Day 7 (13 Dec '06)

Last day in Taiwan. The last official meal was absolutely fantastic. I just look forward to breakfast everyday, and this one was definitely something to look forward to. It had everything, from the usual Chinese and western breakfast, to salads, jap food, fruits, basically everything you could wish for on your breakfast table.
After the sumptuous breakfast, we went to the last attraction, which is the Martyr’s shrine (忠烈祠）, another historical place, the doors were guarded by life statues, guards armed and stood at the door without moving at all, not even blinking of eyes. Amazing.









They really don't move at all!!

Then we headed for the airport already. And dad had to create trouble till the last moment, because he wanted to stay over at Hongkong, where we transferred flight. As our air ticket was group ticket, they didn’t allow him to use the ticket, and so he had to buy another ticket to get home. That was still not the worse, the luggages were checked in under his name, and so they stayed with him in HK, leaving mom and I going home without luggages!!!
Luckily, the luggages flew over the next day and they even sent it to the doorstep. Not bad indeed, no need to carry our own luggages...
Some interesting things we saw before saying goodbye to Taiwan









piglets!









Hello Kitty plane!!!!!


After spending one week in Taiwan, what impressed me the most is their environment- friendliness. Most purchases are packed in paper bags and plastic bags cost 1 or 2 bucks. Politics can get interesting to watch when you’re not involved. And most importantly, there's really too many things to eat!!!!

Day 6 (12 Dec '06)

The second last day was spend at Taipei.
First stop: CKS memorial hall (中正纪念堂）









my mommy...









my daddy....









my sis and her new found "boyfriend"...



Next stop: National Palace Museum （故宫）
This one is different from the one in Beijing. No ancient magnificent buildings but a whole collection of what was found from the past. It felt like a day of history lessons. (no photos cos cameras are not allowed there)

Then was a shop that sells lingzhi, royal jelly and deer fetus. Apparently, deer fetus is extremely good for asthma and other diseases. Now I can start a whole debate on whether it is just to use animal products for health benefits, but it was really painful to see the dried fetus being crushed up and grinded into powder.

We also visited a fortune and fengshui place, where they analysed our character and fortune using names, and they were miraculously right. Quite scary in fact.

We shopped at 101 Shopping Mall, we didn’t want to spend the 350 bucks to take the lift up, so we just shopped around in the bookshop because it was such a high-end shopping centre.























101 storeys.. it sure is high..


The last night was spent at Regent Hotel, which is the best of all the hotels for the 7 days. Nothing much planned for the night, but it was a waste to just stone in the hotel, so we took the cab out and walked around and await breakfast.

Day 5 (11 Dec '06)

First Stop: Leo Foo Village (六福村）
This is a place for the young and those young at heart. It is an amusement inclusive of a zoo. We visited the zoo section first, where we took a bus into the carnivour area which had tigers and lions roaming just beside the bus. There were no barriers other than the bus window and the monkeys liked us so much that one climbed onto the rooftop of the bus. It feels as if we were animals on exhibition, not sure whether it was us looking at the animals or the other way round. Then, we took a tram to visit the less dangerous animals. An amusement park wouldn’t be complete without rides. As we only had less than 3 hours to tour the whole park, we didn’t get to try all the rides. It was a pity that I didn't get to try the most thrilling one. Nevertheless, we still had great fun.

"get me out of here!!"





















getting ready for a roller coaster ride...












and up i go.. woohoo..












the child in us..


Next stop: Yehliu (野柳）
Another beauty for nature lovers - artistic display of natural rock formation. Let photos do the talking.


















wonders of nature..









this rock is cool..









beautiful scenery + 3 beauties + messy hair









now this is what i have to do when that spoilt brat refuses to wake up, and she's damn heavy can

Next stop: YangMingShan TienLai Hot Spring (阳明山天籁温泉）
My step to taitai-hood. I had a relaxing hour or so just lying in the warm waters which left all of us with a sulfuric smell. There were different pools sith varying temperature and aroma. Some were really very hot.

Night: Hsimenting (西门町）
More of window shopping. I still prefer the night markets.

Day 4 (10 Dec '06)

First stop: Hakka village (美浓客家村）
where we got to try the traditional lei tea, and viewed some of the traditional items like paper umbrella and other small accessories.









me and my sister

Next stop: “Five Cent Driftwood House”
Lunch was at “Five Cent Driftwood House”. The design of the building is very special, like a treehouse, the toilet too, even the toilet signs were so creative. And so were the furniture and utensil. Indeed a different dining experience.









Cool toilet sign right??

























Next stop: Sun Moon Lake
It is a lake in the middle of Taiwan and on top of the mountain. Very windy and cooling place. According to our tour guide, it is where the Ali Shan tribe is and the centre of the 921 earthquake, which reduced the number of residents from 2000 over to only 200 over. Almost al the buildings were destroyed. Really a catastrophe.















And the day ended with night market shopping again, this time at Fengjia market.

day 3 (9 Dec '06)

The day started with a sumptuous breakfast buffet. After that we travelled further South. Not much activities for the day.

First Stop: 85 Building
The main attraction was 85 building where we took a lift up to the 75th floor in 43 seconds and viewed Kaohsiung city. There was nothing much to see due to the haze.










They look like toy cars from above..




Next stop: Cijun Island (旗津岛）
Then, we took a ferry ride to Cijin island, where there was another temple, which we didn’t go in. Along the street there were vendors selling food. We saw an interesting stall selling flavoured fried corn. As we were waiting for the corn to be ready, we saw fireworks coming from behind the building and there were people lining out firecrackers. Before we knew it, the firecrackers were lighted and deafening cracking sounds filled the whole island. It was not a festival, merely the Kaohsiung and Taipei election day. Politics for outsiders is merely a show and form of entertainment.












I swear I was almost deaf after the never-ending fire crackers.




Our next stop for the day was suppose to be love river, which is a 20 minute boat ride in the river to look at the city. However, when we got there, there was already a long queue in front of us, and our tourguide told us we had to wait for about 2 hours. Being impatient shopaholics, most people chose shopping over cruising, and so, we went to the Kaohsiung night market. Although the night markets sell a lot of clothes and stuff, it wasn't the right reason to go as it was their winter now. But it's not cold at all.

Day 2 (8 Dec '06)

First stop: Chiufen (九份）
It is a street high up in the mountain and we did what we do best there – buy foodstuff. That was our first big bag of food to be brought home. We bought mochi, jelly and taro balls. Of course I didn’t forget to try out as much as possible, especially the mochi, so sweet and soft.













in front of the shop where we bought most of the food from.


Second stop :Nantien Temple (南天宫）
Centre of traditional religion of the locals - Mazhu. There is a statue made of pure gold.


Third stop: Taroko (太鲁阁峡谷）
After our abalone and lobster lunch, the bus traveled along the mountains to Taroko. The scenery along the road was beautiful. On the right was the mountain cliff and on the left was pacific ocean. The scenery at Taroko was even better, the whole mountain is made up of marble and there’s natural mineral water flowing down the mountain.



















getting ready to fill my waterbottle with those natural mineral water flowing down.


Next Stop: Ami Aboriginal Cultural Village (阿美文化村）
We watched a performance of traditional dance and songs by the aboriginal. Wasn't that spectacular but we (especially my little sister) still had fun dancing along.









Joining in the fun.


Dinner was buffet at Hualien Parkview hotel. Lots of good food, and the guilty me went for an hour jog on the treadmill in the hotel gym after that. And that was the only time I exercised during the whole journey.
Some random photos along the way:




















no wonder our noses are flat. haha










see the wide grin on her face. Lucky little girl

what a busy and exciting holiday and either blogger has been down or i haven't got down to blogging. so here's a recount of my holidays. Of course, the highlight was taiwan trip.

Day 1 (7 Dec '06)
Touched down at about 3pm in the afternoon and adventure begins. What can be a better way to start getting to know Taiwan other than food.

First stop: Tamshui Old Street (淡水老街）










fishball soup, which has meat (i think it was pork) inside










mini pink guava. i love this, it's soft and sweet and healthy










sunset at 5pm at Fisherman's wharf.

Second stop: Shihlin Night Market (士林夜市）

A trip to Taipei would be incomplete without a visit to Shihlin. As we only had about an hour and a half to explore the place and have dinner, we did not visit the shopping area. Our main focus was of course food.










the huge piece of authentic crispy Shihlin chicken, which I queued quite long for.










Real authentic Taiwan sausages. They are huge!!

food, shopping, fun, lots of fun, taiwan, here i come...

What a great day it is to slack at home. Last night I was still attempting to plan my day, whether I should go paddle, swim, gym, or do nothing. In the end, I slept most of my morning away, and did some packing of my room in the afternoon, dumped all the old notes and magazines to the storeroom. But my room is as messy as ever because I'm not done with packing yet, not to say to pack my luggage. Went out for a swim in the afternoon, but the shadows of the blocks covered the pool, nevertheless, it was still a good and relaxing swim, I could have gone on forever if not for the fact that it was getting dark and cold.
And I watched tv properly for the first time today since I moved to my current house. I think even my sister was laughing at me trying to figure out how to use the remote and which is which chanel. And if my bright pink nails is not good enough, make it two.









Baby bimbo wanted it too so she had a free and really express manicure.
And dad came home with this:











It's a series of vcds. Thank you dad for borrowing, but MY EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!
By the way, I still prefer New Balance to Asics.

And I ran my third marathon yesterday. It was great, what else can I say? I went with the aim of creating a new personal best timing of hopefully less than 5 hours. And so I did, with a new record of 4h50min.
Although we reached there rather early, by the time we waited for everyone to arrive, queued up to deposit our bags at different queues and finally found everybody to get to the starting line, the horn had already gone off. So much of our attempt to start with the horn, quite impossible when you're with a large group of people. But due to the overwhelming number of participants, the crowd was still there and walking to the starting line 8 minutes after the horn. Ran the first 18km or so with my teammates, before going off alone for the whole east coast stretch. The first part was rather relaxinb and enjoyable, we still had energy to talk and joke along the way. The second part was lonely east coast. A test of mental power. But it wasn't too bad considering the fact that there were so many people running and there was a constant supply of water and 100plus, not forgetting the powergels that really works. Besides supporters with banners of encouragement, there was also live school band performing and a cheerleading group made up of primary school kids, they were so cute!! And when I thought I had to run the rest of the marathon alone, I had a new pacer. It wasn't planned, neither was it a coincidence, but it just so happens that I found myself running at the same pace as this guy and so we paced each other for the last 10km. having a pacer really made a difference, especially for the last part when my legs were so tired from the monotonous movement and every km seem so far away. Although we didn't speak or encourage each other, plus the fact that we didn't know each other at all, the fact that there's someone running along with you gives you the obligation to keep up, and it's always the case that you feel as if you are trying to follow the other person's pace and the other person thinks vice versa, so in the end both parties give each other a silent form of encouragement and push. It's tiring but good. I still don't know who was my kind pacer although we did thank each other after we crossed the finishing line. So, thank you stranger!!
This year adidas was smart enough to come up with the series of 'reasons to run' designs, and had tags for you to write your reason to run and pin it on the singlet during the marathon. It provided more of a form of entertainment than encouragement. The best one I saw was 'I may be slow, but I'm still in front of you' Nice try dude, though I did overtake you. And of course there were the elite runners who made it seem like a different country all together on the other side of the road. Genes do play a part. But this year I also saw very fit and old runners, and the visually-handicapped who was tied to the lead runner by means of an elastic band, and they were fast. It's these people that sends shivers down your body and impresses you with their ability to overcome the odds to encourage us that if they can do it, it's shouldn't be hard to us fortunate people to complete a marathon. And there was these 2 women dressed in spiderman and catwoman. cool. Not forgetting people trying to create public awareness. Last year was breast cancer, this year there was this environmentalist, dragging a box of 'rubbish' and trash cans, telling people to be more environmental friendly.
The weather couldn't have been better except for the slight drizzle around noon time, and I'm happy for my constant pace throughout the whole run.
You should have seen how unglam we were to limp and drag our feet to citylink for lunch at a snail pace, whining in pain as we walk down the stairs. What a sight.
Looking forward to marathon 2007, but the stress to do a better timing is piling up as the years go by...

someone drag me out of the house or destroy my laptop please cos i'm suppose to study!!!
and I was bored enough to search for my name on google and guess what I found???
http://www.geocities.com/class_6f/
OMG!!! I didn't know it existed!!!!! muahahahahaha

And so today I went for my last long run before the actual one next week. Well, it wasn't the best run I've had, but it was quite interesting for a Sunday morning jog. And I was only wearing contacts in one eye since I've decided to let my injured eye rest, and I will go totally blind without contacts. If you want a tan from running, and you think 6km is a good distance, try Pandan reservoir. It felt like eternity!! I should be thankful that the clouds are doing me a favour today if not it will be scorching and burning hot, and if I do get a heatstroke and faint, there will be noone to save me. And there was this stretch where some construction was going on, and I had to walk through the muddy ground and climb over the barrier. my poor pretty new shoes.... and I must say it was never my intention to go running at that desert-like place. The only reason why I ended up there was due to bad sense of direction. But it was really quite a good mental training. 6km of eternity. But overall still quite enjoyable. My sense of direction may be bad, but my estimation of time is still pretty good. So far, I've been able to make it back home by the stipulated time, means I don't have to take bus and stink up the bus. The best part is 2160 calories burnt!! ok, I think I ate it all back, but oh well, I hope there's no net gain. I wonder how many calories a marathon's going to burn. 3000? 4000? Now my toes feel squashed and my knees do ache especially walking down stairs. But at least I have 1 week to recover and hope I still can walk normally after 42km next week. So for the rest of the week, I think I'll just do some short distances and many cardio machines. Time to be tai tai again.
To people who think running is boring, here's a bit of my advice on how to make it more interesting and enjoyable. First is to get out of the gym and out of the track. What can be more boring than running on the same spot, or running round in circles? So, explore new places to run, or do it with company (be it your running buddy, or music), which I seldom do. And of course how can I forget my ultimate reason to run - run to a good place for breakfast (eg, Tiong Bahru market), or run to buy some chocolates..
Alright, I finally saw my doctor, nothing much apparently, just some inflammation, most probably due to wearing of contacts, which surprises me because I haven't been wearing contacts much these few days. Well, at least I have a peace of mind now..

This is pretty interesting, went to collect my standard chartered race pack today and was delighted to see that the bag is a nice gym bag and not a shoe bag, cos I already have 2 similar ones from the past 2 years. BUT..... the singlet is exactly the same as last year's, and when I got home I found 2 new free shoe bags from Shape magazine to add to my collection. I own 7 shoe bags now!! And did I say I won't go shopping till exams are over? Oh well, I just bought a super bimbo, but totally 'me' adidas shirt at the Sports expo today. So pretty and I love it!
Well, another interesting thing is that I was studying at Millenia Walk Starbucks until they chased people away cos it was booked for a private function, so I went to BK and found myself back at Starbucks for the private function. I am really turning into a pig. No exercise today, 2 starbucks drink, dinner at tonkinchi, lots of desserts and chocolates... So full!! Alright, no excuse, I am going to run it off tomorrow!!
Right, I am suppose to be studying for my last paper but here I am, blogging, msn-ing, and reading Shape magazine. Wow, a frozen margarita's 740 calories and long island tea's 780 calories. sure or not??
I'm scared now, having a headache despite having quite sufficient rest (at least more than what I used to have) and there seems to be something growing in my eye that's causing it to be red and dry and is affecting my vision. Feels like there's a layer of misty stuff covering my eyes. Ok, and the headache's on the left and it's my right eye that's affected. Ok, I'm really scared now.. Sigh, I wish it's nothing serious, well, I guess my body is telling me not to abuse it anymore. I always think I'm still young and healthy and my immune system is fantastic, that's why I can afford not to take care of it. Ok, my new resolution is to love my body, sleep well, eat well, exercise well.

Till I bother changing a new skin, I shall at least get my tagboard back.
So there it is, back, and hopefully to stay.. I wonder who reads my blog, but do drop a message if you do...

It feels like exams are over and it certainly feels good, but THEY ARE NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
yesterday I had 6 hours of uninterupted sleep, I think I was like a log on my bed (yes, no longer on the chair), switched off 1 of the alarms I didn't hear the other 2 at all. Woke up on my own for breakfast (yay, mom bought chunky peanut butter!), read newspapers, went back to my room, get changed and flip through my desesrt cookbook (haha, feel like making some desserts..) then going out for a run. Other than the bad air along the roads and the foul smell from the drain, it was a great run!! comfortable pace, fantastic weather, and a new route. Then went to the gym at my house for a bit of arms workout, then went back home to play with my lovely little gym ball. Wow, what a fruitful morning, and it was only 10 plus when I finished my morning workout. Really feels like holiday. Ok, the only useful thing I did today was to print out all my lecture notes. That's it. And I spent the afternoon sleeping again. Don't call me a pig, cos it's a rare opportunity for me to get so much rest. There was yet another article today on the how obesity and lack of sleep is closely related, so many it's good to sleep. But what's te physiological reason behind it? hmm, maybe it'll be my job to find out..
The marathon is next week!! wow, really fast, I think the time when I registered for it, I was still telling myself it's a long way more to the actual day, and now it's almost here!! I can't really say I've trained and is well-prepared for it. I have been constantly running, but I don't take it as proper training, more like leisure jogger. I am quite sure I can finish the run, and the more I run, the more stress there is to break my own record. It's no longer a matter of completing the race, but of doing it better than what I did last year.
I'm totally not in the mood to study anymore..
5 days to last paper,
8 days to marathon,
12 days to taiwan,
30 days to christmas,
36 days to 2007,
43 days to new school term...
the coming holiday will be short, but fruitful...

I think I survive better with less sleep. Can't believe that I concussed after dinner, woke up at 1 plus in the morning, wanted to hug some buddha legs, but fell asleep, yes on the chair again, and so I was in and out of dreamland for the whole night and clocked almost 8 hours of sleep, and that's almost double of my usual sleeptime at night. But the problem is I am feeling more tired than usual, my head feels heavy and saturated, and my eyes feel like they can close anytime. This is definitely not a good sign. And I do know how to multitask effectively, that is, study and exercise at the same time. I think that's the only way I can survive 1 whole hour on cardio machines in the gym besides watching tv and gymming.
As I get older, my memory gets worse... I need some brains...

who says scientists don't have a sense of humour (or rather lameness)
taken from the newsletter 'Fun Science' (a production from Science Centre and A*Star for primary school kids)
Here goes some whacky riddles:
Q1: what sea animal can be adjusted to play music?
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A: the tune-a fish!
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Q2: Why is it so easy to weigh fish?
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A: they have their own scales
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I like the next one (maybe can tell my mom too who keeps feeding me fish nowadays)
Q3: why are fish so smart?
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A: because they live in schools...
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Ok, that's it for lunchtime entertainment.. speaking of schools, my sister just went for her P1 orientation this morning and came back with lots of books and other barang barang. Girl, you're finally going to school!!!

Exam period = more blogging, more staying at home, higher electricity bill, more food, more fats, less exercise, less sleep, lower handphone bill, less spendings
I really hope my puny little laptop won't get overheated and get burnt cos it's been giving out hot air almost 24 hours a day.
Alright, seems like today is not the day to exercise. Firstly I have lots to read and trying to understand for anatomy (not to say revise cos I just printed out the notes for some), then it rained, then when I finally could not take the guilt of pigging and bumming around at home for the whole day yesterday, I overcome the inertia, got changed and dragged myself out of the house for some sweat and sun (yes, the sun came out after a passing shower which lasted for less than 10 minutes). In need for some speed and strength, I happily planned my exercise routine for a 2.4km run and some gym exercise. And so I jogged to the track, and it was closed (damn, should have taken notice of the change in opening hours to public), so the disappointed me jogged back to do some gym and the only pathetic little all-in-one machine was fully occupied by 3 fat guys who were having a picnic there - sitting on the benches sms-ing and beside them on the floor was a carton of soya milk and kinder beuno. Hello, you don't own the gym!! And so I went home and played with my little dumbell and gym ball.
Can SCF decide whether marathon is on 27th Jan (Saturday) or 28th Jan (Sunday). No calendar in this world says 27th Jan 2007 is a Sunday...
Ok enough of my rambling, back to the notes and powerpoint slides (I'm not even using my $45 textbook which is selling at $57 in NTU anymore)

I don't normally kope stuff.. but here it goes...

Once upon a time, there was a blind girl.
She hated the world and everybody else, except for her loving boyfriend who was always there for her.
One day, she said to her boyfriend "If only I could see the world... I'll definitely marry you"!
Soon after, someone donated a pair of eyes to her.
And then... she could see everything!
Her boyfriend then asked her, "now that you can see the world, will you marry me"?
The girl was shocked to realize that her boyfriend, just like her, was another pathetic blind soul.
And so she heartlessly rejected him.
Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying
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.
.
.
.
.
"Just take care of my eyes, my dear"

Monday was my second visit to the Novena Square gym and I finally tried the tai-tai machine. Oh man, it is one of the best inventions!! It's like an elliptical machine, those that you put one foot on one piece of footrest that can move, but instead of moving forward and backwards, it goes from side to side. I think it's one of the few machines that can tone the inner thigh. And if you think it's boring and easy, you're wrong!! doing it intensively actually burns more than 800kcal per hour, and doing it leisurely really feels like dancing, especially with the remix they were playing.
And it certainly felt weird studying the reproductive system in public. I was trying my best to cover those explicit photos and diagrams in textbook and hoping no one was staring at me. Oh well, if you think it was the most interesting topic in O level biology or something, think twice when you have a few pages of text explaining the hormonal change bla bla bla. Alright, at least it's over... and now I shall bury my head in the sea of names of bones, muscles, joints, nerves etc etc...

You Are Tofu

Okay, so you aren't exactly meat. And that's fine with you. Even if people think you're a bit bland.There's a good chance you're veg - and even if you aren't, you secretly think meat is gross.

What Kind of Meat Are You?

work can be more fulfilling and interesting than I would imagine. And people always say "don't just complain, give solutions". Now when people writes in a complaint letter, trying to sound intellectual by using as many traditional chinese characters as she knows, together with a whole bunch of wrongly written words, and providing solution, literally in that little envelope, you don't know whether to cry or laugh. We were all so amused.. but since blogger is public, I shall not explain any details in case I really get into trouble.
And I've just added a new expensive item to my collection.










pretty right??? now i only lack the $50 note of the ship series... anyone willing to exchange??

It's officially the last day of lessons of year 2 sem 1. Fast isn't it? Before I know it the exams will be over, holidays will be here and then over, and it will be the start of a new semester. It was quite a busy day to end of the semester. Lessons as usual, and extra lessons to make up for tomorrow, but anything beats going back to school on saturday. I'm lazy to write so let the photos do the talking.










It's a bit small, but these are the guinea pigs of BMS/TCM. And these are the people I see everyday, confined to our own favourite corners of SBS CR7.
Maybe we should be glad the school decided to get rid of some flying creatures before exam starts, but it's quite a sight to see all of them dead on the floor. countless.











yes, the ground was littered with bees. yucks











there you go, the bunch of noisy people always in the middle of the classroom.

From now on, I'll find myself confined to my cosy corner in my room, imagine that my freedom of motion space is only enough for my chair to turn, facing the window, laptop's on my left, table's in front of me, cupboard, hi-fi, food, and rubbish on my right, and bed behind me. Hard to imagine? let the photo exlain itself.











Now you believe me when I say my room is puny??
haha

And so there was another news to spoil my day. Seems like we're not going Australia this december anymore. And I thought for once my dad could plan something really in advance. He did, we booked the resort everything long ago, but now there's the big problem of no air tickets. And because we thought the air tickets sold during the travel fair was over-priced, the only available tickets now are at $4k++. Thanks ar, I don't print money!!! Oh well, just hope we can get tickets to somewhere else and give me something to look forward to.
It's officially down to one week before it starts, the exams, what else? Preparation remains at minimal. I hate it everyday when I had to drag myself to school and force myself awake to absorb as much as possible from my lao shi who talks sooooooo fast. Alright, I'm not going to complain about exams cos I don't have a choice..
Oh well, we learn new things everyday and I just found out a few days ago that vegetarians don't eat onion or garlic. So that's my great discovery when the vegetarian stall cooks all their vege with ginger. yucks. I hate ginger. So much of calling myself a vegetarian.. haha but actually I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't know..

Who says I can't be domesticated? I've proved myself capable of being a housewife yesterday by taking the job of a babysitter. Who else but my dearest little sister. I brought that little girl swimming, COOKED dinner for her, taught her to play piano before finally throwing her in front of the television. Gosh, it has really been ages since I last cooked a proper meal, though I only cooked something as simple as noodles yesterday. The end product was not bad, and that is all that matters. Tasted just like my mom's cooking, but then again, how wrong can it go? The process was another story. Should have seen my confused look when I can't decide which ingredient to go in first, how long to cook it for, how much salt to add, and the impatience of lifting the cover from time to time wondering when will it ever boil. AND I HATE CLEARING UP!!
And yesterday I didn't fall asleep in class at all, finally proved my laoshi wrong that I sleep everyday. I thought she would call me to answer questions but she didn't. Maybe she's just waiting for the right time to catch me red-handed.
It's the time of the year again for me to get whiny. Yes, so many things to study and so little time. Don't I complain about that before every exam. But so what if I were given more time, knowing myself best, I will still leave everything to the last minute. It's no use panicking if I'm not going to do anything about it.. so STOP WASTING TIME!!

The sunday paddler went paddling today. I still love k2.

SKGN in action again at lunch today. and something very interesting happened.
As we sat in the canteen and just started eating, our prof came and joined in and the first thing she said when she looked at me: I see you sleeping in class everyday.
Oh great! damn!! I think from today onwards she'll be calling me to answer questions everyday to prevent me from sleeping. How nice.
Yes, I'm been indecisive again. Should I or shouldn't I? It'll be quite fun to do it, but I don't think I'm up to it.
Well, oh well.........

taking a breather, taking a break, i finally found myself out of this constrained little city. The one-day Batam retreat simply put, was a shopping madness adventure.
Left home early in the morning to catch the 8am ferry to Batam, where the shopaholic was about to start on her mission. Did some typical touristy stuff, like visit touristy shops where things were going for so expensive, had quite a sumptuous seafood lunch followed by a cultural performance. It was short, but good. What's more interesting is the shocked expressions on some of our faces, watching in disbelief how they could eat burning charcoal, and munch on glasss as if it was a cookie.
And then came one whole afternoon of shopping. Quite a fruitful one. Went back with bags and bags worth of goodies. Well, the best part is not having to spend my own money. I think that's the only good thing about shopping with moms. mobile atm.
I remember the last time I went batam was when i was in primany school. Maybe it's because we visited a different part of the island this time, but the feeling is totally different.









we were tourists at the shopping mall











hmmmmm... yummy yummy

so much of the retreat, I still have to come back to reality.. sigh... can't wait to my holidays..

staying on the 25th floor gave me the privilege of a nice scenic view.











now this is what happens when the haze came... and that was on a psi moderate day..
sad isn't it?
It has been a hardworking weekend for me, not in terms of studying, but working. 6 hours on friday, 7 hours on saturday and 5 hours on sunday. Not that i'm complaining when I do make money from working. In fact, I had a real sunday yesterday. Went jogging and paddling in the morning, went home, bathe, eat, sleep, go for work. Isn't that how sunday is suppose to be like?