Saturday 28 July 2007

Ohisashiburi

Haven't done this for ages, lazing around on a weekend.. In fact this must be the first time since I moved into my own room..

Good feeling :)

Cleaned my room, put all my CDs into iPod, and just finished the sixth book - cried with them all over Dumbledore, so sad..

I must now resist temptation to start on the seventh book and go iron my clothes..

Ahhh.. Relaxed :)

Give mf a camera

and all these could happen..

1) So I could see you better..

What is this?


From fish head curry!


Someone gorged the eye out (to eat!) It's actually jelly covered in some transparent husk, quite gross..

Empty socket O_O


2) Found:

Object: Rat
Status: Dead
Location: Amid files in Ikea



3) While waiting for my Hong Kong mee

These fat 田鸡 could climb all over one another but they could not escape their fate in the wok…


4) “Moomoomoo..” vs. “Moo!!!”

Was playing a game of cow dung in Settlers when I realized that the one cow on the card looked silly while the other plain evil!

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Miss mf

Saw a news headline today, something like "ugliest Miss Hong Kong in 20 years"

So mean!!! Thought she was pretty in the picture..

Then just now, I googled for more pictures.. And I came to a conclusion: She is still pretty, but I, fluffy mf, look better in a bikini!

Doesn't say much about her then, unfortunately..!

Monday 23 July 2007

Lucian

Spent Sat with Jo and her 6-month-old baby, Lucian.. He was such a good boy; he entertained himself most of the time while the mummy and the auntie (yes, me, sighs..) chatted on and on, only crying when he was hungry, sleepy or cold.. And he smiled so easily it was amazing :)

What a smiley baby!


He is very very soft and quite small in my arms, very huggable, like a little doll..

And look at his legs! Oooh... So succulent!

(Finally understand what Siok and Joyce Darling meant when they described babies as yummy :p)

Actually, think it is quite tiring to look after a kid.. It's a full-time job! .. I think I still want that job :p

Friday 20 July 2007

Shanghai 2007

To maximise the 4-day trip, we took overnight flights both ways. But we were so tired on arrival despite sleeping on the flight that we slept until noon - glad that we could check in at 8am..

Woke hungry and headed for Macs (!) before walking down 南京路 (Nanjing Road) for 人民公园 (People’s Park)..

It was a happening shopping street but when we took a turn into one of the sidewalks, this was what greeted us - an interesting clash of cultures


Turned out that we walked the wrong direction and ended up instead at the start of the Nanjing Road pedestrian walkway.


We carried on to 和平饭店 (Peace Hotel) but unfortunately it was closed for renovation.. Took a picture anyway :p


So we took a leisurely stroll down the Bund, snapped a few shots

Looks so fake right?


But it's real! We're there!


At some point, we decided to walk elsewhere and came across a park that we couldn’t find on the map given by the tour agency. However, from the park description, we wandered into some old streets on the other end of the park and found 城隍庙 (Old City Temple)!


Outside the temple was a maze of old temple-ish buildings and walkways, which we explored slowly. Towards the end of the day, we queued 30min for 蟹肉小笼包 at RMB10 per basket of 16! Eight in Singapore would cost S$8? Very happy, very yummy...


Not knowing the way, we cabbed back to drop our shopping bags before going for dinner near our hotel, 中福大酒店, which was very centrally located. Dinner was at an average local diner. Ended our day with a foot bath and massage behind our hotel - it was good! Where we were soaking our feet, they massaged our backs, then our feet. The therapists were quite chatty, saying that Sito looked local while I spoke like a Taiwanese.. So funny, Sito looked Korean while in Korea, Japanese while in Japan and now he looked Chinese while in China!! :p

Had to wake early for breakfast in the hotel before the day tour the next day. Our tour guide 小全 told us stories while driver 王师傅 drove on silently. One was a funny tale of some angmoh journalists trying to bully Deng Xiao Ping, who couldn’t speak English:

Journalist 1: What is the capital of the US?
DXP, thinking that they must be asking about his surname: 我姓邓

Journalist 2: What is the key propellant of China’s growth?
DXP, thinking that they must be asking about his first name now: 小平,小平! (
sounds like shopping!)

Journalist 3, trying to provoke him about Taiwan: Who is the current President in Taiwan?
DXP, starting to feel irritated that they were still speaking to him in English while his translator wasn’t around: 等会儿!

Journalist 4, trying to do the same: Who will be the next president of Taiwan?
DXP, frustrated: 随便,随便!

Journalists: *stunned*

First stop was shopping at the temple streets, but since we were there it already, we headed straight for the temple itself, which was closed by the time we reached it the day before. It was a small Taoist temple..


I like this sign.. Can you see? It says 不由人算


We crossed 九曲桥, which was too crowded when we were first there


Saw an old man fanning himself


Next was the 宋庆龄陵园 (Soong Ching Long Mausoleum). Spent some time in the gallery looking at her life story. The Soong sisters had very interesting lives; maybe I should go read more..

Happy signs, not warning signs


We were then brought to a souvenir area where a guy talked to us about feng shui. The group consisted of just us and another Singaporean couple. So he mentioned the feng shui of some buildings and events in Singapore, e.g. the OUB building and the opening of the UOB building, which kind of led to the fate of the two. He brought us to a showroom of 天禄, or pi qiu (don’t know the characters!) as they are more commonly called in China, or at least Shanghai; I know them as天禄 from my Taiwan trip two years ago. His teacher showed face for a while to “read” our names, quite accurately I thought, and recommended two palm-sized天禄 for Sito and me. He left his disciple to do the selling but we thought the kiddo wasn’t “real”. Nonetheless, it was quite an interesting experience.

Lunch was at 傣家村 (Dai Jia Chun), which served Yunnan food along with traditional performances. Some nine dishes for four of us, quite filling.. Left for some shopping at 七蒲路 (Qipu Road) but didn’t buy anything. I tried a dress; it didn’t suit me but the trying experience was new - instead of changing in a fitting room, the lady pulled a piece of cloth across the shop and I just changed behind it, exposing head and calves!!

Went to 新天地 (Xintiandi) to look-see. Should be quite a happening place at night.. Outside was where the Communist Party had its first meeting

With time to spare, 小全 brought us to some 养生 centre and a pearl research institute. At the first place, we had a foot soak in some hot herbal water before a gentle foot massage while a TCM practitioner diagnosed my ills, apparently liver and blood, and recommended some medicine in capsule forms, at a few hundred SGD a month for a 3-month supply. Um, no thanks.. I knew my decision was right when he let another chap took over to diagnose Sito; they had the exact same introduction of “a hospital will tell you that you are ok but we can see that you have this and that..” When they left, we had a good chat with the cute, young therapists who were TCM interns from Guangzhou and Yunnan.

The pearl place was less cute; the guy pried open an oyster, killing it instantly to remove a pearl to show us =( I mean, I eat scallops, but I eat those already killed, never mind that they are killed to cater to tastebuds.. But to see something killed for a demonstration, I don’t want..

Dinner was early, on a boat, again consisting of many dishes but we enjoyed this a lot more than the lunch. The restaurant was right under the bridge; name has a typo.. Um, Chinese typo :p


Opulent inside..


We then went to the Bund for a short walk before taking the 7pm cruise of 黄浦江. Got ourselves a table and enjoyed the night scene. Apparently, electric bills after 6pm are government-paid so that people would put on the lights. Big buildings on the Pudong side had walls that played advertisements, including one that said, “做一个可爱的上海人” =)


The Pearl of the Orient was very pretty at night too.. On the journey back, we were treated to the lights on the Puxi side. The Bund! Exciting vibes but quite unlike what we have in Boat Quay and Clarke Quay..

The colours were so different at night


We went back to the hotel for a short rest before roaming Nanjing Road - it was so different at night!!


Spent S$1 at an arcade before some shopping. Walked for quite a while before settling for supper at a little eatery off Nanjing Road. Ordered spring onion pancake, fried dumplings, soup dumplings, soup noodles.. We ate so much! =D

Crashed when we got back and missed the hotel breakfast the next day, only to eat more for the rest of the day! Breakfast was at 吴大娘饺子 along Nanjing Road, 18 dumplings, a grilled sausage and a kebab stick between the two of us; lunch, barely two hours later, comprised 16 小笼包 and fried noodles in People’s Park; tea was ice cream; dinner was an elaborate BBQ affair in Raffles City, which kept us filled, i.e. no supper :p

This shows me getting fat


Our first non-food stop of the day was 上海书城, where we got some books at a fraction of Singapore price. But I didn’t manage to find the two classics I wanted, or rather, they didn’t have the version I wanted.

Raffles City near one end of Nanjing Road and People’s Park was so happening! There seemed to be some sort of a national contest and the fans were persuading passers-by to vote for their idols via sms; one girl asked me to vote even though I told her I wasn’t local..

Roamed People’s Park for a while, and found a pathway filled with middle-aged people. The A4 sheets hanging from trees and walls all read something like: XXX, female, 27, friendly and gentle, looking for guy who likes to play sports, etc etc! We talked to a couple who told us that it was a ground-up 招亲 event, initiated by the parents for their children to find a partner. How very interesting!

Visited the Shanghai Museum after that, quite nice, and quite funny at the end when Sito was recognising the various Chinese calligraphy fonts :) Walked through a 1930s street as we headed to Raffles City for some shopping. Walked out of Uniqlo with plenty of spoils, straight into the BBQ buffet, which left us so full we crashed very early..

And missed the hotel breakfast again, not that we were hungry! Watched Wedding Crashers - very funny and the girl was so pretty! - until 1pm when we had to check out. Then it was a very filling and yummy lunch of soup noodles before crossing over to the Pudong side via the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, which we felt were quite a rip-off; what sights?!

What we liked was the Pearl of Orient; we spent such a long time in there!


First we went up to catch the views.. Then we went to some space level where we had some fun making planets bounce on a flat screen on the floor :p


Ok, a bit scary! :p

And finally we visited the Shanghai History Museum on the ground floor, which was very fun! We spent such a long time in there.. Reminded me of the Chinatown Heritage Centre, which I visited twice.

We thought we should take their MRT for fun, and so we did. But it was a nightmare getting to the station. The area was full of zebra crossings and no traffic lights. Near our hotel, it was terrible enough; turning cars did not always give way to pedestrians. Now without lights, the cars just didn’t want to give way! We decided that it was a matter of “balls of steel” - must be assertive to make cars stop for you!! After all, the drivers were only “balls covered in steel” :p

Made it back to Nanjing Road just in time for dinner at 燕云楼, where we had Peking duck, braised tofu, vegetables, black pepper steak, sour and spicy soup, and noodles. At one point, the chap taking our orders went, “how many of you??” :p But we finished most of the stuff! Very proud of ourselves :)

Final stop in Shanghai was the foot massage place. This time, we went for full body massage. When she was doing my back with her knees (KNEES!), I could feel my dinner *.*

It was a good flight back, slept a little, watched a bit of 200-Pound Beauty before touch-down, quite funny and the girl was so pretty! :) Last note: stewardess was very kind to offer me a box of tissue when she saw me sniffing during take-off, and she remembered to ask after my nose as I left the plane.. What a nice ending to a relaxing holiday!

Flight, accom, day tour: $992
Cash spending: RMB1,500=$300
Plastic burnt: $380
Total damage: $1,672

Oops, slightly more than my target of $1,500.. But it was so enjoyable! :)

Wednesday 18 July 2007

Er, prepare to puke?

Not feeling well and decided to have dinner to comfort myself though I wasn't hungry.

Was looking at the menu when I saw the two girls look at me in a curious way.. Girl A muttered something and Girl B went, "No la!"

Bewildered, I stared at them..

Girl B: You look like someone..
Girl A: A Hong Kong actress.. What's her name..
Girl A: Miriam Yeung! That 大笑姑婆!
mf: O_O
Girl B: Not that one...

They took my order to the kitchen...

Girl B: Charlie Yeung!!
Girl A: Oh ya..
mf: What?!!

Now you tell me, which part of me ~ which part of Charlie Yeung??!

If only I were so pretty..

Source: Google search

Might as well put Miriam Yeung in too - you compare:

Source: Google search too

Look here for other people I look like..

Sito said www.myheritage.com matched me to Anna Kournikova - how did that happen?!

Conclusion? I think I have a 大众脸 *.*

Monday 16 July 2007

Fresh tomatoes!

Summary:
1) Upgrading works are mostly done
2) I moved in with Grams during the works
3) I am back now – and in my own room!!

Long story on the part of Tomato Town where I live..

Getting the room ready

This stage happened end of Dec last year or earlier this year:





Was in one day and saw how they did it, oooh…



It took some time for the dust to settle, and when it did, it was Easter Sunday and also time to clear the inside of the house to prepare for the internal works..

Look at the gross dust under and behind the drawer cabinet!


I moved out that very day cos Mother and YQ dismantled my bed.. My bed!! =(

Scooted off to church - Yes, me! Church! Kel, I wasn't "rejected" ok - before packing my stuff for the whole afternoon; one suitcase for NYC (more about that in my next post.. Or next next..) and another for the move.. Lugged two suitcases and four other bags to Grams’s house in two cab rides cos Mother refused to help =(

During the works, Mother became OCD...


Poor fish!


But I was glad that I was able to hide out with Grams :p Came back once on the day the works started to make sure things were fine, and then I was off to New York already..

By the time I got back, tada!

Almost couldn’t recognise where I lived for 27 years man!

But I didn’t move back immediately, not when there were more works to be done.. We installed a built-in wardrobe in my room and wall cabinets in the kitchen..

You saw the “before” of the kitchen above.. This is “during”...


Now the “after”!

(One drawer was found to be faulty)

Then I started to set up my lovely room..

First, the chandelier that I bought the day I got back from NYC


And the pink mosquito net I got some time back - so pretty!


My desk, which looks different now with my brand new iMac! More on iMac later..


My bathroom in its just-done state


And the lived-in state! So cheerful right =)


So finally, I moved out of Grams’s place.. See the corridor I used to run along..


Coincidentally, Na, SY and I officially moved into our new place/room and slept on new beds on 26 May 2007 :p

So happy! So 感动! I finally have my own room!!!!!

Living in my room

Now the bad part: It was damn hot in my room! I had to go to bed with prickly heat or tiger balm every night for the first week... Cannot have room warming ah - more like room heating!

Very funny, whenever Sito comes over, he becomes Tare Panda - just lie on my duvet, cannot move, too warm!! (Oh, except that time when he had his laptop; he worked..)

It got better gradually as more dust settled – or I got used to it... So one night, CY came over for a sleepover – we are big babies! :)

We had dinner in AMK Hub - our favourite haunt now - before going to my room for a beauty session! Photos of us with facial and eye masks are too scary to blog but this one is ok:


We also watched 200-pound Beauty; it was so funny la! Highly recommended for the cute fatso and super hot beauty - "I sweat pretty too" :p

Spent some time talking for a while before dozing off; both tired.. And we woke early for breakfast before she had to go and I had to go wrap bah zang, which were not oily this year, very happy =)

Getting connected

It was 15 Jun 2007, a Friday when I left office very early to get to SGL in Sim Lim to get my iMac - my iMac! Sito helped me with the 10kg and set up the iMac for me. It wasn’t until the super auspicious day 7 Jul 2007, when 777 couples supposedly got wedded, that I got my broadband set up. So finally, I’m connected!! :)

Spent some time downloading Mac updates, MSN, Open Office etc, but the most important discovery was Skype! So now, we have stopped paying chunky Singtel bills :p

I’m determined that the first blog I post on my iMac is on my new room. Finally had some time tonight to do it - just that it is now quite late..

Getting nostalgic

Yes, with all that moving and renovation, I had to be very ruthless and threw out a lot of stuff while repacking some others.. Had earlier blogged on my spring cleaning, when I dumped or identified things to dump..

Then, I found more..

A roll of film; I was curious and unrolled the thing. It was almost like killing something instantly =/


Moulds of my teeth when I went for a veneer! Quite funny to play with it :p


My old tees from school..


From Nou Camp but it shrank =(


Used this apron in Home Econs class in secondary school! Together with a triangular head scarf..


Almost threw this away but I couldn’t bear to, not after spending so much time sewing it! Yes, I sewed this myself!! =)


And my treasure box - see the key chain that says 25? That was a National day gift in primary four!


These are mice, from my angel Josh in the angel-mortal game we played in JC1 =)


Also found strange things like chewable toothbrush! Got it from a friend in Oxford many years back so um, I didn’t dare to use it :p




Ah! My NJC orientation bag!! Used it for the gym last time but the material was kind of rotting...


Used to spend money on useless bookmarks.. Or rather, they become useless when you have more than a few; how many books can you read at the same time?!


I dumped all but one:

How can I ever throw that away? :)