siao why today so hot.
before i begin..
ALL HAIL YUHENG !!
haha. YAY. so i've managed to kidnap his old guitar so i can demand for a ransom when he wants it back. MUAHAHAHA. but really. SO PAISEH. need to trouble him to bring it to the mrt.. not like he lives right next to the mrt... I OWE YOU MAN.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! so exciting.. i got a guitar at home--though not mine. HAHA. still. something foreign to examine at.. just that.. i need to first get a cloth to wipe his precious guitar.. then soon after get my own guitar so he can get his precious back.------sounds like lord of the rings.. "MY PRRECIOUSSS..." lol.
ok. that was the noon. morning was quite some work too. cause im unemployed, and unlike guys, i am not required for NS.. so I HAVE TO GET A JOB. i figured out recruit express is too inefficient so i better get things started on my own.. like via the classified.. i called and called.. my ear got heated up from all the callings la... bad bad. then i managed to get 2 interviews.. one at amk mrt at 2pm the other at upper bukit timah..
first rush: to meet yh at 1pm at yew tee. HENG I WAS ON TIME. or i'll probably owe him 2 meals..
second rush: to get home to rest the guitar before heading for amk mrt. notice that i didnt even have time for lunch.. so i decided to forgo the amk interview to grab a short bite at home.
third rush: to upper bukit timah for the interview cause i have no idea how much 852 hates me---which means, it always takes it time whenever i need to rush somewhere with its help. in fact, all public transport hates me.
YAY. i got a PART TIME JOB. enough to keep me busy until the eve of chinese new year.. yes it lasts only that short before i'll find myself pleading at the doors of recruit express again. so i'll probably get another job in february..
here's a quiz with no prize (except for yh.. i feel like half my life owes him.. okay make it a quarter.)
guess my first job:
- cashier
- bartender
- baker
- bra promoter
- vet nurse
let's see who makes most sense---doesnt mean you get it right HAHA.
i'll just say, my job doesnt pay well.. but I LIKE (: i also find my employer quite friendly.. like i can sms bs to him WAHAHAHAH. no la.. as in short forms and smilelies that sort of thing. and the best part of it.. he's call MELVIN. i almost choked out of (discreet) laughter when he told me his name. oh wells. those who know me KNOWS why.
so i ended my interview at around 3.20pm and loitered around beauty world and stuff---i wanted to rush (#4) to accompany my mom for her checkup which was at novena but she turned me down. i finally realised i couldnt find the bus-stop after stepping out of beauty world shopping centre.. or what beauty plaza or what bukit timah shopping centre... so i spent the next 40 minutes or so walking around UNDER THE BLARDY HOT SUN just to find the ORGANY BUS-STOP. and that was even with a directory.. imagine i didnt had one.. i'd probably have taken 2 buses AT LEAST. (now you know renu.. yesh i am very poor thing)
all that walking was enough. and so i cancelled my plan of running.. especially when the sky was turning dark. again.----it always turns dark whenever im planning to do some individual outdoor activity. DARN. which means. IT HASNT RAINED SINCE THE PART 45 MINUTES. !!!!!!!!
All the sleepless nights;
and the tears you cry
at 6:17 PM
and the tears you cry
at 6:17 PM
my journey in yunan, china
ok. yay. im finally back from my holidays. and finally, there's radio, internet and television. MOST importantly, clean toilets that are charge-free so you won't have to hop in urgency as you dig out 0.5 RMB notes outside the best toilet the region could offer.
then again, my body's back in singapore. but i think my mind's stuck with shangrila...[i'll tell you why as this essay goes]after purchasing a huge bottle of martell which we intended to drink in china to keep warm, what else could you do to kill 45 minutes at around 2am in the morning of the 16th.
CAMWHORE.
tired from the wait.
we first arrived at KUNMING, the capital city of yunan. it was 8 sth am and everyone was DEAD. DEAD. and DEAD. china eastern was a squeezy flight.. with a mom and daughter sitting in the same row as me.. GOSH. the girl couldnt sleep so she kept making noises while the mom has obviously made herself comfortable by removing her shoes and her socks-enclosed feet overlapping into my arena. best of all. it turns out that the both of them are in the same tour group as us... -_-"i think we first arrived at a temple... but i didnt find it very holy or whatsoever with the turtles, tortise and fishes frozen to death in the pond. unless i deem it as their recarination.
the very first park we visited in kunming. ok. there were surprising a lot of people on a weekday. it turns out. ALL OF THEM WERE RETIREES AND THE AGED. ok. that's a huge ageing population. off with the blabbering i wanted to make and let's just follow the photos. [ cause im typing with badly cracked fingers due to dryness over at yunan.]
pretty trees (:
seagulls that migrated to the park. initially due to the warmer climate.. then the amount of food people are giving out. there are stalls set around the pond selling bread..
we next found ourselves at a teahouse. and we drank cups of tea... BAD. that means toilet. which i visited. ok. it was clean. BUT. NO LOCK. and to make matters worse.. the door was GLASS. with words only to make them translucent. see how OPEN the chinese have become.
animal moulds made out of pu-er tea. IM AMAZED.
mushroom moulds?
this frog caught my attention. it totally reminded me of seet. not cause of it being a frog. but.. the EYEs. quite familiar... and no neck somemore.
the next day, we headed further up the mountain to some dinosaur valley. from 1900 sth metres above sea level to some 2000 sth metres.. FREEZING at 10 degrees already. somemore still got tram ride = MORE WIND. my dad captured by 2 bandits. HAHAHA. no la. the air is just too unbareable[i cant spell] to be inhaled.
i was drawn to the fact about all or most of the dinosaur gathering in the same area to die. and the size of the park.. so singapore's really nothing.. i was even pondering over why people would chose to tour singapore. almost everything is man-made and we do not offer any cheap and value-for-money products. why then? is singapore that attractive? or are they just materialistic..
first shot for the buildings within just one part of the park.
second shot for that pretty face. HAHA. she's our guide for the park which proves the size of it.
we headed to dali with.. i think a 4-5hours coach ride. lol. the toilets on the way were really amusing yet. kinda appettite-killing. imagine this scenario. withstanding a temperature of 6-11 degree celcius, you see a small sheltered block the size of an ordinary HDB room. you step into it, only to be taken aback that there's NO DOOR. and the walls end BELOW YOUR WAIST. then the scene gets even more horrifying. there is NO FLUSHING SYSTEM. and you almost fainted when you see a hole with a slope that sends out your waste through the walls down to behind the little house. anyone could just stand there and SEE EVERYTHING your ass gives out. i found it utterly amusing when you see steam as you erm.. leak. like "WOAH. SO COOL." another thing is, for such facility, you still have to pay 0.5RMB which is equivalent to S$0.13 or so.
our baizu dali guide. photographer=dad.
this just so happens to be another doorless toilet at another spot where natural dying is being carried out. AT LEAST THERE'S FLUSH. and AT LEAST THERE'S NO OPEN AIR HOLE UNDER MY BUTT. ooh. that explains my dried up butt. =_= even my waist and thighs is covered with flakes of dried epidermal cells.
"er hai" their lake is so huge in dali that the commoners just name it as a sea. the water is ultra clean cause its people treasures it for its importance.
on the way to lijiang, we came across this mine. look like a heart. so i just took it. NICE HOR.
green green grass of home. sometimes i wished i was born there.
the mountains. the fields. making the long bus rides worthwhile.
sakura. no need go japan le.
at a old town of lijiang, we toured a street called "si fang jie" and came across many small dogs. and even kittens. all of them puffed up from the chilling breeze. SO KAWAII.
at lijiang, we managed to catch up with a show directed by the famous ZHANG YI MOU and some 2 other more-famous-in-china directors... there was 3 parts in the show. depicting their culture, lifestyles and romance. the cast consisted of 500 men, 100 women and 50-100 horses. all handpicked by the directors and from the minority tribes. i must say i was truly touched by these people. i wonder how many hearts they influenced and how many trickles of tears were flowed. having been living high up in the mountains at a high of about 2300m above sea level since they ancestors have settled, how have they survived the harsh climates? what about the diseases they encountered? the globalisation that is forcing them to part their simple i-just-wanna-stay-alive kinda mindset?
such thoughts led me into deeper reflection. we people from developed countries travel to countrysides thinking that we would meet innocent nice people who would open their arms wide to welcome us. and it is the tourists whose minds are filled with ideas of how to take over the area one day into endless wealth or to take advantage of cheap goods and souvenirs provided. then again. i face this irony. it is in fact the tourist today who are the simple-minded creatures, who enter a land of unknown, meeting the natives who are filled with scheming thought of ways to rob your valuables. poor thing. what a vicious cycle.
the men singing. surprisingly, i found (some of)them attractive. so man. WAHAHAH.
another interesting thing is the way they piggybag the women. the man held on the the woman's knee as the latter lenes[ahhhh! can't spell] on the guy's back.. apparently, this is used when a woman gets married. the guy have to carry the girl from her house and walk his way back without putting the girl down. it is said that if he did, his bride would be eaten by a tiger or something -_-" i only thought of how muscular the guy must have been.
their stage = amphitheatre. the audience seated in a way to face to snow mountain at the back, heighted at 5000 over metres. LOOK. man is so small in the midst of overwhelming scenic views..
after "perving" at a few males and tearing from the show, we had to squeeze through the crowd in order to board on their "green bus". it seems china is really genuine about protecting their heritage and all. they've got such clean transports, whether buses or trams, that run on batteries instead of diesels so that as little damage and pollution is brought about to their pretty environments. unfortunately, what they failed to realise, like singapore, is the source of the electricity to charge those batteries.. *shakes head* then again, unlike singapore which has almost no natural resources, china has its rivers and winds to generate cleaner electricity.. in fact, most countrysides that i scanned through and running on electricity running on dams... and did i forget to mention that more than 80% of the buildings in kunming are running on SOLAR energy? like, literally, you see each house has it's own solar panel... but AGAIN, it aint fair to compare it with singapore... look at own climate.. it pours suddenly every now and then.. any thing would just degrade itself ASAP under such "unfriendly" conditions. so i cant help but to place some blame on the tropical weather.
another thing i wanna mention is its people. while the government has made its own commendable efforts, it's people are not. you could see the men smoking EVERYWHERE. and i bet at least 40% of the litter generated in the country are made up of cigarette butts. so imgaine how much second-hand smoke i've inhaled... and if you wonder why they smoke so much, it all boils down to their culture. many tribes/races believed that if a man doesnt smoke and/or drink, he's like gay. or sissy... so just make your own judgement.
so back to what i was attempting to say. the crowds were really impatient and rude... and mostly made up of people from C and T. so uhh, in return, i got to be more ruly and pushed back too. YAY. ok. no joke cause there's children and elderlys... while waiting for the bus, you could constantly feel a force coming from all the pushing ang tugging behind. HOW IRRITATING. there's this point of time when two bad zhar bor-s tried to cut our tour group's queue.. and so my nanny-guide hissed at them and shouted fiercer than any woman i've seened. GOSH. but it was kinda satisfying to demoralise those 2 women a bit, afterall.. they were really arrogant.
a tweeny little peek of one of their 4 natural lakes. unfortunately, it contained too much minerals such that animals couldnt live off it.. only plants and algae -_-. and like many times during the journey, i wished my camera was NIKON or had better resolution like.. 8 megapixels or something. or even better, if only the camera were my eyes.
i forgot which tribe.. the yi or the naxi tribe.. i was told they worshipped frogs.. and erm. find it adorable.. i just couldnt figure out why from the picture below..
at a park in lijiang.. i was still surprised by the number of aged exercising... and to add on to my amazement.. THEY WERE ALL SO FIT!! imagine standing and squatting repeatedly without the help of your hands at 70... O_o. and playing badminton ? O_O.
not in the park, but somewhere between lijiang and shangrila on the coach.
I LOVE SHANGRILA though the climate totally ruins my skin all over. look at how vast their land is!! and their herds of buffaloes???[you know those long long hair cows.. i forgot what it's called in english OH WELLS] and pigs and PIGLETS!!!
because of the scarcity of water on the highlands, the zhang tribe calls this the holy lake/sea/whatsoever. which i kinda agree. and uh, this is a protected area by the way. (: (:
open this up and you'll see those black dots better... WAh LAH! all dung. but it doesnt stink. really!
the background is the kitchen cum living hall of a zhang's house. I LIKE THE SPACE.
after a night stay at DI QING hotel, we took a plane back to kunming in 40 minutes while our poor trusty driver was left to return back all by himself with his bus which broke down TWICE in shangrila due to the sheer coldness. and his trip would take 10 hours.. POOR CHAP. i could hear most tourmates whinning about a different driver at kunming...
we got down to this place called shilin, i.e. stone forest in direct translation. everything you see there today were all once the corals, sea and all. it was all due to earthquake that such masterpieces were pushed up.. so cool right..
2 uses of this photo. one for my mum. the other.. HAHA... you make the guess yourself.
man-made pond in shilin. and filled with tons of over-fed fishes..
rental of costume: 10RMB = abt S$2.50
corrosion in a PIG. YEAR OF THE PIG. lol. ok random.
this is some other tourist attraction called QI CAI YUN NAN, aka seven coloured yunan... oh wells. the tribe here had somewhat been influenced by the thais after living at their border.. and hence their buildings looked thai too. this place reared countless of peacocks...
at dinner we returned to the hotel where we lodged ourselves for 2 days.. and that very night me and my sister abandoned our parents at the hotel to tag along with a couple of other aunties and ladies including our nanny-guide to a nearby hairsalon.. afterall who could resist the cheap temptation??my first experience as a taitai in alien form. they washed. treated. steamed. then washed again. then blow then cut my hair -_-"
the next morning at kunming, we went to another mountain... ( seriously, there's countless of highlands at yunan.. which itself IS a highland..) we took a tram while some others walked. *SHIVERS* we visited a cactus garden then zhongkui's 12kg knife and some 20kg sword. MAD. after which we kinda ended our destination at some clock tower.
go ahead. laugh. we assumed the english was correct when the building were first built. but the glue was weak so the words dropped and the illiterate gardeners mispelt them.. oh wells. i think it meant: cactus and succulent plant greenhouse.
this is a lake called dian chi.. which covers an area half the size of singapore. it kept reminding me of the sea between singapore and malaysia..
yunan is a beautiful place. but i love shangrila still. people there live without materialism and notes are almost nothing. to quote my guide, money not spend are afterall, still paper. and in times of survival and death, what can money bring?? the zhang tribe relied on their religion to overcome all obstacles in life. indeed. you cant really be on your own under such circumstances.
i was surprised i didnt leave singapore with reluctancy.. then i got it. it is shangrila where i want my soul to live. although the scenery may not be the best, and definitely not the climate, there's this natural attraction at this place which, shall be left unexplained. maybe that's why my heart was aching when i boarded planes to places closer and closer to home.
oh. belated merry christmas babes. in the mean time, it's back to reality to hunt for a job and overcome driving. one day. i'll return to shangrila until i find another place of peace for the body and soul.
All the sleepless nights;
and the tears you cry
at 3:52 PM
and the tears you cry
at 3:52 PM
predictions
- I failed my BTT.
- I betrayed my good friends.
- H7 gave me a cunning smirk when I spoke to his gf.
- I continued to be unemployed throughout the vacation.
- I flunked my 'A's. and I cried like hell. But my parents didnt bother.
I dont know whether to give a sigh of relief that it's just a dream, or more specifically, a nightmare.. or to rise into tension.
SORRY SEET THAT I PANGSEI YOU. gosh. you totally made me guilt-ridden.
ok. so that's for the short post. Hopefully I really get internet access over there at yunan where temperature in the area range from -15 to 4 degree celcius..
All the sleepless nights;
and the tears you cry
at 11:14 AM
and the tears you cry
at 11:14 AM
we prom. we club. we chalet-ed.
dec 3:i was wondering how ironic. save the last dance, but yet no dance was performed, except for nominees of dance king. oh wells. so whatever. a few things to mention since i couldnt gather enough time and effort to blog. so you may kindly refer to seet's blog. (:
YAY. im so happy i managed to take pics with so many people whom i never really know and who never knew i existed. WAHAHAHAHAH. courage ftw man. wheee. i guess char and seet will know what exactly im speaking about. probably in bliss. HAH.
no one really sat down during prom and the entire hall was clumped here and there with flashes blinking independently of what was happening on the stage. there were, of course, couple of embarrasing moments. say when i enter the hall and knocked my head against this lowly elevated spotlight or something. DAMNS. i hate the guy for saying, "aye, be careful arh! this one very expensive leh." THANKS ARH. and i have confirmed that the PA system there sucks A LOT. so much for a 5-star hotel.
when prom ended, STUPID MEL got me to be the photographer of he and his good friend. i swear he's dead for putting me in that situation, and also for not coming for class chalet. !!!!!!! *stomps*
after jwong changed her clothes, seet's papa sent us to clarke quay where i could see him waving bye bye and take care to us and particularly his clubber-daughter. XIE XIE NI WORH. one thing about clubbing for me is that the lesser the familiar people the better, and hence, though we entered and exit many clubs, whether themed horny or army-boys, laughter and fun wasnt to the max, and obviously, so was alcohol. no matter how comfy the chairs are, or how painful the shoes are on our feet, NO WAY are we gonna sit beside all the rj clubbers.
we ended out clubbing night out at zouk, which we saw many many merlions hanging out around the area. i was super disgusted by the amount of semi-solids generated out of those drunken bodies. EEEEEEEWWWWWWW. at first it was full house, but aiya, we got our entry via velvet [ it is NOT the same as underground velvet] where i was the only one whose IC need not be checked. hmm. ok. i admit i looked old :/ I AM A MAMA-SAN BRINGING MY GIRLS OUT FOR SOME FUN. we were trying to camwhore when this angmoh came over and tried to take picture of himself instead. eh, not very funny. but since angmoh's thinking are quite skewed from asians and that i think he was drunk... there goes.
dec 4:
char was the determining factor with respect to the time we would be leaving her house for breakfast.. and we finally did at about 11am. LUNCH ALREADY LA LADIES. gossiped a lil and we parted. THANK YOU CHAR! (:
went home to do some chores so as to please my mom for me to go to chalet with a peace of mind. and i did it. especially when i travelled all the way to chinatown with her for some tour briefing and stayed for dinner before heading to pasir ris from there.
i was literally jumping and hopping around in anxiety for fear that i would reach the place too late. and especially dying on bus no.3 which took 35 min to reach my destination instead of the supposed 15 min claimed by F. i went into the chalet and the first thing i did was to call F. and yell in to phone. hahahah. we pooled as we get to see how peixuan gets asked for her no. by some just-entered-army-but-want-to-get-gf-looking guy. seet had to leave early on a last minute call. ): and so she missed staying over for the second year of chalet. we later spent the night playing polar bear and some peanut game. which i forgot the name.
dec 5:
they fell unconscious at 3 sth 4 am? i was awoken by the hunger pangs, the accomplice of the coldness... which the remote indicated a mere 26 degrees. YOU KIDDING ME?? STILL SO COLD?
after a dramatic breakfast where an ah beng displays his immatureness by smoking in a non-smoking area, we headed for cycling for 2 hours while syah had 1 before praying time. cycling was FUN. haha. although there were many amusing moments like how i couldnt ride up a lil slope and bad aches on my thighs, FUN. I LIKE CYCLING. YAY. so cycling's officially on my list of what-to-do-with-friends. YAY YAY YAY.
lunch was anyhow. really anyhow since the big event's at night with the bbq. THANKS KS FOR COMING DOWN (: I LOVE YOU (: uh, as for those that couldnt make it, ok i know you got your own reasons la. yuheng's like imba at making the charcoal burn and weihan makes good partner in hand. and i think im good at making the dark cloud go away *twists* afterall im mrs rain. WAHAAHAHAHAA. oh. great appreciation to jolyn loh wei ting for organising the bbq. i think she kinda ate most of the cost due to low turn out rate, and she didnt even ask us to pay more! WE OWE YOU MANS.
played a bit more and the food was quickly packed to be brought up to the chalet.. leaving me and ks dumbfounded cause we thought the plate of chicken wings placed on our table were for us to finish.... renu and i sent ks off at about 10 sth 11pm? then jolyn accompanied me to send renu off at approximately 12am. haha. com'on i need the walking to wake up so i could bathe.. eleanor came really late and ks pleasantly surprised us with her return. I AM SUPER TOUCHED. in fact, all of us were. I LOVE YOU KS. LOVE YOU. LOVE YOU.
dec 6:
dec 6:
KO-ed by 1am.
literally sat up on bed at 8.30am when (i think) weihan opened the door for wake up call. haha. and ALL HAIL WEIHAN for bringing a big toothpaste. we all took it for granted. and jianhui is even more imba, "who got spare toothbrush?"
guys. please learn to crack a half-boil egg. haha. weihan proved himself incapable once again this morning.
guys. please learn to crack a half-boil egg. haha. weihan proved himself incapable once again this morning.
took bus no.39 back with vanessa and talked and talked until the bus ride was enjoyable, though itself was already a breeze. like khatib to pasir ris in 20 minutes or so?
time to pig out. with self control (:
All the sleepless nights;
and the tears you cry
at 7:11 PM
and the tears you cry
at 7:11 PM