KTV @ K-Box Chinatown

After IA story-telling session, ATP went KTV-ing. In the quest for S$10-Family KTV Outlet, we strolled around Outram area, searching for Smith Street. We passed by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum. Curious, we went in to explore. 真的是大开眼界! Weird thing was that some of the things inside seemed to emphasise a lot on the material aspects, instead of the spiritual ones. Besides showing the price of some gold structures & statues, the description of Buddha Tooth Relic all focus on the physical construction/parts of the Tooth Relic Chamber & none on the significance of the Relic itself.

By the way, the above isn't a critic, but purely observations. I just felt that it's the thought that counts, not how much we spent to build the temple.

All those things aside, this visit somehow made me felt a bit guilty. Proclaiming myself as a Buddhist, but seldom go to temple to pray or chant, after I came to S'pore. 重点 was after exiting the temple, my mind felt very calm...

Today only 六个人 KTV-ing, as K-King (Liming) was too busy to hold his concert today & CS got some serious practice to do. Despite feeling tired & throat not really in tip-top condition (most of us felt so), I sang quite a few songs, although "zau sia" rather seriously. Yeah! I managed to improve my mike-holding skills to further project out my voice. Thanks to TK 师傅 for enlightening me. But, I still owed him S$50 for the tuition fee! Grrr, no discount despite GSS. Expensive leh!

Finally, JY & SZ held their own concerts, with SZ getting 怀旧, singing the oldies & JY as usual, with a mix of oldies & newbies & ZR singing more today. SZ, JY & ZR (aka S.H.E. of ATP) 挑战极限, trying to hit impossibly-high notes & they did it! And hor, somehow the duo (aka J.S. of ATP) getting more & more 暧昧, after singing a few duets. Luckily they didn't sing 暧昧 or else it'll give goosebumps! Hmm, looks like CS speculation may be correct after all... ~~Grrr~~

After whole-day activities, felt dead-beat tired. Still 3 days to the start of IA, have plenty of time to rest. Haha, Dean & Vice-Dean planning to hold "Reunion Lunch/Dinner" after 1st month of IA (i.e. when we got our 1st payslip). 好期待那一天的到来...

A Cruisie Weekend

After almost fully recovered, I went on a cruise last Friday with Gu-gu, Gu-zhang & A-ma. It’s a rather last-minute decision. Thanks to Gu-gu for sponsoring this trip. Hmm, took some pics with my handphone. The quality wasn’t that good, but better than nothing.

Star Cruises Fleet : SuperStar Virgo (I'm a Virgo too!)
Time period : 29 June – 1 July 2007 (3D2N)
Journey : Singapore - Open Sea – Singapore

Well, it’s quite an eye-opener. But, sth seems lacking. The ship has a Greek theme, but the feel isn’t really strong enough. Okie, I’d just highlight some interesting things there.

29 June 2007

I Photo-Taking Session

Our photos were taken along the way to board the ship. 2 pics per person, 1 with StarCruise Dancers & 1 with Penguin Mascot. There were photo key chains, wooden/rubber frame & normal photo.

I took a rubber frame one & it’s S$10.50!! Yeah, I know it’s very expensive, but I don’t have much photos to recollect, so I just grabbed it. It’s a such 难得 occasion!

I Music & Performances

The Grand Piazza Reception (Deck 7)

The Bellini Bar (Deck 8)

The Bar @ The Galaxy of Stars (Deck 12)

Show Area @ The Galaxy of Stars

Star Observatory Deck

Variety of performances by SuperStar Virgo Pianist, Show Band & Musicians there. It's rather soothing.

I Swimming Pools

There are 2 of them, one is Parthenon (for adults mainly) and Neptune's Wet N' Wild (for kids). Nice areas for relaxation.

The Parthenon Pool (Deck 12)

The Taveria Bar (Pool View)

Neptune's Wet N' Wild (Deck 12)

The Taveria Bar (Top Deck)

Sun-Tanning Area (Top Deck)

The Rear Area @ Top Deck

I Food & Beverages

Most of my dining took place here

Western or Chinese food & Mediterranean Buffet. Basically, eat till u drop!!! By the way, I saw Rong Zheng during supper at the buffet restaurant. 真是巧啊!

I Casino

The Famous Oasis

Hmm, while exploring different decks on Friday night, noticed something odd. Where have all the people gone?? Then when I reached Oasis, I found the answer. It’s 人山人海!!! Obviously, most people go on board for gambling. The majority was rich aunties & tai-tai(s), who bet like there’s no tomorrow. I found Roulette particularly interesting & also learnt how to play it. I didn’t bet of course, purely "eye power". Haha…

Some "eye-opener" observations.

1) An auntie placed multiple bets on 80% of the 36 numbers available & each chip costs S$10!! When her number didn’t appear, imagined the pain. Arrgh!

2) A tycoon-like person exchanged S$5,000 for S$100 chips & bet like the previous one. His number appeared & he won $11,000+. OMG!

3) There is a VIP room for people to make big bets. Min S$5,000 per bet!

Where on earth these rich people coming from? Sooo loaded to the extent that each chip is like 5 cents to them. If they have sooo much money to give away, why not give some to charities or maybe can give it to me too. I’ll make full use of it, of course not to gamble it away. Hahaha...

30 June 2007

I Dragon Beard Candy Making

It’s made using a 2,000-year old technique introduced into Imperial Court of ancient China. The China chef repeatedly stretched a mass of sugar & maltose & thousands of strands can be formed. Amazing!

可惜, I didn’t have chance to taste it, it’s snapped up quickly. I couldn't get clear pics here, so I took these photos from elsewhere.

I Performance by Huang Jia Qian (黃嘉千) @ The Lido

黃嘉千 (Pic not taken by me)

This was the highlight of the day. I watched her shows (超级星期天) before, normally dressed older than her actual age. But that day, she appeared in 玉女形象. She looked much better & younger. She sang a few songs, 点唱 & 自弹自唱, including 勇气, 月亮代表我的心, 新不了情, 风铃, 爱拚才会赢, a song in Taiwanese dialect. She’s bubbly & humorous. 看现场表演真爽! The ticket's S$20, with her poster! Hmm, at least better spent compared to gambling.

I Magic Show by Mike Michaels (Las Vegas, USA)

Sooo many people! Hmm, saw Rong Zheng sitting at next table & chatted a bit. Couldn’t really see clearly, but final part is interesting!

1 July 2007

After returning to Singapore, we all went to VivoCity, together with bro, sis & cousin. Had lunch at Food Republic for the 1st time, it’s also 人山人海. 好怀旧啊!

While strolling around, we saw 4 Japanese girls. They looked so IN! Worth highlighting is a girl with very short & an all-white hair & white eyebrows & whitish face. Her overall appearance & 神情 looked just like the character in manga!

It’s a well-spent weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera, couldn’t take good pics. Hmm, for the sake of future outings, I must save enuff for a camera! IA must 加油 le!

Monalisa Drawn Using Paint?

It's really amazing that Monalisa can be drawn even with Microsoft Paint.

Hmm, the facial expression is alive and the background looks vivid enough...

Check it out how to do it here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU

Home Sweet Home

It's a truly short holiday back home (21-25 June). I didn't do much things, only helping to tend the shop, chatting & eating... Ok, a list of “big incidents" are shown below.

Incident 1 : Dad’s Motorbike Stolen

Date of theft : 22 June 2007
Time of theft : Afternoon, in broad daylight!
Bike owner : Sis & Dad
Bike info : Grand Prize from Lucky Draw (won by sis)
Ownership period : 6 months
Main suspect : Unknown
Cause of theft : Lost motorbike key. Too many customers in the shop. Too busy to notice.
Feeling : A real pity, it’s a nice bike. Thought we could never find it back.
Corrective action : Lodged police report
Result : Bike found after 2 hours @ thief’s home… Amazing!

The next day, read from newspaper that the thief was actually the parking attendant who usually help us to park the bikes. Who would have suspected him? He was known to be a nice & friendly guy. My mum told me he once checked with her the price of a babywalker, for his few-month old daughter. According to the paper, he felt remorseful & stole as he needed money to pay his debt (viz. 2.5 million rupiah, equivalent to S$420) for his wife’s delivery expenses at the hospital. It was a huge amount for a parking attendant who doesn’t earn much in a day. The sad thing is if convicted, he gotta serve a 7-year jail term. Oh my God! Even in countries known for its stringent laws like Singapore, punishment for minor theft is usually a few months jail & a sum of fine. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel angry, but somehow felt sad for him. How his wife & his 6-month old daughter going to cope without him? It’s a real sad story in a society where many people still live below the poverty line.

Incident 2 : A Brief Encounter with The Singapore Police Coast Guard

Date : 25 June 2007
Time : 12.50 pm - 1.00 pm
Ferry taken : Falcon 3
Location of interception : Nearby water off Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal
Reason for interception : Unknown

When the ferry I was taking was intercepted by Coast Guard, I thought there were terrorists hiding inside the ship! Yeah, I had my reason for that. This ferry is the ulu-est out of the 3 ferry operators for Singapore-Tanjung Pinang trip. Anyway, I decided to take this as I didn’t want to wake up too early for my trip back here. Haha, lazy me… Then, after their ship got close to our ferry, a few of them hopped onto our side, checked around & then returned to their ship. Yeah, it’s a false alarm. Hmm, maybe they got a wrong tip-off or maybe just a random routine check. Most importantly, I arrived safely in Singapore.

Incident 3 : Falling Sick (Part of A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Period : 25 June – now
Symptoms : Throat inflammation, sore throat, slight fever, runny nose, tired & heavy eyes
Reason : Ate too much “heaty” or "chilli-ed" food while back home

Under diligent effort by mum & grandma to achieve “Mission Impossible 5 -白白胖胖的华安“, I managed to gain 1 kg in just 5 days. That's the only good thing... But, this is just the beginning of my week-long suffering T__T

In the ferry, I already felt uneasy. It must be the "goodies" that I’ve been consuming "in moderation" for these 5 days. I've eaten You Tiao, Malay Mixed Rice, Nasi Padang, Curry Rice, Chilli Crab, Fried Guo Tiao & miscellaneous fried & spicy stuff. Haiz! (Note: In moderation = compared to previous worst experience)

Imagine coming back on 25 June feeling sick in the evening, went to see doctor with brother late at night in cold heavy rain & have to go for IA medical checkup on 26 June early morning. The checkup was at a 29th floor clinic in Republic Plaza @ Raffles Place. Hmm, I did urine test, blood test, X-Ray, vision test, audiometry, height & weight measurements & consultation with doctor. The entire process took almost 3 hours! I was shivering in cold, having slight fever, waiting helplessly for my queue number to appear & my name to be called. I told the doctor about this. He said it shouldn’t affect the test results. Hopefully everything is ok, because I don’t wanna return again for checkup!

Ok, I shall end here & have a good rest. Just wanna recover a.s.a.p., as I have tons of things to do before IA... Read up some IT books, old poly notes, room clean-up, shop for clothes for IA, etc. Sooooo many things!

God bless!

Outing @ Pulau Ubin (19 June 2007)

Yesterday, 六个人 (me, CS, JY, TK, SZ & RJ aka Ren Jian) went to Pulau Ubin for cycling & sightseeing. It's my 1st trip there. As far as I know, P.Ubin has a kampung feeling, which I verified it to be true after seeing countless trees, some kampung houses & the "burnt rubbish" smell, just like what I had encountered back home when I was young. By the way, thanks to JY for the nice pics taken.

The background is the Pulau Ubin Quarry, with a rather blue-green & clear lake-view. It's beautiful! Finally, I managed to catch a glimpse of water body with non-greenish or non-brownish colour in Singapore!

Me, RJ, TK & CS (left to right)

Me, JY & RJ

The New 三角 Combi (Pls don't beat me!)

Dean & Vice-Dean

Nah, here comes the long-awaited natural wonders...

The Guan Yin Stone (观音石) was spotted about a month ago. Look! The similarity is amazing! Or should I say nature is amazing?

观音石

The Giant Lizard or Small Komodo??

Hmm, saw this creature hurriedly crawling to the bushes while cycling along the road. We didn't see clearly how it looks like. Haha, now caught it in the act! It looks so sianz...

Then, near the end of the cycling marathon, we found The 贞子 Well! Finally! A great opportunity for SZ to take pics. Haha...

RJ jaw-dropped after catching Kawaii 贞子淑铮 in action!

淑铮 & her famous well

After a long search, we finally found the legendary Chek Jawa. I was quite disappointed, as it wasn't as beautiful or as exciting as what was described in books or TV. However, there is this nice Swiss Cottage near Chek Jawa. Haha, not really a wasted trip...

The Swiss Cottage (front view)

The Swiss Cottage (rear view from the bridge)

Modern Sanzo (TK) & his top disciple (CS) @ Chek Jawa

Hahaha, here comes the nominated "Most Kawaii Pic Of The Day - The 1,2,5 Pic". See the nice new bridge behind... An ideal location for a-couple-run-towards-each-other scene or for Titanic pose at the corner! Haha..

Say cheesez!

五个人 looking suspicious

What did TK & CS see? Me looking stunned...

Yeah, the Swiss Cottage is the last stop. It was a nice experience @ P.Ubin. Haven't had such a vigorous workout for so long. Thanks to RJ for being our tour guide & JY for organising this outing!

Arigato gozaimashita!

Introspection

Since I’m so free these few days, I did some self-reflection & decided to make some changes to myself. This mission is called “H-Reengineering Operation 1”. Here's a list of “Top 10 Changes“ which I wanna achieve, not in any order of priority.

1. Be more confident in myself

Used to be confident (poly & working time), thou not obvious. For some unknown reasons, my confidence level dropped after I got into uni.

2. Be more mindful in thinking, listening, speaking & doing things

I can be “blur-like-sotong”, sometimes making mistakes for very-simple tasks! I'll seriously change this. I wanna be a person whom others can depend on, in any kind of situations.

3. Be more humorous, more fluid & less 罗唆 in communicating with other people

Definitely in my high-priority list! I know I appeared very quiet on the surface. Actually I can be talkative de, but also depends on the topic. If I really feel tired, I'd prefer not to talk. Also if I dunno much about a topic, I’d rather not talk about it, so as not to embarrass myself (bcoz of my ignorance) in front of others.

4. Be a person armed with wide general knowledge

It's good to have more topics to talk about with others (other than academic or other serious matters) & not be stereotyped as an “ice-man”, “bookworm” & "blockwood".

5. Be clearer of my direction & purpose in life

Maybe too occupied with trivial things? Sometimes, in the midst of doing sth, I'd stop & ask myself “Hey, why am I doing this thing? What is it for?” It’s a bit weird.

6. Be more pro-active in anything & not passive most of the time

Well, this is the main side effect of my bad communication skills. I once read somewhere that 1st impression of a person is formed within 10 seconds of observation. Non-verbal cues have the most impact. Maybe I don't give good 1st impression on others, so that's why people would feel uncomfortable or weird while talking to me. Yeah, I can really sensed that. When I sensed that people are uncomfortable talking to me, I'd feel uncomfortable too. So as not to make it worse, I'd rather not talk too much. What a stupid thinking!

7. Be wiser, more logical & creative in anything

Sometimes I made stupid decisions. Besides to learn to be more flexible & less stubborn, I must also learn how to talk nonsense, creatively!

8. Be more decisive & have good time management

I can really get carried away by things that I enjoy doing or matters that have troubled me for some time. So I tend to spend too much time on sth, at the expense of other more important things. This is REAL REAL bad habit & I urgently have to change it.

9. Be more adventurous in trying out new things & to experience life

Probably, I'll try more outdoor sports, arts, more travel trips, etc. I wanna learn new languages too, Japanese, Chinese & French!

10. Be a healthier person

I tend to be absorbed while doing things & frequently eating unhealthy food, esp. when I'm busy at work. I also seriously lack exercise!

I wanna clarify sth here, so that I won't be misunderstood next time. Actually the "sianz/dark/gloomy" face that u see is not bcoz I’m sad, angry, arrogant or anything, but really bcoz I'm tired. I dunno what happened to me, I almost always feel tired (esp. my eyes) in the afternoon, regardless of what time I sleep the previous nite.

So the highest priority now is to eat more healthy food, exercise & rest enuff everyday! As the saying goes, Mens sana in corpore sano, i.e. a healthy mind in a healthy body.

Yeah, I know this is going to be a very big project. I’ll put in effort. Hopefully I can be happier & people would be more refreshed with the new me.

Updates on IA Allocation Results

This afternoon was just like any other days. Got a new email & I stared closely & carefully at the screen. What?? Is this for REAL?? I got it!

We have been informed by Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd that you have been accepted for Industrial Attachment after the interview.

This finally ended my troubled IA adventure. Haha interestingly, this also further proves my hypothesis "Number 3 is my lucky number". I don't really believe in this, but evidences below show otherwise.

J In Sec 2, I got my lowest grade of all times in my report card, in auspicious red colour, due to heavy addiction to video games. The culprit was Mathematics, I got 3 out of max possible grade of 10.

Since then, I 悔过 & managed to salvage it & passed my Maths.

J In high school, I was in 3rd position more frequently than any other positions.

J When I applied for admission to poly, chemical engineering was not my 1st choice. It was my 3rd choice.

J After graduating from poly, it was only until the 3rd interview that I got my 1st full-time job @ SOXAL.

J Only at the 3rd IA selection, after unsuccessful 1st round interview & unsuccessful 1st round allocation, I got my IA placement.

Yeah I know, this is kinda hard to believe. Good thing is that, for the moment, I dun need to think of IA anymore. Just wanna make full use of the remaining holidays.

Anyway, this IA programme is gonna be a challenge to me, as I'll be doing IT jobs (which I'm not very good at) & this also marks the 1st time Pfizer formally offered an internship to NTU CBE students. I'll try my best & I hope I can meet their expectations.

Ganbatte!

Relieved...

Finally finished EM103 exam today. Yesterday also went to Pfizer interview liao... 终于等到这一天了!

About the interview, it was just ok i think. It's the least-tensed interview that I ever had. I told myself, I must smile & cannot be nervous or else I'll screw up again! But, then the interviewers said it wasn't really on process control & developing control graphics & modules, but more on IT-support & troubleshooting kinda tasks (i.e. software/hardware helpdesk). In my heart, I was like "Oooh ok, hmm...". Frankly speaking, I was so enthu to do IA @ Pfizer, as it has been one of my dreamz to work in a pharma company. But this time, I'll be doing non-mainstream job. I hesistated, dunno if I should grab it if offered, since I'll be doing it for 22 weeks! In the end, I decided to just let nature take its own course. If successful, I'll take it else just choose ICES. Hmm, see how bah...

Haha, by the way, last nite or should be today, I wasn't really in study-mood & started MSN-ing from 11+ pm - 2+ am. Chatted with CS, JY, SZ & started reconstructing ATP relationships. Played all sorts of combinations, including pairing up those obviously unworkable pairs, haha... Getting too high while laming & couldn't sleep after that. Decided to read a bit more & I slept @ 4 am & exam @ 9 am! I asked myself, am I mad? It's exam leh! As expected, I woke up late @ 7.50 am, then quickly rushed to sch & scanned notes again... The exam should be ok I think, hopefully..

Now I had plenty of time to think of what I wanna do next during holidays. Erm, dun really like the feeling of doing nothing, as the mind starts wandering around when it's unoccupied. Anyway, it's time to have a good rest...