Friday, February 29, 2008

Life is really fragile

These days, too many people around me have been going through really bad times.

Their loved ones are either hospitalised with a serious health condition, or passing away so suddenly.

I just feel so upset thinking that there are suddenly so many such cases.

People, please cherish your loved ones. And, to every individual... my family members, my friends, or just any passer-by who happen to chance upon this entry, please take care of your own health too.

Monday, February 25, 2008

1.406 SGD -> 1 USD


And as Miss Wong says.. It's time to shop online!!

Singapore Airshow 2008

I went to the Singapore Airshow on Saturday with my cousin, Malcolm, and Ms. Virginia Wong. I was kind of excited initially because I just so wanted to be in close range with the A380-800. Well, to some people, it may be "what's the big deal", but to me it was the best I could do to satisfy my love for planes and flying since I did not walk down the flying career path when I was younger.

Okay, back to being excited initially. While on the bus towards Pasir Ris, Virginia SMSed to inform that the queue is madness, my heart almost dropped. I was so afraid to be late for the air display since I really wanted to watch the A380's Slow Dance. The queue started from Pasir Ris MRT Station and looped outside White Sands (there were many many loops). And I met Melissa Ong from SBS! HAHA... What a small world. I couldn't believe that she's into watching air shows too. So we queued for almost 2 hours and yeah, we were late for the air display which would be on from 12.15pm till 1.45pm

And some M**** family just cut our queue without us noticing! Basket, and only the couple in front and behind us saw them cut in but they didn't say anything. Goodness. So, how should we still look at them without the perception that they are just simply ugly by nature? From being excited, I got a little frustrated with the whole thing. Well, everyone was frustrated. The organisation of the whole thing is so poorly done. But I guess, some chance had to be given since it is the first time that this committee is organising such a large-scale event.

Finally got onto the bus, and we managed to catch glimpses of the air display outside from the bus along the way. As usual, the Black Knights never fail to disappoint. They simply got the kids on the bus so excited that they were just wow-ing the whole time on the bus. It was a domino effect thing. When the kids wowed, all the adults got excited too and everyone just tried to peer out into the sky trying to watch the air display.

The whole time, I was just hoping that the A380's slow dance just don't begin so soon. And Melissa, who arrived there with her mother and sister earlier first, did give me some consolation that the A380 hasn't taken off yet.


*It really was a large-scale International Event*

And when we finally arrived, the F-16C was showing off right up in the skies with its various somersault moves. Right across the road, we saw the back of this huge plane. From far, we could even tell that no doubt, that was the A380 on the runway, preparing for take-off. Soon after, it did take off and I just shifted my attention from the F-16C in the sky to the A380 which is only just lifting off from the tarmac runway. Sorry Mr. Fighter Pilot, your F-16C is not as fantastic as the A380 *grinz*. Haha, well since young, I only liked commercial planes and not fighter jets.

*The A380-800 preparing for take-off across the road*

The slow dance began soon after and it was just so graceful. My eyes just never left the A380 in the air, all the way even after it finished its performance and was leaving the scene to make way for the next group of sky-performers.


*A380 performing its Slow Dance*

After the last air display, we made our way into the Exhibition Centre where we got the chance to view the many planes and choppers on display. And I couldn't what the SAF Armour vehicles were doing in the exhibition area in an AIRshow. Urgh... I know some of them can be air-lifted but still....


*The Bronco with my cousin looking at it*


*The Armour Vehicle-Launch Bridge**

We see queues everywhere! Ok basically, the whole day was spent queuing. We queued to board the bus at Pasir Ris, we queued to enter the Exhibition Centre, and then we had to queue if we wanted to board some of those military planes and view its interior, Virginia had to queue to enter the ladies, and then we had to queue to leave the Exhibition Centre, and then finally queue to board the bus which would bring us back to Pasir Ris.

*The queue outside White Sands*

*The queue outside Pasir Ris MRT Station*

*The queue after alighting from the bus*


*The queue to enter the Exhibition Center*

*The queue to board the USAF Bomber*

*The queue to leave the Exhibition Center*

I didn't queue to board the military planes and all I wanted was to board the A380. But when I got to it, my heart broke. *Preang*. There wasn't any queue, and when I got closer, I saw this board that says "By Invitation Only". What the hell... where am I supposed to get that friggin' invitation? Traveled so long just to see the A380 and this has to happen. I wouldn't mind queuing an hour to go up and look at the inside. Sigh. What a pity.

*The A380-800*

*The A380's Tail*

*The A380's Nose*

*The A380's Rolls-Royce Trent 900 Engine*

*The A380's 20-wheel main landing gear*

*Chio-ness at its prime - V. Wong*

*My A380-800*

*Virginia, Me, Malcolm*

Okay, anyway I was just so tired at the end of the day. Fell asleep on the way back to Pasir Ris and I was so famished. We settled for Burger King, and I then sent my mobile for its 1-week holiday at its chalet (Sony Ericsson Service Center) at Eastpoint Mall.

That's it for this airshow entry I guess.

Viewers' Choice ... My Choice

After watching the advertisement for Viewers' Choice 2007 so many times, I still think M1's Suntalk Plus Launch Campaign advertisement is damn good and hilarious.

Especially the part where he ended by saying "Singapore... Butterrrr Chicken.. Parcel"

Enjoy..

Dinner @ Central

Dinner on Friday with the SBS group was great... We had dinner at Manhattan Fish Market in The Central at Clarke Quay.

We had a big group and there was a long waiting time before we all could finally get our seats. But still the food and company was great!

*The mushroom thingy is good*

*At the Singapore River*

Cheers to a great term break!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Youth Olympics 2010 !!



Yeah, we beat Moscow to host the Youth Olympics in 2010.

News Report on CNA

Who has this piece?



It's Minuet String Quintet in E major... Composed by Luigi Boccherini.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Shiteous

Argh, I'm so shocked!

Something happened to my Firefox! All my bookmarks are gone!!

There goes all the websites that I've bookmarked for my projects.

There goes all my friends' blog URLs.

There goes all my music score websites.

Horrors...

On a lighter note, thanks to Wei Tzer and Kimberly for coming today to make my house seem more happening for a few hours.

And thanks to Miss Chan for the foam spray in my ears.

Argh, my bookmarks.... *heart breaks* preang....

Thursday, February 14, 2008

My 初七 2008

What a 初七 I had yesterday.

I had planned to go home after lessons to eat the 7 different vegetables for dinner in the evening and my trip home had to be delayed!

Zhen Wei and I was planning to take the North-East Line from Outram Park as usual, however seeing that it was so crowded, I suggested taking a station down towards Harbourfront, also with the hope that we could get a seat.

No seat, never mind. It was fine, really, I wasn't blaming fate or Heaven like for not giving me a seat. But why did I have to be stuck at Outram Park again? When the train arrived at Outram Park, the announcement came on telling us that the particular train we were on would be sent to the depot for servicing and we had to alight at the next stop which is Chinatown. When the doors opened at Outram Park, the train never moved again. The staff told all of us to alight and we waited. That faulty train still did not budge. We were starting to worry that there would be tons of people squeezing onto the next train with us since it was the peak period already.

It was later that it was made known that there was a power trip! The first of two power trips that would happened yesterday evening! Urgh.

On the other side of the platform, the train towards Harbourfront also never came. So most probably the people on the train that never came had to alight at Chinatown. But fortunately for us, we did not have to alight at Chinatown instead because Chinatown is not an interchange! We could still go back to the East-West Line and transfer to another train that brought us to Ang Mo Kio.

The crowd was initially like this...
and it became this...

and when we decided to take the East-West Line, the amount of people stuck at Outram Park NEL was like this....

Imagine how you would move out from there to take the East-West Line if you were stuck in between those people who were bent on waiting for that train to budge such that the next train could come in.

I wanted to Stomp! this picture but I couldn't remember the number to send the picture to, so forget it.

My trip home took 3 hours.....! Gawd.

Click HERE for the news report.... Why wasn't there any photos taken? Maybe Zhen Wei and I might appear somewhere in the news HAHA!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Chinese New Year 2008

Very quickly, 4 days of holidays just passed like that. How I wish it was still the first day of CNY. Anyway we finished the very final batch of 发菜 that we had at home on Day 1 for our vegetarian breakfast. No more 发菜 in future already because the government of PRC has banned the export of 发菜 years ago due to the land turning infertile after these plants were pulled out from the soil. Kind of sad since I liked it quite a lot.

*The vegetarian dish that my mum cooks every CNY Day 1*

*This is 发菜*

*My family on Day 1*

*And my favourite 白果 soup*

It's the 5th day of the CNY today and the atmosphere in my room now can be described with just one word - sian. Why? Because my roomie and I are experiencing a 双从打击 (Post-exchange plus post-CNY blues). I hope our engines get started up once again soon...

And not to mention that I almost won S$300 from Singapore Pools for Saturday's 4D draw! Well, because Liling and I were crapping about 4D and she came up with "8 and 4" while I came up with "2 and 1" on 除夕, and I went to buy "2184" the first thing on 初一 !

*2184*

*1184 (circled)*

财神爷啊~~~~~

Now I'm still wondering if I should go home on Wednesday for 人日 because I want to eat the red-white 汤圆. Maybe I should just go home and come back for lessons again on Thursday.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Goodbye Ah Meng

Such a sad news for the Lunar New Year... Ah Meng, Singapore Zoo's Icon, passed away today :(

I couldn't believe it when I saw the news while having my dinner earlier on. But that's life...

Goodbye Ah Meng.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Happy Chinese New Year~~

Chinese New Year Eve is finally here - the long awaited break from schoolwork.

Preparation for Chinese New Year this year had been quite tiring. From the time I returned from Sweden, seeing that my bedroom had been turned into a storeroom, up till now when the whole house has gone through spring cleaning - time for a break. And not to forget the school workload for this semester... Ah, never mind about it.

The CNY night market at the wet market in Hougang Ave 7 was kind of disappointing this year, considering that this is most probably the final time there would be a night market there, thanks to redevelopment plans of that whole area.

*The wet market*

*Waiting for her food*

*Makan makan*

*The CNY Market*

*Fruits aplenty*

*Många många blommar....*

*...which means many many flowers in Swedish*

*The Kuehs - someone came to ask if there was orh-kueh (yam kueh)*

*Pineapple flower if I translate from Hokkien*

*年糕*

I had 4 reunion dinner already. Hall 12 Reunion Dinner at Jumbo Restaurant, my own nuclear family reunion dinner, SBS Reunion Dinner, and finally the reunion dinner tonight at my grandmother's place.

Hall 12 Reunion Dinner

*Everyone from Table 2*

*My OG - Artemis*

*余生

SBS Reunion Dinner

*All of us*

*Steamboat*

*"Lou Hei" without fish so we used prawns (hei in hokkien)*

Reunion Dinner with my own family

*Steamboat*

*余生*

And the best........

*Guess what this is...*

*It's abalone!! OMG... *

Reunion Dinner @ Grandma's

*Steamboat... again -_-"*

Yups, so... Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends out there... 祝你们鼠年行好运!!