Day 3 - Dec 9

daddy's birthday! brought along a cute birthday card i bought from singapore, planned to deliver it later at night. woke up early for a day of coaching to Las Vegas. pretty uneventful, but the ride was spruced up with great scenery, fields, coniferous forests, lotsa rocks, the Mojave desert, the Rocky Mountains. if only i could see such scenery every day. i assure you i'll never tire of it. we then arrived in the City That Never Sleeps, home of the endless rows of jackpot machines which bankrupts and gamblers alike affectionately name: the One-Armed Bandits. it is honestly the best example of a city that looks the best at night than at any other time of day, everywhere you turn are bright lights that NEVER stop glimmering or blinking their messages and names at you. people all over the streets even late at night, fancy limousines down the roads, driving adverts of services of rather dubious natures, loud music blaring and drunks dancing by the streets, big screen tvs advertising the numerous shows in the hotels. The Strip in vegas at its best. The Strip is that length of road in downtown vegas where the major hotels and restaurants and clubs are located, where the who's who cluster and where money talks. and might i mention that every few steps a male takes as he wanders down the street, he is confronted with numerous lackeys who shove cards of women in varied stages of undress at him. all highly amusing. what qualifies as illegal pornographic material in certain countries is at the same time thrust at passers-by on neat little cards as they take a walk down streets in other countries. what a quaint little world.

and thus we arrived at Vegas, checked into The Mirage, which i have to say, given the number of stars and its location in the one area with the greatest reputation of having the most beautifully designed hotels in the world, has an absolutely lamentable floor layout. we, after being dropped off at the front door, had to drag our bags past concierge, through the entire maze of the casino, which is absolutely gargantuan in magnitude, past numerous restaurants and inbuilt pubs, before finally arriving, arms throbbing and out of breath, at the elevators. where on earth is the sense in that?! mind-boggling. for all the big bucks rolling in, at least have the sense to hire a better contractor!

after we finally stumbled into our rooms, we took a brief rest before going for dinner. chinese restaurant again, which incidentally served water that we could actually TASTE. and it didn't taste of anything pleasant unfortunately, reminded me of warm radioactive sewage sludge. (see previous note of commenting on things tasting like other less common substances) and then back again to the hotel for a breather, before we were whisked off to watch Jubilee, a topless show, at the Ballys hotel. now when you mention Topless Show, usually the least of your expectations would be "BORING" or "yawn" or "dull". unfortunately, while it is not often where things live up to expectation, you wouldn't imagine that they could so drastically fall short of expectations as to even fall far BELOW the lowest of them. all that singing and dancing (well, not even dancing for it was more of simple walking and kicking legs and fancy show-standard arm waving), even with the bare tops of ladies, failed to keep most of the audience awake. i tried hard to stay awake, but succumbed near the middle and then again at the end. even the male audience was hard put to keep their attention from wandering and their eyelids from closing. what a drag. my cousins and i had a little joke about how we should have watched Chippendales instead. haha. so back to the hotel it was, threading through the crowd and the big screens showing snippets of shows that truly couldn't be any more boring than the one we just escaped from.

Day 4 - Dec 10

woke up to the window view of Vegas, baby! but we were feeling less pumped up owing to the fact that we overslept, and were roused by my aunt, informing us of the time, which happened to be when our coach was supposed to leave. with all my relatives already at the coach waiting, me fio and glo were running about the room pulling on clothes and hastily washing up. in record time (20 mins), we were in the lobby where some of them were standing and solemnly ushered to the coach. OOPS. later we learnt a big argument erupted between May, the tour manager, and brendan (my bro). may wanted the 3 of us to take a cab to the factory outlet, our itinerary for the day, and brendan replied asking Couldn't she just wait for 15 mins more? we weren't rushing to keep up an appointment anyway, since we were just shopping for the day. turned out to be quite a full-scale battle, the skirmishes of which we would get a hint of in the coming days. anyway, it was off to the factory outlet Premier or something like that. we spent a blissful day flinging dollars, as we tore up the place in search of bargains, not that they were hard to find. the deals there are AMAZING, managed to buy loads of clothes and more. original plans to conquer the area together with my cousins were abandoned due to respective shopping speeds, so in the end we were all separated, bumping into each other occasionally as we hunted down deals in the many foraging areas. going solo is probably the most productive, and so far my favourite, way of shopping. shopping with fiona is quite good too, she's super fast in sizing up the shop, although our tastes sometimes differ and also at times she's yanking at the reins of the shopping cart way before i'm prepared to leave the store.

at night we watched Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil at the Treasure Island hotel. which blew us all away. before the show started we were all already riveted on the antics of some old dude in a suit, laughing as he led blithely ignorant audience members to the wrong seats, pushing past seated people instead of using the aisles, then feigning impatience and finally flinging the tickets away in mock frustration. then the show started, every inch of the stage begged for our attention as perfomers filled it, even the upper balconies had eye-catching dancers and gymnasts and musical outfits. what a blast. the costumes were great, stunts were thrilling, music was captivating, occasional acts were hilarious. my favourite performer was a bird-like character in red, he was superbly graceful and strong and just plain eye-gluing. what a show. i swear to catch any Cirque Du Soleil shows i ever come across in future.

Day 4 - Dec 10

the next day was Grand Canyon day. we took several draggy coach rides, finally arriving at the place. and my oh my, what a sight to behold. makes you rethink the significance of your puny little existence indeed. and here, there's a lack of things to write about, for all you need is a personal view of the natural wonder to understand its sheer magnitude and beauty completely. and naturally, my vocabulary is much too limited for fully expressing the feelings any sentient being will feel when confronted with the sight of the Canyon. anyway, we headed up to Guano Point (yes, guano refers to bat crap), downed lunch, enjoyed more sights. we also got to the Skywalk, which sounded and looked tremendously exciting in the brochures, but turned out to be a short glass-floored U-path jutting out from a cliff of sorts. the view through the glass floor didn't afford us the privilege of looking right through to the very bottom of the canyon from the top, we could only see till about halfway because of the rocks jutting out. DOTS to the max. no cameras allowed but we took some nice shots with the in-house photographer. oh it was interesting that some areas of the canyon were totally unrestricted, you could walk right up to the edge and peer over at your worst nightmare, a 5000 feet drop towards the conversion into a bloody pulp. being the wimp that i was, i only managed to creep slowly, arms outstretched to impart balance, to a spot an inch away from the edge and leaning ever so slightly to peep at the endless stretch of rock below me. then it was a dreary ride back again to civilisation.

night was reserved for a visit to the famed Bellagio. where we had a FABULOUS buffet dinner at The Buffet (how creative). jaw-dropping variety of food, desserts were superb, service good as usual, all for less than US$30. half the price of The Line, just below it in terms of cost of ingredients used, but WAY better in terms of selection and even interior design. score!

Day 5 - Dec 11

we made our way to the airport, discovered that we had overweight luggages and had to pay, flew to Vancouver, then drove to Whistler, a little town up in the snowy mountains. had a fancy steakhouse dinner in the hotel, which took days between courses and had me napping intermittently. other than that the food was good. we had a good view of the heated pool and jacuzzi tub from our room window, perfect for checking out, i mean, casually observing their users. before dinner we rented our ski/snowboard equip, and might i add that ALL, i repeat ALL, service staff in the Whistler area are young and good-looking. really! everyone at the ski shop was up there on the outward appearance ladder. and most shops i went to later also proved similar. well of course you couldn't avoid the odd elderly cashier, or once in a while the less becoming assistants, but generally the employees in the service industry were HOT. heard that many young Brits and Aussies go there to work and board/ski at the same time, the former in order for the latter.

and here's a short description of the area near Crystal Lodge, our ski resort. to the right from the mezzanine entrance/exit were several shops, mostly selling ski/board equipment and outfits, and then the Blackcomb and Whistler mountain gondolas. to the left, a short walk to the Village Square, in which nestled in its cosy corner was an Armchair Books store. a right turn across a bridge led you to Starbucks (the legendary outlet where the Gohs and Chuas first saw real falling snow many years ago), a cinema, a Guess outlet (very random). further on was a supermarket, Mongolie (a Mongolian grill), italian restaurant, and a japanese restaurant.

Day 6 - Dec 12

ski day number one. cold as hell, although hell isn't rumoured to be cold. but still. clunked out, severely underdressed as we later learnt, to the Whistler gondola. fingers were already turning numb and painful while we waited for the tickets to be bought. clash number dunno-how-many: Mistake number 1: 2-day passes to the gondola were bought instead of 1-day passes, even though there was no discount for the 2-day ones. Mistake number 2: sight-seeing passes, which were cheaper than ski passes, were not bought for the adults who just wanted to go up the mountain for fun. why? Reason 1: tour guide did not buy tickets, but asked my cousin to. Reason 2: tour guide did not check ahead. Side detail 1: tour guide asked my cousin, all decked out in heavy boots that were hard to walk in, to buy the tickets because tour guide was afraid of cold weather and quickly rushed back to hotel room. and hence the explosion began. or maybe it was already snowballing. later, tour guide was overheard loudly telling tour-sponsor that the excess spent on buying the wrong tickets, "Take from my pay lah!". immediate comment from eavesdropping brother: "Sure, cut from your pay lah".

up the looooong gondola ride, with uncomfortably high seats, we reached a lodge near the top of Whistler. filed out. quickly sought shelter and warmth in the lodge. separated from the boarders. mustered the courage to exit building, and met our doom on Upper Whiskey Trail. i later figured one would need pints of whiskey to brave the long steep slope down to the end of the trail. well, at least for someone like me. the length of the trail was much too long, everyone said that it was the type of slope that one should pack a bottle of fluid and some crackers into a backpack and hit the john before starting. the slopes were also VERY steep, not steep enough to fling you off a cliff at the slightest mistake, but certainly steep enough such that i didn't dare to go down straight, but had to cut across the slope the whole way to avoid mowing down any unfortunate being in my way. the whole journey i was on the edge of my nerves, what a trip. the ski trail at Zermatt was infinitely better.

thawed a bit at a little cabin at the end of the trail, then set off for the Lower Whiskey Trail, before catching the gondola back up again. had lunch then it was back down to the heaters in the room. phew. it took us the better part of 4 hours i estimate, to complete the entire trail. what a nightmare.

dinner comprised several of us heading off in search of food in Whistler, with a bit of shopping here and there. tried an italian restaurant which was too crowded, eventually we settled for japanese. then we attacked a supermarket and headed back, squishing the icy slush beneath our shoes on the streets back.

Day 8 - Dec 14

skiing day 2. me and glo were absolutely dreading it. woke up late, all the while taking our time in getting dressed, delaying our doom as much as possible. the guys were getting impatient, apparently they loved the slopes. finally when we've pushed the limits as much as we could, we had to leave for the gondola ride. freezing again. -20 deg Celsius. at least it was sunnier this time. me and glo split from gigi and irwin, the boarders headed down first. 2 skiiers 1 boarder dropped out after the first day, citing various reasons, fever was one, exhaustion and lost hope among others. glo felt nauseous, so we sat at the lodge, thinking to go down after lunch. that never came. we had lunch, stoned there the whole time. brendan joined us for lunch and stoned with us after that. i was feeling immensely bored and restless, wanted to just heck it and ski down but it was too late and noone wanted to go down the slope a second time. derrick and kenny skipped lunch and went down the Ego Bowl slope 6 times i think. finally we were all assembled at the lodge in the mid-afternoon, and after a short delay owing to a missing boarder, we headed down. i was feeling thoroughly miserable, wanted to head to the gym to relieve the pent-up energy but there wasn't time. SHIT. that was probably the worst day of the trip. felt so useless bumming around up there. photo shoot at the gondola ticket station, then off for dinner. which was crap. Old Spaghetti Factory it was called, food sucked big time, service was slow. all in all a disastrous dinner. before dinner me glo yt fio bought tickets to Twilight at the cinema, and visited the Rocks and Gems shop on the way back. interesting stuff they sold. among them being dinosaur bones, trilobite fossils, and many other ancient fossils, rocks, stones, gems, shiny bits here and there. are dinosaur bones common?!?! or ancient fossils?!?! they were selling small bits for like less than twenty bucks!

after dinner we half-ran to the cinema, cos it was so cold. 4 of us plus brendan derrick gigi irwin went. movie was so-so, a bit boring, derrick was asleep the whole movie, book was definitely better. everyone came out interested in the series though, which possibly meant the movie caught their interest. glo was drooling over how mesmerising robert pattinson was, i still think gaspard ulliel would be way better as edward. oh well.

Day 9 - Dec 15

drive to vancouver. then we carried on with the drive to the hotel, the Hyatt Regency. vancouver was filled with asians, hong-kongers to be exact. it's like melbourne, half the population on the streets were yellow-skinned. i prefer california and vegas to vancouver. no point going overseas for vacation and looking around seeing asian faces as though you were back home. vancouver also seems more slow-moving and less interesting than america, less busy less glamorous.

arrived to much bustling in the lobby, turns out they were hosting some secondary school competition for gingerbread house making. people were walking around judging the entries, some were pretty impressive.

the room was fab, big, posh, luxurious. wall-to-wall ceiling-to-floor window occupied one wall, wide- and flat-screen attached to another, there was even a desk with a real cool desk lamp, ultra sleek. alarm clock had an iPod nano docking station, well actually most of the hotels we stayed in had that. anyway we had a while to walk through the attached shopping centre, think it was the Royal Plaza. nothing much, mostly unheard of brands that still managed to be quite expensive. made our way to the food court in the basement for lunch, a really good pannini, and then headed for Robson St, supposedly Vancouver's equivalent of Orchard Rd. but they were diff in that Robson St had stores by a narrow, 4 lane road, while orchard road has shopping malls by the side of a much wider road. we went souvenir shopping, cos the clothes and stuff didn't seem worth it after all the american factory outlets. dinner was at a chinese restaurant in the shopping centre next to our hotel, menu selected by ah song. not bad, a lot of veggies though.

Day 10 - Dec 16

breakfast was on the 34th floor, great view of the city below! then we took a city tour, nothing much. went to Stanley Park, where totem poles resided. funny event: the small lake in front of the totem poles was frozen over, and uncle tommie ventured down and put a foot out on the ice. larry came over, and stepped onto the ice. local canada-raised hk tour guide panicked, asking them to quickly get back up because it wasn't safe. then larry, being the usual rebellious kid he was, did a hilarious shuffle across the ice and back, before clambering back up. we all had a good laugh. he's so cute. (i know i've said this millions of times) then we droe to some exhibition centre, and chinatown or something, can't really remember, along the way was an aviary on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere, and there was the Lion Gate Bridge which crosses the English Bay. photo ops done, we headed for lunch at some sorta market where most stalls sold meats, cheeses, pastries etc. my lunch was Indian, quite good. then we were off to oakridge shopping centre, 4 of us spent all our time at the bookstore cos we were pretty much done with any kind of shopping. factory outlets take their toll on everyone, they successfully crush the urge to whip out wallets or enter fitting rooms. oh, i also hate trying clothes when i have to shed so many layers in the cramped fitting room in winter countries. yucks. and you get static charge build-up from the rubbing of the cloth and your hair just sticks to your face, major eew. so anyway we spent eons at the bookstore but ventured further to a supermarket. borrowed fio's iTouch when we found out there was wireless at the supermarket's inbuilt Starbucks to check my results. she checked hers too. both of us did well. then it was meeting time, and we drove to dinner. chinese again. seafood this time, quite good. menu again by ah song.

Day 11 - Dec 17

breakfast at the 34th floor again, our own little private function room. thought it looked misty outside, only to discover that it was snowing! cool. snowing heavily too! we could see the flakes being buffeted by the winds in all directions, busy little white specks making their way here and there. what a sight. and way up high too. we contemplated going out in such heavy snowfall, but i forced the other 3 to go in the end. we headed to robson st again for some late souvenir pick-ups by fio and glo. the snow was spattering on our faces and built up quickly on our clothing. how exciting. then we headed to Icing by Claire's before going over to Sears in Pacific Centre. Sears is kinda like the typical departmental store, so we headed out to the main shopping centre. got lunch, a nice souvlaki pita wrap. yummy. bumped into auntie lena and others, then brendan and derrick joined us. we then attacked H & M, but it was nowhere as cheap as those in europe. i was also too lazy to hit the fitting rooms, so anything i found interesting i tried my best to ignore. had a little rest. getting tired of shopping by now. think the only other shop we hit in the centre was Stitches, where we bought the most stuff for the day. they were all so cheap. that pretty much drained all our shopping energy.

then we headed back again, snowfall had slowed to the occasional random laggy snowflake floating down from the sky. but the ground was still delightfully soft with fresh snow. trouble was getting the snow off your shoes before it melted and soaked them to the seams. dinner was steamboat at the the same chinese restaurant from our first night in vancouver. good stuff. the snowy beef, fancy name probably for thin beef strips, was the star. seafood tofu was good. chicken a bit fatty. mussels good. veggies not bad. mushrooms were great, as always. ate till i was bursting. what a last dinner to have.

then it was back to serious repackaging of luggages to prevent any overweight ones, even filled a bag daddy bought earlier in the day with the spoils of the trip.

Day 12 - Dec 18

left for the airport bright and early. breaths were held as we loaded each piece of luggage onto the belt, one was overweight by 3 kg and another underweight by the same amount, which prompted a collective release of breath. no charges after all. daddy brendan and derrick hit burger king while me and mommy strolled aimlessly around. nice aquarium in the airport, lotsa corals though the fishes behaved weirdly. they were all suspended facing the left, didn't move much other than to keep in the same spot. wonder what that was all about. thus we stepped onto the plane that would bring us back to reality, and humidity. flight back was pretty much filled with movies and tv shows. the lead actor in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging was really good-looking, which was helped by a brit accent definitely. many would agree. stopped over at Incheon airport. nothing much there, hurried to the gate. then straight to singapore and home nearly midnight.

side note: america's mtv channel rocks. the shows were interesting in true mtv style. notable shows: parental control, heterosexual participant. vicki and ricki were interesting too, can't rmb the long title of the series exactly, smt about a double shot at love. about a pair of female bisexual twins who had to choose from a bunch of male AND female contestants fighting for their attention. WHAT THE?!?! other than that, music on mtv was good too, Kanye's Love Lockdown (current fave), Beyonce's If I Were A Boy (great music vid!), Nickelback's Gotta Be Somebody (current fave number 2), Jonas Brothers' Lovebug (a cute song), Pink, Katy Perry's Hot N Cold (grows on you), Pokerface by Lady Gaga (grows on you too, although only one line of the song is nice). although there was an abundance of britney spears too with Circus and Womaniser. Paramour's song for twilight also got quite a bit of airtime. note again: canada's tv channels suck, no mtv! argh, how dull.

interesting (in my view) facts:

learnt to pack light.

learnt that fio draws really well, but can't do humans or animals, only buildings.

discovered the many likeable features of the iTouch.

this trip was very own-time-own-target, didn't really see much of yt, spent most of the time with fio and glo.

camwhored to the extreme one night in vegas. had so many laughs in the process. and fio edited the photos really well.

i sincerely hope the december holiday tradition continues nt year and for many years to come.

Merry Christmas!

LA, LV, Whistler and Vancouver from 7/12/08 to 19/12/08.

Day 1 - Dec 7

we left for King's Dr early in the morning, the cab came earlier than expected, noone was halfway awake yet, let alone ready to hop into the waiting cab outside. hopes for a nice breakfast absolutely dashed, we made our way to fio's place. then hauled the luggages down the slope to yt's, good morning exercise. should do that more often, clears the mind of the previous night's fog pretty well.
then we discovered we were the absloute first, thanks to the eager cabbie. so we had a sit around, then the rest drifted in. and might i add that Zac is sooooper doooper cute. anyways, went to the airport blah blah. spent an ungodly length of time in a cramped seat, with only a short span of time at narita to work the ol kickers. then back to numb behinds and static in the hair that never fails to gross me out and piss me off simultaneously. yucks. and here i shall add again that SIA is on the decline, stewardesses with bad service attitudes, the krisworld entertainment system not working too well, the WORST air turbulence i've experienced in my entire life. i honestly thought at some point the plane would crash, no kidding. the first sign of air turbulence, a heart-rising dip that evoked yelps and shrieks from the japanese girls who got on at narita, made my stomach clench. bleargh. this was followed by possibly an hour-long rolling of the aircraft from left to right, with several dips interspersed between. everyone was ordered to sit down the whole time, no visits to the toilet and so i figured we were all condemned to eternal damnation without relief. (okay, i lifted that last one from rowan atkinson) but the rocking from left to right thankfully resembled that of a humongous cradle, albeit one being maneouvered by a slightly overzealous caretaker, and i managed to slip into a blissful sleep. which was abruptly ended by relieved, or soon to be, passengers rushing down the aisles when the seatbelt sign was turned off. i must mention that the whole flight i only had intermitten naps, and thanks to lousy krisflyer entertainment systems, i wasn't at all entertained by the backdated and uninteresting movies they had to offer. so when i stepped off the tarmac (or rather off the carpeted floors of the 747), it was with as much irritation as a starving grizzly watching his meal being snatched up by a seemingly innocuous and clueless woodsman stumbling upon his catch of the day. but things started looking good for me as the first activity of the itinerary was a direct bus ride to lunch in anaheim, then straight to the hotel with nothing else planned till dinnertime. i should add in here that we had landed in the LA airport. so lunch it was, a chinese buffet affair. as chinese lunches in the states go, i wasn't extremely pleased to find what was staring up my plate at me after i was done making the finest selections. but it was all there was to consume and nothing else could have been done. another thing to note was the large sizes of everything there, in relation to F&B. the cups came in humongo sizes, enough to last a man 3 days' at least in the Mojave Desert. and that's not counting the amount of ice in the cup. then me glo fio yt slipped out of the restaurant and headed to the row of shops near the restaurant. we were in some kinda large mall of sorts, where everything was spread out into diff buildings surrounding a carpark, much like a huge factory outlet. interesting concept. there was a farmer's market or smt, pet shop, clothes shops, bank, clinic, dvd rental etc. then it was time to get back into the coach and arrive at the ultimate destination for the day, the hotel room, or rather, the bed in the hotel room.

i should probably clarify that being 16 hours behind singaporean time earned us so many hours to allow us this many activities while it was still the 7th of dec.

the hotel, Embassy Suites Resort Anaheim was a spanking dig, complete with an automated lion on top of a manmade cliff jutting out by a waterfall in the centre of the building. and the hotel rooms were found only on the sides of the entire building, such that there was a complete hollow throughout its centre, and you can step out of your room, look down the railing, and swoon if you were afraid of heights. the hotel room, incidentally, was awesome. big. classy. posh. soft bed linen and towels. yum. and it had a single cup coffee maker, which i soon discovered could be found in every hotel i went to in this trip. with several hours to spare, i looked forward to taking a well-deserved nap. until mom called, with scoop that there was Target just out of the hotel and down the road. sigh. the nap could wait. i asked fio and glo to ask their parents also, and off we were, trudging out in the cool evening air and slowly fading light. Target had interesting stuff, some on sale for cheap, others not as much. bought some stuff, looked around. then we had to rush back for dinner. which i forgot to mention was supposed to be exciting stuff. we had it arranged to drive to Buena Park's Medieval Times, a themed-dining-cum-performance joint where they split you into teams and each team had a knight to support. you cheered for your knight, jeered the evil Green Knight, and ate like you were a lord or lady in the royal castle. that is, with your hands. yup, with only your bare hands, you drank soup in what looked like a stone bowl of sorts with a handle, tore the chicken thigh apart and stuffed half a roast potato down your throat, and then handled the steaming hot apple pie with the raw tips of your fingers. the medieval feel was somewhat lessened by the options of drinks served: Pepsi or beer. but the waiting staff were dressed for their parts, scooping soup with ladles from buckets. fio or glo even told me that her waiter called the chicken thigh "Dragon Meat" and the roast potato half "Dragon Toenails".

anyway, we all got stuck into rooting for the Black and White knight. and the night's activities dragged on. there was much jousting and swordplay, pyrotechnics and horsemanship. the horses were cool, and the swordplay rather interesting. but the boredom of the entire put-on got to us and many were asleep or close to it nearing the end of the draggy performance. finally it ended and we hurried out before the crowd got up their sore behinds. the restaurant design was cool and all, they made it look like a stadium with staggered seats around a sandy pit where the performance unfolded, but everything was SO tremendously draggy i swear and by the time the apple pie came, everyone was hoping the evil Green Knight would just stick a sword in the other knights and get it over with.

and so we reached the hotel, knocked out on the bed and showered, can't remember in which order for it was all so tiring. i ended up asleep on the pull-out sofa bed while glo and fio knocked out on the chairs around the table. apparently when you were dead tired it didn't matter how good the quality of your sleep was, just which item of furniture caught your attention first. hence that first night all of us neglected the soft comfy covers of the 2 single beds we pushed together earlier.

Day 2 - Dec 8
woke up bright and early, feeling really good. the holiday mood was really lifeting my spirits, until i made the discovery that american hotel breakfasts aren't nearly half as nice as those in european hotels. sure the ambience was good with the lion roaring and all every hour i think, and the greenery all around. but breakfast was only scrambled eggs, sausages and toast, as i eyed the deep-fried crispy bacon with disdain and didn't feel up for cereal that morning. the few pieces of pastry i grabbed in haste proved a mistake as they were sweet enough to possibly induce involuntary gagging, or even hyperglycaemia if even such a condition exists. the queue for the omelette with fillings of your choice was abominable and out of the question. and like the extra large portions, i was learning that breakfast wasn't going to be very exciting affairs for the next few days of my life. but then it was off to Disneyland and the California Adventure Park. which was but a short drive away. Disneyland was up first, since it opened earlier. so we walked in, and headed directly for the big rides.

no beginner to theme parks after all these years, we knew which rides to head for even without the map. so me glo fio yt derrick gigi and irwin struck a direct path towards Space Mountain. and i must make it known, out of pure honesty, that i wasn't looking forward to the theme parks. i turned into a real wimp at rides a while back when youthful ignorance and the enjoy-first-wonder-later mentality flowered into cautious adolescent i-would-like-to-preserve-my-life-not-lose-it-in-a-freak-accident mindset, until about a couple of years or so ago, when i suddenly dug deep and found the courage to hop onto a Space Mountain ride. the ride turned out to be exhilarating and i've been back at rides ever since. but anyway, we conquered space mountain. i was scared as hell, but there were no heart-abandoning drops in the ride, only violent jerks from side to side. of course i wasn't complaining. although i was surprised. the last Space Mountain ride i took had a corkscrew in it. i think it was in Paris? can't really recall. then the next stop on the battle plan was Matterhorn. again, shaky and bumpy as hell but the dreaded butt-clenching drop was missing. finally, Indiana Jones. i had heard talk about this ride, reviews that it was fantastic drifted to my ears a while back. but with the 2 previous rides under my belt, i felt confident. so off we went. i admit that in Space Mountain, all i could see was black. that wasn't because the ride was dimly lit. well it was actually, for everything was dark except for the space-y glittering lights that were supposed to make you dizzy and feel like you were in outer space. it was mostly because my eyes were clamped shut tightly. and in Matterhorn, my eyes inched open several times during the ride, enough to catch sight of the tracks in front of me, and the people wandering around the park below me off to the left, before they inevitably slammed shut again. but in Indiana Jones, i must say that my eyes were open the full duration of the ride. and i was impressed by the effects of the ride. the lighting, figures, projections etc. and even when the tracks in front of me snuck off downwards into darkness i didn't shut my eyes into unseeing in the face of the incoming plunge, which by the way, never materialised. this was when i realised i had found my MOJO. the MOJO for adrenalin-pumping action. thus it was that i was pumped up by the ride, but nonetheless still wary of the purportedly BIG rides that Cali Adventure Park offered.

it was still morning when we crossed over to Cali Adventure Park right opposite Disneyland. we wasted no time in seeking out THE ride of the park. California Screamin'. on the map the thing looked a monstrous creation of some sadistic engineer. it occupied a huge portion of the paper, with parts of the ride looking to be designed perfectly to scare the living shit out of any sane mortal. but first, we were all ushered by our tour guide to a simulator ride, which showed the sights of Cali very realistically by means of a tremendous screen like the one in the imax. there was even the smell of oranges pervading the air when the screen showed a stunning view of the orange fields of cali, which is a large part of cali agriculture or smt like that. the experience was amazing. very realistic. i loved it. and i loved it all the more knowing what was coming next. THE ride of the day. i trudged onward with my enthusiastic cousins. somehow the instinct for self-preservation was not equally shared among humans, some like to feel the rush of air at speeds that would normally make a grown man quail with thoughts of imminent death. hurtling downwards at mind-bending speeds was just not what humans were born to do. why put ourselves to so much heart-stopping fear and stomach-writhing turns and drops? it puzzles me to no end, but each time i step out from a ride i feel like a tremendous weight was lifted off my shoulders, and as if a dizzyingly large airy bubble was lifting upwards through me and all i can do is laugh uncontrollably and talk loudly to the others about how great the ride was. and so i stepped onto California Screamin', a mega monster of a ride, lifting high up in the air many stories higher than anything else i've seen, with a drop that seemed designed to leave the vital organs of its riders back up at the crest of the plunge while the empty shells of those foolish enough to enter the ride plummeted towards the ground at speeds that would tear off their hair and nothing else if they were lucky. the entrance of the ride was strategically placed right below the tracks where the carts met the dip after the mind-scrambling first dive. the screaming from the riders above made us slightly nervous. on the other hand, the americans didn't seem too bothered. perhaps being locals, they've been on this ride more than enough times to wear their survival instincts thin. perhaps they were just scared to move or talk in case they'd simply start blubbering and faint away. i'd imagine it was the former. there was a prudent suggestion by brendan that we hit the washrooms first. this was the one ride that had the potential to unlock our bowels or gut at a strategic plummet. then with everything cleared, we stepped into the misty depths of doom. the queue was short, and in a New York minute, we were seated on the carts, bolted down tightly with shoulder bars, and rolled slowly round the bend out into the open. we lingered for a while, where several people stood at the railings next to the tracks. i averted my eyes, knowing they'd be smirking at the cries of despair, and looks of absolute trauma, of all the occupants in the cart the next instant. a puff of smoke, and we were shot off at a HUUUGE speed forward. and i mean HUGE. i've never sat on a ride that went at this speed i tell you. amazing. some feat of engineering, some moment of inspiration by an engineer and you get this. looking back i think this first shot forward was one of the best parts of the ride, and i mean seriously scream-worthy. then we climbed up, it seemed, towards the highest point of Mt Olympus before the crest of the first and biggest rise came. and it was all downhill after that. we all screamed, no doubt some even wept. there were several amazing swerves, i could imagine calculating centripetal forces there. and then came the corkscrew. beautiful. more plunges. more turns. and finally we pulled in. and the only feeling i had of this frightening experience was that of euphoria. and then we were all out, shouting for a second time on the ride. but there was more to conquer, more battles to win. so we headed to the next attraction. a several storey downward fall. eep. i did a double take, told them this one was outta my league, i liked rollercoasters, but direct no-holds-barred falls at acceleration g was not my thing. but then we observed the ride carefully. and turns out it looked okay because the real drop wasn't too high, it fell about 3/4 of the way, rose up a bit, fell a bit more, and repeated once more before sinking to the ground in surrender. seems pretty ok, we all assessed. brendan yt and derrick were disappointed, they wished for smt more exhilarating. i was just happy to keep my intestines for another day. so on we hopped, the queue was non-existent. (note to self: yellow nike teeshirt!!) anyway, we strapped in, all the time with me thinking how stupid i was. i should have jumped ship at the last moment to join fio at the bottom. too late to chicken out. so up we went. and again here was a ride which had smt to boast about other than the throat-constricting drop. the speed at which we shot upwards to the top was the highlight of the ride i think. it was probably scarier than the fall that was soon to come. oh and before that, i was getting scared as hell waiting for the ride to start as we were all sitting there. and there was this girl in the queue staring at me, smirking her face off. all i could do was ignore her and clench my eyes shut, gripping tightly to the only armour protecting me from a freak accident, my shoulder bars. i wish to the high heavens that girl pissed her pants on the ride later. they also had some plastic screen shielding you entirely in front, and we theoretised that this was to funnel all bodily fluid ejections downward instead of allowing them to take their natural course outwards and all over the passers-by below. another theory emerged that it was to prevent various innocent winged creatures such as birds or insects from mistakenly flying into passengers, thinking they had a luxurious meal in store for them, or worse, thinking that this was the perfect spot to eject their bodily fluids. just an interesting aside.

and so we alighted with shaky looks but nonetheless the vigour was apparent in all our eyes. perhaps it's the euphoria of survival, of feeling so very much alive that makes these hairy rides such a hit.

and then it was lunch, a sordid affair fit for one of Jamie Oliver's fits. Jamie's Theme Park Lunches. what a hit that would be. our meal consisted of clumped spaghetti strands, i take the menu's word that those really WERE spaghetti strands, with unhealthily-red looking tomato sauce poured on top. this was, as the menu proclaimed, Spaghetti Marinara. where the Marinara in Spaghetti Marinara came from i had not a clue. neither, i think, did the cook. there was also a slice of pizza, huge, as expected. it also managed to be oily and dry at the same time, an unimaginable feat i expect. and tasted like dog food, not that i've ever tasted that before. it's weird when i say something tastes like another object or substance that noone in their sane mind would ever stick into their mouths. like how i say olives taste like car tyres. or when blood tastes like rusty metal. or when frozen mashed potatoes taste like cardboard. it just feels like how these would taste like, not that i've ever tried before. some weird sixth sense probably, a hidden talent as a Michelin-starred chef. lunch was over thankfully, and we hit a small ride, some cutesy swinging round a huge orange trip. which was actually scarier than expected since all that separated the flimsy metal frame of a chair that held me and an imminent horrible death was a slender metal bar strung across my lap. the chair was only help by two wires, and flipping the seat upside down or just enough to tip its occupant out was startlingly easy. hence we were swung round and round, me being fixed immobile, not daring to move an inch as the thought of falling out and perishing in a giant orange flashed back and forth in my mind. not a way to go clearly. just imagine the parting words on the headstone. finally we emerged into the sunlight, which was somewhat clouded by the greying sky. rain was imminent it seemed but not before we headed to our next stop, the Tower of Terror. after lots of debating about what the ride entailed, we made our way through the queue and were ushered into a spooky room. daddy and mommy were with us, so were auntie khim kiang and ah seng uncle. i was warning mommy of the ride, there were sudden drops and everything, could she handle it? somehow she managed her way in anyway. then we were shown some whacked story of a family disappearing from the lift of some Hollywood hotel and entering the Twilight zone where they were never seen again. and we about to enter the very same lift and trace their footsteps. so we were ushered again into an area, seated side by side, all facing the lift door. then it began. at first we all thought it should be ok, after all, the only safety precaution we had was a single belt across the lap. no shoulder bars, nothing. this ride wouldn't be at all scary. and then we were all elevated, with much noise and ado. then we were shook, the lift doors open to reveal ghostly figures of the family that disappeared, and we were unceremoniously dropped several metres downwards, screaming loudly. then the elevator proceeded to go up and down, at freaky speeds. then at one point the doors opened to show us the entire park, and cameras took snapshots before we plummeted downwards and up again and down again in complete darkness. at one point i didn't know whether we were falling or going up, then i realised it probably was the former because my heart seemed to have escaped out through my mouth, and not my butt. then it ended. i gripped the handlebars by my sides so tightly that i realised later it was the only thing that prevented me from being lifted upwards completely from the seat during the plunges, which happened to yt and some of the others. everyone was laughing at the parents, their expressions in the photos. and then everyone laughed at daddy cos he was telling everyone how his bag flew up during one of the drops, and luckily he had held onto it if not it would have flown up and met his or another unfortunate individual's head seconds later as gravity caught up with it. so ended the rides for the day. we stopped over for photos outside with the Tower of Terror as the backdrop, with us doing stupid shots and all. there was also this cool backdrop which was painted to look like the street carried on all the way down when it was actually just a painting. then there weren't any big rides left, and we were wondering what the hell to do since we were supposed to meet well after dinner for the coach to drop us back at the hotel. we caught up with some others as we stopped to watch a high school musical 3 performance. the male dancers were SUPER ... effeminate. erm. no more comments there. then we found out an advanced party was leaving early for the hotel. so we joined up. the numbers were so big in the end that the coach was hired to make an early drop, before coming back again at the previously appointed time. we killed time waiting for the coach by making our way back to Disneyland and watching the extremely boring parade. we've never bothered to watch the parade since the first time we stepped into a Disneyland park, and that day i fully understood the reasons why. yawning my head off, tired from the day's delights and stress, i was hard pressed to keep myself from spreading out on the floor and taking a nap. back into grizzly mode, and so was almost everyone else, we sat in disinterested silence while the more enduring of us took photos of the colourful floats and smiley characters. then the coach came and all energy was rekindled as we headed back. next came the problem of finding dinner, for we were left to our own devices that day, which meant we had to hunt food on our own. we settled for a trip to Target, then grabbing some grub on the way back. so it was that we went to Outback for dinner. had the lamb rack, which would be delightful to the locals but wasn't as lamb-y tasting as i wanted it to be. coupled with the fact that we neglected to include how the meals here were catered to the solid hearty appetites of big Westerners, dinner was an unhappy affair, especially for the gut.

all in all, the theme parks were still same old same old. with expensive souvenirs, only a few rides that could hold our interest and dreary food that seemed to come straight from the freezer, missing the preheating process somewhat and definitely absent when it was time to inject flavour and nutrition. but i noticed something, that Disneyland, especially, really was a fantasy land. it was amazingly detailed in creating a world so dream-like and fantastical as to attract so many people throughout the years with the promise of escaping reality. every single point of architecture was not left out in identifying with the theme. at indiana jones, i remeber how every single thing corresponded to the theme of the wild west, and that of hidden tombs and what not. the railings were all wooden posts and ropes, not metal to be seen. lighting was by means of flickering lamps hung by ropes winding across the ceiling. the floors, walls and ceilings were all rock and sand and dust, even realistic props like spiderwebs, abandoned carts, skeletons and insects were seen everywhere you looked. it was amazing how detailed the designers were. walking out some bridge somewhere in the place i saw the small stone statues of an owl and another creature i can't recall, sitting on stone pillars which people don't even shoot second glances at. every insignificant or small item i looked at was still perfectly in sync with the theme of its placement. stunning. it only hit me how fantastic Walt Disney was in creating this dream. and how fantastic the people behind the various parks were, except maybe for the ones in certain countries which we have all heard nasty rumours, such as long queues and poor service, about.

back to the hotel again, barely made it to the sofa-bed, slept for a while before showering and nestling into the sofa-bed again. woke up in the night and scooted over to real bed which i found fio and glo in. it seemed we adjusted to the time zone perfectly well.

to be continued when my wrists stopped aching....

and now it's time for a short segment on the baking escapades in my kitchen. ...well technically not MY kitchen, but the kitchen in the house that i happen to live in. but you get the drift. or you probably wouldn't if you had an IQ of below 50. on the other hand you wouldn't be using the internet and reading blogs if that were the case.

ah well.

i tried baking cinnamon stars, following a recipe in a little book i bought. to cut to the chase, they turned out rather...terrible. well not really terrible in the sense of inedible, but they didn't know whether they wanted to be soft and chewy, or crisp and crunchy. that seems to be a dilemma most confectionary are doomed to experience. oh the choices!

and the smell of cinnamon was overpowering and gave me a headache. plus it made me feel like puking several times. eew.

point is, i now have a jar of monstrous cookies in my kitchen. well not my kitchen really. it's the kitchen in the house i live in. but anyways, i think i'm gonna stay away from anything cinnamon-containing in future. or at least anything with more than 1/2 a tsp of the vile substance.

but on to happier records, i was, or i imagine i was, successful at some plain cookies dipped in melted chocolate. the cookies had a crumbly texture, and melted in the mouth cos of the corn flour in it. and the butter, a shameless amount the recipe called for, made the cookies sooooper dooooper fragrant. on the other hand, i probably should have made the cookies flatter, taste better and nicer to bite into that way.

and i probably should have dipped them into nicer chocolate, i ran out of my Hershey's semi-sweet one and scavenged the fridge, discovering boxes of unwanted chocolates that i happily threw into the melting pot. yucks. lesson learnt. i'm not melting anything that isn't meant for coating or baking anymore.

on to future voyages, i shall try a spicy oatmeal cookie which is supposed to be beeeg and soft. sounds darned good. except for the 1 tsp of cinnamon i need to add. think i'm substituting that for nutmeg and ginger. maybe just a pinch for a subtle flavour.

and one last, i think i prefer cooking to baking. the only drawback i can think of right now of cooking is that the ingredients are usually perishable, and the ingredients are hard to find in singapore. like how hard it is to find a leg of lamb in supermarkets and wet markets.

you don't need to be so bloody precise in baking as you do in cooking. can you imagine jamie oliver baking!??! he'd be throwing in handfuls of this, a pinch of that, a good glug of this, and just a bit of something else. the pastry will probably turn out looking a sad mess. plus cooking yields savoury stuff, much easier to eat than sweet ones cos you don't get sick of eating them, as you do get sick of eating a handful of cookies.

cooking looks so much cooler anyhoo, with the steaming and sizzling and fervent chopping and tossing. baking looks so wussy and nancy. no fire, no flame, no intensity. just mix and chuck into the oven, see what comes out in a while.

oh well, but for now, since time and ingredients are scarce, i'm choosing baking.

Show to watch of the Week: Top Gear








HILARIOUS

and in true blogger style, albeit synonymous with BOOORING and LAAAME, i shall tell the whole blogging world of..... my day!

WOOHOO, CHEERS AND WONDERMENT BEFALL THE ONLINE COMMUNITY.

today i woke up.

amazing, isn't it? how did god create humans and program them so intricately to do such things in the mornings!

what's more astonishing is that i woke up at 10.30am.

the perfect timing! the breathtaking precision! 10.30 on the dot, not one minute more or less! exactly! oh the wonders i wake up to every morning, inspiring me to such an extent.

then i went out for lunch. for FISH BEE HOON, can you imagine that!? FISH! with NOODLES! in a SOUP! pure brilliance is it not?!

then i went to borders! such miracles i encounter one after the other, it must be symbolic of a stupefying day!

and discovered borders has a storewide, i repeat in capital letters, STOREWIDE discount of a grand total of 20%!! sensational! fabulous!

and so... i BOUGHT books! from borders! at a discount! can you not comprehend the stunning miracles i am experiencing!?

but then i came home. and it rained. well not really, it drizzled. but it sure as hell is gonna rain up a storm later. judging by the sounds of thunder coming over the hill. well there isn't a hill nearby really, just a figure of speech. 'coming over the neighbour's roof' or 'coming over the garden fence' don't quite have that special ring to them.

and then i started blogging. and listening to music. to be specific, as my GP teacher dutifully imprinted on my mind to do so when writing, Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple, and a touch of Jay Chou.

and i ate a few slices of watermelon. and several almonds, walnuts and pecans. possibly a handful of pistachios too. which i bought from Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. several days before coming home, as a gift to my relatives as well as for the joint.

did i mention that i had such a bleedingly horrible experience trying to pack my room up into several cardboard boxes before coming home? i spent eons working on it, developed a backache, went into occasional fits of panic and berated innocent civilians who stood in my way. and did i mention that in the Melb airport i had an encounter (YES, a first-hand encounter) with a jackass? hoho, as sure as the steam on a fresh hot pile of crap rises to the high heavens did i meet a great big jackass. this jackass, dressed in a suit and with make-up on, informed me that my baggage was overweight, and no, i'll need to prove my ticket was a student ticket and that i had to take my student card out from my luggage. sorry it's the only way, i'll need to repackage my luggages as well, would i like a plastic bag to remove some items. yes i'll have to throw stuff away if i have to.

what an encounter. with a real jackass, true breed if i may speculate, possibly descended from a long line of jackasses, a real pedigree. not like one of the many mutts, jillasses or jackmules as they are commonly termed.

but anyway, it's dinner time and i've got to scoot.

we are the race that is doomed to failure, doomed to extinction and doomed to chaos, calamity, disrepair and any other noun that describes such melancholy, despondency and anguish.

we were created to uncreate ourselves. our every mode of living pushes us closer to our eventual and impending death. were we not meant to suffer and toil towards the imminent roll of expiration and clap of oblivion? the knell tolls for our passing, and the wind excites the dust of our remains. the curtains are drawing to a close, the finale is nigh.

now is probably the right time for me to explain this sudden unexplained bout of gloom and laughable attempt at going goth.

why? because the clouds are thick, dark and heavy, and i can hear thunder growling deeply outside. WHICH signifies the oncoming torrential downpour. WHICH resulted in the onset of my current sepulchral mood. and WHICH prompted me to listen to creepy bleak songs like jay chou's Wei Lian Gu Bao. (ok, it's isn't exactly the most funereal song choices i could make)

but what the hell. time spent moping is time wasted. indeed i shall abandon all curae on this acheronian matter and go back to whistling merry tunes whilst i skipalong to the HappyHouse.

Requiescat in Pace.

HAHA RICKY GERVAIS.

i'm watching the Animals show he did, haven't gone far, just part 1 which is about 9 minutes long. but he's an absolute HOOT so far.

time for some random pics while i take a (much-deserved) break from studies. well actually i haven't accomplished much today, and BY GOLLY i should be back at work, trying to make a dent in my revision plans for tonight, so without further ado and even less procrastination, here are some pictures!


Day 2 of the Singapore GP with the family.


Me and Brendan


Cyril Niccolai and his band performing at the Esplanade outdoor theatre, REALLY fantastic singer with a bit of a Bon Jovi tinge to his style.



The night view at the Stamford grandstand



and the day view

BLOB of EVIL

this post is entitled BLOB OF EVIL because of various reasons mentioned in the text below.

BLOB of EVIL: a shapeless lump of pure malice and depravity

Conclusion: People have a blob of evil in all of them, although at varying depths beneath their outer appearance and also of differing sizes, it is an undisputable fact that all sentient beings contain one of these little whackers.

Why, you ask? Answer, I shall. (haha i'm so full of crap)

have you ever had that feeling of intense hatred for someone? or maybe even towards an inanimate object like the brick in the middle of the path that stubbed your toe whilst you were minding your own beeswax on the way to school at 7am in the morning?

have you ever wished someone a violent death, preferably involving fire, immense pressure, boiling oil, grizzly bears, or BLOOD (lots of it), or maybe even a delightful combination of several or all of the above?

have you ever pondered upon why wars are still being initiated and fought despite the obvious losses and pointlessness for any side in any battle?

do you really want to know why all these happen? are you really prepared for the hideous truth?

WE are indeed the carriers of a certain malicious entity that some term the "Blob of Evil". its origins are highly debated amongst respectable experts of this field, with several possible theories that are most likely. one of which is that when Adam and Eve consumed the Fruit of All Evil, they accidentally swallowed seeds which harboured the essence of pernicious malevolence. the seeds, altered by enzymes and minerals found in the human body, were altered chemically and morphed into these known BLOBS that scientists have being studying about. another theory, postulated by Professor Brownchickabrowncow from Sopchoppy, Florida, is that this pimple of profligate obscenity is an adaptation arising from evolution of the human race. Professor Brownchickabrowncow, in this controversial theory, maintains that humans with this loathsome blister have greater fitness over others of their species, and that this trait was heritable in offspring and hence, over squamillions and smooshillions of years, it came about that all humans were birthed with this blight.

so how exactly does this diabolic scum affect the human host?

the answers, my friend, are blowin' in the wind, the answers, are blowin' in the wind...

no, seriously.

it is still unclear how this monstrous tumour confounds and corrupts the mind of its host, blackens and erodes the heart, taints and chokes the mind, tempts and corrodes the body. many mechanisms have been proposed, yet none have managed to survive laboratory testings and scientific proving. possibly, what we are dealing with is a higher form of life that noone is able to comprehend. perhaps the blobs in ourselves are working to maintain their blanket of secrecy and hence blind us, disallowing us to see the surreptitious workings of their kind in others.

what IS known is that efforts in uncovering the truth about these "tiny little buggers", as Dr. Koombawah from Monkey's Eyebrow, Arizona, so fittingly puts it, have been stepped up, with governments all over the world investing booshillions of taxpayers' money into worthy research projects and testing. this field of study has also seen an influx of post-graduates from renowned universities worldwide, all in the hopes of shedding light on the splotch of doom.

till then, perhaps we should embrace this grain of fiendish atrocity, let loose and wreak havoc. perhaps we should sit in moody anticipation for researchers to strike upon the answers to our many questions. perhaps we should combat the blobbular lunacy with scours and purgatories, good ol' detergent and water with a nice soapy lather, a cup of Happy Milkshake with Purity pearls, Chastity powder and Virtue spicules, or even, as some who believe in the old "fighting fire with fire" idea, infuse the mind with an insurmountable volume of heinous thoughts and ideas to swell the blotch and eventually burst the damned diabolical thing. whatever your method, just be aware. be aware, dear readers, of the thing, the thing they call the "Blob of Evil".

Singapore GP Day 1

the gates of the marina bay opened at 1pm local time, with support races Formula BMW, Aston Martins and Porsche Carreras throughout the day from 3pm till 7pm. and from 7pm to 11pm, there were 2 F1 practice sessions, with a break in between.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

now that i got that outta my system, it was a fabulously grand moment hearing the F1 engines in singapore for the first time. i was half bored to death i admit sitting in stamford grandstand watching the aston martins and porsches driving by. the weather was good, slightly sunny but not blisteringly hot. but the seats were hard plastic and definitely not kind on the fundaments. i had a good view of the track though, a short strip of circuit bounded by 2 sharp turns which made for excellent camera opportunities because the cars can't travel fast in that short piece of track. plus the turn to my left is a good chance for cars to crash or skid off the circuit during wet weather or in the heat of the competition. not very nice of me, but i'm hoping exciting things happen at that turn, i'm paying good money for that to happen anyways.

the facilities are good too, plenty of toilets, watering holes etc etc, merchandise shops at every turn. but there was a tremendous lack of F1 related activities for the ticketholders, no car simulations, competitions or the like to get the hype up before race day. in melbourne they had a competition to change real F1 car tyres in the fastest time, winner gets pitstop grandstand tickets! that is what the singapore gp needs!

besides that, had dinner at the makansutra gluttons bay, before that, i was tempted to go to max brenner's for a drink but settled for thaiexpress' thai iced tea instead.

man, it was extremely amusing when brendan heard his FIRST ever F1 engine in real life. he was shouting and pumping his fists and shaking me and yelling like noone's business, hilarious stuff. must be heaven for him. think he couldn't sleep that night. i'd like to see him on race day, or rather, race night.

and i also had a lot of fun seeing people run towards the circuit when they heard engines. highly amusing.

the track was good stuff too, bright, with plenty of turns for cars to overtake (and crash out).

sigh it was really cooooool. and i was trying to memorise all the helmet colours for the diff drivers, like trying to study for an exam. haha. i'm looking forward to later's qualifying session, alonso set the fastest flying lap in the practice session but hopefully raikkonen gets a good starting position on the grid. man oh man. i can't wait to see what happens.

GO KIMI!

aaaaaaaaaand back in melbourne again.




i'm tempted to leave this post as it is, but i have 6 mins to go before my usual shower time and with nothing else to do, i remain. and type, of course.

anyways, back to the to and fro of uni life, to the uni and back to college, shuttling back and forth like a.... (for want of a better analogy) shuttle bus. i have resolved to explore melbourne well this semester, but things have NOT been going my way. everyone i know is adamant on not falling behind in lectures and work, so absolutely nobody is willing to spend time getting to know Melbourne better. i have found a grand total of ONE other person who's willing to go to the zoo this weekend, and i have strong feeling there will not be any other takers. last semester i was still getting used to the whole big life-shifting change blah blah blah so i didn't venture forth much from the safety of college. but i am sick of being a room rat, and would like to expand my territories.

so here are places i'd like to go, things i'd like to do, once people are willing to accompany me:
1. melbourne zoo
2. melbourne aquarium
3. shopping at the gigantic dfo in dandenong or smt
4. wandering around chapel street, other streets with lots of exciting things to see or buy
5. wineries, vineyards
6. animal farms
7. fruit orchards
8. quaint little suburbs
9. beaches
10. museums and libraries

and there are possibly more things to do here but i have, as of now, not yet discovered or thought of.

anyways, it's nice to be back in IH, seeing everyone again. it's nice to be closer to the people here, becoming more familiar with them and everything. and of course it's nice NOT being a fresher, people somehow correlate newbie with idiocy or morony (if there's such a term).

damn it, i heard someone going into the shower. hey, i shower at THIS time EVERY day, people should know this slot belongs to me! arghhh. now my beloved shower is postponed by half an hour. which leaves me more time here. good or bad.

oh. funny story. we were having a general meeting (some IH meeting where we vote for stuff that goes on within college, like admin stuff etc), and some dude (typical of him) was objecting to some random point (can't remember, was making bio notes at the time), and he said f*ck.

then another dude interrupts immediately, saying "DO not swear, I find IT offensive" bursts of laughter erupt. well obviously this is the kind of joke or anecdote that is best enjoyed personally, re-enacting it would only evoke polite smiles or even confused faces. but i swear it was the funniest thing that meeting.

and another thing, i would like to rant about my mixed feelings of fund-raising events nowadays. gone are the days where if you wanted to give money to an organisation, you simply gave it. cash, cheque, loose change, whatever. now, people have come up with the most creative, the most absurd, the most unnecessary ways of raising funds for good causes. this rant, as always, does not arise without good reason. i say this because of a current fund-raising activity, where people go on 40-hour famines to encourage their friends to give them money. obviously the money doesn't go into buying them a feast after the famine, but it goes to children in India. yes that's what they said, the CHILDREN in India, don't ask me why, i suppose it's for the poor children in India who need it. not too sure whether they'll get it though, or when.

anyways, back on track. i sometimes feel people don't raise funds for the right reasons. of course, this is a long-standing argument, one that many others have gone through before. but i have to say that i really feel it stupid to be going through a bloody "40-hour Famine" for money. do you REALLY know what it's like to go through a famine? are you even QUALIFIED to call it a FAMINE? do you really even CARE about those people who will be getting the money, or do you just want to get the grand prize?

oh how could i forget to mention, this is a COMPETITION (and i say this contemptuosly). with a grand prize of... a buffet voucher. WHAT THE F%^@$%$#^%.

honestly.

there was such a big hype about this competition to see who could raise the most funds, and when the organisers were showing a video about how the poor in India were suffering, nobody bloody bothered to even take their eyes off their food ONE moment to watch it. at least i watched several parts, then i couldn't watch anymore. i couldn't watch the video and sit there eating my dinner at the same time without feeling just a twinge of guilt.

so anyways, enough of this. sometimes i wonder.

oh well, i'm off to prepare for my shower.

i don't deserve it. period.

pheeeeeew back again in singapore, had a bbq dinner with the family and relatives, went out with the ex-6Sers, went out with beedict, went out with the gluttons. all this in the span of 4 days! and i must say, it feels as though i was never even gone. after the first night at home, it felt as though life just picked up from where i left it back here in singapore.

then again, there have been changes around the city, nothing mind-bogglingly drastic of course. just several buildings that have sprung up or were spruced up at the most. and i see the surroundings in a different light now, comparing things i see here with what i have in melbourne. and as i've said to several people already, even though i love my home, my family here, my friends here, the LOW retail prices and cost of living and many other aspects of singaporean living, i would say (people would cross their fingers at this point) that i PROBABLY prefer living in melbourne and the overall atmosphere of melbourne. and i would again hazard to make the statement that i would POSSIBLY prefer living in quite a lot of other cities compared to singapore.

why?

i don't know.

and before you wring your hands in agony that you have just wasted your time reading the above with no hope of coming to a satisfying conclusion for my said (or typed) statements, i shall attempt (poorly) to justify my saying that singapore does not fall into my high priority list of THE cities to live in.

1. singaporeans can be really annoyingly kiasu, rude, thoughtless, mindless, kiasi, pampered, and obviously the list goes on. but of course, it would be unfair because for every rude twat you meet here, there are several potential Mother Teresas you can find down the street. and every other country has THEIR rude twats. on average however, i believe the ratio of rude twats to Mother Teresas are much higher than in other countries such as say, Switzerland, Canada or Japan.

2. the place is so damned small and has a BERJEPEEZUS lack of things to do. honestly, no matter how anyone tries to contest this statement, i will stand by it.

3. the way of living is just so....DULL. i think people of other nationalities have a passion for living, for life, for everything in life, for.... you know. like how the italians love food, the french love love, the japanese love all things cute and techie. what do singaporeans love? money? social status?

4. singaporeans are such poseurs. we're always trying to imitate others, idolise others. we were always trying to be westernised, and then the asian wave buried us all in j-pop, androgynous looks, and dog knows what else. it's embarrassing at times, and tiring most often.

5. okay, i can't think of more reasons. plus my battery's running low. so i shall be sure to update this list if i happen to feel so strongly about it. here's a redeeming statement though, there are definitely many good points about singapore. since the battery is dominating my concerns at the moment, i shan't expound. just accept it if you don't already do. singapore is where i was born and there's nothing that can change that, nothing i would do to do so either. so there, another pointless post that ended in square one.