queen's birthday

last year this time we were in bali.

this year, iC's in japan, hL's in vietnam and daph's busy with her family.

shY, bK, queen, shAron and i started the 4D4N celebration with dinner at mag's wine kitchen and ended the 2008 celebration by completing the final leg of our triathlon - the swim - at shY's pool.

N1: dinner @ mag's wine kitchen
D1: tennis (1 hour plus) + cycle (25 km!)
N2: $25(-famous)-hokkien-mee-dinner @ geylang + 永和豆花
D2: cycling @ pulau ubin
N3: dinner @ 华友园 (best dish: prawns!)
D3: brunch @ 阿一 turf city 点心 + shopping for sunglasses at QSC
N4: drinks @ "gone fishing" (hume ave) + dinner at hawker centre opposite beauty world
D4: completion of traithlon - swim @ shY's pool




it was a very tiring, interesting and accomplished queen's birthday celebration.

a very "australian" day

janel from e5 called to ask about "structured questions". i told her to ask me on friday. it was either too early in the morning or i was too impressed by the fact that some kid was concerned about school on a public holiday, that i forgot to tell her off for calling and missed the chance to scream at her for not respecting my privacy - i'm not your friend!

after that, it was breakfast with "will & grace", till lunch with "will & grace" until finally it's time to leave for tennis. and so we really played today. shY, queen, bK and me. that's when the "australian" day really started. the sky was so blue.


we must have felt really sporty today cos after playing in the sun, we decided to go cycling at east coast. and we really did :) for close to two hours. once we passed the east coast crowd, the route became very "australian", and even the feel, the air, the mood. it just felt very good.

and we've decided to go to ubin tomorrow :)

second time ... first time

Went to watch 都是当兵the second time on Thursday.

And today, I rowed in a dragonboat for the first time :)

All thanks to wKeat for sending that very first email, the 12 of us - hLoon, wKeat, mWai, Edwin, Shiekh, wLi, Candy, sPing, mDa, Veron, sKun and me - had a 10-minute crash course before the race and amaizingly emerged 2nd! We were so good that we qualified for the winners' race - "A" finals :)

School has been quite hard this week. These 2 "events" kind of softened it a bit. If not for the fact that exams are coming soon and that I've already booked tickets for the holidays, I'd really not be looking forward to the coming week.

Yurks.

p/s we bought a 37" "sharp" tonite -- $1,250. Hooray!

perth 2007

凌晨两点抵步柏斯(Perth)，取了车子开往Sorrento Beach Resort, 开始了这一次我们七人一组的澳洲之旅。

老天爷对我们不错，晴朗的蓝天以及暖和的阳光，陪我们游游走走，看遍了干净且美丽的大都会,充满活力的城市，绿油油的公园以及密集的市中心。

告别柏斯，车子往南开去，我们在玛格丽特里弗(Margaret River)住了两晚。这一站，我们去了莓果园，酿酒厂，巧克力工厂以及坚果工厂，享用了美食好酒，乐在其中。

下一站是瓦尔普(Walpole)。位于瓦尔普诺那路普国家公园(Walpole Nornalup National Park)中央，附近高大的廷格桉(Tingle)树林和人迹稀少的海岸让那里风景一枝独秀。树顶道(Tree Top Walk)和“古老帝国”(Ancient Empire)是两大世界知名景观,叫人叹为观止。

第二次的柏斯之旅，虽然只有短短的六天，但足以叫人回味无穷。我们还会再去！

(sent to 我报 on 19 Jan 2008, Saturday -- published on 17 Apr 2008)

dumb tigress

last saturday i was at the budget terminal to send kai kai & ying ying (plus their parents) off to HCM. the tiger counter girl was so rude and the staff next to her, either her supervisor or understudy, was quiet all the way. it was infuriating.

she checked in 5 pieces of luggage and then told us that we were 28 kg overweight and had to pay $280 for excess baggage, or we could remove things from that last piece of lugguage. i asked her to bring back those earlier 5 pieces and she said "cannot" - a flat "cannot". if this was in a cartoon, you would have seen smoke coming out of me! and she had to add oil to the fire. she further commented, "i told you earlier to check in one by one."

i knocked on the counter and repeated, "bring back my luggage". thank god for miin's friend Roy who had the sense of mind to step in. if not for his "distraction", i might have been a modern day 武松 :)

i think the problem could be that these young "punks" are not "service" people. they are there to work and work only. totally brainless.

wonderful tonite

it's 12 midnite on 13 march 2008. i guess i'm a night person. at this time of the day, i usually think better. my mind is clearest.

was just sorting out the HCM pictures earlier. what do i do with so many pictures? one's memory can but hold that much, isn't it?

had a good lunch with lynette this afternoon. this fine young lady is adorable. and you know she is real after spending 5 minutes with her. she is that kind students will love and respect and her bosses will too. we chatted candidly over a sandwich lunch. very nice indeed.

calvin asked how come he's not mentioned in my blog? and he said i should write that he is a nice guy. he is, in fact. and to be honest, i think i've been really quite lucky. all my friends are nice people. i'm grateful we crossed paths.

good nite, everyone.

second time in HCM

i think i could be getting used to travelling. only packed this moring. the flight was scheduled to take off at 12.30 pm and we left home at about 10.15 am. not sure what time the plane took off as i was sleeping already. the next thing i knew was that the air stewardess has placed 3 arrival/departure cards on my lap.

this time, our group is 15-member strong, 5 from my side, 10 from bK's.

i really can't remember (too) much from the previous trip here. i don't suppose much has changed but i think it could also probably be that i'm rather tired and can't recall much. i'm tempted to say that that's a sign of aging but i also heard that old people remember things well....so it'll be kind of contradicting.

sharon says the people here arn't that polite. i might have to agree with her. i recall the hong kong people are nicer. here, it seems, they are not smiling as much now :)

this being the first post in 2008, i shall wish all visitors to my this tiny space a very happy and healthy 2008, and to my dear cousin who's still sleeping at SGH a speedy recovery.

have a good one!