SCREAMING IN AGONY. i need a long break after this. [[ espoyr ]] * 14:49 ---
01 July 2009
my father got some free tickets to the singapore flyer from work, and the four of us went for it. it's been a long while since the family went out together -- as in, just the four of us. there's nth wrong with ningxin tagging along, but it's just a feeling lost for so long, it felt a little foreign.
the flyer was alright, i suppose. frankly speaking, the 30-min ride was a bore, and the scenery of construction cranes wasn't the most worthy of time. nonetheless, it was nice having a bird's eye view of our island, even though i most certainly wouldnt pay a cent for a ride on the flyer.
on the way home, my brother quipped a random "i book the computer first ah. last say."
don't get him wrong. there are four laptops/desktops in the house currently; there's no need to "chope" any computers. hee, but it was just a phrase we used frequently when we were much younger, sharing just one computer. it's so nostalgic. i was on the brink of bursting out in laughter, if not for my lack of publicly expressed emotions (as usual). secretly, i was grinning away inside, because that sentence brought back so much nostalgia.
hey bro, i will only have one sibling my whole life (unless ma and pa decide to, erm, you know). no matter how close i am to the other awesome guys in my life (daniel, mingyong, jon poh), there's no way they will ever measure up to you, cos you are the one who has seen me through it all: braces, tantrums and annoying acts.
thanks. (: [[ espoyr ]] * 16:06 ---
26 June 2009
TGIF.
okay, actually, not really, because (believe it or not) i really really enjoy work. my supervisor eugene is awesome. he's incredibly brilliant, but still very down-to-earth and easy-going. it's easy to talk to him, because he doesn't have the wall built around him, like how superiors tend to have. hahaha, and if i havn't mentioned this, eugene is amazingly intelligent. i love talking to him, because he always provides me with fresh perspectives, forcing me to consider situations from different angles. OH, and i almost forgot to mention (yes, i just scrolled up just to put in this part): EUGENE RESEMBLES CHOR MING. it's not really in terms of appearance; it's more about the vibe. like the posture they adopt when they're thinking, the way they type (both have huge hands and long fingers!), the little, humourous sacarsm they inject into their sentences, the hidden grin that's dying to be given away, and even the hairstyles before AND after a haircut. oh, and yes, all that brilliance is very similar as well. it's eerie, really. more than once, i almost called eugene "chor ming", lol.
and if eugene is an 8 out of a scale of 1 to 10 for intelligence, my director terence is like a 20. i had my first meeting with him today, and the way he rambled on about the project is jaw-dropping. he can generate ideas faster than the h1n1 virus can reproduce itself. and my fellow interns, johann and naijot, are very smart. we spend our afternoons tearing apart issues like the iran electoral uproar. i swear, i have so much fun at work, it doesn't even feel like work.
of course, i'm being paid (or rather, i'm given an allowance, lol), so i have to do sth right. in fact, i've been doing lots of work, splitting and cutting data in as many ways as i can. the end point is a bit hazy now, cos i'm still not very sure what i'm supposed to do with all the data lah, but i'm sure things will get better, esp at the rate my supervisor, colleagues and i are bouncing ideas off one another. it's honestly the best job i've ever gotten, beating even my stint as a cook at modesto's.
in lynn's (another supervisor) word, this is not a normal internship. she said that because johann and i are being worked to death, strangled with confusing data and unclear goals. but hey, that's the fun part man! it's like a landscape; we just need to find the mountain in the fog. wah, if i get to do this kinda thing for my 6-year bond, i would be in heaven (because i'm too happy and because i'm overworked =P).
after all that rambling, i'm still glad that it's the weekend lah, cos i honestly need a break! the whole week has been a nightmare, cos i woke up at 6am for most days, and gym-ed for an hour before walking to my workplace. my official working hours are from 8.30am to 6pm, but i usually stay beyond that to 6.40pm cos i'm too noob to finish my work on time! hahaha. but i actually enjoyed the unpaid OT! (i'm starting to sound like a workaholic.) today was supposed to be "blue sky friday", aka we get to leave work half-hour earlier, at 5.30pm. but the meeting with the director dragged way past 6pm, so i only knocked off at about 6.50pm, later than usual! hahaha.
oh, and i had free lunches (note: pural) this week! mon was my first day, and the entire dept brought me out for pasta mania. and on wed, johann joined the dept, and eugene treated the entire dept to sakae sushi! plus, it was the director's birthday, so we had fruit cake! and today was the last day of work for liling and amy, so the director treated the entire dept (11 of us okay!) to tatsu! it's this atas japanese restaurant at chijmes. everyone had a bento box ($22.80++ each!) plus sushi to share. it's one of the most awesome sushi i've eaten in my life. the fish was so fresh that one bite was enough to cut the sushi into half. hahaha, and because it was sze min's birthday, we had cute cupcakes for desserts! and when i came home, there was durian. i think i gained two million kilograms this week! >.<
whee! i'm feeling super productive, cos after i came home, had dinner and showered, i settled down with my trusty laptop and completed all my work for ukssc, vine and dhs youth alumni! so right now, i have nothing to do, except work (as in, my internship work). it's not even compulsory! but i just want to brainstorm a bit and generate some ideas, as well as have a look at the new data that eugene gave to me this afternoon, before monday rolls around again.
ohoh! and i'm takng a dimsum course every tue evening! the past tue, it was lor mai gai and some steamed tau sah kueh thing. next week, it's gonna be yam kueh (yum!) and some other tau sah dim sum. awesome stuff man. plus, thu i met up with the college hall mates again for din tai fung. tmr, i'm going for a sudoku competition before meeting up with the fat36 people! awesome, exciting stuff, which makes singapore the best place to be (for me, at least!). and yea, sunshine, i miss you. garrh, trying to spend as little as possible, even if all those dining out. ah well, but sunshine is for me. shine on me! :D [[ espoyr ]] * 16:03 ---
他说：“北京奥运会前，我去中国，看到一个很大的广告牌。画面是一个非洲籍的短跑选手，上面写着英文标语。我对这个广告标语为什么用英文写，感到奇怪。在中国看到的英文广告，通常错别字蛮多，但那个没有。那个广告标语说 “The person to beat is not the one in front but the one inside.” “要超越的人不在前面，而是在里面”。这正是德明办学的理念。如果有一天，我们真的超越华中，那是我们努力的结果，但不是我们努力的目的。”
i forgot; results were out on monday. natalie asked me, "have you tried calling?" and i went, "call what?" according to her, the lines were so heavily engaged, she couldn't get through. surprise surprise. i couldn't even be bothered to remember the date, much less the number. on the other hand, others are racking up hefty phone bills to know their conditional results. i think i'll just wait for the finalised one to come up online next month.
on a separate note, i'm quite excited. i think i'm ready to take the next step to full recovery. anticipate on my behalf too. (: [[ espoyr ]] * 15:34 ---
14 June 2009
4 june: london i camped at russell sq for 1 hour, waiting for my bro and nx to arrive. they finally got here at nearly 6! it was a slightly bad start, because i was springing to bring them to harrods, but my bro decided that logging on to his online game was more important. tempers flared slightly, but all's good.
we headed for harrods, but we only had slightly over an hour before closing hours struck. grabbed a quick dinner of salmon pizza (super awesome) and ice cream palette, and raced through the animal kingdom slightly. didn't have enough time to shop, so i had to find time from some other day to bring them back again.
5 june: london unofficially the first day of their trip. first thing, i brought them to the big ben (my personal favourte monument of london) and the westminister abbey. the abbey is so cool! the ground was not that even, because there were graves/tombstones every 10 steps taken, no kidding. but the ceiling took my breath away with its majest. too bad photography was not allowed!
and then we trekked to the national gallery, where we didn't dwell for long, because my bro and nx are not that into art. took some photos at the trafalgar square, before we raced to the pier. took the thames clipper to tower pier, where we witnessed the grand tower bridge open and close. then we climbed to the top of the tower bridge for a panorama view, plus roamed around the tower of london to gasp in awe at the crown jewels.
after which, we chionged to catch the thames clipper again, all the way to greenwich. we raced up the hill to the observatory, just to take a photo of the meridian line. hahah, it's like where time starts man, pretty cool, i reckon. we tried running down the hill, but it was in vain, cos we missed our ferry by like 3o seconds. waited another 20 min for the next train, thus by the time we got to covent garden, it was already 6pm.
we had spanish tapas for dinner. yummy but not filling. too bad the market at covent garden was wrapping up after our meal, so my bro and nx didnt get to catch the market in all its afternoon glory. we wanted to shop at the octagon next to covent garden, but most of the shops were closed or starting to close, at 7pm, already.
6 june: london a late start this morning, because i was tied up with some house stuff. finally, at 9plus in the morning, we ventured out to the london dungeon, which is supposed to be this horror house thing, except that it ended up quite boring. hahaha. the only part i liked was probably the last one, about the gallows.
stomach growling, we crossed the road to the borough market, where we feasted on grilled cheese sandwich, falafel wrap, strawberries & cream, ostrich burger, raw oysters and focaccia. i wish we ate more, but there were insufficient cash and stomach capacty, sigh.
with our protruding tummies, we went to the st paul's cathedral. not as majestic as the westminister abbey, but far more serene and peaceful. we crawled up 270plus steps to get to the whispering gallery, and enjoyed a bird's eye view of the church.
was supposed to go to camdem after that, but we decided on shopping instead, hehe. brought them to primark, which is this budget fashion store. i only bought a t-shirt, a working-professional blouse, socks (7pairs for £2!), a pair of sandals and a basic black t-shirt. my brother bought a blazer & trousers set (£30+ only!), 2 button-down shirts and a pair of black pants. nx bought a moutain, i think. the bill rang up to £102, sigh.
and then we played with some toys at hamleys (the biggest toy store in london, i think), before chionging back to my hall for dinner with my hall mates. very sad, you know! it's kinda like our last dinner together as hall mates, because more and more people are flying back to sg already. we had dinner at hare & tortoise, which is a japanese/asian eatery. hahaha, i don't really know what's the point, since we're all headed back for 3 months of char kway teow and laksa. but the food's not the point! i would really really miss the company, even though i already have awesome housemates.
7 june: winsor, stonehenge & oxford
the title says it all. first up was windsor, where we visited the favourite palace of queen elizabeth II. the gallery was quite cool, but starting to feel like a dime a dozen. too bad it was a sunday, so the chapel wasn't open to public. oh, but we had the awesome strawberry ice-cream, found only on royal grounds, that made up for any loss, hee.
stonehenge was 1.5hrs drive away, which was a dread. we got there, hopped off the bus, took a walk around the stones, and got back onto the bus. cos it was hailing. in summer. i swear, the end of the world is coming.
oxford was another 1.5hrs away, so we only had 1.5hrs in the town. ditched the tour group and went looking for allison instead. she brought us into christ church (the dining hall, which the great dining hall of hogwarts was modelled after, as well as the chapel). then, allison handed us over to mayank and ian wern, who fattened us up with ice-cream made locally. we took a somewhat leisure stroll around town, and were almost late for our bus back to london. ah well, too short a trip, so i'll be back, guys!
8 june: paris
woke up early (as in 5am) to catch our eurostar to paris! reached there all weary, but at least our hostel was easy to find. we dumped our bags and went to museum orsay and hotel invalides, but neither was open! therefore, our first sightseeing ended up as a traditional french pub (we followed the construction workers to it, lol) and i had my first authentic tartine (kinda like an open-faced sandwich)! i loved it, albeit the jelat-ness due to all that goat cheese. kor and nx had boring omelette, which tasted strangely like chinese food.
to avoid disappointment, we went for the never-closed attraction, aka the effiel tower. thanks (or no thanks) to the rain, the queue was reasonably short. we only queued for 30 to 45 min. the bird's eye view of paris was worth the wait, but the cold reduced us to a few hasty shots of the scenery before we shove our frostbitten hands back into the warmth of our pockets. yes, it was that cold, brr.
going about the london way, we walked more, to the arc de triomphe (arch of triumph) and down champs elysee (the shopping distrcit). no wait, to correct myself, i should say we walked up and down and up champs elysee, just to find the darned babytree my bro and i wanted so badly. (and no! we didn't find it there! ='( )
almost pengsan-ed, so we cut short our route, and headed back to our hotel, grabbing a baguette sandwich along the way. not the most memorable sandwich, i must say.
9 june: paris
woke up early. again. went to disneyland. almost didn't make it there, because we got all confused by the metro map. thankfully, we got there safe and sound, just in time to spam the rides at the disney studios before the crowd got in. we went on some rock & roll roller coaster, space stimulation ride, animagic, cinemagic and tower of terror. the last was the funniest, cos it's supposed to be some high-drop ride, except there was some technical error and we got stuck on the ride for like 20min or so. it was so retarded, cos we honestly thought it was part of the ride for 10 min, lol.
disney studios was more like an amusement park than a magical land, so we hopped over to disneyland for lunch and photo-taking. horrors of horrors, they don't sell churros at disneyland paris! at least not in the form of a long stick sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar. we had some at lunch, in the shape of shoehorses and way too deep-fried. there were the usual mickey mouse-shaped stuff, like mickey-head brioche, doughnuts, etcetc.
disneyland is not exactly known for its ride. naturally, the phantom house and indiana jones ride almost put me to sleep. space shuttle was still cool though, perhaps the only worthwhile ride for thrillseekers. even so, disneyland seemed to have lost its magic. there weren't many nice disney products to buy, and on the whole, the whole place just seemed so gimmicky. i wonder if it's just paris, or it's me growing too old / going to too many disneylands.
we actually left disneyland before the closing time, because we ran out of things to do! went back to central paris for dinner instead, and i had a croque madame! it's like croque monsieur (ham & cheese toast), but with an extra egg on top. for the first time in ages, i ate the egg yolk, cos it just seemed too wrong to pick out the yolk in croque madame.
10 june: paris
last day was still an early morning call, cos we needed to be at the louvre as early as humanly possible, in order to beat the crowd. saw the overrated mona lisa, but i much preferred this art piece depicting a war, as well as the statues.
and yes, we walked, ala london. fast-tracked (cos we're faminished) along the river and had lunch at rive gauche. the dishes were like art pieces themselves; while the servings were small, we were overwhelmingly satisfied. with our tummies filled, we went to the court of justice and notre dame (thank goodness for free entry). and then amazingly, we tubed! went to look for the babytree at museum l'orangie. THANK GOODNESS WE FOUND IT. (i'm so excited, but i havn't started planting it.) we walked around a while more, to see the madeleine and the opera house, and helped an elderly japanese couple to find their hotel. all of those, and soon we're back to our hostel to grab our bags for our eurostar back to london. that's the end of our paris getaway!
ohoh, dinner was quite exciting actually. i planned a pub dinner to let my bro and nx soak in the traditional english experience. but what i didnt foresee was a football match, england versus andorra, no less! imagine the frenzy and excitment of the dining crowd in the pub! we lingered after our dinner of burgers and steak to catch the first half of the match, before we all got so bored and retired to my hall.
hahaha, and while at the pub, i tried to introduce my bro and nx to alcohol. started them off with a subtle cranberry vodka, then a cocktail, and lastly a shot. hehe, the shot was left like 1/2 untouched tho. -.-
11 june: canterbury
another day trip! seeing how tired the both of them were (i overlooked the fact that they werent very physically apt, i guess), i decided today was just gonna be free and easy. the plan was to go to canterbury to just chill, but it almost didn't happen! you see, london was having another of its strikes; this time it was the transport system! the tube decided. to stop for a day, and we had to cab to the coach station (freaking £12.90!) thankfully we had a fantastic cab driver who got us there in no time, cursing at the traffic on the way, lol.
3 hours later, we got to the beautiful town of canterbury, which was just slightly too touristy. we had a fabulous brunch at tiny tim, including a ploughman's puffkin (cheese & chutney sandwich), plump pilgrim (a biscuit-like thing) and a three-tiered stand of sandwiches, scones and pastries. i felt so tai-tai, lol!
i kept up my promise of free & easy, and we just roamed around aimlessly. chanced upon a 40-min boat cruise, and we got an awesome guide whose biceps got as much muscles as my entire body. oh, and we shopped! espirit was having the craziest sales, and i got a winter coat for just £14.99. it was madness and pure joy man, hahaha.
despite the strike, we tried our darned best to get to bayswater (including some temper flares and a 20-min walk from nottinghill), just so i could introduce my brother to possibly the best roast duck in the entire europe. dinner was at goldmine, and i swear, the roast duck is super-duper awesome. incredibly sinful, incredibly fatty, but worth every calorie. after dinner, it was a stroll through hyde park, where i think they enjoyed themselves the most in the entire trip, watching swans waddle and dogs run.
12 june: london
first up is natural history museum, where i finally got to see the dinosaur bones, and other stuffed animals. erm, cant say im very interested, but human biology was fun, cos there was this section about psychology, haha.
then we trekked to harrods a second time, just to see harrods when it's not closing. fastforward, we headed to claridges for lunch at gordon ramsey's, which is a one michelin star restaurant, mind you. obviously we picked the cheapest item, which is the set lunch, costing £30+ each.
it. was. amazingly. divine.
first up was amuse boche of tomato puree sherbet with mozarella cheese and cherry tomato, plus assortment of bread with peppered butter. the former is really innovative (for me), cos i never tasted tomato-flavoured ice before.
my choice of appetiser was butter asparagus with soft-boiled egg and mushrooms. super super good, i tell you. the egg was solid on the outside, but when you poke it apart, the yellow liquid centre flowed out, all over the puff pastry.
for mains, i picked seared beef with tomato chutney and chickpea fries. this was the first time i ate beef the way it was said to be cooked. as in, it was ordered as medium-rare, and it came exactly as that, instead of bloody or unevenly cooked. the chickpea fries reminded me of muruku, haha.
desserts was a slight disappointment, for i was looking forward to it so much. the rhubard and almond tart with milk ice cream was pretty normal. nx's nougat with strawberry salad was much nicer, cos of all its milkiness.
and we ended our £105 lunch with some petit fours: dark chocolate truffle with cherry liquor centre and violet macarons. perfect ending, i tell you.
after that we walked along oxford street, all the way back to my london. scrambled around doing laundry and packing the last bits of my stuff. hugged jo, wei lin, jiayi and mel goodbye, argh. i honestly can't believe one academic year has flown by just like that. right now, i can't fanthom life/dinner next academic year without all the college hall people. sigh, hope there will be meet-up often.
we skipped dinner, cos our leisure lunch ended at 3pm, haha. went straight to her majesty's theatre for phantom of the opera. undoubtfully one of the best musicals at west end, because the story plot was just so tragic yet romantic! phantom appeared from anywhere and everywhere, and christine had an amazing vocal range. that said, i still think les mis has the best theatre tricks though; i absolutely couldnt see what was going on onstage between scenes, because they're just so good at shifting props in the dark (not cos i was sitting too high up kay!).
13 june: london]
LAST DAY. ohmygosh, i'm super missing home. woke up early, packed all the rest of my stuff, and lugged all the luggages to the new house. it was bittersweet, leaving college hall for a great house and fantastic housemates to match.
took another walk through a park: regent's park, this time. not as dog-friendly, but beautiful flowers in full bloom. we walked through the park to get to mdm tussaund, apparently the first in the world. the place was horrifyingly crowded, so all i managed was hasty shots and none of the touristy, comical shots i should have taken. oh, while i was taking a picture of martin luther king, when the ang-moh next to me asked me who he was. i thought he was quizzing me, and i got all nervous, when it just happened he really didnt know who this magnificent hero was, lol.
after that, it was portobello market! not my favourite market, because it's too touristy and crowded for my liking. moreover, it's pretty much an antiques market for like 1/3 of the road, none of which interests me. hehe, only the food did. we had yummy mushroom pizza and rice croquettes, followed by desserts of the famous velvet cupcakes from hummingbird bakery. zipped through the rest of the market, and then magically transported ourselves to camdem market. i say magical, because the tube was not working again!
camdem was a whole new world, really. i love it cos it's just so different from the rest of london! it's kinda like bugis village: a lot of tattoo shops and gothic clothes shops. walked around a bit, before we headed back to my house for a rest.
oh, and i tried to have a shower. it was horrible. the boiler worked for a mighty ten minutes, before it decided to fail, IN THE MIDDLE OF MY SHOWER. so there i was, all drowned in bubbles, i decided to let the water run for a while, in hope that the boiler decided to revive its pathetic self. after ten minutes, i realised my feet were numbed from the icy water. i gave up hope that hot water was gonna come back, so i took the quickest shower of my life and received a headache as a grand prize. way to go, new house.
tube all the way to the airport, which was quite bad as well. crowded was an understatement for the description of the tube conditions. there were suddenly too many people with luggages headed for the airport, and the guy behind was pretty much sticking my face onto the wall. even up to zone four, there were still quite a fair bit of commuters on the tube; i honestly think they need to shift house man.
but SIA was amazing, as usual. the enthusiastic greetings of the staff, the warm towel and free-flow of drinks and the luxurious leg room. oh, i requested for the hindu meal this time, because nx requested for vegetarian meal and kor requested for the seafood meal; i see no reason to stare hungrily at their food while waiting for the trolley to come by. hee, i got mocked by the staff who confirmed my meal request, and he happened to be a real indian. i wanted to dig a hole and hide myself, but the meal made it worthwhile to stay put in my seat, hee. the first meal was masala mutton and paneer salad; the second meal was prata with dhal curry! super awesome. but i think i'm not gonna do this again, cos it's just slightly too embarrassing, lol.
and the heart-warming "and to all the singaporeans, welcome home" statement: the same on all the sq flights, but still very much appreciated. (:
and i finally had my mee pok at the airport food court. XD [[ espoyr ]] * 22:27 ---
06 June 2009
i have the most awesome housemates. sometimes i complain about them, with them, to them, but at the end of the day, i feel unworthy of their company. they are absolutely the best people on earth. we had our great migration on wed. aaron skipped his last hall breakfast to be at the car rental first thing in the morning. conran woke up early and was involved in every moving trip. jeff helped me fix my desk, when he didn't even fix his, because he knows i can't do it when i get back to london in sept. where else do you get fantastic housemates like them? (: [[ espoyr ]] * 22:24 ---