Voyage

Trips planning in 2011

2011-11-25T02:16:00.001+08:00

Hi

First time blogging on my iPad , quite irritating actually with the keyboard so small, but I'm lying on my bed .... Haha lazybones me....

I do have a lot of leave to clear this year, within the last 2 months of the year actually..... It started off with me trying to accumulate for leave days for 1 big off period ... Like 2 weeks those kind, and then it got out of hand where i preferred tuning up for work rather than taking MCs..... And now I run the risk of leave days being burnt!.... How cool is that!~~

What's cooler is I've got 2 team mates with the same situation... So in the last 2 months, the team is practically at 75% capacity each day, but I haven't got what I wanted.... A long trip overseas....

Let's see, I went to Bali in April, phuket in may/June and Perth in july/ august, each lasting about 4-5 days, including the weekend, so didn't have to utilize much leave... Now it's too late to plan a Taiwan or shanghai/Mongolia trip even if I had 2 weeks off. The flights to shanghai (for snoozing in my aunt's place) is quite cheap in December at 500++, but does it make sense to go for 7-8 days? I'll probably be going for facials and detox and foot massages daily cos there's no one to travel with me ...shopping? The malls are way too expensive and the wholesale place is too dangerous*** imagine me a shopperholic in a wholesale cheap everything -you-can-get place***.... I've tried in and spent 1.5hrs getting a cab with the sunset descending......really scary in those places....

Taiwan seems a popular choice .... Super popular with some friends visiting it 3 times a year.... but no boring complains from anyone so far except for the raining weather..... I'm on a diet currently and visiting the food paradise could really ruin the strict diet I took 4 months to train up for..... But I plan on visiting it in February? End feb probably.... Again I sort of see myself touring around myself... Why do individual traveller's ticket cost so expensive...

I wanted to visit the euro region again, it's been almost 4 years since my exchange and 4 months of touring, memories not so fresh but still very alive , the scenery remains unchallenged in my vision, but new Zealand is a strong competitor, according to 2 pals..... I'll visit the eastern europe this time, poland, hungary, slot in south france and north germany, if budget allows , Finland and Sweden....... I see a cost of 6k.... Prob add another 2k........~~~~~~ there's a high chance I'll visit the states before going back euro though , travel from Canada down to western north America , I seem to be attracted to Alaska , the ice, sleds, huskies, snow, whiteness ,cold .... Oh by the way, I love the cold...traveling in the cold to see architecture, culture .... Makes me wanna go the Heilongjiang , but heard there's nothing there except for ice sculptures, mongolia sounds fantastic as well to visit my cousins in winter, heard they are masters of ice skiing and skating at 10 years old...
Ok ..... Yes USA and Canada, budget needed about 6 k for a 2 week? ... Hope my Sis and bro will be free in June to travel together? but who wants to go in summer!?!?!?!?, I'm a polar bear and my bro is big foot.... We MELT in the sun like seriously..... Ok see~~~ we need a plan for 2012....

Off the point, there something I'm getting used to, which my brother has already gotten used to...... Friends marriages..... It's weird to see friends (same age) getting married, some have kids.... New feeling to get used to and understand, well at least I have to understand cos I'm not one of those joining the lines..... Gatherings, 1 group careers, traveling, another group discussing about wedding packages, where to get the photoshoots, what type of banquets.... 2 distinct groups impossible to merge... So weird, terribly weird........ So eventually theres the couples group and the singles group, yep that's how a whole bunch of friends split into smaller closer buddies....Anyway for the first time in my life, my father actually mentioned the idea of getting hitched ..... I've heard friend complaining, wasn't that surprised but it sounded weird as well.....who doesn't wanna settle down if you can find the right companion, it's not human nature to live alone, I mean that's why eve was created in the first place.....

Anyway it's 2 am and I think one eye is getting groggy ... Or is it the LASIK I did has 1 eye already experiencing a degree up!!!!! I just did it 5 months ago, don't want to loose perfect eye sight before I even finish paying the installments..... Nitez my diary....

Wish me luck ....

Meeting old friends - Shan and Hui

2011-03-07T03:30:00.002+08:00

I met up with Shan during chinese new year period (FEb).

3 of us, all grown up, molded, leading our own lives, not much related, but the chemistry and click still exist.... same from sec through now....

We chatted about sec sch friends, mostly updating Shan (for being so far from singapore), marriage (wonder you or hui will get first hahah), work/income to buy house.... Frankly speaking I can't believe when you could give me an answer on when you wanted to marry, that was TOTALLY different from what I would have expected from the Shan in Secondary school.

You 2 girls keep asking how are your boyfriends hahaha.... it was quite amusing, but I'm glad that you guys asked, 3 possibilities :

1) show off

2) wanna hone him to perfection

3) concerned if he is the right guy .......

I would assume the 3rd, given that the guys have nothing to show off ..... It also shows that I'm a valued opinion (I hope) and important friend :D (which I like to think that way).....

I would really say just stick to your instincts and heart, there's really something about a woman's 6th sense which tells things beyond what you see (of course dun use it if it's too suspecting)..... Being long with another person, your heart will become tuned to the other person, eg. knowing what to buy for him to eat, knowing that he wanna go out with his friends today, knowing that he's gonna wear that outfit, knowing what's he up to in the middle of the night not asleep......

Of course he's heart can be "untuned" to yours.... however do not mistaken this for "uninterested", it might just be "in-sensitive" and ur guy would needs lotsa coaching. Little hints here and there to help remind would make the relationship sweeter....

Dun forget to invite me for wedding.. I'll gladly fly over to see a best pal start a new phase of life....

I've last since posted in 2009

2011-03-07T02:50:00.003+08:00

Didn't realise it's been so long since I've posted here... 1 year and 3 months... carefully thinking that when someone slipped into my life, turned it upside down, tested all the trusts one can have in another, tested how far you would go to betray your own morals, tested the acceptable behaviour in the company, tested my stress level, tested my tolerance and positive thinking strength, filtered out true friends, questioned my mere existence of my being there, got me questioning "Why the hell am I doing this"......

I have personally witness this person get away , rewarded..... To be honest, till now I don't have a solution to float if that situation were to repeat......

I trusted this person, defended this person in front of my good buddies, always looking on the positive side "you're actually quite a good pal, just stressed out...". I even led people to believe optimism will make everything more bearable....I'm so sorry to these people, you're now in the sinking boat as I led you guys to put down your guard......

However I still keep by what I did..... Thinking of the good times, lunchies, working lates, that every one is the same as stressed out, it kept me going for quite a prolong period of pain. I still live by that positive thinking. Life is short, there's no time to spend sulking. If Jesus died for me to give me a free life, there is definitely no one who should take that away, and if I let that happen to me, I'll be disgracing his name. "I can't imagine myself devaluing the cross, omg thats equivalent to hell"....

In the end, I'm really really thankful that I had found some comfort in some people.... There might be some people who are just curious, some who are sincerely concerned, in all cases, thanks for all the support, daily sentences " going for lunch? ok we'll see you there".... " hows the progress", or the sharing of complains " haiz... she really sux.... every one knows".....

Looking back those were worth more than gold to me. I got out battered but not dead due the small little sharings and happiness to pull me on. 7 months on, I'm happy, very happy and satisfied, I could answer simple daily questions " What to eat for lunch today", "What to do when I reach home", " What to buy for my dad", " Hows my family today". I see relief on my Mum's face today, in contrast to the worry 1 year ago.

In this period I prayed so intensively I think I was praying more than I talked. And I realised this whole scam has been taking away precious time with God, with family, with friends, my own health, my family and friends emotional health... I can't believe I still thought of hanging on to prove my capabilities.... I thank God for hitting me hard enough to make me move to this fantastic upgrade I'm savouring now. I thank him for the right opening, somewhere my capabilities are valued....

Shanghai

2009-11-18T15:19:00.002+08:00

Shanghai

Dear Shanghai Pudong,

I have visited you once in August and these are my thoughts.

MAJOR construction everywhere and especially getting ready for the 2010 world exhibition. Your Science and Technology Museum is really huge , and your underground is fantastically busy, holding the biggest piracy market at unusually high prices to attract tourist mostly. It was a little strange to see some locals (knowing most of them to be poorer)and then an indian guy appearing beside saying "Just take the bag I'll buy both for you".......... thoughts** the girl is a whore???, FYI the indian is fat..

Anyways the next stop was the Super Brand Mall, probably the only mall in Pudong side. There are other shopping areas but there is only 1 MALL.
Big and tall.... to accommodate sooooooooo many people on weekends. I loved the giant 10m-tall teddy bear you put in your center display. I also guessed you loved the attention as the cameras were busy flickering like the locals treated you as a super star. Better even the kids were PUSHED to stand to take photos (?????) and the adults pushed among themselves to get to the teddy bear to take a photo!!!?!??!? OMG the adults are seriously deprived of childhood I think, hugging broken and dirt bears to sleep???
Sometimes I think the China people are overwhelmingly-warm?!?!? They like to touch each other (arms and butts and shoulders and all)??? Rubbing across in public places ..... ok I can understand the “toking-loudly” cos the bloody parents were all too noisy screaming across the mall calling for each other. But I dun think my country’s mrt is that noisy?!?!? So why does the china high-pitch-behaving-all-so-rich-rude-ass-darn-idiots keep SCREAMING over the phones in the trains .... <> yupyup... we must embrace their rudeness haiz..... is that why the crime rates of kids are rising

For food try the shop ‘KungFu’ on the 3 storey of the super brand mall!!!!! Super good and S$5 dollars for soup and drinks included... I think they easily trash any Singaporean mixed vegetables and rice stall.

Ok next:
Visiting the Macdonalds... they eat surprising small portions!!!! Our small drink = their large?? Whatever anyways the restaurants are much cheaper comparatively and you get proper waitress service (for some)..... Try the Din Tai Fung at World Financial building... FANTASTIC Service, changing my plates for every dish, helping me to scoop from the main bowl into my own... only 1 problem, never help me refill water repeatedly...

The zoo carnivores were kept in ‘wildlife’ all the long grass and trees and duckweed-filled pond. Not bad, get to see the animals swimming in wild, but not sure if they are fed well... There were so many monkeys kept in the 1 big cage (no trees) and when i walked past, the monkeys were following me sticking their arms through the grills to beg for food... Mostly were scratching the desert-dry ground for worms.... Worst thing I saw was a black bear, maybe sun bear, was forced to stand on 2 legs for the whole 1 hour animal show?!?!? When it came down on fours, the trainer used a metal bar ended with a hook to beat the bear’s side to ask it to stand. The baby elephant was taken aside behind the performance stage(in view of half the audience) to get beaten on the trunk cos it refused to stand on 2 legs during practice. ....................... The zoo totally does not operate like singapore’s on a food-reward system. They do the punish-starving system to get the animals to perform. Only the pandas were spared, given a big enclosure (consisting of indoors and outdoors) to run and play. It just slept and slept throughout.......... Poor tiger cubs, locked away from their mother and taken into human’s custody in cages. The tiger cubs were chained and held by the trainers, collecting 5 dollars for a picture, no teeth to bite yet......

Even though the excuse that people are poor.... I do not think life in Shanghai is that poor... I had the opportunity to visit a local house probably about 60 square meters (not joking) and owners were playing stock market on their computer?!?!?!? 4 people stayed in that house with no intention of moving ..... In pudong, houses cost 1 million SGD for a studio in a condo, apparently I walked into one to see the design of the house and most viewers were china locals..... buying 1 house but brought the whole generation down to see.

I thought communism was supposed to be about people helping people, what I see is people struggling to get reach by all means ....” who cares if my neighbour is poor , I need to take care of my family, I’ll do whatever it takes” ..., on the other hand, the british people were concerned with one another’s activities, not to the extent of kapo-ing though... Communism really brings out the selfishness in people cos I guess their hard earned moneys were/are taken away from the people to do what??? Who knows, maybe into govts pockets or feeding the richest in the country...

Been to perth in July 09 for 1 week

2009-11-18T14:20:00.004+08:00

Hihi!!!

Let me do some updates....

Been to perth in July 09 for 1 week

1. Emperor's crown backpackers is damn good, worth the 25 aussie per night, walking distance to town and shopping !!! (suprised I can even remember the name still)

2. Clothes are expensive... unless you're talking about factory outlets which mostly sell sports gear, maybe about 10 dollars cheaper for a pair of nike shorts

3. Eating outside is a killer!!! Food too salty and price is like 10 dollars per plate?!?!?! not refillable, even if it is, I just can't wait to rush home to gurgle my mouth

4. Cooking is so much cheaper like 2 dollars for a huge chunk of spaghetti, almost the same pricing in europe. Meat is slightly more expensive than locally.

5. Visit the caversham wildlife park.

Follow a 1 day tour to include the winery and chocolate factory at about 70 dollars. The wild life park is not reachable by public transport as the park is damn big!!! Get to touch the kangaroos and feed them, shear the sheep and milk the cows. It does not have the stench of a wet park so the experience is enjoyable overall.

6. Don’t buy any expensive souvenirs ... Looked at the label that reads “MADE IN CHINA”..... Asked for some Australian made wool pouch “ It’s gonna cost much more expensive, we keep it locked in the cupboard. ......... What do you expect, everything is made in China now” ,..... sad case

7. Visit Rottness Island and go cycling. Pretty lakes and calm ‘water-land-sky’ scenery.

Warning: Don’t underestimate the power of the hills and sand... damn tough to cycle. 4 hours cycling and sightseeing and we only did 3km at most... impossible to cycle even to the nearest hot spot beach. Only managed to reach an isolated light tower on a hill top. FANTASTIC view though. Unbelievably clear waters to see the corals

Plently of these to see ard. Very cute!!! But the size of malteses (dog), bigger than Chihuahuas... I wouldn’t dare to touch then though, their 2 front teeths stick out like beavers. There were no feeding signs, didn’t see them until I gave almost 1 quarter a box of cornflakes to 1 furry ball by the road.

ROTTNESS IS THE MAIN ATTRACTION!!!!

8. Bring stuff there to do at night... shops close FLAT at 6pm... self entertainment thereafter, also July is the autumn period??? So sky night-dark at 7pm.

9. Feeling: Countryside, home town and cosy ... not much main-city activities

BlogSHOP - convenient fast shopping to fantastic fashions

2009-05-17T21:26:00.007+08:00

My sis and I are opening a blogshop soon hopefully done by end of this month..... phewww... it sure takes a lot of work to coordinate the buying, selling, advertisements pricings etc....<>>

It's a commitment to our friends and customers who depend on our services to "reach out to the fashion world hahaha"......

anyway keep watching!!!!!!!!

Visit: ballerinarose.livejournal.com

2009-01-15T11:47:00.002+08:00

doing interest rate stuff, recalling the impacts of interest rates on this stupid economy and these stupid stuff I have to do because of the incompetent staff....

I've been eating so many peanut butter biscuits and so much soyabeandrink in this office....
Carpet so dirty and the aunty only vacuum once, the accounts department here are totally animals.... I mean only an animal will treat another person like an animals right???

kio sai is one of my main jobs cos my senior is simply too lazy to even put the buscuit bowl in the sink herself, even the one below is too lazy (or credits to her for being too short to stretch) to walk and take her stapler....

The challenges of the job is simply not even tying figures or clearing up last years mess.... but "Managing your difficult senior"...... simply cannot be friends outside of work even ..(no need to say inside work)...

workingzzzzzz

2008-12-30T16:54:00.002+08:00

6 months into the job and I feel so tired..... Good in the sense I have PLENTY to do to keep me occupied, totally away from the "try to keep awake" mode.

The view from the office is nice, can see a little of the Singapore river and the museum... the supreme court still looks like a UFO to me.

Now I'm checking account opening forms for the details and I realise how much people appreciate clear handwriting. Some people cannot write in a straight line WITH the line there...

I feel like going home at 6pm.... the past 2 weeks have been quite a slack for me, giving the feeling like something ominous is going to happen..... .... arrrrrrggghh the next 5 months!!!!!!

guess what I know what going to happen, I'm gonna be chopped up by my boss for not finishing work in time, gonna camp in the office burying my head in files and files of unorganised so called "work" (and my boss wonders what work is there done when everything is so messy) .... clocking heavily discounted OT (where's the justice for that), pulling a black long face and hope nothing else distant me from my unbelievably far finishing line....

15 days into shanghai

2008-06-12T19:29:00.002+08:00

Since 31st May 2008 I've been in Shanghai with no friends to go shopping with:( I spent time researching where the nice places to go are and shopping sites!! cheap shopping site I mean... there are tons of ROLEX, LV, GUCCI etc....

The Shanghainese are damn rich maybe the brands are just trying their luck to get customers by setting up shops all over the place.

Recommendations:
QI PU LU -- must go for girls
things they sell: tons of earrings and necklace at 10 yuan, blouses and teenagers wear, get your nails done, hair accessories etc.... belt for guys and girls at 25yuan, sunglasses @ 19yuan, bags at 29 yuan .... The chances of you bargining successfully is very low cos if the boss gives 1 customer discount, he has to give everyone there discount. Most shops have also come up with the policy of "Final Price, No Bargaining" unless you're the really really naggy and thickskin then you might get your way etc...

THE BUND -- super high end shopping mall
for the rich and buying REAL stuff

SCIENCE ND TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM MRT STATION UNDERGROUND -- pirates >:<
for those looking for pirated stuff, the quality is not as good as koreas but prices are better... they offer you prices based on how many bags/wallets you buy, I got an LV big bag and coach small bag for total 1200 yuan, their offering price was 2500 yuan ....... so bargain and BARGAIN!! walk away if they refuse to reduce, they might lower their last offer, if not there are always other stalls ahead!! I find their LV wallets not bad quality, overheard that the offering price was 400 yuan..
There are also clothes there though not as many as QI PU LU

Jing An Temple UNDERGROUND STATION -- clothes shopping for ladies
haven't explored to buy anything yet

XU JIA HUI
supposed to be the teenagers town of shanghai or bugis street of singapore

SHANGHAI BOOK STORE
you should really visit the 7-storey book store for 1 day and buy all the books you will ever need since most books are printed here, they are super cheap compared back at home

SHI LIU BU near the Huang pu river
Tailoring clothes here, there's one store whose owner's name is JING YING who specialise in office wear girls and guys... I know many singaporeans who tailor made their clothes there.... 1 shirt = 80 yuan, 1 skirt/pants = 100yuan, 1 pants/skirt suit = 400yuan... wool material, though you can be 100% sure it would not be 100% wool, but it has been proven by people I know who keep going back to custom make office wear...
Other shops provide coats, dresses etc... practically anything you would ask for, but bea in mind they are better in copying than making a new design, so bring along a picture of the dress you like and give them details in helping you tailor nicely..

FOXTOWN warehouse sales
shuttle bus on weekends from xu jia hui mrt station, or 15 min interval bus every day to the foxtown mall for ware house sales also from xujiahui mrt station

Nanjing LU and Huahai rd
2 long LONG streets with many manymanymany shopping malls and stalls etc...... not a bargaining place as the stores are brand names in shopping malls. There is this PEARL CENTRE ON NANJING ROAD beside a basement KFC that you should not miss!!!! customing making your own jewellery(pearl)is very cheap here, about 110yuan for a set of necklace and earrings... you can pick your own match of stones and pearls. There's this store number 27/29 run by 2 young girls, their handicraft is quite good and they are not pushy about you buying or not buying... There are also accessories using crystals to make..... Have a look

Take the mrt and stop at nanjing station

Venice - 18th Dec 2007

2008-01-08T01:16:00.001+08:00

Leaving the hotel at 10am.... apparently later than planned, Took the train to VEnice centre and bought the boat ticket all day pass. The city's main transport in this tourist spot was really through boats. Deliveries and distributions were either made through "taxi" boats or private bunk boats.

I met Karen outside the Pizza shop at the famous bridge _______ !!!! hahah....We went to the Louis Vutton outlet near the ______ Square. Gosh!!! the people were RUDE and Ruder and Proud!!! There's always this discrimination that Asians are Poor chaps which can barely afford 1 product, compared to the Italian speaking tourist that bought 22,000 EURO worth of Louis Vutton goods........The counter guy didn't even want to show us a bag because "No, I'm serving another customer now"....??????? er.... Is this considered quality service or shows that you can't even handle 2 customers??? So while you're serving 1 customer I have to stand at the side and wait for my turn because there's simply isn't enough salesman???? I mean why dun just implement a ticket queue system then?!?!?!? instead of serving the customers by chance of "who is lucky to stand at the counter in front of me when I'm finish with my current customer will get to be served next".

The people in Italy are so arrogant, even the boat ticket sales lady ignore you when you ask in for directions in English..... Hahah.... ok it just struck me that their english knowledge/education might be peanuts so they can't be bothered to reply you cos they simply dun know what you're talking about I think....... so it's DUMBNESS + ARROGANCE + TOO STUCK UP IN THE BUTT = majority ITALIANS.....

Rome - 15th Dec 2007

2008-01-08T01:02:00.001+08:00

After arriving in Ciampino rome airport, we bought a bus ticket that shuttles to the city centre, Termini station. The ticket cost 8 euro.

The city wasn't that exactly comfortable to take a bus as the roads were small rocky roads. Full of squeezing cars.

Vatican City - 15th Dec 2007

2008-01-08T00:40:00.001+08:00

Asking the house keeper where the Vatican "CITY: is, it was just reachable by the metro line A. Pompeii was then in another city which was 2 hours ride on the rail.

Spain Barcelona 28-29th NOV 2007

2007-12-06T00:31:00.001+08:00

I start to realise that without a computer around, taking pictures will certainly help you to remember what you wanted to write in your blog. Hence, a good camera is a MUST when travelling, with many Spare batteries and a huge memory card.

We're always running for buses to the airports, to london...... It's has gotten worse to running for Airplanes!!!! and some say Holidays are great get-aways.....

At the budget airport, we wanted to test how strict was the "100ml" rule so we left a little bit of water in the 500ml bottle and went past. hehehe guess what???

Mine passed by Karen's one go an alarm sound and it set off the checkings and scanning and dumping of water bottles away!!!!

Luckily her newly bought moisturiser (gel) was below 100ml ......

This packet of M&Ms on Easy jet cost me 2.10 pounds !!!!! but it lasted 3 days hehe

Luggaging 24th Nov 2007

2007-11-25T09:25:00.003+08:00

Checking out at 10am, I lugged the 25kg plastic stone around the city centre Marienplatz and to the Olympicpark.

Since the Bahn worked on an "honesty" policy, heheh we just bought 1 single-journey ticket and used it for 3 trips on the Bahn.

Drinking at Hofbranhaus 23rd Nov 2007

2007-11-25T09:25:00.001+08:00

Hofbranhaus is the main brewery/drinking bar in Munich. Even without the Ocktoberfest, the place had a festive feeling with the locals enjoying 1litre/500ml glass of beer (bier). I ordered a glass of white fruit wine and it tasted great, but as usual, the bitterness comes up after half the glass. I also ordered a plate of 2 meat balls+mashed potatoes.

You could occasionally get the wisp of smoke from the neighbouring tables.

21st Nov 2007 ~~ Prague to Munich

2007-11-25T09:24:00.001+08:00

Last min tickets!!

Nothing to do, we went to settle the coach ticket problem (apparently we reserved and even had a confirmation ticket printed out but the office told us the transaction did not go through). Anyways, the ticket money wasn't deducted so all was well....??????? On a crazy idea to get out of prague, we booked the cheapest earliest ticket from prague to munich. STUDENT AGENCY buses are quite cheap *mental mark* and quite comfortable, just for some reason the journey was so windy till I couldn't sleep and felt like vomiting. We arrive at 4.30am at the bus station.

Munich

IT was frezzzzzzzing cold, no heater in the shelter and apparently I stood under the hand dryer in a smelly toilet trying to get some warmth. The trains started running at 6am. Similar to czech republic, the train stations had no barriers, just a stand for you to punch your ticket, so we didn't bother buying any tickets and proceeded across the barriers. Who would ever buy tickets I wonder.....................

We dropped at the central station called bahn>>> and walked some 1km just to the stupid hostel called EASY PALACE. It was an extremely long and cold walk in the 8am morning. I didn't join my friends to go on a cheap tour of 32euros to Salzburg to see the theme "The Sound Of Music" cos I didn't sleep the whole night. AND I'm sitting at Mac typing this blog now :((.... Maybe I'll go together with my sis and bro when they come for holiday.

The stupid hostel only allows check-in at 12pm, probably due to their slowness in cleaning up, so NEVER book the hostel EASY PALACE.....

1st Feeling

Munich is a very neat and quite clean place. The train seats are properly stapled in and of good size, the trains are fast, the street is clean and the buildings are very similar to that of Singapore, painted different colour but designs are about the same. They do not start as early as Praha, but about Singapore time. The amount of people who speak English is a lot. Although the alphabets are English, it is hard to pronounce with weird spellings.

1 sickening thing is, though many countries have taken the effort, apparently similar to Paris, they allow smoking in doors!!!! There is almost no such thing as non-smoking allowed. Everywhere is free for the people to smoke, even the the undergrounds..... Luckily no one does it on the Bahntrain. It's idiotic, I sit here for 2 hours and the receptionist smoke 3 times :(

After Sleeping 3 hours till 5pm

I explored almost the whole of the nearby area. Walking without the map, I went hunting for shops to see any prospect of shopping. Most food shops were open but other services were closed. It's a mixed feeling as some parts of the street are isolated and dark, while others have people walking around with shop lights litted. Many of the stores sold bakery stuff. There was a fair amount of Kebab stores. I ate beef noodles in a Thai-Vietnamese store eh.... The chicken with tang fen was nice, the beef amount was good, only thing was they added soooo much pepper and the noodles used was Mee Goreng type....................

Free Praha Tour 20th Nov 2007

2007-11-25T09:16:00.001+08:00

After quite a horrible breakfast of weird tasting milk, but quite nice ham burger, I walked through the city square again to the back to the OLD TOWN SQUARE to meet the free-guide tour guide.

BTW did I tell you I just inherited this MERC in the future :D

1st Impression

Prague is a very cultural city, the olden buildings make the developed city look old with variety. The ground is similar to Korea's, large stones put in *(impossible for high heels). It is not a very modern city and the people do not really have those morality kind of education the British have, hence the the societal behaviour is more lax and people do what they want. However they have the tram in the city, but with heavy pollution from the cars. Besides all the contents below, I guess there is not much to see in Praha unless you really enjoy indulging in the cultures and mixes.

THE CULTURE

See the price of this favourable collection. 12 crowns = 1 sing dollar

The bohemians are quite proud of their puppets as the fabric is local and the workmanship is local too. It is not a mass product of some China factory.

On top, they sell tons of Bohemian crystal ware.

The CITY

The thing about czech republic is the view is very messy. Buildings of different designs are pieced together and odd colours side by side each other. It wasn't exactly comfortable to my eyes, although I tried to appreciate the architecture and history behind the walls.

The OLD TOWN SQUARE was filled with a mixture of culture and architecture. As the olden architecture was torn down 90% due to one of the King's dream to modernise the city. The tour guide was quite pretty with green eyes and blonde hair. However she was quite boring

Last time there were no numbers so they use symbols eg. blue horse, red eagle, golden angel......

This astronomical clock is almost the famous thing in Praha. The clock tells the jewish timing, modern clock, the moon direction, and the amount of sunlight now. The bottom disc is made up of 12 zodiac signs, 12 leaders and the names

Charles Bridge

The NEW TOWN has very modern architecture to incorporate the King's dreams. Prague trusted their dreams a lot. especially the King's as they believe it must have been given from God. Hence the King worked with the astronomical experts to build the city.

For example, the Charles' Bridge foundation stone was laid following the code 135797531. year 1357, 9th july, 5.31pm..............

On the bridge I saw this guy turning a huge handle for the machine to play. It was a giant instrument, maybe pre-made to play a few songs only.

PRAGUE CASTLE

Across the bridge in front of the castle, we heard this fantastic street band. They were each pro players in their own Flute, base violin, violin and the accordian.....

The flutist was a singer as well, those opera kind of singing. It was so nice that my friend and I bought a CD from them at 30 sing dollars. It's quite a good memorial gift as the music was so different and so much better than those in Singapore.

Across the bridge, we visited the palace located at the top of the city. Nothing much, looked like the Buckingham palace structure just many times smaller.

PRAGUE CITY VIEW

The roofs are red, (paris' roofs are grey/blue),

Only 1 or 2 high rise buildings (not shown)

Quite a small city

A number of turrents sticking out as the Catholics believe in "trying to get as close to the heavens as possible"

There is nightlife (opposite boring London)

BTW prague IS a Protestant city

This is the St Peter's church in the OLD Town.

Moving to Praha Czech Republic 18th november 2007

2007-11-25T09:06:00.001+08:00

Ticketing Mistake

Supposed to take a Eurolines coach bus from Switzerland to Praha, we reached the bus station at 6.20pm when the bus was supposed to leave at 7.30pm. The counter lady said our bus name was "TISNOV", so we waited until 6.45pm. Usually the Eurolines buses will arrive 1 hour earlier to enable boarding and punctual departure. However the eurolines bus that arrived and was due to go Praha leaves at 7.05pm, when our ticket printed out confirmation states 7.30pm.

It turned out that 7.30pm was the TISNOV bus and 7.05om was the EUROLINES bus, but our confirmation stated EUROLINES BUS @ 7.30pm. Soooo..... I was stuck...... and the counter lady for eurolines wasn't very helpful, not giving us any solution. Luckily the bus driver of the EUROLINES bus helped to ask TISNOV if they could take us, but we had to pay on the spot for another ticket. TISNOV cost 71 swiss franc, but we took the EUROLINES bus that cost 63 swiss franc. We paid in Euro dollars and the EUROLINES bus driver delayed his departure for about 30 min to help us talk to the counter lady and waited for us to buy the ticket.

How many times do you encounter good people.... I think this was one very good and helpful swiss. It totally trashed the attitude of the Paris EUROLINES bus driver.

BUS JOURNEY

The 9-hour journey was filled with sleeping-and-waking, due to the lights turning on and off. There was about 5 toliet breaks, a good number. The sad thing was the bus heater was on full blast, and everyone either perspired or stripped to singlets. No one said anything until about 2am when this local when to tell the bus driver and the aircon was switched on and I managed to get a good sleep of 2 hours before arriving drowsily at the Florence Metro station in Prague.

At 5am, the metro was already running and there was people going to work. The mama shop started operating at 5.30am. We waited until MacDonalds was open at 6am, to get coin change to buy a metro ticket to our hostel. A one-way ticket to nearby cost about 14 KC, 1.2 sing dollar equivalent. HAHAH 1st time waiting for Mac to open... Luckily we weren't the only ones...

Reaching our hostel (ADVANTAGE), it was a youth hostel. I was so tired so I slept from 7am to 10am on the sofa waiting for the check-in time at 12pm. hahah, luckily the receptionist let us check-in earlier at 10.30am after the cleaners had prepared the 6-bed room. We slept for another 2 hours before setting off to explore the stoney/modern city.

Setting off to the CITY

We walked towards the city square of shopping, facing the museum. It is said to be the largest square in Europe. I ate this chicken burger for lunch that tasted horrible!!! tasted like flour throughout but I just imagine it to be the local delights/taste. There were many souvenir shops along the way, the prices were slightly more expensive than singapore, about 1 dollar more, but the MacDonalds and KFC were about 2 dollars more than Singapore.

It was a tiring day for all of us so we settled back early.

What A SKII DAY!!!! - Zermatt 17th Nov 2007

2007-11-25T09:03:00.001+08:00

Starting of skiing

Zermatt is the top recommended skii place in Switzerland, although it is St. Moritz that held the Winter Olympics.

My friends and I rented the ski set from a shop nearby. The ski set cost 38 swiss franc, the top jacket cost 16 swiss franc and the pants cost 11 swiss franc and the boots cost 19 swiss franc. The ski pass includes the unlimited access to any ski lifts and a return ticket from Zermatt town to the mountains(ski area).

We had to take a bus from the shop to the start of the cable car before taking a 2nd cable car to finally reach the snow!!!

Incase if you were wondering what Zermatt/matterhorn is, this is the significant peak taken by my lousy camera while in the cable car.

This is one side of the ski area of Zermatt, obviously the imtermediate/harder slope.

STARTERS

As I plug in my shoes to the ski, I felt that there were many people looking at us. Almost all the people were pros, starting off this steep slope down to the ski lifts. The slope down to the ski lifts was equivalent to the intermediate slope in Korea!!

Giving a warm-up/practice area of about 50 metres only. Shrugging off the feeling of eyes looking, I tested down the slope and whoa ha heehhe.... I made it down without falling, but I could understand the feeling of my 2 friends which it was their 1st time trying.

ZERMATT SLOPES

If you're a beginner, I suggest you spend time skiing in a less popular area with more beginner slopes. Zermatt would really test your courage to take risks and within a few days, you could become a pro there.

Being a noob there, we meet this teacher on the cable car up to the mountains who said he would skii about 100 days per year and hike the rest of the days. He said he would guide us on how to go up there. The swiss are really nice people. When my friends fell, many have come forward to help them up. I guess partially they think we are Japanese so they are quite friendly towards us. Even along the streets people would say "ohaiyo" to us. At least I upgraded from CHINA TO JAPANESE!!!!

The mountains were beautiful!! It's really skiing on the mountains and if you slipped of the sides, you'll just fall into rocks of the lower mountains. I tried to go up the slope using the T-Lift. I held on to the T-Lift to go up, it's like someone dragging you to ski upwards, but as I went higher, the T-bar slipped off my hand. Why????? Cos I was supposed to lean against the T-bar and not grab on the bar.

The slopes of Zermatt are variable and long. You could have a relatively flat area and after that a steep slope. Everyone was bending to go faster but the 4 of us were the only asians there trying to go slow and obviously we gained a lot of attention through that. I think almost the whole slope recognised us as *the 4 japanese who dun know how to skii*

You really are forced NOT to slow down while going down this slope because you might no have enough speed to go up the slope at the end and have to walk. It was a nice speed and quite safe cos it doesn't turn that much.

Most people use the Nordic Skiis at this area as it is really quite flat, very fun for beginners I would suggest. This path stretches further for about 300-400m before the steep upper and lower slopes previously. Only 2 of us managed to enjoy this slope as the other 2 dropped off the T-bar half way :((

At the top, there is actually more lifts leading to steeper slopes up there and skii-school kids go up there to train :(((....

Zurich to Brig to Zermatt 16th November 2007 10am

2007-11-25T09:00:00.001+08:00

Have you even seen snow mountain together with greens?!?!?!? It doesn't make sense right???

I feel so blessed to see the winter fading and snow rise.

It's such a wonderful process. It's like you finally feel the trees are alive!!! They're changing colour and shedding leaves and and colouring themselves with white ...

The rock snow-capped mountains behind !!!! What the hell , You give me such a lousy camera to capture the beauties if your creation !!!! whywhywhyw!!!!! I'm not doing justice, I feel like smashing my camera now!!!!

seeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Can you see the mountain behind?????? Idiot Camera

ZERMATT VILLAGE

Idiots at Zermatt

Being totally excited to see ice, 4 dummies played until their hands and toes became numb.

Zurich 15th November 2007 ........... Initially I thought these views were computer generated and didn't exist but now I savour the flavouring snow

2007-11-25T08:53:00.001+08:00

Today is the 2nd day in the city... We have already marked out the possible places to go in the hotel booklet, the fantastic bed made us lazy in waking up....

BUT:

We walked to ZurichHB station and changed our mind. We took some brochurs and Angeline suggested to go 1 river place instead of seeing the city-----> So we paid 41 swiss franc to go Rhinefalls in the north north of Switzerland.

This is the view on the 1 hour train to SCHAFFHAUSEN:

================================SCHAFFHAUSEN / RHINEFALLS===========================

RHINEFALLS is the largest waterfall in Europe??? or in the world?? not sure heheh but it's the largest something. It spans 150m breadth and the pool is 15m deep.

My 3 funny exchange buddies heheh...

Chong AnLi = Maths wiz...

Angeline Poh = the compass

Karen Ang = alarm clock

<------ Behind us is the path to God's Wonder!!!!!

RhineFalls!!!

The Bridge is for trains to cross, we didn't know how to get to the other side so no view from the top :(

see the mist from the water !!!

This is the 15-metre deep pool.

Fantastic Spa effect coupled with the amazing scenery . It's just wonderful how God made this world isn't it ! I so hope I can see the bottom but I think I'll be scared out :P

I've got a lot of problems absorbing all these scenery and wonders in such a short period of time. It's no wonder a person can go for holiday more than once to a place . :D

This was only one of the smallest streams we were close to. Only about 1 metre wide among the rocks. Does my Camera rock or my photography skill ?? ahhahah........

Karen help me to take ourselves :D ..... I look so chubby hehehhe.... I helped Angeline and I to take ourselves :D

Dun ask me.... I had nothing to pose with !!!!!

It snowed 3 times each a reasonable amount, enough for Anli and us to go crazy over the "rain", Anli has never seen snow before thats why.................we sat in the snow getting wet.

We went mad and deprived a small boy of the playground hahahah......Anyway, we paid for it by getting "snow-rained"

Zurich on 14th november 2007

2007-11-25T08:40:00.001+08:00

Time: 8pm reach zurich

Switzerland was and is and ... an Excellent place!!!

Beautiful scenery and tons snow!!!!

Sad thing is = swiss are getting ruder!!! Yes you know the swiss are even ruder than the french!!! I'm not sure if they are french migrants or german migrants or born swiss but they are banging people without saying sorry, you get stares if you say "excuse me" and they dun bother to move or give you a little space to pull your luggage on the walk path !!! worse still they just look at you, say "sorry" and continue to stand there...... Such rude people!!!! or rather they have no brains??? or think they are on top of the world.... it's not like I spoke chinese or some other weird language, it's ENGLISH!!!

ok back to the story...........

So I took easyjet... it wasn't a full plane and it was comfortable. Maybe it flew at a lower altitude so I felt it was much better than the long haul flights.

1st Impression

Switzerland is a place you will never regret coming, similar to paris though, normal things to see but some how the environment is so special and cosy, even the shops are like those in seoul, stoned pavement with small shops in low rised buildings........Surfacing, for the 1st time I saw intra-city trams!!!!!! The night view of the town was cosy, landscaped with a small alp?? or hill behind Zurich. Sadly the shops close early like those in London. Zurich is not big as we had no problem finding our way.

They had the same trains as in Paris, ZURICH HB is the main train station and thats where we live near too!!! Arriving at night, we caught this stunning scenery with lights, water and mountains behind, it's not that kind of city life or city view full of street lamps and skyscrapers lighting the city.

We tried to get a map some where, maybe it was already 8pm so the shops closed. The stupid thing about its maps is it does not tell you where you are currently, so you can see the whole floor plan but you wouldn't know which direction to go.

The hotel was hard to find even though the street was neat and clearly labelled. The streets were lighted with shop lightings, unlike those in Hong Kong with all the ugly light panels sticking out. The Hotel was actually a GUESTHOUSE that looked like an office. quite classy actually and worth the 25 pounds per person per night. The room and facilities were better than expected. They even had a radio for you and stove and cutlery, even though the furniture was mostly from IKEA....

Haha unfortunately we walked along some red-light district paths and pub areas.... but they were PUBS... not clubs/ disco heheh... very classy, those you can just walk in and have a drink, There were swans in the river (the only river through Switzerland) Swans are VERY PRETTY and PURE in full bloom...

13TH NOV ANLI's Birthday!!

2007-11-14T07:57:00.001+08:00

Anli's birthday is on the 14th November actually heheh....

HostUK - A very worthy time

2007-11-06T06:07:00.001+08:00

Date: 1st november 2007 - 4th nov 2007

Everyone who is coming to UK for student exchange or to study should try out this very wonderful program!!

I went on this program to stay with a local UK family and I think the memories and feelings are unforgettable!! It really makes me miss them tons!! and the type of lifestyle they have there.

I felt so sad when it was time to go, almost too attached to go :((

On the 1st day, Esther picked us up at 8.40pm at the Milton Keynes coach station and we reached their house at 9pm. It was not a long drive but we certainly travelled quite far, given that all was straight roads and roundabouts(no traffic lights to delay) and she travelled at about 60-70 miles per hour.

She told us that Milton Keynes was built in a grid form and every roundabout will tell you where is east and west. So as long as you know where is your area (the sq you live in) the sign boards are very clear. Development and planning also follows the grid guides eg. 1 sq to build industrial factories, next sq to build housing and every 3 squares will have at least 1 school etc.....

Very interesting and the travelling is very fast since you travel continously and in horizontal and vertical lines, you could almost never get lost!!!

When we reached the house, the father (Paul) was already back, a very nice person, blonde hair blue eyes and avery warm smile to welcome us into the family. We were showed our rooms, much better than what we expected, comfy bed, flowery blankets, a sink in the room and nice wall papers. After leaving our things, we went to the kitchen to meet and talk to them more, thinking it was a little rude to just stay and lock ourselves in the room. The first thing that jumped at us when we went in was Whisper!!! a cross dog species between labrador and spaniel. She wasn't as cute as I expected a puppy to be, she was 15 inches long for the body, being 12 weeks old. Nevertheless, we took turns carrying her and patting her. She was quite attached to the mother (Esther) so she followed her wherever she went.

We were served tuna pasta.... bland...some taste... special....nice!!!1st time eating a local british house food. Estehr told us her kids sleep at 7.30pm, and we realised that the kids do not see their father on weekdays as the father only reach home at 9pm...... It's quite sad :(( Then they tried to suggest places to bring us even though they had a habit of sleeping early (and feeling sleepy at that time).... My friend and I didn't know how to stop the conversation and telling them to get rest :(( Finally Esther sort of did a small conclusion and I stood up, signalling to go off hahah....Thats how we managed to get our rests.....

================================FRI============================

The kids wake up at 7am in the morning and take about 20 minutes to walk/cycle to school. We were very surprised that they wake up at this time even on weekends. We woke up at 9am. In the kitchen, Whisper was very excited to see people as she is caged up at night during sleeping time.

We had milk and bread for breakfast. Esther constantly for every meal offers us many things "would you like some desert after your meal, how about yoghurt, ice cream, tea coffee ?" "this tea is specially from India or would you like earl grey tea or just normal tea?" ...... She ask these almost every time, very nice hospitality until we didn't quite know what we wanted even hahaha..... We were waiting for her to just offer us some of the breakfast they usually have. Afterall I was there to experience the local British life.

The kitchen was very dirty !!!!! they wore shoes all over the house and since it was carpeted, I think that gave the image that the house was clean when in fact the carpet would be so dirty and it is not vacuumed everyday.

However, the walls were painted with many different colours, the bathroom = green, stairs = pink, living room=beige, children's playroom=green, Nathan's room = green, Joshua's room = orange, Masterbedroom = pink and red .....

This made the house very cosy and lively. HOw I wished Singapore's houses were painted like that... But I think the houses are tooooo small to afford dark colours so white is always used to brighten up the house and make it look bigger.

I really liked the house a lot, it had a garden at the back, a reasonably sized one to play some football.The house cost 260k pounds!!! when in singapore it would cost 1.5m (500k pounds)!!! They got very surprised when I told them this cos they selected this house and the location due to cheap costs but not so far from london.

At 10.30am, we went to the market, sort of shops just set up outside the shopping mall. Things were cheap, like the Pasar Malam in Singapore. I bought a pair of leg warmers cos the skin around my ankles were drying up and having rashes. I found a pair of big sized jeans for my brother also!! 15 pounds, reasonable....We headed for home at about 12pm as Esther didn't want to leave the dog at home for so long, since the dog only arrived 1 week ago. Esther told us she was a doctor 8 years ago, but stopped working after she had the 2 boys cos no one could look after them. Esther's parents were staying in Ireland and relatives were staying in Scotland, Paul's parents were staying in Chestershire (dun know where is that)...... Anyways none is near by Milton Keynes. A very big sacrifice to give for the family. She grew up in India up till about 13 years old before returning to Ireland. Her mother would do these hosting to foreign students. Hence she liked the visitors occasionally as it would expose her to different things. Esther asked around how to sign-up to host students and after being passed here and there, she ended up with HOSTUK......

We had pancakes for lunch!!!! 4 small round pancakes with butter, ice-cream, jam....... Very nice. We thought she would have a routine meal like potatoes or cereal etc... but it was very flexible, you could basically eat anything for lunch !! potatoes, soup, corn, bread, cereal....... After eating, we went to Bletchley !!!!!! A place for charity shops !!!! They had all kinds of things there and good bargains!!! Esther went into the funiture shop to look for a new computer table for the house. I went into the next door called WILLHOSPICE... They sold clothes varying from 3 to 6 pounds. They clothes were of good quality, didn't look like 2nd hand. Some even had the tags on!!! Marks&Spencer, NEXT, GAP.... expensive brands could be found there too... Bought 3 tops b4 we had to rush off to pick the kids.

We walked through the winding unbuilt park and little woods to reach the school. For the 1st time, we saw the kids hahah... one had blue eyes and one had green. Although 1 year apart, they were the same height. After unlocking their bicycles and walking home, we played snakes and ladder on a giant mat and giant dice. They could speak very good English and very clear, keep warning us about falling down the snakes heheheh.....Next we played chinese checkers, I never played b4 so learnt on the spot. Quite surprising they can play such boring game. Their game room had tons of games and a bouncing mat, and electric drums set, a keyboard of 5 octaves etc, many tubs of colour pencils.........

The 2 boys kept playing this staring game!!!! If they find that you are looking at them (out of curiousity what they were doing) they would cheekly ask "What are you looking at? Why are you staring?" and they start laughing and widen their eyes and stare and you ....hahhaha...... They're so cute and lovable.... Joshua reads the Country encyclopedia and Nathan is the walking football dictionary ... Nathan likes red because his favourite team is red (Liverpool). Joshua likes Holland and Esther doesn't even know why. They've never been to Holland, no relatives, not much information on Holland etc......

As usual, they went to bed after dinner and a bath b4 the father reached home. We watched Stuart Little 2 and Sister Act. They still had Video Tapes!!!!!!!!!!! and we thought they were high tech..... They bought many of the tapes from the charity shops for 1 pound or 50 pence so they had a COLLECTION of cartoon tapes!!!!, they saved on the TV license though, never subscribe to TV. They had a working fire place but bought an electric one to put in front. Bed was comfortable and getting warmer under the thick fluffy blanket......

=========================SAT=============================

Toboganning DAY!!!!! b4 we had a family outing with them. Paul said their kids like to visit the woods and we wanted to see the canal where the gates would open and close to transport the ships from higher to lower levels of water. We went to a canal in Stoke Bruene.

The canals were quite small but it connected a long way to London, it was the main transport system like 150 years ago. We walked along the small river and into the woods/forest path. There were iron animals built, quite steady.

They kids had fun chasing and following the movements of a squirrel as they seldom see one. We walked till the end and Paul did something quite funny. He picked up dry leaves and threw them at Nathan. An thats how they started playing throw-leaves game. They didn't mind that it was dirty, but had good family fun and bonding time. Can see by the laughter and closeness................

<---This was street art collage..Who put it there? unknown ... Who tore the art ---unappreciative destructive wastrels of society

This canal linked to other places further up london, and the sign board says the tunnel is at least 2.5 km long!

<--The old canal was like this but they put the ring here after it was replaced.

Going home for lunch, we ate pancakes again as it was so nice. After that we went upstairs and took a rest b4 coming down shortly again to wonder when we were going toboganning.... Paul wanted to bring us to "PAINT ME POTTERY", a place where you could buy a plain cup or vase or bowl etc.... and colour it on your own there b4 they will hone it for you and make it into a proper cup to use. Paul said he could mail it to us cos we needed to leave it there for them to do the welding. After bathing Whisper, we left to go Bletchley cos Paul wanted to see the desk Esther had spotted. and we took the chance to visit another charity shop and I bought 1 jacket and 2 shirts !!!!... very worth... We rushed to off to PAINT ME POTTERY about 20 minutes drive at 80 miles per hour.(the father was a good and steady driver)..... to find the place shut down :((((((((((((( the kids were quite sad. Paul said there was another at the other side of Milton Keynes but it was too far to go, so we headed for Xxcape!!!!! the mall with the shopping and artificial skii place. We "checked-in" our booking at 4.15pm and waiting in front of this glass panel until 4.45pm b4 going on to get our helmets and plastic seat!! you could see people skiing on the slopes and snowboarding!! and tobogannig didn't look as much fun :(...Paul said that 1 hour of skiing per person was 20 pounds, they felt it was too expensive and couldn't afford so they booked the toboganning instead.

<---- too bad cameras not allowed inside

The artificial snow was so thick!!!! so hard to walk in canvas shoes?!?!??!?!?!? Every foot was buried in the snow and walking up to the slope felt so heavy!!! No wonder the small kids kept falling and the parents had to hold and drag them up to the slope!! .... *kekkeke....... so funny, all small kids and accompanying parents, none like me and An Li teenagers...... Nevertheless, we tried our first slope.........+++++++ Paul was so funny hahahahhahaha He went faster than An Li and Me although he slided down later!!! .......ok the worst part >>>>> He purposely kick me 2 times to make me go off course and spin around and *woooosh******* I landed with my full lower body covered in 1m thick of snow!!!!!! They had this small hill built to stop people from sliding all the way down, so that where everyone got buried:DDDDD under the snow hahahahah.... My friend got snow ---> defrost-->icewater in her pants and underwear.....Although it was super hard climbing up the slope in the thick snow, in 45 minutes, we did it like 10 times and Nathan and Joshua, being lighter, dun know how they do it, but they climb faster to get more turns....

*soaked!!!!! Wet shoes, socks, jeans, gloves.... We warmed up in the car and drove home to eat dinner at 6pm. We changed and place our jeans on the radiator. Esther didn't join us, she was afraid of the "losing of control" slopes and stayed at home to roast a chicken. We had mashed potatoes and the chicken and fruit Salad +strawberry+raspberry ice cream for dinner......*feeling so happy and tired from fun **** After settling the kids to sleep, she started to teach us card making. She had this tub of cards, backings, envelopes, sequins, stamps, glitter and even the embossing blower and special glitter she had!!! serious card maker..... I made 2 cards, not very nice but hey, 1st time making with a set of full fledge materials......

We slept at 11 that night, tired and cold and smiling on our faces.

================================SUNDAY===============================

<----Quite funny to see 7yr old kids not willing to brush their teeth and parents have to do it for them :D Of course Paul Dudley was considered a very nice Dad still to brush their teeth hahaha.....

Church time!!! I wanted to go to their church service, seeing that they were christians and not catholics, though it might be similar to mine in Singapore, even if different, it's a good experience. Esther and Paul both helped out in church service, youth and children sessions. Although it was 20 minutes drive away, Paul and Esther picked this church as it was one of the biggest in the areas and they wanted a children's session for their kids to enjoy and be happy to attend church. This church NEW LIFE CHRISTIAN has about 35 children and 20 adults, it was considered fast growing, started 2 years ago with only 100 people.

The church bought a warehouse in a light-industrial park. They are currently building a stage and soundbox and heating system to make the warehouse into a usable place for the future years. Transforming it into an auditorium, it was very much still an empty warehouse with a very strong faith and community bond. The songs they sang ----> same as PLMC !!!!!! their worship style ----> same as NEW CREATION!!!! their band ----> same as both, they had an additional saxaphonist. Their pastor didn't wear a suit or something.... The preacher was the pastor, I think it was a committee member of the church. Esther said they had a regulating committee of elders and the pastor was under ruling by an organisation that was national. They had other of this church branches in other parts of england as well. They would have guest speakers from other church branches occasionally to keep the church in track. The message wasn't very long, it was about having the freedom and ability to choose what to do, but choose the correct thing in God's sight and you will soar as you have the support of God.

I'm very much surprised that Esther's view and my view of deviating christian denominations are the same. We are Christians and pray to Jesus and the the trinity, exactly the same, unlike the catholics or some others who believe in "working to get to heaven" :(((((........ After seeing so many denominations, I thought the original christian believers (british) are different from Singapore and Singapore may be considered a "seperated denomination"....Now I know and have seen that it's the same .........

I felt like going back to the church every sundays, really enjoyed that worship service. I didn't mind the traveling to milton keynes every weekend but the trouble is there is no public transport system in Milton Keynes :(((( so I cannot get anywhere in Milton Keynes without a car :(((((( and I have to bother the family to pick me up every weekend?????? That doesn't sound very nice and considerate :((((.......... haiz............. I wish my sister and brother would be able to see that church, so small yet as similar and yet so family-like, rather than a big church and don't even know if they bother about your views. Sometimes I think PLMC is too traditional and the things they talk about relate too much to the old testament eg.(you must try your best to bring people to church).... Sometimes when you hear something wrong there's someone telling you that it's wrong and it doesn't make sense.... I wonder how it works?? I like Pastor Prince's teachings .........Alpha camp is something Esther recommended to me .......

1st Visit to A DisneyLand - Paris during HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!!!

2007-10-30T07:24:00.001+08:00

<---------This is the Paris Disneyland resort outside the entrance. Looks fantastic but too bad we didn't have the budget to stay there.

<----------They're quite nice to tile the floor with visitors' name though you'll never get to know where's yours.

Disney land Street!!! So pretty right?

A toy shop!!!

Our first game : CAr Driving, something like GO-Kart but it has iron bars on ground to keep the car inline

--This was a space ride that went round and round and round. Of course we didn't attempt or even think about going on it.->

Captain Nemo's Nautilus -----------------<

It wasn't a ride though, just a WALK_THROUGH of things like below.....

There was a very scary face of the "CAptain" in the portrait above the organ. dun know why cannot come out in the camera.

The SPACE SHUTTLE

It's a roller coaster ride. Shoots you into the "space". more like darkness I mean. It has many drops until my heart almost fell out ! ... Nice for youngsters who like thrilling rides.

This was a display inside the space shuttle where we had to walk through this super long path just to get to the ride ---------------------->

~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!START OF PARADE!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Halloween + Donald + Chicken Little

Lilo and Goofy and the Chipmunks ..... one of the chipmunk stretched out his hand expecting some shakes from the little kids. But no one took his hand and he continued dancing. It was pretty sad that this happened. On the other hand .... Serves Them Right!! who ask them always aim the small little kids. I didn't even get a chance to shake any of the character 's hand :((

The platform was in the form of a story book so that each page you flip you get to see different characters. Alice in Wonderland's Cardsman were very adorable!!!

Toy story was soooooooooo popular until the small little boys started screaming when the character came out.. Strange right? I dun even know what the story is about :P I though Winnie the pooh wasn't going to get down until the song reached the Important part and all the character started getting down on the street to perform infront of you!!!

Peter Pan had a very nice dance and song to it. Too bad it's over a 100mb so soapbox wouldn't let me upload.

Evil witcheessssssss!!!!

Cute mohog???? kekeke.. managed to snap in time b4 they moved off.... I got quite a surprised when I was taking a video and this pig suddenly appeared on the camera screen!

The disney land is divided in to 4 themes = fantasy, pirate, explorer and .... *cannot remember :P

This was the mine train we set and it was the best ride, not too scary or boring --->

==========================A SMALL WORLD=====================================

This ride apparently for kids is FANTASTIC!!!!! I let you decide for yourself

Paris Disney Shopping :D

2007-10-30T01:53:00.000+08:00

Date:

After a Day of rushing to submit resume, it was quite funny that we were rushing to catch a bus to go to the coach station for holiday *hahhaha

The Ship we took across the sea from port Dover to France. Strange, we didn't understand all the instructions in French so we followed the crowd and came out to a hall. Didn't realise it was a ship until the ship started moving :P

We stayed at Balladins Hotel for 11 euros per person per night. Nearby had Carrefour. Quite good until we when into the room full of cigerette smell and the toilet water flowed out onto the room carpet cos the bathroom didn't have drainer ??

Quite cool the bed style. The bed was better than the one at the Uni hostel.

*arrrgh!!! So hard to type -----WHATS WRONG WITH THE KEY BOARD????

===============WHY 3 HOURS TO WALK A STRAIGHT ROAD==================

------A Collage from the Disney Shop------

---Gek, Anli, and Me going crazy over the toys ---

We walked from Louvre Museum to the Arc De Tromphe --- 1 straight road down Champs-Elysees that took us 3 HOURS.

*Champ-Elysees* the shopping street in Paris. We saw Louis Vutton, Zara ..... Mercedes-Benz .......all these kind of shops and of course the plays theatres etc...

We bought our Disney ticket to (Disney Theme Park) --- 48EURO .. Didn't go the Disney Animation Studio cos it's all about animations ........so LAmeszzzzz

Wanted to buy one souvenir home but it was 20 euros :( the rat was cute. They also had a colour marker set in princesses' boxes but it costs 15 euros .... didn't buy anything from here then ................................

--------A Walk To Remember --------

We walked through this straight park that was so nice till we sat down to sit and admire the water and trees.

The "white" sand looks like snow right? So nice and clean.

-------The Famous NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL!!! -----

Still dun understand why it is famous beside the show.

They have this wooden architecture inside the castle, a model of their church.

They had many of these small corners where they places the statues of Mary or the cross and you pay 2 euros to lit a candle. Most churches operate like that --> pay to lit a candle.

This church was slightly different from the rest though. It did not collect entrance fees. People could just enter and sit in front of the stage or walk around to see the the displays. 1 pastor came up to us and spoke achinese "hi" and gave us a chinese description of what the carvings on the walls were. Hahah, we asked for English description and he got quite surprised.

It showed the Cruxifiction of christ. Many statues and tinted glass shows that and how the body was taken down from the cross. The louvre Museum has many statues and portraits depicting the scene. Those portraits were painted since 15th century ..... The bible has been around since that century it means, or at least the truth of Christ. It is too much to imagine that a fake story would stimulate tons of pictures to be painted by many artists over such a long period of time. It simply has to be the greatest story or a truth that the artists of time believed in.

-----------------------Walking to Louvre Museum-------------------------

I forgot the name of this river....... The River that flows through Paris.

This is the Louvre Museum on the inside --------->

<-----------This is the Louvre Museum on the outside.

Any one who has read the Da Vinci code book should know this museum and the stories behind it. I haven't read it cos I'm totally against the insult to religions especially one that has so much history and proof of time. Whatever the case, this museum is HUGE!!!! It is connected to the Palace that Napolean once stayed. The palace should be one of his smallest palaces though.

We spent 5 hours walking inside it and only covered one-third quickly browsing through. There was so much statues of Christ and Mary and Kings etc.... Extreme amounts of portraits of people and things....

2007-10-24T04:39:00.001+08:00

STupid live journal

2007-10-24T03:57:00.001+08:00

What a stupid program! tried to find my friend on livejournal couldn't find. .... Haiz my phone bill burst $500 !!!!!! Is that amazing or what? I thought it was impossible for me to ever hit that much....

Now rushing for resumes and application forms with my ever lousy results.... have to write tons of different cover letters and tune them accordingly. Tml I going France so by tml afternoon Diedie must finish.

Sometimes I wonder why am I writing so much resumes anyway since I'll probably be accepted only into accounting firms...... I think no point applying to PWC also unless you're their intern or 1st class honours. Haiz.. what to do? Having the kiasu ness, rather try then regret ---- no try no chance .......

I'll have to scan them to my sis for her to fill in and paste a ugly looking photo and attach all the certificates .........

Technorati Tags: To meimei

Attach 1 O level and 1 A level ( no need the chinese one) certificate to each. + testimonial both JC and Secondary school

Attach the MS office Specialist cert (orange colour) and 1 MS WORD certification (not participation cert)

1 photo on each

Fill in the essay parts

1 cover letter and 1 resume each

* stapler all together

application form --> school certs -- > school testimonial --> skills certs

London EYE/BIG BEn collage

2007-10-22T05:34:00.000+08:00

Dun know if any can see the pictures inside... This was the biggest it could go :P....

Mostly sights near the London Eye.....

Thought doing this was quite fun :D

If I could create my own blog template or apply the stupid blog skin it would be nice...

Can any teach me how to apply blog SKINS instead of blog TEMPLATES?....
It keeps giving me error like the html wasn't closed blahblah..... Can't be a 10 blog skins got the same problem right?

christchurch (oxford) collage

2007-10-22T05:27:00.000+08:00

sUNDAYS.....

2007-10-22T03:47:00.001+08:00

Today's Sunday hahahha......

Stayed in all day trying to flip to a chapter to start writing the audit essay

" explain the current key judgmental areas of an audit ( auditors have too much discretion in how they carry out their audit) and discuss the issue of greater standardisation (shareholders should have more control)"

Anyways.... I'm going France this wednesday :D but heard from my friend that they are having strike now, so all the transportation systems are not working :((( howhow???? Hope that it would be well by this wednesday....

Monday's are full day classes :( 9-5pm .... got 2 1-hour breaks in between.

Did I remember to show anyone I got a photo of Prince William??? hehehhe.....Madame Tussauds is a really fun place where you can post with people .... Just dun let out a picture of you punching <------ on the web heheh.....

I ate beef porridge and a good dinner today, until I feel so bloated....

BTW this should be the finalised timetable I have here in London.

Timetable for Yr 07/08 Semester A
Time/Day	Mon	Tue
9:00	3BUS0327 FINANCIAL AUDIT LEC N002
9.30 AM
10:00	3BUS0202 BIZ STRAT LEC N001
10.30 AM
11:00	3BUS0202 BIZ STRAT TUT grp2 R034 8/10-12, 22/10-11, 5/11-11, 26/11-11, 10/12-11, 7/1-12	FINANCIAL AUDIT TUT 7
11.30 AM
12:00
12.30 PM
13:00
1.30PM
14:00	3BUS0166 BANKING & FINANCE LEC N205	PROF & LOGICAL SKILLS LEC
2.30PM
15:00		PROF & LOGICAL SKILLS TEST
3.30PM
16:00	3BUS0166 BANKING & FINANCE TUT R014	PROF & LOGICAL SKILLS TUT
4.30PM
17:00

This is Urqhart Castle at Loch Ness .... Always get bommed last time so now only left bits.

I think I wanna change template... This one so lousy, and dun know why the table got no line :(

wUhahAHAHahhA

2007-10-21T09:23:00.001+08:00

Date: 21st oct 2007 Sunday

Time : 2am

heheh... I just finish downloading and installing and customising the Windows Installer (photo manager, blog editor/poster, live messenger)

so now i testing if can post up the blog just using this program instead of always signing into the blog page.

EDINBURGH

2007-10-19T23:51:00.000+08:00

Date: 11th oct 2007 to 14th oct 2007

Taking the National express for 10 hours was not easy from London to Edinburgh. The Stupid chair was uncomfortable and couldn't lie down.

I couldn't remember the last time I visited Edinburgh how it looked like. Now I get to see the clear city of it. Although spending 1 day, That day felt so busy yet unaccomplished. There was simply too many things to see so we only travelled the main town area, not even the shopping street. I did not go Edinburgh castle though, it was too expensive about 12 pounds and I had enough of castle at that time.

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This is the Backpackers hotel we stayed at. Pretty cheap but shared toilet (price to pay for budget).

Nevertheless, it provided those homely feeling of the locals of brick walls.

Whats scarry is that under the building about 4 floor down, lies the MOST HAUNTED PLACE IN UK.

We went on this Mercat (olden way of saying Market) Tour that was ghost hunting. It brought us down there and told us the history of the place and gave us sensors to try and detect the ghosts ourselves. ----------- So when sleeping at night, none of us dared to open our eyes in the middle of the night :P........

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This HEART was the only thing left of a filthy deteriorating prison (forgot under whose ruling).

Any one who went in was expected to die there due to the conditions.

When the people decided to tear it down, They left this heart on the floor to remind the city of the once filthy prison.

Now, this is the only place in Scotland which people can spit openly and not get fined for it.

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The guy in the picture was a free tour guide. Of course he will ask for tips in the end but the amount of tips depended on yourself hwo much you want to give. Meeting outside the Starbucks shop on High Street in Edinburgh centre, he brought us round the city and told us stories and histories of statues and places.

The stairs in the wall was built to remind thieves that poeple who once tried to steal from this house had fell to their deaths due to the smartness of the cobblers.

Cobblers were often robbed at night in Edinburgh. Hence they 1 day decided to rebuild the stairs such that it was purposely uneven. When thieves came to steal money at night, in panick to run off, they would miss their step and fall down the stairs right through from the 2nd to the 1st floor and die.

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This statue of Charles (*according to this guy*) was the most hated king of Scotland as he tried to conquer other lands using the Scotland army when the people didn't like the idea. When he asked the ruling party for a 2nd chance to be their king, he gave him the position on the promise that he would rule them well. However he went back on his word and tried the same thing again. He also asked the people to build this statue in the city in his honour.

The people purposely did a sloppy job, leaving holes in the statue and making it a hollow statue. When the rain came, it filled up the horse and people worry that it would topple over. Hence they drilled a hole at the bottom of the horse stomach to allow the water to flow out, but did not seal the top of the statue's head.

Now when it rained it look like the horse was leaking *hehehehe*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*see if youbelieve*

The bones of a city hero was buried here (think called James). James was the wanted king but didn't become the king. This carpart was a graveyard. But after development, the bones were removed. They left his bones here and put a piece of cardboard here into the ground to say that this was his spot of burial. HIs bones remaines buried under this spot.
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Edinburgh high street, leading to the Edinburgh Castle on top of the hill. Scottish kilts ---- LOOK AT THE PRICE!!!

This was the official factory of kilts making .... *shhhhh p i c t u r e s n o t a l l o w e d ------------------------->

This is also where I took the photo shot dressed in the local scotland costume .... I look like a milkmaid hahahhaa......

Technorati Tags: costed about 15 pounds each person :( Luckily our friend helped us to take more pictures so we can go home and develop ourself hahhaa

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This cathrdral along HIGH STREET of EDINBURGH kept the oldest/first use gullotine. The first used gullotine was used in tyranny, going ard chopping people's heads as long as the soldiers didn't like the civillians.

-------------------------------------------------------------
The bottom picture shows a wall tribute to those women who died during the "witches" age, where people were very frightened of sorcery and seeked to behead any who were suspected to be a witch.

Any women who kept black cats, and hats and had many brooms were suspected to be witches and would be tied and drowned in the sewage.

Funny thing is if they drowned, they were deemed innocent and their family will be "compensate" and given money enough for them to live their lives without working.

If they floated up, they would be asked "are you a witch?" :

"yes" --> Strangled to death on the spot

"no" --> Tied to a log and burned to death and the body will be fed to the crows

Stupid people judge stupid ways :(((

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CAMERA OBSCURA

I miss my little doggie:(

2007-10-09T04:45:00.000+08:00

Awwww...... I always wondered what will happen to my little doggie when I'm away.... Luckily got a sister to look after JJ..... If not I think he'll be so sad no one plays with him.... but he so naughty, always run away chasing cats, running undercars......

He almost got lost one day whenhe managed to squeeze out of the iron gate... Luckily boyboy saw him at the block down stairs and brought him home.......... I wonder how to make him trained like the dogs in London, run after the owners on the street without being distracted by other things........

2 Day Excursion to Bath and Stonehenge

2007-10-07T04:58:00.000+08:00

Date: 4th oct – 5th oct 2007

Rushing for the 8am bus as usual, luckily it was later than us hahahah……Took a 10am bus to Bath and reached at about 1.30pm. We passed many fields and hills of different shades of greens. Took some pictures although I was mostly sleeping on the bus :P

Stopped over at Swindon Bus station for awhile b4 moving off.

Bath was relatively small compared to London Victoria, within 30 minutes we almost covered the whole place including its park. The Roman Bath museum described the preserved rooms and of course the famous hot water spring supplied by water from the underground. They had saunas and heat would come through the pile of tiles/stone from the heated floor(heated by a furnace).

Although seen many times on TV, the bath pillars really added a ancient feeling to the atmosphere.

According to history, the 1.5m built pool would have water channeled from the “holy spring” and only the king would be allowed to bath in it. Hot springs are considered sacred and only high priests are allowed near it. The direct source is left opened to the skies and supplied from the underground, believed to be a present from the Gods.

You could really feel the warmth from the water that flowed here.

This is the bath cathedral, didn't go in cos go into too many churches already, more or less all look the same.

-------------------------------------------------------

Boarded a bus from bath to Salisbury, where we stayed at King’s Head Inn. 27.50 pounds per night per person.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*snore*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - hehe not really. 1st time having a TV!!! So I watched the local shows until 2am. The bed was very nice, the room better than expected so we were quite happy although we would happily downgrade to save money :P
5th Oct

I guess supposedly the stonehenge was supposed to look like that in full but the remains are only like these.

Taking bus no. 3 to stonehenge, cost about 4.70 pounds to see the stonehenge. The surroundings was really isolated, full of green lands filled with sheeps and 1 or 2 highway roads.

They placed barriers around the stones so no one could go hug or stick to the stone. Everyone was entitled to take the fantastic backdrop picture.

!SCHOOL STARTS!

2007-10-02T08:19:00.000+08:00

Date: 1st oct 2007
Time: wholeday

1st Lecture of the whole term financial audit … yeah!!! Finally started….
*dotzzzzzzzzzz 1st lecturer, spend 1 hour going through the whole course outline and keep telling you “if you dun like writing essays, dun take this subject”, with a laugh and smile on his face, wears cargopants(full length), un-ironed shirt with long sleeves folded up half, keep touching his bald head like he doesn’t know what he is supposed to talk about next ………

---à Conclusion : SUBSTANDARD LECTURER

2nd lecture is BIZ strategy……
Professionally dressed, prepared materials to distribute, good informative slides ……………..zzzzzz…………. reading off a piece of paper on the table ???????

I WONDER WHICH IS WORSE??

supposedly my time table, have yet to confirm, only taking 5 out of the 7 different subjects

Time/Day	Mon	Tue	Wed	wed
9:00	3BUS0327 financial audit LEC N002
9.30 AM	3BUS0327 financial audit LEC N002
10:00	3BUS0202 BIZ STRAT LEC N001		1BUS0167 INTRO TO GEOPOLITICS LEC N110	corporate finance tut
10.30 AM	3BUS0202 BIZ STRAT LEC N001		1BUS0167 INTRO TO GEOPOLITICS LEC N110	corporate finance tut
11:00	3BUS0202 BIZ STRAT TUT1 R034	financial audit tut 7	1BUS0167 INTRO TO GEOPOLITICS TUT1 M133
11.30 AM		financial audit tut 7	1BUS0167 INTRO TO GEOPOLITICS TUT1 M133
12:00				corporate finance lec
12.30 PM				corporate finance lec
13:00	personal and prof dev tut 2
1.30PM	personal and prof dev tut 2
14:00	banking finance lec	prof and logical skills lec
2.30PM	banking finance lec
15:00	banking finance tut
3.30PM	banking finance tut
16:00	personal and prof dev lec
4.30PM	personal and prof dev lec
17:00
5.30PM

LazeDay Sunday

2007-10-02T08:18:00.002+08:00

Date: 30 sept 2007
Time: wholeday

No energy to go out, cancelled plan to visit petticoat lane at Liverpool station. I’ve spent so MUCH money in the week.. dun feel like going out for the next few week :P heheh *juz kidding
Today stay in the house play KO , dun know why so cold although the window is closed.
Wanted to go buy text book but soooooooooooooo expensive 27 pounds???? And the econs text cost 40 pounds ?????????????????????????????????????

Visit to WINDSOR CASTLE!!!!

2007-10-02T08:18:00.001+08:00

Date: 29Th Sept 2007
Time: 12pm – 4.30pm

The castle was traditional, view was beautiful with the river Thames filled with swans, lined with shop houses and boats.
The castle could be spotted from afar as it was on the highest land in Windsor. The circular turrets stood out among the talls greens.

<---The olden moat of the Windsor Castle has now been maintained into a garden.

*SOB…. Didn’t have time to walk along the River Thames :( Serene portrait of greens, hill and water….. I wonder why ppl rush here and there, pay money to see but miss out on all the natural and lovely sight and feel.
River Thames I’m definitely going to see you again with all the elements to form the perfect balanced picture.

St George Chapel ------------------->

To boyboy: KO working now hahahaha….. actually I log in the wrong way, on the hack only when the serverlist come out :P……

Madame Tussauds

2007-10-02T08:16:00.000+08:00

Date: 28th Sept 2007
Time: 11am – 4.30pm

Today we saw 2 things : The Buckingham palace guard changing ceremony + Madame Tussauds.

At 11.10am, the Buckingham palace centre statue and platform was already fully occupied!! I managed to squeeze behind a fence to stand unblocked directly behind the railing. GUESS WHAT!!!?!?!??!?! Nah not the Queen……. It started to RAIN!!!!!

Madame Tussuads, seen half of it in Korea exhibition, but the London really shouldn’t be missed!!! Some wax figures really look real, others look erm….. Waxy…..
The heights of the figures are really impressively tall!!!

The exit was a real surprise. It was a train ride through the history of England and how it the empire stood the test of time.

SPECIAL: I put 2 pound 2 pence into a machine and back with 2 souveniors = 2 squashed and flattened coins hahahhahah

Oxford Town~~~ UNI

2007-10-02T07:43:00.000+08:00

Date: 27th Sept 2007
Time 12pm to 5pm

Waking up at 7
Catch an 8am bus , sleep on it for 1 hour
Change bus at 10am, sleep on it for 2 hours

---------------------------àREACHED DESTINATION OXFORDß---------------------------

What a tiring journey of sleeping and waking up :P

Oxford oxford, A yellow brick city
Greens greens, making it pretty
Universities and Libraries aplenty
Nourishing your little flowers carefully.

Oxford town might be quite confusing. There is no “Oxford University”…. It is made up of many many different university names eg. University of Mary etc…..

The Uni buildings are amongst the public buildings and cafeterias and churches. Since the whole town looks the same yellow bricky walls, those with crests and security guard posts are university entrances.

1st stop: a café to eat lunch…… a crossiant chicken sandwich for 1.50 pound ß----- quite nice and fresh

2nd stop: tourist info centre …… “maps of the city are not free” !!! ???..... smartz city got ways to earn money….

3rd stop: shelldonian theatre…. An olden design dome-shaped building for Oxford theatre studies & music ….. I thought it was a public cinema, since when did schools have so much money ???

4th stop: Bodleian Library…. An olden design too! Visitors are only allowed in the quadrangle… Apparently this is only for the Oxford students!!! And the library has 2 separate buildings about 30 metres away from each other…

5th stop: The Town Map…. Looking , we headed straight for the desired place, “Harry Potter Great Hall” in Christ Church. I wanted to visit the botanic gardens of oxford but it was in the opposite direction L Anyways it took 20 minutes to walk to the church.

6th stop: CHRISTCHURCH… Paid 4 pounds for entrance fee ????? (church collect entrance fee nowadays). Saw the “great stairs” which was only 2 flight of stone stairs. The stone was really cold. The great hall was much smaller than expected. Only 2 rows of tables down the lane and the lane was pretty short. Probably it was the only church with a hall I guess. That was the only thing to see in addition to the gift shop.

7th stop: We walked back to the Bus interchange to catch the 5pm bus back to victoria to catch the 6.45pm bus from Victoria to hatfield. When we reached there 15 min earlier, I went into this “7-eleven-like” shop trying to buy something to munch.

I saw “BELGIAN CHOCOLATES (20) for 1 POUND” !!!!!....... heheheheh I only spent 1 pound dun worry.

Restoration Wednesday

2007-09-27T07:12:00.000+08:00

Never go any where today, too tired, woke up at 10am... started playing computer and *dotzzzzzz KO cannot load stupid xtrap

After some adjustments, KO loaded....... but black screen :( so waste time....

My friend cooked lunch for me as I was talking on Skype to like a thousand ppl.

At 5pm.... too boredzzz took a walk outside the school wearing:
wollen socks and slippers + scarf and green coat + blue pyjamas pants and pull over

Friend that came along froze .... wearing gloves and wollen scarf ...... Today temperature nice (7-12 degree)! But tml will be bad ----- tml will be too hot (about 10-18 degree)

After dinner, decided to go Oxford Uni on Thursday 27th sept 2007. Take bus to London Victoria coach station (6 pounds return, 60 min) and take coach to Oxford (12 pounds return, 100 min)

Planning is so tiring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

To my sis: Faster come here lar, dun dilly dally stick ard that Warren tuan..... buy JJ new toys.....

To my boyboy: Why ko so many problem???? Make sure you got stock up enough leave to go for a world tour... Dun bully my JJ .....

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

2007-09-26T08:01:00.000+08:00

Date: 25th Sept 2007 (Tuesday)
Time: 9.30am

Going to London by ourselves.. certainly exciting, I was hoping we took the wrong bus and ended up some where different, probably more exciting!!

Anyways…… a bumpy full-of-red-lights reckless 1-hour journey ----- and we reach feeling queasy … Nevertheless we located ourselves in the middle of Victoria street and headed towards the Buckingham palace.

I turned off halfway to the nearest bank branch, to my surprise Guess What?!?!? === the Bank says “it is our rule that you only open an account locally with the local banch ” ?!?!!??!?!?!??!?!
HUH?????????? ARRGH!!!!! What stupid service is that??? Only shows that you dun have a computer system that links the country’s banking data or smthg!!!!!! Forget it!! I’ll go HSBC………

“erm… you open your account online only and in the maximum of 10 ten days and a service fee of 70 Pounds, your account will be open” …..*dots, zzzzzzzzz <------- silly me forgot about the “high-tech” service HSBC provides… *nah, more like about the service C0mPut3Rs provide!! After some consultation, I’ll just use DBS debit to withdraw money :D *simple and sweet * Joining the queue of 40 +++++ ppl for tickets, almost dieded inside…… so stuffy L Anyways, spent 24 Pounds for 3 visits : the PALACE, ROYAL MEWS, QUEENS’ GALLERY I thought the Royal Mews was jewellery … hjahahhaha … it’s HORSES!!!! & carriages

Royal Mews

<--- Gold COach 4 Royal coaches, 1 Gold coach and many other pony puller, donkey pullers, sedan chairs…. See the tons of harnesses!!! I wonder who even looks at the pattern of harness?!?!

Australian State coach ---->

Queen’s Gallery
No pictures were allowed… We were given an audio tour guide which we could press the number of the painting and hear about its meanings etc…..
Not an appreciative person, I tried to make sense of the paintings but failed terribly …. The only thing I could pick out was the paintings were mostly naked and the EYES were drawn very VERY lifelike…. Other parts such as the dresses were so elaborate/big/fluffy etcetc…. Dun know if last time ppl really wear like that…. Some paintings were huge!! About 2m x 1.5m oil canvas

Palace
No pictures allowed inside the 19 state rooms… The carvings and ceiling decorations were very elaborate, chandeliers were 11feet tall and contained 120 bulbs, Real marble stone were used for sculptures and floors(although we were allowed to walk on carpet only)…. In a sense the Royal Family was very pompous, hanging portraits of themselves in every walk way and wall liners had their initials (VR= victoria) (WR=william).
Many gifts were received from rulers all over the world eg. Ruby necklace from India, Goldwares from Canada. They had the 3rd (62 carats) and 4th ( 50+ carats) biggest diamonds in the world as a brooch….
FYI: the biggest dug out in the world had 3,162 carats

Souvenirs were nice, but expensive. I bought a card holder with the Buckingham palace logo for 5.95 Pounds!!! L…..Nevertheless I need to bring back a souvenirs… Wanted the tea cups and dishes but they cost 30 Pounds and 60 Pounds respectively!!!!!!!

Start of a RaRe s|acKinG W33k

2007-09-26T07:33:00.000+08:00

Date : 24 sept 2007 (Monday)
Time : Whole day

After going to school at 9am, we tried to get the activity timetable for CATS/exchange students. However, there wasn’t a CATS category that we could get anything. Hence we went to see Christina fairhead(Singapore exchange students coordinator) to ask what we should join as the induction week was really meant for the local students. We took a timetable of the business school and found that we had already had most of the talks and activities in the “international students orientation week”.

*sigh it was another week of slacking and dun know doing what, trying to plan to visit other towns but rail prices were horrible!

In the afternoon I collected my bank letter and headed for hatfield town centre. When I reach the bank at 4.10pm, I was told that “I can’t open an account for you now as the bank closes at 4.30pm, so you got to make an appointment and come back tomorrow” ….what the hell??? Ppl here are so lazy or do they work so slackingly??!?!?

At night, my friends and I decided not to waste this whole week of free time and start travelling. Hence our first stop was Buckingham palace, the ultimate and critical element b4 any others.

So we decided to go to London by the 747 Greenline bus on Tuesday. Since the bus comes only every 1 ½ hour, I couldn’t visit the bank if we were to catch the 9.30am bus. Naturally, my friend suggested to open the account in London with so many branches for choice.

That set the journey to London on 25th September 2007 (Tuesday, 9.30am)

London Coverage

2007-09-24T15:43:00.000+08:00

Date of visit: 23 sept 2007
Time of visit: 11 am

London london!
Of fantastic historicals you were but
None none!
Have I been able to enter
Why why do you sleep so early?
Of riches and admiration you had enough?
Casting out eager viewers on thy vanity.
===========================================================

London was fantastic! The amount of old english architecture was aplenty. The elements of structure and carvings sure keep visitors wondering about the technology they had hundreds of years ago.

The 1st stop was the LONDON EYE, a giant ferris wheel towering the city skyline. It cost 13 pounds to go up, not very worth, but oh well at least you get to see the types of modern and olden buildings they have side by side each other. About 20 people were let inside each balloon and the ride took about 30 minutes.

<--- a view I got from the London eye and many other videos

I wonder how old is the big ben now? Didn’t get inside the parliament house as the entrance closed at 4pm. But we took pictures outside…. Fantastic structural design…

After this, we headed straight for the Buckingham palace. However the tickets had timings and at 2pm, there were only 4pm tickets left. As the bus was due to pick us up at 5.15pm, we did not take the tickets sadly….

Looking at the map, out nearest target was the Westminister cathedral. It blended in with the surroundings with its red brick colour. It was having service so no pictures allowed although we could enter.

The Westminister Abbey also had service but no entrance allowed, so pictures outside as well :(

I noticed that many structures including the churches have head sculptures with disturbing faces that look horrible.... I wonder what it is for ... feels so demonic when you look at those.....

St Albans Trip

2007-09-23T03:44:00.000+08:00

Date of Trip : 21st Sept 2007

Time of Trip : 10am to 3pm

The trip the ancient Roman town was quite disappointing. It didn't have as much attractions as I expected. However it was a new feeling, visiting a larger town after staying in a quiet town for 1 week. The top of the houses started to limit the across-view and little modernisation could be felt with the tools and mechanic shops. Houses lined the streets with different styles and colours of bricks. Trees and assorted flowers beautified the lanes as the bus slowly glided to the middle of Victoria Street.

The weather started out ideally, however past two hours my skin could feel the heat of the direct golden beams, almost similarising to Singapore.

It was a much occupied town, bustling with the market tent-stores to the fully-occupied cafes filled with the aromas of coffee. Grocery shoppers and lunchers began to fill the streets at 12pm, after I walked back from the ST ALBANS CATHEDRAL. The architecture was appreciated by many through the flashes of light here and there. Surrounded by the Verulamium Park and burial grounds for its preachers, the serenity and peacefulness was indeed worth visiting.

There were many ducks and goose in the pond of the park. with their nests built supposedly in the mangrove in middle of the pond. Majority of the pigeons were basking their white coats in the sunlight on the greens, hardly afraid of passer-bys. Naturally, the ducks tailed those that fed them (crackers, bread) etc.....

The Roman clock tower was placed beside the Cathedral, not for any special reason I guess. The stone structure was super tall, considering the skyline of the town.

Following, the market place filled with stalls selling vegetables, socks, clothes etc...... Many ordinary types and prices...I bought a loaf of wholemeal bread from the bakery costing 80 pence and ate a muffin for lunch that cost 50 pence.

As I walked back to the open-air shopping centre "Maltings", I saw the "Topshop" board and headed straight for it. Entering, I was the "2 Pound" sign on 3 racks and immediately went flipping through the hangers. All read "UK 20" :(... Extra big for me to wear, despite the tube tops being that, I bought a sleveless top for 2 pounds, dark blue in colour meant for sleeping.

Walking along more, my friends saw the "clearance" sign and decided to enter the shop. Upon that, most of the racks were already emptied. This shop wasn't "my type", having sizes of only my 3 thin friends. I managed to spot a green sleveless top that I could wear nicely and cost 3 pounds. When paying and rushing off for the coach, I just took a yellow sleveless (but different cutting) off the rack and paid for it (3 pounds) without trying on.... Fortunately after I reach the house, it fitted nicely and looked nice too :D..............Just then we saw the group of Malaysian guys outside squeezing on the bench, apparently having no interest in shopping:P ... Together we strolled towards the pick-up point, but apparently "girls being girls" flirted to another sale shop, with the guys sighing and complaining. This didn't take long as the sale was 10 pounds ........

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Tml 23rd sept 2007 is the trip to London. Most places collects entrance fees, with the average of 8 pounds etc... I wonder how many I can afford to enter and which is the most worth.

Look out for the "London Coverage" on tomorrow's blog.

See you then!!

Off|ciaLly SigNed IN F.L.J.FOO@HERTS.AC.UK

2007-09-21T16:19:00.001+08:00

At Last!!! I have permanant connection to the International community of everywhere!!

It's only 9am here by the way and I'm supposed to go out to the supermarket to restock.... It's weird when I always over sleep at home, lazy to wakeup, but it's an automatic alarm clock here for 8.30am :D.... I dun even have to worry about missing classes because they start at 9 AM WAhahahahah!!!

This is the super market :

fINALLY i have a com to use!!

2007-09-19T00:37:00.000+08:00

<-- cute tea house on the way to school campus

My 3rd day of staying in England.... Haven't been able to use the computer cos they wun set up the internet connection in the hostel until I've registered my subjects and officially become a Herts student.... btw it's only on thursday I'll OFFICIALLY become a UH student and get the student card....

Well now at least I get to use the Learning Resource Centre Computer in Dehavilland.... The weather has been fantastic !!! about 15degrees on the average and slightly warmer in the afternoon from 1pm-3pm when there is direct sunlight...

I'm staying in a cottage house with no fans and yellow lightings but it's really cool!!! authentic taste of England..... but at night it's stuffy since the already-small window keep closing by itself .... The pillow is soooooooo soft until you're just sleeping on thebed :( but the comforter is just nice and fluffy, I think I'll probably ship back home the comforter and free bed sheets :D So far out of 8 people, only 4 people moved into the house and the 4 of us are exchange students, I guess the rest of the 4 will probably come in this week and they should be the local students.... If you're wondering, I've been eating cupnoodles and free foods in the orientatino week... The 1st lunch costs me 3.6£ !!!!! and that's when I decided to take every opportunity to fill my stomach without having to spend a single cent :D (free food :D)

I wonder when it'll be time to wear thick wollen clothes :D It's getting quite cold but none of us dare to wear long coats because the people here are just wearing normal shirts and jackets and jeans still....

The buildings here are about 4 storeys high only and they are really far apart so there's plenty of walking to do on stoned paved ways..The shuttle buses are pink and quite frequent (at least better than NTUs stupid service :P) .... Many public buses come inside the school so it's really convenient, but 1 trip takes about 1.2£ so.......nah I rather walk when I can, save for entrance fees into attractions

The keyboard here's really hard .... so weird hahah since it's a new campus.... the monitor is stuck to the CPU on the table.... Anyways I asked the biz school cordinator whether it was common to jay walk since there are so few traffic lights and tons of roundabouts.... He said that it wasn't against the law and it's legal to eat and drink on the buses (strange that the buses here are so much cleaner than those in Singapore) ..... Singapore's really known as the "NO CHEWING GUM" city as he (Mike Thomas ) quoted that....

1 thing really sickening is that everywhere we go, people assume we are China students!!!! *arrgh I dun know if it's bad but the first question would be "are you from China?" !! or "you know in china............." Even the guard post security guard told us "in china you people look on the left b4 you cross, here we look on the right" ..... *sigh*.... We're like assumed to be Chinas..... Anyway there's many nationality here, mostly Nigeria, Malaysia, China and Australians.

The uni here is really high-tech and I thought it'll be worse than NTU.... You have to swipe card to enter the Learning Resource Lab and into tutorial classes....BTW thats how they lock you out after the class starts and you're late.... the photocopy machine is free!!!! although the internet might be a little slower... I haven't explored the books yet so wait till another day :D

I think it's really slow :( The computer here is RM brand and they use Novell server (cannot remember what I learnt in network class :(..) I took tons of pictures of the house, the campus and the shopping centre, the environment and the local houses...... dun know if got the same feeling to whoever view the pictures.... The greens are fantastic, all carpet grass and you can just lie down on them without having to worry about mud or ants!! Houses are so bricky :P and many many hedges and flowers decorate the traditional and peaceful town of Hatfield....

<-- see the moo moos'!!

On saturday I'm going to St Albans and it's an ancient Roman city and London on Sunday would be a full-fledge city..... Next week is still Induction (dun know why they call it like that), its an introduction of the subject and the following week would be the offical start of teachings... When I can upload the pictures then only I'll tell you more about the campus and it's decorations :D

Till then tata... :D

ps: I'm enjoying the weather till the extent I dun mind freezing while half studying

Last day of work

2007-09-13T22:23:00.000+08:00

Today is my last day of work at Temasek Holdings..... I 've always wanted to join a prestigous investment firm etc etc..... But the work at Temasek really made me think through what I want to do next time.....

The environment is TOTALLY different from banking or auditing .... Much more brain and processing work, while bank is more about compliance work....

Anyways I gain a heap of Excel knowledge and know more about financial work instead of accounting. The people in Temasek are really realistic, making friends for the sake of career success and advancement, not for the friendship. The turnover rate is really high too, with the average stay of about 2 yrs + only...

I got to talk to 3 people previously from PWC, seeking advice about entering an audit firm upon graduation.... Apparently PWC has the overall best grading, while EY has the higher salary, followed by KPMG and Deloitte. But b4 I left the place, my supervisor's (Dickson) last advice an audit firm's training is really tough and fine-tuning, means a lot of slogging to do. INvestment Banking and Management consultancy was the path to go for the fastest advancement as you get to meet people of high rank and from there you learn, leaving out much of the technical skills to others to do, reaching the highest lvl of conceptualising.

Haiz... whatever I'm still exploring options.....SATURDAY I"M FLYING!!!! Dun miss me :D

I've accepted the fact that I got demoted to a lousy hostel :P, but i'll try to apply for the good one in 20th OCT.... Hope I dun have to wake up too early for classes in the morning :D

sad sad :((

2007-09-13T10:11:00.000+08:00

I sent an email to the UH hostel ppl telling them that they quoted me the wrong price for the hostel and the SWOP me to another place!!!!!! The dehavilland campus was a high class new hostel and I got swopped to the worst hostel:((( that can be the worst thing that happen to anyone who is about to go there :( I wonder who is my roomie though I'm quite sure it's not my NTU friends ....... I hate double deck beds :( The Roberts WAy campus is 3km away from the study building and the dehavilland hostel is just beside the biz block .....

arrghhhhhhhh!!!!! I'm so depressed, have 2 wake up early to go class, dun know who my roomie is, sleep on the upper deck of the bed!!! no privacy! chance to get my things stolen, no space to put things, share bathroom with 7 others!!! I really hope the new friends and more activity place would make up for the classy hostel :((

byebye super classy quiet clean private dehavilland :(( *sob

REadygeTset GO!

2007-09-12T17:39:00.001+08:00

I just created my blog from the office computer, spent abt 1 hour... Thinking what to write here... haiz HTML/XTML really makes me go giddy .......

I'll be leaving for hatfield london in 3 days time!!!! and I haven't packed my luggage heheh, still deciding what to bring, haven't bought the things to bring, haven't bring my doggie JJ for heartworm injection.... haiz......I haven't drove enough yet!!! after 9 months of waiting for my driving license..... I have to wait another 18 WEEKS !!! to come back and drive heheh:D I guess I'll pay it off by travelling in Europe wakakakakaa...!!!

LONDON!!!!! here I come !!!!!!