as so, and therefore I am unable to bend it for him. Now this is the part which I find myself helpless because I'm just a newbie to the world of librarian systems but yet I find that there are many mind-boggling paperwork required to complete small simple tasks. It's important to protect the library property and rules, but on the other hand, I am sure there are better ways to serve the patrons and to reduce the necessity to queue, to fill up forms. Going electronic has helped the library aplenty, but I guess there can be more to be done. In the above instance, I thought it could have been easier if the old chap was given a "regulars pass" then there would have been no need to fill up that form, which he was clearly unhappy over the time wastage and to have t deal with an impression of mistrust in the event of a formal paperwork framework. Otherwise the other suggestion I could give is to set up the newspaper shelf counter at the newspaper room and perhaps these guys would just have to sign in with their library membership card or on a book when they enter the newspapers room. Then if they need earlier publications, they just have to request for it and read it inside the newspaper room so that there is no fear of people "koping" it home.
Saturday was work at home with PS, so it wasn't very eventful. After work, the korean show on SCV 妩媚女人 (in english, What's up, Fox?) was kinda captivating. This woman called Bingxi (played by Goh Hyung-jung) contracted uterine cancer and was given a choice of 3 months to live or to become a "female eunuch" (remove her uterus) and be unable to have children. She was certainly depressed about it since she was still a virgin. The melodramatic episode (as PS put it) focused on her depression which she did several things to alleviate her feelings. First she went to the bookstore and bought a model of the female reproductive system (and subsequently in the episode she carried it all over the place), then she took the rail to the coastal ends of Korea, ending up in Oido Island. She then went to a Korean restaurant (which I think looks like our coffeeshop with those plastic chairs and round tables --> think akin to some of these chicken rice outlets in Singapore). She drank and got herself drunk, missed the last train back to Seoul, and left her model at the restaurant. At the train station, she dialled her girl-buddy, a video rental store owner, for help but she sent her brother Zhexiu, a baby-face but hunky Korean (stop drooling over Korean hunks, you girls!) instead on the long distance task of fetching her back. As Bingxi was drunk, Zhexiu was unable to get her exact location after driving all the way there, but eventually he found her at the restaurant. Then he carried her back to the car, only to stop along the waterfront path as she was too heavy for her (how can it be! look at his arms!!) . Then in her drunken stupor, she vomitted into the seawater and Zhexiu dropped his flashy car keys. And to his horror, she threw it into the water, not knowing what it was. Later, you see them inside a motel (a round water bed, woohoo) and he tries to wake her up and get her to shower, but to no avail. Then when she began to sob non-stop, he goes onto the bed to comfort her, and suddenly she starts kissing him. Of course he tried to resist but she kept kissing him until he couldn't resist and you know... hur hur hur. So the next episode highlights showed that she was shocked that he did not use a condom and.... the story goes on.
Here's a fan-clip on the male lead, played by Cheon Jung-myung
and a link to a very funny clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wVxa6I5OQ&mode=related&search=
Oh well, to end the post, Friday there wasn't any KTV as I was whisked off to tomb sweeping.... really apologetic about it. It wasn't a good date anyway with only 3 guys available...But it was a great day at Gerald's place with a surprise on PS which finally worked. (Actually two surprises, but the first one was a pre-surprise surprise, which didn't really work) I was late for the Games Day as the tomb sweeping ended pretty late. Gerald recommended a new pizza shop, called Pizza de France and it's really nice! $44.60 for 4 pizza isn't expensive either (2x 1-for-1). After pizza-ing, we played some very exciting UNO and then the second surprise was staged flawlessly. Woohoo. Even I got abit tad surprised (due to the timing and our immersion in the super competitive UNO game). The blackforest cake from Crystal Jade bakery was a tad filled with too much cream, otherwise it was fine, heh. The day ended with a couple more rounds of UNO, some packing up, a short walk in J8 and then the train trip home..
Yeah. So that's all for today. Life still moves on...
Acknowledged my existence at
10:33 AM
Friday, April 06, 2007
My lucky charm.... I have absolutely no idea where it has gone when it is supposed to be inside my wallet!! It's a $50 note with the no 89888! Since I got it, I was winning every match day until Wednesday and I discovered it was gone! I am definitely sure I did not spend it because I have enough cash and other paying facilities. Sigh. Of course, that also meant I lost $ on Wednesday...
Recently, I have been seeing by coincidence people I know in the past but no longer contact. Yeah. I am sure I know them but I am not sure if they still remember me, so I cannot just say hello lest it becomes a super embarassing occassion. Super brain, lousy mouth..
Today's take home exam was longer than I expected. I began promptly at 9am, with a slice of peanut butter and bread and a cup of coffee. I only got off my seat at 3.37pm! I quickly got changed and packed a few items while the printer started to print my exam script. Eventually I was 20mins late, submitted my paper at 420pm. Prof asked if I came from home and yeah, I came from home. Now I hope my effort doesn't come to nought because I scored better than expected in the mid-terms (see previous posts) as this is a good chance of obtaining a potential A-.
After submitting the paper (and running a whole long distance) I sped (again by running) to the DBS Bank at Raffles City. Luckily the bank was still opened and I had my transaction done. Then I went to ToaPayoh to meet Pika, who was at the library working, so that I could do some internet banking transaction. He then went home while I met Eileen for her Japanese oral revision, Man, she sure needs plenty of luck. But she should be able to pull through if she does not get the jitters tomorrow. Oh, one thing to note, Mr Bean's ice blend with bubbles is really nice. I think it beats all the SweetTalk drinks I had drank. The healthy, smooth, creamy taste is certainly something SweetTalk has plenty to do to catch up. SweetTalk, do you hear me? By the way, does anyone know how one can open a SweetTalk branch? Wonder if it's a franchise or a super chain.
Dinner sucks. Again it's Qingming Festival so there was a great spread to offer for the ancestors, but the oil..
Yesterday I was very tired and hence slept at an irregular timing. Woke up at 130am but only Eileen was online. Went back to bed and woke up around 430am and caught a glimpse of Chelsea and Man Utd's misery. Hahaha. As expected, but no thanks as I did not put my money on the table. Sigh. I was very tired because my pedometer (my handphone has a step-counter, known as a pedometer) showed 15559! The only places I went to Khatib and Toa Payoh so the bulk of the walking was done in the library as I had to do 3 hours of roving (equivalent to guard duty in the library) in the library. I take it as a good exercise though, which I need badly as the weighing machine shows a rightward trend... I'm back to where I began at the start of army... SOBZ.
Tuesday I was in class for the last round of presentations in the Strategy class. Two were F&B establishments Food Junction and Bengawan Solo and the other two, Standard Chartered Bank and Creative Technologies. The scales were tipped as the seemingly silent group in which my friend Adel is in, made a breakthrough in class and gave really interesting views on how can Creative move on strategically from its losing battle with Apple. The rest were pretty standard fare. Now I see a glimmer of hope for my Starbucks project since there are other groups who seem to have lost their idea of what the subject is all about.
So, now I think life is a gain-some-lose-some cycle in which we all need not care too much about what we lose or gain... just treasure what we have and things will be just as precious even when lost...
Heh, no pain, no gain.
Fatty Me Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:05 AM
Monday, April 02, 2007
Excerpts of my life:
Work ------ Files and stacks of papers strewn all over in my living room... Clearing accounts for tax accounting period..
School ------- Projects are left with Strategy and Practice and Power of Leadership papers... both to be handed up next week..
Recreation ----------- As usual, football, singing and dous give me a sense of life in this hopelessly busy world..
Schoolmates ------------- A huge number of SMUsians are going abroad or are abroad on exchange now! Talk about the power of globalism... As the exams period close in, I also hear many of them cursing the report and project deadlines.. Someone of my year just passed away after battling one year plus with cancer... hope her family will be able to come to terms with the loss of another loved one..
Friends -------- Everyone's battling with deadlines, ganbatte ne~~ For those working or looking for jobs, yesss, the job market is good now, hope you guys get a good pay rise or a good job. Work hard, work smart and enjoy a good balance of work and life~
Home ------ Busy busy family, so home's messy and needs some major cleaning...
Jeffire ------- 16 days to Taiwan! hahaha. Oh man, please enjoy Gary Cao's singing below.. I went K-Lunch today and didn't sing well... sigh. Some tips to sing well: 1. sleep well 2. eat something 1-2hrs before singing? 3. sing something easy first then move on to the challenging ones.. hehe.
My recent favourite songs to sing and impress the girls is something like this: